1,721,077 research outputs found
APPLICATION OF AN INNOVATIVE METHODOLOGY FOR EVALUATING THE CIRCULARITY AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF AGRI-FOOD PRODUCTS
Full text linkLo scopo di questa ricerca è in primo luogo quello di proporre un approccio in cui applicare i più riconosciuti strumenti di misurazione circolare ed ambientale in modo da correlare la circolarità con gli impatti ambientali. In secondo luogo, è quello di testare ed analizzare il modello proposto attraverso dei casi di studio comparati e valutarne l'applicabilità come strumento efficace di valutazione circolare-ambientale di prodotto che indichi se l'applicazione di principi circolari può migliorare o peggiorare gli impatti ambientali di prodotto.
Per facilitare la scelta dei metodi di valutazione più appropriati per questo scopo, vengono eseguite diverse revisioni sistematiche di letteratura. In primo luogo, viene completata una valutazione quali-quantitativa di diversi indicatori circolari ed ambientali di prodotto i cui risultati hanno portato al Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) sviluppato da parte dell'EMF come indicatore di Circular Economy (CE) e BioEconomy (BE) più citato, ed al Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) come strumento di valutazione degli impatti ambientali più adatto in ambito di BE. In secondo luogo, dalla letteratura vengono rilevati diversi modelli di integrazione/combinazione tra circolarità e valutazioni ambientali che portano ad un consenso non univoco ed a valutazioni non ancora consolidate.
Per rispondere alle esigenze di ricerca, viene proposto un modello di integrazione metodologica tra MCI e LCA in cui vengono selezionati dei casi di studio comparati nel settore agroalimentare (poiché i loro prodotti comprendono sia materiali biologici che tecnici) per testare ed analizzare il modello. Come risultato, viene implementato un innovativo pannello di valutazione circolare ed ambientale di prodotti accoppiati appartenenti alla stessa categoria merceologica. Nello specifico, vengono rilevati cinque scenari in cui la relazione tra circolarità e relativi impatti ambientali varia a seconda della pendenza della linea di tendenza che collega il prodotto analizzato ad un altro prodotto comparabile. Rispetto agli studi presenti in letteratura, il valore aggiunto dell'applicazione del modello integrato MCI-LCA è quello di consentire una valutazione completa ed olistica attraverso un innovativo pannello di valutazione circolare (sia in termini di cicli biologici che tecnici) ed ambientale dei prodotti accoppiati (e dei relativi scenari) appartenenti alla stessa categoria merceologica.
Come indicazione generale, applicare i principi della CE non significa ridurre l'impatto ambientale in quanto ciò dipende dal tipo di categoria di impatto e dal prodotto analizzato. I risultati raggiunti attraverso l'applicazione dei principi del modello integrato MCI-LCA proposto lo validano migliorando la consapevolezza scientifica sulla circolarità e sugli impatti ambientali ad essa associati, e collegando il quadro circolare-ambientale sviluppato ad idonee misure di mitigazione. Tuttavia, sono presenti margini di miglioramento: la durata, il tasso di riciclaggio e le assunzioni relative ai cicli biologici circolari influenzano la validità del modello; tutti i risultati di MCI dipendono fortemente da come vengono definiti i confini del sistema e dalla presenza di rebound effects; i risultati sono influenzati altresì dalla definizione degli scenari lineari. Un'ulteriore limitazione del metodo è l'insufficiente quantità di casi di studio che hanno testato la validità degli scenari proposti. Sono necessari ulteriori casi di studio comparati da applicare al modello integrato proposto anche per considerare gli scenari circolari-ambientali rilevati come linee guida generali o settoriali per la valutazione integrata circolare-ambientale di prodotto e cercare di colmare il gap delle normative standardizzate sul quadro di misurazione della CE che ha portato all’attuale non uniformità nei metodi di indicatori.The purpose of this research is firstly to propose an approach in which to apply the most recognized circular and environmental measurement tools so that to correlate circularity with environmental impacts. Secondly, it is to test and analyze the model through compared case studies and assess its applicability as an effective product circularity-environmental assessment tool which indicates whether applying circular principles can improve or worsen the environmental impacts of products.
To facilitate the choice of the most appropriate assessment methods for this purpose, several systematic literature reviews are performed. Firstly, a quali-quantitative assessment of several indicators to measure circular and environmental performances of products is completed whose results led to the Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) by the EMF as the most cited circular economy (CE) and bioeconomy (BE) indicator, and the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as the most suitable environmental impacts assessment tool within bioeconomy. Secondly, several literature integration/combination patterns between circularity and environmental assessments are detected which lead to a non-univocal consensus and to evaluations not yet consolidated.
To address the research needs, a MCI-LCA methodological integration model is proposed in which compared case studies are selected in the agri-food sector (since their products encompass both biological and technical materials) to test and analyze the model. As a result, an innovative circular and environmental assessment panel of coupled products belonging to the same product category is implemented. Specifically, five scenarios are detected in which the relationship between circularity and the relative environmental impacts varies according to the trend line slope linking the product analyzed to another comparable product. Compared to studies in the current literature, the added value of the application of the MCI-LCA integrated model is to allow for a comprehensive and holistic assessment through an innovative circular (both in terms of biological and technical cycles) and environmental assessment panel of coupled products (and the relative scenarios) belonging to the same product category.
As a general outcome, applying the principles of CE do not always mean reducing the environmental impact, as it depends on the type of impact category and product. The results achieved through the application of the principles of the proposed MCI-LCA integrated model make the latter validated by improving the scientific awareness on circularity and environmental impacts associated with it and linking the circular-environmental framework to suitable mitigation measures. Still, there is room for improvement: the lifetime, the recycling rate, and the circular biological cycles assumptions affect the validity; all MCI results are highly dependent on how the system boundary is defined, and the presence of rebound effects; the results are also affected by the definition of the linear scenario. A further limitation of the method is the insufficient amount of case studies that tested the viability of the proposed scenarios. Additional compared case studies are required to be applied to the proposed integrated model also to consider the detected circular-environmental scenarios as general or sector guidelines for the integrated circular-environmental assessment of products and try to bridge the gap of standardized regulations on CE measurement framework, which has led to the current nonuniform indicator approaches
Traffic Management System for the combined optimal routing, scheduling and motion planning of self-driving vehicles inside reserved smart road networks
No full textThe topic discussed in this thesis belongs to the field of automation of transport
systems, which has grown in importance in the last decade, both in the innovation
field (where different automation technologies have been gradually introduced in
different sectors of road transport, in the promising view of making it more efficient,
safer, and greener) and in the research field (where different research activities and
publications have addressed the problem under different points of view).
More in detail, this work addresses the problem of autonomous vehicles coordina tion inside reserved road networks by proposing a novel Traffic Management System
(TMS) for the combined routing, scheduling and motion planning of the vehicles.
To this aim, the network is assumed to have a modular structure, which results from
a certain number of roads and intersections assembled together. The way in which
roads and intersections are put together defines the network layout. Within such a
system architecture, the main tasks addressed by the TMS are: (1) at the higher
level, the optimal routing of the vehicles in the network, exploiting the available
information coming from the vehicles and the various elements of the network; (2)
at a lower level, the modeling and optimization of the vehicle trajectories and speeds
for each road and for each intersection in the network; (3) the coordination between
the vehicles and the elements of the network, to ensure a combined approach that
considers, in a recursive way, the scheduling and motion planning of the vehicles in
the various elements when solving the routing problem.
In particular, the routing and the scheduling and motion planning problems are
formulated as MILP optimization problems, aiming to maximize the performance
of the entire network (routing model) and the performance of its single elements -
roads and intersections (scheduling and motion planning model) while guaranteeing
the requested level of safety and comfort for the passengers.
Besides, one of the main features of the proposed approach consists of the integration of the scheduling decisions and the motion planning computation by means of constraints regarding the speed limit, the acceleration, and the so-called safety
dynamic constraints on incompatible positions of conflicting vehicles. In particular,
thanks to these last constraints, it is possible to consider the real space occupancy
of the vehicles avoiding collisions.
After the theoretical discussion of the proposed TMS and of its components
and models, the thesis presents and discusses the results of different numerical experiments, aimed at testing the TMS in some specific scenarios. In particular, the
routing model and the scheduling and motion planning model are tested on different scenarios, which demonstrate the effectiveness and the validity of such approach
in performing the addressed tasks, also compared with more traditional methods.
