Internal conductance under different light conditions along the plant profile of Ethiopian mustard (Brassica carinata A. Brown.)

This study focused on the internal conductance (g i ) along the plant profile of Ethiopian mustard under two light conditions: (i) light from the top only (I1); (ii) light from the top integrated by supplementary lateral light along the whole plant profile (I2). Lateral light strongly increased the productivity (e.g. +104% of seed oil) and net photosynthesis (A). The latter appeared more driven by g i (r=0.78 ** ) than by stomatal conductance (g s ) (r=0.51 * ). Importantly, irradiance also considerably shortened the time from leaf appearance to senescence, which means that corresponding leaves in I1 and I2 had different ages. Therefore, since leaf age and irradiance have counteracting effects on g i , I1 sometimes showed higher g i values than I2. With respect to irradiance, leaf age had clearly higher effects on g i , which radically declined from the top to the basal leaves, even under constant light conditions. The internal conductance caused a significant drawdown of CO 2 from the sub-stomatal cavity (C i ) to the site of carboxylation (C c ) that, in turn, led to a substantial underestimation of V cmax calculated using the A/C i model. Again, the trends of g i and g s were not consistent along the plant profile, and so the ratio between stomatal and internal limitations to A changed from top to bottom leaves, accordingly. This study suggests that g i may be a valuable trait for increasing photosynthetic capacity and productivity; nonetheless, it suggests caution in selecting leaves for high g i , as the latter can considerably change along the plant profile due to leaf age and irradiance effects

Pulmonary rehabilitation improves functional outcomes and quality of life in post-SARS-CoV-2 mild-to-moderate infection patients: a pilot study

: SARS-CoV-2 infection impairs functional outcomes and quality of life, even in its mild-to-moderate form. It is therefore appropriate to draw attention to the role played by respiratory rehabilitation and physiotherapists in the pulmonary rehabilitation process that post-SARS-CoV-2 patients must undergo. We enrolled 80 patients in a prospective case-control study; 40 cases (mild-to-moderate post-SARS-CoV-2 infection patients) and 38 control subjects (i.e. patients affected by other respiratory diseases) completed a full pulmonary rehabilitation cycle. 6 Minute Walking Distance, Borg CR10 Scale, modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) Dyspnoea scale, EuroQoL EQ-5D-3L questionnaire, Barthel scale, arterial blood gas test and peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2) were compared for all patients before and after rehabilitation. All patients experienced significant improvements in all parameters analyzed, except for arterial blood gas test. Results were similar for both groups, in particular both groups experienced improvements in mMRC scale, EuroQoL questionnaire, Barthel scale and 6-minute walking distance. Pulmonary rehabilitation appears to improve exercise tolerance, dyspnea and quality of life in patients recovering from mild-to-moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection. Further studies are needed on larger sample size population to validate these results

International Cooperation and University Agreements: new opportunities for sustainable development.

Internationalization of higher education institutes is becoming a real opportunity of development in environmental and social subjects. This paper explores a case study where university agreements and student exchanges between low-middle income and high-income countries have started a process of international cooperation about environmental themes. The agreements, signed between two Italian and two Bolivian Universities, started formally in 2015 and include the cooperation through local authorities, private companies and non-governmental organizations. This case study proved the importance of Universities for implementing international programs concerning environmental issues in low-middle income countries, opening new opportunities for sustainable development

coastal erosion triggered by political and socio economical abrupt changes the case of lalzit bay albania

Countries that undergo abrupt changes in their political regimes, such as the transition from totalitarianism to systems based on democratic principles, experience socio-economic changes that may also have a direct impact on the trans- formation and the anthropic pressure applied to the environment. This can ranges from the scale of small communities to larger spatial scales, such as that of a catchment basin. The rise of a liberal society in countries such as the Eastern European nations, often lacks a structure capable of regulating and planning the development of the territory and the use of natural resources, which should be aimed at conciliating the new development needs with the sustainable man- agement of the environment. This paper describes and analyses the extensive coastal erosion that has taken place over the past thirty years in Lalzit Bay, Albania, which may be attributed to the great social and economic transformations that occurred in the country after the fall of Enver Hoxa's communist regime in 1991, and the consequent changes in land use. These led to a significant reduction in the volume of sediment carried by rivers, which was necessary for the morphological equilibrium of the coast and its natural replenishment

