Forest ecosystem monitoring in Tuscany (Italy): past activities, present status and future perspectives

Since 1987 the Region of Tuscany has been actively monitoring crown status in its forests, in order to protect them from atmospheric pollution, biotic factors and environmental change. Over this period the Region has performed periodical inventories on crown condition in publicly-owned forests (Level I network) and established a network of permanent plots (MON.I.TO., Level II – III) to study long-term changes occurring in forest ecosystems. Some of these permanent plots were later included in the national programme CONECOFOR, managed by the Ministry for Policy in Agriculture and Forest. Currently a further development of MON.I.TO. is being implemented, called MONITO III – TOpModel, the aim of which is to broaden the information potential of the monitoring system to include carbon stocks and biodiversity evaluation. This paper provides an up-to-date report on the status of the various surveys and recommends a closer connection between MON.I.TO. and the other regional information systems, especially the Regional Forest Inventory, in order to produce information that may be useful in forest planning and in Sustainable Forest Management

Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma Cell Motility, Rac Activation and Metastatic Dissemination Are Mediated by Protein Kinase C Epsilon

Background: Protein kinase C (PKC) e, a key signaling transducer implicated in mitogenesis, survival, and cancer progression, is overexpressed in human primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The role of PKCe in lung cancer metastasis has not yet been established. Principal Findings: Here we show that RNAi-mediated knockdown of PKCe in H358, H1299, H322, and A549 NSCLC impairs activation of the small GTPase Rac1 in response to phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), serum, or epidermal growth factor (EGF). PKCe depletion markedly impaired the ability of NSCLC cells to form membrane ruffles and migrate. Similar results were observed by pharmacological inhibition of PKCe with eV1-2, a specific PKCe inhibitor. PKCe was also required for invasiveness of NSCLC cells and modulated the secretion of extracellular matrix proteases and protease inhibitors. Finally, we found that PKCe-depleted NSCLC cells fail to disseminate to lungs in a mouse model of metastasis. Conclusions: Our results implicate PKCe as a key mediator of Rac signaling and motility of lung cancer cells, highlighting its potential as a therapeutic target

Modelling the improved behaviour of a switch installed on ballast-asphalt track

Switches and crossings are a critical part of railway infrastructure and have a complex superstructure, creating variable support and bending stiffness along the track length. These variable structural and loading effects lead to faster rates of track geometry deterioration compared with plain line. Multibody vehicle-track interaction and finite element models combined with empirical predictions have been used to assess the likely benefits and improvements of using an asphalt layer combined with reduced ballast depth under S&C, in terms of long-term ballast differential settlement as well as in terms of reducing stress levels within the ballast and the subgrade layers. The assessment is primarily comparative against a baseline scenario site without asphalt layer. The introduction of asphalt track configurations reduced the variation in trackbed stiffness and increased stiffness throughout the switch panel. Using stressescalculated from finite element modelling, the ballast settlement was calculated using a semi-empirical equation to account for higher load cycles. The introduction of the asphalt layer reduced both maximum and differential settlements, originating from the ballast layer, in the switch panel with respect to the baseline scenario. Furthermore, the maximum stresses transmitted to the subgrade are generally reduced for both asphalt thicknesses with respect to the baseline