Indagine sul management di tartarughe palustri appartenenti alla famiglia degli Emidi

La BBC nel 2001 rese noto al pubblico inglese ciò che a pochi non era ancora evidente: le tartarughe palustri dalle orecchie rosse avevano invaso il mercato degli animali da compagnia e stavano diventando un serio problema per gli ecosistemi europei in quanto, una volta abbandonati, questi animali, che combinano l’aggressività alla voracità, velocemente distruggevano flora e fauna dell’ambiente nel quale si insediavano. E’ curioso come possediamo una data ben precisa dell’inizio di questo fenomeno: l’uscita del secondo volume del fumetto di successo “Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles®” (tradotto in italiano con “le Tartarughe Ninja) nell’anno 1987 nel quale viene svelato ai milioni di fan adolescenti la specie alla quale appartengono i loro idoli: sono Trachemys scripta elegans. Da qui inizia un commercio irresponsabile di milioni di piccole tartarughe, nel quale né i venditori né gli acquirenti (nè i veterinari?) sono sufficientemente preparati sulle reali esigenze di questi rettili che vengono allevati in minuscole vaschette e alimentati esclusivamente con gamberetti secchi, fomentando l’ idea che siano animali rustici e che non necessitino di molte cure: niente di più sbagliato! E di nuovo, per assurdo, conosciamo esattamente come la maggior parte di queste tartarughe siano arrivate nei corsi d’acqua dolce, ovvero seguendo la stessa strada dei loro corrispettivi cartacei: attraverso gli scarichi delle fogne delle case dei loro proprietari

Are design for disassembly principles advantageous for the environment when applied to temporary exhibition installations?

Disassembly of a product is a systematic process of separating an item into components and subcomponents and is a key factor to foster a more circular economy in which resources are kept longer.The aim of this study is to explore how to combine design for disassembly indicators with a life cycle-based tool and investigate the environmental benefits of design for disassembly. The intent is to assess the environmental sustainability of an exhibition area, from a circular economy perspective, by using design for disassembly principles and a carbon footprint methodology. These two methodologies are used to evaluate the environmental benefits in combination with the effort s to improve the disassembly process and to propose a method to normalise and scale up the impacts at a higher level.The results show that, for this specific case study, improvements in terms of recycled content led to limited environmental benefits, reducing the impact by approximately 1%. This is because the practise of reutilisation was largely applied by the company designing and producing the temporary installation being studied; in addition, improvements in the recycling rate at the expense of reuse led to a higher environmental impact, of approximately 15%.The results reveal that effort s to improve the disassembly and circularity can lead to limited improvements in terms of impact on the environment, and efforts to increase material recycling should not be performed at the expense of reuse.What is transferable, beyond the case study used as a base to develop our intent, is that it is always advisable to combine design for disassembly and life cycle-based principles to quantify the environmental benefits and address the efforts to improve a product in terms of circularity. (C) 2021 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

The white and black colour attributes in the Natural Colour System

This phenomenological research investigates how it is possible to determine the extent to which a chromatic colour appears white and black in order to use it to build a new Colour Rendering Index. We tested two methods of subjective evaluation; in the first, the perceptual presence of white (and black) in a colour alone was assessed on a unipolar intensity scale, independently for the two attributes. In the second method, evaluations of whiteness (and blackness) were conducted for colours presented in a sequence ordered from the least to the greatest presence of the respective attribute. In both tests evaluations were made either by moving an arrow on a slider from left (minimum) to right (maximum) or by choosing a grey cylinder that matched the same degree of similarity to white (and black) as the test colour. In four experiments, 16 colours of 4 hues and 4 different shades were studied; in a fifth experiment, 48 colours, 12 for each quadrant of the colour wheel, were studied; finally, in another test, 10 greys were studied. In the first three experiments, the results were unexpected, as the evaluations of whiteness and blackness were complementary, adding up to 100%, while in the current NCS, 100% includes not only the evaluation of white and black but also that of chromaticness, therefore white and black are not complementary. In the fourth and fifth experiments, the sum of the evaluations of white and black was always less than 100%, in accordance with the present NCS. In the last experiment, the evaluations of white and black given independently to the 10 greys samples were complementary, confirming the bipolar nature of white-black continuum. Suggestions have been provided to resolve the discrepancy between the results of this research and the structure of the current NCS

Glucose transporter-1 expression and prognostic significance in pancreatic carcinogenesis

The purposes of this study were to evaluate the prognostic significance of Glut-1 expression in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and to analyse its expression in pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasias (PanIN) and non invasive intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN). Glut-1 expression was studied by immunohistochemistry in 60 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas and scored on a 4- point scale (1: 75%). Relationships between Glut-1 score, histological grade and MIB-1 score were evaluated by the Spearman rank correlation test. Significant correlations were found between Glut-1 expression and histological grade (P<0.001) and MIB-1 score (P<0.01). Significant prognostic factors by univariate analysis were stage (P<0.0001), histological grade (P<0.001) and Glut-1 expression (P<0.005). Independent prognostic factors after multivariate analysis were stage (P<0.001) and Glut-1 expression (P<0.05), stratified as <50% and >50%. The correlation of Glut-1 score with histological grade and MIB-1 score indicated a higher glucose uptake in poorly differentiated and highly proliferative pancreatic cancer cells. Glut-1 immunohistochemical expression provides a useful prognostic factor in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Glut-1 expression was not found in PanINs 1 but in 27.8% and 43.8% of PanINs 2 and 3, and was not found in IPMNs with lowand moderate-grade dysplasia but in 60% of IPMNs with high-grade dysplasia, indicating Glut-1 involvement in a relatively early phase of pancreatic carcinogenesis

Prevalence and Risk Factors of Bullying and Sexual and Racial Harassment in Healthcare Workers: A Cross-Sectional Study in Italy

Background: This cross-sectional study aims to evaluate the prevalence and socio-demographic factors associated with workplace bullying, sexual harassment and racial harassment among Italian health workers. Methods: We recruited 3129 participants using an online Italian translation of the ‘Workplace Violence in the Health Sector Country Case Studies Research Instruments Survey’ (WVHS) questionnaire. Data were analyzed with univariate (chi-square) and multivariate (multiple logistic regression) analysis. Results: Univariate analysis shows that females are significantly more affected by bullying (16.4% vs. 12.3%) and sexual harassment (2.4% vs. 1.3%). On the other hand, males are significantly more affected by racial harassment (3.1% vs. 2.0%). Multivariate analysis shows higher odds of being affected by bullying (OR = 1.30; 95% CI (1.03, 1.64)) and sexual harassment (OR = 2.08; 95% CI (1.04, 4.00)) for females, and higher odds of undergoing racial harassment (OR = 1.55; 95% CI (0.95, 2.53)) for males. Conclusion: This analysis of work situations looks to identify those risk factors, existing or potential, that increase the probability of episodes of violence. A group of work or other subjects identified by direction will have to evaluate the vulnerability of workplaces and establish more effective preventive actions to be adopted