288 research outputs found
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
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
FSHD muscular dystrophy Region Gene 1 binds Suv4-20h1 histone methyltransferase and impairs myogenesis
Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy (FSHD) is an autosomal dominant myopathy
with a strong epigenetic component. It is associated with deletion of a macrosatellite repeat leading
to over-expression of the nearby genes. Among them, we focused on FSHD Region Gene 1 (FRG1)
since its over-expression in mice, X. laevis and C. elegans leads to muscular dystrophy-like defects,
suggesting that FRG1 plays a relevant role in muscle biology. Here we show that, when overexpressed,
FRG1 binds and interferes with the activity of the histone methyltransferase Suv4-20h1
both in mammals and Drosophila. Accordingly, FRG1 over-expression or Suv4-20h1 knockdown
inhibits myogenesis. Moreover, Suv4-20h KO mice develop muscular dystrophy signs. Finally, we
identify the FRG1/Suv4-20h1 target Eid3 as a novel myogenic inhibitor that contributes to the
muscle differentiation defects. Our study suggests a novel role of FRG1 as epigenetic regulator of
muscle differentiation and indicates that Suv4-20h1 has a gene-specific function in myogenesis
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
Intermittency in Branching Processes
We study the intermittency properties of two branching processes, one with a
uniform and another with a singular splitting kernel. The asymptotic
intermittency indices, as well as the leading corrections to the asymptotic
linear regime are explicitly computed in an analytic framework. Both models are
found to possess a monofractal spectrum with . Relations with
previous results are discussed.Comment: 20 pages, UCLA93/TEP/2
Towards flavour diffusion coefficient and electrical conductivity without ultraviolet contamination
By subtracting from a recent lattice measurement of the thermal
vector-current correlator the known 5-loop vacuum contribution, we demonstrate
that the remainder is small and shows no visible short-distance divergence. It
can therefore in principle be subjected to model-independent analytic
continuation. Testing a particular implementation, we obtain estimates for the
flavour-diffusion coefficient (2 pi T D \gsim 0.8) and electrical conductivity
which are significantly smaller than previous results. Although systematic
errors remain beyond control at present, some aspects of our approach could be
of a wider applicability.Comment: 7 pages. v2: clarifications added, published versio
Colour-electric spectral function at next-to-leading order
The spectral function related to the correlator of two colour-electric fields
along a Polyakov loop determines the momentum diffusion coefficient of a heavy
quark near rest with respect to a heat bath. We compute this spectral function
at next-to-leading order, O(alpha_s^2), in the weak-coupling expansion. The
high-frequency part of our result (omega >> T), which is shown to be
temperature-independent, is accurately determined thanks to asymptotic freedom;
the low-frequency part of our result (omega << T), in which Hard Thermal Loop
resummation is needed in order to cure infrared divergences, agrees with a
previously determined expression. Our result may help to calibrate the overall
normalization of a lattice-extracted spectral function in a perturbative
frequency domain T << omega << 1/a, paving the way for a non-perturbative
estimate of the momentum diffusion coefficient at omega -> 0. We also evaluate
the colour-electric Euclidean correlator, which could be directly compared with
lattice simulations. As an aside we determine the Euclidean correlator in the
lattice strong-coupling expansion, showing that through a limiting procedure it
can in principle be defined also in the confined phase of pure Yang-Mills
theory, even if a practical measurement could be very noisy there.Comment: 38 page
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
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