Palmitoylethanolamide is a disease-modifying agent in peripheral neuropathy : pain relief and neuroprotection share a PPAR-alpha-mediated mechanism

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On the Unpulsed Radio Emission from J0737-3039

The double pulsar system J0737-3039 appears associated with a continuous radio emission, nearly three times stronger than that of the two pulsars together. If such an emission comes from a tranparent cloud its spatial extent (> 10^13 cm) should be substantially larger than the orbital separation. Assuming homogeneity and equipartition, the cloud magnetic field is 0.03 G and the electron characteristic energy ~ 60 MeV. This is consistent with supposing that relativistic electrons produced in the shock formed by the interaction of the more luminous pulsar wind with the magnetosphere of the companion flow away filling a larger volume. Alternatively, the unpulsed emission may directly come from the bow shock if some kind of coherent mechanism is at work. Possible observational signatures that can dicriminate between the two pictures are shortly discussed.Comment: 4 pages, no figures, accepted for publication in A&A (Letters

Connecting in place: older adults' experience of online mindfulness therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND: the negative consequences of COVID-19 distancing measures on older adults' mental health and ability to access services have been well documented. Online cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness interventions for older adults, carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic, have shown that these interventions are feasible and have potential mental health benefits. However, little research has been carried out on older adults' experiences of engaging with online psychological therapy, and specifically mindfulness therapy. OBJECTIVES: to understand the experience of older adults engaging with online mindfulness therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic. STUDY DESIGN: a qualitative analysis of four community-based focus groups. PARTICIPANTS: thirty-six community dwelling older adults aged between 65 and 85 years were recruited via older adult organisations, charities and the local press. Nineteen percent had long-term physical health conditions, 25% had severe and enduring mental health difficulties and 19% had mild to moderate mental health difficulties. RESULTS: there was a strong sense of group cohesion and community from the participants.Three main themes were identified: reasons for applying, experience of the mindfulness therapy and connecting at home. CONCLUSIONS: the majority of participants were positive about attending a mindfulness group online. This extended to the perceived psychological and social benefits as well as practical considerations. While some participants noted technological hurdles at the beginning of the course, the findings challenge previous studies that suggest older adults are reluctant to engage in online psychological therapies and has important implications for the future provision of psychological therapies to this population

Exploring the variability among smallholder farms in the banana-based farming systems in Bukoba district, Northwest Tanzania

A study was conducted in the high and low rainfall zones in the banana-based farming system in Bukoba district, Tanzania, to explore the variability among household characteristics and farm productivity. Approaches used included a participatory rural appraisal, rapid system characterization, surveys and detailed farm monitoring in two villages, one from each zone in 2005 through 2006. Based on a wealth-ranking, four household resource groups with decreasing wealth were identified: Resource group 1 > Resource group 2 > Resource group 3 > Resource group 4, distinguished by domestic assets, livestock ownership and labour relations. Through principal component analysis using additional variables defined by research team, three Functional Resource Groups from among the four Resource groups at each rainfall zone were identified distinguished by: soil fertility management, food security and farm and off-farm income as important indicators of variability. Further detailed monitoring over 14 months (from March, 2006 through May, 2007) in at least three households from each functional resource group showed that N, P and K balances among land use types and farms were driven by levels of organic inputs used and were also related to wealth and dependence on off-farm activities. However, all households were net food buyers, implying food insecurity. In addition, off-farm activities and off-farm income were important livelihood survival strategie

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A Scalable Telemetry Framework for Zero Touch Optical Network Management

The interest about Zero Touch Network and Service Management (ZSM) is rapidly emerging. As defined by ETSI, the ZSM architecture is based on a closed-loop/feedback control of the network and the services. Such closed-loop control can be based on the Boyd's Observe Orient Decide and Act (OODA) loop that matches some specific management functions such as Data Collection, Data Analytics, Intelligence, Orchestration and Control. An efficient implementation of such control loop allows the network to timely adapt to changes and maintain the required quality of service.Many solutions for collecting network parameters (i.e., implementing ZSM data collection) are proposed that fall under the broad umbrella of network telemetry. An example is the Google gRPC, that represented one of the first solutions to provide a framework for data collection. Since then, the number of available frameworks is proliferating. In this paper we propose the utilisation of Apache Kafka as a framework for collecting optical network parameters. Then, the paper goes beyond that by proposing and showing how Apache Kafka can be effective for supporting data exchange and management of whole ZSM closed-loop.Experimental evaluation results show that, even when a large number of data are collected, the solution is scalable and the time to disseminate the parameter values is short. Indeed, the difference between the reception time and the generation time of data is, on average, 40-50ms when about four thousand messages are generated