Composting technologies have progressed parallel to the growing interest in recycling organic waste over recent decades, whilst in-field compost application requires technical improvement and more experience in order to optimize their effect according to the agro-environment and the type of crop which follow their incorporation into the soil. In response to compost application, biological soil features were assessed in field by adopting precision agricultural machinery and by limiting soil incorporation to a depth of 15 cm. A 2-year trial was carried out on two sites in the East Po valley (Northern Italy), an agricultural district which, in 2000, was classified as being on the verge of desertification, and where efforts to counteract soil organic matter decline have been underway for some decades. A green-waste compost produced in accordance with current national directives was applied in autumn 2019 and 2020 to two organic fields using precision farming machinery for compost spreading and conventional harrows for incorporation. Fields were divided into two large plots to compare the effect of compost treatment to an untreated control and were managed according to organic farming practices. Seven months after application, microbial biomass, assessed in terms of DNA, and 17 enzymatic activities were estimated by sampling root-explored soil at the vegetative stage of different seed crops for organic horticulture. A significant overall increase of biological soil activity was detected after the second application. The qualitative response varied slightly between the two sites: a higher impact of microbial biomass was observed in the site that was poorer in soil organic matter; whilst in the other, an increase of phosphatase activities contributed more to the general increase of biological activity. Findings show that, in those agricultural soils, an agronomic advantage from compost can be obtained only after repeated applications; furthermore, precision farming technologies facilitate compost application even in small, specialized farms such as those which hosted this trial.

Soil suppressiveness which is the natural ability of soil to support optimal plant growth and health is the resultant of multiple soil microbial components; which implies many difficulties when estimating this soil condition. Microbial benefits for plant health from repeated digestate applications were assessed in three experimental sites surrounding anaerobic biogas plants in an intensively cultivated area of northern Italy. A 2-yr trial was performed in 2017 and 2018 by performing an in-pot plant growth assay, using soil samples taken from two fields for each experimental site, of which one had been repeatedly amended with anaerobic biogas digestate and the other had not. These fields were similar in management and crop sequences (maize was the recurrent crop) for the last 10 yr. Plant growth response in the bioassay was expressed as plant biomass production, root colonization frequency by soil-borne fungi were estimated to evaluate the impact of soil-borne pathogens on plant growth, abundance of Pseudomonas and actinomycetes populations in rhizosphere were estimated as beneficial soil microbial indicators. Repeated soil amendment with digestate increased significantly soil capacity to support plant biomass production as compared to unamended control in both the years. Findings supported evidence that this increase was principally attributable to a higher natural ability of digestate-amended soils to reduce root infection by saprophytic soil-borne pathogens whose inoculum was increased by the recurrent maize cultivation. Pseudomonas and actinomycetes were always more abundant in digestate-amended soils suggesting that both these large bacterial groups were involved in the increase of their natural capacity to control soil-borne pathogens (soil suppressiveness).

A study was performed in controlled conditions to reproduce cold and warm spring regimes in the east Po valley, northern Italy with a temperate subcontinental climate, to evaluate whether and to what extent spring weather regimes favour the attack of Rhizoctonia solani or Colletotrichum coccodes on potato, in view of predicted climate change. The main experiment, preceded by a controlled chamber set of tests to quantify response to temperatures of R. solani anastomosis group (AG)-3 and C. coccodes strains, showed that limit temperatures (minimum, maximum and optimum of colony radial growth) of R. solani AG-3 are 6 °C lower than those of C. coccodes. Then, a trial to reproduce early growth stages of potato was performed in phytotrons with sprouts of cvar Hermes to simulate cold and warm spring regimes with two different relative soil moisture contents. That simulation was carried out on native non-sterilized soil samples which were co-inoculated artificially with R. solani AG-3 and C. coccodes. Species-abundance findings of fungal root colonization in potato roots and molecular quantification (quantitative polymerase chain reaction) of C. coccodes and R. solani AG-3 inoculum growth in soil showed that: (i) C. coccodes is more competitive than R. solani AG-3 in colonizing potato root both in warm and cold spring regimes; (ii) R. solani AG-3 infected potato roots only in the coldest spring regimes regardless of soil moisture content; (iii) soil temperature is the greatest factor that influences root colonization of C. coccodes and R. solani as well as that of soil inhabiting fungi including some potential antagonists; (iv) R. solani AG-3 and C. coccodes seem to greatly increase in soil under the relative driest and warmest spring weather regimes expected according to the mean scenarios of climate changing in northern Italy; (v) binucleate Rhizoctonia AG-A, a common non-pathogenic fungus indigenous to agricultural soil of that area, appears to be antagonistic towards root fungal pathogens of potato.

