Control Protocols for Range-Based Navigation of a Networked Group of Underwater Vehicles.

This paper tackles the problem of formation reconstruction for a team of vehicles based on the knowledge of the range between agents of a subset of the participants. One main peculiarity of the proposed approach is that the relative velocity between agents, which is a fundamental data to solve the problem, is not assumed to be known in advance neither directly communicated. For the purpose of estimating this quantity, a collaborative control protocol is designed in order to mount the velocity data in the motion of each vehicle as a parameter through a dedicated control protocol, so that it can be inferred from the motion of the neighbor agents.

Risk factors for silent myocardial ischemia in patients with well-controlled essential hypertension.

Silent myocardial ischemia (SMI) is frequently observed in patients with essential hypertension (EH). The major risk factor for SMI is uncontrolled blood pressure (BP), but SMI is also observed in patients with well-controlled BP. To evaluate the prevalence of SMI and the factors associated with SMI in EH patients with well-controlled BP.

Vitamin D and cardiometabolic disorders.

Recent clinical and experimental studies suggest that vitamin D status could play a significant role in the pathogenesis of cardiometabolic disorders as well as in their clinical severity. In particular, low vitamin D levels appear to increase the risk of major cardiovascular events in apparently healthy individuals and to worsen the prognosis quoad vitam and quoad valetudinem following a cardiovascular event. The relevance of these observations is amplified by the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency that affect over one billion individuals at all ages worldwide.

Nonsymmetric myocardial contribution to supranormal right ventricular function in the athlete's heart: combined assessment by speckle tracking and real time three-dimensional echocardiography.

Purpose: To investigate determinants of right ventricular (RV) function in competitive athletes by a combined assessment of speckle tracking (STE) and real time 3D echocardiography (RT3DE).

Methods: Right ventricular function of 40 top-level rowers was compared to 43 sedentary normal controls by standard Doppler echocardiography, RT3DE, and STE. RV diameters and wall thickness, tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE), tricuspid E/A ratio, and pulsed tissue Doppler of lateral tricuspid annulus were analyzed.

The changing profile of patients with calcium nephrolithiasis and the ascendancy of overweight and obesity: a comparison of two patient series observed 25 years apart.

Background: Epidemiological data indicate an increasing incidence and prevalence of nephrolithiasis (NL) worldwide in the last few decades.

Methods: The aim of this study was to compare the clinical and biochemical profiles of recurrent stone formers referred to a Kidney Stone Centre from March 1983 to June 1986 with the one featured by patients seen 25 years later in the same geographical area, Campania, southern Italy.

Results: Idiopathic calcium stone formers made up the large majority of the patient population in both series.

Not smoking is associated with lower risk of hypertension: results of the Olivetti Heart Study.

Background: Few epidemiological investigations evaluated the role of smoking cessation on blood pressure (BP), and the results are not univocal. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the effect of smoking cessation on the risk to develop hypertension (HPT) and on BP values.

Methods: This longitudinal study, with a follow-up period of 8 years, included the participants of the Olivetti Heart Study.

The role of echocardiography in the management of the sources of embolism.

The echocardiographic diagnosis of cardiac thrombi, vegetations and tumors as well as the identification of predisposing conditions such as patent foramen ovale, aortic atherosclerosis and other minor causes (e.g., mitral valve prolapse, mitral and aortic valve calcification) have crucial clinical relevance, affecting the choice of surgery and/or of pharmaceutical therapy in the setting of patients presenting embolism.