THE ROLE OF DIVERSITY AND DIVERSIFICATION FOR RESILIENT AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS

Biodiversity is a unique and precious heritage: generic but also cultural, social and economic. Its drastic curtailment, however, puts at risk the survival of local farming systems, and this is even more so in fragile socio-economic contexts where it risks translating into conditions of food insecurity and poverty. From the elementary level of the gene, rising in complexity up to the ecosystem, it is therefore a central element in defining first the resistance and then the resilience of the system, and by the first term meaning the degree of resistance to a disruption that distances it from the initial state of equilibrium and by the second the capacity of a system to return to guaranteeing minimum standards following a disturbance, the capacity to get back on ones feet after a fall. It seems to be crucial, then, at a time when cooperation development projects that operate in various ways to safeguard and promote biodiversity are far more numerous, to intervene to preserve and restore the local biodiversity in order to avert future problems, and even curb them ahead of time, using resilience as an approach for managing the system we are dealing with (natural or heavily affected by human activity). In any event, this is a passage that is not routine, which makes it necessary to look at the ecosystem, at its various components, both natural and human. In the light of these preliminary remarks, the article will analyse the potentiality for applying, also in the field of development cooperation, the theoretical approach including empirical methods and instruments represented by the Diversified Farming Systems DFS), where the starting point is diversity and diversification as functional elements in the construction of resilient farming systems

Dietary Patterns at the Individual Level through a Nutritional and Environmental Approach: The Case Study of a School Canteen

The public catering sector has important responsibilities in seeking a change toward more sustainable choices for many aspects related to the environmental impacts of their services. The environmental impact of production processes can be studied through life cycle assessment (LCA), which allows a greater awareness of choices and has rarely been applied to catering. In this work, we studied the impacts of two dishes (braised meat and cauliflower meatballs) in a school canteen, their impacts were studied using the daily energy requirement (expressed in kcal) as a functional unit. Global warming potential (GWP) and nonrenewable energy (NRE) were calculated starting from the supply of raw materials up to distribution. Electricity and the act of cooking the meatballs accounted for more than 60% of the measured impact in terms of GWP, whereas, less markedly, they dominated in terms of nonrenewable energy used. In the case of braised meat, the total impact was, however, attributable to the life cycle of the meat (between 60% and 76%) and the consumption of electricity (between 19% and 27%), whereas for all other factors, the contribution was never particularly high. Additionally, a discussion on the correct functional unit to be used proposed the environmental impact of different recipes as an additional criterion for nutritionists during the composition of the menu. An integrated system appears important for changing policies and behaviors and the application of LCA can be a tool capable of contributing to the construction of a holistic instrument of sustainability

CULTURAL IDENTITY AND CONSERVATION OF INDIGENOUS AND NATIVE DIVERSITY

The economic development of rural areas has rarely followed that of urban centres, with greater evidence of this in developing countries where the outlying communities have remained considerably more remote from the systems of cultural and economic growth. Even if this has had negative repercussions in terms of social equilibrium within the various countries, from a strictly agronomic point of view it has often resulted in the natural conservation of indigenous and native biodiversity. This has been affected by the natural and daily use of local plant extracts both for nutritional purposes and for a variety of other reasons. The exchange of genetic material between one community and another, often a sign of respect and friendship, has helped to increase plant diversity and to enhance its role in the everyday diet of rural populations. Any activity aimed at conserving biodiversity cannot disregard the fact that native plant species (and even more indigenous species) now play a vital role in the cultural identity of rural communities, and that making such communities aware of this precious asset can also play a strategic part in the idea of promoting biological diversity as a way of developing local economies. Such evidence clearly emerged through the various activities conducted in the context of the project, FAO GTF/RAF/426/ITA Promoting Origin-linked Quality Products in Four Countries in West Africa, financed by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity Onlus. This project, conducted in 4 West African countries (Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Senegal and Mali), aimed to carry out a study of these 4 states and draw up an inventory of the traditional plant and animal species, to examine the link between these and the diet of rural populations, and to assess the risks of genetic erosion by actions to safeguard the native biodiversity

Ripening-induced changes in microbial groups of artisanal Sicilian goats' milk cheese.

Changes in the microbial flora of "Caprino dei Nebrodi", a raw goat's milk cheese produced in Sicily, were studied during ripening. From 2 batches of cheese, 4 samples were taken at day 0, 2, 15, and 30 of ripening. Also, samples of curd and milk used in the manufacturing process were analyzed. By the end of the ripening process (day 30), high log10 cfu/g were found for Lactobacilli (7.20), Lattococci (7.10), and Enterococci (7.00), whereas counts of Enterobacteriaceae (3.91), Escherichia coli (3.30), and Staphylococcus (3.89) were found to be lower. The study provides useful information on the microbiological properties of "Caprino dei Nebrodi" cheese, and the results obtained suggest that in order to increase the quality of this artisanal product, it is necessary to improve the sanitary conditions of milking and cheese-making. The study was intended as a preliminary step towards the isolation and identification of bacterial species found in this type of goat's cheese

Un caso di linfoma cutaneo T gamma/delta

Secondo la classificazione della WHO/EORTC del 2008, fra i linfomi cutanei, una variante molto rara \ue8 rappresentata dal linfoma T cutaneo gamma/delta. Questa entit\ue0 rappresenta circa l'1% dei linfomi T cutanei e si manifesta clinicamente in modo analogo ad altre forme linfoproliferative cutanee. La diagnosi \ue8 istologica, immunoistochimica e molecolare; l'infiltrato neoplastico \ue8 rappresentato da piccole-medie e grandi cellule ed elementi blastici distribuiti secondo 3 diversi pattern: epidermotropo, dermico e sottocutaneo. Le indagini di biologia molecolare risultano caratteristicamente negative per il TCR-beta e evidenziano un riarrangiamento clonale per il TCR-delta1 e TCR-gamma. Descriviamo il caso di una donna di 70 anni in buone condizioni di salute, che presentava da 2 anni lesioni sottocutanee a tipo lupus panniculite ad evoluzione necrotico-ulcerativa in prevalenza localizzate agli arti. La paziente era stata inizialmente sottoposta a terapia con steroidi per via orale, ma la patologia era lentamente progredita. Veniva pertanto eseguita una biopsia cutanea per esame istologico, indagini di immunoistochimica e biologia molecolare. Le indagini eseguite evidenziavano la presenza di un infiltrato linfocitario superficiale e profondo esteso al tessuto adiposo con cellule pleomorfe di piccola e media taglia CD2+, CD3+, CD56+, TCR-delta-1+, Mib-1++, TIA-1++. La paziente \ue8 stata sottoposta a cicli di polichemioterapia (CHOP) con parziale risposta clinica. Nonostante la terapia, il quadro clinico \ue8 andato incontro a progressione con coinvolgimento viscerale in 6 mesi ed exitus per complicazioni cardiocircolatorie e polmonari dopo circa 2 mesi. Questo caso appare peculiare per il suo andamento clinico; il linfoma gamma/delta si caratterizza, infatti, per una iniziale lenta evoluzione ed un successivo rapido coinvolgimento sistemico con importante sintomatologia generale. Il trattamento polichemioterapico non sembra influenzare la prognosi che \ue8 generalmente sfavorevole

One ulcer and two nodules on the foot : a quiz

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Advanced management protocol of transanal irrigation in order to improve the outcome of pediatric patients with fecal incontinence

Background: Transanal irrigation (TAI) is employed for children with fecal incontinence, but it can present several problems which require a study of their outcomes among different patholo-gies and without a tailored work up. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an advanced protocol in order to tailor TAI, prevent complications, and evaluate outcomes. Methods: We included 70 patients (14 anorectal malformation, 12 Hirschsprung’s disease, 24 neurological impairment, 20 functional incontinence) submitted to a comprehensive protocol with Peristeen®: fecal score, volumetric enema, rectal ultrasound, anorectal 3D manometry, and diary for testing and parameter adjustment. Results: Among the patients, 62.9% needed adaptations to the parameters, mainly volume of irrigated water and number of puffs of balloon. These adaptations were positively correlated with pre-treatment manometric and enema data. In each group, the improvement of score was statistically significant in all cases (p 0.000); the main factor influencing the efficacy was the rate of sphincter anomalies. The ARM group had slower improvement than other groups, whereas functional patients had the best response. Conclusions: Our results showed that TAI should not be standardized for all patients, because each one has different peculiarities; evaluation of patients before TAI with rectal ultrasound, enema, and manometry allowed us to tailor the treatment, highlighting different outcomes among various pathologies, thus improving the efficacy