8,625 research outputs found
Industrial sustainability: Modelling drivers and mechanisms with barriers
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Sustainability's relevance is constantly increasing among industrial decision makers, policy-makers and scholars. To improve sustainability performance, firms must adopt industrial sustainability measures. These have been proven to positively impact on overall firm's performance, but their rate of adoption is still low, and barriers to their adoption need to be properly tackled by drivers. This work is based on a review of literature on drivers to sustainability and to the areas of occupational health and safety, eco efficiency, and energy efficiency, and contributes to industrial sustainability research presenting a novel framework of drivers. The framework comprehends a model of drivers and a model of mechanisms: the former encompasses previous literature contributions and aims to characterize drivers for the adoption of measures in all areas of industrial sustainability; the latter aims to evaluate if a driver may tackle specific barrier or boost the action of another driver. We conducted a preliminary validation of the framework in nine Italian manufacturing firms. Regarding model of drivers, capacity to represent, usefulness and ease of use were evaluated; concerning model of mechanisms usefulness and ease of use were evaluated. Results seem to be sound with an overall positive evaluation of the framework by all the interviewees. Model of drivers was appreciated for its structure and completeness, and for its ability to enhance knowledge and awareness; model of mechanisms was considered useful for properly foster the adoption of a measure within the firm. The framework could be useful for industrial decision makers and policy-makers to better direct resources and efforts to foster the adoption of industrial sustainability measures
Near-arcsecond resolution observations of the hot corino of the solar type protostar IRAS 16293-2422
Complex organic molecules have previously been discovered in solar type
protostars, raising the questions of where and how they form in the envelope.
Possible formation mechanisms include grain mantle evaporation, interaction of
the outflow with its surroundings or the impact of UV/X-rays inside the
cavities. In this Letter we present the first interferometric observations of
two complex molecules, CH3CN and HCOOCH3, towards the solar type protostar
IRAS16293-2422. The images show that the emission originates from two compact
regions centered on the two components of the binary system. We discuss how
these results favor the grain mantle evaporation scenario and we investigate
the implications of these observations for the chemical composition and
physical and dynamical state of the two components.Comment: 5 pages (apjemulate), 2 figures; accepted by ApJ
Industrial sustainability performance measurement systems: A novel framework
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Improved sustainability of industrial activities and measurement of its performance are becoming prime topics of discussion among policy-makers and industrial decision-makers. The current literature proposes a number of performance measurement systems and related indicators, but mainly lacks a real capability to address all sustainability pillars and their intersections, as well as scalability to firms of different sizes, availability of internal resources, and maturity over sustainability issues, suggesting that further research is needed in this area. Building on the literature, our work develops a new framework for the evaluation of industrial sustainability performance, proposing three different Industrial Sustainability Performance Measurement Systems (ISPMSs), with a decreasing number of indicators suitable in different contexts of application. In the framework, selection mechanisms have been conceived and used to reduce the number of indicators considered, while still guaranteeing complete and adequate coverage of all sustainability pillars, as well as their intersections. The framework has been tested through semi-structured case studies in heterogeneous Northern Italian manufacturing firms. The preliminary results are sound as the different ISPMSs proved to be complete, useful, and easy to use. The proposed ISPMSs provide industrial decision-makers with a scalable framework applicable in different contexts, allowing benchmarking and development of specific implementation strategies for increased sustainability, and provide policy-makers with a framework to develop a more effective regulatory policy, better understanding how sustainability performance can be addressed in an integrated manner across industrial firms
Relapse of atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome during pregnancy in a patient on eculizumab maintenance treatment: A case report
Objective: Rare disease Background: Atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS) is a genetic disorder with uncontrolled complement activation leading to systemic thrombotic microangiopathy; kidneys are almost invariably involved. Eculizumab has dramatically improved the prognosis of aHUS and affected women in the childbearing age are more likely to consider pregnancy, even if this could represent a risk for disease reactivation. Pregnancies in women with aHUS during Eculizumab treatment have been reported, with no cases of aHUS relapse. Case Report: We report the case of a female patient affected by aHUS with no specific gene mutations who had a pregnancyassociated aHUS relapse at 26-weeks of gestation during maintenance Eculizumab treatment. The patient developed stage II acute kidney injury and microangiopathic hemolytic anemia. Delivery by cesarean section at week 27, plasma exchange sessions and several supplemental Eculizumab administrations were required. After appropriate treatment, the patient partially recovered kidney function; the baby had a prolonged stay in the intensive care unit and showed no signs of neurologic damage. Conclusions: Previous reports indicated that pregnancy-related aHUS relapses were unlikely in women undergoing Eculizumab treatment. Based on our case, we suggest caution in counselling pregnancy in women with aHUS treated with Eculizumab, especially in the absence of pathogenic mutations in complement-regulating genes. Clinicians should be aware of possible aHUS relapse in pregnancy during Eculizumab treatment
Characterization of airborne viromes in cheese production plants
Aims
To characterize airborne virus like particles isolated from two cheese production plants in order to reveal their complexity in terms of viral communities and microbial genes potentially mobilized by viruses.
