Search

428 est une année sans presque autre événement mémorable que la chute du royaume d’Arménie, perdu aux confins d’un Empire romain déclinant. Pourtant, cette année ordinaire est loin d’être une année sans histoire : rien n’est fait, rien n’est joué, tout est en train de se faire. Le paganisme s’étiole avec panache, plusieurs fonctionnaires civils et beaucoup de commandants militaires ont des noms qui quelques années auparavant auraient semblé barbares. Les temps changent, imperceptiblement : le crépuscule de l’Antiquité devient l’aube du Moyen Âge. Giusto Traina propose un tour du monde romain en 365 jours, où le lecteur découvre villes, palais, monastères, et surtout, à côté des grands noms comme Saint Augustin, Théodose II, ou le roi des Vandales Genséric, les figures peu banales et hautes en couleur du Sarrasin al-Mundhir, du Copte Chenouté ou encore de l’extraordinaire Galla Placidia, qui fut successivement épouse d’un roi barbare, impératrice d’Occident, et enfin reine mère du jeune Valentinien III.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1931-1936, The debate on climate change is mobilizing research and innovation across all policy areas in EU. The European Green Deal is the roadmap for making the EU's economy sustainable. This will happen by turning climate and environmental challenges into opportunities for a EU Green Deal, accomplishing the growing interest of public opinion in a tangible diffusion of sustainable policies and renewable energies. Solar Photovoltaics (PV) has evolved dramatically to become the most affordable clean energy technology with impressive potentials. The built environment remains a strategic domain in view of the goal of full decarbonisation by 2050, so that Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) is emerging more and more as the opportunity to exploit the surface area available on buildings for power generation and also with strong market prospects. New multifunctional products that can be perfectly integrated into the skin of the buildings (i.e. façades, roofs) are emerging as extremely versatile materials, with multifunctional properties and benefits for solar constructions to realize nearly-zero or plus-energy buildings. However, in addition to the aforementioned advantages, the aspects related to safety are relevant since integrating PV in buildings requires an accurate performance assessment in accordance with construction norms and PV standards. This became evident when, as a result of PV market spread, also an increase of cases of fire was registered, highlighting the need of implementing a proper fire prevention policy including protection systems, especially in cases of PV interaction with the building skin. Fire safety is a topic of primary interest for BIPV systems, in order to guarantee a proper level of safety and reliability during the building life cycle which, in turn, calls into question the need to investigate innovative technologies and approaches to protect the buildings such as rapid shutdown systems. This paper resumes the first part of a research carried out by the authors aimed at developing and set up first test protocols focused on the fire behaviour assessment for electrically active BIPV façade system. Object of investigation are facades equipped with systems capable of a fast electrical potential minimization mainly oriented to ensure the safety of maintenance and, in case of fire, safety of rescue personnel as well as the reduction of fire spread.

There are growing evidence of clinical manifestations other than acute respiratory syndrome in severe acute respiratory syndrome associated with coronavirus 2-infected children. In our multicenter retrospective analysis, we observed among 127 severe acute respiratory syndrome associated with coronavirus 2 positive children that the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms was more frequently associated with severe and critical phenotype (P = 0.029). Moreover, having gastrointestinal symptoms was more frequently reported in patients who developed cardiac impairment.

The Resilformed LIFE project aims to preserve forest ecosystems in the Mediterranean against the risks resulting from climate change, through naturalization, increase biodiversity and improved responsiveness in the recovery process from destabilizing events. The article illustrates the best practices identified through the analysis provided by the project and the system to evaluate different interventions summarized in a survey form.

The purpose of this work is to investigate the link between an altered intestinal mcro-biota or dysbiosis and chronic inflammatory disorders, in particular inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Along with probiotics, faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) opts to be a promising therapeutic treatment for restoring the bacterial homeostasis of the hu-man intestine and reducing the risk of colorectal carcinogenesis. Microbiota is the com-plex microbial flora that resides in the gut establishing a mutually beneficial relation-ship. Alteration of the microbiota’s composition, termed as dysbiosis, may lead to pathological conditions. Treatment with probiotics can restore the normal commensal flora in IBD. Intestinal microbiota affects the circadian rhythm which in turn regulates the expression of different genes in GALT (gut associated lymphoid tissue) playing a role in the prevention of inflammation and colorectal cancer (CRC) progression. This article highlights the involvement of different microbial strains in the pathogenesis of dysbiosis and in the creation of a carcinogenic milieu caused by an altered stimulation of the immune system. Therapies targeting the equilibrium of the microbiota to switch off chronic inflammation and prevent the progression to CRC seem to be a promising therapeutic tool for a variety of inflammation-associated diseases.

