A Spatial Kinetic Model of Crowd Evacuation Dynamics with Infectious Disease Contagion

This paper proposes a kinetic theory approach coupling together the modeling of crowd evacuation from a bounded domain with exit doors and infectious disease contagion. The spatial movement of individuals in the crowd is modeled by a proper description of the interactions with people in the crowd and the environment, including walls and exits. At the same time, interactions among healthy and infectious individuals may generate disease spreading if exposure time is long enough. Immunization of the population and individual awareness to contagion is considered as well. Interactions are modeled by tools of game theory, that let us propose the so-called tables of games that are introduced in the general kinetic equations. The proposed model is qualitatively studied and, through a series of case studies, we explore different scenarios related to crowding and gathering formation within indoor venues under the spread of a respiratory infectious disease, obtaining insights on specific policies to reduce contagion that may be implemented

Clinical characteristics and management of cancer-associated acute venous thromboembolism: findings from the MASTER Registry.

Background: Clinical characteristics and management of acute deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism (PE) have been reported to be different in patients with and without cancer. The aim of this paper was to provide information on clinical characteristics and management of acute venous thromboembolism in patients with cancer by means of a large prospective registry. Design and Methods: MASTER is a multicenter registry of consecutively recruited patients with symptomatic, objectively confirmed, acute venous thromboembolism. Information about clinical characteristics and management was collected by an electronic data network at the time of the index event. Results: A total of 2119 patients were enrolled, of whom 424 (20%) had cancer. The incidence of bilateral lower limb deep vein thrombosis was significantly higher in patients with cancer than in patients without cancer (8.5% versus 4.6%; p<0.01), as were the rates of iliocaval thombosis (22.6% versus 14%; p<0.001), and upper limb deep vein thrombosis (9.9% versus 4.8%; p<0.001). Major bleeding (3.3% versus 1.1%; p=0.001), in-hospital treatment (73.3% versus 66.6%; p=0.02) and inferior vena cava filter implantation (7.3% versus 4.1%; p=0.005) were significantly more frequent in patients with cancer, in whom oral anticoagulants were less often used (64.2% versus 82%; p<0.0001). Conclusions: The clinical presentation of acute venous thromboembolism is different and often more extensive in cancer patients than in patients free from malignancy. Moreover, the management of the acute phase of venous thromboembolism is more problematic in cancer patients, especially because of a higher rate of major bleeding and the need for implantation of inferior vena cava filters

The sustainability of biodynamic horticultural production : The case of Po valley

More and more attention is paid to environmental, economic and social sustainability of the agricultural activity as it is proved at European level by the new setting of CAP toward 2020. It is therefore interesting to understand which production practices better react to these characteristics. Biodynamic appears to respond well in terms of environmental sustainability: can the same be affirmed in terms of economic sustainability? In this paper Italian biodynamic sector has been analyzed focusing on horticultural production: its economic sustainability has been verified especially for small farms that are facing increasing problems in terms of profitability. The Italian Demeter database was used to identify biodynamic farms that have been georeferenced at a national level and then only the ones specialized in vegetable production have been selected for Italy. In order to assess its economic sustainability the production costs for three farms located in the area of the High Po valley that are converting from organic to biodynamic have been examined, focusing on five items: lettuce (Lactuca sativa), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), zucchini (Cucurbita pepo), eggplant (Solanum melongena), cucumber (Cucumis sativus). Then these costs have been compared to the ones associated with organic and traditional methods. Their prices have been also compared in order to achieve an economic assessment of the different production methods. Finally a SWOT analysis regarding the adoption of the biodynamic method has been performed. This paper proves that the biodynamic method is economically sustainable in the horticultural production based on higher retail prices that-for some products-compensate higher costs, in comparison to the organic and traditional methods. Another factor that strengthens the use of the biodynamic method is a favorable European legislation

The impact of combined nutraceutical supplementation on work-related stress, mood and eating disorders during the menopausal transition: A pilot study

Objectives: Menopause represents a "window of vulnerability" in women's life. This transition comprehends many changes: Physical, metabolical and psychological. It could, also, cause difficulties at work and the most problematic symptoms are poor concentration and memory, tiredness, feeling depressed and lowered confidence. Moreover food becomes, often, a practical, easy and fast solution to manage negative emotions. The aims of this pilot study were: To analyze the existence of a possible link between menopausal transition, mood, eating behavior and well-being perception on the workplace and to verify the possible influence of nutraceutical supplementation on the above mentioned factors. Method: 40 women, with mean age 52 years old and mean BMI 33.27 were enrolled and divided into two groups: Diet + behavioral advices (D), or diet + behavioral advices and a nutraceutical compound (D+N) (Assist Forte Retard\uae 1 cp in the evening) for four months. The following psychological questionnaires were administrated at the beginning and after four months: Zung depression scale, (ZDS); Binge Eating Scale (BES); Job Content Questionnaire ( JCQ) used to measure the investigate job related stress. After the test, each woman had an individual psychological interview aimed to investigate her personal experiences, related to what come out from the results. Results: After four months: women (D+N) achieved a statistically significant improvement in both tests (ZDS p <0.0001 Bes p <0.0083). The women (D) had no statistically significant changes in BES, even if there was better management of feeding behavior, and ZDS did not show an improvement in mood. JCQ analysis showed: women (D+N) had a moderate increase of decision-making capacity (DL 64 to 66) compared with an unchanged workload ( JD 33 to 33.5); social-support perception (SS ) showed a slight improvement even if it remained below the median line of the reference sample. In the (D) group we observed a slight increase of the workload , accompanied by a reduction of the decision-making capacity (DL 74 to 69) and by a tiny lowering of the perception of the social support (SS). Conclusions: The combination of a diet program, behavioural advice and nutraceuticals, compared to the sole diet, made it possible to relieve the emotional and eating disturbs related to the menopause and to improve the perception of a satisfactory work

Effect of organic treatments on soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics in vineyard

The work aims to investigate the effects of different soil management strategies on carbon sequestration and total nitrogen in areas of vineyards suffering from loss of soil functionality. Treatments, selected for inter-row management, to re-install soil functionality were based on compost or other organic amendments (COMP), green manure (GM), and dry mulching (DM) strategies using winter legumes and cereals. Cover crops were seeded in fall and mown in late spring, leaved in the ground for mulching in DM or incorporated into the uppermost soil layers in GM. Such approaches were investigated in six vineyards in Italy, six in France, and two vineyards in Slovenia and Turkey. The results showed that COMP significantly increased total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (Ntot) in the topsoil after one year of application. Also DM tends to increase significantly TOC in the topsoil, but only after two years. Modelling 20-year carbon stock dynamics in Italy vineyards, the average increase resulted 0.49, 0.34, 0.21 and 0.03 Mg C ha-1 yr-1 for COMP, DM, GM and control, respectively