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Recent research has assessed the role of general psychopathological symptoms in the natural history of mental health conditions, including anorexia nervosa (AN) in adults and obesity in children. Nevertheless, literature assessing general psychopathological symptoms in young patients with AN and their potential prognostic role in long-term outcomes is lacking. Observational, naturalistic study, involving young patients hospitalized for AN. General psychopathological symptoms were assessed by administering Symptom Check List-90-R (SCL-90-R) at admission (T0) and discharge (T1). AN-specific psychopathology was assessed with Eating Disorders Inventory-3 Eating Disorder Risk (EDRC) and Body Uneasiness Test Global Severity Index (BUT-GSI). Potential T0-T1 modifications of general psychopathological symptoms and their possible associations with baseline psychopathological, weight, and psychopharmacological variables were assessed with a generalized linear model (GLM), corrected for baseline SCL-90-R scores. Then, possible associations between T0 general psychopathological symptoms and the risk of re-hospitalization at 1 year were assessed with the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression. This study enrolled 133 patients (mean age 16.9 ± 2.9 years, F = 91.8%). A significant T0-T1 reduction (p 0.001) in almost all the general psychopathological symptoms (except paranoia) emerged. The GLM revealed that higher EDI-3 EDRC scores were associated with higher T1 SCL-90-R scores in multiple domains. Cox regressions revealed a predictive role of SCL-90-R interpersonal sensitivity (B = 0.113, hazard ratio = 1.119, p = 0.023) on the risk of re-hospitalization at 1 year. Conclusion: General psychopathological symptoms in young patients with AN may be influenced by hospital treatment interventions and have a potential prognostic role on post-discharge outcomes. Further longitudinal studies are required. What is Known: • General psychopathological symptoms represent a relevant feature that clinicians should consider in the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of multiple psychiatric conditions. Co-occurring psychiatric comorbidities, moreover, have been documented to impact individuals diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) in the developmental age. Despite this evidence, the literature lacks studies assessing the occurrence and impact of general psychopathological symptoms in young patients with AN. What is New: • The clinical picture of children, adolescents, and young adults with AN mays be impacted by multiple general psychopathological symptoms, including Somatization, Obsession-compulsion, Interpersonal sensitivity, Depression, Anxiety, Hostility, Phobia, Paranoia, and Psychoticism, which may improve with a multidisciplinary hospital intervention. The occurrence of these symptoms, particularly "interpersonal sensitivity", may negatively impact the prognosis of the affected patients.

Background On the basis of substantial evidence demonstrate that palliative care combined with standard care improves patient, caregiver, and society outcomes, we have developed a new healthcare model called radiotherapy and palliative care (RaP) outpatient clinic were a radiation oncologist and a palliative care physician make a joint evaluation of advanced cancer patients. Methods We performed a monocentric observational cohort study on advanced cancer patients referred for evaluation at the RaP outpatient clinic. Measures of quality of care were carried out. Results Between April 2016 and April 2018, 287 joint evaluations were performed and 260 patients were evaluated. The primary tumor was lung in 31.9% of cases. One hundred fifty (52.3%) evaluations resulted in an indication for palliative radiotherapy treatment. In 57.6% of cases was used a single dose fraction of radiotherapy (8 Gy). All the irradiated cohort completed the palliative radiotherapy treatment. An 8% of irradiated patients received the palliative radiotherapy treatment in the last 30 days of life. A total of 80% of RaP patients received palliative care assistance until the end of life. Conclusion At the first descriptive analysis, the radiotherapy and palliative care model seem to respond to the need of multidisciplinary approach in order to obtain an improvement on quality of care for advanced cancer patients.

Background Genomic complexity is a growing field of evolution, with case studies for comparative evolutionary analyses in model and emerging non-model systems. Understanding complexity and the functional components of the genome is an untapped wealth of knowledge ripe for exploration. With the “remarkable lack of correspondence” between genome size and complexity, there needs to be a way to quantify complexity across organisms. In this study, we use a set of complexity metrics that allow for evaluating changes in complexity using TranD. Results We ascertain if complexity is increasing or decreasing across transcriptomes and at what structural level, as complexity varies. In this study, we define three metrics – TpG, EpT, and EpG- to quantify the transcriptome's complexity that encapsulates the dynamics of alternative splicing. Here we compare complexity metrics across 1) whole genome annotations, 2) a filtered subset of orthologs, and 3) novel genes to elucidate the impacts of orthologs and novel genes in transcript model analysis. Effective Exon Number (EEN) issued to compare the distribution of exon sizes within transcripts against random expectations of uniform exon placement. EEN accounts for differences in exon size, which is important because novel gene differences in complexity for orthologs and whole-transcriptome analyses are biased towards low-complexity genes with few exons and few alternative transcripts. Conclusions With our metric analyses, we are able to quantify changes in complexity across diverse lineages with greater precision and accuracy than previous cross-species comparisons under ortholog conditioning. These analyses represent a step toward whole-transcriptome analysis in the emerging field of non-model evolutionary genomics, with key insights for evolutionary inference of complexity changes on deep timescales across the tree of life. We suggest a means to quantify biases generated in ortholog calling and correct complexity analysis for lineage-specific effects. With these metrics, we directly assay the quantitative properties of newly formed lineage-specific genes as they lower complexity.

