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Fully Renewable Diphenolic Acid Synthesis in Batch and Continuous Reactors in the Presence of New Biomass Derived Acid Catalysts and LCA Evaluation
No full textDiphenolic acid is emerging as a promising "green" alternative to bisphenol A. The diphenolic acid synthesis involves a condensation reaction between phenol and levulinic acid, catalyzed by Brønsted acid catalysts, in particular mineral ones, which lead to significant corrosion issues and difficult catalyst recycling. Therefore, it is paramount to move towards heterogeneous systems, especially those derived from renewable resources. In this specific domain, the PRIN 2020 LEVANTE project focuses on synthesizing a fully renewable p,p’-diphenolic acid. The possibility of using biomass-derived catalysts offers the opportunity to make the entire DPA synthesis fully renewable. In order to achieve these goals, new ad-hoc acid catalysts have been synthesized by sulfonating xylose- and glucose- derived hydrochars, and tested for the selective production of p,p'-diphenolic acid in batch and continuous reactors. Under the best reaction conditions, in batch reactors p,p'-diphenolic acid yields about 20-25 mol% were reached, whereas in continuous reactors very high selectivity, equal to 85 mol%, were obtained toward the target isomer p,p'-diphenolic acid. At the same time, the Life Cycle Assessment evaluation was performed to compare environmental impacts associated to the new developed preparation of diphenolic acid in batch with those of the consolidated process which involves mineral acids as catalysts
Genomic pathway alterations and their prognostic impact in biliary tract cancer: Insights from a multinational cohort treated with cisplatin, gemcitabine, and durvalumab
No full textBackground Biliary tract cancers (BTC) are aggressive malignancies with limited therapeutic options. Recent advances have integrated immunotherapy into the standard of care, yet outcomes remain heterogeneous, emphasizing the need for molecular biomarkers to guide patient selection. This study aimed to assess the prognostic impact of pathway-level genomic alterations in patients with BTC treated with first-line cisplatin, gemcitabine, and durvalumab. Methods This retrospective, multicenter study included 735 patients with advanced BTC, of whom 197 underwent comprehensive genomic profiling using the FoundationOne® CDx assay. Pathways were classified based on the presence of key gene alterations, and their association with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) was assessed through univariate and multivariate analyses. Tumor mutational burden (TMB) was also evaluated as a potential biomarker. Results HRD/BRCAness pathway alterations were associated with significantly improved OS (23.3 vs. 13.8 months, HR 0.51, 95 % CI 0.27–0.93, p = 0.0295) and PFS (13.2 vs. 8.1 months, HR 0.53, 95 % CI 0.32–0.89, p = 0.0153). TGF-β pathway alterations were linked to longer PFS (16.0 vs. 8.1 months, HR 0.53, 95 % CI 0.28–0.99, p = 0.0473) but did not independently predict OS. High TMB (>10 mut/Mb) was associated with improved OS (NR vs. 11.0 months, HR 0.34, 95 % CI 0.14–0.85, p = 0.0206) and PFS (NR vs. 7.6 months, HR 0.40, 95 % CI 0.13–0.96, p = 0.043). However, no single pathway was significantly correlated with early treatment response. Conclusions HRD /BRCA ness and TGF-β pathway alterations, along with high TMB, emerged as potential prognostic biomarkers in patients with BTC treated with chemo-immunotherapy. These findings, if prospectively confirmed and validated, support the integration of molecular profiling into routine clinical practice to improve patient stratification and treatment outcomes in this challenging tumor type
Observation of time-dependent CP violation and measurement of the branching fraction of B0 →J/psi pi0 decays
No full textWe present a measurement of the branching fraction and time-dependent charge-parity (CP) decay-rate asymmetries in B0→J/ψπ0 decays. The data sample was collected with the Belle II detector at the SuperKEKB asymmetric e+e- collider in 2019-2022 and contains (387±6)×106 BB ̄ meson pairs from Υ(4S) decays. We reconstruct 392±24 signal decays and fit the CP parameters from the distribution of the proper-decay-time difference of the two B mesons. We measure the branching fraction to be (B0→J/ψπ0)=(2.00±0.12±0.09)×10-5 and the direct and mixing-induced CP asymmetries to be CCP=0.13±0.12±0.03 and SCP=-0.88±0.17±0.03, respectively, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second are systematic. We observe mixing-induced CP violation with a significance of 5.0 standard deviations for the first time in this mode
Beyond trial-and-error: Predicting user abandonment after a moderation intervention
No full textCurrent content moderation follows a reactive, trial-and-error approach, where interventions are applied and their effects are only measured post-hoc. In contrast, we introduce a proactive, predictive approach that enables moderators to anticipate the impact of their actions before implementation. We propose and tackle the new task of predicting user abandonment following a moderation intervention. We study the reactions of 16,540 users to a massive ban of online communities on Reddit, training a set of binary classifiers to identify those users who would abandon the platform after the intervention—a problem of great practical relevance. We leverage a dataset of 13.8 million posts to compute a large and diverse set of 142 features, which convey information about the activity, toxicity, relations, and writing style of the users. We obtain promising results, with the best-performing model achieving micro F1-score =0.914. Our model shows robust generalizability when applied to users from previously unseen communities. Furthermore, we identify activity features as the most informative predictors, followed by relational and toxicity features, while writing style features exhibit limited utility. Theoretically, our results demonstrate the feasibility of adopting a predictive machine learning approach to estimate the effects of moderation interventions. Practically, this work marks a fundamental shift from reactive to predictive moderation, equipping platform administrators with intelligent tools to strategically plan interventions, minimize unintended consequences, and optimize user engagement
Valorisation of polyethylene terephthalate waste: An upcycling approach into a reusable CO2 liquid sorbent
No full textTwo of the most pressing environmental issues that the contemporary society is facing are the emissions of carbon dioxide and plastic pollution. Both of these concerns have far-reaching implications for the human health, contributing significantly to climate change. In this work we propose a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic waste upcycling into a liquid carbon dioxide sorbent. Through our approach we chemically recycled PET into terephthalic diamides via glycolysis and successive aminolysis. Among the obtained terephthalic diamides, N,N’-bis(2-aminopropyl)terephthalamide (BAPTA) resulted promising for the formation of a stable, homogeneous liquid if combined with propylene glycol, a non-toxic and inexpensive diol. The system was characterized by differential scanning calorimetry, density, viscosity, and conductivity measurements, resulting a low-transition-temperature mixture (LTTM) with non-ionic properties. This LTTM demonstrated a CO2 capture capacity of up to 52 gCO2/kgsorbent if exposed to 1 atmosphere of carbon dioxide at 30 °C, and it maintained its capture performances over multiple absorption–desorption cycles, suggesting its practical potential. The processes involved in the work aim at maintaining mild operating conditions, solvent recovery via distillation, and waste minimization
Anger from the earth: an Aeschylean quotation in Philostratus (Ch. 278, VA VI 11,13)
No full textAt Aesch. Ch. 278, Lobeck’s correction of μηνίματα for the transmitted μειλίγματα appears necessary. Decisive support for this emendation is provided by a passage in Philostratus’ Vita Apollonii (VI 11,13), where the extremely rare expression ἐκ μηνιμάτων τῆς γῆς occurs in
connection with the idea of contamination arising from homicide. Philostratus almost certainly borrowed it from the Choephori, as also suggested by the proximity of this passage to Apollonius’ praise of Aeschylus before the Gymnosophists (VA VI 11,10f.)
False Target Jamming Suppression in Distributed Coherent Aperture Radar
No full textDistributed coherent aperture radar (DCAR) operating in MIMO mode is vulnerable to self-defense dense false target jamming, which closely resembles the true target signal and is therefore difficult to suppress. To address this challenge, based on the difference between the jamming and the target signal in the frequency modulation slope domain, we designed an algorithm combining biorthogonal Fourier transform (BFT) and echo preprocessing, so that there is a significant difference between the jamming and the target signal in the matched filtering (MF) outputs. First, the BFT analysis is employed to separate the echo components corresponding to up-chirp (UC) and down-chirp (DC) before multi-channel MF. Then, echo preprocessing is performed on the separated echoes using reference signals that have different chirp rates. This causes misalignment in the peaks of jamming after MF and enables discrimination between false and real targets. Finally, to prevent the jamming from obtaining higher gain in the process of coherent integration, time-domain filtering is applied before coherent integration. Experimental simulations validate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method in terms of jamming suppression
Verso l’implementazione di un sistema di riconoscimento di allusioni al lessico dantesco nelle testimonianze del Lager: il caso d’uso in Voci dall’Inferno.
No full textDigitalizzione delle testimonianze: codifica e applicazioni web
Le avanguardie artistiche nella Francia del diciannovesimo secolo: forme di sociabilità e modalità di organizzazione
No full textAnalisi delle modalità di sociabilità e di organizzazione delle avanguardie artistiche francesi del XIX secol
