A Street Canyon Model Intercomparison in Florence, Italy

Assessing air quality in street canyons is a crucial concern, as the highest pollution levels and threshold exceedances are usually experienced within this kind of urban streets. A brief overview based on experimental studies and modelling techniques undertaken in literature is presented, including characteristic features affecting wind flow and pollutant dispersion within street canyons. In this work, a numerical street canyon model intercomparison has been performed in a typical urban canyon in Florence, Italy. In particular, STREET, Canyon Plume Box Model (CPBM) and Operational Street Pollution Model (OSPM) have been applied to compute the street-level 1-h carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations. In addition, the CALINE4 model has been applied to test the site morphology. Input data cover a 1-year time period and include meteorological observations as well as measured traffic volumes and driving speeds. Hourly road emissions have been calculated using the COPERT methodology taking into account vehicle fleet, traffic flows and driving speed, as well as ambient temperature to account for cold overemissions. A preliminary experimental data analysis has been carried out in order to investigate the dependence of observed CO concentrations on meteorological and traffic parameters. Hourly CO concentrations observed over the full year have been used to compare the STREET, CPB and OSP models, resulting in a detailed statistical analysis carried out by wind sector as well as on a seasonal basis.     

First data on the coastal dynamics and the sedimentary characteristics of the area influenced by the River Irminio basin (SE Sicily)

The various lithological outcrops in the drainage basin of the River Irminio are described for their contribution to the riverborne material and therefore to the sedimentary balance of the coastal strip. The main contribution to the present sedimentary balance of the subaqueous delta cannot be attributed to the River Irminio, owing to the extreme difference between fluvial and marine sediments. The river's hydraulic characteristics have not always been constant but have tended to decrease in three stages: the first, with a strong competence, shown by the Quaternary alluvial sediments with pebbles; the second, up to 1985, of medium competence, shown by sandy-gravelly deposits in the coastal strip and by finer sediments in the distal areas; the third, at the present day, with low competence, shown by a prevalently suspended load sediment with practically no fluvial influence and with a sedimentation dominated by the littoral currents; this is because between the 1960s and 1970s, owing to interventions along the river channel, the sediments from the basin were reduced to the point of non-existence and a new sedimentary cycle was set up on the delta with allochthonous sediments, exclusively made up of quartz clasts, whereas in the distal zones the mineralogical and compositional characteristics of the ancient river mouth were maintained.     

Monitoring chemical changes of dry-cured Parma ham during processing by surface autofluorescence spectroscopy

Parma hams at various processing stages were investigated by surface autofluorescence spectroscopy. Fluorescence "landscapes" of raw meat and salted (3 months), matured (11 and 12 months), and aged (15 and 18 months) Parma hams were obtained, and a three-dimensional data array (sample x emission x excitation) was used to develop a PARAFAC model including five components, which all exhibited characteristics of pure fluorophores regarding both excitation and emission spectra. The relative amount of each component related strongly to the processing stage, and sample age showed good correlation to fluorescence data (R = 0.98), with a relative error of prediction of approximately 1 month. Fluorescence measurements from samples of either semimembranosus or biceps femoris were used to predict chemical or sensory reference data, yielding good correlation for biceps femoris data, thereby enabling moisture content, sensory and instrumental color, and proteolysis value to be fairly well predicted. Overall, surface autofluorescence of Parma hams proved to hold relevant information, relating to major chemical/physical changes during processing. It is concluded that fluorescence spectroscopy has potential as an innovative method of quality control in dry-cured ham.     

Differences in the chemical composition of dissolved organic matter from waste material of different sources

The chemical composition of waste-material-derived dissolved organic matter (DOM) was characterized by chemolytic analyses and ¹H, ¹³C and ³¹P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Dissolved organic matter was extracted by water from an aerobic fermented urban waste compost, a sewage sludge and a pig slurry and then fractionated using the XAD-8 method. The amount of water-extractable dissolved organic carbon (DOC) ranged from 3% in the sewage sludge to 22% in the pig slurry. Dissolved organic matter isolated from pig slurry was equally distributed between hydrophilic and hydrophobic DOC, whereas in the sewage-sludge-derived material the hydrophobic fraction was predominant. Dissolved organic C from the urban waste compost was mainly within the hydrophilic fraction. Wet-chemical analysis and ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR spectra showed that both DOM fractions from the urban waste compost were low in neutral, acidic and amino sugars as well as in lignin-derived compounds. In turn, the materials were rich in low-molecular-weight aliphatic compounds. The chemical structure of both fractions is probably the result of the intensive transformation of urban waste compost during its fermentation. The hydrophilic fractions of DOM from sewage sludge and pig slurry contained considerable amounts of carbohydrates but were also rich in low-molecular-weight aliphatics. The respective hydrophobic fractions had the largest contents of CuO-extractable phenols which may in part derive from sources other than lignin. By contrast with the other materials, the hydrophobic fraction from the pig slurry seemed to contain polymeric rather than low-molecular-weight material. The ³¹P-NMR spectrum of the hydrophilic DOM fraction from urban waste compost did not show signals of inorganic or organic P compounds while the spectrum of the hydrophobic fraction revealed traces of monoester P, diester P, and orthophosphate. ³¹P-NMR spectroscopy suggested that both the hydrophobic and hydrophilic fractions from pig slurry did not contain organic P. The hydrophilic DOM fraction from sewage sludge contained orthophosphate, organic monoester P and a little pyrophosphate. The hydrophobic fraction contained mainly organic diester P and smaller amounts of teichoic acids and organic monoester P. Considering that water-soluble fractions of urban waste compost contained no easily plant-available P and a low content of labile organics, we conclude that this material contains less labile nutrients and is more refractory than the soluble constituents of pig slurry and sewage sludge.     

