Andrea Malizia

• PhD in Idustrial Engineering and PhD in Quantum Electronics and Plasma Physics
• Reserchear at University of Rome Tor Vergata

The detection of biological agents using optical systems is an open field of research. Currently, different spectroscopic techniques allow to detect and classify chemical agents while a fast and accurate technique able to identify biological agents is still under investigation. Some optical techniques, such as Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (...

Since the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in March 2011, the technology available for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for radiation monitoring has improved greatly. Remote access to radiation-contaminated areas not only eliminates unnecessary exposure of civilians or military personnel, but also allows workers to explore inaccessible...

The aim of this work is to analyze the effects of ionizing radiation and radionuclides (like 137Cs) in several higher plants located around the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP), evaluating both their adaptive processes and evolution. After the FNPP accident in March 2011 much attention was focused to the biological consequences of ioni...

Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) provides the ability to distinguish organic materials by a fast and distant in situ analysis. When detecting the substances directly in the environment, e.g., in an aerosol cloud or on surfaces, additional fluorescence signals of other fluorophores occurring in the surrounding are expected to mix with the desired si...

The aim of the present study is to model mixing and transport of radioactive effluents in the course of time between two water reservoirs. To test the model, a hypothetical case study is presented of liquid effluents potentially released during normal operation of a fusion neutron source devoted to radioisotopes production. A suitable example is an...

The aim of the present study is to model mixing and transport of radioactive effluents in the course of time between two water reservoirs. To test the model, a hypothetical case study is presented of liquid effluents potentially released during normal operation of a fusion neutron source devoted to radioisotopes production. A suitable example is an...

In early December 2019, some people in China were diagnosed with an unknown pneumonia in Wuhan, in the Hubei province. The responsible of the outbreak was identified in a novel human-infecting coronavirus which differs both from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and from Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. The new coronavirus,...

The development of a tool to reduce the exposure of personnel in case of intentional or accidental toxic chemicals dispersion scenarios opens the field to new operational perspectives in the domain of operator safety and of critical infrastructure monitoring. The use of two sensors with different operating principles, metal oxide and photo-ionizati...

The malevolent dispersion of radioactive material, with the aim of contaminating people and the environment, is considered a credible terroristic threat. This article analyzes a hypothetical Dirty Bomb detonation in an urban area, estimating the radiological consequences to the involved population and to first responders. The dispersion of radioact...

In recent decades, the increasing threats associated with Chemical and Radiological (CR) agents prompted the development of new tools to detect and collect samples without putting in danger first responders inside contaminated areas. A particularly promising branch of these technological developments relates to the integration of different detector...

The advancements in the field of robotics, specifically in the aerial robotics, combined with technological improvements of the capability of drones, have increased dramatically the use of these devices as a valuable tool in a wide range of applications. From civil to commercial and military area, the requirements in the emerging application for mo...

Conventional and non-conventional emergencies are among the most important safety and security concerns of the new millennium. Nuclear power and research plants, high-energy particle accelerators, radioactive substances for industrial and medical uses are all considered credible sources of threats both in warfare and in terror scenarios. Estimates...

Background Transperineal laser ablation (TPLA) of the prostate is a novel, mini-invasive option for men with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) due to benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH). Our aim was to assess the impact of ultrasound-guided TPLA regarding urodynamic improvement and sexual function, monitoring clinical data, postprocedural complicat...

The risk associated with chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNe) threats in the last two decades has grown as a result of easier access to hazardous materials and agents, potentially increasing the chance for dangerous events. Consequently, early detection of a threat following a CBRNe event is a mandatory requirement for...

The dissemination of severe acute respiratory syndrome linked to the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, prompted all health services to provide adequate measures to limit new cases that could affect healthcare professionals. Due to the large number of suspected patients subjected to CT scans and the proximity of radiologists to the patient during exams...

Ionizing radiation is ubiquitous in the environment. Its source can be natural, such as radioactive materials present in soil and cosmic rays, or artificial, such as the fuel for nuclear power plants. Overexposure to ionizing radiation may damage living tissue and could cause severe health problems (i.e., mutations, radiation sickness, cancer, and...

Background: Several technologies for rapid molecular identification of pathogens are currently available; jointly with monitoring tools (i.e., web-based surveillance tools, infectious diseases modelers, and epidemic intelligence methods), they represent important components for timely outbreak detection and identification of the involved pathogen....

Unconventional scenarios with hazardous radioactive levels are expected as consequences of accidents in the industrial sector of the nuclear energy production or following intentional releases of radioactive materials for terrorist purposes (dirty bombs, indoor contaminations, etc.). Nowadays, the need to balance the high standards of safety and se...

A loss of vacuum accident is one of the possible phenomena that may be triggered by off-normal events in nuclear fusion reactors, such as disruptions. After a break of the isolation system and the formation of a penetration line, the air flows inside the Tokamak due to the large pressure gradient, resuspending toxic and radioactive dust. At the end...

Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) provides the ability to distinguish organic materials by a fast and distant in situ analysis. When detecting the substances directly in the environment, e.g., in an aerosol cloud or on surfaces, additional fluorescence signals of other fluorophores occurring in the surrounding are expected to mix with the desired si...

Background The aim of this research is to assess the predictive accuracy of the Infectious Diseases Seeker (IDS) – an innovative tool for prompt identification of the causative agent of infectious diseases during outbreaks – when field epidemiological data collected from a novel outbreak of unknown origin are analysed by the tool. For this reason,...

The early detection of fire is one of the possible applications of LiDAR techniques. The smoke generated by a fire is mainly compounded of CO2, H2O, particulate, and other combustion products, which involve the local variation of the scattering of the electromagnetic wave at specific wavelengths. The increases of the backscattering coefficient are...

The use of mathematical models to simulate the diffusion of biological agents represents an essential tool to understand the dynamics of epidemic spread. In particular, mathematical models can be applied to scenarios of deliberate release of biological warfare agents, e.g., during simulations of a terrorist attack, to evaluate their potential effec...

The purpose of this work is to highlight the effects of ionizing radiation on the genetic material in higher plants by assessing both adaptive processes as well as the evolution of plant species. The effects that the ionizing radiation has on greenery following a nuclear accident, was examined by taking the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster as...

Analysis of ionizing radiation detection using cell phone cameras and GammaPix software.

Understanding the diffusion of warning messages is essential to adequately respond to emergency events and situations. This is especially true in urgent scenarios, that is situations where external events are happening at the same rate or faster than the diffusion process itself. In this paper, an information diffusion model (Bass model) is propose...

The world has changed. The global crisis related to the reduction of energy fossil resources, the reduction of potable water resources and the war for the control of energy sources are part of the causes which can lead to an intentional CBRNe (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and explosive) event together with the potential misuse of CB...

Natural outbreaks of biological agents, causing local and global emergencies, have impacted human safety, social/political/economical activities, and the security of critical infrastructures. Lessons learned by previous emergencies have been used by decisionmakers not only to improve the phases of prevention, intervention, and recovery of normality...

The rapid detection of ongoing outbreak - and the identification of causative pathogen - is pivotal for the early recognition of public health threats. The emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases are linked to several determinants, both human factors - such as population density, travel, and trade - and ecological factors - like climate c...

In this paper, the authors analyze the case study of the recovery of an orphan source of 60Co inside a maritime cargo full of metal wastes in the Italian Harbor of Genova carried out by the Italian Fire Fighters. Orphan radioactive sources or Radiological Dispersal Devices are a critical security issue in large geographical areas, and they result i...

The development and improvement of monitoring techniques to measure the concentration of pollutants in the atmosphere are a starting point to guarantee high levels of human health and environmental safety. The combination of lidar and dial techniques, by measuring backscattering signals and reconstructing the map of their concentrations, can be use...

This study addresses the optimization of the location of a radioactive-particle sensor on a drone. Based on the analysis of the physical process and of the boundary conditions introduced in the model, computational fluid dynamics simulations were performed to analyze how the turbulence caused by drone propellers may influence the response of the se...

Background: Children born to HIV-positive mothers are particularly susceptible to malnutrition. Currently, monitoring programs rely on punctual anthropometric measurements to assess child growth. Growth velocities could be an additional tool in identifying critical time windows for prevention and implementation of early intervention for malnutriti...

The potential for a radiological or nuclear attack has been widely acknowledged in the last two decades. The use of a dirty bomb by terrorist organizations is considered to be a credible threat for which policymakers and relevant security agencies must prepare. Radioactive materials are stored in thousands of facilities around the world and may not...

A global heat flux model based on a fractional derivative of plasma pressure is proposed for the heat transport in fusion plasmas. The degree of the fractional derivative of the heat flux, α, is defined through the power balance analysis of the steady state. The model was used to obtain the experimental values of α for a large database of the Joint...

The production of dust inside the nuclear fusion power plants is one of the safety issues of this technology. Dust is generated because of plasma-material interactions and subsequently it deposits in the bottom regions of the TOKAMAK. In case of a Loss Of Vacuum Accident (LOVA), the dust may be resuspended, threatening the functioning and the safet...

Virological analysis is time-consuming and expensive. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the applicability of laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) to the classification of viruses, reducing the time for this analysis and its costs. Experimental tests were performed in which different viruses were irradiated with a UV laser emitting at 266 nm and th...

Detection and classification of biological agents are not easy, especially at an early stage of contamination and when more than one species is aerodispersed in the environment. This research aims at demonstrating the capability of UltraViolet Laser-Induced Fluorescence (UV-LIF) technique to detect, classify and measure the concentration of biologi...

The Loss Of Vacuum Accident is one of the hazardous events that may occur in nuclear fusion power plants which work with the magnetic confinement technology. During these accidents, the intake of air may re-suspend toxic, explosive and radioactive dust, involving a hazardous release in the external environment. Several studies have been conducted i...

Nowadays, the monitoring of air in the environment is crucial to prevent chemical poisoning and disease onsets. Among the several techniques used to monitor the environment, the Differential Absorption LIDAR (DIAL) method has a very interesting approach. It is a remote technique able to give linear, areal or volumetric information. The range can be...

Radioactive dust mobilization is a risk that can occur in many nuclear plants and, in order to reduce the risk related to this event, it is necessary map the velocity vectors of dust during its mobilization. The authors have designed and used a chain of measurements for air pressure and velocity, temperature, and dust velocity used on the experimen...

The production and resuspension of dust is a critical safety issue in several industrial fields. Thousands of dust explosions occur every year in Europe inside industrial plants, some of those accidents caused the death of about ten people and hundreds of injuries. Dust resuspension may also involve safety issues and hazards in nuclear power plants...

The mobilisation of dust during Loss of Vacuum Accidents is crucial to provide detailed answers to security and safety issues of many nuclear and industrial plants. The experimental apparatus STARDUST-Upgrade can replicate Loss of Vacuum Accidents in different conditions and the fluid dynamics related to these experiments has been deeply investigat...

The mobilisation of dust is a key security issue in nuclear and industrial plants because it can provoke both explosions (in particular temperature and pressure conditions) and dangerous radioactive releases. This work is focused on the tungsten dust resuspension inside small tank for aerosol removal and DUST (STARDUST)-Upgrade, an experimental fac...

The nine lines or points related to Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear agents (CBRN) pocket response card represents a quick form that the operator can entirely fill with critical information of his investigation during the 5-10 first minutes after his arrival on the scene. The idea is, that, in a very short time, all the necessary info...

The development and improvement of techniques to monitor off-normal concentrations of chemicals in the atmosphere are crucial to guarantee human and environmental health, safety, and security. An interesting technique for use in research activities is the differential absorption lidar (DIAL); an improvement of the lidar technique able to provide in...

A dust explosion is one of the key security issues for many industrial, pharmaceutical and agro-alimentary plants and for the safety of the workers. We have developed an optoelectronic sensor system to determine the mass of deposited dust and the resuspension rate. The authors also mount antennas on an optoelectronic sensor system to perform measur...

ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is a magnetically confined plasma nuclear reactor. Inside it, due to plasma disruptions, the formation of neutron-activated powders, which are essentially made out of tungsten and beryllium, occurs. As many windows for diagnostics are present on the reactor, which operates at very low pressure...

Dust re-suspension and mobilization is one of the more challenging safety issues in industries and fusion reactors (Tokamaks). In Tokamaks, plasma-material interactions generate dust by several different mechanisms called Plasma-Material Interactions. In these reactors, Loss of Vacuum Accidents (LOVA) may occur and imply dust re-suspension and mobi...

Events of dispersion of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) materials due to natural, accidental or intentional events are considered risk situations and nowadays represent one of the most critical concerns for safety and security. Safe management of these materials, in particular the certainty of its location and control of their...

The outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases (related to natural, accidental, or intentional releases of pathogens) are a major concern for CBRNe experts. The aim of this work is to test two innovative approaches to simulate: (a) the natural diffusion of an outbreak of measles using the Spatiotemporal Epidemiological Modeler (STEM)...

This book presents the proceedings of SICC 2017, a conference devoted to promoting the dissemination of the different methodologies, techniques, theories, strategies, technologies and best practices on the prevention and mitigation of CBRNE risks. As the first scientific international conference on safety & security issues in the CBRNE field, SICC...

The nine lines or points related to Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear agents (CBRN) pocket response card represents a quick form that the operator can entirely fill with critical information of his investigation during the 5-10 first minutes after his arrival on the scene. The idea is, that, in a very short time, all the necessary info...

This paper is focused on the concept of CBRN security paradigm and how this concept is affecting the international community on develop and maintain an appropriate effective measures to account for and secure such items in production, use, storage or transport; on the develop and maintain an appropriate physical protection; on the develop and maint...

Considering the increase of atmospheric pollution levels in our cities, due to emissions from vehicles and domestic heating, and the growing threat of terrorism, it is necessary to develop instrumentation and gather know-how for the automatic detection and measurement of dangerous substances as quickly and far away as possible. The Multi-Wavelength...

The 2014–2016 JET results are reviewed in the light of their significance for optimising the ITER research plan for the active and non-active operation. More than 60 h of plasma operation with ITER first wall materials successfully took place since its installation in 2011. New multi-machine scaling of the type I-ELM divertor energy flux density to...

Dust explosions are dangerous events that still today represent a risk to all the industries that produce and/or handle combustible dust like the agro-alimentary, pharmaceutical and energy ones. When a dust cloud is dispersed in an oxidant gas, like air, it may reach the explosive concentration range. A model to predict the dust critical conditions...

In the framework of the on-going research on dust explosion, both a physical and chemical theory and numerical models extensively validated are yet to be found. In order to develop control tools essential to continuously measure a set of key parameters for dust explosiveness, the authors performed stainless steel dust mobilization experiments insid...

The increasing level of air pollution in our cities due to emissions from factories, vehicles and domestic heating, combined with the growing threat of terrorism, requires finding equipment and know-how that are useful to detect and monitor hazardous substances and their dispersion into the atmosphere as quickly and far away as possible. LiDAR/DIAL...

The increasing level of air pollution in our cities due to emissions from fac-tories, vehicles and domestic heating, combined with the growing threat of terrorism, requires finding equipment and know-how that are useful for the detection and monitoring of hazardous substances and their dispersion into the atmosphere as quickly and far away as possi...

The problem of source term qualification is one of the most important topics in order to predict possible releases of the Activation Products (APs) and Tritium from the DEMO Fusion reactor. The prevention of any possible consequence, which can affect the environment and the population, is the mission of Fusion technology. In the frame of the EUROfu...

In recent years, the publication of the studies on the transmissibility in mammals of the H5N1 influenza virus and synthetic genomes has triggered heated and concerned debate within the community of scientists on biological dual-use research; these papers have raised the awareness that, in some cases, fundamental research could be directed to harmf...

A loss of vacuum in a vessel, containing or not dust, is the typical case study considered in the STARDUST-UPGRADE facility of the Quantum Electronics and Plasma Group of the university of Rome Tor Vergata. This kind of accident was simulated numerically, without including the presence of dust, for two mass flow rates and three different inlet port...

Nowadays the intentional diffusion in air (both in open and confined environments) of chemical contaminants is a dramatic source of risk for the public health worldwide. The needs of a high-tech networks composed by software, diagnostics, decision support systems and cyber security tools are urging all the stakeholders (military, public, research &...

Nowadays Toxic Industrial Components (TICs) and Toxic Industrial Materials (TIMs) are one of the most dangerous and diffuse vehicle of contamination in urban and industrial areas. The academic world together with the industrial and military one are working on innovative solutions to monitor the diffusion in atmosphere of such pollutants. In this ph...

Chemical or biological contamination, due to natural or man-made disasters, represents a severe concern for safety and security of people, and of the environment. Chemical agents (CAs) and biological agents (BAs) are commonly used for a number of civilian and military applications, and can be deployed as a weapon with terroristic purposes. Therefor...

This book covers the security and safety of CBRNE assets and management, and illustrates which risks may emerge and how to counter them through an enhanced risk management approach. It also tackles the CBRNE-Cyber threats, their risk mitigation measures and the relevance of raising awareness and education enforcing a CBRNE-Cy security culture. The...

In the last decades, the application of LiDAR/DIAL measurements to remote sensing and atmospheric physics has been consolidated from both the experimental and the interpretation point of view. The laser and optic technologies involved have become very sophisticated and the quality of the results have reflects this fact. These techniques are therefo...

Many pharmaceutical industries all around the world are facing the problem of dust mobilization during the productive process of medicines. This mobilization can be dangerous for the safety of the operators working in the factory and for the safety of the factory itself. It is therefore necessary to develop predictive models to simulate and forecas...

Dust resuspension and mobilization in case of loss of vacuum accidents and loss of coolant accidents is an important safety issue for Tokamaks. The Quantum Electronics and Plasma Physics Research Group of the University of Rome Tor Vergata has produced an experimental facility, STARDUST-Upgrade, able to replicate these accidents and to obtain fluid...

Two of the major new concerns of modern societies are biosecurity and biosafety. Several biological agents (BAs) such as toxins, bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites are able to cause damage to living systems either humans, animals or plants. Optical techniques, in particular LIght Detection And Ranging (LIDAR), based on the transmission of laser...

Urban air pollution causes deleterious effects on human health and the environment. To meet stringent standards imposed by the European Commission, advanced measurement methods are required. Remote sensing techniques, such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR), can be a valuable option for evaluating particulate matter (PM), emitted by vehicles in...

The paper describes the project “Integrated technologies for fire monitoring and first alert” proposed by the authors to satisfy technical requirements of the Firefighter Bodies with particular attention to the monitoring of wood fires and release of chemical materials. The target system is composed of three sub-systems: sensors to detect target pa...

An open issue still under investigation by several international entities working on the safety and security field for the foreseen nuclear fusion reactors is the estimation of source terms that are a hazard for the operators and public, and for the machine itself in terms of efficiency and integrity in case of severe accident scenarios. Source ter...

CBRNe events that occur in a geographic location can have consequences on human health and/or infrastructures, even in places very far away from that where the event happened. Thus, the effects of such events often have an influence on the response systems of various countries, from a socioeconomic point of view, from where the event had its origin...

Gamma spectrometry hand-held instrument may show considerable analytical performances and even if they are not specifically taught for quantitative environmental analysis, in this work we evaluate the performance of one of them in this field comparing the results with ICP-MS, the reference technique in this field. In our work we want to evaluate th...

The choice of materials for the future nuclear fusion reactors is a crucial issue. In the fusion reactors, the combination of very high temperatures, high radiation levels, intense production of transmuting elements and high thermomechanical loads requires very high-performance materials. Erosion of PFCs (Plasma Facing Components) determines their...

Since 2006 the Quantum Electronics and Plasma Physics (QEP) Research Group together with ENEA FusTech of Frascati have been working on dust re-suspension inside tokamaks and its potential capability to jeopardize the integrity of future fusion nuclear plants (i.e. ITER or DEMO) and to be a risk for the health of the operators. Actually, this team i...

A Table Top Exercise (TTX) gap analysis tool was developed with the aim to provide a complete, systematic and objective evaluation of TTXs organized in safety and security fields. A TTX consists in a discussion-based emergency management exercise, organized in a simulated emergency scenario, involving groups of players who are subjected to a set of...

Traditionally, the LIDAR technique has been successfully applied to the detection of concentrated smoke plumes emitted by wildfires. In this paper, it is shown how LIDAR measurements can also be deployed to determine the profile of the backscattering coefficient in the presence of widespread smoke, which can be the consequence of strong wind disper...

Chemical or biological contamination, due to natural or man-made disasters, represents a severe concern for safety and security of people and of the environment. Chemical Agents (CAs) and Biological Agents (BAs) are commonly used for a number of civilian and military applications, and of course, can be deployed as a weapon with terroristic purposes...