Precipitación de fases intermetálicas de aceros inoxidables duplex sometidos a tratamientos térmicos a temperatura de 850°c

Para control en procesos de fabricación y desempeño de aceros inoxidables duplex, es importante conocer su evolución microestructural, pues en algunos rangos de temperaturas pueden precipitar fases intermetálicas como σ (σ) y chi (χ), que deterioran sus propiedades mecánicas y su resistencia a la corrosión. Tres tipos de aceros inoxidables duplex se sometieron a tratamientos térmicos de 850°C por 35 y 120 minutos. Se analizaron la evolución de las fases σ y chi por medio de microscopio óptico, microscopio electrónico de barrido y difracción de rayos-X. Se determinaron la fracción volumetrica de las fases, su composición química y sus parámetros de re

Precipitación de fases intermetálicas de aceros inoxidables duplex sometidos a tratamientos térmicos a temperatura de 850°c

Para control en procesos de fabricación y desempeño de aceros inoxidables duplex, es importante conocer su evolución microestructural, pues en algunos rangos de temperaturas pueden precipitar fases intermetálicas como σ (σ) y chi (χ), que deterioran sus propiedades mecánicas y su resistencia a la corrosión. Tres tipos de aceros inoxidables duplex se sometieron a tratamientos térmicos de 850°C por 35 y 120 minutos. Se analizaron la evolución de las fases σ y chi por medio de microscopio óptico, microscopio electrónico de barrido y difracción de rayos-X. Se determinaron la fracción volumetrica de las fases, su composición química y sus parámetros de re

Growing Strong and Healthy with Mister Bone: An Educational Program to Have Strong Bones Later in Life.

Optimal peak bone mass and bone health later in life are favored by a sufficient calcium intake in infancy, childhood and adolescence. The purpose of this study was to test a new educational program created to monitor and to improve calcium and vitamin D intake in children. Nutritional habits in children were evaluated through a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to assess the intake of calcium, vitamin D, dairy products, and total caloric energy at baseline and after seven months of exposure to a unique educational program applied between November 2013 and May 2014 in 176 schoolchildren (48% male, 52% female) attending the fourth and fifth grades of two selected primary schools in Florence, Italy. A significant increase of calcium (from 870 ± 190 to 1100 ± 200 mg/day, p < 0.05), and vitamin D (from 3.6 ± 1.53 to 4.1 ± 2 µg/day) intake in children was documented after the educational program. The amount of specific foods important for bone health consumed, such as milk and vegetables, increased significantly, both in male and female children (p < 0.05). The proposed educational program appears to be effective in modifying calcium intake in children, with a significant increase in the consumption of dairy products and vegetables, but without a significant change in the total caloric intake

First serological evidence of SARS-CoV-2 natural infection in small ruminants : Brief report

: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in late December 2019 and spread worldwide, quickly becoming a pandemic. This zoonotic coronavirus shows a broad host range, including wildlife and domestic animals. Small ruminants are shown to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 but, to date, no natural infection has been reported. Herein, we performed a survey for SARS-CoV-2 among sheep and goats in the Campania region of Italy using an indirect multispecies ELISA. Next, positive sera were submitted to virus serum neutralization for the quantification of specific neutralizing antibodies. Out of 612 sheep and goats, 23 were found ELISA positive (3.75%) and 1 of them showed 1:20 neutralizing antibodies titer. No significant difference was found between the two species, as well as between male and female, geographical location and age. Our findings demonstrate that natural infection can occur in flocks in a field situation. Moreover, low susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 is reported for sheep and goats, nevertheless, the continuous mutations of this virus open new scenarios on viral host range and tropism, highlighting the importance of investigating animal species that could represent ongoing or future possible hosts

Unusual sequelae after percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty: A Doppler echocardiographic study

