225 research outputs found

    Nutrire Roma: il ruolo dell’agricoltura urbana nel fenomeno urbano

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    Scopo di questa nota è di esaminare i caratteri e le dinamiche che connotano l’agricoltura urbana nel caso di Roma. Il contributo sintetizza in chiave evolutiva i fatti stilizzati del rapporto tra città e campagna, successivamente si indaga il contesto produttivo agricolo al fine di proporre una tassonomia dei tipi di agricoltura urbana. Il tentativo che qui si propone è una preliminare lettura dell’agricoltura urbana attraverso un sistema di criteri per la classificazione della distribuzione funzionale e relazionale del primario in aree metropolitane. Tali categorie interpretative tentano di ricostruire le relazioni causali che traducono i modelli produttivi agricoli (caratteristiche strutturali, ordinamenti, forme giuridiche, forme d’uso delle risorse naturali, collocazione), in specifiche forme spaziali e funzionali nella dimensione urbana – fisica e sociale -. Sul piano teorico tale lettura s’inserisce nel paradigma coevolutivo e guarda al paesaggio come il risultato delle interazioni tra il sistema ambientale e l’agire dell’uomo che abita e utilizza il territorio (Marino e Cavallo, 2009). Una sintesi tipologica definitiva sembra ancora un obiettivo da raggiungere, sicuramente questo è il primo passo verso la costruzione di una griglia interpretativa e di un vocabolario tipologico da mettere poi a sistema con i dati morfologici e quelli di uso del suolo.The aim of this paper is to examine the characteristics and the dynamics that characterize urban agriculture in the case of Rome. We summarize in an evolutionary approach the stylized facts of the relationship between town and country, then we investigate the context of agricultural production in order to propose a taxonomy of the types of urban agriculture. The effort proposed here is a preliminary analysis of urban agriculture through a system of criteria for the classification of the distribution of the functional and relational features of agricultural activities in metropolitan areas. These interpretative categories attempt to reconstruct the causal relationships that translate agricultural production models (farms’ data, legal forms, use of natural resources, localization), in specific forms in the spatial and functional urban dimension - physical and social - . On the theoretical level this analysis is embedded in the co-evolutionary paradigm and looks to the landscape as the result of interactions between the environmental system and the action of human who lives and uses the territory (Marino and Cavallo, 2009). This typization ultimately still seems a goal to achieve, this is the first step towards the construction of an interpretative and vocabulary typological then be systematize with the morphological data and those of land use.Peer Reviewe

    Analysis of agriculture in term of its territory: an interpretation

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    The changes affecting farming and its function - like for other sectors of the economy - are becoming increasingly complex, strongly effecting the social and building patterns within a territory. These changes radically modify the traditional balance between land use and its interconnections in rural areas, and how these interact with urban areas, (Donadieu 2006; Barberis 2009; Ploeg 2009; Fonte 2010). To paraphrase Baumann (2000), we will focus on the fluid aspects of a territory, relating to changes and decline, where it has been more and more difficult to apply the theoretical methods and analytical tools commonly used by agricultural economists, who have historically always carefully studied issues concerning the territory when analysing agriculture. This work first reviews the main agricultural economics research streams and then advances the idea of landscape as a method for analysing the transformations affecting the complex relationships between farming and the various economic, social and environmental systems of the territories within which they are situated (Turri 2000; 2002; Farinelli 2003).Il quadro delle trasformazioni che interessano oggi l’attività agricola e le sue funzioni - come gli altri settori economici -, va assumendo dimensioni e relazioni via via sempre più complesse, con pesanti riflessi territoriali a livello sociale e insediativo. Tali cambiamenti modificano radicalmente il tradizionale assetto territoriale e relazionale dello spazio rurale e dei suoi rapporti con l’urbano (DONADIEU 2006; BARBERIS 2009; PLOEG 2009; FONTE 2010). Parafrasando Baumann (2000) ci confrontiamo con il carattere liquido del territorio, quello del mutamento e dell’entropia, rispetto ai quali la capacità di lettura degli approcci teorici e degli strumenti analitici tradizionalmente usati dagli economisti agrari - i quali hanno storicamente posto grande attenzione allo studio della dimensione territoriale nell’analisi dell’agricoltura -, tendono a scontare una crescente difficoltà. Il contributo dopo aver svolto una rassegna dei principali filoni della ricerca economico-agraria sul tema, discute l’ipotesi concettuale del paesaggio come metodo di analisi delle trasformazioni che interessano i complessi rapporti tra l’attività agricola e i sistemi economici, sociali, ambientali dei territori in cui essa si colloca (TURRI 2000; 2002; FARINELLI 2003)

    Human activity mining in multi-occupancy contexts based on nearby interaction under a fuzzy approach

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    Multioccupation encompasses real-life environments in which people interact in the same common space. Recognizing activities in this context for each inhabitant has been challenging and complex. This work presents a fuzzy knowledge-based system for mining human activities in multi-occupancy contexts based on nearby interaction based on the Ultra-wideband. First, interest zone spatial location is modelled using a straightforward fuzzy logic approach, enabling discriminating short-term event interactions. Second, linguistic protoforms use fuzzy rules to describe long-term events for mining human activities in a multi-occupancy context. A data set with multimodal sensors has been collected and labelled to exhibit the application of the approach. The results show an encouraging performance (0.9 precision) in the discrimination of multiple occupations

    Detection of perimacular red dots and blots when screening for diabetic retinopathy: Refer or not refer?

