Integrating Agriculture in Greenways: a Methodology for Planning Connected Urban and Peri-Urban Farmlands in a Mediterranean City

Cities are often threatened by a loss of environmental quality due the rapid increase of urbanized areas that fragment natural landscapes. This is particularly true at the cities’ fringe where uncontrolled urbanization is often characterized by discontinuous patterns and consequent fragmentation of farmlands. These phenomena are particularly relevant in Mediterranean cities, where the high degree of land-use transitions, a consequence of urban growth with poor environmental regulations produce urban landscapes characterized by a lack of green areas and high levels of ecological fragmentation (EEA, 2006). Greenways are one of the most powerful and widespread tools used at urban, metropolitan and regional scales. Their aim is to counteract ecological fragmentation and to integrate urban development, nature conservation and public health promotion (Ahern, 1995; Fabos & Ryan, 2006). They facilitate linkages between rural and urban spaces along the rural-urban interface through linear systems (Walmsley, 2006). As networks of linear elements they are planned, designed and managed for multiple purposes, including the provision of ecosystem services such as purification of air and water, mitigation of floods, climate regulation, generation and renewal of soil fertility, accessibility to open spaces and intellectual stimulation. Urban contexts present particular challenges for greenways development due to the complex arrangement of urban landscape features. The large number and diversity of land-cover types often produce high degrees of fragmentation of open spaces and heterogeneity of their roles and functions. For this reason a number of different types of patches of Non Urbanized Areas (NUAs) are present in urban contexts: this calls for a characterization of these spaces in order to highlight their physical features and their ecological and social functions. Particularly, they could represent a big opportunity for planning policies oriented to support new forms of urban agriculture (La Greca et al., 2011a). When formulating planning approaches to greenways in urban contexts, new forms of agriculture have been the focus of very few studies and applications but they can significantly contribute to cities’ sustainability (Zasada, 2011). Proposing an agricultural greenway that integrates different NUAs into a network of farmlands and other green spaces (parks, playgrounds and so on) could significantly improve the overall accessibility of these areas, redefining the rural-urban interface and enhancing the provision of urban ecosystem services

Assessment of perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid exposure through fish consumption in Italy

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are pollutants of anthropic origin with possible side effects on human health. Diet, and in particular fish and seafood, is considered the major intake pathway for humans. The present study investigated the levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) contamination in twenty-five samples of fresh fillet of five widely consumed fish species purchased from large retailers in Italy, to be used for an estimation of the Italian population exposure to these contaminants. PFOS and PFOA were found in all samples, at concentrations up to 1,896 (mean = 627 ng/kg) and 487 ng/kg (mean = 75 ng/kg), respectively, confirming the role of fish as high contributor to human exposure. However, a remarkable inter-species variability was observed, and multiple factors were suggested as potentially responsible for such differences, suggesting that the preferential consumption of certain species could likely increase the intake, and thus the exposure. The exposure estimates for both average and high fish consumers resulted far below the TDIs for PFOS and PFOA in all age groups, confirming the outcomes of EFSA\u2019s scientific report. In particular, the calculated total dietary exposure for the 95th percentile consumers belonging to the toddler age class, the most exposed group, resulted equal to 9.72 ng/kg b.w./day for PFOS and 8.39 ng/kg b.w./day for PFOA

Calibrazione di un modello a telaio equivalente per l'analisi di pareti in CLT soggette ad azioni nel piano.

L’obiettivo principale del presente elaborato è lo studio di interventi di miglioramento sismico per edifici in muratura, caratterizzati da una configurazione in pianta allungata e dall’assenza di tamponature interne a seguito delle modificazioni subite nei secoli o decenni precedenti. In particolare, tali interventi prevedono la messa in opera di pareti di tamponamento in muratura o in Clt, a ripristinare la geometria originale della costruzione. A tale scopo, sono state eseguite analisi statiche non lineari su un edificio, preso come caso studio, nello stato di fatto e nello stato di progetto, analizzando diverse possibili configurazioni delle pareti di tamponamento. Ai fini della modellazione dei citati interventi di miglioramento, un aspetto cruciale del lavoro ha riguardato la calibrazione e validazione di un modello a telaio equivalente per le pareti in Clt da poter applicare per la modellazione dell’edificio in esame. Per la calibrazione del modello e dei legami costitutivi delle cerniere fenomenologiche da associare alle modalità di rottura dei pannelli in Clt, si è partiti dal caso di un singolo pannello in Clt e si sono poi analizzati casi via via più complessi, fino ad arrivare a studiare l’interazione tra una parete in Clt e una in muratura. Successivamente alla validazione del modello esso è stato applicato su un caso di studio di un edificio in muratura, avente le caratteristiche descritte in precedenza. Le configurazioni di progetto considerate prevedevano l’inserimento di una o più pareti in muratura o in Clt al fine di analizzare i benefici offerti da questi interventi in termini di risposta strutturale. Si è inoltre analizzata la presenza di solai rigidi o deformabili. Dal confronto dei risultati ottenuti si evince che la presenza di pareti in Clt con entrambi i tipi di solai, rispetto a quella di pareti in muratura, contribuisce ad incrementare sia la resistenza massima della struttura che la duttilità

