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The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted significant changes in education, including a widespread transition from traditional, in-person instruction to online learning, which has also affected music conservatories. This study investigates the relationship between social outcome expectations and teacher satisfaction with remote education (SRE) among conservatory music professors during the pandemic. Rooted in the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), the study examines whether technostress mediates this relationship and whether the intention to use information and communication technology (ICT) moderates it. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 108 Italian conservatory teachers through an online self-report questionnaire. The results indicate a negative indirect effect of social outcome expectations on teacher satisfaction through technostress. However, surprisingly, the direct effect was positive and stronger. The study suggests that social expectations lead to technostress. Still, they also present an opportunity for music educators to embrace the challenge of remote education and increase their satisfaction with it.

Burnout among nurses is a pervasive concern in healthcare, with profound implications for patient care and nurse well-being. While research has highlighted the detrimental effects of burnout on many aspects of nursing, including patient safety and quality of care, the underlying mechanisms driving burnout warrant further investigation. In this cross-sectional study, we surveyed 196 nurses from diverse Italian hospitals using an online questionnaire via Qualtrics. Our findings revealed significant negative correlations between psychological safety climate and both relational stressors and emotional exhaustion. Conversely, relational stressors positively correlated with emotional exhaustion, and a significant negative indirect effect of psychological safety climate was found for emotional exhaustion through relational stressors, emphasizing the pivotal role of psychological safety climate in mitigating nurse burnout. Our study underscores the potential effectiveness of interventions targeting psychological safety climate and relational stressors in alleviating emotional exhaustion and burnout among nurses. Theoretical implications underscore the importance of deepening the role of psychological safety climate in mitigating emotional exhaustion, while practical implications emphasize the need for fostering a positive psychological safety climate and implementing targeted interventions to support nurses' well-being.

Purpose: This study aims to test the role that organizational sociopsychological variables may play in influencing job stress and work engagement in an organizational identity change scenario. Design/methodology/approach: On a sample of 118 employees of an Italian company in the personnel training services sector, multivariate statistical analysis tests a pattern where organizational variables such as work support (by supervisors and coworkers, independent variables) -- moderated by corporate identification (moderating variable) -- and mediated by organizational trust (mediating variable) -- boosts employee work engagement and lowers psychosocial risks (dependent variables). Findings: The mediating effect of "organizational trust" is significant in the relationships of "supervisor social support" and "coworker social support" with the "absence of psychosocial risks." Moreover, an increase in supervisor social support can lead to a statistically significant increase in work engagement. This occurs only for employees with low or medium identification and not in highly identified individuals. Originality/value: The findings from the analysis on moderation are of primary importance because they show us a new perspective that can play the role of a guiding and practical principle on how to act on an organization's human resources, specifically targeting those with lower or medium corporate identification.

In the contemporary educational landscape, there is a growing recognition of the transformative impact of practical experiences within traditional learning frameworks. This shift reflects a pedagogical evolution that values contextualized learning and the acquisition of practical skills together with theoretical knowledge. In the Italian educational context, School–Work Alternation (SWA) represents a proactive response to the evolving needs of the workforce and the imperative for educational institutions to prepare students for professional life. This study’s objectives include a deep exploration of students’ SWA experience, evaluating its impact on employability perceptions and the sense of agency, examining the influence of Self-Orientation, and contributing insights to the discourse on integrating practical experiences in education. Employing a mixed methodology and a bottom-up approach, 63 high school students of different Italian regions participated in an online in-depth interview and an ad hoc questionnaire designed to measure the experience of SWA in relation to variables of interest, utility, advantage, perception of support, quality of received mentoring, engagement, and satisfaction. The quantitative results indicate that personal choice significantly influences the perceived usefulness of and satisfaction with SWA, with those students guided by curiosity exhibiting higher utility and satisfaction. Qualitative analysis underscores both positive and negative aspects, with respondents viewing SWA as a useful experience bridging work, corporate, and school realms provided that students are key players in the SWA experience’s choice and that the SWA’s partners are motivated to guide them in this practical training. Moreover, results highlight SWA’s relevance in guiding academic and career paths, emphasizing its potential to offer valuable support to students. This study contributes nuanced insights into integrating practical experiences in education, offering recommendations for educators and policymakers to better prepare students for the dynamic demands of the modern job market.

Abstract Knowledge produced by scientists is essential to the policy and practice of managing natural resources, including forests. However, there has never been systematic mapping of which techniques in knowledge exchange (KE) have been applied in the forest sciences, by whom, and to what effect. We examined KE techniques documented in the forest sciences globally. We used standardized search strings in English and French across two academic search engines (BASE and Scopus) and a specialist website (ResearchGate) to locate relevant items. We screened items, extracted data, conducted qualitative and quantitative analysis, and built a network visualization diagram to demonstrate knowledge flow. Our final map included 122 items published from 1998 to 2020, with most published after 2010. Items mentioned organizations from 66 countries as knowledge producers or users. The interactive network visualization diagram displays linkages between organizations, sectors and countries. We found that most of the KE activity involved the Global North (89%). Governments were the most common knowledge users, and industry was frequently reported as a user but rarely a producer. Academia was both producer and user. Indigenous, local, traditional or community knowledge was included in 24% of items, but these communities were not associated with any coauthor affiliations. Reported funders were universities, governments, non‐profits or foundations. We found 90 unique terms in the items related to KE with less than 25% of terms used in more than one item. Fifteen per cent of item keywords related to KE. The most commonly identified enabling conditions for KE were trust, funding and established relationships, while major barriers were challenges for translation of science and lack of time. To improve searchability of information related to KE and encourage a culture of considering KE in scientific research and forest management work, we recommend a common lexicon of ‘knowledge exchange’/‘échange de connaisances’. We recommend that more effort be given to forest science‐related KE connections between the Global North and South as well as a deliberate collection of evidence for the effectiveness of KE techniques. Researchers and practitioners can use our KE typology to identify their goals and design appropriate evaluation measures.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to deepen the knowledge on the role played by the intellectual capital (IC) of small and medium non-profit socio-cooperatives (SMSCs) in generating knowledge and organisational growth, as well as on the challenges and the difficulties of the management of IC among these organisations. Design/methodology/approach: This exploratory study adopted a qualitative methodology. A total of 70 semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior managers of Italian non-profit SMSCs, asking them to talk about the management of their human capital, organisational capital and relational capital. The data gathered from the interviews were analysed through discourse analysis carried out by two independent judges. Findings: IC management among Italian non-profit SMSCs is unplanned, unsystematic and short-termed. The SMSCs in question adopt an employee-centred approach; their IC management and knowledge creation are more focused on the direct contribution of the organisational members, than on the endorsement of formal or structured procedures and processes. Owing to their social aim, the well-being of both the workers and the beneficiaries of the SMSCs plays a central role in the IC management. Relationships with external stakeholders are regarded as important as those with the internal ones, re-affirming the organisations' members as the core of the knowledge generation. Research limitations/implications: The group reached is not a statistically representative sample; furthermore, it is limited to Italy. Social/implications: Deepening the knowledge on IC among these organisations can help to promote the strengths and address the weaknesses of its management, whilst also helping these micro-enterprises to develop into SMEs. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the IC literature by shedding light on the role played by IC among small and medium enterprise (SMEs), and more specifically in the specific context of Italian SMSCs. To the authors' knowledge, no previous research has thus far dealt with this issue. Deepening the knowledge on IC among these organisations can help to promote the strengths and address the weaknesses of its management, while also helping these micro-enterprises to develop into SMEs.

