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Assessment of sea-level variability for the Emilia-Romagna coastal area in the framework of the Mediterranean Sea
Get PDFSea–level change is one of the ocean characteristics closely connected to climate change. Understanding its variation is essential since a large portion of the world’s population is located in low–lying locations. Two main techniques are employed to measure sea level: satellite altimetry and tide gauges. Satellite altimetry monitors sea–level relative to a geocentric reference, is unaffected by crustal processes and covers nearly the entire surface of the oceans since 1993. Conversely, tide gauges measure sea level at specific coastal locations and relative to a local ground benchmark, therefore are impacted by vertical land movements. In this study, the linear and non–linear geocentric and relative sea–level trends along the Emilia–Romagna coast (Northern Italy) have been analyzed over different periods. In order to assess the local sea–level variability, data from satellite altimetry and tide gauges have been compared over a common time interval (1993–2019), hence disentangling the contribute of vertical land movements. Non–linearity has been also evaluated at the broader scale of the Mediterranean Sea, in order to depict the main variability in geocentric sea–level trends from regional to sub–basin scale. Furthermore, the anthropogenic and natural influence at the river basin scale has been addressed, in order to shed light on the factors inducing the drastic reduction of riverine sediment supply to the Emilia–Romagna coast over the period 1920–2020. The findings of this analysis indicate that the sediment delivery reduction to the coast by rivers has been driven by several anthropogenic processes, acting on various spatiotemporal scales. Moreover, the local absolute sea–level trend is far from linear and appear "contaminated" by the presence of natural oscillations that act at the multi–decadal, quasi–decadal and inter–annual scale, mainly driven by both large–scale climatic modes and variations in local oceanography
Transcatheter and surgical treatment of the severe aortic valve stenosis in Hesperia Hospital Modena in the second decade of the twenty-first century
Get PDFScopo Confrontare il trattamento transcatetere (TAVI) balloon-expandable con il trattamento chirurgico di sostituzione valvolare aortica (AVR) della stenosi valvolare aortica severa (SVAS) nella pratica clinica real world.
Materiali e metodi Nel decennio 2010-2020, 1486 pazienti con SVAS isolata sono stati sottoposti a AVR (n=1049) o TAVI balloon-expandable (n=437) presso Hesperia Hospital Modena. Sono stati analizzati la Mortality nell’intera popolazione e gli episodi di ricovero cardiovascolare nei 5 anni precedenti e durante il follow-up nella popolazione residente in Emilia Romagna (n=1196) al momento della procedura (AVR n=879, TAVI balloon-expandable n=317).
Risultati La popolazione TAVI è risultata mediamente più anziana di quella AVR (età media 82.2 vs. 72.7 anni) e maggiormente gravata da comorbidità. L’In-hospital mortality è stata del 1.4% nella AVR e 2.1% nella TAVI (pNS). La sopravvivenza a 5 anni è stata del 85.74% nella AVR e del 59.45% nella TAVI, con la TAVI come fattore predittivo di All-cause mortality (HR 1.44 95%CI 1.14-1.82). La riospedalizzazione per Heart Failure a 5 anni è stata del 20.6% per AVR e 51.3% per TAVI, con dialisi preoperatoria (HR 5.67 95%CI 3.06-10.49) come principale fattore predittivo. Il tasso di All Stroke a 5 anni è stato del 3.7% nella AVR e del 7.5% nella TAVI, con fibrillazione atriale preoperatoria come principale fattore predittivo (HR 1.91 95%CI 1.06-3.45). Il tasso di angioplastica coronarica percutanea (PCI) a 5 anni è stato del 3.1% sia nella AVR che nella TAVI, con previous PCI come principale fattore predittivo (HR 4.86 95%CI 2.57-9.21). L’impianto di pacemaker a 30 giorni è stato del 2.9% nella AVR e 3.4% nella TAVI (pNS).
Conclusioni Nella pratica clinica real-world 2010-2020 di un centro cardiochirurgico a medio volume, la TAVI balloon-expandable ha mostrato una eccellente performance a 30 giorni in confronto con la AVR, che invece ha evidenziato una migliore performance durante follow-up.Aim Compare the balloon-expandable transcatheter treatment (TAVI) with the surgical treatment [Aortic Valve Replacement (AVR)] for severe aortic valve stenosis (SAVS) in the real world clinical practice.
