1,720,982 research outputs found
A SIMULATION SURVEY ON THE EFFECTS OF PROGRESSING FAULTS WITHIN THE SCAS OF A FLIGHT CONTROL ACTUATOR FOR HELICOPTERS
No full textStability Control Augmentation Systems (SCAS) are widely adopted to enhance the flight stability of rotary-wing aircraft operating in difficult aerodynamic conditions, such as low altitude missions, stationary flight nearby vertical walls or in presence of heavy gusts. Such systems are based upon small electro-hydraulic servosystems controlled in position through a dedicated servovalve. The SCAS operates with limited authority over the main control linkage translating the pilot input in the movement of the main flight control actuator. Being critical for the operability of the helicopter, the definition of a Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) framework for the SCAS systems would provide significant advantages, such as better risk mitigation, improved availability, and a reduction in the occurrences of unpredicted failures which still represent one of the most known downsides of helicopters. This paper provides the results of a preliminary analysis on the effects of the inception and progression of several degradation types within a simulated SCAS system. Signals usually available within such devices are hence combined with measurements provided by additional sensors to check the feasibility of a PHM system with and without dedicated sensors. The resulting features selection process shows that although the dedicated measurements are required to design a complete PHM system, it appears nonetheless possible to obtain valuable information on the health status of the SCAS system without resorting to additional sensors
Profile of pitolisant in the management of narcolepsy: Design, development, and place in therapy
No full textNarcolepsy is a rare sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and rapid eye movement sleep dysregulation, manifesting as cataplexy and sleep paralysis, as well as hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. Disease onset may occur at any age, although adolescents and young adults are mainly affected. Currently, the diagnosis delay ranges from 8 to 10 years and drug therapy may only attenuate symptoms. Pitolisant is a first-in-class new drug currently authorized by the European Medicines Agency to treat narcolepsy with or without cataplexy in adults and with an expanded evaluation for the treatment of neurologic diseases such as Parkinson's disease and epilepsy. This article reviews the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profile of pitolisant, highlighting its effectiveness and safety in patients with narcolepsy. We performed a systematic review of the literature using PubMed, Embase, and Google Scholar. We report on the efficacy and safety data of pitolisant in narcoleptic patients regarding cataplexy episodes and subjective and objective daytime sleepiness. The development program of pitolisant was characterized by eight Phase II/III studies. One proof-of-concept study followed by two pivotal studies, three randomized controlled trials, and two open studies were evaluated. Our review confirmed the effectiveness of pitolisant in treating major clinically relevant narcolepsy symptoms, including cataplexy, as compared to placebo. In addition, pitolisant revealed a safe profile when compared with placebo and active comparators. Headache, insomnia, and nausea were the prominent side effects. Further long-term randomized controlled trials comparing the efficacy of pitolisant with active comparators (ie, modafinil and sodium oxybate) may clarify its real place in therapy and its possible use as a first-line agent on the basis of its safety and tolerability
Cannabis consumption and psychosis or schizophrenia development
No full textObjective: Cannabis consumption produces psychopathology, in some cases psychotic episodes, which are of our interest in this work. However, the relationship between cannabis use and psychosis has not been fully elucidated. The objectives of this work are to (1) review the current state of knowledge on the association of cannabis use with the risk of the development of psychosis or psychotic symptoms in people without schizophrenia and (2) assess the consistency of the hypothesis that cannabis use is associated with increased risk of psychosis in people without schizophrenia. Method: This work included research done in humans until May 2018 with the keywords ‘cannabis’ and ‘psychosis’, published in English and Spanish, in the PubMed database. Results: In all, 66 papers were analyzed, of which 23 were cohort trials and 43 were reviews. Conclusion: Cannabis use doubles the risk of developing psychosis in vulnerable people. There even exists a relationship regarding the dose used and the age of first use. Gene–environment interactions that modulate the association between cannabis use and the presence of psychosis have also been described
Improvements in metabolic abnormalities among overweight schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients
Full text linkAs weight-gain and metabolic abnormalities during treatment with psychotropic drugs are of great concern, we evaluated effects of psycho-education and medical monitoring on metabolic changes among severely mentally ill patients
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
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