Indoor air quality in schools of a highly polluted south Mediterranean area

This study aimed at surveying lower secondary schools in southern Italy, in a highly polluted area. A community close to an industrial area and three villages in rural areas was investigated. Indoor temperature, relative humidity (RH), gaseous pollutants (CO₂ and NO₂), selected biological pollutants in indoor dust, and the indoor/outdoor mass concentration and elemental composition of PM_2.5 were ascertained. Temperature and RH were within, or close to, the comfort range, while CO₂ frequently exceeded the threshold of 1000 ppm, indicating inadequate air exchange rate. In all the classrooms, median NO₂ levels were above the WHO threshold value. Dermatophagoides p. allergen concentration was below the sensitizing threshold, while high endotoxin levels were detected in the classrooms, suggesting schools may produce significant risks of endotoxin exposure. Concentration and solubility of PM_2.5 elements were used to identify the sources of indoor particles. Indoor concentration of most elements was higher than outdoors. Resuspension was responsible for the indoor increase in soil components. For elements from industrial emission (Cd, Co, Ni, Pb, Sb, Tl, V), the indoor concentration depended on penetration from the outside. For these elements, differences in rural vs industrial concentrations were found, suggesting industrial sources may influence indoor air quality nearby schools.     

Evaluating an automated mediator for joint narratives in a conflict situation

ABSTRACT

Joint narratives are often used in the context of reconciliation interventions for people in social conflict situations, which arise, for example, due to ethnic or religious differences. The interventions aim to encourage a change in attitudes of the participants towards each other. Typically, a human mediator is fundamental for achieving a successful intervention. In this work, we present an automated approach to support remote interactions between pairs of participants as they contribute to a shared story in their own language. A key component is an automated cognitive tutor that guides the participants through a controlled escalation/de-escalation process during the development of a joint narrative. We performed a controlled study comparing a trained human mediator to the automated mediator. The results demonstrate that an automated mediator, although simple at this stage, effectively supports interactions and helps to achieve positive outcomes comparable to those attained by the trained human mediator.     

Natural resources derived biocomposites as potential carriers of green pesticides in agricultural field: Designing and fabrication of a pot-like device

Hemp fibers (HF) are used as filler in pectin to produce biocomposites. To improve the compatibility of the filler with the polymeric matrix, HF are treated through mechanochemically assisted alkaline attack. The effect of the treatment time on the morphology of HF is investigated through atomic force microscopy and infrared spectroscopy. Cinnamic acid, a green pesticide, is added to the composites in order to test the capability of such materials to act as potential devices in the agricultural field. Analysis of thermal, mechanical, barrier properties and surface energy are evaluated on biocomposites and compared either to unfilled pectin or to composites filled with untreated HF. The release of cinnamic acid is evaluated and found to be dependent on the fibers' treatment time. The design and the fabrication of a pot prototype is also reported. The manufacture appears promising as green functional container for plants to be implanted in the ground.     

Neuroinflammation and Hypothalamo-Pituitary Dysfunction: Focus of Traumatic Brain Injury

The incidence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) has increased over the last years with an important impact on public health. Many preclinical and clinical studies identified multiple and heterogeneous TBI-related pathophysiological mechanisms that are responsible for functional, cognitive, and behavioral alterations. Recent evidence has suggested that post-TBI neuroinflammation is responsible for several long-term clinical consequences, including hypopituitarism. This review aims to summarize current evidence on TBI-induced neuroinflammation and its potential role in determining hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunctions.     

Design guidelines of CMOS class-AB output stages: a tutorial

This article presents useful guidelines for designing CMOS class-AB output stages. Three Quality Factors, which allow analysis and comparison of different output stages, are used to design two CMOS class-AB stages. We show that using the proposed Quality Factors and the related strategy leads to an efficient design in terms trade-off among area, current consumption, bandwidth and distortion. Indeed, for one of the two stages adopted as example, the design through the Quality Factors results in superior distortion performance with respect to the design suggested in the original article. Design examples and simulations are provided to validate the design strategy.     

Temperature Effect on Concrete Creep Modeled by Microprestress-Solidification Theory

