Street Art in Piedmont: a tourist itinerary proposal

reservedLa tesi si sviluppa in cinque capitoli tematici partendo dalla nascita della Street Art in America (a seguito dell'affermazione del Graffitismo) con i suoi pionieri Keith Haring e Jean-Michel Basquiat e proseguendo con un'approfondimento sulle tecniche e i maggiori esponenti internazionali di Street Art. Successivamente viene presentata la storia della Street Art in Italia attraverso le esperienze delle città di Bologna, Milano e Padova per poi passare ad un approfondimento relativo alla Street Art in Piemonte. Il lavoro si conclude con una proposta di itinerario slow e sostenibile di cinque giorni alla scoperta della Street Art e dei siti culturali più importanti in Piemonte

Modelling the exposure to chemicals for risk assessment: a comprehensive library of multimedia and PBPK models for integration, prediction, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis - the MERLIN-Expo tool

MERLIN-Expo is a library of models that was developed in the frame of the FP7 EU project 4FUN in order to provide an integrated assessment tool for state-of-the-art exposure assessment for environment, biota and humans, allowing the detection of scientific uncertainties at each step of the exposure process. This paper describes the main features of theMERLIN-Expo tool. The main challenges in exposure modelling that MERLIN-Expo has tackled are: (i) the integration of multimedia (MM) models simulating the fate of chemicals in environmental media, and of physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models simulating the fate of chemicals in human body. MERLIN-Expo thus allows the determination of internal effective chemical concentrations; (ii) the incorporation of a set of functionalities for uncertainty/sensitivity analysis, from screening to variance-based approaches. The availability of such tools for uncertainty and sensitivity analysis aimed to facilitate the incorporation of such issues in future decision making; (iii) the integration of human and wildlife biota targets with common fate modelling in the environment.MERLIN-Expo is composed of a library of fate models dedicated to non biological receptor media (surface waters, soils, outdoor air), biological media of concern for humans (several cultivated crops, mammals, milk, fish), as well as wildlife biota (primary producers in rivers, invertebrates, fish) and humans. These models can be linked together to create flexible scenarios relevant for both human and wildlife biota exposure. Standardized documentation for each model and training material were prepared to support an accurate use of the tool by end-users. One of the objectives of the 4FUN project was also to increase the confidence in the applicability of the MERLIN-Expo tool through targeted realistic case studies. In particular, we aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of building complex realistic exposure scenarios and the accuracy of the modelling predictions through a comparison with actual measurements. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Modelling ecological and human exposure to POPs in Venice lagoon. Part I - Application of MERLIN-Expo tool for integrated exposure assessment

Industrial and urban emissions over several decades left a legacy of contamination by persistent organic pollutants in the sediments of Venice lagoon (Italy), which might still represent a hazard for the health of ecosystems and population. A new modelling tool for integrated exposure assessment, MERLIN-Expo, was applied to simulate integrated ecological and human exposure to PCBs and dioxins. MERLIN-Expo library provides a set of environmental fate models that can be easily combined to create several scenarios, and coupled to a human intake and a physiologically-based pharmaco-kinetic (PBPK) model to simulate human internal exposure. The Phytoplankton, Invertebrate and Fish models implemented in MERLIN-Expo library were combined to create an aquatic food web and to dynamically simulate bioaccumulation and biomagnification of dioxins and PCBs. Concentrations of PCB and dioxins in water, reconstructed from concentrations in dated sediment cores, were used as time-series inputs to run long term simulations. Estimated concentrations in edible aquatic species were used to estimate daily human intake through the consumption of local seafood. Finally, the application of the PBPK model allowed to explore the accumulation of 2,3,7,8-TCDD and PCB126 in human tissues for several decades. Simulated chemical concentrations in biota were evaluated against monitoring data for four aquatic species, finding an appreciable agreement, with some differences depending on the species and target chemicals. Estimated chemical concentrations in blood were compared to real human biomonitoring data measured in adult men. Despite several assumptions included in the assessment framework, simulated concentrations resulted close to measured data (the same order of magnitude or one order of difference). The results allowed performing a preliminary ecological and human health risk assessment for the selected chemicals by evaluating the exposure estimates against benchmark values available in literature. The study provided useful insights for supporting the verification of MERLIN-Expo in a real complex exposure scenario. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved