Recent Advances in Endocrine Disrupting Compounds Degradation through Metal Oxide-Based Nanomaterials

Endocrine Disrupting Compounds (EDCs) comprise a class of natural or synthetic molecules and groups of substances which are considered as emerging contaminants due to their toxicity and danger for the ecosystems, including human health. Nowadays, the presence of EDCs in water and wastewater has become a global problem, which is challenging the scientific community to address the development and application of effective strategies for their removal from the environment. Particularly, catalytic and photocatalytic degradation processes employing nanostructured materials based on metal oxides, mainly acting through the generation of reactive oxygen species, are widely explored to eradicate EDCs from water. In this review, we report the recent advances described by the major publications in recent years and focused on the degradation processes of several classes of EDCs, such as plastic components and additives, agricultural chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products, which were realized by using novel metal oxide-based nanomaterials. A variety of doped, hybrid, composite and heterostructured semiconductors were reported, whose performances are influenced by their chemical, structural as well as morphological features. Along with photocatalysis, alternative heterogeneous advanced oxidation processes are in development, and their combination may be a promising way toward industrial scale application

Manycore processing of repeated range queries over massive moving objects observations

The ability to timely process significant amounts of continuously updated spatial data is mandatory for an increasing number of applications. Parallelism enables such applications to face this data-intensive challenge and allows the devised systems to feature low latency and high scalability. In this paper we focus on a specific data-intensive problem, concerning the repeated processing of huge amounts of range queries over massive sets of moving objects, where the spatial extents of queries and objects are continuously modified over time. To tackle this problem and significantly accelerate query processing we devise a hybrid CPU/GPU pipeline that compresses data output and save query processing work. The devised system relies on an ad-hoc spatial index leading to a problem decomposition that results in a set of independent data-parallel tasks. The index is based on a point-region quadtree space decomposition and allows to tackle effectively a broad range of spatial object distributions, even those very skewed. Also, to deal with the architectural peculiarities and limitations of the GPUs, we adopt non-trivial GPU data structures that avoid the need of locked memory accesses and favour coalesced memory accesses, thus enhancing the overall memory throughput. To the best of our knowledge this is the first work that exploits GPUs to efficiently solve repeated range queries over massive sets of continuously moving objects, characterized by highly skewed spatial distributions. In comparison with state-of-the-art CPU-based implementations, our method highlights significant speedups in the order of 14x-20x, depending on the datasets, even when considering very cheap GPUs

Extraordinary blowing snow transport events in East Antarctica

In the convergence slope/coastal areas of Antarctica, a large fraction of snow is continuously eroded and exported by wind to the atmosphere and into the ocean. Snow transport observations from instruments and satellite images were acquired at the wind convergence zone of Terra Nova Bay (East Antarctica) throughout 2006 and 2007. Snow transport features are well-distinguished in satellite images and can extend vertically up to 200 m as first-order quantitatively estimated by driftometer sensor FlowCapt™. Maximum snow transportation occurs in the fall and winter seasons. Snow transportation (drift/blowing) was recorded for ~80% of the time, and 20% of time recorded, the flux is >10-2 kg m-2 s-1 with particle density increasing with height. Cumulative snow transportation is ~4 orders of magnitude higher than snow precipitation at the site. An increase in wind speed and transportation (~30%) was observed in 2007, which is in agreement with a reduction in observed snow accumulation. Extensive presence of ablation surface (blue ice and wind crust) upwind and downwind of the measurement site suggest that the combine processes of blowing snow sublimation and snow transport remove up to 50% of the precipitation in the coastal and slope convergence area. These phenomena represent a major negative effect on the snow accumulation, and they are not sufficiently taken into account in studies of surface mass balance. The observed wind-driven ablation explains the inconsistency between atmospheric model precipitation and measured snow accumulation value. © 2009 The Author(s)

LIFE GOAST Green Organic Agents for Sustainable Tanneries (LIFE16 ENV/IT/000416)

Content: Leather manufacturing is classified as water, energy and waste intensive by the Industrial Emissions Directive (2010/75/EU). Tannery effluents, if not properly treated, cause significant damage to soil and water bodies. Over 85% of world leather production involves the traditional chrome tanning process (TCTP). The use of chrome (Cr) in the industrial processing of animal hides poses serious environmental and health problems due to the use of hazardous chemicals, the production of solid/liquid waste and air emissions. LIFE GOAST aims at demonstrating the benefits of a new tanning technology on a semi-industrial scale; the project started on July 2017 and is an ongoing investigation, and involves the competences of three direct actors in the leather industry such as GSC Group spa as chemical supplier, Conceria Pasubio as tannery and Mediochiampo as waste-water treatment agency, in conjunction with the expertise of Università di Venezia, thus forming together a model of leather industry. The technical feasibility of LIFE GOAST implementation, as well as its social and economic impact, have been monitored and compared with the TCTP in order to demonstrate the reduced environmental impacts of the new process, while producing comparable or better quality leather. The LIFE GOAST team demonstrated that it was possible to treat collagen with the GOAST technology to give stabilised collagen to be used in the leather industry. A series of leather swatches were realised in accordance with the new protocol in order to obtain preliminary information on chemical oxygen demand COD of the effluents and technical feasibility of the process. The results were remarkable: COD values were lower than TCTP and it was possible to obtain soft and firm grain leather despite a shrinkage temperature lower than chromium process. However, these preliminary results allowed to process bigger pieces of leather (quarter, half and entire) to demonstrate that the technology was reproducible and in line with the small trials. The investigation is still ongoing and the team is fully committed to focus on the objectives of the project. Take-Away: Novel and alternative tanning systems to traditional chrome tanning

Lockdown: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected the Fishing Activities in the Adriatic Sea (Central Mediterranean Sea)

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought a global socio-economic crisis to almost all sectors including the fishery. To limit the infection, governments adopted several containment measures. In Italy, Croatia, and Slovenia, a lockdown period was imposed from March to May 2020, during which many activities, including restaurants had to close or limit their business. All of this caused a strong reduction in seafood requests and consequently, a decrease in fishing activities. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 in the Northern and Central Adriatic fleet, by comparing the fishing activities in three periods (before, during, and after the lockdown) of 2019 and 2020. The use of the Automatic Identification System(AIS) data allowed us to highlight the redistribution of the fishing grounds of the trawlers, mainly located near the coasts during the 2020 lockdown period, as well as a reduction of about 50% of fishing effort. This reduction resulted higher for the Chioggia trawlers (−80%) and, in terms of fishing effort decrease, the large bottom otter trawl was the fishing segment mainly affected by the COVID-19 event. Moreover, by analysing the landings of the Chioggia fleet and the Venice lagoon fleets, it was possible to point out a strong reduction both in landings and profits ranging from −30%, for the small-scale fishery operating at sea, to −85%, for the small bottom otter trawl

Annurca apple (M. pumila Miller cv Annurca) extracts act against stress and ageing in S. cerevisiae yeast cells

During the past years, a number of studies have demonstrated the positive effect of apple on ageing and different diseases such as cancer, degenerative and cardiovascular diseases. The unicellular yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae represents a simple eukaryotic model to study the effects of different compounds on lifespan. We previously demonstrated that apple extracts have anti-ageing effects in this organism because of their antioxidant properties. In particular, the effect is related to the presence in this fruit of polyphenols, which give a large contribution to the antioxidant activity of apples

UAV-mounted Ground Penetrating Radar: an example for the stability analysis of a mountain rock debris slope

This paper describes scientific research conducted to highlight the potential of an integrated GPR-UAV system in engineering-geological applications. The analysis focused on the stability of a natural scree slope in the Germanasca Valley, in the western Italian Alps. As a consequence of its steep shape and the related geological hazard, the study used different remote sensed methodologies such as UAV photogrammetry and geophysics survey by a GPR-drone integrated system. Furthermore, conventional in-situ surveys led to the collection of geological and geomorphological data. The use of the UAV-mounted GPR allowed us to investigate the bedrock depth under the detrital slope deposit, using a non-invasive technique able to conduct surveys on inaccessible areas prone to hazardous conditions for operators. The collected evidence and the results of the analysis highlighted the stability of the slope with Factors of Safety, verified in static conditions (i.e., natural static condition and static condition with snow cover), slightly above the stability limit value of 1. On the contrary, the dynamic loading conditions (i.e., seismic action applied) showed a Factor of Safety below the stability limit value. The UAV-mounted GPR represented an essential contribution to the surveys allowing the definition of the interface debris deposit-bedrock, which are useful to design the slope model and to evaluate the scree slope stability in different conditions

Colonising nationalism : Zionist political discourse 1845-1948

This thesis traces the emergence of the Zionist political movement from the mid nineteenth century until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The thesis explores the impetus behind the mainstream political movement which led to the establishment of the State, throwing light on the kaleidoscope of spiritual and political Zionisms. However, the ultimate focus is on the statist form of Zionist ideology which marginalised other forms of Zionism rendering them historical curiosities devoid of meaningful political impact. I analyse the texts of some prominent Zionist ideologues through the theoretical framework of nationalist, colonial and post-colonial theories forging the concept of colonial nationalism to interpret and analyse Zionism. I limit my work to Zionist political texts and their anchor in the surrounding milieu of European nationalism and colonialism in the 19th century. The chapters deal with different trends within the then emergent movement from spiritual Zionism and the religious justification of political Zionism through liberal and bi-national Zionisms. Each chapter engages with Zionist political thought offering textual analysis and historical contextualisation of the major forms of the movement. I argue that at its inception, Zionism was anchored in European ethno-nationalism and colonialism and a modern and highly contingent interpretation of the Hebrew biblical traditions. As such it is rendered a reactionary and regressive form of ethno-nationalist colonialism that, as an ideology in the contemporary world, it can only survive when it is premised on ideas of cultural supremacy. Thus post-Zionism with its espousal of a multiplicity of narratives and valorisation of minority rights is, rather than forging a new de-territorialized identity, a return to a model of diasporic Jewish identity where a common cultural heritage is disparate from citizenship and nationality.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo