Evaluation of environmental impacts in the catering sector: the case of pasta

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A NEW SMALL POTATO PLANTER FOR EGYPTIAN AGRICULTURE

Reducing the tuber period for potato plants by planting previously grown sprouts is a new technique. Applying this new agricultural methodology requires modification of the potato planter. The theoretical analysis was carried out to obtain information that can help avoid tuber damage during feeding and until it exits the feeding system. Starting from these considerations, a new potato planter with a spoon-based feeding system was designed and built. The tests conducted verified that the new system performed well when dividing tuber pieces into rows: considering the best growth spacing for potatoes is 20÷30 cm, the new system has a 68% distribution versus the 50,62 % of the old one. The tubers' spacing in rows are evaluated based on tuber voids and tuber doubles. The results show that there is no difference between the two systems' configurations, while a general consideration about our machine is that it is better at managing small tuber pieces. The void ratios are largely valid within the range of 0.4 up to 0.8 m/s of planted speeds; moreover, the results revealed that the tuber doubles decrease by increasing planting speed and vice versa with tuber voids. The quality of the potatoes planted is evaluated using the Shatter Index (SI %), which shows how the new configuration is more delicate with the tuber pieces (1.5 % against 17.5 % at 10 rpm or 46 % against 94 % at rpm 20). The new configuration could be an interesting improvement for potato quality and Egyptian potato production

Da Città studi campus sostenibile a Città studi sostenibile: le università per il rinnovamento della città

L’articolo presenta il progetto di “Città studi campus sostenibile”, avviato nel 2011 dal Politecnico di Milano e dall’Università degli Studi di Milano con l’obiettivo di rinnovare il quartiere in chiave sostenibile. L’iniziativa parte dal presupposto che le università possano giocare un ruolo decisivo per supportare politiche di sostenibilità e innovazione sul territorio. Il progetto promuove un processo basato sul coinvolgimento allargato di tutta la comunità universitaria e cittadina, per condividere esperienze e co-creare l’innovazione verso la sostenibilità del quartiere. Per gestire la complessità di un’iniziativa che vede la partecipazione di oltre un centinaio di persone, sono stati messi in campo diversi strumenti di lavoro: una piattaforma web di ascolto delle istanze della comunità e la costituzione di tavoli di discussione. È stato quindi necessario avviare una riflessione sul metodo idoneo per gestire la redazione di un masterplan urbano partecipato e costituito da azioni anche minute e diffuse sul territorio. A tre anni dall’avvio, è stata affinata la macchina gestionale del processo e sono stati realizzati diversi progetti. In particolare, a seguito di una proficua collaborazione con gli attori pubblici, il progetto ha ottenuto riconoscibilità e risultati concreti, primo fra tutti la riappropriazione a uso pubblico della piazza d’ingresso al campus, che da area parcheggio è tornata a essere spazio pedonale, rivitalizzato attraverso numerose iniziative pubbliche

The role of Attachment Insecurity in the emergency of anxiety symptoms in children and adolescent with migraine: an empirical study

Background: It is widely recognised that there are associations between headache, psychiatric comorbidity and attachment insecurity in both adults and children. The aims of this study were: 1) to compare perceived attachment security and anxiety in children and adolescents with migraine without aura and a healthy control group; 2) to test whether the child’s perceived security of attachment to the mother and the father mediated the association between migraine and anxiety. Methods: One hundred children and adolescents with Migraine without Aura were compared with a control group of 100 children without headache. The Security Scale (measures perceived security of attachments) and the Self-Administered Psychiatric Scales for Children and Adolescents, a measure of anxiety symptoms, were administered to all participants. Results: The clinical group had lower attachment security than the control group and higher scores on all anxiety scales. Anxiety was negatively correlated with attachment. Children’s attachment to their mother mediated the increase in global anxiety in the clinical group. Insecure paternal attachment was associated with greater insecurity in maternal attachment, suggesting that there is a complex pathway from migraine to anxiety symptoms mediated by perceived insecurity of paternal attachment and hence also by perceived insecurity of maternal attachment. Conclusion: These results suggest that insecure parental attachment may exacerbate anxiety in children and adolescents with migraine and point to the importance of multimodal interventions, perhaps taking account of family relationships, for children and adolescents with migraine

A Simple Digital Imaging Method for Dirt Detection on Eggshells

The objective of this research was to develop an off-line vision system to detect defective eggshells, i.e., with dirty eggshell, by employing a classification algorithm based on a few logical operations, allowing a further implementation in an on-line grading process. In particular, this work was focused to study the feasibility of identifying and differentiating dirt stains on brown eggshells caused by organic residuals, from natural stains, caused by deposits of pigments. Digital images were acquired from 384 clean and dirty brown eggshells by employing a CCD camera endowed with 15 monochromatic filters (440-940 nm). Each dirty eggshell presented only one kind of defect, i.e., blood stains, feathers and white, clear or dark faces, while clean eggshells did not present organic residuals or evidences of feather, but their external color was characterized by clear or dark natural stains. A MatLab® devoted code was developed in order to classify samples as clean or dirty. The program was constituted by three major steps: first, the research of an opportune combination of monochromatic images in order to isolate the eggshell from the background; second, the detection of the dirt stains; third, the classification of the images samples into the dirty or clean group. The proposed classification algorithm was able to correctly classify near 93% of the samples. The robustness of the proposed classification was observed applying an external validation to a second set of samples, obtaining similar percentage of correctly classified samples (92%)

Energy analysis to assess the environmental sustainability of the dairy chain

In the 1990s, attention was focused on saving energy and water with the aim of reducing production costs. Since the turn of this century, problems relating to the management of greenhouse gases have gradually assumed greater importance. Research has highlighted the problems that may arise regarding energy consumption in an Italian dairy chain. Using life-cycle assessment methods, the main steps along the production chain have been identified: breeding, dairy, and food store (FS). Our analysis shows that the different issues involved are often not easily reconcilable. Energy data need to undergo a careful and specific normalization process when dealing with specific data on different parameters (kWh/tmilk, kWh/tmilk processed, kWh/m2store). This study examined a variety of production cases (2 farms, 2 dairies, and 2 FSs) located in Lombardy, northern Italy, and electric and thermal energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions were evaluated. A total of 2.8 kgCO2/kgcheese carbon dioxide emissions relating to the production process were recorded (39% breeding, 40% dairy, 1% FS). Further studies are needed in order to provide consumers with more precise and correct information (carbon labeling or green label). This may become an important element in consumer choice