1,223 research outputs found
Environmental risk prevention, post-seismic interventions and the reconstruction of the public space as a planning challenge. An introduction.
No full textThis issue of the Italian Journal of Planning Practices tackles the topic of
‘natural’ risks, focusing particularly on seismic risk, and on policies and
actions addressed to prevention.
There are two main reasons for considering environmental risk as a primary issue in Italy. The first is because the geomorphology of the country and the physical and spatial configuration of its territory cause a particular risk exposure; in fact, it is among countries with higher seismic and hydrogeological risk levels in Europe). The second reason is related to spatial transformation processes, and to the urban development of the country in particular, which happened mostly without considering these risks. The combination of these two conditions leads Italy, unfortunately, to be wellknown for its weak capacity to govern territorial changes, and for its almost constant recourse to emergency policies. This special issue of IJPP, edited by B. Pizzo and V. Fabietti aims at critically exploring and deepening these issues
Heritage and the anti-city. Pizzo Sella in Palermo between modern ruins tourism and civic reappropriation
No full textTutte le nozioni di patrimonio mettono in risonanza i valori della memoria e quelli dell'ambiente antropizzato, poiché entrambi sono intesi come duraturi.
Riferendosi al caso iconico della collina di Pizzo Sella a Palermo, questo lavoro affronta il legame peculiare che in questo caso si esprime tra patrimonio, paesaggio e turismo. Per interrogarsi sul modo in cui tale legame segna il rapporto di una comunità con il suo passato, questo contributo si concentra su una nozione critica di patrimonio, inteso come sistema da riconoscere nel costruito dei territori del conflitto fra Stato e criminalità. Questi luoghi, a lungo sotto il controllo delle organizzazioni criminali mafiose, oggi sono profondamente contraddistinti da un'imponente presenza di beni confiscati, che costituiscono a tutti gli effetti un patrimonio fragile e misconosciuto, le cui grandi potenzialità civiche, economiche e territoriali restano poco sviluppate. Con riferimento specifico al caso di Pizzo Sella a Palermo, L'articolo esamina le implicazioni di alcune pratiche turistiche bottom-up, come l'esplorazione urbana, e il loro ruolo nei processi di riappropriazione civica tanto attesi e rivendicati in quei luoghi.All notions of heritage echo memorial values and anthropized environment, as both are intended to be lasting.
Referring to the iconic case of Pizzo Sella hill in Palermo, the concern of this paper is the peculiar linkage that this case expresses between heritage, landscape, and tourism. To question the way in which this linkage marks the relationship of a community to its past, this paper focuses on a critical notion of heritage, as it may appears in conflict territories, that have long time been under the control of criminal organisations. Those places are nowadays deeply marked by an impressive presence of confiscated assets, that result in a kind of fragile and unrecognized heritage. With a special focus on the hill of Pizzo Sella, the article inspects the implications of some bottom-up touristic practices, as urban exploration, and their role in the civic reappropriation processes that are long awaited and claimed in those places
Basin modifications and coastal dynamics: the case of the ionic waterfront in the Basilicata Region.