Methods and results
Airborne virus like particles have been isolated from Grana Padano and Gorgonzola PDO cheese production plants and ripening cellars. A shotgun metagenomics analysis of the isolated viromes highlighted a high complexity of the viral communities both in terms of viral taxonomy and phage\u2010host associations. Bacterial reads in each of the viromes were confirmed to be abundant and their taxonomy appeared to be associated to the environmental parameters and the technological processes that characterize the sampling area. Antibiotic resistance genes have been identified in each virome thus confirming that phages could be involved in the mobilization of antimicrobial resistances among bacterial populations. Interestingly human viruses were also identified even if the contamination source was not revealed.
Conclusions
The environmental conditions, which are imposed by the technology of the dairy process, seams to shape the viral populations as a consequence of the adaptation of microbial taxa to those environments. The identification of sequences belonging to Legionella pneumophila and to the human papillomavirus, raised some considerations about the safety of cheese ripening cellars.
Significance and impact of the study
In conclusion, the analysis of the dairy airborne viromes, has revealed a high complexity of the viral communities even if the environments where the samples were collected were confined environments. Metagenomics of airborne viral population could be a promising monitoring tool for the biological characterization of dairy environments
Electromagnetic dipole moments of charged baryons with bent crystals at the LHC
We propose a unique program of measurements of electric and magnetic dipole
moments of charm, beauty and strange charged baryons at the LHC, based on the
phenomenon of spin precession of channeled particles in bent crystals. Studies
of crystal channeling and spin precession of positively- and negatively-charged
particles are presented, along with feasibility studies and expected
sensitivities for the proposed experiment using a layout based on the LHCb
detector.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figure
The activation of non-linear optical response in Ag@ZnO nanocolloids under an external highly intense electric field
An extensive theoretical and experimental study of the non-linear optical properties of bare and silver-decorated zinc oxide (ZnO and Ag@ZnO) nanostructures, prepared by laser-generated plasmas in water and in water/polyvinyl alcohol
(PVA) solutions, is reported. The z-scan technique was used to monitor the activation of the non-linear optical mechanisms, focusing an intense laser radiation through the nanocolloids under study. A classical formalism was adopted to explain the z-scan data of these anisotropic materials and to describe the influence of radiation torque and forces on the optically activated nanostructures. This modelling approach includes effects of nanoparticles rearrangements, also taking into account plasmonic effects. An interesting coupling between the nature of the optical limiting response and the nanostructures reorganization under the high-power laser excitation, used during the z-scan measurements, was found and, for the first time to our knowledge, was explained using a classical theoretical approach
Un metodo per riconoscere faglie attive sepolte mediante misure areali di radon dal suolo
Lo studio riassume i risultati di una campagna
di misure geochimiche e strutturali
condotte nel 2004 (Neri et al., 2011) e
riguarda la misurazione delle emissioni
di gas radon e thoron dal suolo effettuate lungo
il fianco orientale dell’Etna, in una zona caratterizzata
dalla presenza di numerose faglie attive.
Le elaborazioni statistiche effettuate hanno
permesso di riconoscere soglie di anomalia
dei dati geochimici, nonché la produzione di
mappe di distribuzione che hanno evidenziato
una significativa correlazione spaziale tra le
anomalie riscontrate e i principali lineamenti
tettonici. Entrambe le anomalie di radon e
thoron si trovavano in aree interessate da sismicitĂ
relativamente profonda, in particolare
in corrispondenza delle zone di intersezione tra
faglie differentemente orientate. Questo studio
conferma che la mappatura della distribuzione
di gas radon e thoron dal suolo può rivelare la
presenza di faglie nascoste da coperture recenti,
o faglie che non sono chiaramente visibili
in superficie
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