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The increasing demand for agricultural products and the uncertainty of international food markets has recently drawn the attention of governments and agribusiness firms toward investments in productive agricultural land, mostly in the developing world. The targeted countries are typically located in regions that have remained only marginally utilized because of lack of modern technology. It is expected that in the long run large scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) for commercial farming will bring the technology required to close the existing crops yield gaps. While the extent of the acquired land and the associated appropriation of freshwater resources have been investigated in detail, the amount of food this land can produce and the number of people it could feed still need to be quantified. Here we use a unique dataset of land deals to provide a global quantitative assessment of the rates of crop and food appropriation potentially associated with LSLAs. We show how up to 300-550 million people could be fed by crops grown in the acquired land, should these investments in agriculture improve crop production and close the yield gap. In contrast, about 190-370 million people could be supported by this land without closing of the yield gap. These numbers raise some concern because the food produced in the acquired land is typically exported to other regions, while the target countries exhibit high levels of malnourishment. Conversely, if used for domestic consumption, the crops harvested in the acquired land could ensure food security to the local populations. © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd.

In the first decades of the 20th century in Argentina, especially in 1918, there was a university reform promoted by the student movement and that promoted the democratization of the universities. However, the massive incorporation of women into the country’s national universities is going to arrive almost around the end of the century. Thus, in the first decades of the 21st century, several reforms were produced in most of the Argentine universities, which were promoted by the feminist movement, the women professors and researchers, the students and the administrative workers. The main reforms were the enactment of protocols in cases of violence and / or discrimination based on gender, the creation of gender areas in the administrative and organizational structures of the universities, and the inclusion of parity for the selection of authorities. In this chapter, the latest feminist transformations and reforms in Argentine national universities will be analyzed based on three key areas: (i) violence and discrimination based on gender, (ii) processes of institutionalization of gender areas, and (iii) inclusion of parity for the selection of authorities. Likewise, there will be a brief description of the main inequalities at the university level such as horizontal and vertical segmentation.

