PET and P300 Relationships in Early Alzheimer\u27s Disease

The P300 (P3) wave of the auditory brain event-related potential was investigated in patients with probable Alzheimer\u27s disease to determine whether P300 latency discriminated these patients from controls and whether prolonged P300 latency correlated with rates of brain glucose metabolism as measured by Positron Emission Tomography. P300 latency was prolonged by more than 1.5 standard deviations from age expectancy in 14 of 18 patients, but none of 17 controls. In these subjects P300 latency was shown to be inversely correlated with relative metabolic rates of parietal and, to a lesser extent, temporal and frontal association areas, but not with subcortical areas

Silent Sinus Syndrome and Williams Syndrome: Two Rare Diseases Found in a Pediatric Patient

Silent sinus syndrome (SSS) is a rare disease process characterized by progressive enophthalmos and hypoglobus due to ipsilateral maxillary sinus hypoplasia and orbital floor resorption. Patients may also present with eye asymmetry, unilateral ptosis, or diplopia. Most reported cases in the literature describe its occurrence in adults, but it can also affect children. The etiology remains speculative, even though the most accepted theory is that during the first or second decade of life, occlusion of the maxillary ostium causes an interruption in normal sinus development. Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic, multisystem disorder characterized by a constellation of distinctive phenotypic features, including psychomotor delay and cardiovascular abnormalities. We report a case of a 7-year-old female diagnosed at 1 year old with WS and who gradually developed SSS. This last condition was diagnosed at 7 years of age, when she started showing progressive facial asymmetry in addition to typical facial features of WS; subsequent neuroimaging definitively supported the diagnosis. This case report describes for the first time in the literature an uncommon situation in which SSS and WS, both rare syndromes, are present in the same pediatric patient. We speculate that the particular facial features typical of WS could either be the basis of the development of SSS in our patient or make the SSS clinical course more severe, with signs presenting at the age of 7 years. This case report shows for the first time that facial asymmetry in WS can be caused by SSS and highlights the need for early identification of this complication in patients with syndromes characterized by dysmorphic facial features. Further studies are needed to understand whether there is a link between the two syndromes as well as to evaluate the prevalence of SSS in patients with facial dysmorphisms and define the best management

Behavioural disorders in children and adolescents: A conceptual review about the therapeutic alliance with family and school

Aim: In disruptive behavioral disorders, given the wide range of symptomatic manifestations and the complexity of the sociofamiliar contexts in which they develop, it is now proven that more visible and more stable results can be achieved over time through multimodal and multidimensional interventions. These are accomplished through the integration of psychotherapeutic interventions for the child and parents, counseling interventions for all the various practitioners who come into contact with the child in school, sports, and social settings, through the possibility of organizing multiple settings in patient can be followed by several health professionals such as child and adolescent neuropsychiatrist, neuropsychomotricist, occupation therapist, psychologist

Review about comorbidities of behavioural disorders in children and adolescents: The focus on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Disruptive behavior disorders (DBD) present high comorbidity rate mainly for opposite-defiant disorders that are frequent among children, adolescents and adults affected by with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), probably as result of common temperamental risk factors such as attention, distraction, impulsivity. ADHD tend to manifest in about 50% of individuals diagnosed as disruptive behavioral disorders

Environmental assessment of light weighting solutions for automotive components: results, trade‐off and challenges from real case studies

