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

Plant biostimulants from cyanobacteria: An emerging strategy to improve yields and sustainability in agriculture

Cyanobacteria can be considered a promising source for the development of new biostimulants as they are known to produce a variety of biologically active molecules that can positively affect plant growth, nutrient use efficiency, qualitative traits of the final product, and increase plant tolerance to abiotic stresses. Moreover, the cultivation of cyanobacteria in controlled and confined systems, along with their metabolic plasticity, provides the possibility to improve and standardize composition and effects on plants of derived biostimulant extracts or hydrolysates, which is one of the most critical aspects in the production of commercial biostimulants. Faced with these opportunities, research on biostimulant properties of cyanobacteria has undergone a significant growth in recent years. However, research in this field is still scarce, especially as regards the number of investigated cyanobacterial species. Future research should focus on reducing the costs of cyanobacterial biomass production and plant treatment and on identifying the molecules that mediate the biostimulant effects in order to optimize their content and stability in the final product. Furthermore, the extension of agronomic trials to a wider number of plant species, different application doses, and environmental conditions would allow the development of tailored microbial biostimulants, thus facilitating the diffusion of these products among farmers

Energy balance of algal biomass production in a 1-ha "Green Wall Panel" plant: How to produce algal biomass in a closed reactor achieving a high Net Energy Ratio

The annual productivity of Tetraselmis suecica in a 1-ha Green Wall Panel-II (GWP-II) plant in Tuscany (Italy) is 36 t (dry weight) ha-1 year-1, which corresponds to an energy output of 799 GJ ha-1 year-1. The energy inputs necessary to attain that productivity amount to 1362 GJ ha-1 year-1, mainly given by the embodied energy of the reactor (about 30%), mixing (about 40%), fertilizers (11%) and harvesting (10%). The Net Energy Ratio (NER) of T. suecica production is thus 0.6. In a more suitable location (North Africa) productivity nearly doubles, reaching 66 t ha-1 year-1, but the NER increases only by 40% and the gain (difference between output and inputs) remains negative. In a GWP-II integrated with photovoltaics (PV), the NER becomes 1.7 and the gain surpasses 600 GJ ha-1 year-1. Marine microalgae cultivation in a GWP plant, in a suitable location, can attain high biomass productivities and protein yields 30 times higher than those achievable with traditional crops (soya). When the GWP reactor is integrated with PV, the process attains a positive energy balance, which substantially enhances its sustainability

Mid-infrared Hall effect in thin-film metals: Probing the Fermi surface anisotropy in Au and Cu

A sensitive mid-infrared (MIR, 900-1100 cm-1, 112-136 meV) photo-elastic polarization modulation technique is used to measure simultaneously Faraday rotation and circular dichroism in thin metal films. These two quantities determine the complex AC Hall conductivity. This novel technique is applied to study Au and Cu thin films at temperatures down to 20 K and magnetic fields up to 8 T. The Hall frequency is consistent with band theory predictions. We report the first measurement of the MIR Hall scattering rate, which is significantly lower than that derived from Drude analysis of zero magnetic field MIR transmission measurements. This difference is qualitatively explained in terms of the anisotropy of the Fermi surface in Au and Cu.Comment: 14 pages of text, 5 figure

Avaliação multicritério das opções de ligação aérea Rio-São Paulo.

O artigo apresenta uma análise das opções existentes na ligação aérea Rio-São Paulo. As opções existentes no mercado são descritas e avaliadas. A abordagem de avaliação escolhida é o Apoio Multicritério à Decisão. No caso investigado os critérios de decisão são preço, rota, frequência de voos, serviço de bordo, modelo de aeronave e características do programa de milhagem, avaliados segundo duas óticas, a do turista e a do executivo. Os critérios são agregados em um único critério síntese, com o uso de uma soma ponderada. Os critérios subjetivos e os pesos da soma ponderada são quantificados com o auxílio do método MACBETH

Concomitant MPZ and MFN2 Gene Variants and Charcot Marie Tooth Disease in a Boy: Clinical and Genetic Analysis-Literature Review

: Charcot- Marie- Tooth (CMT) disease includes a group of clinically and genetically heterogeneous neuropathic disorders with an estimated frequency of 1 on 2.500 individuals. CMTs are differently classified according to the age of onset, type of inheritance, and type of inheritance plus clinical features. For these disorders, more than 100 genes have been implicated as causal factors, with mutations in the PMP22 being one of the most common. The demyelinating type (CMT1) affects more than 30% of the CMTs patients and manifests with motor and sensory dysfunctions of the peripheral nervous system mainly starting with slow progressive weakness of the lower extremities. We report here a 12 year- old boy presenting with typical features of CMT1 type, hearing impairment, and inguinal hernia who at the next-generation sequence analysis displayed a concomitant presence of two variants: the c.233 C>T p.Ser 78Leu of the MPZ gene (NM_000530.6) characterized as pathogenetic and the c.1403 G>A p.Arg 468His of the MFN2 gene (NM_014874.3) characterized as VUS. Concomitant variant mutations in CMTs have been uncommonly reported. The role of these gene mutations on the clinical expression and a literature review on this topic is discussed