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METROFOOD-IT: A data platform proposal using Agrifood Smart Data Model
No full textMETROFOOD-IT enhances the Italian Node of the ESFRI METROFOOD-RI infrastructure and promotes research and innovation in the agri-food sector through integrated services, with an emphasis on digitization, efficiency, traceability, and sustainability. The project fosters a research paradigm focused on improving metrological data flows to enhance, quality, traceability, security in the food and nutritional domain. This paper introduces the architectural model utilized for the integration of both physical and electronic facilities. A service-oriented architecture (SOA) has been designed to facilitate efficient and scalable data sharing. The METROFOOD-IT architectural model unfolds across three levels: services, data infrastructure, and linking infrastructure. The data architecture plays a central role in managing backend systems for services, ensuring continuous data availability to each ecosystem service. To guarantee a stable and recognized data model by the scientific and industrial community, the Smart Data Model Agrifood has been adopted. This model addresses standardized data sharing and standardization issues, ensuring uniformity in data syntax and semantics, implementing access restrictions, and providing essential technical aspects in data platforms
Establishing a Knowledge Value Chain for Sustainable Spatial Planning and Urban Governance: Meeting the SDGs Through Technical Standards
No full textThe relationship between standardization and scientific research has become increasingly collaborative. However, to ensure a coherent common vision and practice, targeted reflection and dialogue are necessary. This becomes critical to meet stakeholder demands and comply with the requirements of the EU Standardization Strategy, which enables standards to effectively support scientific projects in influencing society through informed policies. This contribution focuses on investigating and formalizing the connection between research innovation and standardization, with a specific emphasis on the ISO 371xx series. These standards offer a holistic and integrated approach to managing sustainable development in territories, providing a shared reference framework that facilitates the realization of community visions and the exchange of information among cities. The standards also raise awareness about the role of local communities in sustainable development and define smart city operational models, enabling the creation of action plans and the evaluation of spatial transformations. As a result, this contribution formalizes a comprehensive process to establish a robust and clear knowledge value chain, supporting local policymakers in promoting sustainable and resilient land management, spatial planning, and urban governance. The proposed integrative framework demonstrates its potential to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals through the proper development and implementation of standards
A review of design and assessment methods for skew concrete slabs
No full textConcrete slabs are often used for short-span bridges where it is required to limit the deck construction depth. Alongside, skew decks are helpful when there are space con-straints in the bridge construction area, e.g., in urban areas, thus they are not uncommon. Nonetheless, skew slabs are not as much investigated as straight slabs and comprehensive guidance on their design or assessment is generally lacking. This is particularly the case for the shear behaviour of skew concrete slabs, which exhibit significant load concentrations around the obtuse corners with observed failure modes that are intermediate between the traditional cases of one-way and two-way (punching) shear. A reliable estimation of the shear strength is beneficial for both design and assessment: in fact, if shear strength is over-estimated, it may lead to undesired brittle failures, whereas if it is under-estimated, it may lead to inefficient design or unnecessary interventions to existing structures. This paper reviews the provisions of three codes of practice on shear design (Eurocode 2, the Swiss SIA 262, and fib Model Code 2010), as well as main research on skew slabs. Procedures for extending the code provisions to skew slabs are presented and then applied to a case study. Some scatter is found across different codes of practice, broadly reflecting their complexity. The findings may be useful to practitioners with the design and assessment of skew concrete slabs
Analysis of Perchlorate in Aquatic Food and Evaluation of Human Exposure
No full textChemical contaminants have become a concern in terms of food security, as they immediately affect the quality of food (food safety) and can affect the availability and nutritional access to that resource (food security) over a long period. For this reason, the objective of this research work is to analyze perchlorate in aquatic food, an anthropogenic contaminant could affect human health. Samples were analyzed using micro-Raman spectroscopy. Analyzes of mussel samples collected in the Goro lagoon show the presence of perchlorate, but fortunately in very short concentration
Towards enabling observability of energy demand, with NEST
No full textThis work-in-progress paper introduces the project "Network for Energy Sustainable Transition"(NEST), whose overall objective is to conceive technologies facilitating the conversion and utilisation of renewable sources, ensuring sustainability across environmental, economic, and social dimensions.In this context, we use digitalisation as a facilitation vector and we describe the planned activities and preliminary results aiming at enhancing the real-time observability of energy demand by delivering a software service prototype to efficiently collect, store and retrieve data generated by different edge data generators
Impact of mixed-species forest plantations on soil mycobiota community structure and diversity in the Congolese coastal plains
Get PDFMixed tree plantations containing nitrogen (N2)-fixing species have the potential to enhance C sequestration, soil biodiversity and forest productivity. Here, we investigated the impact of Acacia mangium and Eucalyptus urophilla x E. grandis mixed plantations in the Congolese coastal plains on soil mycobiota community structure and diversity by ITS metabarcoding sequencing and bioinformatic analysis. Higher Faith’s phylogenetic diversity and Evenness’ was found in Eucalyptus monoculture relative to stands containing Acacia. Differences in beta diversity were found among Eucalyptus and Acacia monoculture, and mixed-species stands highlight the effects of plant species on fungal community structure. Ascomycota, Basidiomycota and Rozellomycota phyla were predominant in all stands, with both Dikarya (Ascomycota and Basidiomycota) accounting for more than 70% in all stands. Correlation analysis revealed that sulfur (S) was the most correlated soil attribute with the three predominant phyla but also with Mucoromycota and Calcarisporiellomycota phyla, although mostly negatively correlated (4 out of 5). Phosphorus was mostly positively correlated to soil attributes (3 out of 4) and nitrogen was correlated twice, positively and negatively. Distance-based redundancy analysis revealed a positive correlation of nitrogen (p-value = 0.0019, contribution = 22%) and phosphorus (p-value = 0.0017, contribution = 19%) with soil mycobiota. A high prevalence of generalists (28% to 38%) than specialists (9% to 24%) were found among the different sites. In stands containing Acacia (pure and mixed species) the soil mycobiota harbor the prevalence of generalist strategies with the potential to withstand environmental stresses and utilize a higher number of resources against specialists in Eucalyptus stands. Stronger positive correlation between soil attributes and main fungal taxa, higher generalists’ strategies and lower Faith’s phylogenetic diversity and Evenness were reported in stands containing Acacia. This highlights the potential of mixed-species in preserving community stability following environmental disturbances and increasing the number of resources confirming their important ecological role in boosting the resilience of th
Energy Hub and Micro-Energy Hub Architecture in Integrated Local Energy Communities: Enabling Technologies and Energy Planning Tools
Get PDFThe combination of different energy vectors like electrical energy, hydrogen, methane, and water is a crucial aspect to deal with in integrated local energy communities (ILECs). The ILEC stands for a set of active energy users that maximise benefits and minimise costs using optimisation procedures in producing and sharing energy. In particular, the proper management of different energy vectors is fundamental for achieving the best operating conditions of ILECs in terms of both energy and economic perspectives. To this end, different solutions have been developed, including advanced control and monitoring systems, distributed energy resources, and storage. Energy management planning software plays a pivotal role in developing ILECs in terms of performance evaluation and optimisation within a multi-carrier concept. In this paper, the state-of-the-art of ILECs is further enhanced by providing important details on the critical aspects related to the overall value chain for constituting an ILEC (e.g., conceptualisation, connecting technologies, barriers/limitations, control, and monitoring systems, and modelling tools for planning phases). By providing a clear understanding of the technical solutions and energy planning software, this paper can support the energy system transition towards cleaner systems by identifying the most suitable solutions and fostering the advancement of ILECs
