Detailed and accurate geomorphological historical landslide inventory maps
are an invaluable source of information for many research topics and
applications. Their systematic preparation worldwide ...has been advised by
many researchers as it may foster our knowledge on landslides, their spatial
and temporal distribution, their potential interaction with the built
environment, their contribution to landscape dynamics, and their response to climate change in the past. Due to the extreme variability of the
morphological and radiometric elements that can reveal historical
landslides, geomorphological historical landslide inventory maps are
produced by expert interpretation, which makes it a time-consuming and expensive process, which often discourages wide-area mapping activities. In this paper we present a new geomorphological historical landslide inventory
map for a 1460 km2 area in the Daunia Apennines, the north-western sector of the Apulia (Puglia) region, in southern Italy. The inventory
contains 17 437 landslides classified according to relative age, type of
movement, and estimated depth. Landslides were mapped according to rigorous and reproducible criteria applied by two teams of expert photo interpreters to two sets of stereoscopic aerial photographs taken in 1954/55 and 2003.
The dataset consists of a digital archive publicly available at
https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.942427 (Cardinali et al., 2022).
Floods and landslides are common phenomena that cause serious damage and pose a severe threat to the population of Italy. The social and economic impact of floods and landslides in Italy is severe, ...and strategies to target the mitigation of the effects of these phenomena are needed. In the last few years, the scientific community has started to use web technology to communicate information on geohydrological hazards and the associated risks. However, the communication is often targeted at technical experts. In the attempt to communicate relevant information on geohydrological hazards with potential human consequences to a broader audience, we designed the POpoLazione A RISchio (POLARIS) website. POLARIS publishes accurate information on geohydrological risk to the population of Italy, including periodic reports on landslide and flood risk, analyses of specific damaging events and blog posts on landslide and flood events. By monitoring the access to POLARIS in the 21-month period between January 2014 and October 2015, we found that access increased during particularly damaging geohydrological events and immediately after the website was advertised by press releases. POLARIS demonstrates that the scientific community can implement suitable communication strategies that address different societal audiences, exploiting the role of mass media and social media. The strategies can help multiple audiences understand how risks can be reduced through appropriate measures and behaviours, contributing to increasing the resilience of the population to geohydrological risk.
Pulmonary arteriovenous fistulas (PAVFs) are rare vascular malformations (PAVMs) of the lung that could lead to severe hypoxiemia due to right-to-left intrapulmonary shunts. They may occur as ...isolated entities or associated with Osler-Rendu-Weber syndrome or hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT). We report a case of a 70 years old woman with Rendu-Osler-Weber disease and a large arteriovenous malformation involving the left pulmonary artery. We describe the successful transcatheter occlusion of the PAVF using an Amplatzer vascular plug. This work is an attempt to focus the attention on pulmonary arteriovenous malformations and on percutaneous treatment as an alternative to surgery, that consists of a conservative lung resection.
Inundations and landslides are common phenomena that cause serious damage and pose a severe threat to the population of Italy. The societal and economic impact of landslides and floods in Italy is ...particularly severe, and strategies that target the mitigation of the effects of these events are essential. Although, in the last few years, the scientific community has wanted to communicate information on research activities regarding geo-hydrological hazards and the associated risks to society through thematic websites, very often, communication achieves specific technical purposes for experts. To address the problem posed by the lack of communication on geo-hydrological hazards with potential human consequences in Italy to the broader society, we designed the POLARIS website. The POLARIS website publishes accurate and detailed information on geo-hydrological risks, including periodical reports on landslide and flood risk to the population of Italy, data and analysis on specific damaging events and blog posts on landslide and flood events that able to encourage mass media and citizens' engagement. By monitoring the access of users to POLARIS since January 2014, when the website was published, we registered maximum access during the occurrence of the worst geo-hydrological events and for the promotion of relevant new content through press releases. In particular, in the latter case, we noted the highest access value when journalists promoted the website through television channels. The POLARIS initiative demonstrates how the scientific community can implement suitable communication strategies that address different societal audiences by exploiting the role of mass media and social media. These strategies can help these audiences to understand how risks can be reduced through appropriate measures and behaviors; thus, they can contribute to increasing the resilience of the population to geo-hydrological events.
On 1 October 2009, a high intensity storm hit the Ionian coast of Sicily, SW of Messina, Italy. The Santo Stefano di Briga rain gauge, located 2 km W of the Ionian coast, recorded 225 mm of rain in ...seven hours. The intense rainfall event triggered abundant slope failures, and resulted in widespread erosion and deposition of debris along ephemeral drainage channels, extensive inundation, and local modifications of the coastline. Landslides occurred in a territory prone to slope failures, due to the local geological and geomorphological settings. Many landslides were related to the presence of roads lacking adequate drainage. Abandoned terraced slopes lacking proper drainage, and unmaintained dry walls were also related to slope failures. Damage was particularly severe in small villages and at several sites along the transportation network. The shallow landslides and the inundation resulted in 37 fatalities, including 31 deaths and six missing persons, and innumerable injured people. After the event, an accurate landslide inventory map was prepared for the Briga and the Giampilieri catchments. The map shows: (i) the distribution of the event landslides triggered by the 1 October 2009 rainfall event; (ii) the distribution of the pre-existing slope failures; and (iii) other geomorphological features related to fluvial processes and slope movements. The landslide inventory map was prepared at 1:10,000 scale through a combination of field surveys and photo-interpretation of pre-event and post-event, stereoscopic and pseudo-stereoscopic, aerial photography. Different types of aerial photographs were analysed visually to prepare the landslide inventory map. The event landslides were mapped through the interpretation of pseudo-stereoscopic colour photographs taken shortly after the event at 1:3500 scale, combined with digital stereoscopic photographs at approximately 1:4500 scale, taken in November 2009. The pre-event landslides and the associated geomorphological features were mapped using 1:33,000 scale aerial photographs flown in 1954, 1955, and 2005. The event and pre-existing landslides were checked in the field in the period October-November 2009.
Chemotherapy regimens based on platinum represent the reference standards in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) and when it is associated with radiotherapy and/or surgery (combined treatment) it ...improves survival of patients. Aim of this study was to estimate the efficacy of chemotherapy, based on high-dose epirubicin plus cisplatin, associated with surgery and/or radiotherapy. Twenty-four inoperable NSCLC patients (15 pts in stage IIIb and 9 in stage IV) were treated with epirubicin (120 mg/m2) plus cisplatin (60 mg/m2), every three weeks for at least 3 cycles up to a maximum of 6. A total of 109 treatment cycles (epirubicin plus cisplatin) were administered and two of 24 patients achieved full response (CR), 9 showed partial response (PR), for an overall response rate of 45.8%, 8 patients (33.4%) achieved stable disease (SD) and 5 (20.8%) progressive disease (PD). Leukopenia aroses in 81.9% of the cycles, anaemia in 36.6% and thrombocytopenia in 14%. After chemotherapy, nausea/vomiting was present in 33.3% of patients, while in a small number of cases there were also mucositis, diarrhea, fever, phlebitis, transaminase increase and electrocardiographic anomalies. Upon entry, at the end of therapy patients underwent restaging (CT, bronchoscopy, bone scintiscan) to evaluate the possibility of surgical resection; 15 out of 24 patients completed treatment with radiotherapy (40-60 Gy) and then were re-evaluated for surgery. Five patients underwent complete surgical resection of the neoplasia (4 after chemotherapy and one after radiotherapy). After 1 year survival was 66.6% for all patients. Combined treatment in advanced NSCLC showed a good response and survival after 1 year.
In this study we evaluated the role of three currently available therapeutic regimens in the treatment of early stages of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
The study population consisted of 57 ...consecutive suspected individuals with IPF. Patients with interstitial pneumonias other than IPF and subjects with advanced disease or contraindication to therapy were excluded. We evaluated 30 subjects with mild-moderate IPF, homogeneous baseline characteristics and prognostic parameters that were assigned to 3 treatment regimens: group 1 (n = 11): prednisone 1 mg/kg/ day; group 2 (n = 9): prednisone 0.5 mg/kg/day plus cyclophosphamide 100 mg/day; group 3 (n = 10): prednisone 0.5 mg/kg/day plus colchicine 1 mg/day. We analysed response to therapy by analysis of a clinical-radiographic-physiologic (CRP) score before treatment and at 6 months intervals for 18 months. Side effects and three years survival rate were also investigated.
Although our study was performed in a subset of patients with early disease's stages, these data showed that none of the regimens was able to interfere with IPF's course. However treatment with colchicine plus prednisone resulted in fewer side effects and re-evaluation parameters showed a significant decrease of dyspnoea (p < 0.01). No significant differences were observed in survival rate among the three groups.
None of the regimens analyzed was effective even in the treatment of the early stages of IPF. The association colchicine/corticosteroids could be considered a safe and not expensive regimen that may be used in the treatment of IPF, especially in patients who have experienced adverse effects from immunosuppressive agents, while waiting for newer therapeutic strategies.
Sarcoidosis is an idiopathic systemic inflammatory granulomatous disorder comprised of epithelioid and multinucleated giant cells with little necrosis. It usually invades the lungs with fibrosis and ...may also involve lymph nodes, skin, liver, spleen, eyes, phalangeal bones, and parotid glands. Breast involvement is extremely rare, but, when present, it could be confused with a benign or, more important, a malignant neoplasm. We have reported a case of sarcoidosis of the breast in a 51 years old woman with systemic manifestations of sarcoidosis (arthralgias and uveitis) associated with a breast mass and with a clinical history of fibrocystic mastopathy. A chest X-ray and a Computed Tomography (CT), with raised serum levels of Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE), were compatible with a diagnosis of sarcoidosis. The mammography and ultrasonogram showed a solitary little nodular lesion localized in the breast. A breast cancer in a patient with sarcoidosis? To answer this question, the patient performed breast surgery under general anaesthesia and bioptic microscopic examination showed a typical sarcoid granuloma.
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