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Diesel engine exhausts from a common rail 3.0 L F1C diesel engine were analyzed at two different load conditions of the WLTC testing cycle downstream of both the diesel particulate filter (DPF) and selective catalytic reactor (SCR) to verify their effect on the characteristics of carbon particulate matter. An array of chemical, physical and spectroscopic techniques (gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS), mobility analyzer, UV-Visible absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy) was applied for characterizing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), heavy aromatic compounds and soot, constituting the particulate matter (PM) sampled from the exhaust. The engine was operated in half load (HL) (188 Nm, representing the more common condition for engine in urban traffic) and full load (FL) (452 Nm, representing the best performance of the engine operation) conditions, at the same engine speed (2000 rpm). Soot formation was enhanced in HL condition, with respect to FL, but, just because of the much lower soot amount, the after-treatment systems in this last condition resulted to be less efficient in the soot abatement. Indeed, the abatement through DPF was about 40% lower in the FL condition with respect to HL condition, and any significant further concentration decrease was found after SCR, in both conditions. By contrast, PAH concentration after DPF abatement was found to be higher in the HL with respect to FL condition. A further PAH concentration decrease of about 30% was found after the SCR in the HL condition whereas in FL the reduction was only about 5-6%. Also the heavy aromatic compounds having molecular weight above the GC-MS detection limit (300 u), were mitigated by SCR. Therefore, SCR did not cause a further soot reduction, whereas it was effective in largely reducing PAH and heavy aromatics emissions, especially in the lower temperature condition featuring the half-load condition, when combustion efficiency is worse. Moreover, SCR system reduced the emission of small particles probably due to an enhanced agglomeration of particles, with beneficial effect on the harmfulness to human health.

Activity pacing (AP) is a concept that is central to many chronic pain theories and treatments, yet there remains confusion regarding its definition and effects.To review the current knowledge concerning AP and integrate this knowledge in a manner that allows for a clear definition and useful directions for future research.A narrative review of the major theoretical approaches to AP and of the empirical evidence regarding the effects of AP interventions, followed by an integrative discussion.The concept of AP is derived from 2 main traditions: operant and energy conservation. Although there are common elements across these traditions, significant conceptual and practical differences exist, which has led to confusion. Little empirical evidence exists concerning the efficacy of AP as a treatment for chronic pain.Future research on AP should be based on a clear theoretical foundation, consider the context in which the AP behavior occurs and the type of pacing problem ("underactivity" vs. "overactivity"), and should examine the impact of AP treatment on multiple clinical outcomes. We provide a provisional definition of AP and specific recommendations that we believe will move the field forward.

Systemic delivery of therapeutic agents remains ineffective against diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), possibly due to an intact blood-brain-barrier (BBB) and to dose-limiting toxicity of systemic chemotherapeutic agents. Convection-enhanced delivery (CED) into the brainstem may provide an effective local delivery alternative for DIPG patients.The aim of this study is to develop a method to perform CED into the murine brainstem and to test this method using the chemotherapeutic agent carmustine (BiCNU). To this end, a newly designed murine CED catheter was tested in vitro and in vivo. After determination of safety and distribution, mice bearing VUMC-DIPG-3 and E98FM-DIPG brainstem tumors were treated with carmustine dissolved in DW 5% or carmustine dissolved in 10% ethanol.Our results show that CED into the murine brainstem is feasible and well tolerated by mice with and without brainstem tumors. CED of carmustine dissolved in 5% DW increased median survival of mice with VUMC-DIPG-3 and E98FM-DIPG tumors with 35% and 25% respectively. Dissolving carmustine in 10% ethanol further improved survival to 45% in mice with E98FM-DIPG tumors.Since genetically engineered and primary DIPG models are currently only available in mice, murine CED studies have clear advantages over CED studies in other animals.CED in the murine brainstem can be performed safely, is well tolerated and can be used to study efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents orthotopically. These results set the foundation for more CED studies in murine DIPG models.

Despite the well-established finding from questionnaire studies that positive expectancies are associated with drinking behavior, there is comparatively little known about the mechanisms through which they may affect drinking behavior. Incentive motivation models suggest that alcohol itself may alter the value of the expected outcomes of drinking. The current study was designed to examine the influence of low-dose alcohol on the activation of alcohol outcome expectancy value.Forty-eight hazardous drinkers (34 men) between the ages of 21 and 35 years were recruited from advertisements in local newspapers for a social drinking study. Participants, whose most frequently consumed beverage was beer, were administered a dose of either alcoholic (8.5%) beer, based on gender and weight to reach a blood alcohol concentration of 40 mg/dl, or an equivalent volume of placebo beer. Following an absorption phase, a computerized evaluative priming task was completed in which participants made a series of judgments about the value of positive and negative outcomes following either alcohol or neutral word primes.Those who consumed alcohol made faster evaluative responses to positive relative to negative outcomes, compared with individuals who consumed the placebo beverage.These findings suggest that moderate doses of alcohol may influence the incentive value of positive relative to negative outcome expectancies. It is suggested that these processes may play a role in patterns of hazardous alcohol use.

It is recognised that several constraints such as the lack of knowledge and expertise of farmers, land users and policy makers concerning agroforestry systems establishment and management hamper the adoption of agroforestry systems (Camilli et al. 2017). AFINET project acts at EU level in order to direct research results into practice and promote innovative ideas to face challenges and solve practitioners' problems. AFINET proposes an innovative methodology based on the creation of a European Interregional Network, linking different Regional Agroforestry Innovation Networks (RAINs). RAINs represent different climatic, geographical, social and cultural conditions and enclose a balanced representation of the key actors with complementary types of expertise (farmers, policy makers, advisory services, extension services, etc.). The Italian RAIN is focused on the Extra-Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) value chain, with the main aim to promote agroforestry management of local olive orchards. Olive trees are still managed traditionally, often in marginal sites, with minimal mechanization and relatively low external inputs such as chemical treatments in comparison to other crops. The presence of permanent crops (olive trees) guarantees a partially tree cover reducing hydrogeological risk. Soil management usually keeps natural grassing reducing soil carbon emission and increasing soil fertility (Bateni et al. 2017). Intercropping with cereals and/or fodder legumes and livestock can also be practiced in olive orchards, increasing the complexity of the olive tree multifunctional system. Moreover, olive orchards can be managed as agroforestry systems since they can be intercropped with arable crops (cereals, legumes) and/or combined with livestock (sheep, poultry). The RAIN process, involving local stakeholders, highlighted the main bottlenecks of the EVOO value chain related to communication and dissemination of knowledge, technical and management aspects, market and policy. In order to contrast bottlenecks and exploit opportunities of the olive oil supply chain, the identified innovations are: i) adoption of best practices: testing and experimenting innovative agroforestry systems introducing different crop/animals species and varieties; ii) improve the management of the olive orchards: encouraging and increasing the organic production; iii) valorisation of olive processing residues: identifying and testing innovative products (bio-materials, olive paste as example); iv) arise the awareness among consumers: educating people about the benefits of olive oil consumption, creating networks among stakeholders, improving marketing and commercialization. Creating a Bio-district, defined as a geographical area where farmers, citizens, tourist operators, associations and public authorities enter into an agreement for the sustainable management of local resources, emerged a powerful tool to implement the innovation in the local EVOO value chain.

Roundtables for sustainable beef have evolved in national contexts as well as at the global level as a multi-stakeholder process to address sustainability concerns in the cattle sector. However, due to their relatively recent inception, the literature on the beef roundtables is extremely limited and very little scholarly work has traced their process or impact. We used semi-structured interviews with key informants to examine the governance, actions, and potential impacts of the roundtables for sustainable beef, and identified opportunities and challenges for achieving greater sustainability impact. We found that the beef roundtables are in different stages of development and implementation and that they have diverse approaches based on their geographic contexts. However, they have universally adopted a model of sector-wide continuous improvement, in contrast to roundtables for other commodities, which have in many cases adopted formal certification programs. Activities by the roundtables for sustainable beef have variously included working towards definitions of sustainable beef; setting sustainability principles and criteria; and creating working groups to address specific aspects of sustainability (e.g., verification, deforestation). Our interviews identified opportunities to expand the roundtables’ roles, activities, and sustainability impacts. This study provides a benchmark of the roundtables’ efforts to date, and generates hypotheses and ideas for how they could evolve in the future.

The hollow-fibre oxygenator is a key component of any extracorporeal circuit used to provide cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) during open-heart surgery. Since the oxygenator is placed downstream of the pump, the energy losses over it have a direct impact on the quality of pulsatile pressure and flow waveforms. The objective of this study was to describe the effects of hydrodynamic characteristics of the oxygenator on energy transfer during pulsatile, normothermic CPB. Twenty-three adult patients scheduled for coronary bypass surgery were divided randomly into two groups, using either an oxygenator (Group 1) with a relatively high-resistance and low-compliance (2079 ± 148 dyn.s.cm-5 and 0.00348 ± 0.00071 ml.mmHg-1, respectively) or an oxygenator (Group 2) with a relatively low-resistance and high-compliance (884 ± 464 dyn.s.cm-5 and 0.01325 ± 0.00161 ml .mmHg-1, respectively). During perfusion, pre- and post-oxygenator pressures, radial artery pressure, and blood flow were recorded simultaneously. A 32% decline of mean pressure was observed in Group 1 and a 16% decline in Group 2 (p<0.0001). Another decrease by approximately 73% in mean pressure in the rest of the perfusion system was noted in both groups. The mean radial artery pressure did not differ between the groups (74 ± 6 mmHg in Group 1 and 73 ± 6 mmHg in Group 2, p=0.608). Although lower total energy transfer indices were noticed through the low-resistance oxygenator (Group 2), both oxygenators showed a decrease of the generated pump oscillatory energy of approximately 50%. Despite the differences in resistance and compliance of the hollow-fibre oxygenators used, both oxygenators cause a comparable loss of generated oscillatory energy. Exclusion of the oxygenator downstream of the pulsatile pump would improve energy transfer during CPB.

AbstractPlant species exert a dominant control over the nitrogen (N) cycle of natural and managed grasslands. Although in intensively managed systems that receive large external N inputs the emission of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) is a crucial component of this cycle, a mechanistic relationship between plant species and N2O emissions has not yet been established. Here we use a plant functional trait approach to study the relation between plant species strategies and N2O emissions from soils. Compared to species with conservative strategies, species with acquisitive strategies have higher N uptake when there is ample N in the soil, but also trigger N mineralization when soil N is limiting. Therefore, we hypothesized that (1) compared to conservative species, species with acquisitive traits reduce N2O emissions after a high N addition; and (2) species with conservative traits have lower N2O emissions than acquisitive plants if there is no high N addition. This was tested in a greenhouse experiment using monocultures of six grass species with differing above‐ and below‐ground traits, growing across a gradient of soil N availability. We found that acquisitive species reduced N2O emissions at all levels of N availability, produced higher biomass and showed larger N uptake. As such, acquisitive species had 87% lower N2O emissions per unit of N uptake than conservative species (p < .05). Structural equation modelling revealed that specific leaf area and root length density were key traits regulating the effects of plants on N2O emission and biomass productivity. These results provide the first framework to understand the mechanisms through which plants modulate N2O emissions, pointing the way to develop productive grasslands that contribute optimally to climate change mitigation.