Factors explaining farmers’ behaviours and intentions about agricultural methods of production. Organic vs. conventional comparison

We investigate the factors explaining behaviours and attitudes of farmers towards organic practices. Among a wide set of motivational, economic and environmental variables, we focus on those factors related to ethnocentrism of farmers and the importance of local origin labels. We find that ethnocentrism cannot explain neither the present status of farmers (organic vs. conventional) nor their future intentions about the adoption of agricultural methods of production. However, the absence of local origin labels is significantly affecting the choice of conventional farmers who do not convert to organic farming

Analisi delle prestazioni dei protocolli tipo Aloha nei sistemi RFID

Descrizione dei sistemi RFID con le problematiche connesse, implementazione in NS/2 dei principali protocolli per il tag collision e descrizione dei risultati sperimentali ottenuti

Complex Network Modelling of Origin–Destination Commuting Flows for the COVID-19 Epidemic Spread Analysis in Italian Lombardy Region

Currently the whole world is affected by the COVID-19 disease. Italy was the first country to be seriously affected in Europe, where the first COVID-19 outbreak was localized in the Lombardy region. The further spreading of the cases led to the lockdown of the most affected regions in northern Italy and then the entire country. In this work we investigated an epidemic spread scenario in the Lombardy region by using the origin–destination matrix with information about the commuting flows among 1450 urban areas within the region. We performed a large-scale simulation-based modeling of the epidemic spread over the networks related to three main motivations, i.e., work, study and occasional transfers to quantify the potential contribution of each category of travellers to the spread of the epidemic process. Our findings outline that the three networks are characterised by different weight dynamic growth rates and that the network "work" has a critical role in the diffusion phenomenon showing the greatest contribution to the epidemic spread

“A case of ecological renaturation in a drained Mediterranean peatland: the case study of the Massaciuccoli Lake basin (Tuscany, It)”

The Massaciuccoli Lake floodplain is located in the Natural Park of San Rossore, Migliarino and Massaciuccoli in NW of Tuscany (Italy). Since the 1930s, a large part of the Massaciuccoli floodplain has been drained for agricultural purposes. To ensure a water table depth suitable for cultivation, a complex network of artificial drains and pumping stations has been used to drain the superficial aquifer and rainwater. Land use is characterised by conventional agriculture (covers 80% of the area) and periurban infrastructures, such as a wastewater treatment plant. In the peatland area, cropping systems are based on continuous production of maize (Zea mays L.), sunflower (Heliantus annuus L.), wheat (Triticum spp. L.). As a consequence of land use, several environmental concerns arose in the last 50 years. The most important concerns are those related to: I. eutrophication of the lake due to nutrient enrichment (N, P) in the surface- and groundwater. II. the subsidence rate (2-3 m in 70 years) due to compaction and increased mineralization of peat. The project RestoMedPeatland (https://sites.google.com/site/restomedpeatland/) started in 2011, identified rewetting and setting-up a phyto-treatment system as the solution for improving water quality,slowing down soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization, and, therefore, a method to restore the ecological functions of this site. A 15 ha experimental area was used to compare the efficiency of three different systems (A: constructed wetland, B: paludiculture system and C: natural wetland in treating the eutrophic drainage water coming from a sub-watershed in the reclamation district.In the natural wetland (C), after top soil removal, excavation and rewetting with drainage water, the vegetation has evolved naturally. The surveys carried out during the four years after pilot experimental field, highlighted the development of a spontaneous hydro-hygrophilous vegetation. This was mainly composed of helophytic communities dominated by Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. and Typha latifolia L., in addition to monophytic populations of Myriophillum spp., occupying different areas of the system according to the depth of excavation, for about 50% of the whole surface. The flora, currently, consists more than 30 species, as hydro-hygrophilous Alisma plantago-aquatica L., Juncus effusus L., Apium nodiflorum (L.) Lag, Lemna minor L., characteristic of the nearby Massaciuccoli Lake. The data collected so far showed a high and progressive growth of the biomass of the natural area, a dynamic upward trend of floristic-vegetation biodiversity, and, from a technical standpoint, a large phyto-treatment capability

Cold and Hot Spots: from Inhibition to Enhancement by Nanoscale Phase Tuning of Optical Nanoantennas

Optical nanoantennas are well-known for the confinement of light into nanoscale hot spots, suitable for emission enhancement and sensing applications. Here, we show how control of the antenna dimensions allows tuning the local optical phase, hence turning a hot spot into a cold spot. We manipulate the local intensity exploiting the interference between driving and scattered field. Using single molecules as local detectors, we experimentally show the creation of subwavelength pockets with full suppression of the driving field. Remarkably, together with the cold excitation spots, we observe inhibition of emission by the phase-tuned nanoantenna. The fluorescence lifetime of a molecule scanned in such volumes becomes longer, showing slow down of spontaneous decay. In conclusion, the spatial phase of a nanoantenna is a powerful knob to tune between enhancement and inhibition in a 3-dimensional subwavelength volume.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft