567 research outputs found
Fashion Culture: Power In Fashion with Stefano Tonchi and Grazia d'Annunzio
No full textStefano Tonchi, global chief creative officer for L’Officiel Group, and Grazia d’Annunzio, former deputy director of Vogue Italia, discuss the power of military uniforms and their influence on high fashion. Tonchi is co-author of the book "Uniform: Order and Disorder.
State of the Art of End-of-Life processes for LI Batteries and PB Ones and LCA Battery-Technology Analysis. Technical Report on Line 2: LCA analysis
No full textScope of this work is to carry out a comparative study of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) between lead acid and lithium-ion batteries used in the electricity network. A LCA methodology has been applied on the most interesting storage technologies (namely lead acid an lithium batteries) using input data arisen from direct interviews or literature and databases and the results quantify the environmental performance of these two systems with respect to various environmental indexes
Summary of the Specialist Brainstorming and Coordination Meeting on 'Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Risk Analysis in Nanomaterials-related NMP projects' - Bruxelles, 2nd March 2011
No full textAuthors Grazia Barberio, Simona Scalb
Durum-Wheat Straw Bales for Thermal Insulation of Buildings: Findings from a Comparative Energy Analysis of a Set of Wall-Composition Samples on the Building Scale
No full textThe urgent need to make buildings more performant in energy and environmental terms has led to the increasing study of recycled and natural materials as viable solutions. In this context, the present study aims at comparing the energy performance of innovative wall-sample solutions (with recycled polyethylene-terephthalate panels or durum-wheat straw bales) with a basic one. Energy evaluations were performed in Piazza Armerina (a city of Sicily–Italy), where the chosen material is widespread, by applying two calculation methods: a monthly average-energy-calculation approach, mandatory by Italian regulations (UNI TS 11300), and an hourly energy-calculation procedure (EN 52016). The results documented that: (i) the new innovative wall-sample allows for significantly reducing heat loss (heating of 4–10% and cooling of 40–50%) (ii) a lower primary-energy demand was obtained by adopting the new calculation procedure of EN 52016 (energy decreasing of 20–24%); (iii) significant differences in terms of heat-loss (of 10–36%) and heat-gain (up to 75%) calculations were found for the two calculation methods. This puts emphasis upon the importance of properly selecting a calculation method by accounting for all of those key variables and features that are representative of the energy system being investigated
Potential Improvement of the Methodology for Industrial Symbiosis Implementation at Regional Scale
No full textPurpose: An improvement of the methodology used for the implementation of the first industrial symbiosis platform in Italy is proposed aimed at solving some critical issues encountered during its application at a regional scale in Sicily. Methods: The investigation mainly focused on the phases of companies’ involvement and operative meeting organization. The different sectors characterizing the companies participating in the meetings were analyzed and compared with the productive system features in the investigated area. Resources shared by the companies during the operative meeting and the individuated potential matches were analyzed, as well. Results: Several critical issues were identified: (a) the low grade of diversification of participating companies that was not fully representative of the actual productive system so limiting the information on the potential matches; (b) the disequilibrium between observed supply and demand due to the prevalent interest of participating companies in finding out alternative solutions for the disposal of their residues rather than to find alternative supplies for their processes; (c) the excessive offers of services and expertise; (d) companies concern about a potential increase in controls on their activities. Conclusions: Solutions were proposed to increase the “biodiversity” of the firms, the level of companies knowledge on the potential for substituting their input resources, the control of “alien” species and to promote greater confidence in the symbiosis approach between the companies, as well as a greater awareness between the same stockholders. Finally the encouragement of paths that are not so financially attractive but that can have a strong positive impact on the environment is proposed. © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Combining life cycle assessment and qualitative risk assessment: The case study of alumina nanofluid production
No full textIn this paper the authors propose a framework for combining life cycle assessment (LCA) and Risk Assessment (RA) to support the sustainability assessment of emerging technologies. This proposal includes four steps of analysis: technological system definition; data collection; risk evaluation and impacts quantification; results interpretation. This scheme has been applied to a case study of nanofluid alumina production in two different pilot lines, "single-stage" and "two-stage". The study has been developed in the NanoHex project (enhanced nano-fluid heat exchange). Goals of the study were analyzing the hotspots and highlighting possible trade-off between the results of LCA, which identifies the processes having the best environmental performance, and the results of RA, which identifies the scenarios having the highest risk for workers. Indeed, due to lack of data about exposure limits, exposure-dose relationships and toxicity of alumina nanopowders (NPs) and nanofluids (NF), the workplace exposure has been evaluated by means of qualitative risk assessment, using Stoffenmanager Nano. Though having different aims, LCA and RA have a complementary role in the description of impacts of products/substances/technologies. Their combined use can overcome limits of each of them and allows a wider vision of the problems to better support the decision making process
Wor(l)d-making Libraries: Fantastic Libraries as Creators of Alternative Realities
No full textFantasy fiction often appropriates the topos of the library to reflect upon the generative power of literature and on our ability to tap into it. Since the publication of Jorge Luis Borges’ influential short story, The Library of Babel (1941), the image of the library as a universe in itself, as a repository of virtually boundless (if unfathomable and labyrinthine) knowledge has become a recurring feature in fantasy literature. This essay seeks to investigate how British author Genevieve Cogman and American author Scott Hawkins refer to this tradition in their respective novels The Invisible Library (2014) and The Library at Mount Char (2015), through an analysis of some specific elements. In both texts, the structure of the library is represented as an interdimensional core, a macrocosm from which other dimensions may develop (including our own): each alternative reality hinges upon the library, which is in itself boundless, albeit rigorously arranged. While Cogman chooses to highlight the library’s function as a portal to other worlds, thus staging a traditional quest consistent with the informing paradigms of fantasy fiction, Hawkins stresses its metaphysical quality, reflecting upon the idea of God and its viability in our contemporary culture. Furthermore, these conceptions are equally associated with an understanding of language which enhances the tropes of words as “speaking” things into existence. Whether enchanting or emanating from the library’s ordering force, the verbal tools devised by Cogman and Hawkins revolve around the idea that language is power, and that through language reality can be reshaped
Grazia Deledda’s autobiographical masks
Get PDFAll’interno della produzione di Grazia Deledda, Cosima è il personaggio più autobiografico, come si può notare dagli esempi riportati. È anche possibile scorgere assonanze tra l’autrice ed altre tre figure femminili protagoniste delle sue opere: Regina, protagonista di Nostalgie, Nina di Il Paese del Vento e Maria Concezione di La chiesa della solitudine.Among Grazia Deledda’s characters, Cosima is the most autobiographical one, as we can notice from the examples. Concordance can be noticed between the author and the female characters of her works: Regina is the main character of Nostalgie, Nina in Il Paese del Vento and Maria Concezione in La chiesa della solitudine
Valutazione di sostenibilità ambientale dei nanomateriali
No full textLe numerose attività di R&D sui nanomateriali (NM) stanno portando allo sviluppo di nuovi prodotti e applicazioni, anche se ancora sussistono importanti lacune di conoscenza sul loro comportamento (chimico-fisico e di interazioni biologiche). Le metodologie di Life Cycle Assessment e di Risk Assessment risultano molto utili al fine di valutare e supportare uno sviluppo tecnologico sostenibile e sicuro. Lo studio qui presentato, parte del progetto Europeo Nanohex , punta alla valutazione degli impatti di una tecnologia emergente basata sui NM, attraverso un confronto con il sistema tradizionale, e l’analisi di benefici, svantaggi e potenziali margini di miglioramento. L’articolo presenta il contesto dello studio e l’approccio metodologico
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