No full textMagnetostratigraphy and Biostratigraphy of the Carnian/Norian Boundary Interval from the Pizzo Mondello Section (Sicily)
No full textWe present new magnetostratigraphic and biostratigraphic data from an Upper Triassic limestone section named Pizzo Mondello. This section is 141m-thick and crops out in the Sicani Mountains of western Sicily (Italy). The Pizzo Mondello section is one of the Tethyan best in virtue of its high quality of exposure, accessibility, stratigraphic continuity and good magnetostratigraphic data. We recognize a sequence of six magnetozones, from M1 to M6, each subdivided into a lower predominantly normal and an upper predominantly reversed magnetozone. This sequence of magnetozones spans the Carnian/Norian boundary according to conodont biostratigraphy. The Carnian/Norian boundary should fall in the upper part of magnetozone M3 which should correspond to chron E14 in the Newark reference sequence of polarity reversals. The comparison of data from the Newark basin, Pizzo Mondello and the Late Triassic Bolcektasi Tepe section from the literature seems to suggest the existence of a disconformity in the Tethyan marine domain at around the Carnian/Norian boundary which we tentatively relate to intraPangea tectonic mobility. A consistent correlation of Newark/Pizzo Mondello with published data from the Norian Tethyan marine Kavur Tepe and Scheiblkogel sections is still elusive, suggesting that the validity of the original polarity interpretation of the Kavur Tepe section could usefully be critically reviewed
Gendering the comic body: Physical humour in <i>Shirley</i>
No full textThe mock-battles and slap-stick scenes that arise at pivotal moments in Shirley encourage us to reexamine Brontë’s sense of humour, which is neither as grim, nor as naively crude as critics from George Henry Lewes to Virginia Woolf have deemed it. Drawing on Brontë’s engagement with the theatrical traditions of European Carnival and British pantomime, this chapter demonstrates how physical humour in Shirley satirises the gendered dictates of literary realism that Lewes had laid out for the author in public reviews and private correspondence. By rejecting the witty drawing-room comedy often associated with her predecessor Jane Austen, and adopting the brash language of the body common to both popular performance and the work of her male peers Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray, Brontë participates in important mid-nineteenth-century debates about gendered authorship and the literary marketplace.<br/
Evolutionary Process from Mockina bidentata to Parvigondolella andrusovi: Evidence from the Pizzo Mondello Section, Sicily, Italy
No full textDuring their last phase of evolution, the pectiniform conodont elements manifested an evident trend of simplification and miniaturization. This phase started from the late Norian (Sevatian) in the Late Triassic and the evolutionary process of genus Mockina to Parvigondolella, in particular between Mockina bidentata and Parvigondolella andrusovi, is one of the most significant examples. Parvigondolella has been reported worldwide since it was first described in the early 1970s. However, it has recently been suggested that genus Parvigondolella is an ecostratigraphic morphotype of genus Mockina, and thus a phenotype controlled by the environmental conditions, and not an independent taxon. In the Pizzo Mondello Section (Sicily, Italy), transitional forms between M. bidentata and P. andrusovi have been found at different evolutionary stages. We have investigated the oceanic conditions at the time by using redox-sensitive elements (Mn, Fe, V, Cr, and Ni) and seawater temperatures from biogenetic δ18Ophos to understand the possible environmental influences on the phylogenetic evolution between Mockina and Parvigondolella. The geochemical and isotope analyses indicate that the redox condition and temperature were stable during the evolution of genus Parvigondolella in Pizzo Mondello, confirming that genus Parvigondolella is a real taxon and not a phenotype. A new conodont species named Parvigondolella ciarapicae n. sp. is described here for the first time
“Salmo salar ribonuclease: structural and functional evidences of an auto inhibition mechanism”
No full textThe pancreatic-type ribonucleases (ptRNases) constitute one of the most investigated family of homologous proteins [1]. PtRNases have been found in various organs and tissues of mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds [2] and, more recently, fish. In particular, seven new RNases were identified in two teleosts: five from Zebrafish (ZF RNases) and two from Salmo Salar (Ss-RNase-1 and Ss-RNase-2) [3-5]. We have focused our attention on the latter enzyme, which is the most active fish RNase, although its activity is much lower than that of the other members of the ptRNase family.
The crystallographic structure of Ss-RNase-2 (SS2) shows the typical V-shape structure of pancreatic-like ribonucleases, with three helices and six β-strands connected by loops and turns. The electron density in the active site region is discontinuous. In particular, the position of His 113, one of the residues of the catalytic triad that is usually very well defined, cannot be unambiguously identified. Furthermore, the segment Val117-Ile121, which is well-structured and anchored to the protein body, partially obstructs the active site. These structural features suggest that SS2 is in a sort of inhibited state. It is reasonable to hypothesize that, in consequence of an interaction with a specific ligand, the C-terminal segment moves to free the active site. To define the activation mechanism of SS2, we have designed and characterized two deletion mutants: SS2-des117-121, in which the chain segment that in the wild-type protein obstructs the active site has been removed, and SS2-des119-126, in which the elimination of the last eight residues of the chain might allow the sliding of the obstructing segment out of the active site. Interestingly, the crystallographic structure of SS2-des117-121 shows a well-defined active site, almost free of obstructions. Furthermore, the enzymatic activity assays show an improvement of the specific activity of SS2-des117-121 with respect to the wild-type protein. On the bases of these findings, we have proposed an intriguing auto-inhibition mechanism for SS2. The details will be discussed at the Meeting.