With the increasing complexity and dynamism of the modern work experience, the importance of the psychological contract has become increasingly clear. Organizations and researchers alike have recognized the implications of this contract for employee performance, satisfaction and well-being. However, certain work contexts can increase psychosocial risks, making it crucial to investigate the individual and contextual characteristics that can promote well-being and mitigate risks. In this study, we examined the impact of psychological contract types and task repetitiveness on organizational commitment among call center employees. By conducting a cross-sectional study involving 201 call center employees working in-person and administering an ad hoc questionnaire, we aimed to enrich the scientific literature on the psychological contract and its implications for the call center work environment. Our findings revealed that a transactional psychological contract has a negative impact on affective and normative commitment, potentially undermining employees’ sense of obligation and responsibility towards these organizations. To promote healthy work relationships and well-being among call center employees, we suggest the importance of a relational psychological contract. By highlighting the role of psychological contract types in organizational commitment, our study offers valuable insights for both researchers and practitioners.

Epigenetic changes are heritable modifications that do not directly affect the DNA sequence. In cancer cells, the maintenance of a stable epigenetic profile can be crucial to support survival and proliferation, and said profile can differ significantly from that of healthy cells. The epigenetic profile of a cancer cell can be modulated by several factors, including metabolites. Recently, sphingolipids have emerged as novel modulators of epigenetic changes. Ceramide and sphingosine 1-phosphate have become well known in cancer due to activating anti-tumour and pro-tumour signalling pathways, respectively, and they have recently been shown to also induce several epigenetic modifications connected to cancer growth. Additionally, acellular factors in the tumour microenvironment, such as hypoxia and acidosis, are now recognised as crucial in promoting aggressiveness through several mechanisms, including epigenetic modifications. Here, we review the existing literature on sphingolipids, cancer, and epigenetic changes, with a focus on the interaction between these elements and components of the chemical tumour microenvironment.

Burnout among nurses is a pervasive concern in healthcare, with profound implications for patient care and nurse well-being. While research has highlighted the detrimental effects of burnout on many aspects of nursing, including patient safety and quality of care, the underlying mechanisms driving burnout warrant further investigation. In this cross-sectional study, we surveyed 196 nurses from diverse Italian hospitals using an online questionnaire via Qualtrics. Our findings revealed significant negative correlations between psychological safety climate and both relational stressors and emotional exhaustion. Conversely, relational stressors positively correlated with emotional exhaustion, and a significant negative indirect effect of psychological safety climate was found for emotional exhaustion through relational stressors, emphasizing the pivotal role of psychological safety climate in mitigating nurse burnout. Our study underscores the potential effectiveness of interventions targeting psychological safety climate and relational stressors in alleviating emotional exhaustion and burnout among nurses. Theoretical implications underscore the importance of deepening the role of psychological safety climate in mitigating emotional exhaustion, while practical implications emphasize the need for fostering a positive psychological safety climate and implementing targeted interventions to support nurses' well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The TackSHS project aims to comprehensively elucidate the impact that exposure to second-hand smoke (SHS) from cigarettes and second-hand aerosols (SHA) from electronic cigarettes have on the respiratory health of the European population according to socioeconomic characteristics and other determinants. Method: The TackSHS project involves a series of coordinated studies carried out by 11 academic and public health organisations from six European countries. The project will investigate: a) the determinants of SHS and SHA exposure assessed at the individual level (surveys on representative general population samples) and in common environments (environmental sampling in specific settings); b) the overall disease burden, mortality and morbidity attributable to such exposure; and c) its economic impact in terms of direct health care costs. The project will also examine specific acute respiratory health changes in healthy individuals and patients with respiratory diseases exposed to SHS and SHA. In addition, the project will examine the effectiveness of a novel intervention to reduce SHS exposure in households where smoking is permitted. All these studies are inter-related and involve collaborative coordination among the participant organisations. Conclusion: The comprehensive, integrated approach of the TackSHS project will enable a significant step forward from the current status quo in the understanding of the impact of SHS and SHA exposure on health and provide the basis for health policy recommendations to help European countries to further reduce the harm caused by SHS and SHA exposure. Resumen: Objetivo: El proyecto TackSHS pretende caracterizar el impacto global de la exposición al humo ambiental de tabaco (HAT) y al aerosol de los cigarrillos electrónicos (ACE) en la salud respiratoria de la población europea según variables socioeconómicas y otros determinantes. Método: El proyecto TackSHS consiste en una serie de estudios coordinados y gestionados por 11 organizaciones académicas y de salud pública de seis países europeos. El proyecto estudiará: a) los determinantes de la exposición al HAT y al ACE a nivel individual (encuestas en muestras representativas de la población general) y en espacios comunes (muestras ambientales en lugares específicos); b) su carga general de enfermedad y la morbimortalidad atribuible a tal exposición; y c) su impacto económico en términos de costes sanitarios directos e indirectos. Además, el proyecto investigará cambios específicos a corto plazo en la salud respiratoria en personas sanas y en pacientes con enfermedades respiratorias expuestos al HAT y al ACE. También examinará la efectividad de una intervención novedosa para reducir la exposición al HAT en hogares donde se permite fumar. Todos estos estudios están interrelacionados y conllevan una coordinación colaborativa entre las instituciones participantes. Conclusión: El enfoque integral del proyecto TackSHS permitirá un avance significativo en la evidencia sobre la comprensión del impacto de la exposición al HAT y al ACE en la salud, y proporcionará una base para desarrollar recomendaciones políticas sanitarias para ayudar a los países europeos a reducir los daños causados por la exposición al HAT y al ACE. Keywords: Second-hand smoke, Passive smoking, Electronic cigarette, Electronic nicotine delivery systems, Aerosols, Second-hand aerosols, Respiratory health, Burden of disease, Economic impact, Palabras clave: Humo ambiental del tabaco, Tabaquismo pasivo, Cigarrillos electrónicos, Sistemas electrónicos de administración de nicotina, Exposición al aerosol, Salud respiratoria, Carga de enfermedad, Impacto económico

A 45-year-old Italian male was referred as suspected of having a heritable connective tissue disorders by clinical findings, including joint hyperlaxity and soft, smooth, velvety, and slightly elastic skin. Using a specific custom panel including genes involved in these disorders, next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis led to the identification of the c. 5443G>A, p.(Gly1815Ser), (rs745680336) variant in fibrillin-1 (FBN1) gene, encoding the FBN1. Mutations in this protein are responsible for different connective tissue disorders, collectively known as type 1 fibrillinopathies, including Marfan syndrome (MFS). Multiple sequencing alignment of human FBN1 protein with various species revealed that the mutation occurred within a highly conserved region of the calcium-binding epidermal growth factor-like domain and affected the protein structure/function, suggesting its pathogenic role. NGS techniques successfully identified the molecular defect in this patient, clinically resembling as MFS, even if a clear genotype–phenotype correlation remains still challenging.

Focus group technique is often described as a subaltern procedure for collecting and analysing data, underestimating the FG great value; today this method has such a big scientific reputation that it is widely applied in different social research areas such as marketing, education, communication. This theoretical study aims at deeply analyze the matter about the right number of participants for a focus group; this methodological consideration can provide useful elements in order to balance risks and benefits when planning qualitative research in social context. In addition to the numerosity matter there are some elements to carefully consider for an effective focus group research: the sensitivity of themes, the scope of the research, the recording setting, the social category of both participants and researcher, the client.

The increasing throughput of DNA sequencing technologies creates a need for faster algorithms. The fate of most reads is to be mapped to a reference sequence, typically a genome. Modern mappers rely on heuristics to gain speed at a reasonable cost for accuracy. In the seeding heuristic, short matches between the reads and the genome are used to narrow the search to a set of candidate locations. Several seeding variants used in modern mappers show good empirical performance but they are difficult to calibrate or to optimize for lack of theoretical results. Here we develop a theory to estimate the probability that the correct location of a read is filtered out during seeding, resulting in mapping errors. We describe the properties of simple exact seeds, skip seeds and MEM seeds (Maximal Exact Match seeds). The main innovation of this work is to use concepts from analytic combinatorics to represent reads as abstract sequences, and to specify their generative function to estimate the probabilities of interest. We provide several algorithms, which together give a workable solution for the problem of calibrating seeding heuristics for short reads. We also provide a C implementation of these algorithms in a library called Sesame. These results can improve current mapping algorithms and lay the foundation of a general strategy to tackle sequence alignment problems. The Sesame library is open source and available for download at https://github.com/gui11aume/sesame.

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) promote citizens’ participation in community life through several different kinds of organizations: some more informal (such as associations and volunteering groups), others more formal or public (such as charities and foundations). This heterogeneity, as well as the well-known peculiarities of NPOs when compared to profit and public ones, poses new challenges to their management. In the constant need to find balance between financial constraints and social value, a main resource for NPOs is the management of intangible assets, such as knowledge, positive relationships within the organization and with users, external image, loyalty and commitment, and so on. From the literature on for-profit organizations, it is well known that proper management of intangible assets improves an organization’s sustainable competitive advantage, not only by enhancing its members’ affiliation and commitment but even by enhancing their productivity. This is particularly relevant when taking into account the main role of volunteers in the third sector. Volunteers, indeed, show different job attitudes and organizational behaviors than paid employees, as their membership and accountability are less formalized and they frequently lack a proper teamwork, due to the high volunteer turnover. At the same time, from the managers point of view, managing volunteers and paid workers require higher skills and competencies than managing human resources in for-profit organizations. Developing these reflections and considerations, we aim to conduct a systematic literature review on the association between intangible assets and performance in NPOs. The literature will be conducted following the indications from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. It provides an evidence-based minimum set of items to be included in the review, as well as a workflow to properly manage and choose the papers to be included. The authors conducted the research using EBSCO, ProQuest, and Scopus databases.

How transcription factors find their targets in vivo is still poorly understood. Here the authors use molecular dynamics simulations to investigate how transcription factors diffuse on chromatin, providing a theoretical framework for understanding the key role of genome conformation in this process.

In the contemporary educational landscape, there is a growing recognition of the transformative impact of practical experiences within traditional learning frameworks. This shift reflects a pedagogical evolution that values contextualized learning and the acquisition of practical skills together with theoretical knowledge. In the Italian educational context, School–Work Alternation (SWA) represents a proactive response to the evolving needs of the workforce and the imperative for educational institutions to prepare students for professional life. This study's objectives include a deep exploration of students' SWA experience, evaluating its impact on employability perceptions and the sense of agency, examining the influence of Self-Orientation, and contributing insights to the discourse on integrating practical experiences in education. Employing a mixed methodology and a bottom-up approach, 63 high school students of different Italian regions participated in an online in-depth interview and an ad hoc questionnaire designed to measure the experience of SWA in relation to variables of interest, utility, advantage, perception of support, quality of received mentoring, engagement, and satisfaction. The quantitative results indicate that personal choice significantly influences the perceived usefulness of and satisfaction with SWA, with those students guided by curiosity exhibiting higher utility and satisfaction. Qualitative analysis underscores both positive and negative aspects, with respondents viewing SWA as a useful experience bridging work, corporate, and school realms provided that students are key players in the SWA experience's choice and that the SWA's partners are motivated to guide them in this practical training. Moreover, results highlight SWA's relevance in guiding academic and career paths, emphasizing its potential to offer valuable support to students. This study contributes nuanced insights into integrating practical experiences in education, offering recommendations for educators and policymakers to better prepare students for the dynamic demands of the modern job market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to explore if and to what extent workplace identity can mediate the relationship between learning climate dimensions and job satisfaction in a group of apprentices. Design/methodology/approach: Data were gathered thanks to a non-profit organization devoted to vocational training. Participants (N 87) were apprentices working in different job contexts in central Italy. Findings: Results showed that the relationship between learning climate and job satisfaction was mediated by workplace identity. Originality/value: To the author's knowledge, this is the first attempt to evaluate the effect of learning climate and workplace identity on job satisfaction during apprenticeship.

The school context is exposed to several demanding factors relating to student and family needs and external evaluative processes of students’ learning and process outcomes, such as abilities in planning training courses and a learning environment. However, there is a need to develop tools that adequately support schools in making self-assessment evaluations of the internal organizational climate and teacher morale (TM). The present study proposes an Italian version of the School Organizational Health Questionnaire (SOHQ), developed by Hart et al. (2000). An Italian version of the SOHQ was deployed to 9 public primary schools in the north of Italy, and 325 cases were eventually retained as being valid for the analysis. Using confirmatory factor analysis, results highlight that a 56-item version is model fit and presents satisfactory psychometric properties, demonstrating the suitability of a latent structure composed of 12 intercorrelated factors. The present study gives further insight into increasing the use of self-assessment tools in the development of good practices and the monitoring of teacher morale within the school context.

Bone primary tumors, such as osteosarcoma, are highly aggressive pediatric tumors that in 30% of the cases develop lung metastasis and are characterized by poor prognosis. Bone is also the third most common metastatic site in patients with advanced cancer and once tumor cells become homed to the skeleton, the disease is usually considered incurable, and treatment is only palliative. Bone sarcoma and bone metastasis share the same tissue microenvironment and niches. 3D cultures represent a new promising approach for the study of interactions between tumor cells and other cellular or acellular components of the tumor microenvironment (i.e., fibroblasts, mesenchymal stem cells, bone ECM). Indeed, 3D models can mimic physiological interactions that are crucial to modulate response to soluble paracrine factors, tumor drug resistance and aggressiveness and, in all, these innovative models might be able of bypassing the use of animal-based preclinical cancer models. To date, both static and dynamic 3D cell culture models have been shown to be particularly suited for screening of anticancer agents and might provide accurate information, translating in vitro cell cultures into precision medicine. In this mini-review, we will summarize the current state-of-the-art in the field of bone tumors, both primary and metastatic, illustrating the different methods and techniques employed to realize 3D cell culture systems and new results achieved in a field that paves the way toward personalized medicine.

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) have essential functions in building and supporting the tumour microenvironment, providing metastatic niches, and maintaining cancer hallmarks, and it is increasingly evident that the study of the role of MSC in cancer is crucial for paving the way to clinical opportunities for novel anti-cancer therapies. To date, the vast majority of preclinical models that have been used for studying the effect of reactive MSC on cancer growth, metastasis, and response to therapy has been mainly based on in vitro flat biology, including the co-culturing with cell compartmentalization or with cell-to-cell contact, and on in vivo cancer models with different routes of MSC inoculation. More complex in vitro 3D models based on spheroid structures that are formed by intermingled MSC and tumour cells are also capturing the interest in cancer research. These are innovative culture systems tailored on the specific tumour type and that can be combined with a synthetic extracellular matrix, or included in in silico technologies, to more properly mimic the in vivo biological, spatial, biochemical, and biophysical features of tumour tissues. In this review, we summarized the most popular and currently available preclinical models for evaluating the role of MSC in cancer and their specific suitability, for example, in assaying the MSC-driven induction of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition or of stem-like traits in cancer cells. Finally, we enlightened the need to carefully consider those parameters that might unintentionally strongly affect the secretome in MSC-cancer interplay and introduce confounding variables for the interpretation of results.

Although the etiology of multiple sclerosis is not yet understood, it is accepted that its pathogenesis involves both autoimmune and neurodegenerative processes, in which the role of autoreactive T-cells has been elucidated. Instead, the contribution of humoral response is still unclear, even if the presence of intrathecal antibodies and B-cells follicle-like structures in meninges of patients has been demonstrated. Several myelin and non-myelin antigens have been identified, but none has been validated as humoral biomarker. In particular autoantibodies against myelin proteins have been found also in healthy individuals, whereas non-myelin antigens have been implicated in neurodegenerative phase of the disease. To provide further putative autoantigens of multiple sclerosis, we investigated the antigen specificity of immunoglobulins present both in sera and in cerebrospinal fluid of patients using phage display technology in a new improved format. A human brain cDNA phage display library was constructed and enriched for open-read-frame fragments. This library was selected against pooled and purified immunoglobulins from cerebrospinal fluid and sera of multiple sclerosis patients. The antigen library was also screened against an antibody scFv library obtained from RNA of B cells purified from the cerebrospinal fluid of two relapsing remitting patients. From all biopanning a complex of 14 antigens were identified; in particular, one of these antigens, corresponding to DDX24 protein, was present in all selections. The ability of more frequently isolated antigens to discriminate between sera from patients with multiple sclerosis or other neurological diseases was investigated. The more promising novel candidate autoantigens were DDX24 and TCERG1. Both are implicated in RNA modification and regulation which can be altered in neurodegenerative processes. Therefore, we propose that they could be a marker of a particular disease activity state.

In the tumor microenvironment, mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are key modulators of cancer cell behavior in response to several stimuli. Intratumoral acidosis is a metabolic trait of fast-growing tumors that can induce a pro-tumorigenic phenotype in MSCs through the activation of the NF-κB-mediated inflammatory pathway, driving tumor clonogenicity, invasion, and chemoresistance. Recent studies have indicated that curcumin, a natural ingredient extracted from Curcuma longa, acts as an NF-κB inhibitor with anti-inflammatory properties. In this work, highly proliferating osteosarcoma cells were used to study the ability of curcumin to reduce the supportive effect of MSCs when stimulated by acidosis. Due to the poor solubility of curcumin in biological fluids, we used spherical polymeric nanoparticles as carriers (SPN-curc) to optimize its uptake by MSCs. We showed that SPN-curc inhibited the release of inflammatory cytokines (IL6 and IL8) by acidity-stimulated MSCs at a higher extent than by free curcumin. SPN-curc treatment was also successful in blocking tumor stemness, migration, and invasion that were driven by the secretome of acid-stressed MSCs. Overall, these data encourage the use of lipid–polymeric nanoparticles encapsulating NF-κB inhibitors such as curcumin to treat cancers whose progression is stimulated by an activated mesenchymal stroma.

Background: A wealth of cross-sectional studies show consistent positive relationships between teachers’ happiness and self-esteem on one hand, and health, on the other, which calls for additional research in order to disentangle cause and effect between the two, and to find potential mediators.Aims: To investigate the mediating role played by job satisfaction between teachers’ happiness and self-esteem and their physical and mental health.Methods: A questionnaire was administered, containing questions about participants’ background information and the following scales: the Job Satisfaction Survey, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Physical and Mental Health Scales (SF12), and the Ivens Scale in the Adapted Version for Teachers: School Children’s Happiness Inventory (SCHI). The participants were 300 primary and middle school teachers from the Indian State of Kerala.Results: Job satisfaction fully mediates between both happiness and self-esteem, and health in teachers.Conclusion: Work is a relevant domain to promote teachers’ happiness and self-esteem, and their health, through job satisfaction.

This study takes place from the idea that the personal usage of mobile technologies can bring positive outcomes to the user and to their society in an indirect way. Technologies studied in this work are defined as persuasive technologies (Fogg, 1997) because they are intentionally designed to modify the users’ attitude or behavior. This research is aimed to evaluate if the intention to use the application can be influenced by positive attitudes toward technology, by the persuasive power of the application and by the perceived fun. Participants (N = 118; M = 55; F = 63; mean age = 27.4; range age = 15–69) filled in an online questionnaire that was partly based on the Media and Technology Usage and Attitude Scale (MTUAS – Rosen et al., 2013). An additional eight items were added to the scale, aimed at evaluating participants’ technophobia, technophilia, perceived technology pervasiveness and perceived persuasive power of technology. By using linear regression analysis, it was found that the application’s informational power and the perceived entertainment positively influenced the usage intention. Another interesting result, obtained through ANOVA, concerns a generational difference: baby boomers tended to trust more the fact that the single individual action through the application can have an effective impact on the environment. These results represent a basis for future in-depth investigations about socially relevant use of the ICT.

