Modelling Spatial Regimes in Farms Technologies

We exploit the information derived from geographical coordinates to endogenously identify spatial regimes in technologies that are the result of a variety of complex, dynamic interactions among site-specific environmental variables and farmer decision making about technology, which are often not observed at the farm level. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity is a fundamental challenge in empirical research, as failing to do so can produce model misspecification and preclude causal inference. In this article, we adopt a two-step procedure to deal with unobserved spatial heterogeneity, while accounting for spatial dependence in a cross-sectional setting. The first step of the procedure takes explicitly unobserved spatial heterogeneity into account to endogenously identify subsets of farms that follow a similar local production econometric model, i.e. spatial production regimes. The second step consists in the specification of a spatial autoregressive model with autoregressive disturbances and spatial regimes. The method is applied to two regional samples of olive growing farms in Italy. The main finding is that the identification of spatial regimes can help drawing a more detailed picture of the production environment and provide more accurate information to guide extension services and policy makers

Evaluation of organic matter stability during the composting process of agroindustrial wastes.

Composting of wastes from citrus industrial processing (pastazzo and sludge) was studied in order to evaluate the evolution of organic matter during the process and to individuate chemical and/or biochemical techniques able to set the stability of the final product. Composts from two open-air piles of different composition were sampled every month during the whole period of composting (5 months) and the organic matter of each sample was characterised by chemical and biochemical techniques. Humification rate (HR%) and humification index (HI) were determined. Extracted organic matter of six samples collected for each compost was investigated by isoelectric-focusing technique (IEF). The biochemical analysis was based on the study of C-mineralisation after the addition of each collected sample to soil. Results obtained clearly demonstrated organic matter evolution during composting processes. Humification rates increased and humification indexes decreased over time, while extracted organic matter showed electrophoretic behaviour typical of stabilised organic compounds. Moreover, mineralisation patterns confirmed the increased level of organic matter stability during the composting process

Culture conditions influence satellite cell activation and survival of single myofibers

Single myofiber isolation protocols allow to obtain an in vitro system in which the physical association between the myofiber and its stem cells, the satellite cells, is adequately preserved. This technique is an indispensable tool by which the muscle regeneration process can be recapitulated and studied in each specific phase, from satellite cell activation to proliferation, from differentiation to fusion. This study aims to clarify the effect of different culture conditions on single myofibers, their associated satellite cells, and the physiological behavior of the satellite cells upon long term culture. By direct observations of the cultures, we compared different experimental conditions and their effect on both satellite cell behavior and myofiber viability

Targeting PKCθ promotes satellite cell self-renewal

Skeletal muscle regeneration following injury depends on the ability of satellite cells (SCs) to proliferate, self-renew, and eventually differentiate. The factors that regulate the process of self-renewal are poorly understood. In this study we examined the role of PKCθ in SC self-renewal and differentiation. We show that PKCθ is expressed in SCs, and its active form is localized to the chromosomes, centrosomes, and midbody during mitosis. Lack of PKCθ promotes SC symmetric self-renewal division by regulating Pard3 polarity protein localization, without affecting the overall proliferation rate. Genetic ablation of PKCθ or its pharmacological inhibition in vivo did not affect SC number in healthy muscle. By contrast, after induction of muscle injury, lack or inhibition of PKCθ resulted in a significant expansion of the quiescent SC pool. Finally, we show that lack of PKCθ does not alter the inflammatory milieu after acute injury in muscle, suggesting that the enhanced self-renewal ability of SCs in PKCθ-/- mice is not due to an alteration in the inflammatory milieu. Together, these results suggest that PKCθ plays an important role in SC self-renewal by stimulating their expansion through symmetric division, and it may represent a promising target to manipulate satellite cell self-renewal in pathological conditions

Modelling spatial regimes in farms technologies

We exploit the information derived from geographical coordinates to endogenously identify spatial regimes in technologies that are the result of a variety of complex, dynamic interactions among site-specific environmental variables and farmer decision making about technology, which are often not observed at the farm level. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity is a fundamental challenge in empirical research, as failing to do so can produce model misspecification and preclude causal inference. In this article, we adopt a two-step procedure to deal with unobserved spatial heterogeneity, while accounting for spatial dependence in a cross-sectional setting. The first step of the procedure takes explicitly unobserved spatial heterogeneity into account to endogenously identify subsets of farms that follow a similar local production econometric model, i.e. spatial production regimes. The second step consists in the specification of a spatial autoregressive model with autoregressive disturbances and spatial regimes. The method is applied to two regional samples of olive growing farms in Italy. The main finding is that the identification of spatial regimes can help drawing a more detailed picture of the production environment and provide more accurate information to guide extension services and policy makers

Resolutions of p-stratifolds with isolated singularities

Recently M. Kreck introduced a class of stratified spaces called p-stratifolds [M. Kreck, Stratifolds, Preprint]. He defined and investigated resolutions of p-stratifolds analogously to resolutions of algebraic varieties. In this note we study a very special case of resolutions, so called optimal resolutions, for p-stratifolds with isolated singularities. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for existence and analyze their classification.Comment: Published by Algebraic and Geometric Topology at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/agt/AGTVol3/agt-3-36.abs.htm

Soil fertility comparison among organic and conventional managed citrus orchards in Sicily.

In recents years, organic farming is expanding in Southern Italy and in the Mediterranean area, due to interest of consumers and EU agricultural policies. Evaluation of organic farming system introduction on soil quality and fertility status should be taken into account in order to define medium-long term environmental and agricultural strategies, on both locol and national scale. Soil physical, chemical and biological parameters represent effective tools to evaluate soil quality and changes in soil fertility status, as a consequence of different agronomic management (i.e. organic vs coventional). The aim of this work was to compare soil fertility of conventional and organic managed citrus Orchards, using specific soil system descriptors. The research was carried out in a Mediterranean environment (Sicil Region, Southern Italy), on Navelina and Tarocco orchards. Soil characteristics were analysed in 54 farms under both organic and conventional management. Farms were selected to obtain similar pairs (27) in the same environmental conditions. Moreover, orchards pairs were homogeneous for age, cultivar and rootsock to reduce effects not linked to soil management. For each soil, total organic carbon, total nitrogen, mineral NO3-N and NH4-N were determined. In addition, in order to evaluate biological fertility of the considered soils, carbon mineralisation and nitrogen mineralisation in anaerobic conditions were studied. Soils' humic fraction was at least characterised qualitatively by isoelectric focusing technique,to obtain information on soil organic matter stability. Potenzially mineralisable carbon and cumulative mineralised carbon determined on 21 days experimental trials differed significantly in organic and conventional soils. Since this significance was detected also for cumulative mineralised carbon after 7 days, probably C-mineralisation represents the more reliable and prompter indicator to discriminate soil biological fertility with respect to the other tested ones. Moreover, it should be remarked that some parameters (as total nitrogen content, mineralised carbon after 1 days and the more humified organic matter fraction), even if not yet significantly different, revealed a strong tendency to increase in organic managed soils, attesting that the organic citrus orchards can be considered systems able to conserve energy and store nutrients more than the conventional ones

Mappe di probabilità di sito archeologico : un passo avanti

La necessità di disporre di mappe di probabilità di sito archeologico è un tema attualmente al centro di un rinnovato interesse anche grazie alla disponibilità di una moltitudine di informazioni territoriali gestite ed elaborate con l’ausilio della tecnologia GIS. Gli studi che finora si sono occupati del problema, hanno fatto riferimento a modellistiche di tipo regressivo od autoregressivo che, sebbene centrate sulle peculiarità del fenomeno, si sono dimostrate sensibilmente dipendenti dalla presenza di dati anomali nella stima dei parametri e da ipotesi specifiche sui casi in esame. L’intento del presente lavoro è invece quello di proporre una soluzione più robusta e generalizzabile in linea con i recenti sviluppi nel campo della modellistica non parametrica la quale potrebbe dare un forte impulso all’uso congiunto della statistica e della tecnologia GIS. L’informazione geografica ricavabile dai dati fisici e satellitari relativi all’area di studio rappresenta infatti, grazie al dettaglio che la caratterizza, una fonte ausiliaria insostituibile per spiegare la presenza o meno di un sito in una data posizione della mappa. L’approccio proposto è stato sviluppato ed applicato per l’area test di Cures Sabini ottenendo dei risultati abbastanza incoraggianti, soprattutto se letti in termini della estrema facilità di interpretazione dei risultati da parte di non statistici e della riscontrata possibilità di rendere automatico il processo di produzione delle mappe di probabilità. Questa evidenza permetterebbe ad operatori del settore non professionalmente preparati da un punto di vista metodologico, di estendere il modello a situazioni anche molto diverse da quella analizzata

The Process of Digitalization of the Urban Environment for the Development of Sustainable and Circular Cities: A Case Study of Bologna, Italy

The residential heritage that was built during the great expansion of real estate after the Second World War has severe deficiencies in structural safety, fire resistance, energy efficiency, and accessibility and these cannot be solved with sustainable renovation measures. This study focuses on replacement interventions and promotes a management model that addresses three areas (technical, social, and economic) and it refers to the application of the circularity principle to the construction sector for the goal of climate neutrality by 2050. The final objective is to define a protocol—namely, the guidelines—to reference in a decision-making process that promotes urban regeneration by comparing demolition with reconstruction and renovation. The proposed methodology allows for the determination of suitable areas in Bologna for replacement and the joining of the municipal geodatabase with data from archival research on building permits in 1949–1965 by using GIS software. This digital archive can be implemented in a digital twin for an urban block, which can become a predictive tool for urban planning and the management of the whole life of a building. The main result is the characterization of urban blocks by identifying typical features belonging to specific building libraries that are validated with density analyses. These urban clusters and building archetypes can be used to assess targeted intervention measures by using specific tools, such as predictive maps and 3D city models

Pharmacological inhibition of PKCθ counteracts muscle disease in a mouse model of duchenne muscular dystrophy

Inflammation plays a considerable role in the progression of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a severe muscle disease caused by a mutation in the dystrophin gene. We previously showed that genetic ablation of Protein Kinase C θ (PKCθ) in mdx, the mouse model of DMD, improves muscle healing and regeneration, preventing massive inflammation. To establish whether pharmacological targeting of PKCθ in DMD can be proposed as a therapeutic option, in this study we treated young mdx mice with the PKCθ inhibitor Compound 20 (C20). We show that C20 treatment led to a significant reduction in muscle damage associated with reduced immune cells infiltration, reduced inflammatory pathways activation, and maintained muscle regeneration. Importantly, C20 treatment is efficient in recovering muscle performance in mdx mice, by preserving muscle integrity. Together, these results provide proof of principle that pharmacological inhibition of PKCθ in DMD can be considered an attractive strategy to modulate immune response and prevent the progression of the disease