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Following a well-established tradition going back to the 1980s (cf. Volterra 1987/2004), the authors use the name Lingua dei Segni Italiana (Italian Sign Language [LIS]) for the language used by Italian deaf people (and by Swiss deaf people living in the Ticino canton). LIS is becoming more and more visible, and its status as a minority language in the general Italian community is growing stronger due to various reasons. Still, LIS has not yet received formal recognition by the Italian authorities, although various bills are sitting in the Italian parliament for the recognition of LIS as a minority language. This lack of formal recognition has serious consequences (e.g., in the educational system). Deaf children are now generally mainstreamed, and there is no guarantee that LIS will be used in their education. Given this scenario, it is not surprising that existing research on LIS reflects an impressive degree of variation. Still, a comprehensive sociolinguistic study of LIS varieties used around the country has not been systematically carried out until recently. This article describes an extensive collection of data from 10 cities with 165 signers, which at the time of writing had just been concluded and reports on some of the data emerging from the LIS corpus resulting from this collection. The article is organized as follows: The authors first describe the general methodological issues they faced when planning the data collection and which motivated their choice of cities and participants. Then they describe the specific elicitation methods they adopted. After that, they describe in detail both the lexical variations they encountered and the results of the statistical analyses carried out on this part of the corpus. Finally, they present their conclusions. (Contains 6 notes, 6 tables, and 37 figures.)

Molecular species recognition and identification, based on the mitochondrial cox1 and on the nuclear ITS2, were performed on individuals of Torymus sinensis collected in Italy, on its close relative T. beneficus and on native torymids. The automatic-gap-discovery (ABGD) analyses correctly separate almost all morphospecies. On the basis of cox1 , individuals of late-spring T. beneficus clustered with T. sinensis, and those identified as early-spring T. beneficus were recognized as a separate entity. Whereas, T. beneficus ecotypes clustered with T. sinensis on the basis of ITS2. Coalescent tree-based methods confirmed these results. The cox1- based recognition of early-spring T. beneficus as a separate phylospecies led us to conclude that this taxon deserves to be treated as a valid species, whereas individuals identified as late-spring T. beneficus might be considered as part of T. sinensis. Morphological identification and BLAST analyses confirmed that no T. beneficus was imported into Italy to control Dryocosmus kuriphilus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Investigations were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of mating disruption (MD) to control chestnut tortrix moths. Surveys were performed at four sites in northern Italy in 2019–2020. MD was carried out using the pheromone dispenser Ecodian® CT. The total number of trapped males was significantly lower in MD plots than in control ones for all sites and years. Trap catch suppression in MD plots averaged 89.5% and 93.8% for Cydia fagiglandana and 57.4% and 81% for Cydia splendana in 2019 and 2020, respectively. A reduction of about 71% of larval infestation of chestnut fruits was only recorded in the MD plot at one site in 2019. Although the reduction in male catches in MD plots was observed, this research highlighted the need to perform further studies to investigate the effect of MD in reducing larval damage of chestnut fruits. (1) Background: Pheromone-based devices are successfully used to control insect pests in agriculture. (2) Methods: Investigations were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of mating disruption (MD) to control the chestnut tortrix moths, Cydia fagiglandana and Cydia splendana. Surveys were performed in northern Italy in 2019–2020. MD was carried out using the pheromone dispenser Ecodian® CT. The effectiveness of MD was assessed by recording male adult catches in pheromone-baited sticky traps and larvae in chestnut fruits, comparing MD and control plots. (3) Results: The total number of trapped males was significantly lower in MD plots than in control ones, for all sites and years. Trap catch suppression in MD plots averaged 89.5% and 93.8% for C. fagiglandana and 57.4% and 81% for C. splendana in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The larval infestation rate in fruits did not vary between plots except for one site where a reduction of about 71% in the MD plot was recorded in 2019. (4) Conclusions: Low catches in MD plots turned out to be a good measure of the effectiveness of communication disruption, but no satisfactory data have been obtained regarding fruit infestation, highlighting how the reduction of male catches cannot always be considered as a reliable indicator of successful control. Specific investigations about background population density, dispersal and mating/oviposition behavior are thus essential for a viable management strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: AGILE is an ASI (Italian Space Agency) Small Scientific Mission dedicated to high-energy astrophysics which was successfully launched on April 23, 2007. The AGILE instrument is composed of three main detectors: a Tungsten-Silicon Tracker designed to detect and image photons in the 30MeV–50GeV energy band, an X-ray imager called Super-AGILE operating in the 18–60keV energy band, and a Mini-Calorimeter that detects gamma-rays and charged particles energy deposits between 300keV and 100MeV. The instrument is surrounded by an anti-coincidence (AC) system. In this paper, we present the noise characterization and the front-end configuration of the Silicon Tracker. Two crucial (and unique, among gamma-ray astrophysics missions) characteristic of the AGILE Silicon Tracker are the analog signal acquisition (aimed at obtaining an optimal angular resolution for gamma-ray imaging) and the very small dimension of the instrument (the total height including the active elements is and therefore the Silicon Tracker is the lightest and most compact ray imager sent in orbit). The results presented in this paper were obtained during the AIV (Assembly, Integration and Verification) pre-launch testing phase and during the post-launch commissioning phase. The AGILE Silicon Tracker has been optimally configured with a very good response of the frontend system and of the data acquisition units. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]