Performances of the Italian seismic network, 1985-2002: the hidden thing

Seismic data users and people managing a sesimic network are both interested in the potentiality of the data, with the difference that the former look at stability, the second at improvements. In this work we measure the performances of the Italian Telemetered Seismic Network in 1985-2002 by defining basic significant parameters and studying their evolution during the years. Then, we deal with the geological methods used to characterise or to plan a seismic station deployment in a few cases. Last, we define the gain of the network as the percentage of located earthquakes with respect to the total recorded earthquakes. By analysing the distribution of non-located ("missed") earthquakes, we suggest possible actions to take in order to increase the gain. Results show that completeness magnitude is 2.4 in the average over the analysed period, and it can be as low as 2.2 when we consider non-located earthquakes as well. Parameters such as the distance between an earthquake and the closest station, and the RMS location decrease with time, reflecting improvements in the location quality. Methods for geologic and seismological characterisation of a possible station site also proved to be effective. Finally, we represent the number of missed earthquakes at each station, showing that nine stations control more that 50% of all missed earthquakes, and suggesting areas in Italy where the network might be easily improved.Comment: 17 pages, 1 table, 11 figures. Submitted to Annals of Geophysic

Recent seismicity of the «Acque Albule» travertine basin

The seismic period which occurred in a portion of Guidonia Montecelio and Tivoli territory, two towns situated about twenty kilometres NE of Rome, affected four areas with a high density of population: Guidonia, Collefiorito, Villalba and Bagni di Tivoli. Even though the events had a very low magnitude (less than 3.0), local phenomena, like rumbles and strong vibrations of the ground, frightened inhabitants also because some months before (January 26, 2001) in a village named Marcellina situated a few kilometres away from Guidonia, a large sinkhole (600 m) had appeared without fore signals. The «Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia» (INGV) installed some digital stations that monitored the seismic phenomena. This paper has the aim to process all the information acquired during the period, both from the micro and macro seismic point of view, in order to explain the phenomenology that involved the area. The synergy of the two methodologies lead us to the conclusion that two different seismotectonic structures originated the events, one in an anti-apenninic direction, the other in a N-S direction

Association between PaO2/FiO2 ratio and thrombotic events in COVID-19 patients

PaO2/FiO(2) (P/F ratio) is considered a marker of hypoxia/hypoxemia and mortality. Several prothrombotic changes are associated with the decrease of P/F ratio. The role of P/F ratio in patients with arterial and venous thrombosis remains unclear. The aim of this study was to assess in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the association between P/F ratio and arterial/venous thrombosis. One thousand and four hundred and six COVID-19 patients were recruited; 289 (21%) patients had P/F ratio < 200 and 1117 (79%) >= 200. Compared to the patients with P/F ratio >= 200, those with P/F ratio < 200 were older and with higher levels of glycemia, D-dimer and lower levels of albumin. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that albumin (standardized coefficient beta: 0.156; SE: 0.001; p = 0.0001) and D-dimer (standardized coefficient beta: -0.135; SE: 0.0001; p = 0.0001) were associated with P/F ratio. During the hospitalization 159 patients were transferred in intensive care unit (ICU), 253 patients died, 156 patients had arterial or venous thrombotic events. A bivariate logistic analysis was performed to analyze the predictors of thrombosis in COVID-19 patients; P/F ratio < 200 (Odds Ratio: [OR] 1.718, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.085-2.718, p = 0.021), albumin (OR 1.693, 95% CI 1.055-2.716, p = 0.029), D-dimer (OR 3.469, 95% CI 2.110-5.703, p < 0.0001), coronary artery disease (CAD) (OR 1.800, 95% CI 1.086-2.984, p = 0.023) and heart failure (OR 2.410 95% CI 1.385-4.193, p = 0.002) independently predicted thrombotic events in this population. This study suggests that the P/F ratio is associated with thrombotic events by promoting a hypercoagulation state in patients hospitalized for COVID-19

