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The present study was undertaken to establish whether oxytocin (OT) is able to modify the NPY response to insulin-induced hypoglycemia in man. At 8:00 AM of 2 different days at least 1 week apart, 10 normal men were tested with insulin (0.15 IU/kg) and with the administration of OT (infused from time −15–60 min, at a constant rate of 2 mIU/ml) or placebo. Plasma NPY concentrations rose significantly during insulin tolerance test (ITT). Oxytocin treatment significantly reduced the NPY response to hypoglycemia. The finding demonstrates for the first time in humans that the systemic administration of OT exerts an inhibitory effect on the NPY rise caused by insulin-induced hypoglycemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few decades, a growing number of studies have used wearable technologies, such as inertial and pressure sensors, to investigate various domains of music experience, from performance to education. In this paper, we systematically review this body of literature using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) method. The initial search yielded a total of 359 records. After removing duplicates and screening for content, 23 records were deemed fully eligible for further analysis. Studies were grouped into four categories based on their main objective, namely performance-oriented systems, measuring physiological parameters, gesture recognition, and sensory mapping. The reviewed literature demonstrated the various ways in which wearable systems impact musical contexts, from the design of multi-sensory instruments to systems monitoring key learning parameters. Limitations also emerged, mostly related to the technology's comfort and usability, and directions for future research in wearables and music are outlined.

The prevention and treatment of frailty condition among multimorbid older adults, in community and hospital settings, is becoming a healthcare priority. Growing evidence suggests that a multidimensional approach could help not only in the early identification of older patients' needs but also in designing personalized preventive interventions. However, in clinical practice, the effectiveness of such interventions is limited by a lack of continuity of care and poor compliance of patients. The widespread diffusion of the information and communication technology (ICT) could offer an excellent way to implement and monitor multidimensional and personalized interventions for multimorbid older adults. In this scenario, the MULTIPLAT_AGE, is a network project involving five research centers with the main objective to supply multidimensional interventions targeted to cognitive, motor, pharmacological, and functional domains including ICT-based: i) transitional care model from the hospital to a protected home area; ii) automatic home-care system to improve activities of daily living; iii) program to improve appropriate drug prescription in nursing-home residents; iv) tele-rehabilitation program to reduce the risk of falls and v) cognitive stimulation delivered by remote in older adults with neurological disorders. Each project is linked to the others by employing a shared online platform, in a perspective of technological-supplied multicomponent interventions according to the concept of "aging in place" as the best solution for the treatment and healthcare of older people. Here we describe the general framework of the MULTIPLAT_AGE, and we examine every single project, pointing out innovative aspects, and discussing the expected results., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Backgroud: Discharge planning from the hospital of frail older patients is an important step to avoid inappropriate long-stay hospitalizations and to prevent the risks related to the prolonged hospitalization. In this frame, we developed an experimental trial-'PRO-HOME', a multicomponent programme of interventions for multimorbid and polytreated hospitalized older patients., Aim: The main aim of the study was to develop a protected discharge facility using a mini apartment equipped with advanced architectural and technological components to reduce the length of hospital stay of older participants (aged 65+ years old) admitted to the hospital for an acute event, deemed stable and dischargeable., Materials and Methods: This is a pilot randomized controlled study, comparing 30 hospitalized participants included in a multidimensional, transitional care programme based on information and communication technologies to 30 patients in standard usual care until hospital discharge., Results: We presented the study design of the PRO-HOME programme, including architectural and technological components, the enrolment procedures, the components of the intervention that is physical activity, cognitive training and life-style education and the evaluation method of the intervention based on the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment to explore the changes in the individual domains that are target of the multicomponent intervention., Conclusions: The final results will suggest whether the PRO-HOME programme represents a useful and feasible intervention to reduce the length of hospital stay of multimorbid and polytreated hospitalized older patients and improve their physical and cognitive performances and overall quality of life., Patient or Public Contribution: Due to the characteristics of the population of interest of the PRO-HOME study, we involved in the study design and programme of the activities the participants enrolled in a previous smart home-based project named MoDiPro carried-out during a 3-year period. The elderly participants from the local population involved were asked, by means of focus groups, for feedback on their experience in MoDiPro, and their suggestions were integrated into the design phase of the current PRO-HOME project. The focus groups included open group interviews with a qualitative collection of the patients' feedback so that the participants could interact with each other., (© 2023 The Authors. Health Expectations published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Complex karyotype (CK) at chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) diagnosis is a negative biomarker of adverse outcome. Since the impact of CK and its subtypes, namely type-2 CK (CK with major structural abnormalities) or high-CK (CK with ≥5 chromosome abnormalities), on the risk of developing Richter syndrome (RS) is unknown, we carried out a multicenter real-life retrospective study to test its prognostic impact. Among 540 CLL patients, 107 harbored a CK at CLL diagnosis, 78 were classified as CK2 and 52 as high-CK. Twenty-eight patients developed RS during a median follow-up of 6.7 years. At the time of CLL diagnosis, CK2 and high-CK were more common and predicted the highest risk of RS transformation, together with advanced Binet stage, unmutated (U)-IGHV, 11q-, and TP53 abnormalities. We integrated these variables into a hierarchical model: high-CK and/or CK2 patients showed a 10-year time to RS (TTRS) of 31%; U-IGHV/11q- /TP53 abnormalities/Binet stage B-C patients had a 10-year TTRS of 12%; mutated (M)-IGHV without CK and TP53 disruption a 10-year TTRS of 3% (P<0.0001). We herein demonstrate that CK landscape at CLL diagnosis allows the risk of RS transformation to be refined and we recapitulated clinico-biological variables into a prognostic model.

Sensory cues enable navigation through space, as they inform us about movement properties, such as the amount of travelled distance and the heading direction. In this study, we focused on the ability to spatially update one's position when only proprioceptive and vestibular information is available. We aimed to investigate the effect of yaw rotation on path integration across development in the absence of visual feedback. To this end, we utilized the triangle completion task: participants were guided through two legs of a triangle and asked to close the shape by walking along its third imagined leg. To test the influence of yaw rotation across development, we tested children between 6 and 11 years old (y.o.) and adults on their perceptions of angles of different degrees. Our results demonstrated that the amount of turn while executing the angle influences performance at all ages, and in some aspects, also interacted with age. Indeed, whilst adults seemed to adjust their heading towards the end of their walked path, younger children took less advantage of this strategy. The amount of disorientation the path induced also affected participants' full maturational ability to spatially navigate with no visual feedback. Increasing induced disorientation required children to be older to reach adult-level performance. Overall, these results provide novel insights on the maturation of spatial navigation-related processes., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Physical activity (PA) can be associated with better health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This study aimed to assess HRQoL before and after a two-week summer program promoting PA in Italian school-aged children. Participants were recruited during the  Giocampus summer 2017 (Parma, Italy), from June to July. Before (T0) and after (T1) the program, children and one of their parents answered the Kindl questionnaire. For each domain, least-square mean changes (LSmc) at T1 were derived from linear regression models stratified by responder and adjusted for child gender, age group, time spent in PAs and HRQoL score of the responder at T0. 350 children (7-13 years, 52% males) and 342 parents answered the questionnaire at both T0 and T1. At T1, the HRQoL score of the children significantly improved in the  emotional  (LSmc 2.9,  p <0.001),  self-esteem  (LSmc 3.3,  p <0.001),  family  (LSmc 4.2,  p <0.001) and  friend  (LSmc 3.1,  p <0.001) domains. Parents reported significantly more improvement in  self-esteem  than children (LSmc 6.7  vs  3.3,  p =0.012). Children spending more time in PA reported significantly more improvement in  self-esteem  than those doing less PA (LSmc 4.4 [ p <0.001]  vs  2.2 [ p =0.181]). A short summer program promoting PA may improve HRQoL in the general population of school-aged children.

The aim of the project was to investigate the effects of two strategies of teaching new sport actions on performance of eight-year-old children: observational-imitative method (OIM) and descriptive-directive method (DDM). The OIM group was provided with a pre-practice instruction in the form of expert modeling observation by an expert athlete. The DDM group received only verbal explanations of few selected static images. Thirty-six children (18 males and 18 females, mean age = 8,8) participated in the experiment. Subjects were randomly assigned to the OIM or DDM groups. Participants were instructed to perform four sport motor sequences never performed before (shoulder stand, soccer action, vortex howler throw, step action). Actions were videotaped and 2D kinematic analysis performed. A 10-point Likert questionnaire was administered to blind sport experts to assess the correctness and accuracy of each action. Results suggest that the OIM is the most effective instruction method when participants have no experience with the sport action to be performed. On the contrary, if the athlete needs to learn specific aspects of an exercise (such as grasping a tool) the best method is the DDM. In fact, detailed information on how to grab the vortex helped children in throwing it. We also found gender differences which might reflect cultural influences in specific sports (e.g. soccer). Finally, repetition of the exercise also improved the DDM group's performance. This has potential applications in sport teaching, suggesting that in the absence of a model performing the action to be imitated, the DDM can be as effective as the OIM if the observer repeats the sport action many times., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

