720 research outputs found
Posidonia residues can be used as organic mulch and soil amendment for lettuce and tomato production
No full textInternational audienceThere is a need for sustainable fertilizers because common mineral fertilizers are increasingly costly and often induce water and air pollution. For instance, seagrass compost could be used as fertilizer in the coastal areas of the Mediterranean, thus also solving the issue of beached residues. Here, we studied organic fertilization by application of seagrass-based compost in a tomato and lettuce crop succession. Composts were made of posidonia and yard wastes at 1/4 w/w fresh weight ratio. Compost was applied at two concentrations: 10 and 20 Mg ha−1 fresh weight. Fresh leaves of posidonia were also tested directly as organic mulch in plots treated with conventional fertilizers. A control treatment involved mineral fertilization without mulching soil. Herbicide applications were performed in non-mulched plots immediately before transplanting of tomato and lettuce for controlling the weeds, while mulched treatments did not receive any herbicide application. Results show that 20 Mg ha−1 of posidonia-based compost is equivalent to the inorganic fertilization because the nutritional status and yield of tomato and lettuce were statistically similar. No phytotoxicity symptoms were observed in any of the tomato and lettuce plants mulched with posidonia. The same growth rate was observed for tomato and lettuce growing under conventional management practices: mineral fertilizer and herbicide applications. Overall, our findings show that seagrass-based compost is a promising, sustainable fertilizer for tomato and lettuce
La Vestale 'incesta'
No full textMarcello Salvadore: La Vestale incesta.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Pliny the Younger and Plutarch are the sources
of a detailed account of Vestalis incesta’s punishment: they say that she was
sentenced to death. Dionysius adds that there was no after death ritual.
Modern scholars generally accept what the three authors assert. In this article
the author surmises that the Vestalis incesta, together with the parricida, was
not condemned to death: both of them were sentenced to a particular kind
of banishment from the Society
Economic evaluation of hydrological ecosystem services in Mediterranean river basins applied to a case study in southern Italy
No full textLand use affects the eco-hydrological processes with consequences on extreme events such as floods and droughts. Changes in land use affect terrestrial ecosystems and their hydrological services. Spatial planning integrates the water resources governance in order to achieve the objectives of the water and floods European directives. The objective of this paper is the study of hydrological ecosystem services through the quantification of water resources, pollutant loads, land retention capacity and soil erosion. This evaluation allows assignment of an economic value to the ecosystemic services, and then the programming of compensatory actions to climatic or anthropogenic alterations. By assigning an economic value to natural resources (water and soil) and hydraulic system, the authors quantified the hydrological services provided by ecosystems of catchments using climate, hydrological and land use parameters. The proposed methodology to the basin "Bonis" (Calabria Region, Italy) has been applied. The authors have formulated three scenarios: variation between cultivated and forest areas, insertion of impermeable areas and alteration of the vegetation vigor. The simulations prove that the variations of the state of forest areas has a considerable influence on the quantity of water, and then on the economic value provided. Small economic changes occur in the introduction of reduced impermeable areas. A 50% rise of agricultural areas to the detriment of forest areas, increases soil erosion and reduces the storage capacity of the water. The proposed methodology can be a guideline for land planning choices
De Lope a Celano: la adaptación italiana de "Los tres diamantes"
No full textAbstract
This paper explores an Italian adaptation of Lope de Vega’s play Los tres diamantes, written in the
second part of the seventeenth century. Its author, Carlo Celano, was a famous writer of opere regie,
i.e., adaptations of Spanish comedies of situation. The analysis focuses on the way in which the
adaptation of the Aristotelian units of space and time leads to a reduction of the characters and a
simplification of the situation, although this is compensated by enriching its ludic component. This
last trait can be also observed in a previous re-elaboration of Lope’s comedy, the scenario of the
Commedia dell’arte titled Il cavaliere dai tre gigli d’oro
Feasibility of SRC Species for Growing in Mediterranean Conditions
No full textThe suitability of poplar (Populus × canadensis Moench.—genotype ‘Neva’), black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.), and eucalyptus (Eucalyptus bridgesiana R. Baker) growing in short rotation coppice (SRC) system in a Mediterranean area (southern Italy), and under two management regimes, was evaluated in terms of survival, biomass yield, biomass quality, and soil fertility. The high management regime (H treatment) consisted of high plant density (6667 trees ha−1) and a 2-year harvesting cycle; the low management regime (L treatment) consisted of low plant density (1667 trees ha−1) and a 4-year harvesting cycle. The dry biomass production was 36, 13, and 9 t dry matter (dm) ha−1 in the H treatment and 25, 14, and 7 t dm ha−1 in the L treatment for eucalyptus, black locust, and poplar, respectively. The analysis of the biomass showed a superior quality for the black locust feedstock because of its low moisture and ash percentages, high heating value (HHV), and low alkali metal concentrations, although, from an environmental point of view, the high N (12.3 g kg−1) and S (0.7 g kg−1) biomass concentrations would increase the pollutant emissions generated by combustion. Eucalyptus showed a high HHV, especially for the H treatment (18.70 MJ kg−1). Its high concentrations of K (4 g kg−1) and Mg (0.8 g kg−1) could provoke slagging and fouling in combustion equipment, and the high concentrations of S and N, if leaves are considered in the harvested biomass, indicate the low quality of its feedstock. No specific poplar feedstock stood out, although it had a good HHV (19.02 MJ kg−1). The soil fertility was not affected negatively after the 4-year SRC cycle, while S content in soil showed a tendency to increase in the case of black locust cultivation
Due note critiche
No full textMarcello Garzaniti
Answers to Criticism
The author answers to the critics of M. Capaldo and A.Giambelluca Kossova with the aim to bring the different proposed questions back into the sphere of scientifi c dialogue
Increasing the effective use of water in green asparagus through deficit irrigation strategies
No full textA six-year study was carried out to assess the effects of deficit (DI) and regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) strategies on yield and water use efficiency of two hybrids of asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L., hybrids Grande and Italo), in a typical semi-arid Mediterranean environment of Southern Italy. The experimental setup consisted of full irrigation (IRR; restoration of 100% of the crop evapotranspiration ET c ), DI (restoration of 50% of ET c from the first fern flush until the end of the growing season) and two RDI (1: no irrigation supply from the first fern flush, crop development stage more sensitive to water stress, until end of the growing season, RDI 1 ; 2: no irrigation supply from the second fern flush until the end of the growing season, RDI 2 ) treatments. The relationships between yield and water regimes in the multi-year dataset were analyzed using linear mixed effect models (LMM) taking into account residual autocorrelation and comparing different variance-covariance structures. Irrigation treatments affected significantly the asparagus productivity. The six-year average yield was highest under IRR treatment (6.4 t ha −1 ) and lowest under RDI 1 treatment (4.4 t ha −1 ). In comparison with IRR treatment, DI reduced ET c by 20% and yield by 13% (6-season average). Six-year average yields were similar in DI and RDI 2 treatments (5.6 and 5.4 t ha −1 , respectively). Asparagus yield varied with hybrid. Italo hybrid showed higher yield performances (5.6 t ha −1 ) respect to Grande (5.3 t ha −1 ). The soil water deficit tolerance, assessed through the “yield response factor” (Ky of the marketable yield), was 0.61 and this value indicates that asparagus is mildly negatively affected by sub-optimal irrigation regimes. On the contrary, irrigation water use efficiency (WUE I ) was clearly affected by the experimental treatment. WUE I was higher (2.8 kg m −3 ) if asparagus experiences the soil water shortage during the first fern flush (RDI 1 ). Operatively, full irrigation maximizes asparagus marketable yield, while reduced irrigation volume (DI or RDI 2 treatments) seems a promising strategy, since it allowed reducing on average the irrigation volume supplies by 34% with asparagus marketable yield loss by 13%
Structural Determinants in the Binding of BB2 Receptor Ligands: In Silico, X-Ray and NMR Studies in PD176252 Analogues.
No full textThe mammalian bombesin receptor family comprises three G protein-coupled receptors: the neuromedin B receptor, the gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (BB2), and the bombesin receptor subtype 3. BB2 receptor plays a role in gastrointestinal functions; however, at present the role of this subtype in physiological and pathological conditions is unknown due to the lack of specific binders for all subclasses of bombesin receptors. Here, we present a study focused on the properties of the peptoid bombesin antagonist called PD176252, and other structural analogues with the aim to elucidate causes of their different affinity towards the BB2 receptor. By means of computational techniques, based on QSAR, docking and homology building, supported by experimental data (X-ray diffraction and NMR spectroscopy) fresh insights on binding modes of this class of biological targets were achieved
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