Bollettino Sismico Italiano: Analisys of Early Aftershocks of the 2016 MW 6.0 Amatrice, MW 5.9 Visso and MW 6.5 Norcia earthquakes in Central Italy

The Amatrice-Visso-Norcia seismic sequence is the most important of the last 30 years in Italy. The seismic sequence started on 24 August, 2016 and still is ongoing in central Apennines. At the end of February 2017 more than 57,000 events were located, 80,000 events up to the end of September 2017 (Fig. 1). The mainshocks of the sequence occurred on 24 August 2016 (Mw 6.0 and Mw 5.4), 26 October 2016 (Mw 5.4 and Mw 5.9), 30 October 2016 (Mw 6.5), 18 January 2017 (four earthquakes Mw≥ 5.0). In this seismic sequence, all the waveforms recorded by temporary stations deployed by the SISMIKO emergency group (stations T12**; Moretti et al., 2016) where available in real- time at the surveillance room of INGV. Because of the high level of seismicity and the dense seismic network installed in the region, more than 150 events per day were located at the end of February 2017; still 60 events per day were located up to the end of August 2017.The Amatrice-Visso-Norcia is the most important seismic sequence since 2015, the time when the analysis procedures of the BSI group (Bollettino Sismico Italiano) were revised (Nardi et al., 2015). BSI is now available every four months on the web: bulletins contain revised earthquakes (location and magnitude) with ML≥ 1.5, quasi-real time revision of ML≥ 3.5 earthquakes and phase arrivals from waveforms recorded on seismic stations available from the European Integrated Data Archive (EIDA), (Mazza et al., 2012). These last procedures allow the integration of signals from temporary seismic stations (Moretti et al., 2014) installed by the emergency group SISMIKO (Moretti and Sismiko working group, 2016), even when they are not in real time transmission, if they are rapidly archived in EIDA, together with real time signals from the seismic stations of the permanent INGV network. The analysis strategy of the BSI group for the Amatrice -Visso - Norcia seismic sequence (AVN.s.s in the following) was to select the earthquakes located in the box with min/max latitude: 42.2/43.2 - and min/max longitude: 12.4/14.1 to prepare a special volume of BSI on the seismic sequence.PublishedTrieste, Italy1SR. TERREMOTI - Servizi e ricerca per la Societ

Meta-analysis of gene–environment-wide association scans accounting for education level identifies additional loci for refractive error

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Myopia is the most common human eye disorder and it results from complex genetic and environmental causes. The rapidly increasing prevalence of myopia poses a major public health challenge. Here, the CREAM consortium performs a joint meta-analysis to test single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) main effects and SNP × education interaction effects on refractive error in 40,036 adults from 25 studies of European ancestry and 10,315 adults from 9 studies of Asian ancestry. In European ancestry individuals, we identify six novel loci (FAM150B-ACP1, LINC00340, FBN1, DIS3L-MAP2K1, ARID2-SNAT1 and SLC14A2) associated with refractive error. In Asian populations, three genome-wide significant loci AREG, GABRR1 and PDE10A also exhibit strong interactions with education (P<8.5 × 10(-5)), whereas the interactions are less evident in Europeans. The discovery of these loci represents an important advance in understanding how gene and environment interactions contribute to the heterogeneity of myopia

Genome-wide meta-analysis of myopia and hyperopia provides evidence for replication of 11 loci

Refractive error (RE) is a complex, multifactorial disorder characterized by a mismatch between the optical power of the eye and its axial length that causes object images to be focused off the retina. The two major subtypes of RE are myopia (nearsightedness) and hyperopia (farsightedness), which represent opposite ends of the distribution of the quantitative measure of spherical refraction. We performed a fixed effects meta-analysis of genome-wide association results of myopia and hyperopia from 9 studies of European-derived populations: AREDS, KORA, FES, OGP-Talana, MESA, RSI, RSII, RSIII and ERF. One genome-wide significant region was observed for myopia, corresponding to a previously identified myopia locus on 8q12 (p = 1.25610-8), which has been reported by Kiefer et al. as significantly associated with myopia age at onset and Verhoeven et al. as significantly associated to mean spherical-equivalent (MSE) refractive error. We observed two genomewide significant association

Genome-wide association study in 176,678 Europeans reveals genetic loci for tanning response to sun exposure

The skin's tendency to sunburn rather than tan is a major risk factor for skin cancer. Here we report a large genome-wide association study of ease of skin tanning in 176,678 subjects of European ancestry. We identify significant associa

Childhood gene-environment interactions and age-dependent effects of genetic variants associated with refractive error and myopia : The CREAM Consortium

Myopia, currently at epidemic levels in East Asia, is a leading cause of untreatable visual impairment. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in adults have identified 39 loci associated with refractive error and myopia. Here, the age-of-onset of association between genetic variants at these 39 loci and refractive error was investigated in 5200 children assessed longitudinally across ages 7-15 years, along with gene-environment interactions involving the major environmental risk-factors, nearwork and time outdoors. Specific variants could be categorized as showing evidence of: (a) early-onset effects remaining stable through childhood, (b) early-onset effects that progressed further with increasing age, or (c) onset later in childhood (N = 10, 5 and 11 variants, respectively). A genetic risk score (GRS) for all 39 variants explained 0.6% (P = 6.6E-08) and 2.3% (P = 6.9E-21) of the variance in refractive error at ages 7 and 15, respectively, supporting increased effects from these genetic variants at older ages. Replication in multi-ancestry samples (combined N = 5599) yielded evidence of childhood onset for 6 of 12 variants present in both Asians and Europeans. There was no indication that variant or GRS effects altered depending on time outdoors, however 5 variants showed nominal evidence of interactions with nearwork (top variant, rs7829127 in ZMAT4; P = 6.3E-04).Peer reviewe

European and multi-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of atopic dermatitis highlights importance of systemic immune regulation

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common inflammatory skin condition and prior genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 71 associated loci. In the current study we conducted the largest AD GWAS to date (discovery N = 1,086,394, replication N = 3,604,027), combining previously reported cohorts with additional available data. We identified 81 loci (29 novel) in the European-only analysis (which all replicated in a separate European analysis) and 10 additional loci in the multi-ancestry analysis (3 novel). Eight variants from the multi-ancestry analysis replicated in at least one of the populations tested (European, Latino or African), while two may be specific to individuals of Japanese ancestry. AD loci showed enrichment for DNAse I hypersensitivity and eQTL associations in blood. At each locus we prioritised candidate genes by integrating multi-omic data. The implicated genes are predominantly in immune pathways of relevance to atopic inflammation and some offer drug repurposing opportunities.</p

Bollettino Sismico Italiano: settembre - dicembre 2015

Nel terzo quadrimestre 2015 si sono verificati 5 terremoti con M>4 nel territorio Italiano. In particolare il 14 ed il 16 ottobre si sono verificati due eventi profondi del basso Tirreno il primo con M=4.2 a 300 km di profondità, il secondo con M=4.4 a circa 250 km di profondità. Due terremoti M4.2 e M4.4 sono avvenuti il 6 dicembre nel Mar Adriatico a nord delle Isole Tremiti. Associati a questi si sono verificati alcuni eventi di magnitudo sopra a 3.5: si è trattata di una vera e propria sequenza sismica durata pochi giorni. L’ultimo evento di magnitudo superiore a 4 si è verificato a NE di Palermo nel basso Tirreno il 20 dicembre con una M=4.2. E’ infine da segnalare un terremoto con M = 4.8 che si è verificato il 1 Novembre in Slovenia, al confine con la Croazia.Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia - Dipartimento di Protezione CivilePublished4IT. Banche dat