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In the present study we analyzed the influence of density heterogeneity in the sedimentary cover on estimates of the effective elastic thickness (EET) of the lithosphere based on a cross‐spectral analysis of gravity and topography data. The fan wavelet coherence technique was employed to calculate EET for most of Europe and adjoining southern mountain belts. We employed Bouguer gravity anomalies and topography corrected for the effect of density variations within sediments. Correcting for sediments considerably suppresses the effect of unexpressed subsurface loads and substantially reduces EET estimates in areas with negligible topography variations as it was demonstrated for North Europe and East European Platform. The results show a good correspondence between the EET patterns and tectonic fragmentation of Europe and better agree with independent estimates based on the strength model of the lithosphere. Therefore, considering of the effect of sediments is essential for correct determinations of EET in flat areas. The lithosphere is the outer rigid shell of the Earth, which overlies a viscous layer, called the asthenosphere. Knowledge of the lithosphere strength is important, for example, for understanding earthquake activity. Effective elastic thickness is a proxy for lithospheric strength and corresponds to the thickness of a homogeneous elastic plate, which deforms under loading in the same way as the real lithosphere. Thus, far, different methods used to determine this parameter have given controversial results. We demonstrate that considering the effect of sediments, which represent the soft uppermost crustal layer, provides a possibility for obtaining more consistent results. New effective elastic thickness estimates show that the European lithosphere is divided into two parts along the Trans European Suture Zone. Western Europe is characterized by predominantly low values of the effective elastic thickness and consequently weak lithosphere. In contrast, the lithosphere in Eastern Europe is much stronger. Regional variations of the effective elastic thickness obtained in this study are consistent with the tectonic partitioning of Europe with the surrounding mountain belts and help to understand ongoing tectonic processes. Considering the effect of sediments significantly reduces estimates of the lithospheric effective elastic thickness in flat areasCorrecting for sediments suppresses the effect of unexpressed subsurface loads and substantially reduces calculation uncertaintiesThe results show a good correspondence between the effective elastic thickness variations and tectonic fragmentation of Europe

In industrialized countries, overweight and obesity account for approximately 13.8% and 24.9% of the kidney disease observed in men and women, respectively. Moreover, obesity-associated glomerulopathy is now considered as “an emerging epidemic.” Kidney function can be negatively impacted by obesity through several mechanisms, either direct or indirect. While it is well established that obesity represents the leading risk factor for type 2 diabetes and hypertension, awareness that obesity is associated with direct kidney damage independently of hypertension and diabetes is still not widespread. In this paper we will discuss the emerging role of adipose tissue, particularly in the visceral depot, in obesity-induced chronic kidney damage.

The most common cause of end stage renal disease is diabetic nephropathy. An early diagnosis may allow an intervention to slow down disease progression. Recently, it has been hypothesized that glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activity may be a marker of severity of chronic kidney disease. In particular, a lower GST activity is present in healthy subjects compared to patients with nephropathy. In the present review we illustrate the scientific evidence underlying the possible role of GST activity in the development of diabetic nephropathy and we analyze its usefulness as a possible early biomarker of this diabetic complication.

Overweight and obesity are the fifth leading risk for global deaths and its prevalence has doubled since 1980. At least 2.8 million adults, worldwide, die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. The deleterious effects of obesity are tightly related to diabetes, as they are often clinically present in combination to confer increased cardiovascular mortality. Thus, patients with diabetes and obesity are known to develop accelerated atherosclerosis characterized by a dysfunctional endothelium and decreased nitric oxide bioavailability. Recent clinical studies support, indeed, the use of incretin-based antidiabetic therapies for vascular protection. Thus, attention has been focusing on gut hormones and their role, not only in the regulation of appetite but also in vascular health. Intervention directed at modulating these molecules has the potential to decrease mortality of patients with diabetes and obesity. This review will cover part of the ongoing research to understand the role of gut hormones on endothelial function and vascular health.

In this study we analyse coseismic GPS displacements and DInSAR data to constrain a dislocation model for the three largest earthquakes of the 1997 Umbria-Marche seismic sequence. The first two events, which occurred on September 26 at 00:33 GMT (Mw 5.7) and 09:40 GMT (Mw 6.0) respectively, are investigated using both GPS displacements and DInSAR interferograms. We discuss and compare the results of previous studies which separately modeled a smaller subset of geodetic data. We provide a dislocation model for these two earthquakes which fits well both GPS and DInSAR data and agrees with the results of seismological and geological investigations. The first event consists of a unilateral rupture towards the southeast with a uniform dislocation. The strike, rake and dip angles are those resulting from the CMT solution. The second event consists of an unilateral rupture towards the northwest and a variable slip distribution on the fault plane. The strike and the rake are consistent with the CMT solution, but the dip angle has been slightly modified to improve the simultaneous fit of GPS and DInSAR data. While the second rupture (09:40 GMT) arrived very close to the surface, the fit to geodetic data shows that the first rupture (00:33 GMT) is deeper (2 km), despite the more evident surface geological effects. The analysis of new SAR interferograms allows the identification of a 5–6 cm additional displacement caused by the October 3 (Mw 5.2) and 6 (Mw 5.4) seismic events.We use data from a new DInSAR interferogram to model the displacement field of the Sellano earthquake of October 14, 1997. For this event significant GPS measurements were not available. We tested two different fault plane geometries: a blind, planar fault (top depth = 2.4 km), and a curved (listric) fault reaching the surface. The two models provide a generally similar fit to the data, and show that most of the slip was released at depths greater than 2.4 km along a gently dipping (40°–45°) fault surface. They also show that a unilateral rupture does not allow fitting the interferometric fringes since there is evident surface deformation to the northwest of the hypocenter. Moreover, we suggest that the concentration of high residuals in the southern part of our uniform slip model may in fact indicate a certain slip variability in this area.We conclude that, despite the moderate magnitudes and the lack of significant surface faulting, the space geodetic data allowed to constrain dislocation models giving new insights in the rupture process of the three largest events of the sequence.

With the aim of improving our understanding of the development and potential instability of the Randazzo landslide which occurred in the months of March and April, 1996, inclinometric, piezometric and topographical data were collected and compared with the results of differential interferometric elaboration (DIFSAR), up till the end of 1998 using the data of ERS1 and ERS2 satellites, that detected displacements of I cm a day.

The authors present a new two-dimensional algorithm for interferometric synthetic aperture radar phase unwrapping based on the finite element method. The proposed technique allows an efficient least-squares solution carried out in time domain. Weighting functions can be introduced without increasing computational requirements. The possibility to speed up computations via a multigrid technique is discussed. A noise-robust extension of the proposed technique is also investigated. Presented experiments on real ERS-1 data, as well as on simulated patterns, demonstrate the precision and efficiency of the procedure.

•Metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) is a subgroup of subjects in whom excessive body fat accumulation is not associated with cardiometabolic abnormalities.•Excess visceral adipose tissue plays a central role in obesity related vascular and metabolic complications•The study of the mechanisms underlying the conversion from MHO to metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO) represents a great opportunity for the development of personalized stratified risk therapies

•Obesity is increasing worldwide and recognized as pandemic.•Cardiovascular complications and cancer are the two most fearsome long-term sequelae of obesity.•The present review summarize main common biological pathways linking obesity with cardiovascular diseases and cancer in order to suggest possible intervention strategies with double beneficial effect in terms of cancer prevention and cardiovascular risk reduction.

Obese patients have vascular dysfunction related to impaired nitric oxide (NO)-dependent vasodilation and enhanced endothelin (ET)-1 activity. Obestatin is a gastrointestinal peptide with favorable metabolic actions linked to obesity and type 2 diabetes; it has also been shown to exert cardiovascular benefits in experimental models by producing vascular relaxation via specific activation of endothelium-dependent NO signaling. In the present study we tested the hypothesis that obestatin might also have advantageous impacts on the NO pathway and the ET-1 system in patients with central obesity.