Governance drivers hinder and support a paradigm shift in wildfire risk management in Italy

Fire is a fundamental social-ecological process, but a combination of changing climate, land use and values at risk is increasing the incidence of large wildfires with high societal and biodiversity impacts. Academic and practitioner understanding is now converging around the need to manage fire risk as an outcome of intersecting governance regimes, comprising geohistorically defined institutions and decision-making pathways shaped by earlier wildfires. We investigate this proposition through a case study of Italy, a country greatly affected by wildfire and characterised by strong organisational, socio-cultural and geographical variation nationally. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study collecting and analysing qualitative data on how different national and sub-national governance procedures interrelate to promote particular risk management strategies, and support or impede adaptive change. Participants in key agencies were consulted across seven nationally representative regions. Findings show a highly fragmented institutional structure, where wildfire policy responsibilities are increasingly allocated to disparate organisations at a variety of scales. Local stakeholder participation has been displaced by this shift to extra-local actors and networks. While institutions are formally committed to adopting a precautionary approach to wildfire risk, in practice, emergency response remains the default choice, as a result of patchy and uncoordinated legislation. Notably, the wider national and international (EU) regulatory context plays a muted role in governing wildfires. We present our results as a novel action research agenda for Italy and southern Europe more generally, emphasising the urgent need to develop new anticipatory systems of wildfire incidence through closer integration of cross-scale governance arrangements

Governance drivers hinder and support a paradigm shift in wildfire risk management in Italy

Fire is a fundamental social-ecological process, but a combination of changing climate, land use and values at risk is increasing the incidence of large wildfires with high societal and biodiversity impacts. Academic and practitioner understanding is now converging around the need to manage fire risk as an outcome of intersecting governance regimes, comprising geohistorically defined institutions and decision-making pathways shaped by earlier wildfires. We investigate this proposition through a case study of Italy, a country greatly affected by wildfire and characterised by strong organisational, socio-cultural and geographical variation nationally. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study collecting and analysing qualitative data on how different national and sub-national governance procedures interrelate to promote particular risk management strategies, and support or impede adaptive change. Participants in key agencies were consulted across seven nationally representative regions. Findings show a highly fragmented institutional structure, where wildfire policy responsibilities are increasingly allocated to disparate organisations at a variety of scales. Local stakeholder participation has been displaced by this shift to extra-local actors and networks. While institutions are formally committed to adopting a precautionary approach to wildfire risk, in practice, emergency response remains the default choice, as a result of patchy and uncoordinated legislation. Notably, the wider national and international (EU) regulatory context plays a muted role in governing wildfires. We present our results as a novel action research agenda for Italy and southern Europe more generally, emphasising the urgent need to develop new anticipatory systems of wildfire incidence through closer integration of cross-scale governance arrangements

Governance drivers hinder and support a paradigm shift in wildfire risk management in Italy

Fire is a fundamental social-ecological process, but a combination of changing climate, land use and values at risk is increasing the incidence of large wildfires with high societal and biodiversity impacts. Academic and practitioner understanding is now converging around the need to manage fire risk as an outcome of intersecting governance regimes, comprising geohistorically defined institutions and decision-making pathways shaped by earlier wildfires. We investigate this proposition through a case study of Italy, a country greatly affected by wildfire and characterised by strong organisational, socio-cultural and geographical variation nationally. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study collecting and analysing qualitative data on how different national and sub-national governance procedures interrelate to promote particular risk management strategies, and support or impede adaptive change. Participants in key agencies were consulted across seven nationally representative regions. Findings show a highly fragmented institutional structure, where wildfire policy responsibilities are increasingly allocated to disparate organisations at a variety of scales. Local stakeholder participation has been displaced by this shift to extra-local actors and networks. While institutions are formally committed to adopting a precautionary approach to wildfire risk, in practice, emergency response remains the default choice, as a result of patchy and uncoordinated legislation. Notably, the wider national and international (EU) regulatory context plays a muted role in governing wildfires. We present our results as a novel action research agenda for Italy and southern Europe more generally, emphasising the urgent need to develop new anticipatory systems of wildfire incidence through closer integration of cross-scale governance arrangements

