Agnieszka Stawinoga

Efficacy and Safety of Risperidone and Quetiapine in Adolescents With Bipolar II Disorder Comorbid With Conduct Disorder.

Abstract Although a frequent co-occurrence between bipolar disorder (BD) and conduct disorder (CD) in youth has been frequently reported, data about pharmacological management are scarce and focused on BD type I. Second generation antipsychotics are frequently used in clinical practice, but no comparative studies are available. The aim of this exploratory study was to compare efficacy and safety of risperidone and quetiapine in a sample of adolescents presenting a BD type II comorbid with CD. Twenty-two patients diagnosed with a structured interview according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, (male/female ratio, 12/10; mean (SD) age 15.0 (1.4) years) were randomized in 2 treatment groups (quetiapine [n = 12] vs risperidone [n = 10]), treated with flexible doses, and followed up for 12 weeks. Efficacy measures assessed manic symptoms, aggression, anxiety, depression, global clinical severity, and impairment. Safety measures included body mass index, serum prolactin, extrapyramidal adverse effects, and electrocardiogram. At the end of the study, all patients improved in all efficacy measures. Both treatments showed similar efficacy in reducing manic symptoms and aggression. Quetiapine was more effective in improving anxiety and depressive symptoms. A change in body mass index was found, and in a post hoc analysis, it was significant only in the risperidone group. Prolactin significantly increased only in the risperidone group. In BD type II, CD comorbidity, quetiapine, or risperidone monotherapy may be effective and relatively safe, although the small sample size, the limited duration of the study, and the design (lack of a blind assessments and of a placebo group) make it difficult to draw definitive conclusions.

Research Collaboration Networks in Biotechnology: Exploring the Trade-Off Between Institutional and Geographic Distances

This paper investigates the relationship between spatial and institutional distances in research collaboration networks using data on co-authorship in scientific publications in the Italian “red” biotech sector. Specific tools of social network analysis complemented by multivariate analysis are used to show that there is a trade-off between institutional and geographic distances whatever the nature of the knowledge exchanged, namely the degree to which knowledge is basic or applied. However, the levels of geographic and institutional distances substantially differ across basic and applied research networks. Measures of the intensity of relationships are also considered in the analysis.

Extracting Meta-information by Using Network Analysis Tools

This paper has been developed in the frame of the European project BLUE-ETS (Economic and Trade Statistics), in the work-package devoted to propose new tools for collecting and analyzing data. In order to obtain business information by documentary repositories, we refer to documents produced with nonstatistical aims. The use of secondary sources, typical of data and text mining, is an opportunity not sufficiently explored by National Statistical Institutes. The use of textual data is still viewed as too problematic, because of the complexity and the expensiveness of the pre-processing procedures and often for the lack of suitable analytical tools. In this paper we pay attention to the problems related to the pre-processing procedures, mainly concerning with semantic tagging. We propose a semi-automatic strategy based on network analysis tools to create financial-economic meta-information useful for the semantic annotation of the terms.

Networks of Co-autorship in the Publications of the Italian Biotech Firms: The Role of Different Institutions

In this paper we analyse, through the instrument of the social network analysis, the network of co-authorships in the publications of the firms belonging to the Italian life-science biotech sector. We identify the kind of institutions the authors of the publications are affiliated to (we divide the institutions in universities, research centres, hospitals and firms), then we observe the role of the different institutions inside such network. The analysis shows the central role of the universities but also the importance of hospitals, frequent partners in publications, and of the research centres for their “bridging” role between different institutions.