Prophylaxis of migraine: general principles and patient acceptance

Migraine is a chronic neurological condition with episodic exacerbations. Migraine is highly prevalent, and associated with significant pain, disability, and diminished quality of life. Migraine management is an important health care issue. Migraine management includes avoidance of trigger factors, lifestyle modifications, non-pharmacological therapies, and medications. Pharmacological treatment is traditionally divided into acute or symptomatic treatment, and preventive treatment or prophylaxis. Many migraine patients can be treated using only acute treatment. Patients with severe and/or frequent migraines require long-term preventive therapy. Prophylaxis requires daily administration of anti-migraine compounds with potential adverse events or contraindications, and may also interfere with other concurrent conditions and treatments. These problems may induce patients to reject the idea of a preventive treatment, leading to poor patient adherence. This paper reviews the main factors influencing patient acceptance of anti-migraine prophylaxis, providing practical suggestions to enhance patient willingness to accept pharmacological anti-migraine preventive therapy. We also provide information about the main clinical characteristics of migraine, and their negative consequences. The circumstances warranting prophylaxis in migraine patients as well as the main characteristics of the compounds currently used in migraine prophylaxis will also be briefly discussed, focusing on those aspects which can enhance patient acceptance and adherence

Teachers’ Emotional Intelligence, Burnout, Work Engagement, and Self-Efficacy during COVID-19 Lockdown

Teachers’ psychological well-being is a crucial aspect that influences learning in a classroom climate. The aim of the study was to investigate teachers’ emotional intelligence, burnout, work engagement, and self-efficacy in times of remote teaching during COVID-19 lockdown. A sample of 65 teachers (Mage = 50.49), from early childhood through lower secondary education, were recruited during a period of school closure to answer self-report questionnaires and other measures assessing study variables. Results showed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers reported higher levels of burnout and lower levels of self-esteem due to multiple challenges related to remote teaching and the growing sense of insecurity regarding health safety in the school environment. However, the negative effects of COVID-19 on teachers’ self-efficacy, work engagement, and burnout varied according to their own levels of emotional intelligence. These results demonstrate that emotional intelligence may support teachers in facing these challenges

Integration of GPR and FWD methods for the assessment of airfield aprons

Airport apron relates to an airfield area dedicated to the parking, loading/unloading, refueling and boarding of aircrafts. The standard conventional pavement solution in apron areas is a concrete rigid pavement with jointed concrete slabs, which is due to two main reasons. First, use of concrete technology helps to prevent the potential viscous behaviour of the hot-mixed asphalt solution. This is caused by long-term and permanent loads, especially at high temperatures. Secondly, use of concrete blocks avoids the decay of the wearing course due to the contact with fuel. Although it is relatively easy to design the working features of hardened concrete for apron surfacing purposes (i.e., following the requirements of pavement quality standards), great attention must be paid to the laying stages and construction process. This is to ensure that the laid concrete attains all the designed properties and no premature decays occur. Decays include, inter alia, uncontrolled cracking throughout the concrete slabs. To that effect, role and magnitude of concrete cracking in affecting strength and durability of a rigid pavement subject to external loads is still under debate. Monitoring and assessment of concrete cracking is a complex task, and several theoretical and experimental models have been developed over the past years. To this purpose, ground-truth information were collected using destructive (e.g., concrete sampling) and non-destructive testing (NDT) methods. In this regard, ultrasonic testing (UT) has been widely used for quality control of concrete and damage detection purposes. On the other hand, the falling weight deflectometer (FWD) technology is commonly used for the assessment of stiffness-related parameters of pavement structures. To this effect, mechanical properties of pavements are usually estimated in combination with the geometric information (i.e., thickness of layers/slabs) collected by the ground-penetrating radar (GPR) NDT method. In this study, a demonstration of the potential of integrating ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and falling weight deflectometer (FWD) non-destructive testing (NDT) methods for the assessment of an airfield apron has been given. The main objective was to provide an effective methodology capable to combine multi-source information from FWD, light falling weight deflectometer (LFWD), GPR, pavement construction stages and development of decay over time (available from the airport maintenance company) in order to assess the mechanical properties of an airfield apron affected by early-stage and widespread cracking. The structure of the apron was a rigid pavement with jointed concrete slabs. To this purpose, an airport apron area with dimensions of 190 m × 90 m, paved by a grid of squared concrete slabs with a side length of 7.5 m, was investigated. FWD, LFWD and a ground-coupled multi-frequency GPR system with 600 MHz and 1600 MHz central frequency antennas were used for testing purposes. The results from the integrated application of the above NDTs demonstrated significant potential for the interpretation of distinctive features of the concrete slabs, including cracking, that may affect the mechanical behavior of the pavement

