Measuring walking accessibility to public transport for the elderly: the case of Naples

Demographic ageing represents an essential challenge for local authorities and public transport providers. Decision-makers should not ignore the speci c needs of this weak segment of the population and should implement appropriate policies. This paper develops a GIS-based method to analyse public transport accessibility of elderly people to support policies and planning strategies. To test the proposed method, we propose an application to the city of Naples in Italy. We selected this study case because it represents an example of high population density, complex urban structure and low level of quality of life, especially for the elderly. The application to the city of Naples showed that the urban accessibility changes dramatically for different age segments. Results also reveal patterns of public transport coverage that are signi cantly low particularly in suburban settings. The structure of this paper is organised into four sections: in the rst section, we introduce the main topic of mobility of elderly; in the second section, we describe and discuss the GIS-based method proposed; in the third section, we report on the application to the city of Naples; in the last section, we analyse the results and discuss future research developments

Contraceptive use and sexual function: a comparison of Italian female medical students and women attending family planning services

Objectives: The aims of the study were to understand how education relates to contraceptive choice and how sexual function can vary in relation to the use of a contraceptive method. Methods: We surveyed female medical students and women attending a family planning service (FPS) in Italy. Participants completed an online questionnaire which asked for information on sociodemographics, lifestyle, sexuality and contraceptive use and also included items of the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). Results: The questionnaire was completed by 413 women (362 students and 51 women attending the FPS) between the ages of 18 and 30 years. FSFI scores revealed a lower risk of sexual dysfunction among women in the control group who did not use oral hormonal contraception. The differences in FSFI total scores between the two study groups, when subdivided by the primary contraceptive method used, was statistically significant (p < 0.005). Women using the vaginal ring had the lowest risk of sexual dysfunction, compared with all other women, and had a positive sexual function profile. In particular, the highest FSFI domain scores were lubrication, orgasm and satisfaction, also among the control group. Expensive contraception, such as long-acting reversible contraception, was not preferred by this young population, even though such methods are more contemporary and manageable. Compared with controls, students had lower compliance with contraception and a negative attitude towards voluntary termination of pregnancy. Conclusion: Despite their scientific knowledge, Italian female medical students were found to need sexual and contraceptive assistance. A woman's sexual function responds to her awareness of her body and varies in relation to how she is guided in her contraceptive choice. Contraceptive counselling is an excellent means to improve female sexuality

New Optimization Methods for Converging Perturbative Series with a Field Cutoff

We take advantage of the fact that in lambda phi ^4 problems a large field cutoff phi_max makes perturbative series converge toward values exponentially close to the exact values, to make optimal choices of phi_max. For perturbative series terminated at even order, it is in principle possible to adjust phi_max in order to obtain the exact result. For perturbative series terminated at odd order, the error can only be minimized. It is however possible to introduce a mass shift in order to obtain the exact result. We discuss weak and strong coupling methods to determine the unknown parameters. The numerical calculations in this article have been performed with a simple integral with one variable. We give arguments indicating that the qualitative features observed should extend to quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. We found that optimization at even order is more efficient that at odd order. We compare our methods with the linear delta-expansion (LDE) (combined with the principle of minimal sensitivity) which provides an upper envelope of for the accuracy curves of various Pade and Pade-Borel approximants. Our optimization method performs better than the LDE at strong and intermediate coupling, but not at weak coupling where it appears less robust and subject to further improvements. We also show that it is possible to fix the arbitrary parameter appearing in the LDE using the strong coupling expansion, in order to get accuracies comparable to ours.Comment: 10 pages, 16 figures, uses revtex; minor typos corrected, refs. adde

Femicide Fatal Risk Factors: A Last Decade Comparison between Italian Victims of Femicide by Age Groups

Femicide is a wide-spread lethal form of violence against women. Despite its diffusion, to date, very few studies analyzed possible victims' age differences in regard to fatal risk factors for femicide. To this aim, we carried out archive research on Italian femicide cases in the last decade, by comparing prior types of violence suffered and motives for femicide, which are considered crucial fatal risk factors for femicide, across adolescent/young (15-24 years), adults (25-64 years) and older women (65-93 years). From 2010 to 2019 we found 1207 female victims. Characteristics of victims, perpetrators, and their relationship were consistent with those found by international studies and underlined that the majority of femicides were perpetrated by an intimate partner. The results regarding fatal risk factors comparisons across age groups showed the existence of significant differences regarding both types of violence suffered prior to femicide and motives for femicide. The results are discussed in terms of policy implication and intervention

GRB970228 and the class of GRBs with an initial spikelike emission: do they follow the Amati relation?

On the basis of the recent understanding of GRB050315 and GRB060218, we return to GRB970228, the first Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) with detected afterglow. We proposed it as the prototype for a new class of GRBs with "an occasional softer extended emission lasting tenths of seconds after an initial spikelike emission". Detailed theoretical computation of the GRB970228 light curves in selected energy bands for the prompt emission are presented and compared with observational BeppoSAX data. From our analysis we conclude that GRB970228 and likely the ones of the above mentioned new class of GRBs are "canonical GRBs" have only one peculiarity: they exploded in a galactic environment, possibly the halo, with a very low value of CBM density. Here we investigate how GRB970228 unveils another peculiarity of this class of GRBs: they do not fulfill the "Amati relation". We provide a theoretical explanation within the fireshell model for the apparent absence of such correlation for the GRBs belonging to this new class.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, in the Proceedings of the "4th Italian-Sino Workshop on Relativistic Astrophysics", held in Pescara, Italy, July 20-28, 2007, C.L. Bianco, S.-S. Xue, Editor

Towards a fully automated computation of RG-functions for the 3-dd O(N) vector model: Parametrizing amplitudes

Within the framework of field-theoretical description of second-order phase transitions via the 3-dimensional O(N) vector model, accurate predictions for critical exponents can be obtained from (resummation of) the perturbative series of Renormalization-Group functions, which are in turn derived --following Parisi's approach-- from the expansions of appropriate field correlators evaluated at zero external momenta. Such a technique was fully exploited 30 years ago in two seminal works of Baker, Nickel, Green and Meiron, which lead to the knowledge of the $\beta$-function up to the 6-loop level; they succeeded in obtaining a precise numerical evaluation of all needed Feynman amplitudes in momentum space by lowering the dimensionalities of each integration with a cleverly arranged set of computational simplifications. In fact, extending this computation is not straightforward, due both to the factorial proliferation of relevant diagrams and the increasing dimensionality of their associated integrals; in any case, this task can be reasonably carried on only in the framework of an automated environment. On the road towards the creation of such an environment, we here show how a strategy closely inspired by that of Nickel and coworkers can be stated in algorithmic form, and successfully implemented on the computer. As an application, we plot the minimized distributions of residual integrations for the sets of diagrams needed to obtain RG-functions to the full 7-loop level; they represent a good evaluation of the computational effort which will be required to improve the currently available estimates of critical exponents.Comment: 54 pages, 17 figures and 4 table

Phenotypic effects of expanded ataxin-1 polyglutamines with interruptions in vitro

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 is a neurodegenerative disease caused by expansion of an uninterrupted glutamine repeat in ataxin-1 protein. Protein aggregation and immunoreactivity to 1C2 monoclonal antibody are two distinct pathognomonic features of expanded ataxin-1, as well as of other polyglutamine disorders. Rare cases of non-affected elderly subjects carrying expanded ataxin-1 alleles were found in random population. However, in these alleles the glutamine stretch was interrupted by histidines. Due to lack of phenotype, these alleles should be considered "normal". Most importantly, occurrence of these unusual alleles provides a unique opportunity to investigate which molecular properties of expanded ataxin-1 are not coupled to polyglutamine pathogenesis. Towards this goal, we compared in vitro the immunoreactivity to 1C2 antibody and the ability to form aggregates of interrupted and uninterrupted alleles. Immunoblotting showed that expanded-interrupted ataxin-1 had an affinity to 1C2 resembling that of normal ataxin-1. On the contrary, filter assay showed that aggregation rate of expanded-interrupted ataxin-1 resembles that of expanded-uninterrupted ataxin-1. These observations indicate that affinity for 1C2 does not directly correlate with self-aggregation of ataxin-1. Moreover, self-aggregation is not directly affected by histidine interruptions. In conclusion, these results support the hypothesis that mechanisms underlying neuronal degeneration are triggered by protein misfolding rather than by protein aggregation

Local treatment with electrochemotherapy of superficial angiosarcomas: Efficacy and safety results from a multi-institutional retrospective study

Background: Angiosarcoma is an aggressive vascular neoplasm with a high propensity for local recurrence. Electrochemotherapy is an emerging skin-directed therapy, exerting prominent cytotoxic activity, and antivascular effects. Its efficacy in angiosarcoma has not been investigated. Methods: This multicenter retrospective analysis reviewed patients who underwent electrochemotherapy from 2007 to 2014 for superficial advanced angiosarcomas. Bleomycin was administered intravenously and delivered within tumors by means of percutaneously applied electric pulses, according to the European Standard Operating Procedures for Electrochemotherapy. Tumor assessment was performed using RECIST (version 1.1). Toxicity (CTCAE, v4.0) and local progression-free survival (LPFS) were also evaluated. Results: Nineteen patients (13 with locally advanced and 6 with metastatic angiosarcomas) were treated. Tumor sites were: scalp (n¼5), breast(n¼8), other skin sites (n¼3), and soft tissue (n¼3). Target lesions (n¼54) ranged in size from 1.5 to 2.5 cm (median, 2 cm). Treatment was well tolerated. After 2 months, an objective response was observed in 12/19 (63%) patients, complete in 8 (42%). One-year LPFS within treatment field was 68%. Local symptom improvement included palliation of bleeding (5/19 patients) and pain relief (6/19 patients). Conclusions: Electrochemotherapy may represent a new locoregional treatment for selected patients with superficial angiosarcomas