1359 research outputs found
Sort by
Birth registration and child undernutrition in sub-Saharan Africa
Get PDFThe database comprises data on malnutrition and birth registration rates in 33 sub-Saharan African Countries as retrieved by DHS (http://www.dhsprogram.com) and MICS (http://www.childinfo.org/mics.html) reports.
The study protocol includes detailed information on data selection and statistical analyses
Il profilo "statico" della pubblica amministrazione tra buona amministrazione e informatizzazione
Get PDFThis work analyses the impact of technology on the organization of public administration. It was prompted by the last Reform Acts (Anti-Corruption Act, in 2012, Transparency Act, in 2013, Decreto Renzi-Madìa, in 2014) which aim to harmonize the current Italian standards of bureaucratic efficiency with those of the European Union.
I focused on the digitization effects for a new organization of public administration, necessary to ensure the citizen's right to the use of information technology in dealing with the public administration, introduced Code of Digital Administration (March 7, 2005 , n . 82 ).
This new organization of the public administration should be regarded as an evolving process with the same dynamism historically considered the defining feature of the administrative activity.
This is proved by the application of transparency directives, which typically consider the intrinsic transformation abilities of the administrative activity, to the public administration organization (Acts: June 18, 2009 n. 69 - Public Administration Business Plan; October 27, 2009, n. 150 - Decreto Brunetta; November 6, 2012, n. 190 - Anti-Corruption Act; March 14, 2013, n. 33 - Trasparency Act)
Tecnologia del recupero dell’architettura tradizionale: gestire la coesistenza tra conservazione e innovazione
Get PDFThe main aim of this PhD Thesis was to develop meaningful data and
information on how to address the fundamental question related to rehabilitation
technologies of traditional architecture: managing the coexistence
between innovation and conservation, in order to restore the
functionality of the building according to the contemporary standards
of quality and, at the same time, not to alter the historical - cultural
identity of the building technology.
The present study is an analysis of good practices. The criteria applied
to managing the coexistence between conservation and innovation
of the building technology in some successful rehabilitation
processes of historical city nuclei have been systematized. The main
expected outcome is to fill a gap in literature concerning the evaluation
of rehabilitation results by the technological point of view, in order to
adjust the criteria of intervention on the basis of the results of earlier
experiences.
A qualitative and inductive research methodology has been applied,
based on an evaluative-comparative strategy focused on case studies.
Three rehabilitation processes of historical nuclei have been analyzed:
Genova in Italy, Guimarães in Portugal and Santiago de Compostela in
Spain. It has been systematically analyzed how windows, floors and roofs
were processed, and it has been highlighted which traditional building
technology characteristics were usually maintained and which
were altered.
The applied methodology has proved to be incisive in revealing the
rehabilitation dynamics of the case studies. The findings show that in
all cases the applied criteria were conceived in line with the Nara Document
on Authenticity. The problematic coexistence of technological
conservation and innovation was addressed by upgrading the traditional
building technology thanks to the preservation of some building
characteristics, that represent traditional building technology logic,
and the implementation of all required innovations that do not contrast
with the abovementioned traditional characteristics.
The homogeneity of criteria among the three case studies represents
a relevant fact in rehabilitation, as it demonstrates the existence
of a common, well developed, rehabilitation methodology that is internationally
shared among rehabilitation experts
Mesostructured metal oxide-based nanocomposites as sorbents for H2S removal from syngas coal gasification
Get PDFDesulphurization of gas phase sulphur compounds has been receiving dramatic attention since
hazardous, corrosive, and toxic gases that cause environmental damages (especially acid rain) and
industrial challenges (i.e., corrosion of equipment and deactivation of catalysts).
This dissertation presents results of R&D efforts to develop efficient MeOx/SBA-15-based sorbents
for H2S removal in view of possible applications in hydrogen purification, air pollution control, and deep
desulphurization of fossil fuels. It is precisely in the latter topic that the research project was born. The
production of power, fuels and chemicals in most countries is predominantly based on oil and, to a minor
extent, on natural gas. It is well-known that the reserves of both of these fuels are limited to a range of
40, 60 years. On the contrary, coal is a widely available fossil fuel, and it is expected to last for about
230 years. The imminent oil production limitations and the longer availability of coal, the wish to improve
the security of the energy supply, and the possibility to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by means of
carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) are sufficient motivations to increase the use of this resource.
Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) process is a high efficiency power generation technology
which gasifies coal to generate the fuel (syngas) for a high efficiency gas turbine. A key challenge for
producing clean power or hydrogen via gasification is cost effective purification of the sour syngas.
There are many commercial treatment techniques that are used to remove H2S, but their disadvantage is
that hot coal gas must be cooled down near to ambient temperature for desulphurization. The cooling
equipment required, and the need to reheat the clean syngas before its use in a gas turbine result in
economic and thermodynamic penalties that decrease the efficiency of a gasification plant. It is for this
reason that hot gas desulphurization technique has attracted more and more attention due to the fact
that it can reduce H2S down to 100 ppm level and avoid heat loss. Mid-temperature desulphurization is
achieved by the use of solid sorbents such as oxides of those metals that form stable sulphides, based on
the non-catalytic reaction between a metal oxide and hydrogen sulphide. The optimum desulphurization
temperature has been recommended in the range of 300 to 450 °C, also in according to the more
favourable thermodynamic equilibrium of sulphur compounds removal. To accomplish this task, Zinc
oxide- and Iron oxide-based materials have been successfully employed for decades in different domains
of the chemical industry. The pure metal oxides used as sorbents, however, suffer from evaporation, loss
in the surface area and porosity due to sintering and mechanical disintegration that affect their
performance and life time adversely. With the purpose of overcoming this problem and to improve their
performance, metal oxides can be confined into a support, where under such conditions the materials
are stable. The main properties required for support materials are inertness, high surface area, large
pores and good mechanical strength.
The thesis reports some simple and versatile routes which can be proposed to prepare a great
variety of MeOx/SBA-15 composites where the mesostructured SBA-15 silica, a high-surface area (up to
1000 m2/g) material, with 6–7 nm-wide regular channels and thick (3–4 nm) pore walls has been used as
efficient and stable support. MeOx active phase, formed inside the mesochannels, can reach the maximum
size of 6-7 nm physically imposed by the pore diameter. Such a structure provides an ideal reactor
where the mesopores act as channels for the transport of reactant. As a consequence, enhancement of
the active phase reactivity might be expected. The proposed “Two-solvents” incipient impregnation
method is easily reproducible and easy to scale up. Furthermore, this method should provide, at least in
principle, ideal systems to be compared, and therefore to understand how the active phase nature
influence their performance.
For the first time, a careful comparative study on the effect of the different nature of the
nanostructured MeOx (Me = Zn, Fe) dispersed into a mesostructured silica matrix (SBA-15) on the H2S
removal performance is carried out.
The behaviour of the MeOx/SBA-15 composites in the removal of H2S is investigated in a fixed-bed
reactor and compared with that of an unsupported ZnO commercial sorbent. The morphological,
structural, and textural features of fresh, sulphided, and regenerated sorbents have been assessed by a
multi-technique approach, including the study of the possible interactions between the guest oxide and
the host silica support. Furthermore, the sorption-desorption behaviour, which is commonly justified only
on the basis of the different nature of the active phase and of the textural features (surface area and
pore volume), is discussed also considering the morphology and the crystallinity of the active phase.
In the literature, to our best knowledge, no one have reported similar correlations. For this reason
this work can give an important contribution to improve the basic knowledge in the field of sorbents for
gas-removal
Impatto del cormorano Phalacrocorax Carbo Sinensis sulle produzioni ittiche delle lagune sarde
No full textThe work aims to study the feeding habits of the Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis, (Blumenbach, 1798), a species wintering in the transitional environments of Sardinia, and to assess the impact of the cormorants colony on fish stocks, considering the different ecological and economic aspects.
During the 2012-2015 period, several monitoring and censuses were carried out, in order to assess and identify the roost or feeding areas with the largest number of cormorants in the different lagoons examined. Numerically, during the three years was observed a significant increase in the number of individuals (rk, p <0.05), which was more than 40% between the first monitoring conducted in 2012 and those 2014. Indeed, in December 2011 was recorded a peak of 9637 animals while in December 2014, there were 13536 individuals.
