VIGOR: Sviluppo geotermico nelle Regioni della Convergenza

La valutazione del potenziale geotermico. Quadro normativo e iter autorizzativo per la ricerca e la coltivazione di risorse geotermiche. Accettabilità sociale della geotermia. Il caso tipo di Termini Imeres

Indagine geoelettrica per la valutazione dell'intrusione salina negli acquiferi costieri del comprensorio lagunare veneziano.

Prog. Strategico "Ambiente e Territorio" Area tematica "Impatto Climatico"

An experiment on a sand-dune environment in Southern Venetian coast based on GPR, VES and documentary evidence

The internal structures of some surviving sand dunes and the ancient shore-lines along the coast south of Venice have been investigated integrating Ground Probing Radar (GPR) profiles, Vertical Electrical Soundings (VES) and water conductivity measurements in some boreholes. The GPR penetration depth has been limited (4-5 m,using a 400 MHz antenna) by the high conductivity of salt water saturating pores of the shallow sediments. On the other hand, the excellent spatial resolution of the radar survey provided an estimate of internal dune bedding features, such as cross lamination and forwarding ancient covered coast-lines dated in the Thirties. The interpretation of the data, in particular along one line 360 m long intercepting a sizable sand-dune bank, seems to offer clues to the evolutional history of the coast line and the depth of transition from fresh-water to brackish-salt water. The water table was detected with electrical measurements and direct observations in boreholes, whereas the transition between fresh and salt water (brackish water) was pointed out indirectly by the high energy absorption and total back-reflection of the EM waves, encountered at this boundary, and directly by the strong decrease in VES resistivity values

An experiment on sand-dunes environment in southern Venetian coast based on GPR, VES and documentary evidence

The internal structures of some surviving sand dunes and the ancient shore-lines along the coast south of Venice have been investigated integrating Ground Probing Radar (GPR) profiles, Vertical Electrical Soundings (VES) and water conductivity measurements in some boreholes. The GPR penetration depth has been limited (4-5 m,using a 400 MHz antenna) by the high conductivity of salt water saturating pores of the shallow sediments. On the other hand, the excellent spatial resolution of the radar survey provided an estimate of internal dune bedding features, such as cross lamination and forwarding ancient covered coast-lines dated in the Thirties. The interpretation of the data, in particular along one line 360 m long intercepting a sizable sand-dune bank, seems to offer clues to the evolutional history of the coast line and the depth of transition from fresh-water to brackish-salt water. The water table was detected with electrical measurements and direct observations in boreholes, whereas the transition between fresh and salt water (brackish water) was pointed out indirectly by the high energy absorption and total back-reflection of the EM waves, encountered at this boundary, and directly by the strong decrease in VES resistivity values

An experiment on a sand-dune environment in Southern Venetian coast based on GPR, VES and documentary evidence

The internal structures of some surviving sand dunes and the ancient shore-lines along the coast south of Venice have been investigated integrating Ground Probing Radar (GPR) profiles, Vertical Electrical Soundings (VES) and water conductivity measurements in some boreholes. The GPR penetration depth has been limited (4-5 m,using a 400 MHz antenna) by the high conductivity of salt water saturating pores of the shallow sediments. On the other hand, the excellent spatial resolution of the radar survey provided an estimate of internal dune bedding features, such as cross lamination and forwarding ancient covered coast-lines dated in the Thirties. The interpretation of the data, in particular along one line 360 m long intercepting a sizable sand-dune bank, seems to offer clues to the evolutional history of the coast line and the depth of transition from fresh-water to brackish-salt water. The water table was detected with electrical measurements and direct observations in boreholes, whereas the transition between fresh and salt water (brackish water) was pointed out indirectly by the high energy absorption and total back-reflection of the EM waves, encountered at this boundary, and directly by the strong decrease in VES resistivity values

Proteinase inhibition using small Bowman-Birk-type structures.

Absttract . Bowman-Birk inhibitors (BBIs) are cysteine-rich and highly cross-linked small proteins that function as specific pseudosubstrates for digestive proteinases. They typically display a "double-headed" structure containing an independent proteinase-binding loop that can bind and inhibit trypsin, chymotrypsin and elastase. In the present study, we used computational biology to study the structural characteristics and dynamics of the inhibition mechanism of the small BBI loop expressing a 35-amino acid polypeptide (ChyTB2 inhibitor) which has coding region for the mutated chymotrypsin-inhibitory site of the soybean BBI. We found that in the BBI-trypsin inhibition complex, the most important interactions are salt bridges and hydrogen bonds, whereas in the BBI-chymotrypsin inhibition complex, the most important interactions are hydrophobic. At the same time, ChyTB2 mutant structure maintained the individual functional domain structure and excellent binding/inhibiting capacities for trypsin and chymotrypsin at the same time. These results were confirmed by enzyme-linked immunosorbend assay experiments. The results showed that modeling combined with molecular dynamics is an efficient method to describe, predict and then obtain new proteinase inhibitors. For such study, however, it is necessary to start from the sequence and structure of the mutant interacting relatively strongly with both trypsin and chymotrypsin for designing the small BBI-type inhibitor against proteinases

Geostatistic applied to seismic noise measurements for hydrothermal basin characterization

We present a geo-statistical analysis applied to seismic noise measurements in the framework of a thermal basin characterization. The site test is located in the N-E part of Italy (Caldiero, Verona Province) where more than 100 passive single station seismic noise measurements were conducted. The final aim was the characterization of an important hydrothermal basin, which is exploited since the Roman Period. The huge amount of measurements offers high density cover, since the measurements point has average spacing of 100 m for a total area investigated of ca 100ha. The HVSR (Horizontal to Vertical Spectral Ratio) is a geophysical passive technique used to retrieve fundamental resonance frequency of the subsoil. The measurement consists in passive recording of seismic noise with 3 components broadband receivers. From the spectral analysis of the recorded data, we can retrieve the resonance frequency of soil and hence information about depth and mechanical properties of soil covers. Since HVSR is a punctual measurement, 2d map of the results are usually extracted with interpolation procedure, as common kriging or natural neighbor techniques. Despite this accurate statistical procedure are rarely adopted for HVSR analysis, limiting the real significance of the dataset. As a matter of fact, rigorous statistical approach of the spatial distribution is neglected in common HVSR geophysical prospecting. Here we present the use of advanced spatial-statistic technique (e.g. cross-validation, residual distribution etc.) applied to HVSR data. Our results show as critic data scrubbing, joined to rigorous statistical approach for data interpolation, are mandatory to assure meaningful structural interpretation of microtremor HVSR survey. The maps obtained are compared with boreholes data, reflection seismic prospecting, and geological information. The proposed procedure highlighted the potential of these quick passive measurements, if correctly treated from the statistical point of view