In the last few decades, the automotive industry is facing the most deal with sustainability programs due to the increase of legislate limits on CO2 emissions and vehicle recyclability rate. Consequently, decisions on products design and development go together with environmental considerations, by starting to look for the employment of lighter materials, thus reducing vehicle mass weight and therefore fuel consumption and CO2 emissions during the dominant operation stage of a vehicle’s life cycle. To tackle this problem many of today automotive components are made of alternative materials like plastics, polymer composites, lighter metals which should lead to weight reduction with the same mechanical performances. Magneti Marelli® designs and produces hi-tech systems and components for the automotive sector representing a significant contribution on vehicle mass weight with a roughly 15% portion of incidence. So, in accordance to the environmental regulations, the Company has started to get involved into sustainability programs by focusing attention on the environmental impact of its products. In particular since 2012 Magneti Marelli has included in its mission the “improvement of environmental and energy performances of products and relatives processes during their whole life cycle, through innovative methodologies that assess the potential impacts in a quantitative way”, in this way highlighting the importance of meeting the increasing stakeholders’ expectations and their requests for transparency in results’ communication. This work addresses the main outcomes stemmed from the several LCA studies carried out over different components in terms of materials and technologies production allowing a wider environmental conscious related to the usage of different materials and manufacturing processes. Results showed that the materials employed offer the major contribution on the total impact especially for raw materials extraction and production and for the vehicle use phase, with a further substantial difference connected to the use of virgin instead of recycled materials. The main discussed points will be: i) the trade-off between production phase and use phase impacts; ii) End-of-Life analysis at component level beside the ISO 22628:2002 for the whole vehicle; iii) critical analysis and selection of environmental indicators significant for the automotive sector. Keywords Automotive sector, Life Cycle Assessment, vehicle component, Sustainable Manufacturing, Design for Environment, composites, light weightin

First data on the repellent activity of essential oils of Citrus limon towards medfly (Ceratitis capitata)

The biological activity of peel essential oils of two Sicilian cultivars of C. limon, ‘Interdonato’ and ‘Lunario’, was investigated by electrophysiological recordings (EAG) and field trials on Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Diptera Tephritidae). The EAG data showed a remarkable dose-response relationship and a low activation threshold dose (10-3M) for both essential oil extracts. In field tests, essential oils showed a good repellent and antiovipositional activi- ty on ‘Navelina’ oranges, and in particular the essential oils of ‘Lunario’ pro- vided the same results of kaolin. Potential applications of essential oils from C. limon cultivars against C. capitata in organic farming are discussed

The behavioral parenting interventions (BPT) for support and mandatory integrative therapy for children and adolescents affected by disruptive behavioural disorders: A brief review

The behavioral parenting interventions (BPT), commonly abbreviated as parent training, is a program conducted by an expert with the specific purpose of improving or modifying parental practices in order to promote the child's well-being, increasing parenting skills in the daily management of the child, problem solving and reducing the level of parenting and family stress. BPT presents many positive effects on children or adolescents affected by neurodevelopmental disorder such as ADHD, autism and cognitive dysfunction but BPT appears to improve also other proximal outcomes such as parenting competence and parenting stress

Optimizing the Sampling Area across an Old-Growth Forest via UAV-Borne Laser Scanning, GNSS, and Radial Surveying

Aboveground biomass, volume, and basal area are among the most important structural attributes in forestry. Direct measurements are cost-intensive and time-consuming, especially for old-growth forests exhibiting a complex structure over a rugged topography. We defined a methodology to optimize the plot size and the (total) sampling area, allowing for structural attributes with a tolerable error to be estimated. The plot size was assessed by analyzing the semivariogram of a CHM model derived via UAV laser scanning, while the sampling area was based on the calculation of the absolute relative error as a function of allometric relationships. The allometric relationships allowed the structural attributes from trees’ height to be derived. The validation was based on the positioning of a number of trees via total station and GNSS surveys. Since high trees occlude the GNSS signal transmission, a strategy to facilitate the positioning was to fix the solution using the GLONASS constellation alone (showing the highest visibility during the survey), and then using the GPS constellation to increase the position accuracy (up to PDOP~5−10). The tree heights estimated via UAV laser scanning were strongly correlated (r2 = 0.98, RMSE = 2.80 m) with those measured in situ. Assuming a maximum absolute relative error in the estimation of the structural attribute (20% within this work), the proposed methodology allowed the portion of the forest surface (≤60%) to be sampled to be quantified to obtain a low average error in the calculation of the above mentioned structural attributes (≤13