The composite dataset of the present-day Infralittoral Prograding Wedges (IPWs) in the inner continental shelf of the Campania region (Central-Eastern Tyrrhenian Sea)

This article reports on the dataset gathered following the census of 83 present-day Infralittoral Prograding Wedges (IPWs), surveyed on the inner continental shelf of the Central-Eastern Tyrrhenian Sea. The purpose of the census was to explore their bathymetric range and assess the observational laws governing this variability. The ensued dataset (Campania Region IPW Dataset, CRID) includes geographic, topographic and morpho-bathymetric indices, descriptive of each IPW and more, the exposure of each IPW to wave forcing (Geographical fetch, Effective fetch and extreme significant wave height, HS). In this work, histograms contribute to describe all the variables and highlight the dominant features of each IPW. Location maps univocally links the geographic position of each IPW to the appropriate attribute record in the dataset. Further, thematic maps illustrate eight wave fields obtained by offshore-to-nearshore transformation by as many sea states scenarios with 200-year return period. Such wave fields are used as sources for significant wave height representing wave conditions over each IPW. This dataset could be implemented with new measures at a broader scale, by following analogue procedures for measurements, to enlarge the observational scale on IPWs and improve the numerical models which might eventually derive by the analysis of this dataset

[Abolishing mandatory routine medical and laboratory examination of food handlers may have influenced the reporting trends of foodborne diseases? Frequency of notified foodborne illnesses in Southern Italy from 1996 to 2009]

The aim of this study is to compare notifications of foodborne diseases in Southern Italy, before and after abolishing mandatory medical and laboratory examination routine. Data were obtained from the National Epidemiological Report of Health Ministry, that includes the annual summaries of foodborne infectious illnesses notified in Italy. The average number of foodborne diseases per million inhabitants per year decreased after the abolishment of health card for all examined conditions. There was a statistically significant reduction in all Regions for Salmonellosis and in Basilicata, Calabria, Campania and Sicily for Brucellosis. Abolishing health card of food handlers workers did not increase trends of foodborne illnesses and foodborne epidemics in Southern Italy. Examined data confirm the substantial effectiveness of food handlers self-control and training as essentials instruments of Evidence Based Prevention

Improving recognition of odors in a waste management plant by using electronic noses with different technologies, gas chromatography\u2013mass spectrometry/olfactometry and dynamic olfactometry

Odor emissions from waste management plants have long been an environmental and economic issue, but only recently regional authorities in Italy are regulating this sector by imposing control and mitigation of the phenomenon. Electronic noses, initially developed as cheap, easy tools to detect volatiles, may have the required time-resolved coverage of the odor emission phenomenon in a cheap and feasible way with respect to chemical analysis of air. One crucial issue to resolve is to evaluate the discriminant capacity of a sensor array in-field and under working conditions. In this paper the authors have studied the responses of electronic noses of different technologies to odors emitted from a waste management plant, by integrating results obtained with dynamic olfactometry and gas chromatography\u2013mass spectrometry/olfactometry, in the aim to implement a monitoring system and improve cleaner production technologies. Three most impacting odor sources in the waste management plant were detected: biogas, a by-product of mechanical treatment of municipal solid wastes, with low organic fraction and a sludge pressed and dehydrated from treatment of urban wastewater. The most odor impacting source was the sludge and the major responsible of the odor impacts were aromatics (in particular 1,3,5-trimethyl benzene), aliphatic hydrocarbons, terpenes and sulphur volatiles (methyl disulphide, carbon disulphide, dimethyltrisulphide). Ten Metal Oxide Semiconductors and 32 polymer/black carbon (Nano Composite Array) sensors in two electronic noses, were tested for discrimination source capabilities. Results of linear discriminant analysis and cross validation give 86.7% successful recognition for Metal Oxide Semiconductors, 53.3% for Nano Composite Array and 93.3% for a selection of sensors belonging to both technologies chosen according to the selectivity towards the odor active molecules. The containment of odors could also be achieved by spraying a specific product and monitoring the process using selected sensors of the arrays. The results of the in-field work demonstrate strengths and weaknesses of different construction technologies in the e-noses arrays, to characterize and monitor in-site and in real time odor emissions from waste management plants

Secondary cytomegalovirus infections: How much do we still not know? Comparison of children with symptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus born to mothers with primary and secondary infection

Congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) infection can follow primary and secondary maternal infection. Growing evidence indicate that secondary maternal infections contribute to a much greater proportion of symptomatic cCMV than was previously thought. We performed a monocentric retrospective study of babies with cCMV evaluated from August 2004 to February 2021; we compared data of symptomatic children born to mothers with primary or secondary infection, both at birth and during follow up. Among the 145 babies with available data about maternal infection, 53 were classified as having symptomatic cCMV and were included in the study: 40 babies were born to mothers with primary infection and 13 babies were born to mothers with secondary infection. Analyzing data at birth, we found no statistical differences in the rate of clinical findings in the two groups, except for unilateral sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) which was significantly more frequent in patients born to mother with secondary infection than in those born to mother with primary infection (46.2 vs. 17.5%, P = 0.037). During follow up, we found a higher rate of many sequelae (tetraparesis, epilepsy, motor and speech delay, and unilateral SNHL) in the group of children born to mothers with secondary infection, with a statistical difference for tetraparesis and unilateral SNHL. Otherwise, only children born to mothers with primary infection presented bilateral SNHL both at birth and follow up. Our data suggest that the risk of symptomatic cCMV and long-term sequelae is similar in children born to mother with primary and secondary CMV infection; it is important to pay appropriate attention to seropositive mothers in order to prevent reinfection and to detect and possibly treat infected babies

The management of chronic pain in rheumatic diseases

Rheumatic diseases are a group of pathologies that usually affect the joints or adjacent anatomical structures or functionally related such as bones, muscles, tendons, bursa, fascia, ligaments, and whose main symptom is the pain. Optimal pain control is a prerequisite for successful therapy of many rheumatic diseases. Many patients may present many diffi culties in terms of pain relief and therefore must be addressed at an appropriate pain treatment center

Investigating the ultimate accuracy of Doppler-broadening thermometry by means of a global fitting procedure

Doppler-limited, high-precision, molecular spectroscopy in the linear regime of interaction may refine our knowledge of the Boltzmann constant. To this end, the global uncertainty in the retrieval of the Doppler width should be reduced down to 1 part over 10^6, which is a rather challenging target. So far, Doppler-broadening thermometry has been mostly limited by the uncertainty associated to the line shape model that is adopted for the nonlinear least-squares fits of experimental spectra. In this paper, we deeply investigate this issue by using a very realistic and sophisticated model, known as partially correlated speed-dependent Keilson-Storer profile, to reproduce near-infrared water spectra. A global approach has been developed to fit a large number of numerically simulated spectra, testing a variety of simplified line-shape models. It turns out that the most appropriate model is the speed-dependent hard-collision profile. We demonstrate that the Doppler width can be determined with relative precision and accuracy, respectively, of 0.42 and 0.75 part per million

Innovative Methodology Dedicated to the CERN LHC Cryogenic Valves Based on Modern Algorithm for Fault Detection and Predictive Diagnostics

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) cryogenic infrastructure is composed of many equipment, among them there are the cryogenic valves widely used in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) cryogenic facility. At present time, diagnostic solutions that can be integrated into the process control systems, capable to identify leak failures in valves bellows, are not available. The authors goal has been the development of a system that allows the detection of helium leaking valves during normal operation using available data extracted from the control system. The design constraints has driven the development towards a solution integrated in the monitoring systems in use, not requiring manual interventions. The methodology presented in this article is based on the extraction of distinctive features (analyzing the data in time and frequency domain) which are exploited in the next phase of machine learning. The aim is to identify a list of candidate valves with a high probability of helium leakage. The proposed methodology, which is at very early stage now, with the evolution of the data set and the iterative approach is aiming toward a cryogenic valves targeted maintenance

Innovative technologies for odor control emissions in landfill

Purpose of this work is to control odor emissions from a landfill plant by implementing a system for process management using advanced sensor technologies. Gaschromatography-Olfactometry/Mass Spectrometry (GC-O/MS), dynamic olfactometry and electronic noses using two different technologies (Metal Oxide Semiconductors and polymer/black carbon nano composite arrays) have been integrated. Results shows the potential of electronic noses in discriminating the sources and monitor both in-situ and in real time, the odorous emissions. An intelligent system, able to react in the critical operations of management of the plant can be developed, by implementing an intelligent network of sensors adequately trained to identify the odor emissions of any type of industrial activity. This approach has shown the full applicability of electronic noses in the process control of wastes having odor impacts