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Objective: This study aimed at describing our high-volume single center experience in robotic-assisted thoracic surgery (RATS) to evaluate short outcome and feasibility of the technique, the adequacy of oncological results, and the learning curve., Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data from 1000 consecutive patients who underwent lobectomy and systematic lymphadenectomy for primary lung cancer using RATS approach between May 2007 and May 2023., Results: Nine-hundred ninety-seven patients (99.7 %) underwent lobectomy, whereas 3 (0.03 %) patients bilobectomy. Conversion rate to open surgery was 3.7 %. Minor complications occurred in 213 (21.3 %) patients, major complications in 29 patients (2.9 %). The 30-day and 90-day operative mortality was 0 % and 0.1 %, respectively. The median number of N1 + N2 stations resected was 5 (range 0-9), with a median number of 17 of N1 + N2 lymph nodes resected (range 0-55). The oncological outcome was evaluated only on the subgroup of patients (n = 895) with non-small cell lung cancer. Pathological lymph node upstaging from cN0 to pN1/pN2 was evident in 147 patients (17.3 %): 9 % from cN0 to pN1 and 7.1 % from cN0 to pN2. With a median follow-up of 3.9, 5-year OS and DFS were respectively 89.3 % and 83.6 % for stage I, 74 % and 66.5 % for stage II, and 61 % and 36.4 % for stage IIIA., Conclusions: Better vision and excellent instrument maneuverability of the robotic surgical system allowed excellent results in terms of early, adequate oncological outcome comparable to open surgery literature data, and acceptable learning curve., Ultramini Abstract: 1000 consecutive patients who underwent lobectomy and systematic lymphadenectomy for primary lung cancer using RATS approach have been analyzed with the aim to describe our high-volume single center experience, and to evaluate short outcome and feasibility of the technique, the adequacy of oncological results, and the learning curve., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Pneumonectomy is a radical surgical procedure associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Its application in the context of pulmonary neuroendocrine tumours, including carcinoid tumours, requires meticulous preoperative planning and intraoperative precision. This study aims to assess the safety and efficacy of pneumonectomy in the management of these rare and challenging neoplasms., Methods: A retrospective analysis of patients who underwent pneumonectomy for pulmonary carcinoid tumours at our institution over a specified period was conducted. Data regarding patient demographics, tumour characteristics, surgical techniques, intraoperative complications, perioperative management, and long-term outcomes were collected and analysed., Results: Between March 2001 and October 2022, 21 patients (7 male, 14 female) with carcinoid tumours underwent pneumonectomy on a total of 459 surgical operations for carcinoid. Preoperative bronchoscopic procedures were conducted in 90.4% of cases, leading to histological diagnoses for most. The median hospital stay was eight days, with no reported perioperative deaths. Median follow-up after surgery was 73 months, with a five-year overall survival of 65.4 months. Recurrences occurred in 28.6% of cases, primarily in atypical carcinoids., Conclusion: Despite the rarity of bronchial carcinoids, pneumonectomy is effective for low-grade malignancies, demonstrating positive short-and long-term outcomes. Radical lymph node dissection is fundamental in pathological staging and overall survival., Competing Interests: 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. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Diotti, Bertolaccini, Girelli, Uslenghi, Donghi, Guarize, Spada, Fazio and Spaggiari.)

Pulmonary cancer is often associated with systemic inflammation and poor nutritional status and these two aspects are strongly correlated and related to the scarce infiltration of a tumor by immune cells. We reviewed all English literature reviews from 2000 to 2024 from PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar, including original articles, review articles, and metanalyses. We excluded non-English language articles and case reports/case series. Generally speaking, nutritional and inflammatory status largely affect medium and long-term prognosis in lung cancer patients. A correct stratification of patients could improve their preoperative general functional nutritional and inflammatory status, minimizing, therefore, possible treatment complications and improving long-term prognosis.