As most of the rural areas in Mediterranean Region, the Celone river basin (Apulia, Italy) is characterized by diffuse pollution from agriculture. Nutrient export from terrestrial ecosystem to the river is controlled by hydrological processes and nutrient input from point and non-point sources. In the present paper, anthropogenic nitrogen input and the riverine export of nitrate-N (N-NO) were quantified through several survey campaigns, continuous measures of streamflow and discrete determinations of concentrations. A different frequency for water sampling was used, respectively, during floods and during normal- or low-flow state. Nitrate-N concentrations in surface waters were found to vary considerably across the seasons. The riverine N-NO export was estimated to be about 14 kg N ha year. Major N inputs derived from fertilizers and animal manure correspond to 68.2 and 24 kg N ha year, respectively. Nitrate-N fluxes in stream during flood events (21 days) accounted for about 63% of the annual loading. This study clearly demonstrates the importance of flood event contributions to the annual nutrient loading delivered to the reservoir and that more efficient fertilizers and management practices are needed to reduce N input. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe wildfires are often followed by significant increase in runoff and erosion, due to vegetation damages and changes in physical and chemical soil properties. Peak flows and sediment yields can increase up to two orders of magnitude becoming dangerous for human lives and ecosystem, especially in the wildland-urban interface. Watershed post fire rehabilitation measures are usually used to mitigate the effects of fire on runoff and erosion, by protecting soil from splash and shear stress detachment and enhancing its infiltration capacity. Modeling post fire erosion and erosion mitigation strategies can be useful in selecting the effectiveness of rehabilitation method. In this paper a distributed model based on Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), properly parameterized for a Mediterranean basin located in Sardinia, is used to determine soil losses for six different scenarios describing both natural and post-fire basin condition, the last accounting also for the single and combined effect of different erosion mitigation measures. Fire effect on vegetation and soil properties have been mimed by changing soil drainage capacity and organic matter content, and RUSLE factors related to soil cover and protection measures. Model results show for the analyzed rehabilitation treatments their effect in reducing the amount of soil losses with the peculiar characteristics of the spatial distribution of such changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a proof of concept experiment is conducted to assess the feasibility of tracing overland flow on a semi-natural hillslope plot via a novel fluorescent particle tracer. Runoff on the experimental plot is artificially simulated by using a custom-built rainfall system. Experiments are performed by using beads of diameters ranging from 75 to 1180 µm that are sensed through an experimental apparatus comprising a light source and a video acquisition unit. Particles' transit is detected through an unsupervised methodology based on image analysis techniques and compared to results from supervised visual inspection. Average flow velocity estimations are obtained from travel time measurements of the particles as they are dragged by the overland flow on the hillslope. Velocities are compared to flow measurements obtained using rhodamine dye. Experimental findings demonstrate the potential of the methodology for understanding overland flow dynamics in complex natural settings. In addition, considerations for optimizing the particle size are presented based on the visibility of the beads and their accuracy in flow tracing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coxiella burnetii is the causative agent of Q fever. The main reservoirs for this bacterium, which can lead to human infection, in our region are typically cattle, goats, and sheep. In animals, C. burnetii infection is often detected due to reproductive problems. European Member States are required to report confirmed cases annually, but the lack of uniform reporting methods makes the data rather inconsistent. The Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise is involved in official controls to identify the causes of abortions, monitor suspected or positive herds, evaluate suspected infections in pets and humans, monitor the spread in wildlife, etc. In this paper, we summarize the presence of C. burnetii over the last five years (2019-2023). Additionally, a detailed overview of C. burnetii infection in wild and domestic animals is provided. Five hundred sixty animals-including cattle; goats; sheep; wild animals, such as deer, boars, wolves, roe deer, owls, and otters; buffalo; dogs; horses; cats; and a donkey-and six human samples were tested by real-time PCR on the transposase gene IS1111 to detect C. burnetii . The MST profile was identified in some of the samples. Outbreaks of C. burnetii occurred in four herds. In one of them, it was possible to follow the outbreak from inception to eradication by evaluating the effect of vaccination on real-time PCR Ct values. A total of 116 animals tested positive for C. burnetii , including 73 goats, 42 sheep, and one bovine. None of the other samples tested positive. The strains for which the ST was performed were identified as ST79, a strain that has been present in the area for more than ten years. The effect of vaccination on the reduction of positive samples and the variation of real-time PCR Ct values was evaluated in strict correlation.

Background: Nowadays there is a worldwide consensus on the importance of conducting wildlife disease surveillance. Indeed, 60% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic in nature, and the majority of these (71.8%) originate in wildlife. Surveillance of wildlife diseases is crucial to prevent negative effects on human and animal health. Data digitization and sharing are among the main goals for the present and coming years. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are increasingly used to analyze the geographical distribution of diseases and the relationships between pathogenic factors and their geographic environments., Methods: Wild animal's samples collected in the Abruzzo and Molise regions and delivered to our laboratory are entered in our Laboratory Information System and processed to be displayed through the Web-GIS mash-up presented in this paper. We built it using both open source and proprietary solutions, to produce data driven interactive maps, charts and tables to help to understand the epidemiology of wild animal diseases, their spread and trend., Results: Since 2013, 9.606 samples collected from wild animals have been analyzed in the laboratories of the IZS-Teramo and have been recorded in the system, facilitating the reporting to the judicial authorities and the identification of highly risky areas to set up control and repression measures. Moreover, thanks to the monitoring health protocol, a canine distemper epidemic in wolves has been detected and monitored in its temporal and spatial evolution, as well as cases of bovine tuberculosis in wild boars., Conclusions: While it is more evident that the starting point is to choose the right sampling method, it is for sure less obvious that the information system in which data is stored is equally important. In fact, it should give the possibility to consult it in an easy and instructive way. GIS allows immediately grasping the spatial relationships between the data itself and those between the data and the territory; it is an important tool to support veterinary services in managing epidemic and non-epidemic emergencies and performing epidemiological investigations, but also to examine control plans and identify new gaps and challenges., (© 2023. BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature.)

