The Structure of Rural Landscape in Monetary Evaluation Studies: Main Analytical Approaches in Literature

Over recent years considerable research has been devoted to the assessment of the rural landscape value. These studies have concerned both use and non-use value estimation. An important issue in monetary evaluations is about taking (or not) into account the structural complexity of landscape. Three analytical approaches may be recognized on the basis of whether landscape structural attributes are involved (global, mono-attribute and multi-attribute approach). The present work is part of a research aimed to seek out rational instruments for guidance policies on rural landscape. It consists in a survey of the main studies appeared in literature. The specific purpose is to classify these empirical analyses in accordance both to the approaches mentioned above and to the landscape typologies (agricultural or forestry) involved.rural landscape, structural attributes, landscape demand, contingent valuation models, choice experiment, Land Economics/Use, Q26,

Efficacy of European Policies on Rural Landscape: the Case Study of Sardinia (ITALY)

Over the last decades, a large number of developed countries have explicitly recognized the importance of benefits generated from agricultural and rural landscape into their legislation. Since the early '90, preservation and enhancing of rural landscape has played an increasing role also into the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) promoted by the European Union (EU). More generally, the whole European rural development policy seems to recognize an important role to the keeping of agricultural and rural landscape. The present work is a part of a wider research aimed to identify rational instruments for guidance policies on rural landscape. The specific purpose of this paper is to evaluate efficacy of Sardinian (Italy) regional policies on rural landscape. In particular, the analysis aims to assess "functionality" of policies on rural landscape in programming policy. Results arisen from analysis of Rural Development of this first evaluation are controversial.rural landscape, rural and environmental policies, structural policies, efficacy policies evaluation, Sardinia, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q18, Q28, R59,

Nrf2 in neoplastic and non-neoplastic liver diseases

Activation of the Keap1/Nrf2 pathway, the most important cell defense signal, triggered to neutralize the harmful effects of electrophilic and oxidative stress, plays a crucial role in cell survival. Therefore, its ability to attenuate acute and chronic liver damage, where oxidative stress represents the key player, is not surprising. On the other hand, while Nrf2 promotes proliferation in cancer cells, its role in non-neoplastic hepatocytes is a matter of debate. Another topic of uncertainty concerns the nature of the mechanisms of Nrf2 activation in hepatocarcinogenesis. Indeed, it remains unclear what is the main mechanism behind the sustained activation of the Keap1/Nrf2 pathway in hepatocarcinogenesis. This raises doubts about the best strategies to therapeutically target this pathway. In this review, we will analyze and discuss our present knowledge concerning the role of Nrf2 in hepatic physiology and pathology, including hepatocellular carcinoma. In particular, we will critically examine and discuss some findings originating from animal models that raise questions that still need to be adequately answered

Self-propagating reactions for environmental protection: Treatment of wastes containing asbestos

A thermochemical process based on the occurrence of self-propagating reactions that is able to convert asbestos fibers into harmless, nonfibrous species is proposed. Specifically, a mixture consisting of a waste (containing about 85 wt % of chrysotile), ferric oxide, and magnesium is able, once locally ignited by a thermal source, to generate a self-propagating reaction that travels through the mixture without requiring additional energy. The process is accompanied by a dramatic change in the material from both the chemical and microstructural points of view. In addition, front velocity and maximum combustion temperature decrease as the amount of waste in the starting mixture increases, with the self-propagating character being maintained if the waste content is equal to or below 60 wt %. It is also observed that, when nonasbestos (nontoxic) materials, i.e., sepiolite and glass fibers, are used instead of the hazardous waste, the front velocity, combustion temperature, propagation limits, and apparent activation energies are found to be very similar to those observed in the case of asbestos

Epigenetic mechanisms in oral cancer: new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies

Complexity and heterogeneity are frequently present during the development and progression of carcinogenesis and, in the last 15 years, significant progress made in clinical research underlines the role of some epigenetic mechanisms. The most important characteristics of the epigenetic concept are that these events are reversible, not related to modifications in the structure of DNA and may drive fundamental cell signaling alterations1. Among these systems of communication in normal and pathological conditions, also microbiome and staminal cells2 seem to be important. These new profiles of pathological communication develop novel diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic tool

Insight into susceptibility genes associated with bipolar disorder: A systematic review

Objective: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe disorder, and it is associated with an increased risk of mortality. About 25% of patients with BD have attempted and 11% have died by suicide. All these characteristics suggest that the disorders within the bipolar spectrum are a crucial public health problem. With the development of molecular genetics in recent decades, it was possible to more easily detect risk genes associated with this disorder. This study aimed at summarizing the findings of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the topic and assessing the quality of the available evidence. Materials and Methods: PubMed/Medline and Web of Science were searched to identify systematic reviews and meta-analyses published during 2013-2019. Standard methodology was applied to synthesize and assess the retrieved literature. Results: This systematic review identifies a number of potential risk genes associated with bipolar disorder whose mechanism of action has yet to be confirmed. They are divided into several groups: 1) a list of the most significant susceptibility genetic factors associated with BD; 2) the implication of the ZNF804A gene in BD; 3) the role of genes involved in calcium signaling in BD; 4) DNA methylation in BD; 5) BD and risk suicide genes; 6) susceptibility genes for early-onset BD; 7) candidate genes common to both BD and schizophrenia; 8) genes involved in cognitive status in BD cases; 9) genes involved in structural alteration in BD brain tissue; 10) genes involved in lithium response in BD. Conclusions: Future research should concentrate on molecular mechanisms by which genetic variants play a major role in BD. Supplemental research is needed to replicate the applicable results

Dedicated versus mainstreaming approaches in local climate plans in Europe

Cities are gaining prominence committing to respond to the threat of climate change, e.g., by developing local climate plans or strategies. However, little is known regarding the approaches and processes of plan development and implementation, or the success and effectiveness of proposed measures. Mainstreaming is regarded as one approach associated with (implementation) success, but the extent of integration of local climate policies and plans in ongoing sectoral and/or development planning is unclear. This paper analyses 885 cities across the 28 European countries to create a first reference baseline on the degree of climate mainstreaming in local climate plans. This will help to compare the benefits of mainstreaming versus dedicated climate plans, looking at policy effectiveness and ultimately delivery of much needed climate change efforts at the city level. All core cities of the European Urban Audit sample were analyzed, and their local climate plans classified as dedicated or mainstreamed in other local policy initiatives. It was found that the degree of mainstreaming is low for mitigation (9% of reviewed cities; 12% of the identified plans) and somewhat higher for adaptation (10% of cities; 29% of plans). In particular horizontal mainstreaming is a major effort for local authorities; an effort that does not necessarily pay off in terms of success of action implementation. This study concludes that climate change issues in local municipalities are best tackled by either, developing a dedicated local climate plan in parallel to a mainstreamed plan or by subsequently developing first the dedicated and later a mainstreaming plan (joint or subsequent “dual track approach”). Cities that currently provide dedicated local climate plans (66% of cities for mitigation; 26% of cities for adaptation) may follow-up with a mainstreaming approach. This promises effective implementation of tangible climate actions as well as subsequent diffusion of climate issues into other local sector policies. The development of only broad sustainability or resilience strategies is seen as critical.We thank the many council representatives that supported the datacollection. Special thanks to Birgit Georgi who helped in setting up this large net work of researchers across the EU-28. We also thank the EU COST Action TU 0902 (ledbyRichardDawson) that established the core research network and the positive engagement and interaction of th emembers of this group. OH is Fellow of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and was funded by the UK EPSRC LC Transforms: Low Carbon Transitions of Fleet Operations in Metropolitan Sites Project (grant number EP/N010612/1). EKL was supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Czechia, within the National Sustainability Program I (NPU I) (grant number LO1415). DG ac-knowledges support by the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), Italy ("Departments of Excellence" grant L. 232/2016). HO was supported by the Ministry of Education and Research, Estonia (grantnumberIUT34-17). MO acknowledges funding from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), Spain (grant number IJCI-2016-28835). SS acknowledges that CENSE's research is partially funded by the Science Foundation, Portugal (grant number UID/AMB/04085/2019). The paper reflects only the views of the authors. The European Union, the European Environment Agency or other supporting bodies are not liable for any use that may be made of the information that is provided in this manuscript

