The cost of inaction in air pollution abatement policies

Two alternative air quality policies are compared: one is the application of only mandatory abatement measures from 2020 to 2030. The second is the definition of a more active and locally-based policy that will lead to a better air quality at the end of the decade. Using an integrated modelling system, we demonstrate that the active policy is quite more convenient from the economic viewpoint, at least for the specific situation of the Lombardy region, considered in the study. Improving particulate matter concentrations may however produce worse ozone values. A full view of all pollutants is thus necessary when planning for air quality at regional level.Copyright (c) 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Un sistema de control basado en algoritmos genéticos para el cambio climático

L’obiettivo di questo elaborato è quello di cercare di mantenere l’anomalia di tem- peratura globale (differenza di temperatura tra il valore attuale e quello dell’era pre-industriale) al di sotto dei 2 °C nel 2100, stimando dei coefficienti di riduzione annuali per i principali gas serra atmosferici. Per fare ciò viene utilizzato il modello FAIR (Finite Amplitude Impulse Response), un modulo Python open-source che permette di ricavare, a partire dalle emissioni di 39 gas serra (GHG) e aerosol, le concentrazioni di 31 GHG, il forzante radiativo di 13 agenti e l’anomalia di temperatura derivante da queste emissioni. La matrice delle emissioni, di dimensioni [40×numero di anni], comprende anche l’intervallo temporale (in anni) in cui eseguire la stima, con 39 emissioni per ogni anno. Con- centrazioni, forzante e anomalia di temperatura vengono calcolate per ogni anno compreso nell’intervallo sopra citato

APPLICAZIONE DEGLI ULTRASUONI AL TRATTAMENTO DELLE LEGHE ALLO STATO LIQUIDO

Nella produzione industriale di leghe metalliche da fonderia l’ottenimento di una struttura a grano fine edomogeneo, povera in porosità ed irregolarità, è traducibile in un incremento delle proprietà meccaniche. Adoggi queste caratteristiche sono ricavate tramite l’utilizzo di ben consolidati processi produttivi e tramitel’aggiunta di elementi affinanti e modificanti, i quali comportano tuttavia onerose spese aggiuntive, gravantiin modo cospicuo sul costo dei pezzi prodotti.Nuove tecnologie stanno inoltre nascendo, al fine di migliorare o sostituire quelle già esistenti: ne è un esempiola produzione di leghe aventi caratteristiche tixotropiche, ove l’ottenimento di una lega allo stato semi-solidopermette di riempire lo stampo con moto laminare e non turbolento, garantendo compattezza ed uniformità delfronte di avanzamento con conseguente riduzione della quantità di gas intrappolato (da cui hanno origine leporosità, una delle problematiche principali in fonderia) [1].L’applicazione di onde ultrasonore direttamente al bagno liquido (trattamento US), potrebbe rappresentareuna svolta nella produzione di leghe metalliche, portando all’ottenimento di pezzi ad elevate caratteristichemeccaniche senza l’utilizzo di costosi elementi migliorativi. Alcuni studi condotti presso centri universitariesteri, ma non ancora applicati industrialmente, mostrano infatti come questo tipo di onde inducano fenomenidi tipo cavitativo all’interno del metallo liquido, favorendo un affinamento del grano ed una riduzione delleporosità [2-3]. Scopo del presente studio è stato quello di analizzare ed ottimizzare questa nuova tecnologia,applicando onde ultrasonore opportunamente generate a leghe metalliche fuse, onde studiarne l’effetto sullamicrostruttura e sulle proprietà meccaniche.Obiettivo finale della ricerca è stato l’ottenimento di una lega con microstruttura globulare, utilizzabile perapplicazioni in semisolido [4]

The cost of inaction in air pollution abatement policies

Two alternative air quality policies are compared: one is the application of only mandatory abatement measures from 2020 to 2030. The second is the definition of a more active and locally-based policy that will lead to a better air quality at the end of the decade. Using an integrated modelling system, we demonstrate that the active policy is quite more convenient from the economic viewpoint, at least for the specific situation of the Lombardy region, considered in the study. Improving particulate matter concentrations may however produce worse ozone values. A full view of all pollutants is thus necessary when planning for air quality at regional level.Copyright (c) 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Assessing air pollution emissions vs. abatement costs in agricultural practices

