A retrospective exploratory analysis on cardiovascular risk and cognitive dysfunction in multiple sclerosis

Background. Cardiovascular comorbidities have been associated with cognitive decline in the general population. Objectives. To evaluate the associations between cardiovascular risk and neuropsychological performances in MS. Methods. This is a retrospective study, including 69 MS patients. For all patients, we calculated the Framingham risk score, which provides the 10-year probability of developing macrovascular disease, using age, sex, diabetes, smoking, systolic blood pressure, and cholesterol levels as input variables. Cognitive function was examined with the Brief International Cognitive Assessment for MS (BICAMS), including the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), the California Verbal Learning Test-II (CVLT-II), and the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R). Results. Each point increase of the Framingham risk score corresponded to 0.21 lower CVLT-II score. Looking at Framingham risk score components, male sex and higher total cholesterol levels corresponded to lower CVLT scores (Coeff = −8.54; 95%CI = −15.51, −1.57; and Coeff = −0.11; 95%CI = −0.20, −0.02, respectively). No associations were found between cardiovascular risk and SDMT or BVMT-R. Conclusions. In our exploratory analyses, cardiovascular risk was associated with verbal learning dysfunction in MS. Lifestyle and pharmacological interventions on cardiovascular risk factors should be considered carefully in the management of MS, given the possible effects on cognitive function

La Formazione all'inclusione degli insegnanti di sostegno con Wiki e Forum

La formazione degli studenti che si specializzano per diventare insegnanti di sostegno \ue8 finalizzata a favorire lo sviluppo di un approccio inclusivo. Nel presente studio si analizza un\u2019esperienza di tirocinio in cui ci si \ue8 avvalsi delle tecnologie Wiki e Forum per favorire un approccio collaborativo. \uc8 stata condotta un\u2019analisi categoriale sulle relazioni degli studenti per rilevare gli indici di inclusione presenti. I dati hanno evidenziato un largo utilizzo di tali parametri.Training student-teachers to become specialized support teachers for classroom inclusion entails adoption of an inclusive approach. In this light we conducted a training initiative that made use of wiki and web-forum tools as a means to promote a collaborative approach. In this study we performed a categorical analysis of students\u2019 reports on the experience, identifying inclusion indexes. The collected data reveal wide-scale use of these inclusion parameters

LiteBIRD Science Goals and Forecasts. A Case Study of the Origin of Primordial Gravitational Waves using Large-Scale CMB Polarization

We study the possibility of using the $LiteBIRD$ satellite $B$-mode survey to constrain models of inflation producing specific features in CMB angular power spectra. We explore a particular model example, i.e. spectator axion-SU(2) gauge field inflation. This model can source parity-violating gravitational waves from the amplification of gauge field fluctuations driven by a pseudoscalar "axionlike" field, rolling for a few e-folds during inflation. The sourced gravitational waves can exceed the vacuum contribution at reionization bump scales by about an order of magnitude and can be comparable to the vacuum contribution at recombination bump scales. We argue that a satellite mission with full sky coverage and access to the reionization bump scales is necessary to understand the origin of the primordial gravitational wave signal and distinguish among two production mechanisms: quantum vacuum fluctuations of spacetime and matter sources during inflation. We present the expected constraints on model parameters from $LiteBIRD$ satellite simulations, which complement and expand previous studies in the literature. We find that $LiteBIRD$ will be able to exclude with high significance standard single-field slow-roll models, such as the Starobinsky model, if the true model is the axion-SU(2) model with a feature at CMB scales. We further investigate the possibility of using the parity-violating signature of the model, such as the $TB$ and $EB$ angular power spectra, to disentangle it from the standard single-field slow-roll scenario. We find that most of the discriminating power of $LiteBIRD$ will reside in $BB$ angular power spectra rather than in $TB$ and $EB$ correlations.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures. Submitted to JCA

Proactive Ergonomics in Refrigerator Concept Development

none6Abstract Proactive Ergonomics means to pre-test the human factors features of a product in an early step of development (design or prototyping), modifying it, re-performing the test and so on. The goal is to apply an iterative process to reach a final definitive solution. This work presents a case study on refrigerator concepts development based on a Design for All approach. The first design concept was created through a participatory workshop supported by reference literature data about arthropometrical and functional parameters and by results from ethnographic observation. This also led to the design of a dedicated experimental protocol for evaluating the physical ergonomics characteristics of products and mock up through a comparative analysis. Using a bestseller’s refrigerator as reference, we evaluated comparatively, our new concepts. The results were very significant and demonstrated a consistent improvement of the ergonomic quality of the concepts with respect to the standard product. The quantitative ergonomic evaluation has been validated by subjective methods.Maximiliano Romero; Fiammetta Costa ; Giuseppe Andreoni; Marco Mazzola; Juan Vargas and Luigi ConennaMaximiliano, Romero; Costa, FIAMMETTA CARLA ENRICA; Andreoni, Giuseppe; Marco, Mazzola; Juan, Vargas; Luigi, Conenn

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