A trial of home-based cognitive-behavioral therapy for arthritis in a regional center

Residents of rural and regional areas often have limited access to health care professionals. This study investigated the ability of a modification of the Arthritis Basics for Change program developed by the American Arthritis Foundation to improve psychosocial functioning in a group of individuals with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis who lived in northern Queensland. The program comprised five, home-based sessions spaced over three weeks incorporating an audio CD and two 10-minute telephone consultations. A total of 34 individuals (7 males, mean age 59 years) were randomly assigned to either an intervention group or a wait list control group. Measures were administered before, after and at three-months follow up and included the Arthritis Helplessness Index, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Health Assessment Questionnaire, and the Coping Strategies Questionnaire. Improvements in both groups were noted in helplessness, anxiety, and depression following the program and at a three-month follow up. No changes were observed for pain, disability, or coping skills across time and between groups. A higher proportion of individuals in the intervention group than in the control group attained clinically significant improvement on the HADS Depression scale. Despite the small sample size, results showed that some significant gains can be made through short, specifically tailored interventions

A Trial of Home-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Arthritis in a Regional Center

Residents of rural and regional areas often have limited access to health care professionals. This study investigated the ability of a modification of the Arthritis Basics for Change program developed by the American Arthritis Foundation to improve psychosocial functioning in a group of individuals with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis who lived in northern Queensland. The program comprised five, home-based sessions spaced over three weeks incorporating an audio CD and two 10-minute telephone consultations. A total of 34 individuals (7 males, mean age 59 years) were randomly assigned to either an intervention group or a wait list control group. Measures were administered before, after and at three-months follow up and included the Arthritis Helplessness Index, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Health Assessment Questionnaire, and the Coping Strategies Questionnaire. Improvements in both groups were noted in helplessness, anxiety, and depression following the program and at a three-month follow up. No changes were observed for pain, disability, or coping skills across time and between groups. A higher proportion of individuals in the intervention group than in the control group attained clinically significant improvement on the HADS Depression scale. Despite the small sample size, results showed that some significant gains can be made through short, specifically tailored interventions

Multiparametric study of the February-April 2013 paroxysmal phase of Mt. Etna New South-East crater

Between January 2011 and April 2013, Mt. Etna's eruptive activity consisted of episodic intracrater strombolian explosions and paroxysms from Bocca Nuova, Voragine, and the New South-East (NSEC) summit craters, respectively. Eruptions from NSEC consisted of initial increasing strombolian activity and lava flow output, passing to short-lasting lava fountaining. In this study we present seismic, infrasound, radiometric, plume SO2 and HCl fluxes and geodetic data collected by the INGV monitoring system between May 2012 and April 2013. The multiparametric approach enabled characterization of NSEC eruptive activity at both daily and monthly time scales and tracking of magma movement within Mt. Etna's plumbing system. While seismic, infrasound and radiometric signals give insight on the energy and features of the 13 paroxysms fed by NSEC, SO2 and halogen fluxes shed light on the likely mechanisms triggering the eruptive phenomena. GPS data provided clear evidence of pressurization of Mt. Etna's plumbing system from May 2012 to middle February 2013 and depressurization during the February-April 2013 eruptive activity. Taking into account geochemical data, we propose that the paroxysms' sequence represented the climax of a waxing-waning phase of degassing that had started as early as December 2012, and eventually ended in April 2013. Integration of the multidisciplinary observations suggests that the February-April 2013 eruptive activity reflects a phase of release of a volatile-rich batch of magma that had been stored in the shallow volcano plumbing system at least 4 months before, and with the majority of gas released between February and March 2013

Optimization of RPCs read-out panel with electromagnetic simulation

With the upgrade of the RPCs [1]-[2] and the increase of its performances, the study and the optimization of the read-out panel is necessary in order to maintain the signal integrity and to reduce the intrinsic crosstalk. Through Electromagnetic Simulation, performed with CST Studio Suite, new panels design are tested and their crosstalk property are studied. The behavior of different type of panel is shown, in particular a panel with the decoupling strip connected through their characteristic impedance to the ground plane is simulated

A monolithic ASIC demonstrator for the Thin Time-of-Flight PET scanner

Time-of-flight measurement is an important advancement in PET scanners to improve image reconstruction with a lower delivered radiation dose. This article describes the monolithic ASIC for the TT-PET project, a novel idea for a high-precision PET scanner for small animals. The chip uses a SiGe Bi-CMOS process for timing measurements, integrating a fully-depleted pixel matrix with a low-power BJT-based front-end per channel, integrated on the same 100 µm thick die. The target timing resolution of the scanner is 30 ps RMS for electrons from the conversion of 511 keV photons. The system will include 1.6 million channels across almost 2000 different chips. A full-featured demonstrator chip with a 3×10 matrix of 500×500 µm2 pixels was fabricated to validate each block. Its design and experimental results are presented here. © 2019 CERN

