Natural patterns and anthropogenic disturbance in north Adriatic marine benthic assemblages: descriptive and methodological studies

Marine soft bottom systems show a high variability across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Both natural and anthropogenic sources of disturbance act together in affecting benthic sedimentary characteristics and species distribution. The description of such spatial variability is required to understand the ecological processes behind them. However, in order to have a better estimate of spatial patterns, methods that take into account the complexity of the sedimentary system are required. This PhD thesis aims to give a significant contribution both in improving the methodological approaches to the study of biological variability in soft bottom habitats and in increasing the knowledge of the effect that different process (both natural and anthropogenic) could have on the benthic communities of a large area in the North Adriatic Sea. Beta diversity is a measure of the variability in species composition, and Whittaker’s index has become the most widely used measure of beta-diversity. However, application of the Whittaker index to soft bottom assemblages of the Adriatic Sea highlighted its sensitivity to rare species (species recorded in a single sample). This over-weighting of rare species induces biased estimates of the heterogeneity, thus it becomes difficult to compare assemblages containing a high proportion of rare species. In benthic communities, the unusual large number of rare species is frequently attributed to a combination of sampling errors and insufficient sampling effort. In order to reduce the influence of rare species on the measure of beta diversity, I have developed an alternative index based on simple probabilistic considerations. It turns out that this probability index is an ordinary Michaelis-Menten transformation of Whittaker's index but behaves more favourably when species heterogeneity increases. The suggested index therefore seems appropriate when comparing patterns of complexity in marine benthic assemblages. Although the new index makes an important contribution to the study of biodiversity in sedimentary environment, it remains to be seen which processes, and at what scales, influence benthic patterns. The ability to predict the effects of ecological phenomena on benthic fauna highly depends on both spatial and temporal scales of variation. Once defined, implicitly or explicitly, these scales influence the questions asked, the methodological approaches and the interpretation of results. Problem often arise when representative samples are not taken and results are over-generalized, as can happen when results from small-scale experiments are used for resource planning and management. Such issues, although globally recognized, are far from been resolved in the North Adriatic Sea. This area is potentially affected by both natural (e.g. river inflow, eutrophication) and anthropogenic (e.g. gas extraction, fish-trawling) sources of disturbance. Although few studies in this area aimed at understanding which of these processes mainly affect macrobenthos, these have been conducted at a small spatial scale, as they were designated to examine local changes in benthic communities or particular species. However, in order to better describe all the putative processes occurring in the entire area, a high sampling effort performed at a large spatial scale is required. The sedimentary environment of the western part of the Adriatic Sea was extensively studied in this thesis. I have described, in detail, spatial patterns both in terms of sedimentary characteristics and macrobenthic organisms and have suggested putative processes (natural or of human origin) that might affect the benthic environment of the entire area. In particular I have examined the effect of off shore gas platforms on benthic diversity and tested their effect over a background of natural spatial variability. The results obtained suggest that natural processes in the North Adriatic such as river outflow and euthrophication show an inter-annual variability that might have important consequences on benthic assemblages, affecting for example their spatial pattern moving away from the coast and along a North to South gradient. Depth-related factors, such as food supply, light, temperature and salinity play an important role in explaining large scale benthic spatial variability (i.e., affecting both the abundance patterns and beta diversity). Nonetheless, more locally, effects probably related to an organic enrichment or pollution from Po river input has been observed. All these processes, together with few human-induced sources of variability (e.g. fishing disturbance), have a higher effect on macrofauna distribution than any effect related to the presence of gas platforms. The main effect of gas platforms is restricted mainly to small spatial scales and related to a change in habitat complexity due to a natural dislodgement or structure cleaning of mussels that colonize their legs. The accumulation of mussels on the sediment reasonably affects benthic infauna composition. All the components of the study presented in this thesis highlight the need to carefully consider methodological aspects related to the study of sedimentary habitats. With particular regards to the North Adriatic Sea, a multi-scale analysis along natural and anthopogenic gradients was useful for detecting the influence of all the processes affecting the sedimentary environment. In the future, applying a similar approach may lead to an unambiguous assessment of the state of the benthic community in the North Adriatic Sea. Such assessment may be useful in understanding if any anthropogenic source of disturbance has a negative effect on the marine environment, and if so, planning sustainable strategies for a proper management of the affected area.