Evidence Based Education: un’opportunità epistemologica per i nuovi professionisti della formazione

It is of strategic importance for future educators developing appropriate skills for accessing to research results in an “evidence-based” way (evidence based education - EBE) in order to facilitate an “informed and aware” decision making. The EBE, orienting to formalize research procedures and to assess its results reliability, provide also an “epistemological opportunity”. Thispaper aims to highlight the importance of transferring cultural attitudes and proceduresfrom the EBE world to training. After a brief introduction to research centers andtools used to access scientifically reliable knowledge, we present the results of a comparative test to study the effectiveness of the search engine used, and then we provide some practical suggestions to foster methodological awareness starting from level procedures of information inquiry that can address a simple graduate student.È di rilevanza strategica per i futuri educatori sviluppare adeguate competenze per l’accesso ai risultati della ricerca in un’ottica “basata su evidenza” (evidence based education - EBE) al fine di favorire l’assunzione di decisioni “informate e consapevoli”. L’EBE, orientando a formalizzare le procedure di ricerca e a valutare il grado di affidabilità delle sue risultanze, rappresenta un’opportunitàepistemologica. Questo lavoro intende sottolineare l’importanza di trasferire atteggiamenti culturali e procedure dal mondo EBE alla formazione. Dopo un’introduzione sintetica dei centri e degli strumenti di ricerca utilizzabili per accedere a conoscenze scientificamente affidabili, presenteremo i risultatidi un test comparativo sull’efficacia dei motori utilizzabili, e forniremo alcuni suggerimenti pratici per favorire consapevolezza metodologica a partire dal livello delle procedure di information inquiry che può affrontare un semplice laureando

Innovare la formazione: il ruolo della videoeducazione per lo sviluppo dei nuovi educatori

The Lesson Study approach, especially when enhanced by new technologies, is one of the most effective methods for teachers training.After a brief overview on the changes taking place in educational research and teacher education, we present a training model address to pre-service teachers which provides a circular path of gradual improvement of quality teaching supported by video recording. Then we discuss the results of this first trial.Nell’ambito della ricerca dei metodi più efficaci per la formazione dei nuovi educatori grande attenzione riceve l’approccio detto Lesson Study in particolare se potenziato da supporti forniti dalle nuove tecnologie. Dopo un breve quadro sui cambiamenti in atto nella ricerca didattica e nella formazione degli insegnanti si presenta un modello formativo per tirocinanti che prevede un percorso circolare di miglioramento progressivo della qualità dell’interazione didattica coadiuvato da videoregistrazione. Si analizzano i risultati della sperimentazione

Psychological effects of treatment with new oral anticoagulants in elderly patients with atrial fibrillation: a preliminary report

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in elderly people, yet oral anticoagulation is underused in the aged. We tried to determine whether new oral anticoagulants (NOA) have greater psychological tolerability than warfarin. METHODS: Age-, gender-matched groups of AF patients receiving NOA (N = 15) or warfarin (N = 15) were assessed with the Anti-Clot Treatment Scale (ACTS) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). RESULTS: Patients were old (81 ± 9 years). NOA group showed greater psychological satisfaction, with lower therapy-related burden (ACTS burdens: 16.3 ± 4.5 vs. 32.9 ± 10.2, p < 0.001) and higher awareness of benefits (ACTS benefits: 13.0 ± 1.3 vs. 10.8 ± 1.9, p = 0.001). Even stress was lower (PSS: 13.1 ± 4.0 vs. 17.1 ± 4.2, p = 0.013). The multivariate analysis confirmed these findings, showing that higher levels of anxiety and depression could justify more stress in warfarin patients. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this preliminary study show that NOA have an improved psychological impact compared with warfarin in elderly patients

