Risk Assessment of Major Accidents Triggered by Lightning Events

The analysis of major industrial accident databases indicates that lightning events are the most frequent cause of technological accidents triggered by natural events in chemical and process plants. Severe fires, mainly affecting storage farms, are the most frequent final scenario associated to such events. In the present study, a quantitative methodology for the assessment of the risk due to major accidents triggered by lightning is presented. The methodology was developed within a common framework for the quantitative assessment of risk due to external hazard factors in chemical and process plants. The procedure also allows the identification of the credible scenarios that may be associated to the different modes of structural damage and the identification of critical equipment items.JRC.DG.G.7-Traceability and vulnerability assessmen

Il recupero dei manufatti rurali del Salto-Cicolano

Until the first half of the last century, have departed from the plateau Rascino and from the mountains Duchessa, flocks of sheeps owned by a few wealthy families. Such activity has a long history and a vast territory, which also includes other plateaus, among which the Aquilente. The paper exposes the first campaign of catalogation, surveys, energy modelling, and constructive analysis, of the many ancient farmhouses located in the country. They have been used during the good seasons, for the recovery of the animals, and to permit high altitude farming in the plateaus. They represent simple architectures for a complex landscape and the investigations confirmed the presence of ancient techniques, related to the local material, and to the history of construction of the furthest reaches of the kingdom of Naples. The strategy is based on the institution of a Rural Pastoral Park, and the objective of the manual is to contribute to the atlases of ancient construction techniques and to offer tools for improving the buildings energy behavior. Compared to the first and to the last generations of the Manuals, this study contributes to link re-use and territorial strategy, and confirm the necessity to study and rehabilitate the single building as a part of a network. Thus the work is also supported by a GIS referentiation and by a territorial catalogation of properties and current uses.Until the first half of the last century, have departed from the plateau Rascino and from the mountains Duchessa, flocks of sheeps owned by a few wealthy families. Such activity has a long history and a vast territory, which also includes other plateaus, among which the Aquilente. The paper exposes the first campaign of catalogation, surveys, energy modelling, and constructive analysis, of the many ancient farmhouses located in the country. They have been used during the good seasons, for the recovery of the animals, and to permit high altitude farming in the plateaus. They represent simple architectures for a complex landscape and the investigations confirmed the presence of ancient techniques, related to the local material, and to the history of construction of the furthest reaches of the kingdom of Naples. The strategy is based on the institution of a Rural Pastoral Park, and the objective of the manual is to contribute to the atlases of ancient construction techniques and to offer tools for improving the buildings energy behavior. Compared to the first and to the last generations of the Manuals, this study contributes to link re-use and territorial strategy, and confirm the necessity to study and rehabilitate the single building as a part of a network. Thus the work is also supported by a GIS referentiation and by a territorial catalogation of properties and current uses

In vitro photostability and photoprotection studies of a novel 'multi-active' UV-absorber.

This paper reports on the synthesis and properties of a new UV-absorber (OC-NO) based on the most popular UV filter worldwide, ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate (OMC) in which the methoxy group has been replaced with a pyrrolidine nitroxide bearing antioxidant activity. This sunscreen active has therefore both UV-absorbing and antioxidant properties which could ideally address both the UV-B and UV-A skin photo-damage. For broad-spectrum coverage, the combinations of OC-NO with two commonly used UV-A absorbers (BMDBM and DHHB) were also studied. The results obtained reveal that OC-NO: (a) is as photostable as OMC after UV-A exposure; (b) acts as free radical scavenger as demonstrated by EPR and chemical studies; (c) reduces UV-A and UV-A+BMDBM induced lipid peroxidation in liposomes and cells, measured as reduced TBARS levels and increased C11-BODIPY red fluorescence, respectively; (d) has comparable antioxidant activity to that of vitamin E and BHT commonly used in skin care formulations; (e) is non-cytotoxic to human skin fibroblasts as assessed with the MTT assay when exposed to increasing doses of UV-A; and (f) OC-NO+DHHB is a promising, photostable broad spectrum UV-filter combination that concomitantly reduces UV-induced free radical damage. These results suggest that nitroxide/antioxidant-based UV-absorbers may pave the way for the utilization of 'multi-active' ingredients in sunscreens thereby reducing the number of ingredients in these formulations

Machine learning and design of experiments with an application to product innovation in the chemical industry

Industrial statistics plays a major role in the areas of both quality management and innovation. However, existing methodologies must be integrated with the latest tools from the field of Artificial Intelligence. To this end, a background on the joint application of Design of Experiments (DOE) and Machine Learning (ML) methodologies in industrial settings is presented here, along with a case study from the chemical industry. A DOE study is used to collect data, and two ML models are applied to predict responses which performance show an advantage over the traditional modeling approach. Emphasis is placed on causal investigation and quantification of prediction uncertainty, as these are crucial for an assessment of the goodness and robustness of the models developed. Within the scope of the case study, the models learned can be implemented in a semi-automatic system that can assist practitioners who are inexperienced in data analysis in the process of new product development

New Antimicrobials Targeting Bacterial RNA Polymerase Holoenzyme Assembly Identified with an in Vivo BRET-Based Discovery Platform

Bacterial resistance represents a major health threat worldwide, and the development of new therapeutics, including innovative antibiotics, is urgently needed. We describe a discovery platform, centered on in silico screening and in vivo bioluminescence resonance energy transfer in yeast cells, for the identification of new antimicrobials that, by targeting the protein-protein interaction between the β'-subunit and the initiation factor σ70 of bacterial RNA polymerase, inhibit holoenzyme assembly and promoter-specific transcription. Out of 34 000 candidate compounds, we identified seven hits capable of interfering with this interaction. Two derivatives of one of these hits proved to be effective in inhibiting transcription in vitro and growth of the Gram-positive pathogens Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes. Upon supplementation of a permeability adjuvant, one derivative also effectively inhibited Escherichia coli growth. On the basis of the chemical structures of these inhibitors, we generated a ligand-based pharmacophore model that will guide the rational discovery of increasingly effective antibacterial agents

Consumo di suolo, dinamiche territoriali e servizi ecosistemici

Il Rapporto “Consumo di suolo, dinamiche territoriali e servizi ecosistemici” è un prodotto del Sistema Nazionale per la Protezione dell’Ambiente (SNPA), che assicura le attività di monitoraggio del territorio e del consumo di suolo. Il Rapporto, insieme alla cartografia e alle banche dati di indicatori allegati, fornisce il quadro aggiornato dei processi di trasformazione della copertura del suolo e permette di valutare l’impatto del consumo di suolo sul paesaggio e sui servizi ecosistemici