Food sustainability perception at universities: Education and demographic features effects

The 2030 Agenda of the United Nations merged in 17 goals the strong need to change the pattern of human life on the planet in a path of strengthening sustainability especially in an era that is widely defined as Anthropocene. The Global Action Program (GAP) on Education and Sustainable Development was adopted based on the power of education and knowledge with the idea of 'green universities' aimed at improving the perception of sustainability for future policy decisions. Based on a Best-Worst (BW) scaling methodological approach, in this study we quantified the preferences of generation Y at University of Turin as they relate to issues explicitly connected to the ordinary consumption of food and the relationship between this and the perception of a sustainable approach. Data show that sustainability definitions belonging to the environmental and policy dimensions were the most closely related to the sustainability concept by the students interviewed while the economic and socio-cultural spheres were the least appreciated. In relation to food issues, students generally don't attribute high value to the assessment of local production. Few but significant differences were found in some specific topics between male and female groups with women perceiving sustainability consistently linked to the concept of local/territory and to the protection of the environment

Spermidine Associated to Non-Surgical Treatment of Periodontal Disease: Split Mouth Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Objectives. Spermidine is an endogenous polyamine whose increase induces the autocrine remodeling into targeted cells. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the adjunctive beneficial effects of the local delivery of spermidine to periodontal non-surgical therapy on reduction of periodontal pocket. Methods. In this split mouth, blind, randomized controlled clinical trial, 20 patients with severe chronic generalized periodontal disease scheduled for cause related non-surgical periodontal treatment were enrolled. In three quadrants for each patients, three experimental teeth with probing pocket depth (PPD) 65 6mm were selected and randomly assigned to one of the following treatments: scaling and root planning (SRP)+ spermidine gel (spermidine + alginate) (group a), SRP+ placebo gel (only alginate) (positive control, group b) or SRP (negative control, group c). PPD at baseline, 3 and 6 months after treatment was assessed. Descriptive and inferential statistics was done. Results. After periodontal treatment, a reduction of PPD was observed in all sites. No differences emerged between groups at each time point. In all groups, a significant PPD reduction was observed at T1 and T2 compared to baseline (p<0.05 and p<0.001). PPD reduction from T1 to T2 was significant only in group a (p<0.001). Conclusions. After non-surgical treatment, local delivery of spermidine may induce prolonged improvement of clinical outcome

Retention time and dispersion associated with submerged aquatic canopies

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Water Resources Research 43 (2007): W04422, doi:10.1029/2006WR005362.The shear layer at the top of a submerged canopy generates coherent vortices that control exchange between the canopy and the overflowing water. Unlike free shear layers, the vortices in a canopy shear layer do not grow continuously downstream but reach and maintain a finite scale determined by a balance between shear production and canopy dissipation. This balance defines the length scale of vortex penetration into the canopy, δ e , and the region of rapid exchange between the canopy and overflow. Deeper within the canopy, transport is constrained by smaller turbulence scales. A two-box canopy model is proposed on the basis of the length scale δ e . Using diffusivity and exchange rates defined in previous studies, the model predicts the timescale required to flush the canopy through vertical exchange over a range of canopy density and height. The predicted canopy retention times, which range from minutes to an hour, are consistent with canopy retention inferred from tracer observations in the field and comparable to retention times for some hyporheic regions. The timescale for vertical exchange, along with the in-canopy velocity, determines the minimum canopy length for which vertical exchange dominates water renewal. Shorter canopies renew interior water through longitudinal advection. Finally, canopy water retention influences longitudinal dispersion through a transient storage process. When vertical exchange controls canopy retention, the transient storage dispersion increases with canopy height. When longitudinal advection controls water renewal, dispersion increases with canopy patch length.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant EAR0309188

A joint velocity-intermittency analysis reveals similarity in the vertical structure of atmospheric and hydrospheric canopy turbulence

Turbulent fow through and over vegetation continues to draw signifcant research attention given its relevance to a plethora of applications in earth and environmental science. Canopy fows are characterized by three-dimensional coherent vortical motions not directly accessible from single-point measurements, which pose a challenge to formalizing links between vegetation structure and turbulent motion. A joint velocity-intermittency technique is applied to velocity data collected within and above aquatic vegetation in a hydraulic fume and above a forested canopy. The approach reveals behavior that provides greater insight into canopy fow dynamics than may be inferred from the vertical profles of mean velocity, turbulence intensity and Reynolds stresses, which are the quantities usually studied. There is a remarkable similarity in the structure of such fows between the forest canopy and the fume study despite large diferences in morphology and stem rigidity. In particular, these results determine an outer fow type arising above 1.5 canopy heights, while turbulent in-rushing events are most signifcant at the zero-plane displacement. The approach also implies ways in which improved models for canopy turbulence may be developed

Accidental neck and chest penetration by a metal sliver derived from an axe for wood chopping: A case report

