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The modeling of the occurrence of a rainfall dry spell and wet spell (ds and ws, respectively) can be jointly conveyed using interarrival times (its). While the modeling has the advantage of requiring a single fitting for the description of all rainfall time characteristics (including wet and dry chains, an extension of the concept of spells), the assumption of the independence and identical distribution of the renewal times it implicitly imposes a memoryless property on the derived ws, which may not be true in some cases. In this study, two different methods for the modeling of rainfall time characteristics at the station scale have been applied: (i) a direct method (DM) that fits the discrete Lerch distribution to it records and that then derives ws and ds (as well as the corresponding chains) from the it distribution and (ii) an indirect method (IM) that fits the Lerch distribution to the ws and ds records separately, relaxing the assumptions of the renewal process. The results of this application over six stations in Europe, characterized by a wide range of rainfall regimes, highlight how the geometric distribution does not always reasonably reproduce the ws frequencies, even when its are modeled well by the Lerch distribution. Improved performances are obtained with the IM thanks to the relaxation of the assumption of the independence and identical distribution of the renewal times. A further improvement of the fittings is obtained when the datasets are separated into two periods, suggesting that the inferences may benefit from accounting for the local seasonality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ketogenic dietary therapies (KDTs) are an effective and safe non-pharmacological treatment for drug-resistant epilepsy, but adherence can be challenging for both patients and caregivers. In Europe, there are no adequate tools to measure it other than monitoring ketosis. This study aimed to adapt and validate the Brazilian adherence questionnaire, Keto-check, into the Italian version: iKetoCheck. Using the Delphi technique, 12 judges validated the contents through agreement rates and the Content Validity Index (CVI). The iKetocheck was self-completed electronically by 61 drug-resistant epilepsy or GLUT1 deficiency patients within an interval of 15 days to measure its reproducibility. The test–retest reliability was evaluated using Pearson's correlation and relative significance test. Exploratory and confirmatory factorial analyses were made using Factor software version 12.03.02. The final tool, iKetoCheck, consists of 10 questions with 5-point Likert scale answers. It evaluates various aspects such as informing caregivers about the diet, organization of meals, measurement of ketosis, weighing food consumed, diet negligence, use of carbohydrate-free medications, attending follow-up visits, reading food labels, consulting an expert for dietary concerns, and cooking at home. The factorial analysis resulted in three factors: "attention," "organization," and "precision," with satisfactory results for indices in exploratory and confirmatory analyses. Although higher mean values of ketonemia measurement were observed in patients with a higher adherence score, these values were not statistically significant (p = 0.284). In conclusion, despite the small sample size, iKetoCheck is a valid tool for evaluating KDTs' adherence in Italian drug-resistant epilepsy or GLUT1 deficiency patients. It can provide valuable information to improve patient management and optimize the effectiveness of KDTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, we addressed the knowledge gaps regarding the agglomeration behavior and fate of food-grade titanium dioxide (E 171) in human gastrointestinal digestion (GID). After thorough multi-technique physicochemical characterization including TEM, single-particle ICP-MS (spICP-MS), CLS, VSSA determination and ELS, the GI fate of E 171 was studied by applying the in vitro GID approach established for the regulatory risk assessment of nanomaterials in Europe, using a standardized international protocol. GI fate was investigated in fasted conditions, relevant to E 171 use in food supplements and medicines, and in fed conditions, with both a model food and E 171-containing food samples. TiO2 constituent particles were resistant to GI dissolution, and thus, their stability in lysosomal fluid was investigated. The biopersistence of the material in lysosomal fluid highlighted its potential for bioaccumulation. For characterizing the agglomeration degree in the small intestinal phase, spICP-MS represented an ideal analytical tool to overcome the limitations of earlier studies. We demonstrated that, after simulated GID, in the small intestine, E 171 (at concentrations reflecting human exposure) is present with a dispersion degree similar to that obtained when dispersing the material in water by means of high-energy sonication (i.e., ≥70% of particles <250 nm). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational creativity is increasingly deemed a crucial source of organizational effectiveness and competitive advantage. As several previous researches found that some human resource management (HRM) activities act as antecedents of organizational creativity, HR-related decisions are increasingly deemed as high stake decisions, as poor choices may originate large financial loss and may be very costly to reverse. For this reason, organizations are relying more and more on a data-driven approach also when it comes to HRM, for example by increasingly resorting to HR analytics tools to inform and guide the decision-making process. Consequently, the objective of this study is to empirically investigate the effect of an HRM data-driven approach on organizational creativity. Data were collected through online questionnaires addressed to 281 HR managers of heterogeneous companies from Europe and analyzed through a structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. Our results found employee training, organizational knowledge sharing, and recruitment and selection to be positively related to organizational creativity, and that HR analytics positively moderated these relationships. On the contrary, no significant effect was found regarding the relationship between employee rewards and incentives and organizational creativity, and neither regarding the moderating effect of HR analytics. Our study thus contributes to research regarding high stake decisions by empirically demonstrating HR analytics' positive impact on the decision-making process regarding the workforce, also in a peculiar context as organizational creativity. It also contributes to organizational creativity literature by clarifying the mixed findings regarding its antecedents. Finally, it provides further empirical confirmation of the contingency theory applied to HRM. • Data-driven forecasts enable better HR-related decision-making. • HR analytics activities improve HR management practices' impact on creativity. • Rewards and incentives are not positively related to organizational creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how the notion of documentality affects the process of construction of social reality in Europe. It states that documentality is a necessary process of attestation for the existence of a society. It cites that the European decline, has in fact happened on the plane of documents, as the abasement concerning to inscriptions. It also cites the rise of the dollar as international currency and the peace conference of Versailles in 1919, as an example of documentation.

In order to address the main challenges related to the rare diseases (RDs) the European Commission launched the European Reference Networks (ERNs), virtual networks involving healthcare providers (HCPs) across Europe. The mission of the ERNs is to tackle low prevalence and RDs that require highly specialised treatment and a concentration of knowledge and resources. In fact, ERNs offer the potential to give patients and healthcare professionals across the EU access to the best expertise and timely exchange of lifesaving knowledge, trying to make the knowledge travelling more than patients. For this reason, ERNs were established as concrete European infrastructures, and this is particularly crucial in the framework of rare and complex diseases in which no country alone has the whole knowledge and capacity to treat all types of patients.It has been five years since their kick-off launch in Vilnius in 2017. The 24 ERNs have been intensively working on different transversal areas, including patient management, education, clinical practice guidelines, patients' care pathways and many other fundamental topics. The present work is therefore aimed not only at reporting a summary of the main activities and milestones reached so far, but also at celebrating the first 5 years of the ERN on Rare and Complex Connective Tissue and Musculo-skeletal Diseases (ReCONNET), in which the members of the network built together one of the 24 infrastructures that are hopefully going to change the scenario of rare diseases across the EU.

The Parkin gene on 6q25.2-27 is responsible for about 50% of autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism and less than 20% of sporadic early-onset cases. We recently mapped a novel locus for early-onset parkinsonism (PARK6) on chromosome 1p35-p36 in a large family from Sicily. We now confirm linkage to PARK6 in eight additional families with Parkin-negative autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism from four different European countries. The maximum cumulative pairwise LOD score was 5.39 for marker D1S478. Multipoint linkage analysis gave the highest cumulative LOD score of 6.29 for marker D1S478. Haplotype construction and determination of the smallest region of homozygosity in one consanguineous family has reduced the candidate interval to a 9cM region between markers D1S483 and D1S2674. No common haplotype could be detected, excluding a common founder effect. These families share some clinical features with the phenotype reported for European Parkin-positive cases, with a wide range of ages at onset (up to 68 yrs) and slow progression. However, features typical of autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism, including dystonia at onset and sleep benefit, were not observed in PARK6-linked families, thus making the clinical presentation of late-onset cases indistinguishable from idiopathic Parkinson's disease. PARK6 appears to be an important locus for early-onset parkinsonism in European Parkin-negative patients.