Sustainable Catalytic Process for the Synthesis of Niacin

Nicotinic acid (niacin) is an important vitamin of the B group, with an annual production close to 40,000 tons. It is used in medicine, food industry, agriculture and in production of cosmetics. Older industrial processes have drawbacks such as a low atomic efficiency and the use of toxic catalysts or stoichiometric oxidants. Several studies were carried out during latest years on new technologies for the synthesis of niacin and nicotinate precursors, such as 3-picoline and pyridine-3-nitrile. This thesis reports about the results of three different research projects; the first was aimed at the study of the one-step production of pyridine-3-nitrile starting from 2-methylglutaronitrile, the second at acetaldehyde/acetonitrile condensation for 3-picoline synthesis, and the third at investigating the reactivity of supported vanadium oxide catalysts for the direct gas-phase oxidation of 3-picoline with air; this process would be more sustainable compared to both older ones and some of those currently used for niacin production. For the first two research projects, a catalysts screening was carried out; however, results were not satisfactory. The third project involved the preparation, characterisation and reactivity testing of different zirconia-supported V2O5 catalysts. The effect of parameters, such as the Vanadium oxide loading and specific surface area, on catalytic performance were studied. Operative conditions such as temperature, contact time and feed composition were optimized. Yields to nicotinic acid close to the best ones reported in the literature were achieved; moreover, catalysts based on V2O5/ZrO2 were found to be remarkably active. Catalysts were characterized by means of XRD and in-situ Raman spectroscopy in the aim of finding correlations between catalytic performances and physic-chemical properties. In some cases, ZrV2O7 formed during the reaction. Vanadyl-pyrophosphate was also tested as the catalyst for 3-picoline oxidation, but its performance was lower compared to that one shown by V2O5/ZrO2

Can robots make us better humans? : virtuous robotics and the good life with artificial agents

This position paper proposes a novel approach to the ethical design of social robots. We coin the term “Virtuous Robotics” to describe Human–Robot Interaction (HRI) designed to help humans reach a higher level of moral development. Our approach contrasts with mainstream approaches to robot design inspired by the other normative theories, Consequentialism and Deontology. In the paper we theoretically justify our proposal, illustrating how the Virtuous Robotics approach allows us to discriminate between positive and negative applications of robotics systems, of which we provide examples. From an ethical perspective, our proposal is theoretically robust because it is based on the assistive role played by the robot rather than the robot’s moral agency. From a designer’s perspective, Virtuous Robotics is technically feasible because it transfers the cognitive burden of HRI from the robot to the user, bypassing the need for complex decision-making abilities. From the user’s perspective, it is concretely advantageous, because it envisions a realistic way to make robots morally desirable in our lives, as supports for personal betterment and fulfilment

2017 User Workshop of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service – Summary Report

This report summarises the User Workshop of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (EMS) – Mapping component which was held on 20-21 June 2017 at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra, Italy. The User Workshop is the annual forum at which users, service providers, the Commission and other stakeholders exchange views and experiences of the Copernicus EMS - Mapping component. It was attended by 50 participants from across Europe, of whom eighteen were users of this service component. The focus of the User Workshop was on the two on-demand Mapping services - i.e. “Rapid Mapping” and “Risk and Recovery Mapping” - which provide geo-spatial information in support to all phases of disaster management. The information is mainly derived from satellite imagery and complemented by available ancillary data. During the first day of the Workshop, the focus was on providing insights in the technical and scientific capacity of the “Risk & Recovery” Mapping service, which delivers maps and analysis in support of disaster risk reduction, preparedness and prevention, recovery and reconstruction. The aim of this part of the Workshop was to increase awareness of this service module, which is less known than the “Rapid Mapping” service - the “24/7” (i.e. always on) service supporting emergency response operations. Users were invited to present their experience with both service modules, while a live demo of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), was made, in order to show the potential of these platforms in the context of the fast provision of airborne imagery in an emergency situation. The second day of the Workshop addressed the evolution of Copernicus EMS - Mapping. Two Horizon 2020 projects were introduced and discussed: while iREACT (http://www.i-react.eu/) looks at exploiting advanced cyber technologies for disaster management, E2mC (https://www.e2mc-project.eu/) focuses on exploiting social data and crowdsourcing for use in Rapid Mapping. Other evolution-related topics addressed were links with the two Copernicus EMS Early Warning Systems (i.e. the European Flood Awareness System and the European Forest Fire Information System), product dissemination and potential new products. All topics were further discussed in groups. As every year, the discussions at the User Workshop are summarised and processed by the JRC, with a view to guiding the overall evolution of the service. The workshop agenda and presentations are available at: http://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/ems/copernicus-ems-mapping-user-workshop-2017JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

