Landslide risk management through spatial analysis and stochastic prediction for territorial resilience evaluation

Natural materials, such as soils, are influenced by many factors acting during their formative and evolutionary process: atmospheric agents, erosion and transport phenomena, sedimentation conditions that give soil properties a non-reducible randomness by using sophisticated survey techniques and technologies. This character is reflected not only in spatial variability of properties which differs from point to point, but also in multivariate correlation as a function of reciprocal distance. Cognitive enrichment, offered by the response of soils associated with their intrinsic spatial variability, implies an increase in the evaluative capacity of the contributing causes and potential effects in failure phenomena. Stability analysis of natural slopes is well suited to stochastic treatment of uncertainty which characterized landslide risk. In particular, this study has been applied through a back- analysis procedure to a slope located in Southern Italy that was subject to repeated phenomena of hydrogeological instability (extended for several kilometres in recent years). The back-analysis has been carried out by applying spatial analysis to the controlling factors as well as quantifying the hydrogeological hazard through unbiased estimators. A natural phenomenon, defined as stochastic process characterized by mutually interacting spatial variables, has led to identify the most critical areas, giving reliability to the scenarios and improving the forecasting content. Moreover, the phenomenological characterization allows the optimization of the risk levels to the wide territory involved, supporting decision-making process for intervention priorities as well as the effective allocation of the available resources in social, environmental and economic contexts

Safety ranking definition for infrastructures with high PTW flow

Powered two-wheelers (PTWs) provide a suitable mode for a large portion of population in many cities due to rider's personal convenience and the vehicle supposed easiness of manoeuvring. At the same time PTWs present serious safety issues compared to other motorized vehicles. This paper reports the main outcome of study carried out in Rome, where this mode is very popular and assesses the economic efforts to make infrastructure safer for PTWs. The methodology, extensively described in the paper, includes three steps: the accident analysis, the development of economic indicators of accidents costs, the maintenance priority. In the first step the location of the PTWs local accidents are identified, then the accidents are analyzed by means of the suitable indicators and, among these the safety potential (SAPO). Lastly, according to the results of the analyzed indicators the need of infrastructure maintenance will be defined. Usually SAPO is applied to rural areas, but here it has been adapted to describe the phenomena of the urban area in hand. As a result, the estimation of the saving potential to improve the infrastructure safety levels, thus reducing the amount of accidents, is presented, along with recommendations on how to upscale the SAPO at city level

allergic contact dermatitis caused by metals in blackboard chalk a case report

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The “Eyeballing” technique : an emerging and alerting trend of alcohol misuse

Alternative methods of alcohol consumption have recently emerged among adolescents and young adults, including the alcohol “eyeballing”, which consist in the direct pouring of alcoholic substances on the ocular surface epithelium. In a context of drug and behavioural addictions change, “eyeballing” can be seen as one of the latest and potentially highly risky new trends. We aimed to analyze the existing medical literature as well as online material on this emerging trend of alcohol misusePeer reviewedFinal Published versio

low dose acitretin in treatment of plaque type psoriasis descriptive study of efficacy and safety

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contact vulvitis due to pseudowintera colorata in a topical herbal medicament

Sir, Besides traditional topical and systemic pharmacological treatments for the therapy of vulvovaginal yeast and bacterial infections, numerous over-the-counter medicaments containing natural substances (e.g. tea tree oil, echinacea, sodium caprylate, propolis) are marketed. Patients often prefer alternative medicine and selfprescribe herbal-based products. We report here an unusual case of acute vulvitis that occurred in a young patient after prolonged topical use of an antifungal herbal preparation

Vulvar lichen sclerosus: 11 women treated with tacrolimus 0.1% ointment.

Lichen sclerosus is a chronic relapsing disease, usually treated with ultra-potent corticosteroids. As immunological alterations are considered important aetiopathogenetic factors in lichen sclerosus, the new immunomodulating topical agents, such as tacrolimus and pimecrolimus, have been employed sporadically as alternative therapies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the therapeutic effects of tacrolimus 0.1% ointment in lichen sclerosus in 11 patients unresponsive or poorly responsive to previous treatments. Tacrolimus 0.1% ointment was applied twice daily for 6 weeks, then tapered over a further 6 weeks. Symptoms and objective parameters were evaluated and quantified at the start, after 6 weeks, at the end of the topical treatment, and at follow-up visits. Improvement or remission of symptoms was observed in the patients who completed the study, while objective parameters were poorly influenced and often were not related to symptom behaviour. Topical tacrolimus can be considered an alternative treatment for lichen sclerosus

duloxetine induced pseudolymphoma with features of lymphocytic infiltration of jessner kanof

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