A complete fos approach for indoor crowdsourced mapping. Case study on Sapienza University of Rome faculties

Indoor mapping is an essential process in several applications such as the visualization of space and its utilization, security and resource planning, emergency planning and location-based alerts and, last but not least, indoor navigation. In this work, a completely free and open-source (FOS) approach to map indoor environments, and to navigate through them, is presented. Our tests were carried out within Sapienza University of Rome public buildings; in detail, Letters and Philosophy faculty and Engineering faculty indoor environments were mapped. To reach this goal, only open source software such as Quantum GIS (QGIS) and open-source platforms like Open Street Map (OSM) and its indoor viewer, Open Level Up (OLU) were adopted. A database of indoor environments of the two faculties, completely compatible with OLU, was created through QGIS. In this way, a public territorial information system of classrooms, offices and laboratories is accessible to everyone who can, hence, add or modify the information, following the principle of crowdsourcing and of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). The developed procedure is now standard and its outputs accepted by the OSM community. Hence, the long-term developments of this project are the proposal for the volunteered and cooperative indoor mapping and design of strategic buildings and infrastructures (hospitals, schools, public offices, shopping centers, stations, airports etc.), starting from the available information (indoor layouts) and knowledge acquired through experience of people who normally work inside them and/or visit them frequently. In this context it is possible to state that the development of VGI for internal maps for strategic buildings, infrastructures and denied GNSS environments, not only supports and improves internal and external navigation without interruption, but can also have a significant positive impact on security and emergency management

Precipitable water vapour content from ESR/SKYNET sun-sky radiometers: validation against GNSS/GPS and AERONET over three different sites in Europe

The estimation of the precipitable water vapour content (W) with high temporal and spatial resolution is of great interest to both meteorological and climatological studies. Several methodologies based on remote sensing techniques have been recently developed in order to obtain accurate and frequent measurements of this atmospheric parameter. Among them, the relative low cost and easy deployment of sun-sky radiometers, or sun photometers, operating in several international networks, allowed the development of automatic estimations of W from these instruments with high temporal resolution. However, the great problem of this methodology is the estimation of the sun-photometric calibration parameters. The objective of this paper is to validate a new methodology based on the hypothesis that the calibration parameters characterizing the atmospheric transmittance at 940nm are dependent on vertical profiles of temperature, air pressure and moisture typical of each measurement site. To obtain the calibration parameters some simultaneously seasonal measurements of W, from independent sources, taken over a large range of solar zenith angle and covering a wide range of W, are needed. In this work yearly GNSS/GPS datasets were used for obtaining a table of photometric calibration constants and the methodology was applied and validated in three European ESR-SKYNET network sites, characterized by different atmospheric and climatic conditions: Rome, Valencia and Aosta. Results were validated against the GNSS/GPS and AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) W estimations. In both the validations the agreement was very high, with a percentage RMSD of about 6, 13 and 8% in the case of GPS intercomparison at Rome, Aosta and Valencia, respectively, and of 8% in the case of AERONET comparison in Valencia. Analysing the results by W classes, the present methodology was found to clearly improve W estimation at low W content when compared against AERONET in terms of %bias, bringing the agreement with the GPS (considered the reference one) from a %bias of 5.76 to 0.52

The impact of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) zenith total delay data assimilation on the short-term precipitable water vapor and precipitation forecast over Italy using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model

The impact of assimilating GNSS-ZTD (global navigation satellite system–zenith total delay) on the precipitable water vapor and precipitation forecast over Italy is studied for the month of October 2019, which was characterized by several moderate to intense precipitation events, especially over northwestern Italy. The WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) model, version 4.1.3, is used with its 3D-Var data assimilation system to assimilate ZTD observations from 388 GNSS receivers distributed over the country. The dataset was built collecting data from all the major national and regional GNSS permanent networks, achieving dense coverage over the whole area. The water vapor forecast is verified for the forecast hours of 1–6 h after the last data assimilation time. Results show that WRF underestimates the atmospheric water vapor content for the period, and GNSS-ZTD data assimilation improves this underestimation. The precipitation forecast is verified in the phases of 0–3 and 3–6 h after the last data assimilation time using more than 3000 rain gauges spread over Italy. The application of GNSS-ZTD data assimilation to a case study improved the precipitation forecast by increasing the rainfall maximum and by better focusing the precipitation pattern over northeastern Italy, with the main drawback being the prediction of false alarms. Considering the study over the whole period, GNSS-ZTD data assimilation had a positive impact on rainfall forecast, with an improvement in the performance up to 6 h and with statistically significant results for moderate to intense rainfall thresholds (25–30 mm (3 h)−1).</p

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Lethality Did not Change over Time in Two Italian Provinces

This retrospective cohort study included all the subjects diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection (n=2493) in 2 Italian provinces. Two hundred fifty-eight persons died, after a median of 14.0\ub111.0 days. Adjusting for age, gender, and main comorbidities, the 6528-day case-fatality rate did not decrease from March to April 2020 (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.93; P=.6)

International Experience of Mechanical Thrombectomy During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights from STAR and ENRG

Background: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many centers altered stroke triage protocols for the protection of their providers. However, the effect of workflow changes on stroke patients receiving mechanical thrombectomy (MT) has not been systematically studied. Methods: A prospective international study was launched at the initiation of the COVID-19 pandemic. All included centers participated in the Stroke Thrombectomy and Aneurysm Registry (STAR) and Endovascular Neurosurgery Research Group (ENRG). Data was collected during the peak months of the COVID-19 surge at each site. Collected data included patient and disease characteristics. A generalized linear model with logit link function was used to estimate the effect of general anesthesia (GA) on in-hospital mortality and discharge outcome controlling for confounders. Results: 458 patients and 28 centers were included from North America, South America, and Europe. Five centers were in high-COVID burden counties (HCC) in which 9/104 (8.7%) of patients were positive for COVID-19 compared with 4/354 (1.1%) in low-COVID burden counties (LCC) (P<0.001). 241 patients underwent pre-procedure GA. Compared with patients treated awake, GA patients had longer door to reperfusion time (138 vs 100 min, P=<0.001). On multivariate analysis, GA was associated with higher probability of in-hospital mortality (RR 1.871, P=0.029) and lower probability of functional independence at discharge (RR 0.53, P=0.015). Conclusion: We observed a low rate of COVID-19 infection among stroke patients undergoing MT in LCC. Overall, more than half of the patients underwent intubation prior to MT, leading to prolonged door to reperfusion time, higher in-hospital mortality, and lower likelihood of functional independence at discharge.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Prognostic Significance of Age Within the Adolescent and Young Adult Acute Ischemic Stroke Population after Mechanical Thrombectomy: Insights from STAR

Objective: Although younger adults have been shown to have better functional outcomes after mechanical thrombectomy (MT) for acute ischemic stroke (AIS), the significance of this relationship in the adolescent and young adult (AYA) population is not well defined given its undefined rarity. Correspondingly, the goal of this study was to determine the prognostic significance of age in this specific demographic following MT for large-vessel occlusions. Methods: A prospectively maintained international multi-institutional database, STAR (Stroke Thrombectomy and Aneurysm Registry), was reviewed for all patients aged 12-18 (adolescent) and 19-25 (young adult) years. Parameters were compared using chi-square and t-test analyses, and associations were interrogated using regression analyses. Results: Of 7192 patients in the registry, 41 (0.6%) satisfied all criteria, with a mean age of 19.7 ± 3.3 years. The majority were male (59%) and young adults (61%) versus adolescents (39%). The median prestroke modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score was 0 (range 0-2). Strokes were most common in the anterior circulation (88%), with the middle cerebral artery being the most common vessel (59%). The mean onset-to-groin puncture and groin puncture-to-reperfusion times were 327 ± 229 and 52 ± 42 minutes, respectively. The mean number of passes was 2.2 ± 1.2, with 61% of the cohort achieving successful reperfusion. There were only 3 (7%) cases of reocclusion. The median mRS score at 90 days was 2 (range 0-6). Between the adolescent and young adult subgroups, the median mRS score at last follow-up was statistically lower in the adolescent subgroup (1 vs 2, p = 0.03), and older age was significantly associated with a higher mRS at 90 days (coefficient 0.33, p < 0.01). Conclusions: Although rare, MT for AIS in the AYA demographic is both safe and effective. Even within this relatively young demographic, age remains significantly associated with improved functional outcomes. The implication of age-dependent stroke outcomes after MT within the AYA demographic needs greater validation to develop effective age-specific protocols for long-term care across both pediatric and adult centers.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference