A randomized, multicenter, controlled study, comparing efficacy and safety of a new complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) versus Solifenacin Succinate in women with overactive bladder syndrome

Introduction: To assess efficacy and tolerability of a new complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) consisting of vitamins (C and D), herbal products (cucurbita maxima, capsicum annum, polygonum capsicatum) and amino acid L-Glutammina, in the treatment of female Overactive Bladder syndrome (OAB). Materials and methods: 90 consecutive women with OAB symptoms were enrolled in this prospective, randomized, controlled study. Women were divided randomly into two groups of 45 patients each. In group A, women received Solifenacin Succinate (SS), 5 mg. once a day for 12 weeks. In group B, women received CAM, 930 mg, twice daily for 12 weeks. Women were assessed with 3-day micturition diary, Patient Perception of Intensity of Urgency Scale (PPIUS), Overactive Bladder questionnaire Short Form (OAB-q SF) and Patient Global Impression of Improvement questionnaire (PGI-I). Results: 8 patients in group A and 1 patient in group B dropped out from therapy because of side effects. A reduction in the number of daily micturitions, nocturia and episodes of urge incontinence was present with both SS and CAM with statistically highly significant differences, but CAM was significantly more effective than SS. PPIUS and OAB-q SF showed improvements with both SS and CAM with a more significant efficacy of CAM. PGI-I, demonstrated improvements in the two groups of patients with a greater satisfaction expressed by patients treated with CAM. Conclusions: the small number of patients does not permit definitive conclusions; however, the results of the research showed the greater effectiveness and tolerability of CAM

Documentario Archeologico 'Milano-Mediolanum: viaggio nella memoria della città antica'

3nonenonePeyronel, Luca; Prezioso, Francesco; Farioli Vecchioli, EugenioPeyronel, Luca; Prezioso, Francesco; Farioli Vecchioli, Eugeni

An Exploration Method for General Robotic Systems Equipped with Multiple Sensors

This paper presents a novel method for sensor-based exploration of unknown environments by a general robotic system equipped with multiple sensors. The method is based on the incremental generation of a configuration-space data structure called Sensor-based Exploration Tree (SET). The expansion of the SET is driven by information at the world level, where the perception process takes place. In particular, the frontiers of the explored region efficiently guide the search for informative view configurations. Different exploration strategies may be obtained by instantiating the general SET method with different sampling techniques. Two such strategies are presented and compared by simulations in non-trivial 2D and 3D worlds. A completeness analysis of SET is given in the paper

A randomized, multicenter, controlled study, comparing efficacy and safety of a new complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) versus Solifenacin Succinate in women with overactive bladder syndrome

Introduction: To assess efficacy and tolerability of a new complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) consisting of vitamins (C and D), herbal products (cucurbita maxima, capsicum annum, polygonum capsicatum) and amino acid L-Glutammina, in the treatment of female Overactive Bladder syndrome (OAB). Materials and methods: 90 consecutive women with OAB symptoms were enrolled in this prospective, randomized, controlled study. Women were divided randomly into two groups of 45 patients each. In group A, women received Solifenacin Succinate (SS), 5 mg. once a day for 12 weeks. In group B, women received CAM, 930 mg, twice daily for 12 weeks. Women were assessed with 3-day micturition diary, Patient Perception of Intensity of Urgency Scale (PPIUS), Overactive Bladder questionnaire Short Form (OAB-q SF) and Patient Global Impression of Improvement questionnaire (PGI-I). Results: 8 patients in group A and 1 patient in group B dropped out from therapy because of side effects. A reduction in the number of daily micturitions, nocturia and episodes of urge incontinence was present with both SS and CAM with statistically highly significant differences, but CAM was significantly more effective than SS. PPIUS and OAB-q SF showed improvements with both SS and CAM with a more significant efficacy of CAM. PGI-I, demonstrated improvements in the two groups of patients with a greater satisfaction expressed by patients treated with CAM. Conclusions: the small number of patients does not permit definitive conclusions; however, the results of the research showed the greater effectiveness and tolerability of CAM

Geolocation accuracy investigations with Sentinel-1

This contribution analyses the geolocation accuracy of Sentinel-1 in the IW mode. Considering the geolocation accuracy has been investigated in the frame of the corresponding commissioning phases for the S1A and S1B units, this contribution is focused on certain aspects not addressed before. On the first place, the 2D (range / azimuth) geolocation accuracy will be addressed by taking into account certain processing aspects that are currently not being corrected by the operational Sentinel-1 processor. On the second place, the geolocation accuracy is also evaluated in elevation by exploiting a stack of images and the corresponding spread of the perpendicular baselines in order to perform imaging in the direction perpendicular to the line of sight, i.e., tomographic imaging. The following two paragraphs are dedicated to describe both investigations. In order to perform the analysis, an ascending stack of Sentienl-1A images acquired over DLR s calibration test site close to Munich has been used, which is composed of 18 images acquired between November 25, 2015 and July 22, 2016

Detection of Building and Infrastructure Instabilities by Automatic Spatiotemporal Analysis of Satellite SAR Interferometry Measurements

Satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry (InSAR) is a powerful technology to monitor slow ground surface movements. However, the extraction and interpretation of information from big sets of InSAR measurements is a complex and demanding task. In this paper, a new method is presented for automatically detecting potential instability risks affecting buildings and infrastructures, by searching for anomalies in the persistent scatterer (PS) deformations, either in the spatial or in the temporal dimensions. In the spatial dimension, in order to reduce the dataset size and improve data reliability, we utilize a hierarchical clustering method to obtain convergence points that are more trustworthy. Then, we detect deformations characterized by large values and spatial inhomogeneity. In the temporal dimension, we use a signal processing method to decompose the input into two main components: regular periodic deformations and piecewise linear deformations. After removing the periodic component, the velocity variation in each identified temporal partition is analyzed to detect anomalous velocity trends and accelerations. The method has been tested on different sites in China, based on InSAR measurements from COSMO-SkyMed data. The results, verified with in-field surveys, confirm the potential of the method for the automatic detection of deformation anomalies that could cause building or infrastructure stability problems