The former mining area of Santa Barbara in Tuscany and a spatial strategy for its regeneration

The former brown coal mining site of Santa Barbara (1,600 ha) is located in the Valdarno area of Tuscany, Italy. It is owned by Enel, the main Italian energy company, formerly State-run and progressively privatized since 1992. As mining activities drew to a close, Enel began developing an Environmental Rehabilitation Plan (“Piano di Recupero Ambientale”) for the site in 1993, as required by law. To date, that plan has not yet been implemented. In the meantime, the Santa Barbara site has been reconquered by ‘nature’. Within the framework of the Enel's Futur-e project, the Politecnico di Milano in collaboration with the Università degli Studi di Firenze have designed a spatial strategy for the redevelopment of Santa Barbara, capable to interact with the Environmental Rehabilitation Plan. This paper describes the history and particular landscape of the site and, from the inside, the complex process undertaken to design the spatial strategy and the Master Plan for the area. Based upon the cultural heritage of cycling in Tuscany, the “Santa Barbara Cycling Hub & Park” Master Plan is the first milestone on the path to a sustainable landscape and heritage-based development, in a continuously changing scenario driven by shifting energy market dynamics and Enel's business strategy

Tripalmitin-based cationic lipospheres: preparation, characterization and in Lab-on-a-chip applications

The aim of this work was to design lipid-based cationic lipospheres (CLS) with an average diameter between 1 and 20 μm for possible application on a “Lab-on-a-chip”, to study cell–microparticles interaction. In a first set of experiments the influence was analyzed of type and amount of cationic lipids on size, morphology and recovery of CLS. In addition, the loading, distribution and movement of CLS on “Lab-on-a-chip”, was also determined

Design, production and characterization of polymeric microparticles containing vitamins for in vitro cell treatment on lab-on-a-chip

The paper describes a new lab-on-a-chip prototype for the production of microparticles based on cellulose acetate

Design and production of alginate-based microdevices for Sertoli's cells encapsulation

The present paper describes the production of living-guide intended as nerve conduit for nerve repair. Sertoli's cells (SC) have recently gained a great importance since these interesting cells can improve both in vitro and in vivo functions and differentiation of many cell types. These properties have fostered intense researches to possibly apply SC to transplantation protocols. Methods. In this paper we present the encapsulation of SC in Ca-alginate, Ba-alginate and Ca-alginate-polylysine microtubes. For the production of both microcylinders and microtubes, specialized extrusors were employed. Extrusors were designed and produced respectively using CAD-software and Derlin®. Results. SC containing nucrocylinders and microtubes were in vitro characterized for cell viability. Conclusion. When taken together these data are particularly important since SC arc well known for their ability to produce a large number of growth factors, positively influencing the growth and differentiations of nerve cells

Cellulose acetate microparticles for Lab-on-a-chip applications

Cellulose acetate microparticles for Lab-on-a-chip application