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ESCULAPIO Project, funded by the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CCM) of the Italian Ministry of Health, for the program 2013, aims at increasing awareness on vaccine preventable infectious diseases (VPID) and vaccination in different targets of population and at spreading the culture of prevention by the development of information/training interventions on VPID. In Tuscany Region (Central Italy), educational courses on VPID in high schools were organized and students were stimulated to prepare informative materials on VPID for lower grade school pupils. Educational games for school pupils were realized in Liguria Region (Northern Italy) with the aim to increase awareness and knowledge of vaccination among primary school children, their families, and teachers. The Sicilian Operative Unit (OU) developed and validated a questionnaire to collect data on the main factors influencing vaccine uptake in a population from Southern Italy and spreading information on vaccines to the general population. Aim of the activities performed in Apulia Region (Southern Italy) was to collect, directly from the public, a set of issues to which people were more "sensitive," in order to perceive the dimension of informative needs and the misinformation in the field of vaccinations. A toll-free telephone line to answer questions on VPID was also the aim of the Apulian activities. The objective of the OU of Sardinia (Southern Italy) was to increase knowledge on VPID and adherence to immunization campaigns in health care workers (HCW) by realizing traditional and e-learning training courses and initiatives of health promotion in healthcare and hospital setting. Interventions to promote vaccinations in maternal and child health services and outreach interventions in case of parental non-compliance with vaccination schedules were performed in the Veneto Region (Northern Italy), with the aim to reach a particular subgroup of the general population: new or future parents. The activities of Veneto Region aimed also at realizing individual interviews with parents and/or home visit, if considered useful, for families not respondents to the active ordinary call. more...

Carboxylic acids adsorption on anatase TiO2 is a key process in circular economy and sustainability. Yet, in spite of several decades of investigations, its intimate working mechanisms still remain elusive. In particular, the behavior of the acid proton and its localization – either on the molecule or on the surface – are still open issues. By modeling the adsorption of formic acid on top of regular (101) anatase TiO2 surfaces, we found that, in the 0 K limit, the acid proton is shared between a carboxylic oxygen and a surface oxygen. In this regime, the proton behavior is mainly governed by quantum delocalization effects in a single potential well. Nonetheless, as temperature is raised to room conditions, simulations evidenced a rapid “classical” shuttling of the proton due to the onset of a two-wells free energy profile separated by a free energy barrier of the order of kT. This picture, supported by the agreement between simulated and experimental IR spectra, shows that the titania surface acts like a protecting group for the carboxylic acid functionality. Such a conceptual insight might help rationalize the chemical processes of carboxylic species on TiO2 surfaces. more...

1) main text file of the paper: "Computational modeling of open framework silicates: probing straight bond angles in ferrierite reveals intriguing links between mineralogy, nanomaterial science and technological applications"by F. Trudu, G. Tabacchi, E. Fois (pdf file)2) supporting information (pdf file)3) zip folder containing relevant data files in cif formatTwitter handle of the submitting author:@BL76276 more...

Aims Childhood and adolescent obesity has been defined as a planetary epidemic by WHO “globesity”. The obesogenic environment, defined as a life environment promoting a high-energy intake and a sedentary lifestyle, significantly contributes to the genesis and the diffusion of the globesity. In the last decades, several authors and working groups tried to develop methodological instruments in order to guarantee a reliable analysis of an obesogenic environment. Their efforts have led to the production of a relatively large number of questionnaires with different characteristics. The general aim of these questionnaires is to identify the factors that significantly contribute to the creation of an obesogenic environment around children and adolescents. As a result of this work, a number of studies were carried out using such questionnaires. Aim of this review is to evaluate ad hoc questionnaires useful to identify and analyze obesogenic environment. Data synthesis The search was carried out in February–March 2017 using the PubMed-Medline and Scopus databases (time interval: the last 10 years). After the selection and verification phases, a total of 14 studies were selected and therefore included in the present review. Conclusions The questionnaires constructed and validated to analyze multiple constitutive elements of an obesogenic environment at the same time are complex and must be administered by qualified and trained staff. On the other hand, when two or more questionnaires are used to analyze different factors, the questionnaires used are generally shorter, self-administered, and generally easier to understand and interpret. more...

supporting experimental and computational data for the article:Structure and Host–Guest Interactions of Perylene–Diimide Dyes in Zeolite L NanochannelsJ. Phys. Chem. C, 2018, 122 (6), 3401–3418DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b1060The content of the paper is summarized in a blog post (see links below). more...

The Erice Charter was unanimously approved at the conclusion of the 47th Residential Course "Adapted Physical Activity in Sport, Wellness and Fitness: New Challenges for Prevention and Health Promotion", held on 20-24 April 2015 in Erice, Italy, at the "Ettore Majorana" Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture, and promoted by the International School of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine "G. D'Alessandro" and the Study Group on Movement Sciences for Health of the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health. After an intense discussion the participants identified the main points associated with the relevance of physical activity for Public Health, claiming the pivotal role of the Department of Prevention in coordinating and managing preventive actions. The participants underlined the importance of the physicians specialized in Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health. The contribution of other operators such as physicians specialized in Sport Medicine was stressed. Further, the holders of the new degree in Human Movement and Sport Sciences were considered fundamental contributors for the performance of physical activity and their presence was seen as a promising opportunity for the Departments of Prevention. Primary prevention based on recreational physical activities should become easily accessible for the population, avoiding obstacles such as certification steps or complex bureaucracy. The Sport Doctor is recognized as the principal referent for preliminary physical evaluation and clinical monitoring in secondary and tertiary prevention actions based on adapted physical activities. Developing research in the field is essential as well as implementing higher education on physical activity management in Schools of Public Health. more...

Background. ESCULAPIO is a multicenter project, funded by the Italian Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, aimed at implementing communication strategies to improve vaccination knowledge and attitudes among different target populations. Objective. The objective of the Sicilian research unit was, in the first phase, to identify, through systematic literature revision, which vaccination determinants play a role in the uptake of recommended vaccines included in the Italian Vaccination Plan. Design. A systematic literature review was carried out on studies describing the determinants underlying pneumococcal and meningococcal vaccination uptake. The analysis was limited to papers published in English from 2000 to date. Results. A total of 188 (meningococcal) and 731 (pneumococcal) papers were found. After selection by publication data, country (Europe), article type (original article), target population (healthy subjects), 7 (meningococcal) and 4 ( pneumococcal) manuscripts were finally included in the analysis. For meningococcal vaccination a better socioeconomic status is related to vaccination acceptance, whereas distance from immunization service is a negative determinant. For pneumococcal vaccination the determinants related to vaccination uptake are older parental age and a strong vaccine recommendation. Conversely, when the vaccine needs to be paid for, a refusal is more likely Conclusions. Our results show that payment for vaccination is a major barrier and communication about meningococcal and pneumococcal vaccination should be targeted towards specific population groups, especially through the counseling activities by health professionals. more...

Preprint (submitted version) of the article:Molecular Engineering of MnII Diamine Diketonate Precursors for the Vapor Deposition of Manganese Oxide Nanostructuresby:C. Maccato, L. Bigiani, G. Carraro, A. Gasparotto, R. Seraglia, J. Kim, A. Devi, G. Tabacchi, E. Fois, G. Pace, V. Di Noto, D. Barreca, To be cited as:Chem. Eur. J. 2017, 23, 17954-17963DOI: 10.1002/chem.201703423supporting data are available at the links below more...

Introduction While it is impossible to prevent every injury, literature suggests that injury rates could be reduced by 25% if people took appropriate preventative action. On the other side, one major problem of Group Fitness Instructors is to find the right intensity/level suitable for every attendee during classes (e.g. ballroom dancing). Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the opportunity to adopt already validated function ability tests on group fitness activities with the aim to prevent injuries and maintain or increase quality of life. Methods The study was conducted with a quasi-experimental design. The Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and the Barthel index (BI) were administered to an experimental group (EG) and a control group (CG) of elderly persons living in an inner city area of Palermo, Italy. EG was enrolled in three classes of ballroom dancing. Participants were assessed by BI and then submitted the BBS. The exclusion criteria were: 1) persons aged less than 58; 2) persons with a diagnosis of a disabling disease; 3) ex-professional athletes; 4) for EG, no more than 2 months of previous ballroom dancing experience. Means and SD were used to report preliminary descriptive results. For the purposes of our study a score of 70% for both scales (BBS-70% and BI-70%) was identified as the threshold value between a good and a poor performance. The STATISTICA software was adopted to perform the K-S normality test. Results One hundred twenty people participated to the study. We recruited 66 people as a CG (77.2 ± 6.4 yrs; 26.4 ± 4.4 BMI) and 54 people as EG (69.3 ± 8.3 yrs; 26.6 ± 4.4 BMI). The BI and BBS of CG were 76.51 ± 32 and 31.3 ± 13.2 respectively, while the BI and BBS of EG were 97.5 ± 7.7 and 51.2 ± 5.9, respectively. The BI of CG showed 0.33 K-S values while the same analysis for SG gave 0.47. We found the same trend on BBS values of CG (0.06) compared to EG (0.22). In EG, BBS-70% included 92.6% of cases compared with 24.2% of CG. The Barthel Index indicated a very similar profile: for EG BI-70% accounted for 98.1 of cases while BI-70% of CG 69.7%. Discussion BBS and BI promise to be able to predict who is eligible to start with Group Fitness and who is not. Indeed, the majority of the elderly persons belonging to EG reported higher BBS and BI values than the 70% threshold. Larger numbers and an accurate statistical analysis are necessary to confirm these findings. Preliminary results are very encouraging. References 1. Muir SW, Berg K, Chesworth BM, Klar N, Speechley M. Modifiable Risk Factors Identify People Who Transition from Non-fallers to Fallers in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Prospective Study. Physiother Can 2010; 62 (4): 358-67. 2. Hackney ME, Earhart GM. Effects of dance on movement control in Parkinson’s disease: a comparison of Argentine tango and American ballroom. J Rehabil Med 2009; 41 (6): 475-81. more...

In a context where obesity represents a cause of concern in childhood and where there is a lack of standardized data collection systems, ASSO Project (Adolescents and Surveillance System for Obesity prevention), financed by the Italian Ministry of Health, aims to develop a surveillance system structured on adolescents lifestyles. It is a prospective study with online data collection, simultaneous descriptive data analysis and real time report. The ASSO-Toolkit is made of questionnaires, forms and a fitness test battery: ASSO-PIQ (Personal Information Questionnaire);ASSO-PASAQ (Physical Activity, Smoke, Alcohol, Questionnaire); ASSO- FHQ (Food Habits Questionnaire); ASSO-FFQ (Food Frequency Questionnaire); ASSO-BFMF (Body and Fitness Measures Form); ASSO- FTB (Fitness Tests Battery). The aims of this study is to evaluate the predictive validity, the criterion validity and the reliability of ASSOFTB, in other words to assess how well the system operates to meet its obje! ctives. The ASSO-FTB consists of 20mSRT (Shuttle Run Test) to estimate cardiorespiratory fitness, the handgrip strength test and the standing broad jump to assess musculoskeletal fitness, the 4x10mSRT to assess motor fitness and last but not least the sit up test to estimate muscle endurance. Forty male adolescents (17,32 ± 1,0 yrs; 175,3 ± 6,0 cm; 72,4 ± 14,7 kg; waist circ. 86,2 ± 12,4 cm) attending the same secondary school, voluntarily participated to the pilot study. In a school setting, the already standardised procedures were administered by the ASSO-FTB specialist in collaboration with the (PE) teacher. All data collected were updated through the already existing website (www.assoproject.info) and codified by the dedicated ASSO-FTB server. All equipments adopted were selected according to the previous publications (HELENA Study, AVENA Study, FITNESSGRAM and ALPHA Study). Data were analyzed using STATISTICA software, two-tail paired t test, ! two-tail Unpaired t test and Pearson correlation were used when appropriate. Participants were significantly higher in BMI compared to data published by Espana-Romeo et al in 2010. As expected, the maximal isometric strength showed no differences between dx (35,07±7,3 kg) and sx (35,8±4,8 kg) handgrips respectively. The standing broad jump (178,07 ± 26,9 cm) has evinced less distance than Espana-Romeo study (183,4 ± 32,75), p = 0,37. The sit-up test reported a mean value of 44,9 ± 32,8 reps. On the whole findings show that there is a correlation between handgrip and standing broad jump (r = 0.7), underlining that this last test is better indicative of the upper and lower body muscular strength. The trial showed that the FTB-system was structurally simple, low cost, reliable and well accepted by the key partners. At this stage ASSOFTB seems to be able to meet scientific standards. More studies are necessary for the ASSO-toolkit validation. Preliminary results are very encouraging. more...

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have an important role in human diet, both for the prevention and the therapy of different pathologies. In this review, a critical evaluation of PUFAs dietary sources and biological functions in human organism has been done. In particular, the efficacy of ω-3 fatty acids in the improvement of the lipidic pattern and in the excitability of myocardium has been analyzed, and therefore their usefulness in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases and post-infarction arrhythmias. As PUFAs are precursors of prostaglandins and leucotriens, which are involved in phlogosis and immune response, a diet rich in fish oil reduces the production of PGE2 involved in many phlogosis events. Moreover, an increase in the eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) intake leads to a reduction in the production of inflammatory cytokines (interleukin 1, 2, 6 and Tumor Necrosis Factor); so, it is important to use ω-3 in cronic inflammatory diseases, as the rheumathoid arthritis. It seems that ω-3 could prevent the onset of hormon-dependent tumours (i.e. breast and prostatic cancer); in vitro observations, in fact, have shown that the PG of the series 2, derived from ω-6, have a carcinogenic action; instead, the anticancer effect of ω-3 could derive from their effect in antagonizing the formation of such PG; it can be useful, therefore, to increase the dietary ω-3/ ω-6 ratio. Moreover, the effects of ω-3 on the anatomic and functional central nervous system development and of their possible therapeutical use in some psychiatric pathologies were evaluated. more...

Integrated analyses on a series of ?-diketonate-diamine transition metal complexes (M = Fe, Co, Cu, Zn) highlight the metal center influence on molecular physico-chemical properties and provide understanding of the favorable behavior of these compounds as precursors in the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth of metal/metal oxide nanomaterials. The Zn complex, which shows the most symmetric coordination environment in the gas phase, is activated in contact with the heated CVD growth surface model. First-principles simulations evidenced surface-induced rolling motion of the Zn precursor in the 363-750 K range, suggesting the relevance of vibrationally excited molecular rolling as activation pathway in high temperature surface chemistry. Molecular properties (left) and hot-surface behavior (right) of the Zn(hfa)2TMEDA CVD precursor. more...

This paper presents a review of the current knowledge regarding the macro- and micronutrient requirements of infants and discusses issues related to these requirements during the first year of life. The paper also reviews the current reference values used in European countries and the methodological approaches used to derive them by a sample of seven European and international authoritative committees from which background scientific reports are available. Throughout the paper, the main issues contributing to disparities in micronutrient reference values for infants are highlighted. The identification of these issues in relation to the specific physiological aspects of infants is important for informing future initiatives aimed at providing standardized approaches to overcome variability of micronutrient reference values across Europe for this age group. more...