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The only available treatment of traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) is high-dose methylprednisolone (MP) administered acutely after injury. However, as the efficacy of MP is controversial, we assessed the superiority of erythropoietin (EPO) versus MP in improving clinical outcome of acute TSCI. Patients aged 18 to 65 years after C5-T12 injury, and grade A or B of the ASIA Impairment Scale (AIS), admitted within 8 h, hemodynamically stable, were randomized to MP according to the NASCIS III protocol or EPO iv (500 UI/kg, repeated at 24 and 48 h). Patients were assessed by an investigator blind to treatment assignment at baseline and at day 3, 7, 14, 30, 60 and 90. Primary end point: number of responders (reduction of at least one AIS grade). Secondary end points: treatment safety and the effects of drugs on a number of disability measures. Frequentistic and post hoc Bayesian analyses were performed. Eight patients were randomized to MP and 11 to EPO. Three patients (27.3 %) on EPO and no patients on MP reached the primary end point ( p = 0.17). No significant differences were found for the other disability measures. No adverse events or serious adverse events were reported in both groups. The Bayesian analysis detected a 91.8 % chance of achieving higher success rates on the primary end point with EPO in the intention-to-treat population with a 95 % chance the difference between EPO and MP falling in the range (−0.10, 0.51) and a median value of 0.2. The results of Bayesian analysis favored the experimental treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data in the literature show that migraine tends to improve during pregnancy in most migrainous women. The aim of this Internet survey was to obtain the most likely cross section of the situation in the general population with respect to the presence and course of migraine in pregnancy. All women who participated were asked to answer questions pertaining to their history of pregnancy and headache. One thousand and eighteen women participated in the survey; only 775 met the eligibility criteria for inclusion. One hundred and ninety-five women (25.2 %) reported having had a headache only before pregnancy, 425 (54.8 %) before and during pregnancy, and 155 (20.0 %) only during pregnancy. Women suffering from headache before and/or during pregnancy were much more likely to have headaches with more migrainous features at the ID Migraine Screener test when compared to women whose headache began during pregnancy. 'Definite migraines' were 277/620 (44.7 %) and 26/155 (16.8 %), respectively, in the two groups ( p < 0.0001). Among the 620 females that suffered from headache before pregnancy, 375 (60.5 %) improved, 195 (31.5 %) showed complete resolution of the disorder, and 180 (29.0 %) had a reduction in headache frequency. Moreover, the multinomial logistic model (with headache pattern as dependent variable) proved fetal presentation as significant ( p = 0.0042). Women with 'new headache' (No/Yes pattern) had an OR (95 % CI) of 1.9 (1.2-3.0) of breech presentation at delivery versus those with a stable pattern of headache (Yes/Yes). Finally, women with not recent pregnancy stated they suffered from headache less than the women with recent pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benford's analysis is applied to the recurrence times of approximately 17,000 seismic events in different geological contexts of Italy over the last 6 years, including the Mt. Etna volcanic area and the seismic series associated with the destructive M 6.3, 2009 L'Aquila earthquake. A close conformity to Benford's law and a power-law probability distribution for the recurrence times of consecutive events is found, as typical of random multiplicative processes. The application of Benford's law to the recurrence event times in seismic series of specific seismogenic regions represents a novel approach, which enlarges the occurrence and relevance of Benford-like asymmetries, with implications on the physics of natural systems approaching a power law behaviour. Moreover, we propose that the shift from a close conformity of Benford's law to Brownian dynamics, observed for time separations among non-consecutive events in the study seismic series, may be ruled by a periodical noise factor, such as the effects of Earth tides on seismicity tuning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present work we analyse one of the active normal faults affecting the central Apennines, i.e. the Mt. Morrone normal fault system. This tectonic structure, which comprises two parallel, NW-SE trending fault segments, is considered as potentially responsible for earthquakes of magnitude ≥ 6.5 and its last activation probably occurred during the second century AD. Structural observations performed along the fault planes have allowed to define the mainly normal kinematics of the tectonic structure, fitting an approximately N 20° trending extensional deformation. Geological and geomorphological investigations performed along the whole Mt. Morrone south-western slopes permitted us to identify the displacement of alluvial fans, attributed to Middle and Late Pleistocene by means of tephro-stratigraphic analyses and geomorphological correlations with dated lacustrine sequences, along the western fault branch. This allowed to evaluate in 0.4 ± 0.07 mm/year the slip rate of this segment. On the other hand, the lack of synchronous landforms and/or deposits that can be correlated across the eastern fault segment prevented the definition of the slip rate related to this fault branch. Nevertheless, basing on a critical review of the available literature dealing with normal fault systems evolution, we hypothesised a total slip rate of the fault system in the range of 0.4 ± 0.07 to 0.8 ± 0.09 mm/year. Moreover, basing on the length at surface of the Mt. Morrone fault system (i.e. 22-23 km) we estimated the maximum expected magnitude of an earthquake that might originate along this tectonic structure in the order of 6.6-6.7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]