Efficacy of Overground Robotic Gait Training on Balance in Stroke Survivors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Strokes often lead to a deficit in motor control that contributes to a reduced balance function. Impairments in the balance function severely limit the activities of daily living (ADL) in stroke survivors. The present systematic review and meta-analysis primarily aims to explore the efficacy of overground robot-assisted gait training (o-RAGT) on balance recovery in individuals with stroke. In addition, the efficacy on ADL is also investigated. This systematic review identified nine articles investigating the effects of o-RAGT on balance, four of which also assessed ADL. The results of the meta-analysis suggest that o-RAGT does not increase balance and ADL outcomes more than conventional therapy in individuals after stroke. The data should not be overestimated due to the low number of studies included in the meta-analysis and the wide confidence intervals. Subgroup analyses to investigate the influence of participant’s characteristics and training dosage were not performed due to lack of data availability. Further well-designed randomized controlled trials are needed to investigate the efficacy of o-RAGT on balance in individuals with stroke

SCAN TO HBIM FOR COMPLEX REFLECTIVE METAL ARTEFACTS. 3D DIGITISATION AND RESTORATION

3D digitisation of metal artefacts, regardless of the use of passive and active sensors and low or high costs technologies (digital photogrammetry, laser scanning, structured light 3D scanning) represents a challenge above all due to the high reflectivity, absorptivity and scattering of the materials, as documented by the specialistic literature (Frost et al., 2020, Hallot et al., 2019, Nicolae et al., 2014). Regardless of the size and material, mobility and immobility of the elements, artworks preservation and restoration involve intervention and collaboration between different specialists, such as restorers, conservators, diagnosts, architects, surveyors, modelers, archaeologists and art historians. This multidisciplinary process requires a virtual container aimed at systematisation and sharing of digital products and data deriving from heterogeneous diagnostic and applicative activities (Farella et al. 2022, Ferretti et al. 2022, Fiamma 2019). According to these premises, this paper shows a low-cost Scan to HBIM process aimed at digitisation of a complex reflective metal artefact, an altar frontal composed of several pieces characterized by different metal materials, functions, sizes and topological complexity (level of decorative detail). Therefore, this system is approached considering its individual components and its morphological-compositional complexity as a unique piece. The entire process has been tested both in research and didactic field, using low-cost tools for acquisition (cameras, smartphones, computers) and software open source for processing, filtering, editing and sculpting digital photogrammetric copies of highly reflective artefacts

Outpatient therapeutic chronic opioid consumption in Italy: a one-year survey.

BACKGROUND: In Italy since the 38/2010 law concerning Palliative Care and pain therapy has been promulgated, the consumption of opioids started increasing. However, despite the availability of a large amount of data regarding opioid prescription, a database including all patients on chronic opioid therapy does not yet exist. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of analgesic opioid consumption was performed between January 2013 and December 2013 using the data of national refunded medications for outpatients, collected by Italian Ministry of Health. We considered patients on chronic opioid therapy those patients with at least three opioids prescriptions in three consecutive months and/or six opioid prescriptions in six even not consecutive months in the observation period. We considered cancer patients those with neoplasm exemption code in the scheduled prescription and/or patients with at least one ROOs prescription (rapid onset opioids, approved in Italy for Break Through cancer Pain-BTcP- only). We also calculated the patient's morphine daily mean dose (MED) converting all prescribed opioids in equivalent of morphine using specific conversion tables. RESULTS: This census revealed a total of 422,542 patients in chronic therapy with opioids, of those 369.961 with chronic non-cancer pain and 52,581 with chronic cancer pain. This represents about 4% of the estimated requirement in Italy for both groups based on previous surveys regarding the prevalence of chronic pain. CONCLUSIONS: Relatively to MED, We found that in Italy chronic cancer pain patients receive doses similar to patients with cancer pain in other Literature reports, whereas patients with chronic non-cancer pain received lower dosages

Stratigrafia ed assetto geometrico dell’Unità del Sannio nel settore settentrionale dei monti del Matese

New stratigraphic and biostratigraphic data arising from the realization of the Sheet No. 405 "Campobasso" of the new Geological map of Italy (1:50.000 scale - CARG Project) allowed, for the first time in this area, to stratigraphically and cartographically define all the ranges composing the basinal Sannio Unit Auct.. Structural analysis and the chronostratigraphic redefinition of siliciclastic deposits covering the Sannio Unit and the carbonate platform successions of the Matese- Frosolone Units, indicate two main evolutionary stages in the Miocene- Pliocene structuring of this portion of the Southern Apennines. In the first stage, starting before Serravallian times, E-verging contraction affected exclusively the basinal units together with their siliciclastic cover. During the second stage, beginning after early Messinian times, NE-verging compression involved both the basinal Sannio Unit and the Matese-Frosolone Units.UnpublishedISPRA - Roma, Italy2.2. Laboratorio di paleomagnetismorestricte

Fault & Fracture Development in Foreland Fold and Thrust Belts - Insight from the Lurestan Province, Zagros Mountains, Iran

Second Arabian Plate Geology Workshop Abu Dhabi, UAE, 24 - 27 January 2010The Simply Folded Belt of the Zagros Mountains, Iran, represents one of the best examples of foreland fold and thrust belt. A regional fault and fracture analysis of the Cenomanian ¿ Coniacian Ilam and Sarvak formations, exposed in southern Lurestan Province, is presented as a case study for fault and fracture development in folded belts. The area is characterised by the occurrence of gentle to tight anticlines and synclines whose NW-SE axial traces are parallel to the general trend of the belt. Fold style is intimately related to both vertical and lateral facies distribution. The two formations belong to the Bangestan Group and, in this area, they represent the oldest strata exposed in the core of most anticlines outcropping at surface. Distribution, kinematics and timing of faults and fractures have been characterised through extensive fieldwork and interpretation of orthorectified QuickBird imagery and 3-D virtual outcrop models based on LiDAR technology. Data have been collected from 10 anticlines covering an area of approximately 150 x 150 km. Key outcrops for fracture and fault kinematics interpretations are presented. Field observations and interpretation of QuickBird and 3-D photorealistic models suggest a complex fault and fracture geometry and timing relationship. Both fractures and faults record pre-folding to uplift-related deformations. Pre-folding structures are typically represented by small-scale, flat-ramp-flat geometry thrusts, systematic veins and stylolites, which are superimposed on inherited syn-sedimentary normal faults. Folding-related structures generally reactivated pre-existing fracture and fault planes. Strike-slip faulting is typically recorded as the last faulting event and is probably related to late stage of fold tightening. All structures are geometrically and kinematically consistent with the trend of the Arabian passive margin and its subsequent tectonic inversion. Uplift and stress release induced opening and propagation of through-going fractures. Faults and fracture orientations generally change accordingly with local fold trend. Symmetry between fracture and fold orientation, although commonly interpreted as evidence for folding-related fracture development, is here interpreted as evidence of syn- to post-folding local vertical axis passive rotation

Lower plate geometry controlling the development of a thrust-top basin: The tectonosedimentary evolution of the ofanto basin (Southern Apennines)

The Ofanto basin is a Pliocene-Pleistocene thrust-top basin that formed with an unusual east-west orientation along the frontal part of the Southern Apennine Allochthon during the latest stages of tectonic transport. Its tectonic and sedimentary evolution was studied integrating field surveys, biostratigraphic analyses and the interpretation of a large seismic grid. Well data and seismic interpretation indicate that a large east-west-trending normal fault underlies the northern margin of the basin, displacing the Apulian carbonates that form the foreland and the footwall of the Southern Apennine Allochthon. In our reconstruction the Ofanto basin formed at the rear of the bulge caused by buttressing of the Southern Apennine Allochthon against this normal fault. In a second stage of contraction, the footwall of the Southern Apennine Allochthon was involved in deformation with a different trend from the normal faulting and buttressing. This caused eastward tilting of the basin and broad folding around its eastern termination. Good stratigraphic constraints permit the age of buttressing to be defined as Early Pliocene, and that of the shortening in the Apulian carbonates as Early Pleistocene. This study highlights the importance of early orogenic normal faults in conditioning the evolution of the frontal parts of orogenic wedges.This is a contribution of the Group of Dynamics of the Lithosphere (GDL) supported by the projects TopoMed CGL2008e03474-E/BTE, ESF-Eurocores 07-TOPOEuROPE-FP006, and Consolider-Ingenio 2010 Topo-Iberia (CSD2006e00041).Peer Reviewe

Extensional detachment faulting on the tyrrhenian margin of the Southern Apennines contractional belt (Italy)

The tectonic evolution of the Campania margin during the late Pliocene–Pleistocene is characterized by extensional deformation coeval with the opening of the Marsili oceanic basin. The initial stages of stretching are represented in the analysed area by the development of low-angle normal faults that extended the belt in the same direction as the direction of spreading recognized for the oceanic basin. Detachment faulting was accompanied by the onset of magmatic activity and by major uplifts that resulted in the accumulation of thick conglomerate successions in the half-grabens that developed in the upper plate of the extensional detachment. Deformation continued during the Mid-Pleistocene with the formation of strike- slip and normal faults trending almost parallel to the spreading direction of the Marsili basin. These faults dissected the extensional detachment and promoted counter-clockwise block rotations about vertical axes, which accommodated the ESE-directed stretching of the Marsili basin and the consequent sinistral shear imposed on the southern Apennine chain. The development of a regional detachment fault along the Tyrrhenian margin of Campania explains the complex patterns of subsidence and uplift that characterize this area during the Pleistocene and fits well within the regional geodynamic framework of the southern Tyrrhenian Sea