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The humanization of the hospital environment of pediatric departments represents an area of research and intervention on improving the quality of life for hospitalized patients, but also that one of relatives and health professionals. The aim of the study was to test, in a sample of nurses and hospitalized children's parents, whether the pictorial intervention impacted the perceptions of affective qualities of hospital environment. This quasi-experimental design study investigated the effects of a pictorial humanization intervention which consisted of some naturalistic and colorful illustrations in the corridor of two pediatric wards of an Italian hospital. A total of 425 parents of hospitalized children and 80 nurses were asked to complete the Italian version of the "Scale of measurement of the affective qualities of places" in two different moments: 1) before the pictorial intervention and 2) three months after its implementation. For all participants (parents and nurses), results showed a significant effect of pictorial intervention with the four positive dimensions investigated (Relaxing, Exciting, Pleasant, and Stimulating) reporting higher scores after being performed it, and with the four negative dimensions (Distressing, Gloomy, Unpleasant, Sleepy) showing lower scores. Data suggest that the pictorial intervention could be particularly useful to create more welcoming hospital environments, reducing distress levels from hospitalized patients, but also of relatives and healthcare professionals. Pictorial interventions improve the emotional atmosphere in pediatric healthcare settings. Integrating visual elements related to care and healing enhances user experience, creating a more welcoming environment. • The humanization of pediatric hospital environments improves quality of life of patients, relatives and healthcare workers. • The introduction of colorful and naturalistic illustrations positively influences the perception of the environment • The intervention led to a reduction in negative feelings, making the hospital a more welcoming and comfortable place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interventional radiology presents nowadays a relevant role in the management of gynecological malignancies, especially in advanced stages where conventional surgery may be contraindicated. Progression to multiorgan failure may be related to cancer disease extension or, more acutely, to concomitant infections, bleedings or thromboembolic complications. Infiltration of adjacent organs, as ureters and biliary ducts, ascites and pelvic collections often occur in advanced stages: considering the clinical fragility of these patients, percutaneous procedures are frequently applied. Regarding hemorrhagic complications, bleeding may occur into the tumor itself, due to cancer tissue erosion and vessels infiltration, or may be related to iatrogenic vascular lesions consequent to surgery, mini-invasive procedures and chemoradiotherapy; embolization represents a bail-out treatment in both acute and chronic scenarios. Aim of this paper is to review interventional radiology procedures in patients affected by gynecological malignancies in advanced stages not suitable for surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A FE-Meshless multiscale computational strategy for the analysis of running bond masonry is presented. The Meshless Method (MM) is adopted to solve the boundary value problem (BVP) at the mesoscopic level. The representative unit cell is composed by the aggregate and the surrounding joints, the former assumed to behave elastically while the latter are simulated as non-associated elastic-plastic zero-thickness interfaces with a softening response. Macroscopic localization of plastic bands is obtained performing a spectral analysis of the tangent stiffness matrix. Localized plastic bands are embedded into the quadrature points area of the macroscopic finite elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose the electromechanical impedance (EMI) technique to assess the stability of dental implants. The technique consists of bonding a piezoelectric transducer to the element to be monitored. Conventionally, electromechanical admittance is used to diagnose structural damage. In this study, we created a 3D finite element model to mimic a transducer bonded to the abutment of a dental implant placed in a host bone site. We simulated the healing after surgery by changing the Young's modulus of the bone-implant interface. The results show that as the Young's modulus of the interface increases, the electromechanical characteristic of the transducer changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Hazelnut skins are a good example of agro-food by-products, potentially source of natural antioxidants and functional food ingredients, rich in polyphenols and dietary fibre. The chemical characterization performed in our study confirmed that fibre is the main component of hazelnut skin. Moreover, four different polyphenols-rich extracts and two fibre fractions were obtained by the processing of the skins. The functional activity of these extracts was verified using them as ingredients in media employed for the growth of two probiotic strains (Lactobacillus plantarum P17630 and Lactobacillus crispatus P17631). Starting from 0.01% (w/v), both soluble (SDF) and insoluble dietary fibre (IDF) significantly improved the bacterial growth during fermentation toward control. Both SDF and IDF showed a considerable increase in cryoprotection during lyophilisation, showing a similar effect to the inulin at the same concentration. Finally, we suggest this matrix as source of new functional fibres both for foods and nutraceutical products containing probiotic bacteria. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: SPICE simulation is universally recognized as a powerful tool in the field of electronic engineering. Simulations are strategic when dealing with a strong non-linear behavior that cannot be easily handled analytically. Magnetic hysteresis is one example of non-linearity that founds many practical applications, especially in the field of magnetometers and magnetic sensors. The aim of this paper is to present a behavioral model of RTD Fluxgate magnetometers easy to implement and adaptive with respect to the dynamic of the driving signal. Even if the whole work is focused on a specific magnetometer, the developed methodology can generalized to the wide class of hysteretic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Intellectual Disability (ID) shows a high comorbidity with psychiatric disorders with a great variability in the prevalence rates. An important subgroup is represented by subjects with ID and autism or other autistic spectrum disorders (PDD). The purpose of the present study was to assess PDD with specific screening tools in a population of people with ID and compare the groups with or without PDD through the administration of a psychopathological scale in order to verify the differences of psychiatric disorders’ rates. The study was conducted on 90 subjects attending daily centres or residential centres in Florence, Italy. In order to assess the presence of PDD, the PDD-MRS was administrated, while for the assessment of the psychopathological aspects we have used the DASH-II. The presence of a psychiatric disorder has a significant effect on anxiety, depression and organic syndromes and statistically significant differences have been registered in many DASH-II subscales. The statistical comparison between the two groups shows that PDD was clearly correlated with an increased presence of psychiatric disorders. The variable PDD could be considered as a vulnerability factor for psychiatric disorders. However there was still the need to focus on categorical diagnoses, in order to increase our knowledge about the concept of vulnerability in people with ID. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The majority of patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) ultimately experience relapse after achieving remission or exhibit refractory disease. Furthermore, a study about oncological treatments in hospitals, based on the collection of patient records, was used to achieve a comprehensive overview of the current R/R FLT3+ AML frequency. [Extracted from the article]