A management model for Hospital Hygiene Unit: evidence-based pro-active surveillance of potential environmental sources of infection in order to prevent patient’s risk.

Introduction. The aim of this study is to describe a proactive surveillance system of food, water and environmental surfaces, in order to avoid Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) from hospital environment. Methods. It is a retrospective descriptive study. The surveillance system consists of two integrated phases: pre-analytic and post-analytic. The activities are distinguished in ordinary control activities, performed after scheduled and shared surveys, and compliance activities, performed when it is necessary to establish the adequacy of the destination use, for example opening a new ward. Results. A total of 1,470 Samples were collected and 539 Reports were generated across the five-year study period. Water for human consumption procedure: a statistically significant trend was found only in the total number of Samples collected (p < 0.001). Legionella spp. infection water risk procedure: all Samples and Reports, with the exception of Compliance Report Samples, showed a statistically significant trend (p < 0.001). Pseudomonas aeruginosa water risk procedure: only Ordinary Reports and Compliance Report Samples trend were statistically significant (p = 0.002 and p = 0.028 respectively). Effectiveness of surface sanitization procedure: no trend was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Hospital catering and food surfaces procedure: Samples and Reports yearly number was constant, no trend analysis was performed. HAIs prevalence was never over 5% in the hospital under study. Conclusions. This surveillance system of water, food and environmental surfaces represents an innovative way of approaching hospital safety for patients and personnel because it overcomes the limitations due to a classic approach limited to a laboratory analytic phase only, according to the best available scientific evidence

Sustainability from farm to fork : education and the social construction of the environment in an agro-food park - the case of F.I.CO

Alternative food systems are emerging as a response to globalisation and industrialisation. With environmental destruction increasingly becoming an issue alongside with the growing concern about traditional food systems, unconventional trends in food sector have risen steeply in the past decades. Their birth has also been accompanied by the broadened target of environmental education, seeking to exit the formal classrooms and to embrace society with its various contexts. In the will to provide a creative answer to the unsustainability in food production and consumption, these emerging trends engage in representations and movements that generate problems of environmental justice and sustainability. This study investigates the problematization of environmental aspects within F.I.CO, a newly born agro-food park in Bologna. By linking environmental degradation with society‟s detachment from food production and nature, F.I.CO mimics the new trends and also claims to be an innovative platform that brings together producers and consumers around environmental education and sustainable practices. In this attempt, F.I.CO reconstructs the whole agro-food chain under one roof and makes it visible and experienceable for its visitors. Attention is thus drawn within F.I.CO on the lack of transparency within the current food system, which F.I.CO seeks to change through bright glass windows on the production chain and through education. Changing consumers‟ behaviour in favour of a growingly aware society is thus presented as a solution to the unsustainable features of the current scenario. However, this study shows how, in representing the problem in the way it does, F.I.CO is articulating environmental friendliness through food consumption. The emphasis is in fact on consumers, who are made responsible for the issue. This is reflected in the rise of the responsible consumer as a subject position. Hence, this study concludes that in perpetuating the knowledges of green governmentality, F.I.CO is dropping the responsibility of an ethical food sector on individuals‟ shoulders. Buying in F.I.CO thus is presented to the visitors as the way to become part of the solution

Atomic diffraction from single-photon transitions in gravity and Standard-Model extensions

Single-photon transitions are one of the key technologies for designing and operating very-long-baseline atom interferometers tailored for terrestrial gravitational-wave and dark-matter detection. Since such setups aim at the detection of relativistic and beyond-Standard-Model physics, the analysis of interferometric phases as well as of atomic diffraction must be performed to this precision and including these effects. In contrast, most treatments focused on idealized diffraction so far. Here, we study single-photon transitions, both magnetically induced and direct ones, in gravity and Standard-Model extensions modeling dark matter as well as Einstein-equivalence-principle violations. We take into account relativistic effects like the coupling of internal to center-of-mass degrees of freedom, induced by the mass defect, as well as the gravitational redshift of the diffracting light pulse. To this end, we also include chirping of the light pulse required by terrestrial setups, as well as its associated modified momentum transfer for single-photon transitions

Optimal baseline exploitation in vertical dark-matter detectors based on atom interferometry

Several terrestrial detectors for gravitational waves and dark matter based on long-baseline atom interferometry are currently in the final planning stages or already under construction. These upcoming vertical sensors are inherently subject to gravity and thus feature gradiometer or multi-gradiometer configurations using single-photon transitions for large momentum transfer. While there has been significant progress on optimizing these experiments against detrimental noise sources and for deployment at their projected sites, finding optimal configurations that make the best use of the available resources are still an open issue. Even more, the fundamental limit of the device's sensitivity is still missing. Here we fill this gap and show that (a) resonant-mode detectors based on multi-diamond fountain gradiometers achieve the optimal, shot-noise limited, sensitivity if their height constitutes 20% of the available baseline; (b) this limit is independent of the dark-matter oscillation frequency; and (c) doubling the baseline decreases the ultimate measurement uncertainty by approximately 65%.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Atomic diffraction from single-photon transitions in gravity and Standard-Model extensions

