Indicatori per l’analisi delle ripartizioni interne al quartiere

Ai fini di caratterizzare le diverse sub-aree presentate nella figura n. 9 (sub-aree interne al quartiere), abbiamo costruito una pluralità di indici socio-demografici e socio-economici ricorrendo ai dati del XIV Censimento generale della popolazione e delle abitazioni condotto dall’Istat nel 2001. I dati individuali del Censimento ci hanno permesso di distinguere in maniera assai fine le cinque sub-aree del quartiere, di disegnarne con precisione i confini e comprenderne il significato sociale. I diversi indici utilizzati nel volume sono stati calcolati da Tommaso Vitale, Renato Carletti ed Enrico Claps. La maggior parte di loro è stata suggerita da Guido Cavalca, che li aveva approntanti per indagini precedenti (2005; 2006), e che nuovamente qui ringraziamo (...)

Study of the productive efficiency of cows through the relation between calf weight at weaning and cow weight

The productivity of beef cattle has been increasing because of nutritional and genetic factors. Older studies showed that larger beef cows produced heavier calves because they were able to ingest more food and produce more milk for calves. On the other hand, very large cows have a high nutritional requirement, consuming much more food in relation to smaller animals. A good relationship between size of the cow and the calf is important to improve production efficiency. The relationship between calf weight at weaning and cow weight can be a useful tool to evaluate the productive efficiency of beef cows (calf/cow rate). The objective of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between calf weight and cow weight at 150 days postpartum and at weaning. This research project was developed at APTA Beef Cattle Center of the Institute of Zootechnics. A total of 30 cows, subdivided into two groups, received different mineral supplementation in the dry season, 120 days before calving and in the wet season, up to 150 days after calving. Supplementation did not significantly influence the body weight of cows and calves, so this effect was eliminated. 150 days after calving, all cows received the same supplementation and were kept in the same pastures until weaning. The cows were weighed before delivery to classify them into groups by weight between 350 and 400 kg, between 401 and 500 kg and between 501 and 590 kg. The weight ratio of the calf per 100 kg of cow was calculated by dividing the weight of the calf by the weight of the cow and multiplying it by 100. After calving, the calf was weighed and received the normal care of newborns. Weaning occurred when the calves were on average of 234 days old. The experiment was completely randomized considering effect of cow group, birth month and calf gender. The SAS program was used through the Mixed command and the random effect was the animal. No effects were observed for birth month (P>0.05) for all variables. There was no influence of the cow weight group on calf birth weight (P=0.2159), either at 150 days (P=0.9402) or at weaning (P=0.5890). Male calves were heavier at birth (P=0.0069) than females, with 36.4 vs. 31.3 kg, respectively. The results of the calf-cow weight ratio were 44.8; 38.7 and 29.8 at 150 days postpartum, and 56.7; 50.4 and 40.7 kg of calf per 100 kg of cow at weaning for cows in the groups weighing 350 to 400 kg, 401 to 500 kg and 501 to 590 kg, respectively. The lighter cows showed higher productive efficiency since they weaned calves weighing similar weight compared to the heavier cows, increasing the calf-cow weight ratio

Frequency of water ingestion by nellore cows

The technological development of livestock production has led to the appearance of many devices to control animal health, stress, behavior and water intake. Monitoring animals using wireless intra-ruminal devices can obtain data on ruminal temperature, water intake frequency and reproduction events. Knowledge about the frequency of drinking events is important so as to offer the correct amount to animals. The objective of this study was to evaluate water intake frequency of Nellore cows receiving two different mineral supplements, during 17 days in November 2016. The data were collected by a Smaxtec intra-ruminal device registering temperature each 10 minutes. A drinking event was considered to have occurred when the device measured a temperature lower than 37.7 oC. Two groups of 15 Nellore cows each were studied, one receiving salt and mineral supplement and the other receiving supplement though blocks with molasses (Caltech Crystalyx). The environmental temperature was controlled daily. The statistical analyses were performed using the univariate procedure of the SAS program. No influence was found of group receiving mineral supplement on the frequency of water ingestion events (P= 0.5163). The frequencies of drinking events were 2.92 ± 0.011 per day for cows receiving mineral supplement and 2.84 ± 0.010 per day for cows receiving Caltech Crystalyx molasses blocks. The environmental temperature influenced the frequency of drinking events. Maximum (P<0.0001) and minimum temperature (P = 0.0067) affected the frequency of water intake events. Water ingestion was less frequent on cold days with rain, with averages of 0.37 and 1.65 events per cow per day. With higher temperatures (33.7 oC and 35 oC), without rain during the day, the average numbers of drinking events were 2.96 and 3.65 per day

Colostomy Reversal following Hartmann&rsquo;s Procedure: The Importance of Timing in Short- and Long-Term Complications: A Retrospective Multicentric Study

The restoration of bowel continuity following Hartmann&rsquo;s Procedure (HP) has been reported hitherto with high morbidity and mortality rates. No clear guidelines exist about timing in Hartmann&rsquo;s Reversal (HR), the literature data being conflicting. We have sought to investigate the effect of the interval time between HP and HR in short- and long-term HR outcomes through a retrospective study based on consecutive patients undergoing HR between 2009 and 2017 in two regional hospitals in Italy. Demographic characteristics, comorbidities, intra- and post-operative data, as well as early complications, were recorded. Long-term data were collected on the surgical site occurrences of Incisional Ventral Hernia (IVH). One hundred and five patients were recruited for the study. Late HR, female gender, and long operating time were related to the highest incidence of peri-operative complications. Patients who developed IVH had undergone HR at significantly shorter times and had a higher Body Mass Index (BMI). The timing of HR seems to be an important variable linked to the onset of early and late post-operative complications. The patients submitted to early HR show a significantly lower complication rate but, at the same time, a higher rate of IVH incidence after restorative surgery. These data, in our opinion, reflect the need for planning, where possible, an early restoration of bowel continuity after HP

Effect of mineral supplementation on the performance of the nellore breed

Brazil is one of the biggest beef producers in the world, and several factors of the productive chain are important, among them animal nutrition because of the impact of its costs. The objective of this study was to evaluate primiparous Nellore cows’ weight loss due to delivery and body condition score (BCS) of three groups with different initial weight, receiving two different mineral supplementations. The research project was developed at the APTA Beef Cattle Center of the Institute of Zootechnics during 180 days, beginning in the dry season and ending in the wet season. The animals were divided into two treatments, one receiving mineral blocks with addition of molasses from Caltech-Crystalyx (CRY), an English company, and the other, the control, receiving mineral supplement mix (CONTROL). Both treatments had additional protein included during the dry season. Initially, the pregnant cows were classified into three groups, with initial weight between 350 and 400 kg (G1), 401 and 500 kg (G2), and 501 and 590 kg (G3). Seventeen 17 primiparous cows of the Nellore breed were in the CRY group and 19 primiparous cows in CONTROL group. During the experiment, the  were weighed twice, 30 days before and 30 days after parturition, to calculate the lost weight. The BSC was assigned at parturition and 150 days after parturition (1 = extremely slim, 9 = extremely fat). A 3x2 factorial The experimental design was used. The SAS program was used through the Mixed command, considering as fixed effects the supplement, group of cows by weight and the interaction between them. The animal was considered a random effect. The supplement intake was controlled weekly and no statistical analysis was performed. The average of CRY supplement intake varied from 0.077 to 0.821 kg/animal/day. The CONTROL supplement intake varied from 0.055 to 0.370 kg/animal/day. The loss of weight was affected by the supplement (P = 0.0384), group of cow (P = 0.009) and interaction between supplement and group(P = 0.0221). No difference was found for delivery weigh loss only for the group of lightest cows (67 ± 1.23 kg for G1 CRY x 67 ± 1.09 kg for G1 CONTROL). The heaviest cows lost more weight in the CONTROL (G3 = 113 ± 1.83 kg) compared to the CRY group (G3 = 78 ± 1.64 kg). Regarding parturition, no effect was found for BSC between CRY and CONTROL (P = 0.3120) or interaction between treatments and group (P = 0.0722), but there was an effect of the group of cows (P = 0.0272). The BSC was 4.9 ± 0.25 for G1, 5.9 ± 0.21 for G2 and 5.9 ± 0.23 for G3. A significant effect was also observed of supplementation for BSC at 150 days after delivery (P = 0.0198) and group of cows (P = 0.0021), but no effect was observed for the interaction between treatment and group (P = 0.3750). The results were 5.52 ± 0.18 and 4.90 ± 0.16 for CRY and CONTROL and 4.6 ± 0.25; 5.0 ± 0.19 and 6.0 ± 0.23 for G1, G2 and G3, respectively. The CRY supplementation minimized the loss of weight because of parturition and improved the BSC, resulting in the best performance for primiparous Nellore cows

