Cathodal Occipital tDCS is unable to modulate The Sound Induced Flash Illusion in migraine

Migraine is a highly disabling disease characterized by recurrent pain.Despite an intensive effort, mechanisms of migraine pathophysiology, still represent an unsolved issue. Evidences from both animals and humans studies suggest that migraine is characterized by hyperresponsivity or hyperexcitability of sensory cortices, especially the visual cortex. This phenomenon, in turn, may affect multisensory processing. Indeed, migraineurs present with an abnormal, reduced, perception of the Sound-induced Flash Illusion (SiFI), a crossmodal illusion that relies on optimal integration of visual and auditory stimuli by the occipital visual cortex. Decreasing visual cortical excitability with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can increase the SiFI in healthy subjects. Moving from these issues , we applied cathodal tDCS over the visual cortex of migraineurs, with and without aura, in order to decrease cortical excitability and thus physiologically restoring the perception of a reliable SiFI. Differently from our expectations tDCS was unable to reliably modulate SiFI in migraine. The chronic, relatively excessive, visual cortex hyperexcitability, , featuring the migraineur brain, may render tDCS ineffective for restoring multisensory processing in this disease

An experimental set-up for cyclic loading of concrete

Abstract Innovative cementitious composite materials are drawing considerable interest due to their substantially improved mechanical properties as compared to ordinary cement-based materials. Their enhanced ductility is promising and particularly suited to structural applications under severe dynamic loading conditions. Cyclic response is essential to understand the effects of loading and unloading on the material, as well as to understanding how it behaves in the transition from tension to compression. It is also fundamental to identify its properties in terms of energy dissipation and strain-rate sensitivity. This paper presents the first part of an ongoing research project which aims to develop the constitutive relationship in innovative cementitious composites and its numerical implementation. Results from this research will facilitate the investigation of the ductility and durability of existing buildings. In this paper, an experimental set-up for uniaxial cyclic loading is described. It was developed to study reversed cyclic compression/tension loadings of innovative cementitious composites. To set the cyclic loading process, cylindrical specimens of concrete were tested. All the tests were performed on a Zwick testing machine with 50 kN load cell. The machine was customised with accessories specifically designed to meet test requirements, avoiding instability and bending moments during the alternating phases of uniaxial compression and tension. Strain gauges were used to measure lateral deformations. The customized machine has shown good performance so far. In order to test specimens with a higher number of cycles and a higher loading rate, improvements to the machine are currently under development. These tests will allow greater insight into the ductility of innovative cementitious composite materials

End to end numerical simulations of the MAORY multiconjugate adaptive optics system

MAORY is the adaptive optics module of the E-ELT that will feed the MICADO imaging camera through a gravity invariant exit port. MAORY has been foreseen to implement MCAO correction through three high order deformable mirrors driven by the reference signals of six Laser Guide Stars (LGSs) feeding as many Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensors. A three Natural Guide Stars (NGSs) system will provide the low order correction. We develop a code for the end-to-end simulation of the MAORY adaptive optics (AO) system in order to obtain high-delity modeling of the system performance. It is based on the IDL language and makes extensively uses of the GPUs. Here we present the architecture of the simulation tool and its achieved and expected performance.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2014 in Montr\'eal, Quebec, Canada, with number 9148-25

influence of pyrolysis parameters on the efficiency of the biochar as nanoparticles into cement based composites

Abstract In this research, a particular kind of biochar provided by UK Biochar Centre has been added as nanoparticles into cementitious composites. Its principle characteristic lies in the standardization of its process production, that makes it suitable to been used as filler in cement-matrix composites, ensuring the reproducibility of the cement mix (I. Cosentino "The use of Bio-char for sustainable and durable concrete", 2017). The pyrolysis parameters and the content of carbon in the standardized biochar influenced its efficiency to enhance the mechanical properties of the cement composites: the results, in terms of flexural strength and fracture energy, have been worse than those obtained in previous studies (L. Restuccia "Re-think, Re-use: agro-food and C&D waste for high-performance sustainable cementitious composites", 2016), in which particles have been produced with higher temperature. However, also with standardized biochar a general enhancement of mechanical properties has been recorded, a sign that they can be used to create new green building materials

Cyclic uniaxial testing and constitutive modelling of cementitious composite materials

