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The study was carried out within the European research project "Biology, Health and Environmental Education for Better Citizenship" that joined 18 European and North-African countries. We report here the methodology and some of the conclusions drawn from an analysis of science textbooks that considered the topics ecology and environmental education (EEE). Grids were conceived with the aim of revealing value systems conveyed by the exposition of the content and by images. We concentrate on the explicit/implicit presence of two of the four conceptions that have been investigated: complex vs. linear and relation of humans respect to nature in relation to the sub-topics ecosystems and ecological cycles and pollution. Dogmatism, scientism, and non-historical approach were also checked. The findings from the analysis of the sample of seven Italian textbooks for lower and higher secondary school are illustrated and compared with those obtained in Morocco. The outcomes of the analyses show that ecology is not oversimplified, and structural descriptions appear more articulate than the relational and the dynamical ones. The view of ecology communicated by most of the textbooks is rather superficial and incomplete under many respects that we specify. The topic pollution is treated in a fragmentary way, as a "call of attention" added to the description of the environmental components or in Cards included in the chapters concerning the human body. The higher secondary school manuals do not contain more and more articulate information nor they more deeply account concrete cases, familiar to students' experience. Regardless of cultural differences and the diversity in the environmental contexts, the examined topics are treated in a very similar way in the Italian and Moroccan textbooks, as if a globalized approach to EE prevails on the attention for the construction of students' environmental identity. (Contains 5 tables.)

Classically, health education has provided mainly factual knowledge about diseases and their prevention. This educational approach is within the so called Biomedical Model (BM). It is based on pathologic (Pa), curative (Cu) and preventive (Pr) conceptions of health. In contrast, the Health Promotion (HP) approach of health education intends to improve health by promoting healthy habits (He) and by developing empowerment (Ep) for a healthy decision-making with regard to environmental (Ev) challenges. The aim of the present study focused on a comparison of the emphasis on either model (BM or HP) as it is presented by textbooks from 16 countries. Each country team analysed the textbooks that are more frequently used at each educational level. Text and image analysis identified that some countries, such as France and Italy, as more associated with the Biomedical Model, whereas Germany, Mozambique and Finland were more linked to the Health Promotion approach. Data organised for four pupils' age groups (6-9, 10-12, 13-15, 16-18 years old) showed that text and images of the same textbooks gave similar results in terms of following either the BM or HP model, and showed different indicators of consistency (Pa, Cu, Pr for BM; and He, Ep, Ev for HP). Furthermore, although the analyses might be, to a certain extent, subjective (depending on the researcher), it was shown to be very reliable, since all countries, whose textbooks were analysed for the 4 age groups or only the 3 age groups, showed a similar tendency of evolving from a HP (early ages) to a BM approach (elder ages). The interesting finding that the younger pupils' textbooks were more associated with the Health Promotion pole, whereas the older pupils' textbooks were consistent with the Biomedical Model pole seems to be a matter of further and deep investigation. (Contains 1 table and 7 figures.)

The interevent and interstation ground-motion variability of the updated Italian strong-motion database (Italian Accelerometric Archive [ITACA]) has been explored through the development of new empirical ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) for Italy. The regressions have been performed on 241 three-component waveforms from 27 earthquakes with moment magnitudes ranging from 4.8 to 6.9, recorded by 146 stations at distances up to 200 km. The site classification follows the schemes previously proposed for Italy, in which two soil classes are defined, considering both shear-wave velocity and deposit thickness. The regression analysis uses the values of the explanatory variables (magnitude, fault distance, site class, and style of faulting) recently revised in the framework of a project funded by the Italian Department of Civil Protection. The equations have been derived for peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity, and 5 % damped spectral accelerations at 18 periods from 0.03 to 2 sec. The residual variance has been decomposed into interevent, interstation, and record-to-record components by applying a random effect regression scheme. The interevent and interstation error distributions have been analyzed as function of periods to detect sites and events for which predicted values significantly deviate from observations. For periods up to 0.35 sec, the interstation is the dominant component of variance, indicating that an improvement in the site classification could lead to a refinement of the GMPEs. For longer periods, the three components of variance provide similar contributions, indicating that a reduction of the uncertainty can be achieved by reducing the epistemic uncertainty affecting the physical model. The interevent error highlights the peculiarity of few earthquakes, suggesting that the evaluation of regional GMPEs can be important when specific scenario studies should be carried out. The interstation variability allows us to detect stations with peculiar site response and to assess the goodness of the considered site classification scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we investigate the site amplification effects observed in the Gubbio plain, central Italy. The recordings of 140 local earthquakes (1.2 ≤ Ml ≤ 4.7) observed by two linear arrays installed along the longitudinal and perpendicular basin axis are analyzed both in the time and frequency domains to determine the spatial variation of the local site effects in the basin. The time series recorded in the Gubbio plain are characterized by locally generated surface waves, which cause a significant increase in both ground-motion duration and amplitude with respect to a nearby reference station on a rock site. In the middle of the basin where the sedimentary cover is thickest (ca 600 m), the peak ground velocity is amplified on average by a factor of 5 with respect to the reference station installed on rock, and the duration is increased by a factor of about 2. The analyses in the frequency domain show that the spectral energy of the basin-generated waves is mainly distributed over the range 0.4--2 Hz and affects both horizontal and vertical components. The site responses estimated by applying two reference site methods show that the overall shape of the amplification functions is similar for the sites located inside the basin with a difference in the amplification levels, which can reach values as high as 30 in the middle of the valley. Amplifications up to a factor of 10 affect the vertical component of ground motion over a broad frequency range for nearly all basin sites with the maximum amplifications occurring at around 1 Hz. Finally, although the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratios were found to provide a reliable estimation of the fundamental resonance frequency of the site, they fail to estimate the shape of the site transfer function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We simulated strong-motion records from the Umbria-Marche, central Italy, earthquake (Mw 6) of September 1997 using a frequency-dependent S-wave radiation function. We compared the observed acceleration spectra, from strong-motion instruments located in the near field and at regional distances, with those simulated using the stochastic modeling technique of Beresnev and Atkinson (1997, 1998), and modified to account for a frequency-dependent radiation pattern correction. By using the frequency-dependent radiation function previously obtained by Castro et al. (2006), we reduced the overall fitting error of the acceleration spectra by about 9%. In general, we observed that the frequency-dependent radiation pattern correction has a small effect on the spectral amplitudes compared with site effects, which is an important factor controlling the strong-motion records generated by the 1997 Umbria-Marche earthquake. In addition, we modeled the observed ground-motion records using the dynamic corner frequency model of Motazedian and Atkinson (2005) to reproduce the directivity effects, reducing the average error of the spectral amplitudes by 24%. We concluded that although the frequency-dependent radiation pattern correction affects the frequency content of the spectral amplitudes simulated, site and directivity effects are more relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used local earthquakes recorded in central Italy during the 1997-1998 Umbria-Marche sequence to analyze the frequency dependence of the S-wave radiation pattern. We rotated the north-south and east-west ground-motion components into radial and transversal components to study the S-wave energy partition into SV and SH waves. We separated source and path effects using a generalized spectral inversion technique in the frequency band from 0.23 to 30.7 Hz. We found that the quality factor Q for both SV and SH waves have approximately the same value and show the same frequency dependence reported in previous studies in central Italy. We found that at 0.34 Hz the fraction of SH energy is similar to that expected from a double-couple source. Thus, we used this frequency as reference to investigate the variation of the radiation pattern at other frequencies (0.26-23.55 Hz). We observed that the SH-wave energy approaches to the expected SH radiation at low frequencies (f < 0.5 Hz) but that varies randomly at higher frequencies (f > 0.5 Hz). This observation suggests that the radiation pattern of SV and SH waves are stochastic in a wider frequency band than previously reported for other regions like Japan (Takenaka et al., 2003). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used near-field and regional records from 16 earthquakes (ML 4.6-5.9) located in the epicentral area of the 1997 Umbria-Marche sequence to estimate the site response of 40 strong motion stations. The distribution of hypocenters covers a distance range from 5 to 100 km. We estimated site amplification factors using two techniques, namely a generalized spectral inversion method and horizontal-to-vertical-component spectral ratios (HVSRs) of ground acceleration. For the first approach, we inverted observed spectral amplitudes for site, Q, and source using a reference site. Since the site response estimated using HVSRs assumes that the vertical component of motion is amplification free, we also separated source and site effects by inverting the vertical component of the acceleration spectra. We found that although most of the stations do not show important amplifications on the vertical component, a few of them have a significant vertical amplification at low frequencies (f < 1 Hz). The vertical amplification at those sites ranges from a factor of 2 up to a factor of 25, and we observe that HVSRs underestimate the site response. For the rest of the sites, both techniques give similar site functions (inside the standard error of the estimates). The quality factor Q, representative of the S-wave train, shows a frequency dependence that can be approximated by the relation QS = 31.2f1.2, between 0.3 and 9.5 Hz. However, at high frequencies (f > 10 Hz), this dependence weakens, and QS takes an approximately constant value of 438. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has fully affected the global community and will generate long-term consequences on social and individual life overall. Methods: Since their start, the two Italian population-based surveillance systems PASSI (18-69yy) and PASSI d’Argento (65+) have investigated health-related lifestyles. The continuous monthly data collection allows observation of changes in the short, medium and long terms. We compared prevalence of tobacco and alcohol use, physical activity, PA, or inactivity, PI, before and after March 2020, to evaluate temporal trends with particular concern to changes due to the pandemic. Results: Sedentariness has been growing among inactive adults but in pandemic time, we observed a 10% significant reduction compared to 2019, due to a significant increase of spare time PA from 42% (2019) to 45% (2020) and a reduction of spare time PI from 42% to 39%. Despite a stable trend, elderly increased significantly PI, from 40% (2019) to 43% (2020). PI goes from 46% to 52% among Southern residents and from 45% to 53% in poorly educated people. Since 2008, at-risk alcohol consumption gradually increased in adults because of binge-drinking and between meals modalities. In 2018, a tendency inversion started and finds confirmation during the pandemic: binge-drinking decreases significantly from dal 9.5% (2019) to 8.2% (2020), between meals from 9.4% to 8.6%. During the pandemic, elderly increase alcohol consumption significantly, from 39% (2019) to 45% (2020), attributable to changes in moderate use by women: 17% in 2019 vs. 25% in 2020 overall; from 20% to 30% in highly educated and from 15% to 21% in poorly educated. It seems the pandemic did not change smoking percentages. Conclusions: Monitoring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is crucial to understand strategies for tackling behavioural risk factors for noncommunicable diseases that, even in pandemic, represent the main burden to disability and deaths in Italy. Key messages: Monitoring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is crucial to understand strategies for tackling behavioural risk factors for noncommunicable diseases. Having an ongoing Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System is an opportunity to misure and evaluate the impact of a shock as Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Italy was one of the earliest countries to experience a severe Covid-19 epidemic and vaccination is essential to controll it. The willingness to be vaccinated against Covid-19 was investigated by the Italian ongoing ;surveillance systems PASSI (18-69yy) and PASSI d’Argento (65+) with a Covid module added in August 2020. Methods: To measure the prevalence of hesitancy and refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, we used a sample collected between August and December 2020, before starting the Covid-19 vaccination campaign. Sample was appropriately weighted to take into account the regional number and the composition by gender and age. Using a multinomial regression model, a specific analysis on elderly data were provided to examine the association between demographic and medical characteristics and Covid-19 attitudes. Results: Among adults, 67% answered to be likely accepting the vaccine (one half not hesitating at all and the other half very likely in any way); younger individuals, aged 18-34, are highly incline (76%). On older sample, 55% would accept vaccination and 16% would likely refuse; the remaining 29% were categorized as hesitant. Compared with the acceptance group, the hesitancy group identified several risk factors in common with the refusal group, including not having gotten a flu vaccine during the previous flu season (hesitancy: RRR=2.0; 95% CI 1.4-2.9, refusal: RRR=12.1; 95%CI 7.6-19.37) and lower risk of having had a death from Covid-19 among family or friends (hesitancy: RRR=4.8; 95%CI 2.0-11.4, refusal: RRR=15.4; 95%CI 3.7-64.5). Hesitancy group has also lesser awareness and experience with the disease, a lower perception of being personally at risk and lower trust in the ability of health units to manage the pandemic situation. Conclusions: Results show the importance of establishing and maintaining ongoing contact among the preventive services, primary care providers and the population since trust is difficult to establish during an emergency. Key messages: • On of the most important finding for public health prevention efforts was the importance of influenza vaccine in predicting COVID. • Having an agile system that can monitor changing attitudes will be important to altering the messaging and identifying changes in the characteristics of those hesitant or unwilling to be vaccinated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Remote monitoring (RM) permits home interrogation of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and provides an alternative option to frequent in-person visits. Objective: The Italia-RM survey aimed to investigate the current practice of ICD follow-up in Italy and to evaluate the adoption and routine use of RM. Methods: An ad hoc questionnaire on RM adoption and resource use during in-clinic and remote follow-up sessions was completed in 206 Italian implanting centers. Results: The frequency of routine in-clinic ICD visits was 2 per year in 158/206 (76.7%) centers, 3 per year in 37/206 (18.0%) centers, and 4 per year in 10/206 (4.9%) centers. Follow-up examinations were performed by a cardiologist in 203/206 (98.5%) centers, and by more than one health care worker in 184/206 (89.3%) centers. There were 137/206 (66.5%) responding centers that had already adopted an RM system, the proportion of ICD patients remotely monitored being 15% for single- and dual-chamber ICD and 20% for cardiac resynchronization therapy ICD. Remote ICD interrogations were scheduled every 3 months, and were performed by a cardiologist in 124/137 (90.5%) centers. After the adoption of RM, the mean time between in-clinic visits increased from 5 (SD 1) to 8 (SD 3) months (P<.001). Conclusions: In current clinical practice, in-clinic ICD follow-up visits consume a large amount of health care resources. The results of this survey show that RM has only partially been adopted in Italy and, although many centers have begun to implement RM in their clinical practice, the majority of their patients continue to be routinely followed-up by means of in-clinic visits. (Interact J Med Res 2013;2(2):e27) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of the diagnosis of the tubercular lymphadenitis was carried out. No significant difference of incidence was observed through the years in the considered period. Tubercular lymphadenitis was more frequent in males under 15 years and in females over 51 years. The mixed reactive and caseous type of tubercular lesion was the most frequent. Non reactive caseous lymphadenitis was significantly more frequent in the youngest males. Tuberculosis was clinically suspected only in 49.5% of the cases.