Egu General Assembly Conference Abstracts, Apr 1, 2013
During a landslide triggering event, the tens to thousands of landslides resulting from the trigg... more During a landslide triggering event, the tens to thousands of landslides resulting from the trigger (e.g., earthquake, heavy rainfall) may block a number of sections of the road network, posing a risk to rescue efforts, logistics and accessibility to a region. Here, we present initial results from a semi-stochastic model we are developing to evaluate the probability of landslides intersecting a road network and the network-accessibility implications of this across a region. This was performed in the open source GRASS GIS software, where we took 'model' landslides and dropped them on a 79 km2 test area region in Collazzone, Umbria, Central Italy, with a given road network (major and minor roads, 404 km in length) and already determined landslide susceptibilities. Landslide areas (AL) were randomly selected from a three-parameter inverse gamma probability density function, consisting of a power-law decay of about -2.4 for medium and large values of AL and an exponential rollover for small values of AL; the rollover (maximum probability) occurs at about AL = 400 m.2 The number of landslide areas selected for each triggered event iteration was chosen to have an average density of 1 landslide km-2, i.e. 79 landslide areas chosen randomly for each iteration. Landslides were then 'dropped' over the region semi-stochastically: (i) random points were generated across the study region; (ii) based on the landslide susceptibility map, points were accepted/rejected based on the probability of a landslide occurring at that location. After a point was accepted, it was assigned a landslide area (AL) and length to width ratio. Landslide intersections with roads were then assessed and indices such as the location, number and size of road blockage recorded. The GRASS-GIS model was performed 1000 times in a Monte-Carlo type simulation. Initial results show that for a landslide triggering event of 1 landslide km-2 over a 79 km2 region with 404 km of road, the number of road blockages ranges from 6 to 17, resulting in one road blockage every 24-67 km of roads. The average length of road blocked was 33 m. As we progress with model development and more sophisticated network analysis, we believe this semi-stochastic modelling approach will aid civil protection agencies to get a rough idea for the probability of road network potential damage (road block number and extent) as the result of different magnitude landslide triggering event scenarios.
You can download the discussion paper here:(http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci-discuss.net/3/4... more You can download the discussion paper here:(http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci-discuss.net/3/4189/2015/nhessd-3-4189-2015.pdf) Feel free to enter the open discussion. Landslide inventory maps (LIMs) show where landslides have occurred in an area, and provide information useful to different types of landslide studies, including susceptibility and hazard modelling and validation, risk assessment, erosion analyses, and to evaluate relationships between landslides and geological settings. Despite recent technological advancements, visual interpretation of aerial photographs (API) remains the most common method to prepare LIMs. In this work, we present a new semi-automatic procedure that exploits GIS technology for the digitalization of landslide data obtained through API. To test the procedure, and to compare it to a consolidated landslide mapping method, we prepared two LIMs starting from the same set of landslide API data, which were digitalized (a) manually adopting a consolidated...
ABSTRACT Introduction This study aims to investigate possible risk factors for diverticulitis in ... more ABSTRACT Introduction This study aims to investigate possible risk factors for diverticulitis in kidney transplant recipients affected by colonic diverticulosis. Methods and Results We investigated 717 patients transplanted between 2000 and 2010. Diverticular disease was endoscopically diagnosed in 17 of 717 examined patients. Eight patients were diagnosed with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD); 9 of 17 patients underwent emergency surgery. We performed Hartmann's procedure on all patients, with a second stage performed at least 6 months later. Discussion Although the incidence of colonic diverticular perforation in kidney transplanted patients is similar to that observed in the general population, perforation in immunosuppressed patients is associated with a higher morbidity/mortality rate. In our study, the incidence of perforation is 1.25% (9 of 717), with almost half of the cases observed in patients with ADPKD (4 of 9). Such an observation is consistent with published data, in which patients with ADPKD are reported to more frequently develop colonic diverticulosis and its complications. One possible explanation might be related to a belated diagnosis of diverticulitis, which could initially simulate an inflammatory disease as a consequence of renal cysts. Also, steroids seem to be a predisposing factor for colonic perforation in these patients. Conclusions A timely surgery can significantly reduce mortality. In cases of elective surgery, mortality and morbidity are similar to those of immunocompetent patients; accordingly, this is the goal to be pursued. Early signs and symptoms are often masked by immunosuppressive therapy. In these patients, surgeons should always perform (1) abdominal computed tomography scanning and, in the presence of diverticulitis, reduce or withdraw immunosuppressive therapy; and (2) early surgery, with Hartmann's procedure being, in our opinion, the best choice. Before transplantation, elective surgery for colonic resection should be considered in patients with ADPKD or with a history of 1 or more episodes of acute diverticulitis who then regressed with medical therapy.
Landslide inventory maps are fundamental for assessing landslide susceptibility, hazard, and risk... more Landslide inventory maps are fundamental for assessing landslide susceptibility, hazard, and risk. In tropical mountainous environments, mapping landslides is difficult as rapid and dense vegetation growth obscures landslides soon after their occurrence. Airborne laser scanning (ALS) data have been used to construct the digital terrain model (DTM) under dense vegetation, but its reliability for landslide recognition in the tropics remains surprisingly unknown. This study evaluates the suitability of ALS for generating an optimal DTM for mapping landslides in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. For the bare-earth extraction, we used hierarchical robust filtering algorithm and a parameterization with three sequential filtering steps. After each filtering step, four interpolations techniques were applied, namely: (i) the linear prediction derived from the SCOP++ (SCP), (ii) the inverse distance weighting (IDW), (iii) the natural neighbor (NEN) and (iv) the topo-to-raster (T2R). We assesse...
AIM: The use of synthetic mesh in transplant patients is still under debate. In this paper the au... more AIM: The use of synthetic mesh in transplant patients is still under debate. In this paper the authors report their preliminary experience on biological prosthesis for surgical treatment of incisional hernias in transplant patients. MATERIAL OF STUDY: Between 2009-2010, 10 patients with incisional hernia underwent surgery using a biological prosthesis (porcine dermis collagen). All patients were transplanted: 9 kidney transplants and 1 liver transplant. RESULTS: In all patients postoperative course was uneventful and were not observed complications related to surgery, kind of prosthesis or transplanted organs. At follow up, laparoplasty was associated with good functional outcome. DISCUSSION: Transplant patients are at risk for use of synthetic prostheses, as immunosuppressed. In our preliminary experience biological prostheses compared to synthetic ones showed a greater ability to integrate into tissues, to resist bacterial colonization and to reduce cytotoxic or allergenic reactio...
ABSTRACT Landslide inventory maps are a key issue to document the type and extent of mass movemen... more ABSTRACT Landslide inventory maps are a key issue to document the type and extent of mass movements in small (slope scale) to very large (country scale) areas, for geomorphological studies, and for landslide hazard and risk assessment (Guzzetti et al, 2012 and references therein). Geomorphologists usually prepare landslide inventories by aerial photo interpretation (API) of stereoscopic images aided by field survey. Criteria adopted for the visual image analysis derive from the heuristic interpretation of photographic and morphological features of the image, such as shape, size, colour tone, texture and pattern. An established procedure for transferring photo- interpreted information to a GIS environment is traditionally organized according to the following stages: (i) landslide information are drawn directly on an undeformable plastic film superimposed to the aerial photograph, (ii) the interpreted data are transferred on a plastic sheet superimposed to the topographic map, (iii) the photo-interpreted layer is scanned, imported and georeferenced as a raster file in a GIS project (iv) geomorphological elements are manually digitized and encoded through the compilation of a geo-database. This traditional method is time consuming, resource demanding, and depends on the experience of the geomorphologist. As a result, landslide inventory maps can be affected by mapping errors (positioning and shape) of the single landslides (Ardizzone et al., 2002). We recently explored new GIS applications and tools that can help geomorphologists to digitize, store and publish landslide data more accurately and efficiently. We developed and tested a procedure that exploits GIS applications for the digitization and storing phase, and GeoServer for the creation of web-gis services. In this work we describe the new procedure and compare it to the traditional method. Advantages and needed further developments are also highlighted.
