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In Italy, forests cover about one third of the national territory. In recent years, sustainability has been applied to forest management through the introduction of the Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) concept. Since the Rio Conference, several initiatives at international and governmental level aimed to realize the SFM concept by the establishment of a set of principles with general validity. One of the most successful initiatives is the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which has developed a system of voluntary certification specific for the forestry sector, as well as 10 principles and 56 criteria for good forest management. The concept of High Conservation Value Forest concept (HCVFs) was defined in 1999 by FSC under Principle 9, and its application requires the identification of six categories of High Conservation Values (HCV). The aim of this study was to define the parameters for the HCVFs Italian forests, A first national mapping for the first level of High Conservation Value was developed focusing on protected areas, threatened and endangered species and the ecosystemic temporal use. Protected areas may constitute the basis of the SFM. This work is the result of data processing and distribution analysis through the intersection of vectorial data of national forests areas in ArcMap, on the basis of available information. Protected forest areas represent 34% of the national forest area. The different categories of protected areas contribute differently to protection, in particular the larger amount of preserved forests (22.96%) falls within Sites of Community Importance (SCI). The analysis of highly protected forest types revealed major differences likely linked to site ecological conditions, which are extremely variable over the country. The HCVF concept is applied in the forest certification field and can be used in sustainable forest management, planning and land use, and policy commitments.

Fire represents an important natural feature of Brazilian landscape, especially in the Cerrado biome. The Cerrado is the economic livelihood of thousands of people from rural areas in Brazil. It is one of the most important hotspot of biodiversity in the world but also it is a fire-prone area thanks to the high flammability index of the vegetation. Residents and native people of this environment use fire very frequently. The majority of wildfires are caused by humans, though there are some aggravating natural factors affecting the risk, intensity and severity of wildfires. Since residents are continuously involved in fire suppression activities, understanding their perceptions is important for the decision makers who must assess the local capacity to preserve natural resources. This study explores perceptions about wildfire risk and fire mitigation behaviors within three municipalities of the state of Tocantins (Brazil). The study demonstrates that survey participants perceived wildfire risk as rather high, although the perceptions were complex and conflicting among interviewees. A wide range of confused perceptions about fire ignition and heterogeneous point of view have carried out form the survey. However, the residence of interviewees and their educational attainment result the variables that significantly (p-value

This article aims to analyze the Law 12.654/2012, which, among other changes, added a new form of criminal identification: by DNA. Initially, we will study the possibility of the investigated and the defendant be submitted, even without consent, to the extraction of their biological material. After analyzing the scope given in Brazil to the privilege against self-incrimination, we will discuss if the Law 12.654/2012 does not eventually confront such privilege. Finally, since the final result is a production of a genetic proof, we will consider the reliability of DNA exam.

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National-scale analysis for the identification of High Conservation Value Forests (HCVFs). In Italy, forests cover about one third of the national territory. In recent years, sustainability has been applied to forest management through the introduction of the Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) concept. Since the Rio Conference, several initiatives at international and governmental level aimed to realize the SFM concept by the establishment of a set of principles with general validity. One of the most successful initiatives is the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which has developed a system of voluntary certification specific for the forestry sector, as well as 10 principles and 56 criteria for good forest management. The concept of High Conservation Value Forest concept (HCVFs) was defined in 1999 by FSC under Principle 9, and its application requires the identification of six categories of High Conservation Values (HCV). The aim of this study was to define the parameters for the HCVFs Italian forests, A first national mapping for the first level of High Conservation Value was developed focusing on protected areas, threatened and endangered species and the ecosystemic temporal use. Protected areas may constitute the basis of the SFM. This work is the result of data processing and distribution analysis through the intersection of vectorial data of national forests areas in ArcMap, on the basis of available information. Protected forest areas represent 34% of the national forest area. The different categories of protected areas contribute differently to protection, in particular the larger amount of preserved forests (22.96%) falls within Sites of Community Importance (SCI). The analysis of highly protected forest types revealed major differences likely linked to site ecological conditions, which are extremely variable over the country. The HCVF concept is applied in the forest certification field and can be used in sustainable forest management, planning and land use, and policy commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report our indications and experience in the use of intraprostatic endoprosthesis. We report also our preliminary experience in the use of a new intraprostatic endoprosthesis which has been developed at our institute. This prosthesis can be easily positioned, shows little invasiveness and does not require ultrasonic, radiological or endoscopical guidance.

The Authors report their experience about surgical treatment of metastases from renal cell carcinoma. From January 1983 to December 1989, twenty eight patients, 19 males and 9 females, with a median age of 58 years (range 42-79), have been submitted to contemporary or subsequent metastasectomy. Metastases were synchronous in 10 cases, while they appeared after a free disease mean-time of 28 months after nephrectomy in 18 patients. Recovery period has always been normal and all the patients were controlled, every six months, with routine blood and urine examinations, Chest X-ray, abdominal CAT and bone scan. Among the 10 patients with synchronous metastases 5 died, 3 are in progression and 2 are NED after a mean-time follow up of 36 months. Among 18 patients who underwent surgery for metachronous metastases, 2 died, 4 are in progression and 12 NED (mean follow up of 36 months). In conclusion, while the presence of synchronous metastases is an unfavourable prognostic factor even after their surgical removal (8 out of 10 patients died or are in progression shortly after metastasectomy), results after metachronous metastases surgery are encouraging, but the real efficiency of this treatment is still to be confirmed.

One hundred sixty-five consecutive patients with resectable renal cancer entered a cooperative study to evaluate hormone treatment and steroid receptors. Twenty-nine patients with concomitant distant metastases (category M1) received intramuscular medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) 500 mg/day for at least two months after the operation. No measurable remission was observed, but 8 of 24 evaluable patients (33%) had disease stabilization for a median duration of 6 months. One hundred thirty-six cases with category M0 cancer were randomly allocated to a control group or to a treatment group with MPA 500 mg/3 times a week for one year. After a median follow-up period of over 3 years, 30 of 121 evaluable patients (24.8%) had a relapse, usually in distant sites. Relapses and survival were independent from postoperative treatment and sex. Only the extent of the disease and the presence of steroid receptors in the tumor were related with prognosis, but no relation could be found between receptors and response to hormone treatment. The presence of low concentrations of hormone receptors in a proportion of renal cancers remains unclear. However, MPA is confirmed to be only marginally active in metastatic renal cancer and the drug cannot be recommended as adjuvant to radically resected patients because of significant toxicity and lack of therapeutic activity.