37 research outputs found

    Folk medicine used to heal malaria in Calabria (southern Italy)

    Get PDF
    In Italy, malaria was an endemic disease that was eradicated by the mid-20th century. This paper evaluates the prophylactic and therapeutic remedies used by folk medicine to cure malaria in Calabria (southern Italy)

    Chapter Integrated Coastal Zone Management of Natura 2000 and cultural heritage sites in Calabrian coastal landscape (Southern Italy)

    Get PDF
    This study shows the link connecting natural and cultural goods in the coastal landscape of Calabria (Southern Italy), considering seaboard and human impact risk conditions. In fact, Calabria has 58 Natura 2000 sites located on seaboard areas within a length of 300 meters from coast and 63 cultural heritage sites of which 42.9% coincides with the Natura 2000 network. As a results of this paper, the increasing coastal erosion and a heavy human impact have been highlighted as the main hazards to which the natural and cultural goods are exposed, thus it’s necessary a broader approach for the integration of natural and cultural issues into an active Integrated Coastal Zone Management proces

    Ethnicity and Biodemographic Structure in the Arbëreshe of the Province of Cosenza, Southern Italy, in the XIX Century

    Get PDF
    Cultural and environmental factors interact in determining the genetic structure of human populations. Bio-demographic investigations of ethnic minorities are able to disentangle the influences that these two components have on the evolution of the genetic structure of a population. The ethnic minority of the Arbëreshe of the province of Cosenza (Calabria, southern Italy) is analyzed in this paper and its bio-demographic structure in the early 1800s is compared with that of neighboring Italian populations. The data derive from surnames recorded in the birth registers of the 19 Arbëreshe municipalities of the province of Cosenza and in 5 non-Arbëreshe municipalities of the same province. Isonymy and repeated pairs of surnames are used to analyze the bio-demographic structure of these populations, while analysis of isonymic relationships is used to investigate the variability between populations. Higher values of marital isonymy and subdivision into subpopulations characterize the Arbëreshe populations with respect to their non-Arbëreshe neighbors. However, the high range of variability of these parameters suggests a strong influence of geographic location on the marriage pattern of each community. At the same time, cultural differences linked to group identity had a strong impact in limiting marriage exchanges between the different ethnic groups living in the province of Cosenza in the early 1800s. In fact, the analysis of isonymic relationships demonstrates that geographic location shaped kinship patterns among the Arbëreshe communities, but it also shows that the non-Arbëreshe neighbors formed a clearly separate reproductive cluster

    Influence of arbuscular mycorrhizae on plant growth, essential oil production and phosphorus uptake of Salvia officinalis L

    Get PDF
    Arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF) contribute to the secondary metabolism and production of active ingredients in aromatic and medicinal plants. This symbiotic association is particularly affected by the availability of phosphorus (P) in the soil. This study was conducted on Salvia officinalis L. using two inocula, commercial Symbivit and Septoglomus viscosum (syn. Glomus viscosum), alone or supplemented with two doses of actual P (0.03, 0.06 g kg−1). The effects of these fungi and their combinations with P were determined in relation to the growth of sage plants (Regula variety), to the concentration of P in leaf tissues, and to the quantity and quality of essential oils (EOs). S. viscosum treated plants showed better growth with or without P-supply compared to non-mycorrhizal plants. The plants inoculated with S. viscosum presented the highest dry weight regardless of addition of P. Both AM fungi increased the leaf P content as more P was applied to the soil, whereas the EO content did not change with any of the treatments. Although the EO yield slightly increased with the Symbivit treatment, the chemical composition of the oil was drastically altered by S. viscosum in which the manool was the main component (28.13%), while -thujone decreased (13.09%). These results suggest that AM symbiosis is a good candidate for promoting plant growth and essential oil composition and for improving P uptake in low fertility soils. Thus, mycorrhiza can be considered as a sustainable strategy based on natural resources in order to influence the manool and -thujone content in sage EO composition. These compositions are very important to develop new classes of biocides and contribute to reducing risks to both human health and the environment

    investigation of new additives to reduce the fume emission of bitumen during asphalt concrete processing

    Get PDF
    Pavement materials play an important role in overall pavement sustainability including material acquisition processing, and transportation. The main objective of the present study is to evaluate the effectiveness of new additives, to reduce bitumen's fume emission expelled into the atmosphere, during the processing of asphalt concrete. The new additives act by trapping bitumen's volatile substances avoiding their release at high temperatures. In this paper, we have been tested the performance of 2 types of mesoporous silica-based additives (AntiSmog 1 and AntiSmog 2). The idea of using these additives to reduce the emission of fumes in bitumen has been submitted as a patent. To quantify and characterize the emitted fumes, thermogravimetry (TGA) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique have been used. Dynamic Shear Rheology (DSR) has been used to check the rheological properties and the possible sedimentation issues that could occur after the addition of the additive

    Inclusione linguistica dei sordi e social network: costruire la conoscenza nella rete

    No full text
    Persone con sorditĂ  prelinguistica mostrano notevoli problemi di competenza linguistica. L’uso delle tecnologie si Ăš dimostrato di notevole utilitĂ  per la promozione delle competenze linguistico-comunicative dei sordi, anche attraverso lo sviluppo di servizi di e-learning dedicati, ma ancora non pare possibile parlare di un vero superamento delle barriere che ostacolano l’autentica inclusione linguistica dei sordi. La grande partecipazione dei sordi alle attivitĂ  delle piĂč comuni social network per attivitĂ  di comunicazione e di interazione quotidiana lascia intravedere nuove possibilitĂ  in questa direzione. Nei social network, i sordi sono completamente immersi nella lingua scritta nazionale e scrivono in contesti di comunicazione autentici, con la possibilitĂ  di esercitare e sviluppare le proprie competenze linguistiche. In questo contributo, elaborato nel quadro delle attivitĂ  di ricerca condotte nell’ambito dei progetti FIRB-VISEL e DEAL-TOI, cercheremo di delineare qualche spunto di riflessione e di tracciare una possibile strada da percorrere a partire da questa opportunitĂ 
    corecore