Background: Penetrating neck and chest trauma is a very common entity in emergency medicine that usually requires surgical treatment. Our case report illustrates the case of a 27-year-old Arabian man with hemopneumothorax associated with pneumomediastinum due to an unusual occupational injury. Case presentation: A metal sliver, coming from an axe using for wood chopping, penetrated the neck of a 27-year-old Arabian man in the left supraclavicular region mimicking a gun bullet; the entrance hole was at the left pleural dome where the sliver had just penetrated the apex of the lung passing through the upper lobe of his left lung creating an exit wound in the dorsal segment of the same lobe arriving in the posterior thoracic wall. Biportal video-assisted thoracic surgery was performed to remove blood clots and the unusual foreign body. Conclusion: In the literature, there are several case series about this topic, with some of them reporting unusual foreign bodies that lead to penetrating trauma. However, to the best of our knowledge, no cases like the one we have reported are described in the current literature

Development of a laboratory system and 2D routing analysis to determine solute mixing within aquatic vegetation

A laser induced fluorometry (LIF) system was developed to quantify mixing within spatially variable aquatic vegetation. A comparison is made between intrusive fluorometry techniques and the application of LIF, to quantify mixing in real vegetation in the laboratory setting. LIF provides greater spatial resolution when compared to point fluorometry. Furthermore, LIF is non-intrusive. A two-dimensional routing procedure is used to calculate the longitudinal and transverse velocities and mixing coefficients from a single pulse injection of tracer within a vegetation patch

Retention time and dispersion associated with submerged aquatic canopies

[1] The shear layer at the top of a submerged canopy generates coherent vortices that control exchange between the canopy and the overflowing water. Unlike free shear layers, the vortices in a canopy shear layer do not grow continuously downstream but reach and maintain a finite scale determined by a balance between shear production and canopy dissipation. This balance defines the length scale of vortex penetration into the canopy, δe, and the region of rapid exchange between the canopy and overflow. Deeper within the canopy, transport is constrained by smaller turbulence scales. A two-box canopy model is proposed on the basis of the length scale δe. Using diffusivity and exchange rates defined in previous studies, the model predicts the timescale required to flush the canopy through vertical exchange over a range of canopy density and height. The predicted canopy retention times, which range from minutes to an hour, are consistent with canopy retention inferred from tracer observations in the field and comparable to retention times for some hyporheic regions. The timescale for vertical exchange, along with the in-canopy velocity, determines the minimum canopy length for which vertical exchange dominates water renewal. Shorter canopies renew interior water through longitudinal advection. Finally, canopy water retention influences longitudinal dispersion through a transient storage process. When vertical exchange controls canopy retention, the transient storage dispersion increases with canopy height. When longitudinal advection controls water renewal, dispersion increases with canopy patch length

Trichoderma secondary metabolites active on plants and fungal pathogens

Beneficial microbes typically produce bioactive molecules that can affect the interactions of plants with their pathogens. Many secondary metabolites may also have antibiotic properties, which enable the producing microbe to inhibit and/or kill other microorganisms i.e. competing for a nutritional niche. Indeed, some of these compounds have been found to play an important role in the biocontrol of plant diseases by various beneficial microbes used world-wide for crop protection and bio-fertilization. In addition to direct toxic activity against plant pathogens, biocontrol-related metabolites may also increase disease resistance by triggering systemic plant defence activity, and/or enhance root and shoot growth. Fungi belonging to the Trichoderma genus are well known producers of secondary metabolites with a direct activity against phytopathogens and compounds that substantially affect the metabolism of the plant. The widescale application of selected metabolites to induce host resistance and/or to promote crop yield may become a reality in the near future and represents a powerful tool for the implementation of IPM strategies

Canopy Flow Analysis Reveals the Advantage of Size in the Oldest Communities of Multicellular Eukaryotes

SummaryAt Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, Canada, rangeomorph “fronds” dominate the earliest (579–565 million years ago) fossil communities of large (0.1 to 2 m height) multicellular benthic eukaryotes. They lived in low-flow environments, fueled by uptake [1–3] of dissolved reactants (osmotrophy). However, prokaryotes are effective osmotrophs, and the advantage of taller eukaryotic osmotrophs in this deep-water community context has not been addressed. We reconstructed flow-velocity profiles and vertical mixing using canopy flow models appropriate to the densities of the observed communities. Further modeling of processes at organismal surfaces documents increasing uptake with height in the community as a function of thinning of the diffusive boundary layer with increased velocity. The velocity profile, produced by canopy flow in the community, generates this advantage of upward growth. Alternative models of upward growth advantage based on redox/resource gradients fail, given the efficiency of vertical mixing. In benthic communities of osmotrophs of sufficient density, access to flow in low-flow settings provides an advantage to taller architecture, providing a selectional driver for communities of tall eukaryotes in contexts where phototropism cannot contribute to upward growth. These Ediacaran deep-sea fossils were preserved during the increasing oxygenation prior to the Cambrian radiation of animals and likely represent an important phase in the ecological and evolutionary transition to more complex eukaryotic forms.Video Abstrac