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    Purpose: Detection of microaneurysms and/or microhaemorrhages near the fovea when screening for diabetic retinopathy poses a problem because referral to retinal specialists may alarm patients and unnecessarily burden ophthalmologists. Methods: Six-month prospective study of patients found to have minimal red lesions within one disc diameter of the fovea when screened for diabetic retinopathy. Two 45° digital photographs, one centred on the macula and the other nasal including the optic disc, were taken for each eye. All patients received a 6-month re-screening appointment. Results: Out of 70 patients, 41 returned for re-screening. Diabetic retinopathy had worsened in 3 who required referral but no treatment, was unchanged in 19 and was undetectable in the other 19. Haemoglobin A1c decreased from 7.76% ± 1.50% (61.3 ± 16.2 mmol/mol) to 6.93% ± 1.7% (52.3 ± 18.9 mmol/mol) in the patients in whom diabetic retinopathy worsened but did not change in the other groups. Baseline haemoglobin A1c ( p = 0.048) and systolic blood pressure ( p = 0.007) were lower in the patients in whom diabetic retinopathy improved, but a multivariate model including haemoglobin A1c, blood pressure and known disease duration could not identify any independent risk factor. Conclusion: Minimal red lesions near the fovea, though commanding early re-screening, do not require immediate referral to retinal specialists. </jats:sec

    Il cibo come questione territoriale. Riflessioni alla luce della pianificazione alimentare

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    In the recent years, agriculture has played a key role in reshaping rurality, in the view of a reconstruction of social and production structures accompanying the current re-territorialisation process, coming after a phase of de-territorialisation of the role of the agricultural sector as the focus of local balances. At the same time, the contemporary urban phenomenon is rewriting, even though not orderly, its relationship with agriculture and food, overcoming the traditional idea of city in which countryside is only extra muros. If the main experiences of the Italian food policies have concerned the great urban systems, the topic here discussed are food policies as an opportunity, offered to Italian small and medium-sized centres, to re-contextualise their own agro-food systems and their functions for the community. The ability of plans and policies to understand and orientate these processes shows, actually, growing difficulties. The breadth between civic or market practices and the regulatory, political and planning framework is territory, the place where we should build and experience new forms of governance, institutions and tools where citizenship, labour and market meet agriculture and territorial diversity. The paper focuses on the meaning and functions of food planning and discusses some possible implementation on the polycentric geography of the Italian territory

    Toll-like receptor 2 promotes breast cancer progression and resistance to chemotherapy

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    Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are the main drivers of disease progression and chemotherapy resistance in breast cancer. Tumor progression and chemoresistance might then be prevented by CSC-targeted therapies. We previously demonstrated that Toll-like Receptor (TLR)2 is overexpressed in CSCs and fuels their self-renewal. Here, we show that high TLR2 expression is linked to poor prognosis in breast cancer patients, therefore representing a candidate target for breast cancer treatment. By using a novel mammary cancer-prone TLR2(KO) mouse model, we demonstrate that TLR2 is required for CSC pool maintenance and for regulatory T cell induction. Accordingly, cancer-prone TLR2(KO) mice display delayed tumor onset and increased survival. Transplantation of TLR2(WT) and TLR2(KO) cancer cells in either TLR2(WT) or TLR2(KO) hosts shows that tumor initiation is mostly sustained by TLR2 expression in cancer cells. TLR2 host deficiency partially impairs cancer cell growth, implying a pro-tumorigenic effect of TLR2 expression in immune cells. Finally, we demonstrate that doxorubicin-induced release of HMGB1 activates TLR2 signaling in cancer cells, leading to a chemotherapy-resistant phenotype. Unprecedented use of TLR2 inhibitors in vivo reduces tumor growth and potentiates doxorubicin efficacy with no negative impact on the host immune system, opening new perspectives for the treatment of breast cancer patients

    Esperienze di filiera corta in contesti urbani. Alcuni casi studio

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    “Incrociando” le diverse forme di filiera corta con i criteri – ambientali, economici e sociali – in funzione dei quali è possibile analizzare le stesse emerge un insieme segnatamente poliedrico. Alla marcata eterogeneità dei singoli contesti territoriali presi in esame si accompagna un quadro molteplice di assetti economico produttivi, storici, sociali e agroambientali che legano la città al loro intorno agrario. Un contesto montano caratterizzato da un tessuto produttivo di piccole dimensioni come è il caso trentino, un ambito di pianura, quale quello salentino, a marcata vocazione agricola con elevata densità insediativa in un continuum urbano rurale di cui è difficile percepire i confini, all’area pisana in cui il ruolo delle istituzioni locali e delle spinte “dal basso” ricopre un’importanza chiave nell’orientare i processi di trasformazione delle relazioni tra produzione e consumo, fino alle città metropolitane di Torino e Roma in cui è maggiore la spinta innovativa dal lato dell’offerta e maggiore la variabilità delle funzioni e degli impatti. I tratti che accomunano queste esperienze sembrano essere due: a) il processo di riavvicinamento tra produzione e consumo, che passa dallo sviluppo di diverse forme di “filiera corta”; b) la decisa espansione del fenomeno filiera corta, non solo in termini quantitativi, con il moltiplicarsi di esperienze ed esperimenti caratterizzati da una marcata spinta innovativa. L’analisi preliminare degli scenari a livello locale fin qui discussa mette in luce la necessità di uno sforzo ulteriore di raccolta di informazioni e descrittivo e uno di carattere interpretativo finalizzato a misurare gli impatti in termini di sostenibilità ambientale, economica e sociale delle filiere corte per definire percorsi di regolamentazione e indirizzo sul piano politico e legislativo, finalizzati anche a declinarne i possibili livelli di pianificazione e gestione, tra la scala comunale, quella provinciale o regionale e il livello nazionale
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