Spatial and temporal variation in settlement, growth and condition of the rockfish species Sebastes caurinus and Sebastes carnatus in the Channel Islands region, Santa Barbara, CA

Survival during the early life stages of marine species, including nearshore temperate reef fishes, is typically very low, and small changes in mortality rates, due to physiological and environmental conditions, can have marked effects on survival of a cohort and, on a larger scale, on the success of a recruitment season. Moreover, trade offs between larval growth and accumulation of energetic resources prior to settlement are likely to influence growth and survival until this critical period and afterwards. Rockfish recruitment rates are notoriously variable between years and across geographic locations. Monitoring of rates of onshore delivery of pelagic juveniles (defined here as settlement) of two species of nearshore rockfishes, Sebastes caurinus and Sebastes carnatus, was done between 2003-2009 years using artificial collectors placed at San Miguel and Santa Cruz Island, off Southern California coast. I investigated spatiotemporal variation in settlement rate, lipid content, pelagic larval duration and larval growth of the newly settled fishes; I assessed relationships between birth date, larval growth, early life-history characteristics and lipid content at settlement, considering also interspecific differences; finally, I attempt to relate interannual patterns of settlement and of early life history traits to easily accessible, local and regional indices of ocean conditions including in situ ocean temperature and regional upwelling, sea surface temperature (SST) and Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration. Spatial variations appeared to be of low relevance, while significant interannual differences were detected in settlement rate, pelagic larval duration and larval growth. The amount of lipid content of the newly settled fishes was highly variable in space and time, but did not differ between the two species and did not show any relationships with early life history traits, indicating that no trade off involved these physiological processes or they were masked by high individual variability in different periods of larval life. Significant interspecific differences were found in the timing of parturition and settlement and in larval growth rates, with S. carnatus growing faster and breeding and settling later than S. caurinus. The two species exhibited also different patterns of correlations between larval growth rates and larval duration. S. carnatus larval duration was longer when the growth in the first two weeks post-hatch was faster, while S. caurinus had a shorter larval duration when grew fast in the middle and in the end of larval life, suggesting different larval strategies. Fishes with longer larval durations were longer in size at settlement and exhibited longer planktonic phase in periods of favourable environmental conditions. Ocean conditions had a low explanatory power for interannual variation in early life history traits, but a very high explanatory power for settlement fluctuations, with regional upwelling strength being the principal indicator. Nonetheless, interannual variability in larval duration and growth were related to great phenological changes in upwelling happened during the period of this study and that caused negative consequences at all trophic levels along the California coast. Despite the low explanatory power of the environmental variables used in this study on the variation of larval biological traits, environmental processes were differently related with early life history characteristics analyzed to species, indicating possible species-specific susceptibility to ocean conditions and local environmental adaptation, which should be further investigated. These results have implications for understanding the processes influencing larval and juvenile survival, and consequently recruitment variability, which may be dependent on biological characteristics and environmental conditions.

Drugstore Bologna. Una lettura del rapporto tra la città e la droga

The main task of this research is to investigate the situation of drugs in the city of Bologna. A first discussion pertains the method to adopt studying an ethical question as drug actually is. In fact it is widely known that drugs problem involves many political and religious considerations which are misleading in a scientific point of view. After a methodological chapter supposed to show the purpose of this research, it is discussed a logical definition of drugs. There it is examined an aristotelian definition of drugs with semantic instruments from philosophy of the language to fulfil meaning of terms. The following chapter discusses personal stories of different people involved in drug in the city, who actually represent the main characters of drug subculture. Afterwards the official statistics concerning drug enforcement is discussed and compared with a specific police action which allows to criticize that data, and to make some hypothesis about drug quantities circulating in town. Next step is investigating drugs addicted in town, with a validation technique of data base queries. The result is a statistics of users in which there is evidence of main presence of foreigners and not resident Italians who use to practice drugs in this city. Demographic analysis of identified people shows that drug addiction is widely diffused among all range of age and mainly pertains males, with an increasing trend. Then is examined the geographic distribution of users residence and use places, showing that drugs abuse is spread among all classes of population, while drugs squares are located in some points of town which realise a kind of drug area with a concentration of dealers not organised together. With some detailed queries in police reports statistics is studied some specific subject on nowadays drug abuse, the phenomenon of multi-use, the relation between drug and crime, the relation between drug and mental disease, recording some evidence in such topics. Finally a survey on city media along last two years shows the interest about this topic and gives an idea of public opinion’s information about drugs. The study refers to the city of Bologna only, and pertains data recorded along last ten years by the local metropolitan police corp.

Geological and Structural evolution of the Eurasia Africa plate boundary in the Gulf of Cadiz Central Eastern Atlantic Sea.

