Comprehensive and Integrated Impact Assessment Framework for Development Policies Evaluation: Definition and Application to Kenyan Coffee Sector

The coexistence of the need to improve economic conditions and the conscious use of environmental resources plays a central role in today’s sustainable development challenge. In this study, a novel integrated framework to evaluate the impact of new technological interventions is presented and an application to smallholder coffee farms and their supply chains in Kenya is proposed. This methodology is able to combine multiple information through the joint use of three approaches: supply chain analysis, input-output analysis, and energy system modeling. Application to the context of the Kenyan coffee sector enables framework validation: shading management measures, the introduction of eco-pulpers, and the exploitation of coffee waste biomass for power generation were compared within a holistic high-level perspective. The implementation of shading practices, carried out with fruit trees, shows the most relevant effects from the economic point of view, providing farmers with an additional source of income and generating $903 of work for every million of local currency (about$9k) invested in this solution. The same investment would save up to 1.46 M m3 of water per year with the eco-pulpers technology. Investing the same amount in coffee-biomass power plants would displace a small portion of production from heavy-duty oil and avoid importing a portion of fertilizer, saving up to 11 tons of CO2 and around $4k per year. The results suggest the optimal allocation of a$100m budget, which can be affected by adding additional constraints on minimum environmental or social targets in line with sustainable development goals

DMTs and Covid-19 severity in MS: a pooled analysis from Italy and France

We evaluated the effect of DMTs on Covid-19 severity in patients with MS, with a pooled-analysis of two large cohorts from Italy and France. The association of baseline characteristics and DMTs with Covid-19 severity was assessed by multivariate ordinal-logistic models and pooled by a fixed-effect meta-analysis. 1066 patients with MS from Italy and 721 from France were included. In the multivariate model, anti-CD20 therapies were significantly associated (OR = 2.05, 95%CI = 1.39–3.02, p < 0.001) with Covid-19 severity, whereas interferon indicated a decreased risk (OR = 0.42, 95%CI = 0.18–0.99, p = 0.047). This pooled-analysis confirms an increased risk of severe Covid-19 in patients on anti-CD20 therapies and supports the protective role of interferon

Evolution of organic carbon pools and microbial diversity in hyperarid anthropogenic soils

We investigated the organic carbon pools and the microbial diversity and activity in anthropogenic terraced soils in a desert area of Southern Peru to highlight how the introduction of agriculture influences carbon evolution and storage and genetic and functional diversity of soil microbiota over time. Five sites were selected considering soils cultivated since 5, 15, 20, 35 and 65 years, sampled along the profile depth (0e20 and 20e40 cm layer). Soil and microbial parameters comprised by organic carbon pools, microbial respiration, microbial community physiological profile (CLPP) and microbial diversity (PCR-DGGE) were determined. The results showed that the highest C concentrations were reached after a long cultivation time (P65), at both depths. In this site Corg was mainly composed by chemically not extractable C, considered the most stabilized fraction. The remaining extractable C fraction decreased with the depth and was mainly made up of highly mineralizable compounds. Data showed that human transformations has affected organic carbon pools only after several decades of cultivation, whereas the activity and structure of the microbial community changed gradually over time, showing the major differences between the most ancient (65 years) and the most recent (5 years) anthropized soils

A low-cost Cherenkov detector to be tested in CERN's T9 beam line

The TCO-Asa is a 2015 established team of high-school students of the Liceo Scientifico T. Calzecchi Onesti, in Fermo (Italy), who built a detector instrumented by consumer components including a CMOS camera and a silicon photomultiplier readout by the open-source ArduSiPM kit, to study the Cherenkov effect in water.This proceeding presents the main activities of the students that included the definition of the geometry of the detector, the realisation of the structure prepared by Scanny3D, the optimisation of the coupling between the water and the sensors, the experiences with 18F (prepared by Acom SRL) and 226Rd radioactive sources, and the results of the tests performed at the Beam Test Facility in INFN-Frascati in 2016.The team proposed to expose the detector to a test beam at CERN in 2016 and in 2017 within the Beamline for School initiative. The project was assessed among the best in 2016, and won the competition in 2017. A test beam, with an improved detector, has been done September 2017 at CERN, with the PS beam facility