The prevention of relapses in first episodes of schizophrenia: The 2EPs Project, background, rationale and study design.

2021

Up to 80% of first-episode psychosis patients suffer a relapse within five years of the remission. Relapse should be an important focus of prevention given the potential harm to the patient and family. It threatens to disrupt their psychosocial recovery, increases the risk of resistance to treatment and has been associated with greater direct and indirect costs for society. Based on a previous project entitled "Genotype-phenotype and environment. Application to a predictive model in first psychotic episodes" (PEPs Project), the project "Clinical and neurobiological determinants of second episodes of schizophrenia. Longitudinal study of first episode of psychosis" was designed, also known as…

Valutazione formativa e didattica a distanza all’Università

2021

La valutazione per l’apprendimento (assessment for learning) e la valutazione come apprendimento (assessment as learning) sono concetti che recentemente hanno assunto un ruolo centrale nella letteratura sull’argomento. Il contributo illustra, dopo una esplicitazione delle caratteristiche dei due approcci, un’esperienza di valutazione per l’apprendimento e come apprendimento in Università. La ricerca si propone di descrivere come 125 studenti del corso di Laurea Magistrale di Scienze della Formazione Primaria dell’Università di Palermo partecipino abitualmente al processo di valutazione e percepiscano l’utilità della valutazione formativa e i benefici del ricevere feedback. I dati raccolti …

A multiphase multiobjective dynamic genome-scale model shows different redox balancing among yeast species of the saccharomyces genus in fermentation

2021

Yeasts constitute over 1,500 species with great potential for biotechnology. Still, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae dominates industrial applications, and many alternative physiological capabilities of lesser-known yeasts are not being fully exploited. While comparative genomics receives substantial attention, little is known about yeasts’ metabolic specificity in batch cultures. Here, we propose a multiphase multiobjective dynamic genome-scale model of yeast batch cultures that describes the uptake of carbon and nitrogen sources and the production of primary and secondary metabolites. The model integrates a specific metabolic reconstruction, based on the consensus Yeast8, and a kinetic …

First evidence of underwater sounds emitted by the living fossils Lepidurus lubbocki and Triops cancriformis (Branchiopoda: Notostraca)

2021

Sound is the most effective means of communication in marine and freshwater ecosystems. However, no data about acoustic emissions from non-malacostracan crustaceans are currently available, so their ability to produce sounds is unknown. For the first time, this study investigated the sound produced by 2 tadpole shrimp species,Triops cancriformisandLepidurus lubbocki.L. lubbockiindividuals were collected from a natural temporary pond in Sicily (Italy), whereasT. cancriformisindividuals were obtained from eggs contained in sediment from a rock pool in Sardinia (Italy). In the laboratory, experimental tanks with the animals (one species at a time) were acoustically monitored. Both species prod…

NR1H4 rs35724 G>C variant modulates liver damage in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

2021

Background and Aims: Farnesoid X receptor (FXR) plays a key role in bile acid and lipid homeostasis. Experimental evidence suggests that it can modulate liver damage related to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We examined the impact of the NR1H4 rs35724 G>C, encoding for FXR, on liver damage in a large cohort of patients at risk of steatohepatitis. Methods: We considered 2,660 consecutive individuals at risk of steatohepatitis with liver histology. The rs35724 G>C polymorphisms were genotyped by TaqMan assays. Gene expression was evaluated by RNASeq in a subset of patients (n = 124). Results: The NR1H4 rs35724 CC genotype, after adjusting for clinic-metabolic and genetic conf…

Study Crafting and Self-Undermining in Higher Education Students: A Weekly Diary Study on the Antecedents.

2021

The aim of the current study is to validate the adaptation of the job demands–resources theory to the study context. In addition, we introduce the concepts study crafting and self-undermining to the study demands–resources framework by examining the mediating role of engagement and exhaustion in the relationship between study characteristics and study crafting and self-undermining. Over four consecutive weeks, 205 higher education students answered a questionnaire about their weekly study demands and resources, their well-being (i.e., engagement, exhaustion), and their study crafting and self-undermining behaviors. Multilevel structural equation modeling (controlling for autoregressors of m…

