Twenty Years of Random Forest: preliminary results of a systematic literature review

The Random Forest (RF) model consists of an ensemble classifier that produces many decision trees through the use of a randomly selected subset of samples and training variables. The RF model has assumed importance within the scientific community thanks to its performance. The accuracy of its classifications and prediction has allowed the use of RF in several research domains, which have benefited from it. The present study aims to provide a preliminary review of the whole sci- entific production characterized by all the publications citing the article ”Random Forest” by Breiman, 2001, in the last 20 years (2001-2021)

Chapter Measuring the impact of healthcare indicators on academic medical centers’ scientific production

The Italian public-owned Academic Medical Centers (AMCs) are hospitals where the activities of scientific research, teaching, and patients care are fully integrated. AMCs have an enormous impact on society and country health. Recently, policymakers and practitioners give more and more great importance to the AMCs’ scientific activity for both welfare and national competitivity. The scientific production and its impact on the research community could be obviously affected by different factors related to the structural and operational characteristics of each AMC. Healthcare institutions could be different for the typology of services that they offer, their geolocation, the presence/absence of Emergency Departments, the number of employees, and so forth. In this sense, our study aims to investigate and determine which are the possible factors impacting the research productivity of AMCs. We develop a model to assess the academic value of AMCs by taking into account these factors and how they are related to healthcare performance, measured in terms of scientific production (e.g. scientific publications) and impact on the research field (e.g. citations). To face this issue, for each of the public AMCs we collect data about research productivity from bibliographic indexing databases (e.g. Web of Science, PubMed) and we retrieve structural information mainly from their official websites. This work has been partially financed by the research project “Leading Change in Academic Medical Centers”, funded by the competitive call for projects V:ALERE 2019. The project aims to provide evidence, advice, and remarks to help the agents of the public health system to address the many challenges that they face

Burning Mouth Syndrome and Hypertension: Prevalence, Gender Differences and Association with Pain and Psycho-Social Characteristics—A Case Control Study

Background: To assess the prevalence of hypertension (HTN) in burning mouth syndrome (BMS) patients and to investigate its relationship with sociodemographic factors, pain and the psychological profile. Methods: A case-control study was conducted by enrolling 242 BMS patients and 242 controls matched for age and gender. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were recorded, and all participants completed numeric rating scale (NRS), the short-form of the McGill pain questionnaire (SF-MPQ), the Hamilton rating scale for anxiety and depression (HAM-A, HAM-D), the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and the Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS). Results: The BMS patients presented with a statistically significant higher prevalence of HTN compared to that in the controls (55% versus 33.5%; p-value: <0.001) and higher median scores of the NRS, SF-MPQ, HAM-A, HAM-D, PSQI and ESS (p < 0.001). Multivariate regression analysis in the BMS patients indicated positive correlations between HTN and age, systemic diseases, drug consumption and anxiety (p-value: <0.001) and these predictors were responsible for 11.3% of the HTN variance in the BMS patients, when considered together. Conclusions: The prevalence of HTN was significantly higher in the BMS patients, since ageing, the presence of comorbidities, drug consumption and anxiety were potential predictors. Further studies are needed to better investigate the relationship between BMS and HTN

Chapter Thematic atlas of Italian oncological research: the analysis of public IRCCS

This paper has been developed in the frame of the research project “V:ALERE 2019” focused on Italian public-owned Academic Medical Centers. The main aim of the project is to provide evidence, advice, and remarks to help the agents of the public health system to address the many challenges that they face. In recent years, there is an increasing recognition of the potential value of research evidence as one of the many factors considered by policymakers and practitioners. Even more, in the case of medical science, the analysis of research and its impact is indispensable, in light of its implications for public health. The starting point for mapping a research area is to review the related scientific literature because by synthesizing past research findings, it is possible to effectively use the existing knowledge base and advance lines of future researches. In this sense, bibliometrics becomes useful, by providing a structured analysis to a large body of information, to infer trends over time, themes researched, and to show the “big picture” of extant research. In particular, in this work, we focus our attention on the scientific production of the last 20 years of the Scientific Institutes for Research, Hospitalization, and Healthcare (IRCCS “Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico”) specialized in the oncology research. IRCCS are biomedical institutions of relevant national interest that drive clinical assistance in strong relation to research activities. They are committed to being a benchmark for the whole public health system for both the quality of patient care and the innovation skills in the field of the organization. All the analyses were carried out by using the Bibliometrix, an open-source tool for quantitative research in scientometrics and bibliometrics that includes all the main bibliometric methods of analysis

Naples and tourism sustainability: A survey of citizens’ perceptions

Tourism development can significantly affect local communities, including their economic, social, cultural, environmental, and political aspects. This study examines residents' perceptions of tourism development in Naples, Italy, across ten municipalities. Using a questionnaire, we investigate how residents perceive tourism's impact on economic, environmental, cultural, social, and political factors. Our findings offer insights for developers and policymakers to address any negative impacts of tourism development on local communities

A Derivative Free Non-Linear Programming Method for the Optimal Setting of PATs to Be Used in a Hybrid Genetic Algorithm: A Preliminary Work

In recent years, recovering energy while managing excessive pressure in water distribution networks (WDNs) has gradually taken hold through the use of Pumps as Turbines (PATs). Therefore, algorithms commonly used for the optimizations of WDNs require modifications to incorporate these devices. Within this study, an intermediate step toward a new Hybrid Genetic Algorithm (HGA) for the optimal placement and setting of PATs within WDNs is proposed. The described methodology is based on a non‐linear optimization algorithm, the Powell Direction Set (PDS) method. For each WDN configuration with PATs, a non‐linear univariate function, namely the energy production subjected to pressure and technical constraints, is maximized by the PDS method. The promising capabilities of the algorithm are demonstrated with a case study

The Effect of Geological Heterogeneity and Groundwater Table Depth on the Hydraulic Performance of Stormwater Infiltration Facilities

Urbanization has led to a substantial change in the hydrological cycle of urban catchments. Increased runoff and urban flooding, decreased direct subsurface infiltration and groundwater recharge, deterioration of water quality are among the major effects of this alteration. To alleviate these effects, Low Impact Development (LID) practices have been frequently adopted for stormwater management. Among LID infrastructures, infiltration facilities are particularly challenging to design and model due to the considerable amount of uncertainties related to the hydrogeological configuration of installation sites. To date, analysis on how soil heterogeneity, groundwater table depth, and thickness of the unsaturated zone affect the hydraulic performance of infiltration facilities are lacking. To address this knowledge gap, a series of numerical experiments under transient variably water saturated conditions were performed for a hypothetical infiltration facility. Numerical simulations showed that i) infiltration rates increase considerably as the initial depth of the groundwater table increases, ii) the contribution of the bottom of the facility to the infiltration of water is generally higher than the sides, iii) the presence of a less conducting soil layer at a short depth from the bottom of the facility reduces infiltration rates dramatically, iv) the complete clogging of the bottom of the facility has a dramatic impact on the hydraulic performance, v) the stochastic heterogeneity of the soil controls the overall stormwater infiltration process through the facility, and the hydraulic performance may largely deviate from the case when heterogeneity is absent