L’insegnamento della speleologia agli “under 15”

Dopo una breve panoramica storica sull’affermarsi della speleologia quale disciplina autonoma pensata e realizzata da e per gli adulti viene presentato il piano predisposto dalla Società Alpina delle Giulie – sezione di Trieste del CAI, per l’avvicinamento dei giovani minori di 15 anni – età minima per frequentare le scuole di speleologia del CAI – al mondo delle grotte. Considerazioni sui materiali utilizzati, sul tipo di cavità da visitare e sui tempi di permanenza in grotta completano l’esposizione.After a brief historical overview of the establishment of speleology as an autonomous discipline designed for and realized by adults, the program organized by the Julian Alpine Society – Trieste section of the CAI – to introduce minors under the age of 15 (minimum age required to attend CAI Speleology Schools) to the world of caving. Considerations on the materials used, types of cavities visited and time spent in the cave conclude the presentation

SPACE, AGENCY AND SUFFERING: Unveiling the experiences of non-Western women in asylum reception centres in Northern Norway

The experiences of women in asylum reception centres remain largely unheard. Few researchers have been focusing on the lived experiences of women in asylum accommodations. Even fewer have investigated the interaction between spatial conditions of asylum accommodation and women’s agency in Northern Norway. This thesis involves an interdisciplinary conceptual framework to explore the interaction between space, agency and suffering from a micro-perspective to understand how spatial conditions can affect asylum seekers’ agency in asylum reception centres and interfere with their motives and interests and satisfaction of their basic needs, provoking suffering. The thesis is a qualitative study, which applies a narrative research design. It is based on a series of interviews with asylum seekers in the region and on the analysis of relevant documents concerning the standard requirements for asylum accommodations. In order to build the argument, I firstly investigate the respondents’ perspectives on shared common spaces, such as kitchen and bathrooms, and shared private spaces, such as the bedroom. Despite the peculiarities of their stories, the analysis revealed diverse conditions for both these categories. Particularly, common spaces are experienced in relation to accessibility and availability, showing significant differences in men’s and women’s experiences. Afterwards, I move to a deeper analysis of the experiences of women because of some relevant differences with the experiences of the male participants, and unexpected findings emerged. Especially concerning ‘women’ and who these women are. Analysing spatial conditions from women’s perspectives revealed how social norms and administrative norms organise spaces where they lived, and that particularly affected them during their stay in asylum reception centres

Competitiveness of the wine sector: considerations on future scenarios

For a critical assessment of the issues relating to the future viticulture nursery system in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses is essential to examine the relationship between factors of the supply chain and the extrinsic factors able of modulating the interactions between the whole wine system. The uncertainty of the evolution over time of the forecasts suggests examining these aspects for hypothetical scenarios which involves the following interfaces: Consumer (market)/ Producer, Grower/Nursery, Research/Nursery/Grower/Consumer. Other aspects might modulate the above relations: social ethics, energy cost, globalization, economic situation, climate change, Pathogens emergencies. It is clear that a fundamental part of research will be carried out to clarify whether GMOs can pose risks to health or the environment. On this basis a possible clarification it might also change the current hostile attitude of some countries or part of the population. The strategy choice to cultivate or not genetically modified vines could also result in disruption in the spread of viticulture in different countries, but this could not occur before ten years. Moreover another field of research is the intensification of the studies to understand the mechanisms that regulate the plants functioning and the role of symbiotic microorganisms which could facilitate the cultivation and the development of environmentally friendly techniques (biodynamic method?). Beneficial microorganisms, genetically modified or not, will be useful for finding biotechnological solutions, especially to control biotic and abiotic stress and for a biofertilization in balance with the aimed productions. In presence of a high critical situation of funding we need to wisely manage the ethical aspects of research and ensure adequate and rational fund investment. It would be desirable for local projects carry out a “Shared Research”, involving the various components of the “Wine chain”

Genetic parameters for milk mineral content and acidity predicted by mid-infrared spectroscopy in Holstein–Friesian cows

peer-reviewedThis article was first published in animal, Volume 9, Issue 05, May 2015, pp 775-780 © The Animal Consortium 2015The aim of the present study was to estimate genetic parameters for calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P) and titratable acidity (TA) in bovine milk predicted by mid-IR spectroscopy (MIRS). Data consisted of 2458 Italian Holstein−Friesian cows sampled once in 220 farms. Information per sample on protein and fat percentage, pH and somatic cell count, as well as test-day milk yield, was also available. (Co)variance components were estimated using univariate and bivariate animal linear mixed models. Fixed effects considered in the analyses were herd of sampling, parity, lactation stage and a two-way interaction between parity and lactation stage; an additive genetic and residual term were included in the models as random effects. Estimates of heritability for Ca, P and TA were 0.10, 0.12 and 0.26, respectively. Positive moderate to strong phenotypic correlations (0.33 to 0.82) existed between Ca, P and TA, whereas phenotypic weak to moderate correlations (0.00 to 0.45) existed between these traits with both milk quality and yield. Moderate to strong genetic correlations (0.28 to 0.92) existed between Ca, P and TA, and between these predicted traits with both fat and protein percentage (0.35 to 0.91). The existence of heritable genetic variation for Ca, P and TA, coupled with the potential to predict these components for routine cow milk testing, imply that genetic gain in these traits is indeed possible

A nonparametric approach for model individualization in an artificial pancreas

The identification of patient-tailored linear time invariant glucose-insulin models is investigated for type 1 diabetic patients, that are characterized by a substantial inter-subject variability. The individualized linear models are identified by considering a novel kernel-based nonparametric approach and are compared with a linear time invariant average model in terms of prediction performance by means of the coefficient of determination, fit, positive and negative max errors, and root mean squared error. Model identification and validation are based on in-silico data collected from the adult virtual population of the UVA/Padova simulator. The data generation involves a protocol designed to produce a sufficient input excitation without compromising patient safety, compatible also with real life scenarios. The identified models are exploited to synthesize an individualized Model Predictive Controller (MPC) for each patient, which is used in an Artificial Pancreas to maintain the blood glucose concentration within an euglycemic range. The MPC used in several clinical studies, synthesized on the basis of a non-individualized average linear time invariant model, is also considered as reference. The closed-loop control performance is evaluated in an in-silico study on the adult virtual population of the UVA/Padova simulator in a perturbed scenario, in which the MPC is blind to random variations of insulin sensitivity in each virtual patient. © 2015, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved