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This paper presents a comprehensive geological and geotechnical study of the whole area affected by liquefaction following the 2012 Emilia earthquakes, including all the available information from the field reconnaissance surveys, in situ tests, and laboratory analyses. The compilation was performed at 120 liquefied sites to verify and validate the reliability of liquefaction charts in alluvial sediments, and to assess liquefaction induced by the 2012 seismic sequence in the Emilia plain. The results reveal a wide range of grain sizes (from clean sands to sandy silts) and compositional characteristics (quartz-rich to litharenitic) in the 2012 ejecta, and show a strong relationship between the liquefaction and stratigraphic architecture of the subsurface. The availability of in situ tests at the liquefied sites makes it possible to verify and validate the reliability of the liquefaction charts in alluvial sediments with respect to the real observations. For the analyzed Emilia case studies, the use of non-liquefiable crust provides better estimations of the liquefaction manifestations when coupled with the thickness of the liquefiable layer rather than with the liquefaction potential index. Altogether, this work makes available to the international scientific community a consistent liquefaction database for in-depth earthquake studies.

Background Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at high risk of adverse events and are complicated to manage. There is little evidence on the effects of non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants in patients with severe CKD. Preliminary data in patients taking edoxaban whose creatinine clearance fell below 30 mL/min showed a low risk of stroke and major bleeding. The aim of our study is to test the safety of edoxaban 30 mg/day in patients with severe renal impairment with an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) Methods We analyzed retrospective data from 46 patients who had documented AF with severe renal impairment (eGFR Results All patients included were treated with Edoxaban for atrial fibrillation. At the time of the data collection, the mean follow-up in valvular patients was 24±2 months. There were no major bleedings, strokes, transitory ischemic event, systemic embolisms, or cardiovascular deaths were been reported. 3 (12.5%) cases of minor bleeding was reported. The complication rate of the patients in dialysis are the same than the atrial fibrillation population without any statistical differences (1.39% vs 1,37%, p: 0.96). Conclusion The use of Edoxaban in dialysis and atrial fibrillation seems safe and effective. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.

While the moving load problem has received a lot of attention in the context of bridges traversed by road or rail vehicles, the same cannot be said about ship unloaders where research is limited and typically focused on displacements. In ship unloaders, the moving system is composed of a trolley, attached grab, and payload. The interaction between the moving system and the lifting boom on which the trolley travels can lead to high stresses. Given that the stress ranges and associated number of cycles experienced by a section of the lifting boom determine its fatigue life, these stresses must be assessed as accurately as possible. For this purpose, dynamic transient analysis of the effects of a payload-carrying trolley moving along the boom is carried out using an equivalent planar finite element model. Results show how bending stresses are affected by the inertial forces of the structure and the moving load, the ratio of the mass of the load to the mass of the boom, the flexibility of the moving system, and the payload mass and its swing angle.

The first mainshock (Mw 6.0) of the 2016 Central Italy seismic sequence, severely struck the Amatrice village and the surrounding localities. After few days, some Italian Institutions, coordinated by the "Center for Seismic Microzonation and its applications", carried out several preparatory activities for seismic microzonation of the area. A temporary seismic network was installed that monitored about 50 sites in epicentral area. The network produced a huge amount of records in a wide range of magnitude up to Mw 6.5. For about half of the recording stations, detailed site characterization was undertaken, encompassing singlestation noise measurements and S-wave velocity profiles. The geological and geophysical data together with the collected dataset of seismic signals were exploited to investigate the site response of selected stations. Significant amplifications are found in correspondence of several sites that experienced high level of damage (Imcs >IX), mainly at short and intermediate periods.

Si presentano le attività di acquisizione dei dati ed i risultati delle indagini geofsiche effettuate nell'area del territorio comunale di Amatrice in seguito al terremoto del 2016 che ha colpito i territori delle Marche, Abruzzo, Umbria e Lazio. Le indagini geofsiche sono effettuate nell'ambito delle attività per gli studi propedeutici alla Microzonazione Sismica di livello 3 (MS3) (ICMS, 2008) e che rientrano nelle attività previste dalle diverse ordinanze del Commissario di Governo a partire dal settembre 2016. Le attività di indagine hanno visto coinvolti diversi gruppi di lavoro appartenenti a diverse istituzioni: gli istituti IGAG, IDPA e IMAA del CNR, l'Istituto Nazionale di Geofsica e Vulcanologia, il Politecnico di Milano e l'Università di Firenze.

