Possibilità produttive di alcune varietà di soia: risultati di un triennio di esperienze condotte in Sardegna

During 1975-76-77, 25 soybeans varieties belonging to different groups of maturity were compared. Experiments - carried out in two different pedoclimatic environments - pointed out the importance of the choice of variety both for production purposes and with reference to harvest time. In the trial carried in the Northern Sardinia, on a calcareous soil, the following varieties showed to be the most productive: «Hodyson» (46.2 q/ha), «Amsoy 71» (45.2 q/ha), «Wells» (43.2 q/ha), « Beeson» (42.9 q/ha), «Corsoy» (42.1 q/ha) and «Williams» (41.5 q/ha). On the contrary, on clayish soils the above varieties were slightly productive, while other ones («Semmes», «Rillito», «Davis»), which gave yields of about 30 q/ha, resulted to be too late. Further trials are required to detect cultivars which, both for the bioiogica1 cycle span and for the yields may be successfully cultivated in southern pedoclimatic environments similar to those where experiments were carried out. Nel corso degli anni 1975-76-77 sono state confrontate 25 varietà di soia appartenenti a differenti classi di maturazione. Le esperienze, condotte in due differenti ambienti pedoclimatici, hanno evidenziato l'importanza della scelta varietale sia ai fini produttivi che con riferimento all'epoca di raccolta. Nella prova condotta nella Sardegna settentrionale, su terreno di origine calcareo, sono risultate più produttive le varietà «Hodgson» (46,2 q/ha), «Amsoy 71» (45,2 q/ha), «Wells» (43,2 q/ha), «Beeson» (42,9 q/ha), «Corsoy» (42,1 q/ha) e «Williams» (41,5 q/ha). Su terreni argillosi dell'Oristanese, invece, le stesse varietà hanno mostrato scarse attitudini produttive, mentre altre («Semmes», «Rillito», «Davis»), che hanno fornito rese intorno a 30 q/ha, sono risultate troppo tardive. Si ritengono pertanto necessarie ulteriori prove agronomiche tendenti all'individuazione di cultivar che, sia per lunghezza del ciclo biologico che per le rese unitarie, possano essere inserite con successo in ambienti pedoclimatici meridionali del tipo di quelli sede delle prove

Inter-individual variability in psychological outcomes of supervised exercise in adults with Type 2 Diabetes

Exercise is a key component in the management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), however despite the strong evidence of its protective effects, a majority of the population with this diagnosis remains inactive and those who start an exercise program are not willing to train themselves over the long-term. Self-ef cacy and perceived stress are related to barriers to exercise in T2DM, therefore the aim of this longitudinal study is to investigate variations across time and individual differences in both variables as effects of a supervised exercise training (6 months) in a small sample of persons diagnosed with T2DM. Results show a general decline in the mean values of self-ef cacy and perceived stress at 6 months and a high individual variability in both variables. These results support the need to develop customized pro- grams of exercise in T2DM that take into account different phases of the exercise process and individual variability.El ejercicio es un componente clave en la prevención y el tratamiento de Diabetes Mellitus Tipo 2 (DMT2); sin embargo, a pesar de la fuerte evidencia de sus efectos protectores, la mayoría de las personas con este diagnóstico permanece inactiva y aquellos que comienzan un programa de ejercicio no están dispuestos a entrenar a largo plazo. La autoefcacia y la percepción de estrés se relacionan con las barreras para realizar ejercicio en pacientes T2DM; por lo tanto, el objetivo de este estudio longitudinal consiste en investigar las variaciones a través del tiempo y las diferencias individuales en ambas variables, como efectos de un entrenamiento de ejercicio supervisado (6 meses), en una muestra pequeña de pacientes diagnosticados con TD2M. Los resultados muestran una disminución general de los valores promedio de la autoefcacia y del estrés percibido a los 6 meses y una alta variabilidad individual en ambas variables. Estos resultados apoyan la necesidad de desarrollar programas personalizados de ejercicio en pacientes T2DM con el objetivo de considerar las diferentes fases del proceso de ejercicio y de la variabilidad individual

Mixed effects of a six-month supervised exercise program in overweight and moderately obese adults with Type 2 diabetes mellitus

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is often associated with overweight or obesity. Clinical practice guidelines recommend that people with T2DM should regularly perform aerobic and resistance exercise and reduce the amount of time spent sitting. However, most adults with T2DM remain inactive and those who start a program are not willing to maintain exercise for the long run. To evaluate the relationship between supervised exercise, glycemic control, fitness and potential body image a longitudinal study with intervention was conducted. Twenty-three T2DM adults were assessed on Body Mass Index, glycosylated haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), Fitness Index (FI) and Potential Body Image (PBI) at baseline and after completing a six-month supervised exercise program. BMI and Fitness Index were modified by exercise. No group differences were found on HbA1c and PBI. However, significant individual differences in BPI were detected by means of mixed-effects models. A six-month exercise program can affect some biological and clinical parameters as BMI and Fitness Index. High inter-individual variability was observed in PBI. Mixed-effects models should be preferred to the traditional ANOVA's and personalized supervised intervention should be implemented for long-term maintenance of exercise

Water use and crop coefficients in sprinkler irrigated rice

Field experiments were carried out during the years 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006 to analyze water-soil-atmosphere interactions in sprinkler irrigated rice. The research was carried out in Sardinia (39° 59' N; 8° 40' E, at altitude 15 m). The cultivars used in the experiments, respectively in 2002 and in 2004-2005-2006, were Irat 212 and Eurosis. In each year cultivars were subjected to the same crop management. Irrigation was applied since the emergence with the sprinkler method, taking into account the loss of water from 'Class A' pan evaporation. Soil water content was monitored at 0.10 m intervals until l.00-m depth using a 'Diviner 2000' (Sentek). In 2002 seven irrigation scheduling treatments were compared. In 2004, 2005, 2006 irrigation treatments provided for optimal soil water conditions during the growing season. In 2002 the results highlighted: 1) 0-0.20 m depth was the most important layer for crop water uptake and the best correlated layer with rice rough yield; 2) the positive relationship between yield and water supply was significant until 6500 m3 ha-1 of water applied. Further seasonal irrigation volumes did not increase significantly yield. In 2004, 2005 and 2006 the analysis of the soil water balance at different crop phenological stages allowed to estimate crop coefficients (Kc) using the Penman-Monteith equation and the 'Class A' pan evaporation (Kcev). Kc varied over the three-year period on average from 0.90 to l.07 and 0.97, respectively for the emergence-end of tillering, end of tillering-heading and heading-maturing periods, while crop coefficients as a ratio between maximum crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and Epan, Kcev ranged from 0.78 to 0.92 and 0.81 for the same time perio

A Periodic Transmission Line Model for Body Channel Communication

Body channel communication (BCC) is a technique for data transmission exploiting the human body as communication channel. Even though it was pioneered about 25 years ago, the identification of a good electrical model behind its functioning is still an open research question. The proposed distributed model can then serve as a supporting tool for the design, allowing to enhance the performances of any BCC system. A novel finite periodic transmission line model was developed to describe the human body as transmission medium. According to this model, for the first time, the parasitic capacitance between the transmitter and the receiver is assumed to depend on their distance. The parameters related to the body and electrodes are acquired experimentally by fitting the bio-impedentiometric measurements, in the range of frequencies from 1 kHz to 1 MHz, obtaining a mean absolute error lower than 4° and 30Ω for the phase angle and impedance modulus, respectively. The proposed mathematical framework has been successfully validated by describing a ground-referred and low-complexity system called Live Wire, suitable as supporting tool for visually impaired people, and finding good agreement between the measured and the calculated data, marking a ±3% error for communication distances ranging from 20 to 150 cm. In this work we introduced a new circuital approach, for capacitive-coupling systems, based on finite periodic transmission line, capable to describe and model BCC systems allowing to optimize the performances of similar systems

Spatially Resolved Molecular Compositions of Insoluble Multilayer Deposits Responsible for Increased Pollution from Internal Combustion Engines

Internal combustion engines are used heavily in diverse applications worldwide. Achieving the most efficient operation is key to improving air quality as society moves to a decarbonized energy system. Insoluble deposits that form within internal combustion engine components including fuel injectors and filters negatively impact CO2 and pollutant emissions. Understanding the composition, origins, and formation mechanisms of these complex materials will be key to their mitigation however, previous attempts only afforded nondiagnostic chemical assignments and limited knowledge toward this. Here, we uncover the identity and spatial distribution of molecular species from a gasoline direct injector, diesel injector, and filter deposit in situ using a new hyphenation of secondary ion mass spectrometry and the state-of-the-art Orbitrap mass analyzer (3D OrbiSIMS) and elemental analysis. Through a high mass resolving power and tandem MS we unambiguously uncovered the identity, distribution, and origin of species including alkylbenzyl sulfonates and provide evidence of deposit formation mechanisms including formation of longer chain sulfonates at the gasoline deposit’s surface as well as aromatization to form polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons up to C66H20, which were prevalent in the lower depth of this deposit. Inorganic salts contributed significantly to the diesel injector deposit throughout its depth, suggesting contamination over multiple fueling cycles. Findings will enable several strategies to mitigate these insoluble materials such as implementing stricter worldwide fuel specifications, modifying additives with adverse reactivity, and synthesizing new fuel additives to solubilize deposits in the engine, thereby leading to less polluting vehicles

Molecular Formula Prediction for Chemical Filtering of 3D OrbiSIMS Datasets

Modern mass spectrometry techniques produce a wealth of spectral data, and although this is an advantage in terms of the richness of the information available, the volume and complexity of data can prevent a thorough interpretation to reach useful conclusions. Application of molecular formula prediction (MFP) to produce annotated lists of ions that have been filtered by their elemental composition and considering structural double bond equivalence are widely used on high resolving power mass spectrometry datasets. However, this has not been applied to secondary ion mass spectrometry data. Here, we apply this data interpretation approach to 3D OrbiSIMS datasets, testing it for a series of increasingly complex samples. In an organic on inorganic sample, we successfully annotated the organic contaminant overlayer separately from the substrate. In a more challenging purely organic human serum sample we filtered out both proteins and lipids based on elemental compositions, 226 different lipids were identified and validated using existing databases, and we assigned amino acid sequences of abundant serum proteins including albumin, fibronectin, and transferrin. Finally, we tested the approach on depth profile data from layered carbonaceous engine deposits and annotated previously unidentified lubricating oil species. Application of an unsupervised machine learning method on filtered ions after performing MFP from this sample uniquely separated depth profiles of species, which were not observed when performing the method on the entire dataset. Overall, the chemical filtering approach using MFP has great potential in enabling full interpretation of complex 3D OrbiSIMS datasets from a plethora of material types

Designing the Future: An Intelligent System for Zero-Mile Food Production by Upcycling Wastewater

The project deals with the environmental problem of water consumption. The aim of this work is to experiment the recycling of dishwasher wastewater through its reuse in growing edible vegetables or ornamental plants; this can also accomplish the valorization of nutrients present in the wastewater. This new process allows to ensure washing functions coupled with vegetables production and to affect users’ environmental awareness and habits, following a user-centered system design approach to understand the users and involve them actively in the system development. The presented work is also aimed to experiment a multidisciplinary approach in order to face environmental problems

Dupilumab in the treatment of severe uncontrolled chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP): A multicentric observational Phase IV real-life study (DUPIREAL)

Background Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is associated with significant morbidity and reduced health-related quality of life. Findings from clinical trials have demonstrated the effectiveness of dupilumab in CRSwNP, although real-world evidence is still limited. Methods This Phase IV real-life, observational, multicenter study assessed the effectiveness and safety of dupilumab in patients with severe uncontrolled CRSwNP (n = 648) over the first year of treatment. We collected data at baseline and after 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of follow-up. We focused on nasal polyps score (NPS), symptoms, and olfactory function. We stratified outcomes by comorbidities, previous surgery, and adherence to intranasal corticosteroids, and examined the success rates based on current guidelines, as well as potential predictors of response at each timepoint. Results We observed a significant decrease in NPS from a median value of 6 (IQR 5–6) at baseline to 1.0 (IQR 0.0–2.0) at 12 months (p < .001), and a significant decrease in Sino-Nasal Outcomes Test-22 (SNOT-22) from a median score of 58 (IQR 49–70) at baseline to 11 (IQR 6–21; p < .001) at 12 months. Sniffin' Sticks scores showed a significant increase over 12 months (p < .001) compared to baseline. The results were unaffected by concomitant diseases, number of previous surgeries, and adherence to topical steroids, except for minor differences in rapidity of action. An excellent-moderate response was observed in 96.9% of patients at 12 months based on EPOS 2020 criteria. Conclusions Our findings from this large-scale real-life study support the effectiveness of dupilumab as an add-on therapy in patients with severe uncontrolled CRSwNP in reducing polyp size and improving the quality of life, severity of symptoms, nasal congestion, and smell

Non-Linear Analysis of Soil Microwave Heating: Application to Agricultural Soils Disinfection

Agriculture is facing the challenge of increasing the quality of food production with environmentally and health compatible processes featuring limited use of chemicals. The elimination of pathogens and harmful biological agents still remains a fundamental requirement. Therefore, soil physical disinfestation and disinfection represent a promising approach to a sustainable and profitable agriculture. For this reason, a cheap and selective method based on microwave power is proposed. Microwave soil disinfection is based on increasing the soil and, consequently, the pathogens temperature, by radiating the system with microwaves and maintaining the temperature over a threshold value for a sufficient time. This work deals with the non-linear modelling of electromagnetic and heating phenomena involved in the soil disinfection. Thus the feasibility of the proposed approach is demonstrated in a realistic case and an optimal design process is derived for any kind of soil