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The objective of Meglio Muoversi [Better Moving] is the pursuing of the sustainable mobility in its variations of social, economic and environmental sustainability, through the realization of a process of planning, integrated management and monitoring, of advanced mobility services, aimed at thickening tangible and intangible networks of connection (accessibility), changing the travel behaviours of users to discourage the use of private cars and foster the integration between various modes of transport (safety and environmental impacts, efficiency and efficacy). Two services of advanced mobility flexible in space and time have been activated: Chiamabus and C’Entro. Chiamabus is a service on demand, C'Entro is a Car-sharing service and provides for the promotion of the Car-pooling.

The present study aims to analyse the land market trend with particular reference to the main typologies of crop in Sicily (1992-2010). More specifically, after examining the trend in agricultural land average prices, both in current and constant terms, the dynamic formulation of Shift and Share Analysis (DSSA) was carried out, in order to check the growth gap between the average prices in the Sicilian provinces and the correspondent regional ones over the period, and trying to identify its causes also on the basis of the relationship between land values and the agro-food markets dynamics in the investigated period. The analysis of average land values shows a positive trend in current terms, but a steady erosion in constant values. The application of DSSA highlights that the average land values expressed in current prices have a positive market dynamics (except for the province of Palermo), but lower than the overall regional trend, whereas Agrigento and Ragusa growth rates are higher than the regional one. On the contrary, the analysis in real terms shows a heavily erosive dynamics of provincial average prices which is more marked than the overall regional one, with the exception of Agrigento where the negative growth rate is lower than the overall trend. The analysis also measured the growth differential between the dynamics of the average values for each crop typology and the overall regional trend. More specifically, the study pointed out the dichotomy characterising the Sicilian land market in the period 1992-2010: on the one hand, the positive data of arable and horticultural crops and, to a lesser extent, permanent grassland due to a good structural framework capable of absorbing the shortcomings at local level, on the other hand, negative growth differential recorded for tree crops, due almost exclusively to substantial structural weaknesses.

The Authors report their results on the treatment of simple voluminous renal cyst with percutaneous drainage and three times repeated sclerosis with pure alcohol every 24 hours. After a mean follow-up of 28 months They report a 96% of success with only two recurrences. Since the fair results and low invasiveness of the method, the Authors propose the repeated alcoholization in the treatment of simple voluminous renal cysts.

The moral evaluation of actions that disregard climate change, in individual as well as public ethics, is complex. A clear moral judgment itself is difficult to reach in both contexts, as we are far from paradigm moral cases where specific people provoke harm to easily identifiable others. However, for people to seriously engage in climate change mitigation, it has to be clear why it is wrong not to do so. There is therefore a need to frame moral responsibility for anti-environmen-tal behavior using language and concepts that are understandable to a broad public. This paper will argue that the concept of selfishness, properly construed, is the most appropriate tool for describing and morally evaluating human behavior that disregards climate change. A specific consequentialist definition of selfishness will be provided to this purpose. Some objections to framing the environmental decision in this way will be raised in public as well as individual ethics. In the public sphere, moral deliberations are complicated by the conflict between the rights of the present generation and those of future ones. In individual ethics, the inconsequentiality of individual emissions calls into question the very existence of a moral imperative to act pro-envi-ronmentally. The paper will thus investigate the grounds on which we can hold accountable pol-icy makers who refuse to take action on climate change, focusing on the concept of future dis-counting. With regard to the individual dimension, a proposal will be advanced on the basis of a non-superfluous causal contribution to collective-impact cases. In both contexts, the paper will eventually argue that anti-environmental actions can be defined as selfish according to the defini-tion provided.

