Application of Advanced Estimation Techniques to a Chemical Plant Model

The paper is aimed at comparing some of the most promising and novel advanced techniques for estimation by assessing their effectiveness on the chemical process benchmark. Global and distributed implementations of the extended Kalman filter are the key elements of the work. In addition, the paper is also aimed at describing and developing a recursive implementation of the autocovariance least square algorithm for the on-line updating of the tuning knobs of the filter, demonstrating its relevance in the performance monitoring of chemical processes

MUCOCELE IN PEDIATRIC PATIENTS: CASE SERIES ANALYSIS

The mucocele, a mucus accumulation from the salivary gland, represents a common lesion of the oral cavity. From 44 % to 79 % of mucoceles occur on the lower lip. There is no gender predilection and it can arise at any age. Mucoceles do not cause direct obstruction of salivary flow, and the amount of secretion that can be extravasated is limited by the elasticity of the surround tissues. In the period between January 2001 December 2010, 21 patients underwent to ulcer treatments at the Pediatric Surgery Unit, S Anna Hospital, Ferrara, Italy. Patients included 9 females and 12 males. Age ranged from 5 months to 13 years with a mean value of 7 years. All were located in the lower lip. Mucocele were treated with surgical excision, 13 under general anesthesia and the remaining under local anesthesia. Several techniques have been proposed: initial cryosurgical approach, CO2 laser, marsupialization and complete resection: this last is in most cases the best option

CONGENITAL MELANOCYTIC NEVI: A CASE SERIES

Nevi represent benign melanocytic neoplasms that have importance as facultative precursors and predictors of cutaneous melanoma. In daily clinical practice high nevus counts help to identify person at risk. In the period between January 2008 and December 2010, 141 patients underwent to nevi excision at the Pediatric Surgery Unit, S Anna Hospital, Ferrara, Italy. Patients included 64 (45.4%) females and 77 (54,6%) males. Age ranged from 1.5 to 18 years with a mean value of 12.4 years at the time of admission. 29, 46, 75 and 19 nevi where located in arms, legs, trunk and head and neck, respectively. 19, 121 and 29 nevi were junctional, compound and dermal nevi, respectively. Nevi were treated with surgical excision: 35 under general anesthesia, 4 under sedation and the remaining under local anesthesia. Melanocytic nevi during the past have been treated with several techniques such as cauterization with carbon dioxide, snow, a heated platinum loop and even by x-ray. Most of these treatments result unsatisfactory because these cause scars whereas leaving few intact melanocytes in the derma. Surgical excision is the method of choice. If the lesion has been injured or infected antibiotic treatment could facilitate healing

Quality in Emergency Department: a study on 3,285,440 admissions

Introduction. A multi-centre study has been conducted, during 2005, by means of a questionnaire posted on the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine (SIMEU) web page. Our intention was to carry out an organisational and functional analysis of Italian Emergency Departments (ED) in order to pick out some macroindicators of the activities performed. Participation was good, in that 69 ED (3,285,440 admissions to emergency services) responded to the questionnaire. Methods. The study was based on 18 questions: 3 regarding the personnel of the ED, 2 regarding organisational and functional aspects, 5 on the activity of the ED, 7 on triage and 1 on the assessment of the quality perceived by the users of the ED. Results and conclusion. The replies revealed that 91.30% of the ED were equipped with data-processing software, which, in 96.83% of cases, tracked the entire itinerary of the patient. About 48,000 patients/year used the ED: 76.72% were discharged and 18.31% were hospitalised. Observation Units were active in 81.16% of the ED examined. Triage programmes were in place in 92.75% of ED: in 75.81% of these, triage was performed throughout the entire itinerary of the patient; in 16.13% it was performed only symptombased, and in 8.06% only on-call. Of the patients arriving at the ED, 24.19% were assigned a non-urgent triage code, 60.01% a urgent code, 14.30% a emergent code and 1.49% a life-threatening code. Waiting times were: 52.39 min for non-urgent patients, 40.26 min for urgent, 12.08 for emergent, and 1.19 for life-threatening patients