Background After the classification of second-hand smoke (SHS) as a known human pulmonary carcinogen by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), most Countries of the European Union (EU) introduced smoking ban at workplaces and public places. Main aim of this study was to study trend of SHS exposure at work, 2006-2014. Methods Figures were collected in four cross-sectional surveys representative of population of each EU Country. Surveys were conducted in 2006, 2010, 2012, 2014 (Eurobarometer 66.2, 72.3, 77.1, 82.4) in all 28 EU Countries. The question on SHS exposure at work was recorded in bogh smokers and non-smokers: “How long are you exposed to tobacco smoke at your workplace?” Possible answers were: 5 hours a day; Never or almost never; don't know, In the 2012 and 2014 surveys a new category was added: “occasionally exposed”. Results Prevalence of exposure to SHS at work decreased by 69% from 2006 to 2014 (Figure 1). The drop was recorded since 2010 for exposures for ≥1 hour per day, whereas the exposure to < 1 hour per day dropped in the 2012 survey. In 2012 and 2014 17% of participants reported to be exposed occasionally, not on a daily basis. Occasional exposure at work was not recorded in previous surveys. Figures of SHS exposure for each EU Country will be presented reporting also the year of implementation of smoking ban per each Country. [Figure 1: SHS exposure ≥1 hour/day ] Conclusions SHS exposure at work dropped in 28 EU Countries after the implementation of nationwide smoking bans.

According to the Environmental Bubble Theory, tourists perform a series of strategies in order to remain anchored to their residential spots. The environmental bubble is constituted by a sort of social pellicule able to immunize tourists from the identity/cultural attacks which the visit to a foreign country implies. Such a pellicule is activated by the tourists themselves as they decide to travel in group or, for example, to eat only at the restaurants proposing their own national cuisine, and so on. Generally the potential cultural shock of residents is not taken into consideration in literature, even if it is plausibile to make the hypothesis of a counter-environmental bubble performed by the residents in order to defend their own culture and their identity from the attacks of mass tourism, especially for cities that live on tourism, as, for example, Florence or Siena do. Our study aims at testing the access to local tradition made available in promotional material. The hypothesis we propose is that there should exist a difference in promoting cultural heritage and intimate culture. The intimate culture refers to the living culture, the way of living, comprehending cuisine, education, religion, the way by which the role of females and males are performed, and so on. On the other hand, the cultural heritage, or historical culture, makes reference to a culture meant as belonging to the whole mankind, as it happens, for example, for archeological sites or museums. In more detail, we propose the hypothesis that the intimate culture is maintained unaccessible for tourists' gaze, or at least accessible only in the shape of a spectacularized event, the so called pseudo-event of Boorstin. Using the software NUD*IST we analyzed the promotional material of the city of Siena. Our results confirm Boorstin's theory about pseudo-events realized for tourists. The difference between cultural heritage and intimate culture promotion we have revealed shows an additional lecture of the Boorstinian framework, which makes an echo to the environmental bubble theory (Cohen, 1972), stressing the risk in terms of social and cultural identity tourism implies for both residents and tourists.

Objective: Demographic changes involving western countries and later retirements due to the recent pension reforms induce a gradual aging of the workforce. This imply an increasing number of workers with health problems and a decreasing of ability to work. In this direction, the present study aims at examining the role of job and personal resources between age and work ability within nurses.Method: The study was cross-sectional and not randomized; data were collected by a self-report questionnaire during a multi-center survey conducted in two Italian hospitals in 2016. In this way, 333 nurses were reached.Results: Multiple linear regression showed that age is significantly and negatively associated to work ability, and that job resources (e.g., decision authority and meaning of work) and personal resources (e.g., hope and resilience) moderate the relationship between age and work ability.Discussion: These results highlight that investing in work and personal resources to support WA is even more relevant for those professions where high physical effort is required.

In eukaryotes, chromatin is coated with epigenetic marks which induce differential gene expression profiles and eventually lead to different cellular phenotypes. One of the challenges of contemporary cell biology is to relate the wealth of epigenomic data with the observed physical properties of chromatin. In this study, we present a polymer physics framework that takes into account the sizes of epigenomic domains. We build a model of chromatin as a block copolymer made of domains with various sizes. This model produces a rich set of conformations which is well explained by finite-size scaling analysis of the coil-globule transition of epigenomic domains. Our results suggest that size-dependent folding of epigenomic domains may be a crucial physical mechanism able to provide chromatin with tissue-specific folding states, these being associated with differential gene expression.