Este artigo pretende investigar o processo histórico das políticas de produção dos livros escolares adotadas pela classe dirigente italiana para as escolas no exterior a fim de oferecer uma ...contribuição para o entendimento das dinâmicas e complexas ações que têm caracterizado e acompanhado o desenvolvimento da escolarização e dos processos culturais e formativos, sobretudo identitários, dos colonos italianos no Brasil, entre a segunda metade do século XIX e a fim dos anos 30, do século XX. Os livros didáticos foram, desde o começo da experiência da unificação italiana, um instrumento fundamental para as classes dirigentes italianas que tinham por finalidade modernizar e, sobretudo, homogeneizar e uniformizar o ensino nas escolas em sentido nacional. No curso das décadas seguintes, a produção e a circulação dos livros didáticos aumentaram significativamente também em relação ao desenvolvimento das publicações escolares. A questão assumiu uma grande importância também quando os governos italianos promoveram uma nova política de expansão colonial e de emigração de massa para o exterior. Após a aprovação da lei com a qual o governo Crispi, no ano 1889, instituiu o sistema das escolas italianas coloniais e subsidiadas, se colocou o problema de quais livros didáticos introduzir nos países que recebiam emigrantes italianos e quais características os mesmos deveriam ter. O artigo enfatiza o processo de continuidade e descontinuidade das políticas e da produção de libros didáticos introduzidos nas escolas italianas no exterior e no Brasil, em específico até a ascensão do fascismo para fomentar diferentes ideias de italianidade.
•Digestate from a decentralized on-farm biogas plant was assessed by a battery of ecotoxicological tests including plants, earthworms and aquatic organisms.•Obtained ecotoxicological parameters were ...used to derive indicators for future application of LCA and ERA.•Ecotoxicological investigation was performed under the “matrix-based” approach.
Over the last decade, the number of decentralized farm biogas plants has increased significantly in the EU. This development leads not only to an increasing amount of biogas produced, but also to a higher amount of digestate obtained.
One of the most attractive options to manage the digestate is to apply it as biofertiliser to the soil, because this gives the opportunity of recovering the nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus, and of attenuating the loss of organic matter suffered by soils under agricultural exploitation.
Studies have claimed that digestates can present a residual biodegradability, and contain complex organic elements, salts or pathogenic bacteria that can damage terrestrial organisms. However few ecotoxicological studies have been performed to evaluate the ecological impact of digestate application on soil.
In this study, the use of digestate as biofertiliser in agriculture was assessed by a battery of ecotoxicological tests considering the potential pollutants present in the digestate as a whole by using the “matrix-based” approach (also known as “whole effluent toxicity” for eluates or wastewater effluents). The direct and indirect tests included plant bioassays with Lepidium sativum, earthworm bioassays with Eisenia fetida, aquatic organisms (Artemia sp. and Daphnia magna) and luminescent bacteria bioassays (Vibrio fischeri).
Direct tests occurred to be more sensitive than indirect tests. The earthworm bioassays did not show serious negative effects for concentrations up to 15% (dry weight/dry weight percent, w/w dm) and the plant bioassays showed no negative effect, but rather a positive one for concentrations lower than 20% (w/w dm), which encourages the use of digestate as a biofertiliser in agriculture provided that proper concentrations are used. The indirect tests, on the eluate, with the using aquatic organisms and luminescent bacteria showed an LC50 value of 13.61% volume/volume percent, v/v) for D. magna and no toxicity for Artemia sp. and V. fischeri.
The ecotoxicological parameters obtained from the experimental activity have been analyzed so that they could serve in both ecological risk assessment (ERA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) to assess the risks and impacts of using digestate as a biofertiliser in agriculture. An interim effect factor of 1.17E−3m3/kg-in-soil is advocated and can be used in life cycle impact assessment modelling of terrestrial ecotoxicity. A predicted non effect concentration for soil organisms was defined at 341mg-digestate/kg-soil and can be used for the dose–response assessment step in ERA. Although these values are recommended for use in ERA and LCA applications, it should be stressed that they underlie important uncertainties, which should be reduced by increasing the number of toxicological tests, in particular of chronic studies conducted at different trophic levels.
•The food web of the largest Italian river is modelled for the first time with AQUATOX.•We used the model to assess direct and indirect effects of two chemicals on biota.•The response to chemical ...discharge depends on the organism position in the food web.•Biota responses to chemicals are poorly correlated with lab-estimated direct toxicity.•The lack of biomonitoring data to develop river food web models remains a challenge.
