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The Urban Heat Island phenomenon (UHI) was investigated in Sicilian region. On the basis of a temperature data pairs detected in a sample of urban and corresponding countryside, analysis was developed. The first results show the present of UHI effect.

Severe hemodilutional anemia on cardiopulmonary bypass increases morbidity and mortality after coronary surgery. The present study focuses on the lowest hematocrit values during extracorporeal circulation and on allogenic blood transfusions as mortality and morbidity risk factors. The records of 1,766 consecutive adult patients undergoing isolated coronary artery bypass graft surgery at 3 institutions have been analyzed retrospectively for in-hospital mortality and adverse outcomes. Clinical data were from the Italian National Cardioanesthesia Database. Multivariate analysis and analysis of receiver operating characteristic curves were applied. The lowest hematocrit value on cardiopulmonary bypass was an independent risk factor for postoperative low-output syndrome and renal failure. The hematocrit cutoff values were similar for renal failure (23%) and low-output syndrome (24%). Blood transfusions were significantly associated with both renal failure and low-output syndrome. The risk of renal failure doubled when the nadir-on-cardiopulmonary-bypass hematocrit occurred in transfused patients. Anemia upon cardiopulmonary bypass was not associated with death. Our findings confirm that both severe anemia and blood transfusions were significantly associated with renal failure and low-output syndrome.

Viruses provoke considerable economical losses in agriculture. New molecular approaches to develop genetic resistance based on translational genomics and precision genetic modifications are highly expected. The type II Clustered, Regularly Interspaced Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) system including Cas9 nuclease represent a promising and very powerful tool to specifically modulate the expression and activity of genes involved in biotic stress responses. In this study, we describe an approach to develop a platform system based on CRISPR system for genome editing technology in tomato. Tomato is an excellent plant for this approach considering the high-quality genome sequence, the rapid life cycle, the highly efficient in vitro plant culture and transformation protocols, Genome editing can be used to allow resistance to Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV) infections by the successful obtainment of two specific objectives: (1) Development of a Genome Editing (GE) system using CRISPR-Cas9 system in tomato (Objective 1) and (2) test the system in inducing genetic resistance to TSWV infections. First, it will be necessary to model the molecular dynamics of key host and pathogen proteins predicting how targeted mutations affect these interactions. Then these host players will be targeted by CRISPR-Cas9 technology. The obtained plants can be evaluated for their phenotypic resistance and deeply analyzed using "omic" platforms to gain insight into gene regulatory networks of plant resistance. Outcomes of the proposed project will be essentially three: (1) Identify host target proteins interacting with pathogenic proteins and model their dynamic interactions; (2) develop a platform technology usable to obtain resistant tomatoes to TSWV inducing targeted genetic modifications in the genome; (3) facilitate the adaption of this platform to the improvement of important traits in other specialty crops.

For landslide mitigation purposes, a system of two screen dams was created along the main channel of the Capreria River in Sicily. The de facto constructed wetlands occasioned behind the flow-path barriers produced, for several years, an appreciable reduction of organic load of the upstream municipal wastewaters from the nearby town of Riesi, Italy. This coincidence inspires the prospect of promoting a multifunctional role for these slope-stabilization works, thereby allowing them to be viewed from an intriguing and innovative planning perspective.

In this work, the probability distribution of peak discharge at the hillslope bottom is determined hypothesizing a prevalent Hortonian mechanism of runoff production for a given rainfall duration. As is well known, the probability distribution of peak discharge depends on the probability of both the rainfall event as well as that of the antecedent soil moisture conditions. In particular, the probability of the rainfall event is calculated according to the familiar rainfall duration-intensity-frequency approach, whereas the ecohydrological method from the literature is used here to define the probability of the antecedent soil moisture conditions. The latter depends on a set of parameters describing the dynamic interactions between average climate, soil and vegetation. By using the Monte Carlo procedure, the peak discharge is derived for a given rainfall duration and for each antecedent moisture condition/rainfall intensity pair from a physical-based model from the literature, by coupling the analytical solution of the overland flow equations over a hillslope with an established model that accounts for the infiltration process. Thus, the probability of peak discharge is evaluated via the typical multivariate probability distribution procedure. The methodology proposed was applied to three soil classes, i. e., silty clay loam (SCL), silty clay (SC), and silty loam (SL), for three climatically diverse Sicilian localities, namely Acireale (eastern Sicily, along the Ionian coast), Enna (central mountainous region), and Trapani (westernmost coast). For each of these places, precipitation and temperature data sets are widely available. (C) 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers. In this work, the probability distribution of peak discharge at the hillslope bottom is determined hypothesizing a prevalent Hortonian mechanism of runoff production for a given rainfall duration. As is well known, the probability distribution of peak discharge depends on the probability of both the rainfall event as well as that of the antecedent soil moisture conditions. In particular, the probability of the rainfall event is calculated according to the familiar rainfall duration–intensity–frequency approach, whereas the ecohydrological method from the literature is used here to define the probability of the antecedent soil moisture conditions. The latter depends on a set of parameters describing the dynamic interactions between average climate, soil and vegetation. By using the Monte Carlo procedure, the peak discharge is derived for a given rainfall duration and for each antecedent moisture condition/rainfall intensity pair from a physical-based model from the literature, by coupling the analytical solution of the overland flow equations over a hillslope with an established model that accounts for the infiltration process. Thus, the probability of peak discharge is evaluated via the typical multivariate probability distribution procedure. The methodology proposed was applied to three soil classes, i.e., silty clay loam (SCL), silty clay (SC), and silty loam (SL), for three climatically diverse Sicilian localities, namely Acireale (eastern Sicily, along the Ionian coast), Enna (central mountainous region), and Trapani (westernmost coast). For each of these places, precipitation and temperature data sets are widely available.

This work presents a simplified probabilistic-topologic model for reproducing rill network surface runoff on a square-plane hillslope. The model requires only two parameters: the first is related to the production capacity of overland flow of the hillslope, at the initial conditions of the process, and the second depends on the sinuosity of the rill network. From a hydrological point of view, the following parameters account for the effects that essentially delineate the hydrologic response of a natural hillslope: rainfall intensity, hillslope roughness, and slope. Obviously, the reliability of the model is pending experimental validation that has only just begun. However, a preliminary experiment conducted on a 1.0×1.3-m test plot, with variable slope, has produced promising first results.

Objective Traumatic rupture of the thoracic aorta is a highly fatal condition in which patient outcome is strongly conditioned by other associated injuries. Delayed aortic treatment has been proposed to improve results. Methods The charts of 69 patients with traumatic rupture of the thoracic aorta observed between 1980 and 2003 were reviewed. Patients were grouped according the timing of repair: group I, immediate repair (21 patients); and group II, delayed repair (48 patients). In group II, 45 patients were treated surgically or by endovascular procedure. Results In-hospital mortalities were 4 of 21 patients (19%) in group I and 2 of 48 patients (4.2%) in group II. There were 3 cases of paraplegia in group I and none in group II. Conclusion Improvement of patient outcome with traumatic rupture of the thoracic aorta can be achieved by delaying surgical repair until after management of major associated injuries if there are no signs of impending rupture. Endovascular treatment is feasible and safe and may represent a valid alternative to open surgery in selected cases.

Epps et al. (2013) derived Curve Number (CN) values for two forested headwater watersheds in the Lower Coastal Plain of South Carolina during the 2008-2011 period from rainfall-runoff data, resulting in 23 events for the Upper Debidue Creek (UDC) watershed and in 20 events for Watershed 80 (WS80). D’Asaro and Grillone analyzed the P, CN data of the UDC watershed finding an evident “complacent” behavior, characterized by a declining CN with increasing P but without approaching a stable value at large storms. In this case, the traditional runoff CN equation does not fit well with the rainfall-runoff data that indicate a partial source area watershed behavior and are more aptly modeled by the equation introduced by D’Asaro and Grillone (2012), who introduced a C parameter in the well-known runoff CN formula. The C value, that represents the source area (fraction of drainage area) of the basin that produces runoff with a fixed CN < 100, is here considered to vary with the water table elevation (WTE), to which it is well correlated.