Public crowdsensing of heat waves by social media data

Abstract. Investigating on society-related heat wave hazards is a global issue concerning the people health. In the last two decades, Europe experienced several severe heat wave episodes with catastrophic effects in term of human mortality (2003, 2010 and 2015). Recent climate investigations confirm that this threat will represent a key issue for the resiliency of urban communities in next decades. Several important mitigation actions (Heat-Health Action Plans) against heat hazards have been already implemented in some WHO (World Health Organization) European region member states to encourage preparedness and response to extreme heat events. Nowadays, social media (SM) offer new opportunities to indirectly measure the impact of heat waves on society. Using the crowdsensing concept, a micro-blogging platform like Twitter may be used as a distributed network of mobile sensors that react to external events by exchanging messages (tweets). This work presents a preliminary analysis of tweets related to heat waves that occurred in Italy in summer 2015. Using TwitterVigilance dashboard, developed by the University of Florence, a sample of tweets related to heat conditions was retrieved, stored and analyzed for main features. Significant associations between the daily increase in tweets and extreme temperatures were presented. The daily volume of Twitter users and messages revealed to be a valuable indicator of heat wave impact at the local level, in urban areas. Furthermore, with the help of Generalized Additive Model (GAM), the volume of tweets in certain locations has been used to estimate thresholds of local discomfort conditions. These city-specific thresholds are the result of dissimilar climatic conditions and risk cultures

The Use of Six Sigma to Assess Two Prostheses for Immediate Breast Reconstruction

Breast reconstruction is fundamental and urgent for patients in order to avoid future psychological and physical issues. That’s why immediate breast reconstruction has been requested increasingly in the last years. In this study two prosthesis with different structures and properties were compared according the aesthetic appearance (BREAST-Q© was employed) and five complications (seroma, hematoma, infections, dehiscence and red breast syndrome). The overall population was composed by 56 patients: 24 received a Tutomesh prosthesis and 32 received a Surgimend prosthesis. The DMAIC (define, measure, analyse, improve and control) cycle was implemented as a problem-solving strategy of the Six Sigma to compare the prostheses. While statistically significant difference between the two groups wasn’t found according to the overall BREAST-Q© (p-value = 0.674), the number of complications of the two groups resulted statistically different (p-value of chi-square test less than 0.001). Although it is not possible to understand from this study the reasons of the differences between the complications, this research proved that Surgimend and Tutomesh prostheses can be both implanted safely for immediate breast reconstruction since the higher costs of Surgimend could be neutralized with its lower hospitalization compared to Tutomesh. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Age as a risk factor in the occurrence of pneumothorax after transthoracic fine needle biopsy: Our experience

Transthoracic needle biopsy (TTNB) of the lung is a well-established technique for diagnosing many thoracic lesions, and is an important alternative to more invasive surgical procedures. Complications of TTNB include pneumothorax, hemoptysis, hemothorax, infection, and air embolism, with the most common complication as pneumothorax. From June 2011 to June 2014 we performed a prospective study of 188 patients who underwent TTNB with CT guidance at University Hospital of Salerno, Italy. Pneumothorax occurred in 14 of 188 biopsies (7.45%). With the respect of age of patients pneumothorax occurred more frequently in patients aged 60-70 years, while it was less frequent in younger (70 years). In conclusion, data of our prospective study documented that CT-guided TTNB is a safe and reliable procedure in elderly patients with suspected chest malignancy and is well tolerated