Molecular analysis for Protecting and increasing the value of Mediterranean fisheries resources

This project proposal is focused on marine sciences and brings in some process and product-related scientific innovations that can be relevant for the Lebanese and the Italian fisheries sectors. In particular, knowledge sharing and expertises on molecular analyses tools applied to marine resources and seafood authentication represents the objective of this project proposal. Specific tools will be developed to improve traceability of Mediterranean resources. Among molecular analysis, DNA authentication technologies will be applied to sea-food certification and marine resources management

La valutazione del settore dell’industria acquaponica in Sicilia. Questionario sviluppato nell’ambito del Progetto “Cellule pur la vie” (“CELAVIE”)

Nell’ambito del progetto CELAVIE - finanziato con i fondi dell’Unione Europea attraverso il Programma di cooperazione transfrontaliera Italia-Tunisia – è stata avviata un’indagine volta ad acquisire dati ed informazioni sullo stato dei sistemi di produzione fuori suolo a livello territoriale. Per il successo dell’indagine, i partner del progetto - CORERAS, CNR, Green Future, Università di Sfax, AGC, UTAP – hanno ritenuto opportuno sviluppare due distinti questionari e di somministrare separatamente gli stessi. Si evidenzia che predetta scelta strategica non ha compromesso l’obiettivo primario dell’indagine riguardante la determinazione del livello di conoscenza complessiva sui sistemi di acquaponica. Nel presente rapporto tecnico si riportano le principali evidenze emerse dall’indagine eseguita sul territorio siciliano

Quando la scienza brancola nel buio: accordo di collaborazione tra l’Istituto dei Ciechi “Opere riunite I. Florio – F. ed A. Salamone” di Palermo e il CNR IAS di Capo Granitola

La convenzione oggetto del presente rapporto nasce nel contesto delle complesse attività di EduLab, gruppo di divulgazione scientifica che,seppur già attivo dal2008, nasce ufficialmente nel 2015e mette insieme ricercatori di varie discipline che condividono la passione di divulgare la scienza e i risultati da essa prodotti nei propri ambiti di competenza.La comunicazione scientifica, molto sentita e ben strutturata all’interno dell’IAS (ex. IAMC), ha portato a numerosi risultati e ad un numero ragguardevole di progetti e programmi, ed è un’attività ormai talmente ben consolidata da diventare organica all’istituto e alle sue strategie. I prodotti sviluppati sono tanti e anche i successi ottenuti, quali premi sulle attività di divulgazione, la partecipazione ad Expo 2015 ed a numerose edizioni in ambito di manifestazioni nazionali quali: Festival della Scienza, Esperienza insegna, Notte della scienza e Notte dei ricercatori, Illuminiamo la scienza. Grazie ad un curriculum unico e complesso, il gruppo è stato il driver della nascita dell’Osservatorio della Biodiversità della Regione Sicilia, oggi riferimento regionale per la didattica e la divulgazione scientifica sul tema della biodiversità, visitato ad oggi da più di 500 classi di studenti siciliani. Le ricadute culturali, di visibilità, nonché di immagine per l’istituto sono tantissime

“Beaks and berries”: zoological laboratory (II) of the formative proposal of inclusive scientific divulgation

Searching a topic that help us about the implementation of an inclusive divulgation, aimed also at sensory disabilitiesusers, we have chosen birds as a key to connect different scientific issues (pollution, environmental changes, exploitation of resources) and create new knowledge in a heterogeneous auditorium, through the suggestions that the workshop lessons can infuse on the users, whether they are disabled or not. All this to bring them closer to thescientific contents to which they do not have easy access. In particular, the project aims to develop, deepen and consolidate, through communication and information, issues concerning the concept of biodiversity, in order to sensitize users to safeguard the species and habitats of our territory and make them as the main actors of scientific dissemination.Indeed, weestabilisheda convention between the “Istituto dei Ciechi Opere riunite I. Florio – F. ed A. Salamone” of Palermo and the “Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto per lo studio degli impatti Antropici e Sostenibilità in ambiente marino” of Capo Granitola (TP). The main role of this convention is to bring disable people closer to these scientific subjects and make the contents of our laboratories as inclusive as possible.The project "The world of birds", developed from January to April 2019 is divided into three main themes, the second of which is the focus of this report: The bird alimentation

“How a good video can remove ‘barriers’ for a more inclusive science communication”

There is a burgeoning body of evidence suggesting that technology can enhance learning, and multiple studies have shown that videos represent a very effective tool in science engagement and education. In fact, video media can transform the complexities of science and nature into something more tangible and tractable (Dabylchuk et al., 2018). Documentaries can hence be powerful tools for learning, to raise awareness for important topics, and adding a scientific approach makes it possible to deepen knowledge about the world. According to Dale’s cone of experience (Fig. 1), people memorize 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see and 50% of what they hear and see (Wiman and Mierhenry, 1969). These statistics seems to convey a very clear message: blind or visually impaired people are penalised in the learning compared to sighted ones. However, our experience in the area of inclusive science communication has led us to wonder: are we sure that sight is a fundamental means for learning? Or is it possible that sight is a predominant sense over others, and therefore it can even mislead or limit learning? To answer this question, we held an ad-hoc educational laboratory with the users of the “IstitutodeiCiechiOpereRiunite I. Florio – F. ed A. Salamone” of Palermo, with which we have established a convention on 29/01/2019. Specifically, we involved 20 users with different degrees of visual impairment, in the projection of three science videos, selected from those realised by the EDUlab divulgation group over the years. At the end of the video projection, users were asked to express their opinions and their personal interpretations of scientific issues, allowing us to understand what e how many information have been received and, above all, if sighted usersare really advantaged compared to the visually impaired ones

