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Romantic relationships can be rewarding and costly at the same time, making it no surprise that partners can often feel ambivalent (simultaneously positive and negative) feelings toward one another. Although research has shown that the individual who experiences ambivalence toward their romantic partner is likely to endure aversive effects, not much is known about how this ambivalence affects their partner, who is the target of the ambivalent feelings. To address this gap, we investigated how perceiving that a partner feels ambivalent toward oneself is associated with one's own personal and relationship well-being and which mechanisms underlie these associations. We tested these relationships across three studies (total N = 1,135) with samples of individuals and romantic couples from the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, employing cross-sectional and daily diary methodologies. The results showed that perceived partner ambivalence toward oneself is negatively associated with personal and relationship well-being because it is associated with a lack of predictability and understanding in the relationship. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

This work proposes a convolutional neural network (CNN) that utilizes different combinations of parametric images computed from cine cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) images, to classify each slice for possible myocardial scar tissue presence. The CNN performance comparison in respect to expert interpretation of CMR with late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) images, used as ground truth (GT), was conducted on 206 patients (158 scar, 48 control) from Centro Cardiologico Monzino (Milan, Italy) at both slice- and patient-levels. Left ventricle dynamic features were extracted in non-enhanced cine images using parametric images based on both Fourier and monogenic signal analyses. The CNN, fed with cine images and Fourier-based parametric images, achieved an area under the ROC curve of 0.86 (accuracy 0.79, F1 0.81, sensitivity 0.9, specificity 0.65, and negative (NPV) and positive (PPV) predictive values 0.83 and 0.77, respectively), for individual slice classification. Remarkably, it exhibited 1.0 prediction accuracy (F1 0.98, sensitivity 1.0, specificity 0.9, NPV 1.0, and PPV 0.97) in patient classification as a control or pathologic. The proposed approach represents a first step towards scar detection in contrast-free CMR images. Patient-level results suggest its preliminary potential as a screening tool to guide decisions regarding LGE-CMR prescription, particularly in cases where indication is uncertain., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethical approval: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Centro Cardiologico Monzino and complied with the Declaration of Helsinki. All individuals gave written informed consent before participating in the study. Conflict of interest: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Ambivalence (i.e., "mixed feelings") is a common and consequential experience in romantic relationships, but not much is known about which aspects of relationships are likely to elicit it. We investigated whether romantic jealousy (experienced by the individual and perceived in one's partner) is associated with stronger ambivalence toward the partner. Four studies ( N = 1,466; participants from the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands) employing cross-sectional, daily diary, longitudinal, and experimental methodologies showed that experiencing romantic jealousy and perceiving one's partner as romantically jealous are positively associated with ambivalence toward the partner. Participants experiencing higher jealousy reported simultaneously higher perceived partner mate value but also lower trust toward their partner, which in turn increased feelings of ambivalence. Furthermore, participants who perceived their partner to be more jealous saw them as simultaneously highly committed to the relationship but also untrusting, in turn increasing feelings of ambivalence. These findings contribute to the literature on ambivalence in romantic relationships by highlighting an important relationship dynamic that increases ambivalent feelings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

People often feel mixed and conflicting feelings (i.e., ambivalence) toward their romantic partner. So far, research has primarily shown that ambivalence is linked to negative outcomes in relationships, but is this always true? Building off the affect, behavior, cognition model of ambivalence, the present work tests the idea that, when ambivalent, individuals can experience both positive and negative cognitive and behavioral responses toward their partner. This idea was tested in three different studies with people in romantic relationships: a cross-sectional international study ( n = 665), a 10-day daily diary study ( n = 171), and a 12-day daily diary study with two follow-ups ( n = 176 couples and nine individuals). Across studies, when people experienced greater subjective ambivalence (i.e., explicitly reported feeling mixed and conflicted) toward their partner, they spent more time thinking about the difficulties they faced in their relationship but also about ways in which they can make it better and, in turn, engaged in both constructive (e.g., wanting to spend more time with the partner) and destructive (e.g., ignoring or criticizing the partner) behaviors toward their partner. Ambivalence was also associated with greater fluctuations in both constructive and destructive behaviors daily and over time. This work advances the current knowledge about ambivalence in romantic relationships and further demonstrates that individuals can experience both positive and negative cognitions and behaviors toward a partner when ambivalent. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Context: In 2005, a nationwide program of iodine prophylaxis on a voluntary basis was implemented in Italy by law. However, recent data on iodine status are lacking., Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate efficiency, effectiveness, and possible adverse effects (increased occurrence of thyroid autoimmunity and hyperthyroidism) of the Italian iodine prophylaxis program., Methods: From 2015 to 2019, a nationwide survey was performed. The use of iodized salt was evaluated in a sample of 164 593 adults and in 998 school canteens. A sample of 4233 schoolchildren (aged 11-13 years) was recruited to assess urinary iodine concentration, prevalence of goiter, and thyroid hypoechogenicity on ultrasound, with the latter being an indirect indicator of thyroid autoimmunity. Neonatal TSH values of 197 677 infants screened in regions representative of Northern, Central, and Southern Italy were analyzed to investigate the percentage of TSH values >5.0 mIU/L. Data on methimazole prescriptions were analyzed as indirect indicators of new cases of hyperthyroidism., Results: The prevalence of the use of iodized salt was 71.5% in adult population and 78% in school canteens. A median urinary iodine concentration of 124 μg/L, a prevalence of goiter of 2.2%, and a prevalence of thyroid hypoechogenicity of 5.7% were observed in schoolchildren. The percentage of neonatal TSH values >5.0 mIU/L resulted still higher (5.1%) than the World Health Organization threshold of 3.0%, whereas the prescriptions of methimazole showed a reduction of 13.5%., Conclusion: Fifteen years of iodine prophylaxis have led to iodine sufficiency in Italy, although there still is concern about iodine nutritional status during pregnancy., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Endocrine Society.)

Feeling loved (loved, cared for, accepted, valued, understood) is inherently dyadic, yet most prior theoretical perspectives and investigations have focused on how actors feeling (un)loved shapes actors' outcomes. Adopting a dyadic perspective, the present research tested whether the established links between actors feeling unloved and destructive (critical, hostile) behavior depended on partners' feelings of being loved. Does feeling loved need to be mutual to reduce destructive behavior, or can partners feeling loved compensate for actors feeling unloved? In five dyadic observational studies, couples were recorded discussing conflicts, diverging preferences or relationship strengths, or interacting with their child (total N = 842 couples; 1,965 interactions). Participants reported how much they felt loved during each interaction and independent coders rated how much each person exhibited destructive behavior. Significant Actors' × Partners' Felt-Loved interactions revealed a strong-link/mutual felt-unloved pattern: partners' high felt-loved buffered the damaging effect of actors' low felt-loved on destructive behavior, resulting in actors' destructive behavior mostly occurring when both actors' and partners' felt-loved was low. This dyadic pattern also emerged in three supplemental daily sampling studies. Providing directional support for the strong-link/mutual felt-unloved pattern, in Studies 4 and 5 involving two or more sequential interactions, Actors' × Partners' Felt-Loved in one interaction predicted actors' destructive behavior within couples' subsequent conflict interactions. The results illustrate the dyadic nature of feeling loved: Partners feeling loved can protect against actors feeling unloved in challenging interactions. Assessing Actor × Partner effects should be equally valuable for advancing understanding of other fundamentally dyadic relationship processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The occupational risk of operators using display screen equipment (DSE) is usually evaluated according to the extent of time spent in active operator-DSE interactions. Risk assessment is based on activity data collected through questionnaires. We evaluated an original and innovative system that can objectively assess active operator-DSE interactions by collecting electrical impulses generated by the activation of mouse, keyboard and a camera that collects attentive eye-screen fixation. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the system's performance on an employee sample involved in the task of active reading and copying at a DSE workstation connected to the system. In the context of mandatory health surveillance at work, we enrolled 38 DSE operators with normal neuropsychological and eye assessments who were required to complete two predefined reading and writing tasks. The obtained results show that the system is able to collect activity data derived from operator-DSE interactions through screen fixation, keyboard tapping and mouse handling. In the copying task, the session duration as recorded by the system was highly related to the screen fixation time. In the copying task, mouse and keyboard activities were more strongly related to session duration than screen fixation. For the copying task, it was also possible to obtain individual profiles of operator-DSE interactions while performing the same standardized tasks. Collected data can allow an objective evaluation of active time spent by DSE operators at their workstations, thus allowing a more accurate occupational health risk assessment and management. Prospective analysis of individual operator-DSE interaction profiles can favor the setup of targeted preventive and organizational interventions from an of even wider worker wellbeing perspective.

Cysthiatonine beta-synthase (CBS) deficiency (CBSD) is an autosomal recessive rare disorder caused by variations on CBS that leads to impaired conversion of homocysteine (Hcy) to cystathionine. Marked hyperhomocysteinemia is the hallmark of the disease. The administration of pyridoxine, the natural cofactor of CBS, may reduce total plasma Hcy. Patient phenotype is classified on pyridoxine responsivity in two groups: pyridoxine-responsive and non-responsive patients. Ectopia lentis, bone deformities, developmental delay, and thromboembolism are the classic signs and symptoms of the disease. Early diagnosis and treatment impact patients' natural history. Therapy aims to lower promptly and maintain Hcy concentrations below 100 μmol/L. Depending on the patient's phenotype, the treatment goals could be obtained by the administration of pyridoxine and/or betaine associated with a methionine-restricted diet. CBSD could be diagnosed in the early days of life by expanded newborn screening (ENS), however, the risk of false negative results is not negligible. In Emilia-Romagna (Italy), during the first 10 years of screening experience, only three cases of CBSD identified have been diagnosed, all in the last two years (incidence 1:118,000 live births). We present the cases and a comprehensive review of the literature to emphasize the role of ENS for early diagnosis of CBSD and its potential pitfalls, reiterating the need for a more effective method to screen for CBSD.

The COVID-19 pandemic has touched many aspects of people's lives around the world, including their romantic relationships. While media outlets have reported that the pandemic is difficult for couples, empirical evidence is needed to test these claims and understand why this may be. In two highly powered studies ( N = 3271) using repeated measure and longitudinal approaches, we found that people who experienced COVID-19 related challenges (i.e., lockdown, reduced face-to-face interactions, boredom, or worry) also reported greater self and partner phone use (Study 1) and time spent on social media (Study 2), and subsequently experienced more conflict and less satisfaction in their romantic relationship. The findings provide insight into the struggles people faced in their relationships during the pandemic and suggest that the increase in screen time - a rising phenomenon due to the migration of many parts of life online - may be a challenge for couples., (© The Author(s) 2022.)

Romantic partners regularly sacrifice their own self-interest when partners' needs and preferences diverge. The present work examines the role of perceived partner responsiveness (PPR)-impressions that one's partner is understanding, caring, and validating-in positively shaping people's appraisals of their relational sacrifices. In Study 1, a preregistered experiment of romantically involved individuals ( N = 548), we manipulated PPR (high, low, or control) in a hypothetical sacrifice scenario. In Study 2, we tracked romantic couples' ( N = 126) in-lab conversations about a sacrifice (Study 2a), and their sacrifices in daily life (Study 2b). In Study 3, romantic couples ( N = 111) engaged in lab conversations about a sacrifice that entailed making a change that one partner desired from the other, and reported on their progress 2 weeks later. In Study 4, we surveyed romantically involved individuals ( N = 230) who recently made a life-changing sacrifice by relocating to a new city or country to support their partner's career. Across studies, results showed that higher PPR fostered more positive sacrifice appraisals (i.e., lower costs and viewing the act as less of a sacrifice, greater satisfaction, greater personal and relational benefits, lower regret) and greater sacrifice behavior (Study 3)-in part due to greater closeness with and lower negative affect toward the partner. Additionally, Study 4 suggested that PPR partly originated from the partner's efforts to fulfill fundamental psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, relatedness). Thus, PPR can play a critical role in lightening the load of daily and even life-changing sacrifices. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Evidence suggesting that implicit partner evaluations (IPEs), but not explicit evaluations (EPEs), can predict later changes in satisfaction and relationship status has led researchers to postulate that IPEs must be especially sensitive to relational reward and costs. However, supporting evidence for this assumption remains scarce, and very little is known regarding how IPEs versus EPEs actually update in everyday life. Two studies (one in-lab dyadic interaction study, N = 255, and one 14-day dyadic diary study, N = 348) investigated updating in IPEs and EPEs in the context of real-life relationship experiences. Study 1 revealed that the level of positive and negative experiences that a couple encountered while discussing a divergence of interests in their relationship predicted pre-to-post changes in EPEs, but not in IPEs. Study 2 revealed that IPEs showed less sensitivity to everyday relationship experiences across multiple metrics over the course of 14 days. Specifically, compared with EPEs, IPEs fluctuated less at the within- (vs. between-) person level, showed less-abrupt changes from day-to-day, and had a substantially weaker relationship with same-day positive and negative experiences. Rather than covarying with same-day experiences, IPEs appeared sensitive to relationship experiences aggregated across multiple prior days as well as to highly diagnostic relationship experiences, such as breakup. Consistent with recent advances in social-cognitive research, these findings support a modified account of IPE sensitivity, according to which IPEs show only gradual shifts under everyday circumstances, but more-dramatic shifts under highly diagnostic circumstances. Implications of these findings for close relationships and implicit social cognition research are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Newborn screening (NBS) for inborn errors of metabolism is one of the most advanced tools for secondary prevention in medicine, as it allows early diagnosis and prompt treatment initiation. The expanded newborn screening was introduced in Italy between 2016 and 2017 (Law 167/2016; DM 13 October 2016; DPCM 12-1-2017). A total of 1,586,578 infants born in Italy were screened between January 2017 and December 2020. For this survey, we collected data from 15 Italian screening laboratories, focusing on the metabolic disorders identified by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) based analysis between January 2019 and December 2020. Aminoacidemias were the most common inborn errors in Italy, and an equal percentage was observed in detecting organic acidemias and mitochondrial fatty acids beta-oxidation defects. Second-tier tests are widely used in most laboratories to reduce false positives. For example, second-tier tests for methylmalonic acid and homocysteine considerably improved the screening of CblC without increasing unnecessary recalls. Finally, the newborn screening allowed us to identify conditions that are mainly secondary to a maternal deficiency. We describe the goals reached since the introduction of the screening in Italy by exchanging knowledge and experiences among the laboratories.

Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) used in childhood vaccination programs have resulted in replacement of vaccine-type with nonvaccine-type pneumococci in carriage and invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). A vaccine based on highly conserved and protective pneumococcal antigens is urgently needed. Here, we performed intranasal immunization of mice with pneumococcal membrane particles (MPs) to mimic natural nasopharyngeal immunization. MP immunization gave excellent serotype-independent protection against IPD that was antibody dependent but independent of the cytotoxin pneumolysin. Using Western blotting, immunoprecipitation, mass spectrometry, and different bacterial mutants, we identified the conserved lipoproteins MalX and PrsA as the main antigens responsible for cross-protection. Additionally, we found that omitting the variable surface protein and vaccine candidate PspA from MPs enhanced protective immune responses to the conserved proteins. Our findings suggest that MPs containing MalX and PrsA could serve as a platform for pneumococcal vaccine development targeting the elderly and immunocompromised.

Although previous research has found that prosocial behavior increases personal and relationship well-being, a particularly costly type of prosocial behavior - sacrifice - can sometimes have aversive effects and is the focus of the current review. We consider effects for both the individual who enacts the sacrifice and the recipient. Sacrifice, can take a toll on the giver's well-being, is a mixed blessing for the recipient (when they perceive the sacrifice), and may have some harmful consequences for relationships in the long-run. We discuss the importance of finding the right strategies (e.g. alternative solutions, comparison of costs and rewards between partners, reappraisals) to navigate these complex interpersonal situations in which partners' goals and preferences conflict., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statement Nothing declared., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

People in romantic relationships tend to have positive feelings toward their partner and want their relationship to last. However, maintaining a romantic relationship over time is challenging, and people can often experience mixed and conflicting feelings (i.e., ambivalence) toward their significant other. While research has identified the serious consequences that ambivalence can have for personal and relational well-being, very little is known about the factors that can lead people to experience ambivalence in relationships. The present work examines how extradyadic desire (i.e., desire for someone other than the partner), a common difficulty people face in the context of monogamy, is a situation in which people feel more ambivalent toward their partner. In three studies ( N = 1,178) using experimental, daily diary, and longitudinal approaches, we find that feelings of desire for an attractive alternative increase ambivalence toward the current partner, above and beyond how much people actually value their partner, and that this has short- and long-term negative consequences for personal and relational well-being. Furthermore, while most people could identify an attractive alternative in their life, desire for the alternative-rather than just their presence-seems to play a stronger role in increasing ambivalence. This work highlights the emotional processes through which attractive alternatives pose a threat to romantic relationships and the role that ambivalence plays in daily life and over time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).