Meigs' syndrome is a rare clinical entity characterised with ovarian benign tumour, ascites a... more Meigs' syndrome is a rare clinical entity characterised with ovarian benign tumour, ascites and hydrothorax. Between January '94-September '98 we observed three patients with: ovarian neoformation, light (1 patient), moderate (2 patients) monolateral pleural effusion, moderate (2 patients) and considerable (1 patient) ascites. In all patients the preoperative evaluation (sero-haematologic routine, Ca 125 and other oncologic markers, chest X-ray, abdominal and pelvic ultrasonography, total-body Tc, cytological analysis of pleural and abdominal effusion) was suggestive for malignancy but not confirmed it. So an explorative laparotomy with histological extemporary analysis was performed. The results were: 1 fibrothecomas, 1 fibroma, 1 ovarian inflammation with cystic luteinization areas and fibromatosis uterine. All three patients had a good postoperative course. The symptomatology and the effusions disappeared 7-10 days after operation. The first two cases were diagnosed a...
ABSTRACT During a landslide triggering event, the tens to thousands of landslides resulting from ... more ABSTRACT During a landslide triggering event, the tens to thousands of landslides resulting from the trigger (e.g., earthquake, heavy rainfall) may block a number of sections of the road network, posing a risk to rescue efforts, logistics and accessibility to a region. Here, we present initial results from a semi-stochastic model we are developing to evaluate the probability of landslides intersecting a road network and the network-accessibility implications of this across a region. This was performed in the open source GRASS GIS software, where we took 'model' landslides and dropped them on a 79 km2 test area region in Collazzone, Umbria, Central Italy, with a given road network (major and minor roads, 404 km in length) and already determined landslide susceptibilities. Landslide areas (AL) were randomly selected from a three-parameter inverse gamma probability density function, consisting of a power-law decay of about -2.4 for medium and large values of AL and an exponential rollover for small values of AL; the rollover (maximum probability) occurs at about AL = 400 m.2 The number of landslide areas selected for each triggered event iteration was chosen to have an average density of 1 landslide km-2, i.e. 79 landslide areas chosen randomly for each iteration. Landslides were then 'dropped' over the region semi-stochastically: (i) random points were generated across the study region; (ii) based on the landslide susceptibility map, points were accepted/rejected based on the probability of a landslide occurring at that location. After a point was accepted, it was assigned a landslide area (AL) and length to width ratio. Landslide intersections with roads were then assessed and indices such as the location, number and size of road blockage recorded. The GRASS-GIS model was performed 1000 times in a Monte-Carlo type simulation. Initial results show that for a landslide triggering event of 1 landslide km-2 over a 79 km2 region with 404 km of road, the number of road blockages ranges from 6 to 17, resulting in one road blockage every 24-67 km of roads. The average length of road blocked was 33 m. As we progress with model development and more sophisticated network analysis, we believe this semi-stochastic modelling approach will aid civil protection agencies to get a rough idea for the probability of road network potential damage (road block number and extent) as the result of different magnitude landslide triggering event scenarios.
The Italian journal of surgical sciences / sponsored by Società italiana di chirurgia
A case of accessory biliary duct draining segments V and VI of the liver, accidentally injured du... more A case of accessory biliary duct draining segments V and VI of the liver, accidentally injured during cholecystectomy and repaired by biliary-enteric anastomosis, is reported. An accessory bile duct may occur in 15-20% of these patients. Ligation or repair is always recommended depending on the size and volume of bile flow. Roux-en-Y loop reconstruction is to be preferred as it provides the best results with the lowest risk of leakage, stenosis and cholangitis.
ABSTRACT Landslide inventory maps are key in documenting the type and extent of mass movements in... more ABSTRACT Landslide inventory maps are key in documenting the type and extent of mass movements in local to regional areas, for both geomorphological studies and landslide hazard assessment. Geomorphologists usually prepare landslide inventories by aerial photo interpretation (API) of stereoscopic images aided by field surveys. Criteria adopted for visual image analyses are derived from the heuristic interpretation of photographic and morphological features of the image, such as shape, size, color tone, texture and pattern. The established (traditional) procedure for transferring photo-interpreted information to a GIS environment involves the manual drawing of information from the aerial photograph to the topographic base map. In this stage, mapping (i.e., positioning, shape, size) errors can occur due to (i) the change in scale, from the aerial photographs to the topographic map, (ii) object deformation in the stereoscopic model, due to the vertical exaggeration and the conical projection of the aerial photographs, (iii) differences in topography in the different cartographic media (aerial photographs and base maps). We recently developed a method to reduce mapping errors which exploits the ortho-rectification of the aerial photograph and the photo-interpreted thematic layers, thus avoiding manual transferring of information to the topographic map. The technique was evaluated in a test area of about 50 km2 in the neighboring of Taormina (Sicily, Southern Italy), where the information concerning mass movement was transferred to two inventory maps using the traditional and ortho-rectification technique. More than 500 landslides pairs have been compared in this test region, ranging in landlside area between 102 and 107 m2. The mapping error associated with the mapped features has been evaluated by calculating the mismatch index for each landslide pair as: E = (A U B)-(A ? B)/(A U B), where A is a landslide of the inventory obtained using the manual drawing approach and B is a landslide reported using the ortho-rectification technique, U denotes landslide polygon union, and ? denotes landslide polygon intersection. The ortho-rectification procedure accounts for a Root Mean Square Error at defined GCPs lower than 5m. Preliminary results show that (i) the positional mismatch decreases as landslide area increases, (ii) landslide areas are generally overestimated when using the traditional method (iii) although minor differences are observed in the landslide frequency-area statistics between methods, there is relatively good agreement in the fit of the power law tail of both distributions. We propose that previous inventories produced using the traditional method remains correct, but some estimation of positional and size uncertainty should be included in future work. We outline procedures for estimating this uncertainty.
Giornale italiano di nefrologia : organo ufficiale della Società italiana di nefrologia
We present the case of a 39-year-old woman with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADP... more We present the case of a 39-year-old woman with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). She was admitted to our hospital with marked dyspnea and epigastric pain. A diagnosis of giant hepatic cyst compressing the surrounding organs was made on the basis of the clinical and radiological findings. The patient underwent percutaneous aspiration of the cyst. The symptoms and radiological abnormalities were normalized within a few days of the minimally invasive aspiration procedure.
Egu General Assembly Conference Abstracts, Apr 1, 2013
During a landslide triggering event, the tens to thousands of landslides resulting from the trigg... more During a landslide triggering event, the tens to thousands of landslides resulting from the trigger (e.g., earthquake, heavy rainfall) may block a number of sections of the road network, posing a risk to rescue efforts, logistics and accessibility to a region. Here, we present initial results from a semi-stochastic model we are developing to evaluate the probability of landslides intersecting a road network and the network-accessibility implications of this across a region. This was performed in the open source GRASS GIS software, where we took 'model' landslides and dropped them on a 79 km2 test area region in Collazzone, Umbria, Central Italy, with a given road network (major and minor roads, 404 km in length) and already determined landslide susceptibilities. Landslide areas (AL) were randomly selected from a three-parameter inverse gamma probability density function, consisting of a power-law decay of about -2.4 for medium and large values of AL and an exponential rollover for small values of AL; the rollover (maximum probability) occurs at about AL = 400 m.2 The number of landslide areas selected for each triggered event iteration was chosen to have an average density of 1 landslide km-2, i.e. 79 landslide areas chosen randomly for each iteration. Landslides were then 'dropped' over the region semi-stochastically: (i) random points were generated across the study region; (ii) based on the landslide susceptibility map, points were accepted/rejected based on the probability of a landslide occurring at that location. After a point was accepted, it was assigned a landslide area (AL) and length to width ratio. Landslide intersections with roads were then assessed and indices such as the location, number and size of road blockage recorded. The GRASS-GIS model was performed 1000 times in a Monte-Carlo type simulation. Initial results show that for a landslide triggering event of 1 landslide km-2 over a 79 km2 region with 404 km of road, the number of road blockages ranges from 6 to 17, resulting in one road blockage every 24-67 km of roads. The average length of road blocked was 33 m. As we progress with model development and more sophisticated network analysis, we believe this semi-stochastic modelling approach will aid civil protection agencies to get a rough idea for the probability of road network potential damage (road block number and extent) as the result of different magnitude landslide triggering event scenarios.
You can download the discussion paper here:(http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci-discuss.net/3/4... more You can download the discussion paper here:(http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci-discuss.net/3/4189/2015/nhessd-3-4189-2015.pdf) Feel free to enter the open discussion. Landslide inventory maps (LIMs) show where landslides have occurred in an area, and provide information useful to different types of landslide studies, including susceptibility and hazard modelling and validation, risk assessment, erosion analyses, and to evaluate relationships between landslides and geological settings. Despite recent technological advancements, visual interpretation of aerial photographs (API) remains the most common method to prepare LIMs. In this work, we present a new semi-automatic procedure that exploits GIS technology for the digitalization of landslide data obtained through API. To test the procedure, and to compare it to a consolidated landslide mapping method, we prepared two LIMs starting from the same set of landslide API data, which were digitalized (a) manually adopting a consolidated...
ABSTRACT Introduction This study aims to investigate possible risk factors for diverticulitis in ... more ABSTRACT Introduction This study aims to investigate possible risk factors for diverticulitis in kidney transplant recipients affected by colonic diverticulosis. Methods and Results We investigated 717 patients transplanted between 2000 and 2010. Diverticular disease was endoscopically diagnosed in 17 of 717 examined patients. Eight patients were diagnosed with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD); 9 of 17 patients underwent emergency surgery. We performed Hartmann's procedure on all patients, with a second stage performed at least 6 months later. Discussion Although the incidence of colonic diverticular perforation in kidney transplanted patients is similar to that observed in the general population, perforation in immunosuppressed patients is associated with a higher morbidity/mortality rate. In our study, the incidence of perforation is 1.25% (9 of 717), with almost half of the cases observed in patients with ADPKD (4 of 9). Such an observation is consistent with published data, in which patients with ADPKD are reported to more frequently develop colonic diverticulosis and its complications. One possible explanation might be related to a belated diagnosis of diverticulitis, which could initially simulate an inflammatory disease as a consequence of renal cysts. Also, steroids seem to be a predisposing factor for colonic perforation in these patients. Conclusions A timely surgery can significantly reduce mortality. In cases of elective surgery, mortality and morbidity are similar to those of immunocompetent patients; accordingly, this is the goal to be pursued. Early signs and symptoms are often masked by immunosuppressive therapy. In these patients, surgeons should always perform (1) abdominal computed tomography scanning and, in the presence of diverticulitis, reduce or withdraw immunosuppressive therapy; and (2) early surgery, with Hartmann's procedure being, in our opinion, the best choice. Before transplantation, elective surgery for colonic resection should be considered in patients with ADPKD or with a history of 1 or more episodes of acute diverticulitis who then regressed with medical therapy.
Landslide inventory maps are fundamental for assessing landslide susceptibility, hazard, and risk... more Landslide inventory maps are fundamental for assessing landslide susceptibility, hazard, and risk. In tropical mountainous environments, mapping landslides is difficult as rapid and dense vegetation growth obscures landslides soon after their occurrence. Airborne laser scanning (ALS) data have been used to construct the digital terrain model (DTM) under dense vegetation, but its reliability for landslide recognition in the tropics remains surprisingly unknown. This study evaluates the suitability of ALS for generating an optimal DTM for mapping landslides in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. For the bare-earth extraction, we used hierarchical robust filtering algorithm and a parameterization with three sequential filtering steps. After each filtering step, four interpolations techniques were applied, namely: (i) the linear prediction derived from the SCOP++ (SCP), (ii) the inverse distance weighting (IDW), (iii) the natural neighbor (NEN) and (iv) the topo-to-raster (T2R). We assesse...
AIM: The use of synthetic mesh in transplant patients is still under debate. In this paper the au... more AIM: The use of synthetic mesh in transplant patients is still under debate. In this paper the authors report their preliminary experience on biological prosthesis for surgical treatment of incisional hernias in transplant patients. MATERIAL OF STUDY: Between 2009-2010, 10 patients with incisional hernia underwent surgery using a biological prosthesis (porcine dermis collagen). All patients were transplanted: 9 kidney transplants and 1 liver transplant. RESULTS: In all patients postoperative course was uneventful and were not observed complications related to surgery, kind of prosthesis or transplanted organs. At follow up, laparoplasty was associated with good functional outcome. DISCUSSION: Transplant patients are at risk for use of synthetic prostheses, as immunosuppressed. In our preliminary experience biological prostheses compared to synthetic ones showed a greater ability to integrate into tissues, to resist bacterial colonization and to reduce cytotoxic or allergenic reactio...
ABSTRACT Landslide inventory maps are a key issue to document the type and extent of mass movemen... more ABSTRACT Landslide inventory maps are a key issue to document the type and extent of mass movements in small (slope scale) to very large (country scale) areas, for geomorphological studies, and for landslide hazard and risk assessment (Guzzetti et al, 2012 and references therein). Geomorphologists usually prepare landslide inventories by aerial photo interpretation (API) of stereoscopic images aided by field survey. Criteria adopted for the visual image analysis derive from the heuristic interpretation of photographic and morphological features of the image, such as shape, size, colour tone, texture and pattern. An established procedure for transferring photo- interpreted information to a GIS environment is traditionally organized according to the following stages: (i) landslide information are drawn directly on an undeformable plastic film superimposed to the aerial photograph, (ii) the interpreted data are transferred on a plastic sheet superimposed to the topographic map, (iii) the photo-interpreted layer is scanned, imported and georeferenced as a raster file in a GIS project (iv) geomorphological elements are manually digitized and encoded through the compilation of a geo-database. This traditional method is time consuming, resource demanding, and depends on the experience of the geomorphologist. As a result, landslide inventory maps can be affected by mapping errors (positioning and shape) of the single landslides (Ardizzone et al., 2002). We recently explored new GIS applications and tools that can help geomorphologists to digitize, store and publish landslide data more accurately and efficiently. We developed and tested a procedure that exploits GIS applications for the digitization and storing phase, and GeoServer for the creation of web-gis services. In this work we describe the new procedure and compare it to the traditional method. Advantages and needed further developments are also highlighted.
Meigs' syndrome is a rare clinical entity characterised with ovarian benign tumour, ascites a... more Meigs' syndrome is a rare clinical entity characterised with ovarian benign tumour, ascites and hydrothorax. Between January '94-September '98 we observed three patients with: ovarian neoformation, light (1 patient), moderate (2 patients) monolateral pleural effusion, moderate (2 patients) and considerable (1 patient) ascites. In all patients the preoperative evaluation (sero-haematologic routine, Ca 125 and other oncologic markers, chest X-ray, abdominal and pelvic ultrasonography, total-body Tc, cytological analysis of pleural and abdominal effusion) was suggestive for malignancy but not confirmed it. So an explorative laparotomy with histological extemporary analysis was performed. The results were: 1 fibrothecomas, 1 fibroma, 1 ovarian inflammation with cystic luteinization areas and fibromatosis uterine. All three patients had a good postoperative course. The symptomatology and the effusions disappeared 7-10 days after operation. The first two cases were diagnosed a...
ABSTRACT During a landslide triggering event, the tens to thousands of landslides resulting from ... more ABSTRACT During a landslide triggering event, the tens to thousands of landslides resulting from the trigger (e.g., earthquake, heavy rainfall) may block a number of sections of the road network, posing a risk to rescue efforts, logistics and accessibility to a region. Here, we present initial results from a semi-stochastic model we are developing to evaluate the probability of landslides intersecting a road network and the network-accessibility implications of this across a region. This was performed in the open source GRASS GIS software, where we took 'model' landslides and dropped them on a 79 km2 test area region in Collazzone, Umbria, Central Italy, with a given road network (major and minor roads, 404 km in length) and already determined landslide susceptibilities. Landslide areas (AL) were randomly selected from a three-parameter inverse gamma probability density function, consisting of a power-law decay of about -2.4 for medium and large values of AL and an exponential rollover for small values of AL; the rollover (maximum probability) occurs at about AL = 400 m.2 The number of landslide areas selected for each triggered event iteration was chosen to have an average density of 1 landslide km-2, i.e. 79 landslide areas chosen randomly for each iteration. Landslides were then 'dropped' over the region semi-stochastically: (i) random points were generated across the study region; (ii) based on the landslide susceptibility map, points were accepted/rejected based on the probability of a landslide occurring at that location. After a point was accepted, it was assigned a landslide area (AL) and length to width ratio. Landslide intersections with roads were then assessed and indices such as the location, number and size of road blockage recorded. The GRASS-GIS model was performed 1000 times in a Monte-Carlo type simulation. Initial results show that for a landslide triggering event of 1 landslide km-2 over a 79 km2 region with 404 km of road, the number of road blockages ranges from 6 to 17, resulting in one road blockage every 24-67 km of roads. The average length of road blocked was 33 m. As we progress with model development and more sophisticated network analysis, we believe this semi-stochastic modelling approach will aid civil protection agencies to get a rough idea for the probability of road network potential damage (road block number and extent) as the result of different magnitude landslide triggering event scenarios.
