Editorial: Misuse and abuse of prescription drugs in custodial settings

© 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access editorial distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Peer reviewe

intensive nutritional counselling and support and clinical outcomes in hemodialysis patients

Protein-energy wasting is frequently found in haemodialysis (HD) patients. Anorexia and hypophagia contribute to malnutrition, increased morbidity and mortality, but the clinical impact of correcting hypophagia remains uncertain. We evaluated whether correction of hypophagia influences morbidity and mortality in anorexic HD patients. Thirty-four HD patients were enrolled in a 2-year follow-up programme including regular nutritional assessment. Patients not meeting nutritional requirements during the follow-up, received nutritional counselling, consisting of advice, individually tailored diet and, in case of failure of dietary intervention, artificial nutrition. Biochemical, anthropometric, body composition parameters, morbidity and mortality were recorded in all patients at 12 and 24 months. At baseline, 14 patients (41%) were anorexic, and 20 patients (59%) non-anorexic. Anorexic patients were hypophagic and presented with reduced fat-free mass. After 12 and 24 months, cholesterol, albumin, lymphocyte count and BMI did not differ among groups, while FFM (%) in supplemented anorexic patients significantly improved, being not different any more vs non-anorexic (65.8±4.4 vs 65.4±8.9, respectively; p=n.s.; 65.8±4.4 vs 66.7±10.78, respectively; p=n.s.). Morbidity and mortality were not different among the two groups. In conclusion, in HD patients, nutritional counselling and nutritional support positively affect nutritional status in hypophagic patients and make the risk of morbidity and mortality in anorexic patients comparable to non-anorexic

Sprofondamenti in aree urbane: il caso del parco “Ytzhak Rabin” (via Panama, Roma)

In Rome urban area, within the garden dedicated to Ytzhak Rabin (a portion of the Villa Ada park), occurrence of a few collapses has been observed for the first time in September 2012. In the surroundings, presence of underground cavities- mainly catacombs- is conversely well documented by previous studies. Local authorities were immediately informed of sinkholes formation, because collapses occurred very close to a playground located in a highly frequented sector of the garden. Propagation processes of the phenomena, periodically monitored since their first observation, significantly fastened after a period of heavy rainfalls on Rome area in January- February 2014. Thus, multidisciplinary geophysical investigations have been started in agreement with Civil Protection of Rome Municipality, who has taken preliminary safety measures (installation of fences and danger signals). Hitherto, 28 sinkholes have been identified, aligned along a WNW-ESE trending zone, testifying localized collapses of the roof of underground cavities, probably belonging to the palaeocristian catacomb systems dug nearby Via Salaria. Preliminary geophysical prospections have been performed in a small test area, in order to verify methods applicability and thus program a systematic survey of the whole garden. Drillings, and direct exploration of the accessible galleries, will complete the reconstruction of underground geometry and conservation state of vaults and pillars. Once completed the hazard assessment, the planning of urgent works is expected in order to restore the complete use of the garden.Published25 - 422TR. Ricostruzione e modellazione della struttura crostaleN/A or not JC

Use of remdesivir in children with covid-19 infection: A quick narrative review

SARS-CoV-2 infection has a severe course in a small percentage of children. Remdesivir has shown promising results in reducing hospitalisation time in adults, but data on mortality rate are conflicting and few studies are available on its use use in antivirals in children. We performed a quick narrative review of the available literature data regarding the usage of remdesivir in children and neonates. In children, remdesivir showed good safety profile, however bradicardia events have been reported in children. Remdesivir is cur-rently recommended by several guidelines in some subgroups of children with severe COVID-19, and should also be considered in critically ill patients, always in the context of the overall clinical picture and drug avail-ability. (www.actabiomedica.it)

Estimating gas accretion in disc galaxies using the Kennicutt-Schmidt law

We show how the existence of a relation between the star formation rate and the gas density, i.e. the Kennicutt-Schmidt law, implies a continuous accretion of fresh gas from the environment into the discs of spiral galaxies. We present a method to derive the gas infall rate in a galaxy disc as a function of time and radius, and we apply it to the disc of the Milky Way and 21 galaxies from the THINGS sample. For the Milky Way, we found that the ratio between the past and current star formation rates is about 2-3, averaged over the disc, but it varies substantially with radius. In the other disc galaxies there is a clear dependency of this ratio with galaxy stellar mass and Hubble type, with more constant star formation histories for small galaxies of later type. The gas accretion rate follows very closely the SFR for every galaxy and it dominates the evolution of these systems. The Milky Way has formed two thirds of its stars after z=1, whilst the mass of cold gas in the disc has remained fairly constant with time. In general, all discs have accreted a significant fraction of their gas after z=1. Accretion moves from the inner regions of the disc to the outer parts, and as a consequence star formation moves inside-out as well. At z=0 the peak of gas accretion in the Galaxy is at about 6-7 kpc from the centre.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Indagini geofisiche e geochimiche di un sinkhole in formazione nell’area di Guidonia (Lazio)

The Plio-Quaternary Acque Albule Basin is already known for the occurrence of sinkholes; since the spring 2014, it has been ongoing the study of an active subsidence process, which formed a depressed area near the Guidonia village. During the last year, the phenomenon has become more intense giving rise to two collapses along the eastern rim of the depression. Thus, geophysical and geogeochemical investigation campaigns started in order to understand the genesis and evolution of the phenomenon. Survey results allowed a geological and structural characterization, showing the presence of “travertino” at the depression margins and its absence therein. It has been recognized, by the geophysics, features with NW-SE and NNE-SSW direction ascribable to a possible depression fracturing and consistent with regional structural trends. Thus, it has been possible to plan and perform geognostic investigation consisting in two drillings aimed to define the stratigraphy of the marginal and inner part of the depression.Published7 - 162TR. Ricostruzione e modellazione della struttura crostaleJCR Journa

Early stage sinkhole formation in the acque albule basin of central Italy from geophysical and geochemical observations

Sinkhole occurrence along the Tyrrhenian margin of the Central Apennines is of great importance for applied research, land management and civil protection. This study reports on GPS-altimetry magnetic, gravity, geoelectric, seismic, and soil gas measurements of a rapidly developing sinkhole near the Guidonia military airport. The measurements revealed an elliptical 2-m depression elongated 220 m in the NNE-SSW direction with the minor axis of 110 m. In spring of 2013, two vertical cavities formed in the eastern and northeastern flanks of the depression whose depths and shapes are rapidly evolving with the formation of widespread fracturing along the same side. The geophysical observations image the developing sinkhole to a depth of some 50 m, the presence of the Travertino lithotype around the depression (down to at least 40 m), and the lack of this lithotype below the lowered area. The sinkhole's evolution appears to be structurally controlled by local and regional faulting. These results are useful for designing further geophysical, geotechnical and geochemical studies to monitor the sinkhole's evolution and to assess the hazard it presents in densely urbanized area.Published36-477A. Geofisica di esplorazioneJCR Journalreserve

The mode of gas accretion onto star-forming galaxies

It is argued that galaxies like ours sustain their star formation by transferring gas from an extensive corona to the star-forming disc. The transfer is effected by the galactic fountain -- cool clouds that are shot up from the plane to kiloparsec heights above the plane. The Kelvin-Helmholtz instability strips gas from these clouds. If the pressure and the the metallicity of the corona are high enough, the stripped gas causes a similar mass of coronal gas to condense in the cloud's wake. Hydrodynamical simulations of cloud-corona interaction are presented. These confirm the existence of a critical ablation rate above which the corona is condensed, and imply that for the likely parameters of the Galactic corona this rate lies near the actual ablation rate of clouds. In external galaxies trails of HI behind individual clouds will not be detectable, although the integrated emission from all such trails should be significant. Parts of the trails of the clouds that make up the Galaxy's fountain should be observable and may account for features in targeted 21-cm observations of individual high-velocity clouds and surveys of Galactic HI emission. Taken in conjunction with the known decline in the availability of cold infall with increasing cosmic time and halo mass, the proposed mechanism offers a promising explanation of the division of galaxies between the blue cloud to the red sequence in the colour-luminosity plane.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in MNRA

RETRACE-3D PROJECT, a multidisciplinary approach for the construction of a 3D crustal model: first results and seismotectonic implications

The RETRACE-3D (centRal italy EarThquakes integRAted Crustal modEl) Project has been launched with the ambitious goal to build, as first result, a new, robust, 3D geological model of broad consensus of the area struck by the 2016-2018 Central Italy seismic sequencePublishedBologna3T. Sorgente sismica4T. Sismicità dell'Itali

Do high-velocity clouds form by thermal instability?

We examine the proposal that the HI "high-velocity" clouds (HVCs) surrounding the Milky Way and other disc galaxies form by condensation of the hot galactic corona via thermal instability. Under the assumption that the galactic corona is well represented by a non-rotating, stratified atmosphere, we find that for this formation mechanism to work the corona must have an almost perfectly flat entropy profile. In all other cases the growth of thermal perturbations is suppressed by a combination of buoyancy and thermal conduction. Even if the entropy profile were nearly flat, cold clouds with sizes smaller than 10 kpc could form in the corona of the Milky Way only at radii larger than 100 kpc, in contradiction with the determined distances of the largest HVC complexes. Clouds with sizes of a few kpc can form in the inner halo only in low-mass systems. We conclude that unless even slow rotation qualitatively changes the dynamics of a corona, thermal instability is unlikely to be a viable mechanism for formation of cold clouds around disc galaxies.Comment: MNRAS, accepted. 13 pages, 8 figures. Added discussion with respect to submitted versio