Anxiety, concerns and COVID-19: Cross-country perspectives from families and individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the mental health and well-being of children with neurodevelopmental conditions (NDCs) and of their families worldwide. However, there is insufficient evidence to understand how different factors (e.g., individual, family, country, children) have impacted on anxiety levels of families and their children with NDCs developed over time. METHODS: We used data from a global survey assessing the experience of 8043 families and their children with NDCs (mean of age (m) = 13.18 years, 37% female) and their typically developing siblings (m = 12.9 years, 45% female) in combination with data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the University of Oxford, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook, to create a multilevel data set. Using stepwise multilevel modelling, we generated child-, family- and country-related factors that may have contributed to the anxiety levels of children with NDCs, their siblings if they had any, and their parents. All data were reported by parents. RESULTS: Our results suggest that parental anxiety was best explained by family-related factors such as concerns about COVID-19 and illness. Children’s anxiety was best explained by child-related factors such as children’s concerns about loss of routine, family conflict, and safety in general, as well as concerns about COVID-19. In addition, anxiety levels were linked to the presence of pre-existing anxiety conditions for both children with NDCs and their parents. CONCLUSIONS: The present study shows that across the globe there was a raise in anxiety levels for both parents and their children with NDCs because of COVID-19 and that country-level factors had little or no impact on explaining differences in this increase, once family and child factors were considered. Our findings also highlight that certain groups of children with NDCs were at higher risk for anxiety than others and had specific concerns. Together, these results show that anxiety of families and their children with NDCs during the COVID-19 pandemic were predicted by very specific concerns and worries which inform the development of future toolkits and policy. Future studies should investigate how country factors can play a protective role during future crises

Prolonged higher dose methylprednisolone vs. conventional dexamethasone in COVID-19 pneumonia: a randomised controlled trial (MEDEAS)

Dysregulated systemic inflammation is the primary driver of mortality in severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Current guidelines favor a 7-10-day course of any glucocorticoid equivalent to dexamethasone 6 mg·day-1. A comparative RCT with a higher dose and a longer duration of intervention was lacking

Implementation and performances of the IPbus protocol for the JUNO Large-PMT readout electronics

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a large neutrino detector currently under construction in China. Thanks to the tight requirements on its optical and radio-purity properties, it will be able to perform leading measurements detecting terrestrial and astrophysical neutrinos in a wide energy range from tens of keV to hundreds of MeV. A key requirement for the success of the experiment is an unprecedented 3% energy resolution, guaranteed by its large active mass (20 kton) and the use of more than 20,000 20-inch photo-multiplier tubes (PMTs) acquired by high-speed, high-resolution sampling electronics located very close to the PMTs. As the Front-End and Read-Out electronics is expected to continuously run underwater for 30 years, a reliable readout acquisition system capable of handling the timestamped data stream coming from the Large-PMTs and permitting to simultaneously monitor and operate remotely the inaccessible electronics had to be developed. In this contribution, the firmware and hardware implementation of the IPbus based readout protocol will be presented, together with the performances measured on final modules during the mass production of the electronics

Mass testing of the JUNO experiment 20-inch PMTs readout electronics

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a multi-purpose, large size, liquid scintillator experiment under construction in China. JUNO will perform leading measurements detecting neutrinos from different sources (reactor, terrestrial and astrophysical neutrinos) covering a wide energy range (from 200 keV to several GeV). This paper focuses on the design and development of a test protocol for the 20-inch PMT underwater readout electronics, performed in parallel to the mass production line. In a time period of about ten months, a total number of 6950 electronic boards were tested with an acceptance yield of 99.1%

Validation and integration tests of the JUNO 20-inch PMTs readout electronics

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a large neutrino detector currently under construction in China. JUNO will be able to study the neutrino mass ordering and to perform leading measurements detecting terrestrial and astrophysical neutrinos in a wide energy range, spanning from 200 keV to several GeV. Given the ambitious physics goals of JUNO, the electronic system has to meet specific tight requirements, and a thorough characterization is required. The present paper describes the tests performed on the readout modules to measure their performances.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figure

Carriers of ADAMTS13 Rare Variants Are at High Risk of Life-Threatening COVID-19

Thrombosis of small and large vessels is reported as a key player in COVID-19 severity. However, host genetic determinants of this susceptibility are still unclear. Congenital Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura is a severe autosomal recessive disorder characterized by uncleaved ultra-large vWF and thrombotic microangiopathy, frequently triggered by infections. Carriers are reported to be asymptomatic. Exome analysis of about 3000 SARS-CoV-2 infected subjects of different severities, belonging to the GEN-COVID cohort, revealed the specific role of vWF cleaving enzyme ADAMTS13 (A disintegrin-like and metalloprotease with thrombospondin type 1 motif, 13). We report here that ultra-rare variants in a heterozygous state lead to a rare form of COVID-19 characterized by hyper-inflammation signs, which segregates in families as an autosomal dominant disorder conditioned by SARS-CoV-2 infection, sex, and age. This has clinical relevance due to the availability of drugs such as Caplacizumab, which inhibits vWF-platelet interaction, and Crizanlizumab, which, by inhibiting P-selectin binding to its ligands, prevents leukocyte recruitment and platelet aggregation at the site of vascular damage