Multi-object spectrographs available on 8-m class telescopes provide the unique opportunity to directly investigate the kinematical and chemical properties of significant samples of resolved stars in galaxies of the Local Group. We present here the first results concerning an extensive study of stellar populations of the Carina dSph galaxy, based on data collected with the multi-object spectrographs FORS2 and FLAMES, both available at VLT. Preliminary estimates concerning the radial velocity distributions of the different samples are presented.

We present new near-infrared Ks photometry of the interesting Galactic globular cluster NGC 6441. The optical-NIR color-magnitude diagram shows evolutionary features that seem to agree with a canonical evolutionary framework. The K-band Period-Luminosity-Metallicity relation of RR Lyrae stars gives a distance estimate of 15.51±0.07 that is slightly larger previous estimates.

Faecal samples from 350 farm workers on 276 dairy farms and 50 abattoir employees from seven different operations were examined for the presence of Verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 (VTEC O157) by an O157-specific enzyme-linked fluorescent assay followed by immuno-concentration. VTEC O157 was isolated from four (1·1%) of the farm workers. A second stool sample was obtained from the positive farm workers as well as from their household contacts. VTEC O157 was isolated from the wife of one of them. The strains from the same household shared the same Verocytotoxin genes profile, phage type and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis pattern. The VTEC O157-positive subjects had neither intestinal symptoms at the moment of sampling nor a history of bloody diarrhoea or renal failure. Our study seems to confirm the hypothesis that farm residents often develop immunity to VTEC O157 infection, possibly due to recurrent exposure to less virulent strains of VTEC.

In this work, we address the problem of identifying the minimum temperature required to diffuse copper deposited at the silicon surface into the bulk, and to identify a suitable method to detect the initial stages of copper electrical activity at wafer surface. Thermal treatments at temperatures ≥250 °C were studied. It is shown that after an annealing at temperatures ≥250 °C a significant copper fraction diffuses in silicon, but it is not electrically active for carrier recombination. In addition, after these treatments copper at the silicon surface cannot be completely removed by cleaning. A moderate electrical activity is associated to copper at the oxide-silicon interface in the native oxide A change in the chemical bonds of copper is detected by XPS after annealing at 700 °C. After a further annealing at 900 °C, copper is electrically active for recombination both at the surface and in the bulk.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of the heart-rate (HR) version of the energy expenditure index (EEIHR) as a proxy for measurement of walking oxygen consumption (VO2) in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Thirteen children (eight males, five females; mean age 11 years 2 months [SD 3 years], age range 6 to 15 years) with hemiplegic CP, participated in this study. The study was conducted over three sessions. During session 1, participants were familiarized with testing procedures and given 5 minutes of treadmill walking practice. In session 2, participants completed three 5-minute walking bouts on the treadmill at 0.67m·s-1 to familiarize themselves with treadmill locomotion. During the final session participants walked at 0.67, 0.89, and 1.12m·s-1 for 5 minutes while gross oxygen consumption (gross VO2; walking VO2/speed), net VO2 ([walking VO2–resting VO2]/speed), and EEIHR ([walking HR–resting HR]/speed) were measured during the last 2 minutes of each bout. Correlational analyses indicated no relationship (p>0.05) between measures of gross VO2 and EEIHR at each speed. Although no association was evident between net VO2 and EEIHR at 0.67 and 0.89m·s-1, a moderate relationship (r=0.64; p<0.05) was present between these variables at 1.12m·s-1. Examination of individual data revealed that most participants displayed an unmatched pattern of response between net VO2 and EEIHR. Our results suggest that caution should be applied when using EEIHR to estimate walking energy expenditure in children with CP.