Single-photon transitions are one of the key technologies for designing and operating very-long-baseline atom interferometers tailored for terrestrial gravitational-wave and dark-matter detection. Since such setups aim at the detection of relativistic and beyond-Standard-Model physics, the analysis of interferometric phases as well as of atomic diffraction must be performed to this precision and including these effects. In contrast, most treatments focused on idealized diffraction so far. Here, we study single-photon transitions, both magnetically-induced and direct ones, in gravity and Standard-Model extensions modeling dark matter as well as Einstein-equivalence-principle violations. We take into account relativistic effects like the coupling of internal to center-of-mass degrees of freedom, induced by the mass defect, as well as the gravitational redshift of the diffracting light pulse. To this end, we also include chirping of the light pulse required by terrestrial setups, as well as its associated modified momentum transfer for single-photon transitions.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables; This preprint has been submitted to AVS Quantum Scienc

Universality-of-Clock-Rates Test using Atom Interferometry with T3T^{3} Scaling

We propose a competitive quantum test of the universality of clock rates that depends on the proper time of a freely-falling particle, scaling cubic with the laboratory time. In contrast to current tests with fountain clocks, our proposed atom-interferometric scheme can be made robust against initial conditions and recoil effects, making optical frequencies accessible even for long interferometer durations. We study the influence of parasitic effects and discuss implementations with strontium isotopes that may even outperform current tests with fountain clocks.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Proper time in atom interferometers: Diffractive versus specular mirrors

We compare a conventional Mach-Zehnder light-pulse atom interferometer based on diffractive mirrors with one that uses specular reflection. In contrast to diffractive mirrors that generate a symmetric configuration, specular mirrors realized, for example, by evanescent fields lead under the influence of gravity to an asymmetric geometry. In such an arrangement the interferometer phase contains nonrelativistic signatures of proper time.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl

Interference of Clocks: A Quantum Twin Paradox

The phase of matter waves depends on proper time and is therefore susceptible to special-relativistic (kinematic) and gravitational time dilation (redshift). Hence, it is conceivable that atom interferometers measure general-relativistic time-dilation effects. In contrast to this intuition, we show that light-pulse interferometers without internal transitions are not sensitive to gravitational time dilation, whereas they can constitute a quantum version of the special-relativistic twin paradox. We propose an interferometer geometry isolating the effect that can be used for quantum-clock interferometry.Comment: 9 Pages, 2 Figure

Atom-interferometric test of the universality of gravitational redshift and free fall

Light-pulse atom interferometers constitute powerful quantum sensors for inertial forces. They are based on delocalised spatial superpositions and the combination with internal transitions directly links them to atomic clocks. Since classical tests of the gravitational redshift are based on a comparison of two clocks localised at different positions under gravity, it is promising to explore whether the aforementioned interferometers constitute a competitive alternative for tests of general relativity. Here we present a specific geometry which together with state transitions leads to a scheme that is concurrently sensitive to both violations of the universality of free fall and gravitational redshift, two premises of general relativity. The proposed interferometer does not rely on a superposition of internal states, but merely on transitions between them, and therefore generalises the concept of physical atomic clocks and quantum-clock interferometry. An experimental realisation seems feasible with already demonstrated techniques in state-of-the-art facilities.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Metabolic Disorders in Elderly Patients with Hematologic Malignancies. A Review

Over recent decades, due to the gradual rise in life expectancy and the consequent aging of the population, the incidence of some hematological malignancies most common in the elderly is expected to increase. In elderly cancer patients, the older age is an adverse prognostic factor because of specific age-related conditions, such as changes in cellular biology and reduced functional reserve in multiple organ systems, as well as in consequence of comorbidities. Some age-related pathological conditions, such as diabetes mellitus, renal failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular dysfunction, liver disease and other disorders may predispose the elderlies to develop metabolic abnormalities. In the elderly, the occurrence of hematological malignancies can cause some metabolic disorders or worsen pre-existing dysmetabolic conditions that increase the outcomes of these patients. Hyperuricemia is the most common metabolic abnormality; hyperuricemia less commonly may be associated with hyperkalemia, hyperphosphatemia and hypocalcemia, in the framework of oncologic emergency that is the Tumor lysis syndrome. Hypercalcemia is relatively common in patients with multiple myeloma and adult T-cell Lymphoma. Cases of Syndrome of inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone (SIADH) in patients with hematological malignancies have also been reported. Idiopathic hyperammonemia may occur in oncohematological patients after receiving intensive chemotherapy or following bone marrow transplantation. Moreover, there is evidence that patients with lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma can develop Type B lactic acidosis. Non–islet cell tumor hypoglycemia and Hyperglycemia are other potential metabolic abnormalities occurring in patients with hematological malignancies. The pathogenesis of these metabolic disorders is often unclear and several theories have been postulated; possible mechanisms include: increase in neoplastic cell turnover and apoptosis, blast crisis, cytotoxic effects of chemotherapy, tumor secretion of hormones, peptides or cytokines, immune cross-reactivity between malignant and normal tissues, malignancy-induced enzyme dysfunction. Parenteral nutrition, sarcopenia, cachexia, stress, immune deficiency and infections could contribute. Although successful treatment of the underlying tumor often improves metabolic disorders, these conditions often worse prognosis and are associated with poor survival; thus it is important to consider early detection and effective treatment