Ecological and phytosociological aspects of foredune vegetation in a neogenic beach of Tuscany coast (Italy)

An investigation of foredune vegetation of a 2 km long stretch of coast of North West Tuscany (Italy) is conducted. This area has geomorphological features that are very peculiar and different from the rest of the sandy shores of the Tuscan coast. The current beach of about 22 ha, is the result of recent deposits (from the early decades of the last century), derivatives of the production of soda and mainly made from waste carbonate (CaCO3 mainly) that are still discharged into the sea from a chemical factory nearby to the coast. This results in a marked progradation of this stretch of coastline, with a major development of dune vegetation in contrast with neighboring coastal areas. The vegetation analysis and zonation of plant communities show strong anomalies when compared with dune habitats of the nearby beaches. It has been noted that associations typical of ephemeral and embryonic dune such as Salsolo-Cakiletum and Echinophoro - Elymetum, are almost absent. These characteristic associations have now been replaced with extended surfaces of Sporobolus virginicus and an anomalous distribution of Echinophoro-Ammophiletum. This seems partly due to the significant human interference but also to the particular type of substrate.When human interference is absent and the soil type changes, we see the recovery of normal zonation

Mass media health information: Quantitative and qualitative analysis of daily press coverage and its relation with public perceptions

Objective: This paper describes the methods followed by the Pisa University OCS for collecting, storing and analyzing all health-related articles and database contents. Moreover, an example population survey on the topic of food safety based on such analysis is shown. Methods: Articles published each day since 1999 in Italy\u27s three most popular newspapers are collected and stored in a Data Base Text; on these articles quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted. On the basis of these results as well as of epidemiological data, a questionnaire survey was carried out about sources of information, knowledge and risk perception of citizens regarding food safety. Results: On a total of 24,434 articles on all health topics, 18% regarded food related hazards: their evolution over time showed peaks on BSE, avian flu and dioxin. A large proportion of the people surveyed declared having changed their food habits, at least temporarily, as a consequence of media information. Most get their information on food safety mainly from television. Most respondents remembered having previously heard news on BSE, avian flu and dioxin, but did not recall having heard of listeriosis, brucellosis or typhoid fever. Conclusions: Newspapers articles facing food related hazards tend to be alarming thus affecting the citizens risk perception. On the other hand people often ignore how to manage their own food safety in a practical way. Practice implications: Analysis of media messages can help to evaluate and correct the negative effects that may result in wrong information

planning tool for polygeneration design in microgrids

Abstract This work suggests a methodology to assist the designer during the planning phase of microgrids and eco-districts. A mixed integer linear programming model is designed to mathematically describe the different energy systems and the physical relations among them. Given the different electrical/thermal demand profiles, the micro grid's topology and a set of boundary conditions, the model can identify the optimum mix of (poly-)generation units and energy storage systems, as well as the necessary district heating/cooling infrastructure. Both economic and energetic cost functions are defined to explore the problem from different perspectives. The described tool is applied to study an actual district of the NTU campus in Singapore, comprising 5 multi-purpose buildings and a district cooling network supplied by centralized electrical chillers. The planning tool was run to assess the optimal configuration that minimizes the overall cost (initial investment and OM the outcome results presented a layout and a mix of energy systems different from the present one. In particular, the optimal configuration results to be a district cooling system served by a mix of electrical chiller plant, trigeneration distributed energy system and sensible cold thermal energy storage

GUCH POPULATION: CARDIOLOGIC AND SURGICAL DEMANDS

To evaluate the cardiologic and surgical demands of the GUCH population followed up in our Department, a retrospective analysis of 709 hospital admissions (HA) of 536 pts (mean age 34?16, range 16-79 years), carried out from 1997 to 2002, has been performed. In 293 pts the basic cardiopathy was simple (SC), in 158 of moderate complexity (MCC) and in 85 of great complexity (GCC). The reason for 169 HA was cardiac surgery and for 537 HA cardiologic issues. The overall HA/pt was 1.3 (1.1 in SC,1.3 in MCC, 2.1 in GCC). In 166 surgical pts, 171 operations were performed. First operations (n=105, 62%) were most commonly for atrial septal defect (n=50, 48%), aortic valve replacement(n=11,10%), ventricular septal defect (n=8, 8%). Reoperations (n=64, 38%) were divided among reintervention after corrective repair (n=45, 70%), further palliation (n=17, 26%), first palliation (n=2, 4%) and the most frequent were: Fontan operation (n=11, 17%), RV-PA conduit replacement (n=8, 12%), aortic valve replacement (n=6, 9%). The mean hospital stay was 19?17 days. Pleuro-pericardial effusion (n=32,18%), bleeding (n=11, 6%) and arrhythmias(n=11, 6%) were the most prevalent complications. Early mortality (n=7/171, 4%) was influenced by cyanosis (6 of 33,18% in cyanotic pts; 1 of 136, 2% in acyanotic, p<0,001) and by complexity of cardiopathy (n=6 of 43 GCC, 14%; n=1 of 72 MCC, 1%; 0 of 54 SC,0%, p<0.001) that was a risk factor also for more serious complications (20% in GCC, with respect of 9% in MCC, p<0,05 and 4% in SC, p<0.001). The principal reasons for 537 cardiologic HA in 432 pts, were: interventional procedures (n=209, 39%), diagnostic catheterisation (n=155, 29%), non invasive evaluation (n=95, 18%), arrhythmias (n=46, 10%). Closure of atrial septal discontinuity (n=167, 80%), patent ductus arteriosus (n=21, 10%), pulmonary valvuloplasty (n=8, 4%) and angioplasty of Coarctation (n=6, 3%), were more prevalent interventional procedures. In pts with GCC, heart failure and cyanosis were more commonly cause of HA than in MGC and SC (p<0.001). Despite the progress of pediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery, medical demands of GUCH remain numerous and complex throughout their lives. Therefore, it is extremely important to provide specialized surgical and cardiologic care for this complicated population

Tele-echocardiography between Italy and Balkan area

A project (PIS-SRCE) has been started for promoting international medical cooperation in the Balkan area according to the Stabilization and Association Process, the European Union\u27s policy framework for the Western Balkan countries. Information and communication technology is presently mature to set up a telemedicine network breaking down geographical barriers and providing specialized medical care virtually anywhere in the world. Videoconferencing equipment is commercially available to transmit securely over Internet echocardiography or other modality images in addition to standard audio/video signals. Real-time transmission capability is crucial for allowing specialists to drive remotely proper echo scanning of cardiac structures in patient or foetus with suspected congenital heart disease

Data Integration in Cardiac Surgery and Resource Management

At "G. Pasquinucci" Hospital in Massa, a section of CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology, an information system for cardiac surgery has been in use during the last years. This system was integrated with the Hospital Information System, already set up at the head of our institute in Pisa. Anesthesia data are recorded in the Operating Room (OR) as well as materials used during cardiac surgery operations. From the OR, data are transferred into the central clinical database, creating surgery reports in the medical record and filling in standardized clinical registers. Since 2000 a total of 2185 adult and 956 pediatric cardiac surgery operations were recorded

Risk assessment and prevention priorities in cultural heritage preservation

European Union has been promoting research actions on cultural heritage, recognizing and underlining its central role for the community policies and establishing its safeguard and valorisation as urgent priorities for the future. A research on rational tools for establishing seismic risk, intervention priorities, and decision-making on renovation of historical buildings and museums, just started at the University of Camerino, School of Architecture and Design, is described in this paper. The basic idea of the research is to develop a probabilistic methodology for the assessment of seismic risk of cultural Heritage starting from the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) approach, consisting of a general framework where the risk problem is decomposed into its three main features (i.e. seismic hazard, vulnerability and losses), analysed in a rigorous and consistent interdependent manner. The application of this methodology to cultural heritage requires investigations and original proposals on various open issues. This paper reports some results concerning the general methodology and preliminary analyses of a case study

