A retrospective analysis focusing on a group of patients with dual diagnosis treated by both mental health and substance use services

OBJECTIVE: To highlight which demographic, familial, premorbid, clinical, therapeutic, rehabilitative, and assistance factors were related to dual diagnosis, which, in psychiatry, means the co-occurrence of both mental disorder and substance use in the same patient. METHODS: Our sample (N=145) was chosen from all outpatients with a dual diagnosis treated from January 1, 2012 to July 31, 2012 by both the Mental Health Service and the Substance Use Service of Modena and Castelfranco Emilia, Italy. Patients who dropped out during the study period were excluded. Demographic data and variables related to familial and premorbid history, clinical course, rehabilitative programs, social support and nursing care, and outcome complications were collected. The patients' clinical and functioning conditions during the study period were evaluated. RESULTS: Our patients were mostly men suffering from a cluster B personality disorder. Substance use was significantly more likely to precede psychiatric disease (P<0.001), and 60% of the sample presented a positive familial history for psychiatric or addiction disease or premorbid traumatic factors. The onset age of substance use was related to the period of psychiatric treatment follow-up (P<0.001) and the time spent in rehabilitative facilities (P<0.05), which, in turn, was correlated with personality disorder diagnosis (P<0.05). Complications, which presented in 67% of patients, were related to the high number of psychiatric hospitalizations (P<0.05) and professionals involved in each patient's treatment (P<0.05). Males more frequently presented familial, health, and social complications, whereas females more frequently presented self-threatening behavior (P<0.005). CONCLUSION: It was concluded that the course of dual diagnosis may be chronic, severe, and disabling, requiring many long-term therapeutic and rehabilitative programs to manage various disabilities

Parametrised Complexity of Model Checking and Satisfiability in Propositional Dependence Logic

In this paper, we initiate a systematic study of the parametrised complexity in the field of Dependence Logics which finds its origin in the Dependence Logic of V\"a\"an\"anen from 2007. We study a propositional variant of this logic (PDL) and investigate a variety of parametrisations with respect to the central decision problems. The model checking problem (MC) of PDL is NP-complete. The subject of this research is to identify a list of parametrisations (formula-size, treewidth, treedepth, team-size, number of variables) under which MC becomes fixed-parameter tractable. Furthermore, we show that the number of disjunctions or the arity of dependence atoms (dep-arity) as a parameter both yield a paraNP-completeness result. Then, we consider the satisfiability problem (SAT) showing a different picture: under team-size, or dep-arity SAT is paraNP-complete whereas under all other mentioned parameters the problem is in FPT. Finally, we introduce a variant of the satisfiability problem, asking for teams of a given size, and show for this problem an almost complete picture.Comment: Update includes refined result

L&#8217;ergastolo ostativo non supera l&#8217;esame a Strasburgo (A proposito della sentenza Viola v. Italia n.2)

Waiting for the judgment of Constitutional Court (scheduled for 22 October 2019), the Perpetual Life Imprisonment was sentenced by the European Court of Human Rights. The First Section of the Court, with the sentence Viola v. Italy No. 2, has ascertained the violation of the article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights, therefore the violation of human dignity. The paper analyzes the main arguments of the Viola sentence, appreciating the juridical depth, and hypothesizes the possible consequences on the imminent judgment of the Constitutional Court. Attached to the paper, the Italian translation of Viola v. Italy No. 2

Investigating variation in replicability

Although replication is a central tenet of science, direct replications are rare in psychology. This research tested variation in the replicability of 13 classic and contemporary effects across 36 independent samples totaling 6,344 participants. In the aggregate, 10 effects replicated consistently. One effect – imagined contact reducing prejudice – showed weak support for replicability. And two effects – flag priming influencing conservatism and currency priming influencing system justification – did not replicate. We compared whether the conditions such as lab versus online or US versus international sample predicted effect magnitudes. By and large they did not. The results of this small sample of effects suggest that replicability is more dependent on the effect itself than on the sample and setting used to investigate the effect

Eppure qualcosa si muove : verso il superamento dell&#8217;ostativit&#224; ai benefici penitenziari?