Iberia Africa plate boundary, cross, roughly W-E, connecting the eastern Atlantic Ocean from Azores triple junction to the Continental margin of Morocco. Relative movement between the two plate change along the boundary, from transtensive near the Azores archipelago, through trascurrent movement in the middle at the Gloria Fracture Zone, to transpressive in the Gulf of Cadiz area. This study presents the results of geophysical and geological analysis on the plate boundary area offshore Gibraltar. The main topic is to clarify the geodynamic evolution of this area from Oligocene to Quaternary. Recent studies have shown that the new plate boundary is represented by a 600 km long set of aligned, dextral trascurrent faults (the SWIM lineaments) connecting the Gloria fault to the Riff orogene. The western termination of these lineaments crosscuts the Gibraltar accretionary prism and seems to reach the Moroccan continental shelf. In the past two years newly acquired bathymetric data collected in the Moroccan offshore permit to enlighten the present position of the eastern portion of the plate boundary, previously thought to be a diffuse plate boundary. The plate boundary evolution, from the onset of compression in the Oligocene to the Late Pliocene activation of trascurrent structures, is not yet well constrained. The review of available seismics lines, gravity and bathymetric data, together with the analysis of new acquired bathymetric and high resolution seismic data offshore Morocco, allows to understand how the deformation acted at lithospheric scale under the compressive regime. Lithospheric folding in the area is suggested, and a new conceptual model is proposed for the propagation of the deformation acting in the brittle crust during this process. Our results show that lithospheric folding, both in oceanic and thinned continental crust, produced large wavelength synclines bounded by short wavelength, top thrust, anticlines. Two of these anticlines are located in the Gulf of Cadiz, and are represented by the Gorringe Ridge and Coral Patch seamounts. Lithospheric folding probably interacted with the Monchique – Madeira hotspot during the 72 Ma to Recent, NNE – SSW transit. Plume related volcanism is for the first time described on top of the Coral Patch seamount, where nine volcanoes are found by means of bathymetric data. 40Ar-39Ar age of 31.4±1.98 Ma are measured from one rock sample of one of these volcanoes. Analysis on biogenic samples show how the Coral Patch act as a starved offshore seamount since the Chattian. We proposed that compression stress formed lithospheric scale structures playing as a reserved lane for the upwelling of mantle material during the hotspot transit. The interaction between lithospheric folding and the hotspot emplacement can be also responsible for the irregularly spacing, and anomalous alignments, of individual islands and seamounts belonging to the Monchique - Madeira hotspot.

Forstentomologische Untersuchungen an Eichen unterschiedlicher Vitalität des Pfälzerwaldes

Seit Beginn der Waldzustandserhebungen im Jahr 1984 verschlechterte sich der Zustand der Eiche sowohl auf Bundesebene als auch im Land Rheinland-Pfalz deutlich. 1998 konnten nur noch 5 % der rheinland-pfälzischen Eichen in die Kategorie "ohne Schadensmerkmale" eingestuft werden. Vor diesem Hintergrund ergab sich die Notwendigkeit, die biotischen Stress- und Schadfaktoren näher zu untersuchen. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit lag der Fokus auf den holzbewohnenden Käfern von Traubeneichen (Quercus petraea) aus dem Pfälzerwald. Zu diesem Zweck wurden für die erste Probenserie Untersuchungsbäume aus den Vitalitätsstufen 'vital', 'geschädigt', 'ein Jahr tot' und 'zwei Jahre tot' ausgewählt und in die drei Straten Stammfuß, Kronenansatz und Derbholz unterteilt. In der zweiten Probenserie kamen keine 'vitalen' Stämme mehr zum Einsatz. Die einzelnen Proben wurden in Fasseklektoren überführt, in denen die xylobionten Käfer ihre Entwicklung beenden und schlüpfen konnten. Die erste Probenserie wurde im Herbst 1998 entnommen, die zweite Serie im darauffolgenden Herbst. Zusätzlich zu diesen Laboruntersuchungen wurden Freilanduntersuchungen mit Stammeklektoren an vier stehenden Eichen im Wald durchgeführt. Die gefangenen Tiere wurden nach Ordnungen sortiert und gezählt, die Käfer nach Möglichkeit bis zur Art bestimmt. Die Ergebnisse der ersten und zweiten Serie wurden in Abundanzen (Ind./m² Rindenoberfläche) umgerechnet, um einen Vergleich der Proben untereinander möglich zu machen. Insgesamt wurden aus den Fasseklektoren beider Serien Käfer mit einer Abundanz von 36.990 Ind./m² ausgewertet. In den Fallen der Stammeklektoren wurden insgesamt 1.487 Käfer gefunden. Den weitaus größten Teil der Käfer der Fasseklektoren stellen die Borkenkäfer (Scolytidae). Dieses Ergebnis schlägt sich auch in der Betrachtung der Dominanz der einzelnen Arten nieder. In nahezu allen Fällen gehörten die Hauptarten in die Familie Scolytidae. Der mit den Absterbeerscheinungen der Eichen in Verbindung gebrachte Prachtkäfer Agrilus biguttatus (Buprestidae) trat in deutlich geringeren Abundanzen auf. Aufgrund seiner Fraßtätigkeit (Ringelung der Larven im Kambialbereich der Bäume) gehört er aber zu den potentiell stark schädigenden Käfern. Neben A. biguttatus sind auch A. sulcicollis und die gefundenen Borkenkäfer in der Lage, vorgeschädigte und geschwächte Eichen zu befallen und noch weiter zu schwächen. Aus waldhygienischen Gründen sollten deshalb regelmäßige Kontrollen durchgeführt werden. Bei erkennbarem Befall sollten die betroffenen Bäume gefällt und aus dem Bestand entfernt werden. Langfristig können die Vermeidung von nicht-standortgerechtem Eichenanbau und das Anlegen von naturnahen Mischbeständen zu den waldbaulichen Maßnahmen gerechnet werden, die eine Reduktion des Infektionsrisikos zur Folge haben. Die 'ein Jahr toten' Bäume wiesen die mit Abstand höchste Abundanz an Lebendholzbesiedlern auf. Bäume, die bereits ein Jahr länger tot im Bestand standen, wurden von deutlich weniger Lebendholzbesiedlern befallen, d.h. von 'zwei Jahre toten' Bäumen ging ein potentiell geringerer Infektionsdruck aus als von 'ein Jahr toten' Eichen. Im Laufe des Verrottungsprozesses verringert sich diese Gefahr noch weiter, da die Holzfeuchte weiter abnimmt und die Lebendholzbesiedler keine Nahrungsgrundlage mehr vorfinden. Besonders die Gefahr des Neubefalls durch Agrilus von mindestens zweijährig toten Bäumen besteht kaum, weil zumindest die Larven der ersten Stadien des Prachtkäfers auf lebendes Gewebe angewiesen sind.

Il Nilotinib nella terapia di prima linea della leucemia mieloide cronica

Background: Nilotinib is a potent and selective BCR-ABL inhibitor. The phase 3 ENESTnd trial demonstrated superior efficacy nilotinib vs imatinib, with higher and faster molecular responses. After 24 months, the rates of progression to accelerated-blastic phase (ABP) were 0.7% and 1.1% with nilotinib 300mg and 400mg BID, respectively, significantly lower compared to imatinib (4.2%). Nilotinib has been approved for the frontline treatment of Ph+ CML. With imatinib 400mg (IRIS trial), the rate of any event and of progression to ABP were higher during the first 3 years. Consequently, a confirmation of the durability of responses to nilotinib beyond 3 years is extremely important. Aims: To evaluate the response and the outcome of patients treated for 3 years with nilotinib 400mg BID as frontline therapy. Methods: A multicentre phase 2 trial was conducted by the GIMEMA CML WP (ClinicalTrials.gov.NCT00481052). Minimum 36-month follow-up data for all patients will be presented. Definitions: Major Molecular Response (MMR): BCR-ABL/ABL ratio <0,1%IS; Complete Molecular Response (CMR): undetectable transcript levels with ≥10,000 ABL transcripts; failures: according to the revised ELN recommendations; events: failures and treatment discontinuation for any reason. All the analysis has been made according to the intention-to-treat principle. Results: 73 patients enrolled: median age 51 years; 45% low, 41% intermediate and 14% high Sokal risk. The cumulative incidence of CCgR at 12 months was 100%. CCgR at each milestone: 78%, 96%, 96%, 95%, 92% at 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months, respectively. The overall estimated probability of MMR was 97%, while the rates of MMR at 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months were 52%, 66%, 85%, 81% and 82%, respectively. The overall estimated probability of CMR was 79%, while the rates of CMR at 12 and 24 months were 12% and 27%, respectively. No patient achieving a MMR progressed to AP. Only one patient progressed at 6 months to ABP and subsequently died (high Sokal risk, T315I mutation). Adverse events were mostly grade 1 or 2 and manageable with appropriate dose adaptations. During the first 12 months, the mean daily dose was 600-800mg in 74% of patients. The nilotinib last daily dose was as follows: 800mg in 46 (63%) patients, 600mg in 3 (4%) patients and 400mg in 18 (25%), 6 permanent discontinuations. Detail of discontinuation: 1 patient progressed to ABP; 3 patients had recurrent episodes of amylase and/or lipase increase (no pancreatitis); 1 patient had atrial fibrillation (unrelated to study drug) and 1 patient died after 32 months of mental deterioration and starvation (unrelated to study drug). Two patients are currently on imatinib second-line and 2 on dasatinib third-line. With a median follow-up of 39 months, the estimated probability of overall survival, progression-free survival and failure-free survival was 97%, the estimated probability of event-free survival was 91%. Conclusions: The rate of failures was very low during the first 3 years. Responses remain stable. The high rates of responses achieved during the first 12 months are being translated into optimal outcome for most of patients.

