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The paper explores the difficulties and challenges in mobilizing and managing social capital in concrete local and territorial directed rural development project activities. The main focus is put on the roles of local facilitators working with farmers and other local stakeholders during project implementation. The EU 5th framework project IMALP included a strong component of implementing concrete actions. In each of the four participating countries a region was selected where a so-called local group was established. A local facilitator was employed to moderate the local group and to assist in the design and implementation of concrete projects. Research accompanied and monitored the process. The recent shift of EU policy towards rural development from a mainly sectoral (agricultural) approach to a territorial approach requires new competences in managing social capital and on their changing role(s) in the different stages of group formation and development. Professional support by facilitators with a set of new skills is needed in the course of group formation and development. The identification, mobilization and management of social capital become a crucial challenge. So far the mobilization and management of social capital does not happen consciously. Agricultural advisors taking over the task of local facilitators need to be specially trained in actively mobilizing and coordinating towards a common goal. The value of the paper lies in the analysis of the experimental approach of the project and the cross-country comparison of the results.

Summary: Background: In the last few decades, breast reconstruction often has not been offered to the elderly population due to the reluctance of clinicians concerned about serious co-morbidities. This study aims to demonstrate that breast reconstruction is feasible and safe in the elderly cohort. Methods: Between 1999 and 2004, 63 elderly patients underwent an immediate reconstruction after breast cancer treatment at the European Institute of Oncology. A conservative treatment, combined with breast repair by plastic surgical techniques, was performed in 14 patients. In the remaining 49 patients, a modified radical mastectomy was necessary in 30 breasts, a total mastectomy in 19, a subcutaneous mastectomy in one case and a radical mastectomy in one patient. Three nipple-sparing mastectomies, along with intra-operative radiotherapy, were performed in two patients. A definitive silicone implant was used in 41 breasts and a skin expander in eight cases. A latissimus dorsi flap was performed in two patients, a pedicled transverse rectus abdominis muscle (TRAM) flap in two cases and a local advancement fasciocutaneous flap in another two patients. Results: In all patients, surgery was well tolerated despite patient age. No systemic and medically unfavourable events occurred in the immediate and late postoperative period. Infection occurred in four patients (6.34%) and partial necrosis of the mastectomy flaps in three cases (5.5% of the mastectomies). Capsular contracture grade III and IV was reported in four cases (8.89%). Total implant removal was rated 12.24%, due to infection (three prostheses), exposure (one expander) and capsular contracture grade IV (two implants). Conclusions: Implant-based technique of breast reconstruction should be made available to the elderly population. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Polymorphism in non-coding regions of the chloroplast genome was studied in four white oak species (Q. robur L., Q. petraea (Matt.) Liebl., Q. pubescens Willd. s.l., and Q. frainetto Ten.) in Italy (mainland and associated islands, including Corsica). A total of 924 trees (194 populations) was analysed. This data set also includes results previously obtained on 20 Italian and Corsican populations [Genetics 146 (1997) 1475]. Most of the sampled individuals were classified as Q. pubescens (73.5%). Thirty-four populations out of 194 (17.5%) were polymorphic. The level of population sub-division was very high, as expressed by the value of the coefficient GST=0.870 (hS=0.100, hT=0.776). The highest value of total genetic diversity was calculated in Sardinia and in central Italy; the lowest in southern Italy. The highest values of differentiation among populations occurred in Sardinia (GST=1), and in Corsica (0.927). We found evidence that the Italian oak populations of today mainly originated from Sicilian and Balkan refugia. Their origin and migration routes are more easily seen by considering data separately for the four sampling regions: the north, the centre, the south, and the three main islands. The C (=blue) lineage was common in the southern part of Italy. This may be a trace of a migration from the Balkans via the Adriatic bridge during quaternary cold periods. The northern part of the country had a set of haplotypes similar to the other Alpine regions. Most Sicilian populations are fixed for one of the two haplotypes that probably originated in the island: one spread over the whole Italian peninsula, whereas the other one did not reach the Alps. Results showed that the Appennines may have played a role in the distribution of the haplotypes western and eastern of the mountains chain. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]