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The increasing number of students with disabilities and SLDs in Italian universities should be treated from the dual perspective of the protection of the right to education and accessibility. Within the framework of inclusive policies and practices, this contribution deals with the Tutoring Service for students with disabilities and SLDs. The University of Roma Tre and, first and foremost, the Department of Educational Sciences have over time built a system of inclusion in which the role of peer tutors is enhanced. An investigation into tutoring activities is presented here, from which strengths, critical points and new perspectives for improving the accessibility of Higher Education courses for students with disabilities and SLDs emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Scotland, deaths in drug users are known to be higher than in the rest of the UK and most of Europe. Reducing drug-related deaths is currently a national priority for the Scottish Government. This study aimed to present a description of the life histories of a group of injecting drug users who have recently died, with a view to highlighting areas for further research. The Edinburgh Addiction Cohort study recently carried out 432 follow-up interviews between the years 2005 and 2007. Thirty-three cases who completed this extensive interview detailing early life, education, employment, drug use, opiate substitution treatment, criminal history, mental health problems and overdose have subsequently died, leaving this source of rich information about their lives. The design of the interview used the life grid approach. Information was also compiled from full primary care records and General Register Office death certificates. Early life adversity was apparent for many cases, with a steady progression into early criminal behaviour and drug misuse. Poor adult life outcomes illustrated the lifelong damaging effects of drug injecting. Death occurred significantly earlier than in the general population or those living in deprived communities who did not use drugs. In conclusion, a clearer understanding of the life histories of problem drug users would be advantageous for healthcare professionals and policy-makers. More qualitative research studies are needed to highlight areas which might require early intervention and also complement the existing secondary data studies.

Bronchiolitis is the main cause of respiratory insufficiency in infants, characterized by acute inflammation, edema, necrosis of epithelial cells and increased mucus production. Mucus is mainly purulent and consequently rich in DNA, as derived from nuclei of degenerating neutrophils and epithelial debris. The treatment is mainly supportive; bronchodilators and systemic steroids are often used but do not reduce the length of hospital stay. The aim of our study is to evaluate the efficacy of recombinant human DNase (rhDNase), in infants affected by moderate-severe bronchiolitis. In a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study, twenty-two infants (12 males) under 6 months of age (median age 1.6 months) were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive either nebulized rhDNase or placebo (saline) at a dose of 2.5 ml once a day for three days. All infants were evaluated, based on a clinical assessment score, on admission and four times daily during the hospitalization. Placebo and study groups were sex- and age-matched and were similar in terms of clinical severity on admission. No differences were observed between the two groups of patients with regard to the length of hospitalization and clinical score during the days observed. Two out of four infants, all in the study group, presenting atelectasis on chest radiographs, showed a rapid improvement on the first day. RhDNase is not an effective routine therapy in treating infants hospitalized for bronchiolitis and it is not useful in preventing severe forms of the disease. On the contrary, it may be an effective, safe and cost-benefit treatment only in infants with bronchiolitis and massive atelectasis.

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Plastic is probably the fraction of the waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) most challenging to manage and the market of recycled plastics from WEEE is limited to few cases. In this study, twenty WEEE plastic samples collected in two material recovery facilities (MRFs) from manually sorted housings and components and among some discarded devices stored in Casaccia Research Center were analysed through infrared identification and chemical-physical characterization. The analyses were carried out in order to select the suitable samples for mechanical recycling in 3D printer filaments. Eleven different polymers or blends were found in the WEEE samples and the majority of those collected in the MRFs resulted as mixtures of different plastics, although often of styrene-based nature. On the other hand, many WEEE samples showed a good similarity to the corresponding virgin polymers with a content of halogens and inorganic fillers less than 0.2 and 5 wt%, respectively. The thirteen selected WEEE plastic samples were washed, reduced to < 4 mm and extruded in filaments with the proper diameter. The polymeric heterogeneity and the presence of foreign materials in some samples were the main critical issues highlighted during the extrusion. The suitable filaments were used to print test objects with different geometries. The quality control of the scanned objects, through a structured-light 3D scanner, showed that specimens printed with WEEE plastic filaments had no significant higher deviation from the model design in comparison to the same object produced using the commercial filaments.

The backcalculation method has been extensively used in AIDS modelling and forecasting. Knowledge of reported AIDS cases, information on the time between HIV infection and onset of AIDS, and assumptions on the rate at which infections occurs, can be used to reconstruct the past history of the HIV epidemic, as well as to provide short term predictions of AIDS incidence. Uncertainty in the three components of the backcalculation method and the increasingly available information on HIV prevalence must be taken into account in order to provide realistic projections. In this paper we discuss ways of acknowledging uncertainty and suggest a Bayesian formulation of the backcalculation idea as a means of combining into a single model both random and systematic variation as well as prior information.

For acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients, information may be available on the time of diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (first positive HIV antibody test) in addition to the time of AIDS diagnosis. This extra information may be incorporated into backcalculation of HIV infection curves. This also allows the estimation of the rate of HIV diagnosis among HIV‐infected individuals, a measure which is of obvious public health importance. A framework for this is described and then applied to data from England and Wales. Different exposure categories are compared. The incorporation of information on the total number of HIV diagnoses in specific exposure groups is also examined.

The number of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) cases reported in England and Wales in the recent past seriously underestimates the number of recent AIDS diagnoses, because of substantial reporting delays. We examine two methods for estimating AIDS diagnoses, taking account of reporting delays. The first is a method based on conditional likelihood making minimal parametric assumptions, with confidence intervals assessed through bootstrapping. The second is a fully parametric Bayesian approach estimated by Gibbs sampling. We apply these methods to AIDS reports in England and Wales from July 1983 to December 1992, and we compare the results.

The backcalculation method has been widely used to reconstruct the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection process and to produce short‐term predictions for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), and it is the central approach on which the latest (1993) projection results for England and Wales are based. Typically, specific assumptions on the incubation time from HIV infection to AIDS and on the structure (parametric or semiparametric) of the infection curve are made; use of knowledge on the observed AIDS cases allows an estimation of the 'parameters' of the infection curve, reconstruction of the past and current HIV infection process and inference about future AIDS incidence. Results are often crucially dependent on the specific assumptions made and, given the great uncertainty about some of the quantities involved in the estimation process, sensitivity analyses become essential. This paper explores in more detail some aspects of the latest projections which have only been hinted at in the report published by the Public Health Laboratory Service in 1993. The value of additional information on the HIV epidemic in discriminating between different, otherwise equally plausible, scenarios is demonstrated. The role of the backcalculation approach in determining whether, and how, the incubation distribution has been affected by increased uptake of pre‐AIDS prophylaxis and treatment is discussed.

Summary: The cultivation of Neurospora crassa, strain 74A, in Neurospora complete medium containing a azo dye, “Vermelho Reanil P8B” from Imperial Chemical Industries showed that after 24 h of contact, most of the dye was removed from the medium. The greatest extent of dye removal (91.3 to 89.1%) was achieved when the concentration of the dye was between 16.0 and 32.0 μg ml−1 which is the range found in industrial wastes. The biomass production was unaffected in the presence of the dye at all the concentrations analysed.

In a mass disaster scenario, Interpol standards are usually followed, which describe identification methods as either primary (DNA, fingerprints and odontology) or secondary (personal descriptors, medical findings, etc.). Visual recognition has also been used as an identification method (e.g., after the Thailand tsunami disaster), despite it being considered unreliable.

There are increased latencies of pattern-reversal visual evoked potentials (VEPs) and electroretinograms (PERGs) in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients who have not received therapy. This study aimed to evaluate whether these delays are present in the early stage of PD and whether they are dopamine-sensitive. The results show that both PERG P50 and VEP P100 latencies are increased (p less than 0.0001) in a group of patients with de novo PD (13 subjects; 13.3 plus minus 5.6 months' mean disease duration) before therapy in comparison with an age-matched control group (eight subjects). A larger latency increase (9.9% at the 47% contrast level and 7.8% at the 96% contrast level) was present in PERG recordings than in VEPs (6.2% at the 47% contrast level and 3.9% at the 96% contrast level). Levodopa therapy produced recovery of both PERG and VEP latency increases at both contrast levels, but only the PERG recovery at 47% of contrast was statistically significant. Before therapy, five eyes from PD patients showed no reproducible PERG at the 47% contrast level although the simultaneously recorded VEP was present. Both potentials were recordable in the same eyes at the 96% contrast level. During therapy, four of those five eyes showed a clear PERG even at the 47% contrast level. We conclude that, using an adequate midspatial frequency, both VEPs and PERGs are delayed even in the early stage of PD, and that PERGs are more sensitive if low contrast (47%) is used. The larger alterations, as well as the larger recovery during levodopa therapy, seem to correlate the PERG response more than the VEP response to dopaminergic transmission.