The Digital Agricultural Revolution: a Bibliometric Analysis Literature Review

The application of digital technologies in agriculture can improve traditional practices to adapt to climate change, reduce Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions, and promote a sustainable intensification for food security. Some authors argued that we are experiencing a Digital Agricultural Revolution (DAR) that will boost sustainable farming. This study aims to find evidence of the ongoing DAR process and clarify its roots, what it means, and where it is heading. We investigated the scientific literature with bibliometric analysis tools to produce an objective and reproducible literature review. We retrieved 4995 articles by querying the Web of Science database in the timespan 2012-2019, and we analyzed the obtained dataset to answer three specific research questions: i) what is the spectrum of the DAR-related terminology?; ii) what are the key articles and the most influential journals, institutions, and countries?; iii) what are the main research streams and the emerging topics? By grouping the authors' keywords reported on publications, we identified five main research streams: Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), Site-Specific Management (SSM), Remote Sensing (RS), Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI). To provide a broad overview of each of these topics, we analyzed relevant review articles, and we present here the main achievements and the ongoing challenges. Finally, we showed the trending topics of the last three years (2017, 2018, 2019)

Organizational psychology and technology: ethical, legal and practical issues related to active listening and work-related stress monitoring in Italy and Europe

La escucha activa es una herramienta poderosa para la prevención y reducción de enfermedades laborales y estrés, así como para mejorar el desempeño e incluso el desarrollo de la responsabilidad social corporativa. La escucha activa y el monitoreo más amplio del estrés relacionado con el trabajo, como se ha demostrado en la literatura y en varias experiencias de investigación en curso, se pueden hacer particularmente efectivos si se implementan en organizaciones a través de métodos tradicionales y tecnológicos, como chats telefónicos y web, síncronos y herramientas de comunicación y mensajería de video asíncronas, buzones electrónicos anónimos y soluciones de denuncia de irregularidades, cuestionarios electrónicos y tecnologías de monitoreo activo, por nombrar sólo algunos. Si bien estas tecnologías pueden tener un impacto positivo en la intervención psicológica en las organizaciones y, por lo tanto, en la vida de los trabajadores, plantean una serie de problemas éticos y legales. Algunos de ellos aún son objeto de arduos debates y están bajo el escrutinio de juntas profesionales y organismos gubernamentales. En Italia, la Junta Nacional de Psicólogos ha publicado recientemente directrices para la práctica psicológica basada en la web. Los parlamentos europeos e italianos también han producido varias normas nuevas que afectan la posibilidad de intervenciones psicológicas. La tecnología no sólo implica la dificultad de los sistemas legales para seguir el ritmo de su evolución, sino que también plantea dificultades concretas en las aplicaciones psicológicas profesionales, a menudo relacionadas con la brecha tecnológica entre las posibilidades teóricas y las capacidades e instrumentos de las organizaciones. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar algunos de estos problemas legales y prácticos, y proponer, sobre la base de un amplio análisis legal y debates reales de estudios de casos, soluciones concretas para aumentar la eficacia de las intervenciones psicológicas.Active listening is a powerful tool for the prevention and reduction of organizational disease and stress as well as for performance enhancement and even corporate social responsibility development. Active listening and wider work-related stress monitoring, as proven in literature and by several ongoing action-research experiences, can be made particularly effective if implemented in organizations through both traditional and technological methods, such as telephone and web-based chats, synchronous and asynchronous video-messaging and communicating tools, anonymous e-dropboxes and whistleblowing solutions, electronic questionnaires, and active monitoring technologies, just to name a few. While these technologies can have a positive impact on psychological intervention in organizations and, therefore, on the life of workers, they pose a series of ethical and legal issues. Some of them are still strongly debated and are under scrutiny of professional boards and governmental bodies. In Italy, the National Board of Psychologists has recently published guidelines for the web-based psychological practice. The European and Italian Parliaments have also produced several new norms that impact on the possibility of psychological interventions. Technology does not only involve the difficulty of the legal systems to follow the pace of its evolution, but also poses concrete difficulties in professional psychological applications, often related with the technological gap between the theoretical possibilities and the capabilities and instruments of the target organizations. This work aims to analyze some of these legal and applied issues and to propose, on the basis of a wide legal analysis and real case-study discussions, concrete solutions for incrementing the efficacy of the psychological interventions.peerReviewe

Olive Tree in Circular Economy as a Source of Secondary Metabolites Active for Human and Animal Health Beyond Oxidative Stress and Inflammation

Abstract Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) contains many bioactive compounds with multiple biological activities that make it one of the most important functional foods. Both the constituents of the lipid fraction and that of the unsaponifiable fraction show a clear action in reducing oxidative stress by acting on various body components, at concentrations established by the European Food Safety Authority’s claims. In addition to the main product obtained by the mechanical pressing of the fruit, i.e., the EVOO, the residual by-products of the process also contain significant amounts of antioxidant molecules, thus potentially making the Olea europea L. an excellent example of the circular economy. In fact, the olive mill wastewaters, the leaves, the pomace, and the pits discharged from the EVOO production process are partially recycled in the nutraceutical and cosmeceutical fields also because of their antioxidant effect. This work presents an overview of the biological activities of these by-products, as shown by in vitro and in vivo assays, and also from clinical trials, as well as their main formulations currently available on the market

Use of a non-medicated plaster in shoulder tendinopathies

We assessed 20 shoulders with rotator cuff tendinopathy and partial tendon tears treated with FIT\uae plasters (far infrared technology). The criteria for inclusion were pain at night and during active shoulder movement. Patients with restricted passive movement (adhesive capsulitis) and complete tendon tears were excluded. Two different types of FIT\uae plasters were used according to the different power of action. Plasters were replaced after 7 days and dismissed after 15 days. The patients were assessed using the VAS pain scale and the Constant Murley score for function. The use of FIT\uae plasters have shown a certain effectiveness in activation of the endogenous analgesic action, with a role in alleviate painful symptoms and improve function in rotator cuff tendinopathies, without adverse events. On the base of the safety of this technology and promising results of our study, further studies should be encouraged to confirm its effectiveness, increasing the sample number and follow up so as to demonstrate definitely that the use of technologies, on which FIT\uae plasters is based, may be a valid alternative as "non-medicated pain relief"

Genetic alterations analysis in prognostic stratified groups identified TP53 and ARID1A as poor clinical performance markers in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

The incidence and mortality rates of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma have been rising worldwide. Few patients present an early-stage disease that is amenable to curative surgery and after resection, high recurrence rates persist. To identify new independent marker related to aggressive behaviour, two prognostic groups of patient were selected and divided according to prognostic performance. All patients alive at 36 months were included in good prognostic performers, while all patients died due to disease within 36 months in poor prognostic performers. Using high-coverage target sequencing we analysed principal genetic alterations in two groups and compared results to clinical data. In the 33 cases included in poor prognosis group, TP53 was most mutated gene (p\u2009=\u20090.011) and exclusively present in these cases. Similarly, ARID1A was exclusive of this group (p\u2009=\u20090.024). TP53 and ARID1A are mutually exclusive in this study. Statistical analysis showed mutations in TP53 and ARID1A genes and amplification of MET gene as independent predictors of poor prognosis (TP53, p\u2009=\u20090.0031, ARID1A, p\u2009=\u20090.0007, MET, p\u2009=\u20090.0003 in Cox analysis). LOH in PTEN was also identified as marker of disease recurrence (p\u2009=\u20090.04) in univariate analysis. This work improves our understanding of aggressiveness related to this tumour type and has identified novel prognostic markers of clinical outcome

The impact of upper motor neuron involvement on clinical features, disease progression and prognosis in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

ObjectivesIn amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) both upper (UMNs) and lower motor neurons (LMNs) are involved in the process of neurodegeneration, accounting for the great disease heterogeneity. We evaluated the associations of the burden of UMN impairment, assessed through the Penn Upper Motor Neuron Score (PUMNS), with demographic and clinical features of ALS patients to define the independent role of UMN involvement in generating disease heterogeneity, predicting disease progression and prognosis.MethodsWe collected the following clinical parameters on a cohort of 875 ALS patients: age and site of onset, survival, MRC scale, lower motor neuron score (LMNS), PUMNS, ALSFRS-R, change in ALSFRS-R over time (DFS), MITOS and King’s staging systems (KSS). Transcranial magnetic stimulation was performed on a subgroup of patients and central motor conduction time (CMCT) and cortical silent period (CSP) were calculated.ResultsWe observed that patients with an earlier age at onset and bulbar onset had higher PUMNS values. Higher values were also associated to lower ALSFRS-R and to higher DFS scores, as well as to higher MITOS and KSS, indicating that a greater UMN burden correlates with disease severity. Conversely, we did not appreciate any association between UMN involvement and survival or markers of LMN impairment. Moreover, PUMNS values showed a positive association with CMCT and a negative one with CSP values.InterpretationOur results suggest that the burden of UMN pathology, assessed through PUMNS, has an important independent role in defining clinical characteristics, functional disability, disease progression and prognosis in ALS patients. We also support the role of TMS in defining severity of UMN involvement

Measurements of branching fraction ratios and CP-asymmetries in suppressed B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)K^- and B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)pi^- decays

We report the first reconstruction in hadron collisions of the suppressed decays B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)K^- and B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)pi^-, sensitive to the CKM phase gamma, using data from 7 fb^-1 of integrated luminosity collected by the CDF II detector at the Tevatron collider. We reconstruct a signal for the B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)K^- suppressed mode with a significance of 3.2 standard deviations, and measure the ratios of the suppressed to favored branching fractions R(K) = [22.0 \pm 8.6(stat)\pm 2.6(syst)]\times 10^-3, R^+(K) = [42.6\pm 13.7(stat)\pm 2.8(syst)]\times 10^-3, R^-(K)= [3.8\pm 10.3(stat)\pm 2.7(syst]\times 10^-3, as well as the direct CP-violating asymmetry A(K) = -0.82\pm 0.44(stat)\pm 0.09(syst) of this mode. Corresponding quantities for B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)pi^- decay are also reported.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, accepted by Phys.Rev.D Rapid Communications for Publicatio

Social cognition in people with schizophrenia: A cluster-analytic approach

Background The study aimed to subtype patients with schizophrenia on the basis of social cognition (SC), and to identify cut-offs that best discriminate among subtypes in 809 out-patients recruited in the context of the Italian Network for Research on Psychoses. Method A two-step cluster analysis of The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT), the Facial Emotion Identification Test and Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test scores was performed. Classification and regression tree analysis was used to identify the cut-offs of variables that best discriminated among clusters. Results We identified three clusters, characterized by unimpaired (42%), impaired (50.4%) and very impaired (7.5%) SC. Three theory-of-mind domains were more important for the cluster definition as compared with emotion perception and emotional intelligence. Patients more able to understand simple sarcasm (14 for TASIT-SS) were very likely to belong to the unimpaired SC cluster. Compared with patients in the impaired SC cluster, those in the very impaired SC cluster performed significantly worse in lie scenes (TASIT-LI <10), but not in simple sarcasm. Moreover, functioning, neurocognition, disorganization and SC had a linear relationship across the three clusters, while positive symptoms were significantly lower in patients with unimpaired SC as compared with patients with impaired and very impaired SC. On the other hand, negative symptoms were highest in patients with impaired levels of SC. Conclusions If replicated, the identification of such subtypes in clinical practice may help in tailoring rehabilitation efforts to the person's strengths to gain more benefit to the person

The interplay among psychopathology, personal resources, context-related factors and real-life functioning in schizophrenia: stability in relationships after 4 years and differences in network structure between recovered and non-recovered patients

Improving real-life functioning is the main goal of the most advanced integrated treatment programs in people with schizophrenia. The Italian Network for Research on Psychoses previously explored, by using network analysis, the interplay among illness-related variables, personal resources, context-related factors and real-life functioning in a large sample of patients with schizophrenia. The same research network has now completed a 4-year follow-up of the original sample. In the present study, we used network analysis to test whether the pattern of relationships among all variables investigated at baseline was similar at follow-up. In addition, we compared the network structure of patients who were classified as recovered at follow-up versus those who did not recover. Six hundred eighteen subjects recruited at baseline could be assessed in the follow-up study. The network structure did not change significantly from baseline to follow-up, and the overall strength of the connections among variables increased slightly, but not significantly. Functional capacity and everyday life skills had a high betweenness and closeness in the network at follow-up, as they had at baseline, while psychopathological variables remained more peripheral. The network structure and connectivity of non-recovered patients were similar to those observed in the whole sample, but very different from those in recovered subjects, in which we found few connections only. These data strongly suggest that tightly coupled symptoms/dysfunctions tend to maintain each other's activation, contributing to poor outcome in schizophrenia. Early and integrated treatment plans, targeting variables with high centrality, might prevent the emergence of self-reinforcing networks of symptoms and dysfunctions in people with schizophrenia