INTRAHEPATIC CHOLANGIOCARCINOMA DEVELOPMENT IN A PATIENT WITH A NOVEL BAP1 GERMLINE MUTATION AND LOW EXPOSURE TO ASBESTOS

BRCA1 associated protein-1 (BAP1) germline mutations define a novel hereditary cancer syndrome, namely BAP1 tumor predisposition syndrome (BAP1-TPDS), characterized by an increased susceptibility to develop different cancer types, including mesothelioma, uveal and cutaneous melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, and basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma. Currently, the role of BAP1 germline mutations in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) pathogenesis is less known. Here we report the first clinical case of a female patient who developed an iCCA when she was 47-years-old and was found to carry a novel germline mutation at a splicing site of exon 4 in BAP1 gene (NM_004656.4: c.255_255+6del). An accurate anamnesis revealed the absence of risk factors linked to iCCA development, except for a low occupational exposure to asbestos. In tumor tissue, BAP1 sequencing, multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification and immunoistochemistry showed the loss of heterozygosity and lack of nuclear expression, suggesting that BAP1 wild-type allele and functional protein were lost in cancer cells, in line with the classical two-hit model of tumor suppressor genes. Further studies are needed to confirm whether iCCA may be included into BAP1-TPDS cancer phenotypes and whether minimal asbestos exposure may facilitate the development of this malignancy in individuals carrying BAP1 germline mutations

Design culture:from product to process. Building a network to develop design processes in Latin countries

The essay presents the results of a 2 years survey within 7 European and Latin American countries (Italy, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico), focusing on the scientific and professional initiatives accomplished by universities and research centres in the field of designdriven innovation. The survey shows a growing interest towards the methodological aspects of design by the observed actors and urges the formation of a "Latin network" aimed at experimenting proper design processes for Latin countries' socio-cultural and productive systems. The basic idea is that design culture, considered as a process culture, has relevant advantages in the actual relationship between production and consumption: − Offering design a mediator's role between the crucial knowledge for sustainable development: economy, art/creativity, technology and humanities; − Producing a "phantasmagoric" capacity (the possibility to visualize and share what is immaterial and upcoming); − Mediating between the productive and consumption systems' interest

Operational Forecast and Daily Assessment of the Air Quality in Italy: A Copernicus-CAMS Downstream Service

In this paper, an operational forecasting and daily assessment system of air quality is presented. This new system is thought of as a Copernicus-CAMS downstream national service, able to develop and implement a service for air quality forecasting and monitoring in the Italian domain, running every day on the National territory. The system is being developed on behalf of a cooperation between Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) and Sistema Nazionale Protezione Ambiente (SNPA). SNPA is the network between Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA) and the Regional Environmental Agencies (ARPAs). The objective of the cooperation is to provide full operation service in terms of continuity, sustainability, and availability of the air quality forecast and evaluation services at the national level. The system forecasts and analyzes air quality throughout Italy, with a focus on Italian regions, for the principal pollutants: Particulate matter with diameter smaller than 10 μm (PM10), ozone (O3), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). It includes a Chemical Transport Model (CTM) nested with the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) global model and data from the air quality monitoring stations in Italy. The system, under public control and based on open software, is now under testing. To date, it is able to deliver free open data, which is available to environmental agencies and citizens. The data are delivered both as maps and graphs, and as numerical data, useful for providing boundary conditions to local–high resolution-air quality models or for developing customized services. In this work, a downscaling application to a regional nested domain highlights how the new air quality forecasting system gains better results than the Copernicus-CAMS system

Improving Air Quality in the Po Valley, Italy: Some Results by the LIFE-IP-PREPAIR Project

The Po Valley (Northern Italy) represents an important exceedance zone of the air-quality limit values for PM (particulate matter), NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) and O3 (ozone). This area covers the territory of most Italian northern regions and includes several urban agglomerates, such as Milan, Turin, Venice and Bologna. The area is densely populated and heavily industrialized. The paper summarizes the assessment of the impact of the current (2013) and future (2025) emissions and of the meteorological conditions on the air quality of the Po Valley. This study is one of the first outcomes of the EU LIFE-IP Clean Air Program Po Regions Engaged to Policies of Air (PREPAIR) project. The project, involving administrations and environmental agencies of eight regions and three municipalities in Northern Italy and Slovenia, started in 2017 and will end in 2024. Future emission scenarios consider the emissions reduction due to the air-quality action plans of the regions involved, of the agreements between the national authorities and regional administrations and of the PREPAIR project itself, in the overall context of the application of the current legislation of the European Union. The combination of these measures will lead to the reduction of direct emissions of PM10 in the Po Valley and of the main precursors emitted in the area (NOx, nitrogen oxides and NH3, and ammonia) by 38% for PM10, 39% for NOx and 22% for NH3, respectively. This lowering corresponds to a reduction of about 30.000 tons of primary PM10, 150.000 tons of NOx, 54.000 tons of NH3 and 1700 tons of SO2. The results show that these expected reductions should allow us to achieve the EU PM10 limit value in the Po Valley by the year 2025