Background The diagnosis of periprocedural myocardial infarction (PMI) after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) is based on biochemical markers along with clinical and instrumental findings. However, there is not a clear cutoff value of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTn) to identify PMI. We hypothesized that isolated hs-cTn concentrations in the first 24 h following CABG could predict cardiac adverse events (in-hospital death and PMI) and/or left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) decrease. Methods We retrospectively enrolled all consecutive adult patients undergoing CABG, alone or in association with other cardiac surgery procedures, over 1 year. Hs-cTn I concentrations (Access, Beckman Coulter) were serially measured in the post-operative period and analyzed according to post-operative outcomes. Results 300 patients were enrolled; 71.3% underwent CABG alone, 33.7% for acute coronary syndrome. Most patients showed hs-cTn I values superior to the limit required by the latest guidelines for the diagnosis of PMI. Five patients (1.7%) died, 8% developed a PMI, 10.6% showed a LVEF decrease ≥ 10%. Hs-cTn I concentrations did not significantly differ with respect to death and/or PMI whereas they were associated with LVEF decrease ≥ 10% (p value Conclusions Hs-cTn I at 9–12 h post-CABG may be useful to early identify patients at risk for LVEF decrease and to guide early investigation and management of possible post-operative complications.

Adult thalamic gliomas are a rare entity whose management is challenging for physicians. The aim of this study is to describe the characteristics and prognostic factors of thalamic gliomas in adult patients.We retrospectively analyzed the clinical, neuro-radiological, histological, and molecular characteristics of all cases of adult thalamic glioma in our regional center.We included 38 adult patients. Median age at diagnosis was 56.5 years old (range, 24-80). Median KPS at diagnosis was 70%. Two-thirds of patients presented with tumor necrosis on MRI. Bithalamic lesions were present in four patients. The median volume of enhancement associated with lesions was relatively small (14 mmThalamic adult glioma differs from bithalamic glioma in children with regards to its clinical, radiological and molecular profiles. Long-term survival is observed in young patients with limited symptoms and H3K27M mutation. A larger prospective cohort is needed to validate these findings.

The introduction of pathways to enrol deceased donors after cardio-circulatory confirmation of death (donation after circulatory death, DCD) is expanding in many countries to face the shortage of organs for transplantation. The implementation of normothermic regional reperfusion (NRP) with warm oxygenated blood is a strategy to manage in-situ the organs of DCD donors. This approach, an alternative to in-situ cold preservation, and followed by prompt retrieval and cold static storage and/or ex-vivo machine perfusion (EVMP), could be limited to abdominal organs (A-NRP) or extended to the thorax (thoraco-abdominal, TA-NRP. NRP is also referred to as extracorporeal interval support for organ retrieval (EISOR). The use of EISOR is increasing in Europe, even if variably regulated. A-NRP has been demonstrated to be effective in decreasing the risk associated with transplantation of abdominal organs from DCD donors, and was recommended by the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT) in a recent consensus document. We aim to explain how we select the candidates for DCD, to describe our regionalized model for implementing EISOR provision, and to introduce the health care professionals involved in this complex process, with their strictly defined roles, responsibilities, and boundaries. Finally, we report the results of our program, recruiting cDCD donors over a large network of hospitals, all pertaining to a Local Health Authority (Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale, AUSL) in Romagna, Italy.

Background: In Italy, since the first symptomatic cases of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) appeared in late February 2020, 205.463 cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) were reported as of April 30, causing an high rate of hospital admission through the Emergency Department (ED).Objectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate the accuracy of ROX index in predicting hospitalization and mortality in patients with suspected diagnosis of COVID-19 in the ED. Secondary outcomes were to assess the number of readmissions and the variations of ROX index between first and second admission.Methods: This is an observational prospective monocentric study, conducted in the ED of Policlinico Sant’Orsola-Malpighi in Bologna. We enrolled 1371 consecutive patients with suspected COVID-19 and ROX index was calculated in 554 patients. Patients were followed until hospital discharge or death. Results: ROX index value < 25.7 was associated with hospitalization (AUC=0.737, 95%CI 0.696–0.779, pConclusion: ROX index, together with laboratory, imaging and clinical findings, can help discriminate patients suspected for COVID-19 requiring hospital admission, their clinical severity and their mortality risk. Furthermore, it can be useful to better manage these patients in territorial healthcare services, especially in the hypothesis of another pandemic.

High-performance thermoplastic polymers, such as Poly(aryl ether ketone)s (PAEK)s, can be used in various space applications due to their high mechanical properties, low density, and low outgassing properties. Polyether ether ketone (PEEK) is a thermoplastic semi-crystalline polymer belonging to the PAEKs family, which, together with its composites, has been proved to be processable via Additive Manufacturing, in particular via Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), enabling the production of parts both on-ground and possibly even for out-of-earth. In the past years, extensive efforts have been spent on the improvement of 3D-printed polymeric structures, extending the applications of high-performance polymers from purely mechanical to functional ones. It is possible to confer new properties to polymers by mixing and blending tailored fillers and different additives (e.g., clays, NdFeB powders, magnetite, and carbon fillers). Composite and nanocomposite polymers present customized functional properties such as electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, soft and hard magnetic properties absent or utterly different from the ones of pure polymer. In this paper, we report the state of the art on 3D-printed PEEK composites, their mechanical properties, and functionalities in view of the production of parts made of PEEK composites and nanocomposites, and their possible space applications (e.g., electromagnetic devices, magnetic shielding, thermal protection system and sensors).