Per un'indagine comparata della relazione voce-movimento nel performer

The present study investigates the principles that effect the relationship between voice and movement in performance. The topic stresses a contemporary tendency, which emerges from the work of numerous artits and looks into a research field that has not yet been well explored. The research arises from what I observed and experienced during my performance practical work and what I deepened after theorical studies: expression through movement and voice reflects constant principles. The first two chapters of the former study analyze the compared lines of the inquiry, from a theoretical point of view (interior and exterior voice-movement spatial patterns, and temporal patterns) and a practical point of view referring to body, action and relation. The third one is a survey on 'vocal gesture' as devised by Francesca della Monica, a topic that finds here the first academic investigation, built after nine years sudies with the artist on the oral sources of her teaching. The research is based on practical and theorical sources (especially philosophical studies of Giovanni Piana, Carlo Serra, Merleau-Ponty; performing studies of Grotowski, Laban, Dalcroze, Tomatis; ancient greek philosophy and literature; bodywork tecqniques as Kineseology, Body-mind centering, Alexander, Feldenkrais). The purpose of the study is to theorize, sistematyze and expose clear lines of compared investigation awakening the performer's interest on a central issue of his work and drawing the researcher's attention to make further focusing on the matter. Abstract (Italian) La ricerca va incontro a una tendenza che la contemporaneità pone in risalto con l'opera di numerosi artisti, investigando un campo ancora poco visitato a livello critico. Essa teorizza, sistematizza ed espone le costanti riscontrate nella relazione tra voce e movimento. L'indagine deriva dal presupposto, a me suggerito dalla pratica e dallo scambio con maestri e performer, e qui approfondito e restituito a livello teorico, che nella danza e nel canto, nell'espressione attraverso il movimento o attraverso la voce, si riflettono gli stessi principi. La tesi è articolata in tre capitoli: i primi due sviluppano le linee di indagine comparata, prima da un punto di vista filosofico e poi da un punto di vista pratico, il terzo porta alla luce il concetto di gesto-vocale come inteso da Francesca della Monica, di cui questo studio rappresenta il primo contributo scientifico, aprendo una ricerca nuova agli studi di settore. Il primo capitolo, 'Risonanze', sviluppa le premesse filosofiche della questione, introduce il corpo come veicolo di voce e movimento, affronta il tema del movimento della voce nello spazio interno del corpo e nello spazio di relazione. Legge poi il movimento in termini temporali, secondo i concetti di istante, ritmo, forma e flusso. Il secondo capitolo, 'Costanti', espone le costanti concrete della relazione voce-movimento in riferimento allo spazio interno del corpo, all'azione, allo spazio esterno di relazione. Il terzo capitolo, 'Confini', analizza il gesto vocale, come inteso da Francesca della Monica, concetto sintesi dell'intera ricerca poiché integra, nella sua essenza, il movimento fisico e vocale, restituendo e approfondendo lo spettro di riflessioni emerse nei primi due capitoli. Il gesto vocale, nella sua accezione espressiva, così come il lavoro di Francesca della Monica, è ancora estraneo agli studi di settore e trova in questo studio un primo contributo accademico. Le fonti sono quelle dell'insegnamento orale di Francesca della Monica, che ho seguito per nove anni, fino a desumerne una mia personale sistematizzazione, integrata con altri punti di vista critici. Analizzo i diversi livelli di profondità del gesto vocale scandendo il tema secondo la categoria della relazione: relazioni motorie, relazioni materiche, relazioni spaziali, temporali, compositive e sinestesiche. Le fonti della ricerca sono scaturite da due sorgenti, quella sul campo, e quella della teoria, confluite qui in un unico flusso. Le fonti 'in presa diretta' sono state avvalorate e confrontate con le fonti relative agli studi di settore (in particolare per la filosofia Giovanni Piana, Carlo Serra, Merleau-Ponty, per il teatro, il canto e la danza Grotowski, Laban, Dalcroze, Tomatis) e le bodywork techniques (Kinesiologia, Body-mind centering, metodo Alexander, metodo Feldenkrais). Ampio spazio viene dato alla grecità antica, che propone sull'espressione di voce e movimento un pensiero integrato carico di speculazioni che racchiudono in nuce i principi sviluppati. Lo studio tenta di offrire un livello di lettura idoneo a suscitare l'interesse del performer, e a valere come momento di indagine per lo studioso, che possa da queste basi operare approfondimenti sulle connessioni proposte. L'obiettivo è restituire la conoscenza, intuita in virtù della pratica, elaborata ed arricchita grazie alla teoria, su un nodo fondamentale per gli studi teatrali e recente oggetto di attenzione da parte di critici e artisti.

(De)colonization through topophilia: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’s life and work in Florida

(De)colonization Through Topophilia: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’s Life and Work in Florida attempts to reveal the author’s intimate connection to and mental growth through her place, namely the Cross Creek environs, and its subsequent effect on her writing. In 1928, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and her first husband Charles Rawlings came to Cross Creek, Florida. They bought the shabby farmhouse on Cross Creek Road, trying to be both, writers and farmers. However, while Charles Rawlings was unable to write in the backwoods of the Florida Interior, Rawlings found her literary voice and entered a symbiotic, reciprocal relationship with the natural world of the Cracker frontier. Her biographical preconditions – a childhood spent in the rural area of Rock Creek, outside of Washington D. C. - and a father who had instilled in her a sense of place or topophilia, enabled her to overcome severe marriage tensions and the hostile climate women writers faced during the Depression era. Nature as a helping ally and as an “undomesticated”(1) space/place is a recurrent motif throughout most of Rawlings’s Florida literature. At a time when writing the American landscape/documentary and the extraction of the self from texts was the prevalent literary genre, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings inscribed herself into her texts. However, she knew that the American public was not yet ready for a ‘feminist revolt’, but was receptive of the longtime ‘inaudible’ voices from America’s regions, especially with regard to urban poverty and a homeward yearning during the Depression years. Fusing with the dynamic eco-consciousness of her Cracker friends and neighbors, Rawlings wrote in the literary category of regionalism enabling her to pursue three of her major aims: an individuated self, a self that assimilated with the ‘master narratives’ of her time and the recognition of the Florida Cracker and Scrub region. The first part of this dissertation briefly introduces the largely unknown and underestimated writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, providing background information on her younger years, the relationship toward her family and other influential persons in her life. Furthermore, it takes a closer look at the literary category of regionalism and Rawlings’s use of ‘place’ in her writings. The second part is concerned with the ‘region’ itself, the state of Florida. It focuses on the natural peculiarities of the state’s Interior, the scrub and hammock land around her Cracker hamlet as well as the unique culture of the Florida Cracker. Part IV is concerned with the analysis of her four Florida books. The author is still widely related to the ever-popular novel The Yearling (1938). South Moon Under (1933) and Golden Apples (1935), her first two novels, have not been frequently republished and have subsequently fallen into oblivion. Cross Creek (1942), Rawlings’s last Florida book, however, has recently gained renewed popularity through its use in classes on nature writers and the non-fiction essay but it requires and is here re-evaluated as the author’s (relational) autobiography. The analysis through place is brought to completion in this work and seems to intentionally close the circle of Rawlings’s Florida writings. It exemplifies once more that detachment from place is impossible for Rawlings and that the intermingling of life and place in literature, is essential for the (re)creation of her identity. Cross Creek is therefore not only one of Rawlings’s greatest achievements; it is more importantly the key to understanding the author’s self and her fiction. Through the ‘natural’ interrelationship of place and self and by looking “mutually outward and inward,”(2) Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings finds her literary voice, a home and ‘a room of her own’ in which to write and come to consciousness. Her Florida literature is not only product but also medium and process in her assessment of her identity and self. _____________ (1) Alaimo, Stacy. Undomesticated Ground: Recasting Nature as Feminist Space (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2000) 23. (2) Libby, Brooke. “Nature Writing as Refuge: Autobiography in the Natural World” Reading Under the Sign of Nature. New Essays in Ecocriticism. Ed. John Tallmadge and Henry Harrington. (Salt Lake City: The U of Utah P, 2000) 200.

Willem de Sitter in Leiden - ein Kapitel in der Rezeptionsgeschichte der Relativitätstheorien

