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Bone tissue features a complex microarchitecture and biomolecular composition, which determine biomechanical properties. In addition to state-of-the-art technologies, innovative optical approaches allowing the characterization of the bone in native, label-free conditions can provide new, multi-level insight into this inherently challenging tissue. Here, we exploited multimodal nonlinear optical (NLO) microscopy, including co-registered stimulated Raman scattering, two-photon excited fluorescence, and second-harmonic generation, to image entire vertebrae of murine spine sections. The quantitative nature of these nonlinear interactions allowed us to extract accurate biochemical, morphological, and topological information on the bone tissue and to highlight differences between normal and pathologic samples. Indeed, in a murine model showing bone loss, we observed increased collagen and lipid content as compared to the wild type, along with a decreased craniocaudal alignment of bone collagen fibres. We propose that NLO microscopy can be implemented in standard histopathological analysis of bone in preclinical studies, with the ambitious future perspective to introduce this technique in the clinical practice for the analysis of larger tissue sections.

We introduce label-free multimodal nonlinear optical microscopy, based on different coherent Raman and multi-photon ultrafast light-matter interactions, as a noninvasive, quantitative and chemically selective tool to assess chemotherapy-induced senescence in human cancer cells.

The detection of the rainfall events is part of the Tuscany Region administration project, which aims to detect shallow landslides triggered by heavy rainfall events. The project has followed two main linked objectives: (i) acquiring knowledge on shallow landslides and their relationships with the triggering weather events. (ii) provide indepth knowledge of the main intense precipitation events occurring inrecent years in Tuscany. At present, the study includes spatial analysis of 70 intense precipitation events from 2004 to 2016. For such events, a spatial statistical analysis allowed to highlight the most affected areas. In order to outline these areas, the cumulative precipitation measured at the rain gauges was assessed for each event, and it was correlated to return values of rainfall events of the same duration andfor different return times. Thus, the exceptionality of the events on the territory has been related to the time series of every rain gauge. A unique threshold parameter was defined by identifying areas where the precipitation exceeded a given return time value (related to the duration of the event) for the stations within the identified area. The parameters (a and n) of the power law that regulates the relationshipbetween rainfall height and precipitation duration for a given return time (h (t) = a × t n) have been provided by the Centro Funzionale Regionale (CFR). So for each rainfall event of different duration (24-48-72-96 hours) and for different return times (2, 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, 150, 200 and 500 years), rainfall level have been calculated. Once the rain gauges most affected by the event have been identified, a simple buffer helped to highlight the main affected area. In the case of eventswhere some stations exceeded the 10-year Return Time (RT), it was preferred to process both the areas that enclosed these stations and the buffer with the gauges where the rainfall level exceeded the RT of 5 years, both being very significant from a point of view of the entity’s ‘event. Same for events with RT thresholds exceeded at 2 and 5 years.

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering is an extremely powerful non-linear optical (NLO) microscopy technique for label-free vibrational imaging allowing for a detailed study of biological samples in their native state. To overcome the long acquisition times associated with raster sample scanning required in NLO microscopy, which impair real-time investigation of fast biological dynamics, we employ here wide-field signal generation over a large field of view, covering tens of micrometers. To this aim, we exploit an innovative approach based on the use of an amplified femtosecond ytterbium laser source delivering high energy (≈μJ) pulses in the near infrared. This enables the generation of stable broadband Stokes pulses to measure the entire fingerprint region of the molecular vibrational spectrum, the richest in chemical information. Our results pave the way for future translational applications and clinical diagnostics with video-rate imaging capabilities. ©2022 The Authors

Creazione di un database cartografico del reticolo idrografico in aree di cava nell’ambito delle attività previste dal progetto “Piano Cave” della Regione Toscana con lo scopo di mettere in evidenza il possibile sviluppo del reticolo in aree di cava e nelle aree limitrofe.

Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease with a strong social impact worldwide. Under chronic hyperglycemia, protein glycation strongly contributes to diabetes-related complications onset. Anti-glycation agents and inhibitors of &alpha, glucosidase are often therapeutically used to control postprandial glycemia in order to prevent development of long-term diabetic complications. Given drug resistance and adverse effects of conventional antidiabetic therapies, the discovery of new effective and non-toxic naturally occurring compounds is needed to prevent and/or to manage life-threatening diabetic complications. Annona cherimola Miller fruit has been used in Mexican traditional medicine as natural remedy against diabetes. In this work, the in vitro anti-glycation and anti-&alpha, glucosidase roles of Annona cherimola Miller pulp extract (CE) were investigated. Moreover, healthy and diabetic subjects were enrolled in a cross-over design intervention study aimed at investigating the effects of pulp intake on postprandial glycemia. This work shows that CE was able to inhibit albumin glycation in vitro and to inhibit &alpha, glucosidase enzyme. Furthermore, the pulp intake did not contribute to an increase in postprandial glycemia, making it a suitable source of health-promoting phytonutrients and a potential functional food in diabetics and pre-diabetics diet.

In seguito alla forte siccità dell’estate 2017 è sorta la necessità di avere un quadro il quanto più possibile esaustivo e approfondito della riserva di acqua in Toscana. In questo contesto si inserisce l’aggiornamento del catasto degli invasi, che, oltre alla realizzazione di un inventario unico (ad oggi disperso in più archivi con informazioni e date di aggiornamento diverse) fornisca una stima di massima della capacità di invaso inrelazione alle necessità idriche stagionali del territorio. Quest’ultimo punto è stato realizzato grazie ad una serie di sopralluoghi su un subset degli invasi regionali che permettono di mettere in relazione la tipologia e la superficie dell'invaso con il proprio volume.

Francesco Manetti, actor, trainer and director, graduated from the Accademia d’Arte Drammatica “Silvio d’Amico”. Since 1998 he has been teaching movement and stage combat. From the beginning he has shown a strong interest in the international theatrical context. He has often worked abroad in such places as Britain, Germany, the United States, Russia and South America. In 2008 he began collaborating with the director Antonio Latella and has been working with his theatre group “stabile/mobile” since 2013 and has performed in several Latella productions. He and Latella first met thanks to his work as a choreographer, movement and physical trainer. In this guise he has worked with Latella on many productions, such as Hamlet’s portraits (2008), Francamente me ne infischio from Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (2011 e 2013), Santa Estasi (2016). The conversation, which took place on 19th January 2017 in Turin, explored two themes. The first was about the creative relationship between Manetti and Latella, discussing both Manetti’s role as an actor as well as his work on movement in Latella productions. The second discussed several moments of Manetti’s professional history.

This paper presents the results of implementation of bi-temporal change analysis methods to RapidEye satellite imagery to support the detection, at regional scale, of landslides caused by two intense rainfall events of 2009 and 2011, in Northern Tuscany. Image geometric and radiometric pre-processing were applied. Then, bi-temporal image ratioing of Difference Vegetation Index (DVI) and bi-temporal spectral transformations (Principal Component Analysis - PCA; Independent Component Analysis - ICA) were implemented. Finally, unsupervised and supervised classification allowed us to obtain thematic representation of areas of changes which supported the identification of almost hundred landslides in the study area.

Background To demonstrate that a fast-track program consisting in early endovascular revascularization and local surgical treatment saves tissue in patients with diabetic foot infection (DFI). Methods Between January and December 2014, 48 patients with DFI underwent early endovascular revascularization and local surgical treatment at our Diabetic Foot Center. In all cases, endovascular revascularization and local surgical treatment were performed within 1 week from the diagnosis of infection and during the same hospital stay. One-year outcomes were evaluated in terms of survival, primary patency, primary-assisted patency, secondary patency, absence of target lesion restenosis (TLR), and limb salvage. Results The patients were predominantly males (34 of 48, 70.8%) with a mean age of 72.4 years (range, 51–91). The target vessel was a tibial artery in 34 cases (70.8%). Surgical treatment consisted of debridement without bone resection in 27 cases (56.2%), toe and/or ray amputation in 15 cases (31.2%), Lisfranc amputation in 2 cases (4.2%), transmetatarsal amputation in 2 cases (4.2%). In the remaining 2 cases, a leg amputation was necessary with an overall 30-day major amputation rate of 4.2%. During the follow-up (mean duration 6.9 months, range 1–12) healing of the lesions was obtained in 30 cases (62.5%). Estimated 12-month survival, primary patency, primary-assisted patency, secondary patency, absence of TLR, and limb salvage rates were 83.5%, 53.4%, 65%, 65%, 60.7%, and 86.6%, respectively. Conclusions A fast-track program consisting in early endovascular revascularization and local surgical treatment contributes to our experience in limiting amputation levels in patients with DFI. A multidisciplinary approach and adoption of diabetic foot triage are essential to achieve these outcomes.

In this study the new Regional Geochemical Database (RGDB), called GEOBASI, is presented and illustrated in the framework of a joint collaboration among the three Tuscan universities (Florence, Pisa and Siena), CNR-IGG (Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources of Pisa), ARPAT (Regional Agency for the Environmental Protection), LAMMA (Environmental Modelling and Monitoring Laboratory for Sustainable Development) Consortium and S.I.R.A. (Territorial and Environmental Informative System of Tuscany). The database has permitted the construction of a repository where the geochemical information (compositional and isotopic) has been stored in a structured way so that it can be available for different groups of users (e.g. institutional, public and private companies). The information contained in the database can in fact be downloaded freely and queried to correlate geochemistry to other non compositional variables. The first phase of the project was aimed at promoting the use of the geochemical data already available from previous investigations through a powerful Web-GIS interface to implement the exploratory statistics graphical-numerical tools used to: 1) analyse the spatial variability of the investigated context, 2) highlight the geographic location of data pertaining to classes of values or single cases, 3) compare the results of different analytical methodologies applied to the determination of the same element and/or chemical species, 4) extract the geochemical data related to specific monitoring plans and/or geographical areas, and finally 5) recover information about data below the detection limit to understand their impact on the behaviour of the investigated variable. Developments of this project will be focused on the definition of rules and standardized methods in a way that external users could also interactively pursue the RGDB. Furthermore, a detailed investigation of the Scarlino-Follonica plain will permit the improvement and test of statistical and geostatistical methods, using open source software (QGIS and R) to support the process of evaluation of the geochemical baseline.

In two areas located in the north-western part of Tuscany, central Italy, Lunigiana and Garfagnana, noticeable heavy rainfall events occurred in the last years. During these events, the rainfall amounts and intensities triggered a great number of shallow landslides, causing damages, injuries and human losses. Steep slopes and deep valleys induced a persistently high relief of energy and high shallow landsliding susceptibility. In the present paper, the authors considered 4 heavy rainfall events that affected the area in 2009–2011. They carried out an analysis including a statistical modelling of spatial landslide occurrence by using Random Forest classifiers (RFc) after model selection by means of a stepwise AIC (Akaike Information Criterion) procedure. Event landslides occurrences permitted to build four event-specific RFc training sets, considering a large number of predictors reliable to characterize landslide susceptibility. Furthermore, the analysis took into account some relevant meteorological variables directly linked to the events themselves. An exploratory evaluation of the skills of a numerical weather prediction (NWP) model was conducted, to give a reliable supply to the RFc framework by using its weather forecast. For one selected event, a shallow landslide hazard model with meteorological inputs was validated. The preliminary results are shown and discussed.

In questo lavoro vengono presentate le varie fasi di attività svolte da un gruppo di lavoro costituito da ricercatori delle tre università regionali (Firenze, Pisa e Siena), del CNR di Pisa (Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse), dell'ARPAT, del Consorzio LAMMA e del Sistema Informativo Territoriale ed Ambientale della Regione Toscana, che hanno condotto alla costruzione del Database Geochimico regionale. Tale banca dati si propone come strumento fruibile ed accessibile a differenti livelli di utenza, i cui contenuti possano essere liberamente interrogabili e scaricabili oltre che implementabili nel tempo, secondo regole e standard condivisi. L'obiettivo è quello di fornire un importante riferimento conoscitivo nel campo delle informazioni geochimiche relative alle varie matrici geoambientali nel territorio toscano. Nella prima fase di progetto le attività sono state orientate non solo a favorire la piena fruizione di dati disaggregati già disponibili tramite una potente interfaccia webgis, ma anche ad individuare l'utilizzo di strumenti grafici e numerici di analisi statistica mediante i quali: 1) comprendere la variabilità del fenomeno oggetto di studio nella sua caratterizzazione spaziale; 2) individuare la posizione geografica di valori anomali; 3) confrontare gli esiti di diverse metodologie analitiche sperimentali per uno stesso elemento e/o specie chimica; 4) estrarre dati relativi ad un determinato periodo temporale e/o una determinata area e 5) verificare l'impatto della presenza di informazione numerica con valore inferiore al limite di rilevabilità strumentale. Ulteriori sviluppi del progetto dovranno prevedere la definizione di regole e strumenti finalizzati ad una continua e progressiva implementazione controllata del Database, anche in previsione di un utilizzo di nuove informazioni provenienti da soggetti esterni al gruppo di lavoro.