Municipal Building Regulations for Energy Efficiency in Southern Italy

The building sector is still one of the most energy consuming sectors in Italy, like developed countries in Europe. At European level, the main policy driver related to the energy use in buildings is the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD, 2002/91/EC) and its recast. Through the EPBD in- troduction, requirements for certification, inspections, training or renovation are now imposed in Member States. In order to fulfill the expected changes, local regulations are a key factor aiming at sustainable territorial planning. It is thus required support the issue of local rules at municipal level in order to guide local administrators and technicians and to limit discretional power of bureaucracy. In this paper, a review of the most common practices for building regulations in Europe and in Italy is proposed, then the role and the framework of a municipal building regulation for the Southern European area accounting for sustainability features is discussed

Le acque sotterranee del Cansiglio

Il Cansiglio è un altipiano carsico, con un’estensione di circa 100 km2 e un’altitudine media di circa 1000 m; esso è situato al confine tra due regioni (Veneto e Friuli Venezia Giulia) e tre provincie (Treviso, Belluno e Pordenone). Questo importante sistema carsico non è mai stato oggetto di approfonditi studi idrogeologici, nonostante la presenza di rilevanti sorgenti alla sua base (Meschio, Molinetto, Santissima e Gorgazzo). L’occasione si è presentata con l’esplorazione, da parte del Gruppo Speleologico Ferrarese in collaborazione con altri gruppi speleologici, di quella che è tuttora la grotta più profonda della zona: l’Abisso Col de la Rizza (904/FR410) (circa 800 m di profondità per 4 km di sviluppo). Con la collaborazione del Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra dell’Università di Ferrara, è stato, quindi, progettato e realizzato un multi- tracciamento delle acque sotterranee, con due iniezioni in parallelo: fluoresceina sodica all’Abisso Col de la Rizza e tinopal CBS-X al Bus de la Genziana (V-TV1000) (la cavità più sviluppata della zona, con circa 5 km di sviluppo per 600 m di profondità). Il monitoraggio è stato eseguito alle sorgenti del Molinetto, Santissima e Gorgazzo, mediante campionatori di acqua automatici (alle sorgenti Molinetto e Gorgazzo) e con un impegnativo programma di prelievi manuali di campioni d’acqua e di fluocaptori (carboni attivi e garze di cotone) in 3-4 punti di ogni sorgente monitorata. Al termine del tracciamento risultavano positive alla fluoresceina sodica le sorgenti Molinetto e Santissima, mentre nessuna delle sorgenti monitorate era positiva al tinopal CBS-X. Le curve di arrivo del tracciante, permettevano il calcolo delle velocità medie di transito in entrambe le sorgenti positive alla fluoresceina sodica, pari a circa: 250 m giorno-1, in fase di magra, e 1100 m giorno-1, in fase di piena.Cansiglio is a limestone plateau with an extent of about 100 km2 and a mean altitude of 1000 m; it is located on the border between two regions (Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia) and three provinces (Treviso, Belluno and Pordenone). The hydrogeology of this important karst system is poorly known, despite it probably feeds three important springs located at its south-eastern border (Molinetto, Santissima and Gorgazzo) that form Livenza River. Gruppo Speleologico Ferrarese, in collaboration with other speleological team, explored the deepest cave of Cansiglio: Abisso Col de la Rizza (904/FR410) (about 800 m deep and with 4 km of extent), which provided the opportunity to perform a tracer test. In collaboration with the Earth Sciences Department of Ferrara University, a multi-tracer test was made with two contemporary injections of fluorescent dyes in groundwaters: uranine in Abisso Col de la Rizza and tinopal CBS-X in Bus de la Genziana (V-TV1000) (600 m deep and 5 km of extent). The monitoring at Molinetto, Santissima and Gorgazzo springs was performed by means of automated samplers (at Gorgazzo and Molinetto springs) and an intense discrete sampling survey, which included water samples, charcoal bags and cotton lints collection. Molinetto and Santissima springs resulted positive to uranine, while any springs was positive to tinopal CBS-X. The breakthrough curves make possible the determination of the mean velocity of uranine: about 250 m day-1, during low flow conditions, and 1100 m day-1, after an intense rainfall event

Celecoxib inhibits proliferation and survival of chronic myelogeous leukemia (CML) cells via AMPK-dependent regulation of β-catenin and mTORC1/2.

CML is effectively treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). However, the efficacy of these drugs is confined to the chronic phase of the disease and development of resistance to TKIs remains a pressing issue. The anti-inflammatory COX2 inhibitor celecoxib has been utilized as anti-tumour drug due to its anti-proliferative activity. However, its effects in hematological malignancies, in particular CML, have not been investigated yet. Thus, we tested biological effects and mechanisms of action of celecoxib in Philadelphia-positive (Ph+) CML and ALL cells.We show here that celecoxib suppresses the growth of Ph+ cell lines by increasing G1-phase and apoptotic cells and reducing S- and G2-phase cells. These effects were independent of COX2 inhibition but required the rapid activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and the consequent inhibition mTORC1 and 2. Treatment with celecoxib also restored GSK3β function and led to down-regulation of β-catenin activity through transcriptional and post-translational mechanisms, two effects likely to contribute to Ph+ cell growth suppression by celecoxib.Celecoxib inhibited colony formation of TKI-resistant Ph+ cell lines including those with the T315I BCR-ABL mutation and acted synergistically with imatinib in suppressing colony formation of TKI-sensitive Ph+ cell lines. Finally, it suppressed colony formation of CD34+ cells from CML patients, while sparing most CD34+ progenitors from healthy donors, and induced apoptosis of primary Ph+ ALL cells.Together, these findings indicate that celecoxib may serve as a COX2-independent lead compound to simultaneously target the mTOR and β-catenin pathways, key players in the resistance of CML stem cells to TKIs