Der niederländische Astronom Willem de Sitter ist bekannt für seine inzwischen berühmte Kontroverse mit Einstein von 1916 bis 1918, worin die relativistische Kosmologie begründet wurde. In diesem Kontext wird sein Name mit dem von ihm geschaffenen kosmologischen Modell verbunden, welches er als Gegenbeispiel zu Einsteins physikalischer Intuition schuf. Obwohl diese Debatte schon in wissenschaftshistorischen Arbeiten analysiert wurde, hat de Sitters Rolle in der Rezeption und dem Verbreiten der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie bislang in der Hauptrichtung der Einstein-Studien noch nicht die ihr zustehende Aufmerksamkeit erhalten. Die vorliegende Untersuchung zielt darauf ab, seine zentrale Wichtigkeit für die Forschung zur ART innerhalb der Leidener Community aufzuzeigen. Wie Eddington war de Sitter einer der wenigen Astronomen, die sowohl hinreichende Ausbildung als auch nötige Interessen vereinten, um zum einen die spezielle und zum anderen die allgemeine Relativitätstheorie zu verfolgen. Er befasste sich zunächst 1911 mit dem Relativitätsprinzip (Einsteins erstes Postulat der SRT); zwei Jahre später fand er einen Nachweis für die Konstanz der Lichtgeschwindigkeit (Einsteins zweites Postulat). De Sitters Interesse an Gravitationstheorien reicht sogar noch weiter zurück und lässt sich bis 1908 zurückverfolgen. Überdies verfolgte er Einsteins Versuche, einen feldtheoretischen Ansatz für die Gravitation zu konstruieren, inklusive der kontroversen Einstein-Grossmann Theorie von 1913. Diese Umstände zeigen deutlich, dass de Sitters bekannteres Werk zur ART eine Konsequenz seiner vorausgegangenen Forschungen war und kein Resultat einer plötzlichen, erst 1916 einsetzenden Beschäftigung mit Einsteins Relativitätstheorie.

Practical implications of aflatoxin contamination in corn

Aflatoxin (AFL) contamination of corn is a serious economic and food security issue. Although a variety of technical solutions for reducing AFL contamination of corn have been proposed, only a few have produced satisfactory results. A successful approach is a biocontrol strategy consisting of using non-flatoxigenic strains of Aspergillus flavus to replace indigenous AFL-producing isolates. The main objective of the present thesis was to investigate the dynamic and contamination of AFL/A. flavus in corn in Northern Italy. The study also investigated the role of the key-pest of corn, the European Corn Borer (ECB), on AFL contamination and dispersal of A. flavus propagules in corn. Finally, the study evaluated the feasibility of bioplastic-based granules entrapping a non-aflatoxigenic A. flavus strain for the biocontrol of this fungus in corn. The 2-year field study demonstrated the efficacy of the bioplastic formulation to reduce AFL contamination in corn. More precisely, although AFL contamination varied among the two years, application of 15 and 30 kg ha-1 of granules reduced AFL contamination to up 60 and 85% in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Microbiological analysis showed that the relative abundance of non-aflatoxigenic soil isolates significantly increased after 1 month from granules application (mid-May) and throughout the corn-growing season. These findings were consistent with data obtained using a bioplastic-based bait specifically developed to selectively isolate Aspergilli from soil and other environmental samples. In addition, field and laboratory evaluations showed that the level of damages produced by ECB larvae were not significantly correlated to A. flavus infestation and AFL contamination. Taking together, these findings demonstrated that AFL contamination of corn in Northern Italy was variable, but above the EU limit for human consumption. First proposed in the USA, this study showed the practical possibility of this formulation to be use for reducing AFL contamination in corn in the EU.

Patterns of regional differentiation in post-Soviet Russia

This doctoral thesis aims at contributing to the literature on transition economies focusing on the Russian Federations and in particular on regional income convergence and fertility patterns. The first two chapter deal with the issue of income convergence across regions. Chapter 1 provides an historical-institutional analysis of the period between the late years of the Soviet Union and the last decade of economic growth and a presentation of the sample with a description of gross regional product composition, agrarian or industrial vocation, labor. Chapter 2 contributes to the literature on exploratory spatial data analysis with a application to a panel of 77 regions in the period 1994-2008. It provides an analysis of spatial patterns and it extends the theoretical framework of growth regressions controlling for spatial correlation and heterogeneity. Chapter 3 analyses the national demographic patterns since 1960 and provides a review of the policies on maternity leave and family benefits. Data sources are the Statistical Yearbooks of USSR, the Statistical Yearbooks of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Demographic Yearbooks of Russia. Chapter 4 analyses the demographic patterns in light of the theoretical framework of the Becker model, the Second Demographic Transition and an economic-crisis argument. With national data from 1960, the theoretically issue of the pro or countercyclical relation between income and fertility is graphically analyzed and discussed, together with female employment and education. With regional data after 1994 different panel data models are tested. Individual level data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey are employed using the logit model. Chapter 5 employs data from the Generations and Gender Survey by UNECE to focus on postponement and second births intentions. Postponement is studied through cohort analysis of mean maternal age at first birth, while the methodology used for second birth intentions is the ordered logit model.

Transatlantic negotiations on "hell"?: W. E. B. Du Bois's visit to fascist Germany and Theodor W. Adorno's exile in the land of the culture industry

In 1936, the African-American intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois visited Nazi Germany for a period of five months. Two years later, the eleven-year-long American exile of the German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno began. From the latter’s perspective, the United States was the “home” of the Culture Industry. One intuitively assumes that these sojourns abroad must have amounted to “hell on earth” for both the civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois and the subtle intellectual Adorno. But was this really the case? Or did they perhaps arrive at totally different conclusions? This thesis deals with these questions and attempts to make sense of the experiences of both men. By way of a systematic and comparative analysis of published texts, hitherto unpublished documents and secondary literature, this dissertation first contextualizes Du Bois’s and Adorno’s transatlantic negotiations and then depicts them. The panoply of topics with which both men concerned themselves was diverse. In Du Bois’s case it encompassed Europe, science and technology, Wagner operas, the Olympics, industrial education, race relations, National Socialism and the German Africanist Diedrich Westermann. The opinion pieces which Du Bois wrote for the newspaper “Pittsburgh Courier” during his stay in Germany serve as a major source for this thesis. In his writings on America, Adorno concentrated on what he regarded as the universally victorious Enlightenment and the predominance of mass culture. This investigation also sheds light on the correspondences between the philosopher and Max Horkheimer, Thomas Mann, Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer and Oskar and Maria Wiesengrund. In these autobiographical texts, Adorno’s thoughts revolve around such diverse topics as the American landscape, his fears as German, Jew and Left-Hegelian as well as the loneliness of the refugee. This dissertation has to refute the intuitive assumption that Du Bois’s and Adorno’s experiences abroad were horrible events for them. Both men judged the foreign countries in which they were staying in an extremely differentiated and subtle manner. Du Bois, for example, was not racially discriminated against in Germany. He was also delighted by the country’s rich cultural offerings. Adorno, for his part, praised the U.S.’s humanity of everyday life and democratic spirit. In short: Although both men partly did have to deal with utterly negative experiences, the metaphor of “hell on earth” is simply untenable as an overall conclusion.

La registrazione immobiliare nell'ordinamento cinese e nelle esperienze giuridiche europee: modelli per una nuova riforma in Cina

L’ordinamento giuridico cinese contemporaneo si è, recentemente, impegnato in una riforma che ha interessato le norme vigenti in materia di registrazione immobiliare con l’intento di realizzare un sistema unitario dell’istituto. Dal momento che la modernizzazione del diritto civile cinese è iniziata - a partire dalla fine del XIX secolo – tramite il recepimento del diritto civile occidentale, la disamina delle esperienze europee in materia di pubblicità immobiliare assume una notevole importanza, al fine di esaminare le norme vigenti in Cina e i cambiamenti scaturenti dalla riforma. Pertanto, l’obiettivo della mia ricerca è stato quello di avanzare una tesi che possa rivelarsi quale strumento utile per la riforma in Cina, attraverso uno studio comparato dei modelli europei in materia di registrazione immobiliare. A tal fine, il lavoro è stato suddiviso in due parti: nella prima si è presentata un’analisi dettagliata del diritto di proprietà, del dualismo delle proprietà fondiarie e relative problematiche, del sistema dei diritti reali costituito dalla Legge sui diritti reali del 2007, da cui è partita la riforma dell’istituto della registrazione immobiliare. Un approfondimento particolare è dedicato al pluralismo dei regimi di registrazione immobiliare vigenti nel diritto cinese contemporaneo e all’introduzione dei cambiamenti apportati dal nuovo regolamento del 2015. Nella seconda parte dell’elaborato, attraverso lo studio comparato dei diversi modelli Europei (Francese, Tedesco e Inglese), si è tentato di illustrare le esperienze europee in materia di pubblicità immobiliare maturate nei tre temi maggiormente rappresentativi e concreti, quali la tutela degli interessi privatistici, l’autenticità dei titoli e il ruolo del notaio, la procedura della pubblicità immobiliare, al fine di individuare una via percorribile per il perfezionamento del sistema unitario della registrazione nell’ordinamento cinese. Nelle conclusioni, infine, sono state inserite anche alcune riflessioni circa l’importanza dello studio del diritto comparato per l’esperienza Cinese.

Keplero e la musica. Il Libro III dell'Harmonice mundi (Linz, 1619): traduzione e Introduzione

