11th European Headache Federation Congress jointly with 31st Congress of the Italian Society for the Study of Headaches : Rome, Italy. 01-03 December 2017

. Aims of the study were explore the relationship between peripheral chromatic and central visual dysfunction evaluating also the presence of functional receptor impairment in patients with migraine, with and without aura examined interictally

On the Modeling of Transcatheter Therapies for the Aortic and Mitral Valves: A Review

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has become a milestone for the management of aortic stenosis in a growing number of patients who are unfavorable candidates for surgery. With the new generation of transcatheter heart valves (THV), the feasibility of transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR) for degenerated mitral bioprostheses and failed annuloplasty rings has been demonstrated. In this setting, computational simulations are modernizing the preoperative planning of transcatheter heart valve interventions by predicting the outcome of the bioprosthesis interaction with the human host in a patient-specific fashion. However, computational modeling needs to carry out increasingly challenging levels including the verification and validation to obtain accurate and realistic predictions. This review aims to provide an overall assessment of the recent advances in computational modeling for TAVR and TMVR as well as gaps in the knowledge limiting model credibility and reliability

Contribution of the light filth method to the Integrated Pest Management of a flour mill

An important contribution to Integrated Pest Management in stored-product protection can be provided by the light-filth method since it gives particular attention to the extraneous particles contaminating food (such as insects, insect fragments, mites, hairs, feather barbules, etc.), extending to the identification of the material from which they have originated or the animals and vegetables from which they derive or have been part of in the past. In this regard, semolina produced by an industrial mill (processing 500 t of durum wheat per day) located in South Italy was examined for light filth according to the method established by Italian regulation. During the investigations we verified the presence of insect fragments in 250 semolina samples collected from June 2008 to July 2009. Our results show that the number of insect fragments found in the samples (from 0 to 15 fragments per 50 g semolina) remained below the limit of 75 fragments per 50 g flour established by the Italian regulation. The fragments of arthropods found in the semolina samples had different origins. Numerous fragments came from both immature and adult insects infesting plants of wheat in fields (thrips and aphids); many other fragments belong to internal feeding insects and external feeding insects (Sitophilus spp., Rhyzopertha dominica, Tribolium spp., Cryptolestes spp., Oryzaephilus spp., and Nemapogon granellus) which are able to infest cereals during post-harvest processing or to colonize millrooms in which dusts, cereal debris, and flour residues are present. We also found fragments associable to structural pests like flies and psocids that are present in environments contaminated by mould spores and fungal hyphae. The results revealed that the fumigation of the mill realized in August 2008 did not modify the number of fragments contaminating the semolina, which remained at the same level during the 14 months of the experiment. Keywords: Light filth, Semolina, IPM, Flour mill, Italy

Determinants associated with obesity and physical activity in the public and private schools of the city of palermo

Introduction: Obesity is a medical condition associated with premature death and it is a risk factor for many chronic diseases. In this context, performing a regular physical activity promotes a healthy lifestyle, with significant health benefits. The aim of the study was to investigate behaviors that increase the risk of obesity and the determinants that encourage physical activity among adolescents. Materials and methods: The HBSC (Health Behavior in School-aged Children) questionnaire was administered to students in Palermo's private and public schools. For the sampling of public schools the protocol of the HBSC Surveillance System was followed; for the private ones it was opportunistic. Results: Private school students are more likely to exercise more than 3 days per week (OR 1.58) and are more likely to exercise more than 2 times a week (OR 2.08). Obese students in private schools in Palermo are more likely to perform physical activity for less than 3 days a week (OR 3.52) and a higher risk of not having breakfast (OR 10.11) and a snack between main meals (OR 3.82) every day. For all the schools examined, it emerged that obese subjects are more likely not to consume fruit (OR 3.13), to stay more than 6 hours a day in front of PCs and video games (OR 3.24) and more than 2 hours a day in front of TV (OR 3.79). Male students are more likely to perform physical activity for more than 3 days per week (OR 1.48) and intense physical activity at least 2 times per week (OR 1.76) Conclusions: It is necessary to intervene early with training on school and family in order to promote correct and responsible food choices and increase the level of physical activity among students. Therefore prevention interventions must be an integral part of coherent strategies based on tests of agreed effectiveness in order to minimize the risk linked to the development of diseases

Local and nonlocal solvable structures in ODEs reduction

Solvable structures, likewise solvable algebras of local symmetries, can be used to integrate scalar ODEs by quadratures. Solvable structures, however, are particularly suitable for the integration of ODEs with a lack of local symmetries. In fact, under regularity assumptions, any given ODE always admits solvable structures even though finding them in general could be a very difficult task. In practice a noteworthy simplification may come by computing solvable structures which are adapted to some admitted symmetry algebra. In this paper we consider solvable structures adapted to local and nonlocal symmetry algebras of any order (i.e., classical and higher). In particular we introduce the notion of nonlocal solvable structure

Uniform non-stoichiometric titanium nitride thin films for improved kinetic inductance detector array

We describe the fabrication of homogeneous sub-stoichiometric titanium nitride films for microwave kinetic inductance detector (mKID) arrays. Using a 6 inch sputtering target and a homogeneous nitrogen inlet, the variation of the critical temperature over a 2 inch wafer was reduced to <25 %. Measurements of a 132-pixel mKID array from these films reveal a sensitivity of 16 kHz/pW in the 100 GHz band, comparable to the best aluminium mKIDs. We measured a noise equivalent power of NEP = 3.6e-15 W/Hz^(1/2). Finally, we describe possible routes to further improve the performance of these TiN mKID arrays.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Journal of low temperature physics, Proceedings of LTD-1