Thermal comfort in the historical urban canyon: the effect of innovative materials

Urban heat island (UHI) can considerably affect the thermal quality of the urban environment, especially within urban canyons, that have typically low sky view factor and limited surface heat re-emission capability. A huge research effort has been registered to develop mitigation solutions for UHI, such as cool materials and greenery. Nevertheless, it is not always possible to apply such strategies in historical urban environments due to constrains for the preservation of their cultural value that do not allow to modify the exterior architectural appearance of heritage buildings. In this scenario, the present paper deals with the analysis of the potential of innovative cool materials characterized by the same appearance of historical ones in mitigating the UHI occurring in the context of a historical urban canyon located in central Italy selected as pilot case study. To this purpose, a preliminary experimental characterization of such innovative highly reflective materials has been performed. Afterwards, an experimental continuous monitoring campaign of the main outdoor microclimate parameters and a numerical modelling of the canyon have been carried out to evaluate the local mitigation capability of such materials when applied over the vertical and horizontal surfaces of the historical canyon. The results show the huge potential of the proposed innovative cool materials in mitigating the local microclimate of the historical urban canyon. In fact, a MOCI reduction up to 0.15 and 0.30 is detected by applying cool red envelope materials and cool red envelope materials plus cool grey paving materials, respectively, on the canyon surfaces

Interpreting the Terahertz Spectrum of Complex Materials: The Unique Contribution of the Bayesian Analysis

In the last few decades, experimental studies of the terahertz spectrum of density fluctuations have considerably improved our knowledge of the mesoscopic dynamics of disordered materials, which also have imposed new demands on the data modelling and interpretation. Indeed, lineshape analyses are no longer limited to the phenomenological observation of inelastic features, as in the pioneering stage of Neutron or X-ray spectroscopy, rather aiming at the extraction from their shape of physically relevant quantities, as sound velocity and damping, relaxation times, or other transport coefficients. In this effort, researchers need to face both inherent and practical obstacles, respectively stemming from the highly damped nature of terahertz modes and the limited energy resolution, accessible kinematic region and statistical accuracy of the typical experimental outcome. To properly address these challenges, a global reconsideration of the lineshape modelling and the enforcement of evidence-based probabilistic inference is becoming crucial. Particularly compelling is the possibility of implementing Bayesian inference methods, which we illustrated here through an in-depth discussion of some results recently obtained in the analysis of Neutron and X-ray scattering results

Identification of the Yeast Mitochondrial Transporter for Oxaloacetate and Sulfate

Saccharomyces cerevisiae encodes 35 members of the mitochondrial carrier family, including the OAC protein. The transport specificities of some family members are known, but most are not. The function of the OAC has been revealed by overproduction in Escherichia coli, reconstitution into liposomes, and demonstration that the proteoliposomes transport malonate, oxaloacetate, sulfate, and thiosulfate. Reconstituted OAC catalyzes both unidirectional transport and exchange of substrates. In S. cerevisiae, OAC is in inner mitochondrial membranes, and deletion of its gene greatly reduces transport of oxaloacetate sulfate, thiosulfate, and malonate. Mitochondria from wild-type cells swelled in isoosmotic solutions of ammonium salts of oxaloacetate, sulfate, thiosulfate, and malonate, indicating that these anions are cotransported with protons. Overexpression of OAC in the deletion strain increased greatly the [(35)S]sulfate/sulfate and [(35)S]sulfate/oxaloacetate exchanges in proteoliposomes reconstituted with digitonin extracts of mitochondria. The main physiological role of OAC appears to be to use the proton-motive force to take up into mitochondria oxaloacetate produced from pyruvate by cytoplasmic pyruvate carboxylase

The damping of terahertz acoustic modes in aqueous nanoparticle suspensions

In this work, we investigate the possibility of controlling the acoustic damping in a liquid when nanoparticles are suspended in it. To shed light on this topic, we performed Inelastic X-Ray Scattering (IXS) measurements of the terahertz collective dynamics of aqueous suspensions of nanospheres of various materials, size, and relative concentration, either charged or neutral. A Bayesian analysis of measured spectra indicates that the damping of the two acoustic modes of water increases upon nanoparticle immersion. This effect seems particularly pronounced for the longitudinal acoustic mode, which, whenever visible at all, rapidly damps off when increasing the exchanged wavevector. Results also indicate that the observed effect strongly depends on the material the immersed nanoparticles are made of

Prospective assessment of two-gene urinary test with multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging of the prostate for men undergoing primary prostate biopsy

Purpose To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of SelectMDx and its association with multiparametric magnetic resonance (mpMRI) in predicting prostate cancer (PCa) and clinically significant PCa (csPCa) on prostate biopsies among men scheduled for initial prostate biopsy. Methods In this single-center prospective study, 52 men scheduled for initial prostate biopsy, based on elevated total PSA level (> 3 ng/ml) or abnormal digital rectal examination, were consecutively included. All subjects underwent SelectMDx, PSA determination and mpMRI. Results SelectMDx score was positive in 94.1 and 100% of PCa and csPCa, respectively, and in only 8.6% of negative cases at biopsy. The probability for a csPCa at the SelectMDx score was significantly (p = 0.002) higher in csPCa (median value 52.0%) than in all PCa (median value 30.0%). SelectMDx showed slightly lower sensitivity (94.1 versus 100.0%) but higher specificity (91.4%) than total PSA (17.1%), and the same sensitivity but higher specificity than mpMRI (80.0%) in predicting PCa at biopsy. The association of SelectMDx plus mpMRI rather than PSA density (PSAD) plus mpMRI showed higher specificity (both 91.4%) compared to the association of PSA plus mpMRI (85.7%). In terms of csPCa predictive value, SelectMDx showed higher specificity (73.3%) than PSA (13.3%) and mpMRI (64.4%); as for the association of SelectMDx plus mpMRI (75.6%) versus PSA plus mpMRI (68.9%), the association of PSAD plus mpMRI showed the highest specificity (80.0%). Conclusion Our results of SelectMDx can be confirmed as significant but their impact on clinical practice together with a cost-effectiveness evaluation should be investigated in a larger prospective multicenter analysis

SALÁRIO EMOCIONAL E MOTIVAÇÃO NO PODER JUDICIÁRIO BRASILEIRO

O Poder Judiciário brasileiro é criticado por ser moroso e ineficiente. Há que se considerar a imensa quantidade de processos em tramitação (62 milhões em 2021), acarretando uma elevada carga de trabalho. Diante desse quadro, deve-se buscar a melhoria da prestação jurisdicional, com inovações criativas. Os juízes e servidores estão sujeitos a regime jurídico próprio, marcado por uma rigidez burocrática. Porém, na gestão do pessoal daquele Poder podem ser adotadas técnicas para aumentar a motivação, como o Salário Emocional, que consiste em incentivos não-monetários voltados à satisfação e ao bem-estar do colaborador no desempenho de suas atividades. O presente estudo objetiva analisar a utilização do Salário Emocional como fator de motivação dos componentes do Poder Judiciário, que passam a ser vistos como seres humanos integrais com necessidades que vão além da tradicional remuneração pecuniária

Search for spontaneous muon emission from lead nuclei

We describe a possible search for muonic radioactivity from lead nuclei using the base elements ("bricks" composed by lead and nuclear emulsion sheets) of the long-baseline OPERA neutrino experiment. We present the results of a Monte Carlo simulation concerning the expected event topologies and estimates of the background events. Using few bricks, we could reach a good sensitivity level.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Nitretação a plasma da junta soldada do aço inoxidável super duplex SAF 2507

Os aços inoxidáveis superduplex (AISD) apresentam em sua microestrutura as fases ferrita e austenita, demodo a conciliar boas propriedades mecânicas e de resistência à corrosão. Estes materiais possuem grandeaplicação na indústria de extração de petróleo e na petroquímica. Quando estão sujeitos a estas aplicações, osdutos de AISD sofrem desgastes. Dentre os tipos, pode-se citar o proveniente do atrito de cabos que levamferramentas para o interior de poços. Levando em consideração a soldagem dos aços superduplex, a suscetibilidadeao desgaste e à corrosão podem aumentar. Valores de energia de soldagem acima de 1,5 KJ/mm ocasionamo desbalanceamento de fases, prejudicando as propriedades citadas. A ZTA (zona termicamente afetada)da solda destes aços é a região mais suscetível à degradação e fragilização devido ao crescimento dogrão ferrítico e possível surgimento de precipitados deletérios. Neste contexto, este trabalho tem como umdos objetivos nitretar a junta soldada do aço SAF 2507 e correlacionar a microestrutura com a dureza superficial.Para alcançar os resultados, amostras de junta soldada foram nitretadas a plasma utilizando as técnicasde nitretação convencional (NC) e em gaiola catódica (NGC) na temperatura de 400 ⁰ C. Em decorrência, asamostras nitretadas com o uso da gaiola catódica apresentaram maiores e mais uniformes valores de microdureza.Palavras-chave: Superduplex, nitretação, microdureza