Virus a RNA e a DNA: importanza dell’ampliamento dello spettro d’ospite nell’evoluzione virale

L’ampliamento dello spettro d’ospite è strettamente connesso al processo evolutivo a cui i virus sono assoggettati e rappresenta una notevole sfida alla loro capacità di adattarsi. L’attitudine a superare le barriere di specie è conseguente alla costante e relativamente rapida evoluzione che caratterizza i virus; allo stesso tempo, la forza selettiva esercitata dal nuovo ospite rappresenterà un ulteriore stimolo per le capacità adattative del virus. Ad oggi, i meccanismi genetici ed evolutivi responsabili del salto di specie virale, cioè la trasmissione di un virus da un ospite tradizionale ad uno precedentemente resistente all’infezione, sono parzialmente sconosciuti. Nel seguente lavoro verranno presentati gli studi effettuati sulle dinamiche evolutive caratterizzanti virus a RNA e a DNA in cui si sono osservate variazioni dello spettro d’ospite. Gli studi hanno riguardato i coronavirus, con particolare riferimento al ruolo svolto dai pipistrelli nell’evoluzione dei coronavirus SARS-correlati, e l’importanza del gatto nell’evoluzione dei parvovirus dei carnivori. Nella prima sezione saranno mostrate le correlazioni genetiche dei coronavirus identificati in Italia nei pipistrelli appartenenti alla specie Rhinolophus ferrumequinum con i ceppi europei e del resto del mondo, allo scopo di chiarire l’origine evolutiva dei coronavirus dei pipistrelli correlati al virus della SARS (Bat-SARS-like CoV) europei, gli eventi migratori che hanno caratterizzato la loro diffusione nel continente e le potenziali ripercussioni sulla salute pubblica. Nella seconda sezione saranno evidenziate le caratteristiche molecolari dei ceppi di parvovirus circolanti nella popolazione felina, valutandone la diversità di sequenza e la complessità genetica, allo scopo di ottenere importanti informazioni in merito all’evoluzione del virus e alle interazioni tra il parvovirus e l’ospite.

Patent Strategies and R&D in Complex Product Industries

The study aims at providing a framework conceptualizing patenting activities under the condition of intellectual property rights fragmentation. Such a framework has to deal with the interrelated problems of technological complexity in the modern patent landscape. In that respect, ex-post licensing agreements have been incorporated into the analysis. More precisely, by consolidating the right to use patents required for commercialization of a product, private market solutions, such as cross-licensing agreements and patent pools help firms to overcome problems triggered by the intellectual property rights fragmentation. Thereby, private bargaining between parties as such cannot be isolated from the legal framework. A result of this analysis is that policies ignoring market solutions and only focusing on static gains can mitigate the dynamic efficiency gains as induced by the patent system. The evidence found in this thesis supports the opinion that legal reforms that aim to decrease the degree of patent protection or to lift it all together can hamper the functioning of the current system.

Environmental influence on the phenotype: Morphological variation in human dentition

This work is about the role that environment plays in the production of evolutionary significant variations. It starts with an historical introduction about the concept of variation and the role of environment in its production. Then, I show how a lack of attention to these topics may lead to serious mistakes in data interpretation. A statistical re-analysis of published data on the effects of malnutrition on dental eruption, shows that what has been interpreted as an increase in the mean value, is actually linked to increase of variability. In Chapter 3 I present the topic of development as a link between variability and environmental influence, giving a review of the possible mechanisms by which development influences evolutionary dynamics. Chapter 4 is the core chapter of the thesis; I investigated the role of environment in the development of dental morphology. I used dental hypoplasia as a marker of stress, characterizing two groups. Comparing the morphology of upper molars in the two groups, three major results came out: (i) there is a significant effect of environmental stressors on the overall morphology of upper molars; (ii) the developmental response increases morphological variability of the stressed population; (iii) increase of variability is directional: stressed individuals have increased cusps dimensions and number. I also hypothesized the molecular mechanisms that could be responsible of the observed effects. In Chapter 5, I present future perspectives for developing this research. The direction of dental development response is the same direction of the trend in mammalian dental evolution. Since malnutrition triggers the developmental response, and this particular kind of stressor must have been very common in our class evolutionary history, I propose the possibility that environmental stress actively influenced mammals evolution. Moreover, I discuss the possibility of reconsidering the role of natural selection in the evolution of dental morphology.

