Spaces of Inclusion - An explorative study on needs of refugees and migrants in the domain of media communication and on responses by community media

COMMIT – Community Media Institute is based in Austria and works in the field of media training and research. COMMIT was commissioned by the Information Society Department of Council of Europe Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law to realize this study. The Study consist of three sections which have been delivered by different experts and a common section of Conclusions and recommendations. The authors are (following the structure of the report): Section I: Community Media in Europe - an overview Salvatore Scifo, senior lecturer in Communication & Social Media at the School of Journalism, English and Communication at Bournemouth University, UK Section II: Study based on ethnographic interviews with refugees in Austria Jonas Hassemer, PhD candidate at the Linguistics Department, University of Vienna, A Brigitta Busch, professor at the Linguistics Department, University of Vienna, A Section III: The right to have a voice – Portraits of community media productions by migrants and refugees Nadia Bellardi, journalist and transcultural consultant, C

Fermi LAT observations of cosmic-ray electrons from 7 GeV to 1 TeV

We present the results of our analysis of cosmic-ray electrons using about 8 million electron candidates detected in the first 12 months on-orbit by the Fermi Large Area Telescope. This work extends our previously-published cosmic-ray electron spectrum down to 7 GeV, giving a spectral range of approximately 2.5 decades up to 1 TeV. We describe in detail the analysis and its validation using beam-test and on-orbit data. In addition, we describe the spectrum measured via a subset of events selected for the best energy resolution as a cross-check on the measurement using the full event sample. Our electron spectrum can be described with a power law $\propto {\rm E}^{-3.08 \pm 0.05}$ with no prominent spectral features within systematic uncertainties. Within the limits of our uncertainties, we can accommodate a slight spectral hardening at around 100 GeV and a slight softening above 500 GeV.Comment: 20 pages, 23 figures, 2 tables, published in Physical Review D 82, 092004 (2010) - contact authors: C. Sgro', A. Moisee

Grassroots Agency: Participation and Conflict in Buenos Aires Shantytowns seen through the Pilot Plan for Villa 7 (1971–1975)

open access articleIn 1971, after more than a decade of national and municipal policies aimed at the top-down removal of shantytowns, the Buenos Aires City Council approved the Plan Piloto para la Relocalización de Villa 7 (Pilot Plan for the Relocation of Shantytown 7; 1971–1975, referred to as the Pilot Plan hereinafter). This particular plan, which resulted in the construction of the housing complex, Barrio Justo Suárez, endures in the collective memory of Argentines as a landmark project regarding grassroots participation in state housing initiatives addressed at shantytowns. Emerging from a context of a housing shortage for the growing urban poor and intense popular mobilizations during the transition to democracy, the authors of the Pilot Plan sought to empower shantytown residents in novel ways by: 1) maintaining the shantytown’s location as opposed to eradication schemes that relocated the residents elsewhere, 2) formally employing some of the residents for the stage of construction, as opposed to “self-help” housing projects in which the residents contributed with unpaid labor, and 3) including them in the urban and architectural design of the of the new housing. This paper will examine the context in which the Pilot Plan was conceived of as a way of re-assessing the roles of the state, the user, and housing-related professionals, often seen as antagonistic. The paper argues that residents’ fair participation and state intervention in housing schemes are not necessarily incompatible, and can function in specific social and political contexts through multiactor proposals backed by a political will that prioritizes grassroots agency

The On-orbit Calibrations for the Fermi Large Area Telescope

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on--board the Fermi Gamma ray Space Telescope began its on--orbit operations on June 23, 2008. Calibrations, defined in a generic sense, correspond to synchronization of trigger signals, optimization of delays for latching data, determination of detector thresholds, gains and responses, evaluation of the perimeter of the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), measurements of live time, of absolute time, and internal and spacecraft boresight alignments. Here we describe on orbit calibration results obtained using known astrophysical sources, galactic cosmic rays, and charge injection into the front-end electronics of each detector. Instrument response functions will be described in a separate publication. This paper demonstrates the stability of calibrations and describes minor changes observed since launch. These results have been used to calibrate the LAT datasets to be publicly released in August 2009.Comment: 60 pages, 34 figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physic

Fermi Large Area Telescope Performance after 10 Years of Operation

The Large Area Telescope (LAT), the primary instrument for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi) mission, is an imaging, wide field-of-view, high-energy gamma-ray telescope, covering the energy range from 30 MeV to more than 300 GeV. We describe the performance of the instrument at the 10 yr milestone. LAT performance remains well within the specifications defined during the planning phase, validating the design choices and supporting the compelling case to extend the duration of the Fermi mission. The details provided here will be useful when designing the next generation of high-energy gamma-ray observatories

First record and complete nucleotide sequence of Alfalfa mosaic virus from Lavandula stoechas in Italy

During spring 2009, lavender plants (Lavandula stoechas L.) showing a bright yellow mosaic of calico type and light stunting were observed in a commercial nursery located in Liguria province in northern Italy. About 2% of symptomatic plants were observed out of a total of 300 plants inspected. Preliminary observations of leaf sap with the transmission electron microscope revealed bacilliform virus-like particles in three symptomatic plants, whereas no virus-like particles were observed in asymptomatic plants. The same symptomatic plants were tested with DAS-ELISA using polyclonal antisera against Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), Potato virus Y (PVY), Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV). All three plants reacted positively against AMV antibodies, but not the other antibodies. A crude sap extract obtained from a single symptomatic plant, hereafter referred to as the Lst isolate, was prepared by macerating 1 g of fresh leaves in 4 ml of sodium phosphate 0.03 M, containing 0.2% of sodium diethyldithiocarbamate, 75 mg/ml of active charcoal and traces of carborundum (600 mesh). The sap extract was mechanically inoculated onto a set of herbaceous hosts. The inoculated plants were maintained in an insect-proof greenhouse with natural illumination and temperatures of 24 °C/day and 18°C/night. Under these conditions plants showed the following symptoms after 1-3 weeks: necrotic local lesions in bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L., cv. Borlotto) and vigna (Vigna unguiculata L., cv. Black eye); necrotic local lesions followed by systemic necrosis in broad bean (Vicia faba L., cv. Super Simonia) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L., cv. San Marzano); andbright yellow mosaic (calico type) in basil (Ocimum basilicum L., cv. Gigante). In order to sequence the entire genome of the Lst isolate, total RNA was extracted from infected samples with the RNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen, USA), and subjected to AMV-specific RT-PCR by using four primer pairs for each genomic RNA of overlapping oligonucleotides, according to the complete genome sequence of AMV 425L isolate (GenBank Accession Nos. L00163 for RNA1; X01572 for RNA2 and K03542 for RNA3). The 5’ and 3’¬terminals regions of each RNA were amplified using the strategy described by Lozano et al. (1) and specific AMV oligonucleotides designed for the corresponding viral RNA. The complete genome of the AMV-Lst isolate comprised 3643 nucleotides for RNA1 (Acc. No. FN667965), 2593 nucleotides for RNA2 (Acc. No. FN667966) and 2038 nucleotides for RNA3 (Acc. No. FN667967). Comparative sequence analyses revealed that the AMV-Lst isolate from Italy shared overall nucleotide sequence identities with the AMV isolate 425L of 97.1%, 95.5% and 94.7% for RNA1, 2 and 3, respectively. P1 and P2 replicase genes and the MP and CP genes of AMV-Lst isolate showed, respectively, 97.2%, 95.1%, 96.2% and 97.8% identity with those from the 425L isolate. The AMV-Lst CP gene was shorter by 9 nucleotides compared to the CP gene of 425L. A phylogenetic tree, obtained with neighbor-joining and maximum likelihood methods, showed that Lst isolate grouped within the subgroup I of AMV isolates, confirming that the differences between subgroups I and II correlate mainly with the geographic origin of isolates. Lst represents the first Italian isolate of AMV completely sequenced, and to our knowledge this is the first report of this virus in L. stoechas

Individuazione del fitoplasma del giallume dell’astro in Centaurium erythraea Rafn

Centaurium erythraea Rafn. (sin. Erythraea centaurium Pers.; Gentianaceae), known also as red centaury (or European centaury), is an annual or biennial medicinal and aromatic plant, native of Europe and North Africa, wild in Italy. European centaury acts beneficially on the liver and kidneys, purifies the blood; it has been long used for the cure of intermittent fever. This plant contains a bitter principle, erytrhocentaurin, which constitutes an excellent tonic widely used in liquor industry. Because it can not be easily cultivated is harvested as wild plant in July, when just breaking into flower. In order to better understand agronomical aspects of this species, some experimental fields were set up at an Agronomic Research Centre located in Trentino Region (Northern Italy). In July 2008, a phytoplasma-like disease was observed. After first symptoms observation in May, an increasing percentage of symptomatic plants were found in the following months, at the blooming stage. Yellows symptoms were present in the leaves and, in some cases, the plants showed reduction of leaf size and stunting. At blooming, the plants showed abortion of buds, flower virescence, rosetting and malformation. In order to verify phytoplasma presence and to determine their identity, samples from symptomatic and asymptomatic plants were collected and tested by direct PCR with primers P1/P7 followed by nested PCR with primers F1/B6 and 16SF2/R2 (Duduk et al., 2004). RFLP analyses performed with TruI and HhaI enzymes, allowed the identification in the symptomatic plants of phytoplasmas belonging to group 16SrI-B (‘Candidatus phytoplasma asteris’). This is the fist report of a phytoplasma natural infection in European centaury. In fact, a phytoplasma from the clover proliferation group (16SrVI) was reported in 2001 in Centaurea solstitialis a weed plant belonging to the family Asteraceae (Faggioli et al., 2003). To now only phytoplasmas belonging to subgroup 16SrIII-B (clover yellow edge) have been found naturally infecting species of the Gentianaceae family (such as Gentiana sp.) in 1995 and 1997 in Japan and Thailand respectively (Okuda et al., 1997)

Individuazione di fitoplasmi del giallume dell\u2019astro in Lachenalia e Gazania

La produzione di piante ornamentali riveste un ruolo di grande importanza economica nel panorama agricolo italiano e, di conseguenza, anche l'aspetto fitosanitario delle piante risulta fondamentale, sia per contenere le perdite in vivaio causate dalle avversit\ue0 e sia dal punto di vista epidemiologico per evitare la diffusione di materiale vegetale infetto. Gazania spp. (Asteraceae) e Lachenalia spp. (Hyacinthaceae) sono specie molto apprezzate per i grandi fiori colorati, come pianta in vaso, per la realizzazione di bordure, ma anche per la produzione di fiori recisi la prima, ed a scopo ornamentale per i colorati fiori tubolari o campanulati la seconda. Nel biennio 2016-2017 sono stati osservati in gazania sintomi che consistevano nel parziale arrotolamento ed arrossamento marginale della lamina fogliare, mentre in lachenalia erano presenti vistose malformazioni fiorali, apici verdi ed ingrossamento dello stelo. Le foglie di quest\u2019ultima erano inoltre caratterizzate da striature necrotiche ed anulature clorotiche e necrotiche. Sono quindi state eseguite analisi molecolari su piante in vaso di Gazania spp. e Lachenalia aloides, la prima proveniente da un\u2019azienda floro-vivaistica del Veneto, la seconda della Piana di Albenga (Savona). I campioni, costituiti prevalentemente da tessuto vascolare prelevato dalle parti sintomatiche e da corrispondenti campioni prelevati da piante asintomatiche, sono stati sottoposti ad estrazione degli acidi nucleici utilizzando un protocollo che prevede l\u2019uso di cloroformio/fenolo e successivamente sottoposti ad amplificazione del gene ribosomico 16S. Il DNA estratto \ue8 stato diluito 1: 100 ed amplificato in PCR diretta con i \u201cprimers\u201d R16F2n/R2 a cui sono seguite, dopo diluizione 1: 30, le amplificazioni in PCR \u201cnested\u201d con le coppie di \u201cprimers\u201d R16(I)F1/R1 e U5/U3 interne alla prima. Tutti i campioni prelevati dalle piante sintomatiche di gazania e lachenalia sono risultati positivi in entrambe le amplificazioni \u201cnested\u201d e l\u2019analisi del polimorfismo della lunghezza dei frammenti di restrizione effettuata con le endonucleasi Tru1I e HhaI ha evidenziato la presenza di fitoplasmi del giallume dell'astro, correlati a \u2018Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris\u2019, sottogruppo 16SrI-B. Nelle colture ornamentali il fitoplasma del giallume dell\u2019astro (16SrI-B) \ue8 uno di quelli pi\uf9 frequentemente segnalati ma non era mai stato individuato in piante appartenenti ai generi Lachenalia e Gazania. Mentre per lachenalia questa rappresenta la prima segnalazione della presenza di fitoplasmi, in gazania sono stati di recente segnalati in Arabia Saudita fitoplasmi del gruppo 16SrII associati a sintomi simili a quelli individuati nelle colture del Veneto

First report of phytoplasmas associated with Erysimum linifolium L. stunting

Erysimum linifolium L. (sin. Cheiranthus linifolium L.) (Brassicaceae), or Aegean wallflower, native to the Mediterranean region, is an evergreen perennial compact shrub that offers silvery-green foliage and beautiful spikes of lilac-mauve flowers through long periods, starting in mid-spring. In Liguria region (northern Italy) this species is mostly cultivated to be used in rock gardens or in mixed garden borders. In 2012, a phytoplasma-like disease was observed in a few pot-plants at an ornamental grower of Albenga area (Liguria region). Symptomatic E. linifolium showed reduced leaf size, rosetting and stunting; in some cases, shortening of internodes and growing reduction involved only a part of the plant. After first symptoms observation, an increasing percentage of symptomatic plants were found at flowering stage, when affected plants did not bloom. In order to verify phytoplasma presence and to determine their identity, samples from symptomatic and asymptomatic plants were collected and tested, after a chloroform/phenol nucleic acid extraction by direct PCR with primers P1A/P7A followed by nested-PCR with primers F1/B6 and R16F2n/R2. RFLP analyses performed with Tru1I and HhaI enzymes, allowed the identification, only in the symptomatic plants, of phytoplasmas belonging to subgroup 16SrI-B (\u2018Candidatus phytoplasma asteris\u2019). Further confirmation of phytoplasmas identity was obtained after Tru1I RFLP analyses on tuf gene amplified with cocktail primers. \u2018Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris\u201d (16SrI) is associated with over 100 economically important plant diseases and represent on of the most diverse and widespread phytoplasma groups. Strains that belong to subgroups 16SrI-A, 16SrI-B and 16SrI-C are distributed worldwide and are associated with diseases in more than 80 plant herbaceous species transmitted by more than 30 species of insect vectors. The 16SrI-B represents the largest and most diverse strain cluster in the group in which at least 20 ribosomal subgroups were recognized. Some of the subgroups were only detected in woody hosts such as 16SrI-P identified in poplar in Eastern Europe, 16SrI-S and 16SrI-Q detected in cherry respectively in China and in Lithuania indicating the ability of some of its strains to infect all kind of plant species. The detection and identification of aster yellows phytoplasmas in E. linifolium in Italy represents however its first report in this species worldwide. Phytoplasmas belonging to 16SrII group (\u2018Ca. P. aurantifolia\u2019) were detected in 2010 in E. cheiri (sin. C. cheiri) a different species cultivated in south-eastern Iran. In this case, infected plants showed witches\u2019 broom and phyllody. Considering that E. linifolium is propagated by seed, it is very likely that leafhoppers are involved in 16SrI-B phytoplasma spreading in this species. Work on possible insect vector identification is in progress

Individuazione di fitoplasmi in colture di Monarda fistulosa L.

La monarda, nota anche come erba bergamotto (Monarda fistulosa L.), appartiene alla grande famiglia delle Lamiaceae; si tratta di una specie erbacea perenne originaria del Nord America, dalle foglie ovato-lanceolate ed i fiori riuniti in verticilli terminali di colore lilla o violetto. Possiede propriet\ue0 antisettiche, digestive ed antispasmodiche, ma pu\uf2 essere impiegata anche a scopo culinario (le foglie fresche rientrano nella preparazione di insalate, frittate, macedonie, t\ue8 aromatici, ecc.). Nel mese di luglio 2009 \ue8 stata osservata in un piccolo impianto di monarda allestito nel Giardino delle Erbe \u201cAugusto Rinaldi Ceroni\u201d di Casola Valsenio (Ravenna; Emilia-Romagna) una malattia tipicamente riferibile alla presenza di fitoplasmi. Il 50% delle piante presenti risultava colpito e presentava sintomi di nanismo, giallume fogliare, virescenza e malformazioni dei verticilli fiorali. Campioni fogliari sintomatici ed asintomatici sono stati prelevati e sottoposti alle analisi di laboratorio per individuare ed identificare i fitoplasmi eventualmente presenti. Dopo estrazione degli acidi nucleici mediante un metodo che prevede l\u2019uso di cloroformio e fenolo, effettuata da 1 gr. di materiale floematico, \ue8 stata applicata la tecnica PCR sul gene ribosomico 16S. Dopo una reazione diretta effettuata utilizzando i primers P1/P7 \ue8 stato necessario eseguire una riamplificazione (\u2018nested\u2019 PCR) dei prodotti ottenuti mediante i primers R16F2/R2, interni ai precedenti, per poter visualizzare in gel di agarosio gli amplificati della lunghezza attesa (1.200 nucleotidi). Sono quindi state effettuate analisi del polimorfismo della lunghezza dei frammenti di restrizione (RFLP) su questi amplificati con gli enzimi TruI, TaqI e Tsp509I per 16 ore a 65\ub0C. La comparazione dei profili di restrizione ottenuti dai campioni di monarda con quelli ottenuti dall\u2019amplificazione di ceppi di fitoplasmi gi\ue0 classificati, non ha permesso di identificare i fitoplasmi presenti come ascrivibili a nessuno dei gruppi finora descritti sia dopo amplificazione reale, sia ottenuti dalla restrizione virtuale di sequenze depositate in banca-dati. Ulteriori indagini mediante il sequenziamento degli amplificati e l\u2019uso di ulteriori enzimi di restrizione sono in corso per verificare la posizione tassonomica del nuovo fitoplasma, necessaria per poterne studiare l\u2019epidemiologia ed in particolare per individuarne i vettori in campo. Malattie associate a fitoplasmi sono state gi\ue0 descritte in specie appartenenti al genere Monarda, in particolare in Canada. Qui alla fine degli anni novanta, fitoplasmi del gruppo 16SrI-B (giallume dell\u2019astro, Aster yellows (AY) sono stati identificati in coltivazioni di M. fistulosa con sintomatologie simili a quella riscontrata in Italia. Nel nostro Paese questa rappresenta comunque la prima segnalazione di fitoplasmosi in questa specie