101 research outputs found
Gabapentin treatment for muscle cramps: An open-label trial
No full textTo evaluate the efficacy and safety of gabapentin in the treatment of muscle cramps, we engaged an open-label trial with a group of 30 patients with frequent (>5 cramps/week), stable, long-lasting cramps, associated with different diseases. Gabapentin was effective in reducing the frequency and severity of muscle cramps and associated sleep disturbances (clinical outcome measures) within the first 2 weeks of medication at 600 mg/d. At the 1 month control (mean dosage, 825 +/- 35 mg), almost every patient had responded to treatment and two thirds experienced a total remission of symptoms. After 3 months of therapy (mean dosage, 892 +/- 180 mg), cramps disappeared in 100% of patients and this benefit persisted as long as 6 months. Additionally, we evaluated in 10 patients the Cramps Threshold Frequency (CTF) (neurophysiological outcome measure) before and during gabapentin treatment. Gabapentin significantly increased the CTF, returning it to normal values. With the limitation of an open-label methodology, our clinical and neurophysiologic experience suggests that a gabapentin dose of 600-1200 mg/d would be helpful in the treatment of muscular cramps
Les edats d’«In memoriam»
No full textRemarks on "In memoriam", the largest poem by Gabriel Ferrater, nn the occasion of the 100th birth anniversary of the author
Impact of photovoltaic technology and feeder voltage level on the efficiency of façade building-integrated photovoltaic systems
No full textsponsorship: This project receives the support of the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund ERDF, Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship and the Province of Limburg. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 751159. Special thanks goes to C. Sheehan from Bourns for providing the required inductor specifications. Patrizio Manganiello was previously with IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, Leuven, Belgium. (European Union, European Regional Development Fund ERDF, Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Province of Limburg, European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie|751159, Marie Curie Actions (MSCA)|751159)status: Published onlin
Modulatory effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on words and non-words reading task
No full textTITLE:
Modulatory effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on words and non-words reading task
AUTHOR(S):
Margherita Forgioneb, Patrizio Tressoldi b, Daniela Mapelli b, Paulo Sergio Boggio a
a Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, Sao Paulo
b Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italia
INTRODUCTION:
In recent past tDCS has gained much attention for rehabilitation purposes. Moreover, few studies have been conducted to investigate its efficacy on reading process. The aim of these studies was to investigate the role of left and right posterior temporal cortex in words and non-words reading process, through tDCS. We focused on the online task to see if it can influence the subjects’ performance. We hypothesized that the anodal stimulation would facilitate the task execution compared to sham and cathodal, in terms of reaction times and accuracy.
METHOD:
Twenty good readers were tested in 3 sessions (sham, anodal, cathodal), with different online task (text reading or music listening). tDCS was applied bilaterally over posterior temporal lobe, with a current of 1,5 mA, lasting for 20 minutes. Participants had to read aloud words or non-words, before and after stimulation. We recorded reaction times and accuracy for words and non-words, before and after stimulation.
RESULTS:
Regarding reaction times, we found significant effect of cathodal tDCS in short words reading task. Similarly, we also found an improvement in reading accuracy for non-words after tDCS. The online task doesn’t seem to affect the performance.
CONCLUSIONS:
We found a modulatory effect of cathodal tDCS in words reading task, suggesting a compensatory mechanisms of the right hemisphere. To verify this hypothesis, we are investigating different montages, involving left or right hemisphere. Further studies are necessary to understand the modulation effects of this technique, in addition with other methodologies, such as eye tracker, and with clinical sample, in particular dyslexics
Incerta glòria de Joan Sales: viatge entre les edicions i les traduccions
No full textJoan Sales’ Incerta glòria has a complicated textual history, as most of the literature
published in Spain during Franco’s dictatorship. As the novel deals with
the Spanish Civil War according to the losers’ viewpoint it was carefully read by
censors and of course censored. The editions of the novel published after the first
(1956) were continously changed and enlarged by the author who was, at the same
time, the publisher. After the author’s death in 1983, it was his wife who edited
the subsequent editions. It would be necessary therefore to have the text edited
and checked according to textual criticism. The article aims at reconstructing the
textual history of Incerta glòria from an external standpoint
Research on the Automobile Aerodynamic Field at the Politecnico di Torino in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century
No full textWith this paper the author first of all wants to honor the memory of Professor Alberto Morelli with whom he had the privilege of working for many years at the Politecnico di Torino. Morelli radically changed the way of designing car body shapes, while bringing the aspect of reducing the aerodynamic resistance of a vehicle to the attention of car designers. Morelli’s research activity began in the early 1950s and, between the 1950s and 1960s, he designed and built a number of car prototypes, whose coefficient of aerodynamic resistance was substantially reduced compared to that of the cars of that time, sometimes resorting to revolutionary architectures such as a “diamond” arrangement of the wheels. A fundamental step of Morelli's research in the field of vehicle aerodynamics was the Pininfarina full-scale wind tunnel project, which was set up between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, and was inaugurated in 1972: fifty years have therefore passed since that occasion. An impressive result, obtained in the second half of the 1970s, was the maquette of the Pininfarina-CNR car, which had front air intakes, internal flows as well as other external details, such as rear-view mirrors: in this case, the Cx value was 0.20. His activity continued with significant results in the field of car aerodynamics, in particular concerning the interaction between the wakes of the car and of the wheels
Trigemino-cervical-spinal reflexes in humans
No full textINTRODUCTION: Electrical stimulation of the supraorbital nerve (SON) induces late reflex responses in the neck muscles; these responses are hypothesised to be polysynaptic reflexes participating in a defensive withdrawal retraction of the head from facial nociceptive stimuli. Such responses may extend to the proximal muscle of the arms. OBJECTIVE: (1) to investigate reflexes in the upper limb muscles (trigemino-spinal responses, TSR) and their relationship with trigemino-cervical responses (TCR); and (2) to identify the nociceptive component of such reflexes and their functional significance. METHODS: Reflex responses were registered from the semispinalis capitis and biceps brachii muscles after electrical stimulation of the SON in 12 healthy subjects. The sensory (ST), painful (PT) and reflex thresholds, the latency and area of the responses, the effect of heterotopic painful stimulation (HTP), the recovery cycle as well as the effect of the expected and unexpected stimuli were measured. RESULTS: Stable reproducible TCR and TSR responses were identified at 2.5+/-0.4 x ST, which corresponded exactly to the PT in all the subjects. The TCR and TSR areas were markedly reduced after HTP. The recovery cycle of the TSR area was faster than that of the TCR. Repeated rhythmic stimulation failed to induce progressive reflex suppression. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm the nociceptive nature of the TCR and indicate that the biceps brachii response (TSR) has the same nocifensive significance as the posterior neck muscle responses. TCR and TSR are mediated different polysynaptic pathways The presence of trigemino-cervical-spinal responses in our study clearly indicates that there is a reflex interaction between nociceptive trigeminal afferents and both upper and lower cervical spinal cord motoneurons
Soranzo, Vittore
No full textVittore Soranzo (primo 500-1558) fu un patrizio veneziano di notevole cultura letteraria, entrato nella corte pontifica all’inizio degli anni ’30 sotto la protezione del cardinale Pietro Bembo, che gli affidò nel 1544 la coadiutoria del suo vescovato di Bergamo, di cui divenne vescovo tre anni dopo. La voce biografica si propone di inserire la carriera ecclesiastica del Soranzo all’interno delle prospettive di carriera e professionali che si aprivano a un patrizio veneziano dotato di una buona formazione umanistico-letteraria, ma di modeste risorse economiche. La voce passa poi a esaminare il ruolo del Soranzo nella storia della Riforma in Italia. Fin dall’inizio degli anni ’40 Soranzo si era avvicinato al gruppo degli “spirituali”, ispirati dalla predicazione di Juan de Valdés, tra cui figurarono personalità eminenti come i cardinali Pole e Morone, il letterato Marcantonio Flaminio e le nobildonne Vittoria Colonna e Giulia Gonzaga. L’Inquisizione, però, vigilava sul Soranzo, che aveva cercato di introdurre nella sua diocesi una prassi pastorale ispirata ai principi della Riforma. Il Soranzo fu oggetto di due processi inquisitoriali romani, nel 1551 e nel 1557, e morì a Venezia, nel 1558 all’indomani della sua condanna definitiva
Multi-time scale energy management framework for smart PV systems mixing fast and slow dynamics
No full textWe propose a multi-time scale energy management framework for a smart photovoltaic (PV) system that can calculate optimized schedules for battery operation, power purchases, and appliance usage. A smart PV system is a local energy community that includes several buildings and households equipped with PV panels and batteries. However, due to the unpredictability and fast variation of PV generation, maintaining energy balance and reducing electricity costs in the system is challenging. Our proposed framework employs a model predictive control approach with a physics-based PV forecasting model and an accurately parameterized battery model. We also introduce a multi-time scale structure composed of two-time scales: a longer coarse-grained time scale for daily horizon with 15-minutes resolution and a shorter fine-grained time scale for 15-minutes horizon with 1-second resolution. In contrast to the current single-time scale approaches, this alternative structure enables the management of a necessary mix of fast and slow system dynamics with reasonable computational times while maintaining high accuracy. Simulation results show that the proposed framework reduces electricity costs up 48.1% compared with baseline methods. The necessity of a multi-time scale and the impact on accurate system modeling in terms of PV forecasting and batteries are also demonstrated.Photovoltaic Materials and Device
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