Land use dynamics and soil quality in agro-forest systems: a country-scale assessment in Italy

The present study compares the spatial distribution of selected rural land use classes in Italy with two soil indicators (a Soil Quality Index [SQI] and the Maximum potential Water Capacity of the soil [MWC]) at three points in time (1960, 1990 and 2006). Results of the analysis showed that landscape changes reflect a ‘migration’ of both semi-natural (forests, pastures) and agricultural (arable land, vineyards) uses towards areas with lower-quality soils. In particular, the agricultural ‘mosaic’ and shrubland-pasture classes that occupied land in 2006 had significant lower values of both the SQI and MWC compared to 1960. These processes may have implications for the stability of agro-forest ecosystems in the medium term. Due to its versatility, the procedure illustrated represents a monitoring tool for sustainable land management at the regional and country scales.     

Simultaneous personnel and vehicle shift scheduling in the waste management sector

Urban waste management is becoming an increasingly complex task, absorbing a huge amount of resources, and having a major environmental impact. The design of a waste management system consists in various activities, and one of these is related to the definition of shift schedules for both personnel and vehicles. This activity has a great incidence on the tactical and operational cost for companies. In this paper, we propose an integer programming model to find an optimal solution to the integrated problem. The aim is to determine optimal schedules at minimum cost. Moreover, we design a fast and effective heuristic to face large-size problems. Both approaches are tested on data from a real-world case in Southern Italy and compared to the current practice utilized by the company managing the service, showing that simultaneously solving these problems can lead to significant monetary savings.     

A Review of the Main Driving Factors of Forest Fire Ignition Over Europe

Knowledge of the causes of forest fires, and of the main driving factors of ignition, is an indispensable step towards effective fire prevention policies. This study analyses the factors driving forest fire ignition in the Mediterranean region including the most common human and environmental factors used for modelling in the European context. Fire ignition factors are compared to spatial and temporal variations of fire occurrence in the region, then are compared to results obtained in other areas of the world, with a special focus on North America (US and Canada) where a significant number of studies has been carried out on this topic. The causes of forest fires are varied and their distribution differs among countries, but may also differ spatially and temporally within the same country. In Europe, and especially in the Mediterranean basin, fires are mostly human-caused mainly due arson. The distance to transport networks and the distance to urban or recreation areas are among the most frequently used human factors in modelling exercises and the Wildland-Urban Interface is increasingly taken into account in the modelling of fire occurrence. Depending on the socio-economic context of the region concerned, factors such as the unemployment rate or variables linked to agricultural activity can explain the ignition of intentional and unintentional fires. Regarding environmental factors, those related to weather, fuel and topography are the most significant drivers of ignition of forest fires, especially in Mediterranean-type regions. For both human and lightning-caused fires, there is a geographical gradient of fire ignition, mainly due to variations in climate and fuel composition but also to population density for instance. The timing of fires depends on their causes. In populated areas, the timing of human-caused fires is closely linked to human activities and peaks in the afternoon whereas, in remote areas, the timing of lightning-caused fires is more linked to weather conditions and the season, with most such fires occurring in summer.     

Second generation diesel fuel from renewable sources

The study is devoted to the issue of direct transformation of triacylglycerols (TAG) to diesel fuels applying a commercially available NiMo and NiW hydrorefining catalysts. It was proved that during hydrodesulphurisation also hydrodeoxygenation occurs and TAG can be converted to the fuel biocomponent by adding 6.5 % vol. of TAG to atmospheric gas oil. In this way, after hydroprocessing at mild conditions (temperature 320–360 °C, pressure 3.5–5.5 MPa, LHSV: 1.0 h^?1 and ratio H₂:HC = 500–1000 Nm³/m³, catalyst presence), gas oil containing 5–5.5% of biocomponent was prepared, characterized with standard performance and emission parameters. Performance and emission tests documented that even 5% vol. portion of bio-components reduces the controlled and uncontrolled emissions.     

