196,384 research outputs found
The Managerial Transformation of Italian Co-operative Enterprises 1946-2010
No full textThe Italian co-operative enterprises have prospered in the last thirty years in various sectors. In this essay we analyze the role played by managerilization in allowing Italian co-ops to compete nationally and internationally with capitalist enterprises. On the basis of a substantial set of company histories and managers interviews, we have built a three generations model of co-ops managers, which shows the changes that have allowed co-ops to become fully equipped with managerial skills. The strong leadership of umbrella organizations, the inner careers of most managers and legislation have been instrumental in avoiding demutualization, the killer of co-ops in many other countries.
AFLA-pistachio: development of a mechanistic model to predict aflatoxin contamination of greek pistachio nuts
No full textPistachios are cultivated worldwide for their high nutritional value and their good flavour. In Greece, the main pistachio variety is Pistachia vera cv Aegina. One of the main regions of pistachio cultivation in Greece is Aegina Island, located close to Athens and the pistachio nuts cultivated there are registered as P.D.O. (Product of Designation of Origin). During the last decades, several surveys on Greek pistachio nuts indicated high contamination with aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), therefore, aflatoxins are considered a major problem for the crop. In Europe, a legislation is in force and 12 μg/kg of AFB1 is the fixed limit. The ultimate goal of the current study was to develop a mechanistic, weather-driven model, to predict Aspergillus flavus growth and AFB1 contamination in pistachios on a daily base from nut setting until harvest. The planned steps were: i) to develop a prototype model based on AFLA-maize (Battilani et al., 2013), ii) to collect meteorological and AF contamination data in Aegina, iii) to run the model and elaborate a probability function to estimate the likelihood to overcome the legal limit and iv) to manage a preliminary validation. AFLA-pistachio model was developed; the validation was carried out using data collected in 2014 and 2015 as model input and around 70% of pistachio orchards were correctly classified by the model in respect to the legal limit. Results were very promising and AFLA-pistachio model seems to be a useful tool for stakeholders to follow the dynamic of AFB1 contamination risk throughout the pistachio growing season
Effect of solute and matric potential on in vitro growth and sporulation of strains from a new population of Aspergillus flavus isolated in Italy.
No full textThe effect of temperature and different solute (Ψs) and matric potentials (Ψm) on growth and sporulation of three aflatoxigenic strains of Aspergillus flavus isolated from contaminated maize in northern Italy was determined. The Ψs of maize-based media were modified ionically (NaCl) and non-ionically (glycerol) and the Ψm with PEG 8000 in the range −1.4 to −21.0 MPa at 25 and 30 °C. Both temperature and Ψs/Ψm stress had statistically significant effects on growth rates of the three strains. Faster growth occurred at 30 °C and −1.4 and −2.8 MPa. A. flavus strains were more sensitive to Ψm than Ψs stress with limits of −9.8 MPa and −14 to−18 MPa, respectively. Sporulation was significantly influenced by Ψs potential, solute type and temperature. This suggests that these aflatoxigenic strains of A. flavus isolated from aflatoxin-contaminated maize are probably able to colonise crop debris rapidly at prevailing temperatures and water stress conditions. This type of information on the ecology of aflatoxin producing A. flavus strains isolated in Italy will contribute to the development of a systems model to predict their activity in crop residue and colonisation of maize grain
Turismo, centri storici e contesti metropolitani
No full textIl saggio fa parte del quarto Rapporto annuale di Urban@it - Centro nazionale di studi per le politiche urbane, e riassume quelli che sono i principali aspetti legati al tema turismo nei centri storici, sia in termini di evoluzione economica, che di opportunità e minacce rispetto alla conservazione e valorizzazione del patrimonio paesaggistico e storico-architettonico, offrendo alcuni orientemanti per lo sviluppo di politche tese ad equilibrare la relazione fra spazio turistico e spazio di vista dei residenti. I contributi dei co-autori, Patrizia Battilani, Valentina Orioli, Giovanna Iacovone (università della Basilicata), Massimo Morisi e Annick Magnier (Università di Firenze) sono ben riconoscibili, come specificato nella nota editoriale a corredo del volume. Il saggio è stato costruito anche grazie al contributo offerto da background paper forniti da altri studiosi aderenti ad Urban@it e pubblicati sul sito del Centro all'indirizzo https://www.urbanit.it/rivista-online
Detection and discrimination between ochratoxin producer and non-producer strains of Penicillium nordicum on a ham-based medium using an electronic nose
No full textThe aim of this work was to evaluate the potential use of qualitative volatile
patterns produced by Penicillium nordicum to discriminate between ochratoxin A
(OTA) producers and non-producer strains on a ham-based medium. Experiments were
carried out on a 3% ham medium at two water activities (aw ; 0.995, 0.95)
inoculated with P. nordicum spores and incubated at 25°C for up to 14days.
