Air Quality Survey Carried Out by Schoolchildren: An Innovative Tool for Urban Planning

An educational project on biological monitoring of air quality was launched in 2004 to involve about 650 young students (age 6 to 16) from 21 schools of nine municipalities in Tuscany (Central Italy) in active detection of the crucial pollutant ozone with indicator sensitive tobacco seedlings. Results implied the reading of 9,300 raw biological figures and were fortified by the data captured by six photometric analysers. Under the guidance of their teachers, the students had several opportunities to practice with many basic and applied study areas and were initiated into the scientific method in a simple and absorbing manner. Curiosity and involvement were widespread; a sort of emotional and responsible relationship was developed by several pupils. Though primarily an educational exercise, the survey introduced a research element and the regional picture of air pollution that emerged has increased our knowledge of the air quality situation in the area. Biological monitoring of air quality is a powerful tool to improve the awareness and involvement in key topics of environmental education. In addition, it represents a crucial element for improving the awareness of problems and implies the active participation of citizens in the assessment of several indicators of the state of the environment. Its potential as a robust implement in landscape and urban planning is noteworthy.     

Energy efficiency during conventional and novel sintering processes: the case of Ti–Al2O3–TiC composites

The conventional (hot pressing or HP) and the novel (spark plasma sintering or SPS) consolidation techniques were compared when processing Ti–Al₂O₃–TiC powders obtained by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS). It was found that the two different methods are able to produce similar materials, in some cases (Vickers hardness and wear rate) slightly better for SPSed samples. However, SPS does not need sintering temperatures as high as HP to obtain fully dense products. Most significantly, processing times were strongly reduced when adopting the SPS technique instead of HP, i.e. 4–7 min and about 5 h, respectively. Finally, when the total energies required during each SPS or HP experiment were compared, it was found that the use of the SPS technology allowed for an energy saving in the order of 90–95%. This fact makes SPS significantly advantageous from environmental and economical points of view compared to HP.     

Pesticide and plasticizer residues in bergamot essential oils from Calabria (Italy)

Organophosphorus and organochlorine pesticides, phosphorated plasticizers, chloroparaffins and phthalate esters contamination in bergamot essential oils produced in Calabria in the crop years 1999-2000 was studied by HRGC in connection with detectors FPD, ECD, MS. Residues of dicofol and tetradifon were found in oils from both crop years. The mean dicofol concentration was 0.26 mg/l in samples from 1999 and 0.20 mg/l in those from 2000; the mean tetradifon content was 0.06 mg/l for both the crop years. Among plasticizers, residues of diisobutyl phthalate, di-n-butyl phthalate, and bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate were found in samples from crop years 1999 and 2000, the mean content were 1.22 and 1.23 mg/l, 1.51 and 1.65 mg/l, 1.38 and 1.42 mg/l respectively.     

Duplication of 9 p11.2-p13.1: a benign cytogenetic variant

The detection of very rare variants in prenatal diagnosis often causes counseling difficulties and anxiety in parents. We describe a duplication of the proximal region of chromosome 9 short arm in two cases of prenatal diagnosis and in one young woman, with evidence that such rearrangement is an uncommon variant. The duplication was investigated using Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Although the cytogenetic findings were indicative of a ‘duplication 9p syndrome’ associated with mental and developmental retardation, we were able to demonstrate that the rearrangement was a heteromorphism with no phenotypic consequence. We also determined the breakpoint regions of the rearrangement and identified the BAC probes that precisely define the duplicated region devoid of risk of phenotypic effects. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Linking contemporary river restoration to economics,technology, politics,and society: Perspectives from a historical case study of the Po River Basin,Italy

River restoration is a novel paradigm of ‘mirescape’ (land-and-water-scape) management that developed along with the emergence of aquatic ecology. River restoration can be seen as the application of an ecological perspective to return rivers to nature. However, the river restoration paradigm is also the contemporary iteration of historical phases of mirescape management. We review the long and varied recorded history of the Po River in northern Italy as a case study to illustrate the transformations and common themes of mirescape management. We find, first, that significant changes in mirescape management and river condition only occur in the context of larger social, political, technological and economic transformations. Second, we show how particular cultural understandings, economic interests, technological innovations and political powers have driven particular paradigms of mirescape management. These have tended towards increasing territorial separation of wet and dry. We find, third, that these separations lead not only to increasing economic precariousness for many, but also to increasingly severe disasters. We conclude that river restoration faces social and political challenges to becoming relevant at a mirescape scale, due to its lack of integration with land management, or with current social, political, technological and economic transformations. To act on this conclusion, we suggest philosophically aligned social movements that river restoration could work with to improve impact and uptake.     

Norovirus Outbreaks on Commercial Cruise Ships: A Systematic Review and New Targets for the Public Health Agenda

Noroviruses are recognized as the leading cause of human acute viral gastroenteritis worldwide. The rate of outbreaks on cruise ships has grown significantly in recent years. Given the potentially harmful consequences of outbreaks for passengers and crewmembers and the subsequently high costs for cruise companies, disease outbreaks on cruise ships represent a serious public health issue. The aim of our study was to systematically review published studies related to Norovirus outbreaks on commercial cruise ships. We searched the PubMed and Scopus scientific databases. We included eligible studies published from January 1990 to July 2013 that were written in English and described infectious episodes involving at least two passengers and/or crewmembers on a commercial cruise ship. As a result, 15 studies and seven reviews met the inclusion criteria, describing a total of 127 outbreaks. The majority of the cases were reported in Europe and the USA, affecting <1 to 74 % of the embarked passengers. In the majority of the studies, stool samples and/or serum specimens from ill passengers were collected and tested for laboratory confirmation. Twelve studies reported that an ad-hoc questionnaire was administered. Fifteen studies investigated the possible source of infection which was contaminated food in the majority of cases. Our findings suggest a strong need for the monitoring and implementation of preventive measures in semi-closed communities, such as cruise ships. It would be advisable to strengthen all relevant initiatives in order to improve the detection of, response to and control of Norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships.     

An imprecise Fault Tree Analysis for the estimation of the Rate of OCcurrence Of Failure (ROCOF)

The paper proposes an imprecise Fault Tree Analysis in order to characterize systems affected by the lack of reliability data. Differently from other research works, the paper introduces a classification of basic events into two categories, namely Initiators and Enablers. Actually, in real industrial systems some events refer to component failures or process parameter deviations from normal operating conditions (Initiators), whereas others refer to the functioning of safety barriers to be activated on demand (Enablers). As a consequence, the output parameter of interest is not the classical probability of occurrence of the top event, but its Rate of OCcurrence (ROCOF) over a stated period of time. In order to characterize the basic events, interval-valued information supplied by experts are properly aggregated and propagated to the top. To this purpose, the Dempster–Shafer Theory of evidence is proposed as a more appropriate mathematical framework than the classical probabilistic one. The proposed methodology, applied to a real industrial scenario, can be considered a helpful tool to support risk managers working in industrial plants.     

Assessment, validation and intercomparison of operational models for predicting tritium migration from routine discharges of nuclear power plants: the case of Loire River

During last decades, a number of projects have been launched to validate models for predicting the behaviour of radioactive substances in the environment. The project of the "Aquatic" working group of the project EMRAS (Environmental Modelling for Radiation Safety) organised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was based on the validation and assessment of models for predicting the behaviour of radionuclides in the aquatic ecosystems. The present paper describes a blind test of models aimed at assessing the dispersion of tritium releases in the Loire River (France), on a large domain ( approximately 350km) and on a period of six months, by comparing the results obtained by operational-to-experimental values of tritium concentration at Angers, a city along the Loire River. The common conclusion is that the models used by the different participants namely 1D models and models based on a schematic hydraulic (box models) are reliable tools for tritium transport modelling. Nevertheless, the importance of proper and detailed hydrological data for the appropriate prediction of pollutant migration in water is demonstrated by the example provided during this study.     

Study of a surface coating present on a Renaissance Piety from the Museum of Ancient Art (Castello Sforzesco,Milan)

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The surface coating present on a marble Piety dating to the Renaissance period and stored at the Castello Sforzesco-Museum of Ancient Art (Milan,...