Combining multi-typologies landslide susceptibility maps: a case study for the Visso area (central Italy)

The research proposes a simple but geomorphologically adequate method to produce a combined landslide susceptibility map. In fact, in a logic of real use, offering type-specific landslide susceptibility maps to land use planners and administration could be not a successful solution. On the other hand, the simple grouping of more types of landslides could be misleading for model calibration considering that the relationships between slope failures and geo-environmental predictors should be conveyed by the abundance of each type of landslide resulting not specific and diagnostic for each typology. In this test, after having produced independent models for flow, slide and complex landslide by exploiting MARS (Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines) and a set of type-specific geo-environmental variables, a combined landslide susceptibility map was obtained by combining the scores of the three source maps. The combined map was finally validated with a new unknown archive, showing very good performances

Universit\ue0 degli studi di Macerata

Sono illustrati i servizi di orientamento, tutorato e job placement delle 4 Universit\ue0 delle March

An outbreak of cardiovascular syndromes requiring urgent medical treatment and its association with environmental factors: an ecological study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In April 2005, syndromic surveillance based on statistical control chart methods in Sydney, Australia, signalled increasing incidence of urgent emergency department visits for cardiovascular and chest pain syndromes compared to the preceding twelve months. This paper aimed to determine whether environmental factors could have been responsible for this 'outbreak'.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The outcome studied was daily counts of emergency department visits for cardiovascular or chest pain syndromes that were considered immediately or imminently life threatening on arrival at hospital. The outbreak had a mean daily count of 5.7 visits sustained for eight weeks, compared with 4.0 in the same months in previous years. Poisson regression was used to systematically assess the emergency department visits in relation to available daily weather and pollution variables by first finding the best model that explained short-term variation in the outcome over the period 25 January 2002 to 31 May 2005, and then assessing interactions of all available variables with the 'outbreak' period, April-May 2005. Rate ratios were estimated for an interquartile increase in each variable meaning that the ratio measures the relative increase (or decrease) in the emergency department visits for an interquartile increase in the weather or pollution variable. The rate ratios for the outbreak period measure the relative increase (or decrease) in the emergency department visits for an interquartile increase in the weather or pollution variable during the outbreak period only.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The best fitting model over the whole study period included minimum temperature with a rate ratio (RR) of 0.86 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.77–0.96), maximum relative humidity of 1.09 (95% CI 1.05–1.14) and minimum daily particulate matter less than 10 microns (PM₁₀) of 1.05 (95% CI, 1.01–1.09). During the outbreak period, maximum temperature (RR 1.27, 95% CI 1.03–1.57), solar radiation (RR 1.44, 95% CI, 1.00–2.07) and ozone (RR 1.13, 95% CI 1.01–1.26) were associated with the outcome.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The increase may have been associated with photochemical pollution. Syndromic surveillance can identify outbreaks of non-communicable diseases associated with environmental factors.</p

La pollicizzazione secondo Buck-Gramko nell'agenesia del pollice

La pollicizzazione secondo Buck-Gramko nell'agenesia del pollic

"A New Technique for Reconstructions of Large Metadiaphiseal Bone Defects"

Tumors involving the metadiaphyseal region around the knee are often treated by intraarticular resection (and reconstructed by prosthesis or osteoarticular allografts) even when the subchondral bone could be saved and an intercalary reconstruction applied. This is due to problems associated with the reconstruction of the subarticular diaphyseal bone defects by conventional methods. Intercalary allografts (as well as cortical autografts) have significant complication rates in terms of delayed union or graft fracture: these would be significantly increased in those patients in whom an adequate osteosynthesis for support is not feasible. The use of a vascularized fibula alone is contraindicated because it cannot provide sufficient stability for the epiphysis and is too weak to allow early weight bearing. The Ilizarov technique (bone transportation) is extremely time consuming and it may be at risk in patients under aggressive chemotherapy (pin tract infection, possible interference with callus formation). Furthermore, the thin subarticular segment requires an additional ring across the joint, causing knee stiffness. The authors describe a new surgical technique to manage this surgical problem. The basic idea consists to bridge the bone defect using a massive allograft as a peripheral shell supporting a centrally placed micro-vascular fibular autograft. This technique was introduced by the first author in 1988 and preliminary results first described by Capanna et al. in 1989 and in 199

The anterolateral thigh flap

The anterolateral thigh flap

Small catchments evolution on clayey hilly landscapes in Central Apennines and northern Sicily (Italy) since the Late Pleistocene

The study aims to define a possible evolutionary geomorphological model of small catchments (i.e., <40 km2) that characterise the clayey hilly landscape of Central Apennines and Northern Sicily piedmont for the late Pleistocene–Holocene (i.e., the last 20,000 years, from the last glacial stage to the Holocene climate amelioration). The study is based on an integrated approach incorporating (i) geomorphological surveys and mapping, (ii) dating of Quaternary continental deposits, and (iii) topographical and morphometrical processing. It combines the data collected from previous published investigations as well as new data, specifically related to the availability of geo-chronological markers, and helps outline a common evolutionary model. The selected small catchments are tributaries of major rivers in inland areas (small catchments of the inland hills of Tuscany, Marche, and Sicily) or flow directly to the coast (coastal small catchments in Abruzzo). For each area, the geomorphological features (clay dominated bedrock, erosional landforms and fluvial terraces, and erosional/depositional strath terraces) and the dating of Quaternary deposits (from <50kyr to 15kyr) were compared, reconstructing the morphometry of the probable late Pleistocene landscape configuration. The analysis of the results showed that, although currently characterised by different climatic and geo-structural conditions, the different basins underwent a common geomorphological evolution mostly since the late Pleistocene. During the last glacial stage, under cold climate rhexistasy conditions, the small catchments were dominated by low gradient erosional surfaces with the deposition of fluvial, colluvial, or slope deposits, resulting in the formation of uniform slopes and wide minor valleys. The Holocene climate warming, together with marine transgression and tectonic uplift, induced the incision and dissection of the erosional surfaces and the continental deposits via gravitational movements and rapid erosion processes up until the present-day landscape configuration. The control factors of this evolution are most likely linked to the climate changes at the beginning of the Holocene and the interplay with the changes in the local base level of the small catchments since the late Pleistocene, combining late Quaternary tectonic uplift, sea-level rise, and river/coastal incision

L'artrodesi a 4 angoli

L'artrodesi a 4 angoli