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Il volume contiene gli abstract dei lavori accettati per i contributi orali e i poster presentati a HYPOTHESIS XII

Castor (Ricinus communis L.) is an oilseed species, which in southern Italy is cultivated as annual during the spring-summer period under irrigation, but in most temperate areas such as those of eastern coast of Sicily, it could be grown as semiperennial with no irrigation, by the adoption of autumnal sowings. A field experiment was conducted in southeastern Sicily with the aim of assessing plant surviving, seed yield and oil quality of four castor genotypes originating from different geographical areas (two Sicilian, one Tunisian and one Brazilian). The favorable climatic conditions allowed the plant to survive during the fall-winter period. Seed yield reached 3.45 t ha-1 on average of the two years and seed oil content ranged from 45% (Tunisian cultivar) to 48% ('Local RG 2' Sicilian genotype). Oil yield reflected the variation in seed yield. Genetic diversity for fatty acid composition and saponification number, iodine value and cetane number was evidenced. When ricinoleic acid is not taken into account, the oil of all genotypes satisfied the E.U. standards for biodiesel. The ricinoleic acid was the lowest (79%) in the Sicilian 'Local RG 2' and the highest (89%) in the Tunisian one, revealing a greater suitability of oil of the first genotype for biodiesel. In turn, the oil of Tunisian genotype could be exploited in other bio-based industrial sectors. The study also demonstrated that in the southeastern coast of Sicily autumnal sowings might be advantageous for castor grown as semi-perennial crop, mainly since they allow saving irrigation water.

Emergency building, devoted to give rapid and effective housing solutions to catastrophic and unexpected events, relies on the basic principles of construction rapidity and reversibility as well as the use of alternative energy sources. The growing need for environmental impact reduction in the building sector represents for temporary housing - especially under emergency conditions - a priority requisite, since, after given time lapses, areas occupied with emergency settlements will have to be recovered to their original use. In this case, the buildings' service life does not correspond to the life cycle of their materials and components; as a consequence, design activities will have to assure the dismantability and reusability of structures for further service cycles, making the whole process reversible: from construction to 'zero waste' de-construction. This paper aims at defining design criteria for low-impact emergency dwellings, assessing at the same time their applicability to corrugated steel pipes, obtained by assembling galvanized curved sheets - commonly used for underpasses and conduits - for which different use possibilities have been investigated. In this view, the research program has led to the definition of modular dwelling solutions. Then, technical feasibility studies have been carried out in collaboration with the industrial sector, taking advantage of consolidated production lines for innovative use purposes. Along the different research stages, a methodology has been defined for the assessment of the fundamental sustainability criteria through different simulation procedures; among these, the evaluation of the life-cycle environmental impacts with SimaPRO software and the 3D modelling for the maximization of the construction/environment integration - also in relation to the use of PV modules - have produced interesting results.

M.J.M. acknowledges funding from FCT through the grant SFRH/BPD/115566/2016. ALTALUZ (Reference PTDC/CTM-ENE/5125/2014). The optical properties of localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPR) sustained by self-assembled silver nanoparticles are of great interest for enhancing light trapping in thin film photovoltaics. First, we report on a systematic investigation of the structural and the optical properties of silver nanostructures fabricated by a solid-state dewetting process on various substrates. Our study allows to identify fabrication conditions in which circular, uniformly spaced nanoparticles are obtainable. The optimized NPs are then integrated into plasmonic back reflector (PBR) structures. Second, we demonstrate a novel procedure, involving a combination of opto-electronic spectroscopic techniques, allowing for the quantification of useful and parasitic absorption in thin photovoltaic absorber deposited on top of the PBR. We achieve a significant broadband useful absorption enhancement of 90% for 0.9 µm thick μc-Si:H film and demonstrate that optical losses due to plasmonic scattering are insignificant below 730 nm. Finally, we present a successful implementation of a plasmonic light trapping scheme in a thin film a-Si:H solar cell. The quantum efficiency spectra of the devices show a pronounced broadband enhancement resulting in remarkably high short circuit current densities (Jsc). preprint published

Biomass is considered one of the most important options in the transition to a sustainable energy system with reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increased security of enegry supply. In order to facilitate this transition with targeted policies and implementation strategies, it is of vital importance to understand the economic benefits, uncertainties and risks of this transition. This article presents a quantification of the economic impacts on value added, employment shares and the trade balance as well as required biomass and avoided primary energy and greenhouse gases related to large scale biomass deployment on a country level (the Netherlands) for different future scenarios to 2030. This is done by using the macro-economic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model LEITAP, capable of quantifying direct and indirect effects of a bio-based economy combined with a spread sheet tool to address underlying technological details. Although the combined approach has limitations, the results of the projections show that substitution of fossil energy carriers by biomass, could have positive economic effects, as well as reducing GHG emissions and fossil energy requirement. Key factors to achieve these targets are enhanced technological development and the import of sustainable biomass resources to the Netherlands. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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.

ABSTRACTEnzymatic wheat gluten hydrolysis at high solid concentrations is advantageous from an environmental and economic point of view. However, increased wheat gluten concentrations result in a concentration effect with a decreased hydrolysis rate at constant enzyme‐to‐substrate ratios and a decreased maximum attainable degree of hydrolysis (DH%). We here identified the underlying factors causing the concentration effect. Wheat gluten was hydrolyzed at solid concentrations from 4.4% to 70%. The decreased hydrolysis rate was present at all solid concentrations and at any time of the reaction. Mass transfer limitations, enzyme inhibition and water activity were shown to not cause this hydrolysis rate limitation up to 50% solids. However, the hydrolysis rate limitation can be, at least partly, explained by a second‐order enzyme inactivation process. Furthermore, mass transfer impeded the hydrolysis above 60% solids. Addition of enzyme after 24 h at high solid concentrations scarcely increased the DH%, suggesting that the maximum attainable DH% decreases at high solid concentrations. Reduced enzyme activities caused by low water activities can explain this DH% limitation. Finally, a possible influence of the plastein reaction on the DH% limitation is discussed. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2014;111: 1304–1312. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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.

Decentralized detection in a network of wireless sensor nodes involves the fusion of information about a phenomenon of interest (PoI) from geographically dispersed nodes. In this paper, we investigate the problem of binary decentralized detection in a dense and randomly deployed wireless sensor network (WSN), whereby the communication channels between the nodes and the fusion center are bandwidth-constrained. We consider a scenario in which sensor observations, conditioned on the alternate hypothesis, are independent but not identically distributed across the sensor nodes.We compare two different fusion architectures, namely, the parallel fusion architecture (PFA) and the cooperative fusion architecture (CFA), for such bandwidthconstrained WSNs, where each sensor node is restricted to send a 1-bit information to the fusion center. For each architecture, we derive expression for the probability of decision error at the fusion center. We propose a consensus flooding protocol for CFA and analyze its average energy consumption. We analyze the effects of PoI intensity, realistic link models, consensus flooding protocol, and network connectivity on the system reliability and average energy consumption for both fusion architectures. We demonstrate that a trade-off exists among spatial diversity gain, average energy consumption, delivery ratio of the consensus flooding protocol, network connectivity, node density, and PoI intensity in CFA. We then provide insight into the design of cooperative WSNs.