La vegetazione dell’Emilia-Romagna

Il presente lavoro costituisce una sintesi, aggiornata al 2020, delle conoscenze sulla vegetazione dell'Emilia-Romagna. Le fonti utilizzate sono rappresentate esclusivamente da dati di letteratura (articoli, volumi, in un caso una Tesi di Dottorato) riguardanti il territorio citato; in nessun caso vi sono contenuti dati originali. Vengono trattati i syntaxa di livello basale (associazioni, subassociazioni e aggruppamenti) che sono inquadrati in uno schema sintassonomico comprendente classi, ordini e alleanze. Per ogni classe di vegetazione il testo è diviso in una parte descrittiva, con schema sintassonomico e cenni di sinecologia, ed in una sezione contenente le tabelle relative a quella particolare classe. Complessivamente sono trattate 50 classi di vegetazione comprendenti 3258 rilievi distribuiti in 454 tabelle fitosociologiche

Efficacy of safety catheter devices in the prevention of occupational needlestick injuries: applied research in Liguria Region (Italy)

Health care workers who use or may be exposed to needles are at increased risk of needlestick injuries which can lead to serious infections with bloodborne pathogens. These injuries can be avoided by eliminating the unnecessary use of needles, using safety devices. The present study was aimed at evaluating the impact of a safety-engineered device, with passive fully automatic needlestick protection, on the reduction of needlestick injuries among health care workers. The setting of the study was a network of five public health care institutions situated in a Northern Italian Region. Data about the type of device, the number of employees and the amount of catheter devices used per year were collected through regular meetings with health care workers over a period of five years.The most remarkable result of this study was represented by the huge risk reduction estimated for safety devices. Indeed, the risk of needlestick injuries due to conventional devices was found to be 25 fold higher than that observed for safety devices. However, it is noteworthy that a discernible part of this excess can be explained by the different background amount of devices used. Moreover, the descriptive analysis suggested that individuals with a poor/moderate training level showed a lower risk, albeit not statistically significant, than those with a good/high training.In conclusion, there is a convincing evidence of a causal connection between the introduction of safety devices and reduction in the occurrence of needlestick injuries. This consideration pushes to introduce safety devices into daily clinical practice

An overview of the Italian forest biodiversity and its conservation level, based on the first outcomes of the 4th Habitat Report ex-Art. 17

In 2019 the 4th Report ex-Art. 17 on the conservation status (CS) of Annex I Habitats of the 92/43/EEC Directive was expected by every EU/28 country, with reference to the period 2013-18. In Italy, the process was in charge to the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), on behalf of the Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea Protection (MATTM), with the scientific support of the Italian Botanical Society (SBI). A large group of thematic and territorial experts elaborated the available data concerning the 124 types of terrestrial and inland water Habitats present in Italy, 39 of which are represented by Forest Habitats (Group 9),. The main aim of the work was the evaluation of the overall CS of each Habitat by Biogeographic Region (Mediterranean, Continental and Alpine), for a total amount of 294 assessments. A high proportion of these (92, corresponding to 31% of the total) referred to Forest Habitats, including 20 marginal types for which the CS was not requested. The analysis was carried out at different scales: a) administrative territory, through the data contained in the ISPRA database, whose compilation was in charge to the Regions and Autonomous Provinces; b) Natura 2000 site, with the latest updates available (Standard Data Forms updated to 2018); c) national scale, implementing the distribution maps for each Habitat based on the European grid ETRS89-LAEA5210 (10x10 km2 mesh); d) Biogeographic Region, scale of the final assessment. Cartographic outcomes, associated databases and additional data used for the assessments will be available online on the ISPRA Portal as soon as the validation process by the European Commission will be completed. A dedicated archive named "HAB_IT" has been created in the national database "VegItaly" (1), managed by the Italian Society of Vegetation Science, where the phytosociological relevés representative of the various Annex I Habitats in Italy will be archived and freely accessible. An overview of the results regarding the Forest habitats is here provided, including a comparison with the outcomes of the former reporting cycle, the 3rd Report ex-Art. 17 (2). In several cases (e.g. 9120, 91L0), the distribution maps have been remarkably improved due to better knowledge and more fitful interpretation. The conservation status resulted as Favourable (FV) for 6,7%, Inadequate (U1) for 58,7% and Bad (U1) for 32,0% of the 72 assessed forest Habitat types. In no case there was an improvement of the conservation status, while in 6 cases a worsening of the conditions resulted from the data analysis, pointing out the Habitats types with a higher need of action. Similarly to other projects carried out as a team by the network of Annex I Habitat experts of the Italian Botanical Society and the Italian Society for Vegetation Science (e.g. 3, 4), this is another step in the direction of supporting the implementation of the 92/43/EEC "Habitat" Directive in Italy and Europe. On this ground, the high biodiversity of the Italian forest Habitats could be emphasized, however results pointed out that some rare or endemic types (e.g. Alnus cordata or Betula aetnensis-dominated forests) are still scarcely acknowledged by the most prominent EU conservation tools such as the Annex I to the "Habitat" Directive. 1) F. Landucci et al. (2012) Plant Biosyst., 146(4), 756-763 2) P. Genovesi et al. (2014) ISPRA, Serie Rapporti, 194/2014 3) E. Biondi et al. (2009) Società Botanica Italiana, MATTM, D.P.N., http://vnr.unipg.it/habitat/ 4) D. Gigante et al. (2016) Plant Sociology, 53(2), 77-8

