Study of a high spatial resolution 10B-based thermal neutron detector for application in neutron reflectometry: the Multi-Blade prototype

Although for large area detectors it is crucial to find an alternative to detect thermal neutrons because of the 3He shortage, this is not the case for small area detectors. Neutron scattering science is still growing its instruments' power and the neutron flux a detector must tolerate is increasing. For small area detectors the main effort is to expand the detectors' performances. At Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) we developed the Multi-Blade detector which wants to increase the spatial resolution of 3He-based detectors for high flux applications. We developed a high spatial resolution prototype suitable for neutron reflectometry instruments. It exploits solid 10B-films employed in a proportional gas chamber. Two prototypes have been constructed at ILL and the results obtained on our monochromatic test beam line are presented here

Trichoderma harzianum cerato-platanin enhances hydrolysis of lignocellulosic materials

Considering its worldwide abundance, cellulose can be a suitable candidate to replace the fossil oil-based materials, even if its potential is still untapped, due to some scientific and technical gaps. This work offers new possibilities demonstrating for the first time the ability of a cerato-platanin, a small fungal protein, to valorize lignocellulosic Agri-food Wastes. Indeed, cerato-platanins can loosen cellulose rendering it more accessible to hydrolytic attack. The cerato-platanin ThCP from a marine strain of Trichoderma harzianum, characterized as an efficient biosurfactant protein, has proven able to efficiently pre-treat apple pomace, obtaining a sugar conversion yield of 65%. Moreover, when used in combination with a laccase enzyme, a notable increase in the sugar conversion yield was measured. Similar results were also obtained when other wastes, coffee silverskin and potato peel, were pre-treated. With respect to the widespread laccase pre-treatments, this new pre-treatment approach minimizes process time, increasing energy efficiency

Towards a new food labelling system for sustainable food production and healthy responsible consumption: The Med Index Checklist

By 2024, the European Commission will examine a new sustainable labeling framework. Here we describe the development of a new food product labeling system, named Mediterranean Index (Med Index), aimed at promoting adherence to the Mediterranean diet (healthy and sustainable nutritional pattern) by stimulating citizens to practice physical activity consistent with the energy intake of meals and encouraging producers to make healthier and more sustainable food products. It is characterized by the possibility of integrating 27 criteria addressing the issue of sustainable food production processes in the frame of three pillars: nutritional, environmental, and social sustainability. It is conceived as a holistic front-of-pack (FOP) label, complete and applicable by food producers as it is based on measurable criteria, widely shared by stakeholders, but usually adopted on an individual basis

Fluctuation relations in non-equilibrium stationary states of Ising models

Fluctuation relations for the entropy production in non equilibrium stationary states of Ising models are investigated by Monte Carlo simulations. Systems in contact with heat baths at two different temperatures or subject to external driving will be studied. In the first case, by considering different kinetic rules and couplings with the baths, the behavior of the probability distributions of the heat exchanged in a time $\tau$ with the thermostats, both in the disordered and in the low temperature phase, are discussed. The fluctuation relation is always verified in the large $\tau$ limit and deviations from linear response theory are observed. Finite-$\tau$ corrections are shown to obey a scaling behavior. In the other case the system is in contact with a single heat bath but work is done by shearing it. Also for this system the statistics collected for the mechanical work shows the validity of the fluctuation relation and preasymptotic corrections behave analogously to the case with two baths.Comment: 9 figure

Invading parasites: spillover of an alien nematode reduces survival in a native species

It is widely assumed that spillover of alien parasites to native host species severely impacts na\uefve populations, ultimately conferring a competitive advantage to invading hosts that introduced them. Despite such host-switching events occurring in biological invasions, studies demonstrating the impact of alien macroparasites on native animal hosts are surprisingly few. In Europe, native red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) are replaced by introduced North American grey squirrels (S. carolinensis) mainly through resource competition, and, only in the United Kingdom and Ireland, by competition mediated by a viral disease. In Italy such disease is absent, but spillover of an introduced North American nematode (Strongyloides robustus) from grey to red squirrels is known to occur. Here, we used long-term (9 years) capture-mark-recapture and parasitological data of red squirrels in areas co-inhabited by grey squirrels in Northern Italy to investigate the impact of this alien helminth on na\uefve native squirrels\u2019 body mass, local survival, and reproduction of females. We found no negative effect of the alien parasite on body mass or reproductive success, but intensity of infection by S. robustus reduced survival of both male and female squirrels. Significantly, survival of squirrels co-infected by their native nematode, Trypanoxyuris sciuri, was less affected by S. robustus, suggesting a protective effect of the native helminth against the new infection. Hence, we demonstrate that alien S. robustus spillover adds to the detrimental effects of resource competition and stress induced by grey squirrels, further reducing the fitness of the native species in the presence of the invasive competitor

Using the ERT method in tectonically active areas: hints from Southern Apennine (Italy)

Abstract. Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) method has been used to study two tectonically active areas of southern Apennine (Caggiano Faults and Ufita Basin). The main aim of this job was to study the structural setting of the investigated areas, i.e. the geometry of the basins at depth, the location of active faults at surface, and their geometrical characterization. The comparison between ERT and trench/drilling data allowed us to evaluate the efficacy of the ERT method in studying active faults and the structural setting of seismogenic areas. In the Timpa del Vento intermontane basin, high resolution ERT across the Caggiano Fault scarps, with different arrays, electrode spacing (from 1 to 10 m) and penetration depth (from about 5 to 40 m) was carried out. The obtained resistivity models allowed us to locate the fault planes along the hillslope and to gather information at depth, as later confirmed by paleoseismological trenches excavated across the fault trace. In the Ufita River Valley a 3560-m-long ERT was carried out across the basin, joining 11 roll-along multi-channel acquisition system with an electrode spacing of 20 m and reaching an investigation depth of about 170 m. The ERT allowed us to reconstruct the geometry and thickness of the Quaternary deposits filling the Ufita Valley. Our reconstruction of the depositional setting is in agreement with an interpretative geological section based on borehole data

Some Restrictions Abroad Affecting Corporations

A neutron detector concept based on solid layers of boron carbide enriched in 1 B has been in development for the last few years as an alternative for He-3 by collaboration between the ILL, ESS and Linkoping University. This Multi-Grid detector uses layers of aluminum substrates coated with (B4C)-B-10 on both sides that are traversed by the incoming neutrons. Detection is achieved using a gas counter readout principle. By segmenting the substrate and using multiple anode wires, the detector is made inherently position sensitive. This development is aimed primarily at neutron scattering instruments with large detector areas, such as time-of-flight chopper spectrometers. The most recent prototype has been built to be interchangeable with the He-3 detectors of IN6 at ILL. The 1 B detector has an active area of 32 x 48 cm(2). It was installed at the IN6 instrument and operated for several weeks, collecting data in parallel with the regularly scheduled experiments, thus providing the first side-by-side comparison with the conventional He-3 detectors. Results include an efficiency comparison, assessment of the in-detector scattering contribution, sensitivity to gamma-rays and the signal-to-noise ratio in time-of-flight spectra. The good expected performance has been confirmed with the exception of an unexpected background count rate. This has been identified as natural alpha activity in aluminum. New convertor substrates are under study to eliminate this source of background

Detecting young, slow‐slipping active faults by geologic and multidisciplinary high‐resolution geophysical investigations: A case study from the Apennine seismic belt, Italy.

The Southern Apennines range of Italy presents significant challenges for active fault detection due to the complex structural setting inherited from previous contractional tectonics, coupled to very recent (Middle Pleistocene) onset and slow slip rates of active normal faults. As shown by the Irpinia Fault, source of a M6.9 earthquake in 1980, major faults might have small cumulative deformation and subtle geomorphic expression. A multidisciplinary study including morphological-tectonic, paleoseismological, and geophysical investigations has been carried out across the extensional Monte Aquila Fault, a poorly known structure that, similarly to the Irpinia Fault, runs across a ridge and is weakly expressed at the surface by small scarps/warps. The joint application of shallow reflection profiling, seismic and electrical resistivity tomography, and physical logging of cored sediments has proved crucial for proper fault detection because performance of each technique was markedly different and very dependent on local geologic conditions. Geophysical data clearly (1) image a fault zone beneath suspected warps, (2) constrain the cumulative vertical slip to only 25–30 m, (3) delineate colluvial packages suggesting coseismic surface faulting episodes. Paleoseismological investigations document at least three deformation events during the very Late Pleistocene (<20 ka) and Holocene. The clue to surface-rupturing episodes, together with the fault dimension inferred by geological mapping and microseismicity distribution, suggest a seismogenic potential of M6.3. Our study provides the second documentation of a major active fault in southern Italy that, as the Irpinia Fault, does not bound a large intermontane basin, but it is nested within the mountain range, weakly modifying the landscape. This demonstrates that standard geomorphological approaches are insufficient to define a proper framework of active faults in this region. More in general, our applications have wide methodological implications for shallow imaging in complex terrains because they clearly illustrate the benefits of combining electrical resistivity and seismic techniques. The proposed multidisciplinary methodology can be effective in regions characterized by young and/or slow slipping active faults.PublishedB113073.2. Tettonica attivaJCR Journalpartially_ope

Using the ERT method in tectonically active areas: hints from Southern Apennine (Italy)

Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) method has been used to study two tectonically active areas of southern Apennine (Caggiano Faults and Ufita Basin). The main aim of this job was to study the structural setting of the investigated areas, i.e. the geometry of the basins at depth, the location of active faults at surface, and their geometrical characterization. The comparison between ERT and trench/drilling data allowed us to evaluate the efficacy of the ERT method in studying active faults and the structural setting of seismogenic areas. In the Timpa del Vento intermontane basin, high resolution ERT across the Caggiano Fault scarps, with different arrays, electrode spacing (from 1 to 10 m) and penetration depth (from about 5 to 40 m) was carried out. The obtained resistivity models allowed us to locate the fault planes along the hillslope and to gather information at depth, as later con-firmed by paleoseismological trenches excavated across the fault trace. In the Ufita River Valley a 3560-m-long ERT was carried out across the basin, joining 11 roll-along multi-channel acquisition system with an electrode spacing of 20mand reaching an investigation depth of about 170 m. The ERT allowed us to reconstruct the geometry and thickness of the Quaternary deposits filling the Ufita Valley. Our reconstruction of the depositional setting is in agreement with an interpretative geological section based on borehole data

Electrical resistivity tomography investigations in the ufita Valley (southern Italy).

Several Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) surveys have been carried out to study the subsurface structural and sedimentary settings of the upper Ufita River valley, and to evaluate their efficiency to distinguish the geological boundary between shallow Quaternary sedimentary deposits and clayey bedrock characterized by moderate resistivity contrast. Five shallow ERTs were carried out across a morphological scarp running at the foot of the northeastern slope of the valley. This valley shoulder is characterized by a set of triangular facets, that some authors associated to the presence of a SW-dipping normal fault. The geological studies allow us to interpret the shallow ERTs results obtaining a resistivity range for each Quaternary sedimentary deposit. The tomographies showed the geometrical relationships of alluvial and slope deposits, having a maximum thickness of 30-40 m, and the morphology of the bedrock. The resistivity range obtained for each sedimentary body has been used for calibrating the tomographic results of one 3560m-long deep ERT carried out across the deeper part of the intramountain depression with an investigation depth of about 170 m. The deep resistivity result highlighted the complex alluvial setting, characterized by alternating fine grained lacustrine deposits and coarser gravelly fluvial sediments