Politicians’ coherence and government debt

We model a society that values coherence between the long-term commitment of politicians to given levels of public good provision and current policy. In that context, we suggest a novel mechanism by which issuing government debt can affect electoral results. Debt is exploited by an incumbent politician who favors a low level of public good supply, taking advantage of the cost paid by her opponent, who is committed to a higher level of supply. More public debt reduces voters’ preferred level of public good consumption and therefore are less likely to elect the opponent, given her commitment to a losing policy

Efficacy of foliage fungicides against eyespot of winter wheat in Northern Italy

Summary. The efficacy of foliage fungicide applications against eyespot of soft wheat cv. Serio was evaluated under natural Oculimacula infection in an experimental area in the Po Valley (Northern Italy). The fungicide treatments prochloraz, prochloraz + propiconazole, and trifloxystrobin + cyproconazole were applied in the years of 2006 through to 2009. Seeds were also treated with a formulated product based on guazatine. All foliage fungicides were applied at the stem extension growth stage (Zadoks growth stage 30\u201232), and at the manufacturer recommended rates. All tested treatments reduced the disease severity compared with untreated control. Prochloraz alone and particularly in combination with propiconazole gave the greatest efficacy in reducing eyespot. All treatments increased grain yield in 2006 and 2008. The effects of treatments on some yield parameters were also examined

THE CHURCH OF SANT'ANDREA IN BERGAMO: AN INTEGRATED SURVEY FOR KNOWLEDGE AND CONSERVATION

Abstract. The church dedicated to Sant'Andrea (St. Andrew) in Porta Dipinta street in Bergamo city is a treasure that keep inside it a rich heritage of great historical and cultural value, both from the architectural and from the artistic point of view. Lacking of the façade (left unfinished), it is often neglected, despite being on the main road leading to the old town from Sant'Agostino Gate. The approach to an historical building like this requires a multi-disciplinary integration, in order to join the technical competence of engineering sciences to the sensitivity of human and fine arts sciences. For a better understanding of the structural performances of the building, historical research, measurement survey, material and decay condition study have to complement each other.</p

Improving Rigid 3-D Calibration for Robotic Surgery

Autonomy is the next frontier of research in robotic surgery and its aim is to improve the quality of surgical procedures in the next future. One fundamental requirement for autonomy is advanced perception capability through vision sensors. In this article, we propose a novel calibration technique for a surgical scenario with a da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK) robot. Camera and robotic arms calibration are necessary to precise position and emulate expert surgeon. The novel calibration technique is tailored for RGB-D cameras. Different tests performed on relevant use cases prove that we significantly improve precision and accuracy with respect to state of the art solutions for similar devices on a surgical-size setups. Moreover, our calibration method can be easily extended to standard surgical endoscope used in real surgical scenario

Statistics of extreme events in integrable turbulence

We use the spectral kinetic theory of soliton gas to investigate the likelihood of extreme events in integrable turbulence described by the one-dimensional focusing nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation (fNLSE). This is done by invoking a stochastic interpretation of the inverse scattering transform for fNLSE and analytically evaluating the kurtosis of the emerging random nonlinear wave field in terms of the spectral density of states of the corresponding soliton gas. We then apply the general result to two fundamental scenarios of the generation of integrable turbulence: (i) the asymptotic development of the spontaneous (noise induced) modulational instability of a plane wave, and (ii) the long-time evolution of strongly nonlinear, partially coherent waves. In both cases, involving the bound state soliton gas dynamics, the analytically obtained values of the kurtosis are in perfect agreement with those inferred from direct numerical simulations of the the fNLSE, providing the long-awaited theoretical explanation of the respective rogue wave statistics. Additionally, the evolution of a particular non-bound state gas is considered providing important insights related to the validity of the so-called virial theorem.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

An Ecophisiological Proposal to Manage Natural Grasslands: A Long Term Trial

Natural grasslands on Southern Brazil comprise the so called “Rio de La Plata Grasslands” in South America. They are an important fodder source for ruminant pastoral systems and contribute to regional ecosystem services. Strength of these grasslands is its floristic diversity that poses a dilemma to farmers: how to choose management protocols that could be applied for hundreds of species. We propose to use a functional ecophysiological approach based on groups of grasses, the most abundant on aerial biomass of this natural grasslands. We clustered the most frequent grasses in two groups based on its leaf traits (leaf dry matter content and specific leaf area). These traits are functional clues to growth rhythms and nutritive value that could separate grasses in “resource capture” and “resource conservation” groups, both important for forage production and ecosystem services. Evaluating the most frequent grasses in each group we found they have an average of 375 degree-days, for “resource capture” and 750 degree-day for “resource conservation” groups, as its leaf elongation duration. So we evaluated a rotational grazing system based on this morphogenic trait for beef heifers rearing on natural grasslands from 2010 to 2019. We chose these experimental animals, as a model by its nutrient requirements and relevance for regional rearing and breeding systems. Our results indicate an average daily gain that is adequate to reach mating age and weight targets (0,3 kg/heifer/day to mate at 24 months) and allowed a higher stocking rate and gain per area when compared to regional standards (1,100 kg of live weight/ha and 370 kg/ha versus 600 and 70 kg/ha). All this animal performance was obtained without changing floristic diversity and also enhancing ecosystem services as CO2 sequestration. We concluded that this approach could allow farmers to conciliate the dilemma of production and conservation in pastoral ecosystems