The Touristic Local Systems as a means to re-balance territorial differences in Sicily

The Italian new law (n.135/2001) about the re-organization of touristic activities of Regions has contributed to re-think all the resources related to touristic valorisation in a systemic view point. In fact according to the new approach, the Local Touristic System (STL in Italian law) regards not only the naturalistic and the cultural resources and the hotels but also the economic and services activities that can related to tourism. Although Sicilian Region has not instituted its official STL, in our paper we will try to define the STL in Sicily in a particular point of view. In fact we will consider not only the touristic areas but also the areas less developed, because the systemic approach allows us to use the touristic activities as a factor of territorial re-balance instead of territorial polarization. We also will consider the principal touristic port related to the STL, according the point of view of an integration among ports and its surrounding areas. So the ports become a door to the inner areas full of naturalistic and cultural resources.

Transport organization and economic development of an European peripherical region: the case of Sicily

Transport and communication networks are some of the most important factors which influence the socio-economic development, and particularly the tourist sector, of Sicily, a peripherical region by comparison with the European central areas. The most recent changes in the transport sector are: a) the creation of integrated trans-national networks, based on specific systems such as the inter-modality transport one and the hub and spoke one. b) the solution of the conflicts between transport development and environmental impact. These changes lead to the creation of global national and regional logistic networks, which increased the competition and efficiency of states/regions/local economic systems. In this paper the authors will analyse how Sicily wants to face these transformations in order to change its economic functions in the Euro-Mediterranean area. On the other side they will take in consideration how the principal choices of European Union influence the projects of Sicilian transport Plans and if Sicilian actors are able to use the European financial resources available in transport sector.

Actors and resources of an evolving local system. The processes that involve Catania, a dynamic reality in a low developed region

Since the second half of the ''''70s, a great crisis has hit the local system of Catania, - which is the most important town in the North-east of Sicily - both in its economical aspects and in its social and political ones. In the ''''90s, nevertheless, the city has been interested by deep transformations which have caused new actors and innovative resources to emerge. During the years of crisis, the Catania local system was based on the building industry and on the public expenditure that have nourished clientelistic and also illegal activities. In fact the public expense played a very important role in the economic development of Sicilian society, where most of the industrial enterprises worked in protected sectors. A few exceptions regarded SMEs with innovative capabilities and larger firms depending from an exogenous management. From this point of view, the authors of this paper will try to draw a clear picture of the changes happened in the last decade in the Catania socio-economic system, pinpointing its ability of nourishing new initiatives in high technology sectors and attracting others from the outside, thanks to the new political atmosphere present in the city and its ambitious aspiration to became an important node in the Mediterranean Basin. Some of the actors of these changes are a group of innovative entrepreneurs, the local University and a new class of politicians more sensitive to the economic and social development of the community.

Metropolitan Development Policies and Demographic. Dynamics in Sicily

This article will take in consideration the co-existence in Sicily of different models of urbanisation with rising complex problems. Particularly we notice: A) in the coastal conurbations with infrastructural improvements, there is a timid decentralization of functions and the start of plans that would increase of the gateway functions on one hand, and processes of impoverishment of environment and reduction of economic potentialities on the other hand; B) in the inner and marginal areas, while some cities are marked from an unstoppable decline, others show an awakening of initiatives in many fields, from the productive activities to the tertiary and touristic ones. The Sicilian Regional Governments have adopted very different urban policies to front the necessity of various city typologies, since the second half of years ' 80, with the law n.9 of 1986, that it has defined limits and functions of the Sicilian metropolitan areas (M.A.). However, the difficulty to concretely start the activity of the M.A., according to the regional law, is appeared obvious in the next years also for the new Italian Constitution Reformation. Reformation that needs of new regional law from the Sicily and of the definition of the Territorial Urban Regional Plan.

Transient evolution of warm cloud - clear air interface and its impact on cloud droplet evolution

Three dimensional Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) using pseudo-spectral Fourier Galerkin method is used for simulating Warm Cloud – Clear Air interfaces [1,2]. Transient evolution of transport of energy, water vapour, temperature and Lagrangian tracking of droplets are simulated for decaying turbulent atmospheric flow, where initial turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) in the simulation domain decays with time [1,2]. Simulation results shows anisotropy and high intermittency across the interface (from high TKE region of cloud side to low TKE region of clear air side), which influenced the transient evolution of passive scalar transport [3]. Cloud droplets are observed to be affected by the small scale turbulence, and they preferentially concentrated away from the regions of high vorticity. Transient evolution of various microphysical properties, such as, droplet sedimentation, condensation/evaporation, droplet inertia, droplet collision and coalescence are investigated to understand the role of turbulence in interfacial transient. Supersaturation and preferential concentration resulted in condensational growth of the droplets and increased local droplet collision rate. As a result, droplet size distribution grew with time, in contrary to the saturated case (Fig 1

Use of larvae of the wax moth Galleria mellonella as an in vivo model to study the virulence of Helicobacter pylori

