Developmental Policies, Long-Term Land-Use Changes and the Way Towards Soil Degradation: Evidence from Southern Italy

This paper discusses the relationship between state-driven developmental policies, considered as potential drivers of land degradation, and post-war territorial transformations in southern Italy, a disadvantaged Mediterranean region. Since the early 1950s, state-driven development policies aimed at balancing the socio-economic disparities between coastal and inland areas in southern Italy have sometimes impacted negatively on the quality of land. Three national and one European Union post-war policies have been considered in this study: (i) the Agrarian Reform promoting the realignment of land ownership and a new agricultural organization, (ii) the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno intervention stimulating economic development and reducing territorial unbalances, (iii) the measures for industrial recovery and settlement reconstruction after the 1980 earthquake in Campania and Basilicata regions and (iv) the European Common Agricultural Policy. The impact of these policies on soil resource depletion and land degradation in ecologically fragile, arid areas has been discussed using three case studies: Basilicata region, Sele river plain and Fortore river valley (both located in Campania region). The paper illustrates the multiple links between post-war economic policy and the downward environmental spiral observed in southern Italy as a contribution to the Mediterranean strategy for combating soil degradation, drought and desertification. It raises valid concerns about the negative implications of national and international political policies for land degradation in Italy which share resonance with similar developments in other countries

Cerebellar hyperperfusion in sematic dementia

Despite evidence of a cerebellar contribution to language, possible functional changes of the cerebellum in patients with language impairment secondary to cerebral neurodegeneration has not been investigated so far. We examined with resting perfusion single photon emission tomography one patient with semantic dementia and the data were compared with a normal subject database. Region of interest and Statistical Parametric Mapping 2 analysis showed in the patient hypoperfusion of the left temporal and parietal lobe and hyperperfusion in the superior vermis and cerebellar hemispheres (lobules IV, V, and VI). The cerebellum shows increased flow of possible compensatory significance in patients with language disturbance associated to cerebral degenerative changes

Tracking Radionuclide Fractionation in the First Atomic Explosion Using Stable Elements

Compositional analysis of postdetonation fallout is a tool for forensic identification of nuclear devices. However, the relationship between device composition and fallout composition is difficult to interpret because of the complex combination of physical mixing, nuclear reactions, and chemical fractionations that occur in the chaotic nuclear fireball. Using a combination of in situ microanalytical techniques (electron microprobe analysis and secondary ion mass spectrometry), we show that some heavy stable elements (Rb, Sr, Zr, Ba, Cs, Ba, La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Dy, Lu, U, Th) in glassy fallout from the first nuclear test, Trinity, are reliable chemical proxies for radionuclides generated during the explosion. Stable-element proxies show that radionuclides from the Trinity device were chemically, but not isotopically, fractionated by condensation. Furthermore, stable-element proxies delineate chemical fractionation trends that can be used to connect present-day fallout composition to past fireball composition. Stable-element proxies therefore offer a novel approach for elucidating the phenomenology of the nuclear fireball as it relates to the formation of debris and the fixation of device materials within debris