Effects of add-on ultramicronized n-palmitol ethanol amide in patients suffering of migraine with aura. a pilot study

Background: Palmitoyl ethanol amide (PEA) is an endogenously produced substance showing anti-nociceptive effect through both receptor and non-receptor mediated effects at the level of different cellular and tissue sites. This study showed the results of a single blind study that was conducted to evaluate both the safety and the efficacy of ultramicronized PEA (umPEA; 1,200 mg/day) for up 90 days in patients suffering of Migraine with Aura (MA) treated with NSAIDs. Methods: A total of 20 patients, 8 male (33-56-years, average 41.4 ± 7.8) and 12 female (19-61-years, average 38.5 ± 11.9) with MA were admitted to our observation and diagnosed according to ICHD-3 criteria, they received umPEA (1,200 mg/day) in combination with NSAIDs for up to 90 days. They were revaluated at 30, 60, and 90 days after treatment. Results: umPEA administration induced a statistically significant and time dependent pain relief. In particular, these effects were evident at 60 days (male P = 0.01189; female P = < 0.01) and they lasted until the end of the study (male P = 0.0066; female P = 0.01473). Conclusion: Although further studies are needed, our findings indicate that in patients suffering of MA treatment with umPEA had good efficacy and safety which candidate this compound as a therapeutic tool in pain migraine management

Il Museo dell’Osservatorio Vesuviano: dati statistici 2005

Il museo dell'Osservatorio Vesuviano, rinnovato nel 2000, nasce con l’obiettivo di informare la popolazione sui fenomeni vulcanici, sui pericoli connessi e sulla sorveglianza dei vulcani attivi in aree ad alto rischio; è situato nella sede storica dell’Osservatorio Vesuviano, il primo Osservatorio vulcanologico del mondo, attualmente sezione dell’Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. Il percorso museale ha inizio con la presentazione delle diverse tipologie eruttive e dei fenomeni a esse associati e quindi dei pericoli per l’uomo e i manufatti. Si ripercorre la storia eruttiva del Somma-Vesuvio soffermandosi sulle eruzioni più note del 79 d.C. e del 1944, e sulle metodologie adottate dai vulcanologi per ricostruire la storia eruttiva di un vulcano attraverso lo studio dei suoi prodotti. Inoltre, sono esposti i prodotti delle eruzioni effusive ed esplosive, e i minerali che si formano in ambiente vulcanico. Il percorso è arricchito da documenti storici di notevole interesse vulcanologico quali: la carta vulcanologica di Henry James Johnston-Lavis e il volume “Campi Flegrei” di William Hamilton (in visione la riproduzione anastatica). Un altro tema portante della mostra riguarda il monitoraggio dei vulcani attivi. Sono esposti gli strumenti scientifici storici utilizzati per la sorveglianza, tra cui il primo sismografo del mondo costruito nel 1856 da Luigi Palmieri, direttore dell’Osservatorio Vesuviano dal 1855 al 1896. Una sala ospita monitor collegati in tempo reale alla sezione “segnali sismici” del sito web dell’Osservatorio Vesuviano. Si propongono inoltre filmati tratti da modelli fisico-matematici di simulazioni di eruzioni esplosive per la definizione degli scenari attesi in caso di eruzione. Infine, si affronta il problema del rischio mediante pannelli informativi sul piano Nazionale di emergenza al fine di promuovere atteggiamenti adeguati in caso di necessità. Gli strumenti utilizzati sono video, pannelli, webcam, internet. Nel rapporto sono presentati i dati statistici relativi al pubblico del museo nell’anno 2005

The museum of Osservatorio Vesuviano-INGV.

The Osservatorio Vesuviano (OV), section of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), is the oldest volcanological observatory worldwide, dating back to 1841. It is a public research institute in the fields of geophysics and volcanology and carries out the surveillance of Neapolitan active volcanoes. Public outreach activities are also carried out. The main aim of public outreach activities is to improve the volcanic risk knowledge and awareness among people living in high volcanic risk areas near the city of Naples. In its historical site, on Vesuvius, a museum has been established, with a permanent exhibition, entitled “Vesuvius: 2000 years of observations”. The museum preserves valuable collections of rocks and minerals, historical scientific instruments, books and paintings. The exhibition, due to a strong cooperation between OV and the Italian Civil Protection Department, brings the visitor along a pathway through the world of volcanoes, in particular Vesuvius. Visitors, guided by a very skilled staff, are more than 10,000 / year and are mostly school groups.PublishedBarcellona, Spain5.8. TTC - Formazione e informazioneope

Mathematical study of linear morphodynamic acceleration and derivation of the MASSPEED approach

Morphological accelerators, such as the MORFAC (MORphological acceleration FACtor) approach (Roelvink, 2006), are widely adopted techniques for the acceleration of the bed evolution, which reduce the computational cost of morphodynamic numerical simulations. In this work we apply an acceleration to the one-dimensional morphodynamic problem described by the de Saint Venant–Exner model by multiplying all the spatial derivatives related to the mass or momentum flux by an acceleration factor ≥ 1 which may be different for each equation. The goal is to identify the best combination of the accelerating factors for which (i) the bed responds linearly to hydrodynamic changes; (ii) a decrease of the computational cost is obtained. The sought combination is obtained by studying the behavior of an approximate solution of the three eigenvalues associated with the flux matrix of the accelerated system. This approach allows to derive a new linear morphodynamic acceleration technique, the MASSPEED (MASs equations SPEEDup) approach, and the a priori determination of the highest possible acceleration for a given simulation. In this new approach both mass conservation equations (water and sediment) are accelerated by the same factor, differently from the MORFAC approach where only the sediment mass equation is modified. The analysis shows that the MASSPEED gives a larger validity range for linear acceleration and requires smaller computational costs than that of the MORFAC approach. The MASSPEED approach is then implemented using an adaptive approach that applies the maximum linear acceleration similarly to the implementation of the Courant–-Friedrichs–-Lewy stability condition. Finally, numerical simulations have been performed in order to assess accuracy and efficiency of the new approach. Results obtained in the long-term propagation of a sediment hump demonstrate the advantages of the new approach. The validation of the method is performed under steady or quasi-steady flow conditions, whereas further investigation is needed to extend morphological accelerators to fully unsteady flows

The museum of Osservatorio Vesuviano-INGV.

The Osservatorio Vesuviano (OV), section of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), is the oldest volcanological observatory worldwide, dating back to 1841. It is a public research institute in the fields of geophysics and volcanology and carries out the surveillance of Neapolitan active volcanoes. Public outreach activities are also carried out. The main aim of public outreach activities is to improve the volcanic risk knowledge and awareness among people living in high volcanic risk areas near the city of Naples. In its historical site, on Vesuvius, a museum has been established, with a permanent exhibition, entitled “Vesuvius: 2000 years of observations”. The museum preserves valuable collections of rocks and minerals, historical scientific instruments, books and paintings. The exhibition, due to a strong cooperation between OV and the Italian Civil Protection Department, brings the visitor along a pathway through the world of volcanoes, in particular Vesuvius. Visitors, guided by a very skilled staff, are more than 10,000 / year and are mostly school groups

MORSPEED: a new concept for the speedup of morphological simulations

Numerical prediction of long term morphological evolution in rivers, estuaries and costal areas is computationally very costly. This problem is often tackled adopting morphodynamic upscaling techniques which allows to speedup the bed level evolution. The most popular approach implemented in numerical models is the morphological acceleration factor (MORFAC) (Roelvink, 2006). This is based on the assumption that the bed response to hydrodynamic changes is linear within a single time step and consists in multiplying the sediment fluxes in the Exner equation by a factor Mcs > 1. At present, the choice of the maximum speedup (Mcs) that can be used to accelerate the bed evolution is obtained empirically using mesh dependent criteria (e.g. Ranasinghe et al., 2011). This leads to accelerated bed level configurations in which a clear correspondence between the real and the accelerated time scale is not known. In this study a general criterion for the maximum speedup, which can be obtained under the assumption of linear bed response, is proposed. As a consequence a clear link between real and accelerated time scales can be established. Finally a new speedup concept (MORSPEED) which allows to reach larger values of speedup is also proposed, analyzed and tested

A regularization strategy for modeling mixed-sediment river morphodynamics

A notable drawback in mixed-size sediment morphodynamic modeling is the fact that the most commonly used mathematical model in this field (i.e., the active layer model Hirano, 1971) can be ill-posed under certain circumstances. Under these conditions the model loses its predictive capabilities, as negligible perturbations in the initial or boundary conditions produce significant differences in the solution. In this paper we propose a preconditioning method that regularizes the model to recover well-posedness by altering the time scale of the sediment mixing processes. We compare results of the regularized model to data from four new laboratory experiments conducted under conditions in which the active layer model is ill-posed. The regularized active layer model captures the change of bed elevation and surface texture averaged over the passage of several bedforms. Neither the active layer model nor the regularized one account for small scale changes due to individual bedforms.Rivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineerin