Background. In the central-eastern region of the Mediterranean island of Sardinia more than two decades ago, a mountain area was identified where the population displays exceptional longevity, especially among men (the longevity Blue Zone, LBZ). This community was thoroughly investigated seeking to understand the underlying factors of this phenomenon. In the present study, 11 genetic markers previously associated with longevity in several long-lived populations were analyzed. Methods. APOE (rs429358 and rs7412), APOE promoter (rs449647, rs769446, and rs405509), ACE1 (rs1799752), IL6 ‒174G/C (rs1800795), TNFα ‒308G/A (rs1800629), FOXO3A (rs2802292), KLOTHO (rs9536314) and G6PD (c.563C→T) were investigated. PCR-based genotyping was performed following genomic DNA extraction from 150 nonagenarians living in the LBZ and 150 controls from a nearby area. Results. No significant deviation of the frequency of the analyzed markers was detected between the two groups except a weak association with the –174G>C gene variant of the IL-6 gene (p=0.040), a major modulator of the inflammatory response. Conclusions. The findings of this study do not support a significant association of known genetic variants on survival in the population of the Sardinian LBZ. Other genetic or epigenetic traits might play a role not yet identified.

The global process of urbanization, and the modification of social interaction determined by the pandemic crisis poses the issue of the place of vulnerable users, and in particular children, within the contemporary city. This research aims to elaborate a theoretical and methodological framework, based on the concepts of affordance and capability, for analyzing the potential of public spaces to enable and support children’s independent activities. This potential, or meaningful usefulness, is expressed by the Index of Meaningful Usefulness of public Urban Spaces (IUIS). The latter is calculated via the tool ‘Opportunities for Children in Urban Spaces’ (OCUS). This methodology is applied to the analysis of significant public spaces within the historic center of the city of Iglesias in Sardinia, Italy. The results reveal adequate usefulness of the selected spaces, while underlining criticalities related to intrinsic spatial and physical attributes. The application to the case study confirms the validity of the theoretical and methodological framework embodied in the OCUS tool for supporting urban design and planning by orienting place-shaping processes towards the acknowledgement of children’s needs.

This work focuses on an inland area of North Sardinia (Italy), which is currently subject to depopulation and economic crisis because it is not affected by the summer tourism typical of the region. Despite this, the area shows an interesting architectural and natural heritage, as of today insufficiently known and valued. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to illustrate the application of the Conjoint Analysis methodology on this case study aimed at supporting processes of valorisation, diversification of the tourist offer and promotion of the through the detection of the preferences of a sample of residents and visitors on a set of 9 cards (itinerary profiles) which also promote the peculiarities of small rural centres. Thus, by valorising the material and immaterial heritage and their intrinsic characteristics, it is shown that inland areas can generate an economy by offering new types of tourism, not just the typically invasive summer and maritime tourism. The research, therefore, seeks to estimate the economic value of the area from a public point of view through the WTP measured by a questionnaire of 600 interviews between inhabitants (300) and tourists (299).

Mediterranean Sea are dynamic habitats in which human activities have been conducted for centuries and which feature micro-tidal environments with about 0.40 m of range. For this reason, human settlements are still concentrated along a narrow coastline strip, where any change in the sea level and coastal dynamics may impact anthropic activities. We analyzed light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and Copernicus Earth Observation data. Aim of this research is to provide estimates and detailed maps (in three coastal plain of Sardinia (Italy) and in the Pontina Plain (southern Latium, Italy) of: i) the past marine trasgression occurred during MIS 5.5 higstand 119 kyrss BP; ii) the coastline regression occurred during the last glacial maximum MIS 2 (21.5 krs cal BP) and iii) the potential marine submersion for 2100 and 2300. The objective of this multidisciplinary study is to provide maps of sea-level rise future scenarios using the IPCC RCP 8.5 2019 [1]projections and glacio-hydro-isostatic movements for the above selected coastal zones, which are the locations of touristic resorts, railways, and heritage sites. We estimated a potential loss of land for the above areas of between about 146 km² (IPCC 2019-RCP8.5 scenario [1]) and 637 km² along a coastline length of about 268 km.