Degassing behavior of Mt. Etna volcano (Italy) during 2007-2008, inferred

Studies on volcanic degassing have recently shown the important role of volatile release from active volcanoes in understanding magmatic processes prior to eruptions. Here we present and discuss the evolution of magmatic degassing that preceded and accompanied the 2008 Mt. Etna eruption. We tracked the ascent of magma bodies by high-temporal resolution measurements of SO2 emission rates and discrete sampling of SO2/HCl and SO2/HF molar ratios in the crater plume, as well as by periodic measurement of soil CO2 emission rates. Our data suggest that the first signs of upward migration of gas-rich magma before the 2008 eruption were observed in June 2007, indicated by a strong increase in soil CO2 efflux followed by a slow declining trend in SO2 flux and halogens. This degassing behavior preceded the mid-August 2007 summit activity culminated with the September 4th paroxysmal event. Five months later, a new increase in both soil CO2 and SO2 emission rates occurred before the November 23rd paroxysm, to drop down in late December. In the following months, geochemical parameters showed high variability, characterized by isolated sudden increases occurred in early December 2007 and late March 2008. In early May soil CO2, SO2 emission rates and S/Cl molar ratio gradually increased. Crater degassing peaked on May 13th marking the onset of the eruption. Eruptive activity was accompanied by a general steady-state of SO2 flux characterized by two main degassing cycles. These cycles preceded explosive activity at the eruptive vents, indicating terminal new-arrival of deep gas-rich magma bodies in the shallow plumbing system of Mt Etna. Conversely, halogens described a slight increasing trend till the end of 2008. These observations suggest an impulsive syn-eruptive dynamics of magma transfer from depth to the surface. Differently from the SO2 emission rates, the S/Cl ratio and the soil CO2 efflux values showed an increasing trend from mid-April to mid-July 2008, indicating steady-increasing input of deeper, gas-rich magma. Since August, geochemical parameters decreased, suggesting that new magma has not arrived from depth. According to our interpretation, both the CO2 efflux and the S/Cl ratio increases observed in early November may indicate a new input of fresh magma form depth. Finally, the estimated volume of degassing magma showed substantial equilibrium between degassed and erupted magma suggesting an “eruptive” steady-state of the volcano

Advocating for a Collaborative Research Approach on Transgenerational Transmission of Trauma.

Since Myers (1915) coined the term 'shell shock' to define the prolonged suffering of soldiers returning from the Great War, the psychological and physical result of distressing experiences, known as trauma, has been of academic interest. Transgenerational transmission of trauma effects has been recorded, demonstrating that on some level, the exposure to trauma of one generation can impact individuals of a subsequent generation (Yehuda & Lehrner, 2018). Observational studies on children of holocaust survivors formed the basis of this trajectory of research (Rakoff, 1966), and eventually this phenomenon became referred to as the transgenerational transmission of trauma (TTT). Since then, TTT has been observed in several contexts, including within families who have experienced high rates historical trauma (O'Neill et al., 2016), within regions high-frequencies of historical war and terrorism (Yehuda & Lehrner, 2018) and those who have undergone famine (Ahmed, 2010). This report aims to outline several pathways (biological, psychological, and sociological) by which trauma may be transmitted across generations. Moreover, it discusses several methods of trauma assessment and the related challenges and benefits. Lastly, this report advocates a biopsychosocial approach - an interdisciplinary model using the interplay of biological, psychological, and social-environmental factors - to research TTT. By promoting the benefits of such an interdisciplinary approach we attempt to break up silos between disciplines and encourage collaboration between academics from various backgrounds researching this topic to better serve individuals impacted by TTT

Semantic technologies for the production and publication of open data in ACI - Automobile club d’Italia

Semantic technologies combine knowledge representation techniques with artificial intelligence in order to achieve a more effective management of enterprise knowledge bases, thanks to the separation of the conceptual level of the applications from the logical and physical ones, and to the automatic reasoning services they deploy for data access and control. In this context, Ontology-based Data Management (OBDM) [3] has consolidated itself as a paradigm for data integration and governance, based on a three-tier architecture: the ontology, the data sources, and the mappings, which declaratively link the ontology predicates to the data in the sources. In this talk1 we present a joint project by Sapienza University of Rome, the Automobile Club d’Italia (ACI), and OKKAM S.r.l.2, a spinoff of the University of Trento. The objectives of the project were the definition of an ontology of ACI’s Public Vehicle Register (PRA) and car tax domains, the development of an OBDM system to access the data through such ontology, and the creation of a web portal for the publication of ACI’s car parc data in Linked Open format