1,721,015 research outputs found
The useof non-conventional dissemination tools for promoting awareness in sustainable food production: The experience of the H2020 FoodE Project in the primary schools of Bologna (Italy)
No full textOne of the aims of the H2020 FoodE project (grant agreement 862663) is to promote awareness and engage school pupils towards themes such as food production, climate changes, food security and sovereignty, city-region food systems (CRFS) and agroecology. The project, based on active citizen engagement through specific actions targeting school pupils, started at the beginning of 2020, and required for adaption to the restrictions and regulations imposed for COVID containment. As far as the primary schools were concerned, to capture the attention of pupils and involve them in the project, animations, comics and interactive quizzes were used as non-conventional dissemination tools. This methodology proved to be viable and was maintained beyond the pandemics. To start, pupils were involved in a contest for drawing the mascot of the FoodE project: a superhero or a superheroine that would help humans to save the planet. The competition was extended to the European countries involved in the project and more than 100 drawings were submitted. The winner drawing, the superhero Terrix, a pot with a plant with a super-intelligence, became the main character of two animations. Terrix has sought solutions to human and environmental problems and has brought its spectators to the discovering of the imaginary city of Sustainabilia, drawn by pupils. All superheroes and superheroines were involved in the adventures of Terrix by using comics as tool of tale: comics described to the readers the new sustainable strategies for food production and brought them to visit the FoodE pilot projects, examples of sustainable CRFS initiatives. Simultaneously, pupils have been involved in a journey through food history, starting from “The food of future – Making a microgreen!” – each pupil received a kit for cultivating microgreens. The journey was continued towards “The food of present” – pupils learnt to read a food label and played to guess the origin and seasonality of food. The journey was concluded by a leap into the food of the past starting from the food habits of ancient civilization and arriving to those of the middle of XIX century. Pupils were invited to write a recipe of a dish that elderly people ate in their youth, with support of their grandfathers. The recipes resulting from the exercise were then collected into a book. At the end of the activities, a survey was distributed to the pupils from primary schools involved in the FoodE project to test the appreciation towards the dissemination tools used and the awareness increase about the food they eat. The level of appreciation that the Terrix animations and comics have achieved among pupils from primary schools was very high and excellent results have been obtained in recognising the origin and seasonality of food: these results have showed that the dissemination methods adopted (quizzes, games, comic) were effective. Finally, teachers have been enthusiastic about the proposed activities as witnessed by the invitations received to replicates the activities in other schools
SafeLab Challenge: A gamification tool for testing and advancing knowledge on workplace safety
Full text linkA training course on workplace safety requires ensuring active and engaged participation, ultimately enabling workers to acquire important information on their own safety and that of colleagues in the workplace. Whenever regulatory frameworks on workplace safety training are lacking, vehiculating information in alternative ways may be stimulating for the participants, e.g., in the form of a board game. Among existing commercial board games, some have been designed to test and boost knowledge on e.g., geography, entertainment, history, art and literature, science and nature, sports and leisure, with players moving along a board and gaining virtual mentions or graduation degrees on the different categories. The adoption of multiple choice tests is common, and competitors are commonly requested to prove their skills on different topics. In the framework of an ongoing Horizon Europe project targeting the dissemination and adoption of simplified cultivation methods (InCiTis-Food, with grant agreement nr 101083790), a board game was drafted for holding a safety training in Nigeria during a workshop involving managers and trainers from 8 Living Labs located in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, and Gabon, as well as university students of degree courses in agriculture and aquaculture. The board game – named SafeLab Challenge - was based on 6 categories that targeted safety practices, namely “General safety information”, “Good practices”, “Chemical risk”, “Food safety”, “Outdoor activity” and “Hand and power tool”. For each category, 25 questions were prepared. Participants were grouped into competing teams, and the board was colocated at the centre of the room, while participants would be standing around and in turn rolled their dice and – depending on the spot where their token landed - they would have to respond a multiple choice questions of a specific category among the 6 listed above. Participants actively engaged to the game, being competitive and rejoicing at each correct answer. After every answer, an explanation was elaborated jointly with the group of trainees, in order to better fix the concept. The game had also the role to reinforce the relationships inside the group, beyond cultural differences, as also evidenced through a survey addressing participant satisfaction and acquired knowledge
Monitoraggio di residui di pesticidi in ortofrutta in pre-raccolta (Serie storica 2007-2016) Focus sull’Emilia-Romagna
Full text linkLa valutazione del rischio ambientale e alimentare hanno rappresentato un ruolo centrale nel raggiungimento degli obiettivi stabiliti dalla strategia della Commissione Europea nel programma Europa 2020 e costituiscono uno dei capisaldi dell’attuale strategia Horizon Europe. La collaborazione fra enti pubblici, società scientifiche e privati rappresenta il core delle nuove strategie per raggiungere l’obiettivo della sicurezza ambientale e alimentare con un focus sulla salute, come anche indicato dalla FAO e dall’OMS.
Accanto ai numerosi e stringenti controlli sulla qualità dei prodotti ortofrutticoli alla vendita, oltre 10000 campioni anno in Italia, esistono i controlli dei produttori e delle catene della grande distribuzione organizzata (GDO) che non sono mai pubblici.
Questo report, edito dal Dipartimento di Scienze Tecnologie Agro-alimentari dell’Università di Bologna, presenta proprio questi dati, in gergo chiamati “grigi”. Questa trattazione rappresenta un primo passo, un unicum, grazie alla collaborazione tra una società scientifica, il GRIFA, e una società privata, Conserve Italia, che mette a disposizione milioni di dati residuali di prodotti fitosanitari in derrate alimentari in pre-raccolta per fare una valutazione statistica dell’andamento nazionale del loro utilizzo in un arco temporale molto ampio, che permetta di comprendere come l’agricoltura si sia adattata ai cambiamenti normativi, di costume e climatici. Un lavoro complesso che gli autori hanno affrontato con tenacia e dedizione, trovando la chiave scientifica per una corretta e oggettiva interpretazione
Effect of the Growing Season, Trichoderma, and Clinoptilolite Application on Potentially Toxic Elements Uptake by Cucumis melo L
Full text linkThe extent to which different agricultural strategies may affect the uptake
of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) by cropped plants is not entirely understood at a field scale. This study addresses the effect of seasonality, Trichoderma inoculation alone, or combined with different applications of commercial-grade clinoptilolite (i.e., foliar action, fertigation, and pellet) on the PTE content of early- and late-ripening cultivars of Cucumis melo L. Two similar field experiments were performed in spring and summer. For each cultivar/treatment combination, the input of PTEs [namely, chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb)] into the soil-crop system through irrigation
water, fertilizers, pesticides, and treatment products (i.e., Trichoderma and clinoptilolite products), as well as the PTE content of melon stem, leaves, and fruit, were measured through inductively coupled plasma-optic emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). Neither Trichoderma alone nor with clinoptilolite had a visible effect on PTE uptake by plants, whereas early season cultivation was strongly associated with reduced uptake of Cu and Pb. The high correlation of Cu and Pb content with stem and leaf calcium (Ca) content (used as a proxy for different transpiration rates under
different growing seasons) indicated a possible uptake of these metals through Ca nonselective cation channels as a defense against drought stress. Reduced Cu and Pb concentrations were found in early-ripening fruit cultivated in spring. Concerning Cu and Pb risk management, in case of significant contamination in Mediterranean calcareous soils, early-ripening Cucumis melo L. cultivars are suggested instead of lateripening ones
Efficient dissipation of acetamiprid, metalaxyl, S-metolachlor and terbuthylazine in a full-scale free water surface constructed wetland in Bologna province, Italy: A kinetic modeling study
Full text linkThe study investigated the dissipation ability of a vegetated free water surface (FWS) constructed wetland (CW) in treating pesticides-contaminated agricultural runoff/drainage water in a rural area belonging to Bologna province (Italy). The experiment simulated a 0.1% pesticide agricultural water runoff/drainage event from a 12.5-ha farm by dissolving acetamiprid, metalaxyl, S-metolachlor, and terbuthylazine in 1000 L of water and pumping it into the CW. Water and sediment samples from the CW were collected for 4 months at different time intervals to determine pesticide concentrations by multiresidue extraction and chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses. In parallel, no active compounds were detected in the CW sediments during the experimental period. Pesticides dissipation in the wetland water compartment was modeled according to best data practices by fitting the data to Single First Order (SFO), First Order Multi-Compartment (FOMC) and Double First Order in Parallel (DFOP) kinetic models. SFO (except for metalaxyl), FOMC and DFOP kinetic models adequately predicted the dissipation for the four investigated molecules, with the DFOP kinetic model that better fitted the observed data. The modeled distribution of each pesticide between biomass and water in the CW highly correlated with environmental indexes as Kow and bioconcentration factor. Computed DT50 by DFOP model were 2.169, 8.019, 1.551 and 2.047 days for acetamiprid, metalaxyl, S-metolachlor, and terbuthylazine, respectively. Although the exact degradation mechanisms of each pesticide require further study, the FWS CW was found to be effective in treating pesticides-contaminated agricultural runoff/drainage water within an acceptable time. Therefore, this technology proved to be a valuable tool for mitigating pesticides runoff occurring after intense rain events
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
The adventures of Terrix - A complicated choice
Full text linkThe adventures of Terrix - A gripping story of Terrix and its friends, the superheroines and superheroes of FoodE, drawn by the pupils of the primary schools of Bologna involved in the FoodE project
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