Angelo Secchi: In the Footsteps of a Jesuit Scientist (Sicily and Calabria, 1875)

Angelo Secchi was one of the leading figures of 19th-century science, and a founder of modern astrophysics. Some recent biographical studies have revealed less-known aspects of his life and activity. This paper describes his attendance to the Congress of the Italian Scientists in Palermo and his travel to Cosenza, reveals his anxiety about the future of his Observatory at Collegio Romano, his controversial participation and shows his constant attention to promote citizen science

Specola 2000: A Project for the Preservation of the Historical Archives of the Twelve Italian Astronomical Observatories

The historical archives of the Italian Astronomical Observatories contain valuable information on their institutional and scientific life. Due to the lack of proper inventories, however, the wealth of historical data contained in the archives has not always been used to its full extent. A joint effort started in 1999 by the former Ufficio Centrale Beni Archivistici (now Direzione Generale per gli Archivi) of the Italian Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Società Astronomica Italiana and the former Consorzio Nazionale per l'Astronomia e l'Astrofisica, aimed at the inventorying and preservation of the archives. Seven years after its start, the project has reached the second of four planned phases

Urania Ferdinandea: la fondazione dell'Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo

L'opera analizza le circostanze che portarono alla fondazione dell'Osservatorio di Palermo da parte di Giuseppe Piazz

Astronomical collections in Observatories: promoting preventive conservation

Il testo illustra i progetti di conservazione preventiva svolti presso il Museo della Specola di Palermo come "case study" per il patrimonio astronomico

Visiting the Museo della Specola in Palermo through Virtual and Augmented Reality

Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo (OAPa) has recently implemented some ICT solutions to enhance and spread the knowledge of the Museo della Specola and of the archival and book heritage preserved in the ObservatoryPresentiamo una serie di esperimenti legati all’utilizzo delle nuove tecnologie per la comunicazione e all’innovazioni tecnologica che il Servizio Divulgazione e Didattica e il team beni culturali dell’INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo dell'OAPa hanno implementato per valorizzare e diffondere la conoscenza del nostro Museo della Specola e del patrimonio archivi-stico e librario conservato nell’Osservatorio

Advocating for a change of mentality in the development of metadata standards: historical celestial cartography as a specialization example

We live in a highly volatile technological environment, in which the generation of new data and information access tools has increased the level of specialization of the users’ information needs. In this changeable scenario, standards and the role of librarians must also evolve along with the services provided to users. The lack of specialization in standards is leading librarians to improvise local solutions when cataloguing specialized resources, thus failing to benefit global interoperability among libraries, and with other institutions and initiatives. As different cataloguing standards, as well as many conceptual models, point out the necessity to deal with the specific users’ needs, the main goal of this paper is to advocate for meeting those needs through the development of metadata standards. In particular, our methodology consists in showing and explaining the needs of a particular type of users (astronomers and astrophysicists) and proposing the inclusion in the standards of elements important for the description of historical astronomical resources. Through an example, we show not only the feasibility of application of these elements, but also how the enhancement of the level of specialization of the standards, and therefore of the records made under their rules, can definitely contribute to a global solution for a much improved scientific information retrieval

Il Museo della Specola: progetti per la conservazione, la fruizione, la comunicazione (2018-2020)

Negli anni 2018-2020 sono stati eseguiti al Museo della Specola diversi progetti riguardanti la conservazione preventiva, i depositi, la fruizione in 3D, le collezioni digitali, la comunicazione. Tali progetti vengono qui raccolti per essere eventualmente utilizzati anche in altri ambiti museali

Starlight. La nascita dell'astrofisica in Italia / The origins of astrophysics in Italy

Starlight è una mostra a rete, con cinque sezioni dislocate in cinque osservatori diversi, raccordati virtualmente tramite l'omonima mostra virtuale bilingue. E' stata il prodotto finale del progetto "Analyzing starlight", finanziato da INAF con PDIN 2014, che include anche il catalogo cartaceo e la versione online della mostra. Le cinque sezioni sono così costituite: 1. Le origini dell'astrofisica a Firenze (sede: INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze); 2. Roma, capitale dell'astrofisica (sede: INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monte Porzio Catone); 3. L'eclisse totale di sole del 1870 (sede: INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Napoli); 4. Lo sviluppo della fisica solare (sede: Chiesa di S. Maria delle Grazie, Palazzo dei Normanni, Palermo); 5. Una società scientifica italiana per l'astrofisica (sede: INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova

Has COVID-19 Delayed the Diagnosis and Worsened the Presentation of Type 1 Diabetes in Children?

Objective: To evaluate whether the diagnosis of pediatric type 1 diabetes or its acute complications changed during the early phase of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Italy. Research design and methods: This was a cross-sectional, Web-based survey of all Italian pediatric diabetes centers to collect diabetes, diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), and COVID-19 data in patients presenting with new-onset or established type 1 diabetes between 20 February and 14 April in 2019 and 2020. Results: Fifty-three of 68 centers (77.9%) responded. There was a 23% reduction in new diabetes cases in 2020 compared with 2019. Among those newly diagnosed patient who presented in a state of DKA, the proportion with severe DKA was 44.3% in 2020 vs. 36.1% in 2019 (P = 0.03). There were no differences in acute complications. Eight patients with asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 had laboratory-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic might have altered diabetes presentation and DKA severity. Preparing for any "second wave" requires strategies to educate and reassure parents about timely emergency department attendance for non-COVID-19 symptoms

Diabetic ketoacidosis at the onset of disease during a national awareness campaign: a 2-year observational study in children aged 0-18 years

After a previous survey on the incidence of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) at onset of type 1 diabetes in children in 2013-2014 in Italy, we aimed to verify a possible decline in the incidence of DKA at onset during a national prevention campaign