Combining the conservation of biodiversity with the provision of ecosystem services in urban green infrastructure planning. Critical features arising from a case study in the metropolitan area of Rome

A large number of green infrastructure (GI) projects have recently been proposed, planned and implemented in European cities following the adoption of the GI strategy by the EU Commission in 2013. Although this policy tool is closely related to biodiversity conservation targets, some doubts have arisen as regards the ability of current urban GI to provide beneficial effects not only for human societies but also for the ecological systems that host them. The aim of this work is to review the features that should be considered critical when searching for solutions that simultaneously support biodiversity and guarantee the provision of ecosystem services (ES) in urban areas. Starting from a case study in the metropolitan area of Rome, we highlight the role of urban trees and forests as proxies for overall biodiversity and as main ecosystem service providers. We look beyond the individual functional features of plant species and vegetation communities to promote the biogeographic representativity, ecological coherence and landscape connectivity of new or restored GI elements

Study Of Covalent And Non-Covalent Interactions In Ternary Systems Involving: Metal/DNA-RNA/Protein, Where Metal = Platinum(II), Palladium(II)

Ternary systems comprising DNA/RNA, proteins and one (or more) metal ion are generating increased interest due to its biological relevance. The knowledge gained from the study of these systems could provide important clues regarding the precise mechanism for transcription factors, repair proteins and metal complexes with anti-tumoral/anti-viral activities.The interactions occurring among the components of these ternary systems can be broadly grouped into covalent and non-covalent. The first kind of interactions can lead to the irreversible transformation of the components in the system, while the second is thought to be reversible leading to transient states and fluxionality. Both kinds of interaction are generally present in living systems, complementing the function of each other.Monofunetional Platinum-nucleobase complexes (MPNs) are synthesized via substitution of a chloride ligand by a nucleobase in platinum complexes with trans geometry. MPNs are particularly interesting for the study of ternary systems since they mimic the first step in the formation of a platinum-DNA adduct and their interaction with aminoacids/proteins provide a good first approach for more complex systems.The presence of the nucleobase as a ligand, significantly modifies the biological activity of these complexes by reducing its cytotoxicity and generating a promising anti-viral activity, especially against HIV-1 virus. The specific role of the nucleobase ligand on these complexes as a non-covalent motif, important for protein recognition, was explored in models involving tryptophan/N-acetyl tryptophan and a small protein domain called zinc finger, containing also a tryptophan residue.The coordination of the nucleobase to a metal ion such as Pt(II) or Pd(II) was found to increase its π-stacking interaction towards aromatic residues in proteins, specifically tryptophan. The enhancing effect was found to depend on the nature of the metal ion, nature of nucleobase and size/complexity of the protein model. Furthermore, DFT studies revealed an important change in the energy for the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) in the coordinated nucleobases, which could place this orbital in an favored position to interact with the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) in the tryptophan residue. Results from calculations showed a good correlation with experimental evidence and could indicate an important role for the frontier molecular orbitals (HOMO/LUMO) of the species involved in the π-stacking interaction.This study was extended to a zinc finger domain from an essential protein in HIV-1 virus, i.e. nucleocapsid protein NCp7. Findings showed that the nucleobase ligand in addition to modulate hydrolysis and reaction rates for MPNs can also be responsible for an initial non-covalent recognition towards a specific protein. This initial recognition has been proposed as the first stage in a two-step mechanism of action for these platinum complexes that ultimately can lead to zinc ejection from the zinc finger domain in the viral NCp7. The significance of the data presented show that is possible to modulate the ligand coordination sphere in metal complexes to can result in great differences in terms of biological effects.The novel chemistry derived from DNA adducts with platinum complexes with a trans geometry was also explored in silico. The molecular dynamics of two free DNA 20-mer is compared with the corresponding metallated-adducts, namely monofunctional, 1,2-bifunctional interstrand and 1,3-bifunctional intrastrand. The differences in terms of structure and energy are compared for these systems, in general the monofunctional adduct exhibited the most interesting feature in terms of structural change in the DNA double strand causing the destacking of the metallated nucleobase. Bifunctional adducts exhibited loss of Watson-crick bonds and localized change in sugar puckering. These results showed that important differences can be found for platinated DNA even at short simulation times \u3c 1 ns

The prescribed mean curvature equation in weakly regular domains

We show that the characterization of existence and uniqueness up to vertical translations of solutions to the prescribed mean curvature equation, originally proved by Giusti in the smooth case, holds true for domains satisfying very mild regularity assumptions. Our results apply in particular to the non-parametric solutions of the capillary problem for perfectly wetting fluids in zero gravity. Among the essential tools used in the proofs, we mention a \textit{generalized Gauss-Green theorem} based on the construction of the weak normal trace of a vector field with bounded divergence, in the spirit of classical results due to Anzellotti, and a \textit{weak Young's law} for $(\Lambda,r_{0})$-minimizers of the perimeter.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure --- The results on the weak normal trace of vector fields have been now extended and moved in a self-contained paper available at: arXiv:1708.0139