Laboratory data integration into medical record

Laboratory Information System, integrated with the Hospital Information System, has been developed at the G.Pasquinucci Hospital, section of Institute of Clinical Physiology of National Research Council (CNR), specialized in adult and paediatric cardiac surgery. The aim was to automate the testing process from clinical departments to laboratory and back into medical record. Laboratory workflow consists of three parts: (a) test ordering by clinical staff, printing bar-coded ID labels and transmitting orders by network to laboratory; (b) processing test requests and controlling identified specimens by laboratory staff, providing work orders to analytical instruments and validation of results authorizing delivery into the hospital clinical repository; (c) consulting test results in clinical departments by referring physicians through the electronic medical record. This year the system has been used on adult patients processing 135000 laboratory tests concerning chemistry, haematology, coagulation and immunology

Parietal resting-state EEG alpha source connectivity is associated with subcortical white matter lesions in HIV-positive people

Objective Parietal resting-state electroencephalographic (rsEEG) alpha (8–10 Hz) source connectivity is abnormal in HIV-positive persons. Here we tested whether this abnormality may be associated with subcortical white matter vascular lesions in the cerebral hemispheres. Methods Clinical, rsEEG, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) datasets in 38 HIV-positive persons and clinical and rsEEG datasets in 13 healthy controls were analyzed. Radiologists visually evaluated the subcortical white matter hyperintensities from T2-weighted FLAIR MRIs (i.e., Fazekas scale). In parallel, neurophysiologists estimated the eLORETA rsEEG source lagged linear connectivity from parietal cortical regions of interest. Results Compared to the HIV participants with no/negligible subcortical white matter hyperintensities, the HIV participants with mild/moderate subcortical white matter hyperintensities showed lower parietal interhemispheric rsEEG alpha lagged linear connectivity. This effect was also observed in HIV-positive persons with unimpaired cognition. This rsEEG marker allowed good discrimination (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve &gt; 0.80) between the HIV-positive individuals with different amounts of subcortical white matter hyperintensities. Conclusions The parietal rsEEG alpha source connectivity is associated with subcortical white matter vascular lesions in HIV-positive persons, even without neurocognitive disorders. Significance Those MRI-rsEEG markers may be used to screen HIV-positive persons at risk of neurocognitive disorders

Direct Involvement of Cranial Nerve V at Diagnosis in Patients With Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma: A Potential Magnetic Resonance Predictor of Short-Term Survival

Background: Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) has a dismal prognosis. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) remains the gold standard for non-invasive DIPG diagnosis. MRI features have been tested as surrogate biomarkers. We investigated the direct involvement of cranial nerve V (CN V) in DIPG at diagnosis and its utility as predictor of poor overall survival.Materials and Methods: We examined MRI scans of 35 consecutive patients with radiological diagnosis of DIPG. Direct involvement of CN V was assessed on the diagnostic scans. Differences in overall survival (OS) and time to progression (TTP) were analyzed for involvement of CN V, sex, age, tumor size, ring enhancement, and treatment regimen. Correlations between involvement of CN V and disease dissemination, magnet strength and slice thickness were analyzed. Statistical analyses included Kaplan-Meier curves, log-rank test and Spearman's Rho.Results: After excluding six long-term survivors, 29 patients were examined (15 M, 14 F). Four patients presented direct involvement of CN V. Histological data were available in 12 patients. Median OS was 11 months (range 3–23 months). Significant differences in OS were found for direct involvement of CN V (median OS: 7 months, 95% CI 1.1–12.9 months for involvement of CN V vs. 13 months, 95% CI 10.2–15.7 for lack of involvement of CN V, respectively, p &lt; 0.049). Significant differences in TTP were found for the two treatment regimens (median TTP: 4 months, 95% CI 2.6–5.3 vs. 7 months, 95% CI 5.9–8.1, respectively, p &lt; 0.027). No significant correlation was found between involvement of CN V and magnet strength or slice thickness (r = −0.201; p = NS). A trend toward positive correlation was found between direct involvement of CN V at diagnosis and dissemination of disease at follow-up (r = 0.347; p &lt; 0.065).Conclusions: In our cohort, direct involvement of CN V correlated with poor prognosis. Based on our data, we suggest that in DIPG direct involvement of CN V should be routinely evaluated on diagnostic scans