No evidence for kin recognition in a passerine bird

Theory predicts that individuals behave altruistically towards their relatives. Hence, some form of kin recognition is useful for individuals to optimize their behavior. In species that display bi-parental care and are subject to extra-pair matings, kin recognition theoretically can allow cuckolded fathers to reduce their parental investment, and thus optimize their fitness. Whether this is possible remains unclear in birds. This study investigates whether males provide differential parental care depending on relatedness, as a proxy to recognizing chicks in their nest as kin or not. We cross-fostered House sparrow (Passer domesticus) chicks after hatching, and then expected that fathers would show a decrease in their parental efforts when tending to a clutch of unrelated offspring. House sparrow males are able to adjust their parental care to the identity of their partner, making them an ideal study species. However, there was no significant effect of relatedness on provisioning rates. This suggests that sparrows may not be capable of kin recognition, or at least do not display kin discrimination despite its apparent evolutionary advantage

FIRB "SQUARE" project: nano-structured sensors for the detection of the polluting in engine exhaust gases and for indoor air quality monitoring

The present work is a final dissemination of activities carried out and main results obtained in the national founded project Firb "Square". The project is leaded by Centro Ricerche Fiat and it involves the most qualified national public Research Institutes and Universities active in the fields of nanomaterials synthesis, nanotechnology and gas sensors development

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT APPLIED TO VEHICLES’ END-OF-LIFE: CASE STUDY OF FCA PANDA AND EU POLICY CONTEXT

The project “LCA applied to vehicles” in partnership between the Politecnico di Torino and Centro Ricerche Fiat (C.R.F.) carried out the development of a LCA applied to the old and new Panda vehicle model, taking into account the whole car life-cycle, from-cradle-to-grave. The study presented in this paper focuses on the end-of-life of vehicles (ELV), with the goal of valuate its environmental and resource use profile and understand the principal environmental impacts and benefits correlated to the ELV. Based on the obtained Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) results, it was observed that the manufacturing and the EOL contribution to the overall impact is not negligible for some of the assessed impact categories. Moreover, the performed contribution analysis highlighted the relevance of the selected allocation approach (value-corrected or recycled content approach), in particular depending on the specific materials content