Search results for "RIMI"
showing 10 items of 3981 documents
The Development of Perceptual Sensitivity to Second-Order Facial Relations in Children
2010
This study investigated children's perceptual ability to process second-order facial relations. In total, 78 children in three age groups (7, 9, and 11 years) and 28 adults were asked to say whether the eyes were the same distance apart in two side-by-side faces. The two faces were similar on all points except the space between the eyes, which was either the same or different, with various degrees of difference. The results showed that the smallest eye spacing children were able to discriminate decreased with age. This ability was sensitive to face orientation (upright or upside-down), and this inversion effect increased with age. It is concluded here that, despite early sensitivity to conf…
Gabor frames for classification of paroxysmal and persistent atrial fibrillation episodes
2016
[EN] In this study, we propose a new classification method for early differentiation of paroxysmal and persistent atrial fibrillation episodes, i.e. those which spontaneously or with external intervention will return to sinus rhythm within 7 days of onset from the ones where the arrhythmia is sustained for more than 7 days. Today, clinicians provide patients classification once the course of the arrhythmia has been disclosed. This classification problem is dealt with in this study. We study a sparse representation of surface electrocardiogram signals by means of Gabor frames and afterwards we apply a linear discriminant analysis. Thus, we provide an early discrimination, obtaining promising…
Current practice of chronic hepatitis B treatment in Southern Italy
2012
Abstract Background Treatment choice for chronic HBV infection is a continuously evolving issue, with a wide range of options. We aimed to evaluate the current practice of HBV therapies in the real world in Southern Italy. Methods A prospective study enrolling over a six month period (February–July 2010) all consecutive HBsAg positive subjects, never previously treated, referred to 16 liver units in two Southern Italy regions (Calabria and Sicily). Results Out of 247 subjects evaluated, 116 (46.9%) had HBV-DNA undetectable or lower than 2000 UI/ml. There were 108 (43.7%) inactive carriers, 103 (41.7%) chronic hepatitis, and 36 (14.6%) liver cirrhosis. Antiviral treatment was planned in 94 (…
Do Intensity Ratings and Skin Conductance Responses Reliably Discriminate Between Different Stimulus Intensities in Experimentally Induced Pain?
2010
Abstract The present study addresses the question whether pain-intensity ratings and skin conductance responses (SCRs) are able to detect different intensities of phasic painful stimuli and to determine the reliability of this discrimination. For this purpose, 42 healthy participants of both genders were assigned to either electrical, mechanical, or laser heat-pain stimulation (each n = 14). A whole range of single brief painful stimuli were delivered on the right volar forearm of the dominant hand in a randomized order. Pain-intensity ratings and SCRs were analyzed. Using generalizability theory, individual and gender differences were the main contributors to the variability of both intens…
Psychophysiological responses to the Stroop Task after a maximal cycle ergometry in elite sportsmen and physically active subjects.
2001
Physical fitness moderates the psychophysiological responses to stress. This study attempts to determine whether the degree of fitness could affect the response to physical and psychological stress after comparing two groups of men with good physical fitness. Saliva samples from 18 elite sportsmen, and 11 physically active subjects were collected to determine hormonal levels after carrying out a maximal cycle ergometry. Heart rate and skin conductance level were continuously recorded before, during, and after a modified version of the Stroop Color-Word Task. With similar scores in trait anxiety and mood, elite sportsmen had lower basal salivary testosterone, testosterone/cortisol ratio, and…
Drug-induced pertubation of the aminothiol redox-status in patients with epilepsy: improvement by B-vitamins.
2008
Summary Objectives Patients with epilepsy have excess morbidity and mortality due to ischemic cardiovascular disease. Many of these patients have elevated concentrations of plasma total homocysteine (Hcy), which is an acknowledged risk factor for cardiovascular disease, venous thromboembolic disease, foetal malformations and dementia. Hyperhomocysteinemia may have negative effects through mechanisms involving oxidative damage. In the present study, we have investigated the aminothiol redox-status in patients on antiepileptic drugs. Thereafter, in a subset of patients with elevated total Hcy, we evaluated the effect of B-vitamin therapy. Methods In the first part of the study, 101 patients o…
Combination of indomethacin and statin compared with indomethacin and placebo in patients with a first episode of acute pericarditis: preliminary fin…
2007
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the combination of indomethacin and statin compared with indomethacin plus placebo in patients with a first episode of pericarditis. A total of 55 consecutive patients with acute pericarditis were randomized in a double-blind manner into two groups: group I (statin group) was treated with 150 mg of indomethacin plus 10 mg of rosuvastatin, and group 2 (placebo group) was treated with 150 mg of indomethacin plus placebo. Both groups received treatment up to the normalization of inflammation markers and for the following week. Clinical and laboratory assessments [white cell count, ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate) and C…
Assessing decentering: validation, psychometric properties, and clinical usefulness of the Experiences Questionnaire in a Spanish sample.
2014
Decentering is defined as the ability to observe one’s thoughts and feelings in a detached manner. The Experiences Questionnaire (EQ) is a self-report instrument that originally assessed decentering and rumination. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of EQ-Decentering and to explore its clinical usefulness. The 11-item EQ-Decentering subscale was translated into Spanish and psychometric properties were examined in a sample of 921 adult individuals, 231 with psychiatric disorders and 690 without. The subsample of nonpsychiatric participants was also split according to their previous meditative experience (meditative participants, n = 3…
Prognosis Biomarkers of Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock by 1H NMR Urine Metabolomics in the Intensive Care Unit.
2015
Early diagnosis and patient stratification may improve sepsis outcome by a timely start of the proper specific treatment. We aimed to identify metabolomic biomarkers of sepsis in urine by (1)H-NMR spectroscopy to assess the severity and to predict outcomes. Urine samples were collected from 64 patients with severe sepsis or septic shock in the ICU for a (1)H NMR spectra acquisition. A supervised analysis was performed on the processed spectra, and a predictive model for prognosis (30-days mortality/survival) of sepsis was constructed using partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). In addition, we compared the prediction power of metabolomics data respect the Sequential Organ Fai…
Multidimensional assessment of OCD: integration and revision of the Vancouver Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory and the Symmetry Ordering and Arrangin…
2010
This article reports on the integration and revision of two self-report measures of obsessive-compulsive symptoms based on data from an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) sample (n=228): the Vancouver Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory (VOCI) and the Symmetry Ordering and Arranging Questionnaire (SOAQ). The revised measure provides scores on five symptom subscales (Contamination, Checking, Hoarding, Symmetry and Ordering, Obsessions). It shows improvement upon current versions in several ways: it has a good model fit, eliminates redundancy, reduces overlap across subscales, is much shorter, and covers those OCD dimensions most frequently identified in factor-analytic studies. Strengths of th…