Natura e architettura nel giardino di Villa Florio-Pignatelli (Palermo, Sicilia).

ABSTRACT.\u2013 Amongst the Sicilian historical gardens it is merited to remember the ornamental garden design of Villa Florio- Pignatelli, situated in the western periphery of Palermo. The building, and probably the garden too, are from the second half of the 18. century. This article contains the result of a cognitive study of its history, architecture and vegetal composition, based on field studies in the garden itself, on bibliographical and archival work. In 1838 it was sold by the Duke of Cumia to Vincenzo Florio, who in following conceded it to his son Ignazio. Already at this time, there was a garden with a "flora all\u2019Italiana" behind the Villa, which had circular vials in radial order, demarcated with a box-hedge (Buxus sempervirens), much like a small reproduction of the more famous and celebrated Villa Giulia (1777), the first public garden in the town.The elegance of the garden's proportions is based on at least four geometric orders interacting with each other. They reveal evi- dence of important fixed points or "topoi" of the garden; these affirm that the apparent simplicity contains complicated arith- metic and geometric relations in an exceptional union of architectural and botanical significance

Disentangling age and metallicity in distant unresolved stellar systems

We present some results of an observational and theoretical study on unresolved stellar systems based on the Surface Brightness Fluctuations (SBF) technique. It is shown that SBF magnitudes are a valuable tracer of stellar population properties, and a reliable distance indicator. SBF magnitudes, SBF-colors, and SBF-gradients can help to constrain within relatively narrow limits the metallicity and age of the dominant stellar component in distant stellar systems, especially if coupled with other spectro-photometric indicators.Comment: A contributed paper to the Cefalu' (Italy) "Probing Stellar Populations out to the Distant Universe", 4 pages. To appear as an AIP Conference Proceedin

Fast model predictive control for hydrogen outflow regulation in ethanol steam reformers

© 20xx IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.In the recent years, the presence of alternative power sources, such as solar panels, wind farms, hydropumps and hydrogen-based devices, has significantly increased. The reasons of this trend are clear: contributing to a reduction of gas emissions and dependency on fossil fuels. Hydrogen-based devices are of particular interest due to their significant efficiency and reliability. Reforming technologies are among the most economic and efficient ways of producing hydrogen. In this paper we consider the regulation of hydrogen outflow in an ethanol steam reformer (ESR). In particular, a fast model predictive control approach based on a finite step response model of the process is proposed. Simulations performed using a more realistic non-linear model show the effectiveness of the proposed approach in driving the ESR to different operating conditions while fulfilling input and output constraints.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Optimization of graphene-based materials outperforming host epoxy matrices

The degree of graphite exfoliation and edge-carboxylated layers can be controlled and balanced to design lightweight materials characterized by both low electrical percolation thresholds (EPT) and improved mechanical properties. So far, this challenging task has been undoubtedly very hard to achieve. The results presented in this paper highlight the effect of exfoliation degree and the role of edge-carboxylated graphite layers to give self-assembled structures embedded in the polymeric matrix. Graphene layers inside the matrix may serve as building blocks of complex systems that could outperform the host matrix. Improvements in electrical percolation and mechanical performance have been obtained by a synergic effect due to finely balancing the degree of exfoliation and the chemistry of graphene edges which favors the interfacial interaction between polymer and carbon layers. In particular, for epoxy-based resins including two partially exfoliated graphite samples, differing essentially in the content of carboxylated groups, the percolation threshold reduces from 3 wt% down to 0.3 wt%, as the carboxylated group content increases up to 10 wt%. Edge-carboxylated nanosheets also increase the nanofiller/epoxy matrix interaction, determining a relevant reinforcement in the elastic modulus

Electrospun Membranes of Poly(butylene succinate) and Poly(butylene/2-butyl,2-ethyl-propylene succinate)

Poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and poly(butylene/2-butyl,2-ethyl-propylene succinate) (PBSBEPS) membranes are prepared by electrospinning technique. In recent years, interest in biodegradable aliphatic polyesters, including PBS and its copolymers, is increasing as they have potential applications in various sectors such as mulching films, food packaging, tissue engineering, and drug delivery. In this work, the synthesized polymers are dissolved in different solvents, namely acetone, chloroform (CHCl3), methanol, dichloromethane (DCM), and dimethylformamide in order to obtain the best solvent system. These solutions are then electrospun at room temperature to produce micron-sized fibers. The variables examined in determining the optimal solution and electrospinning conditions are the solvent system used, the concentration of PBS and PBS-based random copolymer, applied voltage, flow rate, humidity, and the distance between the needle tip and the collector, all of which have a meaningful effect on the fiber morphology. Among the various solvents used, the DCM and the less toxic CHCl3 result in fewer bead defects among fibers. Besides, an increase in PBS and PBS-based random copolymer concentration determines the reduction of bead defects, which from 12 to 14 wt% results in bead-free uniform fibers, when suitable processing parameters are set. Promising results, which can pave the way for the production of membranes loaded with appropriate anticancer molecules for targeted biomedical applications, are obtained

Detecting the nir fingerprint of colors: The characteristic response of modern blue pigments

Reflectance spectroscopy in the ultraviolet (UV), visible (Vis), and near infrared (NIR) range is widely applied to art studies for the characterization of paints and pigments, with the advantages of non-invasive techniques. Isolating and detecting the fingerprint of pigments, especially in the NIR range, is quite challenging, since the presence of vibrational transitions of the most common organic functional groups prevents to relate the optical spectrum of a composite sample, as an artwork is, to each one of its elements (i.e., support, binder, and specific pigment). In this work, a method is presented to obtain the UV-Vis-NIR optical response of the single components of a model composite sample reproducing an artwork, i.e., the support, the binder, and the pigment or dye, by using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. This allowed us to obtain the NIR spectral fingerprint of blue pigments and to identify specific features possibly applicable for detecting cobalt and phthalocyanine blue colors in artwork analysis

Prevalence of adenomyosis in endometrial cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction: Several studies have assessed the histological co-existence of endometrial carcinoma (EC) and adenomyosis. However, the significance of this association is still unclear. Objective: To assess the prevalence of adenomyosis in women with EC for a better understanding of the association between the two diseases. Materials and methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed by searching electronics databases from their inception to March 2020, for all studies that allowed extraction of data about prevalence of adenomyosis in EC patients. Adenomyosis prevalence was calculated for each included study and as pooled estimate, with 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: Eight retrospective cohort studies assessing 5573 EC patients were included in our analysis. Of total, 1322 were patients with adenomyosis, and 4251 were patients without adenomyosis. Pooled prevalence of adenomyosis in EC patients was 22.6% (95% CI 12.7–37.1%). Conclusion: Adenomyosis prevalence in EC patients was not different from that reported for other gynecological conditions. The supposed association between the two diseases appears unsupported

Multifrequency observations of XTE J0421+560/CI Cam in outburst

We report on two X-ray observations of the transient source XTE J0421+560 performed by BeppoSAX, and on a series of observations performed by the 0.7m Teramo-Normale Telescope. Outburst peak occurrence time and duration depend on photon energy: the outburst peak is achieved first in the X-ray band, then in the optical and finally in the radio. An exponential decay law fits well the X-ray data except in the TOO2 0.5-1.0 keV band, where erratic time variability is detected. During TOO1 the e-folding time scale decreases with energy up to ~ 20 keV, when it achieves a saturation; during TOO2 it decreases up to ~ 2 keV and then increases. This change is correlated with a spectral change, characterized by the onset of a soft (< 2 keV) component in TOO2 (Orr et al. 1998). This component might originate from the relativistic jets, while the hard component is more likely associated to processes occurring in the circumstellar matter and/or near the compact object. Optical observations show that the object appears intrinsically red even during the outburst. The nature of the compact object is discussed.Comment: Four pages. Accepted for publication in A&A Lette

Extracellular vesicle microRNAs contribute to the osteogenic inhibition of mesenchymal stem cells in multiple myeloma

Osteolytic bone disease is the major complication associated with the progression of multiple myeloma (MM). Recently, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as mediators of MM-associated bone disease by inhibiting the osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). Here, we investigated a correlation between the EV-mediated osteogenic inhibition and MM vesicle content, focusing on miRNAs. By the use of a MicroRNA Card, we identified a pool of miRNAs, highly expressed in EVs, from MM cell line (MM1.S EVs), expression of which was confirmed in EVs from bone marrow (BM) plasma of patients affected by smoldering myeloma (SMM) and MM. Notably,we found that miR-129-5p, which targets different osteoblast (OBs) differentiation markers, is enriched in MM-EVs compared to SMM-EVs, thus suggesting a selective packaging correlated with pathological grade. We found that miR-129-5p can be transported to hMSCs by MM-EVs and, by the use of miRNA mimics, we investigated its role in recipient cells. Our data demonstrated that the increase of miR-129-5p levels in hMSCs under osteoblastic differentiation stimuli inhibited the expression of the transcription factor Sp1, previously described as a positive modulator of osteoblastic differentiation, and of its target the Alkaline phosphatase (ALPL), thus identifying miR-129-5p among the players of vesicle-mediated bone disease