Brief communication: Mountain permafrost acts as an aquitard during an infiltration experiment monitored with electrical resistivity tomography time-lapse measurements

Frozen layers within the subsurface of rock glaciers are generally assumed to act as aquicludes or aquitards. So far, this behavior has been mainly defined by analyzing the geochemical characteristics of spring waters. In this work, for the first time, we experimentally confirmed this assumption by executing an infiltration test in a rock glacier of the Southern Alps, Italy. Time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) technique monitored the infiltration of 800 L of saltwater released on the surface of the rock glacier; 24 h ERT monitoring highlighted that the injected water was not able to infiltrate into the underlying frozen layer.</p

Ricerche su Gerardo Boldieri di Verona (1405 c. - 1485), docente di medicina a Padova. La famiglia, l'inventario dei libri e dei beni, la cappella

Profilo di un grande medico, docente universitario a Padova, e studio ed edizione della sua bibliotec

Melanoma in situ a diffusione superficiale: riflessioni sui margini. di escissione.

Le Linee Guida Internazionali consigliano per il melanoma in situ un’asportazione chirurgica che abbia un margine di escissione (definito “di sicurezza”) di 5 mm e che raggiunga, in profondità, la fascia muscolare. L’esame istologico è un’indagine indispensabile per indicare se una lesione melanocitaria, clinicamente atipica, sia o non sia un melanoma. Pertanto, in presenza di un nevo clinicamente atipico, si procede alla sua asportazione chirurgica; l’escissione viene effettuata ad una distanza massima di 3 mm per deformare meno l’area interessata ed ottenere anche un miglior risultato estetico. Se il risultato istologico è di “melanoma in situ”, si interviene una seconda volta allargando la sede cicatriziale per portare la distanza dell’incisione chirurgica a 5 mm, rispetto alla lesione melanocitaria iniziale e si deve raggiungere anche la fascia muscolare sottostante. Lo scopo del presente studio è quello di capire se esiste un motivo nell’effettuare il secondo intervento di allargamento della ferita chirurgica di pregresso melanoma in situ a diffusione superficiale, già asportato con margini e fondo indenni. Vengono esclusi dal presente studio gli altri istotipi di melanoma. A tale fine sono stati controllati i referti istologici di tutti gli allargamenti dei melanomi in situ a diffusione superficiale degli ultimi sei anni degli ambulatori di dermatologia chirurgica e dell’Azienda Ospedaliero - Universitaria di Parma e dell’Ospedale “Santa Chiara” di Trento. L’analisi di tali dati non ha mai rilevato infiltrazioni, né residui di cellule di melanoma nel pezzo operatorio ottenuto dal secondo intervento. I dati raccolti nel presente studio sollevano il dubbio che l’indicazione al secondo intervento chirurgico di allargamento, come dettato dalle Linee Guida Internazionali, rappresenti più una precauzione eccessiva che una effettiva necessità; certamente il suddetto risultato rappresenta un ulteriore stimolo per approfondire la ricerca in tema di melanoma in situ a diffusione superficiale

Effetti dell\u2019acqua termale di Comano sulla sintesi e secrezione di citochine e chemochine in cheratinociti psoriasici in vitro.

Effetti dell\u2019acqua termale di Comano sulla sintesi e secrezione di citochine e chemochine in cheratinociti psoriasici in vitr

Exploiting clinical knowledge for supporting early diagnosis of melanoma

Nowadays there is an increasing availability of Information and Communication Technologies in the health care sector. This can represent a great opportunity to exploit Intelligent Data Analysis (IDA) in order to build effective tools for supporting medical decision-making. In this paper we will describe our approach to the use of IDA technique in the dermatology domain. In particular we will show how we have handled the different knowledge and expertise of dermatologists in order to build an effective decision support system for early diagnosis of melanoma. The early diagnosis is a key feature for the successful treatmento of this disease, and it is still a difficult task. Our approach was the development of several systems, each of those was "tuned" on the specific skill of the dermatologist, by first weighting more the dermatologist's miscrìlassified cases, and then combining the systrem outputs with the clinical diagnosis. Our preliminary results show that, taking adequately into account different diagnostic skills of single dermatologists, it is possible to develop systems that could enhance the recognition of early malignant skin lesions; it means that the combination fo support system + dermatologist yields better results than the dermatologis

Comano\u2019s (Trentino) thermal water interferes with the interleukin-6 production and secretion and with cytokeratin-16 expression by cultured human psoriatic keratinocytes: Further potential mechanisms of its anti-psoriatic action.

Thermal balneotherapy with Comano's spa water (CW; Trentino, Italy) is used for psoriasis and other skin disorders but its mechanisms of action are mostly unknown. Previously, we showed that CW can interfere with the expression and secretion of various VEGF-A isoforms by cultured human psoriatic epidermal keratinocytes. In this study, confluent cultures of IL-6-hypersecreting keratino-cytes isolated from 6 psoriatic patients were exposed for 11-15 days to DMEM, the chemicals of which had been dissolved in either deionised water (DW-DMEM, controls) or CW (CW-DMEM, treated cells). As detected by means of immunocytochemistry, Western immunoblotting, and ELISA assays, the intracellular levels and secretion rates of IL-6 were drastically curtailed in the CW-DMEM-incubated keratinocytes and in their cell-conditioned media. A nearly maximal inhibition of IL-6 release had already been induced by a CW fraction in the DMEM as low as 25%. CW exposure also promptly, intensely, and persistently down-regulated the expression of cytokeratin-16 (CK-16), a marker associated with keratinocyte psoriatic phenotype. Hence, CW balneotherapy may beneficially affect the clinical manifestations of psoriasis via an attenuation of the local deregulation of several cytokines/chemokines, including IL-6 and VEGF-A isoforms, and of a concurrent, abnormal cell differentiation program entailing the expression, amongst other proteins, of CK-16

The Alpine Space \u201cPermaNET\u201d project in Trentino (eastern Italian Alps): advance of the research and monitoring activities

Research and monitoring activities on rock glacier and permafrost in Trentino (eastern Italian Alps) have received a significant increase by the recent approval of the Alpine Space PermaNET project. In order to describe the permafrost presence and condition in the territory, a number of investigations have been put in place since many years, providing an extensive dataset of information that will form the basis for new studies. First of all, a GIS-based inventory of permafrost evidences (i.e. rock glaciers) has been carried out for the whole territory. The inventory is based on aerial photo interpretation and field observations, and describes the activity status, geometry and geomorphological characteristics of rock glaciers. Part of these rock glaciers were selected as test sites for further investigations like: a) surface velocity measurements using terrestrial topographic surveys (total station and RTK-GPS); b) BTS measurements on an active landform and on nearby slopes; c) near-surface continuous ground temperature measurements using MTDs (miniature temperature dataloggers) in the area of four active rock glaciers and on nearby slopes. Furthermore, ground temperature monitoring has started in a 20 m deep borehole - initially drilled for inclinometer measurements - near the \u201cAi Caduti dell\u2019Adamello\u201d alpine hut (3030 m a.s.l., Adamello Group); this area will therefore become a key-monitoring site for high altitude infrastructures and related permafrost-degradation problems. Finally, a 50 m deep borehole has been drilled at the Cavaion basin (2900 m a.s.l.), in the Ortles-Cevedale group. This site is going to be fully instrumented with a thermistor chain and a meteorological station. The aim of this contribution is: (i) to give an overview on the investigations of permafrost occurrence in Trentino, (ii) to summarize the main results of the monitoring activities on rock glaciers obtained so far, and (iii) to describe and evaluate the procedure used to choose the Cavaion site, based on geomorphological investigations, ground surface thermal monitoring using MTDs and extensive BTS measurements. These activities will eventually provide the ground temperature validation data set, upon which the statistical model of permafrost distribution in Trentino will be based

Inventory, distribution and topographic features of rock glaciers in the southern region of the Eastern Italian Alps (Trentino).

A GIS-based rock glacier inventory was conducted in a region of about 6200 km2 located in the southern sector of the Eastern Italian Alps (Trentino). The five major mountain groups of the region were investigated and a total of 705 rock glaciers, 25% of which are intact (i.e. containing permafrost), were identified. Their spatial distribution is rather inhomogeneous, which suggests that, in addition to climate, the bedrock lithology and structure are among the key factors controlling their genesis and development. The lowest density of rock glaciers was associated with carbonatic rock outcroppings (e.g. in the Brenta Group and in the Dolomites), whereas the highest density was observed in areas dominated by metamorphic rocks (e.g. Ortles Cevedale group). The rock glaciers cover a total area of 33.3 km2, which is more than 1.4% of the area located above 1600 m a.s.l. and is comparable to the area covered by glaciers (38.3 km2 in 2003). The rock glaciers are located at a mean elevation of 2282 \ub1289 m a.s.l. and are distributed in an elevation range of about 1440 m. Considering separately the two classes of intact and relict (i.e. with no permafrost) rock glaciers, the mean elevation is 2632 \ub1205 m a.s.l. and 2169 \ub1211 m a.s.l. respectively. Relict rock glaciers are found between 1650 and 2700 m a.s.l., whereas above 2800 m a.s.l. only intact rock glaciers exist. The mean aspect of all the inventoried rock glaciers is 43\ub0. A dominant northern orientation does not emerge in the class of the intact forms, whereas the relict rock glaciers show a predominant northern orientation with a mean aspect of about 30\ub0. According to the mean elevation of the intact rock glaciers, the lower boundary of permafrost in the studied region would be located at an elevation of approximately 2630 m a.s.l. This boundary varies significantly when considering the different exposures, and ranges from about 2510 m a.s.l. on north-facing slopes to about 2690 m a.s.l. on those exposed to the south. The lower boundary of permafrost existence in the past, as marked by the mean elevation of the relict rock glaciers, was located about 450 m lower than the modern one with variations included in a range of 230 m according to the exposure. This provides a rough estimation of the shift in elevation of the lower permafrost boundary between the present-day and the time when the relict rock glaciers were active. Accordingly, a MAAT increase of about 2.9\ub0C can be calculated applying a standard vertical lapse rate (0.65\ub0C/100 m) to this shift