Chapter Strategic Planning Document of Port Authority System, a new city-ports agreement: the case of Northern Tyrrhenian Sea AdSP

Legislative Decrees 169/16 and 232/17 have modified Law 84/94. The changes introduces the Port System Regulatory Plan, composed of the PRPs of the individual ports and the Strategic System Planning Document. Among the contents of the DPSS, for which institutional agreements between AdSP and territorial bodies are envisaged, there is the identification of the so-called "Areas of port-city interaction". The objective of this research is to propose a methodology for identifying the areas of influence of the port on the city, measuring the degree of interaction through a system with indicators

Chapter Evaluation and monitoring of the Livorno’s Fossi System

The ditches and canals of Livorno, also called Fossi, are the most characterized elements the city, not only from a historical point of view, but also and above all from an urban landscape characterization point of view. Due to the overlapping of skills not yet resolved, fragmented information and data exist regarding the real extent of the pleasure craft, the status of the canals, the provision of services and general safety. The hypothesis is to succeed, through a multi-criteria assessment of scenarios, to support and quantify the displacement of vessels that negatively affect accessibility and the landscape of Livorno's Fossi system elsewhere

Synthesis and Characterization of Copoly(Ether Sulfone)s with Different Percentages of Diphenolic Acid Units

New functionalized Poly(ether sulfone)s having different molar ratio (10, 20, 30, 50, 70, 100 mol%) of 4,4-bis phenoxy pentanoic acid unit (diphenolic acid; DPA) units were synthesized and characterized by (1H and 13C)-NMR, MALDI-TOF MS, FT-IR, DSC and DMA analyses. The microstructural analysis of the copolymers, obtained by 13C-NMR using an appropriate statistical model, shows a random distribution of copolymer sequences, as expected. The presence of different amount of DPA units along the polymer chains affects the chemical and physical properties of the copolymers. The Tg and the contact angle values decrease as the molar fraction of DPA units increases, whereas the hydrophilicity increases. NMR and MALDI-TOF MS analyses show that all polymer chains are almost terminated with hydroxyl and chlorine as end groups. The presence of cyclic oligomers was also observed by MALDI-TOF MS analysis

Chapter Strategic Planning Document of Port Authority System, a new city-ports agreement: the case of Northern Tyrrhenian Sea AdSP

Legislative Decrees 169/16 and 232/17 have modified Law 84/94. The changes introduces the Port System Regulatory Plan, composed of the PRPs of the individual ports and the Strategic System Planning Document. Among the contents of the DPSS, for which institutional agreements between AdSP and territorial bodies are envisaged, there is the identification of the so-called "Areas of port-city interaction". The objective of this research is to propose a methodology for identifying the areas of influence of the port on the city, measuring the degree of interaction through a system with indicators

Chapter Evaluation and monitoring of the Livorno’s Fossi System

The ditches and canals of Livorno, also called Fossi, are the most characterized elements the city, not only from a historical point of view, but also and above all from an urban landscape characterization point of view. Due to the overlapping of skills not yet resolved, fragmented information and data exist regarding the real extent of the pleasure craft, the status of the canals, the provision of services and general safety. The hypothesis is to succeed, through a multi-criteria assessment of scenarios, to support and quantify the displacement of vessels that negatively affect accessibility and the landscape of Livorno's Fossi system elsewhere

Portable Nanocomposite System for Wound Healing in Space

It is well known that skin wound healing could be severely impaired in space. In particular, the skin is the tissue at risk of injury, especially during human-crewed space missions. Here, we propose a hybrid system based on the biocompatible poly 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (pHEMA) to actively support a nanocontainer filled with the drug. Specifically, during the cryo-polymerization of HEMA, halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) embedded with thymol (Thy) were added as a component. Thy is a natural pharmaceutical ingredient used to confer wound healing properties to the material, whereas HNTs were used to entrap the Thy into the lumen to ensure a sustained release of the drug. The as-obtained material was characterized by chemical–physical methods, and tests were performed to assess its ability for a prolonged drug release. The results showed that the adopted synthetic procedure allows the formation of a super absorbent system with good swelling ability that can contain up to 5.5 mg of Thy in about 90 mg of dried sponge. Releasing tests demonstrated the excellent material’s ability to perform a slow controlled delivery of 62% of charged Thy within a week. As humans venture deeper into space, with more extended missions, limited medical capabilities, and a higher risk of skin wounds, the proposed device would be a versatile miniaturized device for skin repair in space

Photo- and Water-Degradation Phenomena of ZnO Bio-Blend Based on Poly(lactic acid) and Polyamide 11

: The goal of this work was to investigate the morphological and chemical-physical changes induced by adding ZnO nanoparticles to bio-based polymeric materials based on polylactic acid (PLA) and polyamide 11 (PA11). Precisely, the photo- and water-degradation phenomena of nanocomposite materials were monitored. For this purpose, the formulation and characterization of novel bio-nanocomposite blends based on PLA and PA11 at a ratio of 70/30 wt.% filled with zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures at different percentages were performed. The effect of ZnO nanoparticles (≤2 wt.%) within the blends was thoroughly explored by employing thermogravimetry (TGA), size exclusion chromatography (SEC), matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM). Adding up to 1% wt. of ZnO resulted in a higher thermal stability of the PA11/PLA blends, with a decrement lower than 8% in terms of molar masses (MMs) values being obtained during blend processing at 200 °C. ZnO promoted trans-ester-amide reactions between the two polymers, leading to the formation of PLA/PA11 copolymers. These species could work as compatibilisers at the polymer interface, improving thermal and mechanical properties. However, the addition of higher quantities of ZnO affected such properties, influencing the photo-oxidative behaviour and thus thwarting the material's application for packaging use. The PLA and blend formulations were subjected to natural aging in seawater for two weeks under natural light exposure. The 0.5% wt. ZnO sample induced polymer degradation with a decrease of 34% in the MMs compared to the neat samples

Spontaneous polymerization of benzofulvene derivatives bearing complexed or un-complexed pyridine rings

Benzofulvene derivatives bearing complexed and un-complexed pyridine rings are designed and synthesized to assess the effects on the spontaneous solid-state polymerization of the presence in position 6 of the 3-phenylbenzofulvene moiety of bulky substituents capable of establishing metallophilic interactions. Both the benzofulvene monomers are found to polymerize spontaneously upon solvent removal under reduced pressure in the apparent absence of catalysts or initiators. The resulting polybenzofulvene derivatives are characterized by NMR spectroscopy, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, and in photophysical studies