Campania Region Of Italy Research Articles

Some observations on the prediction of the dynamic parameters of debris flows in pyroclastic deposits in the Campania region of Italy

Over the last 20 years, many tools have been developed for the prediction of the post-failure behaviour of rapid landslides. However, as pointed out by several researchers, knowledge may be improved by the performance of back-analyses using different models and the evaluation of their reliability. This paper reports the back-analysis, conducted using numerical models, of 57 rapid landslides that have occurred in the Campania region. The back-analysis has been performed using the 2-D DAN_W code (version 2003) with two different rheological models: the Voellmy and the frictional models. The latter has been immediately discarded because it did not match the observed data. Instead, using the Voellmy model, the best-fit values of the parameters (friction µ and turbulence ξ) for different types of flow (channelled, un-channelled and mixed flows) have been researched. With these values a parametric study has been carried out on four representative slope profiles of the Campania region, enabling the prediction of runout, velocity and depth of flow (dynamic parameters) of potential debris flows.

Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Disease Management in Type 2 Diabetic Patients With Diabetic Nephropathy

The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of cardiorenal risk factors, their management in a routine clinical setting, and the actual achievement of international guideline targets in a large cohort of type 2 diabetic patients with diabetic nephropathy. A multicentric cross-sectional study was performed in the Campania region in Italy to evaluate cardiorenal risk factors and their management in light of international guidelines. Overall, 28,550 diabetic patients were screened in the 21 participating centers; 847 (348 male and 449 female) patients with type 2 diabetes and a clinical diagnosis of diabetic nephropathy were recruited. Of these subjects, 749 had microalbuminuria and 98 had macroalbuminuria. Targets for blood pressure, HbA(1c), LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides were reached in, respectively, 17.5, 32.3, 30.7, 47, and 55.2% of the patients. Chronic renal failure (glomerular filtration rate <60 ml/min) was revealed in 41% and anemia in 23.8% of the patients. This is the first study to investigate a large cohort of type 2 diabetic patients with early and moderate diabetic nephropathy strictu sensu. Notably, impaired renal function can be often diagnosed in these patients even in the presence of microalbuminuria. Thus, clinical diagnosis of diabetic nephopathy allows us to identify a group of patients at very high cardiorenal risk, for whom care is really difficult. We suggest that a correct diagnosis of diabetic nephropathy should always be made and that sodium intake and anemia should be routinely evaluated in these patients.

Smart Policy, Creative Strategy and Urban Development

Creativeness is not only the trademark of successful entrepreneurship in a business environment, but is also a necessary ingredient for success and achievement in a complex policy system. The urban environment is one of the places ‘par excellence’ where creative ideas and actions can flourish, if they are supported by smart policy. Urban planning is one of the multi-faceted constellations that have triggered an uninterrupted attention in the literature after World War II. It has in recent years put creativeness high on the strategic agenda. This paper aims to offer new perspectives for strategic development of an urban system, on the basis of creative knowledge management that should induce innovative investment developments in an urban setting. The ultimate goal would be to make the city more attractive and thereby to contribute to urban welfare as a multi-attribute policy objective.The conceptual framework of the paper is elucidated by presenting an empirical comparative case study on Italian urban areas, with a major interest in Caserta (in the Campania region in Italy). The analytical framework deployed in this paper is based on recent multi-criteria methods.

Genetic diversity in a collection of ancient cultivars of apple (Malus × domestica Borkh.) as revealed by SSR-based fingerprinting

SummaryA collection of 48 accessions of Malus domestica Borkh. from the apple germplasm repository of the Campania Region in Italy, several of which were suspected to be “synonyms”, was screened together with eight ancient well-known cultivars, added for reference, using a set of nine microsatellite or Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) primer pairs to determine genetic identities, to estimate genetic diversity and to identify genetic relationships between the accessions. All microsatellite (SSR) primers revealed polymorphism, with seven to 14 alleles per main locus and the expected heterozygosity (He) ranging from 0.713–0.884. Three SSRs (CH01h02, CH02c11 and CH04c06) amplified a second locus that was less polymorphic and clearly distinguished from the main locus. The frequency of each allele at the main loci was generally low, with many alleles detected in only one or a few cultivars. Of the 56 genotypes studied, as many as 27 were identified as “synonyms” and were excluded from the genetic analysis. Synonymy not only included accessions classified with the same name, but also accessions with different names. In a few cases, accessions with the same name resulted in absolutely different SSR marker profiles. The remaining 29 unique genotypes showed great genetic diversity, with the eight reference cultivars (‘Belle de Boskoop’, ‘Calville blanc’, ‘Delicious’, ‘Golden delicious’, ‘Limoncella’, ‘McIntosh’, ‘Permain dorée’, and ‘Stark splendor’) distributed throughout the dendrogram. Finally, this paper discusses the problems in dealing with incorrect allele-sizing and “binning”, which still do not allow comparison of SSR-based profiles produced by different laboratories.

Frailty predicts long‐term mortality in elderly subjects with chronic heart failure

The elderly are characterized by a high prevalence of chronic heart failure (CHF) and frailty, which is a complex interaction of physical, psychological and social impairment. This study aimed to examine the predictive role of frailty on long-term mortality in elderly subjects with CHF. The study assessed long-term mortality after 12-year follow up in 120 subjects with CHF and 1139 subjects without CHF, selected in 1992, from a random sample of the elderly population in the Campania region of Italy. Frailty was assessed according to a 'Frailty Staging System'. Subjects with CHF were prevalently female (60%) and older than 75 years (mean 75.9 +/- 6.7); subjects without CHF were prevalently female (56.4%) and younger than 75 years (mean 74.0 +/- 6.3). In subjects with and without CHF stratified into classes of frailty there was a statistically significant increase in age, comorbidity, disability and low social support, and a decrease in MMSE score. Moreover, death progressively increased more with frailty in subjects (70.0% to 94.4%, P < 0.03) than in those without (43.8.% to 88.3%, P < 0.0001) CHF. The Kaplan-Meier analysis shows that at 9 years the probability of survival progressively decreased as frailty increased (45.5% to 0%) in subjects with CHF and from 62.8% to 25.9% in subjects without CHF. The Cox regression analysis indicated that frailty is predictive of mortality in the multivariate model adjusted for several variables including sex and age in subjects with and without CHF. Moreover, the analysis showed that frailty is more predictive of mortality in elderly subjects with CHF when it was analyzed either as continuous (1.48 vs. 1.36) or as a dummy (3 vs. 1 = 1.62 vs. 1.24) variable. Thus mortality among elderly subjects with or without CHF increases with frailty. Moreover, frailty is more predictive of long-term mortality in elderly subjects with than in those without CHF. Hence, frailty represents a new independent variable for predicting long-term mortality in elderly subjects with CHF.

Promoting ICT Entrepreneurship in the Campania Region of Italy

The government of the Campania region in southern Italy has established a technology transfer centre for the information and communications technology (ICT) sector. The Regional Centre for ICT Competencies (RCICT) promotes the transfer of ICT to local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and encourages the creation of new knowledge-based companies in the ICT sector. The partners in the RCICT project are universities and public research centres of the Campania region. One of the RCICT's programmes is the establishment of 13 incubators for entrepreneurial ideas in the ICT sector – one for each partner organization. In addition to providing space, equipment and services, the incubators will form an online network for the dissemination of information and experiences, the exchange of views, and distance education. These activities will promote an entrepreneurial culture in the participating institutions, and the best entrepreneurial ideas will be developed in the new regional ICT company incubators. This paper describes the programme from organizational, managerial, financial and technical perspectives.

A cost study of prenatal telemedicine.

We calculated the cost of using a telemedicine system for the cardiotocographic (CTG) recording of fetal heart rate. In a one-year study in the Campania region of Italy, 162 patients were monitored. The total cost of the telemedicine system was euro;344796. A control group was retrospectively drawn from all deliveries at the university hospital in Naples during the year 2000. Patients were retrospectively assigned to a category of high or low risk, and the hospital costs of the high-risk patients were compared. In the intervention group, 11 of the 87 high-risk patients (13%) were admitted to hospital prematurely, and stayed on average 12 days. In the control group, 203 of the 813 women in the high-risk group (25%) were admitted to hospital prematurely, and stayed on average 20 days. If the women in the control group had been monitored, there would have been a notional saving, through avoided bed days, amounting to 358280, which was similar to the cost of the telemedicine system. The study suggests that the use of telemedicine in CTG monitoring improves the quality of prenatal care.

Burden of Acute Stroke and Hospital Resources in the Campania Region of Italy

We examined all the official hospital records referring to admissions for acute stroke (AS) (DRG 14) from January 1 to December 31, 1996 in Campania (Italy), a large region with 10% of the Italian population. Related healthcare burden and available resources were evaluated. During the study period, a total of 9,003 discharges were reported. We counted 11 neurological care units (NCU) committed to emergency in the region, with 230 hospital beds. The 4,890 admissions in NCU represented 54.3% of the total AS hospitalizations per year. A large number of strokes (45.7%) had no access to specialist assistance and were hospitalized mainly in general wards with a mean hospital stay of 12.7 days, compared with 9.5 days in NCU (p < 0.01). In our region, the number of hospital beds available for neurological emergencies do not meet the demand.

Epidemic measles in the Campania region of Italy leads to 13 cases of encephalitis and 3 deaths

Measles vaccine became commercially available in Italy in 1976 and the administration of one dose at 15 months of age was recommended by the ministry of health in 1979. In the 1980s, measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine was introduced, and in 1999 the recommended age for the first dose was lowered to 12 months. Decisions regarding the administration of MMR vaccine are the responsibility of the regional health authorities, and vaccination coverage varies greatly by region. In 1999, taking into account the varying levels of vaccine coverage in children up to the age of 24 months in different regions, the ministry of health recommended strategies including a catch up campaign, and the offer of a second dose (1). A distinction was therefore made between areas with one dose measles vaccine coverage of less than 80% and those with higher levels of coverage. In areas with lower coverage, the vaccination of older susceptible children was emphasised, while in regions where vaccine coverage within the first two years of life exceeded 80%, the administration of a second dose at 5-6 years or at 11-12 years of age was recommended.

HEMATOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF β-THALASSEMIA AND Hb LEPORE IN CAMPANIA, ITALY

This epidemiological study was based on a hematological and a molecular analysis of 310 heterozygous β thalassemic and 75 carriers of Hb Lepore out of 3,000 microcythemic subjects from the Campania region of Italy. The molecular analysis of β chains and the δβ hybrid gene has shown different β chain defects, but only the Hb Lepore-Boston-Washington type in association with haplotypes I and V. The prevalence and distribution of these molecular defects in Campania show that they are linked to historical events and to the geographical characteristics of this region.

Variability Among Turnip Mosaic Potyvirus Isolates

ABSTRACT Eight turnip mosaic potyvirus (TuMV) isolates from the Campania region of Italy were characterized. Experiments based on host range and symptomatology indicated that the isolates were biologically different. In addition, the isolates, with the exception of ITA1 and ITA3, were distinguished from each other by using a combination of monoclonal antibodies recognizing the coat protein. Single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis of the coat protein gene revealed that each isolate produced a specific SSCP profile, except for isolates ITA1 and ITA3. This study indicates that (i) even in a small geographical region, there is a great deal of variation in TuMV isolates; (ii) the use of a set of four differential hosts does not always specify the same pathotype in different environments; (iii) the TuMV isolates with the same pathotype on Brassica napus test lines can still differ in host range, symptoms, serology, and SSCP; and (iv) there was perfect correlation between the panel of antibodies and SSCP in differentiating among the isolates; ITA1 and ITA3 were indistinguishable by either assay.

Early childhood feeding practices in southern Italy: is the Mediterranean diet becoming obsolete? Study of 450 children aged 6‐32 months in Campania, Italy

With increasing affluence, the traditional food choices of Mediterranean populations are changing. The changes appear to begin in early infancy, with increased consumption of processed foods. To determine current consumption patterns of the diets of 450 toddlers, 6–32 months old, enrolled from 17 paediatric practices in the Campania region of Italy, quantitative data were collected for 7 d, using calibrated feeding bottles, cups and dishes. Automated food analysis was employed and quality control was performed on a sub‐sample. The average daily intake was 373 kJ/kg. Forty‐three percent of energy was provided by carbohydrates, while fats supplied 39%, 45% of fats were saturated and 46.7% were monosaturated (primarily olive oil). Proteins provided 18% of daily energy; most (81.4%) were of animal origin. Fibre was virtually absent from the study children's diet. Total daily cholesterol reached an average value of 191 mg/d, corresponding to 201 mg/4.2 mJ. The intake per kg of cholesterol increased with age in the first year, while proteins and fats decreased. Dairy products were the main source of energy, fats and cholesterol. Vegetables and legumes were a minor source of energy at all ages: the consumption of fruit decreased with age. Although the overall pattern of feeding of this cohort remains favourable compared with other children groups in developed countries, consumption of whole milk and full fat dairy products may be reduced to equilibrate the diet.

Early childhood feeding practices in southern Italy: is the Mediterranean diet becoming obsolete? Study of 450 children aged 6-32 months in Campania, Italy. Cultural Paediatric Association.

