Environmental performances in green labels for hotels – a critical review

The global attention towards climate change has led national governments and the international community to the definition of plans aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in all economic sectors. Recently, attention has focused also on the tourism sector, and especially on the lodging industry, which consumes high amounts of resources and energy to satisfy guests expectations in terms of offered services and comfort conditions. In this sector, eco-certifications or green labels are spreading, perceived as useful marketing tools to communicate the hoteliers’ environmental efforts to consumers, who are becoming more and more sensitive to ecological matters. However, the wide offer of green labels and the lack of appropriate information are contributing to increase costumers’ confusion and perception of real “green”. The present paper focuses its attention on a set of currently available tools to evaluate the environmental performances of hotels, in order to enquire if and to which extent they are able to inform about the sustainability of accommodation structures. Starting from the wide number of certification schemes available on the market, 19 multi-attribute, third-party green labels were compared, aiming to explore the role that energy efficiency measures play in the certification procedure

Melão Tupã: origem e melhoramento genético.

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Lipedema: A Call to Action!

Lipedema is a chronic progressive disease characterized by abnormal fat distribution resulting in disproportionate, painful limbs. It almost exclusively affects women, leading to considerable disability, daily functioning impairment, and psychosocial distress. Literature shows both scarce and conflicting data regarding its prevalence. Lipedema has been considered a rare entity by several authors, though it may be a far more frequent condition than thought. Despite the clinical impact on women's health, lipedema is in fact mostly unknown, underdiagnosed, and too often misdiagnosed with other similarly presenting diseases. Polygenic susceptibility combined with hormonal, microvascular, and lymphatic disorders may be partly responsible for its development. Furthermore, consistent information on lipedema pathophysiology is still lacking, and an etiological treatment is not yet available. Weight loss measures exhibit minimal effect on the abnormal body fat distribution, resulting in eating disorders, increased obesity risk, depression, and other psychological complaints. Surgical techniques, such as liposuction and excisional lipectomy, represent therapeutic options in selected cases. This review aims to outline current evidence regarding lipedema epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical presentation, differential diagnosis, and management. Increased awareness and a better understanding of its clinical presentation and pathophysiology are warranted to enable clinicians to diagnose and treat affected patients at an earlier stage

A new FSA approach for in situ γ\gamma-ray spectroscopy

An increasing demand of environmental radioactivity monitoring comes both from the scientific community and from the society. This requires accurate, reliable and fast response preferably from portable radiation detectors. Thanks to recent improvements in the technology, $\gamma$-spectroscopy with sodium iodide scintillators has been proved to be an excellent tool for in-situ measurements for the identification and quantitative determination of $\gamma$-ray emitting radioisotopes, reducing time and costs. Both for geological and civil purposes not only $^{40}$K, $^{238}$U, and $^{232}$Th have to be measured, but there is also a growing interest to determine the abundances of anthropic elements, like $^{137}$Cs and $^{131}$I, which are used to monitor the effect of nuclear accidents or other human activities. The Full Spectrum Analysis (FSA) approach has been chosen to analyze the $\gamma$-spectra. The Non Negative Least Square (NNLS) and the energy calibration adjustment have been implemented in this method for the first time in order to correct the intrinsic problem related with the $\chi ^2$ minimization which could lead to artifacts and non physical results in the analysis. A new calibration procedure has been developed for the FSA method by using in situ $\gamma$-spectra instead of calibration pad spectra. Finally, the new method has been validated by acquiring $\gamma$-spectra with a 10.16 cm x 10.16 cm sodium iodide detector in 80 different sites in the Ombrone basin, in Tuscany. The results from the FSA method have been compared with the laboratory measurements by using HPGe detectors on soil samples collected in the different sites, showing a satisfactory agreement between them. In particular, the $^{137}$Cs isotopes has been implemented in the analysis since it has been found not negligible during the in-situ measurements.Comment: accepted by Science of Total Environment: 8 pages, 10 figures, 3 table

Block generation, deformation and interaction of mass transport deposits with the seafloor : An outcrop-based study of the Carboniferous at Cerro Bola, NW Argentina

The research presented here was carried out with support from CNPq-Brazil (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) in partnership with Shell-Brazil. We thank Massimo Moretti and an anonymous reviewer, whose constructive comments and criticisms helped to improve the text, their efforts are highly appreciated. Finally, we thank Kei Ogata, Gian Andrea Pini and Andrea Festa for editing this volume.Peer reviewedPostprin

Protocolo para desenvolvimento de marcadores microssatélites.

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Preliminary results for the characterization of the radiological levels of rocks in Tuscany Region

http://www.fe.infn.it/u/mantovani/CV/Proceedings/Bezzon_10a.pd