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In conjunction with the COVID-19 pandemic aftermath, Russian aggression on Ukraine has wide-ranging consequences for the EU, including high inflation, an immense energy cost increase, and a shortage of critical resources. All of these have pronounced effects on the sustainability and operations of research infrastructures (RIs), several of which face difficulties in providing continuous service. To address these topics, the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) has established a dedicated drafting group to look into the energy and supply challenges, also responding to a call by Competitiveness Council to do so. This report highlights the significant impact of the Russian aggression on Ukraine on the sustainability and operations of research infrastructures (RIs) in the EU. The energy crisis resulting from the Russian aggression poses a severe challenge to the RIs, predominantly analytical RIs, with energy-intensive RIs such as synchrotrons, computing centres, accelerator-driven particle sources, neutron facilities, research reactors, and lasers being the most affected. The shortage of critical resources and materials, such as some gases, rare isotopes, and permanent magnets, also presents a significant challenge to RIs, although they may not be a consequence of the war. The report presents recommendations to ESFRI, Member States, and the European Commission based on good practices from ESFRI member countries and the discussion within the drafting group to address these challenges and enhance the future resilience of RIs. The recommendations include allocating additional funds and energy price capping for the most energy-intensive RIs, developing response plans that include actions aimed at greening the operations of RIs, considering the needs of the RI communities in the activities linked to the Critical Raw Materials Regulation, and setting up specific measures to support the Ukrainian research community. The report emphasizes the importance of preparing for future crises, increasing the resilience and preparedness of European society to cope with any present and future crisis.

Starting from the relationship between urban planning and mobility management, TeMA has gradually expanded the view of the covered topics, always following a rigorous scientific in-depth analysis. This section of the Journal, Review Notes, is a continuous update about emerging topics concerning relationships among urban planning, mobility and environment thanks to a collection of short scientific papers written by young researchers. The Review Notes are made up of five parts. Each section examines a specific aspect of the broader information storage within the main interests of the TeMA Journal. In particular: The Town Planning International Rules and Legislation Overview section aims at presenting the latest updates in the territorial and urban legislative sphere. The Covid-19 pandemic is causing a major impact on energy systems. Improving the energy efficiency of urban areas is now the cornerstone of scientific community and the European Commission discussions. Thus, the content of this review note aims at carrying out an analysis of the latest documents of the European Commission before and during the slow recovery from Covid-19 with the aim of identifying the priorities and areas on which to intervene to reduce energy consumption in different territorial contexts. TeMA - Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, Vol 14 No 1 (2021): The city challenges and external agents. Methods, tools and best practices

The recognition of the advantages and efficiencies implicit in an economy based upon theelectrochemical conversion of fuels has led to address intensive efforts toward the development of the fuel cell technology. On phosphoric acid fuel cells (PAFC) the CNR-TAE owns a full capability in PAFC technology and has built and tested 1kW power plant in an ENEA supported program. On molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFC) the CNR-TAEhas matured a sound experience on the modeling of energy balances of MCFC with external or internal reforming, screening design and testing of reforming catalysts, on mechanisms of components ageing, catalyst formulation and innovative method to control the catalyst poisoning by means of porous ceramic membranes. In solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) research, a comparison between steam internal and external reforming, exhaust gas recycling reforming and use of partial oxidation has been performed. Basich researches on the mechanism of conduction in solid and search for novel electrolytes are in course. In the field of fuel cells operating at low temperature, the activity is addressed to the development of low Pt loading electrodes for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFC) and developmentof ternary catalyst supported on carbon black for electrochemical oxidation of methanol in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC). Further research in course is on the fuel cell utilizing a new type of electrolyte; in this field, an heteropolyacid lab-scale monocell has been realised and successful tested.

Food contamination is common during the production, distribution and consumption of processed and agricultural commodities all over the world. Knowledge of the mycobiota in crops and food is essential for understanding and prevention of spoilage. In addition to possible spoilage, the growth of filamentous fungi in food can result in the production of mycotoxins and other secondary metabolites, which may impact human and animal health. Therefore, among the food safety issues, the occurrence of fungal species able to produce toxic metabolites on the agro-food products has acquired great relevance (1). The production of mycotoxins is commonly species-specific, but it also influenced by other factors, like substrate, genetic variation, temperature, water activity etc. The knowledge of the molecular mechanisms that regulate these interactions remains very limited, however its understanding is fundamental to determine health risks associated with mold-spoiled foods and beverages. Mycotoxins are produced by a wide variety of molds, mainly Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium. In general, five mycotoxins are the most significant agriculturally and have a worldwide distribution: aflatoxins, deoxynivalenol, fumonisins, ochratoxin A, and zearalenone. In addition, T-2 and HT-2 toxins can be a problem in cool temperate and generally wet areas, and Patulin is receiving increasing attention (2). Studies on toxigenic molds and its biodiversity have become highly relevant, due to the increased awareness of mycotoxins impact on human and animal health, the public concern for food safety and wastage, as well as the effects of climate change, which generate new combinations mycotoxins/host plants/geographical areas. Economic losses due to mycotoxins are high in both domestic and international trades. Also costs because affection of human and animal health are relevant and observed both in developed and developing Countries. Climate change also influence the physiology of the crops and the biodiversity of the fungi, and are modifying the risk maps of mycotoxin contamination. In this respect, recent advances confirm the importance of providing provisional models for mycotoxin occurrence in relation to climate change (3). In this context some important future challenges are in progress :i) impact reduction of fungi in staple food/feed chains; ii) new methodologies for detection and quantification; iii) new ecophysiology data in the context of climate change scenarios; iv) development of novel prevention strategies at different stages of the food and feed chains. Finally, over the past 50 years, diets in all countries have converged on a few sources of dietary starch, increasing the risk of exposure to mycotoxins, that can be evaluated by monitoring biological fluids such as blood and urine. The health risk from multi-mycotoxin exposure is still unclear since the additives and/or synergistic effects of mycotoxins have been poorly investigated. Nevertheless, the growing interest in understanding the combined effect of mycotoxin mixtures, will improve the current risk assessment capability at worldwide level.

The risks from converging crises of social-ecological change and health pandemics are particularly critical for countries already facing multiple drivers of fragility. Economic, social, environmental and political challenges make the Mediterranean region particularly vulnerable to EIDs and their negative consequences. At the same time, among the Mediterranean countries, there are profound differences in population growth rates, socio-economic conditions, political stability, natural resources availability and climate change impact, which disproportionally affect pandemic probability, preparedness, and mitigation capacity. The chapter aims to highlight the nexus between EIDs and Planetary Boundaries (PBs) in the Mediterranean region and the need for an integrated ecological public health approach, which recognizes the complex interactions between biological, behavioral, environmental, social and developmental factors. It suggests that reducing the environmental burden of EIDs is possible only through a holistic implementation of the health factor within the SDGs. This will be done within the integrated context of sustainable development, by tackling health in terms of social, economic and environmental aspects.

The paper focuses on the issue of obesi- ty, which has become one of the most insidious world epidemics and a serious threat to global health. The aim is to highlight the relationships between obesity and the sustainability of the food system and to discuss the effectiveness of different policies that could be implemented to address the problem. An empirical analysis has been carried out, aimed at assessing the relationship between price and energy density of foods and price premium for low-calorie foods. The main conclusion of the paper is that the aim of reducing obesity, which is a priority for food sustainability policies, cannot be achieved without regulatory intervention designed to reverse relative prices between obesogenic and healthy foods.

Urbanization is an onerous human activity: it affects municipal budget and foremost it costs the environment. Nevertheless, an ever-growing number of people (more than 75% of the European population) is living in cities and towns, so that identifying sustainable urban development solutions is a dramatically urgent need. Already in the 70s, some researches proposed parameters to evaluate urbanization costs in Italy, but they mainly focused on the economic and financial sustainability of real estate development. The land value capturing approaches proved to be inadequate when municipal budgets are facing growing social unbalances and critical environmental threats. The question being not just “where the money for urban infrastructures could come from”, but also “what could be a more sustainable development model”. In any case, now we are forced to rethink the whole organization of our urban life to defend ourselves from largely unknown threats, pandemics, COVID-19 being probably one among others that we could face in the near future. It is not yet clear if a link exists between the spread of the virus, the health consequences and the environmental conditions, but what probably will need to be assessed is the effect of population density on the spread of contamination. Even the traditional provision of services and public spaces will need to be defined again in order to protect and serve urban population. New evidences will force planners to redefine their thoughts and schemes. TeMA - Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, 2020: Special Issue. Covid-19 vs City-20

Soil is an important natural resource for agriculture and deserves special attention to possible problems that may arise. Heavy metal contamination of the soil can cause serious problems for the ecosystem in general, with consequent impact on water resources, soil quality, crop yield and human health due to the potential for heavy metal bioaccumulation in the different trophic levels of the food chain. Remediation of heavy metal contamination in soils can be done by using crops that have potential of growth and biomass production in marginal soils. The main objective of this work was to compare the growth and biomass production of Kenaf (cultivar H328, developed by IBFC in China) in soils contaminated by zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr) and lead (Pb) in two different climate types (Tropical climate and Mediterranean climate). The study was performed in a pot essay and the plants were tested in clay soils. The soils were artificially contaminated, and the concentrations chosen were based on the limits established by the Decree Law 276 of 2009 (Portuguese regulation that establishes the regime for the use of sewage sludge in agricultural soils) - Zn: 450 mg/kg; Cr: 300 mg/kg; Pb: 450 mg/kg and Cu: 200 mg/kg. Results indicate that the growth in Mediterranean climate contaminated soils was more affected than in tropical climate. On average, the yields in Mozambique were 4900 g/m2, and in Portugal, merely 107 g/m2. Characterization of biomass indicate that kenaf can phytoextract zinc, copper, chromium, and not so much lead. Proceedings of the 28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 July 2020, Virtual, pp. 205-208

The ascomycetes in the genus Morchella (commonly called morels) have a considerable economic and biotechnological value for their culinary and medicinal proprieties. However, their biotechnological interest is not limited to the fruiting body cultivation, but also in mycelial production to obtain bioactive compounds and other biotech products. In order to better exploit the biotechnological potentialities of morels it is necessary to improve the knowledge on their biology and mycelial characteristics. In this paper morphological and growth characteristics of mycelia, as well as biomass formation of Italian collections of five edible medicinal Morchella species [M. esculenta (L.) Pers., M. dunalii Boud., M. importuna M. Kuo, O'Donnell & T.J. Volk, M. disparilis Loizides & P.-A. Moreau and M. purpurascens (Krombh. ex Boud.) Jacquet.] are presented. Italian Journal of Mycology, Vol. 52 (2023)