The Future Prospect of PV and CSP Solar Technologies: An Expert Elicitation Survey

In this paper we present and discuss the results of an expert elicitation survey on solar technologies. Sixteen leading European experts from the academic world, the private sector and international institutions took part in this expert elicitation survey on Photovoltaic (PV) and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technologies. The survey collected probabilistic information on (1) how Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D) investments will impact the future costs of solar technologies and (2) the potential for solar technology deployment both in OECD and non-OECD countries. Understanding the technological progress and the potential of solar PV and CPS technologies is crucial to draft appropriate energy policies. The results presented in this paper are thus relevant for the policy making process and can be used as better input data in integrated assessment and energy models.Expert Elicitation, Research, Development and Demonstration, Solar Technologies

Buying green home care products. The role of trust and past behavior in the Theory of Planned Behavior

openQuesto studio applica la Teoria del comportamento pianificato (Ajzen,1991) per indagare il comportamento di acquisto di prodotti biologici e/o ecologici per l’igiene e la cura della casa e del bucato. La ricerca, condotta in due fasi, ha l’obiettivo di testare la validità di un modello della Teoria del comportamento pianificato estesa con la fiducia nei prodotti biologici e il comportamento passato. La fiducia è stata introdotta nel modello come variabile di background, al fine di testare se essa possa essere associata indirettamente all’intenzione e al comportamento indagato. Il comportamento passato è stato invece considerato come predittore diretto dell'intenzione e del comportamento. I partecipanti sono 265 adulti maggiorenni italiani, intervistati grazie a due questionari online, somministrati a un mese di distanza l'uno dall'altro. I risultati confermano il valore predittivo della TPB e mostrano che la fiducia è significativamente e positivamente associata all’atteggiamento il quale determina, con la norma soggettiva e il controllo comportamentale percepito, l’intenzione. Nel modello classico, l’intenzione è associata, insieme al controllo comportamentale percepito, al comportamento. Il comportamento passato è significativamente e positivamente associato all’intenzione e al comportamento auto-riferito rilevato nella seconda fase della ricerca e incrementa del 10% la quota di varianza spiegata di quest’ultimo. Nel complesso, il modello della TPB estesa spiega il 56% della varianza dell’intenzione e il 35% della varianza del comportamento

International Workshop on Research, Development, and Demonstration to Enhance the Role of Nuclear Energy in Meeting Climate and Energy Challenges

Dramatic growth in nuclear energy would be required for nuclear power to provide a significant part of the carbon-free energy the world is likely to need in the 21st century, or a major part in meeting other energy challenges. This would require increased support from governments, utilities, and publics around the world. Achieving that support is likely to require improved economics and major progress toward resolving issues of nuclear safety, proliferation-resistance, and nuclear waste management. This is likely to require both research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) of improved technologies and new policy approaches. To gather information on the RD&D needs for the future of nuclear energy, the future cost and performance of nuclear technologies, and on the major barriers to large-scale deployment of nuclear energy, a team of researchers at Harvard University and the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) conducted two coordinated surveys of nuclear experts. The surveys asked experts how much they would recommend that their governments spend on nuclear energy RD&D; what progress in cost and performance might be expected by 2030 if those recommendations were followed; and what other factors might constrain or promote future nuclear energy growth. Leading experts from the United States (U.S.) and the European Union (E.U.) participated in this expert elicitation surveys during the summer and fall of 2010. In April 2011, the FEEM and Harvard teams held a workshop in Venice, Italy with a subset of the participating E.U. and U.S. experts to present and discuss the results of the elicitations, in an effort to understand where there is consensus and where the most important disputes and uncertainties lie. Given the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, the meeting opened with a discussion of the significance of that event for the future of nuclear power, and of the main lessons learned

Human lipoaspirate as autologous injectable active scaffold for one-step repair of cartilage defects

Research on mesenchymal stem cells from adipose tissue shows promising results for cell-based therapy in cartilage lesions. In these studies, cells have been isolated, expanded, and differentiated in vitro before transplantation into the damaged cartilage or onto materials used as scaffolds to deliver cells to the impaired area. The present study employed in vitro assays to investigate the potential of intra-articular injection of microfragmented lipoaspirate as a one-step repair strategy; it aimed to determine whether adipose tissue can act as a scaffold for cells naturally present at their anatomical site. Cultured clusters of lipoaspirate showed a spontaneous outgrowth of cells with a mesenchymal phenotype and with multilineage differentiation potential. Transduction of lipoaspirate clusters by lentiviral vectors expressing GFP evidenced the propensity of the outgrown cells to repopulate fragments of damaged cartilage. On the basis of the results, which showed an induction of proliferation and ECM production of human primary chondrocytes, it was hypothesized that lipoaspirate may play a paracrine role. Moreover, the structure of a floating culture of lipoaspirate, treated for 3 weeks with chondrogenic growth factors, changed: tissue with a high fat component was replaced by a tissue with a lower fat component and connective tissue rich in GAG and in collagen type I, increasing the mechanical strength of the tissue. From these promising in vitro results, it may be speculated that an injectable autologous biologically active scaffold (lipoaspirate), employed intra-articularly, may 1) become a fibrous tissue that provides mechanical support for the load on the damaged cartilage; 2) induce host chondrocytes to proliferate and produce ECM; and 3) provide cells at the site of injury, which could regenerate or repair the damaged or missing cartilage

Lipoaspirate Shows In Vitro Potential for Wound Healing

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a promising therapy in wound healing, although extensive time and manipulation are necessary for their use. In our previous study on cartilage regeneration, we demonstrated that lipoaspirate acts as a natural scaffold for MSCs and gives rise to their spontaneous outgrowth, together with a paracrine effect on resident cells that overcome the limitations connected to MSC use. In this study, we aimed to investigate in vitro whether the microfragmented adipose tissue (lipoaspirate), obtained with Lipogems® technology, could promote and accelerate wound healing. We showed the ability of resident cells to outgrow from the clusters of lipoaspirate encapsulated in a 3D collagen substrate as capability of repopulating a culture of human skin. Moreover, we demonstrated that the in vitro lipoaspirate paracrine effect on fibroblasts and keratinocytes proliferation, migration, and contraction rate is mediated by the release of trophic/reparative proteins. Finally, an analysis of the paracrine antibacterial effect of lipoaspirate proved its ability to secrete antibacterial factors and its ability to modulate their secretion in culture media based on a bacterial stimulus. The results suggest that lipoaspirate may be a promising approach in wound healing showing in vitro regenerative and antibacterial activities that could improve current therapeutic strategies

Erythropoietin stimulation of human adipose tissue for therapeutic refilling releases protective cytokines

Apoptosis and inflammatory processes may be at the basis of reducing graft survival. Erythropoietin is a tissue-protective hormone with pleiotropic potential, and it interferes with the activities of pro-inflammatory cytokines and stimulates healing following injury, preventing destruction of tissue surrounding the injury site. It may represent a useful tool to increase the autograft integration. Through the use of multipanel kit cytokine analysis we have detected the cytokines secreted by human tissue adipose mass seeded in culture following withdrawal by Coleman's modified technique in three groups: control, after lipopolysaccharides stimulation and after erythropoietin stimulation. In the control group, we have observed expression of factors that may have a role in protecting the tissue homeostatic mechanism. But the same factors were secreted following stimulation with lipopolysaccharides combined with others factors that delineated the inflammatory state. Instead through erythropoietin stimulation, the factors known to exert tissue-protective action were secreted. Therefore, the use of a trophic factors such as erythropoietin may help to inhibit the potential inflammatory process development and stimulate the activation of reparative/regenerative process in the tissue graft

Injectable bone-graft substitute for in vivo tissue regeneration

We have demonstrated that using growth factors we can induce the proliferation of human primary osteoblasts but it isn’t enough to form new bone that need also the differentiation of the proliferated osteoblasts [1]. Being these two steps regulated by different pathways and different stimuli, in the same work we have found the combination of a proliferating growth factor (FGF2) with a differentiating stimulus (1,25Vit D3) as an optimal solution. With the aim to develop an injectable medicated scaffold which speeds bone formation in sinus lift augmentation, in bony void and in fracture repair, we have tested in vitro osteoblasts’ behavior in a 3D jelly collagen model (1mg/ml) using soluble native collagen prepared from rat tail tendons [2]. We have seen an osteoblasts’ Rho-kinase mediated contraction of the collagen that causes an approach of bone fragments within a week of culture with the formation of a fibrous bone tissue within 3 weeks of culture. FGF2 addition to the collagen fastened this result by increasing cell proliferation rate while the addition of 1,25Vit D3 to collagen at a concentration of 0,1 mg/mL that shows at HPLC analysis a release of 0,26 mcg/ ml/day during the incubation time studied, favors the mineralization of the new formed tissue that shows also increased tensile strenght. We think that this combination of factors could be used in vivo to accelerate bone growth and fracture healing

Biomimetic Citrate-Coated Luminescent Apatite Nanoplatforms for Diclofenac Delivery in Inflammatory Environments

Luminescent nanoparticles are innovative tools for medicine, allowing the imaging of cells and tissues, and, at the same time, carrying and releasing different types of molecules. We explored and compared the loading/release ability of diclofenac (COX-2 antagonist), in both undoped- and luminescent Terbium3+ (Tb3+)-doped citrate-coated carbonated apatite nanoparticles at different temperatures (25, 37, 40 \ub0C) and pHs (7.4, 5.2). The cytocompatibility was evaluated on two osteosarcoma cell lines and primary human osteoblasts. Biological effects of diclofenac-loaded-nanoparticles were monitored in an in vitro osteoblast\u2019s cytokine\u2013induced inflammation model by evaluating COX-2 mRNA expression and production of PGE2. Adsorption isotherms fitted the multilayer Langmuir-Freundlich model. The maximum adsorbed amounts at 37 \ub0C were higher than at 25 \ub0C, and particularly when using the Tb3+ -doped particles. Diclofenac-release efficiencies were higher at pH 5.2, a condition simulating a local inflammation. The luminescence properties of diclofenac-loaded Tb3+ -doped particles were affected by pH, being the relative luminescence intensity higher at pH 5.2 and the luminescence lifetime higher at pH 7.4, but not influenced either by the temperature or by the diclofenac-loaded amount. Both undoped and Tb3+-doped nanoparticles were cytocompatible. In addition, diclofenac release increased COX-2 mRNA expression and decreased PGE2 production in an in vitro inflammation model. These findings evidence the potential of these nanoparticles for osteo-localized delivery of anti-inflammatory drugs and the possibility to localize the inflammation, characterized by a decrease in pH, by changes in luminescence