“For whom the Calandra tolls?”: zoological laboratory (III) of the formative proposal of inclusive scientific divulgation

Blind people, though not seeing the world, is nevertheless able to imagine it, activating mental processes different from those of the sighted. They can come in contact with the reality of the world and know it with appreciable effectiveness (Angeli F., 2012). It has been imagined that only the view was the capable sense of allowing the conception of space and its forms. Of course, it was the facts that showed, with increasing clarity, that the lack of sight does not prevent the mental construction of space. Although touch is generally regarded as the sight of the blind, it is important to understand how sight cannot be validly replaced by a single sense. To organize a good relationship with the surrounding reality, the person who does not see needs to activate the whole of their residual senses. In particular, the complementarity between touch and hearing makes us understand like the blind. The touch sense has a very small perceptive field and therefore proceeds bysuccession of spatial fragments, but also presents a very analytical capacity,refined and punctual. Hearing has a greatly extended perceptual field, whichallows the blind to have a broad overall spatial reference but offers insufficient information on the objects and on the particular characteristics of the surrounding space (Coppa M.M., 1997).We have therefore devised a playful-practical laboratory to allow a sensory disabilitypublic,with various degrees of blindness, to reach zoological and scientific contents and then re-connect to more general problems such as the numerous environmental emergencies of this decade. Thanks to a convention between the “IstitutodeiCiechiOpereriunite I. Florio – F. ed A. Salamone” of Palermo and the “Consiglio Nazionale delleRicerche - Istituto per lo studio degliimpattiAntropici e Sostenibilità in ambientemarino” of Capo Granitola (TP), we start with the project "The world of birds", developed from January to April 2019 and divided into three main themes. The third of which is the focus of this report: Nest and songs

“On the science’s wing”: zoological laboratory (I) of the formative proposal of inclusive scientific divulgation

The scientific divulgation work is increasingly like a facilitator task. In fact, in this work it is primary to transform the results and the notions of scientific research so that they became accessible to the public, understood as the largest possible number of people. However, this information flow turns out to be purely verbal, moreover with a language rich of visual references, that are inaccessible and incomprehensible for the user with sensory disabilities. Wehavethusestablished a convention between the “Istituto dei Ciechi Opere riunite I. Florio – F. ed A. Salamone” of Palermo and the “Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto per lo studio degli impatti Antropici e Sostenibilità in ambiente marino” of Capo Granitola (TP). Wedeveloped a formative proposal that links the science world with sensory disabilities, proposing Birds as principal argument and the whole world connected to it. The birds appear as the key to connect to different scientific issues (pollution, environmental changes, exploitation of resources) to create new knowledge in the public, through the suggestions that the workshop lessons can give people, both disabled or not. All this in order to bring them closer to these subjects and make the contents of our laboratories as inclusive as possible. The project "The world of birds", developed from January to April 2019 is divided into three main themes, the first of which is the focus of this report: The bird plumage

Under citizens-observation: O.R.B.S. and the “OpenCoesione” experience

Communication plays an essential role in scientific projects, especially since it is possible to use social media and web platforms, to reach a wide audience. OpenCoesione is the “open-government” initiative on cohesion policies in Italy, a web platform with navigable data on public programmed resources and expenses, locations, thematic areas, programmers and actuators, implementation times and payments of individual projects. It allows to evaluate how the resources are used relation to the needs of the territories. Any citizen can enrich this platform, analysing public projects and documenting the current state with open data.«A Scuola di OpenCoesione» it is part of OpenCoesioneproject and represents an innovative experimental project of school teaching of open government strategy of openness and transparency on development policies. It is a teaching and civic challenge addressed to students and teachers of secondary institutes of second degree. Students move from the analysis of information and data published in open format on the OpenCoesione portal, to find out how public funds are spent on their territory.The goal of A Scuola di OpenCoesione is to involve and sensitize students and teachers to the use of contents and tools to learn and monitor the projects of cohesion policies, to build interdisciplinary educational programs starting from the projects financed on their respective territories and enriching, through crowdsourcing, the information base of OpenCoesione adding information and data that are not currently available as, for example, geolocation, multimedia materials, the characteristics of the project, the physical performance of the works. Focus of this research was the public financing aimed to the creation of O.R.B.S. (Observatory of marine and terrestrial biodiversity in Sicily). Our observatory finds its place within the operational objective 3.2.1 of the OP programming ERDF Sicily 2007-2013 actions,to create a public biodiversity observation node for the protection of natural resources consistent with the provisions of Reg. (EC) 1080/06. It constitutes the implementation program of an interventions plan, approved by the Sicily Region. ISPRA and the CNR have carried out the task of studying marine biodiversity present in Sicily, through the collection of data concerning the presence of species in protected areasand of nonindigenous species, as well as their elaboration. The dissemination methods of O.R.B.S. they have been developed through three phases: reconnaissance of existing data, data processing, monitoring

Engraulis encrasicolus (Linnaeus, 1758): technical report about extraction and recognition of the digestive tract contents in early stages of the life cycle

The study of ichthyio-plankton stages and its relations with the environment and other organisms is therefore crucial for a correct use of fishery resources. In this context, the extraction and the analysis of the content of the digestive tract, is a key method for the identification of the diet in early larval stages, the determination of the resources they rely on and possibly a comparison with the diet of other species. Additionally this approach could be useful in determination on occurrence of species competition. This technique is preceded by the analysis of morphometric data (Blackith & Reyment, 1971; Marcus, 1990), that is the acquisition of quantitative variables measured from the morphology of the object of study. They are linear distances, count, angles and ratios. The subsequent application of multivariate statistical methods, aims to quantify the changes in morphological measures between and within groups, relating them to the type and size of prey and evaluate if some changes appear in food choices along the larvae growth