LCA to start and perform green public procurement for funeral products

AMNU S.p.A. is an Italian multi-utility company, whose owner are local municipalities, which operates basically in the territory of the Province of Trento in urban waste collection and transport. In the last years AMNU has started the “new” activity of funeral service that has a wide public concern and is a source of deep connection with the the territory. Funeral services and cemetery\u27s management are becoming more and more important and therefore AMNU has moved forward in the environmental path and this is the objective of this work: to integrate procurement tenders for the funeral products industry by inserting environmental purchasing criteria. To achieve this, we have performed a LCA study, because it has scientific and legal bases, focusing on sector of inhumation. The aim is to determine criteria that may characterize funerary products from an environmental point of view. Moreover, AMNU is related to the GPP (= Green Public Procurement) which is an instrument of european environmental policy and aims to encourage the market for green products and services, starting from the public administration. It is important to note that the GPP is no longer a voluntary instrument in Italy and that the cost of procurement of goods and services in Italy, operated by different Public Authorities (PA), each year is around 50 billion euro (ISTAT data): PA can push towards a more green economy and a more sustainable market. To propose an invitation to tender for the first time characterized by green criteria for funeral products, an environmental assessment has been performed for the use of three types of products: 1) coffin, 2) padding, 3) absorbent pad which is often added between the coffin and the padding to absorb the body fluids of the deceased. THE RESULTS 1) The LCA study helped to identify nine criteria (5 applied to the first product and 4 to the other two) that have allowed to identify and choose products that provide the best environmental impact. 2) Furthermore, the assessment based on the Carbon Footprint has provided interesting directions: in the case of the first product, the difference between the best possible product and the worst is about 40 times of CO2eq. while it is much smaller, with a maximum difference of impact of about 4 times, if referred to the other two products. So, in an LCA perspective, it is more important to focus on coffin rather than padding or absorbent pad. 3) The tender has been compiled with the new requirements and it has been published and now it is available to suppliers (totale value: more than 200.000 euro) who have to contend with these new criteria for the next delivery; consider that the part of the technical bid means 60% of the contract notice and environmental section is the more important

Quantifying the loading capacity of a carrier-based DPI formulation and its dependence on the blending process

Abstract Non-segregating ordered powder mixtures constituted by a coarse carrier fraction and finer components are at the basis of dry powders for inhalation pharmaceuticas. The estimation of the loading capacity, i.e. how many fines can be hosted on each carrier particle, is crucial to grant the product quality through a reproducible and affordable manufacturing process. We propose an approach based on the combination of sieve analysis, optical microscopy and powder bed permeability to quantify the loading capacity and understand the fines behavior, the impact of the mixing process was also investigated. We tested the method on model binary mixtures composed only of a coarse lactose carrier and micronized lactose fines as a surrogate of a real active pharmaceutical ingredient. The results provided by the different methods are consistent, the approach proved to be accurate and reproducible. The effect of different mixing parameters and equipment on the loading capacity is also discussed

Implementation and Review of the Axisymmetric Equilibrium System of RFX-Mod2 within the MARTe2 Framework

A major refurbishment of the toroidal complex of the RFX-mod device is in progress and it will include the removal of the Inconel vacuum vessel and a modification of the stainless steel supporting structure to be made vacuum-tight. The axisymmetric equilibrium control in RFX-mod was responsible for the control of the plasma current, horizontal and vertical position along with its stability and the plasma shape. The new implementation framework, both hardware and software, is described. The system has been fully reviewed and modified, if needed, for its prospective use in RFX-mod2. In order to run tests in an operation-like context, the updated system has also been implemented in the MARTe2 framework, to be deployed for the real-time applications of RFX-mod2. The results of the previous versions were reproduced and the cycle-time requirements were met

Amending Contracts for Choreographies

Distributed interactions can be suitably designed in terms of choreographies. Such abstractions can be thought of as global descriptions of the coordination of several distributed parties. Global assertions define contracts for choreographies by annotating multiparty session types with logical formulae to validate the content of the exchanged messages. The introduction of such constraints is a critical design issue as it may be hard to specify contracts that allow each party to be able to progress without violating the contract. In this paper, we propose three methods that automatically correct inconsistent global assertions. The methods are compared by discussing their applicability and the relationships between the amended global assertions and the original (inconsistent) ones.Comment: In Proceedings ICE 2011, arXiv:1108.014

MagnetoPlasmonic Waves/HOMO-LUMO Free π-Electron Transitions Coupling in Organic Macrocycles and Their Effect in Sensing Applications

Optical and magneto-optical surface plasmon resonance (MOSPR) characterization and preliminary sensing test onto single- and multi-layers of two organic macrocycles have been performed; TbPc2(OC11H21)8 phthalocyanine and CoCoPo2 porphyrin were deposited by the Langmuir-Schäfer (LS) technique onto proper Au/Co/Au magneto-optical transducers. Investigations of the MOSPR properties in Kretschmann configuration by angular modulation, gives us an indication about the potential discrimination of two organic macrocycles with absorption electronic transition in and out of the propagating plasmon energy spectral range. An improved molecular vapors sensitivity increase by the MOSPR sensing probe can be demonstrated depending on the overlap between the plasmonic probe energy and the absorption electronic transitions of the macrocycles under investigation. If the interaction between the plasmon energy and molecular HOMO-LUMO transition is preserved, a variation in the complex refractive index takes place. Under this condition, the magneto-plasmonic effect reported as 1/|MOSPR| signal allows us to increase the detection of molecules deposited onto the plasmonic transducer and their gas sensing capacity. The detection mechanism appears strongly enhanced if the Plasmon Wave/HOMO-LUMO transitions energy are in resonance. Under coupling conditions, a different volatile organic compounds (VOC) sensing capability has been demonstrated using n-butylamine as the trial molecule