In 2014 a 66-year-old woman presented with anemia and an IgAk monoclonal spike. Bone marrow (BM) biopsy showed 80% lymphocytes and lymphoplasmacytoid cells. Computed Tomography (CT) scan documented neither adenopathy nor splenomegaly. Diagnosis of IgA lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma was made. After three lines of treatment, progressive disease with adenopathies, splenomegaly, and ascites were documented on a CT scan. Our patient developed thrombocytopenia, transfusion-dependent anemia, and clinical deterioration. We performed genetic studies of peripheral blood lymphocytes with the NGS approach. Given the identification of MYD88 L265P mutation, in February 2018 our patient started ibrutinib off-label. Hb and PLT improved from day +35. In July 2018 no ascites and 50% reduction of adenopathies and spleen were shown on a CT scan. In April 2019 the patient was still on ibrutinib with transfusion independence and good performance status., Competing Interests: Competing interests: AC speaker bureau and advisory board (ABBVIE, GILEAD, JANSSEN, ROCHE); GMR: speaker bureau (ABBVIE, GILEAD) and research support (GILEAD).

Background: Complex karyotype (CK) is a heterogeneous category with a negative impact in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). Our group has recently reported that CK patients with major structural abnormalities (i.e. CK2) are characterised by a worse prognosis, as compared to other lesions within CK(CK1)., Methods: We performed a multicentre retrospective study to test whether the combination of CK subtypes with IGHV status could be a relevant prognostic and predictive tool., Results: Among 522 patients 13% harboured CK2, 41% CK1 and/or U-IGHV (U-CK1) and 46% M-IGHV without any CK subtypes (M-noCK). After a median follow-up of 5.8 years, CK2 patients had the shortest TTFT (5-year TTFT 31%, 39 and 81%, p < 0.0001) and OS (5-year OS 67%, 85 and 93%, p < 0.0001) as compared to U-CK1 or M-noCK cases, regardless of TP53 abnormalities. CK2 patients also had the worst outcome after chemoimmunotherapy. In fact, the median TTNT after FCR or BR was 1.86 and 4.79 years for CK2 and U-CK1, but not reached for M-noCK patients (p < 0.0005)., Conclusions: We herein suggest that the combined assessment of the IGHV mutational status and CK subtypes refines the prognostication of CLL, allowing to identify M-IGHV patients without any CK subtypes who are characterised by an indolent disease and excellent outcome after chemoimmunotherapy.

The complex karyotype (CK) is an established negative prognostic marker in a number of haematological malignancies. After the introduction of effective mitogens, a growing body of evidence has suggested that the presence of 3 or more aberrations by conventional banding analysis (CBA) is associated with an unfavorable outcome in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Thus, the importance of CBA was recognized by the 2018 guidelines of the International Workshop on CLL, which proposed the introduction of CBA in clinical trials to validate the value of karyotype aberrations. Indeed, a number of observational studies showed that cytogenetic aberrations and, particularly, the CK may have a negative independent impact on objective outcome measures (i.e. time to first treatment, progression free survival, time to chemorefractoriness and overall survival) both in patients treated with chemoimmunotherapy and, possibly, in patients receiving novel mechanism-based treatment. Here, we set out to present the scientific evidence supporting the significance of CK as a prognostic marker in CLL and to discuss the biological basis showing that the CK is a consequence of genomic instability., Competing Interests: CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Complex karyotype (CK) is a negative prognostic factor in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). However, CK is a heterogeneous cytogenetic category. Unbalanced rearrangements were present in 73·3% of 90 CLL patients with CK (i.e. ≥3 chromosome aberrations in the same clone), and were associated with a shorter overall survival (P = 0·025) and a shorter time to first treatment (P = 0·043) by multivariate analysis. Patients with unbalanced rearrangements presented a distinct mRNA expression profile. In conclusion, CLL patients with unbalanced rearrangements might represent a subset of very high-risk CLL patients with distinct clinical and biological characteristics., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The prevalence of overweight and obesity in children has risen greatly worldwide. Diet and poor physical activity are the two risk factors usually examined, but epidemiological evidence exists suggesting a link between sleep duration and overweight/obesity in children. The aim of this study was to describe the relationship among body mass index (BMI), diet quality, physical activity level, and sleep duration in 690 children attending the 5th grade in primary schools (9-11 years old) in the city of Parma (Italy) involved in the Giocampus educational program. This was achieved through (i) measuring anthropometric data to compute body mass index; (ii) administering a food questionnaire to evaluate adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (KIDMED score); and (iii) administering a lifestyle questionnaire to classify children physical activity level (PAL), sleep duration, and school achievement. A highly significant negative association was found between BMI and sleep hours. Moreover, there was a significant positive association between PAL and KIDMED scores. No evidence was found of association between BMI and PAL, nor between BMI and KIDMED score. Data from this study established that BMI is correlated to gender and sleep duration, defining sleep habits as one of the factors linked to overweight and obesity., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.