Il Giappone e le sue contraddizioni. Attorno alla sua politica ambientale, ruotano i concetti di natura, territorio, tecnologia e shintoismo, concetti cardine che fanno parte dell' identitá giapponese

Questo articolo vuole essere una breve presentazione di quella che è la politica ambientale attuale in Giappone, paese ricco di contraddizioni, dove emerge uno sviluppo tecnologico all'avanguardia, ma anche una particolare attenzione nei confronti della natura e della tutela ambientale. La domanda che ruota attorno a questo lavoro è se la politica ambientale, può essere considerata come parte della cultura di uno Stato o come un esigenza.Aquest article vol fer una anàlisi del tipus de política ambiental del Japó actual, un país on es poden trobar diferents contradiccions, un país molt desenvolupat econòmicament i tecnològica i alhora un país que fa atenció a la tutela ambiental. L'objectiu bàsic d'aquest treball és saber en quina mesura la política ambiental pot ser la conseqüència de la cultura d'un estat o la conseqüència d'una exigència.This article focus on the kind of environment policy that there is in Japan, a country very developed economically and technologically, a country where different contradictions can be found, and a country that puts attention to the environmental protection and to the nature. The question puting in front to this work is if the environment policy can be the consequence of the culture of a state or the consequence of a requirement

On Eta-Einstein Sasakian Geometry

We study eta-Einstein geometry as a class of distinguished Riemannian metrics on contact metric manifolds. In particular, we use a previous solution of the Calabi problem for Sasakian geometry to prove the existence of eta-Einstein structures on many different compact manifolds, including exotic spheres. We also relate these results to the existence of Einstein-Weyl structures.Comment: 31 pages, minor changes made, to appear in Commun. Math. Phy

Disposable potentiometric strips: a versatile tool for low-cost sensing

The integration of sensors within wireless networks represents a pivotal step for remote analytical monitoring, not limited to pollutants in the environment but also suitable for diagnostics and personal health monitoring. For instance, higher spatial and temporal resolutions for toxic metals are fundamental for epidemiology studies, where they would help to establish definitive associations between the exposure to specific chemicals and the health of individuals and communities. In addition, accessible body fluids such as saliva and sweat represent an interesting medium for the realization of wearable sensors. These fluids contain important personalized physiological information. For example, a continuous monitoring of pH in saliva and electrolyte concentrations in sweat would be beneficial for controlling healthy mouth conditions or to improve endurance performances and avoid critical situations, e.g., dehydration and hyponatremia in athletes. Low-cost potentiometric strips based on screen printed substrates consisting of a solid-contact ion-selective electrode (SC-ISE) combined to a solid-contact reference electrode (SC-RE) may offer a versatile tool in sensing technology. These strips can be readily adapted for the detection of several ionic species. Here, as an example, we present on the monitoring of pH in saliva, Na+ in sweat and Pb2+ in water. The strip is plugged into an electronic platform of reduced dimensions which converts the chemical information into an electric signal, wireless transmitted to a base station. This technology may have an impact in remote monitoring but also in wearable sensing thanks to the device miniaturization

A potentiometric disposable sensor strip for measuring pH in saliva

In this paper, the preparation of a potentiometric strip for pH monitoring in saliva samples is reported. The potentiometric strip consists of a solid contact pH-selective and of a solidcontact ionogel reference electrode prepared on a dual screen printed substrate. The screen printing protocols, i.e., type of inks and number of deposits, were adjusted to relatively improve the batch reproducibility and the stability of the pH sensor. The pH of real saliva samples was monitored using the optimised potentiometric strip, and results were validated through parallel measurements with a standard laboratory method

Short term X-ray spectral variability of the quasar PDS 456 observed in a low flux state

We present an analysis of the 2013 Suzaku campaign on the nearby luminous quasar PDS 456, covering a total duration of ~1 Ms and a net exposure of 455 ks. During these observations, the X-ray flux was suppressed by a factor of >10 in the soft X-ray band when compared to other epochs. We investigated the broadband continuum by constructing a spectral energy distribution, making use of the optical/UV photometry and hard X-ray spectra from the later XMM-Newton/NuSTAR campaign in 2014. The high energy part of this low flux state cannot be accounted for by self-consistent accretion disc and corona models without attenuation by absorbing gas, which partially covers a substantial fraction of the line of sight towards the X-ray source. Two absorption layers are required, of column density $\log (N_{\rm{H,low}}/{\rm cm^{-2}})=22.3\pm0.1$ and $\log (N_{\rm{H,high}}/{\rm cm^{-2}})=23.2\pm0.1$, with average covering factors of ~80% (with typical 5% variations) and 60% ($\pm$10-15%), respectively. In these observations PDS 456 displays significant short term X-ray spectral variability, on timescales of ~100 ks, which can be accounted for by variable covering of the absorbing gas. The partial covering absorber prefers an outflow velocity of $v_{\rm pc} = 0.25^{+0.01}_{-0.05}c$ at the >99.9% confidence level over the case where $v_{\rm pc}=0$. This is consistent with the velocity of the highly ionised outflow responsible for the blueshifted iron K absorption profile. We therefore suggest that the partial covering clouds could be the denser, or clumpy part of an inhomogeneous accretion disc wind. Finally we estimate the size-scale of the X-ray source from its variability. The radial extent of the X-ray emitter is found to be of the order ~15-20 $R_{\rm g}$, although the hard X-ray (>2 keV) emission may originate from a more compact or patchy corona of hot electrons, which is ~6-8 $R_{\rm g}$ in size.Comment: 38 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Assessment of seawater intrusion and groundwater quality in the anthropized reclamation area of Arborea (w Sardinia)

Coastal aquifers, Arborea Pain, Sardinia, nitrate GALDIT Vulnerability index