A total of 1402 bird flocks of Great Cormorant wintering in the Cabras and Mistras lagoons (central-western Sardinia), in the S'Ena Arrubia lagoon (southeast of Oristano), in the Sant'Antioco lagoon (south-west Sardinia), in the Santa Gilla lagoon (near to Cagliari), in the Colostrai lagoon (southeastern coast of Sardinia), in the Sa Praia pond (south-east coast of Sardinia) were analysed.
Through the morphological analysis of undigested hard structures, such as otoliths, it was possible to describe the preyed species, their size and biomass and, thus, the average daily consumption of cormorants.
The trophic spectrum was dominated almost exclusively by euryhaline, gregarious fish species. Mugilidae, and particularly Liza ramada, were the most important prey with a very high percentage index of relative importance (%IRI).
The average Daily Food Intake (D.F.I.) for the different lagoons examined was estimated to be equal to 386.8. ± 31 g / day. Specifically, the highest daily requirement was found in the Cabras lagoon with a value of 478.4. ± 18 g / day (Buttu et al., 2013a).
The overall amount of biomass preyed by the cormorants during the entire wintering season was estimated over 500 tons.
The results obtained by the model applied to a predation economically and ecologically acceptable, specifically, indicate that predation in the Cabras lagoon is outside of economically sustainable levels.
This kind of study represent a fundamental step for the development of integrated management plans and protection measures, taking into account both the production requirements, and the environmental factors related to these important ecosystems
Karl R. Popper lettore dei presocratici
Get PDFCan we evaluate Popper's attention to Presocratics in a broader and varied interpretative framework than that
claimed so far by the critics? This work provides arguments to support a general reconsideration of this
research question, mainly through a study of the sources used by Popper in reading the Presocratics
philosophers, which prior literature has never addressed.
Introduction summarizes, in 3 sections, the critical historiography on this subject. Comments are negative
and focus on the notion of an instrumental projection of the falsificationism on the ancient philosophy and
also on the paradoxical fall into the historicism by an avowedly anti-historicist philosopher. The only
significant exception is the strong affinity of Giovanni Cerri with Popper, which however does not prevent
points of divergence.
We chose to devote Chapter I to the use of the sources in the reconstruction of Parmenides' thought,
identifying six recurring topics: 1. Parmenides' Goddess; 2. Elea's Moon; 3. The elenchos and the apparent
anachronism; 4. The fragment B 16; 5. Eleatic verisimilitude; 6. Theme of blindness and the language issue.
Chapter II describes in five sections the use of the sources in the reading of the other Presocratics, with
particular attention to rediscovery of Xenophanes (section 2), to the change in Heraclitus (section 3), as well
as to the relationship between Parmenides, Xenophanes and Heraclitus (section 1). The two final sections are
dedicated to reconstruction of Anaximander (section 4) and Democritus (section 5).
Chapter III focuses on the presence of Presocratics' philosophy in the articulation of Popper's reflection,
with the aim of searching for some implications of interpretive perspectives that Popper proposed within his
own philosophy.
The essay of 1965 Beyond the search for invariants (section 1) is not mentioned in the set of critical
historiography addressing Popper's approach to Presocratics. However this essay is the only Popperian
example of discussion of contemporary epistemological questions from the ancient age through a projection
of Parmenides in the modern physic (section 1.2). The text is marked by a line oriented from the past to the
present: this perspective can be framed as a counterexample compared to leitmotiv of the critics, which see in
the Popper's attention for the ancients a mere projection of his falsificationism on the past to find full
legitimacy. Section 1.1 reconstructs the use of different sources cited in this essay by comparing them with
those referred to by Popper in his contributions of subsequent years, and shows the importance of Giorgio de
Santillana in the cosmological popperian reading of the second part of the Pamenides' poem as well as in the
hypothesis of Xenophanes' presence in Parmenides' cosmology.
