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A field experiment was carried out in Adiyo, Bonke, Chencha, Sodo zuriya, and North Ari districts, they are found in Southern Ethiopia, during the 2019 main production season. The objective of the experiment was to evaluate the effectiveness of the integrations of host resistance and application of fungicides with designated spray frequency on Fusarium head blight under natural epiphytotic conditions and to determine the management effects on yield and yield components of wheat. The treatments consisted of wheat cultivars (Shorima and Hidase) and fungicides (Propiconazole and Tebuconazole) with four spray frequencies, including an unsprayed one. The experiment was arranged in a split-split plot design with three replications. Wheat cultivars were assigned to the main plots and fungicides allotted to the sub-plots, while the spray frequencies were appointed to sub-sub plots. Results exhibited that integration of wheat cultivars and fungicides with spray frequencies significantly (p < 0.001) reduced disease pressure and increased grain yields across the locations. The highest disease severity (36.46%) and area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) (404.78%-day) and lowest grain yield (2.42 t ha−1) were recorded at North Ari. The lowest severity (7.70%), and AUDPC (130.26%-day), and the highest grain yield (6.68 t ha−1) were recorded in Bonke. The lowest severity (4.78 and 5.74%) and AUDPC (52.86 and 59.78%-day) were recorded from Shorima due to integrated use of Tebuconazole with three and two times spray frequencies, respectively. The highest grain yield of 5.30 t ha−1 was recorded on Shorima in combination with Tebuconazole with three times spray frequencies. The grain yield loss of 46.49% was computed on unsprayed plots of Hidase cultivar. Overall, the results exhibited a combination of moderately resistance wheat cultivars supplemented by fungicide with appropriate spray frequencies right at disease onset reduced disease pressure and increased grain yield. Planting of Shorima combined with Tebuconazole with three times spray frequencies was found effective in reducing FHB epidemics and increasing grain yield with the highest monetary advantage. Therefore, this could be recommended to growers in the study areas and similar agro-ecologies to manage F. graminearum causing FHB in wheat., AUDPC, Fungicides, Fusarium graminearum, Grain yield, Severity, Sprays frequency, Wheat cultivars

Background: Retention of participants in cohort studies is a major challenge. A better understanding of all elements involved in participation and attrition phenomena in particular settings is needed to develop effective retention strategies. The study aimed to achieve an in-depth understanding of participant retention in longitudinal cohorts focusing on participants’ and researcher’s perspectives, across three diverse socio-geographic and cultural settings. Methods: This study used a triangulation of multi-situated methods to collect data on cohort studies of children born with less than 32 weeks of gestation in Denmark, Italy and Portugal. It included focus groups and individual semi-driven interviewing with involved key actors (i.e. parents, staff, healthcare professionals, researchers) and a collaborative visual methodology. A purposive sample of 48 key actors (n = 13 in Denmark; n = 13 in Italy; n = 22 in Portugal) was collected. A triangulation of phenomenological thematic analysis with discourse analysis was applied. Cross-contextual and context-specific situational elements involved in participation and attrition phenomena in these child cohorts were identified at various levels and stages. Results: Main findings included: situational challenges affecting potential and range of possibilities for implementation strategies (geopolitical environment, societal changes, research funding models); situational elements related to particular strategies acting as deterrents (postal questionnaires) and facilitators (multiple flexible strategies, reminders, regular interaction); main motivations to enrol and participate (altruism/solidarity and gratitude/sense of duty to reciprocate); main motivational deterrents to participate to follow-up waves (lack of bonding, insufficient feedback); entanglement of clinical and research follow-up as facilitator and deterrent. Conclusions: The multi-situated approach used, addressing the interplay of the lived experience of individuals, was of most value to understand participation variability under different implemented strategies in-context. Cross-contextual and context-specific situational elements that have been influential factors towards participation and attrition in the cohorts were identified. RECAP Preterm-WP6 QS Work Group Group authorship collaboration RECAP Preterm-WP6 QS Work Group: Sandra CS Marques (CRIA, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal; EPIUnit, Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto, Portugal), Julia Doetsch (EPIUnit, Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto, Portugal), Raquel Teixeira (EPIUnit, Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto, Portugal); Georgia Abate, Grazia Colombo and Marina Cuttini (Clinical Care and Management Innovation Research Area, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, IRCCS, Rome, Italy); Anne Brødsgaard (Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital Amager Hvidovre, Denmark; Department of Public Health, HEALTH, Aarhus University, Denmark); Elizabeth S Draper (Department of Health Sciences, College of Life Sciences, University of Leicester, United Kingdom); Sylvia van der Pal and Ilona Wildeman (TNO-Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek, The Netherlands); Pernille Pedersen (Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital Amager Hvidovre, Denmark); Kari Anne I Evensen, Ann-Mari Brubakk and Marit S Indredavik (Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, NTNU–Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway); Eero Kajantie (Public Health Promotion Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki and Oulu, Finland; PEDEGO Research Unit, MRC Oulu, Oulu University Hospital and University of Oulu, Finland; Children’s Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Finland; Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, NTNU-Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway); Eeva Virtanen (Public Health Promotion Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki and Oulu, Finland); Jo Lebeer; Vicky Hennissen; Iemke Sarrechia (Department FAMPOP Family Medicine & Population Health, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences University of Antwerp, Belgium) and Henrique Barros (Departamento de Ciências da Saúde Pública e Forenses e Educação Médica, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade do Porto, Portugal; EPIUnit, Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto, Portugal). All named researchers contributed to the development of the study protocol and/or its local implementation.

Planning new vineyard needs accurate information about soil features and their spatial variability. The use of soil proximal sensors, coupled by few detailed soil observations and analysis allows to obtain high detailed maps of soil variability at affordable costs. The work showed the methodology to interpolate the proximal sensors data and to delineate homogeneous area by clustering, corresponding to likely soil units. The description and analysis of one profile for each homogeneous area allowed to describe the soil features of each soil typological units and to produce useful thematic maps for vineyard planning., EQA - International Journal of Environmental Quality, Vol 30 (2018): Soil health and strategies in vineyard (I)

This paper aims to show the effectiveness of different soil management strategies for improving soil structure in degraded areas within two vine farms inTuscany(Italy). The management practices adopted were: Composted organic amendment addition (COMP), Green Manure (GM), Dry mulching (DM) and Control (CONTR). Topsoil samples were taken at the beginning of the trial (2015) and two years later, and analyzed for bulk density (BD) and aggregate stability by wet sieving. The strategies adopted to restore the functionality of degraded vineyard soils diversely affected BD and aggregates stability. In both the farms COMP proved to be the best strategy to reduce BD, while GM and DM gave the best results in terms of aggregate stability increase., EQA - International Journal of Environmental Quality, Vol 31 (2018): Soil health and strategies in vineyard (II)

Presence of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) is very common in subjects with cognitive impairment, representing an important determinant of disease progression, institutionalization, and worse prognosis. Knowledge of the prevalence and correlates of BPSD in community-living old subjects with cognitive impairment is limited so far, but it is essential for establishing specifically tailored care and cure in such a vulnerable population.With this study, we aimed at investigating, in a large sample of old age subjects with cognitive impairment, BPSD prevalence and correlates including the main demographic, clinical, and socio-environmental characteristics.Data were gathered from the ReGAl project (Rete Geriatrica Alzheimer; Geriatric Network on Alzheimer's disease), a large longitudinal Italian multicentric clinical-based study, promoted by the Italian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics (SIGG).We evaluated data from 4,157 old-age subjects affected by mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (541; 13%) or dementia (3616; 87%). 85.2% of all the population presented with at least one BPSD. Using a factor analysis, we identified four factors of BPSD: psychotic, affective, maniac, and impulse control behaviors. Logistic regression analyses revealed that among the main demographic, clinical, and socio-environmental aspects considered, only comorbidity was associated with all factors, independently of multiple covariates.Identification of BPSD is crucial in everyday clinical practice and necessary to develop specific interventions and to define appropriate outcomes in their management. BPSD occur in a complex psychopathological context, influenced by several demographic and environmental factors that must be taken into account for a correct diagnosis and treatment.

This paper is aimed at showing the organization of the national soil information system managed by the Agriculture Research Council of Italy (Soil Information System of Italy, SISI). The available soil geodatabases for the whole of Italy are those of the soil regions (1:5,000,000), subregions (1:1,000,000), and systems (1:500,000), while the soil subsystems geodatabase (1:250,000) is available for most part of Italy.

Estimating frequency of soil classes in map unit is always affected by some degree of uncertainty, especially at small scales, with a larger generalization. The aim of this study was to compare different possible approaches - data mining, geostatistic, deterministic pedology - to assess the frequency of WRB Reference Soil Groups (RSG) in the major Italian soil regions. In the soil map of Italy (Costantini et al., 2012), a list of the first five RSG was reported in each major 10 soil regions. The soil map was produced using the national soil geodatabase, which stored 22,015 analyzed and classified pedons, 1,413 soil typological unit (STU) and a set of auxiliary variables (lithology, land-use, DEM). Other variables were added, to better consider the influence of soil forming factors (slope, soil aridity index, carbon stock, soil inorganic carbon content, clay, sand, geography of soil regions and soil systems) and a grid at 1 km mesh was set up. The traditional deterministic pedology assessed the STU frequency according to the expert judgment presence in every elementary landscape which formed the mapping unit. Different data mining techniques were firstly compared in their ability to predict RSG through auxiliary variables (neural networks, random forests, boosted tree, supported vector machine (SVM)). We selected SVM according to the result of a testing set. A SVM model is a representation of the examples as points in space, mapped so that examples of separate categories are divided by a clear gap that is as wide as possible. The geostatistic algorithm we used was an indicator collocated cokriging. The class values of the auxiliary variables, available at all the points of the grid, were transformed in indicator variables (values 0, 1). A principal component analysis allowed us to select the variables that were able to explain the largest variability, and to correlate each RSG with the first principal component, which explained the 51% of the total variability. The principal component was used as collocated variable. The results were as many probability maps as the estimated WRB classes. They were summed up in a unique map, with the most probable class at each pixel. The first five more frequent RSG resulting from the three methods were compared. The outcomes were validated with a subset of the 10% of the pedons, kept out before the elaborations. The error estimate was produced for each estimated RSG. The first results, obtained in one of the most widespread soil region (plains and low hills of central and southern Italy) showed that the first two frequency classes were the same for all the three methods. The deterministic method differed from the others at the third position, while the statistical methods inverted the third and fourth position. An advantage of the SVM was the possibility to use in the same elaboration numeric and categorical variable, without any previous transformation, which reduced the processing time. A Bayesian validation indicated that the SVM method was as reliable as the indicator collocated cokriging, and better than the deterministic pedological approach.

