Childhood Obesity: The Relationship Between Negative Emotionality, Emotion Regulation, and Parenting Styles

Objectives We aimed to compare obese children and their non-obese counterpart on children’s negative emotionality, emotion regulation and maternal parenting styles and to examine the joint contribution of children’s temperament and maternal styles to children’s obesity. Methods A total of 200 mothers were involved in this study, 100 with children diagnosed with obesity (49 boys, 51 girls; the age ranged from 6 to 12 years), and 100 with children with a normal weight (49 boys, 51 girls; the age ranged from 6 to 12 years). Mothers completed self-report measures on children’s emotionality, emotion regulation, and parenting styles. Results The comparison between the two groups showed that obese…

Height as a potential indicator of early life events predicting Parkinson's disease: a case-control study.

Aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between height in young adult age and Parkinson's disease (PD) risk. We included 266 persons affected by idiopathic PD. Patients were matched by age and sex to 266 controls by a random selection from the municipality of residence. We collected information about height preceding PD from official documents where these characteristics referred to young adult age (nearly 30 years). We compared height in cases and controls by calculating differences in mean distribution and by χ2 analyses. Crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated by logistic regression models. Mean height was significantly lower in…

Gli indicatori nelle scienze sociali

A longitudinal analysis of the occupational status of the graduates of the University of Palermo

The availability of a large amount of longitudinal data provided by the surveys carried out by STELLA (Statistics about Graduates and Labour Market) allowed us to describe the occupational paths of graduates of the University of Palermo. In this paper we refer to a disproportionate stratified sample of graduates in 2009, interviewed three dierent times: one year (2010), three years (2012), ve years (2014) after the graduation. In such a global economic crises context, our aims are describing the labour market of the Palermitan graduates, identifying the variables that influence most their occupational status and nally outlining a transition probability structure among the states: Work, Sear…

La popolazione studentesca e l’offerta didattica dell’Ateneo di Palermo

Inflammatory manifestations at colonoscopy in patients with colonic diverticular disease

Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2011; 33: 358–365 Summary Background  Ulcerative colitis with diverticulosis (UCD), segmental colitis associated with diverticulosis (SCAD) and acute uncomplicated diverticulitis (AUD) may affect the same colonic regions, but the real incidence of these entities in clinical practice is unknown. Aim  To assess the incidence and the endoscopic findings of UCD, SCAD and AUD. Methods  From January 2004 to June 2009, 8525 consecutive colonoscopies were performed. Diagnosis of the diseases was based on specific endoscopic and histological (UCD and SCAD), and on endoscopic and radiological (AUD) patterns. Results  Ulcerative colitis with diverticulosis was diagnosed in 25 pa…

Balsalazide and/or high-potency probiotic misture (VSL#3) in maintaining after attack of acute, uncomplicated diverticulitis of the colon

A population-based survey of cognitive performance in a Sicilian elderly community.

<i>Background:</i> The global burden of neurodegenerative diseases is increasing. Previous studies reported differences related to age, gender and socioeconomic status. We calculated the cognitive performances of a Sicilian population aged 65 years or older, by means of a door-to-door population-based survey in Bagheria city, Sicily. <i>Methods:</i> A door-to-door survey was carried out in the city of Bagheria, Sicily (prevalence day September 30, 2006). A cohort of 2,200 persons was randomly stratified, obtaining a 25% sample of the whole population. Cognitive function was assessed by Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). Percentile distributions by age, gender, edu…

Beclomethasone dipropionate for the treatment of mild-to-moderate Crohn's disease: An open-label, budesonide-controlled, randomized study

Alcune considerazioni sul processo di costruzione degli indicatori composti

In questo lavoro si illustra il processo di costruzione di un indicatore composto, espresso nella forma IC = f[T1(x1), T2(x2), …, TJ(xJ)], dove IC è l’indicatore composto, xj sono gli indicatori semplici, Tj sono le trasformazioni e f è la funzione di aggregazione. L’obiettivo del lavoro concerne due aspetti: il primo è l’analisi delle proprietà statistiche e matematiche delle Tj per tentare di individuare misure delle loro performance (per es. variabilità, resistenza, etc.), condizionatamente alla natura dei dati; il secondo è fornire indicazioni circa l’adeguatezza di alcune Tj non lineari, basate sui ranghi e molto usate in pratica, per costruire un buon indicatore composto.

Using the Rasch model to assess a University Service on the Basis of Students Opinions

In this paper we use the Rasch model (RM) as a tool to measure the perceived quality of student services at the Reception Office of an Italian university faculty. This paper has both a substantive and a methodological aim. The former is concerned with measuring the service quality of the Reception Office, while the latter concerns the definition and validation of an instrument for measuring perceived quality. The sample comprised 273 students enrolled at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Palermo (Aiello F. Il modello di Rasch per la costruzione di uno strumento di misura della qualit`a di un Servizio. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Palermo, Palermo, 2005). The RM is applied to prod…

The clinical picture of uncomplicated versus complicated diverticulitis of the colon

Epithelial cell proliferation index of the colonic mucosa in colonic diverticular disease

Effect of lactoferrin supplementation on quadruple therapy after failure of a first attempt to cure Helicobacter pilori infection

The Clinical Picture of Uncomplicated Versus Complicated Diverticulitis of the Colon

Purpose There is no consensus about the correct definition of uncomplicated diverticulitis (UD) in clinical practice. We evaluated therefore whether clinical picture of UD differs from complicated diverticulitis (CD). Fifty consecutive eligible patients (21 males, 29 females, mean age 63.6 years, range 47–75 years) were studied. Symptoms, the inflammatory indices, and Computerized Tomography (CT) scan of the abdomen were assessed at the time of admission. Results Thirty-nine patients classified were affected by UD and 11 patients by CD. CD patients showed more severe clinical picture than UD and required urgent Hospital admission. Conversely, most of the patients affected by UD were treated…

Assessment and grading of mucosal inflammation in colonic diverticular disease.

Goal: The aim of this study was to assess and grade the mucosal inflammatory infiltrate in different degrees of diverticular disease (DID) and to compare them with healthy matched controls. Background: Mucosal inflammation in colonic DD has never been investigated. In particular, it is unknown whether inflammation may be found in every degree of DD. Materials and Methods: Thirty consecutive patients with a new endoscopic diagnosis of D-D (10 with asymptomatic diverticulosis, 10 with symptomatic uncomplicated DD, and 10 with acute uncomplicated diverticulitis) and 10 healthy controls were studied. Results: A neutrophilic inflammatory infiltrate was found only in acute uncomplicated diverticu…

Gli studenti stranieri negli atenei italiani: un’analisi statistica dell’ultimo decennio.

La mobilità studentesca universitaria è un fenomeno che, negli anni recenti, ha assunto una rilevanza notevole, in ambito nazionale. Essa è, infatti, prevalentemente oggetto di numerosi studi sui flussi migratori Sud-Centro e Sud-Nord degli studenti universitari italiani che scelgono sedi universitarie in regioni diverse da quella della propria residenza. Nel tempo le dimensioni numeriche di questi flussi sono divenute sempre più consistenti, con ripercussioni non certo trascurabili sul tessuto socioeconomico delle zone di origine. La mobilità studentesca gioca un ruolo rilevante nell’ampliamento della “forbice” tra le macro-aree regionali (Nord-Centro e Sud e Isole), ovvero quel divario so…

A network analysis of student mobility patterns from high school to master’s

Human migration involves the movement of people from one place to another. An example of undirected migration is Italian student mobility where students move from the South to the Center-North. This kind of mobility has become of general interest, and this work explores student mobility from Sicily towards universities outside the island. The data used in this paper regards six cohorts of students, from 2008/09 to 2013/14. In particular, our goal is to study the 3-step migration path: the area of origin (Sicilian provinces), the regional university for the bachelor’s degree, and the regional university for the master’s. Our analysis is conducted by building a multipartite network with four …

A new measure for the attitude to mobility of Italian students and graduates: a topological data analysis approach

AbstractStudents’ and graduates’ mobility is an interesting topic of discussion especially for the Italian education system and universities. The main reasons for migration and for the so called brain drain, can be found in the socio-economic context and in the famous North–South divide. Measuring mobility and understanding its dynamic over time and space are not trivial tasks. Most of the studies in the related literature focus on the determinants of such phenomenon, in this paper, instead, combining tools coming from graph theory and Topological Data Analysis we propose a new measure for the attitude to mobility. Each mobility trajectory is represented by a graph and the importance of the…

Endoscopic and histological findings in the duodenum of adults with celiac disease before and after changing to a gluten-free diet: a 2-year prospective study.

Published follow-up data on small-intestinal recovery in patients with celiac disease are scarce and contradictory. This is especially the case for adult patients, who often show incomplete histological recovery after starting a gluten-free diet (GFD). We conducted a 2-year prospective study to evaluate the effectiveness of a GFD in improving the endoscopic and histological duodenal findings in adults with celiac disease.We studied 42 consecutive adults with newly diagnosed celiac disease (13 men, 29 women; mean age 32.7 years, range 15 - 72 years). All the patients underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy and small-bowel biopsy. We devised our own grading system for the endoscopic appearance o…

Height as a potential indicator of early life events predicting Parkinson's disease: A case-control study

Aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between height in young adult age and Parkinson's disease (PD) risk. We included 266 persons affected by idiopathic PD. Patients were matched by age and sex to 266 controls by a random selection from the municipality of residence. We collected information about height preceding PD from official documents where these characteristics referred to young adult age (nearly 30 years). We compared height in cases and controls by calculating differences in mean distribution and by χ2 analyses. Crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated by logistic regression models. Mean height was significantly lower in…

Student mobility in higher education: Sicilian outflow network and chain migrations

The most important student mobility (SM) flow in Italy is from the Southern to the Central-Northern regions, a phenomenon that has been magnified by an increasing number of outgoing students from Sicily over the last decade. In this paper, we rely upon micro-data of university enrollment and students' personal records for three cohorts of freshmen, in order to investigate preferential patterns of SM from Sicily toward universities in other regions. Our main goal is to reveal the existence of chain migrations, where students from a particular geographical area move towards a particular destination to follow other students that have previously moved. The paper provides aspects that are innova…

Modeling Ordinal Item Responses via Binary GLMMs and Alternative Link Functions: An Application to Measurement of a Perceived Service Quality

Evaluation of a service on the basis of consumer opinion is a widespread practice in many fields. The assessment of perceived quality [7] of a service is generally carried out through administration of a questionnaire, composed of several items with responses posed on an ordinal scale, whereby each item represents an important feature of the evaluated service [3, 7]. In this context, the aim is to evaluate something similar to the external effectiveness, that is the part of efficacy related to the satisfaction expressed by the service users for the provided service. A particular and important example of service users is represented by students’ responses measuring the perceived quality of s…

The endoscopic spectrum of segmental colitis associated with diverticulosis.

Objective  An endoscopic classification of ‘Segmental colitis associated with diverticulosis’ (SCAD) is lacking. Our aim was therefore to assess the endoscopic spectrum of SCAD, comparing it with the histological and clinical features. Method  A prospective study was performed from January 2004 to October 2007. Diagnosis of SCAD was made on the basis of specific endoscopic and histological patterns. Results  A total of 6230 consecutive colonoscopies were performed during the study period. SCAD was diagnosed in 92 (1.48%) patients, with four endoscopic patterns: pattern A, ‘crescentic fold disease’ (52.20%); pattern B, ‘Mild-to moderate ulcerative colitis-like’ pattern (30.40%); pattern C, ‘…

Effect of mesalazine on epithelial cell proliferation in colonic diverticular disease

Background and aims: increased epithelial cell proliferation may be detected in diverticular disease, but antibiotics have failed in reducing it. We assess therefore the effect of mesalazine on epithelial cell proliferation in diverticular disease. Methods: a prospective study was conducted on 20 consecutive patients with a new endoscopic diagnosis of symptomatic uncomplicated diverticular disease. The patients were treated with mesalazine 1.6 mg/day for 1 year. The Ki-67 antigen index of the whole crypt and in the upper third was separately evaluated before and after starting the treatment. Results: cell proliferation index was higher in diverticular disease patients than healthy controls …

How to transform a batch of simple indicators to make up a unique one?

In questo lavoro viene analizzato il processo di costruzione di un indicatore composto, in funzione di una batteria di indicatori semplici. Tale processo viene scomposto in due parti: la prima consiste nell’individuare delle funzioni che permettano di trasformare i dati grezzi (gli indicatori semplici) in dati omogenei, la seconda nell’individuare una funzione che sulla base dei primi produca una misura dell’indicatore composto. Vengono forniti, da un lato, degli strumenti matematici e statistici delle trasformazioni più usate nelle applicazioni (con particolare riguardo alle trasformazioni lineari) e, da un altro lato, diversi esempi di indicatori composti ottenuti tramite funzioni additiv…

Foreign Students in Italian Universities: A Statistical Analysis of the Last Decade

In recent years university students’ mobility has become increasingly important at a national level. It has been the subject of numerous studies on the South-Centre and South-North mobility flows of Italian students who choose university out of their residence region. The aim is twofold: to provide quantitative information on the university enrollment of the foreign students in the Italian universities (the size of the flows of foreign students enrolled at Italian universities, according to some socio-demographic characteristics); to measure the dropout rates and the time taken to obtain the degree comparing to the Italian students. Foreign students (FS) were classified into two groups: stu…

Epithelial Cell Proliferation of the Colonic Mucosa in Defferent Degrees of Colonic Diverticular Disease

Assessing covariate imbalance in meta-analysis studies.

The main goal of meta-analysis is to combine data across studies or data sets to obtain summary estimates. In this paper, the novelty is to propose a statistical tool to assess a possible covariate imbalance in baseline variables to investigate similarity of trials. We conducted the detection of the covariate imbalance, first, through some graphical comparison of the empirical cumulative distribution functions or ECDFs, which are built by putting together arms or trials according to some risk factor, and second, through some non-parametric tests such as the Kolmogorov–Smirnov and the Anderson–Darling tests. To overcome the huge presence of ties, we conducted the statistical tests on perturbe…