Innovative cementitious composite materials are drawing considerable interest due to their substantially improved mechanical properties, as compared to ordinary cement-based materials: among the others, higher tensile strength, tensile strain hardening, flexural strength, fracture toughness [1] and resistance to fatigue. Their enhanced ductility appears to be promising and particularly suited to structural applications under severe dynamic loading conditions (earthquake, impact, blast) [2]. Accurate constitutive models to simulate the dynamic behaviour of cementitious composites are hence needed, as well as corresponding appropriate testing protocols for their experimental characterisation [3]. In this study, the response of cementitious composites to cyclic uniaxial loadings has been investigated. Cyclic response is essential to understand the effects of unloading and reloading on the material, to examine how it behaves in the transition from tension to compression and to characterise its properties in terms of energy dissipation and strain-rate sensitivity. Different loading schemes have been considered, including reversed cyclic tension/compression loadings, in order to identify the complete stress-strain curve and the transition behaviour, which can occur, for instance, under seismic, fatigue and wind loads. Monotonic quasi-static tension and compression tests have been also performed, to provide a benchmark for the evaluation of the envelope curve of cyclic response. The experimental campaign was carried out on cylindrical specimens, a standard geometry in compression testing of cement-based materials. Several series of homothetic specimens (height to diameter ratio fixed as 2) with different dimensions were tested, to evaluate the influence of scale effects. Variability and reproducibility of the testing results have been taking into account by employing a minimum number of three specimens per loading condition. All the tests were performed, under deformation-controlled regime, on an MTS servo-hydraulic testing machine with 250 kN load cell. The testing machine was customised with accessories designed to meet specific test requirements, avoiding instability and bending moments during the alternating phases of uniaxial compression and tension. Linear variable displacement transducers (LVDT) and strain gauges were used to measure vertical displacements and lateral deformations, respectively. The results obtained experimentally represent a reliable basis for the development of constitutive models suited to numerical simulation. References [1] Restuccia, L., Reggio, A., Ferro, G.A., Kamranirad, R., “Fractal analysis of crack paths into innovative carbon-based cementitious composites”, Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics, 90, 133-141, 2017. [2] Yoo, D. Y., Banthia N. “Mechanical properties of ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete: A review”, Cement and Concrete Composites, 73, 267-280, 2016. [3] Kesner, K.E., Billington, S.L., Douglas K.S. “Cyclic response of highly ductile fiber-reinforced cement-based composites”, ACI Materials Journal, 100(5), 381-390, 2003

A Comprehensive Review of Techniques for Processing and Analyzing Fetal Heart Rate Signals

The availability of standardized guidelines regarding the use of electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) in clinical practice has not effectively helped to solve the main drawbacks of fetal heart rate (FHR) surveillance methodology, which still presents inter- and intra-observer variability as well as uncertainty in the classification of unreassuring or risky FHR recordings. Given the clinical relevance of the interpretation of FHR traces as well as the role of FHR as a marker of fetal wellbeing autonomous nervous system development, many different approaches for computerized processing and analysis of FHR patterns have been proposed in the literature. The objective of this review is to describe the techniques, methodologies, and algorithms proposed in this field so far, reporting their main achievements and discussing the value they brought to the scientific and clinical community. The review explores the following two main approaches to the processing and analysis of FHR signals: traditional (or linear) methodologies, namely, time and frequency domain analysis, and less conventional (or nonlinear) techniques. In this scenario, the emerging role and the opportunities offered by Artificial Intelligence tools, representing the future direction of EFM, are also discussed with a specific focus on the use of Artificial Neural Networks, whose application to the analysis of accelerations in FHR signals is also examined in a case study conducted by the authors

Proposte per stabilire la tortura nei giudizi criminali di Sicilia dopo le riforme del 1812 / per Giuseppe Cosentino Palermo : Stab. tip. Virzi, 1889

Proposte per stabilire la tortura nei giudizi criminali di Sicilia dopo le riforme del 1812 / per Giuseppe Cosentino Palermo : Stab. tip. Virzi, 1889 22 p. ; 25 c

Combined mechanistic modeling and machine-learning approaches in systems biology - A systematic literature review

Background and objective: Mechanistic-based Model simulations (MM) are an effective approach commonly employed, for research and learning purposes, to better investigate and understand the inherent behavior of biological systems. Recent advancements in modern technologies and the large availability of omics data allowed the application of Machine Learning (ML) techniques to different research fields, including systems biology. However, the availability of information regarding the analyzed biological context, sufficient experimental data, as well as the degree of computational complexity, represent some of the issues that both MMs and ML techniques could present individually. For this reason, recently, several studies suggest overcoming or significantly reducing these drawbacks by combining the above-mentioned two methods. In the wake of the growing interest in this hybrid analysis approach, with the present review, we want to systematically investigate the studies available in the scientific literature in which both MMs and ML have been combined to explain biological processes at genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics levels, or the behavior of entire cellular populations. Methods: Elsevier Scopus®, Clarivate Web of Science™ and National Library of Medicine PubMed® databases were enquired using the queries reported in Table 1, resulting in 350 scientific articles. Results: Only 14 of the 350 documents returned by the comprehensive search conducted on the three major online databases met our search criteria, i.e. present a hybrid approach consisting of the synergistic combination of MMs and ML to treat a particular aspect of systems biology. Conclusions: Despite the recent interest in this methodology, from a careful analysis of the selected papers, it emerged how examples of integration between MMs and ML are already present in systems biology, highlighting the great potential of this hybrid approach to both at micro and macro biological scales