Plant communities of Italy. The vegetation prodrome

The Vegetation Prodrome of Italy was promoted in 2012 by the Italian "Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea Protection", in collaboration with the "Italian Society of Botany", to provide a comprehensive and systematic catalogue and description of Italian plant communities. The Prodrome that is presented in this paper is the first full organic synthesis of the vegetation of Italy at the alliance syntaxonomic level. It fulfils several needs, the main one being a unified and comprehensive national framework that may make an important contribution to the definition of the European Vegetation Prodrome. Syntaxonomy, as well as taxonomy, is sometimes based on considerations that may in part diverge: several authors tend to favour models that are divisive or aggregative to a greater or lesser extent in terms of flora, biogeography and ecology. These different points of view stimulate the scientific debate and allow the adoption of a framework that is more widely supported. The Prodrome includes 75 classes, 2 subclasses, 175 orders, 6 suborders and 393 alliances. The classes were grouped into nine broad categories according to structural, physiognomic and synecological elements rather than to syntaxonomic criteria. The rank, full valid name, any synonymies and incorrect names are provided for each syntaxon. The short declaration highlights the physiognomy, synecology, syndynamics and distribution of the plant communities that belong to the syntaxon. The Prodrome of the Italian Vegetation is linked to the European Strategy for Biodiversity, the European Habitats Directive and the European Working Groups related to the ecosystems and their services. In addition to basic applications, the Prodrome can be used as a framework for scientific research related to the investigation of the relationships between plant communities and the environmental factors that influence their composition and distribution

Living GenoChemetics by hyphenating synthetic biology and synthetic chemistry in vivo

Marrying synthetic biology with synthetic chemistry provides a powerful approach toward natural product diversification, combining the best of both worlds: expediency and synthetic capability of biogenic pathways and chemical diversity enabled by organic synthesis. Biosynthetic pathway engineering can be employed to insert a chemically orthogonal tag into a complex natural scaffold affording the possibility of site-selective modification without employing protecting group strategies. Here we show that, by installing a sufficiently reactive handle (e.g., a C–Br bond) and developing compatible mild aqueous chemistries, synchronous biosynthesis of the tagged metabolite and its subsequent chemical modification in living culture can be achieved. This approach can potentially enable many new applications: for example, assay of directed evolution of enzymes catalyzing halo-metabolite biosynthesis in living cells or generating and following the fate of tagged metabolites and biomolecules in living systems. We report synthetic biological access to new-to-nature bromo-metabolites and the concomitant biorthogonal cross-coupling of halo-metabolites in living culture

Quality of life and treatment satisfaction in adults with Type 1 diabetes: A comparison between continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion and multiple daily injections

Aims: The aim of this case-control study was to compare quality of life (QoL) and treatment satisfaction in adults with Type 1 diabetes (T1DM) treated with either continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) or multiple daily injections (MDI). Methods: Consecutive patients aged between 18 and 55 years, and attending diabetes clinics for a routine visit, completed the Diabetes-Specific Quality-of-Life Scale (DSQOLS), the Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire (DTSQ) and the SF-36 Health Survey (SF-36). Case (CSII) and control subjects (MDI) were recruited in a 1 : 2 ratio. Results: Overall, 1341 individuals were enrolled by 62 diabetes clinics; 481 were cases and 860 control subjects. Cases had a longer diabetes duration and were more likely to have eye and renal complications. Age, school education, occupation and HbA1c were similar. Of control subjects, 90% followed glargine-based MDI regimens and 10% used NPH-based MDI regimens. On multivariate analysis, after adjusting for socioeconomic and clinical characteristics, scores in the following areas of the DSQOLS were higher in cases than control subjects: diet restrictions (β = 5.96; P < 0.0001), daily hassles (β = 3.57; P = 0.01) and fears about hypoglycaemia (β = 3.88; P = 0.006). Treatment with CSII was also associated with a markedly higher DTSQ score (β = 4.13; P < 0.0001) compared with MDI. Results were similar when CSII was compared separately with glargine- or NPH-based MDI regimens. Conclusions: This large, non-randomized, case-control study suggests quality of life gains deriving from greater lifestyle flexibility, less fear of hypoglycaemia, and higher treatment satisfaction, when CSII is compared with either glargine-based or NPH-based MDI regimens. © 2008 The Authors