Agriculture is a vital component of human civilization, providing food, fiber, and fuel for billions of people worldwide. However, the agricultural sector has also been identified as a significant contributor to air pollution. This study investigates and analyses the impact of agrofarming activities on air pollution in very productive areas such as Northern Italy. It explores the various sources and mechanisms through which agriculture affects air quality compared to all the other emission sectors and the types of pollutants involved, and quantifies the consequences for human health of agricultural emissions. As a further and novel step, it highlights the technologies that can mitigate these negative impacts and promote sustainable agriculture by adopting an integrated assessment modeling approach. This study defines policy recommendations for the area at hand, determining the optimal compromises between air quality improvement and pollution abatement costs. For instance, it shows that it is possible to reduce the average PM2.5 concentration by 17% with an annual expenditure of 300 M€. Four percent of this improvement is due to end-of-pipe abatement measures in the agricultural sector. Such an improvement in air quality would translate into a reduction of tens of thousands of years of life lost by the resident population. This study concludes with an outlook of additional options for addressing the air pollution challenges associated with agro-farming activities that constitute a limit of the current study, but could open new research lines

Cooperative scientific literature search and socialization through virtual teams

The scientific literature search is a key enabler for the research process. However, since it presents a lack of systematic procedure, is one of the most problematic and inefficient activities that researchers need to face during the development of their state of the arts. Moreover, most University students never experience sci- scientific literature search despite research is the main mission of the universities and one of the major activities of their professors as well as a primary param- enter for their careers. The aim of this paper is to i) present a new approach for sci- scientific literature search based on virtual team collaboration ii) explore the team dynamics of the knowledge building process in a virtual environment and, iii) propose a blog tool for open knowledge sharing both for experienced researchers and beginning students

Ottobre Partigiano: esperimenti di Public History per raccontare la Resistenza a Parma

L’articolo propone un resoconto della rassegna organizzata dall’Isrec di Parma nell’ottobre 2019 dedicata alla Resistenza. Sviluppata in quattro incontri, aperti alla cittadinanza, sono stati affrontati diversi temi su questa stagione storica attraverso modalità e linguaggi espositivi diversi: letture sceniche, public history, letteratura, film. Ogni serata è stata proposta con un suo accompagnamento musicale.This article is a report of a conference organized by Isrec Parma on October 2019 in order to deepen the theme of the Resistance. The idea is to dedicate a series of four meetings, open to citizenship, to deepen knowledge about the historical period 1943-1945, through different methods and exhibition languages, like stage readings, public history, literature and movies. Each meeting was proposed with its own musical accompaniment

Vertical flotation of particles in a paramagnetic fluid

Hirota et al. [6] found that the magneto-Archimedes force could be used to levitate biological materials at different heights in pressurized oxygen, providing the possibility to separate them. However the magnetic levitation of mineral particles has not been widely explored. With this in mind some preliminary experiments were performed by levitating pure mineral materials in a paramagnetic solution manganese (II) chloride. Besides the report of levitation heights of various mineral particles in manganese (II) chloride solution, the lines obtained from the basic formula provided by previous researchers were compared with experimental data. The act of cryogenic paramagnetic fluid in the magneto-Archimedes levitation was also demonstrated. The obtained results are compared with the same particle levitation heights in manganese (II) chloride solution

Particle separation by horizontal deflection in paramagnetic fluid

This paper describes the horizontal deflection behaviour of the streams of particles in paramagnetic fluids under a high-gradient superconducting magnetic field, which is the continued work on the exploration of particle magneto-Archimedes levitation. Based on the previous work on the horizontal deflection of a single particle, a glass box and collector had been designed to observe the movement of particle group in paramagnetic fluids. To get the exact separation efficiency, the method of "sink-float" involved the high density fluid polytungstate (dense medium separation) and MLA (Mineral Liberation Analyser) was performed. It was found that the particles were deflected and settled at certain positions on the container floor due to the combined forces of gravity and magneto-Archimedes forces as well as a lateral buoyancy (displacement) force. Mineral particles with different densities and susceptibilities could be deflected to different positions, thus producing groups of similar types of particles. The work described here, although in its infancy, could form the basis of new approach of separating particles based on a combination of susceptibility and density

Propagator of a Charged Particle with a Spin in Uniform Magnetic and Perpendicular Electric Fields

We construct an explicit solution of the Cauchy initial value problem for the time-dependent Schroedinger equation for a charged particle with a spin moving in a uniform magnetic field and a perpendicular electric field varying with time. The corresponding Green function (propagator) is given in terms of elementary functions and certain integrals of the fields with a characteristic function, which should be found as an analytic or numerical solution of the equation of motion for the classical oscillator with a time-dependent frequency. We discuss a particular solution of a related nonlinear Schroedinger equation and some special and limiting cases are outlined.Comment: 17 pages, no figure