La diffusione dell’autoconsumo nelle imprese agricole

In this paper we analyse the evolution of self-consumption in Italian farms over the past ten years. The self-consumption is the value of production that is not directed to the market but only to the consumption of the farmer and his family. Using the information collected by the Italian FADN between 2003-2012, the study analyses the structural characteristics, production and economic and dynamics of income of farms with self-consumption. The work verifies the extent of income diversification and product differentiation strategies adopted by this kind of farms.The results of analysis confirm the growing trend of farms with self-consumption. The self-consumption has spread not only among micro farms, but also between companies adopting traditional and income diversification strategies. Referred to this group of farms, the economic performance confirms the contribution of the self-consumption to the stability of farm income

La spesa pubblica per l’innovazione nelle politiche di sviluppo rurale per uno sviluppo sostenibile dei sistemi produttivi territoriali

This paper analyzes how the rural development policy supports innovation, according to Europe 2020 strategy. Using the information of the Italian FADN 2010-2014, the study analyzes the productivity ratio between large and small farms to measure the gap of their economic performance. The productivity ratio is compared, at regional level, with the consumption of soil for environmental factor and the number of agricultural workers employed for social dimension. The three indicators are compared with public spending for innovation allocated in regional RDPs 2007-2013 and 2014-2020. The results show a weak correlation of public spending with the indicators. Large values of the productivity gap affect negatively on the corresponding values of land use and agricultural employment

Farm Advisory Services for the Agro-Food Supply Chain as a Foster of Innovation: The Case of Veneto Region

 The aim of this study is to analyze the potentiality of the extension services in agriculture, to mainstream innovation in terms of sectoral competitiveness, when integrated into the agro-food supply chain. In doing this, the case of Venetian agriculture will give empirical evidence to the assumptions of this study, serving the identification of key factors, related to the use of extension services integrated into the so-called Integrated Supply Chain Projects (ISCPs), which are emerging as influential for the performance of the agro-food chain. In principle, the extension services are integrated within the entire agricultural knowledge system, which encloses several activities such as research and experimentation, vocational training, advisory and information. In the context of the Rural Development Policy, the farm advisory services are implemented through the measures 114 "Using farm advisory services" and 124 "Cooperation for development of new products, process and technologies", included in the Rural Development Programmes (RDPs). The present study focuses on the observed benefits that such measures deliver when integrated into the ISCPs, by adding value to the entire agro-food chain and bettering its performance. In fact, the systemic approach to the implementation of the research and of farm advisory services into the ISCPs seems to enhance their own potentiality to increase the entrepreneurial performance and contribute to create a competitive advantage for the entire agro-food chain. In Italy, within the RDP 2007-2013, the ISCPs are foreseen as an instrument for better achieve the increase of competitiveness of the agricultural and forestry sector, the improvement of the quality and the marketing of the productions; create and consolidate the value chain as a whole, by balancing the profit margins of each single segment. To this end, several Italian RDPs foresee the opportunity for a partnership involving different economic actors playing a role in the agro-food chain to define such project in view of achieving an overall common strategic objective. Each integrated supply chain project is set up through the implementation of several measures, which are supposed to contribute to the achievement of that overall objective. For the purpose of this study, a desk research has been carried out mainly on the fiche of the measures foreseen by the RDPs and by the tender documentation. The information gathered regard basically the type and the matter of the advisory services and of the research implemented by the measures, the number of beneficiaries achieved, the financial resources committed, and some result indicators (i.e: number of enterprises supported starting a new processes or realizing a new product; productive segment covered by the support; quality production; increase of the gross value added for the value chain). These information led mapping the model of an integrated supply chain project and identifying the different factors influencing the performance of the agro-food chain

I Gruppi Operativi e i progetti pilota di cooperazione. Una prima valutazione

The paper highlights the regional strategic choices in implementing innovation paths, through the analysis of the two interventions of the rural development plans, for the implementation of the operational groups and the pilot projects for cooperation The planning status and financial and procedural progress identify the spending capacity and the priority of the issues financed at regional level, according to the European objectives of productivity and sustainability in agriculture. The results show a delay in implementation of the two interventions for the regions of the Centre-South. At the date of this work, the selected GOs are in the Northern and Central regions. The analysis has estimated the majority of the innovations as measurable

Structural and economic dynamics in diversified Italian farms

Objective of this work is to investigate the structural change and economic dynamics of farms pursuing diversification and differentiation strategies in Italy. The analysis was performed on a panel of data built on the basis of information collected by the Italian FADN between 2003-2009. For the purpose of the analysis, we divided the population of commercial Italian farms into a five-fold farm typology based on size and the extent of diversification and differentiation strategies adopted by the farms. In detail, farms are defined as differentiated when they make use of a system of quality certification, while they are defined as diversified when they take up non farming activities (agritourism, social farms etc.). The findings show that conventional farms remain by far the largest category within the population of Italian commercial farms, while only 13% of the total commercial farms are classified as differentiated and/or diversified. Farms adopting product differentiation strategies are found to have an income growth path similar to that of conventional farms. Yet the category of diversified farms is the only one showing an upward trend with regard to income per worker in the observed years, while farms relying entirely on agricultural products appear to perform poorly in terms of labour productivity

Body Dissatisfaction and Body-Related Attentional Bias: Is There a Causal Relationship?

Previous research has shown an association between body dissatisfaction and attentional biases toward the body, but the nature of this relationship is not clear. It is possible that dissatisfaction causes attentional bias or that dissatisfaction is a result of such bias. To clarify the causal relationship between these two variables, this study manipulated dissatisfaction in a sample of healthy women by exposing them to images of “ideal” bodies and observed whether this manipulation increased attentional biases toward different body parts. Fifty-seven women took part in a pre–post experimental design in which they observed an avatar representing themselves in a virtual mirror before and after being exposed to “thin ideal” photographs. Eye-tracking technology was employed to quantify the frequency and duration of fixations on weight-related and weight-unrelated body parts. The outcomes revealed a successful induction of body dissatisfaction, leading participants to display a heightened number of fixations and prolonged fixation durations on unrelated-weight body parts. These findings remained significant after controlling for the effects of trait body dissatisfaction and body mass index. The results imply that heightened body dissatisfaction fosters the aversion of attention from weight-related body parts, which may function as a protective mechanism for preserving self-esteem and promoting psychological well-being

Role for substance p-based nociceptive signaling in progenitor cell activation and angiogenesis during ischemia in mice and in human subjects

Our data highlight the role of SP in reparative neovascularization. Nociceptive signaling may represent a novel target of regenerative medicine

Transplantation of allogeneic pericytes improves myocardial vascularization and reduces interstitial fibrosis in a swine model of reperfused acute myocardial infarction

Background-Transplantation of adventitial pericytes (APCs) promotes cardiac repair in murine models of myocardial infarction. The aim of present study was to confirm the benefit of APC therapy in a large animal model. Methods and Results-We performed a blind, randomized, placebo-controlled APC therapy trial in a swine model of reperfused myocardial infarction. A first study used human APCs (hAPCs) from patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery. A second study used allogeneic swine APCs (sAPCs). Primary end points were (1) ejection fraction as assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and (2) myocardial vascularization and fibrosis as determined by immunohistochemistry. Transplantation of hAPCs reduced fibrosis but failed to improve the other efficacy end points. Incompatibility of the xenogeneic model was suggested by the occurrence of a cytotoxic response following invitro challenge of hAPCs with swine spleen lymphocytes and the failure to retrieve hAPCs in transplanted hearts. We next considered sAPCs as an alternative. Flow cytometry, immunocytochemistry, and functional/cytotoxic assays indicate that sAPCs are a surrogate of hAPCs. Transplantation of allogeneic sAPCs benefited capillary density and fibrosis but did not improve cardiac magnetic resonance imaging indices of contractility. Transplanted cells were detected in the border zone. Conclusions-Immunologic barriers limit the applicability of a xenogeneic swine model to assess hAPC efficacy. On the other hand, we newly show that transplantation of allogeneic sAPCs is feasible, safe, and immunologically acceptable. The approach induces proangiogenic and antifibrotic benefits, though these effects were not enough to result in functional improvements.Madeddu is the recipient of grants from the British Heart Foundation and the Medical Research Council in support of research on human and swine APCs. Angelini is the recipient of a grant from the NIHR Biomedical Centre at the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, which partially supported the present study. Fernandez-Jimenez was the recipient of nonoverlapping grants from the Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness through the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Rio Hortega fellowship); and the Fundacion Jesus Serra, the Fundacion Interhospitalaria de Investigacion Cardiovascular (FIC), and the CNIC (FICNIC fellowship). The use of QMass software was partly supported by a scientific collaboration between the CNIC and Medis Medical Imaging Systems BV. This study forms part of a Master Research Agreement (MRA) between the CNIC and Philips Healthcare. The CNIC is supported by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the Pro-CNIC Foundation, and is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (MINECO award SEV-2015-0505).S

Nationwide consensus on the clinical management of treatment-resistant depression in Italy: a Delphi panel

Background: Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is defined by the European Medicines Agency as a lack of clinically meaningful improvement after treatment, with at least two different antidepressants. Individual, familiar, and socio-economic burden of TRD is huge. Given the lack of clear guidelines, the large variability of TRD approaches across different countries and the availability of new medications to meet the need of effective and rapid acting therapeutic strategies, it is important to understand the consensus regarding the clinical characteristics and treatment pathways of patients with TRD in Italian routine clinical practice, particularly in view of the recent availability of esketamine nasal spray. Methods: A Delphi questionnaire with 17 statements (with a 7 points Likert scale for agreement) was administered via a customized web-based platform to Italian psychiatrists with at least 5 years of experience and specific expertise in the field of depression. In the second-round physicians were asked to answer the same statements considering the interquartile range of each question as an index of their colleagues' responses. Stata 16.1 software was used for the analyses. Results: Sixty panellists, representative of the Italian territory, answered the questionnaire at the first round. For 8/17 statements more than 75% of panellists reached agreement and a high consensus as they assigned similar scores; for 4 statements the panellists assigned similar scores but in the middle of the Likert scale showing a moderate agreement with the statement, while for 5 statements there was indecision in the agreement and low consensus with the statement. Conclusions: This Delphi Panel showed that there is a wide heterogeneity in Italy in the management of TRD patients, and a compelling need of standardised strategies and treatments specifically approved for TRD. A high level of consensus and agreement was obtained about the importance of adding lithium and/or antipsychotics as augmentation therapies and in the meantime about the need for long-term maintenance therapy. A high level of consensus and agreement was equally reached for the identification of esketamine nasal spray as the best option for TRD patients and for the possibility to administrate without difficulties esketamine in a community outpatient setting, highlighting the benefit of an appropriate educational support for patients