Enrico Formato, Terre comuni. Il progetto dello spazio aperto nella città contemporanea, Napoli, Clean, 2012, pp. 176, € 15.

Recensione del volume di Enrico Formato "Terre comuni. Il progetto dello spazio aperto nella città contemporanea" (Napoli, Clean, 2012)

La città diffusa dopo la crescita. Dinamiche di mutazione emergenti e prospettive per un progetto di ricomposizione urbanistica

Diversi ambienti insediativi al centro-nord del paese, connotati da fenomeni di dispersione insediativa, mostrano i sintomi di una contrazione degli usi che investe tanto i tradizionali spazi produttivi quanto degli spazi dell’abitare. Il capannone e la casa di famiglia, sottoutilizzati, testimoniano l’affievolirsi dei processi di mobilitazione e di autopromozione all’origine di queste forme urbane. Ciò non significa che la città diffusa abbia smesso di crescere. Nuove esigenze spaziali e qualitative si rivolgono a format di offerta che continuano a consumare suolo entro logiche diverse da quelle del passato: insediamenti insularizzati e “generici”, senza alcun rapporto col suolo, fatta eccezione per la localizzazione in prossimità di nodi infrastrutturali. In questo quadro, le dinamiche non governate di sottoutilizzo e dismissione possono favorire uno scenario in cui rovine precoci convivono con nuove edificazioni, erodendo fatalmente gli ultimi suoli liberi di contesti già molto urbanizzati. Questo contributo ragiona ad una ipotesi alternativa, in cui si tenta di integrare processi di decadimento e di produzione del nuovo, e di ricomporre i materiali urbani esistenti entro prospettive di sostenibilità economica e finanziaria

Innovative procedures to evaluate corn silage for milk yield

Corn silage is the main ingredient of diets for dairy cattle (around 40% of diet DM in Italy) and, therefore, an accurate estimation of its nutritive value is essential to describe the whole diet. Given the low, and fairly stable protein, lipid and ash contents in corn silage (e.g. a total of around 15% DM), the critical point to evaluate its energy value is the amount and availability of the two main carbohydrate fractions (NDF and non fiber carbohydrates, NFC)

Impact of NDF content and digestibility of diets based on corn silage and alfalfa on intake and milk yield of dairy cows

A meta analysis (22 studies, 83 dietary treatments) evaluated the impact of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) content and whole tract NDF digestibility (NDFD) on dry matter intake (DMI) and milk yield (MY) in high producing dairy cows fed corn silage and alfalfa based diets. Experimental diets were ingested at high levels to support high MY (24.1 and 37.3 kg/d, respectively of DM and MY). The average NDFD was of 42.9% (range: 20.0-68.0 %; within study standard error: ±4.0 %). DMI was negatively related with the dietary NDF (e.g. ± 1.0 % of NDF caused ±160 g/d of DMI;r2=0.51; P<0.01), while NDFD and NDF were positively related (r2=0.74; P<0.01; ±1.0 % of NDF caused approximately ±1.0 % of NDFD). MY was not influenced by dietary NDF. Considering a subset of 5 studies, the regression between NDFD and corn silage:alfalfa ratio in the diet (r2=0.84; P<0.01) allowed to estimate the NDFD of diets containing only alfalfa hay (55%) or corn silage (44%). In conclusion, the dietary NDF concentration influences the NDFD and this has implications both for DMI and MY of cows. Diets based on alfalfa hay have higher NDFD than those based on corn silage

Precision and accuracy of the NDF rumen degradability of hays measured by the Daisy fermenter

An inventory of 162 hay samples from Austrian permanent grasslands was used to obtain information about the precision of the in vitro NDF degradability (NDFd) measured by the Daisy fermenter and its accuracy to predict in situ NDFd. The within forage standard error of the in vitro NDFd triplicate, obtained in five consecutive incubations, was equal to 2.8%, while the effect of the four jar positions in the fermenter was not significant. The cutting frequency had a great impact on the in situ effective NDFd of hays, which ranged (P<0.01) from values of 32.9, 43.1 and 48.3% in hays obtained from 2, 3 and 4 cuts/season, respectively. The regression analysis between the in vitro and in situ NDFd values (measured at 48h and effective, k=3%/h) allowed to obtain medium degrees of correlation (r2 = 0.69 – 0.71; P<0.01) and low levels of accuracy (RSE = 4.0 -4.6 %)

Bergson e la filosofia tedesca. 1907-1932

Questo saggio racconta una storia in gran parte dimenticata: quella dei rapporti di Bergson con la filosofia tedesca del suo tempo. Da L’evoluzione creatrice (1907) a Le due fonti della morale e della religione (1932) Bergson ridefinisce profondamente la propria filosofia, arricchendola di nuovi temi antropologici nei quali sono riconoscibili gli echi del dibattito tedesco sulla filosofia della vita. Attraverso l’analisi delle polemiche «tedesche» che in quegli anni riguardarono o coinvolsero Bergson, viene qui studiata non soltanto la ricezione dell’opera bergsoniana in Germania ma anche l’impatto durevole di questo intenso dialogo, sia sulla filosofia del pensatore francese (Le due fonti) che su quella di autori del calibro di Eucken, Simmel, Driesch, Windelband e Scheler. Le quattro tappe in cui il libro articola questo incontro filosofico (corrispondenti alle città di Jena, Berlino, Heidelberg e Gottinga) ci consegnano un profilo nuovo del pensiero bergsoniano, che si dimostra perfettamente all’altezza del dibattito contemporaneo sui temi brucianti della tecnica, della storia e della guerra

Impact of NDF degradability of corn silage on the milk yield potential of dairy cows.

The neutral detergent fibre (NDF) degradability of corn silage samples, measured in vitro (ivNDFd) by a filter bag system, was used to examine (i) the relationship between the ivNDFd and that calculated from acid detergent lignin (L) content (NDFd) and (ii) the impact of ivNDFd variations on the predicted milk yield (MY) of dairy cows fed corn silage based diets. A total of 173 samples of corn silage were collected during a period of three years (2001-03) in different dairy farms of the Po Valley (Northern Italy). Each sample was analysed for chemical composition and was also tested in triplicate for the ivNDFd using the DaisyII incubator (Ankom, Tech. Co., Fairport, NY, USA) with incubation time of 48hs. Moreover, the NDFd of samples was calculated from the L contents, while the measured ivNDFd values were used to estimate the NEl, the potential dry matter intakes (DMI) and to predict the MY of cows. Corn silage samples of the three years were similar for NDF and starch contents (44.2 and 30.7% DM, on average, respectively) while samples from 2003, in comparison with 2001 and 2002, had lower crude protein (6.9 vs 8.3-8.4% DM, P<0.01) and L contents (3.3 vs 3.6-3.9% DM, P<0.01) and higher ivNDFd values (53.3 vs 45.6-47.8%, P<0.01). The relationship between ivNDFd and NDFd was weak (R2=0.09, not significant). The MY predicted from the NEl content and DMI of corn silage (5.5 MJ/kg DM and 8.9 kg/d) minus the maintenance energy costs, was 11.5 kg/d on average (coefficient of variation 20%). Our simulations indicate that a variation of ivNDFd by +1.0% changes the NEl of corn silage to have an expected variation in milk yield of +0.15 kg/d. If the ivNDFd is also used to predict the corn silage DMI then a +1.0% variation in ivNDFd of corn silage produces an overall +0.23 kg/d MY variation. The present results indicate that ivNDFd is highly variable in corn silage populations and differences in this nutritional parameter have an appreciable impact on the predicted milk yield from dairy cows

Framing the Family-House Stock in Contemporary Italy Construction, Situations, Evolution Patterns

Family houses are the principal material of the dispersed settlements that have marked the Italian landscape since the 1970s. The presentation provides an overview on the main generative processes that shaped the existing stock of family houses according to the social and economic contexts in which it grew; a focus on the recurring “conditions” in which we found such stock today; an assessment of the demographic and social evolutions that are affecting family houses and that could inspire some policy considerations

the use of quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction to quantify some rumen bacterial strains in an in vitro rumen system

The aim of this work was to quantify four rumen bacterial strains (Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens, Ruminococcus albus, Streptococcus bovis, Megasphaera elsdenii) in an in vitro batch rumen fermentative system by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The experiment was a 2×2 factorial arrangement with two types of liquid rumen, collected from dairy cows (DC) and fattening bulls (FB) and two types of fermentation substrate (forage:concentrate ratios, 75:25 and 25:75) and was replicated in two fermentation runs. Fermentation fluids from FB compared to those from DC had lower pH, higher total VFA concentrations (averages of 0 and 24 h samplings, 6.70 vs 7.04 and 72.6 vs 42.7 mmol/l P<0.001) and contained less acetic (P=0.014) and more propionic (P<0.01) and butyric (P=0.029) acids. The two types of substrates incubated produced very small differences in the end fermentation products. B. fibrosolvens concentrations were higher (P<0.001) in the DC fermentation fluids compared to that from bulls (averages of 0 and 24 h sampling times, 3.47 vs 1.38 x109 copies /mL), while M. elsdenii was detected only in FB fermentation fluids. R. albus and S. bovis concentrations were not different between the two types of rumen liquid. With the only exception for B. fibrosolvens, bacteria strains considered in this study increased their concentrations in the fermentation fluid during the 24 h of in vitro incubation

In Vitro, Ex Vivo and In Vivo Models for the Study of Pemphigus

Pemphigus is a life-threatening autoimmune disease. Several phenotypic variants are part of this family of bullous disorders. The disease is mainly mediated by pathogenic autoantibodies, but is also directed against two desmosomal adhesion proteins, desmoglein 1 (DSG1) and 3 (DSG3), which are expressed in the skin and mucosae. By binding to their antigens, autoantibodies induce the separation of keratinocytes, in a process known as acantholysis. The two main Pemphigus variants are Pemphigus vulgaris and foliaceus. Several models of Pemphigus have been described: in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo, passive or active mouse models. Although no model is ideal, different models display specific characteristics that are useful for testing different hypotheses regarding the initiation of Pemphigus, or to evaluate the efficacy of experimental therapies. Different disease models also allow us to evaluate the pathogenicity of specific Pemphigus autoantibodies, or to investigate the role of previously not described autoantigens. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of Pemphigus disease models, with the main focus being on active models and their potential to reproduce different disease subgroups, based on the involvement of different autoantigens