Microvascular alterations in hypertension and vascular aging

Hypertension and aging are characterized by vascular remodelling and stiffness as well as endothelial dysfunction. Endothelial function declines with age, since aging is associated with senescence of the endothelium due to increased rate of apoptosis and reduced regenerative capacity of the endothelium. Different phenotypes of hypertension have been described in younger and adult subjects with hypertension. In younger patients functional and structural alterations of resistance arteries occur as the earliest vascular alterations which have prognostic significance and may contribute to stiffness of large arteries through wave reflection. In individuals above age of 50 years as well as in subjects with long-lasting elevated blood pressure, vascular changes occur predominantly in conduit arteries which become stiffer. Activation of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone and endothelin systems plays a key role in endothelial dysfunction, vascular remodelling, and aging by inducing reactive oxygen species production, and promoting inflammation and cell growth

SASICE: Safety and sustainability in civil engineering

The performance of the built environment and the construction sector are of major importance in Europe’s long term goals of sustainable development in a changing climate. At the same time, the quality of life of all European citizens needs to be improved and the safety of the built environment with respect to man-made and natural hazards, such as flooding and earthquakes, needs to be ensured. Education has a central role to play in the transformation of a construction sector required to meet increasing demands with regard to safety and sustainability. In this work, the SASICE project is presented. The aim of this project is to promote the integration of safety and sustainability in civil engineering education. The project is organised in the context of the Lifelong Learning Programme, funded by the European Community. The coordinator organisation is the University of Bologna. Nine partner universities from different countries are involved in this transnational project. The universities participating to the project constitute a network of high level competences in the civil engineering area, with several opportunities to improve lifelong learning adopting different media: joint curricula, teaching modules and professor and student exchanges. As a response to the challenge regarding new educational methods in sustainable engineering, teaching modules are developed in 4 thematic areas: (1) Safety in construction, (2) Risk induced by Natural Hazards Assessment, (3) Sustainability in construction, and (4) Sustainability at the territorial level. The development of the teaching modules is based on an extensive analysis of the need for highly qualified education on Safety and Sustainability involving all relevant stakeholders (European and national authorities, companies, research institutes, professional organizations, and universities).The main target is enabling students to introduce these advanced topics in their study plans and curricula and reach, at the end of their studies, a specific skill and expertise in safety and sustainability in Civil Engineering. With our natural resources fading away and our infrastructure in dire need of repair, new trends and challenges in civil engineering education in the concept of “Sustainable Development” are needed to be adressed.<br/

Postoperative pain surveys in Italy from 2006 and 2012. (POPSI and POPSI-2)

OBJECTIVE: Despite established standards, effective treatments, and evidence-based guidelines, postoperative pain control in Italy and other parts of the world remains suboptimal. Pain control has been recognized as a fundamental human right. Effective treatments exist to control postsurgical pain. Inadequate postoperative analgesia may prolong the length of hospital stays and may adversely impact outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The same multiple-choice survey administered at the SIAARTI National Congress in Perugia in 2006 (n=588) was given at the SIAARTI National Congress in Naples, Italy in 2012 (n=635). The 2012 survey was analysed and compared to the 2006 results. RESULTS: Postoperative pain control in Italy was less than optimal in 2006 and showed no substantial improvements in 2012. Geographical distinctions were evident with certain parts of Italy offering better postoperative pain control than other. Fewer than half of hospitals represented had an active Acute Pain Service (APS) and only about 10% of postsurgical patients were managed according to evidence-based guidelines. For example, elastomeric pumps for continuous IV infusion are commonly used in Italy, although patient-controlled analgesia systems are recommended in the guidelines. The biggest obstacles to optimal postoperative pain control reported by respondents could be categorized as organizational, cultural, and economic. CONCLUSIONS: There is considerable room for improvement in postoperative pain control in Italy, specifically in the areas of clinical education, evidence-based treatments, better equipment, and implementation of active APS departments in more hospitals. Two surveys taken six years apart in Italy reveal, with striking similarity, that there are many unmet needs in postoperative pain control and that Italy still falls below European standards for postoperative pain control

Federico Cesi's Mycological Codex and its copies

n/

Two-quasiparticle states in the interacting boson model. II. Electromagnetic properties in the SU(3) limit

The interacting boson approximation model, extended by allowing one boson to break and form a quasiparticle pair, is investigated in the SU(3) limit. Electromagnetic properties of yrast states are studied for the algebraic analogs of both the decoupling and strong-coupling limits. The effects of a pair-breaking interaction that mixes states with different numbers of quasiparticles are investigated for E2 transitions between yrast states. For the algebraic analog of the decoupling limit, it is shown that the mixing interaction has a strong influence on transitions in the region of crossing between the ground-state band and the lowest two-quasiparticle (2qp) band. The mixing interaction does not change the electromagnetic properties of the states of the ground-state band. This effect is due to the approximate cancellation between self-energy and vertex corrections, which corresponds to the nuclear Ward identity. For the algebraic analog of the strong-coupling limit, the K forbiddeness of E2 transitions between the ground-state band and the lowest 2qp band is high, and therefore the influence of the mixing interaction is negligible

Two- and four-quasiparticle states in the interacting boson model: Strong-coupling and decoupled band patterns in the SU(3) limit

An extension of the interacting boson approximation model is proposed by allowing for two- and four-quasiparticle excitations out of the boson space. The formation of band patterns based on two- and four-quasiparticle states is investigated in the SU(3) limit of the model. For hole-type (particle-type) fermions coupled to the SU(3) prolate (oblate) core, it is shown that the algebraic K-representation basis, which is the analog of the strong-coupling basis of the geometrical model, provides an appropriate description of the low-lying two-quasiparticle bands. In the case of particle-type (hole-type) fermions coupled to the SU(3) prolate (oblate) core, a new algebraic decoupling basis is derived that is equivalent in the geometrical limit to Stephens’ rotation-aligned basis. Comparing the wave functions that are obtained by diagonalization of the model Hamiltonian to the decoupling basis, several low-lying two-quasiparticle bands are identified. The effects of an interaction that conserves only the total nucleon number, mixing states with different number of fermions, are investigated in both the strong-coupling and decoupling limits. All calculations are performed for an SU(3) boson core and the h11/2 fermion orbital

The challenge of perioperative pain management in opioid-tolerant patients

The increasing number of opioid users among chronic pain patients, and opioid abusers among the general population, makes perioperative pain management challenging for health care professionals. Anesthesiologists, surgeons, and nurses should be familiar with some pharmacological phenomena which are typical of opioid users and abusers, such as tolerance, physical dependence, hyperalgesia, and addiction. Inadequate pain management is very common in these patients, due to common prejudices and fears. The target of preoperative evaluation is to identify comorbidities and risk factors and recognize signs and symptoms of opioid abuse and opioid withdrawal. Clinicians are encouraged to plan perioperative pain medications and to refer these patients to psychiatrists and addiction specialists for their evaluation. The aim of this review was to give practical suggestions for perioperative management of surgical opioid-tolerant patients, together with schemes of opioid conversion for chronic pain patients assuming oral or transdermal opioids, and patients under maintenance programs with methadone, buprenorphine, or naltrexone

Efficacy of topical imiquimod 3.75% in the treatment of actinic keratosis of the scalp in immunosuppressed patients: our case series

AbstractBackground: Actinic keratoses (AK) represent common cutaneous lesions, appearing in 'Field cancerization areas' and potentially evolving toward invasive neoplasm. Immunosuppressed patients ..