Neurocysticercosis in Europe is an increasing public health concern not only for imported cases. An effective surveillance system is still lacking, so the problem is certainly underestimated.
•NCC in ...Europe is still a public health concern not only for imported cases.•Over the year, from 1970 to present, decade by decade, we can appreciate a constant increasing number of publications on patients affected by NCC.•At present, in Europe an effective surveillance system on NCC is still lacking.•The increasing on surveillance measures, together with the improvement of the diagnostic methods, bring to reveal more and more new cases of NCC.
Neurocysticercosis (NCC), a parasitic disease caused by the larvae of the cestode Taenia solium, is the most frequent parasitic disease of the central nervous system (CNS) in the world and the leading cause of secondary epilepsy in Central and South America, East and South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. It is endemic in many low- and middle-income countries of the world. Due to increased travels and immigration, NCC may be diagnosed also in non-endemic areas. In fact, tapeworm carriers from endemic zones can transmit infection to other citizens or arrive already suffering NCC. This phenomenon, occurred first in USA during the last 30 years, has been also observed in Europe, as well as in Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan and Muslim countries of the Arab World. Actually, concerning Europe, although, in some areas only few cases have been described, nevertheless the prevalence of NCC may be considered increasing, especially in Spain and Portugal. We reviewed the literature on the burden of NCC in Europe, by a search of PubMed regarding papers from 1970 to present. We only considered on PubMed published and available papers in English, French, Italian, and Spanish, the languages understood by the authors. One hundred seventy six cases of NCC have been reported in seventeen European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, and Croatia, Norway, Switzerland). A particular epidemic situation is present in Spain and Portugal. In fact, we collected data that show, in Spain, an increasing incidence both in immigrated patients and in those which were born in certain Spanish geographical areas and, in Portugal, prevalence similar to that observed in endemic areas. Globally, it is clear that as a result of increased migrations and travels from endemic regions, NCC is becoming an emerging public health problem in high-income countries, particularly affecting communities where hygiene conditions are poor and sub-sequentially the parasite can spread from human to human through eggs even in absence of a travel to the tropics. NCC is a preventable disease, it derives that it's important to acquire a great consciousness of the epidemiology and to implement accurate surveillance systems.
Abstract
Precision farming (PF) technologies can help to mitigate the environmental impact of agriculture by reducing fertiliser use and irrigation while saving cost for the farmer. However, these ...technologies are not widely adopted in Europe. We study farmers’ willingness to adopt PF technologies based on a choice experiment. Among other determinants, we explore the role of social influence for the valuation of PF technology features. The data are analysed using mixed and latent class logit models. Our results show that knowledge of fellow farmers who adopted the technology positively influences the valuation of PF technology features, stressing the importance of networks.
The study of magnetars is of particular relevance since these objects are the only laboratories where the physics in ultra-strong magnetic fields can be directly tested. Until now, spectroscopic and ...timing measurements at X-ray energies in soft gamma repeaters and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) have been the main source of information about the physical properties of a magnetar and of its magnetosphere. Spectral fitting in the ∼0.5–10 keV range allowed us to validate the ‘twisted magnetosphere’ model, probing the structure of the external field and estimating the density and velocity of the magnetospheric currents. Spectroscopy alone, however, may fail in disambiguating the two key parameters governing magnetospheric scattering (the charge velocity and the twist angle) and is quite insensitive to the source geometry. X-ray polarimetry, on the other hand, can provide a quantum leap in the field by adding two extra observables, the linear polarization degree and the polarization angle. Using the bright AXP 1RXS J170849.0−400910 as a template, we show that phase-resolved polarimetric measurements can unambiguously determine the model parameters, even with a small X-ray polarimetry mission carrying modern photoelectric detectors and existing X-ray optics. We also show that polarimetric measurements can pinpoint vacuum polarization effects and thus provide indirect evidence for ultra-strong magnetic fields.
Gallbladder polyps are protuberances of the gallbladder wall projecting into the lumen. They are usually incidentally found during abdominal sonography or diagnosed on histopathology of a surgery ...specimen, with an estimated prevalence of up to 9.5% of patients. Gallbladder polyps are not mobile and do not demonstrate posterior acoustic shadowing; they may be sessile or pedunculated. Gallbladder polyps may be divided into pseudopolyps and true polyps. Pseudopolyps are benign and include cholesterolosis, cholesterinic polyps, inflammatory polyps, and localised adenomyomatosis. True gallbladder polyps can be benign or malignant. Benign polyps are most commonly adenomas, while malignant polyps are adenocarcinomas and metastases. There are also rare types of benign and malignant true gallbladder polyps, including mesenchymal tumours and lymphomas. Ultrasound is the first-choice imaging method for the diagnosis of gallbladder polyps, representing an indispensable tool for ensuring appropriate management. It enables limitation of secondary level investigations and avoidance of unnecessary cholecystectomies.
Purpose
If could be a potential pathophysiological connection between colonic diverticula and colonic superficial neoplastic lesions, beyond the shared risk factors, has been a subject of debate in ...the last years. This study tries to evaluate the association between diverticulosis and colonic neoplastic lesions.
Methods
This is a cross-sectional study including asymptomatic patients who underwent a screening colonoscopy (patients with a positive fecal occult blood test under the regional program of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening), surveillance after polypectomy resection, or familiarity (first-degree relatives) between 2020 and 2021 to evaluate the association between diverticula and colonic polyps. A multivariate analysis with multiple logistic regression and odds ratio (OR) to study the independent association between adenomas and adenocarcinomas was performed.
Results
One thousand five hundred one patients were included. A statistically significant association between adenomas or CRC alone and colonic diverticula was found (
p
= 0.045). On a multivariate analysis of demographic (age, gender) and clinical parameters (familiarity for diverticula and adenoma/CRC), only age was significantly associated with the development of colorectal adenomas or cancer (OR 1.05, 95% CI 1.03–1.07,
p
< 0.0001).
Conclusions
This study showed a statistically significant association between diverticula and colonic adenomas. However, it is impossible to establish a cause-effect relationship due to the intrinsic characteristics of this study design. A study with a prospective design including both patients with diverticulosis and without colonic diverticula aimed at establishing the incidence of adenoma and CRC could help to answer this relevant clinical question, since a potential association could indicate the need for closer endoscopic surveillance.
A 49-year-old man (MM72) affected by Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (SP-MS) since 1998. On last 3 years, neurologists valued 9.0 the patient MM72's EDSS.
MM72 was treated by acoustic waves, ...modulated in frequency and power by the MAM device, according to an ambulatory intensive protocol. Patient's treatments schedule was organized in thirty cycles of DrenoMAM and AcuMAM, and manual cervical spinal adjustments. Before and after treatments, MSIS-29, Barthel, FIM, EDSS, ESS, and FSS questionnaires were administered to the patient.
MM72 patient had improvements in all index score (MSIS-29, Barthel, FIM, EDSS, ESS and FSS) after 30 treatments by MAM plus cervical spine chiropractic adjustments. He showed a significative improvement of his disability and the restore of many functions. After MAM treatments, MM72's cognitive sphere improved of 370%. Fur-thermore, after 5 years of paraplegy, he regained his lower limbs and feet fingers movements with an increase of 230%.
We suggest ambulatory intensive treatments by fluid dynamic MAM protocol in SP-MS patients. Statistical analyses are in progress on a larger sample of SP-MS patients.
We study the information and communication technologies (ICT) adoption choices of Italian manufacturing firms, investigating the factors, both at the firm and at the environmental level, that speed ...up or slow down the adoption. We use a survey of 1500 manufacturing firms interviewed in 2001 to monitor ICT investments in Italy. Indicators of the local industrial structure are derived from the National Institute for Social Security database, which covers the whole population of Italian firms. We relate ICT adoption to two sets of variables. First, we consider firm-specific variables, such as size, human capital, the composition of the workforce and organizational indicators that the literature on technology adoption cites as potential factors in determining the optimal rate of investment in ICT. Second, given the network aspect of many ICT, particularly internet-based applications, we investigate whether the local industrial structure affects adoption patterns even after controlling for individual characteristics. Our results indicate that the most important determinants are size, the human capital of the workforce and the presence of large firms in the local environment. ICT adoption also tends to be associated with changes in a firm’s organizational structure.
X-rays are particularly suited to probing the physics of extreme objects. However, despite the enormous improvements of X-ray astronomy in imaging, spectroscopy, and timing, polarimetry remains ...largely unexplored. We propose the photoelectric polarimeter Gas Pixel Detector (GPD) as a candidate instrument to fill the gap created by more than 30 yr without measurements. The GPD, in the focus of a telescope, will increase the sensitivity of orders of magnitude. Moreover, since it can measure the energy, the position, the arrival time, and the polarization angle of every single photon, it allows us to perform polarimetry of subsets of data singled out from the spectrum, the light curve, or an image of the source. The GPD has an intrinsic, very fine imaging capability, and in this work we report on the calibration campaign carried out in 2012 at the PANTER X-ray testing facility of the Max-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik of Garching (Germany) in which, for the first time, we coupled it with a JET-X optics module with a focal length of 3.5 m and an angular resolution of 18 arc sec at 4.5 keV. This configuration was proposed in 2012 aboard the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer (XIPE) in response to the ESA call for a small mission. We derived the imaging and polarimetric performance for extended sources like pulsar wind nebulae and supernova remnants as case studies for the XIPE configuration and also discuss possible improvements by coupling the detector with advanced optics that have a finer angular resolution and larger effective areas to study extended objects with more detail.
The Gas Pixel Detector belongs to the very limited class of gas detectors optimized for the measurement of X-ray polarization in the emission of astrophysical sources. The choice of the mixture in ...which X-ray photons are absorbed and photoelectrons propagate, deeply affects both the energy range of the instrument and its performance in terms of gain, track dimension and ultimately, polarimetric sensitivity. Here we present the characterization of the Gas Pixel Detector with a 1
cm thick cell filled with dimethyl ether (DME) at 0.79
atm, selected among other mixtures for the very low diffusion coefficient. Almost completely polarized and monochromatic photons were produced at the calibration facility built at INAF/IASF-Rome exploiting Bragg diffraction at nearly 45°. For the first time ever, we measured the modulation factor and the spectral capabilities of the instrument at energies as low as 2.0
keV, but also at 2.6, 3.7, 4.0, 5.2 and 7.8
keV. These measurements cover almost completely the energy range of the instrument and allows to compare the sensitivity achieved with that of the standard mixture, composed of helium and DME.
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