BACKGROUND: Helicobacter pylori is the first bacterium formally recognized as a carcinogen and is one of the most successful human pathogens, as over half of the world’s population is colonized by the bacterium. H. pylori-induced gastroduodenal disease depends on the inflammatory response of the host and on the production of specific bacterial virulence factors. The study of Helicobacter pylori pathogenic action would greatly benefit by easy-to-use models of infection. RESULTS: In the present study, we examined the effectiveness of the larvae of the wax moth Galleria mellonella as a new model for H. pylori infection. G. mellonella larvae were inoculated with bacterial suspensions or broth culture filtrates from either different wild-type H. pylori strains or their mutants defective in specific virulence determinants, such as VacA, CagA, CagE, the whole pathogenicity island (PAI) cag, urease, and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT). We also tested purified VacA cytotoxin. Survival curves were plotted using the Kaplan-Meier method and LD(50) lethal doses were calculated. Viable bacteria in the hemocoel were counted at different time points post-infection, while apoptosis in larval hemocytes was evaluated by annexin V staining. We found that wild-type and mutant H. pylori strains were able to survive and replicate in G. mellonella larvae which underwent death rapidly after infection. H. pylori mutant strains defective in either VacA, or CagA, or CagE, or cag PAI, or urease, but not GGT-defective mutants, were less virulent than the respective parental strain. Broth culture filtrates from wild-type strains G27 and 60190 and their mutants replicated the effects observed using their respective bacterial suspension. Also, purified VacA cytotoxin was able to kill the larvae. The killing of larvae always correlated with the induction of apoptosis in hemocytes. CONCLUSIONS: G. mellonella larvae are susceptible to H. pylori infection and may represent an easy to use in vivo model to identify virulence factors and pathogenic mechanisms of H. pylori. The experimental model described can be useful to screen a large number of clinical H. pylori strain and to correlate virulence of H. pylori strains with patients’ disease status

Parallelisation Technique for Serial 3D Seismic Codes: SMS Approach

We investigate a fast and easy way to parallelise seismological serial codes mainly oriented for simulating the seismic wave propagation through anelastic dissipative media. Having an efficient modelling tool is important in both assessing strong ground motion and mitigation of seismic hazard when the site effects are considered, and in crustal propagation when the crustal geological structures are of interest. Our chosen case study is representative of a set of such seismological 3D problems. The Scalable Modelling System (SMS) tool for parallelization is considered. The IBM SP5 native compiler has been used. Results such as Speed-Up and Efficiency are shown and discussed. SMS can run both in shared and distributed memory environments. The greater advantages of using SMS in such environments become apparent with the utilisation of a higher number of multiprocessor machines arranged in a cluster. We also demonstrate how successful porting from serial to parallel codes is realised by way of minimal instructions (6% of the serial original code only) provided that an ad hoc profiling analysis of the serial code is first performed. <br /

Motor recovery after stroke: from a vespa scooter ride over the roman sampietrini to focal muscle vibration (fMV) treatment. A 99mTc-HMPAO SPECT and neurophysiological case study

Focal repetitive muscle vibration (fMV) is a safe and well-tolerated non-invasive brain and peripheral stimulation (NIBS) technique, easy to perform at the bedside, and able to promote the post-stroke motor recovery through conditioning the stroke-related dysfunctional structures and pathways. Here we describe the concurrent cortical and spinal plasticity induced by fMV in a chronic stroke survivor, as assessed with 99mTc-HMPAO SPECT, peripheral nerve stimulation, and gait analysis. A 72-years-old patient was referred to our stroke clinic for a right leg hemiparesis and spasticity resulting from a previous (4 years before) hemorrhagic stroke. He reported a subjective improvement of his right leg's spasticity and dysesthesia that occurred after a30-min ride on a Vespa scooter as a passenger over the Roman Sampietrini (i.e., cubic-shaped cobblestones). Taking into account both the patient's anecdote and the current guidelines that recommend fMV for the treatment of post-stroke spasticity, we then decided to start fMV treatment. 12 fMV sessions (frequency 100 Hz; amplitude range 0.2-0.5 mm, three 10-min daily sessions per week for 4 consecutive weeks) were applied over the quadriceps femoris, triceps surae, and hamstring muscles through a specific commercial device (Cro®System, NEMOCOsrl). A standardized clinical and instrumental evaluation was performed before (T0) the first fMV session and after (T1) the last one. After fMV treatment, we observed a clinically relevant motor and functional improvement, as assessed by comparing the post-treatment changes in the score of the Fugl-Meyer assessment, the Motricity Index score, the gait analysis, and the Ashworth modified scale, with the respective minimal detectable change at the 95% confidence level (MDC95). Data from SPECT and peripheral nerve stimulation supported the evidence of a concurrent brain and spinal plasticity promoted by fMV treatment trough activity-dependent changes in cortical perfusion and motoneuron excitability, respectively. In conclusion, the substrate of post-stroke motor recovery induced by fMV involves a concurrently acting multisite plasticity (i.e., cortical and spinal plasticity). In our patient, operant conditioning of both cortical perfusion and motoneuron excitability throughout a month of fMV treatment was related to a clinically relevant improvement in his strength, step symmetry (with reduced limping), and spasticity