Agli inizi del 2015, su iniziativa del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Dipartimento Scienze del Sistema Terra e Tecnologie per l'Ambiente (CNR DTA), è stato costituito il Centro per la Microzonazione Sismica e le sue applicazioni, CentroMS, che coinvolge Istituti CNR, Enti di Ricerca e Dipartimenti universitari. Il CentroMS nasce con l'obiettivo principale di fornire supporto scientifico e tecnico ai soggetti istituzionalmente interessati alla microzonazione sismica e alle sue applicazioni, con particolare riferimento alla pianificazione urbanistica e alle problematiche geologiche, geotecniche e geofisiche connesse all'emergenza sismica. Il CentroMS si propone di realizzare i suoi obiettivi attraverso: 1) lo sviluppo di metodologie e aggiornamenti sugli studi di microzonazione sismica e sulle sue applicazioni; 2) la promozione di formazione teorica e operativa; 3) la fornitura di supporto tecnico scientifico per la realizzazione e il coordinamento degli studi; 4) la promozione dell'informazione ai soggetti interessati e ai cittadini. Oltre alle attività di prevenzione, il CentroMS offre le proprie competenze per il coordinamento e la gestione delle attività di misura e studio nella fase di prima emergenza, al DPC e alle altre Istituzioni che ne richiedessero l'intervento. A tale scopo, il CentroMS è in grado di rendere rapidamente disponibili mezzi di trasporto, un numero ragguardevole di strumenti per misure e registrazioni, nonché una rete di laboratori geofisici distribuiti su tutto il territorio nazionale.

A three-component digital seismic network has been installed along central Apennines since the end of 1991. Two seismic sequences having main shocks of magnitudes 3.9 and 3.7 were recorded in August 1992 and June 1994, respectively. A detailed analysis of these sequences, including multiplet relocation, fault-plane solutions and source parameter estimation, is performed in the present paper. A correlation analysis allowed us to recognize a number of correlated events in the two sequences which were used for relative locations using a master event technique. This analysis allowed to obtain a better alignment of epicentral data along two almost orthogonal directions, following an Apenninic and an anti-Apenninic trend. For the two sequences, fault-plane solutions were evaluated by using a first arrival technique, resulting in mechanisms with predominant normal faulting for the 1992 and 1994 swarms. S-wave polarization analysis allowed to check the stability of the previous solutions and to reduce their range of uncertainty. The same technique was also applied to derive the composite fault-plane solutions from the aftershocks, resulting in solutions which are in good agreement with those derived from the main shocks of both sequences. Source parameters were then derived from the three-component records of 28 well-recorded events with seismic moment in the range 8.5 × 1010–1.0 × 1014 Nm. Stress drops ranged in the interval 0.3–52.3 bar and source radii were of the order of 100 m. Their scaling relations are in good agreement with other results derived from the analysis of other Italian earthquakes that occurred in regions of predominantly normal faulting tectonics (Apennines and Calabrian arc).

The vertical component of the seismic noise has been recorded in two different sites near the towns of Mercato S. Severino and Benevento in Southern Italy by a small aperture array, in order to investigate the characteristics of the noise propagation and to study the site response. Three different array techniques have been applied in the two investigated sites: Beam Forming, High Resolution and Spatial Correlation methods. We used two simple array geometry for localising possible noise sources and estimating local shallow structure using ambient noise. The cross shaped array results effective for determining the phase velocity of waves in the case when the noise is from a single localised source; the circular array, on the other hand, is successfully used when the noise sources are distributed. The main results are: the analysis of a coherent component of the noise recorded in the two sites, interpreted as Rayleigh waves, results in reasonable velocity models; the noise recorded in the M.S.S. Plain is a space stationary signal, while the noise at the Benevento site is possibly produced by a stable noise source located close to the array. Due to this evidence, the correlation method does not yield satisfactory results when applied to the Benevento site. The 2–6 Hz spectral peaks of the noise recorded in the M.S.S. Plain can be interpreted as due to a site effect, considering the satisfactory agreement of the noise spectrum at those frequencies with the theoretical transfer function computed on the basis of the velocity model deduced from the Rayleigh waves dispersion analysis.