Atopic dermatitis

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common in ammatory skin disease, clinically characterized by recur- rent eczematous lesions and intense itching, leading to excoriations and susceptibility to cutaneous infections. Although it is considered a pediatric disorder, mainly starting in infancy, it is also very common in adults. Etiology of AD is complex and multifactorial: interaction between genetic susceptibility and environment, but also cutaneous barrier impairment, change in microbiome composition and innate and adaptive immune dysregulation are the main factors involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. Originally, the disorder was considered mediated by an imbalance towards a T-helper 2 response and excessive IgE production to aller- gens, but now it is recognized as a lifelong disposition with variable clinical expressivity, where dysfunctions of the epidermal barrier, immune system and microbiome play a central role. AD leads to a substantial psycho- social burden on patients and their relatives and increases the risk of other allergic and non allergic disorders. e real economic impact of AD is di cult to measure due to the broad spectrum of disease severity and the multiple direct and indirect costs, but the overall medical expenses seem to be very high and similar to those of other diseases such as diabetes. Currently, a multiple therapeutic approach is aimed only at improving the skin state, reducing itching and keeping a stable condition. New safety and curative treatments may be devel- oped only after enhancing our understanding on the pathogenesis of AD and the heterogeneity of its clinical manifestations. (www.actabiomedica.it

A Distinct Pattern of Circulating Amino Acids Characterizes Older Persons with Physical Frailty and Sarcopenia: Results from the BIOSPHERE Study

Physical frailty and sarcopenia (PF&amp;S) are hallmarks of aging that share a common pathogenic background. Perturbations in protein/amino acid metabolism may play a role in the development of PF&amp;S. In this initial report, 68 community-dwellers aged 70 years and older, 38 with PF&amp;S and 30 non-sarcopenic, non-frail controls (nonPF&amp;S), were enrolled as part as the "BIOmarkers associated with Sarcopenia and Physical frailty in EldeRly pErsons" (BIOSPHERE) study. A panel of 37 serum amino acids and derivatives was assayed by UPLC-MS. Partial Least Squares\u207bDiscriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) was used to characterize the amino acid profile of PF&amp;S. The optimal complexity of the PLS-DA model was found to be three latent variables. The proportion of correct classification was 76.6 \ub1 3.9% (75.1 \ub1 4.6% for enrollees with PF&amp;S; 78.5 \ub1 6.0% for nonPF&amp;S). Older adults with PF&amp;S were characterized by higher levels of asparagine, aspartic acid, citrulline, ethanolamine, glutamic acid, sarcosine, and taurine. The profile of nonPF&amp;S participants was defined by higher concentrations of \u3b1-aminobutyric acid and methionine. Distinct profiles of circulating amino acids and derivatives characterize older people with PF&amp;S. The dissection of these patterns may provide novel insights into the role played by protein/amino acid perturbations in the disabling cascade and possible new targets for interventions

Performance Assessment in Fingerprinting and Multi Component Quantitative NMR Analyses

An interlaboratory comparison (ILC) was organized with the aim to set up quality control indicators suitable for multicomponent quantitative analysis by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. A total of 36 NMR data sets (corresponding to 1260 NMR spectra) were produced by 30 participants using 34 NMR spectrometers. The calibration line method was chosen for the quantification of a five-component model mixture. Results show that quantitative NMR is a robust quantification tool and that 26 out of 36 data sets resulted in statistically equivalent calibration lines for all considered NMR signals. The performance of each laboratory was assessed by means of a new performance index (named Qp-score) which is related to the difference between the experimental and the consensus values of the slope of the calibration lines. Laboratories endowed with a Qp-score falling within the suitable acceptability range are qualified to produce NMR spectra that can be considered statistically equivalent in terms of relative intensities of the signals. In addition, the specific response of nuclei to the experimental excitation/relaxation conditions was addressed by means of the parameter named NR. NR is related to the difference between the theoretical and the consensus slopes of the calibration lines and is specific for each signal produced by a well-defined set of acquisition parameters