We present first results concerning the detection of variable stars in the Carina dwarf Spheroidal from B, V images collected with the 4-m CTIO telescope. We show a sample of candidate variables spanning from the tip of the Red Giant Branch down to the Main Sequence turn off. Finally, we discuss the future photometric and spectroscopic developments of this project.

We present some preliminary results based on new observations of the variable stars belonging to the Carina Dwarf Galaxy (DG). Photometric data were collected with the two wide field imagers available at ESO (WFI@2.2.) and CTIO (4m prime focus).

Practical use of amorphous silicon stacked-junction color detectors in large-area arrays requires periodic readout of the photo-charge stored in the capacitance of the device by a transient technique of sensing. In any stacked-junction devices, color information is obtained by the “self-biasing” process: during an integration time, the three junctions independently lose charge; during the readout pulse, the capacitances of the three junctions in electrical series are re-charged. Equilibrium is reached after a few cycles, when the charge integrated in a cycle by each junction is the same, and equals the readout charge. The amount of charge is determined by the reverse biased junction and accounts for the light intensity.

Dimensioning the amorphous silicon Thin Film Transistor (TFT) used as a pixel switch for the detector is a critical part of the project of a color imager. The actual design determines the self-bias process duration and the readout accuracy. The typical large thickness difference between the detector junctions makes the constraints for the switching process extremely demanding: since a greater capacitance is expected in the thinner top junction detecting blue radiation, the on-resistance must be reduced. Since the front junction does not ensure full rejection of green and red light, a calculation must be performed to extract the information on blue radiation. This requires further precision in the readout process.

In this work we present a simulation study of the self-biasing process. Both a-Si:H TFT and the a-Si:H p-i-n-i-p two-color detectors are simulated by a finite-elements two-dimensional simulator ensuring a correct modeling of both the devices. Simulations allow to study in detail the timing and the accuracy of the self-biasing process. Including electrostatic capacitance and trapped charge, a set of design rules for the TFT is achieved in terms of on-state design. Similar considerations can be extended to the case of ATCD three-color detectors.

In this work we study the effects of material properties on the reading process of color detectors by using a two dimensional simulator for the transient regime. In particular, starting from the potential and charge distribution in the device, we describe effects of the density of defects on the self-bias process. Results show the possibility to engineer materials in order to optimize response speed of the device.

Students of citizen participation in public affairs disagree as to the effectiveness of such citizen involvement. Using the General Revenue Sharing program as a case study and applying techniques of both cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis, this article examines the effectiveness of one form of citizen participation, the public hearing. It is found that in the revenue-sharing program, the public hearing did have an immediate, but only short-term, impact on levels of public interest and citizen involvement. Evidence to support some short-term and some long-term effects on reported expenditure decisions is presented; however, these impacts generally are found to be inconsequential and not statistically significant. It is concluded that, as a form of citizen participation, the public hearing—at least as demonstrated in the General Revenue Sharing program—has not had much of an impact on citizen behavior or policy choices.

Modern presidents must be attentive to influences of the federal bureaucracy on their policy initiatives and all attempt some measure of bureaucratic control. This article assesses the extent of President Nixon's success in gaining some degree of management control over the bureaucracy through the manipulation of the civil service personnel system. We find that Republicans were, in fact, more likely to be selected to top career positions during the Nixon years. We find also that career executives calling themselves Independents were more likely during the Nixon years than before to resemble Republican executives in their support of Nixon's policies and goals. This is significant to presidential control because of the large number of bureaucrats calling themselves Independents. We conclude that Independent career executives may provide a president with a considerable reservoir of bureaucratic support.