The use of nephrotoxic drugs can further worsening renal function in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. It is therefore imperative to explore prescribing practices that can negatively affect CKD patients. To analyze the use of nephrotoxic drugs in CKD patients in a general population of Southern Italy during the years 2006–2011. The general practice “Arianna” database contains data from 158,510 persons, registered with 123 general practitioners (GPs) of Caserta. CKD patients were identified searching: CKD-related ICD-9 CM codes among causes of hospitalization; CKD-relevant procedures undergone in hospital (e.g. dialysis); drug prescriptions issued for a CKD-related indication. A list of nephrotoxic drugs was compiled and validated by pharmacologists and nephrologists. The summary of product characteristics was used to classify drugs as ‘contraindicated’ or ‘to be used with caution’ in renal diseases. Frequency of nephrotoxic drug use, overall, by drug class and single compounds, by GPs within one year prior or after first CKD diagnosis and within one year after dialysis entry was calculated. Overall, 1,989 CKD patients and 112 dialysed patients were identified. Among CKD patients, 49.8% and 45.2% received at least one prescription for a contraindicated nephrotoxic drug within one year prior or after first CKD diagnosis, respectively. In detail, 1,119 CKD patients (56.3%) had at least one nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) prescription between CKD diagnosis and end of follow-up. A large proportion of CKD patients (35.6%) were treated with NSAIDs for periods exceeding 90 days. Contraindicated nephrotoxic drugs were used commonly in CKD, with nimesulide (16.6%) and diclofenac (11.0%) being most frequently used. Contraindicated nephrotoxic drugs were highly prescribed in CKD patients from a general population of Southern Italy. CKD diagnosis did not seem to reduce significantly the prescription of nephrotoxic drugs, which may increase the risk of preventable renal function deterioration.

In the attempt to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 lockdown, most countries have recently authorized and promoted the adoption of e-learning and remote teaching technologies, often with the support of teleconferencing platforms. Unfortunately, not all students can benefit from the adoption of such a surrogate of their usual school. We were asked to devise a way to allow a community of children affected by the Rett genetic syndrome, and thus unable to communicate verbally, in writing or by gestures, to actively participate in remote rehabilitation and special education sessions by exploiting eye-gaze tracking. As not all subjects can access commercial eye-tracking devices, we investigated new ways to facilitate the access to eye gaze-based interaction for this specific case. The adopted communication platform is a videoconferencing software, so all we had at our disposal was a live video stream of the child. As a solution to the problem, we developed a software (named SWYG) that only runs at the “operator” side of the communication, at the side of the videoconferencing software, and does not require to install other software in the child’s computer. The preliminary results obtained are very promising and the software is ready to be deployed on a larger base. While this paper is being written, several children are finally able to communicate with their caregivers from home, without relying on expensive and cumbersome devices.

Passive human sensing approaches based on the analysis of the radio signals emitted by the most common wireless communication technologies have been steadily gaining momentum during the last decade. In this context, the Bluetooth technology, despite its widespread adoption in mobile and IoT applications, so far has not received all the attention it deserves. However, the introduction of the Bluetooth direction finding feature and the application of Artificial Intelligence techniques to the processing and analysis of the wireless signal for passive human sensing pave the way for novel Bluetooth-based passive human sensing applications, which will leverage Bluetooth Low Energy features, such as low power consumption, noise resilience, wide diffusion, and relatively low deployment cost. This paper provides a reasoned analysis of the data preprocessing and classification techniques proposed in the literature on Bluetooth-based remote passive human sensing, which is supported by a comparison of the reported accuracy results. Building on such results, the paper also identifies and discusses the multiple factors and operating conditions that explain the different accuracy values achieved by the considered techniques, and it draws the main research directions for the near future.

Background: The DREAM Project operates within the framework of the national health systems of several sub-Saharan African countries and aims to introduce the essential components of an integrated strategy for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. The project is intended to serve as a model for a wide-ranging scale-up in the response to the epidemic. This paper aims to show DREAM's challenges and the solutions adopted. One of the solutions is the efficient management of the clinical data regarding the treatment of the patients and epidemiological analyses. Methods: Specific software for the management of the patients' EMR has been created within the DREAM programme in order to deal with the challenges deriving from the context in which DREAM operates. Setting up a computer infrastructure in health centres, providing a power supply, as well as managing the data and the project resources efficiently and reliably, are some of the questions that have been analysed in this study. Results: Over the years this software has proved that it is able to respond to the need for efficient management of the clinical data and organization of the health centres. Today it is used in 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa by thousands of professionals and by now it has reached its fourth version. The medical files of over 73,000 assisted patients are managed by this software and the data collected with it have become essential for the epidemiological research that is carried out to improve the effectiveness of the therapy. Conclusion: Sub-Saharan Africa is the region hardest hit by HIV and AIDS in the world. However, the resources and responses adopted so far, to confront the epidemic, have at times been rather minimalist. The DREAM project has faced the battle against the epidemic by equipping itself with qualitative standards comparable to Western ones. The experience of DREAM has revealed that it is indeed possible to guarantee levels of excellence in developing countries, also in the sphere of ICT (Information and Communication Technology), thus making the intervention even more effective and contributing to bridging the digital divide.