ALBERT

Description: IJERPH, Vol. 14, Pages 909: Miniaturized Monitors for Assessment of Exposure to Air Pollutants: A Review International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health doi: 10.3390/ijerph14080909 Authors: Francesca Borghi Andrea Spinazzè Sabrina Rovelli Davide Campagnolo Luca Del Buono Andrea Cattaneo Domenico Cavallo Air quality has a huge impact on different aspects of life quality, and for this reason, air quality monitoring is required by national and international regulations. Technical and procedural limitations of traditional fixed-site stations for monitoring or sampling of air pollutants are also well-known. Recently, a different type of miniaturized monitors has been developed. These monitors, due to their characteristics (e.g., low cost, small size, high portability) are becoming increasingly important for individual exposure assessment, especially since this kind of instrument can provide measurements at high spatial and temporal resolution, which is a notable advantage when approaching assessment of exposure to environmental contaminants. The aim of this study is indeed to provide information regarding current knowledge regarding the use of miniaturized air pollutant sensors. A systematic review was performed to identify original articles: a literature search was carried out using an appropriate query for the search of papers across three different databases, and the papers were selected using inclusion/exclusion criteria. The reviewed articles showed that miniaturized sensors are particularly versatile and could be applied in studies with different experimental designs, helping to provide a significant enhancement to exposure assessment, even though studies regarding their performance are still sparse.

Description: Heavy metals are a dangerous source of pollution due to their toxicity, permanence in the environment and chemical nature. It is well known that long-term exposure to heavy metals is related to several chronic degenerative diseases (cardiovascular diseases, neoplasms, neurodegenerative syndromes, etc.). In this work, we propose a machine learning framework to evaluate the severity of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) from Human scalp hair analysis (HSHA) tests and genetic analysis and identify a small group of these clinical features mostly associated with the CVD risk. Using a private dataset provided by the DD Clinic foundation in Caserta, Italy, we cross-validated the classification performance of a Random Forests model with 90 subjects affected by CVD. The proposed model reached an AUC of 0.78 ± 0.01 on a three class classification problem. The robustness of the predictions was assessed by comparison with different cross-validation schemes and two state-of-the-art classifiers, such as Artificial Neural Network and General Linear Model. Thus, is the first work that studies, through a machine learning approach, the tight link between CVD severity, heavy metal concentrations and SNPs. Then, the selected features appear highly correlated with the CVD phenotype, and they could represent targets for future CVD therapies.

Description: The SEE-GeoForm project (Site Effects Evaluation - Geological Form) is born to share and make easily accessible via Internet seismic hazard data for Italy at different scales and for different administrative units (regions, provinces, municipalities), from existing database or new dataset carried out in this project. Using a WebGIS (http://www.seegeoform.it) a tool to archive, display and elaborate information has been developed. In particular, the website allows the user to query the basic and local seismic hazard values for single municipalities or to calculate those for any single point only by clicking on the maps. In order to make the WebGIS more flexible, the system has been fully implemented using open source technologies, based on the guidelines expressed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC); in this way, it has been possible to develop some thematic modules for data elaborations and queries as integrated web services such as WMS, following all of the internationally-acknowledged best-practices in this field. The WebGIS has three frames: the data panel, the display area, the map layers directories. The data panel has several modules concerning respectively: basic and local hazard data for all Italian municipalities calculated by National Institute of Geophisics and Volcanology (INGV) or from other studies, such as horizontal peak ground acceleration values for different return periods (considering the exceedance probability in 50 years), and soil classes with the corresponding lithostratigraphic amplification factors according to the EuroCode8; a regular grid of 16.810 points, with a step equal to 0.05°, used by INGV for the seismic hazard elaborations (http://zonesismiche.mi.ingv.it/): values that are necessary to draw the site-dependent response spectra, according to the Italian seismic code, are linked to each point; the calculation on user demand of basic seismic hazard parameters for a site selected by clicking on geographical layers; composite seismogenic sources from DISS (Database of Individual Seismogenic Sources, vers. 3.1.1.: http://diss.rm.ingv.it/diss/), with their relative parameters (maximum moment magnitude, strike, dip, etc.). Finally, there are two modules regarding litoseismic classes and subsoil categories: the first one is linked to a map obtained by reclassifying the 46 litothypes of the Lithological Map of Italy at 100000-scale by Geological Survey of Italy (National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research - ISPRA) into 12 litoseismic classes, considered homogeneous regarding to their seismic behavior; while the second one permits to know the subsoil category, according with Italian seismic provisions (Norme Tecniche per le Costruzioni – NTC 2008), for a single point by clicking on the map. This has been possible by elaborating a subsoil categories map at 100000-scale derived from the litoseismic map at the same scale, by blending different litoseismic classes into 5 categories. Datasets have been built starting from 2007 within the ReLUIS Project (http://www.reluis.it) and are being improved within the 2009-2012 EUCENTRE project (http://www.eucentre.it), that partially financed the WebGIS development, as a result of the strong collaboration between researchers from INGV and ISPRA. The SEE-GeoForm web-tool aims to become the focal point to display in a simple way many databases containing information on seismic hazard of Italian territory, allowing user-friendly elaborations for researchers and professionals.

Description: Published

Description: Vienna (Austria)

Description: 4.1. Metodologie sismologiche per l'ingegneria sismica

Description: 5.5. TTC - Sistema Informativo Territoriale

Description: open

Description: Il progetto SEE-GeoForm (Site Effects Evaluation - Geological Form: http://www.seegeoform.it) nasce con l’obiettivo di realizzare uno strumento semplice, potente e completo per la consultazione e la rappresentazione, tramite un WebGIS, di dati geologici, geomorfologici, geotecnici e geofisici relativi all’intero territorio italiano. In questo modo, si vogliono concentrare in un sistema flessibile e intuitivo, dotato di un’unica modalità di accesso e consultazione, una serie di informazioni che attualmente sono disperse in numerosi database mono-tematici consultabili via Internet. Attualmente il WebGIS contiene dati georeferenziati e carte tematiche relative alla pericolosità sismica a differenti scale territoriali e per diverse unità amministrative (regioni, province e comuni). Le informazioni provengono sia da banche dati esistenti che da elaborazioni effettuate “ad hoc” nell’ambito di questo progetto (carte tematiche in scala 1:100.000 del territorio italiano). Per rendere il sistema più flessibile ed aggiornabile è stata sviluppata una piattaforma che utilizza esclusivamente tecnologie “open source”, basate sulle linee guida dell’Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC); in questo modo è stato possibile realizzare alcuni moduli tematici che sono totalmente compatibili con il protocollo standard denominato WMS (Web Map Services) per la consultazione e la visualizzazione spaziale dei dati tramite Internet.

Description: Published

Description: Politecnico di Bari - Campus Universitario

Description: 4.1. Metodologie sismologiche per l'ingegneria sismica

Description: 5.5. TTC - Sistema Informativo Territoriale

Description: open