38 research outputs found
Microwave ablation for treatment of recurrent bleeding adrenal adenoma in a dog: a treatment potentially translational in human
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Un umanista nel secento, Giano Nicio Eritreo, studio biografico critico di Luigi Gerboni
No full textPalliative treatment with covered, self-expandable nitinol stent of transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of urethra: a treatment potentially applicable to human
No full textA novel association to treat pain : tramadol/dexketoprofen. The first drug of a new pharmacological class
No full textAcute and chronic pain have an important socio-economical impact. In order to help physicians to choose the appropriate drug, especially for cancer pain, in 1986 WHO has developed a three-step analgesic "ladder" for cancer pain relief in adults. Later it has also been used for acute pain and chronic non-cancer pain. In step I nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are considered with or without adjuvants, in step II the use of weak opioids for mild-moderate pain, with or without NSAIDs and adjuvant, is suggested, while the step III is reserved to strong opioids for moderate-severe pain with or without non-opioids or adjuvants. In the last two decades, a better pathophysiology knowledge has improved pain management shifting our view from the pain ladder to a modern pain pyramid, in which drugs are selected not only on the basis of pain intensity, but mainly according to mechanisms underlying pain, including peripheral and spinal sensitization which is the main trigger of chronic pain. The best pharmacological approach has become multimodal, in which drugs belonging to different steps should be combined, matching the mechanisms of action with the type of pain. An important corollary of combining analgesic drugs with different mechanism of action is that proper matching achieves the same effect with lower doses, better outcome and fewer adverse effects. In this new perspective, fixed-dose pharmaceutical combinations of different drugs are very useful to fulfil pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics and adherence criteria, enriching the pain pyramid of half-steps between the first and second step and between the second and third step. Hence, a new fixed combination of a NSAID with peripheral and central anti-infilammatory activities, such as dexketoprofen, and a weak opioid, such as tramadol, with double analgesic activity in the spinal cord as an opioid and, at the same time, on the descending modulatory pathways, is expected to cover a wide range of acute and recurrent painful conditions, ranging from nociceptive inflammatory pain to neuropathic pain of moderate/severe intensity. In this review we evaluate the rationale that justifies its use as new class of pharmacological modality to treat pain accordingly also to a more update view of WHO pain ladder
Life Cycle Assessment for the ISWEC Wave Energy Device
No full textIn recent years, wave renewable energy is becoming established as one of the crucial components of a diversified and successful energy mix. The Inertial Sea Wave Energy Converter (ISWEC) is a mature technology, especially designed for closed seas, as the Mediterranean Sea, which has already been deployed in full-scale. At this stage of development, since the technology has been proven successful, it is crucial to assess its environmental impact. A life cycle assessment has been performed on the ISWEC including all relevant phases, from raw material extraction, to construction, assembly, transportation, use and final dismantling. As an outcome, the LCA study allowed the calculation of a set of impacts on the environment, resources depletion and human health that allows the innovative renewable energy-based technology to be consistently compared with other solutions. One of the most popular impacts, such as climate change, has been estimated at 31.5 gCO2eq/kWh which is in line e.g. with the performance of photovoltaics
Persistently low cardiac output predicts high mortality in newborns with cardiogenic shock.
No full textVariable force-stiffness haptic feedback for learning a disturbance rejection task
No full textThis paper investigates the use of a variable haptic feedback for training a disturbance rejection task. The haptic feedback was designed as a Force-Stiffness feedback. Throughout the training, Force and Stiffness feedback are decreased to progressively give more control authority to the human operator. The training method was tested in a human-in-the-loop experiment. In the experiment, participants were split into three groups: variable haptic aid (VHA), constant haptic aid (CHA) and no haptic aid (NoHA). The VHA and CHA groups performed a first training phase with variable and constant haptic feedback respectively, followed by an evaluation phase without external aids. The NoHA group performed the entire experiment without external aids. Results showed that in the training phase both VHA and CHA groups performed better than NoHA group. In the evaluation phase though, only the VHA group obtained better performances than the NoHA group. Specifically, participants were able to quickly recover similar performances to those obtained at the end of the training phase. Thus, the variable haptic training proved to be more effective than the constant haptic training and manual control at helping participants learn the task
EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION OF A CFD GAS RELEASE MODEL IN A WIND TUNNEL
No full textThis paper presents the experimental validation process of an innovative CFD approach, called SBAM ("Source Box Accidental Model"), developed in ANSYS Fluent and aimed at a more efficient characterisation of accidental high-pressure gas releases in congested environments (e.g. offshore Oil&Gas, nuclear plants).
In this work, the experimental setup, methodology and a preliminary CFD-experimental data comparison are described.
The campaign has been carried out in the SEASTAR-WT wind tunnel, realized at the Environment Park in Turin (Italy) and completed at the beginning of October 2020. This subsonic, open-cycle tunnel with a total installed power of approximately 100 kW allows a range of air speeds between 0 and ~8 m/s in the test chamber. A 1:10 scaled Oil&Gas platform mockup, equipped with flow and gas sensors, was built and installed inside the wind tunnel, allowing to reproduce, through a custom scaling procedure, the conditions of dynamic similarity with the real cases. Preliminary tests were performed to calibrate the tunnel and be acquainted with sensors behaviour and accuracy. The core of the campaign has been devoted to a set of gas releases meant to validate the concentrations and velocities predicted by the CFD modelling.
For most of the case studies, first results have shown that normalised concentration profiles present a good consistency with CFD simulation results. New tests are ongoing to validate also absolute concentration values and improve the understanding of the physical phenomena in such a complex setup.
The activity has been funded by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (MiSE) and carried out at the SEADOG laboratory of the Politecnico di Torino
