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Entrepreneurship, Markets and trade of migrants in Italy. The experience of the Naples area Migrants’ self-employment plays an important role in the transformation of the places of arrival. This is often produced by the need to overcome the blocking of social mobility due to the lack of migrants’ real opportunities and/or the recognition of their skills. This paper investigates the relationship between trade and entrepreneurship with regard to the migrant experience in the metropolitan area of Naples. It mainly focuses on the city centre of Naples providing some instantiations of more or less formalised market areas, as well as the concentration areas of entrepreneurial activity run by foreign workers. L’Esprit d’entreprise, les marchés et le commerce des migrants en Italie. L’expérience de l’aire urbaine de Naples L’auto-emploi des immigrés joue un rôle important dans la transformation des lieux d’arrivée. Il s’agit d’un mode d’accès au marché du travail généré par la nécessité de surmonter le blocage de la mobilité sociale en raison de l’absence de réelles opportunités pour les migrants et / ou la reconnaissance de leurs compétences. Cet article explore la relation entre le commerce et l’esprit d’entreprise, avec un accent particulier sur le commerce, en ce qui concerne l’expérience des migrants dans l’aire urbaine de Naples. Il se concentre principalement sur le centre de la ville de Naples, en fournissant les premières indications pour ces zones de marché plus ou moins formalisées, ainsi que les zones de concentration des activités commerciales gérées par les travailleurs étrangers., Semestrale di studi e ricerche di geografia, N. 2 (2017): Ripensare lo spazio sociale: reti, mobilità,territorialità

Over the last decade new voluntary mapping patterns are commonly known as VGI – Volunteered Geographic Information – that is, geo-localized information created voluntarily and consciously by web users. These are supported by platforms such as OpenStreetMap that have been shown in many emergency cases and not, a valid source of data, such detailed to be used for rescue operations. Another completely open source platform that has revolutionized the world of geographic information and how to make reports is Ushaidi that through interactive maps represents testimonies, reports, diaries, and citizen reports.

The contribution of natural sources to ambient air particulate matter (PM) concentrations is often not considered; however, it may be significant for certain areas and during specific periods of the year. In the framework of the AIRUSE-LIFE+ project, state-of-the-art methods have been employed for assessing the contribution of major natural sources (African dust, sea salt and forest fires) to PM concentrations, in southern European urban areas. 24h measurements of PM10 and PM2.5 mass and chemical composition were performed over the course of a year in five cities: Porto, Barcelona, Milan, Florence and Athens. Net African dust and sea-salt concentrations were calculated based on the methodologies proposed by the EC (SEC 2011/208). The contribution of uncontrolled forest fires was calculated through receptor modelling. Sensitivity analysis with respect to the calculation of African dust was also performed, in order to identify major parameters affecting the estimated net dust concentrations. African dust contribution to PM concentrations was more pronounced in the eastern Mediterranean, with the mean annual relative contribution to PM10 decreasing from 21% in Athens, to 5% in Florence, and around 2% in Milan, Barcelona and Porto. The respective contribution to PM2. 5 was calculated equal to 14% in Athens and from 1.3 to 2.4% in all other cities. High seasonal variability of contributions was observed, with dust transport events occurring at different periods in the western and eastern Mediterranean basin. Sea salt was mostly related to the coarse mode and also exhibited significant seasonal variability. Sea-salt concentrations were highest in Porto, with average relative contributions equal to 12.3% for PM10. Contributions from uncontrolled forest fires were quantified only for Porto and were low on an annual basis (1.4 and 1.9% to PM10 and PM2. 5, respectively); nevertheless, contributions were greatly increased during events, reaching 20 and 22% of 24h PM10 and PM2. 5 concentrations, respectively. © Author(s) 2017.

Last years experienced the growth of new technologies able to remotely monitor health state of persons. This includes both (even complex) Medical devices and all kind of wearable device. In addition, with the increasing use of Cloud technologies to manage and store sensitive data from patients, the problem of assuring data privacy is more and more important in E-Health systems. Privacy requirements in Medical domains are not only defined by service providers or users, but Legal rules regulate the whole management and storage processes of health records. The use of Model Driven techniques for E-Health systems is appealing especially if formal verification of privacy requirements is enacted. In this paper we extend the MetaMORP(h)OSY modelling profile in order to explicitly consider privacy requirements for data. A novel model transformation algorithm is described for the application of Model Checking techniques to privacy verification. © 2015, IIIA-CSIC. All rights reserved.

