The Asian chestnut gall wasp \emph{Dryocosmus kuriphilus}, native of China, has become a pest when it appeared in Japan, Korea, and the United States. In Europe it was first found in Italy, in 2002. In 1982 the host-specific parasitoid \emph{Torymus sinensis} was introduced in Japan, in an attempt to achieve a biological control of the pest. After an apparent initial success, the two species seem to have locked in predator-prey cycles of decadal length. We have developed a spatially explicit mathematical model that describes the seasonal time evolution of the adult insect populations, and the competition for finding egg deposition sites. In a spatially homogeneous situation the model reduces to an iterated map for the egg density of the two species. While the map would suggest, for realistic parameters, that both species should become locally extinct (somewhat corroborating the hypothesis of biological control), the full model, for the same parameters, shows that the introduction of \emph{T. sinensis} sparks a traveling wave of the parasitoid population that destroys the pest on its passage. Depending on the value of the diffusion coefficients of the two species, the pest can later be able to re-colonize the empty area left behind the wave. When this occurs the two populations do not seem to attain a state of spatial homogeneity, but produce an ever-changing pattern of traveling waves.

The technology to produce genetically engineered (GE) plants is celebrating its 30th anniversary and one of the major achievements has been the development of GE crops. The safety of GE crops is crucial for their adoption and has been the object of intense research work often ignored in the public debate. We have reviewed the scientific literature on GE crop safety during the last 10 years, built a classified and manageable list of scientific papers, and analyzed the distribution and composition of the published literature. We selected original research papers, reviews, relevant opinions and reports addressing all the major issues that emerged in the debate on GE crops, trying to catch the scientific consensus that has matured since GE plants became widely cultivated worldwide. The scientific research conducted so far has not detected any significant hazards directly connected with the use of GE crops; however, the debate is still intense. An improvement in the efficacy of scientific communication could have a significant impact on the future of agricultural GE. Our collection of scientific records is available to researchers, communicators and teachers at all levels to help create an informed, balanced public perception on the important issue of GE use in agriculture.

Biomass used in the production of energy is an important territorial resource, easy to access and capable of supplying new forms of income and promotion for rural economy. The aim of this work is to give and indicative estimation of agroforestry biomasses (as volumetric mass and energy content), relative to the forest and agricultural sectors (tree and grass cultures) for the Municipality of Bracciano, in central Italy, that can be used as a basis for support for the new territorial politics. 6578 Lavinia M. P. Delfanti et al. This work shows that the total energetic content could cover the thermal consumption of the 'economy' sector of the Bracciano territory, that includes the agricultural, industrial and tertiary sectors.

The effect of controlled atmospheres on quality of manually and mechanically harvested chestnuts was investigated. Mechanical harvesting was conducted by using a modified self-propelled vacuum harvester. The modification consisted in upholstering with a high density foam the internal components of the vacuum system. Fruits were treated with 'water-curing' and stored for two months. Parameters such as weight loss, color, firmness, acetaldehyde and ethanol concentration, soluble solid and sensory quality were analyzed.Sensorial descriptive data was subjected to principal component analysis (PCA), resulting in a multidimensional space that was related to the consumer acceptance.The results indicated that the effects on sensorial quality and storability were slightly dependent on the harvest method used. Manual harvest was the best harvesting method due to the lower incidence of damage and cracks on the fruit, but the new upholstering system seems to be very effective.

The use of residual biomass arising from urban green pruning for energy production is a current and interesting subject for three main reasons: to achieve the aims of the Kyoto Protocol, to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels and to manage the urban green in a sustainable way.The aim of this study is a qualitative and quantitative analysis of waste wood biomass from urban green pruning in Viterbo in order to use it for energy production. Moisture, ash, C, H, N contents and Calorific Value analysis are carried out. Starting from the results analysis, two energy uses are proposed: wood-chips boiler and gasification.

Mediterranean countries offer very favorable climatic conditions for growing plants in a protected environment: as a matter of fact, the high solar radiation allows the use of greenhouses with simple structures, covered with plastic film and without fixed installations for winter heating. They are called "Mediterranean greenhouses" and are totally different from those in Central and Northern Europe. In the photovoltaic greenhouses, the cover on the pitch facing south is usually replaced by very opaque panels. However, this solution compromises the possibility to grow plants in covered and protected environments since solar radiation availability is limited and strongly nonuniform. In order to overcome this problem, semitransparent photovoltaic materials can be used to let the solar energy, necessary for plant growth, pass into the green house. The aim of this research is to analyze the radiometric properties of innovative semitransparent flexible photovoltaic materials in order to evaluate their performances in comparison with materials commonly used in the coverage of the greenhouses. Particular attention is paid to the transmittance of these materials in the visible range and in the long wave infrared for the achievement of greenhouse effect.

Modern agriculture is an extremely energy intensive process. However, high agricultural productivities and the growth of green revolution has been possible only by large amount of energy inputs, especially those coming from fossil fuels. These energy resources have not been able to provide an economically viable solution for agricultural applications. Biomass energy-based systems had been extensively used for transportation and on farm systems during World War II: the most common and reliable solution was wood or biomass gasification. The latter means incomplete combustion of biomass resulting in production of combustible gases which mostly consist of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H-2) and traces of methane (CH4). This mixture is called syngas, which can be successfully used to run internal combustion engines (both compression and spark ignition) or as substitute for furnace oil in direct heat applications. The aim of the present paper is to help the experimentation of innovative plants for electric power production using agro-forest biomass derived by hazelnut cultivations. An additional purpose is to point out a connection among the chemical and physical properties of the outgoing syngas by biomass characterization and gas-chromatography analysis.