Dry grasslands of Hippocrepido glaucae-Stipion austroitalicae in the Pollino Massif (Calabria, Italy)

Rocky pastures dominated by Stipa austroitalica in the south-east of Italy were classified within an endemic alliance, Hippocrepido glaucae-Stipion austroitalicae, originally assigned to a Balkan order (Scorzoneretalia villosae). Actually, the distribution area of S. austroitalica extends further westwards and large patches are found on the south-east side of the Pollino Massif. This study aims to describe and characterise the plant communities dominated by S. austroitalica in this area and analyse their floristic and chorological relationships with other associations of Hippocrepido-Stipion. Moreover, their syntaxonomy is discussed in the context of the Italian and south European dry grasslands biogeography. The grasslands were studied on the basis of 19 phytosociological relevés. A larger data set, including 185 relevés with S. austroitalica, was used to visualise the relationships among the associations through nonmetric multi-dimensional scaling ordination. The results allowed the description of a new association, Bupleuro gussonei-Stipetum austroitalicae, classifi ed within Hippocrepido-Stipion. As a consequence, the alliance synrange was extended up to the Pollino Massif. The Hip pocrepido-Stipion, together with Cytiso spinescentis-Bromion erecti, was arranged in Euphorbietalia myrsinitidis, an endemic order of the Italian peninsula. The proposed scheme upgrades the syntaxonomy and nomenclature of the dry grasslands vegetation of central and southern Italy

Digital Innovation Hubs Proposing Digital Platforms to Lead the SMEs Digital Transition

DIHs could offer a marketplace and play the role of a broker facilitating cooperation and networking among important stakeholders, harmonizing companies with customers and providing European connections as well. In this framework, DIHs express an increasing need for having platforms bolstering users-producers transactions, fostering to detect what is needed, by grouping a large variety of services and goods together. This paper presents the main platforms grounded on the D-BEST reference model developed by different networks of DIHs. The main characteristics of each of them have been detected and the differences among them unveiled

Stochastic system dynamics modelling for climate change water scarcity assessment of a reservoir in the Italian Alps

Water management in mountain regions is facing multiple pressures due to climate change and anthropogenic activities. This is particularly relevant for mountain areas where water abundance in the past allowed for many anthropogenic activities, exposing them to future water scarcity. Here stochastic system dynamics modelling (SDM) was implemented to explore water scarcity conditions affecting the stored water and turbined outflows in the Santa Giustina (S. Giustina) reservoir (Autonomous Province of Trento, Italy). The analysis relies on a model chain integrating outputs from climate change simulations into a hydrological model, the output of which was used to test and select statistical models in an SDM for replicating turbined water and stored volume within the S. Giustina dam reservoir. The study aims at simulating future conditions of the S. Giustina reservoir in terms of outflow and volume as well as implementing a set of metrics to analyse volume extreme conditions.Average results on 30-year slices of simulations show that even under the short-term RCP4.5 scenario (2021-2050) future reductions for stored volume and turbined outflow are expected to be severe compared to the 14-year baseline (1999-2004 and 2009-2016; -24.9 % of turbined outflow and -19.9 % of stored volume). Similar reductions are expected also for the long-term RCP8.5 scenario (2041-2070; -26.2 % of turbined outflow and -20.8 % of stored volume), mainly driven by the projected precipitations having a similar but lower trend especially in the last part of the 2041-2070 period. At a monthly level, stored volume and turbined outflow are expected to increase for December to March (outflow only), January to April (volume only) depending on scenarios and up to +32.5 % of stored volume in March for RCP8.5 for 2021-2050. Reductions are persistently occurring for the rest of the year from April to November for turbined outflows (down to -56.3 % in August) and from May to December for stored volume (down to -44.1 % in June). Metrics of frequency, duration and severity of future stored volume values suggest a general increase in terms of low volume below the 10th and 20th percentiles and a decrease of high-volume conditions above the 80th and 90th percentiles. These results point at higher percentage increases in frequency and severity for values below the 10th percentile, while volume values below the 20th percentile are expected to last longer. Above the 90th percentile, values are expected to be less frequent than baseline conditions, while showing smaller severity reductions compared to values above the 80th percentile. These results call for the adoption of adaptation strategies focusing on water demand reductions. Months of expected increases in water availability should be considered periods for water accumulation while preparing for potential persistent reductions of stored water and turbined outflows. This study provides results and methodological insights that can be used for future SDM upscaling to integrate different strategic mountain socio-economic sectors (e.g. hydropower, agriculture and tourism) and prepare for potential multi-risk conditions

