Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « GEO/02-GEO/03 »

Abstract Introduction: Computational approaches have aided in estimating cellular composition of the tumour microenvironment. The evaluation of immune composition in tumours before treatment may predict pathologic complete response (pCR). The aim of the study was to perform a meta-analysis of HER2-positive breast cancer subjects who received neoadjuvant trastuzumab to detect associations between immune cells measured by CIBERSORT and ESTIMATE and pCR. Methods: PubMed was used to identify transcriptomic data of HER2-positive breast cancer patients who received neoadjuvant trastuzumab. Baseline data from eight neoadjuvant studies (N=338) was downloaded from GEO. Data from each study was background corrected and quantile normalised using ‘limma’ or ‘oligo’ packages in R. Immune profiles per sample was generated using computational softwares CIBERSORT and ESTIMATE, and were then linked to pCR status. Correlations between immune contexture and pCR for each study were interpreted using statistical testing. Meta-analysis by a logistic regression model was conducted on studies which passed assumptions to identify CIBERSORT immune subsets robust to pCR. Results: CIBERSORT results showed that three studies had reduced T follicular helper cells (Tfh) (Brodsky p=0.38, CHER-LOB p=0.17, TransNOAH p=0.25) and two studies had reduced plasma cells (CHER-LOB p=0.15, Brodsky p=0.38) in the pCR group, but was not significant after multiple correction. ESTIMATE analysis showed that data from two studies had elevated immune infiltration in pCR (Brodsky p=0.19, CHER-LOB p=0.10) but was not significant. A meta-analysis of pooled data from four studies (TRIO-US B07, 03-311, TransNOAH, CHER-LOB) showed that low Tfh (p=0.053, OR=0.04, CI [0.0012-0.99]) and high memory B-cells (p=0.008, OR=2126.9, CI [8.12-7.65 × 10+5]) prior to trastuzumab treatment may be associated with a better chance of achieving pCR. Conclusion: Results from our meta-analysis proposed that memory B- and T follicular helper subsets may predict a role in achieving pCR. Incorporating studies with larger sample cohorts such as the CALGB-40601 (N=265) study can achieve statistical power of this analysis. Citation Format: Dalal AlSultan, Alex J. Eustace, Stephen F. Madden, John Crown. In-silico approaches that detect immune contexture to trastuzumab response in neo-adjuvant studies [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-02-10.

Abstract The heterogeneous clinical outcome of NC AML patients (pts), who constitute about 45% of AML pts and are assigned to an intermediate-risk category, likely reflects a biologic diversity. Although mutations in FLT3, MLL, CEBPA and NPM genes and overexpression of BAALC at diagnosis can stratify prognostically NC AML, novel approaches may improve the predictive value of these markers. cDNA microarrays were used recently to gain insight into the biologic and clinical heterogeneity of NC AML. Bullinger et al. (NEJM2004;350:1605) reported a set of 133 genes represented by 149 cDNAs (Suppl. Table 6, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/, accession #GSE425) that separated NC AML into 2 cluster-based groups with significant differences in overall survival (OS) (Bullinger et al. Fig. 4D), albeit the number of pts analyzed was small. Hence, we sought to validate this signature in a larger, independent set of adults (n=64), <60 years, with primary NC AML, treated on CALGB 9621. Pretreatment samples were analyzed using Affymetrix U133 plus 2.0 GeneChips (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA). Normalization to a baseline array with median overall brightness and probe-set level expression computation were performed with dChip version 1.3. The log (base 2) of expression values were exported to BRB-ArrayTools v3.2.3 for analysis. Of the 133 genes from Bullinger et al., 81, represented by 157 probe sets, were on the Affymetrix chip and were expressed in ≥ 25% of our specimens. Hierarchical clustering, using the 157 probe sets, resulted in cluster I, corresponding to the poor-, and cluster II, corresponding to the good-outcome group in Bullinger et al. With a 4.7-year median follow-up, cluster I pts had lower estimated 5-year DFS (24% vs. 60%; P=.001; Fig. 1A) and OS (28% vs. 64%; P=.001; Fig. 1B) rates than cluster II pts. The 2 groups had similar complete remission rates (81% vs. 89%). With regard to pretreatment features, cluster I pts were younger (P=.06), had lower % skin infiltrates (P=.03), higher % marrow blasts (P=.06), different distribution of FAB subtypes (P=.04) with a high % M4, and higher incidence (67% vs. 12%) of FLT3 internal tandem duplication (ITD) (P<.001). A multivariable model including gene-expression cluster membership, FLT3 ITD status by Genescan analysis, and their interaction was fit to determine if the gene-expression signature added any information once accounting for FLT3 ITD status. A significant interaction of the gene-expression signature and FLT3 status was observed for DFS (P=.009) and OS (P=.01), where the gene-expression signature predicted DFS (P=.02) and OS (P=.02) only in pts with wild-type (wt) FLT3 but not in those with FLT3 ITD, who had adverse outcome irrespective of the gene-expression signature. Cluster I pts with wtFLT3 had >3x the risk of relapse and death than the corresponding cluster II pts. In conclusion, we independently validated for the first time the prognostic value of a gene-expression signature in NC AML. This expression profiling appears particularly useful in predicting outcome of pts lacking the prognostically adverse FLT3 ITD. Fig. 1A, Fig. 1B Fig. 1A, Fig. 1B.

AbstractSeismic as well as structural techniques were exploited to elucidate the subsurface structure of the Zamzama area that directly led to petroleum system. Zamzama gas field is located in the Kirthar Foredeep, southern Indus Basin, Pakistan. The current research is based on data scrutinized systematically through eight seismic lines (796-JH-01, 02, 03, 07, 10, GHPK-98A-32, 34 and 40) and three wells (Zamzama-02, 03 and 05) drilled in the Zamzama field. Seismic interpretation reveals that Tertiary and Cretaceous sequence is deformed by transpressive tectonics, and a reverse fault is located from 400 to 3400 ms deep on the vertical seismic section. The hanging wall moves up along the fault plane under the action of eastward directed stress as a result an extensive North–South oriented and eastward verging thrusted anticline is formed. Stratigraphically, area encompasses well-developed Mesozoic–Cenozoic sequence. The Late Cretaceous Pab Formation is well-known primary hydrocarbon reservoir capped by the shale of the Paleocene Ranikot Formation that acts as a regional seal rock. The Jurassic and Cretaceous shales of the Sember and Goru formations are substantiated as main source rocks. The execution and portrayal of seismic and subsurface geological data provide the clues that area contains appropriate petroleum play potential. Present study suggests a worthwhile regional geo-seismic model that might be significant for future exploration in the Kirther Foredeep and adjacent areas.

BackgroundJuvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common rheumatic disease in children, and its pathogenesis is still unclear. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of JIA have identified hundreds of risk factors, but few of them implicated specific biological mechanisms.MethodsA cross-tissue transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) was performed with the functional summary-based imputation software (FUSION) tool based on GWAS summary datasets (898 JIA patients and 346,102 controls from BioBank Japan (BBJ)/FinnGen). The gene expression reference weights of skeletal muscle and the whole blood were obtained from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTExv8) project. JIA-related genes identified by TWAS findings genes were further compared with the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) identified by the mRNA expression profile of JIA from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database (accession number: GSE1402). Last, candidate genes were analyzed using functional enrichment and annotation analysis by Metascape to examine JIA-related gene sets.ResultsThe TWAS identified 535 significant genes with P &lt; 0.05 and contains 350 for Asian and 195 for European (including 10 genes both expressed in Asian and European), such as CDC16 (P = 1.72E-03) and PSMD5-AS1 (P = 3.65E-02). Eight overlapping genes were identified based on TWAS results and DEGs of JIA patients, such as SIRPB1 (PTWAS = 4.21E-03, PDEG = 1.50E-04) and FRAT2 (PTWAS = 2.82E-02, PDEG = 1.43E-02). Pathway enrichment analysis of TWAS identified 183 pathways such as cytokine signaling in the immune system and cell adhesion molecules. By integrating the results of DEGs pathway and process enrichment analyses, 19 terms were identified such as positive regulation of T-cell activation.ConclusionBy conducting two populations TWAS, we identified a group of JIA-associated genes and pathways, which may provide novel clues to uncover the pathogenesis of JIA.

I have decided to launch a campaign against the skyscraper, that hideous, mediocre form of architecture…. Today we only have an empty version of it, only competing in height.— Rem Koolhaas, “Kool Enough for Beijing?”Figure 1: The CCTV Headquarters—A Courtyard in the Air. Cher Coad, 2020.Introduction: An Anomaly within an Anomaly Construction of Beijing’s China Central Television Headquarters (henceforth CCTV Headquarters) began in 2004 and the building was officially completed in 2012. It is a project by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) headed by Rem Koolhaas (1944-), who has been called “the coolest, hippest, and most cutting-edge architect on the planet”(“Rem Koolhaas Biography”). The CCTV Headquarters is a distinctive feature of downtown Beijing and is heavily associated in the Western world with 21st-century China. It is often used as the backdrop for reports from the China correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Bill Birtles. The construction of the CCTV Headquarters, however, was very much an international enterprise. Koolhaas himself is Dutch, and the building was one of the first projects the OMA did outside of America after 9/11. As Koolhaas describes it: we had incredible emphasis on New York for five years, and America for five years, and what we decided to do after September 11 when we realized that, you know, things were going to be different in America: [was] to also orient ourselves eastwards [Koolhaas goes on to describe two projects: the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia and the CCTV Headquarters]. (Rem Koolhaas Interview) Problematically, Koolhaas claims that the building we created for CCTV could never have been conceived by the Chinese and could never have been built by Europeans. It is a hybrid by definition. It was also a partnership, not a foreign imposition…. There was a huge Chinese component from the very beginning. We tried to do a building that conveys that it has emerged from the local situation. (Fraioli 117) Our article reinterprets this reading. We suggest that the OMA’s “incredible emphasis” on America—home of the world’s first skyscraper: the Home Insurance Building built in 1885 in Chicago, Illinois—pivotally spills over into its engagement with China. The emergence of the CCTV Headquarters “from the local situation”, such as it is, is more in spite of Koolhaas’s stated “hybrid” approach than because of it, for what’s missing from his analysis of the CCTV Headquarters’ provenance is the siheyuan or classical Chinese courtyard house. We will argue that the CCTV Headquarters is an anomaly within an anomaly in contemporary Beijing’s urban landscape, to the extent that it turns the typologies of both the (vertical, American) skyscraper and the (horizontal, Chinese) siheyuan on a 90 degree angle. The important point to make here, however, is that these two anomalous elements of the building are not of the same order. While the anomalous re-configuration of the skyscraper typology is clearly part of Koolhaas’s architectural manifesto, it is against his architectural intentionality that the CCTV Headquarters sustains the typology of the siheyuan. This bespeaks the persistent and perhaps functional presence of traditional Chinese architecture and urbanism in the building. Koolhaas’s building contains both starkly evident and more secretive anomalies. Ironically then, there is a certain truth in Koolhaas’s words, beneath the critique we made of it above as an example of American-dominated, homogenising globalisation. And the significance of the CCTV Headquarters’ hybridity as both skyscraper and siheyuan can be elaborated through Daniel M. Abramson’s thesis that a consideration of unbuilt architecture has the potential to re-open architecture to its historical conditions. Roberto Schwarz argues that “forms are the abstract of specific social relationships” (53). Drawing on Schwarz’s work and Abramson’s, we conclude that the historical presence—as secretive anomaly—of the siheyuan in the CCTV Headquarters suggests that the building’s formal debt to the siheyuan (more so than to the American skyscraper) may continue to unsettle the “specific social relationship” of Chinese to Western society (Schwarz 53). The site of this unsettlement, we suggest, is data. The CCTV Headquarters might well be the most data-rich site in all of China—it is, after all, a monumental television station. Suggestively, this wealth of airborne data is literally enclosed within the aerial “courtyard”, with its classical Chinese form, of the CCTV Headquarters. This could hardly be irrelevant in the context of the geo-politics of globalised data. The “form of data”, to coin a phrase, radiates through all the social consequences of data flow and usage, and here the form of data is entwined with a form always already saturated with social consequence. The secretive architectural anomaly of Koolhaas’s building is thus a heterotopic space within the broader Western engagement with China, so much of which relates to flows and captures of data. The Ubiquitous Siheyuan or Classical Chinese Courtyard House According to Ying Liu and Adenrele Awotona, “the courtyard house, a residential compound with buildings surrounding a courtyard on four (or sometimes three) sides, has been representative of housing patterns for over one thousand years in China” (248). Liu and Awotona state that “courtyard house patterns could be found in many parts of China, but the most typical forms are those located in the Old City in Beijing, the capital of China for over eight hundred years” (252). In their reading, the siheyuan is a peculiarly elastic architectural typology, whose influence is present as much in the Forbidden City as in the humble family home (252). Prima facie then, it is not surprising that it has also secreted itself within the architectural form of Koolhaas’s creation. It is important to note, however, that while the “most typical forms” of the siheyuan are indeed still to be found in Beijing, the courtyard house is an increasingly uncommon sight in the Chinese capital. An article in the China Daily from 2004 refers to the “few remaining siheyuan” (“Kool Enough for Beijing?”). That said, all is not lost for the siheyuan. Liu and Awotona discuss how the classical form of the courtyard house has been modified to more effectively house current residents in the older parts of Beijing while protecting “the horizontal planning feature of traditional Beijing” (254). “Basic design principles” (255) of the siheyuan have supported “a transition from the traditional single-household courtyard housing form to a contemporary multi-household courtyard housing form” (254). In this process, approaches of “urban renewal [involving] demolition” and “preservation, renovation and rebuilding” have been taken (255). Donia Zhang extends the work of Liu and Awotona in the elaboration of her thesis that “Chinese-Americans interested in building Chinese-style courtyard houses in America are keen to learn about their architectural heritage” (47). Zhang’s article concludes with an illustration that shows how the siheyuan may be merged with the typical American suburban dwelling (66). The final thing to emphasise about the siheyuan is what Liu and Awotona describe as its “special introverted quality” (249). The form is saturated with social consequence by virtue of its philosophical undergirding. The coincidence of philosophies of Daoism (including feng-shui) and Confucianism in the architecture and spatiality of the classical Chinese courtyard house makes it an exceedingly odd anomaly of passivity and power (250-51). The courtyard itself has a highly charged role in the management of family, social and cultural life, which, we suggest, survives its transposition into novel architectural environments. Figure 2: The CCTV Headquarters—Looking Up at “The Overhang”. Cher Coad, 2020. The CCTV Headquarters: A New Type of Skyscraper? Rem Koolhaas is not the only architect to interrogate the standard skyscraper typology. In his essay from 1999, “The Architecture of the Future”, Norman Foster argues that “the world’s increasing ecological crisis” (278) is in part a function of “unchecked urban sprawl” (279). A new type of skyscraper, he suggests, might at least ameliorate the sprawl of our cities: the Millennium Tower that we have proposed in Tokyo takes a traditional horizontal city quarter—housing, shops, restaurants, cinemas, museums, sporting facilities, green spaces and public transport networks—and turns it on its side to create a super-tall building with a multiplicity of uses … . It would create a virtually self-sufficient, fully self-sustaining community in the sky. (279) Koolhaas follows suit, arguing that “the actual point of the skyscraper—to increase worker density—has been lost. Skyscrapers are now only momentary points of high density spaced so far apart that they don’t actually increase density at all” (“Kool Enough for Beijing?”). Foster’s solution to urban sprawl is to make the horizontal (an urban segment) vertical; Koolhaas’s is to make the vertical horizontal: “we’ve [OMA] come up with two types: a very low-rise series of buildings, or a single, condensed hyperbuilding. What we’re doing with CCTV is a prototype of the hyperbuilding” (“Kool Enough for Beijing?”). Interestingly, the “low-rise” type mentioned here brings to mind the siheyuan—textual evidence, perhaps, that the siheyuan is always already a silent fellow traveller of the CCTV Headquarters project. The CCTV Headquarters is, even at over 200 metres tall itself, an anomaly of horizontalism amidst Beijing’s pervasive skyscraper verticality. As Paul Goldberger reports, “some Beijingers have taken to calling it Big Shorts”, which again evokes horizontality. This is its most obvious anomaly, and a somewhat melancholy reminder of “the horizontal planning feature of traditional Beijing” now mutilated by skyscrapers (Liu and Awotona 254). In the same gesture, however, with which it lays the skyscraper on its side, Koolhaas’s creation raises into the air the shape of the courtyard of a classical Chinese house. To our knowledge, no one has noticed this before, let alone written about it. It is, to be sure, a genuine courtyard shape—not merely an archway or a bridge with unoccupied space between. Pure building entirely surrounds the vertical courtyard shape formed in the air. Most images of the building provide an orientation that maximises the size of its vertical courtyard. To this extent, the (secret) courtyard shape of the building is hidden in plain sight. It is possible, however, to make the courtyard narrow to a mere slit of space, and finally to nothing, by circumnavigating the building. Certain perspectives on the building can even make it look like a more-or-less ordinary skyscraper. But, as a quick google-image search reveals, such views are rare. What seems to make the building special to people is precisely that part of it that is not building. Furthermore, anyone approaching the CCTV Headquarters with the intention of locating a courtyard typology within its form will be disappointed unless they look to its vertical plane. There is no hint of a courtyard at the base of the building. Figure 3: The CCTV Headquarters—View from “The Overhang”. Cher Coad, 2020.Figure 4: The CCTV Headquarters—Looking through the Floor of “The Overhang”. Cher Coad, 2020.Visiting the CCTV Headquarters: A “Special Introverted Quality?” In January 2020, we visited the CCTV Headquarters, ostensibly as audience members for a recording of a science spectacular show. Towards the end of the recording, we were granted a quick tour of the building. It is rare for foreigners to gain access to the sections of the building we visited. Taking the lift about 40 floors up, we arrived at the cantilever level—known informally as “the overhang”. Glass discs in the floor allow one to walk out over nothingness, looking down on ant-like pedestrians. Looking down like this was also to peer into the vacant “courtyard” of the building—into a structure “turned or pushed inward on itself”, which is the anatomical definition of “introverted” (Oxford Languages Dictionary). Workers in the building evinced no great affection for it, and certainly nothing of our wide-eyed wonder. Somebody said, “it’s just a place to work”. One of this article’s authors, Patrick West, seemed to feel the overhang almost imperceptibly vibrating beneath him. (Still, he has also experienced this sensation in conventional skyscrapers.) We were told the rumour that the building has started to tilt over dangerously. Being high in the air, but also high on the air, with nothing but air beneath us, felt edgy—somehow special—our own little world. Koolhaas promotes the CCTV Headquarters as (in paraphrase) “its own city, its own community” (“Kool Enough for Beijing?”). This resonated with us on our visit. Conventional skyscrapers fracture any sense of community through their segregated floor-upon-floor verticality; there is never enough room for a little patch of horizontal urbanism to unroll. Within “the overhang”, the CCTV Headquarters felt unlike a standard skyscraper, as if we were in an urban space magically levitated from the streets below. Sure, we had been told by one of the building’s inhabitants that it was “just a place to work”—but compared to the bleak sterility of most skyscraper work places, it wasn’t that sterile. The phrase Liu and Awotona use of the siheyuan comes to mind here, as we recall our experience; somehow, we had been inside a different type of building, one with its own “special introverted quality” (249). Special, that is, in the sense of containing just so much of horizontal urbanism as allows the building to retain its introverted quality as “its own city” (“Kool Enough for Beijing?”). Figure 5: The CCTV Headquarters—View from “The Overhang”. Cher Coad, 2020.Figure 6: The CCTV Headquarters—Inside “The Overhang”. Cher Coad, 2020. Unbuilt Architecture: The Visionary and the Contingent Within the present that it constitutes, built architecture is surrounded by unbuilt architecture at two interfaces: where the past ends; where the future begins. The soupy mix of urbanism continually spawns myriad architectural possibilities, and any given skyscraper is haunted by all the skyscrapers it might have been. History and the past hang heavily from them. Meanwhile, architectural programme or ambition—such as it is—pulls in the other direction: towards an idealised (if not impossible to practically realise) future. Along these lines, Koolhaas and the OMA are plainly a future-directed, as well as self-aware, architectural unit: at OMA we try to build in the greatest possible tolerance and the least amount of rigidity in terms of embodying one particular moment. We want our buildings to evolve. A building has at least two lives—the one imagined by its maker and the life it lives afterward—and they are never the same. (Fraioli 115) Koolhaas makes the same point even more starkly with regard to the CCTV Headquarters project through his use of the word “prototype”: “what we’re doing with CCTV is a prototype of the hyperbuilding” (“Kool Enough for Beijing?”). At the same time, however, as the presence of the siheyuan within the architecture of the CCTV Headquarters shows, the work of the OMA cannot escape from the superabundance of history, within which, as Roberto Schwarz claims, “forms are the abstract of specific social relationships” (53). Supporting our contentions here, Daniel M. Abramson notes that unbuilt architecture implies two sub-categories … the visionary unbuilt, and the contingent … . Visionary schemes invite a forward glance, down one true, vanguard path to a reformed society and discipline. The contingent unbuilts, conversely, invite a backward glance, along multiple routes history might have gone, each with its own likelihood and validity; no privileged truths. (Abramson)Introducing Abramson’s theory to the example of the CCTV Headquarters, the “visionary unbuilt” lines up with Koolhaas’ thesis that the building is a future-directed “prototype”. while the clearest candidate for the “contingent unbuilt”, we suggest, is the siheyuan. Why? Firstly, the siheyuan is hidden in plain sight, within the framing architecture of the CCTV Headquarters; secondly, it is ubiquitous in Beijing urbanism—little wonder then that it turns up, unannounced, in this Beijing building; thirdly, and related to the second point, the two buildings share a “special introverted quality” (Liu and Awotona 249). “The contingent”, in this case, is the anomaly nestled within the much more blatant “visionary” (or futuristic) anomaly—the hyperbuilding to come—of the Beijing-embedded CCTV Headquarters. Koolhaas’s building’s most fascinating anomaly relates, not to any forecast of the future, but to the subtle persistence of the past—its muted quotation of the ancient siheyuan form. Our article is, in part, a response to Abramson’s invitation to “pursue … the consequences of the unbuilt … [and thus] to open architectural history more fully to history”. We have supplemented Abramson’s idea with Schwarz’s suggestion that “forms are the abstract of specific social relationships” (53). The anomaly of the siheyuan—alongside that of the hyperbuilding—within the CCTV headquarters, opens the building up (paraphrasing Abramson) to a fuller analysis of its historical positioning within Western and Eastern flows of globalisation (or better, as we are about to suggest, of glocalisation). In parallel, its form (paraphrasing Schwarz) abstracts and re-presents this history’s specific social relationships. Figure 7: The CCTV Headquarters—A Courtyard of Data. Cher Coad, 2020.Conclusion: A Courtyard of Data and Tensions of Glocalisation Koolhaas proposes that the CCTV Headquarters was “a partnership, not a foreign imposition” and that the building “emerged from the local situation” (Fraioli 117). To us, this smacks of Pollyanna globalisation. The CCTV Headquarters is, we suggest, more accurately read as an imposition of the American skyscraper typology, albeit in anomalous form. (One might even argue that the building’s horizontal deviation from the vertical norm reinforces that norm.) Still, amidst a thicket of conventionally vertical skyscrapers, the building’s horizontalism does have the anomalous effect of recalling “the horizontal planning feature of traditional Beijing” (Liu and Awotona 254). Buried within its horizontalism, however, lies a more secretive anomaly in the form of a vertical siheyuan. This anomaly, we contend, motivates a terminological shift from “globalisation” to “glocalisation”, for the latter term better captures the notion of a lack of reconciliation between the “global” and the “local” in the building. Koolhaas’s visionary architectural programme explicitly advances anomaly. The CCTV Headquarters radically reworks the skyscraper typology as the prototype of a hyperbuilding defined by horizontalism. Certainly, such horizontalism recalls the horizontal plane of pre-skyscraper Beijing and, if faintly, that plane’s ubiquitous feature: the classical courtyard house. Simultaneously, however, the siheyuan has a direct if secretive presence within the morphology of the CCTV Headquarters, even as any suggestion of a vertical courtyard is strikingly absent from Koolhaas’s vanguard manifesto. To this extent, the hyperbuilding fits within Abramson’s category of “the visionary unbuilt”, while the siheyuan aligns with Abramson’s “contingent unbuilt” descriptor. The latter is the “might have been” that, largely under the pressure of its ubiquity as Beijing vernacular architecture, “very nearly is”. Drawing on Schwarz’s idea that “forms are the abstract of specific social relationships”, we propose that the siheyuan, as anomalous form of the CCTV Headquarters, is a heterotopic space within the hybrid global harmony (to paraphrase Koolhaas) purportedly represented by the building (53). In this space thus formed collides the built-up historical and philosophical social intensity of the classical Chinese courtyard house and the intensities of data flows and captures that help constitute the predominantly capitalist and neo-liberalist “social relationship” of China and the Western world—the world of the skyscraper (Schwarz). Within the siheyuan of the CCTV Headquarters, globalised data is literally enveloped by Daoism and Confucianism; it is saturated with the social consequence of local place. The term “glocalisation” is, we suggest, to be preferred here to “globalisation”, because of how it better reflects such vernacular interruptions to the hegemony of globalised space. Forms delineate social relationships, and data, which both forms and is formed by social relationships, may be formed by architecture as much as anything else within social space. Attention to the unbuilt architectural forms (vanguard and contingent) contained within the CCTV Headquarters reveals layers of anomaly that might, ultimately, point to another form of architecture entirely, in which glocal tensions are not only recognised, but resolved. Here, Abramson’s historical project intersects, in the final analysis, with a worldwide politics. Figure 8: The CCTV Headquarters—A Sound Stage in Action. Cher Coad, 2020. References Abramson, Daniel M. “Stakes of the Unbuilt.” Aggregate Architectural History Collaborative. 20 July 2020. <http://we-aggregate.org/piece/stakes-of-the-unbuilt>.Foster, N. “The Architecture of the Future.” The Architecture Reader: Essential Writings from Vitruvius to the Present. Ed. A. Krista Sykes. New York: George Braziller, 2007: 276-79. Fraioli, Paul. “The Invention and Reinvention of the City: An Interview with Rem Koolhaas.” Journal of International Affairs 65.2 (Spring/Summer 2012): 113-19. Goldberger, Paul. “Forbidden Cities: Beijing’s Great New Architecture Is a Mixed Blessing for the City.” The New Yorker—The Sky Line. 23 June 2008. <https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/30/forbidden-cities>.“Kool Enough for Beijing?” China Daily. 2 March 2004. <https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-03/02/content_310800.htm>. Liu, Ying, and Adenrele Awotona. “The Traditional Courtyard House in China: Its Formation and Transition.” Evolving Environmental Ideals—Changing Way of Life, Values and Design Practices: IAPS 14 Conference Proceedings. IAPS. Stockholm, Sweden: Royal Institute of Technology, 1996: 248-60. <https://iaps.architexturez.net/system/files/pdf/1202bm1029.content.pdf>.Oxford Languages Dictionary. “Rem Koolhaas Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. 20 July 2020. <https://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Ge-La/Koolhaas-Rem.html>. “Rem Koolhaas Interview.” Manufacturing Intellect. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 2003. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW187PwSjY0>.Schwarz, Roberto. Misplaced Ideas: Essays on Brazilian Culture. New York: Verso, 1992. Zhang, Donia. “Classical Courtyard Houses of Beijing: Architecture as Cultural Artifact.” Space and Communication 1.1 (Dec. 2015): 47-68.

Iberia Africa plate boundary, cross, roughly W-E, connecting the eastern Atlantic Ocean from Azores triple junction to the Continental margin of Morocco. Relative movement between the two plate change along the boundary, from transtensive near the Azores archipelago, through trascurrent movement in the middle at the Gloria Fracture Zone, to transpressive in the Gulf of Cadiz area. This study presents the results of geophysical and geological analysis on the plate boundary area offshore Gibraltar. The main topic is to clarify the geodynamic evolution of this area from Oligocene to Quaternary. Recent studies have shown that the new plate boundary is represented by a 600 km long set of aligned, dextral trascurrent faults (the SWIM lineaments) connecting the Gloria fault to the Riff orogene. The western termination of these lineaments crosscuts the Gibraltar accretionary prism and seems to reach the Moroccan continental shelf. In the past two years newly acquired bathymetric data collected in the Moroccan offshore permit to enlighten the present position of the eastern portion of the plate boundary, previously thought to be a diffuse plate boundary. The plate boundary evolution, from the onset of compression in the Oligocene to the Late Pliocene activation of trascurrent structures, is not yet well constrained. The review of available seismics lines, gravity and bathymetric data, together with the analysis of new acquired bathymetric and high resolution seismic data offshore Morocco, allows to understand how the deformation acted at lithospheric scale under the compressive regime. Lithospheric folding in the area is suggested, and a new conceptual model is proposed for the propagation of the deformation acting in the brittle crust during this process. Our results show that lithospheric folding, both in oceanic and thinned continental crust, produced large wavelength synclines bounded by short wavelength, top thrust, anticlines. Two of these anticlines are located in the Gulf of Cadiz, and are represented by the Gorringe Ridge and Coral Patch seamounts. Lithospheric folding probably interacted with the Monchique – Madeira hotspot during the 72 Ma to Recent, NNE – SSW transit. Plume related volcanism is for the first time described on top of the Coral Patch seamount, where nine volcanoes are found by means of bathymetric data. 40Ar-39Ar age of 31.4±1.98 Ma are measured from one rock sample of one of these volcanoes. Analysis on biogenic samples show how the Coral Patch act as a starved offshore seamount since the Chattian. We proposed that compression stress formed lithospheric scale structures playing as a reserved lane for the upwelling of mantle material during the hotspot transit. The interaction between lithospheric folding and the hotspot emplacement can be also responsible for the irregularly spacing, and anomalous alignments, of individual islands and seamounts belonging to the Monchique - Madeira hotspot.

Iberia Africa plate boundary, cross, roughly W-E, connecting the eastern Atlantic Ocean from Azores triple junction to the Continental margin of Morocco. Relative movement between the two plate change along the boundary, from transtensive near the Azores archipelago, through trascurrent movement in the middle at the Gloria Fracture Zone, to transpressive in the Gulf of Cadiz area. This study presents the results of geophysical and geological analysis on the plate boundary area offshore Gibraltar. The main topic is to clarify the geodynamic evolution of this area from Oligocene to Quaternary. Recent studies have shown that the new plate boundary is represented by a 600 km long set of aligned, dextral trascurrent faults (the SWIM lineaments) connecting the Gloria fault to the Riff orogene. The western termination of these lineaments crosscuts the Gibraltar accretionary prism and seems to reach the Moroccan continental shelf. In the past two years newly acquired bathymetric data collected in the Moroccan offshore permit to enlighten the present position of the eastern portion of the plate boundary, previously thought to be a diffuse plate boundary. The plate boundary evolution, from the onset of compression in the Oligocene to the Late Pliocene activation of trascurrent structures, is not yet well constrained. The review of available seismics lines, gravity and bathymetric data, together with the analysis of new acquired bathymetric and high resolution seismic data offshore Morocco, allows to understand how the deformation acted at lithospheric scale under the compressive regime. Lithospheric folding in the area is suggested, and a new conceptual model is proposed for the propagation of the deformation acting in the brittle crust during this process. Our results show that lithospheric folding, both in oceanic and thinned continental crust, produced large wavelength synclines bounded by short wavelength, top thrust, anticlines. Two of these anticlines are located in the Gulf of Cadiz, and are represented by the Gorringe Ridge and Coral Patch seamounts. Lithospheric folding probably interacted with the Monchique – Madeira hotspot during the 72 Ma to Recent, NNE – SSW transit. Plume related volcanism is for the first time described on top of the Coral Patch seamount, where nine volcanoes are found by means of bathymetric data. 40Ar-39Ar age of 31.4±1.98 Ma are measured from one rock sample of one of these volcanoes. Analysis on biogenic samples show how the Coral Patch act as a starved offshore seamount since the Chattian. We proposed that compression stress formed lithospheric scale structures playing as a reserved lane for the upwelling of mantle material during the hotspot transit. The interaction between lithospheric folding and the hotspot emplacement can be also responsible for the irregularly spacing, and anomalous alignments, of individual islands and seamounts belonging to the Monchique - Madeira hotspot.

2006/2007
RIASSUNTO Dati raccolti nell’ambito di progetti di cartografia geologica marina nazionali ed internazionali sono stati utilizzati per ricerche sui rischi geologico-ambientali in alcune aree marine italiane maggiormente critiche dal punto di vista della valutazione dei rischi. Questo rappresenta un campo di applicazione estremamente complesso a causa della varietà dei processi collegati, i quali a loro volta sono controllati da più fattori naturali ed antropici la cui interazione è spesso di difficile valutazione e previsione. Nei settori di margine continentale del Mar Ligure e dell’Arco Calabro (tirrenico e ionico) dati morfo-batimetrici, sismo-stratigrafici, strutturali, e sedimentologici ricavati dalle più moderne tecnologie d’indagine offshore sono stati integrati con altri dati geologici e geofisici pregressi, utilizzando metodologie di visualizzazione, analisi e restituzione tridimensionale digitale di gran dettaglio. Le ricerche sono state condotte in collaborazione con specialisti ed esperti di geologia marina e morfotettonica attiva delle attigue aree emerse, focalizzando l’attenzione sui dissesti gravitativi superficiali e profondi e di loro correlazione con faglie attive recentemente, potenzialmente sismogenetiche o tsunamogeniche. I risultati ottenuti hanno consentito, nelle singole aree, una definizione più approfondita dei caratteri dei vari elementi di geo-hazard ed una più chiara ricostruzione dei meccanismi di interazione tra i vari processi responsabili della loro genesi ed evoluzione. L’analisi dettagliata di alcuni casi maggiormente rappresentativi ha anche confermato la complessità dei tematismi trattati e sottolineato alcune problematiche cruciali, tuttora aperte, su cui concentrare le ricerche future. Il margine continentale del Mar Ligure, tanto nel settore alpino che in quello appenninico, mostra evidenze morfologiche di processi di mobilizzazione gravitativa di ingenti masse sedimentarie. Questi sono maggiormente concentrati nel margine alpino (scarpata di Imperia), associati allo sviluppo di numerosi canyon e alla forte sismicità dell’area, mentre nel settore appenninico, dove l’attività sismica è minore, riguardano principalmente il Canyon di Levante e la Frana di Portofino. Quest’ultima rappresenta un elemento di particolare interesse per i meccanismi di formazione ed il volume dei materiale coinvolti. Nei margini tirrenico ed ionico della Calabria il sollevamento tettonico pleistocenico dell’Arco Calabro (0.8-0.9 mm/anno) è accompagnato da una cospicua attività sismo-tettonica e da frequenti e voluminosi movimenti di massa lungo tutta la scarpata. Tali processi sono concentrati lungo lo sviluppo di articolati sistemi di canyon sia nel Golfo di Squillace che nei settori di Bovalino e Siderno ed anche nel settore tirrenico indagato (tra Palmi e Scilla). Tale focalizzazione dei fenomeni di instabilità è controllata dall’attività sismo-tettonica di lineamenti strutturali di dimensione regionale, paralleli (Faglia di Scilla) allo sviluppo del margine o interpretabili come prosecuzione a mare di sistemi che tagliano trasversalmente tutto l’Arco Calabro. Come appendice al lavoro di ricerca svolto è stato inserito un contributo riguardante l’area dello Stretto di Messina, elaborato per l’occasione del centenario del terremoto di Messina. In tale area una morfodinamica, estremamente rapida, è controllata dai caratteri idrodinamici dello stretto, da faglie attive e movimenti di massa correlati all’attività sismo-tettonica. In tale contesto degli elementi di particolare rischio geo-ambientale sono delle frane che in prossimità di Messina interessano un corpo sedimentario di notevoli dimensioni. Oltre ai contributi sulle conoscenze relativi ai singoli casi è possibile definire alcune conclusioni generali confortate anche da dati di letteratura. I movimenti di massa sottomarini sono estremamente diversificati, e pur presentando alcune analogie rispetto a quelli che si verificano a terra spesso presentano dei meccanismi di innesco e di evoluzione diversi: sono molto più mobili, coinvolgono volumi notevoli di materiale, trasportati in molti casi a notevole velocità e distanza. Un carattere ricorrente nelle aree analizzate è la scarsa presenza di accumuli di frana piede della scarpata rispetto al volume di materiale franato (mancante) lungo il pendio. Una spiegazione plausibile è fornita dai fenomeni che accompagnano lo sviluppo di frane di grosse dimensioni come l’acquaplaning, che agendo come lubrificante al fronte della frana, può determinare l’allontanamento, la disgregazione e dispersione dei materiali (flussi detritici e torbiditici) in aree bacinali molto distanti (100-1000 Km). Tale ipotesi già verificata in altre aree, se confermata per le aree indagate potrebbe, attraverso la datazione dei livelli detritici e torbiditici bacinali correlabili a grandi frane sottomarine, consentire la definizione dei tempi di attivazione e dei tempi di ritorno delle stesse, ed eventualmente il loro rapporto con la sismicità storica regionale. In questo tipo di approccio si deve tener conto dei caratteri sia dell’area sorgente del dissesto che delle zone di accumulo più distali (debriti, torbiditi) al fine di ricostruire un quadro completo dei processi in atto in grado di definire qualitativamente tutti i fattori geologici in gioco (imput sedimentari, sismo-tettonica, presenza di gas, ecc..) e il loro grado di pericolosità. A prescindere dall’interesse scientifico su tali tematiche è fondamentale il loro approfondimento in termini di valutazione di rischio geo-ambientale, considerando le perdite economiche e di vite umane che gli eventi calabro-siciliano e liguri hanno registrato in passato. Inoltre, nonostante la difficoltà di stimare, prevedere o più semplicemente definire la ricorrenza di terremoti di grande entità, l'analisi della sismicità storica e dei tempi medi di ritorno mette in evidenza l'esistenza di ritardi anche importanti per eventi medio-grandi, lungo alcuni dei sistemi di faglie attive sia in Calabria-Sicilia orientale che in Liguria. Gli studi effettuati confermano la convinzione, già espressa da altri ricercatori, che la morfodinamica sottomarina sia più intensa e veloce di quella sub-aerea. Ciò è senz’altro verificato nel presente studio a proposito delle aree in cui l’attività sismo-tettonica, “motore” principale dei processi studiati, supera un certo livello di soglia. Si dimostra comunque che i dissesti dei fondali pellicolari e profondi, limitati ad aree ben definite, possono prodursi anche in zone di sismicità ridotta (Mar Ligure di Levante; Canyon di Levante -Frana di Portofino), ma non per questo di minore importanza in termini di pericolosità. Altra importante conclusione dello studio è che in contesti geodinamici apparentemente molto diversi in base alle conoscenze correnti (margine attivo calabro-ionico e margine passivo ligure) si riscontrano processi morfodinamici sottomarini di paragonabile tipologia ed entità. Ad un esame più attento risulta però che i contesti geodinamici detti, in termini di tipologia di strutture , flusso tettonico, e movimenti verticali non sono poi così diversi , anzi presentano marcate analogie.
XX Ciclo
1965

The coastal environment is increasingly subject to utilization and anthropogenic disturbance. Currently a large proportion of the worldwide human population lives close to the coastline and this has led to the modification – and often the deterioration – of many previously intact coasts and ecosystems. In particular, the marketing of coastal recreation has increased drastically during the last century obliterating many natural systems. As a result, many coastal systems of the world are in advanced stages of degradation (e.g. with the elimination of native and endemic species and the introduction of the exotics, or the erosive processes induced by human modification of the natural environment, in addition to the natural erosion to which coasts are exposed (Pranzini and Rossi, 2000). In the worst cases, coastal ecosystems have been completely removed in the process of providing living space for the encroaching human population. Dunes, beaches, coastal wetlands and salt marshes are generally considered as ecosystems at risk of loss as they are of high potential economic value or sources of biodiversity for coastal management schemes (e.g. biodiversity protection, ICZM protocols following the Barcelona protocol, 1978). The scientific investigation and understanding of natural processes in coastal ecosystems forms the basis of appropriate conservation and protection activities. The present study investigates the development of an integrated methodology for the characterization of costal dune systems. It aims to produce a general overview of the Capo Comino landscape and its evolution to aid strategic planning decisions for enhancing the environmental sustainability of this natural system. Focus has been given to the most relevant elements of the dunefield, such as its morphological aspect, the influence of the climate on its evolution and the distribution of vegetation. A preliminary study of the general setting of the dunefield area allowed the development of a novel procedure for monitoring the dunes, integrating remote sensing strategies, in-situ measurements and data organization using geographical information systems (GIS). The phases of this project may be summarized thus: - Review of the existing literature Coastal dunes have a worldwide distribution and they are characterized by a variety of forms exhibiting successional changes in geomorphology and ecological associations. The central topic for this phase of the research was the analysis of the studies focused on spatial and temporal variation in morphology, the sequences of biological succession in dune types and their adaptation to environmental stresses. From the morphological point of view, coastal dunes are highly variable in form and dimensions and their current aspect is the consequence of stabilization and destabilization processes (Nordstrom et al., 1991; Psuty, 1997, 1999; Hesp, 2004, 2006; Martinez and Psuty, 2004). The main morphological constraints for their development are related to sediment supply, wind conditions, stabilizing vegetation and human interaction. Furthermore, in coastal environments the dichotomy between the dunes and the beach is a very significant factor. With regard to vegetation, succession on coastal dunes has been the focus of many researches starting around a century ago (initial studies were carried out by Steinheil in 1832 and Cowles in 1899). In the present study vegetation associations and their distribution form the main topic, using the phytosociological method. - Identification of the available information for the study area The state of knowledge for the local study area was determined from published sources. Further data such as aerial and satellite images were evaluated and the vegetation analysis was carried out based on the existing literature that describes the main associations of Mediterranean coastal dune environments (Géhu, 1986; Géhu et al., 1984; Géhu and Biondi, 1994a, 1994b, 1995; Biondi 1999, 2007) and, in particular, of Sardinian coasts (Arrigoni, 1996; Bartolo et al., 1992; Biondi et al., 2001; Biondi and Bagella 2005; Filigheddu and Valsecchi, 2001). - General setting of the study area Investigation of the geology and geomorphology of the area, the wind-wave climate and bioclimatic indices were undertaken. Remote sensing analyses provided an essential overview of the general evolution and morphological complexity of this sector. Morphological and vegetation analyses were carried out on the two principal physionomic units of the coast: the dunefield and the beach. Results of vegetation data allowed a more precise delimitation and spatial distribution of plant associations and the characterization of two new sub-associations. A bathymetric survey including the collection of seafloor sediment samples were also carried out for the characterization of the nearshore system. All collected data and spatial analyses were ultimately implemented into a GIS, thereby allowing cross analysis of the information stored in the geodatabase to obtain both a qualitative and quantitative description of the landscape and the main morphological and vegetation characteristics of the environment. - Monitoring program The procedure integrates morphological and vegetational data - with several sedimentological considerations – in order to test a novel and readily applicable procedure for coastal dune monitoring. Three field measurement campaigns were carried out during the PhD program. This included measurements of the main geomorphological features with the integration of vegetation distribution along specific transects. Samples of the sediments of the beach and dunefield were collected in order to give further information concerning the grain sizes and the aeolic transport of sand. This research demonstrates that the dynamic processes and disturbances are well recognizable along transects. Therefore it is possible to monitor the general status of a study area using a small number of geomorphological and vegetation profiles. This integrated methodology promises a precise, effective and rapid procedure for the monitoring of coastal dunefields.

The study of the Cretaceous–Cenozoic evolution of the North Patagonian Andes represents a great opportunity to investigate the effects of coupling between deep lithospheric processes and near-surface deformation. Despite the general along-strike continuity, this mountain belt is characterized by a pronounced internal tectonic segmentation (marked by the variable position of the magmatic arc and of the deformation front to the east). Thus, this plate margin results in a more complex configuration with respect to the simplified notion of “Andean-type” subduction system. Being located in the retro-wedge of the Andes, this sector of the Southern Cordillera experienced a complex evolution characterized by alternating flat- and steep-slab subduction stages, which controlled shortening and extension episodes in the overriding plate. Furthermore, the deformation in this whole retroarc sector varied not only in time (i.e. with major 'cycles' of mountain building and orogenic collapse), but also in space, due to the variable transmission of horizontal compressive stress away from the orogen, that produced an irregular unroofing pattern, recorded by obtained low-temperature (low-T) thermochronometric ages. Indeed, low-T thermochronological systems are ideally suited for detecting events involving rocks in the uppermost part of the crust because they record time and rates of cooling related to exhumation of the top few kilometers of the crust. In this study, apatite (U-Th)/He (AHe) and apatite fission track (AFT) dating are integrated with structural methods in the region located between 40° and 44°S. Two fieldwork periods were carried out throughout the Neuquén, Rio Negro, and Chubut Provinces in order to sample for thermochronological analyses and conduct structural surveys. These methods allowed us comparing the exhumation patterns both between the frontal part of the orogen and its adjacent foreland, and in the same morpho-structural domain at different latitudes. A total of 48 samples have been collected, processed and analyzed. AHe dating was performed at the University of Paris Sud, while AFT dating was done at the University of Padua. Detailed structural surveys were mainly conducted in the less studied zones of the foreland, and in the entire studied area to check major structures. Integrating the different methods allowed us to unravel the complex tectonic scenario characterizing the study area. Three balanced and sequentially restored cross-sections have been integrated with thermochronological information in order to produce a thermo-kinematic model along two different transects located at 40° and 42°S. To do this, the analyzed transects were processed with FetKin, a dedicated software for forward modeling of thermochronometric ages and age prediction along the present-day profile. This in turn, was used to validate the proposed tectonic scenario. New AFT and AHe data obtained in this study highlight two major tectonic events that occurred in North Patagonia: a Late Cretaceous to Paleogene inversion and exhumation stage, that involved the entire fold-and-thrust belt–foreland basin system, and a Miocene-Pliocene inversion stage of focused exhumation in the Andean fold-and-thrust belt. The suggested tectonic scenario was successfully tested with FetKin along the two transects, allowing us to unravel the role and extent of each tectonic stage that occurred since the Mesozoic. The recorded pattern may be interpreted as the result of a variable degree of propagation of the deformation from the Andean chain to the foreland. This appears to be controlled by two main parameters: (i) slab configuration (i.e. steep- vs. flat-subduction, which plays a fundamental role in foreland deformation), and (ii) convergence rate between the Pacific and South-America plates, which rules shortening and exhumation processes in the fold-and-thrust belt.