In section 2 we chose to show only a few examples, from the initial to the last Popper, to prove that the
reference to Presocratics has remained for the author a constant of his philosophical proposal, whose threads
are unravelled and intertwined in parallel with the pages dedicated, in an almost entirely private form, to the
passionate philological and historiographical considerations discussed in this work
Development and evaluation of a new biochip Nucleic Acid Test (NAT) multi-target for cervical cancer screening
Get PDFCervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women and the cytological
screening represents the most diffuse method of prevention. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is
an established essential etiological factor for this cancer. Persistence of HPV infection,
particularly by those belonging to the high-risk types (HR-HPV), is associated with an
increased risk for cervical cancer development. Low-risk HPV (LR-HPV) types are more
often associated with benign warts. Most invasive carcinomas are caused by two HR-HPV
types: HPV16 and 18. Recently, HPV tests are used as an adjunct test to decrease the falsenegative
rate of cytological screening with Papanicolaou test (PAP Test), especially HR-HPV
DNA detection tests are useful for primary screening of cervical cancer and for triage of
patients with equivocal cytological findings. However, the roles and contributions of other
uncommon and rare genotypes remain uncertain, especially in specific geographic areas or
populations. Recently, microarray biochip technology has been introduced into the clinical
laboratory for HPV detection. One such test is the ProDect® CHIP HPV TYPING KIT (bcs
Biotech Srl, Italy), which has the ability to identify 19 HPV types (all HR-HPV and most
common LR-HPV types) and detect the generic presence of E6/E7 HR-HPV sequences. The
aim of this pilot study was design a new biochip (CHIP PLUS) for the cervical cancer
screening able to detect a large number of HPV anogenital types (HR- and LR-HPV) using
two regions of the viral genome (L1 and E6/E7 sequences) as targets. This report also
presents the results of a preliminary validation study in preparation for an extended clinical
validation of the medical diagnostic ProDect® CHIP HPV TYPING PLUS employing the
above CHIP PLUS designed both for the simultaneous detection of 31 HPV types (both
common and uncommon HPV types) and for the characterization of three E6/E7 consensus
sequences belonging to the principal groups of HR-HPV. The preliminary results of the
ProDect® CHIP HPV TYPING PLUS KIT validation had higher concordance and/or greater
compatibility with those of the reference tests, underlining the importance of searching for
uncommon HPV types, enabling good prevention of cervical cancer using HPV DNA as test
screening
I canonici ospedalieri di S. Antonio di Vienne e la Sardegna
Get PDFThe aim of the PhD research is that of reconstructing the documentary body relating to the
presence and action of the hospitaller Order of St. Anthony of Vienne in Sardina (XIII-XVI
centuries). Starting from the analysis of the state of the art of the studies on the history of the
order and its presence in Sardinia, a first- hand research on the sources produced by the
Antonines community and on other sources dating back to the same historical period has been
carried out with the purpose of providing both a historical analysis and a critical edition of such
documents.
St. Anthony’s order, extremely powerful in the Late Middle Ages and widespread throughout
Europe, collapsed in modern age to the extent that it was suppressed at the end of the XVIII
century. Antonines were well known for their healing powers of a disease, the ‘St. Anthony’s
fire’, identified during the XVIII-XIX centuries with ergotism (food poisoning), but actually
related to all those illnesses of a gangrenous nature.
The analysis of the existing literature on the subject has shown the long-standing difficulties
encountered by Antonian historiography, due to the scattering of the sources of information and
to the influence of popular myths surrounding the illness. For what concerns the activity of
Antonines in Sardinia, the sources available to researchers were few in number and often
suffered from a superficial and non in depth enough interpretation. In the past, indeed, the
vacuum in the documentary body has led scholars to believe that their presence in Sardinia had
been marginal and not well documented. A more recent investigation of unpublished documents
has provided researchers with new sources which contribute to highlighting the real dimension of
the Antonian presence in the island. The documents, in this regard, prove that the canons
managed a number of properties, certainly in Cagliari, Oristano and Sassari, collecting donations
and revenues to be sent to the headquarter in Dauphiné.
Their presence, although discontinuous, is documented as much as the practice of certain
activities which made them well known, from their begging to their pig farming. The new
element emerging from the analysis is rather the fact that assisting ill Sardinians was never a
priority for them.
The body of documents collected and presented as an appendix to this research contributes to
providing a fairly complete picture of this page of Sardinian history which had until now been
left uncompleted and was not gravitating within the Iberian orbit as in the case of the rest of
Middle Age and Modern eras. Through the comparison between different sources, this research
shows how and to what extent Sardinian micro-history fits within the contest of European
macro-history
Markers immunoistochimici delle cellule staminali/progenitrici nel rene umano in via di sviluppo.
