Exploring the Relationship between River Discharge and Coastal Erosion: An Integrated Approach Applied to the Pisa Coastal Plain (Italy)

Coastal erosion coupled with human-induced pressure has severely affected the coastal areas of the Mediterranean region in the past and continues to do so with increasing intensity today. In this context, the Pisa coastal plain shows a long history of erosion, which started at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In this work, shoreline positions derived from historical maps as well as airborne and DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System) surveys were analyzed in a GIS (Geographic Information System) environment to identify the main changes that have occurred in the last 142 years. These analyses were compared with 100 years of discharge data measured at the S. Giovanni alla Vena gauge to identify a possible correlation between the two sets of information. Finally, Sentinel-2 and Landsat images were studied to identify the dispersion of sediments transported by the Arno River. In particular, we found a minimum of fluvial discharge in the years 1954, 1978, and 2012 corresponding to a peak of erosion, while the reduced erosion rate and the fluvial discharge increased in the years 1928–1944, 1954–1975, and after 2012. The qualitative anticorrelation between discharge and erosion is particularly true if we take into account flood events with a value of discharge greater than 700 m3/s, which are those able to transport suspended sand. The remote sensing analyses of Sentinel-2 images acquired during the floods of 6 February 2019 and 3 December 2019, under the most typical wind and sea state conditions for this area (wind coming from SW and storms coming from W/SW and SW) show that during these events a consistent amount of sediment was transported by the river. However, the majority of these sediments are not deposited along the coastline but are dispersed offshore. Grain-size analyses on the transported sediment show that plumes are formed by coarse-to-medium sand, suitable for coastal nourishment, but the reconstructed sediment dispersion lines show that some sectors of the coastline are constantly in the shade. These areas are the most affected by erosion

PixFEL: development of an X-ray diffraction imager for future FEL applications

A readout chip for diffraction imaging applications at new generation X-ray FELs (Free Electron Lasers) has been designed in a 65 nm CMOS technology. It consists of a 32 × 32 matrix, with square pixels and a pixel pitch of 110 µm. Each cell includes a low-noise charge sensitive amplifier (CSA) with dynamic signal compression, covering an input dynamic range from 1 to 104 photons and featuring single photon resolution at small signals at energies from 1 to 10 keV. The CSA output is processed by a time-variant shaper performing gated integration and correlated double sampling. Each pixel includes also a small area, low power 10-bit time-interleaved Successive Approximation Register (SAR) ADC for in-pixel digitization of the amplitude measurement. The channel can be operated at rates up to 4.5 MHz, to be compliant with the rates foreseen for future X-ray FEL machines. The ASIC has been designed in order to be bump bonded to a slim/active edge pixel sensor, in order to build the first demonstrator for the PixFEL (advanced X-ray PIXel cameras at FELs) imager

Chondrogenic priming at reduced cell density enhances cartilage adhesion of equine allogeneic MSCs : a loading sensitive phenomenon in an organ culture study with 180 explants

Background: Clinical results of regenerative treatments for osteoarthritis are becoming increasingly significant. However, several questions remain unanswered concerning mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) adhesion and incorporation into cartilage. Methods: To this end, peripheral blood (PB) MSCs were chondrogenically induced and/or stimulated with pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs) for a brief period of time just sufficient to prime differentiation. In an organ culture study, PKH26 labelled MSCs were added at two different cell densities (0.5 x10(6) vs 1.0 x10(6)). In total, 180 explants of six horses (30 per horse) were divided into five groups: no lesion (i), lesion alone (ii), lesion with naive MSCs (iii), lesion with chondrogenically-induced MSCs (iv) and lesion with chondrogenically-induced and PEMF-stimulated MSCs (v). Half of the explants were mechanically loaded and compared with the unloaded equivalents. Within each circumstance, six explants were histologically evaluated at different time points (day 1, 5 and 14). Results: COMP expression was selectively increased by chondrogenic induction (p = 0.0488). PEMF stimulation (1mT for 10 minutes) further augmented COL II expression over induced values (p = 0.0405). On the other hand, MSC markers remained constant over time after induction, indicating a largely predifferentiated state. In the unloaded group, MSCs adhered to the surface in 92.6% of the explants and penetrated into 40.7% of the lesions. On the other hand, physiological loading significantly reduced surface adherence (1.9%) and lesion filling (3.7%) in all the different conditions (p < 0.0001). Remarkably, homogenous cell distribution was characteristic for chondrogenic induced MSCs (+/- PEMFs), whereas clump formation occurred in 39% of uninduced MSC treated cartilage explants. Finally, unloaded explants seeded with a moderately low density of MSCs exhibited greater lesion filling (p = 0.0022) and surface adherence (p = 0.0161) than explants seeded with higher densities of MSCs. In all cases, the overall amount of lesion filling decreased from day 5 to 14 (p = 0.0156). Conclusion: The present study demonstrates that primed chondrogenic induction of MSCs at a lower cell density without loading results in significantly enhanced and homogenous MSC adhesion and incorporation into equine cartilage. Copyright (C) 2015 S. Karger AG, Base

The Physics of the B Factories

This work is on the Physics of the B Factories. Part A of this book contains a brief description of the SLAC and KEK B Factories as well as their detectors, BaBar and Belle, and data taking related issues. Part B discusses tools and methods used by the experiments in order to obtain results. The results themselves can be found in Part C

Forma e funzioni delle reti di imprese: evidenze da una ricerca nel settore vitivinicolo

Il tema delle reti di imprese, già da tempo studiato, si presenta ora in tutta la sua rilevanza. La rete, infatti, costituisce uno strumento per incrementare la competitività delle imprese e per decretare il successo delle strategie da queste adottate. Il recente intervento che ha introdotto il contratto di rete testimonia anche il vivo interesse del legislatore. L’attuazione dello strumento introdotto, tuttavia, richiede l’adozione di modelli che ne consentano un impiego concreto, il quale tenga in considerazione le esigenze espresse dalle imprese come pure le caratteristiche settoriali. Il contributo illustra i principali risultati di una ricerca condotta nel settore vitivinicolo che consentono di comprendere più a fondo le finalità con cui vengono impiegate le reti e le forme giuridiche adottate dalle parti. L’indagine, pure focalizzata in un singolo settore, consente di tracciare, laddove possibile, parallelismi con altri ambiti e di trarre considerazioni di portata generale.Reti di imprese, contratto, collaborazione imprenditoriale, catena produttiva, vitivinicolo

Recent morpho-sedimentological change on a “human-dominated” delta: the case of the Arno River (Italy)

The evolution of the Arno River mouth has been tightly connected to human activities in the last 500 years. Two major events drove its development within this timespan, both attributed to anthropic interventions. As the strongest storms typically come from southwest in this sector of the Tuscany coast, in 1606 the southwest-oriented mouth was artificially modified to point towards northwest to avoid devastating floods inland when the storms coincided with river overflows. The new orientation increased the amount of sediments reaching the sea, which led to a huge growth of the delta. The mouth continued to prograde up to the mid-1800s, when several human activities (riverbed dredging, dam construction, slope reforestation) contributed to decreasing the Arno bedload. Towards the end of the century the delta was struck by strong erosive processes: on the left side hard structures were built to protect a seaside village, whereas the right side was left free to erode, which led to the present asymmetrical geometry of the mouth (about 300 m landward offset). The analysis of a series of bathymetric surveys within the 2008-2014 time interval provided insights about the recent evolution of the Arno River mouth. The results showed the significant back and forth mobility of the mouth bar along with swift changes of the shape. At times the mouth bar is located just inside the last tract of the river, and never more than a few tens of meters outside the mouth. On regards to the geometry, the typical profile is frequently replaced by a distinct, incised bar characterized by a 2 m-high crest. All these elements may be related to the asymmetry of the delta determined by the strong human pressure, that may have affected the morpho-sedimentological behavior of the Arno River delta. Lately, the anthropic constraints have likely been more effective than the natural factors in driving the recent evolution of the river mouth and adjusting to a “human-dominated” behavior. These data may be useful to better understand the ongoing processes on such deltas, which are gaining increasing attention especially in the Mediterranean area

Red deer (Cervus elaphus) damage investigation in Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona and Campigna National Park

The Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona and Campigna National Park has an area of about 36,000 ha and is located along the Apennine ridge, between the regions of Emilia Romagna and Tuscany. The forest area is about 79%, while areas used for agriculture and grazing are about 7.5%. In the Park there are wild boar (Sus scrofa), fallow deer (Dama dama), red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus); the only predator is the wolf (Canis lupus). The most common deer is the red deer, an intermediate feeder being able to browse woody vegetation or graze grasslands. The aim of this study was to assess the damage from red deer, based on the damaged surface and on the compensation that the Park annually paid during years 2006-2008. We used a GIS system that allowed us to obtain data on damaged areas subdivided by crop types (pasture, meadow pasture, arable, orchards and chestnut groves); it has also been possible to locate the orchards and chestnut groves for which compensation was paid. The nocturnal observation, the height of browsing and removed foliage permitted to discriminate between damage from different species. Pasture, meadow pasture and arable were damaged by red deer only in the first two years of our investigations (2006: 3,400 ha; 2007: 26,590 ha) and only in the Tuscan side of the Park, while in the Emilian side damages were caused by all the other ungulate. Orchards and chestnuts groves, instead, have been damaged in three years always in the same areas of Tuscan side. Total annual compensations paid for pasture, meadow pasture, arable, orchards and chestnut groves were very low, respectively € 2,192 for 2006, € 694 for 2007 and € 350 for 2008. From this analysis, an enormous damage to the coppice together with the lack of compensation is also emerged; therefore the local Mountain Community requires a reduction of red deer population, creating a conflict with the purposes of the Park

Transient receptor potential vanilloid 2-mediated shear-stress responses in C2C12 myoblasts are regulated by serum and extracellular matrix

10.1096/fj.15-275396FASEB JOURNAL29114726-4737United State