Rate of degradation of alpha-tocopherol,squalene, phenolics,and polyunsaturated fatty acids in olive oil during different storage conditions

Changes in the concentration of tocopherol, monophenols, o-diphenols, squalene, and polyunsaturated fatty acids in olive oil were evaluated during 1 year at various storage conditions. Samples of two different extra virgin olive oil (EOO), produced in Calabria (Italy), were stored in dark and in colorless bottles, filled up completely or to half, in order to simulate the domestic storage conditions. The extent of oxidation or photooxidation was monitored by periodic measurements of peroxide values and the rate of degradation of alpha-tocopherol, o-diphenols, squalene, and polyunsaturated fatty acids. The quantitative analysis of the constituents has been performed by HPLC-DAD, HPLC-MS, and GC-MS. The main changes in the concentrations of the analyzed compounds were associated with the major oxygen level in the half-empty glass bottles. alpha-Tocopherol was the first molecule to be oxidized (-20% after 2 months, -92% after 12 months). Squalene and o-diphenols were protected in the first months by the presence of alpha-tocopherol, and their content decreased significantly only after 6 and 8 months, respectively, in the half-empty bottles. The concentration of polyunsaturated fatty acids remained almost constant during 8 months for all four different storage conditions; their oxidation started when the level of the antioxidants decreased.     

Mutational analysis of the tyrosine phosphatome in colorectal cancers

Tyrosine phosphorylation, regulated by protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) and kinases (PTKs), is important in signaling pathways underlying tumorigenesis. A mutational analysis of the tyrosine phosphatase gene superfamily in human cancers identified 83 somatic mutations in six PTPs (PTPRF, PTPRG, PTPRT, PTPN3, PTPN13, PTPN14), affecting 26% of colorectal cancers and a smaller fraction of lung, breast, and gastric cancers. Fifteen mutations were nonsense, frameshift, or splice-site alterations predicted to result in truncated proteins lacking phosphatase activity. Five missense mutations in the most commonly altered PTP (PTPRT) were biochemically examined and found to reduce phosphatase activity. Expression of wild-type but not a mutant PTPRT in human cancer cells inhibited cell growth. These observations suggest that the mutated tyrosine phosphatases are tumor suppressor genes, regulating cellular pathways that may be amenable to therapeutic intervention.     

Agriculture and society: Remarks on transformations and new social profiles in the case of Italy

In this paper the authors analyze the two most important interrelated processes of social change in Italian agriculture: first the increasing productive specialization of family farming, both full and part-time, lending to the persistence of small farms but also to their growing integration and complementarity with other economic activities; and second the increasing heterogeneity of agricultural workers accompanied by the destructuring of their strong working-class identity, which had matured in the previous decades. This identity, however, also reflected a deep separation between agricultural laborers, their labor market and institutions, and the rest of the working class. The authors argue that these changes are progressively contributing to the full integration of agricultural social relations within an increasingly complex society. The analysis of these two processes in recent Italian experience shows that this trend towards integration differs totally from the hypothesis often advanced in the past according to which the integration of agriculture would occur through the development of green factories, more and more similar to large Fordist manufacturing plants. On the contrary, at least in present-day Italy, integration means increasing heterogeneity, also of organizational patterns in manufacturing, and growing inter-dependence.     

Radar soundings of the subsurface of Mars

The martian subsurface has been probed to kilometer depths by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding instrument aboard the Mars Express orbiter. Signals penetrate the polar layered deposits, probably imaging the base of the deposits. Data from the northern lowlands of Chryse Planitia have revealed a shallowly buried quasi-circular structure about 250 kilometers in diameter that is interpreted to be an impact basin. In addition, a planar reflector associated with the basin structure may indicate the presence of a low-loss deposit that is more than 1 kilometer thick.