Pastoral practices to reverse shrub encroachment of sub-alpine grasslands: dung beetles (Coleoptera, Scrabaeoidea) respond more quickly than vegetation

In recent decades, pastoral abandonment has produced profound ecological changes in the Alps. In particular, the reduction in grazing has led to extensive shrub encroachment of semi-natural grasslands, which may represent a threat to open habitat biodiversity. To reverse shrub encroachment, we assessed short-term effects of two different pastoral practices on vegetation and dung beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeoidea). Strategic placement of mineral mix supplements (MMS) and arrangement of temporary night camp areas (TNCA) for cattle were carried out during summer 2011 in the Val Troncea Natural Park, north-western Italian Alps. In 2012, one year after treatment, a reduction in shrub cover and an increase in bare ground cover around MMS sites was detected. A more intense effect was detected within TNCA through increases in forage pastoral value, and in the cover and height of the herbaceous layer. Immediately after treatment, changes in dung beetle diversity (total abundance, species richness, Shannon diversity, taxonomic and functional diversity) showed a limited disturbance effect caused by high cattle density. In contrast, dung beetle diversity significantly increased one year later both at MMS and TNCA sites, with a stronger effect within TNCA. Multivariate Regression Trees and associated Indicator Value analyses showed that some ecologically relevant dung beetle species preferred areas deprived of shrub vegetation. Our main conclusions are: i) TNCA are more effective than MMS in terms of changes to vegetation and dung beetles, ii) dung beetles respond more quickly than vegetation to pastoral practices, and iii) the main driver of the rapid response by dung beetles is the removal of shrubs. The resulting increase in dung beetle abundance and diversity, which are largely responsible for grassland ecosystem functioning, may have a positive effect on meso-eutrophic grassland restoration. Shrub encroachment in the Alps may therefore be reversed, and restoration of grassland enhanced, by using appropriate pastoral practices

Satellite-Based Reconstruction of the Volcanic Deposits during the December 2015 Etna Eruption

Satellite-derived data, including an estimation of the eruption rate, proximal volcanic deposits and lava flow morphometric parameters (area, maximum length, thickness, and volume) are provided for the eruption that occurred at Mt Etna on 6–8 December 2015. This eruption took place at the New Southeast Crater (NSEC), the youngest of the summit craters of Etna, shortly after a sequence of four violent paroxysmal events took place in 65 h (3–5 December) at "Voragine", the oldest summit crater. Multispectral SEVIRI images at 15 min sampling time have been used to compute time-averaged eruption rate curves, while tri-stereo Pléiades images, at 50 cm spatial resolution, provided the pre-eruptive topography and topographic changes due to volcanic deposits. In addition to the two types of satellite data, other parameters have been inferred, such as probable vesicularity and pyroclastic deposits

Classifying Major Explosions and Paroxysms at Stromboli Volcano (Italy) from Space

Stromboli volcano has a persistent activity that is almost exclusively explosive. Predominated by low intensity events, this activity is occasionally interspersed with more powerful episodes, known as major explosions and paroxysms, which represent the main hazards for the inhabitants of the island. Here, we propose a machine learning approach to distinguish between paroxysms and major explosions by using satellite-derived measurements. We investigated the high energy explosive events occurring in the period January 2018–April 2021. Three distinguishing features are taken into account, namely (i) the temporal variations of surface temperature over the summit area, (ii) the magnitude of the explosive volcanic deposits emplaced during each explosion, and (iii) the height of the volcanic ash plume produced by the explosive events. We use optical satellite imagery to compute the land surface temperature (LST) and the ash plume height (PH). The magnitude of the explosive volcanic deposits (EVD) is estimated by using multi-temporal Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) intensity images. Once the input feature vectors were identified, we designed a k-means unsupervised classifier to group the explosive events at Stromboli volcano based on their similarities in two clusters: (1) paroxysms and (2) major explosions. The major explosions are identified by low/medium thermal content, i.e., LSTI around 1.4 °C, low plume height, i.e., PH around 420 m, and low production of explosive deposits, i.e., EVD around 2.5. The paroxysms are extreme events mainly characterized by medium/high thermal content, i.e., LSTI around 2.3 °C, medium/high plume height, i.e., PH around 3330 m, and high production of explosive deposits, i.e., EVD around 10.17. The centroids with coordinates (PH, EVD, LSTI) are: Cp (3330, 10.7, 2.3) for the paroxysms, and Cme (420, 2.5, 1.4) for the major explosions