Cognitive reserve (CR) represents the adaptive response of the cognitive system responsible for preserving normal functioning in the face of brain damage. Experiential factors such as education, occupation, and leisure activities influence the development of CR. Theoretically, such factors build up from childhood and across adulthood. Thus, appropriate tools to define and measure CR as early as adolescence are essential to understand its developmental processes. To this aim, we introduce the construct of "Cognitive Reserve Potential" (CRP) and its corresponding index of experiential factors tailored to youth. We investigated prototypical youth exposures potentially associated with the lifelong development of CR (e.g., sport practice, musical experiences, cultural activities, and relationships with peers and family). Principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis identified and replicated the CRP factor structure on two independent samples of Italian students: N = 585 (295 F) and N = 351 (201 F), ages 11 to 20. CRP was associated mainly with family socio-cultural status (i.e., socioeconomic status [SES], Home Possessions, and Books at Home). Results confirmed the strength of the factorial model and warranted the proposal of the CRP-questionnaire as an innovative tool for understanding CR evolutionary dynamics., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Background : Parents of children with chronic conditions face challenges that go beyond basic care and parenting responsibilities. Parents' experiences can be influenced by perceived stress, emotional experiences, feelings of helplessness, low sense of self-efficacy, anxiety and depression, reducing their quality of life. It is therefore not surprising that parents of children with chronic illnesses are more likely to experience stress, anxiety and depression than parents of healthy children. A prevalent chronic condition is type 1 diabetes. Methods : Parents (31 with children with type 1 diabetes diagnosis and 71 with children without chronic illness) were recruited to complete the measures of the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18), the Parent Health Locus of Control (PHLOC) and Parenting Sense of Competence (PSOC). Results : Significant differences in depression and internal locus of control were found; there was a positive correlation between internal LOC and efficacy in both samples; furthermore, there was a negative correlation between somatization and satisfaction in the experimental group. Conclusions : The ongoing experiences and challenges faced daily make parents perceive themselves as capable. Active involvement in supporting and managing the needs of child with type 1 diabetes could be a source of empowerment for the parent, contributing to the maintenance of their sense of competence. It is important, therefore, to consider the well-being and perception of the parent at a personal level, regardless of the child's situation.

Background: Sleeve lobectomy with bronchoplasty is a safe surgical technique for the management of lung cancer and endobronchial localization of extrapulmonary cancers. However, anastomotic complications can occur, and treatment strategies are not standardized., Methods: Data from 280 patients subjected to bronchoplasty were retrospectively analyzed, focusing on surgical techniques, anastomotic complications, and their management. Multivariate analysis was performed, and Kaplan-Meier curves were used to determine survival., Results: Ninety percent of 280 surgeries were for lung cancer. Anastomotic complications occurred in 6.42% of patients: late stenosis in 3.92% and broncho-pleural fistula in 1.78%. The median survival was 65.90 months (95% CI = 41.76-90.97), with no difference ( p = 0.375) for patients with (51.28 months) or without (71.03 months) anastomotic complications. Mortality at 30 days was higher with anastomotic complications (16.7% vs. 3%, p = 0.014). Multivariable analysis confirmed pathological stage (N+) as a risk factor for anastomotic complications ( p = 0.016). Our mortality (3.93%) and morbidity rate (41.78%) corresponded to recent series results., Conclusions: In our experience, surgery is preferred to avoid life-threatening complications in bronchopleural fistulas. Bronchoscopic balloon dilatation is preferred for benign strictures. The nodal stage is related to complications ( p = 0.0014), reflecting the aggressiveness of surgery, which requires extended radical lymphadenectomy.

The cognitive benefits of closed-skill sports practice have so far been scantily investigated. Here, we thus focused on the potential impact of swimming and running - two sports that highly rely on a precise control of timing - on time processing. To investigate the impact of these closed-skill sports on time perception and estimation, three groups of participants (for a total of eighty-four young adults) took part in the present study: expert swimmers, expert runners, and non-athletes. The ability to process temporal information in the milliseconds and seconds range was assessed through a time reproduction and a finger-tapping tasks, while a motor imagery paradigm was adopted to assess temporal estimation of sport performance in a wider interval range. We also employed the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire to assess the individual's ability of motor imagery. Results showed that closed-skill sports, specifically time-related disciplines, enhance motor imagery and time perception abilities. Swimmers were more accurate and consistent in perceiving time when compared to runners, probably thanks to the sensory muffled environment that leads these athletes to be more focused on the perception of their internal rhythm., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

While seminal theories suggest that nonsymbolic visual numerosity is mainly extracted from segmented items, more recent views advocate that numerosity cannot be processed independently of nonnumeric continuous features confounded with the numerical set (i.e., such as the density, the convex hull, etc.). To disentangle these accounts, here we employed two different visual illusions presented in isolation or in a merged condition (e.g., combining the effects of the two illusions). In particular, in a number comparison task, we concurrently manipulated both the perceived object segmentation by connecting items with Kanizsa-like illusory lines, and the perceived convex-hull/density of the set by embedding the stimuli in a Ponzo illusion context, keeping constant other low-level features. In Experiment 1, the two illusions were manipulated in a compatible direction (i.e., both triggering numerical underestimation), whereas in Experiment 2 they were manipulated in an incompatible direction (i.e., with the Ponzo illusion triggering numerical overestimation and the Kanizsa illusion numerical underestimation). Results from psychometric functions showed that, in the merged condition, the biases of each illusion summated (i.e., largest underestimation as compared with the conditions in which illusions were presented in isolation) in Experiment 1, while they averaged and competed against each other in Experiment 2. These findings suggest that discrete nonsymbolic numerosity can be extracted independently from continuous magnitudes. They also point to the need of more comprehensive theoretical views accounting for the operations by which both discrete elements and continuous variables are computed and integrated by the visual system., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

The visual mechanisms underlying approximate numerical representation are still intensely debated because numerosity information is often confounded with continuous sensory cues (e.g., texture density, area, convex hull). However, numerosity is underestimated when a few items are connected by illusory contours (ICs) lines without changing other physical cues, suggesting in turn that numerosity processing may rely on discrete visual input. Yet, in these previous works, ICs were generated by black-on-gray inducers producing an illusory brightness enhancement, which could represent a further continuous sensory confound. To rule out this possibility, we tested participants in a numerical discrimination task in which we manipulated the alignment of 0, 2, or 4 pairs of open/closed inducers and their contrast polarity. In Experiment 1, aligned open inducers had only one polarity (all black or all white) generating ICs lines brighter or darker than the gray background. In Experiment 2, open inducers had always opposite contrast polarity (one black and one white inducer) generating ICs without strong brightness enhancement. In Experiment 3, reverse-contrast inducers were aligned but closed with a line preventing ICs completion. Results showed that underestimation triggered by ICs lines was independent of inducer contrast polarity in both Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, whereas no underestimation was found in Experiment 3. Taken together, these results suggest that mere brightness enhancement is not the primary cause of the numerosity underestimation induced by ICs lines. Rather, a boundary formation mechanism insensitive to contrast polarity may drive the effect, providing further support to the idea that numerosity processing exploits discrete inputs., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

This paper investigates mathematical skills in Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), a pathological condition because of congenital alterations of chromosome pair 15. The following questions were addressed: (1) Are mathematical skills in PWS relatively more impaired with respect to other cognitive functions (as has been repeatedly but anecdotally reported)?; and (2) What is the nature of the mathematical impairment? The first study employed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and an extensive battery of cognitive tasks for which norms are known. Both batteries include a mathematical section. The second study used a theoretically motivated series of mathematical tasks specifically designed to individually assess the different cognitive components underlying mathematical skills. Mathematical skills were found to be the most impaired cognitive abilities together with short-term memory capacity. No specific mathematical domain was seen to be unaffected in PWS participants. The clearest deficits observed concern syntactic processes in number transcoding, multiplication, number facts retrieval and calculation procedures. Failure of mathematical skills is the most distinctive feature in the cognitive profile of PWS. However, to determine whether this is indeed a specific pattern of performance related to PWS, results must be compared with those obtained with patients manifesting other genetic disorders.

