•Different energetic configuration for the incineration plant has been analyzed.•A multi-step approach was implementing.•The environmental and economic aspects has been examined.•In order to evaluate ...the proposed approach the Turin plant was analyzed.•The efficiency of the proposed approach has been demonstrated.
This study proposes a multi-step approach to evaluating the environmental and economic aspects of a thermal treatment plant with an energy-recovery configuration. In order to validate the proposed approach, the Turin incineration plant was analyzed, and the potential of the incinerator and several different possible connections to the district heating network were then considered. Both local and global environmental balances were defined. The global-scale results provided information on carbon dioxide emissions, while the local-scale results were used as reference values for the implementation of a Gaussian model that could evaluate the actual concentrations of pollutants released into the atmosphere. The economic aspects were then analyzed, and a correspondence between the environmental and economic advantages defined.
The results showed a high energy efficiency for the combined production of heat and electricity, and the opportunity to minimize environmental impacts by including cogeneration in a district heating scheme. This scheme showed an environmental advantage, whereas the electricity-only configuration showed an economic advantage. A change in the thermal energy price (specifically, to 40 €/MWh), however, would make it possible to obtain both environmental and economic advantages.
The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in governments implementing disease containment measures such as school closures, social distancing, and home quarantine. To date, only a few studies have drawn ...attention to the psychological impact of lockdown on Italian children's mental health. The present study aimed to investigate the psychological distress (anxiety and mood symptoms) and perceived changes in routine among Italian primary and middle school students during the COVID-19 quarantine.
This interview study was performed between the 18th of May and 7th of June 2020: it involved a sample of 82 children and adolescents living in Milan (Italy), attending primary and middle school (aged 6 to 14 years), and their parents.
Almost 30 % of the subjects reported having struggled to adjust to home learning. 36 responders completely changed their dietary habits during the lockdown: they were not eating the same amount of food and were consuming more junk food. Sleep habits were also affected by the lockdown measures: 28 % of the sample had difficulties sleeping and wished to sleep in their parents' bed. Concerning psychological distress, 64 (78 %) children and adolescents had anxiety symptoms; 43.9 % of the students reported significant mood symptoms.
Children are not indifferent to the dramatic impact of the COVID-19 epidemic: our data confirm their difficulties in adapting to the quarantine measures. The effects of stress exposure may not manifest later on during the children's development, and, for this reason, it would be interesting to follow up on these participants to improve our understanding of how long these outcomes may last.
Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the death of dopaminergic neurons and by accumulation of alpha-synuclein (aS) aggregates in the surviving neurons. The dopamine ...catabolite 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetaldehyde (DOPAL) is a highly reactive and toxic molecule that leads to aS oligomerization by covalent modifications to lysine residues. Here we show that DOPAL-induced aS oligomer formation in neurons is associated with damage of synaptic vesicles, and with alterations in the synaptic vesicles pools. To investigate the molecular mechanism that leads to synaptic impairment, we first aimed to characterize the biochemical and biophysical properties of the aS-DOPAL oligomers; heterogeneous ensembles of macromolecules able to permeabilise cholesterol-containing lipid membranes. aS-DOPAL oligomers can induce dopamine leak in an in vitro model of synaptic vesicles and in cellular models. The dopamine released, after conversion to DOPAL in the cytoplasm, could trigger a noxious cycle that further fuels the formation of aS-DOPAL oligomers, inducing neurodegeneration.
