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The paper presents a method of analysis and design of urban landscapes called PlaceMaker. The method is intended as a key resource for assessing the identity of places and measures for its enhancement, reconstruction and design. By using different tools for analysis and interpretation of places and questionnaires administered to their users, PlaceMaker finds the identity material that the city has available and how to de-compose and re-compose it for its sustainable project transformation. Pedestrian-intensive areas, in particular urban, cultural and historical poles of attraction, increasingly bear the imprint of globalization, conveying messages which have developed in an uncontrolled manner and are aimed at conveying their users' patterns of thought and action. The presence of a dense mixture of contrasting elements and perceptions can detract from the image of a city. As regards, the paper is completed with a synopsis of the experiment carried out in an historic axe in London - Oxford Street - where globalization is in danger of levelling out the beauty of the area in favour of widespread genericity

Great efforts have been paid to improve engine efficiency as well as to reduce the pollutant emissions. The direct injection allows to improve the engine efficiency; on the other hand, the GDI combustion produces larger particle emissions. The properties of fuels play an important role both on engine performance and pollutant emissions. In particular, great attention was paid to the octane number. Oxygenated compounds allow increasing gasoline's octane number and play an important role in PM emission reduction. In this study was analyzed the effect of fuels with different RON and with ethanol and ethers content. The analysis was performed on a small GDI engine. Two operating conditions, representative of the typical EUDC cycle, were investigated. Both the engine performance and the exhaust emissions were evaluated. The gaseous emissions and particle concentration were measured at the exhaust by means of conventional instruments. Particle size distribution function was measured in the range from 5.6 nm to 560 nm by means of an Engine Exhaust Particle Sizer (EEPS). The results point out that the better result in terms of performance and emission reduction was observed for the high RON fuel. The fuels with ethanol as additive show a large fuel consumption and a not valuable effect on exhaust emissions

A full understanding of the elementary processes taking place in dye-sensitised solar cells requires an accurate description of the electronic structure of the dyes, the semiconductor surface, the electrolyte and their interactions. This review describes how electronic structure calculations have contributed to the field since its first steps and what methodologies have been adopted to study the charge transfer processes at the interface. Not all properties are equally predictable with electronic structure methods, and this work highlights the main success areas (e.g. the rationalization of the optical properties of the dyes), the recent developments (e.g. the improved description of the dye–semiconductor interaction) and the key challenges for the future (e.g. the calculation of charge recombination rate).

AbstractProjections show that biomass will remain important for reaching future EU renewable energy targets. In addition to using domestic biomass, European bioenergy markets will also partly rely on imports of biomass, in particular in trade‐oriented EU member states like the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark. There has been a lot of debate on the sustainability of (imported) biomass and how policy should deal with this. In this research, therefore, we defined long‐term strategies for sustainable biomass imports in European bioenergy markets. We used the input of different stakeholders in our approach through focus‐group discussions and a global survey, focusing on the following aspects: key principles of sustainable biomass trade, risks and opportunities of biomass trade, both for import regions (EU countries) and for sourcing regions, and practical barriers for trade. Overall we conclude that policies should be stable and consistent within a long‐term vision. An overall sustainability assurance framework of biomass production and use is key, but should ultimately apply to all end uses of biomass. Furthermore, the mobilization of biomass should be supported, as well as commoditization, considering the large diversity of biomass. Side impacts of biomass use should be monitored. Reducing investors’ risk perception is crucial for future developments in the biobased economy, and a clear policy to phase out fossil fuels, e.g. through a carbon tax, needs to be implemented. The results of this research are of interest for policy makers when deciding on long‐term strategies concerning sustainable bioenergy markets. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

The Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX) was an international, multiplatform field campaign to measure long-range transport of air pollution from South and Southeast Asia toward the Indian Ocean during the dry monsoon season in January to March 1999. Surprisingly high pollution levels were observed over the entire northern Indian Ocean toward the Intertropical Convergence Zone at about 6°S. We show that agricultural burning and especially biofuel use enhance carbon monoxide concentrations. Fossil fuel combustion and biomass burning cause a high aerosol loading. The growing pollution in this region gives rise to extensive air quality degradation with local, regional, and global implications, including a reduction of the oxidizing power of the atmosphere.

Species distribution models (SDMs) provide realistic scenarios to explain the influence of bioclimatic variables on plant pathogen distribution. Diplodia sapinea is most harmful to plantations of both exotic and native pine species in Italy, causing economic consequences expecially to edible seed production. In this study, we developed maximum entropy models for D. sapinea in Italy to reach the following goals: (i) to carry out the pathogen's first geographical distribution analysis in Italy and determine which ecogeographical variables (EGVs) may influence its outbreaks; (ii) to detect the effect of climate change on the potential occurrence of disease outbreaks by 2050 and 2070. We used Maxent ver. 3.4.0 to develop SDMs. We used six global climate models (BCC-CSM1-1, CCSM4, GISS-E2-R, MIROC5, HadGEM2-ES and MPI-ESM-LR) for two representative concentration pathways (4.5 and 8.5) and two time projections (2050 and 2070) to detect future climate projections of D. sapinea. The most important EGVs influencing outbreaks were land cover, altitude, mean temperature of driest and wettest quarter, precipitation of wettest quarter, precipitation seasonality and minimum temperature of coldest month. The distribution of D. sapinea mostly expanded in central and southern Italy and shifted in altitude upwards on average by ca. 93m a.s.l. Moreover the fungus expanded the range where disease outbreaks may be recorded in response to an increase in the mean temperature of wettest and driest quarter by ca. 1.9 C and 5.8 C, respectively in all climate change scenarios. Precipitation of wettest quarter did not differ between current and any of future models. Under different climate change scenarios D. sapinea's disease outbreaks will be likely to affect larger areas of pine forests in the country, probably causing heavy effects on the dynamics and evolution of these stands or perhaps constraining their survival.

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.

Available methods for measuring the impact of ocean acidification (OA) and leakage from carbon capture and storage (CCS) on marine sedimentary pH profiles are unsuitable for replicated experimental setups. To overcome this issue, a novel optical sensor application is presented, using off-the-shelf optode technology (MOPP). The application is validated using microprofiling, during a CCS leakage experiment, where the impact and recovery from a high CO2 plume was investigated in two types of natural marine sediment. MOPP offered user-friendliness, speed of data acquisition, robustness to sediment type, and large sediment depth range. This ensemble of characteristics overcomes many of the challenges found with other pH measuring methods, in OA and CCS research. The impact varied greatly between sediment types, depending on baseline pH variability and sediment permeability. Sedimentary pH profile recovery was quick, with profiles close to control conditions 24 h after the cessation of the leak. However, variability of pH within the finer sediment was still apparent 4 days into the recovery phase. Habitat characteristics need therefore to be considered, to truly disentangle high CO2 perturbation impacts on benthic systems. Impacts on natural communities depend not only on the pH gradient caused by perturbation, but also on other processes that outlive the perturbation, adding complexity to recovery.