Effect of mineral supplementation on live weight of nelore heifers

Brazilian soils generally suffer from mineral deficiency, so that pasture alone cannot supply the mineral requirements of beef cattle, mainly during the animals’ growth phase, after weaning, when there is a high need for mineral salt supplementation. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of two types of mineral supplements on the weight of Nellore heifers, from weaning until 22 months of age. The research project was developed at the APTA Beef Cattle Center of the Institute of Zootechnics. Eighty-four Nellore heifers from the Traditional and Selected herds belonging to the Animal Science Institute, Sertãozinho, SP, were used, with average age of eight months at the beginning of the experiment in May 2016. Half of the heifers were kept in pastures receiving a commercial mineral supplement (TEST), while another 46 heifers were kept in pastures receiving blocks of mineral supplement with molasses from Caltech-Crystalyx (CRY), an English company. Both supplements were formulated for the dry season or wet season. The mineral supplement intake of each group was recorded weekly, by weighing the total product offered and left over. The animals were weighed every 28 days and afterwards the animals switched from one pasture to the other. The intake of the supplement varied greatly during the experiment. The animals that received supplementation in the form of CRY blocks presented average consumption levels of 189; 214 and 225 g animal-1 day-1 , while the consumption levels of the TEST group were 100; 67 and 87 g animal-1, day-1, from June to November 2016; from November 2016 to April 2017 and from May to August 2017, respectively. The CRY group had significantly higher weights (P0.05) between the supplements. The weights found for CRY heifers were 249.0 ± 4.61; 264.9 ± 5.04; 298.5 ± 5.25; 358.54 ± 6.03 kg animal-1, and for TEST heifers were 233.84 ± 4.65; 251.56 ± 5.07; 282.42 ± 5.28 and 339.32 ± 5.98 kg animal-1, for the ages of 14, 15, 17 and 20 months, respectively. In conclusion, the CRY group obtained better results regarding weight gain and maintenance than the animals in the TEST group

Expression of Interest for a Phase-II LHCb Upgrade: Opportunities in flavour physics, and beyond, in the HL-LHC era

https://cds.cern.ch/record/224431

Expression of Interest for a Phase-II LHCb Upgrade: Opportunities in flavour physics, and beyond, in the HL-LHC era

A Phase-II Upgrade is proposed for the LHCb experiment in order to take full advantage of the flavour-physics opportunities at the HL-LHC, and other topics that can be studied with a forward spectrometer. This Upgrade, which will be installed in Long Shutdown 4 of the LHC (2030), will build on the strengths of the current experiment and the Phase-I Upgrade, but will consist of re-designed sub-systems that can operate at a luminosity of 2×1034cm−2s−1, ten times that of the Phase-I Upgrade detector. New and improved detector components will increase the intrinsic performance of the experiment in certain key areas. In particular the installation of a tungsten sampling electromagnetic calorimeter will widen LHCb's capabilities for decays involving π0 and η mesons, electrons, and photons from loop-level penguin processes. The physics motivation is presented, and the prospects for operating the LHCb Interaction Point at high luminosity are assessed. The challenges for the detector are described and possible solutions are discussed. Finally, the key R\&amp;D areas are summarised, together with a set of initial modifications suitable for implementation during Long Shutdown 3 (2024--2026)

Tocilizumab for patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. The single-arm TOCIVID-19 prospective trial

BackgroundTocilizumab blocks pro-inflammatory activity of interleukin-6 (IL-6), involved in pathogenesis of pneumonia the most frequent cause of death in COVID-19 patients.MethodsA multicenter, single-arm, hypothesis-driven trial was planned, according to a phase 2 design, to study the effect of tocilizumab on lethality rates at 14 and 30 days (co-primary endpoints, a priori expected rates being 20 and 35%, respectively). A further prospective cohort of patients, consecutively enrolled after the first cohort was accomplished, was used as a secondary validation dataset. The two cohorts were evaluated jointly in an exploratory multivariable logistic regression model to assess prognostic variables on survival.ResultsIn the primary intention-to-treat (ITT) phase 2 population, 180/301 (59.8%) subjects received tocilizumab, and 67 deaths were observed overall. Lethality rates were equal to 18.4% (97.5% CI: 13.6-24.0, P=0.52) and 22.4% (97.5% CI: 17.2-28.3, P&lt;0.001) at 14 and 30 days, respectively. Lethality rates were lower in the validation dataset, that included 920 patients. No signal of specific drug toxicity was reported. In the exploratory multivariable logistic regression analysis, older age and lower PaO2/FiO2 ratio negatively affected survival, while the concurrent use of steroids was associated with greater survival. A statistically significant interaction was found between tocilizumab and respiratory support, suggesting that tocilizumab might be more effective in patients not requiring mechanical respiratory support at baseline.ConclusionsTocilizumab reduced lethality rate at 30 days compared with null hypothesis, without significant toxicity. Possibly, this effect could be limited to patients not requiring mechanical respiratory support at baseline.Registration EudraCT (2020-001110-38); clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04317092)