PSYCHOTIC PROCESSES IN SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR BY PIRANDELLO

ABSTRACT The play Six Characters in Search of an Author is about madness, its seductiveness, its at times apparent plausibility, its language and its infectiousness. It makes the spectator participate in a psychotic experience. A great deal of disturbance in the audience followed its first performance in 1920 at the Teatro la Valle in Rome. By representing what is ultimately the failure of mental and theatrical representation Pirandello has created a work of art which is a most interesting anticipation and validation of the work on psychotic states of mind of the last few decades. In this paper we explore aspects of the play which are relevant to the work in the consulting room with a group of psychotic or borderline patients whose functioning is evocative of the Six Characters in Search of an Author .     

Childhood Obesity and COVID-19 Lockdown: Remarks on Eating Habits of Patients Enrolled in a Food-Education Program

Childhood obesity is a worldwide health emergency. In many cases, it is directly linked to inappropriate eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle. During lockdown aimed at containing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spread, children have been forced to stay at home. The present study aimed at investigating the lifestyles of outpatients (aged 5–17 years) with complicated obesity enrolled in the day-hospital food education program at the Children’s Hospital Bambino Gesù in Rome. A survey was performed based on a structured questionnaire, investigating dietary habits and lifestyles. The questionnaire answers were rated as “yes/no/sometimes” or “often/never/sometimes”. Eighty-eight families correctly completed the questionnaire between March and May 2020. The results highlighted that 85.2% (N = 75) of the patients ate breakfast regularly, and 64.3% (N = 72) consumed fruit as an afternoon snack. However, 21.6% (N = 19) did just “often” home workouts, and 50.0% (N = 44) reported an increase of feeling hungry with “sometimes” frequency. There is a significant relationship of feeling hungry with gender (p < 0.0001) and age (p = 0.048) and, also, between gender with having breakfast (p = 0.020) and cooking (p = 0.006). Living a healthy lifestyle during lockdown was difficult for the outpatients, mainly due to the increase in a sedentary lifestyle and the increase in feeling hungry, but some healthy eating habits were maintained, as advised during the food education program provided before lockdown.     

Comparison between kinematic and ground reaction force techniques for determining gait events during treadmill walking at different walking speeds

This study involved a comparison of kinematics-based and ground reaction force (GRF)-based event detection methods. The objectives were (1) to assess the difference between the determination of gait events from GRF-based and kinematic/ultrasound-based techniques and (2) to determine the effects of gait speed on the agreement between the two techniques. At combined speeds, the average of the true difference was 2.6 ± 2.8 ms for heel strike and ?1.3 ± 2.4 ms for toe-off identification. A positive value indicated that GRF-based identification occurred before kinematics-based identification. The average of the true difference was ?3.9 ± 3.5 ms for the duration of stance; thus, the duration of stance as determined by the kinematics-based technique was shorter than that determined by GFR-based detection. Strong correlations (range 0.948–0.974) were found at all (slow, moderate, and fast) gait speeds. Near unity of slope of the linear regression line (range 0.955–1.008) was identified for the duration of stance between the two methods. Our results suggest that the agreement between the two event detection methods depended on gait speed, but the differences were small. The data determined using kinematic/ultrasound-based and GRF-based methods were comparable in healthy participants.     

Cancer Related Anemia: An Integrated Multitarget Approach and Lifestyle Interventions

Cancer is often accompanied by worsening of the patient’s iron profile, and the resulting anemia could be a factor that negatively impacts antineoplastic treatment efficacy and patient survival. The first line of therapy is usually based on oral or intravenous iron supplementation; however, many patients remain anemic and do not respond. The key might lie in the pathogenesis of the anemia itself. Cancer-related anemia (CRA) is characterized by a decreased circulating serum iron concentration and transferrin saturation despite ample iron stores, pointing to a more complex problem related to iron homeostatic regulation and additional factors such as chronic inflammatory status. This review explores our current understanding of iron homeostasis in cancer, shedding light on the modulatory role of hepcidin in intestinal iron absorption, iron recycling, mobilization from liver deposits, and inducible regulators by infections and inflammation. The underlying relationship between CRA and systemic low-grade inflammation will be discussed, and an integrated multitarget approach based on nutrition and exercise to improve iron utilization by reducing low-grade inflammation, modulating the immune response, and supporting antioxidant mechanisms will also be proposed. Indeed, a Mediterranean-based diet, nutritional supplements and exercise are suggested as potential individualized strategies and as a complementary approach to conventional CRA therapy.     

In vitro Heparan Sulfate Modulates the Immune Responses of Normal and Tumor-Bearing Mice

Tumor-bearing (TB) patients and TB animal models show a wide array of immunologic deficits. Heparan sulfate (HS) has been shown to both improve immune cell proliferative responses and to induce Th1 cytokine responses in normal animals. These HS effects, if harnessed, would be of great benefit to TB patients. The present study focused on replicating previous HS-induced Th1 and proliferative response results as well as extrapolating the beneficial immunomodulatory effects to an experimental model derived from TB animals of Lewis lung cell carcinoma. Lewis Lung Carcinoma (LLC)-TB and control mouse splenocytes were assessed for proliferation and cytokine response to concanavalin A (Con A) with 1 and 3 days' exposure to HS. Our results found HS treatment stimulated splenocyte proliferation to Con A in control mice splenocytes after 1 and 3 days of treatment, although HS proliferative effects were not seen in unfractionated TB cultures. Furthermore, cytokine studies revealed normal splenocytes treated with HS had increased levels of both Th1 and Th2 cytokines. Surprisingly, HS treated TB-splenocytes showed suppressed cytokine levels. Of particular interest was the decreased levels of the Th2 cytokine IL-4 in TB-derived samples. In conclusion, we found that HS did show immune-modulator properties in both normal and TB environments. Our studies reinforced the possibility that HS could one day be used as an immune-modulating therapeutic agent.