Growth dynamics of ‘Imola’ poplar clone (Populus ×canadensis Mönch) under different cultivation inputs

The influence of environmental drivers and management strategies on crops growth is a focal point to deal with the potential impact of the climate changes on forest yields. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of irrigation and fertilization on growth dynamics of ‘Imola’ clone, an elite poplar crossed from Populus deltoides Bartr. and Populus nigra L. for short rotation coppice purposes. Using a split-plot design with three replications, two treatments were applied (irrigation and fertilization) with two levels each one: ‘no’ and ‘yes’; 4 theses were considered: irrigation-only (IRR), fertilization-only (FRT) and the irrigation with fertilization (IRF) and control (CRT). At the end of the first 5-year cycle the average yield, in dry matter, was 36.8 Mg ha-1 for non-irrigated plots and 80.8 Mg ha-1 for irrigated plots. While no statistical evidence was detectable for fertilization treatment, a Linear Mixed Model analysis applied to data highlighted the Summer (June-August) as key season for the irrigation of trees. Conversely, interaction between irrigation and fertilization negatively affected growth in the same period. Overall, this trial demonstrated a low impact of fertilization on growth dynamics. Water availability was confirmed as the most important factor for poplar growth, in such site, focusing on the importance of studying alternative, less impacting methods for irrigating such crops

Organic Livestock Production- A Bibliometric Review

Due to the increasing interest in organic farming, an overview of this research area is provided through a bibliometric analysis conducted between April and May 2019. A total of 320 documents were published up until 2018 on organic livestock farming, with an annual growth rate of 9.33% and a clear increase since 2005; 268 documents have been published in 111 journals. Germany is the country with the largest number of published papers (56 documents). Authors\u2019 top keywords (excluding keywords used for running the search) included: animal welfare (29 times), animal health (22 times), cattle (15 times), grazing (10 times), and sheep (10 times). This could indicate that more research has been done on cattle because of the importance of this species in Germany. Moreover, the prevalence of the terms \u2018animal welfare\u2019 and \u2018animal health\u2019 may indicate that the research on organic livestock production has been focused on these two areas. The bibliometric analysis indicates that: i) countries focused the organic livestock production research on their main production, and ii) more research in species other than cattle and sheep is needed

Nova stereometria doliorum vinariorum. Nuovi metodi infinitesimali per il calcolo dei volumi nell'opera di Johannes Kepler

Accade spesso nella storia della scienza che un fatto banale sia fonte d'ispirazione per eccellenti scoperte scientifiche: è questo il caso dell'opera che andremo a trattare nel seguente elaborato, la Nova stereometria doliorum vinariorum. Recatosi ad acquistare il vino per il suo secondo matrimonio Keplero, stupito dalla tecnica utilizzata dal proprietario dell'osteria per determinare il volume delle botti, decise di trovare un fondamento matematico a questo artificio tramandato dai vinai austriaci. L'opera che ci accingiamo a tradurre contiene proprio questo percorso di conoscenza, ma anche importanti legami col passato, tramite i forti richiami ad Archimede contenuti nel trattato: inoltre, quest'opera si proietta anche nel futuro, gettando le basi per il lavoro di Bonaventura Cavalieri che condurrà alla formalizzazione del calcolo infinitesimale. In questo elaborato, dopo una breve biografia del matematico contenente i momenti più salienti della sua vita, si passa al secondo capitolo in cui si evidenziano i maggiori contributi matematici di Keplero, contenuti nelle numerose opere a cui l'astronomo ha dato vita. Il capitolo principale è però certamente il terzo, che presenta la prima traduzione italiana dei teoremi della Nova stereometria doliorum vinariorum, opera per tanti anni oscurata dalla fama delle tre leggi sul moto dei pianeti, forse anche a causa della prolissità di Keplero e degli errori contenuti nel trattato. Sempre in questo capitolo, si evidenziano i suddetti legami con le opere del passato, in particolare i lavori di Archimede, e con quelle immediatamente successive, ovvero la Geometria indivisibilibus di Cavalieri. Ciò che intendiamo fare è quindi restituire la giusta attenzione a quest'opera, pietra miliare dello sviluppo del calcolo infinitesimale, per favorire anche lavori successivi che indaghino più a fondo i legami fra queste opere per giungere a una comprensione più profonda della storia della matematica

Immersioni possibili di oggetti impossibili

Fin dall'antichità, arte e geometria sono state spesso accostate, ma mai come nel caso delle opere di Maurits Cornelis Escher. Le celebri litografie del grafico olandese, infatti, traggono quasi sempre ispirazione dal mondo geometrico, in particolare le cosiddette ''stampe impossibili'', in cui compaiono edifici irrealizzabili, costruzioni illusorie e fenomeni che non rispettano le leggi della fisica. Oltre che su illusioni ottiche, esse sono basate su concetti matematici veri e propri, così come vedremo durante l'elaborato. Questa tesi, partendo dal Capitolo 8 del libro Yearning for the impossible di John Stillwell, studia gli spazi in cui immergere le costruzioni impossibili di Escher per renderle realizzabili, basandosi in particolare sul concetto di varietà topologica e di proiezione di rivestimento. Dopo un primo capitolo introduttivo sulla vita di Escher e sulle opere che andremo ad approfondire, la trattazione procede con un capitolo in cui si definiscono alcuni strumenti matematici: essi saranno utilizzati per giustificare la consistenza dei soggetti delle litografie precedentemente mostrate. Nell'ultima sezione ci dedichiamo a mostrare come tali strumenti matematici possano rendere possibili le visioni del grafico olandese, esplicando caso per caso come intervengano nella realizzazione e come conducano a un risultato impossibile nella realtà tridimensionale in cui viviamo ma non nello spazio in cui vengono immerse

Decentralised cooperation and its potential for local democratic governance: the experience of Trentino decentralised cooperation

Since the early 1990s Local Authorities (LAs) have stepped into the international development cooperation arena and in many European countries Decentralised Cooperation (DC) has become increasingly relevant as a new development cooperation modality that has great potential in terms of promoting sustainable development and local democratic governance. DC in international development is a relatively new phenomenon and its full potential is not yet fully known. Based on the findings of a two year long evaluative research of four DC programmes implemented by Trentino in Northern Italy in partnership with three municipalities in the Balkans and a rural district in Mozambique, this paper contributes to the literature on DC policies and practices in highlighting a scarcely analysed issue: the contribution of DC to local democratic governance and the possible reasons as to why DC, despite its potential, faces challenges that hinder its capacity to effectively contribute to decentralised governanc

Decentralised cooperation and its potential for local democratic governance: the experience of Trentino decentralised cooperation

Since the early 1990s Local Authorities (LAs) have stepped into the international development cooperation arena and in many European countries Decentralised Cooperation (DC) has become increasingly relevant as a new development cooperation modality that has great potential in terms of promoting sustainable development and local democratic governance. DC in international development is a relatively new phenomenon and its full potential is not yet fully known. Based on the findings of a two year long evaluative research of four DC programmes implemented by Trentino in Northern Italy in partnership with three municipalities in the Balkans and a rural district in Mozambique, this paper contributes to the literature on DC policies and practices in highlighting a scarcely analysed issue: the contribution of DC to local democratic governance and the possible reasons as to why DC, despite its potential, faces challenges that hinder its capacity to effectively contribute to decentralised governanc

ESASky v.2.0: all the skies in your browser

With the goal of simplifying the access to science data to scientists and citizens, ESA recently released ESASky (http://sky.esa.int), a new open-science easy-to-use portal with the science-ready Astronomy data from ESA and other major data providers. In this presentation, we announced version 2.0 of the application, which includes access to all science-ready images, catalogues and spectra, a feature to help planning of future JWST observations, the possibility to search for data of all (targeted and serendipitously observed) Solar System Objects in Astronomy images, a first support to mobile devices and several other smaller usability features. We also discussed the future evolution of the portal and the lessons learnt from the 1+ year of operations from the point of view of access, visualization and manipulation of big datasets (all sky maps, also called HiPS) and large catalogues (like e.g. the Gaia DR1 catalogues or the Hubble Source Catalogue) and the design and validation principles for the development of friendly GUIs for thin layer web clients aimed at scientists.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, ADASS 2017 conference proceeding

Sporotrichoid Mycobacterium marinum infection in an elderly woman

We describe the case of an elderly woman who acquired a Mycobacterium marinum infection following skin exposure to the bacteria through a small wound on her right ring finger, obtained while preparing fish. The resultant sporotrichoid nodules of the right hand and the distal forearm, refractory to the initial therapy with doxycycline and rifampicin, were successfully treated with oral regimen of clarithromycin. \ua9 2015 by the article author(s)