87,542 research outputs found
Disorders of arousal in 4 older men: evidence from clinical practice
No full textSTUDY OBJECTIVES: To describe clinical and video-polysomnographic features of disorders of arousal (DoA) in older adults. METHODS: Four consecutive male patients with nocturnal motor behaviors underwent a clinical interview, neurologic examination, laboratory tests, brain magnetic resonance imaging, and nocturnal in-laboratory or 24- to 48-hour home video polysomnography. The patients repeated an evaluation after 6 months of follow-up, including a 48-hour home video polysomnography in 2 patients. RESULTS: The patients were aged 65-72 years, and 1 patient has Parkinson disease. Sleep-related behavioral episodes had begun from 12-55 years before our observation. Three patients presented with a positive family history for DoA. Sleep motor episodes were described as suddenly raising the head or trunk, sitting in bed, screaming, speaking, gesturing, and sleepwalking (in 1 patient). When questioned, all patients seemed confused, rarely reporting any dream-like content. We recorded 25 DoA episodes of different intensity and complexity arising from nonrapid eye movement sleep. The semiology of the episodes was similar to that described in younger patients, consisting of sleep terrors and confusional arousals. All patients presented with physiological rapid eye movement sleep muscle atonia. Medication therapy reduced the frequency of the episodes in 2/4 patients. CONCLUSIONS: DoA may begin in adulthood and persist or arise in older adults, sometimes causing sleep-related injuries. Motor patterns of DoA in older adults are similar to those of younger patients. A combined clinical examination and video polysomnography recording are crucial in establishing a definitive diagnosis of nocturnal motor behavior in all older adults and especially in those affected by neurodegenerative diseases. CITATION: Loddo G, Fragiacomo F, Mainieri G, et al. Disorders of arousal in 4 older men: evidence from clinical practice. J Clin Sleep Med. 2022;18(1):129-136
Mental Activity During Episodes of Sleepwalking, Night Terrors or Confusional Arousals: Differences Between Children and Adults
No full textAnna Castelnovo,1– 3 Giuseppe Loddo,4 Federica Provini,5,6 Silvia Miano,1 Mauro Manconi1,2,7 1Sleep Medicine Unit, Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland, Ospedale Civico, Lugano, Switzerland; 2Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland; 3University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; 4Department of Primary Care, Azienda USL di Bologna, Bologna, Italia; 5IRCSS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, Bologna, Italia; 6Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italia; 7Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Inselspital, Bern, SwitzerlandCorrespondence: Anna Castelnovo Ospedale Civico Via Tesserete 46, Lugano, 6900, SwitzerlandEmail [email protected]/Background: Night terrors, sleepwalking and confusional arousals are behavioral manifestations of incomplete awakenings from sleep. According to international diagnostic criteria, these behaviors occur in the absence of any mental experience, or in the presence of very limited cognition or dream imagery (eg, a single visual scene). The aim of this study was to systematically and retrospectively investigate the mental content associated with sleep terrors and/or sleepwalking in both children and adults.Patients and Methods: Forty-five consecutive patients referred for a diagnosis of disorders of arousal (DOA) of all subtypes (sleepwalking/sleep terrors/confusional arousals) (25 adults: 30 ± 6 y, 15 females; 20 children: 10 ± 3 y, 6 females) underwent a detailed semi-structured interview about the mental content associated with their nocturnal episodes. The interview was comprehensive of specific questions about their subjective recall rate, several content details (characters, emotions, actions and setting/context), and hallucinatory or dissociative experiences during clinical episodes. Patients’ reports were classified for complexity (Orlinsky scale) and content (Hall and Van de Castle categories).Results: More than two-third of the children (n = 14) could not recall any mental activity associated with their episodes, whereas more than two-third (n = 16) of the adults recalled at least one mental experience. Half of the adult patients (n = 8) estimated that a specific mental content was subjectively present around 50% or more of the times. Seven adults and one child described clear and vivid hallucinatory experiences of “dreamed” objects or characters projected onto their real home environment, in the absence of any reality testing. Five adults and two children described one or more dissociative experiences. The content of the collected reports was dominated by dynamic actions acted out from a self-perspective, often with apprehension and in response to misfortune and danger, in a home-setting environment.Conclusion: These results suggest that current diagnostic criteria are tailored around the typical presentation of DOA in children, and do not always fit to adult patients with DOA. Furthermore, they support the concept that consciousness may reemerge in DOA patients during clinical episodes, in a peculiar dissociated, psychotic-like form.Keywords: somnambulism, confusional arousal, parasomnia, dream, consciousness, mental content, amnesi
Kinetic aspects of heterogeneous catalytic versus photocatalytic reactions
No full textKinetics aspects of heterogeneous catalysis and photocatalysis are reported together with the most used models developed for both fields. The chapter describes the main mechanisms involved in the different processes and the parameters used to determine their performances. A comparison of the behaviors and kinetics features of heterogeneous catalysis and photocatalysis is presented
Fusion of Multiple Matchers for Fingerprint Verification
No full textAbstract. Automatic identity verification systems play an important role in
many applications where the access to critical resources must be controlled (e.g.
internet transactions, airport access and so on). Fingerprints have been used as
biometrics to identity verification, and many techniques have been recently
proposed for fingerprint identification. In this work, we propose a methodology to
fuse the decisions of multiple verification algorithms in order to increase the
robustness and the performance of a fingerprint verification system. Experimental
results showing the effectiveness of our approach are reported
Geodynamics, thermal structure and depth of the brittle and semi-brittle layers in the Northern Apennines (Italy).
No full textThe Northern Apennines are the exposed part of an accretionary prism which was formed as a result of the westward subduction of the continental Adria microplate. This prism occurred during two phases: the first between 11.2 and 5.3 Ma ago and the second from 3.6 Ma onwards, due to the stacking of continental upper crust strata, scraped off during the subduction. A 1D physical-mathematical model has been elaborated to compute the effect of tectonic stacking of the mantle and the radioactive components of the heat flow. The heat contribution, which resulted from the friction between the strata, has also been calculated. We find that the cooling effect of the thrusting is almost compensated by the heating by friction, so that the undisturbed surface geothermal gradient 29 � 0.3�C km-1 of the Adriatic lithosphere is reduced to 24.5�C km-1 at the outcropping sector of the thrust. This agrees with the gradient 27�C km-1 � 15% observed in deep oil wells. As a consequence of the thrusting, it has been found that, in particular, the 300�C and 450�C isotherms which in the stable Adriatic lithosphere are located at 13.2 and 24.8 km respectively, and delimit the semi-brittle layer separating the brittle upper layer from the deeper ductile one, are located at different depths in the Apennines. In fact, the upper limit is located at about 11 km depth, while the deep limit is located at about 50 km depth. Then, the seismically more active brittle layer and the semi-brittle are thicker and deeper
Synthesis and antiviral evaluation of 1-[(2-Phenoxyethyl)oxymethyl] and 6-(3,5-Dimethoxybenzyl) analogues of HIV drugs emivirine and TNK-651
No full textNovel emivirine analogues 6a, b were synthesized by reacting chloromethyl ethyl ether with 5-ethyl/isopropyl-6-(3,5-dimethoxybenzyl)uracils 5e, f. On the other hand, A series of new TNK-651 analogues 10a–f substituted at N-1 with phenoxyethoxymethyl moiety was prepared on treatment of the corresponding uracils 5a–f with bis(phenoxyethoxy)methane (9). The newly synthesized non-nucleosides were tested for antiviral activity against wild type HIV-1 IIIB as well as the resistant strains N119 (Y181C), A17 (K103N+Y181C), and the triple mutant EFVR (K103R+V179D+P225H) in MT-4 cells. Most of the tested compounds showed good activities. Among them 6-(3,5-dimethylbenzyl)-5-ethyl-1-[(2-phenoxyethyl)oxymethyl]uracil (10c) and 6-(3,5-dimethylbenzyl)-5-isopropyl-1-[(2-phenoxyethyl)oxymethyl]uracil (10d) that showed inhibitory potency higher than emivirine against both wild type HIV-1 and the tested mutant strains, as well as higher activity than efavirenz against EFV
Heterogeneous photocatalytic degradation of pharmaceuticals in water by using polycrystalline TiO2 and a nanofiltration membrane reactor
No full textA study of the photodegradation of different pharmaceuticals [furosemide, ranitidine (hydrochloride), ofloxacine, phenazone, naproxen, carbamazepine and clofibric acid] in aqueous medium at various pHs by using a batch photoreactor and a photocatalytic membrane reactor working in recirculation regime was carried out. Polycrystalline TiO2 was used as the photocatalyst, and different membranes (NTR 7410, PAN GKSS HV3/T, N 30 F, NF PES 10) were tested. A different adsorption of the substrates onto the catalyst surface was observed owing to the hydrophilic/hydrophobic character of the catalyst, depending on the pH. The photodegradation of the seven molecules in the batch reactor was successfully carried out and the behaviour was in accordance with pseudo-first order kinetics. Furosemide and ranitidine were selected to carry out the study of rejection and photodegradation in the hybrid membrane system. The permeate flux of the treated water was in the 31.5–60.0 L/(h m2) range for NTR 7410 membrane, whereas rejection values in the range 10–60% for furosemide and 5–30% for ranitidine in the dark (without photoreaction) were found. The degradation in the hybrid membrane photoreactor showed that the photocatalyst was retained by the membrane in the reaction ambient, while the membrane rejection towards the pollutants was not very satisfactory. A net decrease of the rejection down to 0 was observed in the contemporary presence of light, photocatalyst and oxygen
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