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The northern Adriatic Sea (NA), the northernmost region of the Mediterranean Sea, is affected by strong anthropogenic pressure (e. g., tourism, fisheries, maritime traffic, discharge from agriculture and industry), superimposed to a large river runoff. The consequent pressure exerted on the NA ecosystem either triggers or worsens massive mucilage insurgence, harmful algal blooms, eutrophication and even anoxic/hypoxic events. This work focuses on the anoxic/hypoxic events. During the summer-autumn period, the NA is often exposed to these events, which can be categorised as either coastal (relatively frequent south of the Po River delta during the summer) and offshore (rare, affecting wider areas). In order to improve our knowledge about these processes and to meet the needs of local governments and decision makers, an operational system for monitoring and forecasting anoxic and hypoxic events has been set up in the framework of the EU LIFE "EMMA" project. The system is composed of a meteo-oceanographic buoy; a numerical prediction system based on the Regional Ocean Modelling System (ROMS), including a Fasham-type module for biogeochemical fluxes; and periodic oceanographic surveys. Every day since June 2007, the system provides 3-hourly forecasts of marine currents, thermohaline and biogeochemical fields for the incoming three days. The system has demonstrated its ability to produce accurate temperature forecasts and relatively good salinity and dissolved oxygen forecasts. The Root Mean Square Error of the dissolved oxygen forecast was largely due to the mean bias. The system is currently being improved to include a better representation of benthic layer biogeochemical processes and several adjustments of the model. While developing model improvements, dissolved oxygen forecasts were improved with the removal of the 10-day mean bias.

The specific problems of determining and simulating the surface energy balance (SEB) and the mixing height (MH) over urban areas are examined. The SEB and MH are critical components of algorithms and numerical models for the urban boundary layer, though the constituent parts of the SEB and the MH are not routinely measured by national weather services. Parameterisations are thus needed in applications. In this investigation, several recently developed algorithms and models for estimating the SEB and MH were applied to new datasets and assessed. Results are discussed in terms of the need for spatial resolution and the parameters needed to describe the urban atmosphere. Limitations of models are identified and recommendations for further development and observations are given. Having identified gaps in knowledge, key findings from new urban experiments and numerical modelling for the SEB and MH are given. The diurnal cycle for the SEB is significantly different from rural conditions-urban heat storage is needed in urban parameterisations. The urban MH is increased over the rural MH, as shown by several numerical schemes and careful sodar analyses. This work has been carried out within the COST-715 Action 'Meteorology applied to urban air pollution problems (1998-2004). COST 715 reached a consensus proposing representatively sited measurements of meteorological parameters and turbulent fluxes above roof-tops, and recognised that such data are needed to improve numerical models of the urban surface processes. © Springer Science+Business Media, B.V. 2007.

Il presente studio si inserisce all’interno del progetto Horizon H2020 iSCAPE (Improving the Smart Control of Air Pollution in Europe) che si propone di acquisire conoscenze sulle interazioni tra clima urbano e inquinamento atmosferico in alcune città europee. La città metropolitana di Bologna è stata selezionata come città pilota in quanto sita all’interno della Pianura Padana, ben noto hot- spot in termini di qualità dell’aria. In aggiunta, essa è caratterizzata da aree densamente edificate e trafficate, come i canyon urbani, dove è interessante caratterizzare la qualità dell'aria, la dinamica atmosferica e la turbolenza. A tal fine sono state effettuate due campagne di monitoraggio intensivo (estate 2017 e inverno 2018) in due differenti street-canyon (via Marconi e via Laura Bassi) situati all’interno della città, caratterizzati dalla stessa orientazione geografica e simile volume di traffico, ma da diversa struttura geometrica e presenza di alberazione (presente solamente in via Laura Bassi). Per le misurazioni sono stati utilizzati due laboratori mobili di Arpae Emilia-Romagna per la rilevazione di PM10, PM2.5, NOx, CO, O3, BTEX. In aggiunta, sono stati installati anemometri sonici e termoigrometri a diversi livelli all'interno e al di sopra dei canyons (Laura Bassi/Marconi: 3/4m – 9/8m – 15/25m) per la caratterizzazione della turbolenza atmosferica. L’analisi dei dati osservati sarà integrata con l’uso di modelli numerici: ADMS Urban per valutare la distribuzione degli inquinanti a scala cittadina; modelli CFD per ricostruire la circolazione all’interno dei canyon urbani. Inoltre nel corso delle campagne sono state effettuate misure termometriche degli edifici per valutare la dinamica dell’isola di calore urbano. Fin dalla campagna estiva è apparso evidente l’effetto di amplificazione dello street canyon sulle concentrazioni di inquinanti, in particolare gli NOx, noti precursori di aerosol, presentano concentrazioni medie orarie doppie rispetto al resto della città e medie al minuto che raggiungono valori prossimi al fondoscala strumentale. In questo contesto, le concentrazioni vengono analizzate in funzione della turbolenza atmosferica e delle forzanti termiche interne al canyon, in quanto uniche responsabili, in assenza di condizioni sinottiche, del trasporto degli inquinanti.

To assess coastal storm risks this paper compares existing hazards, associated risks, coastal management plans, and civil protection schemes from nine European countries. An evaluation made of specific study sites concludes that: (a) the definition of coastal hazard or risk varies between countries, regions and sites with no pan-European agreement; (b) existing risk definitions for northern Europe are based on probabilistic approaches and integrate threats to human occupation; this approach is not adopted in southern and eastern European countries; (c) half of the evaluated coastal management plans have a scientific basis with the remainder adopting qualitative or semi-quantitative approaches; (d) strategic approaches, used to define areas of potential occupation, coastal defences etc. are the most common; (e) operational approaches used for major event prediction and response are poorly developed. Therefore, there is a need to evaluate existing best practices in Europe in order to develop standardised coastal risk management for all EU member states.

An Evaluation of the Health Impact has been carried out in the context of the Strategic Environmental Evaluation belonging to the next Regional Air Quality Plan 2014-2020 (PAIR2020); this work is meant to estimate the health effects deriving from the decrease of PM10 concentration in the air. In this purpose, it has been used a formula established by the ISPO of Florence to calculate AC (Attributable Casualties) due to PM10 action; in doing this, the ISTAT data of natural death have been taken into account, together with several parameters and values for health protection of WHO and EU, first analyzing the regional realities of 2001 and 2010, and then defining three different scenarios (BAU-TS-MFR) which will be the reference point for 2020, in relation to the average annual concentration of PM10 and according to the present available sketch of the latest PAIR2020. The air quality scenarios has been calculated using the Emilia-Romagna Regional Emission Inventory and for neighboring regions Emilia-Romagna the National Emissions Inventory (ISPRA 2005) taking into account the national energy strategy SEN2013 (source GAINS Italy) with the RIAT+ software, that is a regional integrated assessment software tool, developed in OPERA LIFE+ Project that helps the policy makers in the selection of optimal emission reduction technologies, to improve the air quality at minimum costs. In this way, it has been possible to see the direction in which the scenarios of casualties attributable to PM10 will evolve up to 2020, obviously in relation to a reduction of the average regional concentration levels of pollutants in air. After estimating deaths attributable for the three possible 2020 target scenarios we estimated at regional level, for the only year 2010, the separated emissions for the primary and secondary PM10, disaggregated for the 11 CORINAIR productive macro sectors sources of emissions, and then calculated their attributable deaths (AC) due the PM10, so you have an idea in terms of percentages, the respective responsibilities of each macro productive sector regional, highlighting the most significant

Background Despite several clinical trials and advances in understanding the genetic basis of biliary tract cancer (BTC), the addition of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) targeted therapy does not seem to enhance the activity of first-line chemotherapy (CHT). Materials and methods We carried out a meta-analysis of available randomized clinical trials to assess the efficacy and safety of gemcitabine-based first-line CHT plus monoclonal antibodies against EGFR (EGFR-mAbs) in advanced or metastatic BTC. Results In the overall population, the pooled hazard ratio for overall (OS) and progression-free (PFS) survival were 0.82 (95% confidence interval=0.64-1.06) and 0.88 (95% confidence intervaI=0.73-1.08), respectively. No differences were detected in objective response rate between the two groups. Patients treated with gemcitabine-based CHT plus EGFR-mAbs showed a statistically significant increased risk of grade 3-4 neutropenia, grade 3-4 thrombocytopenia and especially grade 3-4 skin rash. Conclusion The addition of EGFR-mAbs to gemcitabine-based first-line CHT does not significantly improve overall and progression-free survival, nor the objective response rate in patients with advanced BTC and increases the risk of hematological and cutaneous adverse drug events.

Human equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (hENT-1) is a membrane nucleoside transporter mediating the intracellular uptake of nucleosides and their analogues. hENT-1 was recently reported to have a predictive role in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCC) patients receiving adjuvant gemcitabine-based chemotherapy, but its biological and clinical significance in iCC remains unsettled. This study investigated the role of hENT-1 in regulating tumour growth and predicting the survival of 40 resected iCC patients not receiving adjuvant treatments. hENT-1 expression was found to be significantly higher in iCC than in the matched non-tumoural liver. Patients harbouring hENT-1 localised on the tumour cell membrane had a worse overall survival than membrane hENT-1-negative patients (median 21.2 months vs 30.3 months, p=0.031), with an adjusted hazard ratio of 2.8 (95% confidence interval 1.01-7.76). Moreover, membrane hENT-1-positive patients had a higher percentage of Ki67-positive cells in tumour tissue than membrane hENT-1-negative patients (median 23% vs 5%, p&nbsp