Urban accessibility represents one of the great challenges of the contemporary city, which is required to adopt sustainable development models in line with the UN Agenda 2030 objectives, recently confirmed by the health emergency. Urban accessibility and walkability are topics closely related to those aiming at a livable, healthy and inclusive city, based on a system of high-quality public spaces and on a network of services and infrastructures. However, these principles collide with the fragmentation of many urban contexts, built following vehicular accessibility needs. Within this framework, the city of Cagliari represents an interesting case study as it is affected by the disposal of public properties which appear as “enclaves” in the historic urban fabric. This research aims to evaluate if and in which terms the abandoned assets can facilitate the development of the 15-minutes city, as a city reducing the need to move over a certain time and space and therefore granting a more equal access to urban services to a wide range of citizens. This is done by proposing indexes defined as porosity, crossing and attractiveness, which constitute a combined index to improve the pedestrian accessibility in the “central places” of the contemporary city, where the walkability can also become a possible “free choice” for a new healthy lifestyle. These indexes were calculated for the most significant large disused public buildings in the historic center to guide future scenarios towards a 15 minutes city.

Information and communication technologies play an increasingly important role in the process of acquiring knowledge from a territory and managing it at different scales. ICTs allow a rapid diffusion of data not only through institutional channels but also through social networks where the smart community share experiences and perceptions. In this sense, ICTs become strategic to support the promotion of sustainable tourism development of territories. An important tool to implement it, can be a circular smart dashboard, a decision support system in which the digital data are organized and processed to produce an information output, to be used, after the evaluation by the decision makers, as a new input for the system. The present paper deals with a wider research the authors are involved in, related to the reconversion and valorization of a former mining area towards slow tourism, as the Santa Barbara Walk (SBW), an ancient mining route in the Sulcis Iglesiente area (Sardinia, Italy) . In particular, we here focus on the design proposal of a dashboard, capable of organizing information concerning the main features of the walk, in order to facilitate a shared governance for an effective tourism promotion. The paper is based on a thorough recognition of the main characteristics of the Walk, both the material ones and the digital, immaterial ones. The SBW represents in fact a network connecting the main points of interest along the Walk. On the contrary, its digital network – consisting of intangible infrastructure and flows - is however fragmented in terms of policies and contents Also a state of disorganization in slow tourism promotion activities can be observed. The goal of this paper is to present and analysis of the area, and to propose an evaluation and planning tool as the design of a circular dashboard of the SBW.

The European system of indicators is the result of the European Union sustainable development strategy, based on the objectives of economic prosperity, social equity, cohesion and environmental protection. In 2010 the EC defined four strategic priorities: encourage competitiveness in the tourism sector, promote sustainable high-quality tourism, strengthen the image of Europe as a tourism destination, and finally, improve EU financial policies and instruments. This paper aims to analyze in a positive critical perspective the experience done during the period 2013-2014 in the Italian destination Visit South Sardinia. This experience is in one hand an important primacy in Italy and in Europe, but in the other hand has not reached the expected objectives. Many difficulties were encountered both for data collection and for stakeholder involvement. Also the complexity of the indicators tool kit is relevant. Even if the experience of VSS did not produce the expected results, we believe that the analysis carried out in this paper can help and support other countries and or other destination in Europe in the process of implementation of the ETIS indicators tool kit in order to adapt the system itself to the needs that are encountered locally.

The novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) is a contagious acute respiratory infectious disease whose causative agent has been demonstrated to be a novel virus of the coronavirus family, SARSCoV-2. A recent pre-print study has showed a heme attack on the 1-beta chain of hemoglobin by COVID19. Beta-thalassemia results of a default in the hemoglobin beta- chain synthesis. 1,5% global population are heterozygotes for this disease. In this study, by a multiple linear regression, we have analyzed the evolution of COVID-19 infection in three Italian regions (Puglia, Sardinia, Sicilia) with different beta-thalassemic prevalences, in order to search a link. The results have showed that betathalassemic heterozygote population prevalence is correlated to immunity against COVID-19, by a regression. This paper is only for academic discussion, the hypotheses and conclusions needs to be confirmed by further research .