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We monitored electric and magnetic fields synchronously and continuously in an Italian area prone to moderate-to-high magnitude seismic activity. Identifying and monitoring of potential precursors may contribute to risk mitigation. A decade after the Central Italy Electromagnetic Network started, nine strong shakes with magnitudes between 5.0 and 6.6 occurred in Central Italy between August 2016 and January 2017. The events produced a fault offset of up to 2.8 m along a NNW-SSE normal fault system, 75 km long and located NW of the fault system, which generated the destructive L'Aquila 2009 earthquake sequence. This paper describes the electric and magnetic variations in the extremely low frequency band recorded at the Chieti Station of the network. Meteorological and geomagnetic data were compared to the recordings of these electric and magnetic activities by statistical correlations. We recorded several abrupt increases in electric and magnetic activities not simultaneous to the main seismic events and presumptively related to them. Electrical signals consist in discrete electric field oscillations between 50 and 200 Hz, with time lapses lasting between 3 and 45 min. In addition, magnetic signals consisting of magnetic field pulses with time lapses greater than 10 m were recorded in the same time interval. Similar signals occurred during the 2009 L'Aquila, Central Italy, sequence. Days before each strong earthquake, both electric and magnetic phenomena increased in intensity and number. Two physical models are proposed to describe and interpret electric and magnetic signal events. A number of hypotheses about the origin of recorded electric and magnetic signals may fit coherently with electromagnetic theory and are discussed in the light of a consistent dataset.

Twenty-two newly diagnosed insulin-dependent diabetics and 46 control subjects have been examined for Coxsackie B1-6 serum antibodies. Evidence for CoxB4 neutralizing antibodies at titers greater than or equal to 16 and two seroconversions for this single virus type were shown in the diabetic group (31.8% of patients with titers greater than or equal to 16 in comparison with 10% of controls, p = 0.08). Reduced titers against CoxB2 and CoxB5 in diabetics were also observed. In agreement with the majority of publications, these data suggest the hypothesis that CoxB4 infections are frequently associated with type 1 diabetes, and the positive relationship found only for this type of virus may be related to greater tropism for the pancreas. The specificity of this viral infection, as shown by our serologic results, could suggest a possible causative role in the development of type 1 diabetes only in a limited number of cases. The authors propose new studies with monoclonal and IgM specific antibodies, obtained from new isolates, to detect more accurately the qualiquantitative differences between type 1 diabetics and controls.

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