QuaRRi: a new methodology for rock-fall risk analysis and management in quarry exploitation

Rockfall is one of the most critical geological events that can affect quarrying activities. Nevertheless, few tools are currently available to help designers and managers correctly define the risk conditions and quantify the advantages, in terms of workers' safety and quarry management, that can be obtained using suitable prevention devices. For this reason it is necessary to evaluate the various parameters that are involved, and to define the most important and which have the greatest influence on rock-fall phenomena, taking into account the Prevention through Design approach. A risk evaluation systemwhich is able to support decision makers in the critical rockfall risk assessment phase, and offer decision makers the updated information that is necessary for a continuous and dynamic operation design during exploitation activities is here presented and discusse

Total thyroidectomy associated to chemotherapy in primary squamous cell carcinoma of the thyroid

Primary squamous cell carcinoma of the thyroid (PSCCT) is a rare malignant disease with rapid fatal prognosis. The onset is generally characterized by sudden bilateral latero-cervical lymphadenopathy. The Authors report patient of 58-year-old who referred for evaluation of rapidly aggravating bilateral latero-cervical lymphadenopathy. The US highlighted the presence of a hypoechoic nodular lesion characterized by peri and intra-nodular vascularization. Multilayer CT showed diffused involvement of mediastinal and bilateral latero-cervical lymph nodes, with no evidence of primary pulmonary neoplasia or elsewhere. The patient underwent total thyroidectomy. The peri-isthmic tissue was removed due to the presence of a small roundish formation, that was due to lymph node metastasis at histological examination. Histological diagnosis: PSCCT. The immunohistochemical panel of the thyroid lesion was indispensable for the differential diagnosis between PSCCT, medullary carcinoma, anaplastic carcinoma, and thyroid metastasis of neoplasia with unknown primitiveness. The patient underwent chemotherapeutic treatment with Carboplatin and Paclitaxel with modest improvement of dysphagia symptoms and reduction of 10-15% of the target lesions. The clinical course was characterized by loco-regional progression of the disease with exitus in 10 months after diagnosis. Survival and quality of life after surgical therapy and chemotherapy were like that of patients undergoing only chemotherapy. Due to the extreme rarity of the neoplasia, 60 cases described in Literature, no exclusive guidelines are reported for PSCCT. More extensive case studies are needed to evaluate the effects of total thyroidectomy with intent R0/R1 on improving survival and quality of life of patients with PSCCT

Well-Being Gender Budgets: italian local governments cases

This paper implements the methodological tools developed at regional and local governments level on gender budgets, using Sen and Nussbaum capability approach to design Well-Being Gender Budgets (WBGB). Following the methods first discussed in Addabbo, Lanzi and Picchio “On Sustainable Human Development: Gender Auditing in a Capability Approach” (2004), the framework used in this paper is an extended reproductive well-being macro approach that includes unpaid work, focuses on gender inequalities in well-being, and uses an analytical perspective which places the process of social reproduction of the population among the structural processes of the economic system and as a fundamental condition of its sustainability.The paper is divided into four sections. After the Introduction, in the first section the perspective and method of WBGB are presented. In the second, the recent experiences of WBGB adopted in Italy at provincial district and regional level are introduced and the Italian local governments institutional context is presented. In the third, a list of capabilities, based on the administrative structure of the local governments adopting the gender budget, is proposed. In fact, the structure of the different Departments (Health, Education, Transports, etc.) is seen as the result of an historical assumption of public responsibility towards specific dimensions of residents’ well-being, such as: being healthy, educated, mobile in the territory, carer of others, etc.. The context analysis is then designed to provide empirical information on a set of effective functionings that areused to assess gender inequalities in a specific well-being domain.In the fourth section, new tools (capabilities matrices) are introduced, drawn to help public policy actors to become aware of the implications of their choices on the multidimensional well-being of the women and men living in their territory. Moreover, some examples of budgeting monetary resources, taking into account well-being policy objectives are illustrated, with particular reference to the Piedmont Region and the Rome Provincial District.The results of different Italian local-government experiments in WBGB are proposed to share a different way of approaching the assessment of the gender impact of public policies and to open a discussion on their pros and cons. We think that their tools could become a key to policy integration and a basis for social participation in a public reasoning process on well-being, but they need to be discussed in a wider forum, and the possibility of their application to other countries and at different government levels also needs to be discussed

QuaRRi: a new methodology for rock-fall risk analysis and management in quarry exploitation

Rockfall is one of the most critical geological events that can affect quarrying activities. Nevertheless, few tools are currently available to help designers and managers correctly define the risk conditions and quantify the advantages, in terms of workers’ safety and quarry management, that can be obtained using suitable prevention devices. For this reason it is necessary to evaluate the various parameters that are involved, and to define the most important and which have the greatest influence on rock-fall phenomena, taking into account the Prevention through Design approach. A risk evaluation systemwhich is able to support decision makers in the critical rockfall risk assessment phase, and offer decision makers the updated information that is necessary for a continuous and dynamic operation design during exploitation activities is here presented and discussed