La catabasi di Anfiarao: Saggio di commento a stat. Theb. Viii 1-217

2008 - 2009Il dott. Francesco di Paola Di Capua, al termine delle attività di formazione e di ricerca, servendosi dell’edizione critica di Klotz A., “Publi Papini Stati Thebais, Leipzig 1908 (riveduta e corretta da Th. C. Klinnert nel 1973), ma tenendo conto anche dell’edizione curata da Hill D.E. “Publi Papini Stati Thebaidos Libri XII”, Leiden 1983, ha approntato un saggio di commento relativo ai primi 207 versi del libro VIII della Tebaide di Stazio. L’analisi di tali versi riguarda la catabasi di Anfiarao. Il lavoro di ricerca è stato così articolato: introduzione, traduzione del testo latino, commento. La traduzione, condotta sul testo criticamente rivisitato, tenta da un lato di rendere in italiano la pregnanza delle scelte linguistiche dell’autore, dall’altro di svolgere, in forma lineare e agevole, le strutture sintattiche cercando di far rivivere, per quanto possibile, lo stile poetico staziano. Nell’introduzione, a brevi cenni alla vita e alle opere dell’autore, e ad una concisa messa a punto della tradizione manoscritta del testo staziano, segue, dapprima, un’analisi generale dell’opera e, successivamente, un’analisi più particolareggiata della porzione di testo presa in esame. All'interno dell’introduzione, particolare attenzione è stata rivolta al piano linguisticostilistico e a quello letterario del testo, mentre osservazioni di carattere filologico e storico sono state quasi interamente riservate alle note di commento. L’attenzione del dott. Di Capua è stata poi rivolta al particolare uso dei modelli e/o ai rapporti con essi di imitatio ed aemulatio. Gli elementi di carattere filosofico all’interno del testo sono molto labili, sebbene si propenda per ritenere questi fugaci accenni come retaggio di una tradizione letteraria e non come spie di ideologie e/o dottrine filosofiche. Oltre a soffermarsi sul personaggio di Anfiarao l’analisi ha evidenziato l’importanza del dio Plutone; il dio appare personaggio di forte spessore psicologico, poiché, sebbene venga raffigurato quale emblema ed incarnazione del male, è portavoce di un animo lacerato nel quale albergano sentimenti contrastanti. Emerge altresì il suo ruolo quale alter ego di Giove nell’assecondare il volere e l’ineluttabilità del Fatum. Si è messa, infine, in particolare evidenza l’invocazione di Tisifone da parte del dio dell’Ade, che appare simmetrica rispetto a quella formulata da Edipo nel libro I; pertanto si è rimarcato come l’attuazione del nefas avvenga attraverso un consenso di rapporti fra umano e divino (Edipo e Giove/Plutone), fra mondo terreno, celeste e sotterraneo. Il libro VIII si pone pertanto come libro centrale nell’impianto del poema, in quanto portatore di una nuova esplosione del furor (dopo quella del libro I) nel prosieguo della narrazione. [a cura dell'autore]VIII n.s

Exploiting the Nutrient Potential of Anaerobically Digested Sewage Sludge: A Review

The world is currently witnessing a rapid increase in sewage sludge (SS) production, due to the increased demand for wastewater treatment. Therefore, SS management is crucial for the economic and environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment plants. The recovery of nutrients from SS has been identified as a fundamental step to enable the transition from a linear to a circular economy, turning SS into an economic and sustainable source of materials. SS is often treated via anaerobic digestion, to pursue energy recovery via biogas generation. Anaerobically digested sewage sludge (ADS) is a valuable source of organic matter and nutrients, and significant advances have been made in recent years in methods and technologies for nutrient recovery from ADS. The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive overview, describing the advantages and drawbacks of the available and emerging technologies for recovery of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) from ADS. This work critically reviews the established and novel technologies, which are classified by their ability to recover a specific nutrient (ammonia stripping) or to allow the simultaneous recovery of multiple elements (struvite precipitation, ion exchange, membrane technologies, and thermal treatments). This study compares the described technologies in terms of nutrient recovery efficiency, capital, and operational costs, as well as their feasibility for full-scale application, revealing the current state of the art and future perspectives on this topic

Total and Partial Fragmentation Cross-Section of 500 MeV/nucleon Carbon Ions on Different Target Materials

By using an experimental setup based on thin and thick double-sided microstrip silicon detectors, it has been possible to identify the fragmentation products due to the interaction of very high energy primary ions on different targets. Here we report total and partial cross-sections measured at GSI (Gesellschaft fur Schwerionenforschung), Darmstadt, for 500 MeV/n energy $^{12}C$ beam incident on water (in flasks), polyethylene, lucite, silicon carbide, graphite, aluminium, copper, iron, tin, tantalum and lead targets. The results are compared to the predictions of GEANT4 (v4.9.4) and FLUKA (v11.2) Monte Carlo simulation programs.Comment: 10pages, 13figures, 4table

A new generation photodetector for astroparticle physics: the VSiPMT

The VSiPMT (Vacuum Silicon PhotoMultiplier Tube) is an innovative design we proposed for a revolutionary photon detector. The main idea is to replace the classical dynode chain of a PMT with a SiPM (G-APD), the latter acting as an electron detector and amplifier. The aim is to match the large sensitive area of a photocathode with the performance of the SiPM technology. The VSiPMT has many attractive features. In particular, a low power consumption and an excellent photon counting capability. To prove the feasibility of the idea we first tested the performance of a special non-windowed SiPM by Hamamatsu (MPPC) as electron detector and current amplifier. Thanks to this result Hamamatsu realized two VSiPMT industrial prototypes. In this work, we present the results of a full characterization of the VSiPMT prototype

Radiation Damage in Polyethylene Naphthalate Thin-Film Scintillators.

This paper describes the scintillation features and the radiation damage in polyethylene naphthalate 100 µm-thick scintillators irradiated with an 11 MeV proton beam and with a 1 MeV electron beam at doses up to 15 and 85 Mrad, respectively. The scintillator emission spectrum, optical transmission, light yield loss, and scintillation pulse decay times were investigated before and after the irradiation. A deep blue emission spectrum peaked at 422 nm, and fast and slow scintillation decay time constants of the order of 1-2 ns and 25-30 nm, respectively, were measured. After irradiation, transmittance showed a loss of transparency for wavelengths between 380 and 420 nm, and a light yield reduction of ~40% was measured at the maximum dose of 85 Mrad

Hysteresis Modeling in Iron-Dominated Magnets Based on a Multi-Layered Narx Neural Network Approach

A full-fledged neural network modeling, based on a Multi-layered Nonlinear Autoregressive Exogenous Neural Network (NARX) architecture, is proposed for quasi-static and dynamic hysteresis loops, one of the most challenging topics for computational magnetism. This modeling approach overcomes drawbacks in attaining better than percent-level accuracy of classical and recent approaches for accelerator magnets, that combine hybridization of standard hysteretic models and neural network architectures. By means of an incremental procedure, different Deep Neural Network Architectures are selected, fine-tuned and tested in order to predict magnetic hysteresis in the context of electromagnets. Tests and results show that the proposed NARX architecture best fits the measured magnetic field behavior of a reference quadrupole at CERN. In particular, the proposed modeling framework leads to a percent error below 0.02% for the magnetic field prediction, thus outperforming state of the art approaches and paving a very promising way for future real time applications

The growing, resilient, inclusive and sustainable (GRINS) project for the development of life cycle inventory databases of beef cattle raised in Italy: The statistical datasets and the environmental assessment

Within the framework of the Growing, Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable (GRINS) project (Spoke 1, WP3, Next Generation EU program), this work aims to overcome the absence of Italian beef cattle Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) datasets through a capillary analysis of several parameters. Specifically, the contribution to the environmental impact of livestock breeding of breed features (age, gender, weight, daily weight gain, breeding, feed intake and composition, milk and manure production), as well as stable management and crop cultivation was investigated. Statistical inventory datasets (84 in total) were developed for the predominant (<1 % population cut-off) beef cattle breeds in Italy. A key finding was the quantification of CH4 g kg1 emissions from enteric fermentation (ranging from 0.259 to 0.714 of live weight per day) and its contribution to the overall environmental impact of beef cattle breeding. The composition of feed rations emerged as critical, influencing both cattle emissions and environmental impacts associated with the cultivation and transport of raw materials. Intensive and langer breeds like Aubrac, Blond d'Aquitaine, Blue Belga, Charolaise, and Chianina, exhibited higher eco-indicator values compared to the extensive beef cattle breeds (Podolica, Highland, and Maremmana). The life cycle assessment identified several key impact categories (climate change, water use and ecotoxicity freshwater) mainly contributing to the total eco-indicator. Climate change (22.1 %) represented the greatest impact category, with beef cattle emissions over their lifespan averaging 9.3 Mg CO2-eq. Methane (enteric fermentation) and NH3 (manure management) emissions, as well as irrigation and pesticide use, represented the main hotspots. A comparative analysis evaluated the environmental footprint of Italian beef cattle against benchmarks outlined in the “Made Green in Italy” brand's Product Category Rules. This comparison revealed a 32.4 % reduction in total eco-indicator for Italian beef cattle, due to a significant decrease in freshwater ecotoxicity ( 72.5 %), land use ( 34.2) and climate change ( 7.5 %)

Microaerobic Digestion of Low-Biodegradable Sewage Sludge: Effect of Air Dosing in Batch Reactors

The adoption of prolonged solid retention times during the biological treatment of urban wastewaters is a well-known strategy to reduce sewage sludge production. However, it also results in the production of a biological sludge with low percentages of biodegradable organic matter, also characterized by high humification degrees, which may hamper the anaerobic digestion treatment aimed at sludge stabilization. To accelerate the hydrolytic stage, the application of microaerobic conditions during the anaerobic digestion of low-biodegradable sewage sludge was investigated in this study. In particular, six bio-methanation tests of a real sewage sludge were carried out, introducing air in the bioreactors with doses ranging between 0 and 16.83 L air/kg VSin d, in order to evaluate the air dosage that optimizes the biomethane production and organic matter degradation. Notably, the lower air loading rates investigated in this study, such as 0.68 and 1.37 L air/kg VSin d, led to an increase in methane production of up to 19%, due to a higher degradation of total lipids and proteins. In addition, these microaerobic conditions also resulted in a decrease in the sludge humification degree and in lower volatile fatty acid accumulation