Whether mathematics is a gendered domain or not is a long-lasting issue bringing along major social and educational implications. The females' underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has been considered one of the key signs of the math gender gap, although the current view largely attributes the origin of this phenomenon to sociocultural factors. Indeed, recent approaches to math gender differences reached the universal conclusion that nature and nurture exert reciprocal effects on each other, establishing the need for approaching the study of the math gender issue only once its intrinsic complexity has been accepted. Building upon a flourishing literature, this review provides an updated synthesis of the evidence for math gender equality at the start, and for math gender inequality on the go, challenging the role of biological factors. In particular, by combining recent findings from different research areas, the paper discusses the persistence of the "math male myth" and the associated "female are not good at math myth," drawing attention to the complex interplay of social and cultural forces that support such stereotypes. The suggestion is made that longevity of these myths results from the additive effects of two independent cognitive biases associated with gender stereotypes and with math stereotypes, respectively. Scholars' responsibility in amplifying these myths by pursuing some catching lines of research is also discussed., (© 2022 The Author. Journal of Neuroscience Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: Primary chest wall tumors comprise a heterogeneous group of neoplasms arising from soft tissues and bones. While surgical excision is the standard of care for benign tumors, the management of malignant tumors requires multimodal treatment. We conducted a predictive analysis of outcome, recurrence-free and overall survival., Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical and pathological records of all patients treated in our center between 1998 and 2020., Results: 53 patients (15-85 years) were treated in our department. The average tumor diameter was 65 ± 35 mm (10-160 mm). Negative margins were obtained in 48 patients (90.6%), whereas in the remaining 5, R1 resection was accomplished. Median overall survival was 63,03 months (1-282 months). Overall survival was 90% at 1 year, 78% at 2 years, and 61% at 5 years. Our analysis identified tumor diameter, postoperative complications, and high grade of malignancy as factors that can influence prognosis., Conclusions: The treatment of primary chest wall tumors remains a very challenging process. Different histological types preclude definition of an unequivocal approach. Complete resection with healthy margins remains a definitive cornerstone in the treatment of these cancers as part of a more comprehensive approach.

Postoperative management after major and minor thoracic surgeries is crucial for patient recovery and can be challenging. Major thoracic surgeries, such as extensive pulmonary resections, especially in patients with poor health status, may require intensive surveillance, particularly during the first 24-72 h after surgery. Moreover, thanks to the demographic development and medical progress in perioperative medicine, more patients with comorbidities undergoing thoracic procedures require proper management in the postoperative period to improve prognosis and decrease hospital stay. Here, we summarize the main thoracic postoperative complications in order to clarify how to prevent them through a series of standardized procedures.