Get PDFThe aim of this study was to better define, by immunohistochemistry, the molecular markers of
renal stem/progenitor cells localized in the different niches of ten human preterm kidneys with
gestational age ranging from 11 up to 25 weeks. Our data evidence the existence of multiple
stem/progenitor pools in different zones of the human developing kidney that are characterized by
different phenotypes: capsular stem cells were EMA (MUC1)+, MDM2+, Vimentin+ and Wnt1+;
progenitors of the sub-capsular nephrogenic zone were MDM2+ and Wnt1+; cap mesenchymal
cells were EMA (MUC1)+, CD15+, vimentin+, Wt1+, CD10+, Bcl2+, Wnt1+ and PAX2+;
interstitial progenitor cells were Vimentin+, Wt1+ and α1Anti-tripsin +. Our data evidence the
existence of multiple stem/progenitor cell pools in the fetal and neonatal human kidney. Progenitors
of these different pools are characterized by a peculiar phenotype, indicating a different
differentiation stage of these renal progenitors. A better knowledge of the molecular markers
expressed by renal stem/progenitors might represent a relevant datum for researchers involved in
renal regenerative medicine
Sustainable management of natural stone waste. A proposed re-use for the production of mortars and the assessment of their potential CO2 sequestration capacity
Get PDFQuarrying activity usually generates significant amounts of waste. Generally, the processed
quarrying production accounts for 30% of total stone extracted, whilst waste (quarrying waste and
processing waste) amounts to about 70% of total stone extracted.
Not only could coping with waste be environmentally damaging, but it is also economically
expensive for the stone industry, which in addition has to deal with the economic loss caused by the
lower efficiency of quarrying. Some re-uses of natural stone waste, such as the production of
aggregates, have already been investigated, but they are not profitable for most quarrying
companies. Other re-uses of stone waste are related to economic fields which are too distant from
quarrying companies to foster their commitment on their re-use (such as agriculture; paper industry;
etc.). In fact, they are encouraged to sell waste at increasingly lower prices so as to get rid of it,
reducing landfill costs. This research identifies the re-use of stone waste in the construction industry
as the most profitable use, since quarrying activity is strictly related to the building industry. Hence,
quarrying companies have the necessary skills and expertise to evaluate the economic risks, thus
they are more eager to undertake the production of new by-products.
Therefore, the generic goal of this work is to convert natural stone waste into some by-products
with a renewed environmental and economic value. To this purpose, the production of cementbased
and lime-based materials such as mortars (mixtures of a binder, fine aggregates and water)
was identified amongst the possible re-uses as the most suitable one, since stone waste can be reused
to some extent as a substitute of the binder (cement or lime) fraction and for the production of
the aggregate fraction, thus achieving a higher re-use rate. In fact, since mortars have no structural
use, their requirements are far more flexible than materials such as concrete and it is possible to reuse
higher percentages of waste in their manufacture.
A further goal of this dissertation was to enhance the environmental advantages of re-using stone
waste for the production of mortars by investigating their CO2 sequestration capacity, since a
percentage of CO2 emissions from the production of mortars is reabsorbed as the mortar hardens,
owing to carbonation. Indeed, Portland cement production is responsible for 7% of annual CO2
emissions, due to the calcination reaction. Nonetheless, a secondary effect of carbonation is the
uptake of atmospheric CO2, which reacts with calcium hydroxide in mortars and precipitates as
calcium carbonate. Although CO2 uptake figures are far from the performance of other materials
(such as coal ash and industrial residues), it should be pointed out that mortars have great potential,
since their use in all built-up environments is impressively widespread.
Initially, the assessment of the CO2 uptake of some selected commercial mortars by means of
accelerated carbonation tests was undertaken through an experimental procedure, in order that a
standard methodology and a set of operative parameters could be established. Then, some mortar
mixtures constituted by stone waste were manufactured and henceforth called “ecological mortars”.
These mixtures underwent the same carbonation tests as the commercial mortars, so as to permit a
comparison between their performance.
The obtained experimental results showed that both the commercial and the ecological mortars
are capable to take up CO2. In particular, despite showing fairly lower figures, the “ecological
mortars” reported a carbon absorption during the first 28 days of curing exceeding 6% of that
emitted in the calcination reaction occurring during the production process.
Low though they may seem, this value could represent a significant amount considering the
period of service life, and after the service life (i.e. after demolition) of mortars