I nuovi studi su marreggiate e fenomeni erosivi

Negli ultimi anni è cresciuta l'attenzione per il monitoraggio dei fenomeni a forte impatto sul sistema costiero. Il progetto europeo Micore prevede lo sviluppo di un sistema previsionale per la comprensione e previsione dei fenomeni erosivi sulla costa anche in Emilia-Romagna. I risultati per l'inverno 2009-2010 hanno evidenziato il contributo delle acque alte per i fenomeni erosivi e hanno confermato la necessità di un sistema di previsione attivo e di continuare le pratiche di protezione in atto

Coastal Rapid Environmental Assessment in the Northern Adriatic Sea

A new Coastal Rapid Environmental Assessment (CREA) methodology, based on an operational regional forecasting system and coastal monitoring networks of opportunity, has been developed and successfully applied to the Northern Adriatic Sea. The methodology aims at improving the initial condition estimates by combining operational coarse model fields with coastal observations to improve medium to short range predictability which is required by coastal zone and emergency management. The CREA modeling framework system consists of a high resolution, O(800 m), Adriatic SHELF model (ASHELF) nested into the Adriatic Forecasting System (AFS) at 2.2 km resolution. The CREA observational system is composed of coastal networks sampling the water column temperature and salinity between depths of 5 and 40 m. The initialization technique blends the AFS fields with the available observations using a multi-input, multi-scale optimal interpolation technique and a spin-up period for the high resolution ASHELF model to dynamically adjust initial conditions from the coarser resolution AFS model. The high resolution spin up period has been investigated through a dedicated set of experiments and it was found that a week time is enough to have new energetic features in the model initial condition field estimates to be blended with observations. Five CREA study cases have been analyzed for different months of the year, one per month from May to September 2003, chosen on the basis of the availability of the coastal observations for both model initialization and validation. The CREA 7-days forecasts show skill improvements in the coastal area salinity and temperature profiles, deriving from the blending and the spin-up period in the initialization methodology. The main conclusion is that forecasting in coastal areas by nesting necessitates of the observations to correct the coarse resolution model fields providing informations where parent and child model topographies mismatch. Results demonstrate the feasibility of a CREA strategy to support coastal zone management in line with recent operational oceanography developments

Prevedere per prevenire e per gestire le emergenze

ABBINARE LA RACCOLTA E L\u2019ELABORAZIONE DATI SULLE CONCENTRAZIONI DI INQUINANTI ALLE PREVISIONI METEOROLOGICHE CONSENTIREBBE DI ATTIVARE TEMPESTIVAMENTE MISURE EMERGENZIALI. IN COLLABORAZIONE CON L\u2019UNIVERSIT\uc0 DI BOLOGNA, ARPAE STA TESTANDO UN NUOVO MODELLO PREVISIONALE CON RISULTATI INTERESSANTI

Mechanisms of ventilation in real street canyons in presence of vegetation

Street canyons are the unit elements of the urban morphology. Fluid dynamics within these elements has been widely studied especially in the context of air pollution associated to traffic emissions. Gases and particulate matter resulting from the combustion processes are the main components of these emissions, but also pneumatic abrasion, brake discs consumption and road dust resuspension contribute to air quality deterioration. In general terms, the presence of dense built up areas limits the efficacy of atmospheric winds to disperse pollutants, enhancing near ground concentrations. It is also known that the presence of trees in urban street canyons affects pollutants dispersion and exchange of momentum and scalars with the free atmosphere. Depending on wind direction, the establishment of canyon vortices, corner vortices at street entrance and intersections, intermittent flows within the canyon are drivers for near surface pollutant removal. The presence of trees alter the flow structure and may lead to a reduction of ventilation in streets. In real world applications, the actual quantification of tree influence depends on different and mutual interacting factors: synoptic meteorological conditions, wind stress at the top of the canyon, geometry of the street canyon and vegetation aerodynamic characteristics. Within the recently EU-funded project iSCAPE, the role of vegetation in street canyons has being analyzed in real street canyons in the city of Bologna (Italy). Specifically, during summer 2017, turbulent fluxes are being measured at different heights in two typical street canyons of similar aspect ratio and orientation with respect to the prevailing wind but with different vegetative elements i.e. one is almost free of vegetation and the other has trees at the edge of each traffic lane. Data interpretation is assisted by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling using large eddy simulations (LES). Validated simulations are used to formulate ventilation indices typical for Italian cities. Results are sought for extension to other cities in Europe and elsewhere that are characterized by low synoptic conditions and similar morphological structures