The previously developed microprestress-solidification theory for concrete creep and shrinkage is generalized for the effect of temperature (not exceeding 100°C). The solidification model separates the viscoelasticity of the solid constituent, the cement gel, from the chemical aging of material caused by solidification of cement and characterized by the growth of volume fraction of hydration products. This permits considering the viscoelastic constituent as non-aging. The temperature dependence of the rates of creep and of volume growth is characterized by two transformed time variables based on the activation energies of hydration and creep. The concept of microprestress achieves a grand unification of theory in which the long-term aging and all transient hygrothermal effects simply become different consequences of one and the same physical phenomenon. The microprestress, which is independent of the applied load, is initially produced by incompatible volume changes in the microstructure during hydration, and later builds up when changes of moisture content and temperature create a thermodynamic imbalance between the chemical potentials of vapor and adsorbed water in the nanopores of cement gel. As recently shown, this simultaneously captures two basic effects: First, the creep decreases with increasing age at loading after the growth of the volume fraction of hydrated cement has ceased; and, second, the drying creep, i.e., the transient creep increases due to drying (Pickett effect) which overpowers the effect of steady-state moisture content (i.e., less moisture—less creep). Now it is demonstrated that the microprestress buildup and relaxation also captures a third effect: The transitional thermal creep, i.e., the transient creep increase due to temperature change. For computations, an efficient (exponential-type) integration algorithm is developed. Finite element simulations, in which the apparent creep due to microcracking is taken into account separately, are used to identify the constitutive parameters and a satisfactory agreement with typical test data is achieved.     

A software development system based on a macroprocessor

In this paper a system for software development is described. This system consists of a general-purpose macroprocessor and a set of service programs. The macroprocessor has been planned to work in a conversational environment and to this purpose a set of utilities has been inserted to aid the editing and the debugging of the macrodefinitions. Indeed the system allows the user to select, by means of commands, the flow of the operations to be executed and to choose when and how any program has to be expanded. The macroprocessor is easy to use and it is suitable to generate codes for both high-level languages and assembler languages.     

Artificial neural network for the second virial coefficient of organic and inorganic compounds: An ANN for B of organic and inorganic compounds

An artificial neural network (ANN) to estimate the second virial coefficient, valid for organic and inorganic compounds, is presented. First, we statistically analyzed 6,531 experimental points, belonging to 234 fluids, collected from literature. The data were investigated with a factor analysis approach to identify the most significant parameters that influence the second virial coefficient. The factor analysis, combined with physical considerations, allowed to find four (T_r, T_c, P_c, ω) or five (μ_r) parameters as input variables for the ANN, according to the specific chemical family. The architecture of the proposed multi-layers perceptron (MLP) neural network consists of one input layer with five input variables (T_r, T_c, P_c, ω, μ_r), one output layer with one neuron (B) and two-hidden-layers with 19 neurons each. We trained, validated and tested several configurations of the neural network to obtain this network topology that minimizes the deviations between experimental and calculated points. Results show that the ANN is able to calculate the second virial coefficient with greater accuracy (RMSE?=?29.38?cm³/mol) than that of correlations available in literature. To identify the outliers and applicability domain of the proposed MLP neural network, an outlier diagnosis based on the Leverage approach was performed. This analysis shows that the model is statistically valid.     

Development of Potent Inhibitors of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Virulence Factor Zmp1 and Evaluation of Their Effect on Mycobacterial Survival inside Macrophages

The enzyme Zmp1 is a zinc‐containing peptidase that plays a critical role in the pathogenicity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Herein we describe the identification of a small set of Zmp1 inhibitors based on a novel 8‐hydroxyquinoline‐2‐hydroxamate scaffold. Among the synthesized compounds, N‐(benzyloxy)‐8‐hydroxyquinoline‐2‐carboxamide ( 1 c ) was found to be the most potent Zmp1 inhibitor known to date, and its binding mode was analyzed both by kinetics studies and molecular modeling, identifying critical interactions of 1 c with the zinc ion and residues in the active site. The effect of 1 c on intracellular Mycobacterium survival was assayed in J774 murine macrophages infected with M. tuberculosis H37Rv or M. bovis BCG and human monocyte‐derived macrophages infected with M. tuberculosis H37Rv. Cytotoxicity and genotoxicity were also assessed. Overall, inhibitor 1 c displays interesting in vitro antitubercular properties worthy of further investigation.     

A remote scanning Raman spectrometer for in situ measurements of works of art

In conservation science, one of the main concerns is to extract information from an artistic surface without damaging it. Raman spectroscopy has emerged in recent years as a reliable tool for the non-destructive analysis of a wide range of inorganic and organic materials in works of art and archaeological objects. Nevertheless, the technique is still mainly limited to the analysis of micro-samples taken from artistic surfaces. The development of an instrument able to perform non-contact analysis of an area of a few square centimeters aims to further increase the employment of this technique. This paper describes the development of a prototype Raman scanning spectrometer based on a diode laser, a 2D scanning mirror stage and a custom optical system, which can map a surface of 6 cm in diameter at a working distance of 20 cm. The device exhibits collecting optics with a depth of field close to 6 cm, which makes the Raman system suitable for the analysis of non-flat surfaces and three-dimensional objects. In addition, the overall dimensions and weight of the instrument have been limited in order to make the device transportable and, in principle, usable for in situ measurements. Details on the design of the device, with particular emphasis on the collecting optical system, and on results of the characterization tests carried out to assess its performances are reported. Finally, an example of an application involving the identification of pigments from a model painting is presented.