Dove c'\ue8 una preclusione legislativa ai benefici penitenziari ci sono sempre un giudice spogliato della sua funzione e una pena privata della sua finalit\ue0 rieducativa. La tesi del saggio \ue8 dimostrata sul fronte costituzionale, analizzando l'art. 4-bis ord. penit., la relativa giurisprudenza costituzionale, la legge di delega n. 103 del 2017, la quaestio legitimitatis pendente sull'art. 58-quater, comma 4, ord. penit. Le criticit\ue0 degli automatismi legislativi in ambito penitenziario esondano anche in violazione della CEDU, come dimostra la giurisprudenza europea in tema di pena perpetua non riducibile: il saggio la ricostruisce e ne fa uso per prevedere gli esiti del ricorso Viola c. Italia, che porta finalmente davanti alla Corte Europea dei Diritti dell\u2019Uomo l'ergastolo ostativo. In appendice, \ue8 riprodotto l'Amicus Curiae depositato a Strasburgo da alcuni giuristi italiani a supporto della violazione convenzionale.The existence of a \u2018legislative foreclosure\u2019 always means the existence of a judge without chance to judge and a penalty without re-socialization purpose. This is the main thesis of the essay. This thesis is demonstrated from a constitutional point of view, by analyzing article 4-bis of the Penitentiary Law, the relevant constitutional jurisprudence, the delegation law no. 103 of 2017 and the quaestio legitimitatis pending on article 58-quater comma 4 of the Penitentiary Law. The critical features of the \u2018legislative automatisms\u2019 in the penitentiary law also violate the European Convention, as it is possible to show analyzing Strasbourg\u2019s case law on reducible Life Imprisonment. The essay examines this jurisprudence, using it to predict the outcome of the Viola c. Italy case, which at last brings the Italian Perpetual Life Imprisonment to the Court. In the appendix, it is attached the Amicus Curiae presented by some Italian jurists in Viola v. Italy case

Echinococcus granulosus "sensu stricto" in a captive ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) in Northern Italy

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) by Echinococcosis granulosus (Eg) infection was seen in a 13 years old male lemur, found dead in a zoo in Northern Italy. Necropsy revealed several transparent cysts in the lungs and in the abdominal cavity. Freefloating cysts of varying sizes were found in the peritoneal cavity, and no protoscolex was seen microscopically. Histologically, a multifocal severe parasitic granulomatous pneumonia was observed. Confirmation of E. granulosus "sensu stricto" was reached by PCR and sequencing. In view of the absence of definitive host in the zoo, located in non-endemic region for CE, it is speculated that infection introduced through translocation of lemur from endemic region (Southern Italy zoo)

An Open, Large-Scale, Collaborative Effort to Estimate the Reproducibility of Psychological Science

Reproducibility is a defining feature of science. However, because of strong incentives for innovation and weak incentives for confirmation, direct replication is rarely practiced or published. The Reproducibility Project is an open, large-scale, collaborative effort to systematically examine the rate and predictors of reproducibility in psychological science. So far, 72 volunteer researchers from 41 institutions have organized to openly and transparently replicate studies published in three prominent psychological journals in 2008. Multiple methods will be used to evaluate the findings, calculate an empirical rate of replication, and investigate factors that predict reproducibility. Whatever the result, a better understanding of reproducibility will ultimately improve confidence in scientific methodology and findings

Probabilistic Team Semantics

Team semantics is a semantical framework for the study of dependence and independence concepts ubiquitous in many areas such as databases and statistics. In recent works team semantics has been generalised to accommodate also multisets and probabilistic dependencies. In this article we study a variant of probabilistic team semantics and relate this framework to a Tarskian two-sorted logic. We also show that very simple quantifier-free formulae of our logic give rise to backslashmathrm NP NP -hard model checking problems.Peer reviewe

Correlators at large c without information loss

SCOAP

The SandS Ecosystem, a True Instance of WEB4.0

We introduce a peculiar ecosystem aimed at ruling in remote the household appliances of the members of a special social network. The keen feature of the social network is a networked intelligence, equipped with cognitive tools that enable it to provide services fully compliant with the members\u2019 needs. The scheme is the following: The appliances are internet-connected through the home Wi-Fi router. The user asks the social network for a task to be executed by his appliance (for instance, washing three kilos of woollen coloured laundry), the network, in the role of an electronic super-mom, sends directly to the washing machine an optimal sequence of commands the recipes (such as: warm the water at 34\ub0, soak for 57 minutes, etc.) to execute the task in a way that matches the user preferences, possibly green goals included. Feedbacks are sent by user and appliances themselves to the network intelligence to close the permanent recipe optimization loop, with offline advice on the part of appliance manufacturers. A properly devised user interface allows a friendly and accurate management of all interactions between the user and the social network, constituting the user-centric support of the cognitive driven services representing a genuine instance of WEB 4.0