Water management in local development plans: the case of the old Fruit and Vegetable Market in Bologna

This paper describes the hydraulic simulation of an urban drainage system with SWMM 5.0 in order to evaluate the behavior of different solutions for the management of urban runoff. In particular have been analyzed different solutions for the flow peak reduction in the receiving water: retention basin, green roofs and infiltration tanks. The reuse of rainfall for irrigation has been analyzed in order to evaluate the reduction in the volume that flow into the sewer system. The simulations were performed adopting a long time rainfall series of 15 years recorded in Bologna (Italy)

Sustainability achievements in building regulations. The example of Bologna

The urban development in the last decades has meant for most cities a significant increasing of land consumption and waste of natural resources. Despite the process of urban sprawl is now being reduced, there is an urgent need for corrective measures to qualify the existing town, according to more sustainable principles.The city of Bologna has recently developed new tools, in order to promote a social and economic growth without affecting the urban and environmental quality. This article aims to describe the achievements of the innovative requirements in the new Town Planning Building Regulations, to analyse their effect, in relation to the reduction of use of natural resources and the improvement of environmental quality of the interventions

Valproate Use Is Associated With Posterior Cortical Thinning and Ventricular Enlargement in Epilepsy Patients

Valproate is a drug widely used to treat epilepsy, bipolar disorder, and occasionally to prevent migraine headache. Despite its clinical efficacy, prenatal exposure to valproate is associated with neurodevelopmental impairments and its use in children and adults was associated with rare cases of reversible brain atrophy and ventricular enlargement. To determine whether valproate use is related with structural brain changes we examined through a cross-sectional study cortical and subcortical structures in a group of 152 people with epilepsy and a normal clinical brain MRI. Patients were grouped into those currently using valproate (n = 54), those taking drugs other than valproate (n = 47), and drug-naïve patients (n = 51) at the time of MRI, irrespectively of their epilepsy syndrome. Cortical thickness and subcortical volumes were analyzed using Freesurfer, version 5.0. Subjects exposed to valproate (either in mono- or polytherapy) showed reduced cortical thickness in the occipital lobe, more precisely in the cuneus bilaterally, in the left lingual gyrus, and in left and right pericalcarine gyri when compared to patients who used other antiepileptic drugs, to drug-naïve epilepsy patients, and to healthy controls. Considering the subgroup of patients using valproate monotherapy (n = 25), both comparisons with healthy controls and drug-naïve groups confirmed occipital lobe cortical thickness reduction. Moreover, patients using valproate showed increased left and right lateral ventricle volume compared to all other groups. Notably, subjects who were non-valproate users at the time of MRI, but who had valproate exposure in the past (n = 27) did not show these cortical or subcortical brain changes. Cortical changes in the posterior cortex, particularly in the visual cortex, and ventricular enlargement, are present in people with epilepsy using valproate, independently from clinical and demographical variables. These findings are relevant both for the efficacy and adverse events profile of valproate use in people with epilepsy

Valproate Use Is Associated With Posterior Cortical Thinning and Ventricular Enlargement in Epilepsy Patients

Valproate is a drug widely used to treat epilepsy, bipolar disorder, and occasionally to prevent migraine headache. Despite its clinical efficacy, prenatal exposure to valproate is associated with neurodevelopmental impairments and its use in children and adults was associated with rare cases of reversible brain atrophy and ventricular enlargement. To determine whether valproate use is related with structural brain changes we examined through a cross-sectional study cortical and subcortical structures in a group of 152 people with epilepsy and a normal clinical brain MRI. Patients were grouped into those currently using valproate (n = 54), those taking drugs other than valproate (n = 47), and drug-naïve patients (n = 51) at the time of MRI, irrespectively of their epilepsy syndrome. Cortical thickness and subcortical volumes were analyzed using Freesurfer, version 5.0. Subjects exposed to valproate (either in mono- or polytherapy) showed reduced cortical thickness in the occipital lobe, more precisely in the cuneus bilaterally, in the left lingual gyrus, and in left and right pericalcarine gyri when compared to patients who used other antiepileptic drugs, to drug-naïve epilepsy patients, and to healthy controls. Considering the subgroup of patients using valproate monotherapy (n = 25), both comparisons with healthy controls and drug-naïve groups confirmed occipital lobe cortical thickness reduction. Moreover, patients using valproate showed increased left and right lateral ventricle volume compared to all other groups. Notably, subjects who were non-valproate users at the time of MRI, but who had valproate exposure in the past (n = 27) did not show these cortical or subcortical brain changes. Cortical changes in the posterior cortex, particularly in the visual cortex, and ventricular enlargement, are present in people with epilepsy using valproate, independently from clinical and demographical variables. These findings are relevant both for the efficacy and adverse events profile of valproate use in people with epilepsy

Indicators Affecting the Urban Resilience with a Scenario Approach in Tehran Metropolis

Urban resilience refers to the capacity of an urban system to fully recover from unforeseen calamities. This study aims to assess the physical resilience indicators used to measure urban resilience in Tehran, the political and economic capital of Iran, and to pinpoint the most significant direct and indirect influences on urban resilience. The research process divided into two parts. The environmental scanning approach (reviewing papers and published sources, interviewing specialists, and monitoring conferences) and the literature review were employed in the first part to compile a database of the key information on the elements impacting physical resilience. The most significant factors impacting physical resilience over the next ten years were requested to be identified by specialists and intellectuals in the second part. Finally, the MicMac program was used to analyze the data after 29 variables were specified in Delphi. In light of the trace-analysis-dependence diagram, which depicts the instability of the influential factors and the persistence of their impact on other variables, the results demonstrate that Tehran’s physical resilience is in an unstable condition. According to the results, the factors that have the maximum impact on other variables are granularity drivers, emergency evacuation capacity, rescue and security spaces (emergency, fire station, and police station), impermeability, rate of the amendment and retrofitting measures in the buildings of each zone, building age, and the compatibility of land uses. The variables that are most susceptible to change from other variables include the distribution status of dangerous land uses, the quality of the buildings, the rate of historically vulnerable buildings, the vulnerability of internal and external roads, the rate of improvements and retrofitting measures in buildings in each zone, as well as historically vulnerable historical buildings

Resistance of European spring 2-row barley cultivars to Pyrenophora graminea and detection of associated loci

Pyrenophora graminea is the seed-borne pathogen causal agent of barley leaf stripe disease. In this work, we screened a collection of 206 spring two-row barley cultivars from Europe for their resistance to the fungal pathogen. Artificial inoculation with the highly virulent isolate Dg2 revealed a continuous variation for the incidence of infection, with few highly resistant or highly susceptible genotypes. On average, old cultivars showed higher resistance than the more modern ones. Genome- Wide Association Scan was performed by exploiting available molecular data for >4000 SNP markers and revealed a single, highly significant association on the short arm of chromosome 6H, in a genomic position where quantitative trait loci (QTL) for barley resistance to P. graminea were not detected before. Based on the last version of the reference barley genome, genes encoding for proteins with a kinase domain were suggested as candidates for the locus

Genome-Wide Association Study Using Genotyping by Sequencing for Bacterial Leaf Blight Resistance Loci in Local Thai Indica Rice

Bacterial leaf blight (BLB) is a devastating disease caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), which poses a significant threat to global rice production. In this study, a genomewide association study (GWAS) was conducted using the genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach to identify candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with BLB resistance genes. The study utilized 200 indica rice accessions inoculated with seven distinct Xoo isolates and filtered highly significant SNPs using a minor allele frequency (MAF) of >5% and a call rate of 75%. Four statistical models were used to explore potential SNPs associated with BLB resistance, resulting in the identification of 32 significant SNPs on chromosomes 1–8 and 12 in the rice genome. Additionally, 179 genes were located within 100 kb of the SNP region, of which 49 were selected as candidate genes based on their known functions in plant defense mechanisms. Several candidate genes were identified, including two genes in the same linkage disequilibrium (LD) decay as the well-known BLB resistance gene (Xa1). These findings represent a valuable resource for conducting further functional studies and developing novel breeding strategies to enhance the crop’s resistance to this disease

A possible role of the trehalose/trehalose-6-phosphate/SnRK1 system in rice response to salt stress

Among the abiotic stresses exacerbated by climate change, soil salinity is one of the most harmful for crops. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a very salt-sensitive cereal, with particular regard to the cultivars belonging to the subspecies japonica. In order to identify genomic traits conferring salt tolerance, a collection of 277 rice accessions (ssp. japonica) has been phenotypized under mild-salinity considering germination kinetic parameters and seedling emergence rate. Genotyping By Sequencing (GBS) followed by a Genome Wide Association Study (GWASs) were carried out. A total of 31.421 SNPs were used for the analysis. Significant genotypic-phenotypic associations were observed and a few Marker-Trait Associations (MTAs) were identified. By alignment with the rice reference genome (Os-Nipponbare-Reference-IRGSP-1.0), some of the genes putatively involved in salt stress were highlighted. Among them, our interest has been focused on OsTPP7 (chromosome 9) and OsTPP10 (chromosome 7), genes that belong to the OsTPP gene family encoding for Trehalose-6-Phosphate Phosphatase (TPP) enzymes catalyzing the dephosphorylation of Trehalose-6-Phosphate (T6P) to Trehalose (Tre). The level of T6P plays a central role in abiotic stress tolerance, acting as a signal in the cascade of events regulating sugar metabolism (sucrose) during seed germination and seedling growth. This activity is mediated by Snf1-Related protein Kinase-1 (SnRK1), a metabolic sensor fundamental in maintaining carbon homeostasis under stress condition. Biochemical and molecular analyses were performed on two rice accessions showing opposite behavior under salt stress (Olcenengo, tolerant, and SR113, sensitive). Results concerning T6P, Tre and sucrose levels in growing embryos, the evaluation of the time course of \u3b1-amylase enzyme (target of the SnRK1 system) activity and of OsTPP10-OsTPP7 gene expression appear to allow us to define a picture coherent with the different effects of salt stress in Olcenengo and SR113. Functional characterization of OsTPP10 gene and its allele mining analysis within the 277 rice accessions are in progress

Cortical and Subcortical Network Dysfunction in a Female Patient With NEXMIF Encephalopathy

The developmental and epileptic encephalopathies (DEE) are the most severe group of epilepsies. Recently, NEXMIF mutations have been shown to cause a DEE in females, characterized by myoclonic–atonic epilepsy and recurrent nonconvulsive status. Here we used advanced neuroimaging techniques in a patient with a novel NEXMIF de novo mutation presenting with recurrent absence status with eyelid myoclonia, to reveal brain structural and functional changes that can bring the clinical phenotype to alteration within specific brain networks. Indeed, the alterations found in the patient involved the visual pericalcarine cortex and the middle frontal gyrus, regions that have been demonstrated to be a core feature in epilepsy phenotypes with visual sensitivity and eyelid myoclonia with absences

Epigenetic chromatin modifiers in barley: IV. The study of barley Polycomb group (PcG) genes during seed development and in response to external ABA

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Epigenetic phenomena have been associated with the regulation of active and silent chromatin states achieved by modifications of chromatin structure through DNA methylation, and histone post-translational modifications. The latter is accomplished, in part, through the action of PcG (Polycomb group) protein complexes which methylate nucleosomal histone tails at specific sites, ultimately leading to chromatin compaction and gene silencing. Different PcG complex variants operating during different developmental stages have been described in plants. In particular, the so-called FIE/MEA/FIS2 complex governs the expression of genes important in embryo and endosperm development in <it>Arabidopsis</it>. In our effort to understand the epigenetic mechanisms regulating seed development in barley (<it>Hordeum vulgare</it>), an agronomically important monocot plant cultivated for its endosperm, we set out to characterize the genes encoding barley PcG proteins.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Four barley <it>PcG </it>gene homologues, named <it>HvFIE</it>, <it>HvE(Z), HvSu(z)12a</it>, and <it>HvSu(z)12b </it>were identified and structurally and phylogenetically characterized. The corresponding genes <it>HvFIE</it>, <it>HvE(Z), HvSu(z)12a</it>, and <it>HvSu(z)12b </it>were mapped onto barley chromosomes 7H, 4H, 2H and 5H, respectively. Expression analysis of the <it>PcG </it>genes revealed significant differences in gene expression among tissues and seed developmental stages and between barley cultivars with varying seed size. Furthermore, <it>HvFIE </it>and <it>HvE(Z) </it>gene expression was responsive to the abiotic stress-related hormone abscisic acid (ABA) known to be involved in seed maturation, dormancy and germination.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study reports the first characterization of the <it>PcG </it>homologues, <it>HvFIE, HvE(Z)</it>, <it>HvSu(z)12a </it>and <it>HvSu(z)12b </it>in barley. All genes co-localized with known chromosomal regions responsible for malting quality related traits, suggesting that they might be used for developing molecular markers to be applied in marker assisted selection. The <it>PcG </it>differential expression pattern in different tissues and seed developmental stages as well as in two barley cultivars with different seed size is suggestive of a role for these genes in barley seed development. <it>HvFIE </it>and <it>HvE(Z) </it>were also found to be induced by the plant hormone ABA implying an association with ABA-mediated processes during seed development, germination and stress response.</p