Ecological modelling has the potential to increase the realism of chemical risk assessment for better informed risk management and decision making meeting the protection goals and requirements of the EU's chemicals- and water-related regulations. We developed a food web model of the final lowland section of the longest Italian river (Po) to assess the importance of ecological interactions in setting protective thresholds for river ecosystems exposed to chemicals discharged via wastewater. An integrated 14 compartment model was setup using AQUATOX 3.1, providing a dynamic, quantitative representation of the main functional groups in the food web. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the functioning of the Po ecosystem is quantitatively described. The model was calibrated against observations of biomass density of riverine biota, as typically available for a large lowland river in Europe. The role of ecological interactions on the response of the modelled organisms to chemical exposure was tested on realistic and hypothetical exposure scenarios for two compounds contained in home and personal care products: the anionic surfactant linear alkylbenzene sulphonate and the antimicrobial triclosan. At realistic exposure concentrations the model showed no significant effect compared to control simulations. At hypothetical higher exposure, effects resulting from complex ecosystem-scale interactions emerge. Depending on the organism's position in the food web, indirect effects due to ecological interactions can either amplify or mitigate the effect of direct toxicity. Model results indicate that organisms’ responses to chemicals in real ecosystems is poorly correlated to their direct toxicity (i.e. measured by L/ECX values) for a range of simulated exposure, including concentrations equal to the reported PNEC values. AQUATOX is a useful tool to investigate the relative importance of direct toxicity and ecological interactions, but at this stage it is difficult to use it for prospective chemical risk assessment, given the underlying model uncertainties and the practical limitations of field scale evaluations. An improvement of the quantitative monitoring of feeding preferences and abundance over time of the most representative species within each functional group would be of great help to refine the model parameterisation and calibration. Nonetheless, the development of river ecosystem model scenarios is a stepping stone towards the incorporation of ecological modelling in risk assessment. When extensively tested on different scenarios AQUATOX provides a useful platform, which can be linked to mechanistic effect models as long as this component can be evaluated in controlled settings (i.e. laboratory or mesocosm scale).
Between the second half of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century, the development of Italian educational institutions has been associated with new processes. The needs ...related to the formation of Nation-State, widen and intertwined with those determined by new phenomena as the colonialism and massive emigration. Millions of Italians crossed the Mediterranean to reach the coasts of the Americas: there arose new colonies of immigrants. The dynamics that involved the Italian society have requested schools to take on new and relevant functions for the basic education of citizens in the states of emigration and in those of colonization. The essay presents the case study of Italian ethnic schools abroad: it aims to examine the functions performed by institutions and school cultures—by textbooks—used to ensure the preservation and the promotion of specific educational models by ethnical and identitary characteristics in a national sense in a different context, like the Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Sul.
A combination of evidence, based on genetic, fossil and archaeological findings, indicates that Homo sapiens spread out of Africa between ~70-60 thousand years ago (kya). However, it appears that ...once outside of Africa, human populations did not expand across all of Eurasia until ~45 kya. The geographic whereabouts of these early settlers in the timeframe between ~70-60 to 45 kya has been difficult to reconcile. Here we combine genetic evidence and palaeoecological models to infer the geographic location that acted as the Hub for our species during the early phases of colonisation of Eurasia. Leveraging on available genomic evidence we show that populations from the Persian Plateau carry an ancestry component that closely matches the population that settled the Hub outside Africa. With the paleoclimatic data available to date, we built ecological models showing that the Persian Plateau was suitable for human occupation and that it could sustain a larger population compared to other West Asian regions, strengthening this claim.
Unpleasant odors are a major cause of public complaints concerning air quality and represent a growing social problem in industrialized countries. However, the assessment of odor pollution is still ...regarded as a difficult task, because olfactory nuisance can be caused by many different chemical compounds, often found in hard-to-detect concentrations, and the perception of odors is influenced by subjective thresholds; moreover, the impact of odor sources on air quality is mediated by complex atmospheric dispersion processes. The development of standardized assessment approaches to odor pollution and proper international regulatory tools are urgently needed. In particular, comparisons of the methodologies commonly used nowadays to assess odor impacts on air quality are required. Here, we assess the olfactory nuisance caused by an anaerobic treatment plant for municipal solid waste by means of two alternative techniques: the field inspection procedure and the atmospheric dispersion model CALPUFF. Our goal was to compare rigorously their estimates of odor nuisance, both qualitatively (spatial extent of odor impact) and quantitatively (intensity of odor nuisance). To define the impact of odors, we referred to the German standards, based on the frequency of odor episodes in terms of odor hours. We report a satisfying, although not perfect agreement between the estimates provided by the two techniques. For example, they assessed similar spatial extents of odor pollution, but different frequencies of odor episodes in locations where the odor nuisance was highest. The comparison highlights strengths and weaknesses for both approaches. CALPUFF is a cheaper methodology which can be used predictively, but fugitive emissions are difficult to model reliably, because of uncertainty regarding timing, location and emission rate. Field inspection takes into account the role of human perception, but unlike the model it does not always characterize precisely the extent of the odor nuisance caused by a single source when other odors are present, because only the most unpleasant odor is reported. We conclude that these two assessment methods provide reasonable estimates of odor nuisance.
► We compare methods to assess odor pollution from an anaerobic digestion plant for MSW. ► We applied the atmospheric dispersion model CALPUFF and the Odor Field Inspection. ► They were compared quantitatively and qualitatively over the same area for 6 months. ► The methods assessed similar spatial extents of nuisance in terms of odor frequency. ► The two methods provide complementary information about odor nuisance.
Il contributo intende prendere in esame il valore euristico dell’archivio personale di Amelia Andreassi, maestra e poi direttrice di scuole materne private e pubbliche di Bari, importante città ...dell’Italia meridionale, nel corso del Novecento. La collezione, composta di libri, certificazioni, lettere e materiali didattici, fra cui i quaderni sui quali annotava personali riflessioni sulle pratiche didattiche e ludiche svolte in classe, costituiscono parte del fondo archivistico personale custodito presso il Centro di documentazione e ricerca sulla storia delle istituzioni scolastiche, del libro scolastico e della letteratura per l’infanzia (Ce.S.I.S.) dell’Università del Molise, tra le cui finalità sono previsti il recupero, la conservazione e la valorizzazione degli archivi personali degli insegnanti. Tali fondi permettono una analisi dettagliata della funzione degli scritti personali (egodocumenti) di tipo professionale. Insieme all’uso delle categorie interpretative offerte dalla storia delle culture scolastiche nella analisi si intendono raccogliere le suggestioni proposte dalla storia della memoria scolastica.
Extensive blooms of gelatinous macrozooplankton species (“Jellyfish”) have appeared in recent decades in Northern Adriatic (NA) waters. Anecdotal evidence suggests that these blooms have had a ...considerable impact on fishing operations, as this region is one of the most heavily exploited Mediterranean fishing grounds. In order to gain a better understanding of the possible economic losses for the Italian NA fishing industry due to jellyfish impacts, we conducted a survey of fishermen in the city of Chioggia, which is the main fishing port for the NA basin. The study focused on fishermen's perceptions about jellyfish blooms in the NA Sea and also investigated whether and how blooms compromised fishing operations. Survey results confirm that blooms have negatively affected fishing operations in the last few decades. We estimate that economic losses due to reduction in fish catches could amount to as much as € 8.2 million per year for the Italian NA trawling fleet. Other costs on this fleet include additional fuel costs due to displacement of fishing operations, which could represent an increase in costs of over € 460,000 per year. Moreover, during a jellyfish bloom episode it can happen that time has to be spent by fishermen to repair nets damaged by jellyfish caught in them, leading to an estimated cost for the trawling fleet and small scale fisheries of over 89,000 man-hours per year. This study not only confirms that jellyfish blooms have a considerable impact on fishing operations but also shows how costly blooms can be for the NA fisheries.
•We assessed how the loss of species with topological uniqueness impacts the GT web.•Top predators had the greatest topological uniqueness (TU).•The removal of TU species had higher impact than ...removal of more connected species.•The loss of the hub node does not necessarily cause major collapse in the web.•In fisheries, keystone species do not necessarily have the highest economic value.
We reconstructed the structure of a tropical marine food web and then analyzed it to evaluate how the trophic network could respond to anthropogenic pressures such as the removal of species by fisheries. To reconstruct the presence/absence of predator-prey interactions, we assembled detailed quantitative information from the scientific literature on the stomach contents of 80 predator species (elasmobranchs, teleosts and invertebrates) collected in the Golfo de Tortugas (Colombia) between 1990 and 2009. We tested three conceptual models of network structure (random, small-world, and scale-free), characterized by different system properties and tolerance to perturbations, to evaluate which one better fitted the reconstructed food web. Our results suggest that this network has small-world structure and scale-free properties. An impact on one species may therefore spread to many species through short interaction chains; only a few nodes with high centrality values would support the network structure. However, contrary to current theory, our analysis revealed no clear relationships between species with high centrality and the large-scale structural patterns observed in the network (small-world and scale-free properties). This observation indicates that ecosystem-based fisheries management should prioritize not only high-centrality species (e.g., shrimps, which furthermore are species of high commercial value in the area), but should also consider species with unique structural properties such as those with little or no topological redundancy such as large sharks. For this reason, top predator conservation needs more attention than currently received in fisheries management.
The inhalation of pesticide in air is of particular concern for people living in close contact with intensive agricultural activities. This study aims to develop an integrated modelling methodology ...to assess whether pesticides pose a risk to the health of people living near vineyards, and apply this methodology in the world-renowned Prosecco DOCG (Italian label for protection of origin and geographical indication of wines) region. A sample field in Bigolino di Valdobbiadene (North-Eastern Italy) was selected to perform the pesticide fate modellization and the consequent inhalation risk assessment for people living in the area. The modellization accounts for the direct pesticide loss during the treatment of vineyards and for the volatilization from soil after the end of the treatment. A fugacity model was used to assess the volatilization flux from soil. The Gaussian puff air dispersion model CALPUFF was employed to assess the airborne concentration of the emitted pesticide over the simulation domain. The subsequent risk assessment integrates the HArmonised environmental Indicators for pesticide Risk (HAIR) and US-EPA guidelines. In this case study the modelled situation turned to be safe from the point of view of human health in the case of non-carcinogenic compounds, and additional improvements were suggested to further mitigate the effect of the most critical compound.
•New approach for the evaluation of pesticide inhalation exposure nearby vineyards.•Volatilization from soil modelled with a fugacity model “Soil”.•Dispersion of pesticide modelled with CALPUFF.•No acute and chronic risk identified for residents.•Application of drift reduction technique has been investigated.
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