Testing new tools for introducing the global dimension in engineering education

Resumen del trabajo presentado en la 5th International Conference on Technologies for Development, celebrada en Lausana (Suiza) del 27 al 29 de junio de 2018.Engineers with a broader capacity are needed to contribute to the realization of the SDGs. Though a number of technical universities have recently devoted efforts to integrating sustainable development into engineering curricula, current international debates have not yet explored in detail the role that Higher Education should play within Global Citizenship Education. Here we present lessons learned from a European initiative, the Global Dimension in Engineering Education (GDEE), promoted by a transdisciplinary consortium of technical universities and nongovernmental organisations. GDEE (http://gdee.eu) has developed specific novel tools to widen the training of Engineers in Europe, and to include global development aspects into their professional competences. There are increasing needs to further transform learning and training environments and build capacity of educators and trainers on sustainable development issues (Perez-Foguet et al., 2017). The work discusses project-based training and a recently launched honors programme that represent promising tools to set possible ways forward

Testing new tools for introducing the global dimension in engineering education

Testing new tools for introducing the global dimension in engineering educatio

On farm agronomic and first environmental evaluation of oil crops for sustainable bioenergy chains

Energy crops, and in particular oil crops, could be an important occasion for developing new non food production rows for a new multi-functional agriculture in Italy. In this view, the use of local biomass is a fundamental starting point for the development of a virtuous energy chain that should pursue not only agricultural profitability, but also chain sustainability and that is less dependent on the global market, characterized by instability in terms of biomass availability and price. From this perspective, particular attention must be paid to crop choice on the basis of its rusticity and of its adaptability to local growing conditions and to low input cropping systems. In this context, alike woody and herbaceous biomasses, oil crops such as sunflower and rapeseed should be able to support local agricultural bioenergy chain in Italy. In addition, in a local bioenergy chain, the role of the farmers should not be limited just to grain production; but also grain processing should be performed at farm or consortium level in oilseed extraction plants well proportioned to the cropped surface. In this way, by means of a simple power generator, farmer could thus produce its own thermal and electric energy from the oil, maximizing his profit. This objective could also be achieved through the exploitation of the total biomass, including crop residues and defatted seed meals, that may be considered as fundamental additional economic and/or environmental benefits of the chain. This paper reports some results of three-years on-farm experiments on oil crop chain carried out in the framework of "Bioenergie" project, that was focused to enhance farmers awareness of these criteria and to the feasibility at open field scale of low-input cultivation of rapeseed, sunflower and Brassica carinata in seven Italian regions. In several on-farm experiences, these crops produced more than 800 kg ha-1 of oil with good energy properties. Defatted seed meals could be interesting as organic fertilizers and, in the case of B. carinata, as a biofumigant amendment that could offer a total or partial alternative to some chemicals in agriculture. Furthermore, biomass soil incorporation could contribute to C sequestration, catching CO2 from atmosphere and sinking a part in soil as stable humus. Finally, four different open field experiences carried out again in the second year of the project, have been analysed in order to evaluate their energy and greenhouse gasses balance after cultivation phase

A Glial Variant of the Vesicular Monoamine Transporter Is Required To Store Histamine in the Drosophila Visual System

Unlike other monoamine neurotransmitters, the mechanism by which the brain's histamine content is regulated remains unclear. In mammals, vesicular monoamine transporters (VMATs) are expressed exclusively in neurons and mediate the storage of histamine and other monoamines. We have studied the visual system of Drosophila melanogaster in which histamine is the primary neurotransmitter released from photoreceptor cells. We report here that a novel mRNA splice variant of Drosophila VMAT (DVMAT-B) is expressed not in neurons but rather in a small subset of glia in the lamina of the fly's optic lobe. Histamine contents are reduced by mutation of dVMAT, but can be partially restored by specifically expressing DVMAT-B in glia. Our results suggest a novel role for a monoamine transporter in glia that may be relevant to histamine homeostasis in other systems

Water supply system in Kojani Island (Zanzibar, Tanzania)

Material complementari del cas estudi "Water supply system in Kojani Island (Zanzibar, Tanzania)", part component del llibre "Case studies for developing globally responsible engineers"Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft