Traditional and Virtual Congress Meetings During the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Post-COVID-19 Era: Is it Time to Change the Paradigm?

The speed and reach of the COVID-19 pandemic have forced rapid changes in how we conduct medical practice and research. The rapid evolution in how scientific meetings are conducted may have long-term benefits. A new reality in which technology and sociality are merged may offer a more engaging and adaptable scientific congress experience with more flexible and dynamic use of content modulated to the needs of each attendee

Groundwater and earthquake: brief remarks about seismic effects on groundwater resources availability in Valnerina

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THE "ART OF WAR FRIEZE" IN URBINO: A BLEND OF VIRTUAL RECONSTRUCTION AND SCIENTIFIC ACCURACY

The Art of War Frieze was commissioned by Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, to decorate the back of the «wing façade» of the Ducal palace. The Frieze decorated the façade from the time it was realised towards the end of the XVth century until 1756. The Frieze consists of a very particular series of seventy-two limestone bas-reliefs, whose iconographic repertoire represents numerous war and building machines as well as military and political symbols. After it broke away from the outdoor façade it was stored in different rooms in the Palace but despite the many documentary records available, the question of the original sequence of the basreliefs has never been resolved. The primary scope of this paper is to create a "virtual" reconstruction of the original sequence of the bas-reliefs, starting from historical and iconographic records, an analysis of the back and the individual panels using a laser scanner and fully automatic open source photo modelling technologies like the Arc3d, and photogrammetric systems like Image Master together with analyses of the state of conservation, type of degradation correlated to atmospheric parameters (sunlight, temperature, rain). Tests will then be carried out with different systems in order to confirm the accuracy of the model if it is decided to reproduce the individual panels using the rapid prototyping technique associated to a study of the execution techniques

Legume tasters: symbiotic rhizobia host preference and smart inoculant formulations

Mutualistic interactions have great importance in ecology, with genetic infor-mation that takes shape through interactions within the symbiotic partners and between the partners and the environment. It is known that variation of the host-associated microbiome contributes to buffer adaptation challenges of the host’s physiology when facing varying environmental conditions. In agriculture, pivotal examples are symbiotic nitrogen-fixing rhizobia, known to contribute greatly to host (legume plants) adaptation and host productivity. A holistic view of increasing crop yield and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses is that of microbiome engineering, the exploitation of a host-associated microbiome through its rationally designed manipulation with synthetic microbial commu-nities. However, several studies highlighted that the expression of the desired phenotype in the host resides in species-specific, even genotype-specific in-teractions between the symbiotic partners. Consequently, there is a need to dissect such an intimate level of interaction, aiming to identify the main ge-netic components in both partners playing a role in symbiotic differences/host preferences. In the present paper, while briefly reviewing the knowledge and the challenges in plant–microbe interaction and rhizobial studies, we aim to promote research on genotype x genotype interaction between rhizobia and host plants for a rational design of synthetic symbiotic nitrogen-fixing microbial communities to be used for sustainably improving leguminous plants yield

Trade, diplomacy, and warfare: The Quest for elite rhizobia inoculant strains

Rhizobia form symbiotic nitrogen-fixing nodules on leguminous plants, which provides an important source of fixed nitrogen input into the soil ecosystem. The improvement of symbiotic nitrogen fixation is one of the main challenges facing agriculture research. Doing so will reduce the usage of chemical nitrogen fertilizer, contributing to the development of sustainable agriculture practices to deal with the increasing global human population. Sociomicrobiological studies of rhizobia have become a model for the study of the evolution of mutualistic interactions. The exploitation of the wide range of social interactions rhizobia establish among themselves, with the soil and root microbiota, and with the host plant, could constitute a great advantage in the development of a new generation of highly effective rhizobia inoculants. Here, we provide a brief overview of the current knowledge on three main aspects of rhizobia interaction: trade of fixed nitrogen with the plant; diplomacy in terms of communication and possible synergistic effects; and warfare, as antagonism and plant control over symbiosis. Then, we propose new areas of investigation and the selection of strains based on the combination of the genetic determinants for the relevant rhizobia symbiotic behavioral phenotypes

3-d visualization and animation of architectonic elements for prehistoric megalithic temples of the island of Gozo: the temple of Ggantija

Laser scanning can now be defined without doubt as the newest frontier in the field of survey technique, and recent technological developments of instruments and processing software have encouraged the introduction of this technique in the world of applications connected to archaeological site and other related disciplines. The temple of Ggantija on the island of Gozo was considered to be representative of the entire series of temple complexes due to their particular architectural characteristics, their stage of evolution and form of deterioration, both material and structural. The survey was conducted by the use of the local geodetic network in the different phases: • Topographic survey • 3D laser scanner survey • Photographic Survey: both traditional and digital pictures will be taken in order to fully documentation internal and external surfaces of the site. The treatment and analysis of data collections was divided into the following sub-stages: elaboration and compensation of close polygonal, thickening polygonal and direct measurements; elaboration and compensation of altimetric network; linking of the above data with the existing Maltese national networks; elaboration of laser scanner positions and absolute orientations; elaboration of points coordinates for georeferencing and linking the point clouds coming from laser; final data verification end quality control; analysis of laser measured point clouds, for filtering and subsequent elaboration; scanning orientations and subdivision into “islands” (internal rooms and external sides); analysis of laser measured point clouds over the grid determined by the topographic survey.; modelling of the Archaeological site, elimination of noises and metric "pollution" by statistics and verification; accentuation and reduction of triangles on areas interested by complex geometries; triangles transformation into complex surfaces (mesh); model checking by topographic points; mapping of digital photocolors covering all the surfaces of the site. The digital model will be cut by vertical and horizontal section plans at heights requested by customer 2D graphic editing of the plans, sections and elevations. Finishing of vertical sections (sections and views) using the mapped model created by rendering calculated, generating contours lines from the 3D model; of a light model (low density model) of the laser scanner data using the filtering tools of the software package; of an virtual animation of the high density model; of a mapped VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language) model for a web interactive and hypertestual navigation, using the low density model. This part of the study was aimed at defining the architectural characteristics and mode of construction of this monument