Operationalizing the circular city model for naples' city-port: A hybrid development strategy

The city-port context involves a decisive reality for the economic development of territories and nations, capable of significantly influencing the conditions of well-being and quality of life, and of making the Circular City Model (CCM) operational, preserving and enhancing seas and marine resources in a sustainable way. This can be achieved through the construction of appropriate production and consumption models, with attention to relations with the urban and territorial system. This paper presents an adaptive decision-making process for Naples (Italy) commercial port's development strategies, aimed at re-establishing a sustainable city-port relationship and making Circular Economy (CE) principles operative. The approach has aimed at implementing a CCM by operationalizing European recommendations provided within both the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework-specifically focusing on goals 9, 11 and 12-and the Maritime Spatial Planning European Directive 2014/89, to face conflicts about the overlapping areas of the city-port through multidimensional evaluations' principles and tools. In this perspective, a four-step methodological framework has been structured applying a place-based approach with mixed evaluation methods, eliciting soft and hard knowledge domains, which have been expressed and assessed by a core set of Sustainability Indicators (SI), linked to SDGs. The contribution outcomes have been centred on the assessment of three design alternatives for the East Naples port and the development of a hybrid regeneration scenario consistent with CE and sustainability principles. The structured decision-making process has allowed us to test how an adaptive approach can expand the knowledge base underpinning policy design and decisions to achieve better outcomes and cultivate a broad civic and technical engagement, that can enhance the legitimacy and transparency of policies

Erythrocyte's aging in microgravity highlights how environmental stimuli shape metabolism and morphology

The determination of the function of cells in zero-gravity conditions is a subject of interest in many different research fields. Due to their metabolic unicity, the characterization of the behaviour of erythrocytes maintained in prolonged microgravity conditions is of particular importance. Here, we used a 3D-clinostat to assess the microgravity-induced modifications of the structure and function of these cells, by investigating how they translate these peculiar mechanical stimuli into modifications, with potential clinical interest, of the biochemical pathways and the aging processes. We compared the erythrocyte's structural parameters and selected metabolic indicators that are characteristic of the aging in microgravity and standard static incubation conditions. The results suggest that, at first, human erythrocytes react to external stimuli by adapting their metabolic patterns and the rate of consumption of the cell resources. On longer timeframes, the cells translate even small differences in the environment mechanical solicitations into structural and morphologic features, leading to distinctive morphological patterns of agin

I BIOMARCATORI CARDIACI IN CORSO DI ENDOCARDIOSI MITRALICA

RIASSUNTO Introduzione: L’endocardiosi è la cardiopatia più diffusa nel cane; per diagnosticarla, a supporto della visita clinica, si utilizzano esami diagnostici quali: elettrocardiografia, radiografia ed ecocardiografia, che sono relativamente costosi, richiedono tempo, necessitano di apparecchiature ed esperienza dell’operatore per essere correttamente interpretate. I biomarcatori cardiaci e neurormonali di nuova generazione potrebbero, anche in urgenza, offrire al medico veterinario informazioni utili per identificare la presenza di una patologia dell’apparato cardiovascolare. Obiettivi: Determinare le concentrazioni di cTnI, BNP e serotonina in soggetti affetti da endocardiosi mitralica; valutare le concentrazioni sieriche di cTnI in cani con MMVD con due diversi analizzatori e comparare le due metodiche di laboratorio. IMMULITE 2000® è un metodo a chemiluminescenza, TOSOH è un metodo immunoenzimatico e di BNP con IDEXX e TOSOH; per finire determinare se i tre biomarcatori cardiaci sono correlati tra loro e con il peggioramento dell’endocardiosi mitralica. Animali, materiali e metodi: Allo studio clinico hanno preso parte 91 cani affetti da MMVD. In base ai rilievi clinici e strumentali, il grado d’insufficienza cardiaca dei pazienti è stato classificato secondo Consensus Statements of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM). Nella successiva fase tutti i cani sono stati testati per la troponina cardiaca I, 8 dei 91 per il BNP e infine 20 dei 91 anche per la serotonina. Risultati: E’ stata evidenziata una correlazione tra i due analizzatori della troponina: IMMULITE 2000 e TOSOH, mentre non si rileva nessuna corrispondenza tra le misurazione di BNP ottenute con IDEXX e TOSOH. Nonostante i valori non altamente significativi per la serotonina e il BNP, le concentrazioni di ogni biomarcatore aumentano all’aggravarsi della patologia degenerativa mitralica. Conclusioni: I nostri risultati sono concordi con i dati bibliografici. Dovranno essere condotti ulteriori studi su una popolazione più ampia e omogenea per un ulteriore validazione prima di entrare a far parte del pannello di esami ematici, normalmente effettuati nella clinica. La rapidità e la facilità di esecuzione, il costo contenuto e la non invasività di tali test, li rendono degli ottimi candidati per l’uso nella pratica veterinaria. ABSTRACT Introduction: Myxomatous degenerative mitral valve disease (MMVD) is a common heart disease in the dog. In order to diagnose this disease, in support of the clinic visit, a number of diagnostic tests are employed (electrocardiography, radiography and echocardiography). All these tests are relatively expensive, time consuming, require equipment and experience of the operator to be properly assessed. The new generation cardiac and neuro-hormonal biomarkers might provide useful information identifying the presence of cardiovascular system diseases. Objectives: To determine cTnI, BNP and serotonin concentrations in subjects affected by mitral valve disease; to evaluate the serum concentrations of cTnI in dogs affected by MMVD through the use of 2 different analyzers and compare the 2 analytical methods. The IMMULITE 2000 and TOSOH devices worked by chemiluminescence and immunoassays method, respectively and BNP with IDEXX and TOSOH method. To assess if the three cardiac biomarkers are related to each other and with the worsening of the MMVD. Animals, Materials and Methods: 91 dogs affected by MMVD were included in the study. Dogs were classified according to clinical and instrumental exams. The patients’ heart failure was classified according the Consensus Statements of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM). All the dogs were assayed for the cardiac troponin I, 8 out of 91 for BNP and 20 out of 91 for serotonin concentrations. Results: IMMULITE 2000 and TOSOH method showed similar results in troponin I quantification. On the other hand no correspondence between values of BNP using the 2 methods (IDEXX vs. TOSOH) was assessed. Although serotonin and BNP values were quite different from those reported in the literature, a positive correlation between the biomarkers increase and worsening of the MMVD was assessed. Conclusions: The present results concerning the IMMULITE 2000 and TOSOH comparison are in line with those reported in the literature. A larger and more homogeneous sample size of animals is requested prior using these tests for clinical evaluations. The low time consuming, simplicity of execution, the low cost and not the invasiveness of these tests, make them excellent candidates for the use in clinical practice

3D X-ray microscopy (XRM) investigation of exogenous materials inside mussels’ organs

The diffusion of pollutants in the marine environment is nowadays a well-recognized issue that is attracting growing interest from the scientific and social communities. One of the possible strategies to study the effect of pollutants is to quantify their presence inside marine organisms that are directly exposed for a certain period to the polluted environment. Among them, mussels, commonly considered as “biological water filters”, stand out as ideal candidates since they are stationary animals and their food intake comes only from the filtering of the surrounding water. Thus, the evaluation of the accumulation of exogenous pollutants, in particular high-density or metallic, inside the mussel's organs and specifically in its digestive glands, is of particular interest. In this paper we characterize the accumulation of exogenous materials in digestive glands of three different mussels by means of X-ray microscopy analysis. We provide evidence of how the unique capabilities of this technique allow reconstructing a full 3D image of an entire organ and how this image can provide valuable information to identify exogenous (non-biological) pollutants. Moreover, we take full advantage from the segmentation analysis of the images by discriminating different regions of the sample according to the density. With this experimental approach we measured the sizes of the exogenous pollutants and provided evidences that they accumulate preferentiality in the low-density regions of the organ, that are richer in ducts and secretive glands

Correlating nanoscale motion and ATP production in healthy and favism erythrocytes: a real-time nanomotion sensor study

IntroductionRed blood cells (RBCs) are among the simplest, yet physiologically relevant biological specimens, due to their peculiarities, such as their lack of nucleus and simplified metabolism. Indeed, erythrocytes can be seen as biochemical machines, capable of performing a limited number of metabolic pathways. Along the aging path, the cells’ characteristics change as they accumulate oxidative and non-oxidative damages, and their structural and functional properties degrade.MethodsIn this work, we have studied RBCs and the activation of their ATP-producing metabolism using a real-time nanomotion sensor. This device allowed time-resolved analyses of the activation of this biochemical pathway, measuring the characteristics and the timing of the response at different points of their aging and the differences observed in favism erythrocytes in terms of the cellular reactivity and resilience to aging. Favism is a genetic defect of erythrocytes, which affects their ability to respond to oxidative stresses but that also determines differences in the metabolic and structural characteristic of the cells.ResultsOur work shows that RBCs from favism patients exhibit a different response to the forced activation of the ATP synthesis compared to healthy cells. In particular, the favism cells, compared to healthy erythrocytes, show a greater resilience to the aging-related insults which was in good accord with the collected biochemical data on ATP consumption and reload.ConclusionThis surprisingly higher endurance against cell aging can be addressed to a special mechanism of metabolic regulation that permits lower energy consumption in environmental stress conditions

A rapid unravelling of mycobacterial activity and of their susceptibility to antibiotics

The development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a worldwide health-related emergency that calls for new tools to study the bacterial metabolism and to obtain fast diagnoses. Indeed, the conventional analysis timescale is too long and affects our ability to fight infections. Slowly growing bacteria represent a bigger challenge, since their analysis may require up to months. Among these bacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis has caused, only in 2016 more than 10 million new cases and 1.7 million deaths. We employed a particularly powerful nanomechanical oscillator, the nanomotion sensor, to characterize rapidly and in real time a tuberculous and a non-tuberculous bacterial species, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin and Mycobacterium abscessus exposed to different antibiotics. Here, we show how high speed and high sensitivity detectors, the nanomotion sensors, can provide a rapid and reliable analysis of different mycobacterial species, obtaining qualitative and quantitative information on their response to different drugs.Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and Swiss National Grants 200021-144321 and 407240-167137 The Gerbert Ruf Stiftung GRS-024/1

Roughness of the plasma membrane as an independent morphological parameter to study RBCs: A quantitative atomic force microscopy investigation

AbstractA novel approach to the study of RBCs based on the collection of three-dimensional high-resolution AFM images and on the measure of the surface roughness of their plasma membrane is presented. The dependence of the roughness from several parameters of the imaging was investigated and a general rule for a trustful analysis and comparison has been suggested. The roughness of RBCs is a morphology-related parameter which has been shown to be characteristic of the single cells composing a sample, but independent of the overall geometric shape (discocyte or spherocyte) of the erythrocytes, thus providing extra-information with respect to a conventional morphology study. The use of the average roughness value as a label of a whole sample was tested on different kinds of samples. Analyzed data revealed that the quantitative roughness value does not change after treatment of RBCs with various commonly used fixation and staining methods while a drastic decrease occurs when studying cells with membrane–skeletal alteration both naturally occurring or artificially induced by chemical treatments. The present method provides a quantitative and powerful tool for a novel approach to the study of erythrocytes structure through an ultrastructural morphological analysis with the potential to give information, in a non-invasive way, on the RBCs function

O USO DO CINEMA COMO ESTRATÉGIA PEDAGÓGICA PARA O ENSINO DE CIÊNCIAS E DE BIOLOGIA... O QUE PENSAM ALGUNS PROFESSORES DA REGIÃO METROPOLITANA DE BELO HORIZONTE

O trabalho aborda a utilização do Cinema como estratégia pedagógica por professores do Ensino de Ciências e de Biologia, em escolas públicas e particulares na Região Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte. Além de avaliar como essa metodologia é utilizada pelos educadores do Ensino Fundamental e Ensino Médio, o estudo disponibiliza um guia de filmes como sugestões para aprimorar o uso do cinema como estratégia pedagógica. Apesar de todas as transformações que vêm ocorrendo no mundo do conhecimento e da educação, o cinema ainda é pouco valorizado pela escola, principalmente pelo fato de não ser compreendido por todos os alunos e professores como estratégia pedagógica séria e planejada. Palavras-chave: ensino de ciências, ensino de biologia, cinema como estratégia pedagógica