Product-service Systems and Sustainability: Opportunities for Sustainable Solutions

Given that the concept of PSS is beginning to 'catch on' and gain attention, it is time for UNEP to contribute to, and influence the progress of PSS, to ensure that in concept and application it incorporates the idea of sustainability. In this context its potential is not generally understood by the public and private sectors or civil society. This booklet is intended to contribute to the dissemination and the discussion of the PSS concept as a promising approach to sustainability. The ultimate goal must be to achieve Sustainable Product-Service Systems. This UNEP publication is targeted at industry and government, academia and civil society to explain PSS – their potential benefits and limitations – in the sustainability context – using real company examples. To prepare this booklet, UNEP has drawn on the knowledge and experience of PSS experts to flesh out the concept of a sustainable PSS, to collect case studies of PSS in practice, to begin to document both its benefits and the hurdles which need to be overcome in its application, and to suggest ways forward in its development

PHARMACOLOGICAL MODULATION OF LACTATE LEVELS AFFECTS THE FORMATION OF LONG-TERM MEMORY AND THE STRUCTURE OF EXCITATORY SYNAPSES IN MICE HIPPOCAMPUS

The block of glycogenolysis in the rat hippocampus impairs memory while L-lactate (but not equicaloric concentrations of glucose) rescues amnesia, suggesting that the metabolic coupling between astrocytes and neurons via lactate is required for long-term memory formation. The inactivation of glycogen metabolism and the consequent decrease of lactate production in hippocampal astrocytes leads to an impairment of long-term memory and defects in long-term potentiation (LTP). Since it has been demonstrated that LTP defects are associated with alterations in dendritic spines morphology and density, we studied whether anatomical differences in hippocampal excitatory synapses were related to defects in long-term memory in mice treated with the inhibitor of glycogen phosphorylase, 1,4-dideoxy-1,4-imino-D-arabinitol (DAB), and if these defects were rescued by L-lactate administration. We first tested the effects associated to DAB administration on long-term memory using the passive avoidance (PA) task, a fear-aggravated test used to evaluate learning and memory in rodents. DAB was injected 15 minutes before training and long-term memory was tested 24 hours after the administration of the drug. The analysis of the PA test shows that DAB did not affect long-term memory. We then performed the novel object recognition (NOR) test to study intermediate- and long-term episodic memory after DAB injection into the hippocampus and here we showed that this treatment affected both intermediate- and long-term episodic memory, in a dose dependent manner. We performed low resolution analyses of spine density in apical dendrites from CA1 pyramidal neurons by means of the Golgi-Cox staining technique, 24 hours after training of mice treated with DAB and challenged with both PA and NOR tasks, to determine whether behavioural impairments are paralleled by defects on dendritic spine density. Our data demonstrated that 24 hours after treatment with DAB and following memory training, hippocampal neurons showed a marked reduction in dendritic spine density if compared to that of mice injected with vehicle, regardless of the memory paradigm used. To evaluate if this defect in spine density was associated to ultrastructural defects in hippocampal excitatory synapses, we performed a morphometric analysis on 2D transmission electron microscopy projections. These analyses highlighted a significant reduction of vesicle density in synapses of mice treated with DAB and an unvaried pre-synaptic surface. Interestingly, despite the effect of DAB on spine density, the post-synaptic density (PSD) architecture is unaffected as length and thickness were the same in animals treated with vehicle or DAB. We then analysed the astrocyte-neuron lactate shuttle\u2019s role on the 3D architecture of excitatory synapses and mitochondria as a consequence of DAB administration. These data confirmed the observations obtained with the Golgi and the 2D analyses: the density of the dendritic spines was reduced and the PSD volume remained unvaried in mice treated with DAB. Altered brain metabolism is associated with changes in mitochondria dynamic cycles of fission and fusion. The remodelling of mitochondrial cristae and mitochondrial morphology are sensitive to the energetic demand of the cell, and they directly affects the development and maintenance of synapses. We analysed the mitochondrial structure in order to see whether the block of glycogen metabolism in astrocytes could affect the architecture of these organelles in neurons. We observed a significant change in dendritic mitochondria number, shape, and volume in DAB treated mice. Compared to uniformly compact and well-separated mitochondria in the hippocampi of mice treated with vehicle, DAB-treated neurons exhibited elongated mitochondria, in which two or more units were interconnected by tubular membrane extensions. Dendritic mitochondria in DAB treated mice were longer, reduced in number and bigger compared to dendritic mitochondria of mice treated with vehicle, suggesting that the alteration of glycogen metabolism induced by DAB could be the basis of mitochondria dynamics changes. L-lactate, was administered to investigate its ability to revert the DAB-induced memory impairment. Co-injection of DAB and L-lactate was able to revert the memory impairment induced by DAB, 24 hours after NOR training. Besides behavioural rescue, the Golgi-Cox staining showed that in mice treated with DAB and L-lactate there was a rescue of spine density in apical dendrites of CA1 pyramidal neurons, bringing back its value to that of mice treated with vehicle. Focusing our attention on the ultrastructure of excitatory synapses, we measured the pre-synaptic surface and vesicle density of these samples and we showed that the vesicle density was comparable to that found in the synapses of mice treated only with DAB. Our results suggest that, bilateral hippocampal injection of DAB caused an impairment of long-term memory formation 24 hours after NOR test. This behavioural alteration was accompanied by a strong morphological alteration of excitatory hippocampal synapses and dendritic mitochondria. L-lactate is able to rescue the behavioural phenotype, the reduction in spine density and the morphological alterations of dendritic mitochondria induced by this drug, but not the pre-synaptic effect induced by DAB on excitatory hippocampal synapses

