ResTech: innovative technologies for crisis resolution

AbstractThe use of financial technologies (FinTech) by financial market participants fostered a discussion among public authorities on the use technologies for regulatory (RegTech) and supervisory (SupTech) purposes. This paper discusses the application of innovative technologies to crisis resolution (ResTech) and sets out its potential scope of application. ResTech is the application of technologies: i) to support the work of resolution authorities in developing resolution plans and in resolving financial firms; and ii) to allow financial firms to achieve regulatory compliance and better risk management in a more effective and automated manner. This paper also argues that the features and market dynamics of resolution differ from those of RegTech and SupTech: there is little market incentive for the private sector to foster innovation in the area of crisis resolution. The lack of private sector incentives to invest in R&D on how to resolve a firm's crisis leaves the task to resolution authorities. In addition, resolution-technologies may support the identification of optimal liquidation strategy for small and medium-sized financial firms, by ensuring the maximisation of creditors' proceeds out of the insolvency estate

Landslides, floods and sinkholes in a karst environment: the 1–6 September 2014 Gargano event, southern Italy

In karst environments, heavy rainfall is known to cause multiple geohydrological hazards, including inundations, flash floods, landslides and sinkholes. We studied a period of intense rainfall from 1 to 6 September 2014 in the Gargano Promontory, a karst area in Puglia, southern Italy. In the period, a sequence of torrential rainfall events caused severe damage and claimed two fatalities. The amount and accuracy of the geographical and temporal information varied for the different hazards. The temporal information was most accurate for the inundation caused by a major river, less accurate for flash floods caused by minor torrents and even less accurate for landslides. For sinkholes, only generic information on the period of occurrence of the failures was available. Our analysis revealed that in the promontory, rainfall-driven hazards occurred in response to extreme meteorological conditions and that the karst landscape responded to the torrential rainfall with a threshold behaviour. We exploited the rainfall and the landslide information to design the new ensemble-non-exceedance probability (E-NEP) algorithm for the quantitative evaluation of the possible occurrence of rainfall-induced landslides and of related geohydrological hazards. The ensemble of the metrics produced by the E-NEP algorithm provided better diagnostics than the single metrics often used for landslide forecasting, including rainfall duration, cumulated rainfall and rainfall intensity. We expect that the E-NEP algorithm will be useful for landslide early warning in karst areas and in other similar environments. We acknowledge that further tests are needed to evaluate the algorithm in different meteorological, geological and physiographical settings

Landslides, floods and sinkholes in a karst environment: the 1–6 September 2014 Gargano event, southern Italy

Abstract. In karst environments, heavy rainfall is known to cause multiple geohydrological hazards, including inundations, flash floods, landslides and sinkholes. We studied a period of intense rainfall from 1 to 6 September 2014 in the Gargano Promontory, a karst area in Puglia, southern Italy. In the period, a sequence of torrential rainfall events caused severe damage and claimed two fatalities. The amount and accuracy of the geographical and temporal information varied for the different hazards. The temporal information was most accurate for the inundation caused by a major river, less accurate for flash floods caused by minor torrents and even less accurate for landslides. For sinkholes, only generic information on the period of occurrence of the failures was available. Our analysis revealed that in the promontory, rainfall-driven hazards occurred in response to extreme meteorological conditions and that the karst landscape responded to the torrential rainfall with a threshold behaviour. We exploited the rainfall and the landslide information to design the new ensemble–non-exceedance probability (E-NEP) algorithm for the quantitative evaluation of the possible occurrence of rainfall-induced landslides and of related geohydrological hazards. The ensemble of the metrics produced by the E-NEP algorithm provided better diagnostics than the single metrics often used for landslide forecasting, including rainfall duration, cumulated rainfall and rainfall intensity. We expect that the E-NEP algorithm will be useful for landslide early warning in karst areas and in other similar environments. We acknowledge that further tests are needed to evaluate the algorithm in different meteorological, geological and physiographical settings

Hyperoxemia and excess oxygen use in early acute respiratory distress syndrome : Insights from the LUNG SAFE study

Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Background: Concerns exist regarding the prevalence and impact of unnecessary oxygen use in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We examined this issue in patients with ARDS enrolled in the Large observational study to UNderstand the Global impact of Severe Acute respiratory FailurE (LUNG SAFE) study. Methods: In this secondary analysis of the LUNG SAFE study, we wished to determine the prevalence and the outcomes associated with hyperoxemia on day 1, sustained hyperoxemia, and excessive oxygen use in patients with early ARDS. Patients who fulfilled criteria of ARDS on day 1 and day 2 of acute hypoxemic respiratory failure were categorized based on the presence of hyperoxemia (PaO2 > 100 mmHg) on day 1, sustained (i.e., present on day 1 and day 2) hyperoxemia, or excessive oxygen use (FIO2 ≥ 0.60 during hyperoxemia). Results: Of 2005 patients that met the inclusion criteria, 131 (6.5%) were hypoxemic (PaO2 < 55 mmHg), 607 (30%) had hyperoxemia on day 1, and 250 (12%) had sustained hyperoxemia. Excess FIO2 use occurred in 400 (66%) out of 607 patients with hyperoxemia. Excess FIO2 use decreased from day 1 to day 2 of ARDS, with most hyperoxemic patients on day 2 receiving relatively low FIO2. Multivariate analyses found no independent relationship between day 1 hyperoxemia, sustained hyperoxemia, or excess FIO2 use and adverse clinical outcomes. Mortality was 42% in patients with excess FIO2 use, compared to 39% in a propensity-matched sample of normoxemic (PaO2 55-100 mmHg) patients (P = 0.47). Conclusions: Hyperoxemia and excess oxygen use are both prevalent in early ARDS but are most often non-sustained. No relationship was found between hyperoxemia or excessive oxygen use and patient outcome in this cohort. Trial registration: LUNG-SAFE is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02010073publishersversionPeer reviewe

Energy-efficiency optimization of the biomass pelleting process by using statistical indicators

Biomass pelleting process strongly depends on a number of variables hard to be simultaneously controlled. This paper suggests a method to ensure pellets moisture optimization and process energy saving. An experimental testbed was arranged in order to validate the performance of the proposed strategy. It is based on a closed-loop control system that regulates material moisture and flow rate, but its robustness is affected by the control-loop delay (the actuator delay is about 10 minutes) and by the random arrangement of the pellets inside the cooler that strongly affects product moisture (the measurement errors are not negligible). To overcome those problems, a robust statistical approach was adopted to reach the best tradeoff between estimation accuracy and computational effort. It was derived by the well known Random Close Packing model and statistical estimator. Experimental results prove the effectiveness of the proposed approach that provides moisture errors less than 7.2% with a continuous limitation of energy consumption

The CAPITAL study (CArdiovascular Prevention wIth Telecardiology in ApuLia): preliminary results

The CArdiovascular Prevention wIth Telecardiology in ApuLia (CAPITAL) study aimed to investigate the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, the status of cardiovascular prevention, and the compliance to international scientific societies' guidelines on cardiovascular prevention in a Mediterranean region

Cyclodextrin Polymers as Delivery Systems for Targeted Anti-Cancer Chemotherapy

In the few last years, nanosystems have emerged as a potential therapeutic approach to improve the efficacy and selectivity of many drugs. Cyclodextrins (CyDs) and their nanoparticles have been widely investigated as drug delivery systems. The covalent functionalization of CyD polymer nanoparticles with targeting molecules can improve the therapeutic potential of this family of nanosystems. In this study, we investigated cross-linked γ- and β-cyclodextrin polymers as carriers for doxorubicin (ox) and oxaliplatin (Oxa). We also functionalized γ-CyD polymer bearing COOH functionalities with arginine-glycine-aspartic or arginine moieties for targeting the integrin receptors of cancer cells. We tested the Dox and Oxa anti-proliferative activity in the presence of the precursor polymer with COOH functionalities and its derivatives in A549 (lung, carcinoma) and HepG2 (liver, carcinoma) cell lines. We found that CyD polymers can significantly improve the antiproliferative activity of Dox in HepG2 cell lines only, whereas the cytotoxic activity of Oxa resulted as enhanced in both cell lines. The peptide or amino acid functionalized CyD polymers, loaded with Dox, did not show any additional effect compared to the precursor polymer. Finally, studies of Dox uptake showed that the higher antiproliferative activity of complexes correlates with the higher accumulation of Dox inside the cells. The results show that CyD polymers could be used as carriers for repositioning classical anticancer drugs such as Dox or Oxa to increase their antitumor activity

The role of hysteroscopy in evaluating postmenopausal asymptomatic women with thickened endometrium

This study aims to compare hysteroscopic and histological findings in asymptomatic postmenopausal patients with thickened endometrium. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study involving case records of 295 asymptomatic postmenopausal women with a thickened endometrium &gt;5 mm diagnosed at transvaginal ultrasound (TVS). Patients (women) underwent hysteroscopy with biopsy between 2009 and 2015, and they were followed up at National Cancer Institute of Bari and at University Hospital of Pisa. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of hysteroscopy were evaluated. Results: Inclusion criteria were TVS, hysteroscopy, and endometrial biopsy. When the hysteroscopic findings were normal, a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 98.6%, PPV of 95.2%, and NPV of 100% were achieved. For polyps and myomas, we found 100%, 98.7%, 99.5%, and 100%, respectively. In case of endometrial hyperplasia, a sensitivity of 66.7%, a specificity of 100%, a PPV of 100%, and a NPV of 98.1% were achieved. For endometrial cancer hysteroscopy, sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV were 100%, 99.6%, 75%, and 100%, respectively. Conclusions: Hysteroscopy allows an accurate diagnosis in benign endometrial pathology and suspect of malignant endometrial pathology in postmenopausal women with thickened endometrium