A particular case of transient ST elevation during cryoballoon ablation of atrial fibrillation

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Riflettere sulla grammatica a scuola: una ricerca sul soggetto

The paper discusses some preliminary results of the research project GRASS - Grammar Reflection at School: Syntactic Subject, which involved 444 junior and senior students from lower to higher education grades and 16 teachers. Starting from some general remarks on the current state of grammar teaching in the Italian school system, particularly critical as far as real speech, discourse and metalinguistic awareness are concerned, the paper highlights and discusses three main critical issues: a)the confusion between (con)textual reference and grammatical function, well attested by thediverse and incongruous ways used by the respondents to identify and represent the subject of sentences from a text; b) the pupils’ and students’ grammaticality judgements on verb and subject agreement, especially in cases of semantic/syntactic mismatch; c) the relation between the respondents’ explicit definitions of grammatical subject and the emerging underlying notions that characterize the different stages of Italian education as far as primary vs. secondary schools are concerned. Finally, some conclusions are drawn on the possible outcomes that this type of research can have in terms of teachers’ training and teaching practices.In questo articolo vengono presentati i primi risultati della ricerca GRASS (Riflessione Grammaticale a Scuola: il Soggetto Sintattico), che ha coinvolto 444 tra alunni e studenti dalla scuola primaria al primo anno di università e 16 insegnanti. Muovendo da alcune riflessioni generali sull’insegnamento della grammatica nella scuola italiana, la cui criticità sta, fra l’altro, nella scarsa considerazione degli usi linguistici reali nello sviluppo della riflessione metalinguistica, l’articolo tratta nello specifico alcuni aspetti emersi dalla ricerca. Innanzitutto, la confusione tra funzione grammaticale e referenza, ben testimoniata dalle espressioni incongrue e idiosincratiche usate dagli informanti per esplicitare i soggetti individuati in un testo. Poi, i giudizi di grammaticalità rispetto a frasi dell’italiano contenenti casi problematici di accordo verbo-soggetto. Infine, l’analisi delle definizioni esplicite di soggetto fornite da alunni e studenti, che forniscono indicazioni sulla sottostante nozione di soggetto così come viene appresa nel corso della scolarizzazione. Il saggio si conclude con alcune riflessioni su come ricerche di questo tipo possano avere ricadute in termini di formazione degli insegnanti e di pratiche didattiche

The complement system in neurodegenerative and inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system

Neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis, affect millions of people globally. As aging is a major risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases, the continuous increase in the elderly population across Western societies is also associated with a rising prevalence of these debilitating conditions. The complement system, a crucial component of the innate immune response, has gained increasing attention for its multifaceted involvement in the normal development of the central nervous system (CNS) and the brain but also as a pathogenic driver in several neuroinflammatory disease states. Although complement is generally understood as a liver-derived and blood or interstitial fluid operative system protecting against bloodborne pathogens or threats, recent research, particularly on the role of complement in the healthy and diseased CNS, has demonstrated the importance of locally produced and activated complement components. Here, we provide a succinct overview over the known beneficial and pathological roles of complement in the CNS with focus on local sources of complement, including a discussion on the potential importance of the recently discovered intracellularly active complement system for CNS biology and on infection-triggered neurodegeneration

A cationic tetrapyrrole inhibits toxic activities of the cellular prion protein

Prion diseases are rare neurodegenerative conditions associated with the conformational conversion of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) into PrPSc, a self-replicating isoform (prion) that accumulates in the central nervous system of affected individuals. The structure of PrPSc is poorly defined, and likely to be heterogeneous, as suggested by the existence of different prion strains. The latter represents a relevant problem for therapy in prion diseases, as some potent anti-prion compounds have shown strain-specificity. Designing therapeutics that target PrPC may provide an opportunity to overcome these problems. PrPC ligands may theoretically inhibit the replication of multiple prion strains, by acting on the common substrate of any prion replication reaction. Here, we characterized the properties of a cationic tetrapyrrole [Fe(III)-TMPyP], which was previously shown to bind PrPC, and inhibit the replication of a mouse prion strain. We report that the compound is active against multiple prion strains in vitro and in cells. Interestingly, we also find that Fe(III)-TMPyP inhibits several PrPC-related toxic activities, including the channel-forming ability of a PrP mutant, and the PrPC-dependent synaptotoxicity of amyloid-beta (A beta) oligomers, which are associated with Alzheimer's Disease. These results demonstrate that molecules binding to PrPC may produce a dual effect of blocking prion replication and inhibiting PrPC-mediated toxicity

Hoja Geológica 4772-16 Paraje El Zeballos, Provincia de Santa Cruz

Fil: Dal Molin, Carlos. Servicio Geológico Minero Argentino. Instituto de Geología y Recursos Minerales; Argentina.Fil: Escosteguy, Leonardo. Servicio Geológico Minero Argentino. Instituto de Geología y Recursos Minerales; Argentina.Fil: Negro, Claudia. Servicio Geológico Minero Argentino. Instituto de Geología y Recursos Minerales; Argentina.Fil: Lagorio, Silvia. Servicio Geológico Minero Argentino. Instituto de Geología y Recursos Minerales; Argentina.La Hoja Geológica 4772–16, Paraje El Zeballos está situada en el oeste de la provincia de Santa Cruz, en la zona cordillerana limítrofe con Chile. El relieve de la comarca presenta una topografía abrupta en el sector occidental, con características propias de la Cordillera Patagónica, un paisaje ondulado en la cuenca de los ríos Jeinemeni y El Zeballos y un relieve mesetiforme en su sector oriental. La estratigrafía está constituida por rocas cuyas edades están comprendidas entre el Jurásico y la actualidad. Las rocas más antiguas son las volcanitas del Complejo El Quemado, que forman la cordillera y constituyen el basamento estratigráfico de la Cuenca Austral en esta área, representada en los depósitos marinos cretácicos de la Formación Río Mayer. Sobre éstos se apoya la Formación Río Tarde, que está asociada al volcanismo cretácico del Grupo Divisadero. Sobre estas rocas se apoyan las sedimentitas y rocas basálticas paleógenas correspondientes a la Formación Ligorio Márquez, la Teschenita Jeinemeni y el Basalto Posadas. La Formación Centinela, el Grupo Río Zeballos y la Formación Lago Buenos Aires representan la sedimentación marina, continental y el volcanismo neógeno en el área. Los depósitos cuaternarios son fundamentalmente de origen gravitatorio y en menor medida, glaciarios y volcánicos. La estructura de la zona se caracteriza por un frente cordillerano formado por volcanitas jurásicas sobrecorridas hacia el este sobre las unidades cretácicas y cenozoicas, y un sector extraandino dominado por fallas y diaclasas verticales que controlaron el emplazamiento de diques basálticos. Se diferenciaron tres áreas según sus rasgos geomorfológicos: una occidental con características propias de la Cordillera Patagónica; otra central, correspondiente a las cuencas de los principales ríos que drenan este territorio, en la que predomina la acción fluvial, la remoción en masa y antiguas formas glaciarias; y una oriental, caracterizada por una meseta volcánica de gran extensión y pequeños conos volcánicos