Water-related risk reduction in urban development plans

The goal to create hazard-resilient communities through sustainable land-use planning requires a fundamental change to the way in which planning is conceptualized and practiced. This implies a deep revision of the operationalizing policy and legislation at local levels and a clearer interpretation of the in-between domain of risk and emergency assessment and management. This study deals with the complex relation existing between land use planning and disaster risk reduction and focuses on water-related risks. It aims to explore and define a set of proposals for increasing the effectiveness of actions taken by local administrations, at the stage of drafting and implementing local land use masterplans, so to enhance all aspects of disaster risk reduction in the planning practice. In particular, novel contents for the local urban masterplans are investigated based on a case study located in eastern Sicily, Italy: considerations concern urban key criticalities analysed within the catchment of the Lavinaio-Platani, the latter acknowledged as the most dangerous stream in the considered area. Although focused on a specific context, the outcomes of this research may be relevant for a wider range of urbanized environments, especially if prone to flooding risk, by providing targeted recommendations and cross-sectoral perspectives to profitably inform innovative masterplans

Le città metropolitane della Sicilia

Il testo descrive lo stato di avanzamento nel processo di istituzione delle città metropolitane in Sicilia con particolare riferimento agli aspetti relativi al governo del territorio. Le ragioni dell'enorme ritardo accumulato nel processo di costruzione dei governi metropolitani in Sicilia si deve anzitutto al travagliato iter della legge regionale che regola l'assetto degli enti intermedi in Sicilia, la quale ha innescato vari rinvii negli adempimenti amministrativi propedeutici alla costituzione degli organi delle città metropolitane con le relative funzioni. La descrizione di tale tortuoso percorso normativo, che non appare improprio definire un pastrocchio e spinge a riflettere sull'attualità di un'autonomia regionale che sembra avere smarrito alcune delle sue iniziali prerogative, risulta doverosa per spiegare la quasi totale assenza di politiche di governo del territorio ascrivibili alla dimensione metropolitana

IS-Seq: a bioinformatics pipeline for integration sites analysis with comprehensive abundance quantification methods

Abstract Background Integration site (IS) analysis is a fundamental analytical platform for evaluating the safety and efficacy of viral vector based preclinical and clinical Gene Therapy (GT). A handful of groups have developed standardized bioinformatics pipelines to process IS sequencing data, to generate reports, and/or to perform comparative studies across different GT trials. Keeping up with the technological advances in the field of IS analysis, different computational pipelines have been published over the past decade. These pipelines focus on identifying IS from single-read sequencing or paired-end sequencing data either using read-based or using sonication fragment-based methods, but there is a lack of a bioinformatics tool that automatically includes unique molecular identifiers (UMI) for IS abundance estimations and allows comparing multiple quantification methods in one integrated pipeline. Results Here we present IS-Seq a bioinformatics pipeline that can process data from paired-end sequencing of both old restriction sites-based IS collection methods and new sonication-based IS retrieval systems while allowing the selection of different abundance estimation methods, including read-based, Fragment-based and UMI-based systems. Conclusions We validated the performance of IS-Seq by testing it against the most popular  analytical workflow available in the literature (INSPIIRED) and using different scenarios. Lastly, by performing extensive simulation studies and a comprehensive wet-lab assessment of our IS-Seq pipeline we could show that in clinically relevant scenarios, UMI quantification provides better accuracy than the currently most widely used sonication fragment counts as a method for IS abundance estimation

Imaging and Genomic Classification of Brain Alteration Induced By Gustatory Bitter Stimulus, A Pilot Study

Objectives: Despite the exhaustive information concerning the role of physiological structures involved in gustatory stimuli, there is still a need to clarify as to whether the gustatory sense is processed in the human brain and how different kind of gustatory stimuli affect brain areas involved in taste processing. To characterize the networks that can be involved in shaping the properties of the gustatory pathways. Materials and Methods: In this fMRI study we investigated two populations characterized by their opposite response (sensitive/non-sensitive) to bitter gustatory stimulus induced by propylthiouracil molecule (PROP). In the MRI experiment PROP was delivered to the subjects by an impregnated filter paper disk. The individuals recruited for this study are 5 super-testers and 8 non-testers to the bitter stimulus. The procedure defines two different groups of subjects “non-taster” and super-taster” which take part to the fcMRI experimental stud Functional data, acquired by a GE Medical Signa 1.5Tesla HD Optima Scanner, were processed with SPM12 toolbox and network pathways were analysed using the CONN toolbox. The general linear model (GLM) technique was applied by allowing for statistical evaluation of activation. Low oscillation of Bold signals [0.09:0.9 Hz] time series were processed by calculating the semi partial correlation index between voxels; the integrated connectivity contrast measure was applied for connectivity map calculation. All contrasts were examined with a voxel wise t-test (p<0.05 uncorrected). We examined activations using the four hubs of the Default Mode Network of the brain, as crucial seeds for the connectivity analysis. A dissimilarity contrast matrix between non-taster e super-tester subjects (between-subjects contrast) and between the two conditions of the bitter stimulus submission and no stimulus submission adopted in the fMRI experiment was created. DMN ROIs projection towards the Brodmann areas were detected with t-test significance test. Results: In our fMRI study the areas of Insula, Cingulate Cortex, Somatosensory Associative Cortex, Entorhinal Cortex, Premotor Cortex Area are correlated to the four DMN areas during the bitter stimuli processing more in super tester than in the control population. Discussion: The bitter taste is differently processed by the two groups of supertasters and non-testers and our results suggests further tests, increasing the population and making different hypothesis in order to encompass the main gustatory pathways and their correlations and differentiation in processing and interpreting gustatory information. Conclusion: It seems likely that further studies are needed to address the possible reasons of this difference between these population. A working hypothesis can privilege an evolutionary differentiation between these two populations, as the correct appreciation of bitter taste can be an advantageous step in peering through possible dangerous tastes in a primitive setting

A New Agent-Based Methodology for the Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Urban Areas

In order to estimate the seismic vulnerability of a densely populated urban area, it would in principle be necessary to evaluate the dynamic behaviour of individual and aggregate buildings. These detailed seismic analyses, however, are extremely cost-intensive and require great processing time and expertise judgment. The aim of the present study is to propose a new methodology able to combine information and tools coming from different scientific fields in order to reproduce the effects of a seismic input in urban areas with known geological features and to estimate the entity of the damages caused on existing buildings. In particular, we present a new software called ABES (Agent-Based Earthquake Simulator), based on a Self-Organized Criticality framework, which allows to evaluate the effects of a sequence of seismic events on a certain large urban area during a given interval of time. The integration of Geographic Information System (GIS) data sets, concerning both geological and urban information about the territory of Avola (Italy), allows performing a parametric study of these effects on a real context as a case study. The proposed new approach could be very useful in estimating the seismic vulnerability and defining planning strategies for seismic risk reduction in large urban area

Comparison of perfluoroalkyl substances contamination in farmed and wild-caught European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a family of persistent pollutants of anthropic origin which can reach humans mainly through diet, causing potentially dangerous effects on health. Fish and fishery products are a major source of exposure, but intra- and inter-specific contamination can be extremely variable. In the present study a single species monitoring of the presence of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), the two main compounds of the family, was performed on 140 farmed and wild caught European sea basses (Dicentrarchus labrax) from different places in the Medi- terranean area. The results highlight a strong correlation between the level of contamination and the origin of fishes, if wild or farmed: on average, wild caught sea basses (PFOS: 112-12,405 ng/kg, median 1345 ng/kg; PFOA: 9-487 ng/kg, median 28 ng/kg) showed higher levels than intensively farmed sea basses (PFOS: 11-105 ng/kg, median 32 ng/kg; PFOA: 9-51 ng/kg, median 21 ng/kg). Significant differences among the various rearing systems were also observed, with extensively-farmed subjects presenting relatively higher levels of both compounds compared to intensively farmed. Moreover, a certain variability among wild fish caught from different sampling sites was observed, confirming that PFASs contamination, which reached in some cases noticeable concentrations, might be influenced by the geographical origin