Italian guidelines for primary headaches: 2012 revised version

The first edition of the Italian diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines for primary headaches in adults was published in J Headache Pain 2(Suppl. 1):105–190 (2001). Ten years later, the guideline committee of the Italian Society for the Study of Headaches (SISC) decided it was time to update therapeutic guidelines. A literature search was carried out on Medline database, and all articles on primary headache treatments in English, German, French and Italian published from February 2001 to December 2011 were taken into account. Only randomized controlled trials (RCT) and meta-analyses were analysed for each drug. If RCT were lacking, open studies and case series were also examined. According to the previous edition, four levels of recommendation were defined on the basis of levels of evidence, scientific strength of evidence and clinical effectiveness. Recommendations for symptomatic and prophylactic treatment of migraine and cluster headache were therefore revised with respect to previous 2001 guidelines and a section was dedicated to non-pharmacological treatment. This article reports a summary of the revised version published in extenso in an Italian version

Caracterização morfológica de nanocristais de celulose por microscopia de força atômica

RESUMO O isolamento de nanocristais de celulose (CNCs) de fibras vegetais é uma alternativa promissora para sua aplicação como reforço em matrizes poliméricas. A caracterização dos CNCs é fundamental para a confiabilidade da técnica, além de determinar as aplicações possíveis a partir de cada tipo de fibra. A partir da técnica de microscopia de força atômica, um estudo da morfologia e distribuição dos CNCs de semente de manga, vagem de algaroba, pseudocaule da bananeira e fibra do mesocarpo de dendê foi realizado neste trabalho. Os CNCs foram obtidos via reação hidrolítica com ácido sulfúrico em concentrações que variaram de acordo com a fonte da fibra. Os resultados obtidos revelaram dimensões variando de 300 a 500 nm em comprimento e 4 a 16 nm em diâmetro. A apresentação morfológica em forma de agulha demonstrou que o isolamento das fibras de celulose em CNCs foi efetiva. A razão de aspecto associada à formação cilíndrica em agulha dos CNCs isolados evidenciou o alto potencial das fontes de dendê e de vagem de algaroba para o reforço de bionanocompósitos

Effect of maternal heart sounds on physiological parameters in preterm infants during aspiration

Aim The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of maternal heart sound given to preterm infants during aspiration on pain and comfort. Methods This was a randomized controlled trial. Preterm infants (n = 62) receiving care or treatment at a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) were eligible for participation in this study. Infants in the intervention group were provided with prerecorded maternal heart sounds before, during, and after aspiration, whereas infants in the control group received routine care. Results In both groups, the infants’ physiologic parameters were evaluated during aspiration. In the study, it was determined that while there was an insignificant difference between the experimental group and the control group in terms of respiratory rate and heart rate averages before, during, and after the aspiration, there was a significant difference between them in terms of SO2 averages before, during, and after the aspiration, and this significance arose from the experimental group. Conclusion Considering the positive effect of maternal heart sound given to preterm infants during aspiration, we recommend that this method can be used in NICU. © 2017 Faculty of Health and Social Sciences of University of South Bohemia in ?eské Bud?jovic

Optimal Time Aggregation of infinite horizon optimal control problems

Cataloged from PDF version of article.This paper proposes a novel method that enhances numerical approximation of infinite horizon optimal control problems. For direct numerical optimization, a continuous-time infinite horizon model needs to be first recast as a discrete-time, finite-horizon control problem. The very transformation itself may significantly degrade the quality of the optimization results, if due care is not taken to preserve the salient features in the original model. Mercenier and Michel (1994. Econometrica. 62, 635-656, 2001. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 25, 1179-1191), for instance, propose time aggregation methods that minimize approximation errors at the steady-state. Using their scheme, we show that overall optimization performance can be further improved if the discretization of the transient phase is optimal as well. Three sample problems are numerically solved to demonstrate the potential benefits. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved