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This paper assesses the impact of the economic recession caused by the global financial crisis on income poverty and deprivation in Italy and Spain to identify the most vulnerable groups and to guide policy makers. We consider the main socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of individuals impacting on their labor market status. The analysis is carried out separately for male and females to detect possible gender differences. Our results show the growth of material deprivation. Furthermore, the higher exposure of females to income poverty and material deprivation is verified in both countries despite of the efforts made to close the gender gaps in their labor markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congenital sinuses or fistulas of the upper lip are extremely rare malformations often associated with other congenital anomalies, mainly cleft lip and palate. There are very few cases described in the literature, and the aetiology of this rare occurrence remains obscure. This article present a case of congenital upper lip fistula located in the midline of the philtrum of a 11-year old girl. The authors discuss the major embryological theories about pathogenesis of upper lip fistulas: the “fusion theory”, the “invagination theory”, and the “merging theory”. Finally, we propose that early ectodermal inclusion events in the medial fusion area between the two medial nasal processes, during the formation of the intermaxillary process, could be involved in the embryopathogenesis of the midline fistula of the upper lip. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An artificial olfactory system (AOS) for the detection of highly toxic gases in air is presented. The AOS is based on YCoO 3 perovskites. Previous researches of the authors already showed that YCoO 3 is characterized by a satisfactory sensitivity toward CO, by a large response speed, and by a very low cross sensitivity to water vapor and hydrocarbons. The sensors used in the AOS are based on non-stoichiometric materials or on materials containing platinum or palladium. The introduction of defects allowed to modify the gas sensing properties and to tune the sensor array to the selected application. Satisfactory results, in terms of sensitivity, selectivity, response speed, power consumption and stability, were obtained with mixtures of air and CO and NO x . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present a prototype of a frequency meter based on an ARM processor and a DDS module. The instrument was developed to be used with QCM-sensor based oscillator circuits for in-liquid applications. For each resonance frequency of the QCM sensor, up to 50 MHz, the instrument can generate a reference signal exploiting the DDS module, which is used to perform a heterodyne demodulation of the oscillator signal. The ARM processor is used to on-line change the DDS settings (to track up to three resonance frequencies components with interleaved sampling of the QCM signals with a sampling time of about 1s) and to perform the frequency measurements. The contemporary use of the information from different QCM resonance frequencies will be exploited to enhance the instrument sensitivity while preserving a resolution of about 1 Hz for short term measurements with 10 MHz QCMs. At present, preliminary tests were performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Infants’ motor system is recruited by action observation. [•] Infants’ motor system is involved in the anticipation of the action goal. [•] Infants’ motor experience affects the ability to predict the action goal. [•] Motor resonance mechanisms gradually develop during the first year of life. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objective To evaluate the effects of liquid (drops) and tablet formulations of levothyroxine in homogeneous groups of infants with congenital hypothyroidism (CH) as diagnosed through neonatal screening. Study design Forty-two consecutive infants with CH were subdivided into 2 groups consisting of infants with the severe or the moderate/mild form. For each form, the infants with CH were randomly assigned to receive liquid (group 1) or tablet (group 2) formulation. In all patients, thyroid function tests were performed before the beginning of therapy and at 15 and 30 days and at 3 and 6 months after the beginning of therapy. Results In the severe form, after 15 days of treatment, serum thyrotropin (TSH) levels became normal in 8 of 9 patients in group 1 and in 5 of 9 patients in group 2; serum free triiodothyronine (fT3) levels were significantly higher in group 1 than in group 2; and serum fT4 levels were higher than the upper limit of the normal range in all patients in both groups. During the follow-up, there were significantly more patients with suppressed TSH concentrations in group 1 than in group 2. In the moderate/mild form, the patients of group 1 and group 2 showed median values of TSH, fT3, and fT4 that were not significantly different. No clinical or electrocardiographic signs of heart disease were found. There were no significant differences in the developmental quotient between group 1 and group 2 patients with severe and moderate/mild CH. Conclusions Our data seem to indicate that there is not complete bioequivalence between drops and tablets, especially in infants with severe CH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Fibrous histiocytomas are uncommon mesenchymal tumours of the soft tissue in the head and neck region. We report two cases that occurred in the oral cavity, one of a benign fibrous histiocytoma (BFH) and another of an angiomatoid variant of fibrous histiocytoma (AFH). BFH is a benign neoplasm composed of cells with fibroblastic and histiocytic characteristics, while AFH is considered as a distinct type of fibrous histiocytoma with an intermediate malignancy grade that combines features of both fibrohistiocytic and vascular neoplasm. We describe the clinicopathological and histological characteristics of these lesions to clarify and facilitate their diagnosis. In the BFH case, the surgical specimen had many histiocytes positive for lysozime, whereas the AFH cells showed positivity for endothelial cell marker (anti-CD34 antibody). In both cases the tumours were positive for fibronectin and negative for S100 and SMA. Ki-67. Immunohistochemistry was performed in all cases to reveal the different mitotic activity between AFH and BFH tumour cells. Finally, differential diagnoses and therapeutic treatments are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A new approach for the retrieval of the vertical column concentrations of trace gases, from hyperspectral satellite reflectances, is presented. The investigation moves from the general rationale of independent component analysis, but the constraint of perfect independence among sources is replaced by a minimum dependence concept that proves more reasonable for the application at hand. The unmixing of the gas spectra and their concentrations is achieved from linear mixtures obtained from the logarithm of the spectral reflectance. After a proper preprocessing stage aimed at reducing major residual dependences caused by atmospheric scattering, trace-gas retrieval is carried out through a minimization of a statistical cost function, subject to the physical constraint that the resulting spectra must be nonnegative. The experimental analysis relies on the retrieval of sulfur dioxide during volcanic emissions using data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ozone Monitoring Instrument. To validate the procedure, reference reflectance spectra having a known profile of sulfur dioxide are generated with the MODerate resolution atmospheric TRANsmission software, and the retrieved concentration is compared with the theoretical one. Performance in the presence of shot and detector noise has also been analyzed starting from pure simulated spectral reflectances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: A meta-analysis has re-analysed previous genome-wide association scanning definitively confirming eleven genes and further identifying 21 new loci. However, the identified genes/loci still explain only the minority of genetic predisposition of Crohn''s disease. Aims: To identify genes weakly involved in disease predisposition by analysing chromosomal regions enriched of single nucleotide polymorphisms with modest statistical association. Methods: We utilized the WTCCC data set evaluating 1748 CD and 2938 controls. The identification of candidate genes/loci was performed by a two-step procedure: first of all chromosomal regions enriched of weak association signals were localized; subsequently, weak signals clustered in gene regions were identified. The statistical significance was assessed by non parametric permutation tests. Results: The cytoband enrichment analysis highlighted 44 regions (P ≤0.05) enriched with single nucleotide polymorphisms significantly associated with the trait including 23 out of 31 previously confirmed and replicated genes. Importantly, we highlight further 20 novel chromosomal regions carrying approximately one hundred genes/loci with modest association. Amongst these we find compelling functional candidate genes such as MAPT, GRB2 and CREM, LCT, and IL12RB2. Conclusion: Our study suggests a different statistical perspective to discover genes weakly associated with a given trait, although further confirmatory functional studies are needed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: One of the major problems in genomics and medicine is the identification of gene networks and pathways deregulated in complex and polygenic diseases, like cancer. In this paper, we address the problem of assessing the variability of results of pathways analysis identified in different and independent genome wide expression studies, in which the same phenotypic conditions are assayed. To this end, we assessed the deregulation of 1891 curated gene sets in four independent gene expression data sets of subjects affected by colorectal cancer (CRC). In this comparison we used two well-founded statistical models for evaluating deregulation of gene networks. We found that the results of pathway analysis in expression studies are highly reproducible. Our study revealed 53 pathways identified by the two methods in all the four data sets analyzed with high statistical significance and strong biological relevance with the pathology examined. This set of pathways associated to single markers as well as to whole biological processes altered constitutes a signature of the disease which sheds light on the genetics bases of CRC. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article focuses on one component of the noxious mitochondrial pathway called reactive oxygen species (ROS) from a mitochondrial perspective. Mitochondrial respiration is the major source of ROS. ROS generation declines when available electrons are few and potential energy for the transfer is low. Some of the mitochondrial enzymes known to generate ROS include pyruvate dehydrogenase and glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, dihydroorotate dehydrogenase, and the monoamine oxidases A and B, among others.