Metaphoric Conceptualization of Social Reality in the Language of News Media

2021

Today, social reality can hardly be viewed as the one-state-one-nationone language ideological framework (Bauman and Briggs, 2003). The modern multilingual and multicultural communities are inclined to examine social reality in a multiple variety of socio-economic and political manifestations and forms. To understand how social reality can be explored through examining certain socio-political processes in a country, the present paper aims at analysing the role of conceptual metaphor in cases when political scandals, involving corruption charges of high-ranking officials in Latvia are considered. For this purpose, the present study has focused on the analysis of selected commentaries that de…

Optimization of the Speech Test Material in a Group of Hearing Impaired Subjects: A Feasibility Study for Multilingual Digit Triplet Test Development

2021

Background: The development of the global digit-in-noise test requires optimization of each language version on a group of normal-hearing native-speakers. An alternative solution may be an adaptive optimization during ongoing tests in a group of subjects with unknown hearing impairments. The objective of the research was to compare the optimization results between these groups. Methods: Digit triplets consisting of three pseudo-randomly selected digits were presented in speech-shaped noise at various signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), according to the protocol of the final speech test. Digit-specific and position-specific speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were determined and compared between g…

Odontogenic Myxoma: Follow-Up of 13 cases after conservative surgical treatment and review of the literature

2021

Background We aim to report a serie of odontogenic myxoma over a 40-year period. Material and Methods We conducted a retrospective and sectional review of OM cases. The clinical, radiographic and treatment data were collected from clinical records included cases whose medical records contained clinical, radiographic, histopathological, follow-up data of at least six months. Results There was a mild preference for the male with a mean age of 22.8 years. Seventy-seven percent of the lesions occurred in the posterior region of the mandible, presenting a multilocular radiolucent aspect (54%) with one presenting symptomatology. Conservative treatment was performed in all patients initially and r…

Comparative Study of Several Machine Learning Algorithms for Classification of Unifloral Honeys

2021

Unifloral honeys are highly demanded by honey consumers, especially in Europe. To ensure that a honey belongs to a very appreciated botanical class, the classical methodology is palynological analysis to identify and count pollen grains. Highly trained personnel are needed to perform this task, which complicates the characterization of honey botanical origins. Organoleptic assessment of honey by expert personnel helps to confirm such classification. In this study, the ability of different machine learning (ML) algorithms to correctly classify seven types of Spanish honeys of single botanical origins (rosemary, citrus, lavender, sunflower, eucalyptus, heather and forest honeydew) was investi…

Clinical relevance of postzygotic mosaicism in Cornelia de Lange syndrome and purifying selection of NIPBL variants in blood.

2021

Postzygotic mosaicism (PZM) in NIPBL is a strong source of causality for Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) that can have major clinical implications. Here, we further delineate the role of somatic mosaicism in CdLS by describing a series of 11 unreported patients with mosaic disease-causing variants in NIPBL and performing a retrospective cohort study from a Spanish CdLS diagnostic center. By reviewing the literature and combining our findings with previously published data, we demonstrate a negative selection against somatic deleterious NIPBL variants in blood. Furthermore, the analysis of all reported cases indicates an unusual high prevalence of mosaicism in CdLS, occurring in 13.1% of p…

¿GÓTICO VERSUS RENACIMIENTO? UNA APROXIMACIÓN A LA ORNAMENTACIÓN "A LA ROMANA" EN EL REINO DE VALENCIA: ca. 1447-1564

2021

RESUMEN Los objetivos de este trabajo son ponderar la importancia de la decoración "a la romana" en la introducción del renacimiento italiano en el reino de Valencia entre los siglos XV-XVI y poner en valor el rol que desempeñaron la llegada de artistas transalpinos, y la importación de esculturas y lapidaria latina, evidencias que fueron condicionando la plástica de los talleres valencianos, hasta entonces mediatizados por la estética gótico-flamenca. Se aborda la importancia del humanismo, con Vives a la cabeza, nacido con la Universitat de València, como dinamo cultural atractivo para la nobleza, pues todo ello explicará las novedades artísticas que se suceden en la catedral de Valencia …

Corrigendum to “Bipolar disorder: An evolutionary psychoneuroimmunological approach”

2021

Microwave photoassisted dissipation and supercurrent of a phase-biased graphene-superconductor ring

2021

Irradiating normal-superconducting junctions with microwave photons produce spectacular effects, such as Shapiro steps and photoinduced modifications of the dc supercurrent. Moreover, microwave irradiation can also have other, hitherto unexplored consequences, such as a photoassisted dissipation which is phase dependent. Here we present a finite-frequency measurement of both the dissipation and the supercurrent of a phase-biased graphene-superconductor junction in response to microwave photons. We find that, while the supercurrent response is well described by existing theory, the dissipation exhibits unexpected effects which need new theoretical elucidation. Especially with high frequency …

Does Empagliflozin Modulate Leukocyte–Endothelium Interactions, Oxidative Stress, and Inflammation in Type 2 Diabetes?