The primary challenge of agriculture and livestock production is to face the growing competition between food, feed, fibre, and fuel, converting them from resource-intensive to resource-efficient. A circular economy approach, using agricultural by-products/co-products, in the livestock production system would allow to reduce, reuse, and redistribute the resources. Former food products (FFPs), also named ex-foods, could represent a valid option in strengthening resilience in animal nutrition. FFPs have a promising potential to be included regularly in animal diets due to their nutritive value, although their potential in animal nutrition remains understudied. A thorough investigation of the compositional and dietary features, thus, is essential to provide new and fundamental insights to effectively reuse FFPs as upgraded products for swine nutrition. Safety aspects, such as the microbial load or the presence of packaging remnants, should be considered with caution. Here, with a holistic approach, we review several aspects of FFPs and their use as feed ingredients: the nutritional and functional evaluation, the impact of the inclusion of FFPs in pigs' diet on growth performance and welfare, and further aspects related to safety and sustainability of FFPs., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

We present a device- and network-based solution for automatic passnger counting that operates on the edge in real time. The proposed solution consists of a low-cost WiFi scanner device equipped with custom algorithms for dealing with MAC address randomization. Our low-cost scanner is able to capture and analyze 802.11 probe requests emitted by passengers' devices such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets. The device is configured with a Python data-processing pipeline that combines data coming from different types of sensors and processes them on the fly. For the analysis task, we have devised a lightweight version of the DBSCAN algorithm. Our software artifact is designed in a modular way in order to accommodate possible extensions of the pipeline, e.g., either additional filters or data sources. Furthermore, we exploit multi-threading and multi-processing for speeding up the entire computation. The proposed solution has been tested with different types of mobile devices, obtaining promising experimental results. In this paper, we present the key ingredients of our edge computing solution.

During November 2021-May 2022, we identified 37 clinical cases of Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus infections in central Italy. Epidemiologic investigations and whole-genome sequencing showed unpasteurized fresh dairy products were the outbreak source. Early diagnosis by using sequencing technology prevented the spread of life-threatening S. equi subsp. zooepidemicus infections.

Using a human rights and feminist economist perspective, this article analyzes the emergency financial policies deployed by international financial institutions (IFIs)-in particular the IMF and the World Bank-to help countries in Latin America cope with the COVID-19 crisis. Looking at the macroeconomic and fiscal assumptions behind IMF loans to countries, it identifies clear signals that fiscal discipline and pro-market options will continue to be priorities as soon as the emergency has been overcome. The study explains how recent adjustment and austerity policies adopted by a number of countries have disproportionately affected women's human rights, reinforcing the invisibilization of gender inequalities in domestic and care work and in turn, making women even more vulnerable to the impact of the pandemic and resulting economic recession. It concludes that in order to properly consider the conditions of IFI loans, countries must evaluate the probable impact of these financial contracts on people's human rights, and in particular on gender equality., (© Society for International Development 2021.)