A human–AI collaboration workflow for archaeological sites detection

This paper illustrates the results obtained by using pre-trained semantic segmentation deep learning models for the detection of archaeological sites within the Mesopotamian floodplains environment. The models were fine-tuned using openly available satellite imagery and vector shapes coming from a large corpus of annotations (i.e., surveyed sites). A randomized test showed that the best model reaches a detection accuracy in the neighborhood of 80%. Integrating domain expertise was crucial to define how to build the dataset and how to evaluate the predictions, since defining if a proposed mask counts as a prediction is very subjective. Furthermore, even an inaccurate prediction can be useful when put into context and interpreted by a trained archaeologist. Coming from these considerations we close the paper with a vision for a Human–AI collaboration workflow. Starting with an annotated dataset that is refined by the human expert we obtain a model whose predictions can either be combined to create a heatmap, to be overlaid on satellite and/or aerial imagery, or alternatively can be vectorized to make further analysis in a GIS software easier and automatic. In turn, the archaeologists can analyze the predictions, organize their onsite surveys, and refine the dataset with new, corrected, annotations

Combustion synthesis of metal carbides: Part I. Model development

The definition of a rigorous theoretical framework for the appropriate physico-chemical description of self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) processes represents the main goal of this work which is presented in two sequential articles. In this article, a novel mathematical model to simulate SHS processes is proposed. By adopting a heterogeneous approach for the description of mass transfer phenomena, the model is based on appropriate mass and energy conservation equations for each phase present during the system evolution. In particular, it takes microstructural evolution into account using suitable population balances and properly evaluating the different driving forces from the relevant phase diagram. The occurrence of phase transitions is treated on the basis of the so-called enthalpy approach, while a conventional nucleation-and-growth mechanistic scenario is adopted to describe quantitatively the formation of reaction products. The proposed mathematical model may be applied to the case of combustion synthesis processes involving a low melting point reactant and a refractory one, as for the synthesis of transition metal carbides from pure metal and graphite. Thus, the model can be profitably used to gain a deeper insight into the microscopic elementary phenomena involved in combustion synthesis processes through a suitable combination of experimental and modeling investigations, as it may be seen in Part II of this wor

Does living in previously exposed malaria or warm areas is associated with a lower risk of severe COVID-19 infection in Italy?

Incidence of Covid-19 positivity (21/2/2020-28/3/2020) in provinces of 4 Italian regions whose territory was described as previously exposed to Malaria was compared with those of other provinces of the same regions. The climate of such provinces was compared with the climate of the other provinces in some regions. Previously malarial areas show a lower risk than other provinces of the same regions: Mantua (Lombardy) RR=0.94 (CI95%0.89-0.99); Venice-Rovigo (Veneto) RR=0.61 (CI95%0.58-0.65); Ferrara-Ravenna (Emilia-Romagna) RR=0.37 (CI95%0.35-0.41); CagliariOristano-SouthSardinia (Sardinia) RR=0.25 (0.17-0.31). The maximum temperature in March 2020 in those provinces was higher in mean 1.5° for other provinces. The lower frequency of COVID-19 in the provinces previously exposed to Malaria of four Italian regions does not reveal a causal link. The phenomenon has emerged independently in all the regions investigated. People born between the 1920s and 1950s were those most exposed to malaria years ago and today are the most exposed to the severest forms of COVID-19. A warmer climate seems to be associated with a lower risk of COVID, in line with the evidence highlighted in equatorial states where a lower lethality of the virus has emerged, however this regardless of the presence of Malaria. This may suggest that climate and not Malaria is the real risk factor, though further studies need to determine the role of the association climate / COVID