Innovative Method and Apparatus for Deep Cleaning of Soluble Salts from Mortars and Lithic Materials

Abstract A new method improves the quality and durability of decontamination by soluble salts, compared with conventional application of wraps. The salts inside the porous material are brought in solution by soaking with distilled water, then aspired by a suction nozzle applied to the sample surface, allowing the solution to move towards the surface. Finally, the method tested on plaster samples with different suction flows is effective in the cleaning. As every surface to be cleaned could be affected by different extent of deterioration, specific flows of suctions were investigated

The Concept of Feminism in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll's House

This paper investigates the role of women and their right in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll's House (1879). Ibsen, one of the world’s greatest dramatists, is considered as the father of modern drama, and as one of the great supporters of women. He never calls himself a feminist, and he is more a humanist. There are indeed plenty of feminist tendencies in his plays. Based on Simone de Beauvoir’s concept of woman as “the Other,” this paper will show the untrue system of marriage, stressing on individuality of women and fighting for their freedom, in addition protesting to all restrictions in society. Under the impact of Ibsen’s ideology, individuality and humanity are the most important social issues which are developed in his works. All social instructions and conventions are the enemy of every individual because they restrict the characters’ personal identity and their freedom. In particular, Ibsen expands this outlook on the women’s position whose individuality and freedom are taken by masculine society. Nora, as a woman, a wife, or a mother, behaves like a doll. She is under the control of the invisible hands and the pressures of patriarchal society. Ibsen protests against the position of women in a masculine society which is unfair and under the hegemony of male-dominated powers. Keywords: Freedom, Humanity, Identity, Individuality, Masculine Society, Patriarchal Society

Value iteration convergence of ε-monotone schemes for stationary Hamilton-Jacobi equations

International audienceWe present an abstract convergence result for the xed point approximation of stationary Hamilton{Jacobi equations. The basic assumptions on the discrete operator are invariance with respect to the addition of constants, "-monotonicity and consistency. The result can be applied to various high-order approximation schemes which are illustrated in the paper. Several applications to Hamilton{Jacobi equations and numerical tests are presented

From Explainable to Reliable Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence systems are characterized by always less interactions with humans today, leading to autonomous decision-making processes. In this context, erroneous predictions can have severe consequences. As a solution, we design and develop a set of methods derived from eXplainable AI models. The aim is to define “safety regions” in the feature space where false negatives (e.g., in a mobility scenario, prediction of no collision, but collision in reality) tend to zero. We test and compare the proposed algorithms on two different datasets (physical fatigue and vehicle platooning) and achieve quite different conclusions in terms of results that strongly depend on the level of noise in the dataset rather than on the algorithms at hand

Comparative study of the phase transition of Li1+xMn2-xO4 by anelastic spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry

Li1+xMn2xO4 is one of the most promising candidates as high performance cathode for lithium ion batteries. The stoichiometric compound is known to undergo a phase transition around room temperature, which has been widely studied and attributed either to Jahn–Teller effect or to charge ordering. For the applications it is important to suppress this phase transition, which lowers the electrochemical performances of the material. DSC measurements, which have been largely used in the literature to study the occurrence of the transformation, can detect a phase transition accompanied by latent heat only for x < 0.04. This fact has been generally accepted as a proof that the transformation is suppressed by doping. However, by using a technique extremely sensitive to rearrangements of atoms in the lattice, such as anelastic spectroscopy, we show that the phase transition persists up to x = 0.08, is shifted to lower temperatures, and changes its nature from first to higher order. The implications for the mechanism driving the transition and the similarities and differences with doped Fe3O4, which is the prototype of charge order transitions, are discussed

Photocatalytic Fe-doped n-TiO2: From synthesis to utilization of in vitro cell models for screening human and environmental nanosafety

The utilization of different types nanomaterials (NMs) in environmental remediation and wastewatertreatment requires information on the potential harmful effects on human and environmental health. Inthis light, the utilization of human cell models together with cells from lower organisms, representativeof different environmental compartments, could represent a valuable tool for the in vitro screening of thepotential toxicity of different NMs used in nanoremediation. Among NMs, n-TiO2, because of its peculiaroptical and chemical properties, is widely applied for photosensitized UV oxidation of organic pollutants.Moreover, development in design of metal- and non metal- doped TiO2 with extended photocatalyticactivity in the visible region represents the subject of ongoing research

UV-254 degradation of nicotine in natural waters and leachates produced from cigarette butts and heat-not-burn tobacco products.

Summarization: Nicotine is an important emerging contaminant widely detected in water resources. The main nicotine sources are human excretions from users and leaching from discarded tobacco product waste, which represents the most commonly littered item in urban areas and coasts. In this study, the UV254 photolytical fate of nicotine in natural water and leachates produced from conventional cigarettes (CCs) and the new generation heat-not-burn (HnBs) tobacco products is examined for the first time. The effect of UV254 irradiation on nicotine depletion in ultrapure water was initially studied. The reaction was pseudo first-order with respect to nicotine concentration at low concentrations and shifted to lower order at higher concentrations, an effect associated to absorption saturation. Although nicotine removal was fast, only 9.5% of the total organic carbon was removed after irradiation due to the formation of by-products. The chemical structures of six photo-products were derived by means of liquid and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The photodegradation kinetics was found to depend on pH and faster kinetics were recorded when the monoprotonated form of nicotine was dominant (pH = 5–8). The presence of humic acids was found to slightly delay kinetics as they competed with nicotine for lamp irradiance, whereas the presence of salt had no effect on the direct photolysis of nicotine. Direct photolysis studies were also performed using natural waters. Compared to ultra-pure water, photodegradation was found to proceed slightly slower in river water, in similar kinetics in seawater, and relatively faster in rain water. The later was assumed to be due to the lower pH compared to the rest of the natural water tested. Leachates from used HnBs and smoked CCs were also submitted to UV254 irradiation and direct photolysis was found to proceed fast despite the high complexity of these matrices. Nonetheless, the total organic carbon in the system remained the same after irradiation due to the abundance of organics and photo-products formed. We take advantage of the present investigations and report the leaching behavior of nicotine from HnBs and CCs. Among others, we found that in HnBs ~70% of the total and bioavailable nicotine content remains in the tobacco sticks after operation and this percentage drops to 15% in CCs due to the reduction in mass after smoking. This finding demonstrated the importance of properly disposing tobacco product waste to prevent nicotine leaching in water bodies. Presented on: Environmental Researc

Photocatalytic Fe-doped n-TiO2: From synthesis to utilization of in vitro cell models for screening human and environmental nanosafety

The utilization of different types nanomaterials (NMs) in environmental remediation and wastewater treatment requires information on the potential harmful effects on human and environmental health. In this light, the utilization of human cell models together with cells from lower organisms, representative of different environmental compartments, could represent a valuable tool for the in vitro screening of the potential toxicity of different NMs used in nanoremediation. Among NMs, n-TiO2, because of its peculiar optical and chemical properties, is widely applied for photosensitized UV oxidation of organic pollutants. Moreover, development in design of metal- and non metal- doped TiO2 with extended photocatalytic activity in the visible region represents the subject of ongoing research. In this work, the cytotoxic effects of three different types of recently synthetized Fe-doped n-TiO2 were compared in two cell models widely utilized for screening cellular toxicity of NMs in humans and aquatic organisms, human vascular endothelial cells (HECV) and immune cells (hemocytes) of the marine invertebrate, the mussel Mytilus spp, respectively. Parallel studies were carried out using N-doped n-TiO2. The results indicate both distinct and common behavior (agglomeration state) in different media (human cell culture medium and mussel hemolymph serum) and biological effects (cytotoxicity, nitric oxide production) of different types of doped- n-TiO2 in different cell models. Although in vitro studies represent a first step in the toxicological assessment of NMs, studies comparing their effects on human and aquatic invertebrate cells that take into account the effects of different exposure media represent an useful tool for evaluating potential cytotoxicity of those NMs, like TiO2-based photocatalytic NMs, widely applied in environmental remediation, and whose potential risks are poorly understood

Solid-phase extraction of vanadium(V) from teainfusions and wines on immobilized nanometer titanium dioxide followed by ICP-OES analysis

Nanosized titanium dioxide immobilized on silica gel was synthesized and used as fixedbed phase for V(V) pre-concentration, followed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) analysis. Three different sorbents were prepared by sol\u2013gel method starting from a mixture of titanium isopropoxide, 2-propanol and water, and characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and BET analysis. V(V), the most stable and toxic oxidation state of the element, present in water and beverages samples, was selectively sorbed, pre-concentrated, quantitatively eluted by 0.1 M HCl and analyzed by ICP-OES. The effectiveness of the procedure was first assessed on tap water enriched with 1 lg L1 of V(V) obtaining recoveries up to 92% (n= 4). The pre-concentration step was then optimized for complex matrices such as tea infusions and red and white wines. The reliability of the procedure was assessed on the same beverages samples spiked with 20\u2013250 lg L1. Quantitative recoveries (82\u2013 95%, n= 4) were assured avoiding any sample pre-treatment, generally essential in such complex matrices, obtaining good precision (RSD&lt; 12%, n= 3). The method was then applied to the determination of V(V) in commercial tea infusions and wines