La vegetazione dell’Emilia-Romagna. Seconda edizione riveduta ed ampliata

Il presente lavoro costituisce la seconda edizione di una sintesi, aggiornata al 2022, delle conoscenze sulla vegetazione dell'Emilia-Romagna. Le fonti utilizzate sono rappresentate esclusivamente da dati di letteratura (articoli, volumi, in un caso una Tesi di Dottorato) riguardanti il territorio citato; in nessun caso vi sono contenuti dati originali. Vengono trattati i syntaxa di livello basale (associazioni, subassociazioni e aggruppamenti) che sono inquadrati in uno schema sintassonomico comprendente classi, ordini e alleanze. Per ogni classe di vegetazione il testo è diviso in una parte descrittiva, con schema sintassonomico e cenni di sinecologia, ed in una sezione contenente le tabelle relative a quella particolare classe. Complessivamente sono trattate 51 classi di vegetazione comprendenti 3797 rilievi distribuiti in 514 tabelle fitosociologiche

Effects of Mechanical Winter Pruning on Vine Performances and Management Costs in a Trebbiano Romagnolo Vineyard: A Five-Year Study

Vineyard mechanical winter pruning has been spreading worldwide, and the physiological basis ascribable to it has been consolidated throughout the years. Despite labor savings and reduction of costs having been proven, the demonstration of its economic viability might be challenging. In this context, this work aims to evaluate the vine performances and the costs of different degrees of the mechanization of winter pruning over a five-year trial (2011–2015). In a vineyard of cv. Trebbiano Romagnolo (Vitis vinifera L.) located in northern Italy, three pruning treatments were laid out as follows: (a) manual pruning (MAN); (b) mechanical pre-pruning and simultaneous manual follow-up (MP + F); (c) mechanical pruning without a manual follow-up (MP). The results showed a strong increase in the node number of MP. Nevertheless, the yield compensation factors (i.e., the shoot fruitfulness and cluster weight) limited the increase in productivity. Soluble solids did not differ between the pruning treatments, while titratable acidity resulted slightly higher only on the MP berries. The MP treatment was the most economically convenient, with a vineyard surface of 1.5 hectares, while mechanical pruning with manual finishing resulted more advantageous, compared to manual pruning when the vineyard surface was greater than 2.9 hectares. The agronomic and economic results obtained in this five-year trial suggest that mechanical pruning may be profitably applied also on grapevine varieties characterized by low basal bud fruitfulness, such as Trebbiano Romagnolo

Exploring the connection unit in the HDAC inhibitor pharmacophore model: Novel uracil-based hydroxamates

Starting from the pharmacophore model for HDAC inhibitor design, a novel series of hydroxamates bearing a uracil moiety as connecting unit (CU) has been prepared and tested. Almost all compounds exhibited HDAC inhibiting activity at low nanomolar concentrations, the N-hydroxy-6-(3,4-dihydro-4-oxo-6-benzyl- and -6-phenyl-2-pyrimidinylthio)hexanamides 1d and 11 being more potent than SAHA in enzymatic assays. Such compounds also caused hyperacetylation in NIH3T3 cell core histones and were endowed with interesting antiproliferative and cytodifferentiating effects in human leukemia (HL-60) cells. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Class II (IIa)-selective histone deacetylase inhibitors. 1. Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel (aryloxopropenyl)pyrrolyl hydroxyamides

Chemical manipulations performed on aroyl-pyrrolyl-hydroxyamides (APHAs) led to (aryloxopropenyl)pyrrolyl hydroxamates 2a-w, and their inhibition against maize HDACs and their class I or class II HDAC selectivity were determined. In particular, from these studies some benzene meta-substituted compounds emerged as highly class II (IIa)-selective HDAC inhibitors, the most selective being the 3-chloro- and 3-fluoro-substituted compounds 2c (SI = 71.4) and 2f (SI = 176.4). The replacement of benzene with a 1-naphthyl ring afforded 2s, highly active against the class II homologue HD1-A (IC(50) = 10 nM) but less class II-selective than 2c,f When tested against human HDAC1 and HDAC4, 2f showed no inhibitory activity against HDAC1 but was able to inhibit HDAC4. Moreover, in human U937 acute myeloid leukaemia cells 2f did not produce any effect on apoptosis, granulocytic differentiation, and the cell cycle, whereas 2s (that retain class I HDAC inhibitory activity) was 2-fold less potent than SAHA used as reference