Comorbid depressive disorders in ADHD. the role of ADHD severity, subtypes and familial psychiatric disorders

ObjectiveaaTo evaluate the presence of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Dysthymic Disorder (DD) in a sample of Italian children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and to explore specific features of comorbid depressive disorders in ADHD. MethodsaaThree hundred and sixty-six consecutive, drug-naïve Caucasian Italian outpatients with ADHD were recruited and comorbid disorders were evaluated using DSM-IV-TR criteria. To evaluate ADHD severity, parents of all children filled out the ADHD Rating Scale. Thirty-seven children with comorbid MDD or DD were compared with 118 children with comorbid conduct disorder and 122 without comorbidity for age, sex, IQ level, family psychiatric history, and ADHD subtypes and severity. Resultsaa42 of the ADHD children displayed comorbid depressive disorders: 16 exhibited MDD, 21 DD, and 5 both MDD and DD. The frequency of hyperactive-impulsive subtypes was significantly lower in ADHD children with depressive disorders, than in those without any comorbidity. ADHD children with depressive disorders showed a higher number of familial psychiatric disorders and higher score in the Inattentive scale of the ADHD Rating Scale, than children without any comorbidity. No differences were found for age, sex and IQ level between the three groups. Conclusions: Consistent with previous studies in other countries, depressive disorders affect a significant proportion of ADHD children in Italy. Patient assessment and subsequent treatment should take into consideration the possible presence of this comorbidity, which could specifically increase the severity of ADHD attention problems

Screening for developmental disorders in 3- and 4-year-old italian children: a preliminary study

BACKGROUND: The "Osserviamo" project, coordinated by the Municipality of Rome and the Department of Pediatrics and Child Neuropsychiatry of Sapienza University, aimed to validate an Italian version of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire-3 and to collect, for the first time in Italy, data on developmental disorders in a sample of 4,000 children aged 3 and 4 years. The present paper presents the preliminary results of the "Osserviamo" project. METHODS: 600 parents of children between 39 and 50 months of age (divided in two age stages: 42 and 48 months) were contacted from 15 kindergarden schools. RESULTS: 23.35% of the whole sample scored in the risk range of at least one developmental area of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire-3rd Edition (ASQ-3) and 7.78% scored in the clinical range. Specifically, 23.97% of the children in the 42-month age stage scored in the risk range and 5.79% scored in the clinical range. Males scored lower than females in the fine motor skills and personal-social development domains. Moreover, 22.79% of the children in the 48-month age stage scored in the risk range, while 9.55% scored in the clinical range. Males scored lower than females in fine motor skills. CONCLUSION: Italian validation of the ASQ-3 and recruitment of all 4,000 participants will allow these data on the distribution of developmental disorders to be extended to the general Italian pediatric population. One main limitation of the study is the lack of clinical confirmation of the data yielded by the screening programme, which the authors aim to obtain in later stages of the study

Pandemic influenza A/H1N1 virus in a swine farm house in Sicily, Italy

This report describes a pandemic A/H1N1 (H1N1 pdm) virus outbreak occurred in December, 2009 in a swine farm used as research facility (Istituto Mediterraneo Trapianti e Terapie ad Alta Specializzazione) for preclinical studies, located in Sicily, Italy. All the 13 pigs of the farm, showed cough, fever, inappetence and weakness. At the same time, an unvaccinated worker of the stabling showed influenza-like symptoms. RNAv extracted from two swabs collected from infected pigs resulted positive by Real Time RT-PCR for Influenza A virus. Furthermore, after growth on embryonated eggs, viral isolates were identified by Real Time RT-PCR specific for H1N1 pdm virus and characterized antigenically. Sequencing of the whole genome was also performed. All sera taken from animals and from the worker were tested by a competitive Influenza A ELISA and by the haemoagglutination inhibition test. Serological findings confirmed the circulation of influenza virus H1N1 pdm in pigs and the presence of specific antibodies against H1N1 pdm in human serum. The results of this study seem to support a H1N1 pdm transmission from man to animals showing the importance of serological and virological investigation to control the pig farms and the importance of close cooperation between the different authorities like veterinarian and human public. © 2012 Triveni Enterprises

PTHash: Revisiting FCH Minimal Perfect Hashing

Given a set S of n distinct keys, a function f that bijectively maps the keys of S into the range (0,...,n-1) is called a minimal perfect hash function for S. Algorithms that find such functions when n is large and retain constant evaluation time are of practical interest; for instance, search engines and databases typically use minimal perfect hash functions to quickly assign identifiers to static sets of variable-length keys such as strings. The challenge is to design an algorithm which is efficient in three different aspects: time to find f (construction time), time to evaluate f on a key of S (lookup time), and space of representation for f. Several algorithms have been proposed to trade-off between these aspects. In 1992, Fox, Chen, and Heath (FCH) presented an algorithm at SIGIR providing very fast lookup evaluation. However, the approach received little attention because of its large construction time and higher space consumption compared to other subsequent techniques. Almost thirty years later we revisit their framework and present an improved algorithm that scales well to large sets and reduces space consumption altogether, without compromising the lookup time. We conduct an extensive experimental assessment and show that the algorithm finds functions that are competitive in space with state-of-the art techniques and provide 2-4x better lookup time

Near-surface eddy dynamics in the southern ocean

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is a crucial component of the global ocean conveyor belt, acting as a zonal link among the major ocean basins but, to some extent, limiting meridional exchange and tending to isolate the ocean south of it from momentum and heat income. In this work we investigate one of the most important mechanisms contributing to the poleward transfer of properties in the Southern Ocean, that is the eddy component of the dynamics. For this particular purpose, observations obtained from near-surface drifters have been used: they represent a very useful data set to analyse the eddy field because of their ability to catch a large number of scales of motion while providing a quasi-synoptic coverage of the investigated area. Estimates of the eddy heat and momentum fluxes are carried out using data taken from the Global Drifter Program databank; they refer to Surface Velocity Program drifter trajectories collected in the area south of 35°S between 1995 and 2006. Eddy kinetic energies, variance ellipses, momentum and heat fluxes have been calculated using the pseudo-Eulerian method, showing patterns in good agreement with those present in the literature based on observational and model data, although there are some quantitative differences. The eddy fluxes have been separated into their rotational and divergent portions, the latter being responsible for the meridional transports. The associated zonal and depth-exponentially integrated meridional heat transport exhibits values spanning over a range between -0.4 PW and -1.1 PW in the ACC region, consistent with previous estimates. © 2011 M. Trani et al

Adiabatic description of nonspherical quantum dot models

Within the effective mass approximation an adiabatic description of spheroidal and dumbbell quantum dot models in the regime of strong dimensional quantization is presented using the expansion of the wave function in appropriate sets of single-parameter basis functions. The comparison is given and the peculiarities are considered for spectral and optical characteristics of the models with axially symmetric confining potentials depending on their geometric size making use of the total sets of exact and adiabatic quantum numbers in appropriate analytic approximations

Hypothalamic over-expression of VGF in the Siberian hamster increases energy expenditure and reduces body weight gain

VGF (non-acronymic) was first highlighted to have a role in energy homeostasis through experiments involving dietary manipulation in mice. Fasting increased VGF mRNA in the Arc and levels were subsequently reduced upon refeeding. This anabolic role for VGF was supported by observations in a VGF null (VGF-/-) mouse and in the diet-induced and gold-thioglucose obese mice. However, this anabolic role for VGF has not been supported by a number of subsequent studies investigating the physiological effects of VGF-derived peptides. Intracerebroventricular (ICV) infusion of TLQP-21 increased resting energy expenditure and rectal temperature in mice and protected against diet-induced obesity. Similarly, ICV infusion of TLQP-21 into Siberian hamsters significantly reduced body weight, but this was due to a decrease in food intake, with no effect on energy expenditure. Subsequently NERP-2 was shown to increase food intake in rats via the orexin system, suggesting opposing roles for these VGF-derived peptides. Thus to further elucidate the role of hypothalamic VGF in the regulation of energy homeostasis we utilised a recombinant adeno-associated viral vector to over-express VGF in adult male Siberian hamsters, thus avoiding any developmental effects or associated functional compensation. Initially, hypothalamic over-expression of VGF in adult Siberian hamsters produced no effect on metabolic parameters, but by 12 weeks post-infusion hamsters had increased oxygen consumption and a tendency to increased carbon dioxide production; this attenuated body weight gain, reduced interscapular white adipose tissue and resulted in a compensatory increase in food intake. These observed changes in energy expenditure and food intake were associated with an increase in the hypothalamic contents of the VGF-derived peptides AQEE, TLQP and NERP-2. The complex phenotype of the VGF-/- mice is a likely consequence of global ablation of the gene and its derived peptides during development, as well as in the adult

Alexithymia and obesity: controversial findings from a multimethod assessment

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study is to assess alexithymia levels in obese patients using a multimethod measurement (TAS-20 and TSIA) to evaluate both possible differences between the two instruments and their relationship with body weight. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 54 obese patients, seeking surgical treatment, were enrolled. They completed a socio-demographic questionnaire, 20-items Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia. RESULTS: Data analysis showed a significant positive association between TAS-20 and TSIA total scores (r=.28, p<.05), but only the TSIA score was positively related to body weight (r=.39; p<.001). Multivariable linear regression models showed the predictive effects of TSIA total score (beta=.41; p<.001) and difficulty in identifying feelings (DIF) (beta=.56; p<.001) respectively on weight. CONCLUSIONS: The findings showed a different association between body weight and alexithymia according to the instrument employed to evaluate alexithymia, supporting the importance of a multimethod assessment in some clinical conditions

Exploring the concept of old age in the Italian population: representations and cultural symbolism across different regions

Global demographic trends show increasing life expectancy, with European countries such as Italy showing a high proportion of older adults. To support healthy aging and design effective health promotion interventions, it is crucial to understand how aging is defined and perceived. This study analyzes representations of aging among individuals in two different Italian cities to determine whether geographical context influences their perspectives. A total of 97 participants aged 55–75 years were interviewed about their experiences of aging, and the interview texts (145,066 tokens) were analyzed using Emotional Text Mining. Aging is perceived as a transitional process involving family responsibilities, changing work roles, and the retirement experience. Common concerns include mental and physical decline, often expressed through comparisons with participants’ past selves or with loved ones. Attitudes toward aging varied: some participants expressed resignation, while others adopted a more proactive approach, often centered around family or social engagement. Geographical and age-based differences were found: respondents from Bergamo were generally more accepting of aging, more focused on health concerns, and more socially active, whereas those from Rome placed greater emphasis on family care. Participants under 65 years of age primarily focused on the transition out of the workforce, while those over 65 years of age focused on the vulnerabilities associated with aging. These findings suggest that tailoring health promotion interventions to individual needs and contextual variables could enhance their effectiveness

Desempenho agronômico de genótipos de morangueiro

Escassas são as informações sobre o comportamento de cultivares de morangueiro (Fragaria x ananassa), com vistas ao cultivo em São Paulo. Desse modo, o objetivo do trabalho foi avaliar o desempenho agronômico de genótipos de morangueiro em região com potencial para a agricultura periurbana. Foram avaliadas as cultivares Aleluia, Camarosa, Camino Real, Festival, Oso Grande, Tudla e Ventana. O delineamento experimental foi em blocos casualizados, com três repetições, sendo as parcelas constituídas de 14 plantas, quatro delas utilizadas como bordadura, no espaçamento de 40 x 35 cm. Foram avaliadas produção por planta e porcentagem de frutos, referentes a diversas classes de massa fresca, número de frutos por planta e massa do fruto no período inicial (junho-julho) e total de colheitas (junho-outubro) e os teores de sólidos solúveis (SS), acidez titulável (AT), relação SS/AT e de vitamina C. 'Ventana' destacou-se pela maior produção de frutos, sem diferir de 'Festival' e 'Aleluia', inclusive com expressiva produção de frutos de massa acima de 30 g, de maior valor comercial. 'Camino Real' apresentou baixa produção. A melhor relação SS/AT foi apresentada por 'Aleluia', 'Festival', 'Oso Grande' e 'Ventana'. Todas as cultivares apresentaram altos teores de vitamina C. 'Aleluia' e 'Ventana' podem ser consideradas opções vantajosas para o cultivo do morangueiro em São Paulo.</jats:p