Su bstance P Sti m ulates and In h ibits Intesti nal Peristalsis via Distinct Receptors1

ABSTRACT The tachykinins substance P (SP) and neurokinin A participate in the neural control of intestinal peristalsis

Intrecci linguistici. Lingue e dialetti italiani tra i giovani italoamericani nella grande area di New York

Da quando furono introdotti dai primi immigrati che si insediarono sul suolo americano, la lingua e i dialetti italiani negli Stati Uniti si sono continuamente trasformati. Sui comportamenti linguistici degli emigrati italiani all\u2019estero incisero fattori di natura sociale, culturale, geografica ed economica, nonch\ue9 le diverse ondate migratorie. In particolare, nelle comunit\ue0 italoamericane, la lingua e i dialetti italiani andarono a comporre un continuum linguistico che si accompagn\uf2 all\u2019inglese secondo combinazioni diverse e con un variegato ventaglio di forme. Questo saggio si propone di ripercorrere le tappe che hanno segnato questi cambiamenti, analizzando alcune ricerche svolte a partire dagli anni Ottanta nonch\ue9 i dati della condizione in cui versa attualmente la lingua italiana negli Stati Uniti. Vengono, inoltre, presentati i risultati legati all\u2019uso della lingua e dei dialetti, frutto di una survey condotta nel 2013 su un campione di giovani italoamericani residenti nella grande area di New York. Nonostante le differenze tra le diverse generazioni d\u2019immigrazione dei giovani partecipanti allo studio, emerge come vi sia, soprattutto nelle nuove generazioni di italoamericani, una tendenza alla ripresa di interesse verso la lingua delle origini e i dialetti, espressa anche attraverso la volont\ue0 di trasmetterla ai propri figli

Survey and perspectives of vehicular Wi-Fi versus sidelink cellular-V2X in the 5G era

The revolution of cooperative connected and automated vehicles is about to begin and a key milestone is the introduction of short range wireless communications between cars. Given the tremendous expected market growth, two different technologies have been standardized by international companies and consortia, namely IEEE 802.11p, out for nearly a decade, and short range cellular-vehicle-to-anything (C-V2X), of recent definition. In both cases, evolutions are under discussion. The former is only decentralized and based on a sensing before transmitting access, while the latter is based on orthogonal resources that can be also managed by an infrastructure. Although studies have been conducted to highlight advantages and drawbacks of both, doubts still remain. In this work, with a reference to the literature and the aid of large scale simulations in realistic urban and highway scenarios, we provide an insight in such a comparison, also trying to isolate the contribution of the physical and medium access control layers

TRUDI: Testing environment for vehicular applications running with devices in the loop

Vehicles will be equipped with short-range wireless technologies with the aim to improve safety and traffic efficiency. Novel applications are thus being implemented for future cars and trucks, and one of the main issues is how to conduct tests and optimizations in an effective way, limiting the need to perform costly and time consuming experiments on the road. To cope with this issue, we have implemented a simulator with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), called TRUDI, where the hardware and the implemented applications are tested in the laboratory by injecting virtual positions of the vehicles with the support of a traffic simulator. TRUDI acts as a man-in-the-middle between the communication module and the application itself, making it possible to perform tests with the real devices and providing as an output a system ready for the road. Using TRUDI, it is possible to check the application with a few vehicles and real wireless devices or many vehicles using simulated communication components before moving to experiments on the road. As an example use case, an application for the intersection management is presented, where the driver is warned of the presence and speed of other vehicles approaching the same junction

Augmented biofeedback rehabilitation in trunk control in spinal cord injury

The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and the efficacy of a rehabilitation protocol with augmented biofeedback (both audio and visual, AVBF) in subjects with spinal cord injuries (SCI) for improving trunk postural control. Ten subjects with SCI (lesion level range C6-T6) were evaluated and trained at the Montecatone Rehabilitation Institute. Patients were randomly assigned to a treatment group (TG, 6 patients) and to a control group (CG, 4 patients). For 15 days, the TG patients followed an experimental training with AVBF for 20 minutes daily, in addition to a conventional therapy, whereas CG patients had only conventional therapy for 120 minutes daily. An AVBF system, previously developed by Chiari, was used to provide subjects with two different designs of either AVBF of the acceleration sensed using a twodimensional accelerometer, while patients were seated comfortably in their wheelchair. Both AVBF were generated in real-time based on this signal. The AVBF induced a significant reduction (from the first session of AVBF use, p=0.004 to the last day of program, p=0.02) in the antero-posterior trunk sway amplitude, with respect to trials without AVBF, in the TG. In addition, trunk sway amplitude in the TG was reduced with respect to CG starting from the first session of AVBF (p=0.007) to the last day of therapy (p=0.009). The presented results, whereas preliminary, showed the efficacy of the AVBF in comparison with conventional therapy in increasing self-control to continuously adjust trunk movements in order to re-establish a correct voluntary trunk seated posture

Functional and clinical outcomes of telemedicine in patients with spinal cord injury.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the 6-month outcomes of telerehabilitation intervention with those of standard care for spinal cord injury (SCI). DESIGN: Multicenter randomized controlled trial. SETTING: Home, nursing, or unspecialized hospital care provided after discharge from a spinal cord unit. PARTICIPANTS: Adult patients with nonprogressive, complete, or incomplete SCI discharged for the first time from the spinal cord unit to their homes (Belgium and Italy) or to their homes or another facility (England). INTERVENTIONS: All patients received the standard care they would have normally received after discharge from the spinal cord unit. In addition, patients in the telemedicine group received 8 telemedicine weekly sessions in the first 2 months, followed by biweekly telemedicine sessions for 4 months. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Functional status at 6 months, clinical complications during the postdischarge period, and patient satisfaction. RESULTS: No significant differences in the occurrence of clinical complications were found between the study groups. A higher improvement of functional scores in the telemedicine group was found only at the Italian site: FIM total score 3.38+/-4.43 (controls) versus 7.69+/-6.88 (telemedicine group), FIM motor score 3.24+/-4.38 (controls) versus 7.55+/-7.00 (telemedicine group;

A Hardware-in-the-Loop Evaluation of the Impact of the V2X Channel on the Traffic-Safety Versus Efficiency Trade-offs

Vehicles are increasingly becoming connected and short-range wireless communications promise to introduce a radical change in the drivers' behaviors. Among the main use cases, the intersection management is surely one of those that could mostly impact on both traffic safety and efficiency. In this work, we consider an intersection collision warning application and exploit an hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) platform to verify the impact on the risk of accidents as well as the average time to travel a given distance. Besides including real ITS-G5 compliant message exchanges, the platform also includes a channel emulator with real signals. Results show that the risk of collisions can be drastically reduced, with an overall trade-off between safety and traffic efficiency. At the same time, it is shown that the presence of real channel conditions cannot guarantee the same condition of zero-risk as with ideal channel propagation, remarking the importance of channel conditions and signal processing