Growing colonies were sampled after 1, 2, 3, 7 and 14days, placed in 30-ml
vials, sealed and the head space analysed using a hybrid sensor electronic nose
device. The effect of environmental conditions on growth and OTA production was
evaluated based on the qualitative response. However, after 7days, it was
possible to discriminate between strains grown at 0.995 aw, and after 14days,
the OTA producer and non-producer strain and the controls could be discriminated
at both aw levels. This study suggests that volatile patterns produced by P.
nordicum strains may differ and be used to predict the presence of toxigenic
contaminants in ham. This approach could be utilised in ham production as part
of a quality assurance system for preventing OTA contaminatio
A short geostatistical study of the three-dimensional spatial structure of fumonisins in stored maize
No full textThe heterogeneous three-dimensional spatial distribution of mycotoxins has
proven to be one of the main limitations for the design of effective sampling
protocols. Current sample collection protocols for mycotoxins have been designed
to estimate the mean concentration and fail to characterise the spatial
distribution of the mycotoxin concentration due to the aggregation of the
incremental samples. Geostatistical techniques have been successfully applied to
overcome similar problems in many research areas. However, little work has been
developed on the use of geostatistics for the design of sampling protocols for
mycotoxins. This paper focuses on the analysis of the two and three-dimensional
spatial structure of fumonisins B1 (FB1) and B2 (FB2) in maize in a bulk store
using a geostatistical approach and on how results help determine the number and
location of incremental samples to be collected. The spatial correlation between
FB1 and FB2, as well as between the number of kernels infected and the level of
contamination was investigated. For this purpose, a bed of maize was sampled at
different depths to generate a unique three-dimensional data set of FB1 and FB2.
The analysis found no clear evidence of spatial structure in either the two-
dimensional or three-dimensional analyses. The number of Fusarium infected
kernels was not a good indicator for the prediction of fumonisin concentration
and there was no spatial correlation between the concentrations of the two
fumonisins
Rimini: An Original Mix of Italian Style and Foreign Models?
No full textThis paper analyses Rimini’s tourism development from the first half of the XIX° century to the present days. In sections 2-6 we will present the different stages of growth and the developing of a new image and kind of holiday while in sections 7-9 we will focus on 3 case-studies which can shed some light on the organisational model and on the imitation of foreign technology and exemples.
To sum up very often Rimini’s entrepreneurs have copied foreign models and imported new kind of amusements and services. However they never forgot to customize foreign models to Italian tastes. The result was an original mix between Italian style and foreign models
Virus evolution and molecular epidemiology of viral diseases
No full textViruses cause a large number of infectious diseases in human and veterinary medicine. Despite an extensive research effort, viral infections continue to appear in human and animal populations, as demonstrated by recent “new” viruses (HIV, SARS) and viral outbreaks can also have dramatic economical impact. Furthermore, emerging human viruses are often zoonotic infections. The advent of rapid and large-scale gene sequencing has allowed remarkable new into the viral evolution and molecular epidemiology of viral diseases. Viruses, especially those with RNA genomes, represent ideal organisms to study the dynamics of microevolutionary changes. RNA viruses have evolved a remarkable diversity of genomes and replicative mechanisms. Mutation rates during RNA virus replication are several orders of magnitude larger than those operating during replication of cellular DNA. This result in the continuous generation of mutant genomes and the dynamic mutant distributions that constitute RNA virus population are termed quasispecies. It is generally believed that the DNA virus genomes may be no more variable than cellular genes; but recent experimental data evidence multiple examples of genetic instability in the world of the DNA viruses.
Phylogenetic analysis allows tracking the spread of virus strains, by investigating the genetic differences due to mutations that have accumulated over time.
The strategies and mechanisms used by viruses in their evolutionary pathways and the tools used to investigate these processes are described
The Relationship between Cultural Tourism and Heritage Management in Italy during the Past two Hundred Years
No full textIl saggio analizza il rapporto fra turismo culturale e patrimonio culturale in Italia negli ultimi due secoli
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