The optimal balance of defence investment strategies in clonal colonies of social aphids

Social aphid species provide ideal systems to study the ecological influences upon the evolution of sociality because they consist of discrete colonies which are entirely clonal and therefore devoid of any genetic conflict over altruistic behaviour. Although selfishness can be discounted as an obstacle preventing the evolution of altruistic defenders, the vast majority of aphid species are not social. To examine the key life-history and ecological characteristics that interact to facilitate social evolution, we designed a matrix population model based on the natural history of one of the unique aphid species with soldiers, Pemphigus spyrothecae. In addressing the life-history factors, our special interest was to examine the optimal trade-off faced by colonies that can increase their defence investment by producing defenders at birth and/or increasing the duration of the defensive stage. The level and period of exposure to predation and a declining colony birth rate were key factors that selected for social defence. The model demonstrated that, in species which have soldiers that can facultatively develop to make a direct contribution to colony fitness, temporal extension of the soldier stage is a key mechanism of increasing defence investment. This extension is particularly favoured when predation is high and the lifetime of a colony is long. An increase in production of defenders at birth was favoured when mortality due to predation was strongly biased towards defenders. The model suggests that, in species which have the defensive flexibility of choosing whether soldiers remain as such, there is little requirement for flexibility in the morph allocations made at birth. All these predictions were found to be fully compatible with the available empirical data.     

Maternal obesity and neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders in offspring

There is a growing body of evidence from both human epidemiologic and animal studies that prenatal and lactational exposure to maternal obesity and high-fat diet are associated with neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders in offspring. These disorders include cognitive impairment, autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, cerebral palsy, anxiety and depression, schizophrenia, and eating disorders. This review synthesizes human and animal data linking maternal obesity and high-fat diet consumption to abnormal fetal brain development and neurodevelopmental and psychiatric morbidity in offspring. In addition, it highlights key mechanisms by which maternal obesity and maternal diet might impact fetal and offspring neurodevelopment, including neuroinflammation; increased oxidative stress, dysregulated insulin, glucose, and leptin signaling; dysregulated serotonergic and dopaminergic signaling; and perturbations in synaptic plasticity. Finally, the review summarizes available evidence regarding investigational therapeutic approaches to mitigate the harmful effects of maternal obesity on fetal and offspring neurodevelopment. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fetal brain and placental programming in maternal obesity: A review of human and animal model studies

Both human epidemiologic and animal model studies demonstrate that prenatal and lactational exposure to maternal obesity and high-fat diet are associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in offspring. Neurodevelopmental outcomes described in offspring of obese women include cognitive impairment, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, disordered eating, and propensity for reward-driven behavior, among others. This review synthesizes human and animal data linking maternal obesity and high-fat diet consumption to abnormal fetal brain development, and neurodevelopmental and psychiatric morbidity in offspring. It highlights key mechanisms by which maternal obesity and maternal diet impact fetal and offspring development, and sex differences in offspring programming. In addition, we review placental effects of maternal obesity, and the role the placenta might play as an indicator vs mediator of fetal programming.     

Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) from cyanobacterial mats: characterisation and isolation method optimisation

Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) play an important role in bacterial mat formation and sediment stabilisation of coastal zones. The analysis of these secretion products on a molecular level is a prerequisite to understand their formation mechanisms and ecological function in microbial consortia. The present study focuses on the optimisation of EPS isolation and characterisation from cohesive cyanobacterial mats. Extracted EPS were analysed for quantity, content of total organic carbon and nitrogen, and bulk contents of neutral sugars, uronic acids, and proteins. These criteria are strongly influenced by the extraction conditions applied and therefore, the effects of different extraction media (NaCl or artificial seawater), addition of EDTA, centrifugal force, and purification via repeated ethanol precipitation on extraction success were determined. From this an optimised extraction procedure for EPS resulted. When using fresh mat samples, the yield of EPS amounted to 3.3 ± 0.8 mg g⁻¹ mat (dw). The isolated EPS were composed of nearly equal amounts of proteins and uronic acids (12.7 ± 1.5 and 11.8 ± 1.1%, respectively) and the bulk content of neutral sugars was 30.5 ± 2.6%. High contents of TOC and TN indicated relatively pure EPS and only a low contribution of inorganic compounds. Furthermore, low contents of 2-keto-3-deoxyoctonate and the small protein/polysaccharide-ratio in the EPS extracted by our method, signified low contaminations by intracellular polymers and hence a low rupture of cells. Our method provides an useful tool to evaluate further investigations of the composition, characteristics and properties of EPS on a sound basis.