RESEARCH ACTIVITY ON PV WASTE RECYCLING IN ENEA
No full textENEA is dedicating significant efforts to the research activity concerning the treatment of End-of-Life (EoL) photovoltaic panels (PVs), which is a worldwide emergent issue to be urgently solved. With PVs typically having a lifespan of 25 years, the volume of PV waste is projected to increase rapidly by 2030. This issue is compounded by the composition of photovoltaics, which includes hazardous materials, necessi-tating the development of technological solutions to mitigate the environmental impact of commonly used recycling methods. Additionally, strategic materials present in PVs make the valorization of recovered materials highly advantageous. ENEA is actively involved in several research projects focused on EoL PVs recycling. This article will outline the main objectives of these projects and present the key findings achieved by ENEA’s research team
Polystyrene nanoplastics as an ecotoxicological hazard: cellular and transcriptomic evidences on marine and freshwater in vitro teleost models
Get PDFThe contamination of marine and freshwater environments by nanoplastics is considered a global threat for aquatic biota. Taking into account the most recent concentration range estimates reported globally and recognizing a knowledge gap in polystyrene nanoplastics (PS-NPs) ecotoxicology, the present work investigated the harmful effects of 20 nm and 80 nm PS-NPs, at increasing biological complexity, on the rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss RTG-2 and gilthead seabream Sparus aurata SAF-1 cell lines. Twenty nm PS-NPs exerted a greater cytotoxicity than 80 nm ones and SAF-1 were approximately 4-fold more vulnerable to PS-NPs than RTG-2. The engagement of PS-NPs with plasma membranes was accompanied by discernible uptake patterns and morphological alterations along with a nuclear translocation already within a 30-min exposure. Cells were structurally damaged only by the 20 nm PS-NPs in a time-dependent manner as indicated by distinctive features of the execution phase of the apoptotic cell death mechanism such as cell shrinkage, plasma membrane blebbing, translocation of phosphatidylserine to the outer leaflet of the cell membrane and DNA fragmentation. At last, functional analyses unveiled marked transcriptional impairment at both sublethal and lethal doses of 20 nm PS-NPs, with the latter impacting the “Steroid biosynthesis”, “TGF-beta signaling pathway”, “ECM-receptor interaction”, “Focal adhesion”, “Regulation of actin cytoskeleton” and “Protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum” pathways. Overall, a distinct ecotoxicological hazard of PS-NPs at environmentally relevant concentrations was thoroughly characterized on two piscine cell lines. The effects were demonstrated to depend on size, exposure time and model, emphasizing the need for a comparative evaluation of endpoints between freshwater and marine ecosystems
Nuclear analyses in support of ITER ex-port Radial Neutron Camera design
Get PDFThe Radial Neutron Camera (RNC) is a diagnostic system located in the ITER Equatorial Port 1 (EP01) composed by two sub-systems (i.e.: in-port and ex-port RNC) probing a poloidal section of the plasma through a set of fan-shaped Lines of Sight (LOS). The RNC is designed to provide a time resolved measurement of the neutron and alpha particles source profiles and of the total neutron source strength, through the application of reconstruction techniques to the line-integrated neutron fluxes. The Ex-port sub-system is composed by 16 LOS distributed in two different toroidal planes and enclosed in a massive shielding unit, extending from the EP01 closure plate through the Port Interspace, up to the Bioshield Plug. Neutrons, generated in the plasma core, stream through dedicated optical paths hollowed out in the central EP01 diagnostic shielding module and reach the detectors units located at the end of collimating structures. Each detector unit contains one 4He gas scintillator, one plastic scintillator as well as one single Crystal Diamond (sCD) matrix. The performed nuclear analysis allowed the selection of the SWX-277Z-5 castable borated hydrogenated mix as suitable material for the RNC shielding block; moreover, the evaluation of the nuclear heating on the ex-port RNC subcomponents, provided as input for structural analyses, highlighted that the impact of the radiation streaming is negligible with respect to the environmental thermal loads