Respiratory viruses frequently cause symptomatic infections in children but are often detected also in healthy children. We investigated myxovirus resistance protein A (MxA), viperin, and tripartite-motif 21 (TRIM21) messenger RNA indexes in nasal swabs as potential biomarkers of viral respiratory infection in children. Respiratory viruses were detected by polymerase chain reaction in the same swabs. Nasal MxA and viperin indexes were increased in symptomatic virus-positive children. Nasal viperin index was found to be a robust marker of viral respiratory tract infection with a sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 94% in distinguishing children with symptomatic virus infections from asymptomatic virus-negative children., (© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background and Objectives: Rhinoviruses frequently cause respiratory infections in young children. We aimed to establish the burden of acute respiratory infections caused by rhinovirus during the first 2 years of life., Methods: In this prospective birth cohort study, we followed 923 children for acute respiratory infections from birth to 2 years of age. Data on respiratory infections were collected by daily symptom diaries, study clinic visits, and from electronic registries. Respiratory viruses were detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and antigen assays during respiratory infections and at the age of 2, 13, and 24 months. The rates of rhinovirus infections and associated morbidities were determined., Results: We documented 8847 episodes of acute respiratory infections, with an annual rate of 5.9 per child (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.7-6.1). Rhinovirus was detected in 59% of acute respiratory infections analyzed for viruses. Rhinovirus was associated with 50% of acute otitis media episodes, 41% of wheezing illnesses, 49% of antibiotic treatments, and 48% of outpatient office visits for acute respiratory infections. The estimated mean annual rate of rhinovirus infections was 3.5 per child (95% CI, 3.3-3.6), 47 per 100 children (95% CI, 42-52) for rhinovirus-associated acute otitis media, and 61 per 100 children (95% CI, 55-68) for rhinovirus-associated antibiotic treatment. The prevalence of rhinovirus at 2, 13, or 24 months of age was 14 to 24%, and 9% of asymptomatic children were positive for rhinovirus., Conclusions: Rhinovirus infections impose a major burden of acute respiratory illness and antibiotic use on young children., (Copyright © 2016 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)

Background: Type I interferon induced MxA response can differentiate viral from bacterial infections, but MxA responses in rhinovirus or asymptomatic virus infections are not known., Objective: To study MxA protein levels in healthy state and during respiratory virus infection of young children in an observational prospective cohort., Study Design: Blood samples and nasal swabs were collected from 153 and 77 children with and without symptoms of respiratory infections, respectively. Blood MxA protein levels were measured by an enzyme immunoassay and PCR methods were used for the detection of respiratory viruses in nasal swabs., Results: Respiratory viruses were detected in 81% of symptomatic children. They had higher blood MxA protein levels (median [interquartile range]) than asymptomatic virus-negative children (695 [345-1370] μg/L vs. 110 [55-170] μg/L; p < 0.001). Within asymptomatic children, no significant difference was observed in MxA responses between virus-positive and virus-negative groups. A cut-off level of 175 μg/L had 92% sensitivity and 77% specificity for a symptomatic respiratory virus infection. Rhinovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, parainfluenza virus, influenza virus, coronavirus, and human metapneumovirus infections were associated with elevated MxA responses. Asymptomatic virus-negative children vaccinated with a live virus vaccine had elevated MxA protein levels (240 [120-540] μg/L), but significantly lower than children with an acute respiratory infection, who had not received vaccinations (740 [350-1425] μg/L; p<0.001)., Conclusion: Blood MxA protein levels are increased in young children with symptomatic respiratory virus infections, including rhinovirus infections. MxA is an informative general marker for the most common acute virus infections., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Influenza viruses may cause a severe infection in infants and young children. The transmission patterns of pandemic 2009 influenza A (H1N1) within households with young children are poorly characterized., Methods: Household members of six children younger than 1·5 years with documented 2009 influenza A (H1N1) infection were studied by daily symptom diaries and serial parent-collected nasal swab samples for detection of influenza A by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay., Results: Laboratory-confirmed, symptomatic influenza was documented in 11 of 15 household contacts of young children with pandemic influenza (73%; 95% CI, 48-99). In five contact cases symptoms started earlier, in three cases on the same day, and in three cases after the onset of symptoms in the youngest child. The first case with influenza A (H1N1) within the household was an elder sibling in two households, father in two households, the youngest child in one household, and the youngest child at the same time with a sibling in one household. The median copy number of influenza virus was higher in children than in adults (4·2 × 10(7) versus 4·9 × 10(4), P = 0·02)., Conclusions: This study demonstrates the feasibility of nasal swab sampling by parents in investigation of household transmission of influenza. The results support influenza vaccination of all household contacts of young children., (© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)