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In the framework of an assessment of optical polishing techniques, ESA has signed a contract with Media Lario to deliver two 250 mm mirrors with a common optical design to be polished down to very tight surface requirements. NOPT mirrors are respectively made of Zerodur and AlSi alloy with electroless nickel and will they be polished by means of bonnet polishing. Mirrors are light-weighted up to 20kg/m2; the mechanical and optical design is proven to be scalable up to 1m CA surfaces. This paper reviews the mirrors opto-mechanical design, introduce the polishing and metrology strategy while highlighting the differences and the common point in fabricating such mirror in Zerodur and metal.

Background: In February 2021, the spread of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the Lombardy Region, Italy caused concerns about school-aged children as a source of contagion, leading local authorities to adopt an extraordinary school closure measure. This generated a debate about the usefulness of such an intervention in light of the trade-off between its related benefits and costs (e.g. delays in educational attainment, impact on children and families' psycho-physical well-being). This article analyses the epidemiological impact of the school closure intervention in the Milan metropolitan area. Methods: Data from the Agency for Health Protection of the Metropolitan City of Milan allowed analysing the trend of contagion in different age classes before and after the intervention, adopting an interrupted times series design, providing a quasi-experimental counterfactual scenario. Segmented Poisson regression models of daily incident cases were performed separately for the 3–11-year-old, the 12–19-year-old, and the 20+-year-old age groups, examining the change in the contagion curves after the intervention, adjusting for time-varying confounders. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox regression were used to assess the equality of survival curves in the three age groups before and after the intervention. Results: Net of time-varying confounders, the intervention produced a daily reduction of the risk of contagion by 4% in those aged 3–11 and 12–19 (IRR = 0·96) and by 3% in those aged 20 or more (IRR = 0·97). More importantly, there were differences in the temporal order of contagion decrease between the age groups, with the epidemic curve lowering first in the school-aged children directly affected by the intervention, and only subsequently in the adult population, which presumably indirectly benefitted from the reduction of contagion among children. Conclusion: Though it was not possible to completely discern the effect of school closures from concurrent policy measures, a substantial decrease in the contagion curves was clearly detected after the intervention. The extent to which the slowdown of infections counterbalanced the social costs of the policy remains unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the literature on health inequalities and social determinants of health, there is a growing interest in studying how the context of residence is able to influence health conditions and health‐related outcomes, over and above individual characteristics. Life context affects people's well‐being in a material way, through the availability of services and resources, but also through social, cultural and relational resources, to the extent to which people within the same context share norms, values and behaviours affecting their health conditions. In this study, we analysed the association between social cohesion in the context of residence and two health‐related outcomes, psycho‐physical well‐being and self‐efficacy, in school‐aged children in Lombardy, using data from the Health Behaviour in School‐aged Children (HBSC) study for 2014. The results show a positive association between the variables, indicating that social cohesion matters for young people's health and well‐being and suggesting new areas of intervention in policies aiming at promoting health and reducing inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Congenital CMV (cCMV) infection is a serious public health issue due to both its worldwide prevalence and the severe and permanent impairments it causes. However, awareness of this infection is low in the general population and among pregnant women, and it also seems to be generally disregarded by healthcare providers. The identification of factors behind this inadequate level of knowledge could provide a basis for future preventive measures. This study aimed at evaluating awareness of CMV and cCMV infection and its correlation with socio-demographic variables in a general population. Methods: The survey was carried out by computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI). A questionnaire was sent via e-mail to the 70,975 individuals who comprised the whole population (students, administrative staff, teaching staff) of Milan University, Italy in 2015. Results: Out of the 10,190 respondents, 5,351 (52.5 %) had already heard of CMV but only 3,216 (31.8 %) knew that this virus could be implicated in congenital infection. Urine and breastfeeding were the least recognized transmission routes for CMV infection; less than half of respondents accurately identified the right symptoms and sequelae caused by cCMV infection. The correct hygienic measures against cCMV infection were identified in percentages ranging from 55.6 to 75 % depending on the measures proposed but about one in three of interviewees deemed those measures unnecessary in the event of a pregnant woman already being CMV seropositive. From the mean knowledge scores the most complete quality of awareness of CMV turned out to be linked to childbearing-age (25-40 year) and with not having children, even if results for non-parents showed less of them having heard of cCMV than parents. Conclusion: Our results indicate a limited and confused awareness of cCMV infection in a large, fairly young and well-educated Italian population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]