Massimo Mucciardi

Radiofrequency-Assisted liver resection in cirrhotic patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Radio‐frequency‐assisted liver resection has been shown to allow virtually bloodless procedures without the need for vascular exclusion manoeuvres. Our primary end‐point was to evaluate safety and feasibility of RF‐assisted liver resection in cirrhotic patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Our second end‐point was to assess whether the RF‐assisted procedure influence the outcome in terms of morbidity and mortality.

The emotion of disgust in Italian students: a measure of the synthetic disgust index

Research in the field of emotions has highlighted that men and women differ as regards the perception and reaction to disgust. The aim of our study was to analyse, by means of a questionnaire on disgust, any gender differences regarding this feeling in its various dimensions, viewed both individually and globally. For this purpose a synthetic indicator was developed to evaluate the expression of disgust and identify any individual differences. The sample of 1587 subjects were given a questionnaire on disgust that contained items to elicit disgust. Statistical analysis was performed on the items and on the scores via a synthetic indicator, the Synthetic Disgust Index (SDI).The analysis revealed a different trend in different types of disgust for age and sex. In males. The oral disgust and contamination showed a reduction of SDI in the age group between 18 and 39 years (p<0.05) and a maximum score in the group of subjects 40-64 years. In females the maximum score was present in the first group (0-17 ) for all dimensions of disgust except for disgust for aggressive content (p<0.05). The oral disgust and contamination showed a reduction of SDI in the age group between 18 and 39 years (p<0.05) with a general tendency to decrease with age.

Telomere instability in papillary bladder urothelial carcinomas: Comparison with grading and risk of recurrence.

Introduction: Shortening of telomere is associated with cellular senescence and cancer. This study aims to investigate the relationship between tumor grade and recurrence in relation to telomere length (TL), telomerase activity (TA) and telomere-binding proteins expression (TBPs) in patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Materials and Methods: Tumor/healthy tissues were collected from 58 patients (35 with and 23 without NMIBC). Cystoscopy was performed at 3, 6 and 12 months to determine recurrence. Tumor grades and recurrence were correlated with TL, TA and TBPs using the Kruskal–Wallis non-parametric test. Results were considered significant at P < 0.05. Results: Histological evaluation indicated 15 patients (42.9%) with high-grade (HG) and 20 patients (57.1%) with low-grade (LG) NMIBC. TL, TA and TBPs were found to be significantly different in tumors as compared with controls. A significant (P < 0.05) difference in the expression of TBPs was observed in the disease-free mucosa of cancer patients as compared with HG and LG tumors. In the follow-up, a total of 11 tumor recurrences were observed; among these eight recurrences were observed in patients with HG tumors and three in patients with LG tumors. TL,  Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) (that represents TA) and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP-1) in tumor samples and telomeric repeat binding factors TRF1, TRF2 and tankyrase (TANK) in normal mucosa obtained from the tumor group were respectively found to exhibit a positive and negative association with the risk of recurrence. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that TL, TA and TBPs are altered in tumors and non-cancerous mucosa in patients with papillary urothelial NMIBC. Further studies are warranted to identify their suitability as a potential biomarker.

Spatial Effects in Dynamic Conditional Correlations

The recent literature on time series has developed a lot of models for the analysis of the dynamic conditional correlation, involving the same variable observed in different locations; very often, in this framework, the consideration of the spatial interactions is omitted. We propose to extend a time-varying conditional correlation model (following an autoregressive moving average dynamics) to include the spatial effects, with a specification depending on the local spatial interactions. The spatial part is based on a fixed symmetric weight matrix, called Gaussian kernel matrix, but its effect will vary along the time depending on the degree of time correlation in a certain period. We show the theoretical aspects, with the support of simulation experiments, and apply this methodology to two space–time data sets, in a demographic and a financial framework, respectively.

Modelling Spatial Variations of Fertility Rate in Italy

Standard regression model parameters are assumed to apply globally over the entire territory where measured data have been taken, under the assumption of spatial stationarity in the relationship between the variables under study. In most cases this assumption is invalid. Instead, geographically weighted regression (GWR) explicitly deals with the spatial non-stationarity of empirical relationships. Considering a georeferenced dataset on provincial total fertility rate (TFR) in Italy, GWR technique shows a significant improvement in model performance over ordinary least squares (OLS). We also discuss about the test for spatial non-stationarity.

