The Barthel index: italian translation, adaptation and validation

The Barthel Index (BI) is widely used to measure disability also in Italy, although a validated and culturally adapted Italian version of BI has not been produced yet. This article describes the translation and cultural adaptation into Italian of the original 10-item version of BI, and reports the procedures for testing its validity and reliability. The cultural adaptation and validation process was based on data from a cohort of disabled patients from two different Rehabilitation Centers in Rome, Italy. Forward and backward translation method was adopted by qualified linguist and independent native English official translators. The scale obtained was reviewed by 20 experts in psychometric sciences. The Italian adapted version of the BI was then produced and validated. A total number of 180 patients were submitted to the adapted scale for testing its acceptability and internal consistency. The total time of compilation was 5 ± 2,6 minutes (range 3-10). Validation of the scale was performed by 7 trained professional therapists that submitted both the translated and the adapted versions to a group of 62 clinically stable patients (T-test=-2.051 p=0.05). The internal consistency by Cronbach’s alpha resulted equal to 0.96. Test – retest intra – rater reliability was evaluated on 35 cases; at test-retest was ICC=0.983 (95%IC: 0.967-0.992). This is the first study that reports translation, adaptation and validation of the BI in Italian language. It provides a new tool for professionals to measure functional disability when appraising Italian speaking disable patients in health and social care settings along the continuum of care

Generalized Complex Spherical Harmonics, Frame Functions, and Gleason Theorem

Consider a finite dimensional complex Hilbert space \cH, with dim(\cH) \geq 3, define \bS(\cH):= \{x\in \cH \:|\: ||x||=1\}, and let \nu_\cH be the unique regular Borel positive measure invariant under the action of the unitary operators in \cH, with \nu_\cH(\bS(\cH))=1. We prove that if a complex frame function f : \bS(\cH)\to \bC satisfies f \in \cL^2(\bS(\cH), \nu_\cH), then it verifies Gleason's statement: There is a unique linear operator A: \cH \to \cH such that $f(u) =$ for every u \in \bS(\cH). $A$ is Hermitean when $f$ is real. No boundedness requirement is thus assumed on $f$ {\em a priori}.Comment: 9 pages, Accepted for publication in Ann. H. Poincar\'

Towards a knowledge-based system to assist the Brazilian data-collecting system operation

A study is reported which was carried out to show how a knowledge-based approach would lead to a flexible tool to assist the operation task in a satellite-based environmental data collection system. Some characteristics of a hypothesized system comprised of a satellite and a network of Interrogable Data Collecting Platforms (IDCPs) are pointed out. The Knowledge-Based Planning Assistant System (KBPAS) and some aspects about how knowledge is organized in the IDCP's domain are briefly described

Appropriateness and efficacy of Spa therapy for musculoskeletal disorders. A Delphi method consensus initiative among experts in Italy.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to identify the main aspects concerning appropriateness and efficacy of Spa therapy for musculoskeletal pathologies. METHODS: A committee of 8 experts from Italian universities, public hospitals, territorial services, research institutes and patient associations was set up. Clinicians from Italian medical centers specialized in rheumatology, rehabilitation and thermal medicine took part in a Delphi process aimed at obtaining consensus statements among the participants. RESULTS: Large consensus was obtained for statements grouped under the following main themes: treatment indications; choice of treatment modality and treatment efficacy. CONCLUSIONS: The experts developed a number of consensus statements which may be used as a practical reference to guide the choice of physicians to treat musculoskeletal diseases with Spa therapy

Distinguished quantum states in a class of cosmological spacetimes and their Hadamard property

In a recent paper, we proved that a large class of spacetimes, not necessarily homogeneous or isotropous and relevant at a cosmological level, possesses a preferred codimension one submanifold, i.e., the past cosmological horizon, on which it is possible to encode the information of a scalar field theory living in the bulk. Such bulk-to-boundary reconstruction procedure entails the identification of a preferred quasifree algebraic state for the bulk theory, enjoying remarkable properties concerning invariance under isometries (if any) of the bulk and energy positivity, and reducing to well-known vacua in standard situations. In this paper, specialising to open FRW models, we extend previously obtained results and we prove that the preferred state is of Hadamard form, hence the backreaction on the metric is finite and the state can be used as a starting point for renormalisation procedures. That state could play a distinguished role in the discussion of the evolution of scalar fluctuations of the metric, an analysis often performed in the development of any model describing the dynamic of an early Universe which undergoes an inflationary phase of rapid expansion in the past.Comment: 41 page

Classification of geokhod units and systems based on product cost analysis and estimation for a prototype model production

The paper considers data systematization on a new shield-type heading machine - geokhod. The target of the paper is to classify geokhod components on the basis of their technical and economical production parameters. A prototype model reveals the structure of a geokhod as an assembly unit and identifies its basic characteristics. The paper overviews the methods of product cost estimations, justifies the application of an operation-based approach for a prototype model, provides the results containing product cost data for various geokhod components and technological processes, and gives the data for a material cost structure. Taking into consideration the product cost analysis, geokhod components are classified according to their technical and economical production parameters. Moreover the paper outlines the ways of a classification application for a geokhod manufacturing techniques improvement

Systematic Classifier of Manufacturing Processes for Medium Size Shafts

The article considers some issues of increasing efficiency of manufacturing preparation as a part of manufacturing processes design at a machine building enterprise. A tree of routing manufacturing processes for machining shafts of medium size is described as an example of clustering parts according to their structural and technological characteristics. Processing route for a certain part included into a certain group is developed through choosing machining operations for elementary surfaces of a part from the process route developed for a template representative of the group

Rigorous steps towards holography in asymptotically flat spacetimes

Scalar QFT on the boundary $\Im^+$ at null infinity of a general asymptotically flat 4D spacetime is constructed using the algebraic approach based on Weyl algebra associated to a BMS-invariant symplectic form. The constructed theory is invariant under a suitable unitary representation of the BMS group with manifest meaning when the fields are interpreted as suitable extensions to $\Im^+$ of massless minimally coupled fields propagating in the bulk. The analysis of the found unitary BMS representation proves that such a field on $\Im^+$ coincides with the natural wave function constructed out of the unitary BMS irreducible representation induced from the little group $\Delta$, the semidirect product between SO(2) and the two dimensional translational group. The result proposes a natural criterion to solve the long standing problem of the topology of BMS group. Indeed the found natural correspondence of quantum field theories holds only if the BMS group is equipped with the nuclear topology rejecting instead the Hilbert one. Eventually some theorems towards a holographic description on $\Im^+$ of QFT in the bulk are established at level of $C^*$ algebras of fields for strongly asymptotically predictable spacetimes. It is proved that preservation of a certain symplectic form implies the existence of an injective $*$-homomorphism from the Weyl algebra of fields of the bulk into that associated with the boundary $\Im^+$. Those results are, in particular, applied to 4D Minkowski spacetime where a nice interplay between Poincar\'e invariance in the bulk and BMS invariance on the boundary at $\Im^+$ is established at level of QFT. It arises that the $*$-homomorphism admits unitary implementation and Minkowski vacuum is mapped into the BMS invariant vacuum on $\Im^+$.Comment: 62 pages, amslatex, xy package; revised section 2 and the conclusions; corrected some typos; added some references; accepted for pubblication on Rev. Math. Phy