Implementation of the EU ecological flow policy in Italy with a focus on Sardinia

River ecosystems are characterised by a naturally high level of hydrodynamic perturbations which create aquatic-terrestrial habitats indispensable for many species, as well as for the human beings’ welfare. Environmental degradation and habitat loss caused by increasing anthropogenic pressures and global change affect freshwater aquatic ecosystems worldwide and have caused changes in water flow regimes and channels morphologies. These, in turn, decreased the natural flow capacity and reduced habitat availability, thus causing severe degradation of rivers’ ecological integrity. The ecological flow (e-flow) is commonly intended as the quantity, timing, duration, frequency and quality of water flows required to sustain freshwater, estuarine and near shore ecosystems and the human livelihoods and well being. Maintaining the e-flow represents a potential tool for restoring and managing river ecosystems, to preserve the autochthonous living communities, along with environmental services and cultural/societal values. In the last decade, methods for the determination of the e-flow in European rivers moved from a simply hydrological approach towards establishing a linkage between the hydrological regime and the good ecological status (GES) of the water bodies, as identified by the European Water Framework Directive (WFD; 2000/60/EC). Each Member State is required to implement and integrate into the River Basin Management Plans (RBMP) a methodology for the determination of the e-flow, ensuring that rivers can achieve and maintain the GES. The competent river basin authorities have thus to ascertain whether national methodologies can be applied to different river typologies and basin environment characteristics. In this context, we narratively review the e-flow assessments in the heterogeneous Italian territory, in particular on a water scant region such as Sardinia, by analysing laws, guidelines and focusing on study cases conducted with micro and meso-scale hydraulic-habitat approaches. In the sight of a more ecological-based application of national e-flow policy, we suggest that meso-habitat methods provide a valuable tool to overcome several limitations of current e-flow implementation in the Italian territory. However, to face future challenges, such as climate change adaptation, we stress the need for further experimental studies to update water management plans with greater attention for nature conservation

Organic matter contents and degradation in a highly trawled area during fresh particle inputs (Gulf of Castellammare, southwestern Mediterranean)

Bottom trawling in the deep sea is one of the main drivers of sediment resuspension, eroding the seafloor and altering the content and composition of sedimentary organic matter (OM). The physical and biogeochemical impacts of bottom trawling were studied on the continental slope of the Gulf of Castellammare, Sicily (southwestern Mediterranean), through the analysis of two triplicate sediment cores collected at trawled and untrawled sites (∼550 m water depth) during the summer of 2016. Geochemical and sedimentological parameters (excess 210Pb, excess 234Th, 137Cs, dry bulk density, and grain size), elemental (organic carbon and nitrogen) and biochemical composition of sedimentary OM (proteins, carbohydrates, lipids), as well as its freshness (phytopigments) and degradation rates were determined in both coring locations. The untrawled site had a sedimentation rate of 0.15 cm yr−1 and presented a 6 cm thick surface mixed layer that contained siltier sediment with low excess 210Pb concentrations, possibly resulting from the resuspension, posterior advection, and eventual deposition of coarser and older sediment from adjacent trawling grounds. In contrast, the trawled site was eroded and presented compacted century-old sediment highly depleted in OM components, which were between 20 % and 60 % lower than those in the untrawled site. However, the upper 2 cm of the trawled site consisted of recently accumulated sediments enriched in excess 234Th, excess 210Pb, and phytopigments, while OM contents were similar to those from the untrawled core. This fresh sediment supported protein turnover rates of 0.025 d−1, which doubled those quantified in surface sediments of the untrawled site. The enhancement of remineralization rates in surface sediment of the trawled site was associated with the arrival of fresh particles on a chronically trawled deep-sea region that is generally deprived of OM. We conclude that the detrimental effects of bottom trawling can be temporarily and partially abated by the arrival of fresh and nutritionally rich OM, which stimulate the response of benthic communities. However, these ephemeral deposits are likely to be swiftly eroded due to the high trawling frequency over fishing grounds, highlighting the importance of establishing science-based management strategies to mitigate the impacts of bottom trawling

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

Artificial intelligence in clinical endoscopy: Insights in the field of videomics

Artificial intelligence is being increasingly seen as a useful tool in medicine. Specifically, these technologies have the objective to extract insights from complex datasets that cannot easily be analyzed by conventional statistical methods. While promising results have been obtained for various -omics datasets, radiological images, and histopathologic slides, analysis of videoendoscopic frames still represents a major challenge. In this context, videomics represents a burgeoning field wherein several methods of computer vision are systematically used to organize unstructured data from frames obtained during diagnostic videoendoscopy. Recent studies have focused on five broad tasks with increasing complexity: quality assessment of endoscopic images, classification of pathologic and nonpathologic frames, detection of lesions inside frames, segmentation of pathologic lesions, and in-depth characterization of neoplastic lesions. Herein, we present a broad overview of the field, with a focus on conceptual key points and future perspectives

Benthic foraminifera as tracers of brine production in the Storfjorden "sea ice factory"

Abstract. The rapid response of benthic foraminifera to environmental factors (e.g. organic matter quality and quantity, salinity, pH) and their high fossilisation potential make them promising bio-indicators for the intensity and recurrence of brine formation in Arctic seas. Such an approach, however, requires a thorough knowledge of their modern ecology in such extreme settings. To this aim, seven stations along a north–south transect across the Storfjorden (Svalbard archipelago) have been sampled using an interface multicorer. This fjord is an area of intense sea ice formation characterised by the production of brine-enriched shelf waters (BSW) as a result of a recurrent latent-heat polynya. Living (rose bengal-stained) foraminiferal assemblages were analysed together with geochemical and sedimentological parameters in the top 5 cm of the sediment. Three major biozones were distinguished. (i) The "inner fjord" zone, dominated by typical glacier proximal calcareous species, which opportunistically respond to fresh organic matter inputs. (ii) The "deep basins and sill" zone, characterised by glacier distal agglutinated fauna; these are either dominant because of the mostly refractory nature of organic matter and/or the brine persistence that hampers the growth of calcareous species and/or causes their dissolution. (iii) The "outer fjord" zone, characterised by typical North Atlantic species due to the intrusion of the North Atlantic water in the Storfjordrenna. The stressful conditions present in the deep basins and sill (i.e. acidic waters and low food quality) result in a high agglutinated ∕ calcareous ratio (A∕C). This supports the potential use of the A∕C ratio as a proxy for brine persistence and overflow in Storfjorden

Facies created by the yellow coral Dendrophyllia cornigera (Lamarck, 1816): Origin, substrate preferences and habitat complexity

The yellow coral Dendrophyllia cornigera (Lamarck, 1816) is a NE Atlantic-Mediterranean scleractinian. It is considered a typical hard bottom species, generally reported on outcropping rocks from mesophotic to upper bathyal depths. Several evidences suggest that this species is able to tolerate a broad range of temperatures, which allows it to colonize numerous environments in a wide depth range. In the present study, we first provided a detailed ecological characterization of the D. cornigera dense aggregation thriving on the Mantice Shoal (NW Ligurian Sea, Mediterranean Sea). Information on substrate type and inclination, average extension and density, colonies size-class frequency distribution and associated fauna are reported. Then, we presented an extensive review of the available information on the ecology of this species, including 142 new ROV records from the Italian coast (40–1820 m). Results indicated that D. cornigera occurs on a wide range of substrates, including soft bottoms and hardgrounds (outcropping rocks, coralligenous rock and dead cold-water coral frameworks), with significant differences in colony density and size among different substrates. Dendrophyllia cornigera creates three main facies, each characterized by a specific combination of substrate, inclination, depth, and associated fauna. Scattered living colonies, as well as large thanatocoenoses, display a wide geographical and bathymetric distribution. Differently, the facies represented by dense meadows on horizontal soft-bottoms results rare, being reported only from the Mantice Shoal and the Amendolara Bank (Ionian Sea). The radiocarbon age of the thanatocoenoses varies between 400 (Corsica Channel) and 13000 (Vercelli Seamount) years before present. This study highlights the wide adaptability of D. cornigera in terms of environmental settings, changing the current view on the ecology of this species and providing essential insights for the implementation of international deep-sea habitat classification schemes and conservation measures

The LifeCycle Project-EU Child Cohort Network : a federated analysis infrastructure and harmonized data of more than 250,000 children and parents

Early life is an important window of opportunity to improve health across the full lifecycle. An accumulating body of evidence suggests that exposure to adverse stressors during early life leads to developmental adaptations, which subsequently affect disease risk in later life. Also, geographical, socio-economic, and ethnic differences are related to health inequalities from early life onwards. To address these important public health challenges, many European pregnancy and childhood cohorts have been established over the last 30 years. The enormous wealth of data of these cohorts has led to important new biological insights and important impact for health from early life onwards. The impact of these cohorts and their data could be further increased by combining data from different cohorts. Combining data will lead to the possibility of identifying smaller effect estimates, and the opportunity to better identify risk groups and risk factors leading to disease across the lifecycle across countries. Also, it enables research on better causal understanding and modelling of life course health trajectories. The EU Child Cohort Network, established by the Horizon2020-funded LifeCycle Project, brings together nineteen pregnancy and childhood cohorts, together including more than 250,000 children and their parents. A large set of variables has been harmonised and standardized across these cohorts. The harmonized data are kept within each institution and can be accessed by external researchers through a shared federated data analysis platform using the R-based platform DataSHIELD, which takes relevant national and international data regulations into account. The EU Child Cohort Network has an open character. All protocols for data harmonization and setting up the data analysis platform are available online. The EU Child Cohort Network creates great opportunities for researchers to use data from different cohorts, during and beyond the LifeCycle Project duration. It also provides a novel model for collaborative research in large research infrastructures with individual-level data. The LifeCycle Project will translate results from research using the EU Child Cohort Network into recommendations for targeted prevention strategies to improve health trajectories for current and future generations by optimizing their earliest phases of life.Peer reviewe

COVID-19 Severity in Multiple Sclerosis: Putting Data Into Context

Background and objectives: It is unclear how multiple sclerosis (MS) affects the severity of COVID-19. The aim of this study is to compare COVID-19-related outcomes collected in an Italian cohort of patients with MS with the outcomes expected in the age- and sex-matched Italian population. Methods: Hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and death after COVID-19 diagnosis of 1,362 patients with MS were compared with the age- and sex-matched Italian population in a retrospective observational case-cohort study with population-based control. The observed vs the expected events were compared in the whole MS cohort and in different subgroups (higher risk: Expanded Disability Status Scale [EDSS] score > 3 or at least 1 comorbidity, lower risk: EDSS score ≤ 3 and no comorbidities) by the χ2 test, and the risk excess was quantified by risk ratios (RRs). Results: The risk of severe events was about twice the risk in the age- and sex-matched Italian population: RR = 2.12 for hospitalization (p < 0.001), RR = 2.19 for ICU admission (p < 0.001), and RR = 2.43 for death (p < 0.001). The excess of risk was confined to the higher-risk group (n = 553). In lower-risk patients (n = 809), the rate of events was close to that of the Italian age- and sex-matched population (RR = 1.12 for hospitalization, RR = 1.52 for ICU admission, and RR = 1.19 for death). In the lower-risk group, an increased hospitalization risk was detected in patients on anti-CD20 (RR = 3.03, p = 0.005), whereas a decrease was detected in patients on interferon (0 observed vs 4 expected events, p = 0.04). Discussion: Overall, the MS cohort had a risk of severe events that is twice the risk than the age- and sex-matched Italian population. This excess of risk is mainly explained by the EDSS score and comorbidities, whereas a residual increase of hospitalization risk was observed in patients on anti-CD20 therapies and a decrease in people on interferon

DMTs and Covid-19 severity in MS: a pooled analysis from Italy and France

We evaluated the effect of DMTs on Covid-19 severity in patients with MS, with a pooled-analysis of two large cohorts from Italy and France. The association of baseline characteristics and DMTs with Covid-19 severity was assessed by multivariate ordinal-logistic models and pooled by a fixed-effect meta-analysis. 1066 patients with MS from Italy and 721 from France were included. In the multivariate model, anti-CD20 therapies were significantly associated (OR = 2.05, 95%CI = 1.39–3.02, p < 0.001) with Covid-19 severity, whereas interferon indicated a decreased risk (OR = 0.42, 95%CI = 0.18–0.99, p = 0.047). This pooled-analysis confirms an increased risk of severe Covid-19 in patients on anti-CD20 therapies and supports the protective role of interferon