In this site response study we examined local earthquakes recorded at surface stations of a local seismic network and at a temporary underground seismic array installed in a tunnel underneath the Gran Sasso Massif in Abruzzo (central Italy). This allowed us to compare the seismic site response beneath the mountain and on the surface in similar geological environment (soft rock sites). We applied spectral ratios method on different segments of the seismograms and used different reference spectra in the 1–20 Hz frequency band. We found little or no amplification effects at most of the surface stations whereas site transfer functions evaluated with respect to underground sites show an amplification factor up to 6 in the 1–8 Hz frequency range. Coda spectral ratios estimated at soft rock sites are confirmed as good estimates of shear wave transfer function.

To strengthen the evidence for genetic linkage to COL7A1, we have studied 26 generalised recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (EB) families of British, Italian, Irish, and South African origin. We chose two linkage markers, a COL7A1 PvuII intragenic polymorphism and a highly informative anonymous microsatellite marker, D3S1100, which maps close to the COL7A1 locus at 3p21.1-3. Diagnosis was established by family history, clinical examination, immunofluorescence, and ultrastructural studies. The PvuII marker was informative in 16 families with a maximum lod score (Zmax) of 3.51 at recombination fraction (theta) = 0. The D3S1100 microsatellite was informative in 24 out of 25 families with Zmax = 6.8 at theta = 0.05 (Z = 4.94 at theta = 0) and no obligatory recombination events. These data strongly suggest that COL7A1 mutations cause EB in these families and, combined with previous studies, indicate locus homogeneity. The importance of anchoring fibrils for dermal-epidermal adhesion is further underlined. D3S1100 may later prove useful in prenatal diagnosis of this disease, if used in combination with other markers.

The method of coda waves was applied to two different sets of data for the evaluation of the relative site response.

Antonakopoulos et al 1 studied 15 pathological specimens of obstructive appendicopathy identified by H&E staining but failed to report on the clinical data of these patients or merely the indication for appendicectomy. In the absence of scarring and inflammation, they suggested that it is more likely a congenital anomaly characterised by failure of the mucosa to extend to the distal end of the developing appendix, causing distal lumen obliteration and occasionally hypoplasia of this part of the organ. A normal-looking appendix or one with a narrowed distal end is easily identifiable by the experienced surgeon during laparotomy. …

In this study we searched for mutations in the type VII collagen gene (COL7A1) in 10 families from Southern Italy with severe generalised recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa using PCR amplification of genomic DNA, heteroduplex analysis and direct nucleotide sequencing. Our principal aim was to identify any recurrent mutations in COL7A1 that might facilitate future mutation detection strategies in this population. Three recurrent COL7A1 mutations were delineated in six of the 10 families: a frameshift mutation in exon 4, 497insA, was detected in three affected individuals from three families, a deletion mutation at the acceptor splice site of intron 114/exon 115, 8441-14del21, was found in five patients in three of the families, and an intron 49 acceptor splice site mutation, 4783-1 G-to-A, was identified in three subjects in two families (GenBank accession no, L02870). Haplotype analyses showed evidence for propagation of common ancestral mutant COL7A1 alleles for each of these recurrent mutations. These results contribute significantly to understanding the nature of COL7A1 pathology in patients from Southern Italy and in designing future approaches to mutation detection.

Italy's Mt.Vesuvius has been slumbering for a long time, but its silence could preface an eruption with potentially disastrous ef-fects for 600,000 people living on the vol-cano's slopes. To assess the scenario of the next eruption, the National Group of Vol-canology (GNV) of the Italian National Coun-cil of Researches (CNR) has fostered research aimed at mitigating eruption risk to the densely populated area. In this framework, researchers have gathered high-resolution seismic tomography data to better under-stand the internal structure of Mt. Vesuvius. The experiments were carried out during the last 4 years. The data will be used in three-dimen-sional modeling of the structure of Mt. Vesu-vius and underlying upper crust. Seismic velocities and attenuation and density con-trasts will be calculated, with special empha-sis on the delineation of significant magma reservoirs of more than 1 km in diameter. In modeling Mt. Vesuvius, tools are being devel-oped for using seismogram information to ob-tain high-quality seismic imaging of heterogeneous structures such as volcanoes

We report that mutation in the gene for plectin, a cytoskeleton–membrane anchorage protein, is a cause of autosomal recessive muscular dystrophy associated with skin blistering (epidermolysis bullosa simplex). The evidence comes from absence of plectin by antibody staining in affected individuals from four families, supportive genetic analysis (localization of the human plectin gene to chromosome 8q24.13–qter and evidence for disease segregation with markers in this region) and finally the identification of a homozygous frameshift mutation detected in plectin cDNA. Absence of the large multifunctional cytoskeleton protein plectin can simultaneously account for structural failure in both muscle and skin.

431 newborns of diabetic mothers (NDM) were studied between the years 1980 and 1990. They were divided into two groups: a first group of 227 patients born from mother with gestational diabetes mellitus; a second group of 204 patients born from mother with pregestational diabetes mellitus. The first and the second group were subdivided into two subgroups: the A, referring to the period 1980-85, and the B, referring to the period 1986-90. Subgroups B were characterized by a better metabolic control of pregnancies. Our protocol consisted of anamnestic study, clinical, metabolic, instrumental examinations and clinical follow-up for a period ranging from 1 to 10 years. The study of our data suggests that embryo-feto-neonatal mortality doesn't show significantly difference between the first and the second group and between subgroups A and B. The percentage of preterm infants was significantly more elevated in the second group, the percentage of full-term newborns was significantly higher in the first group. The incidence of cesarean sections was significantly higher in subgroups B. Mean birthweight was more elevated in the first group and the incidence of macrosomia was higher in subgroups A. The incidence of asphyxia, hypotonia, seizures, transient cardiomegaly, transient hypoglycaemia and hypocalcemia, was higher in subgroups A, without significant difference between the first and the second group. Congenital anomalies were heterogeneous and there were no significant difference between the first and the second group. Only the incidence of congenital cardiopathies was significantly more elevated in the second group. At follow-up neurologic sequelae were mainly characterized by behavioural anomalies.

The adsorption of water, methanol and n-hexane on demineralized Colombian coal (fresh and exposed for 20 days to the atmosphere) has been investigated by means of heat-flow microcalorimetry. A sample of graphite has also been studied for comparison. The results have been interpreted considering the different activity of three kinds of regions of the coal surface: (i) inorganic region; (ii) oxidized organic region, containing carboxyl, carbonyl and/or phenol groups; (iii) graphite-like region. In the case of hexane adsorption, due to the weakness of the interaction, the differentiation of the two coals in relation to their slightly different oxidation state is particularly evident. It has been concluded that weathering causes a further slight increase of the oxidation state of the organic part of coal and of microporosity. Moreover, a stronger interaction of the organic part of coal with the residual inorganics after weathering is suggested.

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a microcalorimetric study of coal wettability from surface sites characterization. Coal wettability plays a key role in processes based on surface properties as selective agglomeration and coal slurry preparation. Its measure and control are very difficult because of the complex nature of coal. The evaluation of the surface active sites at the first adsorption levels, responsible for the most significant interactions, may be a good way. The results of the study described in the chapter show that Polish coal agglomerates easier than Illinois No. 6, but, taking into account their different liberation degree, Illinois No. 6 seem to allow a better selectivity. Results from microcalorimetric analysis permit different conclusion levels. In agreement with its low agglomerability, in all tests, Illinois no. 6 shows higher activity. It is found from the hexane adsorption curves that Illinois samples should have more both inorganic and oxygenated organic polar sites too. All fractions from Polish coal show lower interactions in both water and hexane, and the higher agglomerability of this coal is mainly because of the weaker interactions of the first water adsorbed molecules.

