Neogene tectono-sedimentary interaction between the Calabrian Accretionary Wedge and the Apulian Foreland in the northern Ionian Sea

The structural setting of the northern Ionian Sea is the result of the collision between the Calabrian Accretionary Wedge (CAW) and the adjacent foreland, i.e. the Apulian Carbonate Platform. The CAW represents a sector of the Apennine accretionary system extending in the Ionian Sea, bounded to the west by the Malta Escarpment and to the east by the Apulia Escarpment. This work presents the results of the interpretation of new seismic and bathymetric data acquired on the north-eastern edge of the CAW, in the N-Ionian Sea. The data interpretation has identified four main structural domains from NE to SW: 1. The Apulian carbonate Platform consisting of foreland shelf and transitional Mesozoic-Cenozoic carbonate deposits; 2. A narrow foredeep basin, filled by a very thick Plio-Quaternary succession; 3. A deformed domain, at the front of the CAW, incorporating thrusted foredeep sequences and a carbonate block of the Apulian Platform (Transpressed Apulian Block, TAB); 4. A highly deformed pre-Pliocene accretionary wedge. A mid-Pliocene unconformity interpreted on both the CAW and Apulian Foreland suggests that a regional tectonic event occurred at that time, related to the evolution of Calabrian Arc, moving on the subducting oceanic Ionian slab before the collision. This event would correspond to a main tilting and faulting phase of the Apulian Foreland during the diachronous oblique collision with the CAW. The collision and the presence of a remnant of Ionian foreland at the southern front of the accretionary prism, caused a gradual transition to a transpressional tectonics which produced the uplift of the TAB. The TAB would be the south-east continuation of the Amendolara ridge transpressed structure, which forms the offshore extension of the Pollino range. This transpressed shear zone involving the Apulian Foreland developed above the transition between the Adriatic continental crust and the subducting Ionian oceanic crust

Switching off perceptual learning: tDCS to left DLPFC eliminates perceptual learning in humans.

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Perceptual learning can be acquired as a result of experience with stimuli that would otherwise be difficult to tell apart, and is often explained in terms of the modulation of feature salience by an error signal based on how well that feature can be predicted by the others that make up the stimulus. In this article we show that anodal transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) at Fp3 directly influences this modulation process so as to eliminate and possibly reverse perceptual learning. In 2 experiments, anodal stimulation disrupted perceptual learning (indexed by an inversion effect) compared with sham (Experiment 1) or cathodal (Experiment 2) stimulation. Our findings can be interpreted as showing that anodal tDCS severely reduced or even abolished the modulation of salience based on error, greatly increasing generalization between stimuli. This result supports accounts of perceptual learning based on variations in salience as a consequence of pre-exposure, and opens up the possibility of controlling this phenomenon.IPLM and FV are supported by a grant from the ESRC (ES/J00815X/1), and FV is supported by a starting grant from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ ERC Grant Agreement No. 312445. CC was supported by an Overseas Scholarship from the International Office at the University of Exeter and Yixuan Ku by the National Key Fundamental Research (973) Program (2013CB329501) of China

Perceptual learning and inversion effects: Recognition of prototype-defined familiar checkerboards.

PublishedJournal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tThe face inversion effect is a defection in performance in recognizing inverted faces compared with faces presented in their usual upright orientation typically believed to be specific for facial stimuli. McLaren (1997) was able to demonstrate that (a) an inversion effect could be obtained with exemplars drawn from a familiar category, such that upright exemplars were better discriminated than inverted exemplars; and (b) that the inversion effect required that the familiar category be prototype-defined. In this article, we replicate and extend these findings. We show that the inversion effect can be obtained in a standard old/new recognition memory paradigm, demonstrate that it is contingent on familiarization with a prototype-defined category, and establish that the effect is made up of two components. We confirm the advantage for upright exemplars drawn from a familiar, prototype-defined category, and show that there is a disadvantage for inverted exemplars drawn from this category relative to suitable controls. We also provide evidence that there is an N170 event-related potential signature for this effect. These results allow us to integrate a theory of perceptual learning originally proposed by McLaren, Kaye, and Mackintosh (1989) with explanations of the face inversion effect, first reported by Yin.University of ExeterNational Key Fundamental Research (973) Progra

Categorisation and perceptual Learning: Why tDCS to Left DLPFC Enhances Generalisation.

In Associative Learning and Cognition, Homage to Prof. N.J. Mackintosh. Editors: Trobalon JB, Chamizo VD. Barcelona 10 Sep 2016This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from University of Barcelona via the link in this record.In the 27 years that have passed since the McLaren, Kaye and Mackintosh (MKM) model of perceptual learning was first proposed, it has undergone considerable theoretical development and been subject to extensive empirical test. But we would argue that the basic principles of the theory remain as valid today as they were in 1989. One of these principles was that salience modulation of stimulus representations based on prediction error was a key component of latent inhibition and perceptual learning. It was this modification of what was otherwise a fairly basic adaptation of the model for categorisation proposed by McCleland and Rumelhart (M&R) that transformed a system that would exhibit enhanced generalisation as category learning progressed, into one that would instead offer an improved capacity for discrimination between exemplars as a consequence of experience with the category. This modification has only been tested indirectly up until now, by looking at the predictions that flow from it and then comparing them to animal and human discrimination following stimulus pre-exposure. In this chapter we test this principle more directly, by using tDCS to disrupt the modulation of salience by prediction error, and show that when this is done, people exhibit the enhanced generalisation predicted by the standard M&R model. We conclude that our results provide further support for the MKM approach to stimulus representation

Seismic hazard for the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). Part 2: broadband scenarios at the Fier Compressor Station (Albania)

AbstractTo ensure environmental and public safety, critical facilities require rigorous seismic hazard analysis to define seismic input for their design. We consider the case of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which is a pipeline that transports natural gas from the Caspian Sea to southern Italy, crossing active faults and areas characterized by high seismicity levels. For this pipeline, we develop a Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) for the broader area, and, for the selected critical sites, we perform deterministic seismic hazard assessment (DSHA), by calculating shaking scenarios that account for the physics of the source, propagation, and site effects. This paper presents a DSHA for a compressor station located at Fier, along the Albanian coastal region. Considering the location of the most hazardous faults in the study site, revealed by the PSHA disaggregation, we model the ground motion for two different scenarios to simulate the worst-case scenario for this compressor station. We compute broadband waveforms for receivers on soft soils by applying specific transfer functions estimated from the available geotechnical data for the Fier area. The simulations reproduce the variability observed in the ground motion recorded in the near-earthquake source. The vertical ground motion is strong for receivers placed above the rupture areas and should not be ignored in seismic designs; furthermore, our vertical simulations reproduce the displacement and the static offset of the ground motion highlighted in recent studies. This observation confirms the importance of the DSHA analysis in defining the expected pipeline damage functions and permanent soil deformations

The potential monetary benefits of reclaiming hazardous waste sites in the Campania region: an economic evaluation

BACKGROUND: Evaluating the economic benefit of reducing negative health outcomes resulting from waste management is of pivotal importance for designing an effective waste policy that takes into account the health consequences for the populations exposed to environmental hazards. Despite the high level of Italian and international media interest in the problem of hazardous waste in Campania little has been done to reclaim the land and the waterways contaminated by hazardous waste. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to reduce the uncertainty about health damage due to waste exposure by providing for the first time a monetary valuation of health benefits arising from the reclamation of hazardous waste dumps in Campania. METHODS: First the criteria by which the landfills in the Campania region, in particular in the two provinces of Naples and Caserta, have been classified are described. Then, the annual cases of premature death and fatal cases of cancers attributable to waste exposure are quantified. Finally, the present value of the health benefits from the reclamation of polluted land is estimated for each of the health outcomes (premature mortality, fatal cancer and premature mortality adjusted for the cancer premium). Due to the uncertainty about the time frame of the benefits arising from reclamation, the latency of the effects of toxic waste on human health and the lack of context specific estimates of the Value of Preventing a Fatality (VPF), extensive sensitivity analyses are performed. RESULTS: There are estimated to be 848 cases of premature mortality and 403 cases of fatal cancer per year as a consequence of exposure to toxic waste. The present value of the benefit of reducing the number of waste associated deaths after adjusting for a cancer premium is euro11.6 billion. This value ranges from euro5.4 to euro20.0 billion assuming a time frame for benefits of 10 and 50 years respectively. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that there is a strong economic argument for both reclaiming the land contaminated with hazardous waste in the two provinces of Naples and Caserta and increasing the control of the territory in order to avoid the creation of new illegal dump sites

Outcomes from elective colorectal cancer surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

This study aimed to describe the change in surgical practice and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on mortality after surgical resection of colorectal cancer during the initial phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Low in‑hospital mortality rate in patients with COVID‑19 receiving thromboprophylaxis: data from the multicentre observational START‑COVID Register

Abstract COVID-19 infection causes respiratory pathology with severe interstitial pneumonia and extra-pulmonary complications; in particular, it may predispose to thromboembolic disease. The current guidelines recommend the use of thromboprophylaxis in patients with COVID-19, however, the optimal heparin dosage treatment is not well-established. We conducted a multicentre, Italian, retrospective, observational study on COVID-19 patients admitted to ordinary wards, to describe clinical characteristic of patients at admission, bleeding and thrombotic events occurring during hospital stay. The strategies used for thromboprophylaxis and its role on patient outcome were, also, described. 1091 patients hospitalized were included in the START-COVID-19 Register. During hospital stay, 769 (70.7%) patients were treated with antithrombotic drugs: low molecular weight heparin (the great majority enoxaparin), fondaparinux, or unfractioned heparin. These patients were more frequently affected by comorbidities, such as hypertension, atrial fibrillation, previous thromboembolism, neurological disease,and cancer with respect to patients who did not receive thromboprophylaxis. During hospital stay, 1.2% patients had a major bleeding event. All patients were treated with antithrombotic drugs; 5.4%, had venous thromboembolism [30.5% deep vein thrombosis (DVT), 66.1% pulmonary embolism (PE), and 3.4% patients had DVT + PE]. In our cohort the mortality rate was 18.3%. Heparin use was independently associated with survival in patients aged ≥ 59 years at multivariable analysis. We confirmed the high mortality rate of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients in ordinary wards. Treatment with antithrombotic drugs is significantly associated with a reduction of mortality rates especially in patients older than 59 years