La protezione di un territorio rurale fragile: Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela (Portogallo)

Abstract The Protection of a Fragile Rural Territory: Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela (Portugal) Protected areas are not only characterized as laboratory spaces for the conservation of the environment but also freed from human presence; rather, they are territories where it is essential to guarantee the balance between the protection regime and local socio-economic and cultural activities. This is especially relevant in areas where human presence is constantly shrinking, often associated with a continuous remodeling of the use of space. This paper explores the evolution of protected areas in Portugal, focusing on the Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela, in order to understand the relationship between the establishment of the protected area and the rural vocation that has historically characterized the territory of the most important Portuguese mountain range

Le aree protette: un mosaico di esperienze, pratiche e rappresentazioni

Protected Areas: a Mosaic of Experiences, Practices and Representation

Good Practices and Sustainable Tourism of Marginal Mountain Areas. The Case of Wine Cannonau in Mamoiada, Sardinia – Italy

Abstract: Mountain regions have been modified by human activity for centuries, which lead to more or less of significant changes in their ecosystems and consequently in landscapes. Some of these changes have been generated by traditional farming practices, such as the viticulture, giving distinctive shapes and identities of the space. Even if in many areas, the farming traditions have been abandoned as the consequences of technological progress applied in agriculture, Sardinia is a good example of vineyards cultural heritage preservation. Thus, linking this cultural heritage to the wine tourism, and promoting good practices at local initiatives, Sardinia limited the depopulation of the mountain areas. A very successful example of the increasing of positive tourism impact on territory planning, over the past few years, is the municipality of Mamoiada, in central Sardinia. The paper highlights the role of the using of environmental, cultural and identity tourist resources of Sardinian territory as far as they are part of good practices and furthermore, they could be the basis of sustainable development strategy. Moreover, the aim of our work is to investigate how the cultural, identity, landscape and socio-economic impact on the wine sector plays an important role for the rural community of Mamoiada

Multiscale mechanical analysis of the elastic modulus of skin

The mechanical properties of the skin determine tissue function and regulate dermal cell behavior. Yet measuring these properties remains challenging, as evidenced by the large range of elastic moduli reported in the literature-from below one kPa to hundreds of MPa. Here, we reconcile these disparate results by dedicated experiments at both tissue and cellular length scales and by computational models considering the multiscale and multiphasic tissue structure. At the macroscopic tissue length scale, the collective behavior of the collagen fiber network under tension provides functional tissue stiffness, and its properties determine the corresponding elastic modulus (100-200 kPa). The compliant microscale environment (0.1-10 kPa), probed by atomic force microscopy, arises from the ground matrix without engaging the collagen fiber network. Our analysis indicates that indentation-based elasticity measurements, although probing tissue properties at the cell-relevant length scale, do not assess the deformation mechanisms activated by dermal cells when exerting traction forces on the extracellular matrix. Using dermal-equivalent collagen hydrogels, we demonstrate that indentation measurements of tissue stiffness do not correlate with the behavior of embedded dermal fibroblasts. These results provide a deeper understanding of tissue mechanics across length scales with important implications for skin mechanobiology and tissue engineering. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Measuring the mechanical properties of the skin is essential for understanding dermal cell mechanobiology and designing tissue-engineered skin substitutes. However, previous results reported for the elastic modulus of skin vary by six orders of magnitude. We show that two distinct deformation mechanisms, related to the tension-compression nonlinearity of the collagen fiber network, can explain the large variations in elastic moduli. Furthermore, we show that microscale indentation, which is frequently used to assess the stiffness perceived by cells, fails to engage the fiber network, and therefore cannot predict the behavior of dermal fibroblasts in stiffness-tunable fibrous hydrogels. This has important implications for how to measure and interpret the mechanical properties of soft tissues across length scales

Vulnerability Analysis of the Cultural Heritage Sites—The Roman Edifice with Mosaic, Constanta, Romania

Heritage monuments are religious, historical, strategic, or civil edifices and could be deteriorated or even damaged due to their exposure to natural and anthropogenic hazards. The Roman Edifice with Mosaic (II-IV A.D.), the largest civil edifice (2040 m2) in Eastern Europe, is an ancient civil edifice built on the steep cliff in the western part of the Black Sea, Constanta, Romania, and is exposed to geomorphological and hydrogeological processes, which are affected by degradation. The main objective of this paper is to assess the current state of this ancient historical site in relation to environmental instability and offer scientific support for the rehabilitation process through interdisciplinary and non-destructive methods. Geophysical methods had been applied to comparatively analyze the spatial variations and flows of groundwater around the Roman Edifice with Mosaic in 2008 and 2019. Geomorphological hazards had already been inventoried and mapped. The results emphasize the state of degradation of the Roman mosaic pavement and ancient walls, mainly through high variations in the deposits’ moisture due to poor maintenance, which caused suffosion, and slip processes, bringing the mosaic into a high vulnerability range. The vulnerability map of the Roman Edifice with Mosaic environment is a necessary tool for continuously improving risk management because it clearly emphasizes the sectors that still have hazards

Genomic and physiological resilience in extreme environments are associated with a secure attachment style

Understanding individual capability to adjust to protracted confinement and isolation may inform adaptive plasticity and disease vulnerability/resilience, and may have long-term implications for operations requiring prolonged presence in distant and restricted environments. Individual coping depends on many different factors encompassing psychological dispositional traits, endocrine reactivity and their underlying molecular mechanisms (e.g. gene expression). A positive view of self and others (secure attachment style) has been proposed to promote individual resilience under extreme environmental conditions. Here, we tested this hypothesis and investigated the underlying molecular mechanisms in 13 healthy volunteers confined and isolated for 12 months in a research station located 1670 km away from the south geographic pole on the Antarctic Plateau at 3233 m above sea level. Study participants, stratified for attachment style, were characterised longitudinally (before, during and after confinement) for their psychological appraisal of the stressful nature of the expedition, diurnal fluctuations in endocrine stress reactivity, and gene expression profiling (transcriptomics). Predictably, a secure attachment style was associated with reduced psychological distress and endocrine vulnerability to stress. In addition, while prolonged confinement and isolation remarkably altered overall patterns of gene expression, such alteration was largely reduced in individuals characterised by a secure attachment style. Furthermore, increased resilience was associated with a reduced expression of genes involved in energy metabolism (mitochondrial function and oxidative phosphorylation). Ultimately, our data indicate that a secure attachment style may favour individual resilience in extreme environments and that such resilience can be mapped onto identifiable molecular substrates

Ambiente, risorse, territorio e spopolamento in aree di montagna: l’Unione dei Comuni Barbagia e la Serra de Sicó

This study, whose main goal is to describe those ongoing processes of depopulation taking place in inland areas – both rural and mountainous ones – made it possible to observe how human activities characterizes a territory and how variable are those peculiarities (both material and immaterial ones) that lends originality to it. We decided to conduct this study focusing on two geographic realities that, although they could be considered – from a certain point of view – heterogeneous, share some common features: one of our study target areas is located in Sardinia (i.e. the Unione dei Comuni Barbagia), the other one is located in the Portuguese Região Centro (i.e. the Serra de Sicó). The main goal of this study is to examine the effects of depopulation on the territory while furthering our understanding of cultural identities and – especially – of the processes of their construction and reconstruction that take place as a consequence of territorial abandonment. At the same time, we will focus our attention on the fact that local development must arise out of territorial needs and inhabitants’ identities

La Rete Metropolitana del Nord Sardegna

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