J. Interdiscip. Res. Appl. Med., Volume 4, Issue 1 (06 2020) – 5 articles

In the context of the global changes that affect families and communities, including the current COVID-19 pan-demic, today’s young people face new threats to their health and most of them lack adequate nutrition, healthcare services and education. As children and adolescents spend a significant amount of their time at school (or remotely connected with teachers, as occurred in these last months of health emergency), educators have the great opportuni-ty to positively contribute to their global growth, fostering physical, mental and social wellbeing, which has also a significant impact on students’ academic achievements. Nowadays, training teachers as “health promoters” allows educational system to deal more effectively with health needs of the students, helping them in the prevention of risky behaviours (cigarette smoking, binge drinking, drug use etc). According to the recommendations provided by the World Health Organization and UNESCO, we highlight the need for pre-service and in-service teacher training on the major topics concerning young people health, as well as COVID-19 safety issues. Moreover, teachers should be trained on the most participatory and pro-active methodologies to effectively convey health-related contents in school setting, in order to trigger a personal interiorization of the knowledge acquired by the students, and to engage them in practical actions about healthy lifestyles (i.e. balanced nutrition and physical exercise, no smoking, no alco-hol, no drugs). Teacher training on health topics enables educators to develop a new professional identity based on a health-centered vision, in the perspective of reducing social/health inequalities that still concern most disadvantaged children. Medical professionals and pedagogists could be appointed as available consultants respectively for training teachers on health contents and about the most effective didactic strategies useful for displaying educational inter-ventions in school setting aimed at preventing unhealthy habits among young people. Health education should be included in scholastic curricula within scientific disciplines or treated as separate subject in extracurricular activities under direct responsibility of school staff. Full article

Background: Cesarean myomectomy (CM) is, for many gynecologists, a discussed surgical procedure character-ized by fibroid’s removal during cesarean section (CS) followed by possible complications. For a long time, it has been common and shared thinking that myoma should not be surgically treated in pregnant women at the time of birth through CS in order to avoid complications for the patient. Nowadays, many studies reconsidered the feasibility of CM. The aim of this investigation is to summarize the scientific evidences on this procedure, high-lighting when and how it can be performed safely. Methods: This review has realized basing on evidences reported in scientific database, as PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Medline and EMBASE databases, found using key words of reference to the main topic, the cesarean myomectomy. All the observational studies and meta-analysis published in the current century has been considered and results were critically evaluated by the authors, experts on CM. Results: According to the findings reported, the CM could be a valid and feasible treatment option for patients, especially when there are specific conditions which are associated with a lower risk of complications, as peri-operative blood loss and risk of hysterectomy. Authors’ experience and judgment agree with the evidences about the importance of the surgeons’ skill and experience, both to make safer the surgical procedure and to have intra-operative and post-surgical outcomes. Conclusion: The applied surgical technique and the informative counselling and/or informed consent, still need standardization for a safer CM, both for the patients and for the operator, at the same time. Full article

Osteoplastic tracheopathy is a rare disease with dark etiology, characterized by the presence of nodular cartilagi-nous or bone nodular growths (masses and spicules) in the lumen of the tracheobronchial tree. According to some authors, these nodular outgrowths represent exostosis or eccondrosis of the cartilaginous trachea which often ossifies. Other authors relate this pathology to tracheobronchial amyloidosis. Clinical symptoms can be characterized by cough, dyspnoea, recurrent trachebronchial infections, occasional hemoptysis. Bronchoscopic examination allows the diagnosis to be made. The clinical cases in which the above described pathology has been diagnosed are three: 51 year old man smoker with chronic bronchitis, 62 year old woman smoker with moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and a 65 year oldman, non-smoker, with severe obstruction entity. Full article

In this paper we establish a baseline to use Stentor coeruleus, a freshwater single cell ciliate, as a chemical biosensor. We expose Stentor to an array of chemical species and concentration and monitored morphological and dynamic responses. We developed a computer vision pipeline to predict chemical exposure at sub-lethal doses. We pre-sent analysis for butylparaben, a common antimicrobial preservative used in cosmetics and food flavoring. Our preliminary results show high sensitivity of Stentor to sublethal chemical concentrations, amenable for use as an environmental biosensor when combined with the computer vision pipeline. Full article

Background. Attitudes, knowledge and practices of nurses towards HIV/AIDS patients are of continuous in-terest, especially in developing countries. However, in Italy, this topic is still scarcely debated. Materials and methods. An observational, cross sectional, multicentre study was conducted on a sample of 144 nurses in two Italian Hospitals of the Puglia Region ("Vito Fazzi" Hospital in Lecce and "San Giuseppe da Copertino" Hospital in Copertino (Le)). Results. A large part of the sample (97.2%, n=140) stated that they never refused to take care of a patient with AIDS. Only 22.9%, (n=33), of the sample had attended a training course and almost half (63.2%, n=91) used the gloves regularly when performing blood samples or when administering therapy to patients. With regard to the assessment of HIV knowledge, the percentage of nurses who know the meaning of the terms " seropositive" (83.3%, n=120), "HIV-positive person" (91.7%, n=132) and "window period" (47.9%, n=69) decreased. Conclusions. The results of the study show that a non-negligible percentage of nurses could be considered at risk of infection due to non-routine use of gloves, incorrect handling of the patient's biological samples and not knowing how to decontaminate a surface with potentially infected blood. Full article