Multicellular organs are composed of distinct cell types with unique assemblages of translated mRNAs. Here, ribosome-associated mRNAs were immunopurified from specific cell populations of intact ...seedlings using Arabidopsis thaliana lines expressing a FLAG-epitope tagged ribosomal protein L18 (FLAG-RPL18) via developmentally regulated promoters. The profiling of mRNAs in ribosome complexes, referred to as the translatome, identified differentially expressed mRNAs in 21 cell populations defined by cell-specific expression of FLAG-RPL18. Phloem companion cells of the root and shoot had the most distinctive translatomes. When seedlings were exposed to a brief period of hypoxia, a pronounced reprioritization of mRNA enrichment in the cell-specific translatomes occurred, including a ubiquitous rise in 49 mRNAs encoding transcription factors, signaling proteins, anaerobic metabolism enzymes, and uncharacterized proteins. Translatome profiling also exposed an intricate molecular signature of transcription factor (TF) family member mRNAs that was markedly reconfigured by hypoxia at global and cell-specific levels. In addition to the demonstration of the complexity and plasticity of cell-specific populations of ribosome-associated mRNAs, this study provides an in silico dataset for recognition of differentially expressed genes at the cell-, region-, and organ-specific levels.
•Emotional, external and restrained eating can be reliably and validly assessed with the Italian version of DEBQ.•Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the 3-factor structure of the ...Italian version of DEBQ.•DEBQ’s dimensional structure proved to be invariant across sex, BMI (normal weight/overweight) and age groups.•Significant differences in emotional, external and restrained eating were found as a function of age, sex and BMI.
The purpose of this study was to examine the basic psychometric proprieties of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) and its measurement invariance across sex, BMI-status (normal weight/overweight), and age in a community sample of 990 Italian adults. The analysis of the dimensionality of the DEBQ using exploratory factor analysis revealed the existence of three major factors – emotional, restrained and external eating. Single and multi-group confirmatory factor analyses replicated the three-factor structure, and this dimensional structure proved to be invariant across sex, BMI-status, and age. Findings upheld the criterion-related validity (e.g., via its associations with Eating Attitudes Test-26). The DEBQ’s subscales displayed high internal consistency and test–retest reliability over a 4-week period. Statistically significant differences were found when sex, BMI and age groups are compared in the latent means of emotional, external and restrained eating and they are discussed with reference to theory, past and recent empirical findings. Overall, results support the measurement invariance of the DEBQ and suggest that the Italian version is a psychometrically reliable, valid and useful measurement instrument for assessing adult eating behaviors.
This work proposes a semi-pilot scale procedure for the evaluation of biogas production potential and the employment of its results for the scale-up of the process. AD tests were performed at 35 °C ...in 6 L reactors, feeding 3–6% w/w TS in a fed-batch mode. Several substrates, generated by food-processing industries, were considered in the study. Assuming solubilization as the limiting step, a theoretical model was proposed and the values of the disintegration kinetic constant (kdis) were calculated from the experimental data. The obtained model was employed as a control tool during tests afterward performed on pilot scale in a 300 L digester fed in a semi-continuous mode. Biogas yields between 0.5 and 0.9 Nm3/kgVS, and methane contents of 55–63% v/v were obtained on both scales. The model derived from the results of the proposed procedure appeared adequate for a consistent evaluation of the scale-up of the AD process.
•The experimental results derive from tests performed on 6 L and 300 L reactors.•Single-phase AD of homogenous mixtures (no co-digestion) was performed.•Good biogas yields were obtained without any pre-treatment of the substrates.•Solubilization was evaluated as the limiting step in AD of the considered substrates.•A provisional model, based on kdis and useful for the process scale-up, is proposed.
► ASR materials coming from two industrial shredding tests are characterized. ► The tests differ about the feed and the pre-shredding operations. ► Two post-shredding treatments are tested, aimed ...both at material and thermal recovery. ► The proposed treatments may be easily applied by existing shredding plants.
At the moment Automobile Shredder Residue (ASR) is usually landfilled worldwide, but European draft Directive 2000/53/CE forces the development of alternative solutions, stating the 95%-wt recovery of an End of Life Vehicle (ELV) weight to be fulfilled by 2015.
This work describes two industrial tests, each involving 250–300t of ELVs, in which different pre-shredding operations were performed. The produced ASR materials underwent an extended characterization and some post-shredding processes, consisting of dimensional, magnetic, electrostatic and densimetric separation phases, were tested on laboratory scale, having as main purpose the enhancement of ASR recovery/recycling and the minimization of the landfilled fraction.
The gathered results show that accurate depollution and dismantling operations are mandatory to obtain a high quality ASR material which may be recycled/recovered and partially landfilled according to the actual European Union regulations, with particular concern for Lower Heating Value (LHV), heavy metals content and Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) as critical parameters. Moreover post-shredding technical solutions foreseeing minimum economic and engineering efforts, therefore realizable in common European ELVs shredding plants, may lead to multi-purposed (material recovery and thermal valorization) opportunities for ASR reuse/recovery.
Wood waste is a material that can be upgraded from an energy point of view. The purpose of this systematic review is to analysed the energetic characterisation of glued wood waste, in view of their ...use in combustion plants. To assess the compatibility of glued wood wastes combustion with sustainable environmental impacts, the main studies regarding their emissions during combustion process are reported. The results of the research showed a wide distribution concerning the emissions of the main pollutants. Carbon monoxide emissions, one of the main greenhouse gases, are considerably reduced by the use of efficient plants though the presence of adhesives does not affect CO emissions. The use of nitrogen-based glues instead negatively influences the emissions related to another group of monitored pollutants, the NOx. As far as SOx is concerned, emissions are low, favoured both by the low percentage of sulphur in woody biomass and by the non-use of sulphur-based treatments. The quality of combustion process also influences the type of produced emissions. The incomplete combustion leads to the formation of harmful compounds to the environment and to humans. The emissions of PAHs, dioxins and PCBs are generally higher for biomass than fossil fuels, but the presence of adhesives does not affect the emissions of these compounds. This indicates that, under optimal combustion conditions and eventually by mixing glued and virgin wood waste, the wood waste containing adhesives could represent an additional source of biomass for energy production.
The red microalga Galdieria sulphuraria has emerged as a promising biotechnological platform for large-scale cultivation and production of high-value compounds, such as the blue pigment phycocyanin. ...However, a large amount of freshwater and a substantial supply of nutrients challenge both the environmental and the economic sustainability of algal cultivation. Additionally, the extremophilic nature of Galdieria sulphuraria requires cultivation in an acidic culture medium that directly leads to strongly acidic wastewater, which in turn generally exceeds legal limits for industrial wastewater discharge. This research aims to address these challenges, by investigating cultivation water reuse as a strategy to reduce the impacts of Galdieria sulphuraria management. The results indicated that a 25 % water reuse may be easily implemented and showed to be effective at the pilot scale, providing no significant changes in microalgae growth (biomass productivity ~0.21 g L−1 d−1) or in phycocyanin accumulation (~ 10.8 % w/w) after three consecutive cultivation cycles in reused water. Moreover, a single cultivation cycle with water reuse percentages of 71 and 98 %, achieved with membrane filtration and with centrifugation, respectively, was also successful (biomass productivity ~0.24 g L−1 d−1). These findings encourage freshwater reuse implementations in the microalgae sector and support further investigations focusing on coupling cultivation and harvesting in continuous, real-scale configurations. Centrifugation and membrane filtration required substantially different specific electrical energy consumption for water reuse and biomass concentration: in real applications, the former technique would roughly span from 1 to 10 kWh m−3 while the latter is expected to fall within the ample range 0.1–100 kWh m−3, strongly dependent on system size. For this reason, the most suitable separation train should be chosen on a case-by-case basis, considering the prevailing flow rate and the target biomass concentration factor targeted by the separation process.
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•Galdieria sulphuraria cultivation necessitates management of acidic wastewater.•Water and nutrient reuse enhance the sustainability of the cultivation process.•25% water reuse maintains biomass productivity (~ 0.21 g L-1 d-1) and phycocyanin accumulation (~10.8% w/w).•High water reuse (71%, 95%) does not affect productivity, equal to 0.24 g L-1 d-1 in a single cycle.•Energy needs of centrifugation (1-10 kWh m-3) and membrane filtration (0.1-100 kWh m-3) depend on system size and biomass concentration.
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