Survey of Italian pediatricians on awareness, experiences and beliefs regarding direct-to-consumer genetic testing in minors

Background: Our study wanted to assess Italian pediatricians’ awareness, experience and beliefs regarding directto- consumer (DTC) genetic tests (GT) in minors, with a focus on those for predisposition to complex disease, lyfestyle, athletic ability and other inborn talents. Methods: A 28-item questionnaire was administered through the SurveyMonkey® web platform to the 9,086 members of the Italian Society of Pediatrics for which a valid email address was available. The survey was opened from April through November 2017. Statistical analyses were performed using the Graphpad software package. Results: 36.2% of the 442 respondents were aware of DTC-GT, but only 23.1% of them felt adequately prepared to meet families’ information needs. The first three sources of knowledge were the Internet (20.98%), magazines/ newspapers (16.78%) and TV/Radio (14.33%), while companies’ direct marketing activity influenced knowledge only in 2.45% of the cases. Only 16.4% of the aware respondents had been already approached for advice. More than 95% of the pediatricians who were aware would not advise DTC-GT for lifestyle, athletic performance or other inborn skills. 69.2% was unfavourable to susceptibility tests for complex diseases. Most of them expressed an interest in learning more and indicated as preferred sources of information public policies issued by professional societies. Conclusion: The low awareness and experience and the vendors’ tiny contribution to knowledge suggest a still limited penetration of DTC-GT companies in Italy. A great interest in learning more was found. Scientific societies are best positioned to support health professionals in this educational goal thanks to their role of trusted sources of information and guidance

A liquidity risk index as a regulatory tool for systemically important banks? An empirical assessment across two financial crises

We provide an assessment of the IMF suggestion, based on Severo (2012), to use an index of systemic liquidity risk (SLRI) that could help to estimate a Pigouvian tax on large banks for the externality on the international banking system out of their risk exposure. To this end we compute a parsimonious and fully documented SLRI and investigate its statistical significance in explaining level and variability of stock returns for a group of large international banks during the subprime financial and the Eurozone sovereign debt crises. The empirical investigation consistently fails to detect, within and across the two crises, a core group among the systemically important banks listed by the Financial Stability Board and thus supports a sceptical assessment of the proposal

Feeding behaviour of larval European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.) in relation to temperature and prey density

The feeding behaviour of larval European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax, L.) was analysed in relation to temperature and prey density under controlled laboratory conditions with the aim to assess the ability of larval fish to change the feeding tactic as a response to environmental changes. Larvae were acclimated for 20 days at three different temperatures (19, 22 and 26°C), and their feeding behaviour was then video-recorded in experimental trials, at two prey densities, consisting of swarms of 400/l and 1440/l Artemia nauplii. Results showed that there was a significant effect of the interaction between temperature and prey density on the proportion of swimming activity that was reduced at the high temperature-high prey density combination. This suggested a switching in the larval feeding behaviour from an active to an ambush tactic, when the temperature reached 26°C and the prey density was 1440 /l Artemia nauplii. These results are consistent with the current literature on fish larval behaviour in showing that the foraging tactic can be modulated by the interaction of different abiotic and biotic factors characterising the rearing environment

Who holds the purse strings within the household? The determinants of intra-family decision making

We study the determinants of intra-household decision-making responsibility over economic and financial choices using a direct measure provided in the 1989–2010 Bank of Italy Survey of Household Income and Wealth. We find that the probability that the wife is responsible for decisions increases as the wife’s characteristics in terms of age, education and income become closer or even higher than those of her husband’s. Thus, consistently with a bargaining approach, decision-making responsibility is associated with marriage heterogamy, and not only along strictly economic dimensions. However, in support of an alternative household production approach, we also find that the probability that the wife is responsible is lower when she is employed, which suggests the presence of a specialization pattern assigning responsibility to the spouse with more available time. Our results are robust to additional controls and alternative samples

A PRELIMINARY APPROACH TO ASSESS PEACH FRUIT TEXTURE BY TIME-RESOLVED SPECTROSCOPY (TRS)

Most fruits can be modeled for their internal composition as a diffusive medium at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. The low absorption in this spectral range allows exploiting VIS/NIR spectroscopic techniques to probe non-destructively the internal food properties. Time-resolved reflectance spectroscopy (TRS), in particular, allows the separate, but simultaneous estimation of absorption and scattering coefficients. Absorption and scattering properties give very different information about the medium investigated. The possibility of applying TRS to assess the texture type of peach fruit was tested. To this purpose, an instrument for TRS developed at Politecnico di Milano-Department of Physics, was exploited. At least two cultivars for each peach flesh phenotype (melting, non-melting, stony hard and slow melting) and a total of 30 fruits for each cultivar were analyzed over the spectral range 540-940 nm. The absorption spectra exhibit high values around 550 nm due to the anthocyanins' absorption features. Furthermore, an absorption peak is visible at 670 nm, linked to the chlorophyll a content and then gives an idea about the fruit ripeness (a high chlorophyll content corresponds to a less ripe fruit). With the exception of the cultivar 'Iride', particularly rich in anthocyanins, and 'Ghiaccio', anthocyaninless, the absorption spectra of all of the samples were similar. Concerning the scattering properties of peaches, by considering the equivalent density and the scatter power Mie parameters, it was possible to discriminate between three out of four texture types (melting, slow melting and stony hard). Further improvements may lead to a full discrimination in the future