Valutazione dell\u2019idoneit\ue0 alla trasformazione industriale di alcune cultivar specificamente introdotte per il territorio dell\u2019O.I. Pomodoro da Industria del Nord Italia.

Valutazione dell\u2019idoneit\ue0 alla trasformazione industriale di alcune cultivar specificamente introdotte per il territorio dell\u2019O.I. Pomodoro da Industria del Nord Itali

Analytical Approach to Study the Carbon and Nitrogen Forms in a Tomato-Cultivated Soil Treated with Biochar and Biostimulants

Agro-environmental applications of biochar and biochar in combination with biostimulants in soil applications require a full understanding of the mobility and fate of the carbon and nitrogen fractions. The effects of biochar and biostimulants on forms of nitrogen and carbon in soil during field-scale incubation were investigated by a multi-analytical approach. This work presents the preliminary results of a study conducted on a tomato-cultivated agricultural land treated with low doses of biochar (about 0.1%) and different combinations of biostimulants: Micosat F®, arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF), and a consortium of Pseudomonas fluorescens, Bacillus sp., and a nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Consortium B). Forms of carbon and nitrogen and their mobility before, during, and after tomato growth, were studied with a combination of techniques that included elemental analysis, adsorption and molecular fluorescence spectroscopy, ion chromatography, and a column leaching test. Due to the low load of biochar and the short period of time, elemental analyses might not be sensitive enough to determine C and N variation in the soil. The study of the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrogen forms (DN) showed that the treatments performed with biochar and biostimulants affected the mobility of these elements with an overall decrease at the end of tomato growth. The organic carbon is mainly ascribable to humic and fulvic acids, as indicated by spectroscopic analysis. The leaching column test demonstrated that cumulative leached C is about one order of magnitude lower than the DOC. In addition, simulated rain cycles profoundly affected leaching, so it is important to design leaching tests based on local and seasonal weather conditions. Moreover, positive effects were observed in the marketable production of tomato when soil was treated with biochar combined with a mixture of biostimulants

In vivo sensing to monitor tomato plants in field conditions and optimize crop water management

Irrigation is key to increasing crop yield and meeting the global demand for food. This study reports the assessment of tomato water consumption by bioristor, a new in vivo an Organic ElectroChemical Transistor-based biosensor. Bioristor enables direct, real-time acquisition of biophysical information about the plant’s water requirements directly from the plant sap, and thus the water input can be adjusted accordingly. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the efficacy of bioristor in rapidly detecting changes in the plant’s water status enhancing water use and irrigation efficiency in tomato cultivation with significant savings in the water supply. To this end, experiments were carried out in 2018 and 2020 in Parma (Italy) in tomato fields under different water regimes. The sensor response index (R) produced by bioristor recorded the real time plant health status, highlighting an excess in the water supplied as well as the occurrence of drought stress during the growing season. In both years, bioristor showed that the amount of water supplied could have been reduced by 36% or more. Bioristor also measured the timing and duration of leaf wetting: 438 h and 409 h in 2018 and 2020, respectively. These results open up new perspectives in irrigation efficiency and in more sustainable approaches to pesticide application procedures

Effects of pre‐operative isolation on postoperative pulmonary complications after elective surgery: an international prospective cohort study

We aimed to determine the impact of pre-operative isolation on postoperative pulmonary complications after elective surgery during the global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. We performed an international prospective cohort study including patients undergoing elective surgery in October 2020. Isolation was defined as the period before surgery during which patients did not leave their house or receive visitors from outside their household. The primary outcome was postoperative pulmonary complications, adjusted in multivariable models for measured confounders. Pre-defined sub-group analyses were performed for the primary outcome. A total of 96,454 patients from 114 countries were included and overall, 26,948 (27.9%) patients isolated before surgery. Postoperative pulmonary complications were recorded in 1947 (2.0%) patients of which 227 (11.7%) were associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Patients who isolated pre-operatively were older, had more respiratory comorbidities and were more commonly from areas of high SARS-CoV-2 incidence and high-income countries. Although the overall rates of postoperative pulmonary complications were similar in those that isolated and those that did not (2.1% vs 2.0%, respectively), isolation was associated with higher rates of postoperative pulmonary complications after adjustment (adjusted OR 1.20, 95%CI 1.05-1.36, p = 0.005). Sensitivity analyses revealed no further differences when patients were categorised by: pre-operative testing; use of COVID-19-free pathways; or community SARS-CoV-2 prevalence. The rate of postoperative pulmonary complications increased with periods of isolation longer than 3 days, with an OR (95%CI) at 4-7 days or >= 8 days of 1.25 (1.04-1.48), p = 0.015 and 1.31 (1.11-1.55), p = 0.001, respectively. Isolation before elective surgery might be associated with a small but clinically important increased risk of postoperative pulmonary complications. Longer periods of isolation showed no reduction in the risk of postoperative pulmonary complications. These findings have significant implications for global provision of elective surgical care