Miocene fault-controlled sedimentation and thrust propagation in the previously faulted external zones of the Umbria-Marche Apennines, Italy

n/

On the possibility to utilize a PCO Edge 4.2 bi scientific CMOS imager for extended ultra violet and soft X-ray photon detection

A state of the art commercial detector, a PCO Edge 4.2 bi based on a back illuminated sCMOS sensor developed for applications in the visible light/ultra violet regime has been adapted for ultra-high vacuum operations and has been characterized using soft X-ray in the energy range from 30 eV to 1000 eV. The imager features 2048 x 2048 pixel with a pixel size of 6.5 mu m x 6.5 mu m and allows full frame acquisitions at 48 Hz with a dynamic range of 88 dB at a noise level of 1.9 e(-). Spatial resolution and quantum efficiency have been elucidated in the aforementioned energy range at a soft X-ray beam line at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste. The handiness of the camera as well as its Python library package allows easy and fast integration into the beam line environments of synchrotron sources and free electron lasers

Acid-Stable Serine Proteinase Inhibitors in the Urine of Alzheimer Disease Subjects

A comparative study of the levels of acid-stable proteinase inhibitors (kallikrein and trypsin inhibitors) in the urine of healthy and Alzheimer subjects, of both sexes, has been performed. A preliminary characterization of the purified inhibitors indicates that the urinary antitryptic activity is accounted for by the presence of the well known Urinary Trypsin Inhibitor (UTI) while an apparently new molecule appears to be responsible for the anti kallikrein activity. The urinary levels of kallikrein inhibitors are very similar in healthy and sick subjects while the levels of trypsin inhibitors appear significatively increased in Alzheimer subjects of both sexes. The data presented here support the hypothesis that unpaired proteolytic processes could be involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease and suggest that the levels of urinary acid-stable inhibitors may prove to be useful markers of the disease

Plant communities of Italy. The vegetation prodrome

The Vegetation Prodrome of Italy was promoted in 2012 by the Italian "Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea Protection", in collaboration with the "Italian Society of Botany", to provide a comprehensive and systematic catalogue and description of Italian plant communities. The Prodrome that is presented in this paper is the first full organic synthesis of the vegetation of Italy at the alliance syntaxonomic level. It fulfils several needs, the main one being a unified and comprehensive national framework that may make an important contribution to the definition of the European Vegetation Prodrome. Syntaxonomy, as well as taxonomy, is sometimes based on considerations that may in part diverge: several authors tend to favour models that are divisive or aggregative to a greater or lesser extent in terms of flora, biogeography and ecology. These different points of view stimulate the scientific debate and allow the adoption of a framework that is more widely supported. The Prodrome includes 75 classes, 2 subclasses, 175 orders, 6 suborders and 393 alliances. The classes were grouped into nine broad categories according to structural, physiognomic and synecological elements rather than to syntaxonomic criteria. The rank, full valid name, any synonymies and incorrect names are provided for each syntaxon. The short declaration highlights the physiognomy, synecology, syndynamics and distribution of the plant communities that belong to the syntaxon. The Prodrome of the Italian Vegetation is linked to the European Strategy for Biodiversity, the European Habitats Directive and the European Working Groups related to the ecosystems and their services. In addition to basic applications, the Prodrome can be used as a framework for scientific research related to the investigation of the relationships between plant communities and the environmental factors that influence their composition and distribution

First overview on the 4th Annex I Habitats Report in Italy: methods, criticality, results and future prospects

Like all the other EU/28 countries, in 2019 Italy developed the 4th Italian Report ex-Art. 17 on the conservation status of the Habitats of Annex I to the 92/43/EEC Directive. Institutional referent of the process, on behalf of the Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea Protection (MATTM), was the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) with the scientific support of the Italian Botanical Society (SBI). A huge working group composed of thematic and territorial experts was formed with the task to collect, analyse, validate the data resulting from Annex I Habitat monitoring in Italy for the period 2013-2018, whose collection is in charge to the regional administrations. Data on 124 types of terrestrial and inland water Habitats present in Italy have been processed in order to assess their overall conservation status in the Biogeographic Regions of occurrence. The carried out activity led to the compilation of 278 assessment sheets. The work included a critical analysis of the data and a broad scientific confrontation aimed at finding methodologically robust solutions to fill the gaps. The work was structured so as to guarantee the traceability of the information and to allow the collection of "gray" literature and scientific articles, phytosociological surveys and unpublished material of the specialists, composing a substantial pool of data useful for starting a long-term process to support the next reporting cycles. Cartographic outcomes, associated databases and additional data used for the assessments will be available online on the ISPRA Portal as soon as the validation process by the European Commission will be completed. A freely accessible online archive of phytosociological surveys representative of the various Annex I Habitats in Italy is being set up within the national "VegItaly" database, managed by the Italian Society of Vegetation Science, by way of a dedicated archive named "HAB_IT". Such a long-term vision, oriented to the storage and enhancement of knowledge, represents an important innovative aspect and a significant progress towards the construction of an effective monitoring system for the conservation of Annex I Habitats in Italy

Il supporto della SISV alla realizzazione di un manuale nazionale per il monitoraggio degli habitat della Direttiva 92/43/EEC in Italia.

A partire dall'entrata in vigore della Direttiva 92/43/EEC, la sorveglianza dello stato di conservazione degli habitat elencati nell'Allegato I ed il relativo monitoraggio periodico a intervalli di sei anni sono diventati un obbligo per tutti i paesi membri dell'UE, in base a quanto previsto negli Articoli 11 e 17. Nel 2011 è stato pubblicato un documento che fornisce le linee guida di riferimento europee per il monitoraggio di habitat e specie (Evans & Arvela 2011). Su questa base metodologica, la Società Italiana di Scienza della Vegetazione (SISV), avvalendosi di un ampio gruppo di soci esperti, ha avviato un dibattito interno su principi, criteri, parametri e strumenti per il monitoraggio degli habitat di Allegato I e dei tipi di vegetazione in essi rappresentati. Il progetto è stato promosso dal Ministero dell'Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare e coordinato dall'Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, e si trova al momento in una fase prossima alla conclusione. A partire dalla documentazione già prodotta a livello nazionale per gli habitat italiani (Biondi et al., 2009, 2012, 2014; Genovesi et al., 2014), diversi aspetti critici sono stati esaminati attraverso una discussione scientifica ampiamente condivisa. In particolare, sono stati affrontati: gli aspetti legati alla scelta di strumenti adeguati per valutare i parametri area, struttura e funzione, prospettive future; il concetto di "specie tipica"; i metodi di campionamento habitat-specifici appropriati. Il protocollo sviluppato si pone come uno strumento pratico ed efficace, scientificamente valido e in linea con gli standard metodologici internazionali. Il suo utilizzo permetterà una raccolta armonizzata di dati su scala nazionale, rendendo possibile una valutazione comparata dello stato di conservazione di ciascun habitat

Habitat conservation in Italy: the state of the art in the light of the first European Red List of Terrestrial and Freshwater Habitats

The importance of taking into account ecosystems, plant communities and habitats for the development of biodiversity conservation strategies is increasingly acknowledged. Recently, the first ever European Red List of Habitats was produced, which provided an evaluation of the extinction risk of EUNIS-based natural and semi-natural habitats in Europe. As assessment unit, it used the habitat intended as a plant community, thus representing a landmark for the role of vegetation science in nature conservation. In the present paper, the results of the European Red List of Habitats are analyzed at the national scale with specific reference to the terrestrial and freshwater habitat types occurring in Italy. More than three-quarters of the assessed European habitat types were recognized for the Italian territory. The distribution of the threat categories reflects approximately the situation at the EU28 level. About 35% of the assessed habitat types are referred to a threat category; no critically endangered habitat is present in Italy. The most frequently used criteria are those related to a reduction in quantity. Some critical issues arising from the analyses are discussed. In particular, the presence of knowledge gaps is pointed out, with remarkable reference to the poor availability of spatial and quantitative data, severely affecting the application of the criteria adopted for the assessment. Descriptions of habitat types from Italy are reported, some of which are representative, emblematic or even exclusive to the Italian territory. The outcomes of the analysis represent the starting point for the future development of a national-scale Red List of Habitats. Results also emphasized how habitat types with a too broad definition pose a limit to a proper evaluation of the regional biogeographic variability, often very high in Italy, with local floristic and phytocoenotic peculiarities which do not find room in the adopted European typology. This is the reason why the development of national subtypes stands as a necessary step for the development of a realistic and effective assessment at the national scale

Morphology and evolution of sulphuric acid caves in South Italy

Sulphuric acid speleogenesis (SAS) related to the upwelling of acid water enriched in H2S and CO2 represents an unusual way of cave development. Since meteoric infiltration waters are not necessarily involved in speleogenesis, caves can form without the typical associated karst expressions (i.e. dolines) at the surface. The main mechanism of sulphuric acid dissolution is the oxidation of H2S (Jones et al., 2015) which can be amplified by bacterial mediation (Engel et al., 2004). In these conditions, carbonate dissolution associated with gypsum replacement, is generally believed to be faster than the normal epigenic one (De Waele et al., 2016). In Italy several SAS caves have been identified, but only few systems have been studied in detail: Frasassi and Acquasanta Terme (Marche)(Galdenzi et al., 2010), Monte Cucco (Umbria) (Galdenzi & Menichetti, 1995), and Montecchio (Tuscany) (Piccini et al., 2015). Other preliminary studies have been carried out in Calabria (Galdenzi, 2007) and Sicily (De Waele et al., 2016). Several less studied SAS cave systems located in South Italy, and in particular in Apulia (Santa Cesarea Terme), Sicily (Acqua Fitusa, Acqua Mintina) and Calabria (Mt. Sellaro and Cassano allo Ionio) have been selected in the framework of a PhD thesis on SAS caves and their speleogenesis. Using both limestone tablet weight loss (Galdenzi et al., 2012) and micro erosion meter (MEM) (Furlani et al., 2010) methods the dissolution rate above and under water in the caves will be quantified. Geomorphological observations, landscape analysis using GIS tools, and the analysis of gypsum and other secondary minerals (alunite and jarosite) (stable isotopes and dating) will help to reconstruct the speleogenetic stages of cave formation. Preliminary microbiological analysis will determine the microbial diversity and ecology in the biofilms