Endogenous space in the Net era

Libre Software communities are among the most interesting and advanced socio-economic laboratories on the Net. In terms of directions of Regional Science research, this paper addresses a simple question: “Is the socio-economics of digital nets out of scope for Regional Science, or might the latter expand to a cybergeography of digitally enhanced territories ?” As for most simple questions, answers are neither so obvious nor easy. The authors start drafting one in a positive sense, focussing upon a file rouge running across the paper: endogenous spaces woven by socio-economic processes. The drafted answer declines on an Evolutionary Location Theory formulation, together with two computational modelling views. Keywords: Complex networks, Computational modelling, Economics of Internet, Endogenous spaces, Evolutionary location theory, Free or Libre Software, Path dependence, Positionality.

SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in the Vatican city state

The results of this seroprevalence analysis showed a positivity rate among individuals assisted by the internal healthcare system of the Vatican City State lower than that found in other studies on similar samples. This may be due to the small sample size and to the low number of COVID-19 cases tracked in the Vatican City State thanks to the control and prevention measures taken by the Directorate of Health and Hygiene. These measures were applied uninterruptedly through the first and second waves and included preventive measures such as hand disinfection, social distancing, use of face masks, body temperature measurement and symptom screening, as well as clinical surveillance, isolation protocols for symptomatic individuals and careful evaluation of all potential contacts

Evaluation of dental demands and needs of people experiencing homelessness in the city of Rome, Italy

Objective: poor oral health and oral diseases are common among people experiencing homelessness. The aim of this study was to evaluate the dental demands and needs of a population of homeless persons in the city of Rome, Italy. Patients and methods: the clinical records of 165 homeless patients admitted between October 2020 and October 2021 to the dental service of the Primary Care Services of the Eleemosynaria Apostolica, Vatican City, were retrospectively reviewed. The service employed dentists to evaluate dental needs and oral conditions in patients experiencing homelessness. The main dental and oral pathological conditions were noted. Results: one hundred and sixty-five records of homeless patients were included in the study. The sample consisted in 138 males (76.97%) and 27 females (23.03%) with a mean age of 46.9 years (range 7-85 years). Acute tooth pain was reported by 132 (80%) patients, 42 (25.45%) had edentulism or missing teeth and 18 (10.91%) patients had oral lesions. Both dental and oral pathologies were intercepted and managed in secondary healthcare facilities. Conclusions: given the specific peculiarities of this vulnerable population, it is important to implement strategies that facilitate the access of persons experiencing homelessness to dental evaluation with a preventive and curative perspective

SARS-CoV-2 infection prevalence in people experiencing homelessness

Objective: People experiencing homelessness have peculiar characteristics that make them more vulnerable to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission and to more serious forms of Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19). The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the homeless population assisted by the primary care services of the Eleemosynaria Apostolica, Vatican City. Patients and methods: Persons experiencing homelessness and the volunteers assisting them were tested for COVID-19 through PCR and antigen rapid test between October 1st, 2020, and June 5th, 2021, in the clinical facilities of the Eleemosynaria Apostolica. Results: A total of 1665 subjects from 96 different countries in five continents were included in the study; age range was 1-90 years. Overall, 2315 COVID-19 tests through nasopharyngeal swab were performed; 1052 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests and 1263 antigen rapid tests. Nearly 40% of the subjects underwent both tests (n=650, 39.04%), 402 were tested with PCR test only (24.14%) and 613 with antigen test only (36.8%). PCR tests were negative in 966 cases and positive in 86 (8.17%), while antigen tests were negative in 1205 cases and positive in 58 (4.59%). The number of positive cases varied over time, with a drastic increase during the winter months of 2020 and a progressive decrease over 2021. Among positive cases, 24.41% were symptomatic; symptoms included fever, breathing difficulties, anosmia/hyposmia, cough, headache, and diarrhea. Conclusions: This study reported an overall prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in our sample slightly above 8%. Additional data on viral genome through sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 in positive cases are of utmost importance to help identify variants and implement specific infection control measures

liquid phase microextraction techniques combined with chromatography analysis a review

Sample pretreatment is the first and the most important step of an analytical procedure. In routine analysis, liquid–liquid microextraction (LLE) is the most widely used sample pre-treatment technique, whose goal is to isolate the target analytes, provide enrichment, with cleanup to lower the chemical noise, and enhance the signal. The use of extensive volumes of hazardous organic solvents and production of large amounts of waste make LLE procedures unsuitable for modern, highly automated laboratories, expensive, and environmentally unfriendly. In the past two decades, liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) was introduced to overcome these drawbacks. Thanks to the need of only a few microliters of extraction solvent, LPME techniques have been widely adopted by the scientific community. The aim of this review is to report on the state-of-the-art LPME techniques used in gas and liquid chromatography. Attention was paid to the classification of the LPME operating modes, to the historical contextualization of LPME applications, and to the advantages of microextraction in methods respecting the value of green analytical chemistry. Technical aspects such as description of methodology selected in method development for routine use, specific variants of LPME developed for complex matrices, derivatization, and enrichment techniques are also discussed

Solid phase microextraction techniques used for gas chromatography: A review

In the last decade, the development and adoption of greener and sustainable microextraction techniques have been proved to be an effective alternative to classical sample preparation procedures. In this review, 10 commercially available solid-phase microextraction systems are presented, with special attention to the appraisal of their analytical, bioanalytical, and environmental engineering. This review provides an overview of the challenges and achievements in the application of fully automated miniaturized sample preparation methods in analytical laboratories. Both theoretical and practical aspects of these environment-friendly preparation approaches are discussed. The application of chemometrics in method development is also discussed. We are convinced that green analytical chemistry will be really useful in the years ahead. The application of cheap, fast, automated, "clever", and environmentally safe procedures to environmental, clinical, and food analysis will improve significantly the quality of the analytical data