Ambiguity, Familiarity and Learning Behavior in the Adoption of ICT for Irrigation Management

Subjective behavior of decision makers (DMs) is paramount when modeling information and communication technology (ICT) adoption choices in irrigated agriculture. Here, efficient ICT aided irrigation plans often involve a certain degree of uncertainty, and differential attitudes toward it can cause uncoordinated actions between actors. Some DMs will implement ICT information, while others will not because they do not trust ICT reliability. This risks undermining the achievement of ICT benefits in terms of water saving at the irrigation district level. By distinguishing between differ ent sources of uncertainty, taking the form of risk and ambiguity, in the present paper, we developed a new decision model to assess the impact that subjective behavior and learning processes have on the efficiency of ICT-aided irrigation plans. A case study was selected to implement the model in simplified settings. The results revealed the potential of ambiguity to limit ICT information implemen tation and to hinder water governance. Implications mainly concern the development of uncertainty management policies to favor DMs becoming familiar with the new ICT with lower ambiguit

Acute Colonic Diverticulitis: CT Findings, Classifications, and a Proposal of a Structured Reporting Template

Acute colonic diverticulitis (ACD) is the most common complication of diverticular disease and represents an abdominal emergency. It includes a variety of conditions, extending from localized diverticular inflammation to fecal peritonitis, hence the importance of an accurate diagnosis. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CE-CT) plays a pivotal role in the diagnosis due to its high sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and interobserver agreement. In fact, CE-CT allows alternative diagnoses to be excluded, the inflamed diverticulum to be localized, and complications to be identified. Imaging findings have been reviewed, dividing them into bowel and extra-intestinal wall findings. Moreover, CE-CT allows staging of the disease; the most used classifications of ACD severity are Hinchey’s modified and WSES classifications. Differential diagnoses include colon carcinoma, epiploic appendagitis, ischemic colitis, appendicitis, infectious enterocolitis, and inflammatory bowel disease. We propose a structured reporting template to standardize the terminology and improve communication between specialists involved in patient care

Bacterial adherence to mucosal epithelium in the upper airways has less significance than believed

BACKGROUND: Bacterial adherence to the upper airway epithelium is considered to be an important phenomenon in the pathogenesis of infections. However, the evidence for the hypothesis that bacterial adherence to mucosal epithelial cells has significance for pathogenesis of mucosal infections is based on studies using indirect techniques. We could find no biopsy studies with direct ocular observations of significant numbers of bacteria adhering to upper airway mucosal epithelial cells either in health or during disease. RESULTS: We studied specimens from healthy and infected tonsillar epithelium and specimens from the soft palate epithelium obtained by surgery. The specimens were examined by TEM. In the vast majority of specimens, we found no bacteria adhering to the epithelial cells in the mucosal line regardless of whether the patient was infected or not. Bacteria adhering to shed epithelial cells were seen in higher numbers. Furthermore, as bacteria are small compared to epithelial cells, we calculated the risk of overlooking every adhered bacteria in a section if bacterial adherence was such a significant phenomenon as earlier suggested. We found this risk to be very small. CONCLUSION: We conclude that bacterial adherence to mucosal surface epithelial cells is not a significant phenomenon, either in healthy mucosa in the upper airways or during infection. This is also in line with our earlier results, where we have shown that the site for the infectious process in pharyngotonsillitis is in the secretion on the tonsillar mucosal surface

The value of information for the management of water resources in agriculture: comparing the economic impact of alternative sources of information to schedule irrigation

The present study shows a methodology analysing the role plaid by information in conditioning the criteria used to schedule irrigation by farmers. The method is applied to the problem of comparing advanced instruments (advice services) and prevailing current practices (calendar irrigation) in valuing and predicting soil water content to schedule irrigation. Such assessment approach brought to the formulation of two main hypotheses: a) the message service is valuable if those messages with higher failure consequences are enough accurate to drive decisions; b) The use of information services to plan irrigation is favoured by the increasing frequencies of irrigation intervention because of the relatively lower expected consequences of failing to meet predictions. This methodology was applied to few pilot experiments. Observed impacts substantiate model hypothesis, revealing that the introduction of advanced information systems is favoured in sub-arid climate regions and for drip irrigated crops, where it was recorded a 0% to 20% increase in gross margin and a 10% to 30% water saving. The study concludes addressing the condition justifying the use of advanced information systems to schedule irrigation intervention and offering some policy recommendation to drive the development and the early adoption of such technologies . Acknowledgement : The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement No. KBBE-2012-311903 (FIGARO). The authors gratefully acknowledge the FIGARO consortium as a whole, with particular reference to representatives of the Canale Emiliano Romagnolo (Italy), Aarhus University (Denmark), the University of Lisbon (Portugal), and the Regional Union of Municipalities of Eastern Macedonia-Thrace (Greece) for having provided data and other technical information

La corilicoltura biologica in Italia: un\u2019attivit\ue0 produttiva efficiente? Alcuni risultati economici, problematiche produttive e rapporti con il mercato della corilicoltura biologica italiana.

Il presente lavoro si propone di indagare in merito all\u2019efficienza economica della corilicoltura biologica ed in particolare alle determinanti della stessa. A tal proposito sono state individuate alcune aziende biologiche a prevalente o totale orientamento corilicolo nelle regioni di principale diffusione (Campania, Lazio e Piemonte) e nelle due regioni insulari rappresentative delle realt\ue0 di appartenenza. Dai risultati ottenuti \ue8 stato possibile qualificare il tipo di corilicoltura biologica che si \ue8 sviluppata nei diversi contesti territoriali di riferimento e quantificare l\u2019efficienza delle risorse impiegate (in particolare il lavoro). In conclusione, nel mercato locale ed in secondo ordine nella strategia imprenditoriale si sintetizza la causa principale dell\u2019efficienza economica delle aziende considerate. Diversi risultano gli scenari in cui si pu\uf2 sviluppare la corilicoltura biologica ma senz\u2019altro le potenzialit\ue0 maggiori si hanno la dove sono presenti realt\ue0 produttive organizzate in grado di risolvere le problematiche legate all\u2019offerta dei prodotti biologici