L'Ingegneria della Grande Guerra 1915-1918. Incontro di studio e mostra bibliografica sugli aspetti tecnologici del primo conflitto mondiale

Il volume raccoglie gli atti e i materiali di un seminario di studi e di una mostra bibliografica tenutisi in occasione del primo centenario della Grande guerra presso la Scuola di Ingegneria e Architettura dell’Università di Bologna. Gli interventi indagano l’applicazione e lo sviluppo, in ambito bellico, di tecnologie ingegneristiche che da un lato espressero un tragico potenziale distruttivo, dall’altro ebbero nel conflitto un’occasione di sviluppo. Vi si tratta dell’importanza strategica del petrolio come carburante per navi, carrarmati e aerei e come fonte di energia per le fabbriche, dello sviluppo delle tecniche di mappatura del territorio, la fotogrammetria aerea, delle nuove drammatiche modalità di combattimento e costruzione di ordigni bellici, senza trascurare il più generale contesto dello sviluppo industriale italiano legato alla produzione di armamenti. In appendice si pubblica il catalogo dell’esposizione, tenutasi nell’atrio della Scuola di Ingegneria e Architettura, progettata negli anni ’30 dall’architetto Giuseppe Vaccaro. Questa parte del volume indaga l’interesse tecnico-scientifico dei professori e degli studenti della Scuola d’applicazione per gli ingegneri di Bologna verso il conflitto mondiale; vi sono descritti alcuni documenti bibliografici conservati nelle raccolte storiche della Biblioteca Interdipartimentale di Ingegneria e Architettura. Inoltre lo spoglio della documentazione amministrativa conservata presso l’Archivio Storico dell’Università di Bologna ha fatto riemergere il coinvolgimento umano e l’interesse più generale della comunità, che alla Scuola faceva riferimento: l’entusiasmo degli studenti desiderosi di partecipare al conflitto, lo strazio dei molti lutti e la celebrazione della memoria dei caduti

COVID-19 Severity in Multiple Sclerosis: Putting Data Into Context

Background and objectives: It is unclear how multiple sclerosis (MS) affects the severity of COVID-19. The aim of this study is to compare COVID-19-related outcomes collected in an Italian cohort of patients with MS with the outcomes expected in the age- and sex-matched Italian population. Methods: Hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and death after COVID-19 diagnosis of 1,362 patients with MS were compared with the age- and sex-matched Italian population in a retrospective observational case-cohort study with population-based control. The observed vs the expected events were compared in the whole MS cohort and in different subgroups (higher risk: Expanded Disability Status Scale [EDSS] score > 3 or at least 1 comorbidity, lower risk: EDSS score ≤ 3 and no comorbidities) by the χ2 test, and the risk excess was quantified by risk ratios (RRs). Results: The risk of severe events was about twice the risk in the age- and sex-matched Italian population: RR = 2.12 for hospitalization (p < 0.001), RR = 2.19 for ICU admission (p < 0.001), and RR = 2.43 for death (p < 0.001). The excess of risk was confined to the higher-risk group (n = 553). In lower-risk patients (n = 809), the rate of events was close to that of the Italian age- and sex-matched population (RR = 1.12 for hospitalization, RR = 1.52 for ICU admission, and RR = 1.19 for death). In the lower-risk group, an increased hospitalization risk was detected in patients on anti-CD20 (RR = 3.03, p = 0.005), whereas a decrease was detected in patients on interferon (0 observed vs 4 expected events, p = 0.04). Discussion: Overall, the MS cohort had a risk of severe events that is twice the risk than the age- and sex-matched Italian population. This excess of risk is mainly explained by the EDSS score and comorbidities, whereas a residual increase of hospitalization risk was observed in patients on anti-CD20 therapies and a decrease in people on interferon

DMTs and Covid-19 severity in MS: a pooled analysis from Italy and France

We evaluated the effect of DMTs on Covid-19 severity in patients with MS, with a pooled-analysis of two large cohorts from Italy and France. The association of baseline characteristics and DMTs with Covid-19 severity was assessed by multivariate ordinal-logistic models and pooled by a fixed-effect meta-analysis. 1066 patients with MS from Italy and 721 from France were included. In the multivariate model, anti-CD20 therapies were significantly associated (OR = 2.05, 95%CI = 1.39–3.02, p < 0.001) with Covid-19 severity, whereas interferon indicated a decreased risk (OR = 0.42, 95%CI = 0.18–0.99, p = 0.047). This pooled-analysis confirms an increased risk of severe Covid-19 in patients on anti-CD20 therapies and supports the protective role of interferon

Neutralizing antibodies to Omicron after the fourth SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine dose in immunocompromised patients highlight the need of additional boosters

IntroductionImmunocompromised patients have been shown to have an impaired immune response to COVID-19 vaccines.MethodsHere we compared the B-cell, T-cell and neutralizing antibody response to WT and Omicron BA.2 SARS-CoV-2 virus after the fourth dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in patients with hematological malignancies (HM, n=71), solid tumors (ST, n=39) and immune-rheumatological (IR, n=25) diseases. The humoral and T-cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination were analyzed by quantifying the anti-RBD antibodies, their neutralization activity and the IFN-γ released after spike specific stimulation.ResultsWe show that the T-cell response is similarly boosted by the fourth dose across the different subgroups, while the antibody response is improved only in patients not receiving B-cell targeted therapies, independent on the pathology. However, 9% of patients with anti-RBD antibodies did not have neutralizing antibodies to either virus variants, while an additional 5.7% did not have neutralizing antibodies to Omicron BA.2, making these patients particularly vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection. The increment of neutralizing antibodies was very similar towards Omicron BA.2 and WT virus after the third or fourth dose of vaccine, suggesting that there is no preferential skewing towards either virus variant with the booster dose. The only limited step is the amount of antibodies that are elicited after vaccination, thus increasing the probability of developing neutralizing antibodies to both variants of virus.DiscussionThese data support the recommendation of additional booster doses in frail patients to enhance the development of a B-cell response directed against Omicron and/or to enhance the T-cell response in patients treated with anti-CD20

Techniques for Evaluating the Depth of a Crack by Means of Laser Spot Thermography

Laser Spot Thermography is a useful tool in nondestructive crack detection. Our goal is to estimate the depth of a fracture from external thermal measurements. First we transform a set of real 3D data in a 2D effective one. Then we use the 2D data set as input in different methods for solving an inverse problems for the heat equation. Our guiding idea is that an effort in the direction of the mathematical analysis of the problem, rewards us in term of computational costs

Formal derivation of an inversion formula for the approximation of interface defects by means of active thermography

Thermal properties of a two-layered composite conductor are modified in case the interface is damaged. The present paper deals with nondestructive evaluation of perturbations of interface thermal conductance due to the presence of defects. The specimen is heated by means of a lamp system or a laser while its surface temperature is measured with an infrared camera in the typical framework of Active Thermography. Defects affecting the interface are evaluated using Laplace transformation and suitable symmetries of parabolic differential operators (reciprocity).Comment: the perturbative analysis in section 5 is meaningful only if the terms delta h and delta U are normalized. The correction is absolutely necessary. It implies that the evaluation of the constants (stability/instability) must be done again and carefully checke

Reconstruction of a nonlinear heat transfer law from uncomplete boundary data by means of infrared thermography

Heat exchange between a conducting plate and the environment is described here by means of an unknown nonlinear function F of the temperature u. In this paper we construct a method for recovering F by means of polynomial expansion, perturbation theory and the toolbox of thermal inverse problems. We test our method on two examples: In the first one, we heat the plate (initially at 20 °C) from one side, read the temperature on the same side and identify the heat exchange law on the opposite side (active thermography); in the second example we measure the temperature of one side of the plate (initially at 1500 °C) and study the heat exchange while cooling (passive thermography

A note about the well-posedness of an Initial Boundary Value Problem for the heat equation in a layered domain

Heat conduction in a layered domain with imperfect ther-mal contact interfaces is modeled by means of a system of elliptic or parabolic PDEs with suitable boundary and transmission conditions. Well-posedness of this problem is proved and a stability estimate of the solution is given