In Chap. 6, dealing with pedodiversity of Italy, Edoardo A. C. Costantini, Roberto Barbetti, Maria Fantappie` , Giovanni L’Abate, Romina Lorenzetti, and Simona Magini illustrate the distribution of soil classes, mainly by means of maps. Soil regions on hills are the most lithologically and climatically variable environments, and host the greatest soil variability and endemisms. A vast majority of the WRB reference soil groups (25 out of 32), as well as soil orders of Soil Taxonomy (10 out of 12) are represented in the main Italian soil typological units (STUs), but the clear skewness and lognormal distribution of STUs demonstrate the utmost endemic nature of many Italian soils. In particular, more than a fourth of STUs belong to Cambisols, more than a half to only four reference soil groups (Cambisols, Luvisols, Regosols, Phaeozems), and 88 % to nine RSGs (the former plus Calcisols, Vertisols, Fluvisols, Leptosols, and Andosols), while the remaining 16 RSGs are represented in 12 % of STUs. A similar trend is depicted by considering single soil profile classification, although a larger number of main soil types are represented as soil profiles than as STUs. In particular, there are profiles classified as Albeluvisol, Anthrosol, Cryosol, Plinthosol, and Technosol of WRB, and Gelisols of Soil Taxonomy, which are not correlated to a STU. Consequently, Ferralsols (Oxisols for Soil Taxonomy) and Durisols are the only main kind of soils that have not yet been found in Italy. Likewise RSGs, the distribution of WRB qualifiers shows an evident concentration in relatively few cases, followed by a long tail. In particular, 138 out of the 180 types foreseen by WRB are represented in Italy. Thus, it is possible to say that in Italy there is about three-quarters of the global pedodiversity. Although the most common qualifiers (that is Calcaric, Haplic, Skeletic, Eutric) are all related to the nature of parent material and to incipient pedogenesis, a second group (namely Chromic,Calcic, Stagnic, and Luvic) indicates the main soil forming mechanisms that typify current Italian pedogenesis.

On May 20, 2012 an earthquake of magnitude ML=5.9 struck the Emilia Romagna Region of Italy and a little portion of Lombardia Region. Successive earthquakes occurred on May 29, 2012 with ML=5.8 and ML=5.3. The earthquakes caused 27 deaths, of which 13 on industrial buildings. The damage was considerable. 12,000 buildings were severely damaged; big damages occurred also to monuments and cultural heritage of Italy, causing the collapse of 147 campaniles. The damage is estimated in about 5-6 billions of euro. To the damage caused to people and buildings, must be summed the indirect damage due to loss of industrial production and to the impossibility to operate for several months. The indirect damage could be bigger than the direct damage caused by the earthquake. The resilience of the damaged cities to the damage to the industrial buildings and the lifelines was good enough, because some industries built a smart campus to start again to operate in less of one month and structural and geotechnical guidelines were edited to start with the recovering the damage industrial buildings. In the paper a damage survey is presented and linked with the ground effects. Among these, soil amplification and liquefaction phenomena are analyzed, basing on the soil properties evaluation by field and laboratory tests. Particular emphasis is devoted to the damaged suffered by the industrial buildings and to the aspects of the remedial work linked with the shallow foundation inadequacy and to the liquefaction mitigation effects.

In Chap. 2 , the role played by the factors of soil formation in Italy is examined by different authors. Edoardo Costantini, Maria Fantappie´ , and Giovanni L’Abate explore the potential strong influence of climate on soil nature and distribution. In spite of being placed in the middle of the temperate zone of the boreal hemisphere, the elongated shape of the Italian peninsula, stretching along 11 parallels in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, and the presence of two morphological barriers, the Alps and the Apennines, cause great local climatic variations, to an extent that they are much more important than means. In fact, long-term mean annual air temperature for the whole country is 12.6 C and total annual precipitation 932.5 mm, but the differences between minima and maxima span 30 C and 1,800 mm, respectively. Actually, in Italy there are 14 of the 35 climatic regions occurring in Europe. A general climatic change occurred in Italy in the period 1961–2000, with a general reduction of the mean annual precipitations, thenumber of rainy days, and a general increase of the mean air temperatures. The climate change had some influence on soil organic carbon variations, especially in the meadows and arable lands located in areas where a moderate or high decrease of the mean total annual precipitation value (\-100 mm) and a moderate to high increase of mean air temperature ([0.62 C) occurred.