Chirality induction to porphyrin derivatives co-confined at the air–water interface with silica nano-helices: towards enantioselective thin solid film surfaces

A supramolecular approach based on self-assembled structures allows the formation of large structured co-assemblies based on chiral and achiral compounds with original physicochemical features. In this contribution, an achiral and hydrophobic porphyrin was co-assembled at the air-water interface with mesoscopic silica nano-helices dispersed in the water subphase of a Langmuir trough without covalent bond formation. This procedure allowed transferring the porphyrin/nano-helix co-assemblies on a solid support within a thin hybrid layer. The interaction between the two species was characterized using spectroscopic techniques and atomic force microscopy. As evidenced by the circular dichroism measurements performed directly on solid films, tunable chirality was induced to the porphyrin aggregates according to the chirality of the silica nano-helices. When the co-assemblies were transferred on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) slides and exposed to aqueous solutions of histidine enantiomers, selective chiral discrimination was observed which was determined by the matching/mismatching between the chirality of the analyte and the helicity of the nano-helical structure.An achiral hydrophobic porphyrin was assembled onto water suspended silica helices in a Langmuir trough, inducing tunable chirality in the aggregates. Chiral discrimination was observed, ruled by the analyte's chirality and the helices' helicity

Heterozygous CDKL5 Knockout Female Mice Are a Valuable Animal Model for CDKL5 Disorder

CDKL5 disorder is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder caused by mutations in the X-linked CDKL5 (cyclin-dependent kinase-like five) gene. CDKL5 disorder primarily affects girls and is characterized by early-onset epileptic seizures, gross motor impairment, intellectual disability, and autistic features. Although all CDKL5 female patients are heterozygous, the most valid disease-related model, the heterozygous female Cdkl5 knockout (Cdkl5 +/-) mouse, has been little characterized. The lack of detailed behavioral profiling of this model remains a crucial gap that must be addressed in order to advance preclinical studies. Here, we provide a behavioral and molecular characterization of heterozygous Cdkl5 +/- mice. We found that Cdkl5 +/- mice reliably recapitulate several aspects of CDKL5 disorder, including autistic-like behaviors, defects in motor coordination and memory performance, and breathing abnormalities. These defects are associated with neuroanatomical alterations, such as reduced dendritic arborization and spine density of hippocampal neurons. Interestingly, Cdkl5 +/- mice show age-related alterations in protein kinase B (AKT) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling, two crucial signaling pathways involved in many neurodevelopmental processes. In conclusion, our study provides a comprehensive overview of neurobehavioral phenotypes of heterozygous female Cdkl5 +/- mice and demonstrates that the heterozygous female might be a valuable animal model in preclinical studies on CDKL5 disorder

A Modular Toolkit for Distributed Interactions

We discuss the design, architecture, and implementation of a toolkit which supports some theories for distributed interactions. The main design principles of our architecture are flexibility and modularity. Our main goal is to provide an easily extensible workbench to encompass current algorithms and incorporate future developments of the theories. With the help of some examples, we illustrate the main features of our toolkit.Comment: In Proceedings PLACES 2010, arXiv:1110.385

Chiral recognition by supramolecular porphyrin-hemicucurbit[8]uril-functionalized gravimetric sensors

Enantiorecognition of a chiral analyte usually requiresthe abilityto respond with high specificity to one of the two enantiomers ofa chiral compound. However, in most cases, chiral sensors have chemicalsensitivity toward both enantiomers, showing differences only in theintensity of responses. Furthermore, specific chiral receptors areobtained with high synthetic efforts and have limited structural versatility.These facts hinder the implementation of chiral sensors in many potentialapplications. Here, we utilize the presence of both enantiomers ofeach receptor to introduce a novel normalization that allows the enantio-recognitionof compounds even when single sensors are not specific for one enantiomerof a target analyte. For this purpose, a novel protocol that permitsthe fabrication of a large set of enantiomeric receptor pairs withlow synthetic efforts by combining metalloporphyrins with (R,R)- and (S,S)-cyclohexanohemicucurbit[8]uril is developed. The potentialitiesof this approach are investigated by an array of four pairs of enantiomericsensors fabricated using quartz microbalances since gravimetric sensorsare intrinsically non-selective toward the mechanism of interactionof analytes and receptors. Albeit the weak enantioselectivity of singlesensors toward limonene and 1-phenylethylamine, the normalizationallows the correct identification of these enantiomers in the vaporphase indifferent to their concentration. Remarkably, the achiralmetalloporphyrin choice influences the enantioselective properties,opening the way to easily obtain a large library of chiral receptorsthat can be implemented in actual sensor arrays. These enantioselectiveelectronic noses and tongues may have a potential striking impactin many medical, agrochemical, and environmental fields