Il Delta di Samantha. Un seminario su:"Il territorio visto e il territorio vissuto"

The paper analyzes the role of representations in defining territorial identity

Recursos hidricos y conflictos regionales

The paper reflects on water uses and conflicts quoting examples from Tajo Secura trasvase and Po river

Un ambiente informatco per il controlollo dei processi relativi alla conservazione attiva in un archivio digitale di corpora vocali

(IT) - Negli ultimi trent'anni si {\`e} andata diffondendo la sensibilit{\`a} verso il tema della conservazione dei documenti sonori, riconociuti nel loro valore di bene culturale. Parallelamente, si sono arricchiti il dibattito etico e gli strumenti per attuare le pratiche conservative. Ad oggi, tuttavia, il patrimonio costituito dai documenti conservati in alcune tipologie di archivi, custodi principalmente di registrazioni in ambito etno-musicologico e linguistico, {\`e} minacciato dalla progressiva erosione delle informazioni causato dal degrado dei supporti e da inadeguati strumenti metodologici di conservazione. Questo articolo presenta alcune soluzioni proposte dal progetto di ricerca Grammo-foni. Le soffitte della voce (Gra.fo) che si occupa di archivi di corpora vocali in area toscana. In particolare, vengono descritti gli strumenti informatici, alcuni sviluppati ad hoc, che costituiscono l'attuale ambiente di gestione dell'archivio digitale del progetto. L'elemento innovativo consiste nell'utilizzo di un approccio sistemico, in grado di combinare una serie di procedure semi-automatizzate per la generazione, la descrizione dell'archivio e la distribuzione delle informazioni con strumenti per il controllo di qualit{\`a}. (EN) - The past thirty years have seen a growing awareness for the preservation of audio documents, which have been ackowledged as cultural heritage material. At the same time, the debate on the etchis of preservation/restoration and the software tools for supporting the preservation process have evolved considerably. Nevertheless, today the patrimony represented by the documents stored in different types of archives, mainly holding ethno-musicological and linguistical recordings, are at risk of vanishing due to a) the progressive erosion of the information caused by the irreversible decay of the carriers; and b) preservation compaigns planned with inadeqaute methodology and tools. This article presents some of the solutions proposed by the research project Grammo-foni. Le soffitte della voce (Gra.fo), the interest of which is focused on the collections of vocal material in the tuscan area. In particular, the article describes the software tools, some of which developed ad hoc, that form the actual management infomation system of the project's digital archive. The innovative element is the systemic approach to the preservation tasks, combining a number of semi-authomated procedures for the generation, the description of the archive and the distribution of the information with a protocolo for quality control

PRA e geografia: territori di convergenza.

The paper discusses the origin, the rationale and the theoretical framework of the Participatory Rural Appraisal in the framework of the Development Studies and Policies. Then, it analyzes a FAO participatory development project in Tunisia, outilining some geographical issues which should be taken into consideration: the scale factor, the role of the territorial actors and the meaning of territorial structures

Polymer-lipid hybrid nanoparticles as enhanced indomethacin delivery systems

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), i.e. indomethacin used for rheumatoid arthritis and non-rheumatoid inflammatory diseases, are known for their injurious actions on the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Mucosal damage can be avoided by using nanoscale systems composed by a combination of liposomes and biodegradable natural polymer, i.e. chitosan, for enhancing drug activity. Aim of this study was to prepare chitosan-lipid hybrid delivery systems for indomethacin dosage through a novel continuous method based on microfluidic principles. The drop-wise conventional method was also applied in order to investigate the effect of the two polymeric coverage processes on the nanostructures features and their interactions with indomethacin. Thermal-physical properties, mucoadhesiveness, drug entrapment efficiency, in vitro release behavior in simulated GI fluids and stability in stocking conditions were assayed and compared, respectively, for the uncoated and chitosan-coated nanoliposomes prepared by the two introduced methods. The prepared chitosan-lipid hybrid structures, with nanometric size, have shown high indomethacin loading (about 10%) and drug encapsulation efficiency up to 99%. TEM investigation has highlighted that the developed novel simil-microfluidic method is able to put a polymeric layer, surrounding indomethacin loaded nanoliposomes, thicker and smoother than that achievable by the drop-wise method, improving their storage stability. Finally, double pH tests have confirmed that the chitosan-lipid hybrid nanostructures have a gastro retentive behavior in simulated gastric and intestinal fluids thus can be used as delivery systems for the oral-controlled release of indomethacin. Based on the present results, the simil-microfluidic method, working with large volumes, in a rapid manner, without the use of drastic conditions and with a precise control over the covering process, seems to be the most promising method for the production of suitable indomethacin delivery system, with a great potential in industrial manufacturing

Irrigazione, Stato e territorio in Sudan: il gioco della posta in gioco

The evolution of the relations between State, irrigation and territory in Sudan has been analyzed, within the framework of the "hydraulic territorialization" (Productive vs Strategic objectives; Material vs Organizational resources; Strong vs Weak procedure, Center vs Periphery

The interaction of β2-microglobulin with gold nanoparticles: Impact of coating, charge and size

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) proved to be ideal scaffolds to build nanodevices whose performance can be tuned by changing their coating. In particular, their interaction with proteins revealed to be highly dependent on the physico-chemical properties of the gold cluster protecting monolayer. In this work we studied the behavior of three different alkanethiolate-coated AuNPs (AT-AuNPs) when they are incubated with a model amyloidogenic protein, \u3b22-microglobulin (\u3b22m), whose clinical relevance in dialysis-related amyloidosis (DRA) and structural properties are well known. To this aim we synthesized 6-mercaptohexanoic acid-coated AuNPs (MHA-AuNPs) and (11-mercaptoundecyl)-N,N,N-trimethylammonium bromide-coated AuNPs (MUTAB-AuNPs) of 7.5 nm diameter and 3-mercaptopropionic acid-coated AuNPs (MPA-AuNPs) of 3.6 nm diameter. To study the effects of the incubation with \u3b22m of these NPs that differ in charge and dimension, we employed NMR, UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy, along with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The three tested AuNP systems gave different results. We found that MHA-AuNPs precipitate with the protein into large agglomerates inducing \u3b22m unfolding, MUTAB-AuNPs precipitation is triggered by the protein that remains unchanged in solution, at least at the higher considered protein/NP ratio, and MPA-AuNPs interact preferentially with a localized region of the protein that stays essentially stably dissolved. These results stress the complexity of the bio-nano interface and the relevance and viability of a fine control of NP properties to master protein-NP interactions