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Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) is a progressively growing pathology to afford by a spinal surgeon due to the aging of the population, associated with better treatment management and the best diagnosis and treatment solutions are greatly discussed. Nowadays that scientific literature is progressively increasing to identify the gold standard in diagnosis and treatment can be very challenging. This is particularly evident in spinal surgery with many different indications not only in different countries but also in the same local reality. In this scenario, many neurosurgical societies works to identify some guideline or recommendations to help spinal surgeons in daily practice. Furthermore, in an era in which legal issues are increasingly present in clinical practice to have some indications globally accepted can be very useful. World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS) few years ago starts this process creating a list of recommendations originating from a worldwide steering committee to respect all the local reality. The spinal section of Italian Neurosurgical Society decides to adopt the WFNS recommendations with some revision basing on Italian scenario. The steering committee of the Spinal Section of Italian Neurosurgical Society identify 7 groups to review the literature of the last 10 years about different topics on CSM and to analyses the WFNS recommendations to adapt it to the Italian daily practice. The statements were discussed and voted in 2 sessions to obtain the final version. A list of recommendations on natural course and clinical presentation; diagnostic tests; conservative and surgical treatment; anterior, posterior and combined surgical treatment; role of neurophysiological monitoring and follow-up and outcome was created with only few new or revised statements respect the ones of WFNS. The Spine Section of Italian Neurosurgical Society create a list of recommendations that represent the more contemporary treatment concepts for CSM as presented in the highest quality clinical literature and best clinical practices available on this subject.

The aim of this study was to trace an exposure profile to traffic-derived pollution during pediatric age. For this purpose, two biomonitoring campaigns for the determination of urinary (u-) methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE), tert-amyl methyl ether (TAME), and diisopropyl ether (DIPE) were carried out in two different periods of the year (summer 2017 and winter 2018), among a large sample of healthy children (n = 736; 5-11 years old) living in rural and urban areas in central Italy. The quantification of u-MTBE, u-ETBE, u-TAME, and u-DIPE was performed by HS-SPME-GC/MS technique and information on participants was collected by a questionnaire. u-DIPE concentrations resulted always under the LOQ. u-TAME mean levels were similar in both seasons (18.7 ng L-1 in summer vs. 18.9 ng L-1 in winter), while u-MTBE and u-ETBE levels were, respectively, 69.9 and 423.5 ng L-1 (summer) and 53.3 and 66.2 ng L-1 (winter). Main predictors of urinary excretion resulted the time spent in motor vehicles, being male and younger.

The fabrication and integration of high‐quality structures of Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG) is critical for magnonics. Films with excellent properties are obtained only on single crystal Gadolinium Gallium Garnet (GGG) substrates using high‐temperature processes. The subsequent realization of magnonic structures via lithography and etching is not straightforward as it requires a tight control of the edge roughness, to avoid magnon scattering, and planarization in case of multilayer devices. In this work a different approach is described based on local laser annealing of amorphous YIG films, avoiding the need for subjecting the entire sample to high thermal budgets and for physical etching. Starting from amorphous and paramagnetic YIG films grown by pulsed laser deposition at room temperature on GGG, a 405 nm laser is used for patterning arbitrary shaped ferrimagnetic structures by local crystallization. In thick films (160 nm) the laser induced surface corrugation prevents the propagation of spin‐wave modes in patterned conduits. For thinner films (80 nm) coherent propagation is observed in 1.2 µm wide conduits displaying an attenuation length of 5 µm that is compatible with a damping coefficient of ≈5 × 10−3. Possible routes to achieve damping coefficients compatible with state‐of‐the art epitaxial YIG films are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Household smoking is one of the main sources of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure for children, a population considered to be at high risk for associated negative health outcomes. Several studies evidenced the occurrence of early effects related to ETS exposure, including the development of the oxidative stress process. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between urinary levels of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2-deoxyguanosine (8oxodGuo), a nucleic acid oxidation biomarker, and socio-demographic features and lifestyle factors in school children (aged 5–11 years). A cross-sectional study was conducted among 154 healthy children, residing in rural zones of central Italy. For each participant, one urine sample was analyzed by the HPLC-MS/MS technique to simultaneously quantify 8oxodGuo and cotinine (a biomarker of ETS exposure), while information on the children was collected using a questionnaire filled out by the parents. Urinary levels of 8oxodGuo was found to be significantly higher in children exposed to ETS compared to those not exposed (5.53 vs. 4.78 μg/L; p = 0.019). This result was confirmed by the significant association observed between urinary levels of cotinine and 8oxodGuo (r = 0.364, p < 0.0001). Additionally, children exposed to ETS with no smoking ban at home showed a further increased difference than those not exposed (6.35 μg/L vs. 4.78 μg/L; p = 0.008). Considering the great number of adverse effects on human health due to exposure to passive smoking, especially if this exposure begins early in life, it is essential to implement health promotion interventions in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legionella is the pathogen that causes Legionnaires' disease, an increasingly prevalent and sometimes fatal disease worldwide. In 2021, 97% of cases in Europe were caused by Legionella pneumophila. We present a mathematical model that can be used by public health officials to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of different Legionella monitoring and control strategies to inform government requirements to prevent community-acquired Legionnaires' disease in non-hospital buildings. This simulation model was built using comprehensive data from multiple scientific and field-based sources. It is a tool for estimating the relative economic and human costs of monitoring and control efforts targeting either L. pneumophila or Legionella species and was designed to analyze the potential application of each approach to specific building classes across Italy. The model results consistently showed that targeting L. pneumophila is not only sufficient but preferable in optimizing total cost (direct and economic) for similar human health benefits, even when stress-tested with extreme inputs. This cost–benefit analytical tool allows the user to run different real-life scenarios with a broad range of epidemiological and prevalence assumptions across different geographies in Italy. With appropriate modifications, this tool can be localized and applied to other countries, states, or provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis article presents a comprehensive investigation of mixed convection flow and heat transfer within a vented, partially side-heated cubical cavity, incorporating a porous medium with low-conductivity square-shaped inclusions. The study encompasses an extensive range of Rayleigh numbers (106 < Ra < 6 × 106) and Reynolds numbers (200 < Re < 4000) while maintaining a fixed Prandtl number of Pr = 0.71. This investigation spans over three decades in Richardson numbers (Ri = Ra/(Re2 Pr)), aiming to discern the interplay between the Nusselt number, Nu, and the Richardson number. Our understanding of Nusselt number dependencies is enhanced by combining PIV measurements of heat transfer and velocity fields with temperature field data. The study uses both experimental and numerical PIV data, incorporating porous media representation to reveal heat transfer scaling with both Reynolds and Rayleigh numbers. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods are used to explore the complex physical behavior under different flow conditions. Three distinct flow and heat transfer regimes have been identified, predicated upon the Richardson number. For Ri < 25, the flow structure and Nusselt number exhibit similarities with pure forced convection, where the Nusselt number scales as Nu ∼ Re0.6, independent of the Rayleigh number. Conversely, for Ri > 70, natural convection dominates the vicinity of the heating wall, rendering the Nusselt number less sensitive to Reynolds number variations and predominantly dictated by the Rayleigh number. Notably, the intermediate regime, ranging from 25 < Ri < 70, witnesses a competition between upward-directed natural convection flow at the heating wall and downward-directed forced flow, culminating in a minimum effective Nusselt number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The air quality monitoring is based on the determination of some gaseous pollutants and PM10 and PM2.5. Recent studies have reported the importance of the determination aerosol fraction below 1 µm both for the dynamic of the airborne and for the public health issue. This paper would like to investigate the importance of this fraction in the air quality monitoring. Further, a particular focus will be devoted the role of the Ultrafine Particles, i.e. particles below 100 nm, in the aerosol formation and in the human exposure. Two case studies will be presented and discussed on how the submicron particles can be determined and interpreted their role. In the first case, the measurements will be performed in downtown Rieti, city located in central Italy, 100 km North from Rome, with the scope to draw the behavior in relationship to the emission flexes. In the second scenario, the personal exposure of pedestrians will be investigated in Venafro, a small city located 150 km South-East Rome, by means of measuring PMx, total submicron fraction, different aerosol dimensional sizes in the range 5-360 nm along with the total Volatile Compounds. The different sources and contributions affecting the aerosol levels in the two areas will be investigated and extensively discussed as well as the role of the such particles in the aerosols science.