I catasti storici come strumento di prevenzione del rischio ambientale : Il catasto lombardo-veneto e la sua applicazione nell’area lariana

Il massiccio abbandono che nel corso del Novecento ha interessato la gran parte dei versanti terrazzati rappresenta un problema quanto mai attuale, intimamente legato a quello del dissesto idrogeologico. La manomissione antropica dello spazio declive costituisce, infatti, un fattore di rischio costante laddove vengono meno l\u2019azione di presidio e di ordinaria manutenzione connesse al mantenimento funzionale degli spazi terrazzati. Allo stato attuale, uno dei principali limiti relativi al loro studio \ue8 la difficolt\ue0 di disporre di un\u2019effettiva mappatura del fenomeno. La conoscenza a tratti limitata, a tratti addirittura assente degli ambiti soggetti a terrazzamento si traduce inevitabilmente nell\u2019inadeguatezza delle analisi sul rischio ambientale di questi territori. Un approccio inedito nei confronti di questa problematica pu\uf2 essere rappresentato dall\u2019utilizzo dei dati conservati nei catasti storici. La rilettura sistematica di quelli relativi all\u2019area lariana ha permesso di individuare la presenza, nella seconda met\ue0 del XIX secolo, di circa 1.800 ettari di superfici terrazzate, in un territorio in cui la presenza di terrazzamenti \ue8 sempre stata ignorata o considerata solo come episodica. Alla possibilit\ue0 di ricostruire il fenomeno alla scala sovralocale, si aggiunge, alla scala locale, la possibilit\ue0 di indagare con precisione, nello specifico, quali aree di ciascun comune risultassero terrazzate, incrociando i dati storici dei mappali con la cartografia attuale.In XX Century, terraced landscapes suffered a general and widespread abandonment. The abandonment of these spaces represents an ever-present problem: in fact, anthropic intervention on sloping lands falsifies the environment original balances and when steady and ordinary maintenance come less, ground tends to restore starting situation. So, abandoned terraces involve a high hydrogeological instability; in the absence of a precise knowledge about location and density of the abandoned terraced areas, it implies a huge problem about prevention. Nowadays, in Italy, regional mapping of terraced areas is still rare and resents of many difficulties as the excessive cost and the complexity of the relief. A possible solution could be represented by historical Land Register, that analytically reported terraced surfaces both in the registers and often also into the cartographic representation, by parcelling of the proprieties. For example, at the second half of XIX Century, Lake Como had about 1,800 hectares of terraced surfaces that nowadays appear almost completely abandoned and unknown. The re-reading of these historical information enables both to mapping on the regional scale the historical extension and density of the phenomenon and to accurately locate the single terraced areas into each municipality

Vins, vendanges et fluctuations climatiques : Enquête en Italie

L'article, centré sur les dates de vendanges comme outil pour la reconstruction du climat de derniers 800 ans, travaille sur deux grands axes : l’un essentiellement historique, visant à reconstruire l’origine, le développement et l’exportation vers l’Italie de la méthode des dates des vendanges ; l’autre, visant à la réalisation et à l’analyse préliminaire d’une base de données de dates italiennes. La mise à jour et la révision des données existantes a été complétée par la collection de nouvelles dates. Cela nous a permis d’étendre jusqu’à nos jours les séries de dates disponibles

Modern microwave methods in solid state inorganic materials chemistry: from fundamentals to manufacturing

No abstract available

Effect of plasma shaping on performance in the National Spherical Torus Experiment

The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) has explored the effects of shaping on plasma performance as determined by many diverse topics including the stability of global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modes (e.g., ideal external kinks and resistive wall modes), edge localized modes (ELMs), bootstrap current drive, divertor flux expansion, and heat transport. Improved shaping capability has been crucial to achieving Βt ∼40%. Precise plasma shape control has been achieved on NSTX using real-time equilibrium reconstruction. NSTX has simultaneously achieved elongation κ∼2.8 and triangularity δ∼0.8. Ideal MHD theory predicts increased stability at high values of shaping factor S≡ q95 Ip (a Bt), which has been observed at large values of the S∼37 [MA (m·T)] on NSTX. The behavior of ELMs is observed to depend on plasma shape. A description of the ELM regimes attained as shape is varied will be presented. Increased shaping is predicted to increase the bootstrap fraction at fixed Ip. The achievement of strong shaping has enabled operation with 1 s pulses with Ip =1 MA, and for 1.6 s for Ip =700 kA. Analysis of the noninductive current fraction as well as empirical analysis of the achievable plasma pulse length as elongation is varied will be presented. Data are presented showing a reduction in peak divertor heat load due to increasing in flux expansion. © 2006 American Institute of Physics

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection