Elisa Magnani, Turismo, memoria e tratta degli schiavi: L’heritage come strumento di sviluppo locale in Africa, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2013, pp. 160

Book review of Elisa Magnani, Turismo, memoria e tratta degli schiavi: L’heritage come strumento di sviluppo locale in Africa, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2013, pp. 160.Recensione di Elisa Magnani, Turismo, memoria e tratta degli schiavi: L’heritage come strumento di sviluppo locale in Africa, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2013, pp. 160

Surface soil moisture estimate from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data in agricultural fields in areas of high vulnerability to climate variations: the Marche region (Italy) case study

Surface soil moisture is a key hydrologic state variable that greatly influences the global environment and human society. Its significant decrease in the Mediterranean region, registered since the 1950s, and expected to continue in the next century, threatens soil health and crops. Microwave remote sensing techniques are becoming a key tool for the implementation of climate-smart agriculture, as a means for surface soil moisture retrieval that exploits the correlation between liquid water and the dielectric properties of soil. In this study, a workflow in Google Earth Engine was developed to estimate surface soil moisture in the agricultural fields of the Marche region (Italy) through Synthetic Aperture Radar data. Firstly, agricultural areas were extracted with both Sentinel-2 optical and Sentinel-1 radar satellites, investigating the use of Dual-Polarimetric Entropy-Alpha decomposition's bands to improve the accuracy of radar data classification. The results show that Entropy and Alpha bands improve the kappa index obtained from the radar data only by 4% (K = 0.818), exceeding optical accuracy in urban and water areas. However, they still did not allow to reach the overall optical accuracy (K = 0.927). The best classification results are reached with the total dataset (K = 0.949). Subsequently, Water Cloud and Tu Wien models were implemented on the crop areas using calibration parameters derived from literature, to test if an acceptable accuracy is reached without in situ observation. While the first model’s accuracy was inadequate (RMSD = 12.3), the extraction of surface soil moisture using Tu Wien change detection method was found to have acceptable accuracy (RMSD = 9.4)

Importance of Sexual Function Assessment in Multidimensional Evaluation of AGHD Patients: Results from the MAGHD Study.

Background: Adult growth hormone deficiency (AGHD) is a debilitating clinical condition leading to decreased quality of life (QoL). The impact of reduced muscle mass, weakening and loss of vitality on QoL have been well characterized in AGHD. The impact of AGHD on sexual function, a recognized factor able to modify well-being, has never been investigated. Aim: To investigate the prevalence of sexual dysfunction in AGHD patients referring to a single endocrinological center and grouped according to their his- tory of r-hGH therapy.Methods: The Management of Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency (MAGHD) Study is a pro- spective, real-life trial aiming to improve management of AGHD patients through a smartphone app (MAGHD App)and a wearable device. The 83 AGHD enrolled patients (31 Females, 52 Males, mean age 56.27 + 14.68 years) were divided in 3 groups (G) according to r-hGH therapy: on long-term r-hGH therapy (G1, n=32), previously treated with r-hGH (G2, n=20), never treated (G3, n=31). Within the first phase of the study, a large database was created collecting clinical, biochemical and psychological data. In addition to QLS-H and QoL-AGHDA routinely used to as- sess QoL, IIEF-15 and FSFI were employed to evaluate sexual function in males and females, respectively. The nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test was used for compar- ison among 3 groups.Results: Here only baseline data of the MAGHD Study are presented.According to IIEF-15 results, the prevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED) in male AGHD cohort was 60%. Erectile function (EF) score was signifi- cantly higher in G1 compared to both G2 and G3 (p < 0.05) with an ED prevalence of 35% in G1, 75% in G2 and 75% in G3. Even excluding patients with serum testosterone lower than 2 ng/ml and older than 65 years, ED prevalence did not change significantly in the 3 groups. Moreover, EF do- main was inversely and directly correlated to age (R20.130, β-0.360) and IGF1 levels (R20.156, β0.395), respectively. The prevalence of female sexual dysfunction according to FSFI was 89.3%. Even though desire, arousal, lubrication and overall scores were significantly higher (better results) in G1 compared to G2 and G3 (p < 0.05), no correlation resulted between FSFI domains and IGF1 levels. Instead an inverse correlation resulted between desire domain and age.Conclusions: This study, performed in a real-life clinical setting, demonstrates a high prevalence of sexual dysfunc- tion in AGHD patients and that r-hGH treatment seems to be associated to better sexual outcomes. These results suggest that the evaluation of sexual function should be in- tegrated in the global assessment of AGHD patients since sexual activity is a fundamental domain able to influence both well-being and QoL

A.M. Sala, S. Grandi, F. Dallari (a c. di), Turismo e turismi tra politica e innovazione, Bologna, Patron editore 2008

none1noIl contributo è una recensione del volume di A.M. Sala, S. Grandi, F. Dallari "Turismo e turismi tra politica e innovazione", Bologna, Patron editore 2008. Il volume contiene diversi contributi presentati nel corso del convegno “Quali turismi italiani per un mercato internazionale?” tenutosi a Modena nel maggio del 2007, che affrontano trasversalmente il tema del turismo come strumento di promozione economica locale.mixedE.MagnaniE.Magnan

Geography’s preeminence: Italian Commission for the Knowledge and Study of Geography at School

Since on 30 March 2022, by Decree of the Minister Prof. Patrizio Bianchi, the “Commission for the knowledge and study of geography at school” in Italy was established at the Ministry for Education, with an act which owing to its institutional importance not only boasts very few precedents in the history of the relations between Geography (understood as a community of scholars and teachers) and the Institutions called upon to foster and guarantee its teaching, but having the clear political meaning for the goals of such provision and for the moment in time in which it is implemented

La giustizia ambientale in Italia. Una riflessione introduttiva

La giustizia ambientale è un concetto non ancora del tutto condiviso in letteratura, nonostante una storia non proprio recente. L’indeterminatezza si deve probabilmente al fatto che esso si compone di altri concetti già complessi, come giustizia (sociale) e ambiente, per cui la possibilità di farne un principio ispiratore dell’agenda e della pratica politica dipende da come si sceglie di definirlo. Il contributo ha l’obiettivo di introdurre la discussione sulla utilità dello studio della giustizia ambientale in Italia nella convinzione che, pur con modalità diverse rispetto agli Stati Uniti, esso possa essere estremamente fruttuoso. Una sua migliore comprensione ed una verifica di contesto nel caso italiano potrebbero infatti contribuire sia allo sforzo complessivo di ridefinire il quadro teorico nel quale iscrivere il rapporto società/ambiente, di cui si sente il bisogno, in particolare in geografia, sia nel determinare l’evoluzione degli orientamenti politici e operativi

Uncoupling of Satellite DNA and Centromeric Function in the Genus Equus

In a previous study, we showed that centromere repositioning, that is the shift along the chromosome of the centromeric function without DNA sequence rearrangement, has occurred frequently during the evolution of the genus Equus. In this work, the analysis of the chromosomal distribution of satellite tandem repeats in Equus caballus, E. asinus, E. grevyi, and E. burchelli highlighted two atypical features: 1) several centromeres, including the previously described evolutionary new centromeres (ENCs), seem to be devoid of satellite DNA, and 2) satellite repeats are often present at non-centromeric termini, probably corresponding to relics of ancestral now inactive centromeres. Immuno-FISH experiments using satellite DNA and antibodies against the kinetochore protein CENP-A demonstrated that satellite-less primary constrictions are actually endowed with centromeric function. The phylogenetic reconstruction of centromere repositioning events demonstrates that the acquisition of satellite DNA occurs after the formation of the centromere during evolution and that centromeres can function over millions of years and many generations without detectable satellite DNA. The rapidly evolving Equus species gave us the opportunity to identify different intermediate steps along the full maturation of ENCs

Emergency vs development: the architectural project within development cooperation

The aim of Panel was to take stock of the role that architecture holds in international cooperation. It is an environment in which construction keeps a central position, investing, every year all over the world, enormous economical resources and intensively increasing the amount of buildings; but to date it seems to not notice the difference existing between the action of building and the one of doing architecture, completely ignoring a research over the issues of sustainability, comfort and shape quality. The panel drives to pinpoint different possible ways to overcome the categories that have always characterized the cooperation interventions: emergency, transition and development, in order to identify transversal paths in which architectural quality would established the direction to follow. To succeed in this intent, three reflection spheres were proposed to identify fragilities and opportunities that should be the starting point to renew the role of architecture within the international cooperation.