Semiclassical methods in 2D QFT: spectra and finite-size effects

In this thesis, we describe some recent results obtained in the analysis of two-dimensional quantum field theories by means of semiclassical techniques. These achievements represent a natural development of the non-perturbative studies performed in the past years for conformally invariant and integrable theories, which have led to analytical predictions for several measurable quantities in the universality classes of statistical systems. Here we propose a semiclassical method to control analytically the spectrum and the finite-size effects in both integrable and non-integrable theories. The techniques used are appropriate generalizations of the ones introduced in seminal works during the Seventies by Dashen, Hasslacher and Neveu and by Goldstone and Jackiw. Their approaches, which do not require integrability and therefore can be applied to a large class of systems, are best suited to deal with those quantum field theories characterized by a non-linear interaction potential with different degenerate minima. In fact, these systems display kink excitations which generally have a large mass in the small coupling regime. Under these circumstances, although the results obtained are based on a small coupling assumption, they are nevertheless non-perturbative, since the kink backgrounds around which the semiclassical expansion is performed are non-perturbative too.Comment: PhD thesis, 117 pages, 40 figure

Boundary bootstrap principle in two-dimensional integrable quantum field theories

We study the reflection amplitudes of affine Toda field theories with boundary, following the ideas developed by Fring and Koberle and focusing our attention on the $E_{n}$ series elements, because of their interesting structure of higher order poles. We also investigate the corresponding minimal reflection matrices, finding, with respect to the bulk case, a more complicated relation between the spectra of bound states associated to the minimal and to the ''dressed'' amplitudes.Comment: 28 pages, LATEX file; eq.(5.1) corrected, minor comments added; version to be published in Nucl. Phys.

A GAMIFICATION FRAMEWORK FOR CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE WATER USAGE PROMOTION

The recent advent of smart meters to increase the effectiveness of urban Water Demand Management Strategies (WDM) has allowed water utilities to gather quasi real-time consumption data to monitor the network status and load and useful to develop models of consumers' behavior. At the same time, the consumption information can warn users about their habits in a fine-grained way. In principle, the feedback alone could stimulate increased awareness on water usage, but the motivations and individual attitudes of consumers are mostly hidden. Moreover, the same sustainable behavior should be incentivized also for households in which smart metering solutions are not present, but for which data gathering becomes a challenge. Modifying users' behavior by means of software is a tough task, due to the difficulty in designing an effective application able to maintain the behavioral changes in the long term. Gamification, the use of game design techniques and game mechanics to enhance traditional applications and drive behaviors of its users, has been proven successful in tackling with the problem. In this work, we propose a gamified application to enhance users' participation and data gathering in a real WDM scenario, by describing the designing principles and the architecture of the envisioned solution. An integrated approach exploiting both board and digital games to incentivize users to submit meaningful data for water utilities and change their long-term behavior is also detailed. The work is part of the SmartH2O project, which aims at creating an ICT platform to raise customers' awareness about their consumption and pursue water savings in the residential sector

Towards a better knowledge of Cansiglio karst system (Italy): results of the first successful groundwater tracer test

Cansiglio is a limestone plateau located on the border between the regions of Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, northeastern Italy. The eastern area is characterized by a thick succession of Cretaceous peritidal carbonates, while the central western part is characterized by slope breccia deposits. Even thoughPian Cansiglio is an important karst system, its hydrogeology is poorly known. Three important springs that form the Livenza River are located at its southeastern border and are thought to represent the majority of karst aquifer discharge, but no experimental data are available in the literature. Gruppo Speleologico Ferrarese explored an 800 m deep cave (Abisso Col de la Rizza) on Pian Cansiglio, whichprovided the opportunity to conduct tracer tests. Fluorescent dyes were injected in September 2008 in Abisso Col de la Rizza (uranine) and in Bus della Genziana (tinopal CBS-X). Over a period of three months, local cavers conducted an intense sampling programme, whichincluded collecting water samples, charcoal bags and cotton lints. Automated samplers were used for highfrequency monitoring at two of the springs. Tinopal was not detected, so the connection between Bus della Genziana and the springs was not demonstrated. The connection between Abisso Col de la Rizza and two of the springs was demonstrated by uranine. A mean velocity of 248 m/day results from the tracer concentration peaks; intense rainfall events increased the flow velocities four to five times. Different hypotheses are considered in order to explain the low mass recovery rate (32-40% of the injected mass). The uranine tracer test demonstrated that Pian Cansiglio aquifer contributes to the two Livenza springs; it also opens a question about the third spring, whichprobably originates from the Mount Cavallo area (another limestone massif close to Pian Cansiglio). The rapid response to rainfall recharge suggests a vulnerability of the spring system, further supporting the importance of conducting a detailed hydrogeological study. 

Bacterial culturing is crucial to boost sustainable agriculture

The huge amount of information on microbiomes gained through the advancement of high-throughput sequencing methods has been translated only partially into concrete solutions for societal needs. Here, we highlight that bacterial culturing remains pivotal in microbiology and is crucial for the effective application of plant probiotics in sustainable agriculture