Analysis of the air pollution climate at a background site in the Po valley

The Po valley in northern Italy is renowned for its high air pollutant concentrations. Measurements of air pollutants from a background site in Modena, a town of 200 thousand inhabitants within the Po valley, are analysed. These comprise hourly data for CO, NO, NO2, NOx, and O3, and daily gravimetric equivalent data for PM10 from 1998\u20132010. The data are analysed in terms of long-term trends, annual, weekly and diurnal cycles, and auto-correlation and cross-correlation functions. CO, NO and NO2 exhibit a strongly traffic-related pattern, with daily peaks at morning and evening rush hour and lower concentrations over the weekend. Ozone shows an annual cycle with a peak in July due to local production; notwithstanding the diurnal cycle dominated by titration by nitrogen oxide, the decreasing long term trend in NO concentration did not affect the long term trend in O3, whose mean concentration remained steady over the sampling period. PM10 shows a strong seasonality with higher concentration in winter and lower concentration in summer and spring. Both PM10 and ozone show a marked weekly cycle in summer and winter respectively. Regressions of PM10 upon NOx show a consistently greater intercept in winter, representing higher secondary PM10 in the cooler months of the year. There is a seasonal pattern in primary PM10 to NOx ratios, with lower values in winter and higher values in summer, but the reasons are unclear

Air pollution assessment over Po valley (Italy) using satellite data and ground station measurements

Due to their effect on human health, the study of atmospheric pollutants is an important concern in the Po valley – northern Italy – one of the main industrialized and populated areas of the country. Our work focuses on the applicability of satellite Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) retrievals in support of air quality monitoring and assessment in urban environments within the Po valley. This has been accomplished by using the implementation of the International MODIS/AIRS Processing Package (IMAPP) Air Quality Applications software, IDEA-I (Infusing satellite Data into Environmental Applications-International) over the Po valley study area. IDEA-I is a globally configurable software package that uses either Terra or Aqua MODerate resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) AOD product retrievals to identify local domains of high values of aerosol. For our specific analyses, IDEA-I has been used over the large European domain, centred over the Po Valley. One year (2012) of MODIS AOD product retrievals from MODIS on board NASA’s Terra (MOD04) or Aqua (MYD04) satellite has been considered using IDEA-I in a retrospective study. These retrieved data have been also compared with the Particulate Matter (PM 10 ) measurements from the Italian Agency for Environmental Protection (ARPA) ground-based network stations. The acceptable results obtained by the correlation PM 10 – AOD suggest the satellite AOD as a good substitute for monitoring air quality over the Po valley domain. Yet the 10 km resolution of MODIS – AOD product is considered too large for air quality studies at urban scale. Recently, a new Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) algorithm has been developed for MODIS which provides AOD data at 1 km of spatial resolution. We have evaluated ability of MODIS product MOD04 and MAIAC products to characterize the spatial distribution of aerosols in the urban area through comparison with surface PM 10 measurements. Using MAIAC data at 1 km, we have examined the relationship between PM 10 concentrations, AOD, and AOD normalized by Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) depths obtained from NOAA National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS), for the same period of analysis. Results show that the MAIAC retrieval provides a high resolution depiction of the AOD within the Po Valley and performs nearly as well in a statistical sense as the standard MODIS retrieval during the time period considered. Results also highlight that normalization by the analyzed PBL depth to obtain an estimate of the mean boundary layer extinction is needed to capture the seasonal cycle of the observed PM 10 over the Po Valley

Is minimally-invasive spinal surgery a reliable treatment option in symptomatic spinal metastasis?

OBJECTIVE: Up to 70% of patients with cancer are likely to develop spine metastasis. Radiation therapy is the standard of care for painful spinal metastases in absence of unstable or impending fractures. More frequently these patients require open palliative surgery for pain, vertebral collapse and neurological deficits. Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery (MISS) techniques using percutaneous pedicle screw fixation may be considered as an alternative to open surgery in selected cases. MISS techniques are thought to be associated with fewer tissues damages resulting in early pain relief, they also allow for early mobilization and optimization of function. PATIENTS AND METHODS: From 2011 to 2018, 52 patients affected by spinal metastasis were treated with MISS techniques in Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute of Bologna and in Cisanello Hospital of Pisa, Italy. All patients underwent percutaneous pedicle screw fixations (PPSF) coupled with mini-decompressions in case it was required by spinal cord compressions. All patients were evaluated pre and post-operatively by Frenkel classification and VAS scores. RESULTS: Mean follow-up time was 19,4 months. Preoperatively, Frankel scores were E in 37 patients, D3 in 6 patients, D2 in 3 cases, D1 in 3 patients, B in one patient and C in two. The Frankel score improved in 10 patients, remained stable in 40 patients and worsened in two patients. Preoperatively, the mean VAS score in 29 patients treated with PPSF procedure with spinal decompression was 7, while postoperatively, it became 5. In 23 patients who underwent only PPSF procedure without spinal decompression mean VAS score was 5, postoperatively it became 3. CONCLUSIONS: In selected cases, MISS surgeries may be considered as a valid alternative to open surgery. Although the efficacy of PPSF has been well documented in trauma or degenerative spine surgery, there is not sufficient literature about MISS techniques in spinal metastasis and further studies are needed to elucidate the most appropriate patient in which this approach could represent the gold standard of treatment

Peritoneal carcinomatosis

Several gastrointestinal and gynecological malignancies have the potential to disseminate and grow in the peritoneal cavity. The occurrence of peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) has been shown to significantly decrease overall survival in patients with liver and/or extraperitoneal metastases from gastrointestinal cancer. During the last three decades, the understanding of the biology and pathways of dissemination of tumors with intraperitoneal spread, and the understanding of the protective function of the peritoneal barrier against tumoral seeding, has prompted the concept that PC is a loco-regional disease: in absence of other systemic metastases, multimodal approaches combining aggressive cytoreductive surgery, intraperitoneal hyperthermic chemotherapy and systemic chemotherapy have been proposed and are actually considered promising methods to improve loco-regional control of the disease, and ultimately to increase survival. The aim of this review article is to present the evidence on treatment of PC in different tumors, in order to provide patients with a proper surgical and multidisciplinary treatment focused on optimal control of their locoregional disease. (C) 2013 Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited. All rights reserved

Economic values for ecosystem services: A global synthesis and way forward

This paper presents a global synthesis of economic values for ecosystem services provided by 15 terrestrial and marine biomes. Information from over 1,300 studies, yielding over 9,400 value estimates in monetary units, has been collected and organised in the Ecosystem Services Valuation Database (ESVD). This is a substantial expansion of data since the de Groot et al. (2012) description of the ESVD and provides an important juncture to explore developments in the use of valuation methods and the contexts in which valuations are conducted. In this paper we provide summary values for 23 ecosystem services from 15 biomes to represent the magnitude, variation and gaps in economic values. To enable the comparison and synthesis of values, estimates in the ESVD are standardised to a common set of units (Int$/ha/year at 2020 price levels). This data provides a basis for value transfers to inform decision-making in current policy contexts but requires due consideration and adjustment for context specific determinants of value. Although the coverage of the ESVD is global, the geographic distribution of data is not even. There is a particularly high representation of European ecosystems and relatively little information for Russia, Central Asia and North Africa. Therefore, the data are not globally representative of biophysical and socio-economic contexts. The distribution of data across ecosystem services is also far from even, with some services very well represented (e.g. recreation, wild fish and wild animals, ecosystem and species appreciation, air filtration and global climate regulation) and others with almost no value estimates (e.g. disease control, water baseflow maintenance, rainfall pattern regulation). In the past decade, there has been a notable increase in demand for information on the economic value of ecosystem services from both public and private institutions to improve the conservation and management of natural capital. The literature is developing to meet this demand but there is a need for targeted and refined valuation research to ensure sufficient certainty, comparability, and representativeness of the data, and to enable transferability and fill knowledge gaps. This paper concludes by identifying avenues for future development to further increase the amount, quality, representativeness and application of data on economic values for ecosystem services

Economic values for ecosystem services:A global synthesis and way forward

This paper presents a global synthesis of economic values for ecosystem services provided by 15 terrestrial and marine biomes. Information from over 1,300 studies, yielding over 9,400 value estimates in monetary units, has been collected and organised in the Ecosystem Services Valuation Database (ESVD). This is a substantial expansion of data since the de Groot et al. (2012) description of the ESVD and provides an important juncture to explore developments in the use of valuation methods and the contexts in which valuations are conducted. In this paper we provide summary values for 23 ecosystem services from 15 biomes to represent the magnitude, variation and gaps in economic values. To enable the comparison and synthesis of values, estimates in the ESVD are standardised to a common set of units (Int$/ha/year at 2020 price levels). This data provides a basis for value transfers to inform decision-making in current policy contexts but requires due consideration and adjustment for context specific determinants of value. Although the coverage of the ESVD is global, the geographic distribution of data is not even. There is a particularly high representation of European ecosystems and relatively little information for Russia, Central Asia and North Africa. Therefore, the data are not globally representative of biophysical and socio-economic contexts. The distribution of data across ecosystem services is also far from even, with some services very well represented (e.g. recreation, wild fish and wild animals, ecosystem and species appreciation, air filtration and global climate regulation) and others with almost no value estimates (e.g. disease control, water baseflow maintenance, rainfall pattern regulation). In the past decade, there has been a notable increase in demand for information on the economic value of ecosystem services from both public and private institutions to improve the conservation and management of natural capital. The literature is developing to meet this demand but there is a need for targeted and refined valuation research to ensure sufficient certainty, comparability, and representativeness of the data, and to enable transferability and fill knowledge gaps. This paper concludes by identifying avenues for future development to further increase the amount, quality, representativeness and application of data on economic values for ecosystem services.</p

Algoritmo terapeutico per il trattamento delle metastasi del sacro. Raccomandazioni del gruppo di studio SIOT sulle metastasi ossee

La metastasi ossea è un evento estremamente frequente nella storia naturale della patologia neoplastica maligna, preceduto per frequenza soltanto dalle sedi di localizzazione epatica e polmonare, e predilige lo scheletro assile rispetto a quello appendicolare 1 . Si stima infatti che circa il 5-10% dei pazienti oncologici sviluppi metastasi vertebrali nel corso della malattia 2 ; nel rachide, il segmento più colpito è il tratto toracico, seguito da quello lombare, cervicale e dalla giunzione lombosacrale 3 . I tumori che più frequentemente metastatizzano a livello osseo sono i carcinomi mammario, polmonare, renale, tiroideo e prostatico, mentre più raro è il riscontro di metastasi da melanoma o localizzazioni vertebrali da tumori della sistema linfoemopoietico come il linfoma 3-7. La diffusione metastatica all’osso avviene prevalentemente per via ematica, ed in rare occasioni per contiguità, soprattutto ad opera di tumori localmente aggressivi come il carcinoma del colon-retto a livello del sacro 8 9 (Fig. 1), o il tumore di Pancoast nel rachide toracico. Le metastasi sacrali sono lesioni relativamente rare; tuttavia negli ultimi anni il loro riscontro è aumentato, parallelamente all’incremento dell’aspettativa di vita dei pazienti oncologici, sottoposti a protocolli di trattamento sempre migliori 10. Ciononostante, le metastasi sacrali sono raramente diagnosticate precocemente per via della sintomatologia sfumata che caratterizza il coinvolgimento del sacro nelle fasi iniziali, ed anche alla ridotta sensibilità dell’esame radiologico convenzionale nell’individuare processi sostitutivi a tale livello 11. La valutazione e il trattamento di un paziente con metastasi sacrali richiede un approccio multidisciplinare, da effettuarsi in centri specializzati con esperienza consolidata. Le lesioni metastatiche del sacro non sono state largamente indagate in letteratura, e per il loro trattamento non sono ancora disponibili linee guida condivise, proprio per la mancanza di evidenza scientifica significativa sull’argomento. Per tale motivo, questo è stato scelto di presentare l’algoritmo terapeutico del trattamento delle metastasi del sacro nel contesto di una raccomandazione clinica, che tiene conto dell’esperienza clinica di centri di alta specializzazione sull’argomento

Effect of Population, Collection Year, After-Ripening and Incubation Condition on Seed Germination of \u3cem\u3eStipa bungeana\u3c/em\u3e

Knowledge of the germination behavior of different populations of a species can be useful in the selection of appropriate seed sources for restoration. The aim of this study was to test the effect of seed population, collection year, after-ripening and incubation conditions on seed dormancy and germination of Stipa bungeana, a perennial grass used for revegetation of degraded grasslands on the Loess Plateau, China. Fresh S. bungeana seeds were collected from eight locally-adapted populations in 2015 and 2016. Dormancy and germination characteristics of fresh and 6-month-old dry-stored seeds were determined by incubating them over a range of alternating temperature regimes in light. Effect of water stress on germination was tested for fresh and 6-month-old dry-stored seeds. Seed dormancy and germination of S. bungeana differed with population and collection year. Six months of dry storage broke seed dormancy, broadened the temperature range for germination and increased among-population differences in germination percentage. The rank order of germination was not consistent in all germination tests, and it varied among populations. Thus, studies on comparing seed dormancy and germination among populations must consider year of collection, seed dormancy states and germination test conditions when selecting seeds for grassland restoration and management

Technology Diffusion, Abatement Cost and Transboundary Pollution

This paper studies countries' incentives to develop advanced pollution abatement technology when technology may spillover across countries and pollution abatement is a global public good. We are motivated in part by the problem of global warming: a solution to this involves providing a global public good, and will surely require the development and implementation of new technologies. We show that at the Nash equilibrium of a simultaneous-move game with R&D investment and emission abatement, whether the free rider effect prevails and under-investment and excess emissions occur depends on the degree of technology spillovers and the effect of R&D on the marginal abatement costs. There are cases in which, contrary to conventional wisdom, Nash equilibrium investments in emissions reductions exceed the first-best case