Covid-19 and labour law in Italy

This article provides an account of the Italian response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the labour law field. The author focuses on the policy measures in the matters of income support, parental leave, rest and holiday leave, agile working (i.e. teleworking), dismissal, as well as on the special provisions arranged by the social partners and later adopted by the legislator to preserve the health and safety of the employees and also to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the workplace. Ultimately, the author hints at the potential development of employee participation in Italy in the wake of the upsurge of social dialogue during the coronavirus emergency

Do nanofilled/nanohybrid composites allow for better clinical performance of direct restorations than traditional microhybrid composites? a systematic review

This systematic review was carried out to assess the clinical effectiveness of nanofilled and nanohybrid composites used for direct restorations in comparison with microhybrid composites. The guidelines for the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses were followed. A search of articles published from July 1996 to February 2017 was performed in PubMed, SciVerse Scopus, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences, the Scientific Electronic Library Online, and the Cochrane Library. The present review selected only randomized controlled trials comparing the clinical performance of a nanofilled or nanohybrid composite for direct restorations with that of a microhybrid composite. The research found 201 studies. Twenty-one articles fulfilled the criteria of the present review. However, the included studies were characterized by great methodological diversities. As a general trend, nanofilled and nanohybrid composites were found to be capable of clinical performance, marginal quality, and resistance to wear similar to that of traditional composites without showing improved surface characteristics. The risk of bias of included studies was judged unclear or high. The clinical performance of nanofilled/nanohybrid composites was found to be comparable to that of traditional composites in the posterior area. The data concerning anterior and cervical restorations were insufficient. With regard to the esthetic properties, there is a compelling need for studies on anterior teeth in which the operators are kept unaware of the restorative material. Nanofilled/nanohybrid composites seem to be a valid alternative to traditional microhybrid composites, and at the moment, there is low-level evidence attesting a lack of their superiority

Tomato ionomic approach for food fortification and safety.

Food fortification is an issue of paramount of importance for people living both in developed and in developing countries. Among substances listed as "nutriceuticals", essential minerals have been recognised for their involvement in several healthy issues, involving all ages. In this frame, food plants are playing a pivotal role since their capability to compartmentalise ions and proteinmetal complexes in edible organs. Conversely, the accumulation of high metal levels in those organs may lead to safety problems. In the recent years, thanks to the availability of new and improved analytical apparatus in both ionic and genomic/transcrittomics areas, it is became feasible to couple data coming from plant physiology and genetics. Ionomics is the discipline that studies the cross-analysis of both data sets. Our group, in the frame of GenoPom project granted by MiUR, is interested to study the ionomics of tomatoes cultivars derived by breeding programmes in which wild relatives have been used to transfer several useful traits, such as resistance to biotic or abiotic stresses, fruit composition and textiture, etc. The introgression of the wild genome into the cultivated one produces new gene combinations. They might lead to the expression of some traits, such as increased or reduced adsorption of some metals and their exclusion or loading into edible organs, thus strongly involving the nutritional food value. Our final goal is to put together data coming from ions homeostasis and gene expression analyses, thus obtaining an ionomic tomato map related to ions absorption, translocation and accumulation in various plant organs, fruits included. To follow our hypothesis, we are studying the ionome of Solanum lycopersicum cv. M82 along with 76 Introgression Lines (ILs) produced by interspecific crosses between this cultivar and the wild species S. pennellii. These ILs are homozygous for small portions of the wild species genome introgressed into the domesticated M82 one. They are used as a useful tool for mapping QTL associated with many traits of interest. It is worthy to note that, until now, little information is available on QTL for ions accumulation in tomato. Moreover, as our knowledge, effects of new gene combinations in introgressed lines on ions uptake related to food safety have not been extensively studied. In this presentation we show results coming from the ionome analysis, carried out on S . lycopersicum M82 and several ILs. Plants were grown in pots in a greenhouse and watered with deionised water Thirty day-old plants were left to grow for 15 days in the presence of non-toxic concentration of Cd, Pb, As, Cr and Zn given combined. Leaves of all plants were then harvested and stored at -80°C for ionome and gene expression analyses. Preliminary results of ionome analysis of S. lycopersicum M82 and several ILs, carried out using an ICP-MS, showed that traits correlated to toxic metals and micronutrients accumulation in apical leaves were significantly modified in response to specific genetic backgrounds. Those results are perhaps due to the introgression of traits linked to uptake, translocation and accumulation of useful and/or toxic metal into plant apical leaves and to interactions of the wild type introgressed genomic regions with the cultivated genome. Also, data are shown on the identification and isolation of Solanum gene sequences related to ions uptake, translocation and accumulation, useful for further real-time gene expression evaluation in both cultivated and ILs during the treatments with the above-mentioned metals

The On-Demand Work (Mis)classification Judgments in Italy : an Overview

After a brief recap of the Italian legal framework in matter of employment subordination, the A. analyzes the three Judgments of the Italian Courts concerning the classification of on-demand work. The A. underlines the complexity of the classification of the new forms of work through the traditional criteria of interpretations, but he also criticizes the initiative of the Italian Legislator, which, passing article 2 Decreto Legislativo No. 81/2015, traced a doubtful boundary between the direction of work (still the essence of employment subordination) and the organization of other\u2019s work (a feature which should lead to the application of employment standards without losing the nature of independent contractor). Ultimately, the A. contends that the burden of finding an adequate response to the social needs of on-demand workers cannot be placed (entirely) upon the Courts, since it is a matter of policy (action) at large. Accordingly, he weights and eventually endorses the regulatory trajectory of conferring upon \u2013 certainly vulnerable, regardless of their classification as employees or independent contractors \u2013 on-demand workers a bundle of selected protections, through a \u201cad hoc\u201d statute and/or via collective bargaining