The regaining of public spaces to enhance the historic urban landscape

Open spaces in the urban landscapes suffer from deterioration caused by man that leads to two major outcomes: on one side they are abandoned because of newer contemporary needs, on the other hand they tend to be “cannibalized” in the attempt to satisfy our society. This has caused a progressive retraction of urban open spaces that have become residual spaces with no shape and no name. This course of crisis has damaged the identity of places and this is more acute in historic urban landscapes that are recognised as cultural heritage and world heritage. The historic urban landscape approach suggested by UNESCO recognises public spaces’ importance for society and promotes the acknowledgement of public spaces and their dynamism aiming to the integration of preservation, social development and economic targets. To understand how “historic urban landscapes” are taking care of their public spaces, a few Management Plans of UNESCO’s World Heritage cities have been compared. Only Italian UNESCO sites with an “urban complex” characterisation have been considered, this means a limited part of a city with homogenous characteristics from a spatial, historic and cultural point of view. We have focused our attention on the specific interventions for the management of open spaces, in order to identify the major targets and their executive tools, projects and actions. In the light of the above-mentioned analyses, we propose some strategies to fight the decline of public spaces (streets, squares, gardens, etc.) and to enhance these spaces with great attention, trying to improve their fruition and comfort according to their historic and cultural values. The need to identify design strategies to enhance public spaces within the historic urban landscape is included in the research and test activities carried out in the UNESCO site of Mantova and Sabbioneta. This site is an excellent area of applicability because of its urban shape, molded in years by the Gonzaga family. Together with the UNESCO Mantova e Sabbioneta office, we have involved citizens in the requalification design to activate regaining process and test the applicability of our analyses in the city of Mantova, a very articulated and complex reality, starting from the fruition of its places and according to its morphological, environmental, cultural and perceptive aspects

Alexithymia and Treatment Outcome in Anorexia Nervosa: A Scoping Review of the Literature

Alexithymia is of great interest as an outcome predictor of recovery from anorexia nervosa, since it may interfere with both treatment compliance and patients' ability to benefit from the adopted interventions. Using the PRISMA methodology, we performed a scoping review of the literature about treatment outcome in anorexia nervosa, in terms of changes in alexithymia as assessed by its most commonly used self-report measure, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS). The Medline and Scopus databases were searched, and articles were included if matching the following criteria: dealing with patients affected by anorexia nervosa, without limits of age; involving the application of any kind of targeted therapy or treatment; assessing alexithymia and the effect of a treatment intervention on alexithymia, using the TAS. Ten studies were eventually included; overall, according to the selected studies, alexithymia levels often remain high even after specific treatment. Further research aimed at a deeper understanding of the actual impact of alexithymia on the outcome of anorexia, as well as exploring alternative treatment strategies for alexithymia in eating disorders (EDs), are warranted

From the Roman Empire to the New Millennium. Data access and sharing from healthy ageing cohorts

Cohort studies are the best way to analyze the incidence and natural history of a disorder, permitting to assess associations between multiple exposures and multiple outcomes. A well-designed cohort may be particularly relevant regarding the study of the ageing processes of adult populations, allowing the study of processes and dynamics of the individual life course and the study of the effects of earlier exposures and characteristics on later outcomes. Moreover, cohort studies seem the best instrument to analyze the factors favoring active and healthy ageing, and to increase knowledge about the most appropriate interventions to enhance older population's wellness. Nonetheless, the number of cohorts on ageing is limited, because they are very expensive to develop, establish, and maintain, requiring long-term investment to be efficiently performed to obtain all the data needed to address the longitudinal research questions. Open data and data sharing should be encouraged to ensure verifiable, reproducible and transparent results, and to allow the generation of new knowledge in the context of earlier discoveries. Making cohort studies \u201copen\u201d can foster the efforts of the scientific community committed in the study of ageing and give a real contribution to the well-being of the ageing population. KEY-MESSAGE: \u2022 Cohort studies are the best way to analyze the incidence and natural history of a disorder, the factors favoring active and healthy ageing, and to increase knowledge about the most appropriate interventions to enhance older population's wellness. \u2022 Making cohort studies \u201copen\u201d can foster the efforts of the scientific community committed in the study of ageing and give a real contribution to the well-being of the ageing population

Fire and climate: Biomass burning recorded in ice and lake cores

Human activities including fossil fuel burning are currently altering the global climate system at rates faster than ever recorded in geologic time. Biomass burning causes carbon dioxide emissions equal to 50% of those from fossil-fuel combustion and so are highly likely to influence future climate change. However, aerosols continue to be one of the least understood aspects of the modern climate system and even less is known about their past influence. Ice and lake core proxy records provide quantifiable data on past fire regimes across most spatial and temporal scales. Some monosaccharide anhydrides such as levoglucosan, mannosan and galactosan are used as specific molecular markers for biomass burning as they can only be produced by combustion processes at temperatures greater than 300 °C and are present in both ice and lake cores. Other paleofire tracers such as microcharcoal, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and pollen records augment the fire history derived at single sites or across regions. As both pyrochemical and climate parameters are determined from the same depth and time within the ice or sediment matrix, the multi-proxy nature of ice and lake cores presents an ideal material to investigate the links between fires and climate change

Should Mama or Papa Work? Variations in Attitudes towards Parental Employment by Country of Origin and Child Age

Employment among mothers has been rising in recent decades, although mothers of young children often work fewer hours than other women do. Parallel to this trend, approval of maternal employment has increased, albeit not evenly across groups. However, differences in attitudes remain unexplored despite their importance for better understanding mothers' labour market behaviour. Meanwhile, the employment of fathers has remained stable and attitudes towards paternal employment do not differ as much as attitudes towards maternal employment do between socio-economic groups. This paper examines attitudes towards maternal and paternal employment. It focuses on Germany, drawing on data from the German Family Demography Panel Study (FReDA). The survey explicitly asks whether mothers and fathers should be in paid work, work part-time or full-time, presenting respondents with fictional family profiles that vary the youngest child's age. Unlike previous studies, the analysis compares the views of respondents with different origins: West Germany, East Germany, immigrants from different world regions, and second-generation migrants in West Germany. The results highlight remarkable differences between respondents from West and East Germany, with the former group displaying strong approval for part-time employment among mothers and fathers of very young children and the latter group reporting higher approval for full-time employment. Immigrant groups are far from homogenous, holding different attitudes depending on their region of origin. Taken together, the results offer a nuanced picture of attitudes towards maternal and paternal employment. We discuss these findings in relation to labour markets participation in Germany

The psychopathology of body image in orthorexia nervosa

The human body has a complex meaning and role in everybody\u2019s life and experience. Body image has two main components: body percept (the internal visual image of body shape and size) and body concept (the level of satisfaction with one\u2019s body), whose specific alterations may lead to different conditions, such as overestimation of one\u2019s own body dimensions, negative feelings and thoughts towards the body, body avoidance and body checking behavior. Moreover, body dissatisfaction can be associated with a variety of other mental health and psychosocial conditions, but only a few studies have explored the body image construct in orthorexia nervosa (ON). ON is a condition characterized by concern and fixation about healthy eating, with mixed results available in the literature about the presence of body image disorders. The aim of this manuscript is to present the main findings from the literature about the psychopathology of body image in ON. Summarizing, while theoretically the presence of body image disturbances should help clinicians to differentiate ON from eating disorders, further research is needed to confirm this finding. It is not clear whether the body image disorder in ON depends on an altered body percept or body concept, and the relationship between the disordered eating behavior and body image disorder still needs to be disentangled. Further studies regarding the relationship between ON and body image could be helpful to better understand the relevance of body image as a transdiagnostic factor and its potential value as target for treatment intervention

A year-round measurement of water-soluble trace and rare earth elements in arctic aerosol: Possible inorganic tracers of specific events

This study presents the year-round variability of the water-soluble fraction of trace elements (wsTE) and rare earth elements (wsREE) among size segregated airborne particulate matter samples collected at Ny-Å lesund in the Svalbard Archipelago from 26 February 2018 to 26 February 2019. Six different aerosol dimensional fractions were collected using a multi-stage Andersen impactor to better understand local and global circulation with the aim of disentangling the source of inorganic tracers from specific natural or anthropogenic sources. The wsTE and wsREE content, especially in the finest fractions in remote areas, is primarily related to long-range transport and it gives valuable information on (1) the global circulation, (2) the natural sources and (3) the contribution of human activities to aerosol composition. A Factor Analysis was applied to the dataset, including levoglucosan and methanesulfonic acid (MSA), to assess the possibility of using certain inorganic tracers as indicators of specific transport events or circulation regimes. We also investigate back-trajectories to determine potential source areas

Low-pressure plasma treatment of CFRP substrates for epoxy-adhesive bonding: an investigation of the effect of various process gases

This work reports a systematic and quantitative evaluation of the effects induced on the adhesive properties of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) substrates by various vacuum cold-plasma treatments. In particular, surface activation of the CFRP substrates was performed using several combinations of exposure time, plasma power, and processing gas (air, O 2 , Ar and N 2 ). By comparing these plasma treatments with conventional techniques of abrasion and peel ply, it was possible to substantially increase the performance of the adhesively bonded joints made by overlapping the CFRP substrates with a structural epoxy resin. On each differently treated surface, measurements of roughness and of wettability were performed, allowing the evaluation of the increase in surface energy after the plasma treatment. XPS analyses allowed the identification of the chemical state of the substrates and showed an in-depth functionalization of the outer layer of the CFRP material. The experimental results show that an engineered plasma treatment of the CFRP substrates allows one to modify the surface morphology and both wetting and chemical activation properties of the treated surfaces, resulting in an increased mechanical shear strength of the joints

Blood cyanide determination in two cases of fatal imtoxication: comparison between headspace gas chromatography and a spectrophotometric method

Blood samples of two cases were analyzed preliminarily by a classical spectrophotometric method (VIS) and by an automated headspace gas chromatographic method with nitrogen-phosphorus detector (HS-GC \u2044 NPD). In the former, hydrogen cyanide (HCN) was quantitatively determined by measuring the absorbance of chromophores forming as a result of interaction with chloramine T. In the automated HS-GC \u2044NPD method, blood was placed in a headspace vial, internal standard (acetonitrile) and acetic acid were then added. This resulted in cyanide being liberated as HCN. The spectrophotometric (VIS) and HS-GC\u2044NPD methods were validated on postmortem blood samples fortified with potassium cyanide in the ranges 0.5\u201310 and 0.05\u20135 lg \u2044 mL, respectively. Detection limits were 0.2 lg \u2044mL for VIS and 0.05 lg \u2044mL for HS-GC\u2044NPD. This work shows that results obtained by means of the two procedures were insignificantly different and that they compared favorably. They are suitable for rapid diagnosis of cyanide in postmortem cases

Capillary electrophoretic and extraction conditions for the analysis of Catha edulis FORKS active principles

A capillary electrophoretic method, which allowed the detection and separation of the active principles of Catha edulis, i.e. cathinone, cathine and phenylpropanolamine, was developed. A suitable internal standard (nicotinamide), which permitted the quantification of the analytes reducing the variability of the migration times due to EOF changes, was identified. The analytical method was validated, assessing linearity, sensitivity and repeatability, showing optimal features for the analysis of the vegetable material. Moreover extraction conditions were investigated to achieve the exhaustion of the plant material in the fastest and most efficient way to meet the requirements of the Court