Descrizione del GIS/database implementato: sito di Portoscuso

Una delle attività previste nella Fase II del progetto riguardava la costruzione di un database e di un GIS per i dati dei due siti selezionati nella Fase I: Oristano e Portoscuso [Muscas e Cau, 2000, Muscas et al., 2000]. Per il sito di Oristano tale attività è stata realizzata nella Fase II, mentre il ritardo con cui sono stati reperiti i dati relativi al sito di Portoscuso ha comportato lo slittamento di questo lavoro alla Fase III. Nel presente rapporto viene descritta l’implementazione del GIS/database del sito di Portoscuso. Anche per il sito di Portoscuso, come per Oristano, gli applicativi GIS utilizzati sono stati: ArcInfo e ArcView, entrambi della ESRI [Muscas e Cau, 2000]. In particolare ArcInfo è stato utilizzato per la correzione degli errori, costruzione della topologia e creazione ex novo di nuovi livelli informativi. Il GIS realizzato è stato invece organizzato in un progetto Arcview

Descrizione del GIS/database implementato: sito di Oristano

Sono ormai note le potenzialità dei sistemi informativi geografici GIS. La capacità di eseguire analisi spaziale rappresenta la parte fondamentale del GIS, ne motiva l’utilizzo e ne giustifica la sua grande diffusione. La seconda fase del progetto “Ambiente e territorio. Tecnologie avanzate per la gestione delle acque. Software per la modellistica ambientale" è stata dedicata alla formalizzazione degli algoritmi risolutivi e delle modifiche da introdurre ai modelli numerici e alla raccolta ed elaborazione dei dati necessari alla realizzazione del sistema informativo geografico. I siti individuati per la costruzione del GIS sono: l'area di Oristano (Sardegna centro occidentale) caratterizzata da un alto grado di vulnerabilità dell'acquifero dovuto presumibilmente a fenomeni di intrusione salina, e l'area di Portoscuso (Sardegna sud occidentale), sede di agglomerati industriali caratterizzata da inquinamento dovuto a metalli pesanti e fenomeni di intrusione salina nell'acquifero

Identificazione dei siti di studio e organizzazione del sistema GIS/database. Stato di avanzamento attività 3.2

Nel presente rapporto viene presentato lo stato di avanzamento dell'attività 3.2 ad un anno dall'inizio del progetto. Detta attività consiste nella realizzazione di un sistema informativo per ciascuno dei siti selezionati comprensivo di mappe, archivi, dati, etc. da utilizzare successivamente per le simulazioni. In questo contesto il lavoro è consistito nell'acquisizione, gestione e analisi di dati eterogenei provenienti da diverse fonti informative. Tali dati sono costituiti da rilievi in campo e/o in laboratorio, cartografia esistente e simulazioni eseguite con i modelli numerici di calcolo che in alcuni casi sono di tipo dinamico, cioè variabili nel tempo. Mediante l'uso di software GIS commerciali, i dati sono stati organizzati e convertiti in formati consistenti fra loro, e in seguito inseriti e elaborati all'interno del GIS stesso, in modo da arrivare ad un sistema dinamico per la gestione, l'analisi e la rappresentazione dei vari tipi di dati (alfanumerici, tabelle, raster, vettoriali; dati statici e dinamici; etc.). Operazioni di georeferenziazione e correzione in molti casi sono state particolarmente impegnative a causa della scarsa qualità dei dati stessi. Entrando in maggiore dettaglio sull`attività svolta durante il primo anno, si è fatto un primo “screening” su una serie di siti in Sardegna e non. Questi siti presentano problemi di inquinamento di una certa rilevanza e ad una prima analisi si sono dimostrati dei validi candidati per uno studio maggiormente approfondito. I siti considerati per lo studio preliminare vengono elencati qui di seguito: Ringe, Capoterra, Portoscuso, Muravera, Oristano. Viene data una descrizione di massima dei siti in studio e dei problemi di inquinamento a cui sono soggetti. Infine, sulla base di una serie di considerazioni viene descritta la scelta dei due siti su cui si focalizzerà il progetto

Onboard Scientific Observers Provide a Realistic Picture of Harvesting and Management Priorities for the Precious Red Coral (Corallium rubrum L.)

Mediterranean red coral Corallium rubrum is considered the most precious coral worldwide. Harvesting activities are performed by licensed scuba divers and managed through the recent pan-Mediterranean management plan issued by General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) along with measures locally enacted, imposing limits on licenses, harvesting season, minimum depth of dive, and size. The use of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) is prohibited, with the only exception being for scientific purposes. Despite measures already in force, the implementation of additional management tools has been recently recommended. This article reports results from the first monitoring campaign on C. rubrum harvesting based on ROVs for seabed exploration and Onboard Scientific Observers (OSOs), carried out from 2012 to 2015 along the coast of Sardinia (Mediterranean Sea—Western basin). More than 450 dives were monitored, confirming how ROV's support eases the scouting of exploitable banks, leading to increases in catches. OSOs reported the collection of colonies below the minimum reference size and catches/dive above limits. Onboard observers collected data also on colony diameter, which is crucial for the estimation of population size structure and exploitation status. OSOs proved to be valid tools in providing additional and reliable information on red coral harvesting, thus deserving to be included among mandatory measures for the sustainable exploitation of red coral in the Mediterranean Sea

Interplay of Staphylococcal and Host Proteases Promotes Skin Barrier Disruption in Netherton Syndrome.

Netherton syndrome (NS) is a monogenic skin disease resulting from loss of function of lymphoepithelial Kazal-type-related protease inhibitor (LEKTI-1). In this study we examine if bacteria residing on the skin are influenced by the loss of LEKTI-1 and if interaction between this human gene and resident bacteria contributes to skin disease. Shotgun sequencing of the skin microbiome demonstrates that lesional skin of NS subjects is dominated by Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis). Isolates of either species from NS subjects are able to induce skin inflammation and barrier damage on mice. These microbes promote skin inflammation in the setting of LEKTI-1 deficiency due to excess proteolytic activity promoted by S. aureus phenol-soluble modulin α as well as increased bacterial proteases staphopain A and B from S. aureus or EcpA from S. epidermidis. These findings demonstrate the critical need for maintaining homeostasis of host and microbial proteases to prevent a human skin disease

On the presence of the Endangered white skate Rostroraja alba in Sardinian waters

The white skate Rostroraja alba is assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as Endangered globally and is now considered rare in the Mediterranean. This species has never been recorded in Sardinian seas (central western Mediterranean), but an empty eggcase was collected on a sandy bottom off the western Sardinia coasts during the MEDiterranean International Trawl Survey (MEDITS) program in 2019. A morphometric and morphological description of the Sardinian eggcase, after a comparison with measurements from other Mediterranean and Atlantic specimens, showed it to be clearly ascribable to Rostroraja alba

Design, Test and Analysis of a Gyrotron Cavity Mock-Up Cooled Using Mini Channels

In 2016, we have designed, built and finally tested at the FE200 facility in Le Creusot (France) a planar mock-up mimicking the water-cooled cylindrical resonance cavity of the European 170 GHz, 1 MW gyrotron to be used for electron cyclotron plasma heating in ITER. The aim of the mock-up is the characterization of the cooling capability of the cavity. A Glidcop® target is heated with an electron beam gun with resulting peak heat fluxes relevant for the full-size cavity. Underneath the target surface, whose temperature is monitored by means of a pyrometer, a set of parallel semi-circular mini-channels, with diameter of 1.5 mm, allows the flow of pressurized water, entering the mockup at ~ 9 bar and 40 °C. Several thermocouples measure the target temperature, at different distances from the heated target surface. The experimental results show that the mock-up is capable to withstand a heat fluxes of 21 MW/m2, while the cooling system keeps the heated surface below ~ 400 °C, for flow conditions comparable to those of the full-size cavity. The test results are used to first calibrate the uncertain model parameters and then, with frozen parameters, to validate a previously developed CFD model, showing good agreement with the experiment. In view of its reliability, this model might eventually be a useful tool for the simulation of the full-size gyrotron cavity operation

Commercial sharks under scrutiny: baseline genetic distinctiveness supports structured populations of small-spotted catsharks in the Mediterranean Sea

The present study, based on microsatellite markers, describes a population genetic analysis of the small-spotted catshark Scyliorhinus canicula (Linnaeus, 1758), representing one of the most abundant and commonly caught cartilaginous fishes in the Mediterranean Sea and adjacent areas. The analyses were performed to unravel the genetic features (variability, connectivity, sex-biased dispersal) of their relative geographic populations, both at the small (around the coast of Sardinia, Western Mediterranean Sea) and at a larger spatial scale (pan-Mediterranean level and between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea). Individual clustering, multivariate and variance analyses rejected the hypothesis of genetic homogeneity, with significant genetic differences between the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as within the Mediterranean area between the Western and Eastern basins. In details, our results seem to confirm that the Strait of Gibraltar could not represent a complete barrier to the exchange of individuals of small-spotted catshark between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. In the latter area, a complex genetic structuring for S. canicula was found. Apart from differences among the Western, Eastern and Adriatic sites, within the Western basin the small-spotted catsharks around Sardinian waters are strongly differentiated from all others (both from the eastern Tyrrhenian Sea and southernmost part of the Algerian basin) and are demographically stable. Several possible mechanisms, both biological and abiotic (e.g., migratory behavior, water fronts and oceanographic discontinuities), are discussed here to explain their peculiar characteristics. Overall, the genetic data presented, both at the local and regional level, could represent a baseline information, useful for the temporal monitoring of populations, and to assess the effects of present or future fishing/management/conservation measures

fshr, a fish sex-determining locus shows variable incomplete penetrance across flathead grey mullet populations

Whole-genome sequence data were produced from a single flathead grey mullet female and assembled into a draft genome sequence, whereas publicly available sequence data were used to obtain a male draft sequence. Two pools, each consisting of 60 unrelated individuals respectively of male and female fish were analysed using Pool-Sequencing. Mapping and analysis of Pool-Seq data against the draft genome(s) revealed >30 loci potentially associated with sex, the most promising locus of which, encoding the follicle stimulating hormone receptor (fshr) and harbouring two missense variants, was genotyped on 245 fish from four Mediterranean populations. Genotype data showed that fshr represents a previously unknown sex-determining locus, though the incomplete association pattern between fshr genotype and sex-phenotype, the variability of such pattern across different populations, and the presence of other candidate loci, reveal that a greater complexity underlies sex determination in the flathead grey mullet

Mutations in three genes encoding proteins involved in hair shaft formation cause uncombable hair syndrome

Uncombable hair syndrome (UHS), also known as "spun glass hair syndrome," "pili trianguli et canaliculi," or "cheveux incoiffables" is a rare anomaly of the hair shaft that occurs in children and improves with age. UHS is characterized by dry, frizzy, spangly, and often fair hair that is resistant to being combed flat. Until now, both simplex and familial UHS-affected case subjects with autosomal-dominant as well as -recessive inheritance have been reported. However, none of these case subjects were linked to a molecular genetic cause. Here, we report the identification of UHS-causative mutations located in the three genes PADI3 (peptidylarginine deiminase 3), TGM3 (transglutaminase 3), and TCHH (trichohyalin) in a total of 11 children. All of these individuals carry homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations in one of these three genes, indicating an autosomal-recessive inheritance pattern in the majority of UHS case subjects. The two enzymes PADI3 and TGM3, responsible for posttranslational protein modifications, and their target structural protein TCHH are all involved in hair shaft formation. Elucidation of the molecular outcomes of the disease-causing mutations by cell culture experiments and tridimensional protein models demonstrated clear differences in the structural organization and activity of mutant and wild-type proteins. Scanning electron microscopy observations revealed morphological alterations in hair coat of Padi3 knockout mice. All together, these findings elucidate the molecular genetic causes of UHS and shed light on its pathophysiology and hair physiology in general