High‐Resolution Seismic Imaging of Fault‐Controlled Basins: A Case Study From the 2009 Mw 6.1 Central Italy Earthquake

We present the first seismic reflection images of the Paganica and Bazzano basins, two tectonic basins developed in the hanging wall of the Paganica-San Demetrio Fault System, the causative fault of the 2009 Mw 6.1 L'Aquila earthquake, Italy. Five high-resolution seismic profiles were acquired along a main, 7 km long transect cutting across the strands of an active fault system in urbanized areas with widespread sources of seismic noise. Three processing approaches were chosen to tackle a variable and site-dependent data quality . To aid interpretation of this complex setting, we complemented seismic amplitude images with energy and similarity attributes as well with post-stack acoustic impedance inversion. The final seismic sections expose, with unprecedented resolution, the basins' structure and the uppermost splays of the 2009 earthquake. The seismic data show fine details of the subsurface stratigraphic setting, revealing continental depocenters carved in the marine Meso-Cenozoic substratum and displaced by a series of conjugate normal faults, mostly unknown before this study. Several of the imaged fault strands connect to the 2009 coseismic surface ruptures. Matching the seismic interpretation with constraints from surface geology and shallow boreholes, published data from field surveys and scientific drilling, we present a structural map of the Bazzano and Paganica basins with an estimation of the depth of the Meso-Cenozoic substratum. This map highlights a different structure, evolution, and age of the two basins, with the older Bazzano basin that likely began to form in late Pliocene

Soft Transducer for Patient’s Vitals Telemonitoring with Deep Learning-Based Personalized Anomaly Detection

This work addresses the design, development and implementation of a 4.0-based wearable soft transducer for patient-centered vitals telemonitoring. In particular, first, the soft transducer measures hypertension-related vitals (heart rate, oxygen saturation and systolic/diastolic pressure) and sends the data to a remote database (which can be easily consulted both by the patient and the physician). In addition to this, a dedicated deep learning algorithm, based on a Long-Short-Term-Memory Autoencoder, was designed, implemented and tested for providing an alert when the patient’s vitals exceed certain thresholds, which are automatically personalized for the specific patient. Furthermore, a mobile application (EcO2u) was developed to manage the entire data flow and facilitate the data fruition; this application also implements an innovative face-detection algorithm that ensures the identity of the patient. The robustness of the proposed soft transducer was validated experimentally on five individuals, who used the system for 30 days. The experimental results demonstrated an accuracy in anomaly detection greater than 93%, with a true positive rate of more than 94

SEISMIC ANISOTROPY AND ITS RELATION WITH FAULTS AND STRESS FIELD IN THEVAL D'AGRI (SOUTHERN ITALY).

Shear-wave splitting is measured at 17 seismic stations deployed in the Val DAgri by INGV, which recorded local back-ground seismicity from May 2005 to June 2006 . The splitting results suggest the presence of an anisotropic upper crust (max hypocentral depth 15.5 km). The dominant fast polarisation direction strikes NW-SE parallel to the Apennines orogen and is approximately parallel to the maximum horizontal stress in the region and also parallel to the strike of the main normal faults in the Val DAgri. The size of the delay times, average is 0.1 second suggests 4.5% shear-wave velocity anisotropy. At stations located at the North West portion of the deployment average delay times are larger on the order of 0.2s. These parameters agree with an interpretation of seismic anisotropy in terms of the Extensive-Dilatancy Anisotropy model which considers the rock volume to be pervaded by fluid-saturated microcracks aligned by the active stress field. We cannot completely rule out the contribution of aligned macroscopic fractures as the cause of the shear wave anisotropy even if the parallel shear-wave polarisations we found are diagnostic of transverse isotropy with a horizontal axis of symmetry. This symmetry is commonly explained by parallel stress-aligned microcracks

A novel approach to estimate the upper limb reaching movement in three-dimensional space

Background: In spite of the complexity that the number of redundancy levels suggests, humans show amazingly regularities when generating movement. When moving the hand between pairs of targets, subjects tended to generate roughly straight hand trajectories with single-peaked, bell-shaped speed profiles. The original minimum-jerk model, in which limb displacement is represented by a fifth order polynomial, has been shown to predict qualitative features of experimental trajectories recorded in monkeys performing intermediate speed one-joint elbow movements to a target. However, it is difficult to compare a real (experimentally measured) movement to its equivalent minimum-jerk trajectory (MJT) because the exact start and end times and positions of real movements are usually not well defined: even discrete movements usually exhibit an extended period of low (but non-zero) velocity and acceleration before and after a movement, making estimation of the exact start and end times inaccurate. Aim: The purpose of this study was to describe a method used for correctly fitting the minimum jerk trajectory to real movement data assuming that the minimum-jerk trajectory satisfies the same threshold condition as the real movement (the same position and the same percentage of maximum velocity), rather than the movements start and end at full rest. Thus, the original minimum-jerk model was revised. Materials and methods: Starting from the original minimum-jerk model, in this work is proposed a method used for correctly fitting the minimum jerk trajectory to real movement data defined by a threshold condition. This method enables users to accurately compare a minimum-jerk trajectory to real movements. The latter were recorded using APDM inertial sensors. To estimate if the ideal model fits adequately the real reaching movements we consider three kinematic indexes. Results: and Discussion: A total of 100 upper arm straight line reaching movements executed by healthy subjects were acquired. MJTs follow closely to the reaching movements when they have been computed considering the revised model. On the contrary, the MJTs do not follow the real profiles when considering the original formulation. This behaviour is confirmed when we consider the three kinematic indexes. These findings help us better understand important characteristics of movements in health. Future works will focus on the investigation of the performance of the upper arm straight line reaching movements in a larger healthy subjects sample and then in pathological conditions. Keywords: Reaching movements, Minimum jerk model, Reaching movements, Rehabilitatio