Lo studio dell’evoluzione Cretacico–Cenozoica delle Ande Nord Patagoniche offre l’opportunità di comprendere le relazioni intercorrenti tra processi profondi riguardanti la dinamica della litosfera e la deformazione più superficiale che coinvolge la crosta. Benché la catena andina sia caratterizzata da un generale andamento lineare nord-sud, nel dettaglio essa è fortemente segmentata da un punto di vista tettonico, come si evince dalla posizione variabile dell’arco magmatico e del fronte di deformazione verso le zone di avampaese. Pertanto, questo margine di placca risulta avere una complessa configurazione, che va oltre la comune nozione di sistema di subduzione di “tipo andino”. Localizzato nella zona di retrocatena, il settore Nord Patagonico della Cordigliera ha subito una complessa evoluzione, caratterizzata dall’alternanza di fasi di subduzione a basso e alto angolo, che ha controllato le fasi rispettivamente di raccorciamento e di estensione in corrispondenza della placca superiore. La variabilità deformativa in questa zona di retroarco è stata sia temporale—dunque legata a fasi di orogenesi e collasso della catena—sia spaziale, data la variabile trasmissione dello stress compressivo verso le zone esterne dell’orogene. La termocronologia di bassa temperatura è in grado di registrare i pattern irregolari di denudamento risultanti, essendo molto sensibile alle variazioni entro i primi chilometri della crosta. Tali sistemi termocronometrici sono ideali per identificare eventi tettonici a livello crostale, poiché sono in grado di registrare il momento e la velocità del raffreddamento legato all’esumazione. In particolare, i metodi (U-Th)/He (AHe) e tracce di fissione (AFT), entrambi su apatite, sono stati integrati in questa tesi con i metodi strutturali. L’area investigata è la regione ubicata tra 40° and 44°S, nel nord della Patagonia argentina. Durante le due campagne, condotte nelle Province di Neuquén, di Rio Negro e del Chubut, sono state campionate le rocce sulle quali compiere le analisi termocronologiche di bassa temperatura e sono stati analizzati dal punto di vista strutturale i lineamenti tettonici più importanti. Questi metodi hanno permesso sia di comparare i pattern di esumazione nella parte frontale della catena e nell’adiacente avampaese sia, al contempo, di comparare le differenze, a diverse latitudini, all’interno di uno stesso dominio morfo-strutturale. Complessivamente, sono stati raccolti, processati e analizzati quarantotto campioni. Le analisi (U-Th)/He sono state eseguite presso l’Università di Parigi Sud mentre quelle di tracce di fissione presso l’Università di Padova. Dal punto di vista geologico-strutturale, le maggiori strutture dell’area di studio sono state rilevate sul terreno e analizzate nel dettaglio, con particolare attenzione nelle zone meno studiate dell’avampaese. Infine, per un’analisi più approfondita di questo complesso scenario i due metodi sono stati integrati. Infatti, sono state costruite tre sezioni bilanciate e retrodeformate integrate con le informazioni termocronologiche al fine di produrre un modello termo-cinematico lungo due diversi transetti posti a 40° e 44°S, mediante l’utilizzo di un software dedicato in grado di modellare le età termocronometriche e fare previsione di queste lungo il profilo topografico odierno, che, a sua volta, è stato usato per validare lo scenario tettonico proposto. I nuovi dati AFT e AHe ottenuti nell’area di studio evidenziano due eventi tettonici principali interessanti l’area settentrionale della Patagonia: una fase d’inversione ed esumazione tra il tardo Cretacico e il Paleogene, che ha coinvolto l’intero sistema dalla catena all’avampaese, e una successiva, Mio-Pliocenica, in cui l’esumazione si è concentrata nella zona di catena. Questo scenario tettonico proposto è stato con successo testato lungo i due transetti analizzati attraverso FetKin, permettendo di chiarire il ruolo e l’entità di ogni fase tettonica avvenuta dal Mesozoico. Il pattern di esumazione così ottenuto è stato interpretato come il risultato del variabile grado di propagazione della deformazione dalla catena andina verso l’avampaese. Quest’ultimo sembra essere controllato principalmente da due parametri: (i) la configurazione della placca in subduzione, in altre parole la sua geometria più o meno orizzontale che gioca un ruolo fondamentale nella deformazione dell’avampaese, e (ii) la velocità di convergenza tra le placche pacifica e sud americana, che governa i processi di raccorciamento ed esumazione nella catena a pieghe e sovrascorrimenti.

The preventive assessment of flood risk is key to understand the costs of hazard scenarios in a changing climate so that adequate adaptation policies can be timely implemented. Italy is a flood-prone country that suffers among the highest economic impacts in the EU. Nevertheless, there is no established approach for estimating the economic impact of flood events. This is critical considering that such impacts are expected to increase by 2050 in Europe due to the effect of increased climate variability. This thesis improves the customary flood risk framework commonly applied to translate the changes in flood hazard probability and magnitude into variation of Expected Annual Damage. It does so by focusing on the key components of the analysis, particularly the representation of exposed value and the characterisation of vulnerability. In Paper #1 I test the performance of existing flood damage models for estimating direct impact to different land use categories. In Paper #2 I calibrate a new damage curve for residential units using empirical damage records and a statistical calibration procedure adapted from an Australian study. In Paper #3, I collect heterogeneous country-wide exposure data and combine them using a dasymetric approach in order to draw a new homogeneous dataset including asset, population, GDP, and social vulnerability. Paper #4 takes a further step in the elaboration of a tool that can be practically employed for country-wide risk assessment. Damage observations from three recent flood events are employed to evaluate the relative importance of risk predictive variables and to test the accuracy of different damage models. Two machine learning algorithms are applied to assess the predictive ability of a multivariable setup compared to a customary univariable models.