Copernicus high-resolution layers for land cover classification in Italy

The high-resolution layers (HRLs) are land cover maps produced for the entire Italian territory (approximately 30 million hectares) in 2012 by the European Environment Agency, aimed at monitoring soil imperviousness and natural cover, such as forest, grassland, wetland, and water surface, with a high spatial resolution of 20 m. This study presents the methodologies developed for the production, verification, and enhancement of the HRLs in Italy. The innovative approach is mainly based on (a) the use of available reference data for the enhancement process, (b) the reduction of the manual work of operators by using a semi-automatic approach, and (c) the overall increase in the cost-efficiency in relation to the production and updating of land cover maps. The results show the reliability of these methodologies in assessing and enhancing the quality of the HRLs. Finally, an integration of the individual layers, represented by the HRLs, was performed in order to produce a National High-Resolution Land Cover ma

Optimal design of a 6-DOF 4-4 parallel manipulator with uncoupled singularities

A 6-DOF 4-4 parallel manipulator is presented. Its forward kinematics can be solved by a sequence of three trilaterations and, as a consequence, its singularities can be described in geometric terms as the degeneration of three tetrahedra. Moreover, it is shown how the proposed manipulator belongs to the family of flagged parallel manipulators. This identification is useful because the topology of the singularity locus of flagged manipulators has been fully characterized and, what is more important, the singularities of flagged manipulators correspond to uncoupled translations and/or rotations in the workspace of the manipulator. An optimization of its workspace is carried out using Sequential Quadratic Programming and a virtual prototype of the optimal result has been implemented in SolidWorks.Peer Reviewe

Harmonized forest categories in central Italy

To support sustainable forest management, planning policies and environmental actions, it is essential to have available common and standardized geospatial information on forest structure, composition and distribution. In this paper we present a harmonized forest categories (HFCs) map of four administrative Regions located in central Italy (i.e. Marche, Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise) at a scale of 1:400,000. The study area extends over 42,246 km2, 14,878 km2 of which are covered by forests. Four regional forest maps were harmonized in order to produce common standardized information on composition, structure and the distribution of forests in central Italy. A forest category is a forest vegetation unit defined by the main tree species composition. In this study we adopted a nomenclature scheme composed of 16 forest and shrubland categories. This work represents the first HFCs map in Italy over a large area. The legend is also harmonized with the European Environment Agency forest types nomenclature

Stima spazialmente definita della produttività potenziale delle risorse agro-forestali per uso energetico: il caso di studio della regione Molise.

In questo lavoro sono riportati i risultati della stima della disponibilita di biomassa per uso energetico ottenibile dalle risorse agro-forestali a seguito dell'applicazione di criteri di sostenibilita. Le analisi sono state effettuate a due differenti scale geografiche: la prima a livello nazionale e la seconda a livello regionale, basata su strati informativi di maggior dettaglio, e con risultati aggregati a livello comunale. In entrambi i casi sono stati applicati dei vincoli alla produzione di biomassa strettamente connessi alle caratteristiche morfologiche, tecnico-strutturali e gestionali dell'area di studio e all'uso di criteri che garantiscono la sostenibilita della gestione delle risorse forestali basati sulla provvigione minimale

P1245 Polymorphic Variants of HSD3B1 Gene Confer Different Outcome in Specific Subgroups of Patients Infected With SARS-CoV-2

Introduction: Severe respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) uses the androgen receptor (AR), through ACE2 receptor and TMPRSS2, to enter nasal and upper airways epithelial cells. Genetic analyses revealed that HSD3B1 P1245C polymorphic variant increases dihydrotestosterone production and upregulation of TMPRSS2 with respect to P1245A variant, thus possibly influencing SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our aim was to characterize the HSD3B1 polymorphism status and its potential association with clinical outcomes in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in Southern Switzerland. Materials and Methods: The cohort included 400 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 during the first wave between February and May 2020 in two different hospitals of Canton Ticino. Genomic DNA was extracted from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue blocks, and HSD3B1 gene polymorphism was evaluated by Sanger sequencing. Statistical associations were verified using different test. Results: HSD3B1 polymorphic variants were not associated with a single classical factor related to worse clinical prognosis in hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2. However, in specific subgroups, HSD3B1 variants played a clinical role: intensive care unit admission was more probable in patients with P1245C diabetes compared with P1245A individuals without this comorbidity and death was more associated with hypertensive P1245A>C cases than patients with P1245A diabetes without hypertension. Discussion: This is the first study showing that HSD3B1 gene status may influence the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection. If confirmed, our results could lead to the introduction of HSD3B1 gene status analysis in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 to predict clinical outcome. Keywords: HSD3B1 gene polymorphism; Likelihood-ratio tests; SARS-CoV-2; androgen receptor; direct sequencing