The Italian journal of surgical sciences / sponsored by Società italiana di chirurgia
A case of accessory biliary duct draining segments V and VI of the liver, accidentally injured du... more A case of accessory biliary duct draining segments V and VI of the liver, accidentally injured during cholecystectomy and repaired by biliary-enteric anastomosis, is reported. An accessory bile duct may occur in 15-20% of these patients. Ligation or repair is always recommended depending on the size and volume of bile flow. Roux-en-Y loop reconstruction is to be preferred as it provides the best results with the lowest risk of leakage, stenosis and cholangitis.
ABSTRACT Landslide inventory maps are key in documenting the type and extent of mass movements in... more ABSTRACT Landslide inventory maps are key in documenting the type and extent of mass movements in local to regional areas, for both geomorphological studies and landslide hazard assessment. Geomorphologists usually prepare landslide inventories by aerial photo interpretation (API) of stereoscopic images aided by field surveys. Criteria adopted for visual image analyses are derived from the heuristic interpretation of photographic and morphological features of the image, such as shape, size, color tone, texture and pattern. The established (traditional) procedure for transferring photo-interpreted information to a GIS environment involves the manual drawing of information from the aerial photograph to the topographic base map. In this stage, mapping (i.e., positioning, shape, size) errors can occur due to (i) the change in scale, from the aerial photographs to the topographic map, (ii) object deformation in the stereoscopic model, due to the vertical exaggeration and the conical projection of the aerial photographs, (iii) differences in topography in the different cartographic media (aerial photographs and base maps). We recently developed a method to reduce mapping errors which exploits the ortho-rectification of the aerial photograph and the photo-interpreted thematic layers, thus avoiding manual transferring of information to the topographic map. The technique was evaluated in a test area of about 50 km2 in the neighboring of Taormina (Sicily, Southern Italy), where the information concerning mass movement was transferred to two inventory maps using the traditional and ortho-rectification technique. More than 500 landslides pairs have been compared in this test region, ranging in landlside area between 102 and 107 m2. The mapping error associated with the mapped features has been evaluated by calculating the mismatch index for each landslide pair as: E = (A U B)-(A ? B)/(A U B), where A is a landslide of the inventory obtained using the manual drawing approach and B is a landslide reported using the ortho-rectification technique, U denotes landslide polygon union, and ? denotes landslide polygon intersection. The ortho-rectification procedure accounts for a Root Mean Square Error at defined GCPs lower than 5m. Preliminary results show that (i) the positional mismatch decreases as landslide area increases, (ii) landslide areas are generally overestimated when using the traditional method (iii) although minor differences are observed in the landslide frequency-area statistics between methods, there is relatively good agreement in the fit of the power law tail of both distributions. We propose that previous inventories produced using the traditional method remains correct, but some estimation of positional and size uncertainty should be included in future work. We outline procedures for estimating this uncertainty.
Giornale italiano di nefrologia : organo ufficiale della Società italiana di nefrologia
We present the case of a 39-year-old woman with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADP... more We present the case of a 39-year-old woman with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). She was admitted to our hospital with marked dyspnea and epigastric pain. A diagnosis of giant hepatic cyst compressing the surrounding organs was made on the basis of the clinical and radiological findings. The patient underwent percutaneous aspiration of the cyst. The symptoms and radiological abnormalities were normalized within a few days of the minimally invasive aspiration procedure.
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