Comparison measures of maps generated by geostatistical methods

This study uses several measures derived from the error matrix for comparing two thematic maps generated with the same sample set. The reference map was generated with all the sample elements and the map set as the model was generated without the two points detected as influential by the analysis of local influence diagnostics. The data analyzed refer to the wheat productivity in an agricultural area of 13.55 ha considering a sampling grid of 50 x 50 m comprising 50 georeferenced sample elements. The comparison measures derived from the error matrix indicated that despite some similarity on the maps, they are different. The difference between the estimated production by the reference map and the actual production was of 350 kilograms. The same difference calculated with the mode map was of 50 kilograms, indicating that the study of influential points is of fundamental importance to obtain a more reliable estimative and use of measures obtained from the error matrix is a good option to make comparisons between thematic maps.

Liver transplantation for transthyretin amyloidosis: experience of a single center in Italy

Liver transplantation is the only definitive treatment for transthyretin amyloidosis, with an excellent 5-year survival in endemic countries where the Met30 mutation is predominant. We report our experience of liver transplantation for transthyretin amyloidosis. We reviewed the clinical records of 17 transplanted patients (11 males, 6 females; age at liver transplant: 45.7±11.7 years). We had a wide spectrum of non-Met30 mutations (52.9%), with a predominance of Gln89 (23.5%). Five-year survival after transplantation was 43.8%; at multivariate analysis, both non-Met30 mutations (HR 17.3, 95% CI 1.03-291.7) and modified BMI (HR 0.50, 95% CI 0.29-0.87) showed significant and independent prognostic roles (P=0.048 and P=0.015, respectively). Five out of the 9 non-Met30 carriers received combined heart transplantation because of severe cardiomyopathy; they showed a trend towards a better prognosis vs. the 4 patients who did not receive combined heart transplantation (although not statistically significant; P=0.095). At follow-up, no significant improvement of transthyretin amyloidosis manifestations was observed. The results of liver transplantation for transthyretin amyloidosis in our population are poorer than those reported in the literature probably because of the high prevalence of non-Met30 mutations.

Essays in Applied Health Economics: Evidence on Health and Health Care in Italy and UK

This thesis is the result of my experience as a PhD student taking part in the Joint Doctoral Programme at the University of York and the University of Bologna. In my thesis I deal with topics that are of particular interest in Italy and in Great Britain. Chapter 2 focuses on the empirical test of the existence of the relationship between technological profiles and market structure claimed by Sutton’s theory (1991, 1998) in the specific economic framework of hospital care services provided by the Italian National Health Service (NHS). In order to test the empirical predictions by Sutton, we identify the relevant markets for hospital care services in Italy in terms of both product and geographic dimensions. In particular, the Elzinga and Hogarty (1978) approach has been applied to data on patients’ flows across Italian Provinces in order to derive the geographic dimension of each market. Our results provide evidence in favour of the empirical predictions of Sutton. Chapter 3 deals with the patient mobility in the Italian NHS. To analyse the determinants of patient mobility across Local Health Authorities, we estimate gravity equations in multiplicative form using a Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood method, as proposed by Santos-Silva and Tenreyro (2006). In particular, we focus on the scale effect played by the size of the pool of enrolees. In most of the cases our results are consistent with the predictions of the gravity model. Chapter 4 considers the effects of contractual and working conditions on selfassessed health and psychological well-being (derived from the General Health Questionnaire) using the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). We consider two branches of the literature. One suggests that “atypical” contractual conditions have a significant impact on health while the other suggests that health is damaged by adverse working conditions. The main objective of our paper is to combine the two branches of the literature to assess the distinct effects of contractual and working conditions on health. The results suggest that both sets of conditions have some influence on health and psychological well-being of employees.

Perceptual maps analysis for organic food consumers in China: a study on Shanghai consumers

Although in Europe and in the USA many studies focus on organic, little is known on the topic in China. This research provides an insight on Shanghai consumers’ perception of organic, aiming at understanding and representing in graphic form the network of mental associations that stems from the organic concept. To acquire, process and aggregate the individual networks it was used the “Brand concept mapping” methodology (Roedder et al., 2006), while the data analysis was carried out also using analytic procedures. The results achieved suggest that organic food is perceived as healthy, safe and costly. Although these attributes are pretty much consistent with the European perception, some relevant differences emerged. First, organic is not necessarily synonymous with natural product in China, also due to a poor translation of the term in the Chinese language that conveys the idea of a manufactured product. Secondly, the organic label has to deal with the competition with the green food label in terms of image and positioning on the market, since they are easily associated and often confused. “Environmental protection” also emerged as relevant association, while the ethical and social values were not mentioned. In conclusion, health care and security concerns are the factors that influence most the food consumption in China (many people are so concerned about food safety that they found it difficult to shop), and the associations “Safe”, “Pure and natural”, “without chemicals” and “healthy” have been identified as the best candidates for leveraging a sound image of organic food .

Atmospheric corrosion of quaternary bronzes (Cu-Sn-Zn-Pb): laboratory tests (accelerated ageing in wet & dry conditions)and field studies (the Bottego monument in Parma, Italy).

The interactions between outdoor bronzes and the environment, which lead to bronze corrosion, require a better understanding in order to design effective conservation strategies in the Cultural Heritage field. In the present work, investigations on real patinas of the outdoor monument to Vittorio Bottego (Parma, Italy) and laboratory studies on accelerated corrosion testing of inhibited (by silane-based films, with and without ceria nanoparticles) and non-inhibited quaternary bronzes are reported and discussed. In particular, a wet&dry ageing method was used both for testing the efficiency of the inhibitor and for patinating bronze coupons before applying the inhibitor. A wide range of spectroscopic techniques has been used, for characterizing the core metal (SEM+EDS, XRF, AAS), the corroded surfaces (SEM+EDS, portable XRF, micro-Raman, ATR-IR, Py-GC-MS) and the ageing solutions (AAS). The main conclusions were: 1. The investigations on the Bottego monument confirmed the differentiation of the corrosion products as a function of the exposure geometry, already observed in previous works, further highlighting the need to take into account the different surface features when selecting conservation procedures such as the application of inhibitors (i.e. the relative Sn enrichment in unsheltered areas requires inhibitors which effectively interact not only with Cu but also with Sn). 2. The ageing (pre-patination) cycle on coupons was able to reproduce the relative Sn enrichment that actually happens in real patinated surfaces, making the bronze specimens representative of the real support for bronze inhibitors. 3. The non-toxic silane-based inhibitors display a good protective efficiency towards pre-patinated surfaces, differently from other widely used inhibitors such as benzotriazole (BTA) and its derivatives. 4. The 3-mercapto-propyl-trimethoxy-silane (PropS-SH) additivated with CeO2 nanoparticles generally offered a better corrosion protection than PropS-SH.

Studio di fenomeni d'instabilità gravitativa sui fondali marini, con particolare riferimento all'isola di Stromboli

In the last decade the interest for submarine instability grew up, driven by the increasing exploitation of natural resources (primary hydrocarbons), the emplacement of bottom-lying structures (cables and pipelines) and by the development of coastal areas, whose infrastructures increasingly protrude to the sea. The great interest for this topic promoted a number of international projects such as: STEAM (Sediment Transport on European Atlantic Margins, 93-96), ENAM II (European North Atlantic Margin, 96-99), GITEC (Genesis and Impact of Tsunamis on the European Coast 92-95), STRATAFORM (STRATA FORmation on Margins, 95-01), Seabed Slope Process in Deep Water Continental Margin (Northwest Gulf of Mexico, 96-04), COSTA (Continental slope Stability, 00-05), EUROMARGINS (Slope Stability on Europe’s Passive Continental Margin), SPACOMA (04-07), EUROSTRATAFORM (European Margin Strata Formation), NGI's internal project SIP-8 (Offshore Geohazards), IGCP-511: Submarine Mass Movements and Their Consequences (05-09) and projects indirectly related to instability processes, such as TRANSFER (Tsunami Risk ANd Strategies For the European region, 06-09) or NEAREST (integrated observations from NEAR shore sourcES of Tsunamis: towards an early warning system, 06-09). In Italy, apart from a national project realized within the activities of the National Group of Volcanology during the framework 2000-2003 “Conoscenza delle parti sommerse dei vulcani italiani e valutazione del potenziale rischio vulcanico”, the study of submarine mass-movement has been underestimated until the occurrence of the landslide-tsunami events that affected Stromboli on December 30, 2002. This event made the Italian Institutions and the scientific community more aware of the hazard related to submarine landslides, mainly in light of the growing anthropization of coastal sectors, that increases the vulnerability of these areas to the consequences of such processes. In this regard, two important national projects have been recently funded in order to study coastal instabilities (PRIN 24, 06-08) and to map the main submarine hazard features on continental shelves and upper slopes around the most part of Italian coast (MaGIC Project). The study realized in this Thesis is addressed to the understanding of these processes, with particular reference to Stromboli submerged flanks. These latter represent a natural laboratory in this regard, as several kind of instability phenomena are present on the submerged flanks, affecting about 90% of the entire submerged areal and often (strongly) influencing the morphological evolution of subaerial slopes, as witnessed by the event occurred on 30 December 2002. Furthermore, each phenomenon is characterized by different pre-failure, failure and post-failure mechanisms, ranging from rock-falls, to turbidity currents up to catastrophic sector collapses. The Thesis is divided into three introductive chapters, regarding a brief review of submarine instability phenomena and related hazard (cap. 1), a “bird’s-eye” view on methodologies and available dataset (cap. 2) and a short introduction on the evolution and the morpho-structural setting of the Stromboli edifice (cap. 3). This latter seems to play a major role in the development of largescale sector collapses at Stromboli, as they occurred perpendicular to the orientation of the main volcanic rift axis (oriented in NE-SW direction). The characterization of these events and their relationships with successive erosive-depositional processes represents the main focus of cap.4 (Offshore evidence of large-scale lateral collapses on the eastern flank of Stromboli, Italy, due to structurally-controlled, bilateral flank instability) and cap. 5 (Lateral collapses and active sedimentary processes on the North-western flank of Stromboli Volcano), represented by articles accepted for publication on international papers (Marine Geology). Moreover, these studies highlight the hazard related to these catastrophic events; several calamities (with more than 40000 casualties only in the last two century) have been, in fact, the direct or indirect result of landslides affecting volcanic flanks, as observed at Oshima-Oshima (1741) and Unzen Volcano (1792) in Japan (Satake&Kato, 2001; Brantley&Scott, 1993), Krakatau (1883) in Indonesia (Self&Rampino, 1981), Ritter Island (1888), Sissano in Papua New Guinea (Ward& Day, 2003; Johnson, 1987; Tappin et al., 2001) and Mt St. Augustine (1883) in Alaska (Beget& Kienle, 1992). Flank landslide are also recognized as the most important and efficient mass-wasting process on volcanoes, contributing to the development of the edifices by widening their base and to the growth of a volcaniclastic apron at the foot of a volcano; a number of small and medium-scale erosive processes are also responsible for the carving of Stromboli submarine flanks and the transport of debris towards the deeper areas. The characterization of features associated to these processes is the main focus of cap. 6; it is also important to highlight that some small-scale events are able to create damage to coastal areas, as also witnessed by recent events of Gioia Tauro 1978, Nizza, 1979 and Stromboli 2002. The hazard potential related to these phenomena is, in fact, very high, as they commonly occur at higher frequency with respect to large-scale collapses, therefore being more significant in terms of human timescales. In the last chapter (cap. 7), a brief review and discussion of instability processes identified on Stromboli submerged flanks is presented; they are also compared with respect to analogous processes recognized in other submerged areas in order to shed lights on the main factors involved in their development. Finally, some applications of multibeam data to assess the hazard related to these phenomena are also discussed.

Farm tourism: a cross-country empirical study in Germany and Italy

PROBLEM In the last few years farm tourism or agritourism as it is also referred to has enjoyed increasing success because of its generally acknowledged role as a promoter of economic and social development of rural areas. As a consequence, a plethora of studies have been dedicated to this tourist sector, focusing on a variety of issues. Nevertheless, despite the difficulties of many farmers to orient their business towards potential customers, the contribution of the marketing literature has been moderate. PURPOSE This dissertation builds upon studies which advocate the necessity of farm tourism to innovate itself according to the increasingly demanding needs of customers. Henceforth, the purpose of this dissertation is to critically evaluate the level of professionalism reached in the farm tourism market within a marketing approach. METHODOLOGY This dissertation is a cross-country perspective incorporating the marketing of farm tourism studied in Germany and Italy. Hence, the marketing channels of this tourist sector are examined both from the supply and the demand side by means of five exploratory studies. The data collection has been conducted in the timeframe of 2006 to 2009 in manifold ways (online survey, catalogues of industry associations, face-to-face interviews, etc.) according to the purpose of the research of each study project. The data have been analyzed using multivariate statistical analysis. FINDINGS A comprehensive literature review provides the state of the art of the main differences and similarities of farm tourism in the two countries of study. The main findings contained in the empirical chapters provide insights on many aspects of agritourism including how the expectations of farm operators and customers differ, which development scenarios of farm tourism are more likely to meet individuals’ needs, how new technologies can impact the demand for farm tourism, etc. ORIGINALITY/VALUE The value of this study is in the investigation of the process by which farmers’ participation in the development of this sector intersects with consumer consumption patterns. Focusing on this process should allow farm operators and others including related businesses to more efficiently allocate resources.

Coastal flood vulnerability assessment with geomatic methods: Test sites of western Thailand, Sydney (Australia) and aeolian islands (south tyrrhenian sea, Italy)

The work undertaken in this PhD thesis is aimed at the development and testing of an innovative methodology for the assessment of the vulnerability of coastal areas to marine catastrophic inundation (tsunami). Different approaches are used at different spatial scales and are applied to three different study areas: 1. The entire western coast of Thailand 2. Two selected coastal suburbs of Sydney – Australia 3. The Aeolian Islands, in the South Tyrrhenian Sea – Italy I have discussed each of these cases study in at least one scientific paper: one paper about the Thailand case study (Dall’Osso et al., in review-b), three papers about the Sydney applications (Dall’Osso et al., 2009a; Dall’Osso et al., 2009b; Dall’Osso and Dominey-Howes, in review) and one last paper about the work at the Aeolian Islands (Dall’Osso et al., in review-a). These publications represent the core of the present PhD thesis. The main topics dealt with are outlined and discussed in a general introduction while the overall conclusions are outlined in the last section.

Velocity structure and seismic anisotropy in the crust and upper mantle from Receiver Function analysis: three case studies in Italy

The research for this PhD project consisted in the application of the RFs analysis technique to different data-sets of teleseismic events recorded at temporary and permanent stations located in three distinct study regions: Colli Albani area, Northern Apennines and Southern Apennines. We found some velocity models to interpret the structures in these regions, which possess very different geologic and tectonics characteristics and therefore offer interesting case study to face. In the Colli Albani some of the features evidenced in the RFs are shared by all the analyzed stations: the Moho is almost flat and is located at about 23 km depth, and the presence of a relatively shallow limestone layer is a stable feature; contrariwise there are features which vary from station to station, indicating local complexities. Three seismic stations, close to the central part of the former volcanic edifice, display relevant anisotropic signatures­­­ with symmetry axes consistent with the emplacement of the magmatic chamber. Two further anisotropic layers are present at greater depth, in the lower crust and the upper mantle, respectively, with symmetry axes directions related to the evolution of the volcano complex. In Northern Apennines we defined the isotropic structure of the area, finding the depth of the Tyrrhenian (almost 25 km and flat) and Adriatic (40 km and dipping underneath the Apennines crests) Mohos. We determined a zone in which the two Mohos overlap, and identified an anisotropic body in between, involved in the subduction and going down with the Adiratic Moho. We interpreted the downgoing anisotropic layer as generated by post-subduction delamination of the top-slab layer, probably made of metamorphosed crustal rocks caught in the subduction channel and buoyantly rising toward the surface. In the Southern Apennines, we found the Moho depth for 16 seismic stations, and highlighted the presence of an anisotropic layer underneath each station, at about 15-20 km below the whole study area. The moho displays a dome-like geometry, as it is shallow (29 km) in the central part of the study area, whereas it deepens peripherally (down to 45 km); the symmetry axes of anisotropic layer, interpreted as a layer separating the upper and the lower crust, show a moho-related pattern, indicated by the foliation of the layer which is parallel to the Moho trend. Moreover, due to the exceptional seismic event occurred on April 6th next to L’Aquila town, we determined the Vs model for two station located next to the epicenter. An extremely high velocity body is found underneath AQU station at 4-10 km depth, reaching Vs of about 4 km/s, while this body is lacking underneath FAGN station. We compared the presence of this body with other recent works and found an anti-correlation between the high Vs body, the max slip patches and earthquakes distribution. The nature of this body is speculative since such high velocities are consistent with deep crust or upper mantle, but can be interpreted as a as high strength barrier of which the high Vs is a typical connotation.