Il Presidente della Repubblica in Albania tra evoluzione della forma di Stato e formale adozione del modello Italiano

La ricerca analizza la forma di Stato e di Governo e si focalizza nel ruolo importante del Capo dello Stato in funzione alla separazione dei poteri e consolidamento della democrazia in una Repubblica Parlamentare. Questa ricerca comparativa analizza l’evoluzione della forma di governo in Italia e Albania. La ricerca analizza nei dettagli l’evoluzione della forma di Governo, focalizzandosi all’istituzione del Capo dello Stato in Albania dall’indipendenza (1912), evidenziando il ruolo dell’Italia in quest’evoluzione. In maniera comparativa si analizza l’evoluzione dell’istituzione del Capo dello Stato in Italia fin dalla sua unita e gli altri sviluppi i quali servirono come modello per l’Albania, evidenziano l’influenza a livello internazionale che ebbe l’Italia per l’indipendenza dell’Albania, che portò al consolidamento dei loro rapporti. Questa ricerca analizza la collaborazione di questi due Stati la quale culmino con la loro Unione Personale identificandosi nello stesso Capo di Stato. La ricerca inoltre evidenzia che come questa fase sia stata superata dalla II Guerra Mondiale e la Guerra Fredda che vide questi Stati a sviluppare diverse forme di Governo. Per di più la ricerca evidenzia la trasformazione politico-istituzionale e il processo di cambiamento dell’Albania dopo la caduta del muro di Berlino che segno la fine del sistema comunista, che vide l’Albania ad adottare il modello Italiano per il Capo dello Stato.

Transposable elements dynamics in taxa with different reproductive strategies or speciation rate

In recent years the advances in genomics allowed to understand the importance of Transposable Elements (TE) in the evolution of eukaryotic genomes. In this thesis I face two aspects of the TE impact on the in the animal kingdom. The first part is a comparison of the dynamics of the TE dynamics in three species of stick-insects of the Genus Bacillus. I produced three random genomic libraries of 200 Kbps for the three parental species of the taxon: a gonochoric population of Bacillus rossius (facultative parthenogenetic), Bacillus grandii (gonochoric) and Bacillus atticus (obligate parthenogenetic). The unisexual taxon Bacillus atticus does not shows dramatic differences in TE total content and activity with respect to Bacillus grandii and Bacillus rossius. This datum does not confirm the trend observed in other animal models in which unisexual taxa tend to repress the activity of TE to escape the extinction by accumulation of harmful mutations. In the second part I tried to add a contribute to the debate initiated in recent years about the possibility that a high TE content is linked to a high rate of speciation. I designed an evolutionary framework to establish the different rate of speciation among two or more taxa, then I compared TE dynamics considering the different rates of speciation. The species dataset comprises: 29 mammals, four birds, two fish and two insects. On the whole the majority of comparisons confirms the expected trend. In particular the amount of species analyzed in Mammalia allowed me to get a statistical support (p<0,05) of the fact that the TE activity of recently mobilized elements is positively related with the rate of speciation.

L'evoluzione delle politiche culturali in Italia tra centro e periferia con uno sguardo alla Francia (1959-1975)

L’obiettivo di questo studio è comprendere come si sia evoluto il concetto di bene culturale in Italia nella seconda metà del Novecento. Pertanto si ritiene rilevante l’analisi delle vicende storiche e politiche sulla gestione, valorizzazione e tutela del patrimonio culturale. In particolare si focalizza l’attenzione sullo sviluppo delle politiche pubbliche in Italia tra la fine degli anni Sessanta e la prima metà degli anni Settanta. Un momento che si definisce come un punto cardine del dibattito e delle azioni politiche che prendono avvio, in Italia, nel periodo post-unitario. Passaggi centrali di questo processo si considerano l’istituzione del Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali e le prime iniziative regionali nel campo della cultura. Ed è proprio nel rapporto tra centro e periferia che emerge una nuova attenzione ai beni culturali e all’elaborazione di politiche in questo campo. Al fine di uno sguardo europeo, nell’evoluzione delle politiche culturali, si considera peculiare il caso francese, con la creazione del Ministero degli Affari Culturali, alla fine degli anni Cinquanta.