"Da per tutto il cielo sembrava di fuoco". Gli strani fenomeni atmosferici del 1821 in Trentino e una misteriosa eruzione

La comprensione delle relazioni tra estesi fenomeni geologici e manifestazioni metereologiche a breve e lungo termine, è una conquista scientifica che può essere fatta risalire solo agli anni settanta del ventunesimo secolo. Nonostante ciò gli effetti diretti o indiretti di eventi geologici particolarmente significativi non sfuggirono agli osservatori del passato ed ebbero spesso ricadute su credenze, folclore, opere artistiche e letterarie. Il presente contributo si basa su testimonianze, manoscritti e notizie registrate negli anni a cavallo tra XVIII e XIX secolo che mettono in evidenza effetti meteorologici anomali verosimilmente connessi ad attività vulcanica intensa. Tra questi, figurano le strane anomalie atmosferiche registrate nel diario meteorologico del fisico roveretano Giuseppe Bonfioli nel 1821, del tutto simili a quelle verificatesi nel 1783 in concomitanza all’eruzione del Laki.Understanding the relationships between extensive geological phenomena and short and longterm meteorological manifestations is a scientific achievement that can only be traced back to the seventies of the twenty-first century. Despite this, the direct or indirect effects of particularly significant geological events did not escape the observers of the past and often had repercussions on beliefs, folklore, artistic and literary works. The present contribution is based on manuscripts and news recorded between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that highlight anomalous meteorological effects likely connected to intense volcanic activity. Among these, the “strange atmospheric anomalies” recorded in the meteorological diary of the physicist Giuseppe Bonfioli in 1821, quite similar to those occurred in 1783 in connection with the eruption of Laki

Two new early instrumental records of air pressure and temperature for the southern European Alps

Central Europe is among the regions with the largest availability of pre-industrial meteorological records. In the Alps, however, such records are relatively rare, especially in the southern slope. We recently found and digitized two new pressure and temperature series for the Alpine cities of Rovereto (1800–1839) and Bolzano/Bozen (1842–1849) covering together the first half of the 19th century, a period characterized by large climate variability and important extreme events. The meteorological record of Rovereto, in particular, is the oldest available for the southeastern Alps. We used the shorter record of Bolzano/Bozen as a testbed for different digitization methods, namely citizen science and machine-learning based Optical Character Recognition. The data are converted to modern units, quality controlled, and homogenized. We also provide daily and monthly means together with an estimation of their uncertainty

Main drivers of the evolution of grazing in the alpine area of Valli del Leno (Trentino, Northern Italy) during the last two centuries: natural resources, labour and investments

In the Alps as in many mountain areas, livestock farming has constituted an important source of income, especially since the Middle Ages. The importance of livestock farming within the Alpine economy has changed over time due to the dynamics of supply and demand combined with evolving environmental, technological and institutional constraints. This paper focuses on the latter aspect and attempts to reconstruct how the relative importance of the production factors of land, labour and capital changed throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in a mountainous area of eastern Trentino. The underlying objective of the investigation is to provide a micro-level empirical basis for hypotheses advanced in the literature regarding the evolution of a crucial sector in the Alpine economy, drawing attention to the long-term role of exogenous and endogenous factors as well as elements of continuity and change. The work is grounded in multiple sources drawn from local archives and official statistics. It demonstrates the flexibility of local communities in managing to sustainably utilize local resources over several periods.En muchas zonas de montaña la ganadería ha constituido, a partir de la Edad Media, una fuente importante de recursos económicos. La trasformación que ha habido del peso relativo de la ganadería en la economía alpina ha sido fruto de una combinación de dinámicas, por un lado concernientes a la demanda, y, por otro, de la oferta, con los cambios introducidos por los vínculos normativos medioambientales, tecnológicos e institucionales de dicha actividad. En nuestro estudio nos centramos en este último aspecto, tratando de reconstruir el cambio que ha tenido lugar en el curso de los siglos xix y xx del peso relativo de los factores de producción tierra, trabajo y capital en una zona montañosa del Trentino oriental. El objetivo principal de nuestra investigación es el de proporcionar una base empírica, en microperspectiva, a las hipótesis avanzadas en la literatura en mérito a la evolución de un sector crucial de la economía alpina, mostrando cuál ha sido a lo largo del tiempo el rol de los factores exógenos y de los endógenos y subrayando elementos de continuidad y factores de transformación

Human footprints from Italy: the state of the art

The ichnological record of human traces from Italy is rich and quite diversified. In recent years, the development and dissemination of various methodologies and technological facilities has implemented the re-analysis of this record, enabling to reach different, sometimes deeper, interpretations favoured by the integration of external data, both geological and palaeontological. The oldest occurrence of the human ichnological record from Italy is represented by the Middle Pleistocene ‘Devil’s Trails’ ichnosite in the “Foresta” area (Roccamonfina volcano, southern Italy), depicting human trackmakers trampling a pyroclastic flow deposit while descending a slope about 349 ka. Most of the record is Holocene in age and is constituted by the Upper Palaeolithic Grotta della Bàsura site (Toirano, northern Italy, about 14 ky), the protohistoric sites of Afragola, Nola and Palma, the area of Pompei and the site of Aosta. The record is enriched by the ichnological evidences preserved in military structures of Trentino region (northern Italy) during the First World War. An updated report and discussion of these sites is here provided.Fil: Avanzini, Marco. Museo Delle Scienze di Trento; ItaliaFil: Citton, Paolo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Sede Alto Valle. Instituto de Investigaciones en Paleobiología y Geología; ArgentinaFil: Mietto, Paolo. Università di Padova; ItaliaFil: Panarello, Adolfo. Università di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale; ItaliaFil: Raia, Pasquale. Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II; ItaliaFil: Romano, Marco. Università di Roma; ItaliaFil: Salvador, Isabella. Museo Delle Scienze di Trento; Itali

Icno-archeology of a human palaeolithic ecosystem: The human and animal footprints in the Grotta Della Basura (Toirano, Northern Italy)

The footprints of human and animal trackmakers, which around 12,000 years B.P. attended the Cave of B\ue1sura (Toirano, Liguria, Northern Italy), were studied through morpho-classificatory and morphometric approaches. First results indicate at least three different human producers, two youths and the third of tender age, bears and wolves (or dogs). Analysis of the data demonstrate the power of 3D, of landmark based morphometrics and the utility to use the methods of forensic anthropology in the determination of human foot-prints. The analysis of the number of trackmakers using the PCA analysis on 'multi-trampling' surfaces could represent a model in the study of cave sites

Assessing the burden of paediatric influenza in Europe: the European Paediatric Influenza Analysis (EPIA) project

The European Paediatric Influenza Analysis (EPIA) project is a multi-country project that was created to collect, analyse and present data regarding the paediatric influenza burden in European countries, with the purpose of providing the necessary information to make evidence-based decisions regarding influenza immunisation recommendations for children. The initial approach taken is based on existing weekly virological and age-specific influenza-like illness (ILI) data from surveillance networks across Europe. We use a multiple regression model guided by longitudinal weekly patterns of influenza virus to attribute the weekly ILI consultation incidence pattern to each influenza (sub)type, while controlling for the effect of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) epidemics. Modelling the ILI consultation incidence during 2002/2003–2008 revealed that influenza infections that presented for medical attention as ILI affected between 0.3% and 9.8% of children aged 0–4 and 5–14 years in England, Italy, The Netherlands and Spain in an average season. With the exception of Spain, these rates were always higher in children aged 0–4 years. Across the six seasons analysed (five seasons were analysed from the Italian data), the model attributed 47–83% of the ILI burden in primary care to influenza virus infection in the various countries, with the A(H3N2) virus playing the most important role, followed by influenza viruses B and A(H1N1). National season averages from the four countries studied indicated that between 0.4% and 18% of children consulted a physician for ILI, with the percentage depending on the country and health care system. Influenza virus infections explained the majority of paediatric ILI consultations in all countries. The next step will be to apply the EPIA modelling approach to severe outcomes indicators (i.e. hospitalisations and mortality data) to generate a complete range of mild and severe influenza burden estimates needed for decision making concerning paediatric influenza vaccination

A high throughput imaging database of toxicological effects of nanomaterials tested on HepaRG cells

The large amount of existing nanomaterials demands rapid and reliable methods for testing their potential toxicological effect on human health, preferably by means of relevant in vitro techniques in order to reduce testing on animals. Combining high throughput workflows with automated high content imaging techniques allows deriving much more information from cell-based assays than the typical readouts (i.e. one measurement per well) with optical plate-readers. We present here a dataset including data based on a maximum of 14 different read outs (including viable cell count, cell membrane permeability, apoptotic cell death, mitochondrial membrane potential and steatosis) of the human hepatoma HepaRG cell line treated with a large set of nanomaterials, coatings and supernatants at different concentrations. The database, given its size, can be utilized in the development of in silico hazard assessment and prediction tools or can be combined with toxicity results from other in vitro test systems.peer-reviewe

Updated Italian Tetrapod Ichnology Reference List

We provide a list of contribution by Italian scientists to tetrapod ichnology with papers on both material from Italy and abroad. Foreign author’s contributions on tetrapod ichnology based on material from Italy are also considered. The list updates the previous one published by D’Orazi Porchetti et al. (2008) and, as a result, includes works from 1869 up to now. Following the previous reference list, papers of non-Italian researchers on foreign material are reported when the material was found on Italian territory at the time of publication

An intrinsically disordered proteins community for ELIXIR.

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) are now recognised as major determinants in cellular regulation. This white paper presents a roadmap for future e-infrastructure developments in the field of IDP research within the ELIXIR framework. The goal of these developments is to drive the creation of high-quality tools and resources to support the identification, analysis and functional characterisation of IDPs. The roadmap is the result of a workshop titled "An intrinsically disordered protein user community proposal for ELIXIR" held at the University of Padua. The workshop, and further consultation with the members of the wider IDP community, identified the key priority areas for the roadmap including the development of standards for data annotation, storage and dissemination; integration of IDP data into the ELIXIR Core Data Resources; and the creation of benchmarking criteria for IDP-related software. Here, we discuss these areas of priority, how they can be implemented in cooperation with the ELIXIR platforms, and their connections to existing ELIXIR Communities and international consortia. The article provides a preliminary blueprint for an IDP Community in ELIXIR and is an appeal to identify and involve new stakeholders