Diagnostic investigation of the Cycle of the new church of Sarria (Floriana, Malta) by Mattia Preti

In the present paper, we present the main results of a diagnostic investigation on different paintings by Mattia Preti, belonging to the Cycle of the New Church of Sarria, located inside the Church of the Immaculate Conception of Sarria (Floriana) in Malta. The analysis was carried out on the occasion of the restoration process and, due to the short time available, only on some representative areas of each painting. A multi-technique approach was applied in situ, employing X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) and Raman microscopy. The aim was to achieve information on the execution technique, in a completely non-invasive way, following the requirements of the restorers.peer-reviewe

Scientific investigation of The Conversion of St Paul painting (Mdina, Malta)

The paper presents the results of two different approaches applied to the newly-restored painting The Conversion of St Paul, the main altarpiece in the Cathedral of Mdina in Malta. This large, dramatic painting is work of the Baroque artist Mattia Preti, il Cavaliere Calabrese. As is normal with a professionally executed restoration, several scientific methods have been used before, during and at completion, in the framework of a global analytical strategy. In particular, we focus on the results of the digital photogrammetric survey which uses image-based approaches for 2D/3D models reconstruction enormously. The model was used to quantify and measure important features on the painting as well extensions of areas restored. In addition, portable Raman spectroscopy was used to identify, in non-destructive way, the nature of the painting materials with the final goal of reconstructing the color palette of the artist.peer-reviewe

Digital reconstruction and scientific analysis prior the restoration of two paintings by Mattia Preti in the Church of the Immaculate Conception of Sarria (Floriana, Malta)

The paper presents the results of scientific investigations carried out in support of a professionally executed restoration on two paintings by Mattia Preti, located in the Church of the Immaculate Conception of Sarria in Floriana, Malta. In particular, the attention was mainly paid on a combined approach, using 2D/3D survey in order to formulate hypothetic reconstruction, and XRF spectroscopy in order to get more information on how the master prepared the various types of materials, with particular regard to the painting preparation, the pigments palette and the formulation of shades and highlights.peer-reviewe

Valorizing underground cultural heritage through the use of virtual reality

This paper presents the results of scientific investigations carried out at the Batia Church which is located in the small village of Tortorici (Messina, Sicily, Italy). We performed several geophysical surveys, as well as geomatics approaches, were used in order to reconstruct 2D and 3D digital models of the monument mainly using digital photogrammetry. Previous geophysical investigations have shown the presence of a crypt which was ultimately surveyed and digitally reconstructed. Here, we present the potential of valorizing the site and its underground structures by the means of advanced technologies and digital reconstructions.peer-reviewe

Chronic migraine classification: current knowledge and future perspectives

In the field of so-called chronic daily headache, it is not easy for migraine that worsens progressively until it becomes daily or almost daily to find a precise and universally recognized place within the current international headache classification systems. In line with the 2006 revision of the second edition of the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-2R), the current prevailing opinion is that this headache type should be named chronic migraine (CM) and be characterized by the presence of at least 15 days of headache per month for at least 3 consecutive months, with headache having the same clinical features of migraine without aura for at least 8 of those 15 days. Based on much evidence, though, a CM with the above characteristics appears to be a heterogeneous entity and the obvious risk is that its definition may be extended to include a variety of different clinical entities. A proposal is advanced to consider CM a subtype of migraine without aura that is characterized by a high frequency of attacks (10–20 days of headache per month for at least 3 months) and is distinct from transformed migraine (TM), which in turn should be included in the classification as a complication of migraine. Therefore, CM should be removed from its current coding position in the ICHD-2 and be replaced by TM, which has more restrictive diagnostic criteria (at least 20 days of headache per month for at least 1 year, with no more than 5 consecutive days free of symptoms; same clinical features of migraine without aura for at least 10 of those 20 days)