2,025 research outputs found
Neapolitan volcanic area Tide Gauge Network (Southern Italy): Ground Displacements and Sea-Level Oscillations
Abstract. In this study, we investigate the oscillations of relative sea level through the analysis of tide gauge records about 10-year long collected in the Gulfs of Pozzuoli and Napoli (Southern Italy). The main goal of this study is to provide a suitable resolution model of the sea tides including low frequency (seiches), tidal bands and non-linear tides. The spectral analyses of the tide gauge records lead us to identify a number of seiche periods some of them already known from the literature and some other unknown. Furthermore, we target a non-conventional purpose of the tidal analysis, namely extracting from the tide gauge records the volcano-tectonic signal (vertical ground displacement) in the resurgent Campi Flegrei caldera. We suggest a method to filter out the volcano-tectonic signal (bradyseism) from the tide gauge records by deconvolving it from two records, one collected in the active volcanic area (Pozzuoli) and the other one collected in a tectonically stable station (Napoli), located beyond the caldera rim. Finally, we retrieve the relative mean sea level change in the Gulf of Naples and compare it with the trend found in five tide gauges spread along the Italian coast
The role of flower pollen extract in managing patients affected by chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome. a comprehensive analysis of all published clinical trials
Background: Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is still a challenge to manage for all physicians. We feel that a summary of the current literature and a systematic review to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of flower pollen extract would be helpful for physicians who are considering a phytotherapeutic approach to treating patients with CP/CPPS. Methods: A comprehensive search of the PubMed and Embase databases up to June 2016 was performed. This comprehensive analysis included both pre-clinical and clinical trials on the role of flower pollen extract in CP/CPPS patients. Moreover, a meta-analysis of available randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was performed. The NIH Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index (NIH-CPSI) and Quality of Life related questionnaires (QoL) were the most commonly used tools to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of pollen extract. Results: Pre-clinical studies demonstrated the anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative role of pollen extract. 6 clinical, non-controlled studies including 206 patients, and 4 RCTs including 384 patients were conducted. The mean response rate in non-controlled studies was 83.6% (62.2%-96.0%). The meta-analysis revealed that flower pollen extract could significantly improve patients’ quality of life [OR 0.52 (0.34-.0.81); p = 0.02]. No significant adverse events were reported. Conclusion: Most of these studies presented encouraging results in terms of variations in NIH-CPSI and QoL scores. These studies suggest that the use of flower pollen extract for the management of CP/CPPS patients is beneficial. Future publications of robust evidence from additional RCTs and longer-term follow-up would provide more support encouraging the use of flower pollen extracts for CP/CPPS patients
DEFORMAZIONI DEL SUOLO MEDIANTE ANALISI DEI DATI MAREOGRAFICI NELL’AREA VULCANICA NAPOLETANA NEL PERIODO 1999-2006
Osservatorio Vesuviano, department of Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, is in charge of the surveillance monitoring of the Campanian volcanic areas, to promptly recognize any variation of the physical-chemical parameters helpful as precursors of eruption. The ground deformations in the Vesuvius and Phlegrean area are monitored by means of classical technique (like optical leveling and tiltmetry) and satellite technique (like global positioning system). Moreover, due to the vicinity of a coastline for both the volcanic system, the ground deformations are also monitored by the continuous recording of the sea level, using suitable tide gauge stations. Tide gauge data are also used to analyze the local characteristics of the sea wave even in presence of extreme phenomena.
The Vesuvius Observatory tide gauge network, used in this paper, is operating since 1970 and reached, in the eighties, the consistency of 6 stations, Napoli, Nisida, Pozzuoli, Miseno,Castellamare di Stabia and Torre del Greco. Data since 1999 are retrieved and a database have been organized, corrected and validated up today, spanning over 8 years, using were necessary statistical gap filling technique. Data have been analyzed in the frequency domain and the local astronomical components have been defined by harmonic analysis, inferring amplitude and phase for the main diurnal and semi-diurnal components The obtained residual respect to the astronomical tide contains information about meteorological component, eustatic variation, ground deformation and noise.
The residual sea level variation, for each site, can be represented by two terms: sea level background and local sea level variations due to noise, site effects and ground deformation. Removing, by deconvolution, the differential behavior of the sea-level respect to a reference station, provide an estimation of the ground level variation. This analysis shows no significant level variation at Vesuvius, while in the Campi Flegrei caldera, tide gauge data, put in evidence the presence of the so-called mini-uplift during last 7 years
Prognostic impact of systemic inflammatory diseases in elderly patients with congestive heart failure
Background and aims: Inflammation is part of the pathophysiology of congestive heart failure (CHF). However, little is known about the impact of the presence of systemic inflammatory disease (SID), defined as inflammatory syndrome with constitutional symptoms and involvement of at least two organs as co-morbidity on the clinical course and prognosis of patients with CHF. Methods and results: This is an analysis of all 622 patients included in TIME-CHF. After an 18 months follow-up, outcomes of patients with and without SID were compared. Primary endpoint was all-cause hospitalization free survival. Secondary endpoints were overall survival and CHF hospitalization free survival. At baseline, 38 patients had history of SID (6.1%). These patients had higher N-terminal pro brain natriuretic peptide and worse renal function than patients without SID. SID was a risk factor for adverse outcome [primary endpoint: hazard ratio (HR) = 1.73 (95% confidence interval: 1.18-2.55, P = 0.005); survival: HR = 2.60 (1.49-4.55, P = 0.001); CHF hospitalization free survival: HR = 2.3 (1.45-3.65, P < 0.001)]. In multivariate models, SID remained the strongest independent risk factor for survival and CHF hospitalization free survival. Conclusions: In elderly patients with CHF, SID is independently accompanied with adverse outcome. Given the increasing prevalence of SID in the elderly population, these findings are clinically important for both risk stratification and patient managemen
Clustering analysis for muon tomography data elaboration in the Muon Portal project
Clustering analysis is one of multivariate data analysis techniques which allows to gather statistical data units into groups, in order to minimize the logical distance within each group and to maximize the one between different groups. In these proceedings, the authors present a novel approach to the muontomography data analysis based on clustering algorithms. As a case study we present the Muon Portal project that aims to build and operate a dedicated particle detector for the inspection of harbor containers to hinder the smuggling of nuclear materials. Clustering techniques, working directly on scattering points, help to detect the presence of suspicious items inside the container, acting, as it will be shown, as a filter for a preliminary analysis of the data
Transverse Fresnel-Fizeau drag effects in strongly dispersive media
A light beam normally incident upon an uniformly moving dielectric medium is
in general subject to bendings due to a transverse Fresnel-Fizeau light drag
effect. In conventional dielectrics, the magnitude of this bending effect is
very small and hard to detect. Yet, it can be dramatically enhanced in strongly
dispersive media where slow group velocities in the m/s range have been
recently observed taking advantage of the electromagnetically induced
transparency (EIT) effect. In addition to the usual downstream drag that takes
place for positive group velocities, we predict a significant anomalous
upstream drag to occur for small and negative group velocities. Furthermore,
for sufficiently fast speeds of the medium, higher order dispersion terms are
found to play an important role and to be responsible for peculiar effects such
as light propagation along curved paths and the restoration of the spatial
coherence of an incident noisy beam. The physics underlying this new class of
slow-light effects is thoroughly discussed
Radiative corrections to the excitonic molecule state in GaAs microcavities
The optical properties of excitonic molecules (XXs) in GaAs-based quantum
well microcavities (MCs) are studied, both theoretically and experimentally. We
show that the radiative corrections to the XX state, the Lamb shift
and radiative width , are
large, about of the molecule binding energy , and
definitely cannot be neglected. The optics of excitonic molecules is dominated
by the in-plane resonant dissociation of the molecules into outgoing
1-mode and 0-mode cavity polaritons. The later decay channel,
``excitonic molecule 0-mode polariton + 0-mode
polariton'', deals with the short-wavelength MC polaritons invisible in
standard optical experiments, i.e., refers to ``hidden'' optics of
microcavities. By using transient four-wave mixing and pump-probe
spectroscopies, we infer that the radiative width, associated with excitonic
molecules of the binding energy meV, is
meV in the microcavities and
meV in a reference GaAs single quantum
well (QW). We show that for our high-quality quasi-two-dimensional
nanostructures the limit, relevant to the XX states, holds at
temperatures below 10 K, and that the bipolariton model of excitonic molecules
explains quantitatively and self-consistently the measured XX radiative widths.
We also find and characterize two critical points in the dependence of the
radiative corrections against the microcavity detuning, and propose to use the
critical points for high-precision measurements of the molecule bindingenergy
and microcavity Rabi splitting.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
The Zoning of Semi-Enclosed Bodies of Water According to the Sediment Pollution: The Bay of Algeciras as a Case Example
This paper reports a study of the occurrence and
levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in a bay
characterised by a chronic persistent impact. A total of 55
sediment samples were taken at different depths up to
111 m in two sampling campaigns. Chemical analyses were
carried out by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. The
results indicate that: (1) significant spatial variations exist,
(2) levels of PAHs are related more strongly to the spatial
distribution of sediments than to mineralogy/granulometry,
(3) the sediments are slightly-to-moderately contaminated
by PAHs, and (4) these PAHs derive from pyrolytic and
petrogenic sources. Through use of an innovative data
classification system (proposed according to depth and
spatial location of sampling points), and using factorial and
cluster techniques, five zones have been differentiated
depending on the contamination level and source
Spatial Kramers-Kronig relations and the reflection of waves
Copyright © 2015, Rights Managed by Nature Publishing GroupAuthor version of article. The version of record is available from the publisher via DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2015.106When a planar dielectric medium has a permittivity profile that is an analytic function in the upper or lower half of the complex position plane x=x'+ix'' then the real and imaginary parts of its permittivity are related by the spatial Kramers-Kronig relations. We find that such a medium will not reflect radiation incident from one side, whatever the angle of incidence. Using the spatial Kramers-Kronig relations, one can derive a real part of a permittivity profile from some given imaginary part (or vice versa) such that the reflection is guaranteed to be zero. This result is valid for both scalar and vector wave theories and may have relevance for designing materials that efficiently absorb radiation or for the creation of a new type of anti-reflection surface.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC
Allelic HLA Matching and Pair Origin Are Favorable Prognostic Factors for Unrelated Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Neoplastic Hematologic Diseases: An Italian Analysis by the Gruppo Italiano Trapianto di Cellule Staminali e Terapie Cellulari, Italian Bone Marrow Donor Registry, and Associazione Italiana di Immunogenetica e Biologia dei Trapianti
HLA molecules are important for immunoreactivity in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The Gruppo Italiano Trapianto di Cellule Staminali e Terapie Cellulari, Italian Bone Marrow Donor Registry, and Associazione Italiana di Immunogenetica e Biologia dei Trapianti promoted a retrospective observational study to evaluate HLA matching and the impact of allelic HLA mismatching and non-HLA factors on unrelated Italian HSCT outcomes. From 2012 to 2015, 1788 patients were enrolled in the study. The average donor age was 29 years and the average recipient age was 49 years. As a conditioning regimen, 71% of the patients received myeloablative conditioning. For GVHD prophylaxis, 76% received either antithymocyte or anti-T lymphocyte globulin, cyclosporine A, and methotrexate. Peripheral blood was the stem cell source in 80%. The median duration of follow-up was 53 months. Regarding HLA matching, 50% of donor-recipient pairs were 10/10 matched, 38% had 1 mismatch, and 12% had 2 or more mismatches. A total of 302 pairs shared Italian origin. Four-year overall survival (OS), progression-free survival, GVHD-free relapse-free survival, and relapse rates were 49%, 40%, 22%, and 34%, respectively. The 4-year NRM was 27%, and the 100-day cumulative incidence of grade 65II acute GVHD (aGVHD) was 26%. In multivariate analysis, 9/10 and 648/10 HLA allele-matched pairs were associated with worse OS (P = .04 and .007, respectively), NRM (P = .007 and P < .0001, respectively), and grade III-IV aGVHD (P = .0001 and .01, respectively). Moreover, the incidences of grade II-IV aGVHD (P = .001) and chronic GVHD (P = .002) were significantly lower in Italian pairs. In conclusion, 10/10 HLA matching is a favorable prognostic factor for unrelated HSCT outcome in the Italian population. Moreover, the presence of 2 HLA-mismatched loci was associated with a higher NRM (P < .0001) and grade II-IV aGVHD (P = .006) and a poorer OS (P = .001) compared with 1 HLA-mismatched locus in early or intermediate disease phases. Finally, we found that Italian donor and recipient origin is a favorable prognostic factor for GVHD occurrence
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