The load generated by the Apennines and its isostatic adjustment is simulated on an elastic spherical model, and an estimate made of the maximum shear stress field produced. For this purpose a load on a shell with isostatic compensation is considered showing that the couple effect associated with the displacement of the compensation greatly increases the maximum shear stress as compared with the case of no displacement. When the results of the present study are compared with those obtained from seismicity and from the gravity anomalies of the Apennines, it is found that the largest earthquakes in the region and its most seismically active part are in the area of the largest shear stress and of large gravity anomaly gradient. A pattern recognition study of the correlation between large earthquakes and gravity anomalies (Benvenuti and Caputo, 1982) confirms this result. The case of a load on a spherical cap not isostatically compensated is also considered; the finding in this case are in agreement with Jeffrey's (1976) results for a half space, although in our case the largest value of the maximum shear stress occurs at a shallower depth. This case is of interest for those continents where the isostatic compensation is not complete.

The authors carried out a research on diffusion of Herpes virus 1 and 2 investigating specific serous antibodies over a sample of 1660 women living in Roma and in the surrounding area aged between 14 and 40 years; 595 of them were suspected to have an Herpes infection. The results of this research confirmed an high frequency of Herpes 1 and 2 infection in the examined sample. In order to correlate better the outcomes obtained by the investigation on the suspected sample 102 vaginal smear, executed on women suspected to have a developed infection, have been examined. The issues confirmed that it's useful to execute cytoimmunologic research in so far as such method seems to give more certainty in infection and disease identification than seroconversion investigation.

A technique to detect spectrum variations versus time along seismic signals is applied to coda waves of local earthquakes ( Friuli, Northern Italy). The technique consists of an autoregressive modeling and utilizes nonlinear spectral analysis where the spectrum of stochastic processes is estimated as the transfer function of the filter that whitens the process under analysis. This approach appears to be particularly well suited to those investigations where automatic measurements of the instantaneous frequency have to be carried out on digital data.

A short epidemiological presentation of the toxoplasmic infectious disease in our country on suspected cases compared with a clinically healthy group shows the importance of the phenomenon, especially for its various preventative and therapeutic implications.

A temporary network of 33 seismic stations was deployed in the area struck by the 6th April 2009, Mw 6.1 (Scognamiglio et al. in Seism Res Lett 6/81, 2010), L’Aquila earthquake (central Italy), with the aim to investigate the site amplification within the Aterno river Valley. The seismograms of 18 earthquakes recorded by 14 of the 33 stations were used to evaluate the average horizontal to vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) for each site and the standard horizontal spectral ratio (SSR) between a site and a reference station. The obtained results have been compared to the geological and geophysical information in order to explain the resonance frequencies and the amplification levels with respect to surface geology of the valley. The results indicate that there is no uniform pattern of amplification, because of the complex geologic setting, as the thickness and degree of cementation of the deposits is highly variable.

This paper reports on site characterization for a set of accelerometric stations of the RAN (Italian accelerometric network) with specific attention to the shear wave velocity profile. The latter is indeed of primary importance for the usability of the accelerometric database. Surface wave analysis has been chosen as the primary investigation method since it offers the possibility of reaching the required accuracy with reasonable costs. A range of different techniques, both of the active-source and passive-source types, has been adopted to cope with the objectives of the characterization in relation to specific geological settings. Quality assessment of experimental data has been implemented to check the consistency of the measurements also with respect to the fundamental hypotheses of the method. Strategies to improve the reliability and robustness of the surface wave data inversion were exploited in order to mitigate problems arising from solution non-uniqueness and influence of higher modes in the propagation. Comparisons with independent borehole tests, available at some specific sites, confirm the reliability of the results. Although the research program covered only a subset of the network, the obtained results show the importance of specific experimental investigations aimed at estimating the shear wave velocity profile. Indeed the results lead to a re-classification of several sites with respect to the preliminary classification based on surface geology. Within this context, four selected case histories are reported in the present paper.