Materials and Methods Between 2010-2020, 1486 consecutive patients with isolated SAVS underwent AVR (n=1049) o balloon-expandable TAVI (n=437) in Hesperia Hospital Modena. In-hospital and long-term mortality in the overall population as well as cardiovascular hospital admissions in the previous 5 years and during follow-up in patients living in Emilia Romagna when AVR (n=879) and balloon-expandable TAVI (n=317) were performed, were detected.
Results TAVI population was older than AVR patients (mean age 82.2 vs. 72.7 years) and with more comorbidities. In-hospital mortality was 1.4% after AVR and 2.1% after TAVI (pNS). Five-year survival was 85.74% after AVR and 59.45% after TAVI, with TAVI as predictive factor of All-cause mortality (HR 1.44 95%CI 1.14-1.82). Five-year re-hospitalization due to Heart Failure was 20.6% after AVR and 51.3% after TAVI, with preoperative dialysis (HR 5.67 95%CI 3.06-10.49) as main predictive factor. Five-year All Stroke rate was 3.7% after AVR and 7.5% after TAVI, with preoperative atrial fibrillation as main predictive factor (HR 1.91 95%CI 1.06-3.45). Five-year Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) was 3.1% after both AVR and TAVI, with previous PCI as main predictive factor (HR 4.86 95%CI 2.57-9.21). Thirty-day pacemaker implantation rate was 2.9% after AVR and 3.4% after TAVI (pNS).
Conclusions In the real world 2010-2020 clinical practice of a single medium volume cardiac center, the balloon-expandable TAVI showed an excellent 30-day performance in comparison to the AVR, which instead provided a better performance during the follow-up
The spatial association of numbers and mathematical symbols
Get PDFThe "SNARC effect" refers to the finding that people respond faster to small numbers with the left hand and to large numbers with the right hand. This effect is often explained by hypothesizing that numbers are represented from left to right in ascending order (Mental Number Line). However, the SNARC effect may not depend on quantitative information, but on other factors such as the order in which numbers are often represented from left to right in our culture. Four experiments were performed to test this hypothesis. In the first experiment, the concept of spatial association was extended to nonnumeric mathematical symbols: the minus and plus symbols. These symbols were presented as fixation points in a spatial compatibility paradigm. The results demonstrated an opposite influence of the two symbols on the target stimulus: the minus symbol tends to favor the target presented on the left, while the plus symbol the target presented on the right, demonstrating that spatial association can emerge in the absence of a numerical context.
In the last three experiments, the relationship between quantity and order was evaluated using normal numbers and mirror numbers. Although mirror numbers denote quantity, they are not encountered in a left-to-right spatial organization. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants performed a magnitude classification task with mirror and normal numbers presented together (Experiment 1) or separately (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, participants performed a new task in which quantity information processing was not required: the mirror judgment task. The results show that participants access the quantity of both normal and mirror numbers, but only the normal numbers are spatially organized from left to right. In addition, the physical similarity between the numbers, used as a predictor variable in the last three experiments, showed that the physical characteristics of numbers influenced participants' reaction times
Big Data approaches as a support for precision livestock farming techniques
Get PDFWith the advent of new technologies it is increasingly easier to find data of different nature from even more accurate sensors that measure the most disparate physical quantities and with different methodologies. The collection of data thus becomes progressively important and takes the form of archiving, cataloging and online and offline consultation of information. Over time, the amount of data collected can become so relevant that it contains information that cannot be easily explored manually or with basic statistical techniques. The use of Big Data therefore becomes the object of more advanced investigation techniques, such as Machine Learning and Deep Learning. In this work some applications in the world of precision zootechnics and heat stress accused by dairy cows are described. Experimental Italian and German stables were involved for the training and testing of the Random Forest algorithm, obtaining a prediction of milk production depending on the microclimatic conditions of the previous days with satisfactory accuracy. Furthermore, in order to identify an objective method for identifying production drops, compared to the Wood model, typically used as an analytical model of the lactation curve, a Robust Statistics technique was used. Its application on some sample lactations and the results obtained allow us to be confident about the use of this method in the future
Triple combination therapy in pulmonary arterial hypertension
Get PDFPulmonary arterial hypertension is a severe disease characterized by increasing in pulmonary vascular resistance leading to right ventricular failure and death. Currently available drugs for treatment of PAH act on three different pathways responsible of the pathogenesis of this disease: the endothelin pathway, the nitric oxide pathway and the prostacyclin pathway.
The purpose of our study was to reassess our experience on the use of drugs that interact on the pathobiological line of prostacyclin so we retrospectively included all patients, referred to our center from February 1995 to December 2021, who received therapy with i.v. Epoprostenol, s.c. Treprostinil or oral Selexipag.
Firstly, we observed that patients treated with Epoprostenol were significantly more compromised at baseline when compared to the two other groups and evaluating the effects of the three different drugs, it emerged that patients treated with Epoprostenol had significantly greater improvements in respect to those treated with Treprostinil and Selexipag.
In the second part of our analysis we assessed the effects of these drugs when used as third line strategy in order to limit many confounding factors that could influence demographic, clinical and hemodynamic characteristics of patient populations. The differences emerged in exercise capacity and baseline hemodynamics reflect the fact that in our clinical practice, we add Epoprostenol as third line therapy in more compromised patients, Treprostinil in intermediate situations and Selexipag in less impaired conditions. Comparing the effects of treatments between baseline and first follow-up we noticed smaller benefits with Selexipag when compared with intravenous and subcutaneous strategies but it’s important to weight baseline patient’s differences. Our analysis confirmed clinical and functional benefits for the use of both prostacyclin analogues and prostacyclin receptor agonists in terms of improved functional class, six-minute walking distance and cardiopulmonary hemodynamics
Development of machine learning methods for multi-modal biomarkers detection and integration
Get PDFIn medicine, innovation depends on a better knowledge of the human body mechanism, which represents a complex system of multi-scale constituents. Unraveling the complexity underneath diseases proves to be challenging. A deep understanding of the inner workings comes with dealing with many heterogeneous information. Exploring the molecular status and the organization of genes, proteins, metabolites provides insights on what is driving a disease, from aggressiveness to curability. Molecular constituents, however, are only the building blocks of the human body and cannot currently tell the whole story of diseases. This is why nowadays attention is growing towards the contemporary exploitation of multi-scale information. Holistic methods are then drawing interest to address the problem of integrating heterogeneous data. The heterogeneity may derive from the diversity across data types and from the diversity within diseases. Here, four studies conducted data integration using customly designed workflows that implement novel methods and views to tackle the heterogeneous characterization of diseases. The first study devoted to determine shared gene regulatory signatures for onco-hematology and it showed partial co-regulation across blood-related diseases. The second study focused on Acute Myeloid Leukemia and refined the unsupervised integration of genomic alterations, which turned out to better resemble clinical practice. In the third study, network integration for artherosclerosis demonstrated, as a proof of concept, the impact of network intelligibility when it comes to model heterogeneous data, which showed to accelerate the identification of new potential pharmaceutical targets. Lastly, the fourth study introduced a new method to integrate multiple data types in a unique latent heterogeneous-representation that facilitated the selection of important data types to predict the tumour stage of invasive ductal carcinoma. The results of these four studies laid the groundwork to ease the detection of new biomarkers ultimately beneficial to medical practice and to the ever-growing field of Personalized Medicine
Comportamento del consumatore: concettualizzazione, sviluppo, e validazione di una scala sull'equità delle filiere agro-alimentari
Get PDFAlthough there is broad agreement on the need to transition to a fairer agro-food system, consumer potential in shaping a fair food system has often been overlooked.
There is no unique definition of the concept of fairness from the consumer’s perspective. In addition, there are no scales in the academic literature that address fairness in its broad sense, as the existing scales focus on specific and limited aspects that provide a partial picture of the concept. Lack of a true and trustworthy measurement of the notion has been a significant barrier to the knowledge of fairness in agro-food systems from the individual-differences perspective. The individual-differences perspective helps explain why some individuals are more likely than others to put emphasis on the extent to which agro-food chains are fair. Individual consumer perception of an ethical problem is followed by the perception of various alternatives that might lead to a solution. Therefore, the current research intends to make two significant contributions by resolving these constraints. First, advance the literature by providing a new viewpoint to understand fairness in the agro-food chain. Indeed, the research provides a comprehensive conceptualisation of fairness that embraces different aspects of fairness and describes the concept in all its facets and nuances. Second, the research provides a valid, reliable, and invariant measurement of the individual disposition toward fairness in agro-food chains by rooting the items in the theoretical underpinnings of the fairness literature. Overall, this research provides a comprehensive suite of approaches and tools to enhance the resilience, integrity and sustainability of agro-food chains.Sebbene vi sia un ampio consenso sulla necessità di passare a un sistema agroalimentare più equo, il potenziale dei consumatori nel dare forma a un sistema alimentare equo è stato spesso sottovalutato.
Non esiste una definizione unica del concetto di equità dal punto di vista del consumatore. Inoltre, nella letteratura accademica, non esistono scale che affrontino il tema dell'equità in senso generale; le scale esistenti infatti si concentrano su aspetti specifici e limitati che forniscono un quadro solo parziale del concetto. La mancanza di una misurazione reale e affidabile del concetto, ha rappresentato un ostacolo significativo alla conoscenza dell'equità nei sistemi agroalimentari dalla prospettiva del singolo. La prospettiva individuale aiuta a spiegare perché alcuni individui sono più propensi di altri a porre l'accento sulla misura in cui le filiere agroalimentari sono eque. La percezione di un problema etico da parte del singolo consumatore è seguita dalla percezione di varie alternative che potrebbero portare a una soluzione. Pertanto, la presente ricerca intende apportare due contributi significativi risolvendo questi vincoli. In primo luogo, far progredire la letteratura fornendo un nuovo punto di vista per comprendere l'equità nella catena agroalimentare. Infatti, la ricerca fornisce una concettualizzazione completa dell'equità che abbraccia diversi aspetti dell'equità e descrive il concetto in tutte le sue sfaccettature e sfumature. In secondo luogo, la ricerca fornisce una misura valida, affidabile e invariante della disposizione individuale verso l'equità nelle catene agroalimentari, radicando gli item dei questionari nei fondamenti teorici della letteratura sul tema. Nel complesso, questa ricerca fornisce una serie completa di approcci e strumenti per migliorare la resilienza, l'integrità e la sostenibilità delle filiere agroalimentari
Identification of potential miRNAs related to classification and treatment response of actinic keratosis
Get PDFThe Workflow activity was the following: Preliminary phase: Identification of 18 Formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) samples (9 patients) («matched» 9 AK lesions and 9 SCC lesions). Working on biopsies samples we perform an extraction and RNA analysis with droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR) and we perform the data analysis. Second and final step phase: Evaluation of additional 39 subjects (36 men and 3 women). Results: We perform an evaluation and comparison of the following miRNA: miR-320 (a miRNA involved in apoptosis and cell proliferation control; miR-204, a miRNA involved in cell proliferation in and miRNA-16-5p, a miRNA involved in apoptosis).Conclusion: Our data suggest that there is no significant variation in the expression of the three tested microRNAs between adjacent AK lesions and squamous-cell carcinoma. However, a relevant trend has been observed Furthermore, by evaluating the miRNA expression trend between keratosis and carcinoma of the same patient, it is observed that there is no "uniform trend": for some samples the expression rises for the transition from AK to SCC and viceversa
Experimenting with the role of performance of hygiene and motivators on customer satisfaction: studying the temporal effect
Get PDFMarketers continuously attempt to identify important attributes and innovate in order to understand how attribute performance could lead to customer satisfaction in the short term and in the long term. Understanding the impact of customer satisfaction may offer a competitive edge to companies. Researchers are discussing the importance of performance attributes in leading to satisfaction; however, there is no clear understanding of whether an attribute that leads to satisfaction at one time (e.g., short run) can cause it also in the long run, without excluding the possibility that it could lead to dissatisfaction and no satisfaction. The present research tries to understand anomalies related to asymmetric attribute performance and satisfaction over time with the help of Herzberg's (1967) Two-Factor Theory (TFT) and construal level theory (CLT). More precisely, there are main purposes of this dissertation. First, the present research tries to understand whether positive or negative hygiene attribute performance and motivator attribute factors exert different weights on overall customer satisfaction depending on the time elapsed from the service experience. Second, to test if positive or negative hygiene/motivator attribute performance affect to revisit intention and to word of mouth by considering mediating role of satisfaction. The results reveal that in the near past (NP) experience, the positive performance of hygiene concrete attributes creates a differential effect on overall satisfaction higher than the negative performance of hygiene concrete attributes. Results also confirmed mediating role of satisfaction in the relationship between attribute performance and revisit intention for near past condition but not for distant past. Likewise significant relationship was found for the mediating role of satisfaction in the relationship between attribute performance and word of mouth (WOM) for near past condition but not for distant past
Productive soil. Beyond the “zone”, towards strategies for reterritorialising activity sites
Get PDFDepuis 70 ans, les outils de planification des zones dédiées aux activités productives (Zones industrielles, Zones d’activités économiques, etc.) ont produit des espaces déconnectés des spécificités physiques et sociales du territoire, et ont participé à réduire le sol à un support de production soumis en premier lieu à des logiques de marché. Aujourd’hui, nous constatons l’inadéquation de ces outils avec leur objectif : le développement du territoire. L’ambition de la thèse est de réfléchir à une démarche alternative qui permet d’envisager des outils de planification capables d’instaurer une relation de maintien et de valorisation des ressources territoriales.
Face à un aménagement des activités productives inadéquat au développement durable du territoire, la thèse propose de retracer une généalogie de la démarche « territorialiste » qui vise à établir une relation synergique entre la production et les ressources territoriales. Une démarche « Eutopique » de retour au territoire qui, en prenant en compte le lien indissociable entre défis sociaux et environnementaux, permet d’un côté de rétablir une relation aux ressources naturelles et d’en respecter les cycles et les rythmes écologiques, et de l’autre d’identifier des éléments de réponse à la crise sociale.
Suite à une introduction critique du rapport que les activités productives établissent avec le territoire, le raisonnement se développe en quatre parties :
Les trois premières parties suivent une approche généalogique et montrent comment les concepts de cette démarche ont évolué et se sont transformées en s’adaptant à différents contextes, et répondant à la question de pourquoi et comment ces transferts théoriques ont vu le jour. Dans la quatrième partie de la thèse est retracée l’influence et le développement original que cette démarche trouve aujourd’hui en France : l’objectif est celui d’ouvrir sur des stratégies pour envisager un système productif capable de développer le territoire dans le temps long.For 70 years, planning tools for sites dedicated to productive activities have produced zones that are disconnected from the specific physical and social characteristics of the area and have contributed to reducing the land to a mere production medium subject primarily to market logic. Today, one can see that these tools are no longer in line with their goal: the development of the territory. This thesis aims to consider an alternative approach, one that would enable us to envision planning tools capable of establishing a relationship that maintains and enhances territorial resources.
Faced with the inadequacy of the planning of productive activities for a sustainable development of the territory, the thesis proposes to trace the genealogy of the 'territorialist' strategy that aims to establish a synergistic relationship between production and territorial resources. The hypothesis is that, by taking into account the inseparable link between social and environmental challenges, this 'Eutopic' approach of a return to the territory allows, on the one hand, to establish once again a relationship with natural resources and respect their ecological cycles and rhythms, and, on the other, to identify paths to respond to the social crisis.
Following a critical introduction on the relationship that productive activities establish with the territory, the reasoning develops in four parts:
The first three parts follow a genealogical approach and show how the concepts of this approach have evolved and been transformed by adapting to different contexts, and answer the question of how and why these theoretical transfers came about. Finally, the fourth part of the thesis traces the influence and original development of this approach in France today, looking forward: the aim of this last part is to open up strategies for envisioning a productive system capable of developing the territory in the long run