AbstractPercutaneous mitral valvuloplasty is a promising new technique for the treatment of mitral stenosis, with a relatively low complication rate reported to date. To assess the sequelae of this procedure, Doppler echocardiographic studies were prospectively performed before and after percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty in a series of 172 patients (mean age 53 ± 17 years). After balloon dilation, mitral valve area increased from 0.9 ± 0.3 to 2 ± 0.8 cm2(p < 0.0001), mean gradient decreased from 16 ± 6 to 6 ± 3 mm Hg (p < 0.0001) and mean left atrial pressure decreased from 24 ± 7 to 14 ± 6 mm Hg (p < 0.0001).Although most patients were symptomatically improved, six (4%) were identified who had unusual sequelae evident on Doppler echocardiographic examination immediately after percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty. These included rupture of a posterior mitral valve leaflet, producing a flail distal leaflet portion with severe mitral regurgitation detected on Doppler color flow mapping (n = 1); asymptomatic rupture of the chordae tendineae attached to the anterior mitral valve leaflet with systolic anterior motion of the ruptured chordae into the left ventricular outflow tract (n = 1); a double-orifice mitral valve (n = 1); and evidence of a tear in the anterior mitral valve leaflet (n = 3), producing on both pulsed Doppler ultrasound and color flow mapping a second discrete jet of mitral regurgitation in addition to regurgitation through the main mitral valve orifice. All six patients made a satisfactory recovery and none has required mitral valve replacement.In a small percent of cases, percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty may produce unusual disruption of the mitral valve and supporting apparatus that may be readily detected by Doppler echocardiographic studies

First Description of Serological Evidence for SARS-CoV-2 in Lactating Cows

Following the COVID-19 epidemic outbreak in Ariano Irpino, Campania region (Italy), we tested lactating cows for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 on a cattle farm at which, prior to the investigation, 13 of the 20 farmworkers showed COVID-19-like symptoms, and one of them died. Twenty-four lactating cows were sampled to detect SARS-CoV-2. All nasal and rectal swabs and milk samples were negative for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Of the 24 collected serum samples, 11 showed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein, 14 showed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and 13 developed neutralising antibodies for SARS-COV-2; all samples were negative for Bovine Coronavirus (BCoV), another betacoronavirus. To our knowledge, this is the first report of natural serological evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in lactating cows. We hypothesise that this may be a case of reverse zoonosis. However, the role of cattle in SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission seems to be negligible

Soil ecosystem functions in a high-density olive orchard managed by different soil conservation practices

The long-term effects of two different soil management practices, natural grass cover (NC) and conservation tillage (CT), on soil functions (carbon sequestration, habitat for organisms, and water movement and retention) were determined in a high-density, mature olive orchard (Olea europaea L. cv. Frantoio) growing in a sandy loam soil (Typic Haploxeralf) in a Mediterranean environment. Ten years after the beginning of the different soil management, soil samples were collected at 0–10 and 10–20 cm depth and at two distances from the trunk, underneath the olive canopy (UC) and in the inter-row (IR). There were no differences in fruit yield, oil yield, and yield efficiency between the two soil management systems during the 2011–2013 period. CT negatively affected soil organic carbon pools (total and humified), but only at the IR position. The distance from the plant did not significantly influence soil structure and hydrological properties, while NC treatment increased water movement and retention. Tillage reduced the microarthropod abundance, in particular Collembola and eu-edaphic forms, which were the most sensitive groups to soil perturbation. We conclude that natural grass cover was more effective than conservation tillage in maintaining or improving elements of soil functionality

Authors' response: Mezei et al's "Comments on a recent case-control study of malignant mesothelioma of the pericardium and the tunica vaginalis testis"

: Mezei et al's letter (1) is an opportunity to provide more details about our study on pericardial and tunica vaginalis testis (TVT) mesothelioma (2), which is based on the Italian national mesothelioma registry (ReNaM): a surveillance system on mesothelioma, with individual asbestos exposure assessment. Incidence of pericardial mesothelioma has been estimated around 0.5 and 0.2 cases per 10 million person-years in men and women, respectively, and around 1 case for TVT mesothelioma. ReNaM collected 138 cases thanks to its long period of observation (1993-2015) and national coverage. Conducting a population-based case-control study with incidence-density sampling of controls across Italy and over a 23 year time-span should have been planned in 1993 and would have been beyond feasibility and ReNaM scope. We rather exploited two existing series of controls (3). The resulting incomplete time- and spatial matching of cases and controls is a limitation of our study and has been acknowledged in our article. The analysis of case-control studies can nevertheless be accomplished in logistic models accounting for the variables of interest, in both individually and frequency matched studies (4). Furthermore, analyses restricted to (i) regions with enrolled controls, (ii) cases with definite diagnosis, (iii) incidence period 2000-2015, and (iv) subjects born before 1950 have been provided in the manuscript, confirming the strength of the association with asbestos exposure (supplemental material tables S4-7). Following Mezei et al's suggestion, we performed further sensitivity analyses by restriction to regions with controls and fitting conditional regression models using risk-sets made of combinations of age and year of birth categories (5-year classes for both). We confirmed positive associations with occupational exposure to asbestos of pericardial mesothelioma, with odds ratios (OR) (adjusted for region) of 9.16 among women [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.56-150] and 5.63 (95% CI 1.02-31.0) among men; for TVT mesothelioma the OR was 7.70 (95% CI 2.89-20.5). Using risk sets of age categories and introducing year of birth (5-year categories) as a covariate (dummy variables) the OR were similar: OR (adjusted for region) of 9.17 among women (95% CI 0.56-150) and 5.76 (95% CI 1.07-31.0) among men; for TVT the OR was 9.86 (95% CI 3.46-28.1). Possible bias from incomplete geographical overlap between cases and controls has been addressed in the paper (table S4) and above. In spatially restricted analyses, OR were larger than in those including cases from the whole country, indicating that bias was towards the null. Mezei et al further noted that "the regional distribution of controls is different from that of person-time observed". This objection is not relevant because the above analyses were adjusted by region. Our controls were provided by a population-based study on pleural mesothelioma (called MISEM) and a hospital-based study on cholangiocarcinoma (called CARA). In MISEM, the response rate was 48.4%, a low but not unexpected rate as participation among population controls is usually lower and has been declining over time (5). It is important to underline that ReNaM applied the same questionnaire that was used for interviews and carried out the same exposure assessment as both MISEM and CARA. As repeatedly stated in ReNaM papers (6-7), each regional operating center assesses asbestos exposure based on the individual questionnaire, other available information, and knowledge of local industries. Occupational exposure to asbestos is classified as definite, probable or possible. Occupational exposure is (i) definite when the subject`s work was reported or otherwise known to have involved the use of asbestos or asbestos-containing materials (MCA); (ii) probable when subjects worked in factories where asbestos or MCA were used, but their personal exposure could not be documented; and (iii) possible when they were employed in industrial activities known to entail the use of asbestos or MCA. Hence, the definite and probable categories are closer to one another and were combined in our analyses. In any case, restricting analyses to subjects with definite occupational exposure and using each set of controls separately, as suggested by Mezei et al, yielded elevated OR for TVT and pericardial mesothelioma among men using both the above described modelling strategies; the OR could not be calculated for women. There were 70 (25 pericardial and 45 TVT) occupationally exposed mesothelioma cases. In population-based studies, analyses by occupation are limited by the low prevalence of most specific jobs. As briefly reported in our paper, for purely descriptive purposes, the industrial activity of exposure (cases may have multiple exposures), were construction (22 exposures, 7 and 15 for pericardial and TVT mesotheliomas, respectively), steel mills and other metal working industries (4 and 11), textile industries (2 and 3), and agriculture (2 and 5); other sectors had lower exposure frequencies. The absence of industries like asbestos-cement production, shipbuilding and railway carriages production/repair should not be surprising and had already been observed (7). In the Italian multicenter cohort study of asbestos workers (8), given the person-years of observation accrued by workers employed in these industries and gender- and site-specific crude incidence rates, approximately 0.1 case of pericardial and 0.2 of TVT mesothelioma would have been expected from 1970 to 2010. Even increasing ten-fold such figures to account for higher occupational risks among these workers would not change much. Asbestos exposure in agriculture has been repeatedly discussed in ReNaM reports (9: pages 70, 73, 128, 164 and 205). Exposure opportunities included the presence of asbestos in wine production, reuse of hessian bags previously containing asbestos, or construction and maintenance of rural buildings. Similarly, mesothelioma cases and agricultural workers exposed to asbestos have been noted in France (10). In conclusion, the additional analyses we performed according to Mezei et al's suggestions confirm the association between asbestos exposure and pericardial and TVT mesothelioma, supporting the causal role of asbestos for all mesotheliomas. ReNaM`s continuing surveillance system with national coverage is a precious platform for launching analytical studies on pleural and extra pleural mesothelioma. References 1. Mezei G, Chang ET, Mowat FS, Moolgavkar SH. Comments on a recent case-control study of malignant mesothelioma of the pericardium and the tunica vaginalis testis Scand J Work Environ Health. 2021;47(1):85-86. https://doi.org/10.5271/3909 2. Marinaccio A, Consonni D, Mensi C, Mirabelli D, Migliore E, Magnani C et al.; ReNaM Working Group. Association between asbestos exposure and pericardial and tunica vaginalis testis malignant mesothelioma: a case-control study and epidemiological remarks. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2020;46(6):609-617. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3895. 3. Greenland S. Control-initiated case-control studies. Int J Epidemiol 1985 Mar;14(1):130-4. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/14.1.130. 4. Pearce N. Analysis of matched case-control studies. BMJ 2016 Feb;352:i969. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i969. 5. Bigert C, Gustavsson P, Straif K, Pesch B, Brüning T, Kendzia B et al. Lung cancer risk among cooks when accounting for tobacco smoking: a pooled analysis of case-control studies from Europe, Canada, New Zealand, and China. J Occup Environ Med 2015 Feb;57(2):202-9. https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000000337. 6. Marinaccio A, Binazzi A, Marzio DD, Scarselli A, Verardo M, Mirabelli D et al.; ReNaM Working Group. Pleural malignant mesothelioma epidemic: incidence, modalities of asbestos exposure and occupations involved from the Italian National Register. Int J Cancer 2012 May;130(9):2146-54. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.26229. 7. Marinaccio A, Binazzi A, Di Marzio D, Scarselli A, Verardo M, Mirabelli D et al. Incidence of extrapleural malignant mesothelioma and asbestos exposure, from the Italian national register. Occup Environ Med 2010 Nov;67(11):760-5. https://doi.org/10.1136/oem.2009.051466. 8. Ferrante D, Chellini E, Merler E, Pavone V, Silvestri S, Miligi L et al.; the working group. Italian pool of asbestos workers cohorts: mortality trends of asbestos-related neoplasms after long time since first exposure. Occup Environ Med 2017 Dec;74(12):887-98. https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2016-104100. 9. ReNaM VI Report. Available from: https://www.inail.it/cs/internet/docs/alg-pubbl-registro-nazionale-mesoteliomi-6-rapporto.pdf. Italian 10. Marant Micallef C, Shield KD, Vignat J, Baldi I, Charbotel B, Fervers B et al. Cancers in France in 2015 attributable to occupational exposures. Int J Hyg Environ Health 2019 Jan;222(1):22-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2018.07.015

The real-time multiparametric network of Campi Flegrei and Vesuvius

Volcanic processes operate over a wide range of time scale that requires different instruments and techniques to be monitored. The best approach to survey a volcanic unrest is to jointly monitor all the geophysical quantities that could vary before an eruption. The monitoring techniques are sometimes peculiar for each volcano, which has its own behavior. The simultaneous investigation of all the geophysical and geochemical parameters improves the sensibility and the understanding of any variation in the volcanic system. The Osservatorio Vesuviano is the INGV division charged of the Campi Flegrei and Vesuvius monitoring, two of the highest risk volcanic complexes in the world due to the large number of people living on or close to them. Each of them have peculiarities that increase the monitoring challenge: Campi Flegrei has high anthropic noise due to people living within its numerous craters; Vesuvius has a sharp topography that complicates the data transmission and analysis. The real time monitoring of the two areas involves several geophysical fields and the data are transmitted by a wide data-communication wired or radio infrastructure to the Monitoring Centre of Osservatorio Vesuviano: - The seismic network counts of 20 station sites in Campi Flegrei and 23 in Vesuvius equipped with velocimetric, accelerometric and infrasonic sensors. Some of them are borehole stations. - The GPS network counts of 25 stations operating at Campi Flegrei caldera and 9 stations at Vesuvius volcano. All the procedures for remote stations managing (raw data downloading, data quality control and data processing) take place automatically and the computed data are shown in the Monitoring Centre. - The mareographic network counts of 4 stations in the Campi Flegrei caldera coast and 3 close to the Vesuvius that transmit to the Monitoring Centre where the data are elaborated. - The tiltmetric network consist of 10 stations distributed around Pozzuoli harbor, the area of maximum ground uplift of Campi Flegrei, evidenced since 2005, and 7 stations distributed around the Vesuvius crater. Each tiltmetric station is also equipped with a temperature and magnetic sensor. The signals recorded are sent to the Monitoring Centre. - The 4 marine multiparametric stations installed in the Pozzuoli gulf send accelerometric, broad band, hydrophonic and GPS data to the Monitoring Centre. - The geochemical network counts of 4 multiparametric stations in the fumarolic areas of Campi Flegrei and 2 stations in the Vesuvius crater (rim and bottom) with data transmission to the Monitoring Centre. They collect soil CO2 flux, temperature gradient and environmental and meteorological parameters and transmit them directly to the Monitoring Centre. - The permanent thermal infrared surveillance network (TIRNet) is composed of 6 stations distributed among Campi Flegrei and Vesuvius. The stations acquire IR scenes at night-time of highly diffuse degassing areas. IR data are processed by an automated system of IR analysis and the temperatures values are sent to the Monitoring CentrePublishedVienna, Austria1IT. Reti di monitoraggio e sorveglianz