The impact of the weight matrix on the local indicators of spatial association: an application to per-capita value added in Italy

Making use of the local Moran index and taking as a case study the value added per capita in 103 Italian provinces in 2005, this work investigates how local measures of spatial association are affected by the use of different algorithms to calculate the weights of spatial matrices. We find that three methods we applied (adjacency, K-nn and MaxMin) provide very similar results at the global spatial level. Instead, considering the local spatial analysis, we note some differences in spatial outliers identification.

Calidad de vida y supervivencia global en pacientes de alto riesgo tras cistectomía radical con una derivación urinaria simple

OBJECTIVE To evaluate quality of life (QoL) and overall survival after radical cystectomy with cutaneous ureterostomies for locally advanced bladder cancer in elderly patients with high surgical risk. METHODS Fifty eight patients older than 74 years (mean age 80,6±4,3) with locally advanced bladder cancer (group A), underwent radical cystectomy and ureterocutaneous diversion. Patients completed the EORTC QLQC30 before and six months after surgery to assess functional, clinical and QoL outcomes. The same evaluation was carried out in a control group (group B) of 29 patients (mean age 82,3±3,8 years), who had refused cystectomy. Questionnaires were also administered to patients of both groups who survived at least 20 months and 5 years. RESULTS All patients presented with an ASA score ≥3. Mean hospital stay was 15.1 days (±4.8) in group A and 23.5 days (±4.1) in Group B. No intraoperative complications occurred in group A. Postoperative overall survival evaluated within 6 months in group A was 97% versus 79% in group B (p<0.001). CONCLUSION Radical cystectomy with cutaneous ureterostomy represents a valid alternative in elderly patients with invasive bladder cancer and high operative risk. Comparison between two groups showed a statistically significant difference for almost all the Qol related parameters and for short and medium term overall survival.

Use of a Flexible Weight Matrix in a Local Spatial Statistic

Most of local indices of spatial autocorrelation utilize a classical adjacency matrix as interconnection system. In this paper we attempt to use generalized matrix of spatial weights for measuring local autocorrelation. The work concludes with a comparison of local autocorrelation indices according to different hypotheses of neighborhood.

Clustering space-time series: FSTAR as a flexible STAR approach

The STAR model is widely used to represent the dynamics of a certain variable recorded at several locations at the same time. Its advantages are often discussed in terms of parsimony with respect to space-time VAR structures because it considers a single coefficient for each time and spatial lag. This hypothesis can be very strong; we add a certain degree of flexibility to the STAR model, providing the possibility for coefficients to vary in groups of locations. The new class of models (called Flexible STAR–FSTAR) is compared to the classical STAR and the space-time VAR by simulations and an application.

The role of Metacognition in eating behavior: an exploratory study

In the occidental world, feeding is not only a physiological need but it may become a compulsive behavior. In fact, the tendency to instant gratification may represent a way to escape from unpleasant moods and may lead to addictive behaviors. In this process, Metacognitions, defined as internal cognitive factors that control, monitor and evaluate thinking processes, have a central role. The aim of our study was to investigate the relationship between eating behavior, psychological needs and metacognitive processes. We evaluated 44 adults using the following instruments: Eating Disorders Inventory III (EDI-III), Metacognition Questionnaire 30 (MCQ-30) and Frontal Lobe Score. Data analysis was performed using SPSS for Windows applying correlational analysis (Spearman’s Rho). We found that negative beliefs about worry concerning uncontrollability and danger were positive correlated with general psychological maladjustment composite (0.61 p <.01). In particular negative beliefs were positive correlated with specific subscales, such as personal alienation (0.57 p <.01) and emotional dysregulation (0.51 p <.01). Results confirmed the importance to explore metacognitive processes and to understand their role in emotional regulation, especially in overweight/obese subjects. Furthermore, we aim to examine the role of cognitive functions in eating behavior.