Exploring mobile network data for tourism statistics: the collaboration between Istat and Vodafone Business Italia

The paper describes the collaboration between Istat and Vodafone Business Italia to innovate and enhance tourism statistics. The common goal is to evaluate the potential uses of mobile phone data in current surveys and to investigate new outputs for official statistics, such as visiting routes and means of transport. The analysis concerned inbound tourism (foreigners in Italy), domestic tourism (Italians in Italy), and outbound tourism (Italians abroad). The work presents analyses and results for the Province of Rimini and the Municipality of Roma, referred to August 2019/2020 and April 2020, and a trial of the use of the “Welcome SMS” for the estimate of the residents in Italy who travel to foreign countries. Phone data required specific treatments to meet the definitions of official statistics. Some aspects related to the location and definition of overnight stays will require further investigation

Exploring mobile network data for tourism statistics: the collaboration between Istat and Vodafone Business Italia

The paper describes the collaboration between Istat and Vodafone Business Italia to innovate and enhance tourism statistics. The common goal is to evaluate the potential uses of mobile phone data in current surveys and to investigate new outputs for official statistics, such as visiting routes and means of transport. The analysis concerned inbound tourism (foreigners in Italy), domestic tourism (Italians in Italy), and outbound tourism (Italians abroad). The work presents analyses and results for the Province of Rimini and the Municipality of Roma, referred to August 2019/2020 and April 2020, and a trial of the use of the “Welcome SMS” for the estimate of the residents in Italy who travel to foreign countries. Phone data required specific treatments to meet the definitions of official statistics. Some aspects related to the location and definition of overnight stays will require further investigation

Validation of the Italian version of wisconsin stone quality of life (WISQOL): a prospective Italian multicenter study

Urolithiasis is a worldwide spread condition that affects patients' Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL), which measurement is an important tool for routine clinical and research practice. Disease-specific HRQOL measures demonstrated to perform better in assessing the effects of specific conditions. A disease-specific questionnaire for kidney stones, the WISQOL, has been validated in different languages, but an Italian version is still missing. Our aim is to produce and validate the Italian version of WISQOL (IT-WISQOL). Patients undergoing any elective treatment for upper urinary tract stones were enrolled. A multi-step process with forward- and back-translation was used to translate WISQOL into Italian. Patients were evaluated within 15 days pre-operatively and then at 30-, 90 days post-operatively and administered both IT-WISQOL and SF-36v2. Post-operative data such as 30 days postoperative complications, late stone-related events, successful status, and stone complexity were collected. Cronbach's α was used to evaluate the internal consistency of IT-WISQOL, while Spearman's rho was used for item and inter-domain correlations and IT-WISQOL with SF-36v2 correlation. We found excellent internal consistency across all domains (α ≥ 0.88), particularly when the total score is considered (α = 0.960). Test-retest reliability showed excellent results for the total questionnaire (Pearson correlation value: 0.85). The Inter-domain association ranged from 0.497 to 0.786. Convergent validity was confirmed by a good correlation with subdomains of the SF-36v2 measures. IT-WISQOL is a reliable tool to measure HRQOL in stone patients. It shows analog characteristics if compared to English WISQOL

Conceptual Design of the Power Supply system for the in-vessel saddle coils for MHD control in ASDEX Upgrade

In the frame of an ASDEX Upgrade enhancement, a system of active in-vessel coils (of two types, dubbed “A” and “B”) for MagnetoHydroDynamic (MHD) stabilization is being designed. The conceptual design of the power supply system has been worked out on the basis of the requirements, and extensive analyses have been performed to verify that the identified electrical schemes, based on a cascade topology with two IGBT (Isolated Gate Bipolar Transistor) H-bridges in series for the “A” units and one H-bridge for the “B” ones, were able to fulfill all the requirements, with the semiconductors operating well within safety operating limits. This work summarizes the studies which led to the definition of the power supply requirements, describes the topologies of the selected basic units and of the overall scheme, discusses the design choices, reports the results of the numerical simulations made to check the overall performance and analyses the problem of conducted EMI generated by the new power supply system.Nell’ambito delle proposte di modifica dell’esperimento ASDEX Upgrade un sistema di bobine attive (di due tipi, denominate “A” e “B”) montate all’interno della camera da vuoto per la stabilizzazione dei modi MHD è stato progettato. Lo studio concettuale del sistema di alimentazione è stato elaborato sulla base dei requisiti. Sono state eseguite analisi estese per verificare che i moduli di base identificati, basati su una topologia a cascata con due ponti di tipo H basati su IGBT (Isolated Gate Bipolar Transistor) per le unità di tipo “A” ed un singolo ponte H per le unità di tipo “B”, quelle, siano in grado di soddisfare tutti i requisiti, assicurando che i semiconduttori operino entro i limiti operativi di sicurezza. Questo lavoro riassume le analisi che hanno portato alla definizione dei requisiti delle power supply, descrive lo schema elettrico dell’unità di base individuata e del sistema generale, illustra le scelte di progetto, riporta i risultati delle simulazioni numeriche per verificare le prestazioni complessive a analizza il problema del rumore elettrico prodotto dal nuovo sistema di alimentazione

Optical coherence tomography imaging in the management of the Argus II retinal prosthesis system

Purpose: To report a real-life experience with the Argus II retinal prosthesis system in blind patients with end-stage retinitis pigmentosa (RP) or choroideremia (CHM), focusing on the pivotal role of optical coherence tomography (OCT) in both preoperative and postoperative management. Methods: This hospital-based case series included 3 blind patients who were uneventfully implanted with Argus II epiretinal device. These patients (2 with RP and 1 with CHM) were selected during the ArgusTM II Retinal Prosthesis System PostMarket Surveillance Study Protocol. Complete screening procedures had involved 66 eyes of 33 patients afferent to the Center for Retinitis Pigmentosa of the Veneto Region. Results: Preoperative OCT examination resulted in the exclusion of 8 eyes in 4 patients with bilateral posterior staphyloma diagnosing unexpected staphylomatous macular patterns in 2 patients with RP and no sign of pathologic myopia. Postoperative OCT study of Argus II proximity to retinal surface indicated a plausible correlation between electrode-retina distance and perceptual threshold in 2 of our 3 patients. In particular, during the first 6 months of follow-up, the patient with the closest contact between device and macula showed a continuous vision-related improvement in the performance of several real-life tasks. Conclusions: The present findings illustrate the modalities by which each different OCT examination is an essential tool to optimize safety and efficacy profiles during Argus II protocol. Optical coherence tomography will be crucial for future investigative approaches on patient selection criteria and next-generation implant design

Improvements in the SPIDER RF system

In SPIDER the negative ions are extracted from a plasma generated with RadioFrequency drivers, each fed with a power up to 100 kW at the frequency of 1 MHz. One of its distinguishing characteristics is the source fully installed within a vacuum vessel and operated in the residual gas pressure, including the matching networks for the driver impedance installed on the source backside. These features lead to more challenging design and integration also of the RF system, and in fact during the experimentation some issues arose: the operation of the RF generators is affected by the magnetic coupling among the RF circuits on board the source; breakdowns are observed on the source backside while powering the RF circuit and common mode RF currents ow through the diagnostics and dc power circuits. An overall system design review was launched with the aim to identify the root cause of these issues, feasible solutions and a plan for their x, which are presented and discussed in this pape

Design concepts of machine upgrades for the RFX-mod experiment

After 10 years of operation since its major modification, an upgrade of the RFX-mod experiment is presently under design. The scientific objective is the improvement of 3D physics studies through a more robust transition to higher confinement regimes in both Reversed Field Pinch (RFP) and Tokamak configuration obtained thanks to an advanced system for the active control of MHD instabilities. The main design driver requirements for this machine upgrade are the removal of the present resistive vacuum vessel and the enhancement of the 'shell-plasma proximity', to reduce the deformation of the last close magnetic surface and to improve the self-organized helical plasma regimes. The fulfillment of these requirements implies a major change of the internal components of the machine such as the replacement of the whole first wall, the change of the support system of the stabilizing shell and the modification of the present toroidal support structure to provide the function of vacuum barrier. In combination, other components of the machine will be upgraded, such as magnets and power supply, diagnostic systems and a NBI will be integrated. The paper presents an overview of the engineering design of the new components and highlights the critical aspects of the new torus assembly