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Hydroponics is the most widely used technique in closed cultivation environments, and this system is often used for the cultivation of baby leaf vegetables. These species can accumulate high levels of nitrates; for this reason, the control of growing conditions is a crucial factor for limiting their content, especially in protected cultivations. The aim of this work was to reduce nitrate accumulation in leafy vegetables grown in a vertical farm while preserving the quality at harvest as well as during storage. This objective was achieved by completely replacing the nutrient solution with water a few hours before harvest (“flushing”). The trials were carried out on lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. Var. Acephala, cv. Greenet) and rocket (Eruca sativa Mill., cv. Rome). Three independent trials were conducted on lettuce, applying the flushing treatment 24 h and 48 h prior to harvest. One trial was conducted on rocket, applying the treatment 48 h before harvesting. Sampling and related analyses were carried out at harvest and during the storage period to determine chlorophyll, leaf fluorescence, total sugars, chlorophyll (a + b), carotenoids, phenolic index, anthocyanins and nitrate content. Moreover, relative humidity (RH%), O₂% and CO₂% determination inside the package headspace were monitored during storage. The results obtained indicate that it is possible to reduce the nitrate concentration by up to 56% in lettuce and 61% in rocket while maintaining the product quality of baby leaves by replacing the nutrient solution with tap water before harvest. Full article

Our aesthetic experiences are today conditioned by machines, which operate at multiple levels: at the moment of conception of a work, at the moment of conservation and distribution of the work, and at the moment of its contemplation. For art today, it is no longer a theoretical question of asking whether the machine can act with freedom in the sense of a game that remains as of yet open-ended—or if humans themselves can still so act in a world entirely conditioned by technology—because the brute fact is that machines are becoming ever more autonomous, and humans ever more dependent upon them. For some artists, therefore, the ideas of autonomy and sacralization are best addressed, not in the posing of serious questions, but rather through the subversive activity of enticing the machine to reveal its comic nature—and wherein we discover, with Bergson, the essentially rigid and mechanical nature of the humorous. Full article