34 research outputs found
Requirements for cabin crew medical examinations and assessments
The aim of the current study is to review current regulations relatively to medical requirements necessary to achieve suitability to fly of the cabin crew. There are three classes of flight crew medical standards and licensing. A first class medical certificate is required for all pilots who perform professional flights or skydiving instructors. A second class medical certificate is required only for persons who do not perform professional flights, skydiving activities or any other professional activity related to aircraft piloting (cabin crew, holders of Light Aircraft Pilot’s Licence - LAPL, remote pilot operators). Finally, a third class medical certificate is required for workers engaged in air traffic control
Post vaccinal temporary sensorineural hearing loss
In our systematic research we identified four studies concerning the onset of neurological adverse events following vaccination and two excluding this association. A 33-year-old Italian man, belonging to the Italian Army was hospitalized because he suffered from vertigo, nausea and sudden right hearing loss not classified (NDD), that set in 24 h after the administration of tetanus-diphtheria and meningococcal vaccines. Some neurological events arising after vaccination are very difficult to treat. In our case, the functional recovery on low and medium frequencies was possible about 6 months after the morbid event
ADDICTIONS SUBSTANCE FREE DURING LIFESPAN
The addictions substance free is an umbrella definition comprises internet addiction, sexual addiction, gambling pathological, workholism, videogames and computer addiction. Actually, the technological addictions is frequent in young adolescents. The term Digital Natives indicates the children born in an information system of learning and communication different from that of the generations previous. This temporal range was strongly characterized by growing presence of technological communication toolsin daily life. The effects of hyper-exposition to technological tools tend to create a relational virtuality without a body is born,therefore, already within the family ties and during adolescence he moved to the digital socialization network. The technological object it interacts between the adolescent and the world of peers and adults, becoming the facilitator object that as the psychotropic substance, it conveys new modes of communicatio
Neuropsychological Alterations in Children Affected by Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome
Sleep-related breathing disorders are a group of clinical conditions ranging from habitual snoring to obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) during the lifespan. In children, other risk factors are represented by adenotonsillar hypertrophy, rhinitis, nasal structure alteration, cleft palate, velopharyngeal flap surgery, pharyngeal masses, craniofacial malformations, genetic syndrome (i.e. Down syndrome, Crouzon syndrome, and Apert syndrome), genetic hypoplasia mandibular (i.e. Pierre Robin syndrome, Treacher Collins syndrome, Shy-Drager syndrome, and Cornelia De Lange syndrome), craniofacial traumas, chronic or seasonal rhinitis, asthma, neuromuscular syndromes, brainstem pathologies (i.e. Arnold-Chiari malformation and Joubert syndrome), achondroplasia, and mucopolysaccharidosis. OSAS may affect the executive functioning such as motivational ability, planning, behavior modulation, ability to complete an action program, identification of functional strategies to achieve the goal, problem solving, flexibility, monitoring and self-assessment of behavior in relation to results, change of task, or behavior in the light of emerging information, which may be all impaired by nocturnal intermittent hypoxia also during the developmental age. The clinical presentation of OSAS can mimic other neurobehavioral symptoms, such as ADHD syndrome, learning problems, or can exacerbate the Fragile X syndrome, and generalized non-convulsive epilepsy symptoms
Neuropsychological Alterations in Children Affected by Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome
Sleep-related breathing disorders are a group of clinical conditions ranging from
habitual snoring to obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) during the lifespan.
In children, other risk factors are represented by adenotonsillar hypertrophy, rhinitis,
nasal structure alteration, cleft palate, velopharyngeal flap surgery, pharyngeal
masses, craniofacial malformations, genetic syndrome (i.e. Down syndrome,
Crouzon syndrome, and Apert syndrome), genetic hypoplasia mandibular (i.e.
Pierre Robin syndrome, Treacher Collins syndrome, Shy-Drager syndrome, and
Cornelia De Lange syndrome), craniofacial traumas, chronic or seasonal rhinitis,
asthma, neuromuscular syndromes, brainstem pathologies (i.e. Arnold-Chiari
malformation and Joubert syndrome), achondroplasia, and mucopolysaccharidosis.
OSAS may affect the executive functioning such as motivational ability, planning,
behavior modulation, ability to complete an action program, identification of
functional strategies to achieve the goal, problem solving, flexibility, monitoring
and self-assessment of behavior in relation to results, change of task, or behavior
in the light of emerging information, which may be all impaired by nocturnal
intermittent hypoxia also during the developmental age. The clinical presentation
of OSAS can mimic other neurobehavioral symptoms, such as ADHD syndrome,
learning problems, or can exacerbate the Fragile X syndrome, and generalized nonconvulsive
epilepsy symptoms
A Submillimetre Search for Cold Extended Debris Disks in the Beta Pictoris Moving Group
The Beta Pictoris Moving Group is a nearby stellar association of young
(12Myr) co-moving stars including the classical debris disk star beta Pictoris.
Due to their proximity and youth they are excellent targets when searching for
submillimetre emission from cold, extended, dust components produced by
collisions in Kuiper-Belt-like disks. They also allow an age independent study
of debris disk properties as a function of other stellar parameters. We
observed 7 infrared-excess stars in the Beta Pictoris Moving Group with the
LABOCA bolometer array, operating at a central wavelength of 870 micron at the
12-m submillimetre telescope APEX. The main emission at these wavelengths comes
from large, cold dust grains, which constitute the main part of the total dust
mass, and hence, for an optically thin case, make better estimates on the total
dust mass than earlier infrared observations. Fitting the spectral energy
distribution with combined optical and infrared photometry gives information on
the temperature and radial extent of the disk. From our sample, beta Pic,
HD181327, and HD172555 were detected with at least 3-sigma certainty, while all
others are below 2-sigma and considered non-detections. The image of beta Pic
shows an offset flux density peak located near the south-west extension of the
disk, similar to the one previously found by SCUBA at the JCMT. We present SED
fits for detected sources and give an upper limit on the dust mass for
undetected ones. We find a mean fractional dust luminosity f_dust=11x10^{-4} at
t=12Myr, which together with recent data at 100Myr suggests an f_dust propto
t^{-alpha} decline of the emitting dust, with alpha > 0.8.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables; accepted for publication in Astronomy
& Astrophysic
Growing up -the completion of the VLTI
Abstract. The completed VLTI with eight Delay Lines and eight ATs forms the basis for the second generation instrumentation. We describe the events up to first fringes with the test instrument VINCI using the siderostats, and the planning for the immediate future. Multi beam combination for 'smoother images' will be briefly discussed as well as artificial guide stars for fringe tracking. New technological developments like fiber optics amplifiers and integrated optics in combination with STJ open the door for a new type of interferometric arrays. Baselines as long as a a few kilometres come into reach. Examples of these second generation interferometers will be given
The transcranial stimulation with direct currents (tdcs): An historical and conceptual minireview
Transcranial Stimulation with Direct Currents (tDCS) is a method for non invasive brain stimulation created to induce functional changes in cerebral cortex. tDCS consists of application on the scalp of electrodes providing a low intensity direct current influencing neuronal functions. tDCS is not the only neurostimulation method for neuroscience clinical practice and research and can be used for treat many different clinical conditions such as migraine prevention, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), cerebral palsy rehabilitation, post-traumatic brain injury neuropsychological disorders
3D X-RAY MICRO-CT INTERNAL TEXTURE OF I-TYPE COSMIC SPHERULES
Introduction: Micrometeorites (MMs) are microscopic particles, collected at the Earth’s surface and mainly
produced by collisions among solid bodies and by surface evaporation of icy bodies in the Solar System [1]. As
such, they provide important information on the compositon of their parent bodies including those that are not sampled
by meteorites.
I-type cosmic spherules (CS) are dark, opaque, melted micrometeorites dominated by magnetite (Fe3O4) and
wüstite (FeO) crystals. I-type CS frequently contain μm-sized Ni-rich Fe,Ni metal beads [2] as well as μm- and nmsized
platinum-group element (PGE) nuggets [3].
The aim of this work is twofold: 1) to study the internal textural and structural components (i.e. iron oxides domains,
metal beads, PGE nuggets, cavities) of the I-type CS, 2) to characterize the distribution of the metal beads
and PGE nuggets and estimate their relative volume/mass.
Samples: I-type CS have been collected in loose sediments sampled on the tops of the Transantarctic Mountains
[4] during the 2012-13 and 2014-15 Italian Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide (PNRA) campaign. In
Antarctic MMs collections the abundance of I-type spherules is typically less than 2% [5]. Our collection consists of
over 3000 MMs. Among these 107 (3.2% of the total) are I-type CS. For this study we have selected 52 I-type CS,
ranging from 200 to 800 μm in diameter and 2 with diameters <150 μm. They look fresh (unweathered) under the
stereomicroscope-SEM and provide excellent material for our study.
Methods: The external morphology of CS has been described by SEM analyses. Subsequently, non-destructive
mapping of I-type CS has been carried out by X-ray microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) using a Zeiss Xradia
520 Versa 3D X-ray microscope, at the Electrochemical Innovation Lab, part of the Department of Chemical Engineering
of University College London. The microscope was operated at 140 kV with a high energy filter in place
(HE1) and an optical magnification of 20X.
Results and Discussion: So far 3D tomographic reconstructions on 7 CS have been performed. They allowed: 1)
Distinction of four components, i.e. the cavities, the iron oxide domains, the metal beads and the PGE nuggets; 2)
Estimation of the true 3D Bead-Volume/Total-Volume ratio and its relationship with the size of the spherules. This
allow to obtain atmospheric flight parameters of the spherules. For instance, numerical modeling indicates that metal
survival in particles with radius ≥100 μm occur at steep entry angle (>40°) and high entry velocity (>16 km s-1) [6].
3) Characterization of void distribution. Irregular cavities are frequently observed in I-type CS. They are interpreted
as: (i) the result of contraction due to quenching after atmospheric heating [7]; (ii) the product of gaseous
exsolution (e.g. O2, SO2) during cooling of iron oxide liquids. 4) Speculate on the origin of the peculiar webstructure
of the oxide phases resulting from wüstite domains surrounded by magnetite.
More samples are being analyzed in the next weeks. Results will be discussed at the Meeting
Development of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and military service: a case report
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a neurovegetative disease, and some studies point out a major risk of ALS in people who have served in
the armed forces. In this case report we present an Italian case of ALS in a senior officer of the Italian Arm