Assessing the validity of a psychometric test is fundamental to ensure a reliable interpretation of its outcomes. Few attempts have been made recently to complement classical approaches (e.g., factor models) with a novel technique based on network analysis. The objective of the current study is to carry out a network-based validation of the Eating Disorder Inventory 3 (EDI-3), a questionnaire designed for the assessment of eating disorders. Exploiting a reliable, open source sample of 1206 patients diagnosed with an eating disorder, we set up a robust validation process encompassing detection and handling of redundant EDI-3 items, estimation of the cross-sample psychometric network, resampling bootstrap procedure and computation of the median network of the replica samples. We then employed a community detection algorithm to identify the topological clusters, evaluated their coherence with the EDI-3 subscales and replicated the full validation analysis on the subpopulations corresponding to patients diagnosed with either anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. Results of the network-based analysis, and particularly the topological community structures, provided support for almost all the composite scores of the EDI-3 and for 2 single subscales: Bulimia and Maturity Fear. A moderate instability of some dimensions led to the identification of a few multidimensional items that should be better located in the intersection of multiple psychological scales. We also found that, besides symptoms typically attributed to eating disorders, such as drive for thinness, also non-specific symptoms like low self-esteem and interoceptive deficits play a central role in both the cross-sample and the diagnosis-specific networks. Our work adds insights into the complex and multidimensional structure of EDI-3 by providing support to its network-based validity on both mixed and diagnosis-specific samples. Moreover, we replicated previous results that reinforce the transdiagnostic theory of eating disorders., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Objectives: Superior sulcus tumour, which affects the lung's apex, is an uncommon subtype of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The current study examined the clinical characteristics and management of superior sulcus NSCLC patients in a high-volume referral oncological centre over 22 years., Methods: Retrospective review of 100 surgeries with curative intent for superior sulcus NSCLC over 22 years (July 1998 - December 2020). The surgical approach was defined according to the lesion site and the anatomy of the thoracic inlet. Survival curves, including non-cancer-related deaths, were drawn using the Kaplan-Meier methods, and the log-rank test was used to evaluate differences in survival across groups of patients. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to assess the association between selected clinical and pathologic characteristics on OS., Results: 54 patients received induction treatments. The surgical approach was anterior thoracotomy in 53 patients, Paulson incision in 30, and a combined in 8. The median postoperative length of stay was 11 days (range: 5 - 27 days). Overall 90-day mortality was 6.93%. The median OS was 24.3 months. After a median follow-up of 3 years, 5-year and 10-year OS rates were 33.9% and 26.4%, respectively. A significantly lower 5-year OS was observed in patients with the nodal disease (46.6% in pN0 vs 13.2% in pN+; p = 0.024), without preoperative treatments (41.0% in patients without preoperative treatments versus 17.4%; p = 0.09) and anteriorly located tumour (anterior vs posterior: 17.4% vs 49.1%; p = 0.032). Cox proportional hazards regression showed better survival in the pT1 stage (HR = 4.6; 95% CI: 1.9 - 11.2; p = 0.00076) and in R0 (HR = 4.2; 95% CI: 1.4 - 12.5; p = 0.010)., Conclusions: Superior sulcus tumours still represent a life-threatening condition that, while curable in a significant proportion of cases, requires complex procedures with high surgical risks and a multimodality treatment setting. An optimal surgical approach should be planned to maximise resection completeness and survival. Other factors affecting survival are related to tumour staging, emphasising the importance of a meticulous preoperative workup and candidate selection to identify those expected to benefit from a survival benefit., Competing Interests: 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 Bertolaccini, Casiraghi, Galetta, Petrella, Mazzella, Lo Iacono, Girelli, Bardoni, Mohamed, Musso, Sedda and Spaggiari.)

The exact visual mechanisms underpinning the approximate number system are still debated. Recent evidence suggests that numerosity is extracted on segmented visual objects, at least for a moderate numerical range (e.g., < 100 items), whereas alternative models rather propose that numerosity is derived from low-level features (e.g., power spectrum) of an unsegmented image, independently from the range. Here, to disentangle these accounts, we generated stimuli that were equalized for spatial frequency amplitude spectrum and luminance across sets of moderate range numerosities (e.g., 9-15 dots), while independently manipulating the perceived item segmentation by connecting dots with illusory contours (ICs). In Experiment 1, participants performed a numerical discrimination task, in which they had to select the numerically larger between two stimuli: a reference stimulus (always 12 dots) and a test stimulus (from 9 to 15 dots) containing 0, 2 or 4 pairs of dots grouped by ICs lines. In Experiment 2, participants were presented only the test stimulus and performed an estimation task. Results clearly showed that in both experiments participants' performance followed well-known numerical signatures (e.g., distance effect and scalar variability), with numerosity that was underestimated as the illusory connections increased. Crucially, this was found despite spatial frequencies and luminance were kept constant across all the experimental stimuli and these variables were thus uninformative about numerosity. Taken together, these findings indicate that power spectrum in its own cannot explain numerical processing. Rather, visual segmentation mechanisms may be crucial in such processing at least for a moderate numerosity range., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature.)

