Novel psychoactive substances (NPS) represent a severe health risk for drug users. Even though the phenomenon has been growing since the early 2000s, the mechanisms of action of NPS at the receptors and beyond them are still scarcely understood. The aim of the present study was to provide a systematic review of the updated knowledge regarding the molecular mechanisms underlying the toxicity of synthetic opioids, cannabinoids, cathinones, and stimulants. The study was conducted on the PubMed database. Study eligibility criteria included relevance to the topic, English language, and time of publication (2010–2020). A combined Mesh and free-text protocols search was performed. Study selection was performed on the title/abstract and, in doubtful cases, on the full texts of papers. Of the 580 records identified through PubMed searching and reference checking, 307 were excluded by title/abstract and 78 additional papers were excluded after full-text reading, leaving a total of 155 included papers. Molecular mechanisms of synthetic opioids, synthetic cannabinoids, stimulants, psychedelics, and hallucinogens were reviewed and mostly involved both a receptor-mediated and non-receptor mediated cellular modulation with multiple neurotransmitters interactions. The molecular mechanisms underlying the action of NPS are more complex than expected, with a wide range of overlap among activated receptors and neurotransmitter systems. The peculiar action profile of single compounds does not necessarily reflect that of the structural class to which they belong, accounting for possible unexpected toxic reactions.

Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre-including this research content-immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

Numerous major advances have been made in forensic genetics over the past decade. One recent field of research has been focused on the analysis of External Visible Characteristics (EVC) such as eye colour, hair colour (including hair greying), hair morphology, skin colour, freckles, facial morphology, high myopia, obesity, and adult height, with important repercussions in the forensic field. Its use could be especially useful in investigative cases where there are no potential suspects and no match between the evidence DNA sample under investigation and any genetic profiles entered into criminal databases. The present review represents the current state of knowledge of SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) regarding visible characteristics, including the latest research progress in identifying new genetic markers, their most promising applications in the forensic field and the implications for police investigations. The applicability of these techniques to concrete cases has stoked a heated debate in the literature on the ethical implications of using these predictive tools for visible traits.

The prevalence of violence against women continues to grow and this plague has had a huge impact from a clinical, social and judicial point of view. For this reason, alongside the efforts made at the legislative level to prevent the phenomenon and to improve assistance to victims in recent years, efforts to contain and better manage this phenomenon have also grown in the extra-legislative sphere: for example, through the application of new technological solutions and safety planning. In recent years, there has been an increase in the marketing of mobile phone apps dedicated to the prevention of violence against women, with different functions and different objectives. The purpose of this study is to investigate the knowledge and propensity to download this type of app in a group of 1782 Italian female university students. This research was performed using an online questionnaire administered to female students attending four different courses (law, medicine, healthcare professionals and political sciences) at one Italian university. Chi-square or Fisher’s exact test was used to analyze associations between responses to questionnaire and the type and the year of course. The results show that 62.6% of our sample are unaware of the existence of these apps and that 79.5% of the sample would be willing to download one in the future. With regard to whom to turn to after a violent incident, the majority of those interviewed (43.9%) would turn to the police and not to health facilities. According to our findings, law female students (52.7%) think, more than any other category, that the most effective way to improve public safety and reduce the number of victims lies in legislative solutions. Our results suggest that, although this type of technology may be promising, it is necessary to improve the knowledge and dissemination of these apps in order to make them a useful tool for prevention, education and assistance in cases of violence against women.

No abstract