Future climate change in the Mediterranean area: implications for water use and weed management

Results obtained within research activity from the Climesco Italian Project are summarized. These results suggest that in regards to the impact of climate change in the Mediterranean area, a decrease of water availability and a more frequent occurrence of drought periods are expected. In order to describe the main effects of climate change on water use in some agro-ecosystems in the Mediterranean area we showed that the Penman-Monteith equation can be modified to simulate future changes in reference evapotranspiration by recalibration of the crop resistive parameter. Moreover, the use of adjusted crop coefficients (Kc) can help quantify the climate change impact on water use for irrigated crops grown in Southern Italy and elsewhere in the Mediterannean. For this region temperature rise and the concomitant expected rainfall reduction may lead to an increase yearly potential water deficits. For autumn-spring crops a further increase of water deficit is not expected.In contrast for a significant increase of waterdeficit, and thus of irrigation needs, is expected for spring-summer crops. Another aspect considered in this review is how in the Mediterranean area, drought conditions and warmer temperatures will alter the competitive balance between crops and some weed species. We report experimental data showing how weed aggressiveness and competition is already increasing due to warmer temperatures in the Mediterranean regio

Correlating qrt-pcr, dpcr and viral titration for the identification and quantification of sars-cov-2: A new approach for infection management

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first identified in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and is the causative agent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) represents the gold standard for diagnostic assays even if it cannot precisely quantify viral RNA copies. Thus, we decided to compare qRT-PCR with digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR), which is able to give an accurate number of RNA copies that can be found in a specimen. However, the aforementioned methods are not capable to discriminate if the detected RNA is infectious or not. For this purpose, it is necessary to perform an endpoint titration on cell cultures, which is largely used in the research field and provides a tissue culture infecting dose per mL (TCID50/mL) value. Both research and diagnostics call for a model that allows the comparison between the results obtained employing different analytical methods. The aim of this study is to define a comparison among two qRT-PCR protocols (one with preliminary RNA extraction and purification and an extraction-free qRT-PCR), a dPCR and a titration on cell cultures. The resulting correlations yield a faithful estimation of the total number of RNA copies and of the infectious viral burden from a Ct value obtained with diagnostic routine tests. All these estimations take into consideration methodological errors linked to the qRT-PCR, dPCR and titration assays

Questionario per la Valutazione della Qualità della Vita nei soggetti sani (VQV-ss): Elaborazione di un nuovo strumento per l'assessment della Qualità della Vita nella popolazione generale

Objective: The aim of our study was the elaboration of a new questionnaire for the assessment of Quality of Life (QoL) in subjects not affected by any General Medical Condition or psychiatric disorder. Methods: We recruited 200 healthy subjects from the general population; they rated themselves on the Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Q-LES-Q) and the Questionnaire for the Assessment of Quality of Life in Healthy Subjects (VQV-ss), that we elaborated. Results: The VQV-ss showed a good inner consistency (0,8775). The Concurrent validity was estimated by means of the correlations between the VQV-ss and the Q-LES-Q total score (r = 0,566; p < 0,001). The correlation between the item 71 score and the total one of the VQV-ss, representative of the total subject's QoL (r = 0,674; p = 0,01), witnessed the overall sensitivity and specificity of the VQV-ss. Factorial analysis of the VQV-ss identified 6 main factors, able to explain, altogether, the 37,55% of the total variance. Conclusions: The VQV-ss appears to be sufficiently reliable and valid, since shows a good inner consistency and the scores obtained with this instrument correlate in significantly with those of the Q-LES-Q, a validated and widely used instrument

Tonino Decandia, Professor of Geology at the University of Siena: a Tribute from his Students

May 2006 was a very sad month for the italian geolo- gical community and for the University of Siena, for To- nino Decandia passed away after a strenuous fight again- st a degenerative disease. Tonino, together with his colleague and good friend Gaetano Giglia, was one of the very first geologists to systematically pioneer structural analysis in Italy. Many contributions have been written, and many others will follow, to attempt outline the uni- que personality of Tonino as an inspired and gifted Earth scientist. But there’s yet another side of Tonino that is of- ten obscured by his contributions to science: the figure of a great advisor devoted to lecturing geology and supervi- sing the work of his students. And this is the profile of To- nino Decandia that we, a group of his former undergra- duate and graduate students spanning for over three decades, wish to portray with these few lines