Developments in pediatrics in 2020: choices in allergy, autoinflammatory disorders, critical care, endocrinology, genetics, infectious diseases, microbiota, neonatology, neurology, nutrition, ortopedics, respiratory tract illnesses and rheumatology

In this article, we describe the advances in the field of pediatrics that have been published in the Italian Journal of Pediatrics in 2020. We report progresses in understanding allergy, autoinflammatory disorders, critical care, endocrinology, genetics, infectious diseases, microbiota, neonatology, neurology, nutrition, orthopedics, respiratory tract illnesses, rheumatology in childhood.

Editorial

In introducing the inspiration behind and aims of the new Rivista Italiana di Filosofia Politica (Italian Journal of Political Philosophy), launched by the Italian Society for Political Philosophy, this editorial explores the relationship between politics and philosophy. As does all philosophy, political philosophy arises from the desire to understand what is new and to question existing reality. Political philosophy is thus political in a twofold sense: on the one hand, it is an act of freedom vis-à-vis existing power or knowledge, and, on the other, it is an attempt to establish social relations based on discursive reasoning, and on open participatory mechanisms for decision-making. This dual political attitude is ever more vital in the face of challenges to contemporary societies, such as climate change, migratory movements, dramatic inequalities, and the apparatus of surveillance. Eschewing a philosophy of distraction and non-engagement, political philosophy (and this Journal) endorses the idea of another, “more civic”, philosophy, one which is committed to the opening of new spaces of personal and collective freedom. This Journal intends to nurture the dialogue between Italian and international philosophical-political communities, showing the richness of Italian discussion, and highlighting some of the most authoritative international scholars.

Editorial

In introducing the project of the Rivista Italiana di Filosofia Politica (Italian Journal of Political Philosophy), launched by the Italian Society for Political Philosophy, this editorial explores the relationship between politics and philosophy. As with philosophy itself, political philosophy arises from the desire to understand what is new and to question existing reality. Political philosophy is thus political in a twofold sense: on the one hand, it is an act of freedom vis-à-vis existing power or knowledge, and, on the other, it is an attempt to establish social relations based on discursive rationality, and on open participatory mechanisms for decision-making. This dual political attitude is even more essential in the face of challenges to contemporary societies, such as climate change, migratory movements, dramatic inequalities, and the apparatus of surveillance. Avoiding the risk of a “philosophy of distraction or non-engagement”, political philosophy (and this Journal) endorses the idea of another, “more civic”, philosophy, one which is committed to the opening of new spaces of personal and collective freedom. This Journal intends to nurture the dialogue between Italian and international philosophical-political communities, showing the richness of Italian discussion, and highlighting some of the most authoritative international scholars.

Analisi cognitiva degli eventi di parola sul coronavirus SARS-COV 2 e sul morbo COVID-19

The purpose of this paper is to perform a brief cognitive analysis of speech events containing information about the coronavirus SARS-COV 2 and the disease its causes, COVID-19. As the author acknowledges primacy of cognitive linguistics research tools towards explanation of how language is used and how the extralinguistic reality is perceived, the object of research comprises M Johnson and G. Lakoff’s conceptual metaphors, which are to be extracted among seven chosen articles derived from the digital version of the Italian journal La Stampa. The results of such performed research should deliver a list of structural, ontological and orientative metaphors, which, in this context, are not just pure eristic speech figures but mental constructs which indicate people’s way of reasoning and of conceptualizing the surrounding extralinguistic world, in this case the pandemic situation affecting us all.

Towards new challenges

Our journal Acque Sotterranee-Italian Journal of Groundwater is now indexed in the Scopus database. Scopus (www.scopus.com) is one of the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Delivering a comprehensive overview of the world’s research output in the fields of science and technology, Scopus features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize results and trends from the research world.

Some remarks on fuzzy infi topological spaces

Induced fuzzy infi topological space is already introduced by Saha and Bhattacharya [Saha A.K., Bhattacharya D. 2015, Normal Induced Fuzzy Topological Spaces, Italian Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, 34, 45-56]. In this paper for the said space, we further analyse some properties viz. fuzzy I-continuity, fuzzy infi open mappings and fuzzy infi closed mappings etc. Also we study product fuzzy infi topological space and establish some results concerned with it.

Direttive, codici, leggi, decreti, regolamenti, protocolli, norme, linee guida, ordinanze, delibere, determinazioni, circolari, atti, regole, precetti, procedure, prassi, …

Per i numerosi operatori tecnici che ruotano intorno al mondo delle acque sotterranee, districarsi nel dedalo degli strumenti legislativi e dei relativi precetti è un esercizio quotidiano che molti vorrebbero risparmiarsi, ma che non sempre è possibile evitare. Sul numero delle leggi in Italia e, per confronto, su quello in altri paesi, si sono dette e scritte opere, e per la consultazione si sono creati servizi e sistemi informativi dedicati. Per l’interpretazione delle leggi ci sono gli esperti (quelli che nessun artista interpreta la natura tanto liberamente quanto un esperto la verità scientifica), per la loro applicazione servirebbe un’univocità di interpretazione, ma anche di intenti dei legislatori. Questa premessa è per dire che Acque Sotterranee - Italian Journal of Groundwater ha programmato la reintroduzione regolare, dal prossimo numero, di una Rubrica dedicata alla normativa [...].

The southernmost occurrence of the volcanic-rich layer of 5.5 Main the Northern Apennines: clues on its deposition

<p>A volcanic-rich horizon crops along the Northern Apennines chain for about 200 km, in the post-evaporitic sedimentary sequence with an age of 5.5 Ma. Its thickness ranges between 30-200 cm and has been interpreted either as a primary fallout or a giant gravity flow in seawater (Aldinucci et al., 2005; Trua et al., 2010; Cosentino et al., 2013). Here, we focus on the two southernmost occurrences in the Abruzzo region (Central Italy): Castiglione a’ Casauria (CAC 42°14'10'' 13°53'29') and San Vittorino (SVT 42°12'10'' 13°53'29'') villages.</p><p>The SVT and CAC deposits are lithified with thickness of 80 and 220 cm, respectively, mildly fractured and greyish to light brown in colour. Four (SVT) and fifteen (CAC) oriented samples coaxial to the field, were cut and polished to expose about 470 and 700 cm<sup>2</sup>, respectively, of their vertical mesoscopic surfaces. The oriented thin sections and powders were prepared according to these mesoscopic attributes.</p><p>The XRPD (X-ray powder diffraction) spectra show the presence of a peculiar prominent large shoulder reflecting significative silicate non-crystalline phase, i.e. volcanic glass, plus faint Bragg reflections indicative of minor amounts of quartz, two feldspars (anorthite and sanidine), clinopyroxene, biotite and montmorillonite. The latter mineral results from post-emplacement and secondary crystallization. In addition, calcite and dolomite XRPD peaks occur with intensity inversely proportional to that of the silicate glass, reflecting the abundance or paucity of sedimentary versus volcanic fractions in sub-layers.</p><p>The microscopic 2D textures plus compositional features were investigated by SEM and EPMA. Both volcanic layers are very rich in fine-grained (averaging on 200 mm) and highly sorted glassy ashy clasts, while minerals are very poor (< 5 area%) in agreement with XRPD outcomes. Lithified ashes are mainly blocky in shape and un-broken. The ashes plot in the rhyolitic TAS field and overlap those already reported from other Northern Apennine sites. The amount of volatiles (H<sub>2</sub>O + CO<sub>2</sub>) estimated from EPMA average on about 6 wt.%, in agreement with the quantities of LOI determined on both bulk samples.</p><p>Field observations coupled with analysis on mesoscopic polished rock slices and thin sections do not shown any significant vertical size gradation and sorting, while fossils are almost absent. By contrast, both volcanic-rich deposits show: sedimentary- and volcanic-rich sub-layers, cm-sized volcanic clasts dispersed prevalently on the uppermost sedimentary sub-layers, cm-sized convolute laminations and slumped pseudo-beds. All these features demonstrate mass transport, soft-sediment deformation and fluid escape in seawater. Nonetheless, the absence of rounded ashy clasts, lithic sedimentary rock and classic Bouma sequence features (typical in coeval and adjacent deposits) mirror for local remobilization of poorly consolidated to loose carbonate and tephra deposits. In parallel, the high sorting of fine ashy clasts suggest a primary deposition from a distal fall-out eruptions. The location and features of both SVT and CAC volcanic-rich layers extend the previously inferred distribution of this ancient volcanic eruption.</p><p>References</p><p>Aldinucci et al., 2005. GeoActa, 4, 2005, pp. 67-82</p><p>Cosentino et al., 2013. Geology, 41, pp. 323-326</p><p>Trua et al., 2010. Italian Journal of Geosciences, 129, pp. 269-279</p>

Approach to complexity in the COVID-19 era: what are the internist’s tools?

As the main title ‘COVID-19 revolution: a new challenge for the internist’ states, the global coronavirus infection disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic represented a new challenge for the internists. This paper is part of a series of articles written during the difficult period of the ongoing global pandemic and published all together in this fourth issue of the Italian Journal of Medicine, with the aim of sharing the direct experiences of those who were the first to face this severe emergency, expressing each point of view in the management of COVID-19 in relation to other diseases. Each article is therefore the result of many efforts and a joint collaboration between many colleagues from the Departments of Internal Medicine or Emergency Medicine of several Italian hospitals, engaged in the front line during the pandemic. These preliminary studies therefore cover diagnostic tools available to health care personnel, epidemiological reflections, possible new therapeutic approaches, discharge and reintegration procedures to daily life, the involvement of the disease not only in the lung, aspects related to various comorbidities, such as: coagulopathies, vasculitis, vitamin D deficiency, gender differences, etc.. The goal is to offer a perspective, as broad as possible, of everything that has been done to initially face the pandemic in its first phase and provide the tools for an increasingly better approach, in the hope of not arriving unprepared to a possible second wave. This paper in particular deals with internist’s tools useful for management of COVID-19 patient.