Design, realization, and user evaluation of the ARCA system for exploring a digital library.

This paper presents ARCA, a software system that enables semantic search and exploration over a book catalog. The main purpose of this work is twofold: to propose a general paradigm for a semantic enrichment workflow and to evaluate a visual approach to information retrieval based on extracted information and existing knowledge graphs. ARCA has been designed and implemented following a user-centered design approach.

Occipital ischaemic stroke after visual snow phenomenon - a case report.

Background: Persistent migraine with aura and neuroimaging examinations revealing ischaemia in the contralateral cortex may be associated with migrainous infarction. Despite being a neurological symptom that is distinct from migraine with aura, the visual snow phenomenon may also be associated with cerebral ischaemia. Here we describe a patient who reported short-lasting daily symptoms of visual snow that affected his entire visual field before becoming continuous and left-sided following acute occipital brain ischaemia.

Migraine Awareness in Italy and the Myth of "Cervical Arthrosis".

Objective: The primary aim of this study was to assess the degree of awareness migraine patients had of their condition. The secondary aims were to evaluate the frequency of an incorrect diagnosis of "cervical arthrosis" in patients unaware of having migraine and to compare the clinical features, diagnostic investigation, and treatment strategies between the 2 subgroups of migraineurs, that is, those with and without the incorrect diagnosis of "cervical arthrosis."

Methods: Patients, between 18 and 65 years, were consecutively referred to 5 Headache Centers in 2 Italian regions for a first visit.

Vulnus: Visual Vulnerability Analysis for Network Security.

Vulnerabilities represent one of the main weaknesses of IT systems and the availability of consolidated official data, like CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), allows for using them to compute the paths an attacker is likely to follow. However, even if patches are available, business constraints or lack of resources create obstacles to their straightforward application. As a consequence, the security manager of a network needs to deal with a large number of vulnerabilities, making decisions on how to cope with them.

Management of headache patients.

Headache is a very common complaint, in both primary care and in specialist settings. Headache patients account for around 20% of all outpatients seen in neurological practices and their management, particularly when they present with intractable headache, or are suspected of having secondary headaches, can be a challenge for the clinician. All the guidelines agree that the diagnosis of headache is merely clinical and that testing is not recommended if the individual is not significantly more likely than anyone else in the general population to have a significant abnormality.

Scaffolding the design of accessible eLearning content: a user-centered approach and cognitive perspective.

There exist various guidelines for facilitating the design, preparation, and deployment of accessible eLearning applications and contents. However, such guidelines prevalently address accessibility in a rather technical sense, without giving sufficient consideration to the cognitive aspects and issues related to the use of eLearning materials by learners with disabilities. In this paper we describe how a user-centered design process was applied to develop a method and set of guidelines for didactical experts to scaffold their creation of accessible eLearning content, based on a more sound approach to accessibility.

A CARE: pathway in medication-overuse headache: the experience of the Headache Centre in Pavia.

Medication-overuse headache (MOH) is one of the headache forms that most frequently prompts patients to consult a specialist headache centre. The prevalence of this form in the general population is approximately 1-2%. Around 40% of patients seen at headache centres present with a chronic form of headache and 80% of this chronic headache patients make excessive use of symptomatic drugs.

Amitriptyline is effective in chronic but not in episodic tension-type headache: pathogenetic implications.

The tricyclic antidepressant, amitriptyline, is an effective drug for the treatment of chronic tension-type headache and for other chronic pain syndromes, but it is also effective in the prophylaxis of an episodic type of headache such as migraine. However, its efficacy in episodic tension-type headache has not yet been clarified. We compared the efficacy of amitriptyline (25 mg/day) in 82 nondepressed patients with either chronic or episodic tension-type headache in an open-label study.

A formal model for quality assurance in coloproctologic surgery.

In the last 30 years the advanced countries experienced a large growth of financial and social resources devoted to Health Care (HC) [1] The need of better co-ordinating activities of a composite large set of specialists, and the need of avoiding further growth of financial and social resources without reducing benefits, stimulated the growth of Health Care Evaluation (HCE) and Quality Assurance (QA) studies. In this paper we show how system analysis and precise assessment of the clinical process can be largely enhanced by using formal techniques. The proposed methodology takes advantage of positive experiences in computer science.

Handedness in musicians.

In order to study the prevalence of left- or mixed-handedness in musicians, we decided to examine a population of professional musicians. We assessed the handedness pattern of 382 members of 7 orchestras. The prevalence of non-right-handedness in musicians was found to be much the same as in the general population.

If migraine prophylaxis does not work, think about compliance.

Data are presented on nine patients with migraine by IHS criteria, recruited from those presenting to the clinic for treatment and needing prophylaxis. Pizotifen 0.5 mg tds was prescribed for 8 weeks and dispensed in special containers with an electronic event recorded concealed in the lid.

Empty sella and headache.

Empty sella is an anatomical condition caused by herniation of the subarachnoid space into the pituitary fossa through an incompetent sellar diaphragm. Headache seems to be one of the most frequently reported symptoms. We studied 13 headache patients (12 females, 1 male) presenting with primary empty sella (PES) on CT scan.

Ergotamine-induced headache can be sustained by sumatriptan daily intake.

We describe the case report of a migraine sufferer who developed ergotamine-induced headache and subsequently replaced ergotamine with daily sumatriptan (100 mg p.o.).

5HT in migraine patients with medication-induced headache.

Whole blood 5HT levels were measured in seven female migraine sufferers with chronic daily headache due to medication abuse, before and after abrupt medication withdrawal. A statistically significant increase in 5HT levels, from mean 4.89 mumol/l to mean 6.

Prolonged muscular flaccidity: frequency and association with unilateral spatial neglect after stroke.

The frequency of prolonged muscular flaccidity (PMF) was examined in a series of stroke patients in chronic phase suffering from hemiplegia with minimal spontaneous recovery (MSR). The results indicated that in such a population with poor motor recovery, PMF was significantly more frequent than spasticity. PMF was found to be associated with left-sided hemiplegia and unilateral spatial neglect.

Cellular adaptation in migraineurs with chronic daily headache.

Ergotamine and analgesic misuse are now recognized as causes of chronic daily headache and the condition responds well to drug withdrawal with reduced headache frequency. In this study, we have investigated whether medication misuse is associated with an alteration in membrane transduction which is sensitive to drug withdrawal. This was carried out by assay of the thrombin-stimulated generation of inositol phosphates in platelets from 12 migraine patients with chronic daily headache and analgesic misuse, 7 migraine patients with chronic daily headache and ergotamine misuse and 7 control subjects.

Migraine and heredity.

Since the time of Liveing and Gowers in the nineteenth century, migraine has been thought to be inherited, although family history has been widely studied, nearly all the reports are not scientifically based and studies on twins have never shown 100% concordance in monozygotic (MZ) pairs, indicating that migraine cannot be inherited by a single gene. Furthermore, the criteria for a polygenic trait are not fulfilled by migraine patients. The only two syndromes with a strong genetic basis of inheritance are familial hemiplegic migraine and migraine occurring in Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathy with Lactic Acidosis and Stroke-like episodes (MELAS).

Nimodipine in migraine: clinical efficacy and endocrinological effects.

Serum prolactin is increased during chronic flunarizine treatment of patients suffering from migraine. In order to clarify the role of calcium in control of the secretion of anterior pituitary hormones, a study has now been made of the effects of chronic nimodipine and propranolol treatment of migraine patients on prolactin (PRL), luteinizing hormone (LH) and growth hormone (GH) levels. 11 patients were treated with nimodipine and 8 with propranolol for four months.

Cluster-like headache and head injury: case report.

This appears to be the first report of cluster-like headache secondary to post-traumatic subdural hematoma. A 39 year old man consulted us for cluster-like headáche on the right side following an injury to the right frontotemporal region some 45 days before. A CT scan revealed a chronic subdural hematoma in the right frontotemporal region.