This study reports spatial and temporal variability of Zn and Cu isotopes in atmospheric particulate matter (PM) collected in two major European cities with contrasting atmospheric pollution, Barcelona and London. We demonstrate that non-traditional stable isotopes identify source contributions of Zn and Cu and can play a major role in future air quality studies. In Barcelona, fine PM were collected at street level at sites with variable traffic density. The isotopic signatures ranged between −0.13±0.09 and −0.55±0.09‰ for d66ZnIRMM and between +0.04±0.20 and +0.33±0.15‰ for d65CuAE633. Copper isotope signatures similar to Cu sulphides and Cu/Sb ratios within the range typically found in brake wear suggest that non-exhaust emissions from vehicles are dominant. Negative Zn isotopic signatures characteristic for gaseous emissions from smelting and combustion and large enrichments of Zn and Cd suggest contribution from metallurgical industries. In London, coarse PM collected on the top of a building over 18 months display isotope signatures ranging between +0.03±0.04 and +0.49±0.02‰ for d66ZnIRMM and between +0.37±0.17 and +0.97±0.21‰ for d65CuAE633. Heavy Cu isotope signatures (up to +0.97±0.21‰) and higher enrichments and Cu/Sb ratios during winter time suggest important contribution from fossil fuel combustion. The positive d66ZnIRMM signatures are in good agreement with signatures characteristic for ore concentrates used for the production of tires and galvanised materials, suggesting non-exhaust emissions from vehicles as the main source of Zn.

Scopo del lavoro To assess the correct number of lymph nodes (LNs) to removed at Radical Cystectomy (RC) to ensure an accurate lymph nodes metastasis (LNM) staging. Materiali e metodi Between 1995 and 2012, 1016 RC for bladder cancer (BCa) were completed at a single tertiary care institution. Demographical, clinical and pathological variables were recorded for each patient. The relationship between the number of removed LNs and the probability to find a LNI at definitive pathology examination was assessed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses. The ROC curve coordinates were used to graph the probability of finding LNI according to the number of LNs removed and examined with a sensibility of 90 and 95%. Risultati Among all patients who underwent RC, the prevalence of LNM was 35.7% (363 of 1016). T stage and grade, LVI, LND removed, type of BCa at last TUR and N Radiological Stage were strongly associated with the LNM (all p Discussione The objective of our study was to determine the minimum number of LND to remove during RC to maximize the probability to detect LNM. After assessed this for overall RC population we stratified for clinical and pathological variables in order to tailoring the extension of LN dissection. Conclusioni Our results confirms that an extend pelvic lymphadenectomy is needed in order to improve the sensibility of LNM staging. Considering the overall population, a minimum 28 nodes should be removed for achieving an adequate LNM staging (achieve 75% sensibility). In addition, more extended staging lymphadenectomy could be appropriate in selected cases in which, based on clinical information (such as pre operative CT scan) there are a low probability to have LNM.

Neurosurgical plannining and guidance improve treatment effects while minimizing the procedure invasiveness. In this context, the accurate identification of brain’s anatomical structures is a fundamental step for succesful surgery outcome. However, manual tissue identification is a time consuming process, not compatible with the clinical routine. Moreover, it suffers from inter- and intra-subjects variability, thus making weak the entire process. In this work, we tested a new multi atlas based segmentation algorithm for neurosurgery applications. The algorithm is part of an open source software, Plastimatch, featuring registration and label fusion capabilities. The procedure was tested on 8 brain’s structures (both left and right putamen, thalamus, hippocampus and caudate) of 20 healthy subjets. Segmentation quality was evaluated in terms of Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) and Hausdorff Distance (HD) between surface meshes. The ground truth was represented by manually drawn contours. The median value of DSC was generally higher than 0.80 (with the exception of hippocampus) and HD was lower than 2 mm. The inter-quartile variability for DSC and HD ranged respectively from 0.73 to 0.95 and from 0.90 mm to 2.24 mm. In the case of hippocampus the median±quartiles for DSC and HD were 0.78±0.04 and 1.83±0.37 mm respectively. Finally, the computation time was on average 32 minutes, allowing a feasible clinical usage. In conclusion, the proposed methodology is proved to be transferable into the clinical routine, in order to segment anatomical structures for neurosurgery planning and guidance.

