Environmental and economic evaluation of natural capital appropriation through building construction: practical case study in the Italian context

This paper focuses on appropriation of natural capital through construction of buildings. The ecological footprint and the Costanza natural capital concepts are applied. The environmental consequences of human settlement are currently of great concern, and a need is felt to reduce the impact of building on the environment. The embodied energy of building materials and the "land area" required to sustain their production are considered to evaluate the demand on nature of this activity. The ecological footprints of 2 typical Italian buildings are compared. The paper also focuses on how to reduce the natural capital appropriation of building construction by means of environmentally inexpensive materials, renewable energy resources, and optimization of the use of bioproductive land by construction of multistoried buildings. Finally, to allocate an environmental load of buildings, an economic evaluation of natural capital appropriation through building construction is proposed.     

Prenatal evaluation of fetal renal function based on serum beta2-microglobulin assessment

The relationship between fetal renal function (FRF) and fetal serum beta₂-microglobulin (B2MG) was investigated by comparing its value in 112 unaffected fetuses with that of 23 fetuses presenting with urinary tract malformations (UTM). Fetal serum level of B2MG was totally unrelated to gestational age; its value increased in cases of severe impairment of FRF but was similar to controls in all mild uropathies (p<0.05). Evaluating serum B2MG could be beneficial in fetuses with severe renal damage, but is of no use in unilateral UTM since only the global FRF is tested and not the function of each single kidney. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Silk wrapping of nuptial gifts as visual signal for female attraction in a crepuscular spider

An extensive diversity of nuptial gifts is known in invertebrates, but prey wrapped in silk is a unique type of gift present in few insects and spiders. Females from spider species prefer males offering a gift accepting more and longer matings than when males offered no gift. Silk wrapping of the gift is not essential to obtain a mating, but appears to increase the chance of a mating evidencing a particularly intriguing function of this trait. Consequently, as other secondary sexual traits, silk wrapping may be an important trait under sexual selection, if it is used by females as a signal providing information on male quality. We aimed to understand whether the white color of wrapped gifts is used as visual signal during courtship in the spider Paratrechalea ornata. We studied if a patch of white paint on the males’ chelicerae is attractive to females by exposing females to males: with their chelicerae painted white; without paint; and with the sternum painted white (paint control). Females contacted males with white chelicerae more often and those males obtained higher mating success than other males. Thereafter, we explored whether silk wrapping is a condition-dependent trait and drives female visual attraction. We exposed good and poor condition males, carrying a prey, to the female silk. Males in poor condition added less silk to the prey than males in good condition, indicating that gift wrapping is an indicator of male quality and may be used by females to acquire information of the potential mate.