1,721,061 research outputs found
Polycystic ovary syndrome in women using valproate: a review.
Full text linkValproate (VPA) is a highly effective drug successfully employed in several neuropsychiatric diseases. In the last 15 years, an increased prevalence of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) associated with VPA use has been reported in both women with epilepsy and women with bipolar disorders. However, data on this subject are contrasting and it is possible that different factors might play a role in the development of PCOS in these patients. The risk of developing PCOS during VPA treatment seems to be higher in women with epilepsy than in women with bipolar disorders, and this might be due to an underlying neuroendocrine dysfunction related to the seizure disorder. Gynecologists must be aware of the possibility that PCOS in these populations of patients might be related to VPA use, and a careful multi-specialist approach is required for evaluating the risks and benefits of this treatment in the presence of features of PCOS
Investigating the potentials and limitations of capillary-fed vapor generators: A heat and mass transfer study
Full text linkPassive fluid transport, which plays a crucial role in a wide range of processes from engineering to biology field, is becoming increasingly attractive due to the prospect of a lower energy demand. Here, we focus the attention on passive thermal evaporation, which is considered an emerging and promising water treatment technique. In detail, we report an extensive theoretical study of capillary-driven fluid flow in hydrophilic and porous materials to be used as thermal evaporators in water treatment devices such as vapor generators or distillers. These materials are designed to spontaneously and properly soak up the water to be treated and absorb thermal energy, establishing a continuous vapor generation. Design guidelines are reported and extensively discussed with the aim of preventing dry-out phenomena, which could compromise the correct functioning of the component and limit the performance. The results presented here envision a potential component size on the order of meters, which is, to the best of our knowledge, two orders of magnitude more than the size effectively explored in the experimental tests reported in the recent literature. Moreover, this modelling framework may be leveraged to assist innovation actions on materials and/or manufacturing techniques, further increasing the competitiveness and the widespread deployment of passive and sustainable solutions
Classification of chestnuts with feature selection by noise resilient classifiers
No full textIn this paper we solve the problem of classifying chestnut plants according to their place of origin. We compare the results obtained by state of the art classifiers, among which, MLP, RBF, SVM, C4.5 decision tree and random forest. We determine which features are meaningful for the classification, the achievable classification accuracy of these classifiers families with the available features and how much the classifiers are robust to noise. Among the obtained classifiers, neural networks show the greatest robustness to noise
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Investigating the solute concentration in capillary-fed vapor generators: A heat and mass transfer study
Full text linkInterfacial passive thermal evaporation is currently attracting considerable interest from the scientific community in light of its zero consumption of fossil fuels and its important implications in the field of sustainable water purification. However, very few works comprehensively address the crystalline solute deposition issue, which is the Achilles’ heel of this process. Here, we propose a numerical analysis of the solute concentration in the device to quantify the saturation times together with the operating condition ranges to act within to prevent crystallization. A simplified analytical approach is then proposed, which provides accurate information at the most critical and design-wise interesting point. The phenomenon of solute accumulation is revealed to exhibit an exponential trend over time, as determined by a time constant . Interestingly, the saturation times can be easily estimated as 2.3 . In detail, the saturation time evaluated with the analytical model is estimated as 2 h, in the case of a 2-meter length device, which is approximately 5% less than the numerically estimated value. In conclusion, this study aims at exploring, quantifying and discussing the limitations of wick-based media used to design solar/thermal interfacial passive evaporation devices, from the perspective of solute accumulation
Levetiracetam in clinical practice: efficacy and tolerability in epilepsy.
Full text linkBACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate efficacy and tolerability of levetiracetam (LEV) in patients with different epilepsy syndromes.
METHODS: We evaluated epileptic patients seen in the previous 18 months, including all patients with present or past exposure to LEV. Tolerability of LEV therapy was evaluated in all patients; efficacy was evaluated only in patients who had received LEV for at least six months. Two hundred and two patients were included in the study. Patients were considered responsive when showing a > 50% reduction in seizures frequency and non-responders when seizure frequency was unchanged, worsened or showed a reduction < 50%.
RESULTS: Thirty patients did not complete six months of LEV treatment and dropped out. 57.4% of the patients with uncontrolled seizures treated for at least six months were responders, with 27.7% seizure free. Adverse effects were observed in 46 patients (23%) and were responsible for early drop out in 26. Adverse effects occurred significantly more often in females than in males (30.6% vs 13.2%); moreover, nearly 30% of women with adverse effects complained of more than one adverse effect, while this was never observed in male patients.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows LEV as a well tolerated and effective treatment, both in monotherapy and as an add-on. Further investigations on larges samples are needed to investigate the issue of gender-related tolerability
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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