Nonlinear dynamical systems theory is a suited framework to describe and analyse, rigorously, cellular state transitions. The basic idea is to represent cellular states as attractors of dynamical systems. However, due to the inherent complexity of biological networks, there is a lack of general methods for the characterisation of the parameters and state spaces of these mathematical models. This work presents a novel approach, based on the combination of several nonlinear analysis techniques, for the investigation of biological bistable switches. A crucial feature of the proposed approach is the capability to perform a robust analysis, i.e. it can take into account the uncertainty of biochemical parameters (deriving from interindividual variability) and the intrinsic environmental noise (which causes fluctuations of the species concentrations).

Aim of the study BCG maintenance for at least one year is advocated by urological guidelines as the best intravesical regimen in high-risk non muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), conservatively treated. Noteworthy, a relevant percentage of patients does not complete the planned treatment even if toxicity accounted for less that 10% of drop outs in recent multi-institutional trials. The aim of this study was to analyze the reasons for treatment interruption in everyday clinical practice. Materials and methods Consecutive patients affected by T1HG NMIBC undergoing conservative management with adjuvant BCG entered the study. The Connaught BCG strain was administered intravesically, at the dose of 81mg diluted in 50 ml of saline solution, according to the South West Oncology Group schedule for one year, starting 21-30 days after TUR. Toxicity and causes of treatment interruption were recorded. Results Between 2000 and 2012, intravesical BCG with 1-year maintenance regimen was proposed to 411 patients. Out of them, 380 (92,5%) completed the induction cycle and 308 (81%) started the maintenance. A total of 215 (52.3%) completed one year of treatment. Patients’ compliance decreased from 81% at 3 months to 56.6% at 12 months. Toxicity requiring treatment interruption was recorded in 25 (6.1%) patients only. In 60 patients (14.6%) a delay of one or more instillations was necessary. Noteworthy, grade-I toxicity, not requiring therapy interruption or delay on urologists’ judgment, was recorded in 193 (46.9%) cases. The retrospective nature of the study represents its major limit. Discussion Although one year BCG maintenance is recommended by both European Association of Urology (EAU) and National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), and indicated as the elective intravesical adjuvant regimen in intermediate- and high- risk NMIBC, conservatively treated, patients who complete the planned schedule doesn’t exceed 50%. According to recent literature BCG-related toxicity shouldn’t represent the major limiting fact. In the present experience, the high drop-out rate from treatment could be meanly attributable to grade-I toxicity underestimated by the urologists and to inadequate counselling. Conclusions Severe toxicity caused BCG interruption in a limited amount of cases. Almost 60% of treatment interruptions could be attributable to lack of patient’s counseling and low grade toxicity.

In situ measurements of ice crystal size distributions in tropical upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UT/LS) clouds were performed during the SCOUT-AMMA campaign over West Africa in August 2006. The cloud properties were measured with a Forward Scattering Spectrometer Probe (FSSP-100) and a Cloud Imaging Probe (CIP) operated aboard the Russian high altitude research aircraft M-55 Geophysica with the mission base in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. A total of 117 ice particle size distributions were obtained from the measurements in the vicinity of Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCS). Two to four modal lognormal size distributions were fitted to the average size distributions for different potential temperature bins. The measurements showed proportionately more large ice particles compared to former measurements above maritime regions. With the help of trace gas measurements of NO, NOy, CO2, CO, and O3 and satellite images, clouds in young and aged MCS outflow were identified. These events were observed at altitudes of 11.0 km to 14.2 km corresponding to potential temperature levels of 346 K to 356 K. In a young outflow from a developing MCS ice crystal number concentrations of up to (8.3 ± 1.6) cm−3 and rimed ice particles with maximum dimensions exceeding 1.5 mm were found. A maximum ice water content of 0.05 g m−3 was observed and an effective radius of about 90 μm. In contrast the aged outflow events were more diluted and showed a maximum number concentration of 0.03 cm−3, an ice water content of 2.3 × 10−4 g m−3, an effective radius of about 18 μm, while the largest particles had a maximum dimension of 61 μm. Close to the tropopause subvisual cirrus were encountered four times at altitudes of 15 km to 16.4 km. The mean ice particle number concentration of these encounters was 0.01 cm−3 with maximum particle sizes of 130 μm, and the mean ice water content was about 1.4 × 10−4 g m−3. All known in situ measurements of subvisual tropopause cirrus are compared and an exponential fit on the size distributions is established for modelling purposes. A comparison of aerosol to ice crystal number concentrations, in order to obtain an estimate on how many ice particles may result from activation of the present aerosol, yielded low ratios for the subvisual cirrus cases of roughly one cloud particle per 30 000 aerosol particles, while for the MCS outflow cases this resulted in a high ratio of one cloud particle per 300 aerosol particles.