Prevalence of thyroid disorders in antenatal patients and its feto-maternal outcome

Background: Thyroid disorders are common in pregnancy and most common disorder is subclinical hypothyroidism. Due to the complex hormonal changes during pregnancy, it is important to remember that thyroxine requirements are higher in pregnancy. Maternal hypothyroidism is an easily treatable condition that has been associated with increased risk of low birth weight, fetal distress and impaired neuropsychological development. Hyperthyroidism in pregnancy is less common as conception is a problem. Majority of them are due to Graves’ disease, though gestational hyperthyroidism is to be excluded. Early and effective treatment of thyroid disorder ensures a safe pregnancy with minimal maternal and neonatal complications.Methods: One hundred pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in first trimester were registered. Apart from routine basic and obstetrical investigations, TSH, FT3 and FT4 level estimation was done. L-thyroxine was given for hypothyroidism, this dosing was based on a study by Abalovich et al according to the body weight to maintain serum TSH near normal. For hyperthyroidism, given carbimazole if serum TSH level <1 MIU/l. Serum TSH estimation was repeated at regular interval. All the patients followed till the end of pregnancy. The normal patients served as controls. Pregnancy outcome studied statistically.Results: Around 68.8% of the inadequately treated patients developed complications like GDM, pre-eclampsia, oligohydramnios and preterm deliveries. Whereas only 32% of the control group developed these mentioned complications, this implied a significant association between inadequately treated thyroid disorders and poor pregnancy outcomes as evidenced by the p value of 0.002 which was very significant.Conclusions: Adequate treatment of thyroid disorders in pregnancy significantly reduces complications like miscarriages, pre-eclampsia, IUGR, oligohydramnios, glucose intolerance, preterm labour, low birth weight babies, abruptio placentae and stillbirth

Meter-scale spark X-ray spectrumstatistics

X-ray emission by sparks implies bremsstrahlung from a population of energetic electrons, but the details of this process remain a mystery. We present detailed statistical analysis of X-ray spectra detected by multiple detectors during sparks produced by 1 MV negative high-voltage pulses with 1 $\mu$s risetime. With over 900 shots, we statistically analyze the signals, assuming that the distribution of spark X-ray fluence behaves as a power law and that the energy spectrum of X-rays detectable after traversing $\sim$2 m of air and a thin aluminum shield is exponential. We then determine the parameters of those distributions by fitting cumulative distribution functions to the observations. The fit results match the observations very well if the mean of the exponential X-ray energy distribution is 86 $\pm$ 7 keV and the spark X-ray fluence power law distribution has index -1.29 $\pm$ 0.04 and spans at least 3 orders of magnitude in fluence

A new investigation of half-lives for the decay modes of 50^{50}V

A new search for the decay modes of the 4-fold forbidden non-unique decay of $^{50}$V has been performed at the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory (LNGS). In total an exposure of 197 kg $\times$ d has been accumulated. The half-life for the electron capture into the first excited state of $^{50}$Ti has been measured with the highest precision to date as $2.67_{-0.18}^{+0.16} \times 10^{17}$ yr (68% C.I.) in which systematics uncertainties dominate. The search for the $\beta$-decay into the first excited state of $^{50}$Cr resulted in a lower limit of ${1.9} \times 10^{19}$ yr (90% C.I.), which is an improvement of almost one order of magnitude compared to existing results. The sensitivity of the new measurement is now in the region of theoretical predictions

Relativistic electrons from sparks in the laboratory

Discharge experiments were carried out at the Eindhoven University of Technology in 2013. The experimental setup was designed to search for electrons produced in meter-scale sparks using a 1 MV Marx generator. Negative voltage was applied to the high voltage (HV) electrode. Five thin (1 mm) plastic detectors (5 $\rm cm^2$ each) were distributed in various configurations close to the spark gap. Earlier studies have shown (for HV negative) that X-rays are produced when a cloud of streamers is developed 30-60 cm from the negative electrode. This indicates that the electrons producing the X-rays are also accelerated at this location, that could be in the strong electric field from counterstreamers of opposite polarity. Comparing our measurements with modeling results, we find that $\sim$300 keV electrons produced about 30-60 cm from the negative electrode are the most likely source of our measurements. A statistical analysis of expected detection of photon bursts by these fiber detectors indicates that only 20%-45% of the detected bursts could be from soft ($\sim$10 keV) photons, which further supports that the majority of detected bursts are produced by relativistic electrons

Contamination Assessment and Temporal Evolution of Nitrates in the Shallow Aquifer of the Metauro River Plain (Adriatic Sea, Italy) after Remediation Actions

Over the last decades, groundwater resources at global level have suffered a significant deterioration due to nitrate pollution, mainly related to the input of agricultural fertilizers, manure, sewage, and untreated urban and industrial effluents. The most impacted waters are those forming surface and shallow reservoirs, which usually play a key role in supplying waters to civil, agricultural, and industrial activities. The terminal portion of the Metauro River plain, located in central Italy along the Adriatic Sea coastline, hosts a strategic phreatic aquifer that, along with the surface water of the Metauro River, supplies water to the local population (i.e., about 60,000 people). This shallow coastal aquifer experiences a long-lasting story of nitrate contamination since the 1970s when the increase in the use of agricultural fertilizers contributed to very high levels of pollution (NO3- &gt; 100 mg/L). This fact prompted the local authorities to carry out remediation actions that involve a pumping system to inject the NO3--poor waters from the Metauro River course directly into the shallow aquifer. The present work was aimed at defining the contamination of nitrates in this important water resource. The main geochemical characteristics and the temporal evolution of NO3- concentrations (between 2009 and 2020), in the shallow coastal aquifer of the Metauro River plain, were analyzed by means of classical geochemical analyses and multivariate methods accounting for the compositional nature of the data, to assess the efficiency of the in-situ remediation over time

Development of a tomato pomace biorefinery based on a CO2-supercritical extraction process for the production of a high value lycopene product, bioenergy and digestate

Tomato peels and seeds (TP) are the most abundant canning industry waste actually used to produce biogas. TP is rich in lycopene (lyc) and represent a more sustainable feedstock than tomato fruits actually employed. It was therefore chosen as feedstock together with supercritical CO2 extraction (SFE-CO2) technology to develop a TP-SFE-CO2 biorefinery, topic scarcely investigated. Two TP were tested and although TP-SFE-CO2 parameters were the same, lyc recoveries depended by peel structure changes occurred during pre -SFE-CO2 drying step. Higher moisture (102.7 g kg-1 wet weight) permitted 97 % lyc recovery and gave a water-in-oil emulsion as extract. Mass balance confirmed that lyc isomerisation did not cause lyc losses. After a significant oil extraction, exhaust TP showed a biodegradability 64% higher than the raw one, attributable to fibre structure disruption. The biorefinery proposed (SFE_CO2+anaerobic digestion) determined positive economic revenue (+787.9 \u20ac t-1 TP) on the contrary of the actual TP management

The Campo de Calatrava Volcanic Field (central Spain): Fluid geochemistry in a CO2-rich area.

The Campo de Calatrava Volcanic Field (CCVF) located in central-southern Spain (along with Selva-Emporda in Catalonia, NE Spain) is regarded as one of the most important CO emitting zones in Peninsular Spain. Here, we report and evaluate new molecular and isotopic geochemistry of thermal waters and COrich gas discharges from the CCVF. Locally, these CO-rich fluid emissions represent the remnants of the past volcanic activity that affected this area from the late Miocene through the Quaternary, with the most recent events occurring in the Holocene. The locations of discharging fluids and previous volcanic centers appear to be aligned along well-defined NW-SE and NNW-SSE lineaments, with subordinate trends in the ENE-WSW direction. The chemical and isotopic composition of the thermal waters suggests a meteoric origin, dominated by three distinct geochemical facies: 1) HCO-Mg(Ca) type waters, associated with a relatively shallow aquifer and related to the interaction of meteoric waters with CO-rich gases, alkaline volcanic products, and sedimentary formations, 2) SO(Cl)-Ca(Mg) type waters, which stems from the two rivers (Guadiana and Jabalón) that drain Triassic evaporitic rocks before entering the study area, and 3) HCO-Na type waters, hosted in deep geopressurized CO-rich reservoirs within the Ordovician basement rocks. The Sr/Sr isotopic compositions (ranging between 0.70415 and 0.71623) and δS-SO values (+10.7 to +18.3‰ vs. CDT) of CO-rich fluids are consistent with interactions between water and either the Paleozoic basement, Triassic evaporites, Quaternary volcanic rocks, or a combination thereof. Dissolution of a CO-rich gas phase into the aquifer produces low pH values (down to 5.4) and enhances water-rock interactions causing relatively high salinity (Total Ionic Salinity: up to ∼185 meq/L). Carbon dioxide is by far the most abundant gas constituent (up to 992 mmol/mol) and is dominated by mantle-derived sources as indicated by the combination of relatively high helium isotopic ratios (up to 2.7 R/Ra), high isotopic ratios of carbon in CO (ranging between −6.8 and −3.2‰ V-PDB), and the carbon isotopic signature of TDIC (from −6.8 to +2.2‰ vs. VPDB). In the last two decades, numerous (CO-rich) gas blowouts have occurred in the area during well drillings, suggesting the presence of a geopressurized gas reservoir at relatively shallow depth.The Municipality of Almagro is gratefully acknowledged for the help provided during the sampling activities. We would like to thank Dr. Luis Perez del Villar for his help during the first sampling fieldwork at CCVF. We wish to thank D. Melero Cabañas who accompanied us in the field to collect the water samples during the first survey. Many thanks are also due to the personnel of Amphos21 (J. Bruno, A. Cedez, F. Grandia) and Ciudad de la Energia (D. Angel) and F. Capecchiacci (Dept. Earth Science of Florence) for their help during the second survey. We would like to acknowledge the comments and suggestions provided by two reviewers, who greatly improved an early version of the manuscript. This work was partially funded by Ciudad de la Energia (Resp. OV; Grant contract: ALM-08-006) and the Laboratory of Stable Isotopes and Fluid Geochemistry of the Department of Earth Sciences (University of Florence)

Material screening and selection for XENON100

Results of the extensive radioactivity screening campaign to identify materials for the construction of XENON100 are reported. This Dark Matter search experiment is operated underground at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), Italy. Several ultra sensitive High Purity Germanium detectors (HPGe) have been used for gamma ray spectrometry. Mass spectrometry has been applied for a few low mass plastic samples. Detailed tables with the radioactive contaminations of all screened samples are presented, together with the implications for XENON100.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

Assessment, control, and prevention of microbiological and chemical hazards in seasonal swimming pools of the Versilia district (Tuscany, central Italy).

Abstract Although in Europe the quality of swimming pools (SPs) is dictated by regulations, microbiological and chemical hazards are described in the literature. Environmental bacteria or toxic disinfection by-product (DBP) compounds may indeed be recovered in waters even after disinfection. We evaluated the water quality from 26 outdoor seasonal SPs of the Versilia district, according to requirements of Regional Decree 54R/2015. In spring 2017, supply and reinstatement waters were collected after shock hyperchlorination (10 mg/L) while in summertime, a second sampling of waters before entering the pools, as well as in the pools, was performed after SPs were open to the public. In all samples, microbiological and chemical parameters were determined as defined by Directive 98/83/EC and the Italian Health Ministry. Microbiological data were within suggested limits. The first chemical analyses showed that in 35% of the feeding-pool seawater samples, the halogenated organic compounds were higher than the maximum permissible concentrations (30 μg/L). Pool waters were then dechlorinated and re-treated with hydrogen peroxide (10 mg/L) to ensure the abatement of DBPs (from 164 ± 107 to 0.9 ± 0.8 μg/L; p = 0.002). Results highlighted the need of self-controlled procedures for the SPs waters to prevent waterborne diseases and suggested hydrogen peroxide as the most appropriate disinfection method