The limited scientific knowledge on relationship between exposure and health effects in relation to geothermal activity motivated an epidemiologic investigation in Tuscan geothermal area. The study aims to describe the health status of populations living in Tuscany municipalities where concessions for exploitation of geothermal resources were granted.This is an ecological study, so it is not useful to produce evidence to sustain a judgment on the cause-effect link. The major limits of this type of study are the use of the residence at municipal level as a proxy of exposure to both environmental and socioeconomic factors and the use of aggregated data of health outcomes that can lead to the well-known ecological fallacy.Sixteen municipalities were included in the study area: eight are part of the so-called "traditional" geothermal area, defined as Northern Geothermal Area (NGA) and eight located in the Amiata Mountain defined as Southern Geothermal Area (SGA). In 2000-2006, the average resident population in the overall area was approximately 43,000 inhabitants. Thirty-one geothermal power plants were active, with a production capacity of 811 MW, 5 of them with 88 MW located in the SGA. Statistical analyses on the entire geothermal area, NGA and SGA subareas, and the sixteen municipalities were performed.Mortality data were obtained from Tuscany Regional Mortality Registry for the 1971-2006 period, analysing 60 causes of death, of interest for population health status or consistent with "Project SENTIERI" criteria. Hospital discharge records of residents in Tuscany Region in 2004-2006, anywhere admitted to hospital, were analyzed considering only the main diagnosis, excluding repeated admissions for the same cause. The causes taken into account are the same analysed for mortality were considered. Age-standardized mortality rates (TSDM) and the temporal trends of TSDM for four periods (1971-1979, 1980-1989, 1990-1999, 2000-2006) were computed. Age-standardized mortality/hospitalization ratios (SMR/SHR), with and without adjustment for the deprivation index based on 2001 census data, were calculated: mortality in the years 2000-2006 and hospitalization in 2004-2006. The expected number of events were computed using rates of residents in neighbouring municipalities (municipalities included in 50 km radius circle centred on the study area). Bayesian estimates of mortality/hospitalization ratios (BMR/BHR) at municipal level only and relating maps of the Bayesian risk estimators were elaborated. Congenital malformations (MC) were analysed using data from Tuscan Registry of Birth Defect in 1992-2006 period, relative to outcomes of pregnancies in women resident in the municipalities of study area, wherever the birth or termination of pregnancy occurred. The ratio between observed and expected cases (O/A), with expected defined according to regional rate, were calculated and O/A Bayesian estimates (BMR) are showed only at municipal level. The low weight and the males/females ratio at birth were analysed using data from Tuscany Birth Certificates, covering period 2001-2007, excluding births occurred in facilities outside Tuscany Region. For Low birth weight ( 64 years). Among females resident in SGA a mortality excess from digestive system diseases was observed (72 observed, 55 expected). The hospitalization in the overall Geothermal Area did not show any excess for all causes and all tumours in both genders. Statistically significant excesses for hospital admission from stomach cancer among males (49 observed, 38 expected) and females (42 observed, 28 expected), and from lymphohematopoietic tumours among females, particularly from lymphatic leukaemia (15 observed, 5 expected), were observed. As mortality analysis highlighted, also hospital admissions by geothermal areas and gender showed a worst picture in SGA than in NGA. In the latter, a significant excess of hospital admissions from all causes among females (1,357 observed, 1,284 expected) but not among males (1,193 observed, 1,141 expected) and an excess - close to statistical significance - from all tumours only among females (297 observed; 272 expected) were observed. Furthermore, statistically significant excesses of hospital admissions from digestive system diseases in both genders (M: 392 observed, 350 expected; F: 300 observed, 268 expected), from dementias (16 observed, 8 expected) and from lympho hematopoietic cancers among females, particularly from lymphatic leukaemia (9 observed, 2 expected), were observed. In the SGA, statistically significant excesses of hospital admissions for stomach cancer (M: 32 observed, 21 expected, not significant after adjusting by DI; F: 29 observed, 18 expected), for respiratory diseases (M: 408 observed, 351 expected; F: 339 observed, 277 expected) and for renal failure (M: 61 observed, 41 expected; F: 52 observed, 34 expected) were observed in both genders. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)

In the past economics ignored the limits of natural resources. In the last few years a new methodological approach comes into economics improving the comprehension of the economic phenomena linked to the satisfaction of the needs of modern man that basic considers the quality of life. The objective of this research is to define the theoretical and methodological aspects of a sustainable economy pointing out the reasons and the grounds on which to build an environmental policy. This one has to consider either the economic matters or the environmental sensitivity of people. This research is divided into three parts. The first one defines the outlines of the sustainable economy and its characteristic features. The second one emphasizes the necessity of replacing the concept of sustainable development instead of development and growth. At last, the third part identifies the basic lines into which the environmental policy has to be realized defining its reasons, its foundations and its valuation systems. Aestimum, Aestimum 47 (2005)

The Antarctic continent plays a fundamental role in the global climate system and its role is particularly important in a climate change scenario. Since the '90s, the Ross Sea and the coastal area of Terra Nova Bay have been chosen as specific and peculiar research sites for climatic investigations within the LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) network. Studies have been conducted by both Italian and international Universities and research centres.This macro-site area is characterized by abundant primary productivity, and zooplankton and benthonic communities. The objective of the research activities is the acquisition of long-term time series related to the biotic communities, the bio-geochemical fluxes and the physico-chemical parameters of the water column in the Ross Sea area. To this aim, four Moorings (A, B, D and H) were deployed to obtain the above-mentioned data, which will be very useful to improve the quality of the existing bio-geochemical models and to provide more precise information on the Antarctic marine ecosystem in relation to global climate change. In the Terra Nova Bay research site, the activities are devoted to the characterization of the relationship between the structure and the dynamic of the pelagic and benthonic communities and the ice cover. Numerous physical, chemical and biological data were collected from the four Moorings, the water samples retrieved at the Terra Nova Bay site and the sediments samples. Such fundamental data allowed establishing an important starting point to better understand the climate change phenomena occurred in the last twenty years, and that will occur in the future, in the Ross Sea Area.

We report the results of a multicenter study on the diagnosis and interventional therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The first aim--diagnosis--was to evaluate the sensitivity of 4 imaging techniques, namely ultrasonography (US), Computed Tomography (CT), digital arteriography (DSA) and Lipiodol CT (LCT), in HCC detection. The accuracy of these techniques was also investigated in tumor staging, which is important for treatment planning. Two hundred ninety patients underwent this imaging protocol. The patients were classified by tumor spread into three groups, namely group 1 (single HCCs 80 cc). US and CT diagnosed more cases as group 1 and fewer cases as group 3 than DSA and LCT; the latter two techniques gave a similar classification. With LCT as the gold standard, US and CT understaged 27.9% and 26.5% of cases, respectively. Even though LCT is known to have 53% sensitivity, it is currently the most sensitive preoperative investigation and therefore the best tool for treatment planning. In surgical patients, however, intraoperative US, with its nearly 100% sensitivity, is suggested. The second aim--treatment--consisted in assessing the therapeutic efficacy of intraarterial chemoembolization (CEAT) versus percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) in non advanced HCC and of CEAT versus no treatment (NT) in advanced HCC. Treatment efficacy was evaluated with the following randomized protocols: PEI versus CEAT in group 1, PEI versus CEAT in group 2 and CEAT versus NT in group 3. The data were analyzed relative to 215 patients for 6 to 30 months. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate survival rates, which were, at 24 and 30 months, 72% and 72% for PEI and 72% and 52% for CEAT in group 1, 52% and 28% for PEI and 70% and 50% for CEAT in group 2 and finally 30% and 20% for NT and 45% and 30% for CEAT in group 3. In group 1, PEI appeared markedly superior to CEAT. In group 2, the difference between PEI and CEAT was not statistically significant; the results in this group indicate that CEAT should be considered when three nodules are present because of PEI invasiveness in these cases. In group 3, CEAT results were definitely better in the first two years, but there was no difference with NT patients at the end of the third year. Therefore, CEAT is indicated in advanced HCC because it improves the survival rate in the first 24 months. After this period, the survival time is not modified by treatment.