Acquiring, archiving, analyzing and exchanging seismic data in real time at the Seismological Research Center of the OGS in Italy

After the 1976 Friuli earthquake (Ms = 6.5) in north-eastern Italy that caused about 1,000 casualties and widespread destruction in the Friuli area, the Italian government established the Centro di Ricerche Sismologiche (CRS). This is now a department of the Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS), and it is specifically devoted to the monitoring of the seismicity of north-eastern Italy. Since its inception, the North-East Italy Seismic Network has grown enormously. Currently, it consists of 14 broad-band and 20 short-period seismic stations, all of which are telemetered to and acquired in real time at the OGS-CRS data center in Udine. Data exchange agreements in place with other Italian, Slovenian, Austrian and Swiss seismological institutes lead to a total number of 94 seismic stations acquired in real time, which confirms that the OGS is the reference institute for seismic monitoring of north-eastern Italy. Since 2002, CRS has been using the Antelope software suite as the main tool for collecting, analyzing, archiving and exchanging seismic data. SeisComP is also used as a real-time data exchange server tool. A customized web accessible server is used to manually relocate earthquakes, and automatic procedures have been set-up for moment-tensor determination, shaking-map computation, web publishing of earthquake parametric data, waveform drumplots, state-of-health parameters, and quality checks of the station by spectra analysis. Scripts for email/SMS/fax alerting to public institutions have also been customized. Recently, a real-time seismology website was designed and set-up (http://rts.crs.inogs.it/)

An augmented seismic network to study off-shore seismicity around the Maltese Islands : the FASTMIT experiment

Appropriate planning and deployment of a seismic network is a prerequisite to efficiently monitor seismic activity, determine the seismic source, and eventually contribute to the seismotectonic interpretation and seismic hazard assessment. The evaluation and effectiveness of a local network on the Maltese islands, recently extended by a further six seismic stations for one year, is presented. We investigate the new temporary network's data and site selection quality, utilizing spectral patterns in the seismic data and also evaluate the network's event location performance by relocating a number of recorded events. The results will be signifi cant for the future installation of permanent seismic stations on the Maltese islands.peer-reviewe

International nosocomial infection control consortium (INICC) report, data summary of 36 countries, for 2004-2009

The results of a surveillance study conducted by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) from January 2004 through December 2009 in 422 intensive care units (ICUs) of 36 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe are reported. During the 6-year study period, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN; formerly the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance system [NNIS]) definitions for device-associated health care-associated infections, we gathered prospective data from 313,008 patients hospitalized in the consortium's ICUs for an aggregate of 2,194,897 ICU bed-days. Despite the fact that the use of devices in the developing countries' ICUs was remarkably similar to that reported in US ICUs in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were significantly higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals; the pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infection in the INICC ICUs of 6.8 per 1,000 central line-days was more than 3-fold higher than the 2.0 per 1,000 central line-days reported in comparable US ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia also was far higher (15.8 vs 3.3 per 1,000 ventilator-days), as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (6.3 vs. 3.3 per 1,000 catheter-days). Notably, the frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates to imipenem (47.2% vs 23.0%), Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (76.3% vs 27.1%), Escherichia coli isolates to ceftazidime (66.7% vs 8.1%), Staphylococcus aureus isolates to methicillin (84.4% vs 56.8%), were also higher in the consortium's ICUs, and the crude unadjusted excess mortalities of device-related infections ranged from 7.3% (for catheter-associated urinary tract infection) to 15.2% (for ventilator-associated pneumonia). Copyright © 2012 by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

The Antarctic Seismographic Argentinean Italian Network (ASAIN): Recording Earthquakes in the Scotia Sea Region

The Antarctic Seismographic Argentinean Italian Network (ASAIN) is a permanent broadband seismic network that has operated since 1995 in the Scotia Sea region, the Antarctic peninsula, and the polar area. It was deployed and is managed in the framework of cooperation between the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics and Dirección Nacional del Antártico–Instituto Antártico Argentino and is financially supported by the Programma Nazionale di Ricerca in Antartide. The network consists of seven seismological stations with broadband sensors. ASAIN provides data to Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology, Observatories and Research Facilities for European Seismology, and GEOFOrschungsNetz. It improves the worldwide seismic networks’ detection capabilities and contributes to refining regional earthquake locations released by the U.S. Geological Survey. The proximity of the seismic stations to the Antarctic continent and their continuous operation in the long term also allows for having a privileged observatory on the ice‐related seismicity along the Antarctica peninsula.In this article, we discuss the historical development of ASAIN, its current configuration, and the main characteristics of the seismic stations. Finally, we also provide information on the ASAIN data exchange and the contribution to the scientific research in Antarctica

The OGS–Northeastern Italy Seismic and Deformation Network: Current Status and Outlook

In this article, we describe the infrastructure developed and managed by the ItalianNational Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics – OGS for the seismologicaland geodetic monitoring of northeastern Italy. The infrastructure was constituted inresponse to the ML 6.4 Friuli destructive earthquake of 1976, with the main mandateof supporting civil protection emergency activities.The OGS monitoring infrastructure is presently composed of a seismometric and astrong-motion network, complemented by a number of Global Navigation SatelliteSystems stations, each delivering observational data in real time, which are collectedand processed by the headquarters of the Center for Seismological Research of OGS inUdine. The OGS networks operate in close cooperation with Italian and internationalnetworks from neighboring countries, within the framework of the agreements forreal-time data exchange, to obtain improved rapid earthquake location and magnitudeestimations. Information regarding seismic events is released to the public through adedicated web portal and, since 2013, through social media.Aside from the standard monitoring activities ( > 30;000 events have been recordedsince 1976), the OGS has progressively increased the number of services to the publicand to the Civil Protection of the Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto regions. The highavailability of good quality data has resulted in the enhancement of scientific products,including advanced seismological studies of the area, spanning broadly from seismicsource characterization to engineering seismology.In the future, the OGS networks are expected to further contribute to the developmentof seismological research and monitoring infrastructures of the Central European region

Impact of International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) strategy on central line-associated bloodstream infection rates in the intensive care units of 15 developing countries

BACKGROUND. The International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) was established in 15 developing countries to reduce infection rates in resource-limited hospitals by focusing on education and feedback of outcome surveillance (infection rates) and process surveillance (adherence to infection control measures). We report a time-sequence analysis of the effectiveness of this approach in reducing rates of central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) and associated deaths in 86 intensive care units with a minimum of 6-month INICC membership. METHODS. Pooled CLABSI rates during the first 3 months (baseline) were compared with rates at 6-month intervals during the first 24 months in 53,719 patients (190,905 central line-days). Process surveillance results at baseline were compared with intervention period data. RESULTS. During the first 6 months, CLABSI incidence decreased by 33% (from 14.5 to 9.7 CLABSIs per 1,000 central line-days). Over the first 24 months there was a cumulative reduction from baseline of 54% (from 16.0 to 7.4 CLABSIs per 1,000 central line-days; relative risk, 0.46 [95% confidence interval, 0.33-0.63]; P < .001). The number of deaths in patients with CLABSI decreased by 58%. During the intervention period, hand hygiene adherence improved from 50% to 60% (P < .001); the percentage of intensive care units that used maximal sterile barriers at insertion increased from 45% to 85% (P < .001 ), that adopted chlorhexidine for antisepsis increased from 7% to 27% (P=.018 ), and that sought to remove unneeded catheters increased from 37% to 83% (P=.004); and the duration of central line placement decreased from 4.1 to 3.5 days (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS. Education, performance feedback, and outcome and process surveillance of CLABSI rates significantly improved infection control adherence, reducing the CLABSI incidence by 54% and the number of CLABSI-associated deaths by 58% in INICC hospitals during the first 2 years. © 2010 by The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. All rights reserved