Objective: A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to assess potential differences in perioperative outcomes and disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients with pathological stage IA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who underwent minimally invasive anatomical segmentectomy or lobectomy., Methods: This systematic review and meta-analysis followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A systematic search of EMBASE (through Ovid), MEDLINE (via PubMed), and Cochrane CENTRAL was conducted. Two researchers independently reviewed each eligible study that included patients with stage IA NSCLC who underwent minimally invasive anatomical segmentectomy and lobectomy and compared perioperative and/or survival outcomes of patients., Results: A total of 887 publications were identified. Of these, 10 articles met our eligibility criteria. A significantly higher number of lymph nodes were harvested in lobectomies. The two groups did not significantly differ in postoperative complication rates, DFS, and OS. Patients who underwent segmentectomy had shorter postoperative hospital stays., Conclusions: Minimally invasive lobectomy and segmentectomy showed comparable short-term and long-term outcomes in stage IA NSCLC patients. Postoperative complication rates were similar. Minimally invasive lobectomies are associated with a higher number of harvested lymph nodes, although this did not affect the final staging or the survival outcomes.

Young people's mental health problems are a matter of concern during the COVID-19 pandemic. Counselling services for university students by means of telemental support can help them to deal with psychological issues that they may be facing due to the pandemic. The present study investigated the effects of four once-weekly online counselling sessions based on a mind-body technique (the Brain Wave Modulation Technique; BWM-T) on enhancing positive affect and on reducing negative affect and anxiety in a sample of 54 university students (96.3% females; M age  = 21.31 years, SD  = 2.09). An experimental design was conducted: the participants were randomly assigned to the intervention group, which received 15 min of a guided online BWM-T session, or to the control group, which watched a 15-min video on how to sustain their psychological well-being. The results of a two-factor mixed-design analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the participants in the intervention group reported a significant increase in positive affect and a decrease in negative affect over time compared to those in the control group. They also reported a slight decrease in state anxiety compared to the control group, although this was just short of statistical significance. The information provided by this study, regarding emotional outcomes among university students after four brief online counselling sessions, suggests that such interventions could be an effective and sustainable way to reinforce young people's mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as later in their university careers and adult lives., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests., (© 2022 British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.)

Introduction: The multidimensional jealousy scale (MJS) is among the most internationally used instruments for the assessment of jealousy in its three dimensions: cognitive, emotional, and behavioral. This study aimed to replicate the Italian validation process of the shortened MJS in order to confirm its psychometric properties and measurement invariance across gender., Materials and Methods: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted in a large sample of adults ( n = 2,928). To reliably estimate mean differences across gender, the measurement invariance of the scale was first established by means of CFA. Convergent validity was than tested by administrating the tool to a convenient sample ( n = 304)., Results: A 15-item version of the Italian MJS was retained in its three-factor structure. The tool showed good fit with both the CFA (χ 2 = 211.827, CFI = 0.969, TLI = 0.959, RMSEA = 0.047, RMSEA 90% CI = 0.039-0.055) and the results confirmed the strong measurement invariance of the MJS across gender. The internal consistency measures were found to be fully satisfactory. Predictive associations with constructs such as avoidance and anxiety referred to attachment in relationships (ECR-R), obsessive jealousy, depressive jealousy, jealousy associated with separation anxiety, paranoid jealousy (QUEGE), and basic self-esteem (BSE) were confirmed., Discussion: The MJS is particularly apt to collect information quickly and efficiently about jealousy in a current relationship. The multidimensional and brief structure makes it particularly suitable for preliminary screening, couple therapy assessment, and research purposes., Competing Interests: 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 © 2022 Diotaiuti, Valente, Mancone, Girelli, Cavicchiolo and Chirico.)

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted individual's life and society, and such an emergency has increased the likelihood of recurring conspiratorial thinking. There is much research on broader conspiratorial thinking and studies on COVID-19-related conspiratorial thinking has been growing worldwide, moreover, the negative consequences of COVID-19 specific conspiratorial beliefs for people's health are clear. However, person-centered research aiming at identify groups of individuals who share patterns of relations between COVID-19 specific conspiratorial beliefs and other psychological features is still scarce. A sample of 1.002 people (18-40 years old, M = 23; SD = 5.19) responded to a questionnaire administered online. The aim was to identify groups of individuals based on their beliefs about COVID-19 conspiracy theories and to compare the groups identified in terms of psychological characteristics associated such as automatic defense mechanisms, coping strategies, powerlessness, emotions, emotional regulation, attitudes toward the COVID-19, social distancing discontent, perceptions of COVID-19 severity and temporal perspective. A k-mean cluster analysis identified the groups of Believers (22.26%), Ambivalent believers (34.3%), and Non-believers (43.21%). The three groups differ particularly in terms of defense mechanisms, and time perspective. Results suggested the need to tailor interventions for individuals believing in COVID-19 conspiratorial theories based on differences in the psychological characteristics among the three groups., Competing Interests: 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 © 2022 Celia, Lausi, Girelli, Cavicchiolo, Limone, Giannini and Cozzolino.)

