CIRCULAR ECONOMY MODELS IN THE INDUSTRY 4.0 ERA: A REVIEW OF THE LAST DECADE

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Digital manufacturing challenges through open innovation perspective

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A Prototype System for Time-Lapse Electrical Resistivity Tomographies

A prototype system for time-lapse acquisition of 2D electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and time domain reflectometry (TDR) measurements was installed in a test site affected by a landslide in Basilicata region (southern Italy). The aim of the system is to monitor in real-time the rainwater infiltration into the soil and obtain information about the variation of the water content in the first layers of the subsoil and the possible influence of this variation on landslide activity. A rain gauge placed in the test site gives information on the rainfall intensity and frequency and suggests the acquisition time interval. The installed system and the preliminary results are presented in this paper

Greenhouse gas emissions from urban area of Naples

Urban areas are among the main causes of greenhouse gases emissions on the planet, despite covering relatively small areas of the land. Recently, a number of projects aim at monitoring the dynamics of city emissions using micro meteorological measurements by applying the technique of eddy correlation for measuring the fluxes of carbon dioxide, water, methane and energy. In this perspective, a super-site for the measurement of atmospheric pollutants from urban sources has been established in Naples (Campania, Southern Italy), where the complex layout of the coast and surrounding mountains favours the development of combined sea breeze upslope winds and the evolution of return flows with several layers of pollutants and subsidence. At the super-site, an eddy covariance tower has been installed on the rooftop of the Meteorological Observatory of Largo San Marcellino, situated in the historical city centre: a fast response ultrasonic anemometer (Gill WindMaster) has been mounted on a 10-m mast, alongside three insulated inlet lines through which the air is sampled for gaseous pollutants and particulate matter. The height of the terrace is on average 35 m above the irregular street level, resulting in an overall measuring height of 45 m. Mixing ratios of CO2, CH4 and H2O are measured by an infrared spectrometer (10 Hz, Los Gatos Research). The results shown that the mean urban levels of CO2 are between 420-520 ppm; the mean levels of CH4 span between 1.85-2.48 ppm. These fluxes are representative of varying footprint source areas, covering the historical centre of Naples, the harbour, and some main traffic arteries of the city. The analysis of these measurements on long-term will allow to establish relationships between the fluxes of greenhouse gases and the other pollutant species measured

Diabetes and Obesity as Independent Risk Factors for Osteoporosis: Updated Results from the ROIS/EMEROS Registry in a Population of Five Thousand Post-Menopausal Women Living in a Region Characterized by Heavy Environmental Pressure

EMEROS/ROIS Registry is a project funded by ISBEM and supported by Medicina Futura Research

Role of DNA repair machinery and p53 in the testicular germ cell cancer: a review

Notwithstanding the peculiar sensitivity to cisplatin-based treatment, resulting in a very high percentage of cures even in advanced stages of the disease, still we do not know the biological mechanisms that make Testicular Germ Cell Tumor (TGCT) "unique" in the oncology scene. p53 and MDM2 seem to play a pivotal role, according to several in vitro observations, but no correlation has been found between their mutational or expression status in tissue samples and patients clinical outcome. Furthermore, other players seem to be on stage: DNA Damage Repair Machinery (DDR) , especially Homologous Recombination (HR) proteins, above all Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated (ATM), cooperates with p53 in response to DNA damage, activating apoptotic cascade and contributing to cell "fate". Homologous Recombination deficiency has been assumed to be a Germ Cell Tumor characteristic underlying platinum-sensitivity, whereby Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), an enzyme involved in HR DNA repair, is an intriguing target: PARP inhibitors have already entered in clinical practice of other malignancies and trials are recruiting TGCT patients in order to validate their role in this disease. This paper aims to summarize evidence, trying to outline an overview of DDR implications not only in TGCT curability, but also in resistance to chemotherapy

Enhancing Coating Adhesion on Fibre-Reinforced Composite by Femtosecond Laser Texturing

Carbon fibre-reinforced polymers (CFRP), thanks to their properties such as lightness, resistance to corrosion and fatigue, are emerging composite materials in the aeronautic fields, guaranteeing to reduce weight and costs by maintaining high performances in terms of strength and security. For preventing fluid damage and freezing, in aeronautic applications, CFRP parts need to be coated by painting. However, the paint/coating adhesion on CFRP composites is generally poor and affected by surface conditions. In this work, femtosecond laser texturing was investigated as an approach to improve adhesion of superhydrophobic coatings (SHC) to CFRP substrates. The laser textured surfaces show, after coating, a more lasting superhydrophobic behaviour compared to the as received sample, even after several cleaning cycles, demonstrating that the laser pre-treatment is a reliable and green method to enhance the adhesion of the SHC to the composite substrate

A pre-post sensory experiment on the effect of a seminar on olive oil preferences of Italian consumers

A pre-post sensory evaluation experiment was conducted to measure the effect of information on taste and other sensory aspects of olive oils on a sample of Italian consumers. Three categories of olive oils were included in the experiment: virgin, extra virgin, and crystal clear. For the first tasting session, 246 assessors were randomly assigned either to the treated (n = 117) or to the control group (n = 129). After the first tasting session, the treated group attended the seminar, with the aims, among others, how to identify qualified and/or fresh oil. After one week, the second tasting session involved 99 assessors who had in the meantime participated in the seminar and 106 who had not participated. The experiment followed a double- blind administration procedure to the sample and a paper questionnaire was used to elicit a preferential judgment for each oil tasted. The results show that the information provided may influence the capacity of consumers to recognise the essential sensory characteristics of olive oils

Vmh2 hydrophobin as a tool for the development of "self-immobilizing" enzymes for biosensing

Self-assembling proteins forming amyloid fibrils are promising candidates for the fabrication of biomaterials, due to the chemical and mechanical stability of their structures. Among potential applications, their use as platforms for enzyme immobilization is rapidly gathering attention. In this work, we demonstrate that the production of the enzyme glutathione-S-transferase (GST) fused to the class I hydrophobin Vmh2 from Pleurotus ostreatus represents an invaluable tool for the development of self-immobilizing enzymes useful for high throughput analyses. The proposed immobilization strategy is versatile since it can be applied, in principle, to every recombinant protein able to refold from Escherichia coli inclusion bodies. A GST based biosensor has been developed to quantify toxic compounds, such as the pesticides molinate and captan, in aqueous environmental samples. The main advantages of this sensor include simplicity and speed of preparation, high sensitivity, reusability, and accuracy