[1] L. Aravind, E.V. Koonin Methods Enzymol. 2001, 341, 3.
[2] S. Cho, J.J. Beintema, J. Zhang Genomics. 2005, 85, 208.
[3] E. Pizzo, P. Buonanno, A. Di Maro, S. Ponticelli, S. De Falco, N. Quarto, M.V. Cubellis, G. D'Alessio J Biol Chem. 2006, 281, 27454.
[4] Pizzo, E., Merlino, A., Turano, M., Russo Krauss, I., Coscia, F., Zanfardino, A., Varcamonti, M., Furia, A., Giancola, C., Mazzarella, L., Sica, F., D'Alessio, G. Bioch. J. 2010, 433(2), 345-355
[5] E. Pizzo, M. Varcamonti, A. Di Maro, A. Zanfardino, C. Giancola, G. D'Alessio FEBS J. 2008, 275, 1283
Existence and construction of resonances for atoms coupled to the quantized radiation field
No full textAbstract
The processes of emission and absorption of photons by atoms can be rigorously understood in the low-energy limit if we neglect the creation and annihilation of electrons. They are related to eigenvalues of the atomic Hamiltonian that are embedded in the continuous spectrum of the free Hamiltonian of the electromagnetic field. The mathematical analysis of the perturbation of these eigenvalues due to the electromagnetic interaction relies on a complex deformation technique relating the original Hamiltonian to a non-selfadjoint operator. We develop a new technique to analyze the spectrum of operators used in non-relativistic quantum electrodynamics. Our method can be applied to prove most of the results that previously required an involved renormalization group construction. We use analytic perturbation theory of operators in Hilbert spaces instead. More precisely, we extend the multi-scale analysis introduced by one of us in 2003 [15], which was used so far only for the study of selfadjoint operators, to non-selfadjoint operators. Compared to the selfadjoint case (see, for example, [3]) the analysis of these non-selfadjoint operators is more difficult, because we cannot make use of the functional calculus (spectral theorem) and the min–max principle in some crucial estimates
Tethyan magnetostratigrapy from Pizzo Mondello and correlation to the Late Triassic Newark APTS
No full textWe present magnetostratigraphic data and preliminary C13 and O18 stable isotope data from an expanded (≈430m-thick) Upper Triassic marine section at Pizzo Mondello from the Sicani Basin of Sicily and review biostratigraphic data from the literature that can be used to define the location of the Carnian/Norian and Norian/Rhaetian boundaries. Pizzo Mondello offers good potentials for
magnetostratigraphic correlation of marine biostratigraphic and chemostratigraphic data with the continental Newark astrochronological time scale (APTS) for development of an integrated Late Triassic time scale. The relatively stable average values of 18O centered around 0‰ are a strong indication that the Cherty Limestone at Pizzo Mondello suffered very little diagenetic overprinting. The Carnian/Norian boundary at Pizzo Mondello seems to be associated with a positive shift of C13 although further work is necessary to evaluate its paleoenvironmental significance. A statistical approach was applied to evaluate various Pizzo Mondello to Newark magnetostratigraphic correlations. Two correlation options, neither unequivocal, have the highest and nearly equivalent correlation coefficients. Option #1 predicts the base of Pizzo Mondello to be correlative with the middle part of the Newark APTS, whereas in Option #2 the base of Mondello starts towards the early part of the Newark APTS. According to sampling density and average sediment accumulation rates of 20-30m/m.y., polarity intervals with durations equal to or less than ≈170 k.y. may have been undersampled at Pizzo Mondello. Accordingly, we filtered the high resolution Newark APTS and performed further statistical correlations from which we conclude that Option #2 is preferred. With this option, the Carnian/Norian boundary based on conodonts corresponds to basal Newark magnetozone E7 at about 228 Ma (adopting Newark astrochronology), implying a long Norian with a duration of 20m.y. and a Rhaetian of about 6 m.y. duration. These ages are in fact not inconsistent with the few high quality radiometric dates that are available for Late Triassic time scale calibration. We suggest that Pizzo Mondello is a good candidate for a GSSP for the base of the Norian whereas we find that sections of the "Hallstatt" type , which may be more fossiliferous but have erratic and typically very low average rates of sediment accumulation, are more difficult to correlate with each other and with expanded sections such as Pizzo Mondello and the Newark
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