Using the D-BEST Reference Model to Compare Italian and Polish Digital Innovation Hubs

In recent years, the increasing importance of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) in supporting manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has been widely studied and several works listing lessons learnt and success stories have been published. To further foster the impact of these entities on the SMEs’ environment, The European Commission has recently introduced the Smart Specialisation Platform, which contains a web service returning to its users a geo-distributed list of DIHs, allowing the user also to cluster and visualise them according to some pre-defined filters, such as the types of technologies employed. The data provided by this platform has been downloaded and a secondary data analysis, based on the websites of the DIHs has been carried on to frame the single DIHs according to the axes of the D-BEST methodology. A comparative analysis with respect to the Italian and Poland situation completes the study, to understand eventual differences and affinities among the two countries

Industry 4.0 Driven Result-oriented PSS: An Assessment in the Energy Management

Sustainability is a current challenge and all sectors, including the buildings one, are being called upon to provide a solution to mitigate climate change. The state of the art of energy management using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) technology in building systems industry is characterized by a traditional monitoring approach which could assess the energy consumption of the building but that cannot manage and act the required action to improve the energy management according to a demand side approach. The aim of this paper is to overcome this traditional monitoring approach, presenting Simon, a new model proposed by Evogy, enabling a result-oriented product service system (PSS) for buildings through cyber physical systems, artificial intelligence, and internet of things adoption. The main findings highlight the benefits associated with the Simon model by virtue of digital-based predictive maintenance on the real system. In addition, its adoption allows the PSS provider to aggregate energy demand from the plethora of buildings and, according to digital technologies, not only monitor consumption but also implement equipment. Finally, the application case highlights the benefits are different and thus stands as a best practice for combining sustainability and digitization

Residual stress of as-deposited and rolled Wire + Arc Additive Manufacturing Ti–6Al–4V components

Wire + arc additive manufacturing components contain significant residual stresses, which manifest in distortion. High-pressure rolling was applied to each layer of a linear Ti–6Al–4V wire + arc additive manufacturing component in between deposition passes. In rolled specimens, out-of-plane distortion was more than halved; a change in the deposits' geometry due to plastic deformation was observed and process repeatability was increased. The Contour method of residual stresses measurements showed that although the specimens still exhibited tensile stresses (up to 500 MPa), their magnitude was reduced by 60%, particularly at the interface between deposit and substrate. The results were validated with neutron diffraction measurements, which were in good agreement away from the baseplate

Letter to the editor

A response to Dango S, Lin R, Hennings E, Passlick B. Initial experience with a synthetic sealant PleuraSeal™ after pulmonary resections: a prospective study with retrospective case matched controls. Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery 2010, 5:50

Food industry digitalization: from challenges and trends to opportunities and solutions

Over the last years, manufacturing companies have to face several challenges, mainly related to the volatility of the demand and to the continuously changing requirements, both from the customers and suppliers. In the meantime, new technological roadmaps and suggested interventions in manufacturing systems have been implemented. These solutions aim to exploit the high innovation and economic potential resulting from the continuing impact of rapidly advancing information and communication technology (ICT) in industry. This paper explores these topics focusing on the food sector. Indeed, companies belonging to this industry are facing global challenges, which can be met with the support of the information technologies (IT). The overall goal of this study is to help food companies toward digitalization, with a particular focus on the design and manufacturing processes. From the methodological point of view, Case Study has been used as research method. Furthermore, a questionnaire characterized by the different elements of the Manufacturing Value Modelling Methodology (MVMM) has been developed and used to gather information from companies. A framework for the digitalization process in the food industry has been developed basing on the results of a preliminary literature review and of different focus groups. On completion of the aforementioned framework, a list of enabling technologies has been discussed. These represent the technological solutions for the specific food issues highlighted by the framework. Finally, a case study has been accomplished in order to test and validate the contents\u2019 framework

In vitro fermentation of ten cultivars of barley silage.

The fermentation characteristics of whole-crop barley silages from ten different cultivars were evaluated by the in vitro gas production technique. The organic matter degradability of barley silage (62.9% in average) was comparable to those reported in our previous trials for oat (59.7%) and sorghum silages (65.5%); while the maximum gas production rate (5.38 ml/h in average) was slightly lower respect to oat (6.71 ml/h) and sorghum silage (6.74 ml/h). The mean nutritive value (4.00 MJ/kg DM) calculated on the basis of both chemical composition and in vitro fermentation data was comparable to that (4.16 MJ/kg DM) obtained in our previous research performed on corn silage, from crop sowed in the same area