A comparison of a SARS-CoV-2 rapid-test and serological-test in a Public Health Hospital

Nowadays, with the start of the vaccination campaign is very important to assess the extent of exposure of the population and identifying rapid, sensitive and accurate test to quickly identify new cases of SARS-CoV-2. The rapid test, cheap and easy to perform, is therefore very useful in developing countries, where the vaccination campaign has not yet reached adequate coverage

Fluid-Triggered Aftershocks in an Anisotropic Hydraulic Conductivity Geological Complex: The Case of the 2016 Amatrice Sequence, Italy

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First-Motion Focal Mechanism Solutions for 2015–2019 M ≥ 4.0 Italian Earthquakes

A list of 100 focal mechanism solutions that occurred in Italy between 2015 and 2019 has been compiled for earthquakes with magnitude M ≥ 4.0. We define earthquake parameters for additional 22 seismic events with 3.0 ≤ M < 4.0 for two specific key zones: Muccia, at the northern termination of the Amatrice–Visso–Norcia 2016–2018 central Italy seismic sequence, and Montecilfone (southern Italy) struck in 2018 by a deep, strike-slip Mw 5.1 earthquake apparently anomalous for the southern Apennines extensional belt. First-motion focal mechanism solutions are a good proxy for the initial rupture and they provide important additional information on the source mechanism. The catalog compiled in the present paper provides earthquake parameters for individual events of interest to contribute, as a valuable source of information, for further studies as seismotectonic investigations and stress distribution maps. We calculated the focal mechanisms using as a reference the phase pickings reported in the Italian Seismic Bulletin (BSI). We visually checked the reference picks to accurately revise manual first-motion polarities, or include new onsets when they are not present in the BSI dataset, for the selected earthquakes within the whole Italian region, with a separate focus on the Amatrice–Visso–Norcia seismic sequence area from August 24, 2016 to August 24, 2018. For the Montecilfone area, we combined the information on the geometry and kinematics of the source of the 2018 Mw 5.1 event obtained in this study with available subsurface and structural data on the Outer Apulia Carbonate Platform to improve understanding of this intriguing strike-slip sequence. Our analysis suggests that the Montecilfone earthquake ruptured a W–E trending strike-slip dextral fault. This structure is confined within the Apulia crystalline crust and it might represent the western prolongation of the Mattinata Fault–Apricena Fault active and seismogenic structures. The calculated focal mechanisms of the entire catalog are of good quality complementing important details on source mechanics from moment tensors and confirming the relevance of systematically including manually revised and more accurate polarity data within the BSI database

From 3D Hierarchical Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering to Advanced Hydrogel-Based and Complex Devices for in situ Cell or Drug Release☆

Abstract In the past few years, researchers have focused on the development of three-dimensional (3D) advanced scaffolds and multifunctional hydrogel-based materials. As reported in literature, 3D polymer-based composite scaffolds for tissue engineering have been manufactured through conventional and advanced manufacturing techniques, and different injectable materials and hydrogel-based systems have been proposed and studied. The aim of the current research was to define an approach in the development of multifunctional tools spanning from 3D hierarchical scaffolds for soft tissue engineering to advanced hydrogel-based devices for in situ cell or drug release. The mechanical/rheological behaviour as well as the structural/functional features of the designed devices were discussed and analyzed

Novel concepts and strategies in skull base reconstruction after endoscopic endonasal surgery

Recently, a variety of craniofacial approaches has been adopted to enter the skull base, among those, the endonasal endoscopic technique. An effective watertight thereafter: the reconstruction can be performed using different materials, both autologous and non-autologous, individually or combined in a multilayer fashion. The current study was focused on the development of new advanced devices and techniques, aiding in reducing postoperative CSF leak rate. Additive manufacturing allows the design of devices with tailored structural and functional features and, as well, injectable semi-IPNs and composites; therefore specific mechanical/rheological and injectability studies are valuable. Accordingly, we propose new additive-manufactured and injectable devices

The contribution of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica 1 e Vulcanologia (INGV) to 2 “Adria LithosPHere investigAtion (ALPHA)” active seismic experiment

During the winter 2012, from 20 January to 4 February, the German oceanographic FS METEOR cruise (M86/3) took place in the central-southern Adriatic Sea in the frame of “Adria LithosPHere InvestigAtion” (ALPHA [Kopp et al., 2013]). The primary goal of the project was high-resolution tomographic imaging of the crust and lithospheric mantle underneath the southern Adriatic Sea, the Apulia eastern margin and the external zone of the Dinaric thrust-belt by collecting offshore-onshore seismic data along three multi-fold wide-aperture profiles. The definition of reliable velocity models of the Adriatic lithosphere was considered crucial for a better understanding of the structure, fragmentation, geodynamic evolution, and seismotectonics of the Adria-Apulia microplates. The ALPHA Project was coordinated by Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany (GEOMAR), former Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (German: Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften, IFM-GEOMAR) and conducted in close cooperation with different European institutions of Germany, Albania, Croatia, Italy and Montenegro. The Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica Vulcanologia (INGV) participated by deploying land stations along two transects in the Apulia and Gargano Promontory to extend westwards the seismic profiles. The primary goal was to record shallow-to-deep seismic phases travelling along the transition between the Adriatic basin and the Apulia foreland. In this paper we present the field work related to the two Italian onshore transects, the recorded data, and the processing flow developed to highlight crustal and mantle refractions and wide-angle reflections