In view of an ecological and environmentally use of the biomass drew from forest operations, it is utterly important to well know the forest ecosystems characterizing the regional territory and in particular the pilot area of the Proforbiomed project. In this way it was possible to acquire specific information on the forest types in the area, its ecological and structural characteristics and the evolutionary dynamics. The information gathered have been fundamental in order to detect the most suitable forest management policies and interventions, able to put together the use of biomass and an increased of forest ecosystems stability.The studies carried out in the pilot area of the Proforbiomed project can be considered representative of a fair part of the regional territory what concerns the social, economic and environmental context. This work has the purpose of providing an overview and a short description of the consistency of forests potentially available for biomass production within the pilot area of the Proforbiomed project in Sicily.

Nell’ottica di un utilizzo energetico sostenibile delle biomasse provenienti dalle utilizzazioni forestali è di fondamentale importanza conoscere la consistenza e le esigenze ecologiche delle formazioni forestali che caratterizzano il territorio regionale. In questo lavoro è illustrato uno studio sulla consistenza e sulle caratteristiche ecologiche e strutturali dei rimboschimenti presenti nel territorio dei Monti Sicani. L’analisi è finalizzata a quantificare la disponibilità di biomassa forestale residuale ottenibile dalla gestione sostenibile di tali popolamenti e valutare il possibile uso energetico. L’analisi è stata condotta sulla base dei dati disponibili per l’area di studio presso il Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Forestali dell’Università di Palermo. La stima della biomassa disponibile (ramaglia e fusti) si è basata sulla pianificazione di un diradamento da realizzare nelle aree a selvicoltura attiva in funzione della densità/grado di copertura e della pendenza. I risultati dell’analisi confermano che i quantitativi di biomassa ricavabili dalla gestione sostenibile dei rimboschimenti dei Monti Sicani risultano adeguati per ipotizzare la realizzazione di piccoli impianti di cogenerazione a scala di territorio comunale. The paper describes the reasons that led the Regional Department of Rural and Territorial Development to take part in the PROFORBIOMED Project. They can be summarized by the need to dispose of a tool for the sustainable management of all the state-owned forests of the Region. As a matter of fact, the Project aims at developing a model of sustainable forest management, through the recovery and reuse of wood scraps from ordinary silvicultural operations, to be used for the production of power and heat inside of a process adopting natural renewable energy sources. The main actions taken and the methodologies adopted are described, as well as the principles and instruments required for the setting up and execution of the work. Some of the most relevant are: the drafting of “Forest Management Plans”, the “Short Supply Chain” and the “Biomass Traceability Protocol”, together with the application of “Best Practices” of Management and the “Monitoring of impacts” caused by the woody biomass extraction procedures. The “forest – wood – energy” chain developed and proposed is exclusively related to the territory pertaining to one municipality, and with CHP plants fed with biomass exclusively produced within the territory of each municipality, in strict compliance with the “sustainable forest management” principles, as well as with the fundamental principle of “short supply chain”. For these reasons the CHP plans proposed shall be sized according to the biomass available in each municipality, with the possibility of integrating residual forest biomass with other waste wood resources potentially available in the territory and coming from prunings in agricultural activities. Therefore, the replicable model prepared and proposed by PROFORBIOMED aims at appraising from the economic point of view a waste product, such is currently considered the residual forest biomass from the forests of Sicily, and at the same time significantly improving the natural environment, thanks to the reduction in oil consumption.

In Sicilia, secondo i dati del nuovo Inventario Forestale Regionale, i rimboschimenti occupano una superficie di 96.000 ha pari a circa il 36% dei boschi regionali. L’area dei Monti Sicani costituisce uno dei comprensori in cui è stata realizzata, a partire dalla meta del secolo scorso, la maggiore estensione di rimboschimenti a conifere della Sicilia occidentale, nell’ambito della politica di salvaguardia del territorio dal dissesto idrogeologico intrapresa prima dallo Stato e poi proseguita dalla Regione. In questo comprensorio, corrispondente al territorio designato per il costituendo Parco dei Monti Sicani, i rimboschimenti, quasi tutti di proprietà pubblica e gestiti dall’ARFDS (Azienda Regionale Foreste Demaniali della Sicilia), occupano una superficie di 8.300 ha pari a circa il 9% del totale regionale. I boschi di conifere (7780 ha) sono costituiti in massima parte da Pinus halepensis L. e prevalgono nettamente su quelli di latifoglie (Eucalyptus sp.pl.). Una parte consistente di questi popolamenti presenta una forte attitudine alla rinaturalizzazione prevalentemente verso i querceti sempreverdi e caducifogli tipici della fascia termo e meso-mediterranea. L’intensità di tali processi dipende dalle condizioni stazionali (quota, esposizione e suolo) e dalle caratteristiche fisionomico-strutturali dei soprassuoli, risultando bassa in contesti caratterizzati da una elevata densità arborea (corrispondente spesso a quella di impianto) e/o dalla presenza di suolo poco evoluto. Scopo del presente lavoro è di programmare, in funzione delle caratteristiche ambientali ed ecologico-strutturale dei rimboschimenti, adeguati interventi selvicolturali con l’obiettivo di assecondare e/o favorire i processi di rinaturalizzazione funzionali all’aumento della complessità, stabilità, resistenza e resilienza dell’ecosistema foresta. Contestualmente è stata effettuata, in linea con i principi del Protocollo di Kyoto, la stima della biomassa ritraibile dalla realizzazione degli interventi programmati ai fini dello sviluppo di una filiera “legno-energia” a scala comprensoriale per l’alimentazione di piccoli impianti cogenerativi. La stima delle biomasse forestali ricavabili dall’esecuzione degli interventi è stata condotta a partire dalla provvigione attualmente presente nei soprassuoli, ottenuta dalla elaborazione dei dati dendro-auxometrici rilevati in diverse aree di saggio disponibili per ciascuna tipologia forestale. La modulazione degli interventi, effettuata in base al grado di copertura, alla pendenza e all’intensità dei processi di rinaturalizzazione in atto, ha permesso di stimare la biomassa disponibile a scopo energetico. I risultati dell’indagine hanno permesso di verificare la fattibilità di una filiera foresta-legno-energia nel comprensorio dei Monti Sicani, utilizzando la biomassa ricavabile da interventi di rinaturalizzazione dei rimboschimenti. Tale progetto presuppone la redazione dei piani di assestamento a livello di Demanio forestale, strumento fondamentale per contestualizzare razionalmente nello spazio e nel tempo gli interventi e la biomassa disponibile.

This is a sweeping tour of the Mediterranean world from the Atlantic to Persia during the last half-century of the Roman Empire. By focusing on a single year not overshadowed by an epochal event, 428 AD provides a truly fresh look at a civilization in the midst of enormous change--as Christianity takes hold in rural areas across the empire, as western Roman provinces fall away from those in the Byzantine east, and as power shifts from Rome to Constantinople. Taking readers on a journey through the region, Giusto Traina describes the empires' people, places, and events in all their simultaneous richness and variety. The result is an original snapshot of a fraying Roman world on the edge of the medieval era. The result is an original snapshot of a fraying Roman world on the edge of the medieval era. Readers meet many important figures, including the Roman general Flavius Dionysius as he encounters a delegation from Persia after the Sassanids annex Armenia; the Christian ascetic Simeon Stylites as he stands and preaches atop his column near Antioch; the eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II as he prepares to commission his legal code; and Genseric as he is elected king of the Vandals and begins to turn his people into a formidable power. We are also introduced to Pulcheria, the powerful sister of Theodosius, and Galla Placidia, the queen mother of the western empire, as well as Augustine, Pope Celestine I, and nine-year-old Roman emperor Valentinian III. Full of telling details, 428 AD illustrates the uneven march of history. As the west unravels, the east remains intact. As Christianity spreads, pagan ideas and schools persist. And, despite the presence of the forces that will eventually tear the classical world apart, Rome remains at the center, exerting a powerful unifying force over disparate peoples stretched across the Mediterranean. © 2009 by Princeton University Press. All Rights Reserved.