A new measure for the attitude to mobility of Italian students and graduates: a topological data analysis approach.

Students' and graduates' mobility is an interesting topic of discussion especially for the Italian education system and universities. The main reasons for migration and for the so called brain drain, can be found in the socio-economic context and in the famous North-South divide. Measuring mobility and understanding its dynamic over time and space are not trivial tasks. Most of the studies in the related literature focus on the determinants of such phenomenon, in this paper, instead, combining tools coming from graph theory and Topological Data Analysis we propose a new measure for the attitude to mobility. Each mobility trajectory is represented by a graph and the importance of the features constituting the graph are evaluated over time using persistence diagrams. The attitude to mobility of the students is then ranked computing the distance between the individual persistence diagram and the theoretical persistence diagram of the stayer student. The new approach is used for evaluating the mobility of the students that in 2008 enrolled in an Italian university. The relation between attitude to mobility and the main socio-demographic variables is investigated.

Self-reported nonceliac wheat sensitivity in an outpatient digestive endoscopy center: high frequency but insufficient medical approach.

OBJECTIVE: 'Self-reported wheat sensitivity' (SRWS) is a self-reported condition caused by wheat ingestion in the absence of celiac disease or wheat allergy. The aim of the study was to investigate the frequency and characteristics of SRWS in outpatients referred for digestive endoscopy. METHODS: The study, performed at the University of Palermo, enrolled 496 outpatients. RESULTS: Seven individuals (1.4%) had an already established diagnosis of celiac disease. The questionnaire was administered to the other 489 individuals: 98 subjects (20%) were SRWS, the remaining 391 served as controls (i.e. not-SRWS). SRWS patients were younger (P < 0.001), with a higher percentage of females (P = 0.002) than not-SRWS. 'gastroesophageal reflux disease and ulcer-like dyspepsia' and 'chronic unexplained diarrhea' were more frequently the reasons for the endoscopy study in SRWS than in not-SRWS (P = 0.002, and P = 0.05, respectively). Food allergies/intolerances (P = 0.04), milk allergy/intolerance (P = 0.0001), GERD (P = 0.0001), IBS (0.0001), anxiety (P = 0.005) and depression (P = 0.04) were the previous medical diagnoses reported more frequently in SRWS patients than in not-SRWS. In the SRWS group, 38% of the patients had already undergone previous upper endoscopy and 24% colonoscopy. After these investigations, 58% of SRWS patients received no diagnosis, and the other 42% were informed that they 'were not suffering from celiac disease or wheat allergy'. Finally, 28.6% SRWS patients had followed a gluten-free diet (GFD), and 71.4% of them referred being asymptomatic on GFD. CONCLUSIONS: Our data showed a high frequency of SRWS in outpatients referred to a digestive endoscopy center and a lack of medical accuracy in identifying a possible gluten-related disease. REGISTRATION: The study was registered on Clinicaltrials.gov (registration number: NCT04154137), accessible at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04154137?term=non+celiac+wheat&draw=2&rank=1.

Self-Reported Non-Celiac Wheat Sensitivity in High School Students: Demographic and Clinical Characteristics.

BACKGROUND: Non-Celiac Wheat Sensitivity (NCWS) has recently been included among the gluten-related disorders. As no biomarkers of this disease exist, its frequency has been estimated based on self-reported symptoms, but to date no data are available about self-reported NCWS in teenagers. AIM: To explore the prevalence of self-reported NCWS in a group of high school students and to study their demographic and clinical characteristics. METHODS: The study was performed between April 2015 and January 2016 in two high schools of a coastal town in the south of Sicily (Italy). A total of 555 students (mean age 17 years, 191 male, 364 female) completed a modified validated questionnaire for self-reported NCWS. The subjects who self-reported NCWS were then compared with all the others. RESULTS: Seven individuals (1.26%) had an established diagnosis of CD. The prevalence of self-reported NCWS was 12.2%, and 2.9% were following a gluten-free diet (GFD). Only 15 out of 68 (23%) NCWS self-reporters had consulted a doctor for this problem and only nine (14%) had undergone serological tests for celiac disease. The NCWS self-reporters very often had IBS symptoms (44%). CONCLUSIONS: Self-reported NCWS was found to be common in teenagers, with a frequency of 12.2%; the frequency of GFD use was 2.9%, which was much higher than the percentage of known CD in the same population (1.26%). A greater awareness of the possible implications on the part of the subjects involved, and a more thorough medical approach to the study of self-reported wheat-induced symptoms are required.

Human papillomavirus DNA in oral mucosal lesions.

This study determined the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in oral mucosa cells from 121 patients with different types of oral mucosal lesions (13 squamous cell carcinomas, 59 potentially malignant lesions, 49 benign erosive ulcerative lesions) and from 90 control subjects. HPV DNA was detected by nested polymerase chain reaction, and genotype was determined by DNA sequencing. HPV prevalence was 61.5% in carcinomas, 27.1% in potentially malignant lesions, 26.5% in erosive ulcerative lesions, and 5.5% in control subjects. The risk of malignant or potentially malignant lesions was associated with HPV and was statistically significant. HPV-18 was found in 86.5% of HPV-positive lesions but was not associated with a particular type of lesion and was found in 80% of the HPV-positive control subjects. HPV infection was related to older age but not to sex, smoking, or alcohol use; the presence of lesions in the oral cavity increased the risk of HPV infection.