Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Worsted and Woollen processing in wool production: ReviWool® noils and other wool co-products

The textile and fashion industry is becoming increasingly active in measuring its environmental performance. As far as wool is concerned, there is quite abundant literature on environmental impacts available. However, previous studies very rarely distinguish between the different co-products of the wool transformation, and often attribute the same impact to fibers produced from worsted processing (longer and more expensive fibers) and woollen processing (shorter and cheaper fibers). This study firstly provides a detailed mapping of processes and products involved in the wool production chain, from sheep grazing to yarn production, with particular attention to the shorter fibers, which have been mostly neglected in previous literature. Secondly, this study uses the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to analyze the environmental impacts of the different intermediate co-products. In particular, when multi-output processes occur, impacts are distributed proportionally to their relative economic value, using therefore an economic allocation. This approach enabled the calculation of environmental impacts of fibers used both in the worsted and woollen processing. It results that shorter fibers generally have lower impacts than longer fibers used for the production of fine yarns. Specifically, most short fibers have an impact on climate change ranging from 25 to 30 kg CO2 eq/kg, while, longer fibers have an impact of 78–97 kg CO2 eq/kg. The physiological variation in the ratio between worsted and woolen co-products of multi-output processes appears to have little effect on the final impact results. Finally, since the grazing phase is highly variable, impacts on climate change of the analyzed intermediate products have been re-calculated using, for the greasy wool, the lowest and highest values of impact found in literature. Impacts of the analyzed products vary sensibly according to the value considered for the greasy wool, but the relationship between them is rather stable. This paper contributes with detailed information and easily replicable data which could be used as a basis for the environmental assessment of wool garments and for improving the sustainability in the wool sector

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of MWool® Recycled Wool Fibers

Textile industries are in the spotlight due to the heavy environmental impacts along their products’ life cycle and, at the same time, they are a priority sector in the new circular economy action plan of the European Commission. In this framework, the Italian company Manteco SpA has developed a value chain based on the recycling of pre-and post-consumer discarded textiles, wh0se output is a secondary wool fiber named MWool® . This study develops an environmental analysis of recycled wool fibers through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, mainly using primary data. A parallel LCA is developed of virgin wool fiber, mostly based on literature data. Sensitivity analyses have been carried out: (i) to capture the uncertainty associated with virgin fibers’ impacts and (ii) to evaluate how MWool® impacts vary according to the origin and treatment of recycled textiles. Finally, the Circular Footprint Formula (CFF) has been applied to consider also a possible decay in quality typically affecting recycled fibers. Results show that recycled wool fibers have significantly lower environmental impacts than virgin fibers, even when the most unfavorable scenarios are considered. As climate change is concerned, 1 kg of MWool® has a carbon footprint of 0.1–0.9 kg CO2 eq., while producing virgin fibers releases 10–103 kg CO2 eq. Using the CFF, it emerges that recycled wool fibers can save about 60% of the impacts of virgin fibers. This study contributes to filling data gaps regarding LCAs applied to the textile sector, which is more and more in the spotlight and needs to address these environmental issues

Prevalence of Baker's cyst in patients with knee pain: an ultrasonographic study

The objectives of this study are to investigate the prevalence of Baker's cyst (BC) in patients with knee pain, and to assess the correlation between BC and severity of osteophytes and joint effusion. A retrospective study was conducted on a group of patients with knee pain referred to our outpatient clinic for ultrasonography of the knee between January 2010 and February 2011. Patients underwent an ultrasonographic exam of the knees to assess the presence of marginal femorotibial osteophytosis, joint effusion and BC. A dichotomous score was assigned to each item (1 present, 0 absent) and severity of US signs of osteoarthritis and joint effusion were also graded semiquantitatively. Collected data were processed using logistic regression analysis to evaluate the correlation between degree of osteophytosis and joint effusion and BC. Patients affected by inflammatory joint conditions or with history of joint surgery or recent trauma were excluded. A total of 399 patients with knee pain were studied (299 women), in the age range 18-89 years (mean 56.2, SD 16.3 years). 293 patients (73.4%) showed sonographic features of osteoarthritis and 251 (62.9%) joint effusion. BC was found in 102 patients (25.8%) together with a positive association with sonographic features of osteoarthritis and joint effusion. Our data show a prevalence of BC of 25.8% in a population of patients with knee pain, and suggest that BC is positively related to osteoarthritis and joint effusion. Ultrasonographic examination of knee is worthwhile in patients with painful osteoarthritis or evidence of effusion

Why stem/progenitor cells lose their regenerative potential

Nowadays, it is clear that adult stem cells, also called as tissue stem cells, play a central role to repair and maintain the tissue in which they reside by their selfrenewal ability and capacity of differentiating into distinct and specialized cells. As stem cells age, their renewal ability declines and their capacity to maintain organ homeostasis and regeneration is impaired. From a molecular perspective, these changes in stem cells properties can be due to several types of cell intrinsic injury and DNA aberrant alteration (i.e epigenomic profile) as well as changes in the tissue microenviroment, both into the niche and by systemic circulating factors. Strikingly, it has been suggested that aging-induced deterioration of stem cell functions may play a key role in the pathophysiology of the various agingassociated disorders. Therefore, understanding how resident stem cell age and affects near and distant tissues is fundamental. Here, we examine the current knowledge about aging mechanisms in several kinds of adult stem cells under physiological and pathological conditions and the principal aging-related changes in number, function and phenotype that determine the loss of tissue renewal properties. Furthermore, we examine the possible cell rejuvenation strategies. Stem cell rejuvenation may reverse the aging phenotype and the discovery of effective methods for inducing and differentiating pluripotent stem cells for cell replacement therapies could open up new possibilities for treating age-related diseases

Ultrasound in the diagnosis of calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate deposition disease. A systematic literature review and a meta-analysis

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Evaluation of the AIDS risk perception among healthcare workers in the hospital University Unit of Messina (Italy)

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Post-graduate medical education in public health: The case of Italy and a call for action

Public health technical expertise is of crucial importance to inform decision makers\u2019 action in the field of health and its broader determinants. Improving education and training of public health professionals for both practice and research is the starting point to strengthen the role of public health so that current health challenges can be efficiently tackled. At the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) Deans\u2019 & Directors\u2019 2017 Annual Retreat, we presented the structure and management of public health training system in Italy, and we reported recent data on Italian public health specialists\u2019 educational experience, employment opportunities and job satisfaction. Public health training in Italy is implemented in the context of the post-graduate medical education residency programme in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, delivered by 34 University-based Schools of Public Health. We report relatively high employment rates across the county and wide spectrum of career opportunities for young public health specialists. However, job security is low and training expectations only partially met. We call upon other Schools of Public Health to scale up the survey within the broad ASPHER community in a shared and coordinated action of systematically collecting useful data that can inform the development of public health education and training models, their implementation and fruitful interaction with population health, health systems and services

Uridine and pyruvate protect T cells’ proliferative capacity from mitochondrial toxic antibiotics: a clinical pilot study

Antibiotics that inhibit bacterial protein or nucleic acid synthesis and function can exert an off-target action on mitochondria (mitotoxic antibiotics), making actively dividing mammalian cells dependent on uridine and pyruvate supplementation. Based on this rationale, we carried out, for the first time, a randomized pilot study in 55 patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria or positive sperm culture, each treated with a single mitotoxic antibiotic with or without oral supplementation of uridine + pyruvate (Uripyr, Mitobiotix, Italy). The in vivo and ex vivo data show a a 3.4-fold higher value in the differential (before and after the antibiotic treatment) lymphocytes count and a 3.7-fold increase in the percentage of dividing T cells, respectively, in the Uripyr vs the control group. Our findings lay the groundwork to enhance the synergy between antibiotics and the immune system in order to optimize the administration protocols and widen the application potentials of antibiotic therapies as well as to re-evaluate old “forgotten” molecules to fight bacterial infections in the antibiotics resistance era