Effect of charging on CdSe/CdS dot-in-rods single-photon emission

The photon statistics of CdSe/CdS dot-in-rods nanocrystals is studied with a method involving post-selection of the photon detection events based on the photoluminescence count rate. We show that flickering between two states needs to be taken into account to interpret the single-photon emission properties. With post-selection we are able to identify two emitting states: the exciton and the charged exciton (trion), characterized by different lifetimes and different second order correlation functions. Measurements of the second order autocorrelation function at zero delay with post- selection shows a degradation of the single photon emission for CdSe/CdS dot-in-rods in a charged state that we explain by deriving the neutral and charged biexciton quantum yields.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

A simple blood tests, such as complete blood count, can predict calcification grade of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm.

Objective. The pathogenesis of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is complex and different factors, including calcification, are linked to increased complications. This study was conducted in order to verify if classical risk factors for AAA and cell blood count parameter could help in the identification of calcification progression of the aneurysm. Design. Risk factors were collected and cell blood count was performed in patients with AAA and patients were analyzed for the presence of aorta calcification using CT angiography. Results. We found no association of calcification grade with risk factors for AAA but we found a strong association between MCV, MCH, and calcification grade. Instead, no association was found with the other parameter that we analyzed. Conclusions. In this study, we demonstrate that biomarkers such as MCV and MCH could have potential important information about AAA calcification progression and could be useful to discriminate between those patients that should undergo a rapid imaging, thus allowing prompt initiation of treatment of suspicious patients that do not need imaging repetition

Photon correlations for colloidal nanocrystals and their clusters

Images of semiconductor `dot in rods' and their small clusters are studied by measuring the second-order correlation function with a spatially resolving ICCD camera. This measurement allows one to distinguish between a single dot and a cluster and, to a certain extent, to estimate the number of dots in a cluster. A more advanced measurement is proposed, based on higher-order correlations, enabling more accurate determination of the number of dots in a small cluster. Nonclassical features of the light emitted by such a cluster are analyzed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Acoustic quality of auditoria: Relationship between acoustical energy parameters and subjective perception

The acoustic design auditoria is founded on objective acoustic parameters determined on the basis of the computed or measured impulse response. Such objective parameters are related on the average response of the human ear to transient sounds, without considering the subjective perception of the individual, which, in turn, is related also to social and education aspects. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between individual sound perceptions and energy parameters. In detail, a questionnaire has been submitted to a sample of people listening to tracks of different musical genres. The questionnaire has been conceived to come up with a classification model for the audience allowing to express the listener's experience according to different indicators, such as overall acoustic quality and overall acoustic experience. Results of this experiment are analyzed by means of Random Forest non-parametric model belonging to the data mining algorithms. The final purpose of the study is to define which physical and acoustical characteristics are the most suitable to represent the subjective perceptions of the listeners

cetuximab induced acneiform eruption and the response to isotretinoin

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Textile sustainability: reuse of clean waste from the textile and apparel industry

Today societies are already experiencing changes in their production systems and even consumption in order to guarantee the survival and well-being of future generations. This fact emerges from the need to adopt a more sustainable posture in both people's daily lives and productive systems. Within this context, textile sustainability emerges as the object of study of this work whose aim is to analyse which sustainability dimensions are being prioritized by the clean waste management systems of the textile and garment industries. This article aims to analyse solutions that are being proposed by sustainable creative business models in the reuse of discarded fabrics by the textile industry. Search also through a qualitative research by a case study (the Reuse Fabric Bank) understand the benefits generated by the re-use in environmental, economic, social and ways to add value.This work is supported by FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE and by national funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Texture Rendering Strategies with a High Fidelity - Capacitive Visual-Haptic Friction Control Device

International audienceUltrasonic vibrations of a plate can modify the perception of the friction between a surface and a sliding finger. This principle, coupled with modern position sensing techniques, is able to reproduce textured materials. In this paper , an open loop control through model inversion of the friction force between the finger and the plate is presented. The device incorporating the control system is described, and two different reproduction strategies are formalized to address the reproduction of objects and textures. In the end, a psychophysical experiment evaluating the two control strategies is described

Saturable time-varying mirror based on an epsilon-near-zero material

We report a switchable time-varying mirror, composed of an indium-tin-oxide–gold bilayer, displaying a tenfold modulation of reflectivity (ΔR≈0.6), which saturates for a driving-pump intensity Ipump≈100GW/cm2. Upon interacting with the saturated time-varying mirror, the frequency content of a reflected pulse is extended up to 31 THz, well beyond the pump spectral content (2.8 THz). We interpret the spectral broadening as a progressive shortening of the mirror rise time from 110 fs to below 30 fs with increasing pump power, which is confirmed by four-wave-mixing experiments and partially captured by a linear time-varying model of the mirror. A temporal response unbounded by the pump bandwidth enables applications for spectral manipulation from time-varying systems with impact for communication networks, optical switching, and computing