2021

Sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors (iSGLT2) have been linked to cardiovascular risk reduction in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, their underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of empagliflozin, a novel potent and selective iSGLT-2, on anthropometric and endocrine parameters, leukocyte–endothelium interactions, adhesion molecules, ROS production, and NFkB-p65 transcription factor expression. According to standard clinical protocols, sixteen T2D patients receiving 10 mg/day of empagliflozin were followed-up for 24 weeks. Anthropometric and analytical measurements were performed at baseline, 12 weeks, and 24 weeks. Interacti…

The urban revitalization of the coastal tourist destinations: An alternative for the Valencian Mediterranean tourist municipalities

2021

espanolLos municipios del litoral mediterraneo valenciano aumentaron sensiblemente su superficie construida por la irrupcion de la actividad turistica a mediados del siglo XX. A pesar de las ventajas iniciales, los problemas surgidos sobre el espacio urbano, por la naturaleza del modelo de desarrollo turistico utilizado, los dirigen hacia una perdida progresiva de su atractivo turistico. Ante esta circunstancia, se hace necesario intervenir sobre el espacio urbano, no solo para renovar el destino turistico sino tambien para corregir los problemas urbanos generados durante las ultimas decadas en unos municipios que supeditaron sus decisiones exclusivamente a las necesidades turisticas. Una o…

La fortuna iconografica del beato Agostino Novello in Toscana e Sicilia

2021

This paper aims to investigate the cult and iconographic critical fortune of Beato Agostino Novello in Tuscany and Sicily throughout the centuries. It deals with the analysis of the famous painting by Simone Martini Il Beato Agostino Novello and four of his miracles, on which in 1985 Giovanni Previtali had promising opinions.

Qu’est-ce que la déviance ?

2021

International audience

PROGETTARE LA PARTECIPAZIONE. PRINCIPI E METODI FRA TRADIZIONE E CONTEMPORANEITÀ

2021

The theme of participation is urgent and timely, also in view of the inclusive forms of decisionmaking introduced years ago by ministerial and European norms. The research is therefore part of a well-structured cultural and regulatory context characterised by new and interesting experiments. Participation in the field of the disciplines of architecture and technological culture should be studied in its processual forms and directed above all towards strategies of recovery of the existing where the presence of urban and environmental conflicts requires new processes of requalification and/or reintegration. As widely testified by the production of manuals in recent years, carrying out partici…

Targeting Immune Modulators in Glioma While Avoiding Autoimmune Conditions

2021

Simple Summary Glioblastoma multiforme is a futile disease usually leading to the patient’s death within one year post-diagnosis; therefore, novel treatment options are desperately needed. In this regard, activation of the inert immune system has moved into focus in recent years. Malignant brain tumors, as well as autoimmune diseases, elicit aberrant immune responses. In this way, glioma escapes the host’s immune system and, thus, activation of the immune response in order to reduce tumor tolerance can serve as an alternative treatment option. Immune checkpoint modulators in combination with traditional therapies have gained attention in both glioma and autoimmune diseases. In this review, …

Cofilin and Neurodegeneration: New Functions for an Old but Gold Protein

2021

Cofilin is an actin-binding protein that plays a major role in the regulation of actin dynamics, an essential cellular process. This protein has emerged as a crucial molecule for functions of the nervous system including motility and guidance of the neuronal growth cone, dendritic spine organization, axonal branching, and synaptic signalling. Recently, other important functions in cell biology such as apoptosis or the control of mitochondrial function have been attributed to cofilin. Moreover, novel mechanisms of cofilin function regulation have also been described. The activity of cofilin is controlled by complex regulatory mechanisms, with phosphorylation being the most important, since t…

The potential role of COVID-19 hygienic measures in reducing infective complications during hospitalization

2021

Total Ischemic Event Reduction With Rivaroxaban After Peripheral Arterial Revascularization in the VOYAGER PAD Trial

2021

Patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) undergoing lower extremity revascularization (LER) are at high risk of major adverse limb and cardiovascular events. The VOYAGER PAD (Efficacy and Safety of Rivaroxaban in Reducing the Risk of Major Thrombotic Vascular Events in Subjects With Symptomatic Peripheral Artery Disease Undergoing Peripheral Revascularization Procedures of the Lower Extremities) trial demonstrated that rivaroxaban 2.5 mg twice daily reduced first events by 15%. The benefit of rivaroxaban on total (first and subsequent) events in this population is unknown.This study sought to evaluate the total burden of vascular events in patients with PAD after LER and the efficacy o…

State Observer with Round-Robin Aperiodic Sampled Measurements with Jitter

2021

International audience; A sampled-data observer is proposed for linear continuous-time systems whose outputs are sequentially sampled via non-uniform sampling intervals repeating a prescribed Round-Robin sequence. With constant sampling intervals (jitter-free case) we provide constructive necessary and sufficient conditions for the design of an asymptotic continuous-discrete observer whose estimation error is input-to-state stable (ISS) from process disturbances and measurement noise. We use a time-varying gain depending on the elapsed time since the last measurement. With non-constant sampling intervals (jitter-tolerant case), our design conditions are only sufficient. A suspension system …

Ethically Researching Local Impacts of Environmental Change without Travel

2021

Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in 2020, included local and international travel restrictions alongside limits on face-to-face gatherings. These measures impinged on participatory research examining local impacts of environmental change. In response, many researchers adopted techniques that could be implemented without travel. This article explores some of the consequent research ethics issues.

Obesity, an independent predictor of pre and postoperative tumor grading disagreement in endometrial cancer

2021

Abstract Introduction Obesity is a known independent risk factor for endometrial cancer (EC), and obese patients have a 4.7-fold increased risk compared to the general population to develop the neoplasm. To date, a general pre and postoperative tumor grading agreement from 53 % to 82 % is reported for endometrial analysis, and a consensus on which factors might influence the tumor grading discordance is still absent. Furthermore, although obesity alters the endometrial microenvironment, no studies investigated the role of obesity in the grading agreement of EC patients. This study aims to analyze the role of obesity in the pre and postoperative tumor grading agreement. Materials and methods…

Labour Market Demands, Employability and Authenticity

2021

AbstractFinding employment has been a challenge for young adults in recent years. This is not only due to high unemployment rates, but also because entering working life is more complicated than before. It is no longer just a question of credentials and skills. ‘Employability’ depends on investments in personal capacities: labour market demands in recruitment exceed the capacity of employees’ bodies and minds. This article asks what demands for increasing one’s employability young adults (aged 18–30) experience in relation to their education and working life and how they respond to these ideas, especially to the idea of modifying their minds and bodies—habitus—in order to increase their emp…

Dendrolatrie della scia. Corpi arborei e semi della memoria

2021

Invisibilizzazione, disumanizzazione, dolore del trauma, naufragio: la scia si produce e si riproduce in mare, in un attraversamento in cui il Mediterraneo diviene eco dell’Atlantico e viceversa. Centrale per questo riecheggiare è la memoria. La memoria di un passato che non è mai passato, che torna a fratturare il presente e continua a riprodursi in un tempo circolare della schiavitù, inteso come futuro creato da essa (Hartman 2007). E la creazione del futuro passa per la coltivazione dei semi della memoria: semi in movimento, che creano così una trama filiforme che unisce l’Atlantico Nero al Mediterraneo Nero. Depositari del passato e base per la creazione del futuro, i semi della memoria…

Generalized finite difference schemes with higher order Whitney forms

2021

Finite difference kind of schemes are popular in approximating wave propagation problems in finite dimensional spaces. While Yee’s original paper on the finite difference method is already from the sixties, mathematically there still remains questions which are not yet satisfactorily covered. In this paper, we address two issues of this kind. Firstly, in the literature Yee’s scheme is constructed separately for each particular type of wave problem. Here, we explicitly generalize the Yee scheme to a class of wave problems that covers at large physics field theories. For this we introduce Yee’s scheme for all problems of a class characterised on a Minkowski manifold by (i) a pair of first ord…

Castration-Induced Downregulation of SPARC in Stromal Cells Drives Neuroendocrine Differentiation of Prostate Cancer.

2021

Abstract Fatal neuroendocrine differentiation (NED) of castration-resistant prostate cancer is a recurrent mechanism of resistance to androgen deprivation therapies (ADT) and antiandrogen receptor pathway inhibitors (ARPI) in patients. The design of effective therapies for neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) is complicated by limited knowledge of the molecular mechanisms governing NED. The paucity of acquired genomic alterations and the deregulation of epigenetic and transcription factors suggest a potential contribution from the microenvironment. In this context, whether ADT/ARPI induces stromal cells to release NED-promoting molecules and the underlying molecular networks are unestablis…

Gold Nanoclusters: Atomically Precise Gold Nanoclusters: Towards an Optimal Biocompatible System from a Theoretical–Experimental Strategy (Small 27/2…

2021

Towards the quantitative and physically-based interpretation of solar-induced vegetation fluorescence retrieved from global imaging

2021

Due to emerging high spectral resolution, remote sensing techniques and ongoing developments to retrieve the spectrally resolved vegetation fluorescence spectrum from several scales, the light reactions of photosynthesis are receiving a boost of attention for the monitoring of the Earth's carbon balance. Sensor-retrieved vegetation fluorescence (from leaf, tower, airborne or satellite scale) originating from the excited antenna chlorophyll a molecule has become a new quantitative biophysical vegetation parameter retrievable from space using global imaging techniques. However, to retrieve the actual quantum efficiencies, and hence a true photosynthetic status of the observed vegetation, all …

Student commitment to social responsibility: Systematic literature review, conceptual model, and instrument

2021

Purpose: This study aims to carry out a systematic literature review on empirical manifestations of the student commitment to social responsibility in order to propose a conceptual model that systematizes the underlying patterns in these manifestations and an instrument that makes it measurable. Design/methodology/approach: Four macro-processes were deployed: identify (locate the relevant literary space; the initial sample comprised 52 studies which later resulted in a sample of 24 studies), describe (narrative synthesis of the studies), deepen ( grouping patterns, validation, and characterization of the relevant literary space), and disseminate (preparation/refinement of the report). Findi…

Global Spaces for Local Politics: An Exploratory Analysis of Facebook Ads in Spanish Election Campaigns

2021

[EN] Sponsored content on Facebook has become an indispensable tool for implementing political campaign strategies. However, in political communication research, this channel is still unexplored due to its advertising model in which only target audiences are exposed to sponsored content. The launching of the Facebook Ad Library in May 2018 can be considered a turning point in this regard, inasmuch as it now offers users direct access to ads paid for by political parties, among other advertisers. This paper analyzes some aspects of the strategies implemented by six national parties during the campaigns running up to the two general elections held in Spain in 2019, by performing an analysis o…

DeepIndices : Une nouvelle approche des indices de télédétection basée sur l'optimisation et l'approximation de fonctions par DeepLearning. Applicati…

2021

National audience; L'une des avancées les plus importantes dans le domaine de l'observation de la terre est la découverte des indices spectraux, ils ont notamment prouvé leur efficacité dans la caractérisation des surfaces agricoles, mais ils sont généralement définis de manière empirique. Cette étude basée sur l'intelligence artificielle et le traitement du signal, propose une méthode pour trouver un indice optimal. Et porte sur l'analyse d'images issues d'une caméra multi-spectrale, utilisée dans un contexte agricole pour l'acquisition en champ proche de végétation. À partir de six bandes spectrales, cinq modèles ont été testés et déployés dans un framework d'apprentissage profond. Les pe…

Risk Factors and treatment needs of batterer intervention program participants with substance abuse problems

2021

espanolEl objetivo de este estudio fue identificar los principales factores de riesgo y necesidades de tratamiento de los participantes en un programa de intervencion con maltratadores (BIP) con problemas de abuso de alcohol y/o drogas (ADAP), mas alla de sus problemas de abuso de substancias, teniendo en cuenta cuatro conjuntos de variables: sociodemograficas (i.e., edad, nivel educativo, ingresos, empleo y estatus de inmigrante), trastornos de personalidad y ajuste psicologico (i.e., sintomatologia clinica, trastornos de personalidad, ira, impulsividad y autoestima), variables socio-relacionales (i.e., apoyo comunitario, apoyo intimo, eventos vitales estresantes y rechazo social percibido…