Anthropic pressures on Nature 2000 Sites: recommendations and monitoring criteria for the pollution emergency response activities within the Orbetello lagoon

L’elevato valore naturalistico e socioeconomico di un Sito Natura 2000 richiede che tutte le attività antropiche che si svolgono al suo interno (es. pesca, turismo, trasporti, attività industriali, etc.) siano gestite in maniera tale da non pregiudicare le specie e gli habitat per i quali l’area è stata designata. Molti di questi Siti sono ambienti di transizione, ovvero zone che costituiscono il passaggio naturale tra terra e mare. La loro posizione di interfaccia tra questi due ambienti li rende ecosistemi unici e biologicamente molto produttivi, sede di meccanismi di regolazione dei processi interattivi della biosfera nelle due fasi, terrestre e marina. In alcuni Siti la presenza di attività antropiche diffuse e prolungate nel tempo ha portato al riscontro di stati di contaminazione elevata, fino all’inclusione di queste zone, o parti di esse, tra i Siti di bonifica di Interesse Nazionale (SIN). Il presente lavoro descrive le linee di indirizzo e le attività di monitoraggio da attuare per la salvaguardia della salute pubblica e dell’ambiente nel corso degli interventi di messa in sicurezza di emergenza predisposti nell’area lagunare antistante l’area industriale Ex Sitoco, all’interno della perimetrazione del SIN di Orbetello, incluso in un Sito di Importanza Comunitaria. Le matrici ambientali potenzialmente a rischio a causa dell’esecuzione di tali interventi sono: acqua, sedimento, biocenosi acquatiche, avifauna, uomo. È altresì importante valutare gli effetti che le ipotetiche modifiche su microscala, apportate a livello di ogni matrice, potrebbero causare nel lungo periodo su macroscala.The high naturalistic and socio-economic value of Natura 2000 sites requires that all human activities performed within their borders (e.g. fishing, tourism, transports, industrial activities) are regulated. Indeed, the site management should assure the effective safeguard of all species and habitats of European interest included in the protected area. A lot of such sites are located in transitional environments, that are areas characterised by a natural progression from the terrestrial to the water environments. Such environments include unique and very productive habitats, and they represent the regulation mechanisms of the interactive processes of the terrestrial and marine biosphere. In some sites, the presence of human activities that are distributed both in space and time has led to high levels of contamination, that in some cases even required their inclusion in Reclamation Sites of National Interest (SIN). The present study describes the planning and monitoring activities to be performed in order to safeguard human and environment health during the actions of MISE in the lagoonal area in front of the industrial area Ex Sitoco, within the borders of the Orbetello SIN, included in a SCI. The environmental parameters that are potentially at risk due to such activities are: water, sediment, water biocenosis, birds, humans. Furthermore, it is important to evaluate the effects that potential variations at the microscale level may cause at the macroscale level

Generalised Factorial Moments and QCD Jets

{ In this paper we present a natural and comprehensive generalisation of the standard factorial moments (\clFq) analysis of a multiplicity distribution. The Generalised Factorial Moments are defined for all $q$ in the complex plane and, as far as the negative part of its spectrum is concerned, could be useful for the study of infrared structure of the Strong Interactions Theory of high energy interactions (LEP multiplicity distribution under the ${\cal Z}_0$). The QCD calculation of the Generalised Factorial Moments for negative $q$ is performed in the double leading log accuracy and is compared to OPAL experimental data. The role played by the infrared cut-off of the model is discussed and illustrated with a Monte Carlo calculation. }Comment: 11pages 4 figures uuencode, LATEC, INLN 94/

Lack of coupling of D-2 receptors to adenylate cyclase in GH-3 cells exposed to epidermal growth factor. Possible role of a differential expression of Gi protein subtypes.

Exposure of GH-3 cells to epidermal growth factor for 4 consecutive days induced the expression of both D-2(415) and D-2(444) dopamine-receptor isoforms. Epidermal growth factor also promoted a remarkable increase in the content of Gi3 protein, which is responsible for receptor-induced activation of potassium channels in GH-3 cells. D-2 receptors in this model apparently activate a specific transducing pathway, leading to opening of potassium channels and inhibition of prolactin release by cAMP-independent mechanisms. This is shown by: 1) the selective D-2 agonist quinpirole, while inactive on vasoactive intestinal peptide-induced prolactin release, strongly inhibited the hormone secretion induced by neurotensin; 2) quinpirole, up to 100 microM, did not inhibit cAMP production evoked by vasoactive intestinal peptide both in intact cells and in broken cell membrane preparations; and 3) quinpirole and other D-2 agonists strongly potentiated Rb+ efflux when measured in a nominally calcium-free reaction solution containing 100 mM potassium (voltage-dependent component), but did not modify Rb+ efflux if measured in a reaction solution containing 1 mM calcium and 5 mM potassium (calcium-activated, cAMP-dependent component)

The Floodplain Woods of Tuscany

The contraction of lowland forests throughout Europe began in remote times and then intensified strongly with land reclamation by agriculture and urbanization during the first half of the last century. We present a map of the Floodplain Woods of Tuscany on a scale of 1:300,000 as a synthesis of that built at the scale of 1:10,000 and the methods used to obtain it. Nearly 90% of the patches contain habitats of concern to conservation, according to the Habitat Directive. The Tuscan Floodplain Woods remained prevalent in coastal areas, where some levels of protection are guaranteed by the presence of several protected areas, whereas they have practically vanished in the other parts of the regional territory. The resulting patches are very small and distant from each other, so only in-depth management of all potential floodplain forest areas, taking into consideration patches for their regeneration, can be useful to assure their conservation

SARS-COV-2 Pandemic for Patients with Chronic Obstructive Peripheral Arterial Disease: Impact of Interruption to Access According to Gender in a Single Center Experience

Background: This retrospective study aims to evaluate the impact of interrupted services for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) patients and especially women in a single north-eastern Italian center over a period of 3 months prior to the pandemic, during the first (2020) and the second (2021) wave of contagion in northern Italy. Methods: Patients with PAD at Rutherford stages 3 to 6 that required revascularization between March 2019 and March 2021 were classified into 3 groups, according to the period of treatment: the prepandemic period, the pandemic-20 period, and the pandemic-21 period. Results: Twenty-eight patients were treated in the prepandemic period, 21 in the pandemic-20 period, and 39 in the pandemic-21 period. It was observed that in the both pandemic periods patients presented with more severe stages of limb ischemia, Rutherford 5 and 6 stages. During pandemic-20, patients underwent mostly open surgery, followed by hybrid procedures. No differences were observed between the 3 groups in major amputations, length of hospital stay, type of discharge, limb salvage and mortality. During long-term follow-up, limb salvage appeared to be significantly better in the pandemic-21 group. The gender analysis revealed a significantly reduced female proportion of overall treated patients in 2020 and 2021 compared to the prepandemic period. In the pandemic-20 this difference appears even more evident since treatments on females represented 19% of the total while in the same period of the previous year the male/female percentage was comparable (54% vs. 46%). The women admitted presented higher stages of disease and tended to have a longer hospital stay than men. At 12-month follow-up, limb salvage was similar between the 2 genders but was slightly worse in women. Conclusions: An efficient reorganization of the vascular surgery services during the pandemic period guaranteed the quality and standard of treatment offered in the preceding periods. Among patients suffering from PAD the impact of the pandemic was greater for the female gender. It is therefore important that in addition to a reorganization of hospital services to provide adequate care for patients with ACOP in the pandemic period, greater information and awareness of women

New Histamine-Related Five-Membered N-Heterocycle Derivatives as Carbonic Anhydrase I Activators

A series of histamine (HST)-related compounds were synthesized and tested for their activating properties on five physiologically relevant human Carbonic Anhydrase (hCA) isoforms (I, II, Va, VII and XIII). The imidazole ring of HST was replaced with different 5-membered heterocycles and the length of the aliphatic chain was varied. For the most interesting compounds some modifications on the terminal amino group were also performed. The most sensitive isoform to activation was hCA I (K(A) values in the low micromolar range), but surprisingly none of the new compounds displayed activity on hCA II. Some derivatives (1, 3a and 22) displayed an interesting selectivity for activating hCA I over hCA II, Va, VII and XIII

Comments on two papers by Kapusta and Wong

We critically examine recently published results on the thermal production of massive vector bosons in a quark-gluon plasma. We claim the production rate is a collinear safe observable.Comment: 6 pages LATEX documen

Zebrafish modeling reveals that SPINT1 regulates the aggressiveness of skin cutaneous melanoma and its crosstalk with tumor immune microenvironment

Background Skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM) is the most lethal form of skin cancer and while incidence rates are declining for most cancers, they have been steadily rising for SKCM. Serine protease inhibitor, kunitz-type, 1 (SPINT1) is a type II transmembrane serine protease inhibitor that has been shown to be involved in the development of several types of cancer, such as squamous cell carcinoma and colorectal cancer. Methods We used the unique advantages of the zebrafish to model the impact of Spint1a deficiency in early transformation, progression and metastatic invasion of SKCM together with in silico analysis of the occurrence and relevance of SPINT1 genetic alterations of the SKCM TCGA cohort. Results We report here a high prevalence of SPINT1 genetic alterations in SKCM patients and their association with altered tumor immune microenvironment and poor patient survival. The zebrafish model reveals that Spint1a deficiency facilitates oncogenic transformation, regulates the tumor immune microenvironment crosstalk, accelerates the onset of SKCM and promotes metastatic invasion. Notably, Spint1a deficiency is required at both cell autonomous and non-autonomous levels to enhance invasiveness of SKCM. Conclusions These results reveal a novel therapeutic target for SKCM