Questo lavoro si concentra su un particolare aspetto della sfaccettata ricerca scientifica di Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), ossia quello teorico-musicale. I pensieri dell’astronomo tedesco riguardanti tale campo sono concentrati – oltre che in alcuni capitoli del Mysterium cosmographicum (1596) ed in alcune sue lettere – nel Libro III dell’Harmonices mundi libri quinque (1619), che, per la sua posizione mediana all’interno dell’opera, tra i primi due libri geometrici e gli ultimi due astronomici, e per la sua funzione di raccordo tra la «speculazione astratta» della geometria e la concretizzazione degli archetipi geometrici nel mondo fisico, assume la struttura di un vero e proprio trattato musicale sul modello di quelli rinascimentali, nel quale la «musica speculativa», dedicata alla teoria delle consonanze e alla loro deduzione geometrica precede la «musica activa», dedicata alla pratica del canto dell’uomo nelle sue differenze, generi e modi. La tesi contiene la traduzione italiana, con testo latino a fronte, del Libro III dell’Harmonice, e un’ampia introduzione che percorre le tappe fondamentali del percorso biografico e scientifico che hanno portato alla concezione di quest’opera – soffermandosi in particolare sulla formazione musicale ricevuta da Keplero, sulle pagine di argomento musicale del Mysterium e delle lettere, e sulle riflessioni filosofico-armoniche sviluppate negli anni di ricerca – e offre gli elementi fondamentali per poter comprendere l’Harmonice mundi in generale e il Libro III in particolare. A ciò si aggiunge, in Appendice, la traduzione, anch’essa con testo latino a fronte, della Sectio V, dedicata alla musica, del Liber IX dell’Almagestum novum (1651) di Giovanni Battista Riccioli (1598-1671), interessante sia dal punto di vista della recezione delle teorie di Keplero che dal punto di vista della storia delle idee musicali.

Catálogo y estudio de las gramáticas de italiano para hispanohablantes: siglos XVIII y XIX

El objetivo de la presente investigación, el catálogo y estudio de las gramáticas de italiano destinadas a hispanohablantes de los siglos XVIII y XIX, se encuadra en el macrosector gramaticográfico de la historiografía lingüística, en el cual el estudio de las gramáticas de las lenguas dirigidas a hablantes nativos y a hablantes extranjeros, con los consiguientes cruces y trasvases de tradiciones gramaticales, es de significativo interés como destacan: (i) las tesis doctorales defendidas en los últimos quince años; (ii) los proyectos de investigación dirigidos y coordinados por prestigiosos estudiosos del sector; (iii) los congresos organizados para destacar y compartir las principales actualizaciones en torno a los estudios gramaticográficos; y (iv) las publicaciones que surgen de los tres puntos anteriores. El estudio presenta dos partes centrales: la primera (constituida por los capítulos 2 y 3) es la de catálogo y estudio de las diecinueve gramáticas que conforman el corpus en base a ocho áreas descriptivas (1. información catalográfica, 2. autor, 3. editor, 4. hiperestructura, 5. elementos peritextuales, gramaticales y didácticos, 6. variedad de textos y su secuencia didáctica, 7. caracterización, fuentes e influencias, y 8. localización); la segunda (capítulo 4) es la de estudio gramaticográfico de conjunto de los datos más relevantes de las areas de estudio utilizadas en las dos primeras partes. De este modo, daremos un panorama de conjunto sobre (i) la cronología de las obras y sus ediciones y rempresiones; (ii) la nacionalidad, profesión, condición religiosa, etc. de autores; (iii) la geografía de ediciones y editores; (iv) la descripción hiperestructural de las obras; (v) la estructura de los elementos peritextuales; (vi) las partes gramaticales y elementos que las componen; (vii) el verbo: definiciones y paradigma verbal; (vii) los elementos didácticos; (viii) las líneas de descripción gramatical; (ix) la localización de las gramáticas en las bibliotecas españolas.

Antarctic cloud spectral emission from ground-based measurements, a focus on far infrared signatures

The present work belongs to the PRANA project, the first extensive field campaign of observation of atmospheric emission spectra covering the Far InfraRed spectral region, for more than two years. The principal deployed instrument is REFIR-PAD, a Fourier transform spectrometer used by us to study Antarctic cloud properties. A dataset covering the whole 2013 has been analyzed and, firstly, a selection of good quality spectra is performed, using, as thresholds, radiance values in few chosen spectral regions. These spectra are described in a synthetic way averaging radiances in selected intervals, converting them into BTs and finally considering the differences between each pair of them. A supervised feature selection algorithm is implemented with the purpose to select the features really informative about the presence, the phase and the type of cloud. Hence, training and test sets are collected, by means of Lidar quick-looks. The supervised classification step of the overall monthly datasets is performed using a SVM. On the base of this classification and with the help of Lidar observations, 29 non-precipitating ice cloud case studies are selected. A single spectrum, or at most an average over two or three spectra, is processed by means of the retrieval algorithm RT-RET, exploiting some main IR window channels, in order to extract cloud properties. Retrieved effective radii and optical depths are analyzed, to compare them with literature studies and to evaluate possible seasonal trends. Finally, retrieval output atmospheric profiles are used as inputs for simulations, assuming two different crystal habits, with the aim to examine our ability to reproduce radiances in the FIR. Substantial mis-estimations are found for FIR micro-windows: a high variability is observed in the spectral pattern of simulation deviations from measured spectra and an effort to link these deviations to cloud parameters has been performed.