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Background: The intervention "Med-Anticancer Food Program" has proven to be effective in promoting the Mediterranean Diet, significantly increasing the Mediterranean Adequacy Index in healthy subjects. There are no studies that have investigated the effectiveness of this intervention in individuals who have had a diagnosis of cancer., Objective: To perform a pilot study to assess the opportunity of employing the methodology of the Med-Anticancer Food Program in order to encourage "long-term cancer survivors" to adhere to the Mediterranean Diet, as well as healthy people, and this in order to apply the program to larger groups., Methods: From the residents' register of Foggia, a city in southern Italy, forty adults of both sexes, over 25 years of age, were recruited at random and assigned (1:1) as follows: - Twenty healthy subjects to the intervention-1 group - Twenty long-term cancer survivors to the intervention-2 group. The Med-Anticancer Food Program was applied to both groups with an articulated intervention 11 weeks long, followed by a 52-week period of follow up. By means of a food diary of the last 3 days, the Mediterranean Adequacy Index values were calculated before intervention (T0), after a period of 11 weeks of interventions (T1) and at the end of the 52 weeks of follow-up period (T2). The H0 hypothesis of the study was that there are no differences between the two interventions in reaching by T1, and maintaining at T2, values of Mediterranean Adequacy Index around 7, considered the optimum for adherence to the Mediterranean diet., Results: Out of the subjects assigned to the intervention-1 group (n = 20), 11 subjects have completed the 52-months follow-up (55.0% ); for intervention-2, 16 (80%) out of 20 have completed it. The average age of subjects was 52.1 years. The Mediterranean Adequacy Index, of intervention-1 group significantly increased from 2.8 (T0) to 9.2 (T1) and to 9.0 (T2) (p <0.0001); whereas, in the intervention-2 group, Mediterranean Adequacy Index moved from 2.4 (T0) to 10.2 (T1) and to 9.3 (T2) (p <0.0001). The difference of Mediterranean Adequacy Index between the two study groups at T1 and T2 was not significant. Such non-significance persists also after the stratification by sex and age obtained with Mantel-Haenszel procedure. The performance of the values of the laboratory parameters considered (folic acid, total cholesterol, alkyl resorcinol) was similar in the subjects of both intervention 1 and 2, without any difference, while considered at a basal level T0, at T1 and at the end of the follow-up period (T2)., Conclusions: The results of our work suggest the feasibility of conducting the Med-Anticancer Food Program in long-term cancer survivors. The results of the pilot study show that such intervention, carried on a small number of long term cancer survivors, is adequate to assess its feasibility but, due to the limited size of our study, a confirmation is required through larger nutritional prevention intervention studies.

In this study we investigated the effect of the grape withering process occurring during the production of Italian passito wines on the variability of the (D/H)I, (D/H)II, δ(13)C, and δ(18)O of wine ethanol and the δ(18)O of wine water. The production of PDO Erbaluce di Caluso Passito in five different cellars in Piedmont (Italy) was considered in two successive years. Moreover, samples of 17 different traditional Italian passito wines taken at different stages of maturation were taken into account. We found that the δ(18)O of must and wine water and the δ(18)O of ethanol decrease in the case of passito wines produced in northern and central Italy using postharvest drying of the grapes in dedicated ventilated or unventilated fruit drying rooms (fruttaio), during autumn-winter. For passito wines produced in southern Italy, where the main technique involves withering on the plant (en plein air), δ(18)O tends to increase. The (DH)I of wine ethanol did not change during withering, whereas the (DH)II and δ(13)C values changed slightly, but without any clear trend. Particular attention must be therefore paid in the evaluation of the δ(18)O data of passito wines for fraud detection.

Salmonellosis is one of the most common forms of foodborne infection. An outbreak of gastroenteritidis associated with a wedding party was investigated, even to value the costs falling on individuals, the health services and society as a whole. One hundred and fifty nine wedding guests were interviewed by phone. Multivariate analysis was used to assess which food were significantly associated with infection. One hundred and thirteen cases were identified; ten stool samples were culture positive for Salmonella enteritidis. Handmade ice-cream and babà (a typical Italian pastry) were significantly associated with infection. The cost of a case was estimated to be between US $ 74 (for non hospitalised patients) and US $ 1,896 (for hospitalised patients). The outbreak was caused by a strain of Salmonella enteritidis and the vehicle of infection were unpasteurised eggs used to prepare the ice-cream. The economic impact of this outbreak was considerable and mainly due to the hospitalisation.

Background: The data concerning a consecutive series of 4,536 adult patients suffering from minor head injuries treated at the Department of Neurosurgery over a period of one year are reported., Method: The patients' age, sex and the circumstances of the injury have been taken into consideration. The patients, according to the new method, were divided into four groups. Group 0 (3,864 patients) included all patients with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score 15. They did not present any clinical features such as loss of consciousness (LOC), post-traumatic amnesia (PTA), headache or vomiting. No risk factors (RF) such as coagulopaties, alcoholism, drug abuse, epilepsy, previous neurological treatment or disabled elderly patients were detected. Group 1 (600 patients) included patients with GCS score 15. The patients presented one or more clinical features (LOC, PTA, headache, vomiting). No RF were presented. Group 2 (24 patients) included patients with GCS score 14 with or without clinical features (LOC, PTA, headache, vomiting) and with or without RF. Group 0-1R (48 patients) included patients with GCS score 15 with or without clinical features (LOC, PTA, headache, vomiting). All of them presented RF. The presence of focal neurological signs, open injury and GCS score < or = 13 were considered criteria for exclusion., Findings: All the patients from groups 1, 0-1R, 2 and 187 patients from group 0 underwent CT scan for a total of 859 exams which are analyzed and discussed. 458 patients were admitted and are divided as follows: 216 from group 0, 192 from group 1, 26 from group 0-1R and all the 24 belonging to group 2. Six patients were treated surgically (3 extradural haematomas, 2 lobe contusions, 1 acute subdural haematoma) and one of them (0.02% of the total) died (extradural haematoma). The patients who were not admitted were sent home with an information sheet after at least a six hour observation period., Interpretation: The authors draw the conclusion that they have evaluated the applicability and efficacy of guidelines, developed by the study group on head injury of the Italian Society of Neurosurgery. A critical part of our guidelines is not only to identify all the intracranial lesions, but to identify patients harbouring relevant intracranial mass before clinical deterioration.

This report summarizes the main results of research promoted by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, concerning the impact of commuting on the health and safety of workers. An empirical study, carried out among 1167 industrial Italian workers, shows that "commuters" (workers whose journey from home to work usually does not take less than 45 min in each direction) experienced a more stressed life-style than did "non commuters" (whose journey does not take more than 20 min). Commuting appears for many workers to be a necessity which is imposed by external factors, such as the housing market and job opportunities. Commuting is shown to interfere with patterns of everyday life by restricting free-time and reducing sleeping time. A majority of commuters use public transport mainly because of cost. Public transport commuters have problems due to more changes between modes, idle waiting times and delays leading to late arrival at work. Inside transport modes, commuters suffered discomfort as a result of overcrowding, microclimatic conditions, noise and vibrations. Commuters also reported higher psychological stress scores, more health complaints, essentially of psychosomatic nature, and greater absenteeism from work due to sickness. Commuting, in addition to shiftwork, further increases sleep problems, psychosomatic complaints and difficulties with family and social life. Women commuters were at a greater disadvantage than men, having more family difficulties, more travelling complaints and higher absenteeism.