QUIN 2.0 - new release of the QUaternary fault strain INdicators database from the Southern Apennines of Italy

QUIN database integrates and organizes structural-geological information from published and unpublished sources to constrain deformation in seismotectonic studies. The initial release, QUIN1.0, comprised 3,339 Fault Striation Pairs, mapped on 445 sites exposed along the Quaternary faults of central Italy. The present Data Descriptor introduces the QUIN 2.0 release, which includes 4,297 Fault Striation Pairs on 738 Structural Sites from southern Italy. The newly investigated faults span ~500 km along the Apennines chain, with strikes transitioning from ~SE to ~SW and comprehensively details Fault Striation Pairs’ location, attitude, kinematics, and deformation axes. Additionally, it offers a shapefile of the fault traces hosting the data. The QUIN 2.0 release offers a significant geographic extension to the QUIN 1.0, with comprehensive description of local geometric-kinematic complexities of the regional pattern. The QUIN data may be especially relevant for constraining intra-Apennine potential seismogenic deformation patterns, where earthquake data only offer scattered or incomplete information. QUIN’s data will support studies aimed at enhancing geological understanding, hazard assessment and comprehension of fault rupture propagation and barriers

Brief Communication Co-seismic displacement on October 26 and 30, 2016 (M_w 5.9 and 6.5) – earthquakes in central Italy from the analysis of discrete GNSS network

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> On October 26<sup>th</sup> 2016, immediately north of the epicentral area affected by the M<sub>w</sub> 6.0, August 24<sup>th</sup> earthquake, a strong earthquake (<b><i>M</i></b><sub>w</sub> = 5.9), with a focal mechanism showing W-dipping normal faulting, occurred at the boundary between Marche and Umbria regions (central Apennines, Italy). Four days later (on October 30<sup>th</sup>), the main-shock (<b><i>M</i></b><sub>w</sub> = 6.5) of the whole seismic sequence occurred in the same area. The central Apennines are characterized by northeast-verging thrust-propagation folds, involving Mesozoic- Tertiary sedimentary successions. During the 2016 sequence, coseismic deformation has been recorded at the rear of the Sibillini Thrust which separates the main mountain chain from the Marche-Abruzzi foothills (Fig. 1). This contractional structure has been partly dissected and/or inverted by NNW-SSE trending Quaternary normal and oblique-slip faults. The major event (October 30) induced extensive geological effects at the surface and structural damages in the broader epicentral area up to a distance of 30 km. According to the report of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (SUMMARY REPORT ON THE 30 OCTOBER, 2016 EARTHQUAKE IN CENTRAL ITALY Mw 6.5, Gruppo di Lavoro INGV sul Terremoto in centro Italia 10 November 2016), the hypocenter of major event was located at 42.8322° N, 13.1107° E at a depth of 9.2 km (Figs. 1 and 2). Following the August seismic events, we installed five new geodetic points located on both sides of the principal fracture zone and carried out two campaigns of GNSS measurements, the first one at the end of September (30-09/02-10, 2016), the second one early November (11/13-11, 2016) that covered the period of the October events. <br><br> In this brief communication, we provide the results of our geodetic campaigns that registered the co- seismic displacement occurred in the period between doy (day of year) 2016/274 and doy 2016/318, therefore documenting the two latter major shocks. We also compare our results with the available surface deformation field of the broader area obtained on the basis of the DInSAR technique and particularly the elaboration realized by CNR-IREA of Sentinel-1 radar imaging of Copernicus European Program of 26/10–1/11 (<a href=" http://www.irea.cnr.it/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=761:nuovi-risultati-sul-terremoto- del-30-ottobre-2016-ottenuti-dai-radar-dei-satelliti-sentinel-1"target="_blank">http://www.irea.cnr.it/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=761:nuovi-risultati-sul-terremoto- del-30-ottobre-2016-ottenuti-dai-radar-dei-satelliti-sentinel-1</a>). The comparison shows an overall good fit. It’s worth to note that these earthquakes occurred in a sector of the Central Apennines characterized by high geodetic strain-rates (e.g., D’Agostino 2014), where several continuous GNSS stations are operating.</p&gt

"Delirium Day": A nationwide point prevalence study of delirium in older hospitalized patients using an easy standardized diagnostic tool

Background: To date, delirium prevalence in adult acute hospital populations has been estimated generally from pooled findings of single-center studies and/or among specific patient populations. Furthermore, the number of participants in these studies has not exceeded a few hundred. To overcome these limitations, we have determined, in a multicenter study, the prevalence of delirium over a single day among a large population of patients admitted to acute and rehabilitation hospital wards in Italy. Methods: This is a point prevalence study (called "Delirium Day") including 1867 older patients (aged 65 years or more) across 108 acute and 12 rehabilitation wards in Italian hospitals. Delirium was assessed on the same day in all patients using the 4AT, a validated and briefly administered tool which does not require training. We also collected data regarding motoric subtypes of delirium, functional and nutritional status, dementia, comorbidity, medications, feeding tubes, peripheral venous and urinary catheters, and physical restraints. Results: The mean sample age was 82.0 \ub1 7.5 years (58 % female). Overall, 429 patients (22.9 %) had delirium. Hypoactive was the commonest subtype (132/344 patients, 38.5 %), followed by mixed, hyperactive, and nonmotoric delirium. The prevalence was highest in Neurology (28.5 %) and Geriatrics (24.7 %), lowest in Rehabilitation (14.0 %), and intermediate in Orthopedic (20.6 %) and Internal Medicine wards (21.4 %). In a multivariable logistic regression, age (odds ratio [OR] 1.03, 95 % confidence interval [CI] 1.01-1.05), Activities of Daily Living dependence (OR 1.19, 95 % CI 1.12-1.27), dementia (OR 3.25, 95 % CI 2.41-4.38), malnutrition (OR 2.01, 95 % CI 1.29-3.14), and use of antipsychotics (OR 2.03, 95 % CI 1.45-2.82), feeding tubes (OR 2.51, 95 % CI 1.11-5.66), peripheral venous catheters (OR 1.41, 95 % CI 1.06-1.87), urinary catheters (OR 1.73, 95 % CI 1.30-2.29), and physical restraints (OR 1.84, 95 % CI 1.40-2.40) were associated with delirium. Admission to Neurology wards was also associated with delirium (OR 2.00, 95 % CI 1.29-3.14), while admission to other settings was not. Conclusions: Delirium occurred in more than one out of five patients in acute and rehabilitation hospital wards. Prevalence was highest in Neurology and lowest in Rehabilitation divisions. The "Delirium Day" project might become a useful method to assess delirium across hospital settings and a benchmarking platform for future surveys

GNSS and InSAR study of the ground deformation of the eastern flank of Mount Etna from 2016 to 2019

International audienceThe geodynamic framework of Mount Etna volcano (Italy) is characterised by two superimposed tectonic domains: a compressional one, oriented N-S, and an extensional one, oriented approximately WNW-ESE. The combination of these two domains and the volcano activity, has generated a complex system of faults prevalently on the eastern flank of the volcano. The eastern flank is the most active area of the volcano in terms of deformation and seismicity. The velocities there are at least one order of magnitude greater than in the rest of the volcano flanks due to the eastward sliding of the eastern flank.The monitoring and analysis of the acceleration occurring on the eastern flank of Mount Etna is the keystone to understand the volcano-tectonic dynamics that, apart from the tectonic and magmatic processes, involves the instability of this flank in a densely inhabited area.In order to monitor the deformation, Istituto Nazionale Geofisica e Vulcanologia – Osservatorio Etneo (INGV-OE) and the GeoDynamic & GeoMatic Laboratory of the University of Catania integrate GNSS and InSAR products with twofold objective: to characterize the dynamics of the area and to analyse the deformation transients, this last in view of a possible use in the framework of an alert system.Here, we analyse the ground deformation that occurred between 2016 and 2019 across the faults of the south-eastern flank of Mount Etna. On the south-eastern flank the deformation is accommodated by several faults which have different kinematics and behaviours. We discriminate the deformation transient and the activity of the Belpasso-Ognina lineament, Tremestieri, Trecastagni, San Gregorio-Acitrezza, Linera, Nizzeti and Fiandaca faults. The latter generated the 26 December 2018 earthquake, two days after the eruption of 24 December, which induced a clear post seismic deformation, detected by GNSS and InSAR data. In particular, we discriminate the deformation occurred along the San Gregorio-Acitrezza fault, which is accommodated by the Nizzeti fault, and we analyse the post seismic deformation along the Linera fault. We analyse the Slow Slip Events (SSE) that are observed in the GNSS and InSAR time series in the vicinity of the Acitrezza fault and we quantify and discuss the tectonic origin of the Belpasso-Ognina lineament that we interpreted as a tear fault

The ground deformation of the south-eastern flank of Mount Etna monitored by GNSS and SAR interferometry from 2016 to 2019

SUMMARY The south-eastern sector of the Mount Etna, Italy, is characterized by numerous active faults, in particular the Belpasso–Ognina lineament, the Tremestieri–San Gregorio–Acitrezza fault, the Trecastagni fault and the Fiandaca–Nizzeti fault including the Timpe Fault System. Their activity is the result of both volcanism and tectonics. Here, we analyse the ground deformation occurred from 2016 to 2019 across those active faults by using the GNSS data acquired at 22 permanent stations and 35 campaign points observed by the Etna Observatory (INGV) and by the University of Catania. We also use the time-series of line of sight displacement of permanent scatterers SENTINEL-1 A-DInSAR obtained by using the P-SBAS tool of the ESA GEP-TEP (Geohazards Thematic Exploitation Platform) service. We discriminate the contributions of the regional tectonic strain, the inflations, the deflations of the volcano and the gravitational sliding in order to analyse the deformation along the faults of the south-eastern flank of Etna. The shallow and destructive Mw = 4.9 earthquake of 2018 December 26 occurred within the studied area two days after a dyke intrusion, that propagated beneath the centre of the volcano accompanied by a short eruption. Both GNSS and InSAR time-series document well those events and allow to investigate the post-seismic sliding across the faults of south-eastern flank. We analyse the slow slip events (SSE) that are observed in the GNSS and InSAR time-series in the vicinity of the Acitrezza fault. We quantify and discuss the tectonic origin of the Belpasso–Ognina lineament that we interpreted as a tear fault

Joint GNSS-InSAR analysis of ground deformation on the eastern flank of Mount Etna. 

International audience<p>Mount Etna is located on eastern Sicily on the border of the collision zone between the Eurasia and Nubia plate. The regional geodynamic framework is characterized by two superimposed regional tectonic domains: a compressional one oriented N-S and an extensional one oriented approximately WNW-ESE. These two domains, together with the volcano-tectonic one, generated a tectonic system which is unique in the world. It exhibits a complex system of faults prevalently on the eastern flank of the volcano, which is the most complicated in terms of interaction between the tectonic, volcano and gravitational processes. The eastern flank of Mount Etna is the most active area of the volcano in terms of deformation and seismicity, because the deformation rates are at least one order of magnitude greater than the surrounding area, due to the eastwards sliding of this flank.</p><p>The monitoring and analysis of the high deformation occurring on the eastern flank of Mount Etna is the keystone for understanding the volcano-tectonic dynamics that, apart from the tectonic and volcanic processes, it is paramount relevant because involves the instability of this flank in a densely inhabited area. In this context the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia – Osservatorio Etneo (INGV-OE) created one of the most sophisticated and complete monitoring networks in the world in terms of number of multi-disciplinary station (seismic, geodetic, geochemistry). Since 2014, the GeoDynamic & GeoMatic Laboratory (GD&GM-LAB) of the University of Catania started to create many GNSS sub networks, belonging to the UNICT-Net, in order to determine the offsets occurring on the blocks of each fault of the eastern flank.</p><p>In order to have a complete analysis of deformation, INGV-OE and the GD&GM-LAB started to consider this area as an “open-air laboratory” where integrate GNSS and InSAR data with the twofold objective: to characterize the dynamic of this area for contributing to the volcanic hazard assessment and to identify precursor phenomena on shear structures analysing the relationship between kinematics, dynamics and volcano processes in the frame of the ATTEMPT INGV project.</p&gt

Nuclear matrix protein expression in prostate cancer: possible prognostic and diagnostic applications

summary:In this paper, some new results on complete convergence and complete moment convergence for sequences of pairwise negatively quadrant dependent random variables are presented. These results improve the corresponding theorems of S. X. Gan, P. Y. Chen (2008) and H. Y. Liang, C. Su (1999)

Sentinel-1 Interferometry and UAV Aerial Survey for Mapping Coseismic Ruptures: Mts. Sibillini vs. Mt. Etna Volcano

The survey and structural analysis of surface coseismic ruptures are essential tools for characterizing seismogenic structures. In this work, a procedure to survey coseismic ruptures using satellite interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data, directing the survey using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), is proposed together with a field validation of the results. The Sentinel-1 A/B Interferometric Wide (IW) Swath TOPSAR mode offers the possibility of acquiring images with a short revisit time. This huge amount of open data is extremely useful for geohazards monitoring, such as for earthquakes. Interferograms show the deformation field associated with earthquakes. Phase discontinuities appearing on wrapped interferograms or loss-of-coherence areas could represent small ground displacements associated with the fault’s ruptures. Low-altitude flight platforms such as UAV permit the acquisition of high resolution images and generate 3D spatial geolocalized clouds of data with centimeter-level accuracy. The generated topography maps and orthomosaic images are the direct products of this technology, allowing the possibility of analyzing geological structures from many viewpoints. We present two case studies. The first one is relative to the 2016 central Italian earthquakes, astride which the InSAR outcomes highlighted quite accurately the field displacement of extensional faults in the Mt. Vettore–M. Bove area. Here, the geological effect of the earthquake is represented by more than 35 km of ground ruptures with a complex pattern composed by subparallel and overlapping synthetic and antithetic fault splays. The second case is relative to the Mt. Etna earthquake of 26 December 2018, following which several ground ruptures were detected. The analysis of the unwrapped phase and the application of edge detector filtering and other discontinuity enhancers allowed the identification of a complex pattern of ground ruptures. In the Pennisi and Fiandaca areas different generation of ruptures can be distinguished, while previously unknown ruptures pertaining to the Acireale and Ragalna faults can be identify and analyzed