Search results for " SURVEILLANCE"
showing 10 items of 388 documents
Enabling Technologies on Hybrid Camera Networks for Behavioral Analysis of Unattended Indoor Environments and Their Surroundings
2008
This paper presents a layered network architecture and the enabling technologies for accomplishing vision-based behavioral analysis of unattended environments. Specifically the vision network covers both the attended environment and its surroundings by means of multi-modal cameras. The layer overlooking at the surroundings is laid outdoor and tracks people, monitoring entrance/exit points. It recovers the geometry of the site under surveillance and communicates people positions to a higher level layer. The layer monitoring the unattended environment undertakes similar goals, with the addition of maintaining a global mosaic of the observed scene for further understanding. Moreover, it merges …
Real-Time Object Detection in Embedded Video Surveillance Systems
2008
In this paper we report a new method to detect both moving objects and new stationary objects in video sequences. On the basis of temporal consideration we classify pixels into three classes: background, midground and foreground to distinguish between long-term, medium-term and short-term changes. The algorithm has been implemented on a hardware platform with limited resources and it could be used in a wider system like a wireless sensor networks. Particular care has been put in realizing the algorithm so that the limited available resources are used in an efficient way. Experiments have been conducted on publicly available datasets and performance measures are reported.
A web-based surveillance system on adolescents’ lifestyles and obesity prevention: ASSO-FTB preliminary findings. The ASSO Project
2012
In a context where obesity represents a cause of concern in childhood and where there is a lack of standardized data collection systems, ASSO Project (Adolescents and Surveillance System for Obesity prevention), financed by the Italian Ministry of Health, aims to develop a surveillance system structured on adolescents lifestyles. It is a prospective study with online data collection, simultaneous descriptive data analysis and real time report. The ASSO-Toolkit is made of questionnaires, forms and a fitness test battery: ASSO-PIQ (Personal Information Questionnaire);ASSO-PASAQ (Physical Activity, Smoke, Alcohol, Questionnaire); ASSO- FHQ (Food Habits Questionnaire); ASSO-FFQ (Food Frequency …
Identification of the novel Kawasaki 2014 GII.17 human norovirus strain in Italy, 2015
2015
Surveillance of noroviruses in Italy identified the novel GII.17 human norovirus strain, Kawasaki 2014, in February 2015. This novel strain emerged as a major cause of gastroenteritis in Asia during 2014/15, replacing the pandemic GII.4 norovirus strain Sydney 2012, but being reported only sporadically elsewhere. This novel strain is undergoing fast diversification and continuous monitoring is important to understand the evolution of noroviruses and to implement the future strategies on norovirus vaccines.
PFGE: importance in food quality.
2010
In late 19 century, great interest has arisen for food quality. This is referred as absence of pathogens in food (safety for consumers) and as nutritional quality of food (organoleptic characteristics). Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) is, among the molecular techniques developed in the last years, one of the most reliable, discriminative and reproducible technique. It can be used in clinical field for the identification of pathogens and the origin of outbreaks, and in food microbiology for the identification of pathogens (food borne disease surveillance) or of microorganisms responsible for the organoleptic characteristics of food. The present article shows some useful patents relat…
Polyclonal non multiresistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates from clinical cases of infection occurring in Palermo, Italy, during a one-year surveill…
2012
BACKGROUND: The evolving epidemiology of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is characterized by the emergence of infections caused by non multiresistant MRSA carrying staphylococcal chromosomal cassette (SCC)mec IV or V in the healthcare settings. A molecular epidemiological analysis of non multiresistant MRSA isolates from four acute general hospitals was performed in Palermo, Italy, during a one year period. METHODS: For the purpose of the study, MRSA isolates were defined as non multiresistant when they were susceptible to at least three classes of non beta-lactam antibiotics. Seventy-five isolates were submitted to antimicrobial susceptibility testing, multilocus sequenc…
Nationwide surveillance study of human astrovirus infections in an Italian paediatric population
2012
SUMMARYThe study investigated the genetic diversity of human astroviruses (HAstVs) detected in children hospitalized with gastroenteritis in Italy in 2008–2009. A total of 1321 faecal samples were collected in Parma (northern Italy), Bari (southern Italy), and Palermo (Sicily) and screened for the presence of HAstVs. RT–PCR amplification of a portion at the 5′-end of ORF2 allowed the detection of HAstVs in 3·95% of the patients. Four different genotypes (HAstV-1, HAstV-2, HAstV-4, HAstV-5) were found to be circulating during the study period, with HAstV-1 being the predominant type. Interestingly, a novel lineage, proposed as HAstV-2d, was found to have emerged in Parma in 2009. Investigati…
Sorveglianza delle gastroenteriti da Norovirus in Italia: comparsa e diffusione della nuova variante GII.4 Sydney 2012
2013
In the 2012-2013 winter season, global surveillance for norovirus circulation evidenced the onset of a new norovirus GII.4 variant, termed Sydney 2012. In Italy, ISGEV hospital-based surveillance revealed that this variant already circulated at low frequency in the winter season 2011-2012 and emerged definitively only in the late 2012. This lag-time pattern mirrors the findings reported elsewhere and suggests that the novel variant circulated at low prevalence before spreading globally.
Wastewater-Based Epidemiology as a Tool to Detect SARS-CoV-2 Circulation at the Community Level: Findings from a One-Year Wastewater Investigation Co…
2023
Wastewater-based epidemiology is a well-established tool for detecting and monitoring the spread of enteric pathogens and the use of illegal drugs in communities in real time. Since only a few studies in Italy have investigated the correlation between SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater and the prevalence of COVID-19 cases from clinical testing, we conducted a one-year wastewater surveillance study in Sicily to correlate the load of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater and the reported cumulative prevalence of COVID-19 in 14 cities from October 2021 to September 2022. Furthermore, we investigated the role of SARS-CoV-2 variants and subvariants in the increase in the number of SARS CoV-2 infections. Our findin…
The role of a monthly active surveillance programme for multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria in a neonatal intensive care unit: impact evaluati…
2020
Background: Antimicrobial resistance is a public health threat. Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) patients are particularly at risk, due to the large use of invasive devices and antimicrobial treatment. Since 2014 an active surveillance program of multidrug-resistant organisms is in place in the five NICUs of Palermo, Italy. High prevalence of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (MDR-GNB) carriage observed in one NICU suggested the need of a long-lasting approach to achieve effective control of MDR-GNB circulation. Materials/methods: Rectal swabs were obtained every month from each hospitalized new-born. Samples were enriched in liquid cultures, plated in McConkey Agar with three a…