Finally, the computational effort needed for the problem solution, which is a key element to take into account, is discussed both for the road element and the intersection element
Petrarca negli zibaldoni di cancelleria
No full textNumerose furono le occasioni in cui Petrarca si trovò ad agire come cancelliere e diplomatico e compose in questa funzione lettere e le orazioni, in particolare negli anni passati a Milano (1353-1361). Alcune miscellanee di ‘exempla epistolarum’, messe insieme in ambito visconteo, raccolgono lettere di Petrarca insieme a quelle di alcuni cancellieri, primo fra tutti il Salutati. L’articolo fornisce la dettagliata descrizione di tre manoscritti di questa tipologia: Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, P 256 sup.; Verbania, Archivio di Stato, Zibaldone cancelleresco (senza segnatura); Bellinzona, Archivio Storico Ticinese, Diversi 150, incrementando una rassegna in precedenza inaugurata con l’analisi di sette manoscritti
Sleep and brain infections
No full textSleep is frequently altered in systemic infections as a component of sickness behavior in response to inflammation. Sleepiness in sickness behavior has been extensively investigated. Much less attention has instead been devoted to sleep and wake alterations in brain infections. Most of these, as other neuroinfections, are prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. The present overview highlights the importance of this topic from both the clinical and pathogenetic points of view. Vigilance states and their regulation are first summarized, emphasizing that key nodes in this distributed brain system can be targeted by neuroinflammatory signaling. Sleep-wake changes in the parasitic disease human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) and its animal models are then reviewed and discussed. Experimental data have revealed that the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the master circadian pacemaker, and peptidergic cell populations of the lateral hypothalamus (the wake-promoting orexin neurons and the sleep-promoting melanin-concentrating hormone neurons) are targeted by African trypanosome infection. It is then discussed how prominent and disturbing are sleep changes in HIV/AIDS, also when the infection is cured with antiretroviral therapy. This recalls attention on the bidirectional interactions between sleep and immune system, including the specialized brain immune response of which microglial cells are protagonists. Sleep changes in an ancient viral disease, rabies, and in the emerging infection due to Zika virus which causes a congenital syndrome, are also dealt with. Altogether the findings indicate that sleep-wake regulation is targeted by brain infections caused by different pathogens and, although the relevant pathogenetic mechanisms largely remain to be clarified, these alterations differ from hypersomnia occurring in sickness behavior. Thus, brain infections point to the vulnerability of the neural network of sleep-wake regulation as a highly relevant clinical and basic science challenge
Claustrum et armarium. Studi su alcune biblioteche ecclesiastiche italiane tra Medioevo ed Età moderna
No full textIl volume propone una raccolta di saggi che indagano, con differenti approcci metodologici e sotto diversi punti di vista, l'evoluzione storica delle biblioteche ecclesiastiche dal Medioevo all'Età moderna
Network-Wide Public Transport Occupancy Prediction Framework with Multiple Line Interactions
No full textThis paper addresses the problem of predicting the occupancy of urban public transport vehicles with a network-wide framework where the effects of the interactions between multiple lines are jointly considered. In particular, we propose and compare several occupancy predictors, each of them differing in the amount of information used and in the prediction model adopted. We consider twoprediction models: a behavioral model that assumes an explicit relation between some observed variables and the occupancy, and a machine learning model based on the LightGBM algorithm. We evaluate the proposed network-wide prediction framework on two real-world case studies related to the public transport network of the Swiss city of Zurich. The results show that predicting the occupancy for a target line while simultaneously considering the other lines in the network allows significant improvements in the accuracy of the predictions, especially in the corridors served by different interacting lines. The described methodology could be used by public transport agencies to improve the accuracy of the crowding information provided to passengers and to increase the attractiveness of public transport systems
An Optimization Approach for the Van-Robot Pairs Routing in the Physical Internet Framework
No full textProblemi di traduzione: uno Pseudo-Crisostomo commenta Geremia
No full textPseudo-Chrysostom’s commentary on Jeremiah is here presented as an example of a Greek exegetical work facing up to the clear discrepancies between the Hebrew text of the biblical book and its Old Greek translation. A comparison with one of Photius’s Amphilochia (no. 152) strengthens the attribution of this commentary to Polychronius of Apamea, already suggested by L. Dieu. The comments to Ier 38 (MT31), 2 are particularly focused and offer an opportunity to investigate the hypothesis that the source therein mentioned as ὁ Ἑβραῖος might refer to a Greek rendering of an Aramaic (and potentially Targumic) version of the Hebrew text
Archilochus Coloniensis alio modo
No full textSome new supplements to Archilochus' longest extant poem and a different distribution of the lines give it a consistent shape, characterized by the theme of haste and self-restraint. A Latin translation follows the critical text
Natura e storia del Giuseppe Flavio ambrosiano
No full textNew palaeographical, linguistic, historical and artistic facts concerning the papyrus codex Ambr. Cimelio 1 are presented. The codex appears to be the first self-standing copy, made by dictation, of the translation Cassiodorus fostered. It is therefore a pre-archetype of the text, which was published A.D. 553 at the latest; consequently the codex was written in Constantinople. It has never been bound, but the loose quires were kept in a luxurious box, whose cover was made, on both sides, of a consular diptych. Both codex and box were in the monastery of Saint Ambrose in Milan, where an insular monk in the second half of the ninth century read the text competently
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