The debris flow hazard in the Lagarelle Creek in the eastern Umbria region, central Italy

International audienceThis paper analyzes the Lagarelle Creek watershed, situated in the Municipality of Vallo di Nera, in the eastern Umbria region, central Italy. In this part of the Region, narrow valleys and very steep slopes characterize the morphology of the Appennine ridge. The presence of strongly-tectonized rocky masses, subdivided by several joint systems, is the main cause for the formation of sorted debris deposits, which accumulate mainly along the topographic convergences. This determines the conditions for possible events of debris flows. According to previous studies, the basin of the Lagarelle Creek, has been classified as an area prone to a high hazard of debris flows (Regione dell'Umbria ? C.N.R. I.R.P.I., 1996). For this reason, systematic studies have been carried out on the whole watershed which, in this first phase, have examined the definition of the geological and morphological features of the zone, by means of the acquisition of cartographies and of field surveys, and the elaboration of the topographical data of the basin, by means of a digital model of the terrain. Once the potential triggering areas of debris flows were identified, an assessment of the mobilizable volumes possibly involved in a debris flow event was carried out. To perform such an assessment both the geomorphologic method proposed by Hungr (Hungr et al., 1984) and the empirical relations calibrated on debris flow events of the alpine arc were applied. The results obtained were compared with those derived from information supplied by the inhabitants of the small mountain village, who have described in detail the most important events of the last century

Haemato-oncology and burnout: an Italian survey

This cross-sectional survey aimed to evaluate the prevalence of burnout and estimated psychiatric disorders among haemato-oncology healthcare professionals in Italy. The aspects of work that respondents perceive as stressful and satisfying have also been examined. The assessments were made using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), General Health Questionnaire and a study-specific questionnaire. Logistic regression models were applied to show associations between different sources of work-related stress and burnout. Three hundred and eighty-seven out of 440 (87.95%) returned their questionnaires. The scores on MBI subscales indicate a high level of emotional exhaustion in 32.2% of the physicians and 31.9% of the nurses; a high level of Depersonalisation in 29.8 and 23.6%, respectively; and a low level of personal accomplishment in 12.4 and 15.3% respectively. The estimated prevalence of psychiatric disorders was 36.4% in physicians and 28.8% in nurses. Statistical analysis confirmed age, sex, personal dissatisfaction, physical tiredness and working with demanding patients to be associated with burnout. In conclusion, haemato-oncology healthcare professionals report a level of burnout and estimated psychiatric morbidity comparable to other oncological areas. Knowledge of the mechanisms of burnout and preventing and dealing with them is therefore a fundamental requirement for the improvement of quality in health services and job satisfaction

Multi-Objective Blended Ensemble for Highly Imbalanced Sequence Aware Tweet Engagement Prediction

In this paper we provide a description of the methods we used as team BanaNeverAlone for the ACM RecSys Challenge 2020, organized by Twitter. The challenge addresses the problem of user engagement prediction: the goal is to predict the probability of a user engagement (Like, Reply, Retweet or Retweet with comment), based on a series of past interactions on the Twitter platform. Our proposed solution relies on several features that we extracted from the original dataset, as well as on consolidated models, such as gradient boosting for decision trees and neural networks. The ensemble model, built using blending, and a multi-objective optimization allowed our team to rank in position 4

PIK3CA mutation and histological type in breast carcinoma: high frequency of mutations in lobular carcinoma

Mutations in the PIK3CA gene have recently been reported in different human neoplasms, including breast cancer. This paper reports the results of a systematic analysis of PIK3CA mutations in different histological types of breast carcinoma. One hundred and eighty invasive breast carcinomas, comprising 74 ductal, 56 lobular, 22 mucinous, 20 medullary, and eight papillary, were selected on the basis of their histological type in a consecutive series of 780 breast cancers. Exons 1-20 of the PIK3CA gene were subjected to SSCP analysis followed by direct sequencing. PIK3CA mutations were observed in 46 (26%) of the 180 tumours examined: 23 (50%) mutations were located in exon 9, and 23 (50%) in exon 20. Mutations were frequent in lobular (46%), less frequent in ductal (22%), and uncommon in medullary (10%), mucinous (5%), and papillary tumours (12%) (p = 0.0002). Mutations in exon 9 were more frequent in lobular carcinomas (30% of cases) than in the other histological types (less than 5% of cases) (p = 0.00014). No significant differences were observed in the distribution of mutations in exon 20. There was no significant correlation between PIK3CA mutations and other clinicopathological and biological variables, including age, tumour size, lymph node metastases, oestrogen receptor (ER) status, progesterone receptor (PgR) status, p53 gene mutations, and p53 protein expression. The findings indicate that in invasive breast carcinomas, PIK3CA alterations are mainly present in lobular and ductal tumours, whereas the other histological types, known to be associated with a favourable prognosis, show a very low incidence of PIK3CA mutations

Weekly alternate intensive regimen FIrB/FOx in metastatic colorectal cancer patients: an update from clinical practice

Background: Several trials evaluated the role of intensive regimens, made of triplet chemotherapies plus bevacizumab, as first-line treatment for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). We previously reported, in a Phase II prospective study, the efficacy and the tolerability of FIrB/FOx regimen, reporting interesting results in terms of received dose intensities (rDIs) and safety. Methods: We reported a retrospective update of 85 patients treated with FIrB/FOx, an intensive regimen of 5-fluorouracil, bevacizumab, and weekly alternate irinotecan and oxaliplatin, to confirm its feasibility in \u201creal life\u201d. Subgroup analyses were performed, particularly among patients treated with standard and modified FIrB/FOx (based on age, performance status, and/or comorbidities). Results: Overall, 3-month objective response rate (ORR) and 6-month ORR were 75.9% and 55.3%, respectively. Median progression-free survival (PFS) and median overall survival (OS) were 14.4 and 34.9 months, respectively. Among the patients treated with standard and modified regimens, 3-month ORR, PFS, and OS were 75.8% and 76% (P=1.0000), 14.4 and 14.4 months (P=0.8589), and 37.8 and 26.6 months (P=0.7746), respectively. Among the K/NRAS wild-type and K/NRAS mutant patients, 3-month ORR, PFS, and OS were 95.2% and 74.5% (P=0.0526), 15.3 and 14.4 months (P=0.8753), and 37.8 and 51.4 months (P=0.8527), respectively. The rDIs were 6580% of full doses both in the standard and in the modified regimens subgroups. Cumulative G3/4 toxicities were neutropenia (14.1%), diarrhea (17.6%), asthenia (9.4%), vomiting (5.6%), and hypertension (16.5%). Conclusion: This update shows that intensive regimens such as FIrB/FOx are also feasible options for first-line treatment of mCRC patients in the \u201creal-life\u201d setting

Progetto di edificio di servizio per la riqualificazione del sistema dei teatri di Parma

il prodotto riguarda una proposta progettuale per il sistema teatrale di Parma redatta in occasione di un seminario internazionale di progettazion

mRNA markers of breast cancer nodal metastases: comparison between mammaglobin and carcinoembryonic antigen in 248 patients

Histological detection of axillary lymph node metastases is still the most valuable prognostic parameter for breast cancer, but about 30% of node-negative patients relapse within five years, suggesting that current methods are inadequate for identifying metastatic disease. More sensitive, PCR-based methods for the detection of metastatic cells are now available, enabling the amplification of cancer cell-specific mRNA messages by the RT-PCR assay. An ideal tumour marker, consistently expressed in tumour samples and not at all in normal lymph nodes, remains to be identified. The present study first investigated the expression of seven mRNA markers, CEA, CK19, c-Met, mammaglobin, MUC-1, beta1-->GalNAc-T and p97, selected on the basis of their previously reported specificity for breast cancer cells. Eighteen lymph nodes were examined from patients without tumours. Only mammaglobin mRNA and CEA mRNA were not expressed in normal nodes. All of the other markers showed a band of expression in 17%-55% of cases, indicating that they are not breast cancer-specific. CEA mRNA and mammaglobin mRNA expression could be detected in 15/20 (75%) and 19/20 (95%) primary breast carcinomas, respectively. The expression of mammaglobin mRNA and CEA mRNA was then compared in axillary lymph nodes from 248 consecutive breast cancer patients, 89 with histologically documented lymph node metastasis and 159 without histological evidence of metastatic disease. Ninety-seven per cent of the patients with histologically involved nodes showed expression of mammaglobin mRNA, whereas CEA mRNA was expressed in 79% of these cases. In the group of patients with histologically negative lymph nodes, 46 (29%) and 32 (20%) were found to be positive for mammaglobin and CEA expression, respectively, indicating the presence of metastases not detected by routine histological examination of one lymph node section. These results show that both mammaglobin RT-PCR and CEA RT-PCR are useful tools for the detection of breast cancer metastases in axillary lymph nodes. The detection sensitivity of the mammaglobin RT-PCR is far superior to that of the CEA RT-PCR, allowing the diagnosis of occult metastases in nearly one-third of cases