Excessive Internet use has demonstrated comorbidity with other psychological symptoms and psychiatric disorders, as well as impairments in the management of daily life, relationships and emotional stability. Recent findings in the literature have consistently supported the relationship between impulsivity and Internet addiction. The present study hypothesized that, in addition to impulsivity, a further predictor of Internet addiction might be relational co-dependency, which is also associated in the literature with addiction phenomena, but mainly substance addiction. This paper investigates the role and predictive weight of impulsivity and codependency on Internet addiction on a sample of young adult university students (n = 481) by using a hierarchical regression analysis. The participants were administered the UADI-2, the BIS-11 and the SFCDS. In terms of percentage distribution, 38 % of the participants were in the dependency range, while 37.7 % demonstrated Internet abuse behavior. The results confirmed the role of impulsiveness (β = 0.312) and added to the literature by showing the significant role of relational codependency (β = 0.275), gender (β = 0.174) and age (β = 0.196). Thus, male participants were more dependent, more impulsive and more co-dependent, with increasing age in the given range (18-30). The present study shed light to the presence of this issue among young adults and that, as a preventive and restraining measure, there is a need not only for targeted awareness-raising programmes but also for interventions to promote greater emotional control and a more balanced management of personal relationships., Competing Interests: 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 © 2022 Diotaiuti, Mancone, Corrado, De Risio, Cavicchiolo, Girelli and Chirico.)

The prevalence of overweight and obesity in young adults has increased dramatically in recent decades. The unhealthy eating habits that develop at this time can often lead to negative health consequences in the future. It is therefore important to learn about self-regulation and self-control strategies and help young adults to have healthy eating behaviours. This study aims to present an Italian version of the Tempest Self-Regulation Questionnaire for Eating (TESQ-E) adapted for young adults. The instrument assesses self-regulation and self-control strategies to counteract the desire and temptation to eat unhealthy food and to choose healthy foods. A total of 645 students (271 males and 374 females with an average age of 24.82 and SD  = 4.34) took part in the study. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported the six first-order factors model concerning specific self-regulation strategies and a higher-order structure of the TESQ-E [χ 2 (152) = 336.480, p  < 0.001; CFI = 0.95; RMSEA = 0.04; SRMR = 0.04]: three correlated second-order factors (addressing the temptation directly, addressing the psychological meaning of temptation, and addressing the goal directly) and one-third-order factor (self-regulatory competence). The results also confirmed the strong measurement invariance of the TESQ-E across gender. To have reliable comparisons across males and females, the latent mean differences tests were performed on the six specific self-regulation strategies. The analysis showed that females appear to prefer strategies that directly address the goal by expressing explicit intentions or plans to eat in a healthy way. Convergence validity was tested through correlations with Eating-Self-Efficacy Brief Scale (ESEBS), Emotional Eating Scale (EES), Scale of Attitudes towards Healthy Eating (SAHE), and Body Mass Index (BMI). In conclusion, the TESQ-E appears to be a psychometrically sound questionnaire that can be effectively used with young adults to measure self-regulation strategies in eating in order to plan personalised interventions for the prevention and control of the metabolic syndrome, and to reduce a wide range of diet-related diseases., Competing Interests: 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 © 2022 Diotaiuti, Girelli, Mancone, Valente, Bellizzi, Misiti and Cavicchiolo.)

There is an intense debate surrounding the origin of spatial-numerical associations (SNAs), according to which small numbers are mapped onto the left side of the space and large numbers onto the right. Despite evidence suggesting that SNAs would emerge as an innate predisposition to map numerical information onto a left-to-right spatially oriented mental representation, alternative accounts have challenged these proposals, maintaining that such a mapping would be the result of a mere spatial frequency (SF) coding of any visual image. That is, any smaller or larger array of objects would naturally contain more low or high SF information and, accordingly, each hemisphere would be preferentially tuned only for one SF range (e.g., right hemisphere tuned for low SF and left hemisphere tuned for high SF). This would determine the typical SNA (e.g., faster RTs for small numerical arrays with the left hand and for large numerical arrays with the right hand). To directly probe the role of SF coding in SNAs, we tested participants in a typical dot-arrays comparison task with two numerical sets: one in which SFs were confounded with numerosity (Experiment 1) and one in which the full SF power spectrum was equalized across all stimuli, keeping this cue uninformative about numerosity (Experiment 2). We found that SNAs emerged in both experiments, independently of whether SF was confounded or not with numerosity. Taken together, these findings suggest that SNAs cannot simply originate from SF power spectrum alone, and, thus, they rule out the brain's asymmetric SF tuning as a primary cause of such an effect., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Background: Multimodality therapy offers the best opportunity to improve pathological N2 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) prognosis. This paper aimed to evaluate the long-term clinical outcomes and the prognostic factors of upfront surgery as first-line therapy in biopsy-proven clinical N2., Methods: Retrospective review of biopsy-proven cN2 NSCLC patients operated between 2007 and 2017. Upfront surgery was considered if the primary tumour was deemed completely resectable, with mediastinal nodal involvement confined to a single station and no preoperative evidence of extranodal tumour invasion., Results: Two hundred eighty-five patients who underwent radical resections were included. One hundred fifty-nine patients (55.8%) received induction chemotherapy. At follow-up completion, 127 (44.6%) patients had died. For the induction chemotherapy group, the median overall survival (OS) was 49 months [95% confidence interval (CI): 38-70 months], and the 5-year OS was 44.4%. The median and 5-year OS for the up front surgery group was 66 months (95% CI: 40-119 months) and 66.3%, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences between treatment approaches (p = 0.48). One hundred thirty-four patients (47.0%) developed recurrence. The recurrence-free survival (RFS) at 5 years was 17% (95% CI: 11-25%) for induction chemotherapy and 22% (95% CI: 9-32%) for upfront surgery; there were no statistically significant differences between groups (p = 0.93). No significant differences were observed based on the clinical N status (OS, p = 0.36; RFS, p = 0.65)., Conclusions: Upfront surgery as first-line therapy for biopsy-proven cN2 NSCLC showed favourable clinical outcomes, similar to those obtained after induction chemotherapy followed by surgery. Therefore, it should be considered one of the multimodality treatment options in resectable N2 NSCLC., Competing Interests: 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 © 2022 Bertolaccini, Prisciandaro, Guarize, Girelli, Sedda, Filippi, de Marinis and Spaggiari.)

Background: This study aimed to investigate differences in adolescents' social relationships with classmates of diverse gender, socioeconomic status, immigrant background, and academic achievement., Methods: A population of 10th-grade students (N = 406,783; males = 50.3%; M age = 15.57 years, SD age = 0.75) completed the Classmates Social Isolation Questionnaire (CSIQ), an instrument specifically designed to measure two distinct but correlated types of peer relationships in class: peer acceptance and peer friendship. To obtain reliable comparisons across diverse adolescent characteristics, the measurement invariance of the CSIQ was established by means of CFAs and then latent mean differences tests were performed., Results: Immigrant background, academic achievement, and socioeconomic status all proved to be important factors influencing relationships with classmates, while being a male or a female was less relevant. Being a first-generation immigrant adolescent appears to be the foremost risk factor for being less accepted by classmates, while having a low academic achievement is the greatest hindrance for having friends in the group of classmates, a finding that diverges from previous studies., Conclusions: This population study suggests that adolescent characteristics (especially immigrant background, socioeconomic status, and academic achievement) seem to affect social relationships with classmates.