With increasing affluence, the traditional food choices of Mediterranean populations are changing. The changes appear to begin in early infancy, with increased consumption of processed foods. To determine current consumption patterns of the diets of 450 toddlers, 6-32 months old, enrolled from 17 paediatric practices in the Campania region of Italy, quantitative data were collected for 7 d, using calibrated feeding bottles, cups and dishes. Automated food analysis was employed and quality control was performed on a sub-sample. The average daily intake was 373 kJ/kg. Forty-three percent of energy was provided by carbohydrates, while fats supplied 39%, 45% of fats were saturated and 46.7% were monosaturated (primarily olive oil). Proteins provided 18% of daily energy; most (81.4%) were of animal origin. Fibre was virtually absent from the study children's diet. Total daily cholesterol reached an average value of 191 mg/d, corresponding to 201 mg/4.2 mJ. The intake per kg of cholesterol increased with age in the first year, while proteins and fats decreased. Dairy products were the main source of energy, fats and cholesterol. Vegetables and legumes were a minor source of energy at all ages: the consumption of fruit decreased with age. Although the overall pattern of feeding of this cohort remains favourable compared with other children groups in developed countries, consumption of whole milk and full fat dairy products may be reduced to equilibrate the diet.

Recrudescence of visceral leishmaniasis unrelated to HIV infection in the Campania region of Italy

Recrudescence of visceral leishmaniasis unrelated to HIV infection in the Campania region of Italy

Natural infection of Phlebotomus perniciosus with MON 72 zymodeme of Leishmania infantum in the Campania region of Italy

Natural infection of Phlebotomus perniciosus with MON 72 zymodeme of Leishmania infantum in the Campania region of Italy

Incidence of hepatitis A virus infection among an Italian military population.

In 1990, a prospective serological survey to estimate the rate of clinical and inapparent infection with hepatitis A virus (HAV) was performed in a cohort of 1,268 soldiers, 18-24 years old, during an 8 month period in the Campania region in Italy. At the time of enrollment 318 (25%) of the 1,268 soldiers were positive for total antibodies to HAV (anti-HAV). None of them was positive for IgM anti-HAV. Among the 950 susceptible subjects who were followed up for 8 months, eight (0.8%) later seroconverted to anti-HAV positivity. This figure corresponds to an incidence of 1.3/100 person/years (eight seroconversions during 633.3 years of observation). There were two clinical (with presence of IgM-anti-HAV) and six inapparent infections. The clinical/subclinical HAV ratio was 1:3. These findings indicate that the risk of HAV infection among soldiers residing in this area is not negligible.

The epidemiology and surveillance of visceral leishmaniasis in the Campania region of Italy. The value of zymodeme typing

Although human visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a notifiable disease in Italy, there is evidence that the actual number of cases is far higher than that notified. A programme for active surveillance of VL in the 14 Italian endemic regions was launched by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità. We report data collected during a 3-year period of active surveillance in Campania, a south Tyrrhenian region covering 4.5% of the Italian territory. Out of 120 clinically suspected cases referred to medical and diagnostic references centres, there were 52 confirmed VL cases (17.3/year), i.e. 10-fold more than previously notified. Most of the infection sites were in rural areas or peripheral districts of towns in hilly parts of Naples province. An epidemic cluster of 10 cases was identified in a microfocus of Caserta province. The biochemical analysis of 23 Leishmania stocks showed a zymodeme composition indicating Campania as an old and well-established focus of VL. The data obtained emphasize that the present notification system for VL in Italy is inadequate.

The diffusion and spatial distribution of new telecommunication technologies in the Italian region of Campania

The diffusion and spatial distribution of technological innovation are nowadays widely analyzed by many researchers. Because of high pervasiveness and strong linkages with the socioeconomic environment and the mobility system, one of the main tasks deals with the analysis of new telecommunication technologies. The recent improvements in the field add an alternative, feasible, perspective to physical movement (substitution and complementary effects), so contributing to the growth or decline of congested and peripheral areas in developed countries. Our Purpose is that of adding a spatial perspective to the current theory and practice of forecasting analysis, considering the decentralization oppurtunities offered by telematic factors. In this paper, we therefore analyze the telecommunication market in the Campania region of Italy, compare its growth rate to the overall trend, and focus on the subregional components. Furthermore, at a deeper level of detail, we study the congested and overcrowded metropolitan area of Naples, where urban planners and policy makers hoped that the mainspring of new technologies could help in reducing congested networks and air pollution emissions. The results of our analysis show, on the contrary, that the opportunity for decentralization has not been taken up in practice, and that the introduction of new telematic factors is still far from the levels measured in the most developed areas of the Country (Milan, Rome, etc.).

Childhood T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in the campania region of Italy, 1980–1984

Childhood T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in the campania region of Italy, 1980–1984