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"Ferrari, Giulia"
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What is wellbeing for rural South African women? Textual analysis of focus group discussion transcripts and implications for programme design and evaluation
2022
Policy makers’ ultimate goal is to deliver the highest possible level of population welfare. Economists investigate the effect of socio-economic dimensions on wellbeing using unidimensional measures of life satisfaction or happiness as proxies for welfare. However, social psychologists have shown that wellbeing is a much broader construct and that an intervention may have opposite effects on its components. Unidimensional measures may hide these patterns. Most literature focuses on high-income countries. The growing evidence from low- and middle-income countries also largely relies on standard unidimensional measures. This study tests the validity of this reliance by exploring the wellbeing construct of South African women, quantitatively analysing textual data from focus group discussions to investigate whether unidimensional measures are appropriate in this context. It provides evidence against the indiscriminate use of unidimensional wellbeing measures. Cluster and correspondence analysis of the transcripts show that relevant domains of women’s wellbeing include relations with others, autonomy, and a perception of control over their environment (environmental mastery). Results also reveal that participants have a relational view of themselves, distinct from the individuated view predominant in the US and Europe and the collectivist view found in East Asia. Such relational self-perception modifies study participants’ wellbeing construct in ways that are important for policy implementation and evaluation. For example, women’s autonomy and environmental mastery rely on shared peer-identity to redefine rules and meet challenges. Wellbeing measures for policy evaluation would benefit from incorporating these insights to meaningfully measure progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 3 on ‘good health and wellbeing’ in South Africa and other contexts that exhibit similar concepts of wellbeing.
Journal Article
Cellular dynamics of myogenic cell migration: molecular mechanisms and implications for skeletal muscle cell therapies
by
Choi, SungWoo
,
Ferrari, Giulia
,
Tedesco, Francesco Saverio
in
Animals
,
Autografts
,
Cell adhesion & migration
2020
Directional cell migration is a critical process underlying morphogenesis and post‐natal tissue regeneration. During embryonic myogenesis, migration of skeletal myogenic progenitors is essential to generate the anlagen of limbs, diaphragm and tongue, whereas in post‐natal skeletal muscles, migration of muscle satellite (stem) cells towards regions of injury is necessary for repair and regeneration of muscle fibres. Additionally, safe and efficient migration of transplanted cells is critical in cell therapies, both allogeneic and autologous. Although various myogenic cell types have been administered intramuscularly or intravascularly, functional restoration has not been achieved yet in patients with degenerative diseases affecting multiple large muscles. One of the key reasons for this negative outcome is the limited migration of donor cells, which hinders the overall cell engraftment potential. Here, we review mechanisms of myogenic stem/progenitor cell migration during skeletal muscle development and post‐natal regeneration. Furthermore, strategies utilised to improve migratory capacity of myogenic cells are examined in order to identify potential treatments that may be applied to future transplantation protocols.
Graphical Abstract
This comprehensive review discusses our knowledge on dynamics and mechanisms of myogenic progenitor cell migration during morphogenesis and post‐natal tissue regeneration and provides insights on the possible strategies for the development of safe and efficient cell therapies.
Journal Article
Recent Advances on Pt-Based Compounds for Theranostic Applications
by
Lopez-Martinez, Ines
,
Montagner, Diego
,
Ferrari, Giulia
in
Animals
,
Antineoplastic Agents - chemistry
,
Antineoplastic Agents - pharmacology
2024
Since the discovery of cisplatin’s antitumoral activity and its approval as an anticancer drug, significant efforts have been made to enhance its physiological stability and anticancer efficacy and to reduce its side effects. With the rapid development of targeted and personalized therapies, and the promising theranostic approach, platinum drugs have found new opportunities in more sophisticated systems. Theranostic agents combine diagnostic and therapeutic moieties in one scaffold, enabling simultaneous disease monitoring, therapy delivery, response tracking, and treatment efficacy evaluation. In these systems, the platinum core serves as the therapeutic agent, while the functionalized ligand provides diagnostic tools using various imaging techniques. This review aims to highlight the significant role of platinum–based complexes in theranostic applications, and, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first focused contribution on this type of platinum compounds. This review presents a brief introduction to the development of platinum chemotherapeutic drugs, their limitations, and resistance mechanisms. It then describes recent advancements in integrating platinum complexes with diagnostic agents for both tumor treatment and monitoring. The main body is organized into three categories based on imaging techniques: fluorescence, positron emission tomography (PET), single–photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Finally, this review outlines promising strategies and future perspectives in this evolving field.
Journal Article
COVID-19 lockdowns and demographically-relevant Google Trends: A cross-national analysis
by
Berger, Lawrence M.
,
Ferrari, Giulia
,
Leturcq, Marion
in
Birth control
,
Computer and Information Sciences
,
Coronaviruses
2021
The spread of COVID-19 and resulting local and national lockdowns have a host of potential consequences for demographic trends. While impacts on mortality and, to some extent, short-term migration flows are beginning to be documented, it is too early to measure actual consequences for family demography. To gain insight into potential future consequences of the lockdown for family demography, we use cross-national Google Trends search data to explore whether trends in searches for words related to fertility, relationship formation, and relationship dissolution changed following lockdowns compared to average, pre-lockdown levels in Europe and the United States. Because lockdowns were not widely anticipated or simultaneous in timing or intensity, we exploit variability over time and between countries (and U.S. states). We use a panel event-study design and difference-in-differences methods, and account for seasonal trends and average country-level (or state-level) differences in searches. We find statistically significant impacts of lockdown timing on changes in searches for terms such as wedding and those related to condom use, emergency contraception, pregnancy tests, and abortion, but little evidence of changes in searches related to fertility. Impacts for union formation and dissolution tended to only be statistically significant at the start of a lockdown with a return to average-levels about 2 to 3 months after lockdown initiation, particularly in Europe. Compared to Europe, returns to average search levels were less evident for the U.S., even 2 to 3 months after lockdowns were introduced. This may be due to the fact, in the U.S., health and social policy responses were less demarcated than in Europe, such that economic uncertainty was likely of larger magnitude. Such pandemic-related economic uncertainty may therefore have the potential to slightly increase already existing polarization in family formation behaviours in the U.S. Alongside contributing to the wider literature on economic uncertainty and family behaviors, this paper also proposes strategies for efficient use of Google Trends data, such as making relative comparisons and testing sensitivity to outliers, and provides a template and cautions for their use in demographic research when actual demographic trends data are not yet available.
Journal Article
Body motion, early algebra, and the colours of abstraction
by
Ferrara, Francesca
,
Adamuz-Povedano, Natividad
,
Nemirovsky, Ricardo
in
Abstract Reasoning
,
Abstraction
,
Algebra
2020
This paper focuses on the emergence of abstraction through the use of a new kind of motion detector—WiiGraph—with 11-year-old children. In the selected episodes, the children used this motion detector to create three simultaneous graphs of position vs. time: two graphs for the motion of each hand and a third one corresponding to their difference. They explored relationships that can be ascribed to an equation of the type A – B = C. We examine the notion of abstraction on its own, without assuming a dualism abstract-concrete according to which more of one is less of the other. We propose a distinct path for the attainment of abstraction, which involves navigating a surplus of sensible qualities. The work described in this paper belongs to early algebra, we suggest, because it involves the elementary symbolic treatment of unknowns and generals. More broadly, it advances a perspective on the nature of mathematical abstraction.
Journal Article
HEalth professionals Responding to MEn for Safety (HERMES): Mixed methods evaluation of a pilot sexual health intervention for gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men experiencing domestic violence and abuse
2025
Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is a violation of human rights that damages the health and well-being of-gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM). Sexual health services provide a unique opportunity to assess for DVA and provide support. This study explores the feasibility and acceptability of Healthcare Responding to Men for Safety (HERMES), a pilot intervention aimed to improve the identification and referral of gbMSM experiencing DVA in a London NHS Trust.
The before and after mixed method evaluation of the intervention included semi-structured interviews with 21 sexual health practitioners, 20 matched pre-post questionnaires, and an audit of 533 patient records to assess identification and referral of gbMSM experiencing DVA.
HERMES increased practitioners' self-reported preparedness and confidence in enquiring, identifying and responding to gbMSM experiencing DVA. HERMES increased staff awareness of DVA among these patients, which led to higher identification practices in their work. There was a significant increase in the identification and reporting practices of trained staff (0% to 30%), with 6 (5%) DVA cases identified. However, as far as we could determine, none of these patients contacted the support agency.
HERMES proved successful in raising staff awareness, provided tools that increased identification and a referral pathway to an external specialist DVA service for the LGBT community. However, the poor uptake of the referral service indicates a need for further exploration of the help-seeking behaviour of gbMSM experiencing DVA and whether they would prefer to receive support within a sexual health service. Reinforcement training and clinical supervision is needed to sustain positive changes in practice over time and address potential challenges posed by staff turnover. Initial training should be conducted through face-to-face sessions with a combination of in-person and e-learning materials and followed by in-person and online reinforcement activities.
Journal Article
The Stepping Stones and Creating Futures intervention to prevent intimate partner violence and HIV-risk behaviours in Durban, South Africa: study protocol for a cluster randomized control trial, and baseline characteristics
by
Jewkes, Rachel
,
Washington, Laura
,
Sikweyiya, Yandisa
in
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
,
Adolescent
,
Adult
2017
Background
Preventing intimate partner violence (IPV) remains a global public health challenge. Studies suggest urban informal settlements have particularly high levels of IPV and HIV-prevalence and these settlements are rapidly growing. The current evidence base of effective approaches to preventing IPV recognizes the potential of combining economic strengthening and gender transformative interventions. However, few of these interventions have been done in urban informal settlements, and almost none have included men as direct recipients of these interventions.
Methods
Stepping Stones and Creating Futures intervention is a participatory gender transformative and livelihoods strengthening intervention. It is being evaluated through a cluster randomized control trial amongst young women and men (18–30) living in urban informal settlements in eThekwini Municipality, South Africa. The evaluation includes a qualitative process evaluation and cost-effectiveness analysis. A comparison of baseline characteristics of participants is also included.
Discussion
This is one of the first large trials to prevent IPV and HIV-vulnerability amongst young women and men in urban informal settlements. Given the mixed methods evaluation, the results of this trial have the ability to develop a stronger understanding of what works to prevent violence against women and the processes of change in interventions.
Trial registration
NCT03022370
. Registered 13 January 2017, retrospectively registered.
Journal Article
Effect of Resource Abundance on Woodland Rodents' Demography at Latitudinal Extremes in Europe
by
Devineau, Olivier
,
Tagliapietra, Valentina
,
Johnsen, Kaja
in
Availability
,
Climate change
,
Competition
2025
Climate change effects on primary productivity are especially evident along altitudinal and latitudinal gradients. Some of the species with a fast reproductive cycle strategy and relying on primary productivity may rapidly respond to such changes with alterations to demographic parameters. However, how these bottom‐up effects may emerge in systems with different population dynamics has not been elucidated. We aimed to assess the role of food availability on rodent demography in populations characterised by different dynamics, that is multiannual cycles in Northern European populations and mast‐driven outbreaks in Southern European populations, both driven by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. We live‐trapped woodland rodents at these latitudinal extremes in two study systems (Norway, Italy) while deploying control/treatment designs of food manipulation providing ad libitum trophic resource availability, albeit not reflecting the natural resource fluctuations. We applied a multistate open robust design model to estimate population patterns and survival rates while controlling for seasonal variation, intrinsic traits, and co‐occurrence of sympatric species. Yellow‐necked and wood mouse (Apodemus spp.) were sympatric with bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) in Italy, while only the latter was trapped in Norway. Food provisioning increased both survival and population size of bank vole in Norway, where temperatures are harsher and snow cover persists in winter. In milder Italian habitats, the wood mouse abundance was boosted by food availability, increasing also survival rates (but only in females), whereas the bank vole showed a decrease in both parameters across sexes. We speculate that overabundant food resources may trigger some forms of competition between sympatric wood mouse and bank vole, although other types of interactions, such as predation and parasitism, may also contribute. By manipulating food availability in two systems where rodents have different population dynamics, we showed how resource availability exerted bottom‐up effects on rodent demography, especially in the context of climate change, although being mediated by other intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The study aimed to assess the role of food availability on rodent demography in populations characterised by different dynamics, that is multiannual cycles in Northern European populations and mast‐driven outbreaks in Southern European populations.
Journal Article
‘Will the one who keeps the children keep the house?’ Residential mobility after divorce by parenthood status and custody arrangements in France
2019
BACKGROUND After divorce, at least one of the partners usually relocates and, according to past research, it is more often the woman. Women's housing conditions are likely to worsen. Divorces where children are involved are frequent and shared custody arrangements are becoming more common in Europe. OBJECTIVE This paper analyses the extent to which residential mobility after divorce is linked to parental status and child custody arrangements in France, a topic that remains largely unstudied. We assess not only the probability of moving but also the distance of the move and changes in housing conditions. METHODS We apply logistic and linear regressions to different indicators from a recent administrative database, the French Permanent Demographic Sample, 2010-2013, which makes it possible to track divorced people and their households over time. RESULTS One year after divorce, women are more likely to move than men, although the gender gap is narrower for parents. While sole custody is associated with fewer moves than noncustody for both sexes, shared custody arrangements imply many more moves for mothers than for fathers. Parents more often move near their previous joint home than nonparents, especially those with shared custody. Housing conditions do not necessarily deteriorate after separation, but women are often disadvantaged compared with men. CONTRIBUTION This paper expands on the current literature in that it addresses changes in residency after separation by including the effects of parental status and child custody arrangements.
Journal Article
Investigating the role of dystrophin isoform deficiency in motor function in Duchenne muscular dystrophy
2022
Background Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is caused by DMD mutations leading to dystrophin loss. Full‐length Dp427 is the primary dystrophin isoform expressed in muscle and is also expressed in the central nervous system (CNS). Two shorter isoforms, Dp140 and Dp71, are highly expressed in the CNS. While a role for Dp140 and Dp71 on DMD CNS comorbidities is well known, relationships between mutations expected to disrupt Dp140 and Dp71 and motor outcomes are not. Methods Functional outcome data from 387 DMD boys aged 4–15 years were subdivided by DMD mutation expected effects on dystrophin isoform expression; Group 1 (Dp427 absent, Dp140/Dp71 present, n = 201); Group 2 (Dp427/Dp140 absent, Dp71 present, n = 152); and Group 3 (Dp427/Dp140/Dp71 absent, n = 34). Relationships between isoform group and North Star ambulatory assessment (NSAA) scores, 10 m walk/run velocities and rise time velocities were explored using regression analysis. Western blot analysis was used to study Dp427, Dp140 and Dp71 production in myogenic cells (control and DMD human), control skeletal muscle, DMD skeletal muscle from the three isoform groups and cerebral cortex from mice (wild‐type and DMD models). Grip strength and rotarod running test were studied in wild‐type mice and DMD mouse models. DMD mouse models were mdx (Dp427 absent, Dp140/Dp71 present), mdx52 (Dp427/Dp140 absent, Dp71 present) and DMD‐null (lacking all isoforms). Results In DMD boys, mean NSAA scores at 5 years of age were 6.1 points lower in Group 3 than Group 1 (P < 0.01) and 4.9 points lower in Group 3 than Group 2 (P = 0.05). Mean peak NSAA scores were 4.0 points lower in Group 3 than Group 1 (P < 0.01) and 1.6 points lower in Group 2 than Group 1 (P = 0.04). Mean four‐limb grip strength was 1.5 g/g lower in mdx52 than mdx mice (P = 0.003) and 1.5 g/g lower in DMD‐null than mdx mice (P = 0.002). Dp71 was produced in myogenic cells (control and DMD human) and skeletal muscle from humans in Groups 1 and 2 and mdx mice, but not skeletal muscle from human controls, myogenic cells and skeletal muscle from humans in Group 3 or skeletal muscle from wild‐type, mdx52 or DMD‐null mice. Conclusions Our results highlight the importance of considering expected effects of DMD mutations on dystrophin isoform production when considering patterns of DMD motor impairment and the implications for clinical practice and clinical trials. Our results suggest a complex relationship between dystrophin isoforms expressed in the brain and DMD motor function.
Journal Article