Twenty-one almond samples from three different geographical origins (Sicily, Spain and California) were investigated by determining minerals and fatty acids compositions. Data were used to ...discriminate by chemometry almond origin by linear discriminant analysis. With respect to previous PCA profiling studies, this work provides a simpler analytical protocol for the identification of almonds geographical origin. Classification by using mineral contents data only was correct in 77% of the samples, while, by using fatty acid profiles, the percentages of samples correctly classified reached 82%. The coupling of mineral contents and fatty acid profiles lead to an increased efficiency of the classification with 87% of samples correctly classified.
Harnessing solar energy for the production of clean hydrogen by photoelectrochemical water splitting represents a very attractive, but challenging approach for sustainable energy generation. In this ...regard, the fabrication of Fe2O3–TiO2 photoanodes is reported, showing attractive performances ≈2.0 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode in 1 M NaOH under simulated one‐sun illumination. This goal, corresponding to a tenfold photoactivity enhancement with respect to bare Fe2O3, is achieved by atomic layer deposition of TiO2 over hematite (α‐Fe2O3) nanostructures fabricated by plasma enhanced‐chemical vapor deposition and final annealing at 650 °C. The adopted approach enables an intimate Fe2O3–TiO2 coupling, resulting in an electronic interplay at the Fe2O3/TiO2 interface. The reasons for the photocurrent enhancement determined by TiO2 overlayers with increasing thickness are unraveled by a detailed chemico‐physical investigation, as well as by the study of photogenerated charge carrier dynamics. Transient absorption spectroscopy shows that the increased photoelectrochemical response of heterostructured photoanodes compared to bare hematite is due to an enhanced separation of photogenerated charge carriers and more favorable hole dynamics for water oxidation. The stable responses obtained even in simulated seawater provides a feasible route in view of the eventual large‐scale generation of renewable energy.
The performances of ≈2.0 mA cm−2 photocurrent at 1.23 V vs. RHE under simulated solar irradiation, along with the system activity even in seawater, pave the way to the sustainable generation of renewable energy starting from abundant natural resources.
HPLC separation of flavonoids and furocoumarins in the crude juices of three cultivars of Citrus bergamia Risso (“Castagnaro”, “Fantastico”, and “Femminello”) was carried out on a C18 reversed phase ...column. The analysis was performed in a single run using a DAD detector coupled with an ESI-MS-MS source. Two furocoumarins (bergapten and bergamottin) were detected and quantified simultaneously with the sixteen flavonoid components previously found in industrial bergamot juice. Full characterization of the furocoumarins was performed by 1H NMR analysis on samples separated by means of preparative HPLC. The free-radical scavenging ability of cultivar juices was assessed by using DPPH radical. The data presented show that the “Femminello” cultivar, even though it is the least common of the three, is by far the richest in health-promoting bioactive compounds (both flavonoids and furocoumarins). Given the range of applications of furocoumarins, the preparative separation described herein is proposed as a simple and rapid method to obtain this class of compounds in good yield from crude juice.
Title. Experiences of nurses working in a stroke rehabilitation unit.
Aim. This paper is a report of a study to explore the perceptions, beliefs and feelings of a group of nurses who provided care ...to individuals admitted to a stroke rehabilitation unit.
Background. Following a stroke, survivors should ideally be referred to multidisciplinary inpatient rehabilitation programmes, which attain better outcomes compared to the care provided on general medical wards. However, to achieve these outcomes, team members must work closely together. Communication problems have been reported in these teams, and other members may consider that nurses do not practise functional activities with patients.
Methods. An interpretive phenomenological approach was adopted. Eight nurses in one Canadian stroke rehabilitation unit were interviewed during 2004–2005 about their experiences of providing care to stroke survivors.
Findings. The nurses enjoyed giving this type of care, feeling that their role was pivotal to the rehabilitation process. At times, they found it difficult to let patients struggle to complete their activities of daily living. The nurses felt that lack of resources, including time, contributed to stroke survivors being short‐changed in their rehabilitation nursing care. Despite holding strong views that others devalued their role within the stroke team, the nurses retained positive attitudes.
Conclusion. Stroke teams need to recognize the constraints nurses experience in fulfilling their stroke rehabilitation role in order to foster the collegial support that could contribute to a more interactive and respectful work environment. They also need to consider ways to increase the job satisfaction of nurses working in stroke rehabilitation settings.
Naturally occurring resistance-associated substitutions (RASs) can negatively impact the response to direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) agents-based therapies for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. ...Herein, we set out to characterize the RASs in the HCV1b genome from serum samples of DAA-naïve patients in the context of the SINERGIE (South Italian Network for Rational Guidelines and International Epidemiology, 2014) project. We deep-sequenced the NS3/4A protease region of the viral population using the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine, and patient-specific majority rule consensus sequence summaries were constructed with a combination of freely available next generation sequencing data analysis software. We detected NS3/4A protease major and minor variants associated with resistance to boceprevir (V36L), telaprevir (V36L, I132V), simeprevir (V36L), and grazoprevir (V36L, V170I). Furthermore, we sequenced part of HCV NS5B polymerase using Sanger-sequencing and detected a natural RAS for dasabuvir (C316N). This mutation could be important for treatment strategies in cases of previous therapy failure.
At present graphene is the most exciting star in the materials science but graphene oxide, GO, that is its low-cost precursor attracts researchers from various fields because it is very easily ...produced at low cost. GO is an electrical insulator than can be transformed into graphene through the 'reduction' process. The oxygen functional groups it contains can be removed by various ways, also using lasers, ion beams and the intercalation process. The intensive research on graphene has allowed the rediscovery of various graphite-like layered materials with composition other than carbon, but properties are not yet fully known and with interesting possible applications. Among them, manganese thiophosphate, MnPS
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, is a layered inorganic host matrix for making, through the intercalation-exfoliation-restacking technique, multi-functional hybrid thin films that can find application as optical switches, transparent coatings, in catalysis and photocatalysis, as lubricants, to create new multilayer structures, as dielectric substrates for graphene-based electronics and so on. If exfoliated at few layers, MnPS
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allows to realize good ultraviolet photodetectors with a gate tunable photoresponsivity and high photo gain. Recent progress in these graphene-like materials will be presented and discussed together with measurements based on the use of lasers, ion beams and intercalation emphasizing their potential applications.
The Italian government cyclically debates the critical issues related to property taxation, which for many years needs to be reformed due to the high fiscal inequality level that currently generates. ...This paper aims to analyze Italian fiscal inequality by exploring its spread within different urban zones of a city. A three-step methodological approach is proposed and applied to the city of Turin in the northern part of Italy. An extensive data sampling from 2021 real estate advertisements provides the basis for calculating cadastral values and four innovative fiscal inequality indicators. Descriptive statistics and spatial analyses are performed to study the relations between property prices and cadastral values, as well as to highlight the fiscal inequality level in relation to the real estate market. Findings show that current cadastral values are not related to property prices and that the fiscal inequality level is significant in most of the analyzed urban zones. These criticalities are due to a series of issues that confirm the urgency of the Italian Cadastre reform for its important consequences on property taxation. Particular attention is paid to the attribution, often incorrect, of the cadastral categories, and the possibility of redefining the property tax rates for calculating the IMU tax. Results, in fact, highlight that a random relationship between property tax rates and property prices exists and confirm that redistributive policies are necessary in the Italian context. The results of this research can be shared and discussed with the Agenzia delle Entrate and local authorities to be used to debate the territorial polarization between weak, degraded urban zones with limited services, and prestigious ones. The proposed methodological approach can be further developed and tested in other urban or rural contexts to really support local authorities to reduce the currently high fiscal inequality levels, the territorial and socio-economic injustices and to invest in new urban redevelopment strategies and thus foster territorial welfare. Il governo italiano affronta ciclicamente criticità legate alla tassazione immobiliare, che da tempo necessita di essere riformata a causa dell’elevato livello di iniquità fiscale che genera. Questo articolo ha l’obiettivo di analizzare l’iniquità fiscale italiana esplorando la sua diffusione all’interno delle diverse zone urbane della città di Torino, nel Nord Italia, assunta quale caso studio. Un approccio metodologico strutturato in tre fasi viene illustrato e applicato su un campione di dati di annunci immobiliari del 2021, costituito per l’analisi dei valori catastali e per il calcolo di quattro indicatori di iniquità fiscale innovativi. Sono proposte statistiche descrittive e analisi spaziali al fine di studiare le relazioni tra i prezzi immobiliari e i valori catastali, nonché per evidenziare il livello di iniquità fiscale in relazione al mercato immobiliare. I risultati mostrano che i valori catastali attuali non sono correlati ai prezzi degli immobili e che il livello di iniquità fiscale è significativo nella maggior parte delle zone urbane analizzate. Queste criticità sono dovute a una serie di questioni che confermano l’urgenza della riforma del Catasto italiano per le sue importanti conseguenze sulla tassazione immobiliare. In particolare, si evidenzia l’attribuzione, spesso scorretta, delle categorie catastali e la necessità di ridefinire le aliquote fiscali per il calcolo dell’IMU. I risultati, infatti, evidenziano l’esistenza di una relazione casuale tra le aliquote fiscali e i prezzi degli immobili e confermano la necessità di attuare politiche redistributive nel contesto italiano. I risultati di questa ricerca possono essere condivisi e discussi con l’Agenzia delle Entrate e le autorità locali per essere utilizzati nel dibattito sulla polarizzazione territoriale tra zone urbane deboli, degradate, con servizi limitati, e zone prestigiose, accessibili e attrattive. L’approccio metodologico proposto potrà essere ulteriormente sviluppato e testato in altri contesti urbani o rurali per sostenere davvero le autorità locali nella riduzione degli attuali elevati livelli di iniquità fiscale, delle ingiustizie territoriali e socio-economiche e per investire in nuove strategie di riqualificazione urbana e promuovere un maggiore welfare territoriale.
The design and fabrication of eco-friendly and cost-effective (photo)electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a key research goal for a proper management of water splitting to ...address the global energy crisis. In this work, we focus on the preparation of supported MnO$_2$/graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) OER (photo)electrocatalysts by means of a novel preparation strategy. The proposed route consists of the plasma enhanced-chemical vapor deposition (PE-CVD) of MnO$_2$nanoarchitectures on porous Ni scaffolds, the anchoring of controllable g-CN amounts by an amenable electrophoretic deposition (EPD) process, and the ultimate thermal treatment in air. The inherent method versatility and flexibility afforded defective MnO$_2$/g-CN nanoarchitectures, featuring a g-CN content and nano-organization tunable as a function of EPD duration and the used carbon nitride precursor. Such a modulation had a direct influence on OER functional performances, which, for the best composite system, corresponded to an overpotential of 430 mV at 10 mA/cm$^2$, a Tafel slope of ≈70 mV/dec, and a turnover frequency of 6.52 × 10$^{-3}$ s$^{-1}$, accompanied by a very good time stability. The present outcomes, comparing favorably with previous results on analogous systems, were rationalized on the basis of the formation of type-II MnO$_2$/g-CN heterojunctions, and yield valuable insights into this class of green (photo)electrocatalysts for end uses in solar-to-fuel conversion and water treatment
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