The last decade or so has seen the development of refined performance-based earthquake engineering(PBEE) approaches that now provide a framework for estimation of a range of important decision variables,such as repair...The last decade or so has seen the development of refined performance-based earthquake engineering(PBEE) approaches that now provide a framework for estimation of a range of important decision variables,such as repair costs,repair time and number of casualties. This paper reviews current tools for PBEE,including the PACT software,and examines the possibility of extending the innovative displacement-based assessment approach as a simplified structural analysis option for performance assessment. Details of the displacement-based s+eismic assessment method are reviewed and a simple means of quickly assessing multiple hazard levels is proposed. Furthermore,proposals for a simple definition of collapse fragility and relations between equivalent single-degree-of-freedom characteristics and multi-degree-of-freedom story drift and floor acceleration demands are discussed,highlighting needs for future research. To illustrate the potential of the methodology,performance measures obtained from the simplified method are compared with those computed using the results of incremental dynamic analyses within the PEER performance-based earthquake engineering framework,applied to a benchmark building. The comparison illustrates that the simplified method could be a very effective conceptual seismic design tool. The advantages and disadvantages of the simplified approach are discussed and potential implications of advanced seismic performance assessments for conceptual seismic design are highlighted through examination of different case study scenarios including different structural configurations.展开更多
After being approved by the National Drug Agency in several countries, Radium-223 (Ra-223) is gaining wide acceptance in the treatment of bone metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer. The exact mechanism of ac...After being approved by the National Drug Agency in several countries, Radium-223 (Ra-223) is gaining wide acceptance in the treatment of bone metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer. The exact mechanism of action remain unclear: The established model of direct alpha-particle irradiation from the remodelling bone surface, where Ra-223 accumulates, surrounding the tumor foci can explain a lethal effect only on metastatic microdeposits, but not on higher tumor burden. According to the “pre-metastatic niche model”, it is likely that Ra-223 targets several non-tumoral cell types of the tumor microenvironment involved in the complex mechanism of cancer bone homing and colonization. A deeper insight into this hypothetical mechanism will lead to a more accurate dosimetric approach and to find optimal sequencing and/or combination with the other therapeutic options.展开更多
In the Metal-Organic Framework(MOF) panorama,Ce(Ⅳ)-based MOFs have emerged as potential candidates for heterogeneous catalysis,not only due to their intrinsic active species but also as a support of single metal site...In the Metal-Organic Framework(MOF) panorama,Ce(Ⅳ)-based MOFs have emerged as potential candidates for heterogeneous catalysis,not only due to their intrinsic active species but also as a support of single metal sites.As the catalytic behavior of these materials is often associated to the redox properties of cerium,a large number of spectroscopic techniques have been employed to characterize them.Unfortunately,both data acquisition and interpretation are not always straightforward and sometimes the data are not well reported and discussed,limiting their impact in the literature.In this perspective review,we critically analyse the contributions provided by different spectroscopic techniques,sometime supported by molecular modelling approaches,to unravel the nature of Ce(Ⅳ)-MOFs at any stage of their preparation and along their use(i.e.,post-synthesis treatments and under reaction conditions).A concise description of major results from the recent literature allows to provide basic insights associated to the applicability and limits of most used spectroscopic approaches,showing that more robust understanding of Ce(Ⅳ)-MOFs can be achieved when a broad spectrum of techniques are used in parallel,adopting similar conditions and following good practice rules.展开更多
This study presents a techno-economic assessment of power-to-gas and power-to-liquid pathways within the hydrogen valley concept to support the decarbonization of local energy systems.Using the EnergyPLAN software,bot...This study presents a techno-economic assessment of power-to-gas and power-to-liquid pathways within the hydrogen valley concept to support the decarbonization of local energy systems.Using the EnergyPLAN software,both business-as-usual(BAU)and hydrogen valley scenarios were analyzed by varying renewable energy,electrolyzer capacity,and hydrogen storage.The levelized costs of green hydrogen,electrofuels,and synthetic natural gas(SNG)were estimated for both scenarios.A sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the impact of cost parameters on the levelized costs of hydrogen and alternative fuel production.The findings indicate that the hydrogen valley scenario results in a 5.6%increase in total annual costs but achieves a 29.5%reduction in CO_(2)emissions compared to the BAU scenario.Additionally,utilizing excess energy for power-to-gas and power-to-liquid conversion in the hydrogen valley scenario lowers the levelized cost of electrofuels from 0.28€·kWh^(-1)to 0.22€·kWh^(-1).Similarly,the levelized cost of SNG decreases from 0.33€·kWh^(-1)to 0.25€·kWh^(-1)when transitioning from the BAU scenario to the hydrogen valley scenario.The results highlight that hydrogen valleys enable low-emission energy systems with cost-effective alternative fuels,underscoring the trade-offs between deep decarbonization and cost optimization in the transition to clean energy systems.展开更多
The everyday functioning of infrastructures and the capacity of their owners to provide high-quality services are critical to the well-being of communities and societies.When disruptions endanger society's well-be...The everyday functioning of infrastructures and the capacity of their owners to provide high-quality services are critical to the well-being of communities and societies.When disruptions endanger society's well-being,security,and economy,some of these infrastructures are relevant and,as a result,are designated as critical for an entire nation.Therefore,research has focused on a peculiar infrastructure ability,or capacity,that summarizes these concepts in one word:resilience;its quantification,however,is not straightforward.Many authors have attempted to assess resilience using different subjects,infrastructures,resilience phases,and models.Therefore,through a systematic literature review based on the PRISMA protocol,this work presents an overview of quantitative methods and techniques developed over the past decade to numerically assess the resilience of critical infrastructures(CIs).A total of 111 papers were included in the study,which focused on studies published between April 2014 and April 2024.This article focuses on a model-based classification,highlighting strengths and weaknesses in the proposed methodologies,and performs a SWOT analysis on the modeling approaches identified within the retrieved papers.Future works could be useful to extend this research to those papers that describe and quantify single domains,stages,and features of CIs resilience,exploring the possibility of searching protocols to identify and correctly address them.展开更多
Oceans’absorption of human-related CO_(2) emissions leads to a process called ocean acidification(OA),consisting of the decrease of the seawater pH with negative consequences for many marine organisms.In this study,w...Oceans’absorption of human-related CO_(2) emissions leads to a process called ocean acidification(OA),consisting of the decrease of the seawater pH with negative consequences for many marine organisms.In this study,we investigate the microbial community of two species of polychaetes found in naturally acidified CO_(2) vents:the nereid Platynereis massiliensis complex and the syllid Syllis prolifera.Animals were collected in the CO_(2) vents of Castello Aragonese(Gulf of Naples,Ischia,Italy)in three zones at decreasing pH.For the analysis of the microbiome,the V3-V4 hypervariable region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene of 40 worm samples was sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq platform.No difference in the microbial alpha diversity of both species was highlighted.On the contrary,the microbial composition of worms collected in the site at normal pH was different from that of the individuals obtained from the sites at lower pH.This effect was evident also in samples from the site with a slight,but relevant,degree of acidification.Amplicon sequence variants showing a significant variation among the groups of samples collected from different pH zones were reported for both polychaetes,but no common trend of variation was observed.The present study deepens our knowledge about the composition of polychaete microbiome in marine naturally acidified sites.Our results stress the importance of future investigations about the connection between the variation of environmental and polychaete microbial communities induced by OA and about the effect of these variations on polychaete key biological and ecological traits.展开更多
To date,no vaccines or effective drugs have been approved to prevent or treat COVID-19 and the current standard care relies on supportive treatments.Therefore,based on the fast and global spread of the virus,urgent in...To date,no vaccines or effective drugs have been approved to prevent or treat COVID-19 and the current standard care relies on supportive treatments.Therefore,based on the fast and global spread of the virus,urgent investigations are warranted in order to develop preventive and therapeutic drugs.In this regard,treatments addressing the immunopathology of SARS-CoV-2 infection have become a major focus.Notably,while a rapid and well-coordinated immune response represents the first line of defense against viral infection,excessive inflammatory innate response and impaired adaptive host immune defense may lead to tissue damage both at the site of virus entry and at systemic level.Several studies highlight relevant changes occurring both in innate and adaptive immune system in COVID-19 patients.In particular,the massive cytokine and chemokine release,the so-called“cytokine storm”,clearly reflects a widespread uncontrolled dysregulation of the host immune defense.Although the prospective of counteracting cytokine storm is compelling,a major limitation relies on the limited understanding of the immune signaling pathways triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection.The identification of signaling pathways altered during viral infections may help to unravel the most relevant molecular cascades implicated in biological processes mediating viral infections and to unveil key molecular players that may be targeted.Thus,given the key role of the immune system in COVID-19,a deeper understanding of the mechanism behind the immune dysregulation might give us clues for the clinical management of the severe cases and for preventing the transition from mild to severe stages.展开更多
The increasing awareness of the general society toward the seismic safety of structures has led to more restrictive performance requirements hence, many times, to the need of using new and more accurate methods of ana...The increasing awareness of the general society toward the seismic safety of structures has led to more restrictive performance requirements hence, many times, to the need of using new and more accurate methods of analysis of structures. Among these, nonlinear static procedures are becoming, evermore, the preferred choice of the majority of design codes, as an alternative to complete nonlinear time-history analysis for seismic design and assessment of structures. The many available software tools should therefore be evaluated and well understood, in order to be easily and soundly employed by the practitioners. The study presented herein intends to contribute to this need by providing further insight with respect to the use of commonly employed structural analysis software tools in nonlinear analysis of bridge structures. A comparison between different nonlinear modeling assumptions is presented, together with the comparison with real experimental results. Furthermore, alternative adaptive pushover procedures are proposed and applied to a case study bridge, based on a generic plastic hinge model. The adopted structural analysis program proved to be accurate, yielding reliable estimates, both in terms of local plastic hinge behavior and global structural behavior.展开更多
In this paper we present the science potential of the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry(eXTP) mission for studies of strongly magnetized objects. We will focus on the physics and astrophysics of strongly magnetize...In this paper we present the science potential of the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry(eXTP) mission for studies of strongly magnetized objects. We will focus on the physics and astrophysics of strongly magnetized objects, namely magnetars, accreting X-ray pulsars, and rotation powered pulsars. We also discuss the science potential of eXTP for QED studies. Developed by an international Consortium led by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the eXTP mission is expected to be launched in the mid 2020s.展开更多
An elegant paper by Yuan et al.,recently published in Science,provides novel insights into the molecular features of neutralizing antibody responses to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2).
The aim of this contribution is to provide a brief overview of the current and future earth observation(EO)technolo-gies that can be used to assess and manage the EU coastal flood risk,together with the pertinent inte...The aim of this contribution is to provide a brief overview of the current and future earth observation(EO)technolo-gies that can be used to assess and manage the EU coastal flood risk,together with the pertinent international and EU policies and legislation.The review has shown that EOs have become an indispensable technology for the assess-ment and management of the coastal flood risk,and their role will increase further in the future when EO informa-tion of higher resolution and accuracy become available.With regard to the relevant policies and legislation,their common thread is associated with the promotion and facilitation of the development of appropriate data and tools for high-quality and timely geo-spatial information based on EO technologies.In Europe,in particular,this development is promoted and facilitated by an array of international and supra-national(EU),interacting policies and legislation.It appears,however,that additional initiatives and technological progress in EO functionalities and the information technology are needed together with more targeted policy and legislation frameworks to provide vital information for the management of the coastal flood risk.展开更多
文摘The last decade or so has seen the development of refined performance-based earthquake engineering(PBEE) approaches that now provide a framework for estimation of a range of important decision variables,such as repair costs,repair time and number of casualties. This paper reviews current tools for PBEE,including the PACT software,and examines the possibility of extending the innovative displacement-based assessment approach as a simplified structural analysis option for performance assessment. Details of the displacement-based s+eismic assessment method are reviewed and a simple means of quickly assessing multiple hazard levels is proposed. Furthermore,proposals for a simple definition of collapse fragility and relations between equivalent single-degree-of-freedom characteristics and multi-degree-of-freedom story drift and floor acceleration demands are discussed,highlighting needs for future research. To illustrate the potential of the methodology,performance measures obtained from the simplified method are compared with those computed using the results of incremental dynamic analyses within the PEER performance-based earthquake engineering framework,applied to a benchmark building. The comparison illustrates that the simplified method could be a very effective conceptual seismic design tool. The advantages and disadvantages of the simplified approach are discussed and potential implications of advanced seismic performance assessments for conceptual seismic design are highlighted through examination of different case study scenarios including different structural configurations.
文摘After being approved by the National Drug Agency in several countries, Radium-223 (Ra-223) is gaining wide acceptance in the treatment of bone metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer. The exact mechanism of action remain unclear: The established model of direct alpha-particle irradiation from the remodelling bone surface, where Ra-223 accumulates, surrounding the tumor foci can explain a lethal effect only on metastatic microdeposits, but not on higher tumor burden. According to the “pre-metastatic niche model”, it is likely that Ra-223 targets several non-tumoral cell types of the tumor microenvironment involved in the complex mechanism of cancer bone homing and colonization. A deeper insight into this hypothetical mechanism will lead to a more accurate dosimetric approach and to find optimal sequencing and/or combination with the other therapeutic options.
基金the funding from Horizon 2020 Excellence Science ERC-Synergy program 2019-CUBE: “Unravelling the secrets of Cu-based catalysts for C–H activation” (No. 856446)the Project CH4.0 under the MUR Program “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2023–2027" (CUPD13C22003520001)+1 种基金the Margarita Salas grant financed by the Ministerio de Universidades, Spainfunded by the European Union-Next Generation EU.
文摘In the Metal-Organic Framework(MOF) panorama,Ce(Ⅳ)-based MOFs have emerged as potential candidates for heterogeneous catalysis,not only due to their intrinsic active species but also as a support of single metal sites.As the catalytic behavior of these materials is often associated to the redox properties of cerium,a large number of spectroscopic techniques have been employed to characterize them.Unfortunately,both data acquisition and interpretation are not always straightforward and sometimes the data are not well reported and discussed,limiting their impact in the literature.In this perspective review,we critically analyse the contributions provided by different spectroscopic techniques,sometime supported by molecular modelling approaches,to unravel the nature of Ce(Ⅳ)-MOFs at any stage of their preparation and along their use(i.e.,post-synthesis treatments and under reaction conditions).A concise description of major results from the recent literature allows to provide basic insights associated to the applicability and limits of most used spectroscopic approaches,showing that more robust understanding of Ce(Ⅳ)-MOFs can be achieved when a broad spectrum of techniques are used in parallel,adopting similar conditions and following good practice rules.
基金funded by the“PRINsingle bondHERA-Holistic Energy Recovery Agent Tool for Sustainable Urban Clusters”project(PRIN 2022-code:2022P7HAJF).
文摘This study presents a techno-economic assessment of power-to-gas and power-to-liquid pathways within the hydrogen valley concept to support the decarbonization of local energy systems.Using the EnergyPLAN software,both business-as-usual(BAU)and hydrogen valley scenarios were analyzed by varying renewable energy,electrolyzer capacity,and hydrogen storage.The levelized costs of green hydrogen,electrofuels,and synthetic natural gas(SNG)were estimated for both scenarios.A sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the impact of cost parameters on the levelized costs of hydrogen and alternative fuel production.The findings indicate that the hydrogen valley scenario results in a 5.6%increase in total annual costs but achieves a 29.5%reduction in CO_(2)emissions compared to the BAU scenario.Additionally,utilizing excess energy for power-to-gas and power-to-liquid conversion in the hydrogen valley scenario lowers the levelized cost of electrofuels from 0.28€·kWh^(-1)to 0.22€·kWh^(-1).Similarly,the levelized cost of SNG decreases from 0.33€·kWh^(-1)to 0.25€·kWh^(-1)when transitioning from the BAU scenario to the hydrogen valley scenario.The results highlight that hydrogen valleys enable low-emission energy systems with cost-effective alternative fuels,underscoring the trade-offs between deep decarbonization and cost optimization in the transition to clean energy systems.
基金the RETURN Extended Partnership and received funding from the European Union Next-GenerationEU(National Recovery and Resilience Plan-NRRP,Mission 4,Component 2,Investment 1.3-D.D.12432/8/2022,PE0000005).
文摘The everyday functioning of infrastructures and the capacity of their owners to provide high-quality services are critical to the well-being of communities and societies.When disruptions endanger society's well-being,security,and economy,some of these infrastructures are relevant and,as a result,are designated as critical for an entire nation.Therefore,research has focused on a peculiar infrastructure ability,or capacity,that summarizes these concepts in one word:resilience;its quantification,however,is not straightforward.Many authors have attempted to assess resilience using different subjects,infrastructures,resilience phases,and models.Therefore,through a systematic literature review based on the PRISMA protocol,this work presents an overview of quantitative methods and techniques developed over the past decade to numerically assess the resilience of critical infrastructures(CIs).A total of 111 papers were included in the study,which focused on studies published between April 2014 and April 2024.This article focuses on a model-based classification,highlighting strengths and weaknesses in the proposed methodologies,and performs a SWOT analysis on the modeling approaches identified within the retrieved papers.Future works could be useful to extend this research to those papers that describe and quantify single domains,stages,and features of CIs resilience,exploring the possibility of searching protocols to identify and correctly address them.
基金partially financed by Line 2 of the Research Support Plan of the University of Milan(PSR2015-1719LCOLO_07)granted by CDT.
文摘Oceans’absorption of human-related CO_(2) emissions leads to a process called ocean acidification(OA),consisting of the decrease of the seawater pH with negative consequences for many marine organisms.In this study,we investigate the microbial community of two species of polychaetes found in naturally acidified CO_(2) vents:the nereid Platynereis massiliensis complex and the syllid Syllis prolifera.Animals were collected in the CO_(2) vents of Castello Aragonese(Gulf of Naples,Ischia,Italy)in three zones at decreasing pH.For the analysis of the microbiome,the V3-V4 hypervariable region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene of 40 worm samples was sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq platform.No difference in the microbial alpha diversity of both species was highlighted.On the contrary,the microbial composition of worms collected in the site at normal pH was different from that of the individuals obtained from the sites at lower pH.This effect was evident also in samples from the site with a slight,but relevant,degree of acidification.Amplicon sequence variants showing a significant variation among the groups of samples collected from different pH zones were reported for both polychaetes,but no common trend of variation was observed.The present study deepens our knowledge about the composition of polychaete microbiome in marine naturally acidified sites.Our results stress the importance of future investigations about the connection between the variation of environmental and polychaete microbial communities induced by OA and about the effect of these variations on polychaete key biological and ecological traits.
基金supported by the University of Pavia(grants from FR&G 2019,Fondo Ricerca&Giovani,to C.L.).
文摘To date,no vaccines or effective drugs have been approved to prevent or treat COVID-19 and the current standard care relies on supportive treatments.Therefore,based on the fast and global spread of the virus,urgent investigations are warranted in order to develop preventive and therapeutic drugs.In this regard,treatments addressing the immunopathology of SARS-CoV-2 infection have become a major focus.Notably,while a rapid and well-coordinated immune response represents the first line of defense against viral infection,excessive inflammatory innate response and impaired adaptive host immune defense may lead to tissue damage both at the site of virus entry and at systemic level.Several studies highlight relevant changes occurring both in innate and adaptive immune system in COVID-19 patients.In particular,the massive cytokine and chemokine release,the so-called“cytokine storm”,clearly reflects a widespread uncontrolled dysregulation of the host immune defense.Although the prospective of counteracting cytokine storm is compelling,a major limitation relies on the limited understanding of the immune signaling pathways triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection.The identification of signaling pathways altered during viral infections may help to unravel the most relevant molecular cascades implicated in biological processes mediating viral infections and to unveil key molecular players that may be targeted.Thus,given the key role of the immune system in COVID-19,a deeper understanding of the mechanism behind the immune dysregulation might give us clues for the clinical management of the severe cases and for preventing the transition from mild to severe stages.
文摘The increasing awareness of the general society toward the seismic safety of structures has led to more restrictive performance requirements hence, many times, to the need of using new and more accurate methods of analysis of structures. Among these, nonlinear static procedures are becoming, evermore, the preferred choice of the majority of design codes, as an alternative to complete nonlinear time-history analysis for seismic design and assessment of structures. The many available software tools should therefore be evaluated and well understood, in order to be easily and soundly employed by the practitioners. The study presented herein intends to contribute to this need by providing further insight with respect to the use of commonly employed structural analysis software tools in nonlinear analysis of bridge structures. A comparison between different nonlinear modeling assumptions is presented, together with the comparison with real experimental results. Furthermore, alternative adaptive pushover procedures are proposed and applied to a case study bridge, based on a generic plastic hinge model. The adopted structural analysis program proved to be accurate, yielding reliable estimates, both in terms of local plastic hinge behavior and global structural behavior.
基金support of the Chinese Academy of Sciences through the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(Grant No.XDA15020100)supported by the Bundesministerium fuer Wirtschaft und Technologie through the Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft-und Raumfahrte.V.(DLR)(Grant No.FKZ 50 OO 1701)Financial contribution from the agreement between the Italian Space Agency and the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica ASI-INAF n.2017-14H.O
文摘In this paper we present the science potential of the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry(eXTP) mission for studies of strongly magnetized objects. We will focus on the physics and astrophysics of strongly magnetized objects, namely magnetars, accreting X-ray pulsars, and rotation powered pulsars. We also discuss the science potential of eXTP for QED studies. Developed by an international Consortium led by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the eXTP mission is expected to be launched in the mid 2020s.
基金supported by the University of Pavia(Grants from FR&G 2019,Fondo Ricerca&Giovani,to C.L.).
文摘An elegant paper by Yuan et al.,recently published in Science,provides novel insights into the molecular features of neutralizing antibody responses to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2).
基金supported by the EU H2020 ECFAS project(a proof-of-concept for the implementation of a European coastal flood awareness system,www.ecfas.eu)financed by the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No.101004211.
文摘The aim of this contribution is to provide a brief overview of the current and future earth observation(EO)technolo-gies that can be used to assess and manage the EU coastal flood risk,together with the pertinent international and EU policies and legislation.The review has shown that EOs have become an indispensable technology for the assess-ment and management of the coastal flood risk,and their role will increase further in the future when EO informa-tion of higher resolution and accuracy become available.With regard to the relevant policies and legislation,their common thread is associated with the promotion and facilitation of the development of appropriate data and tools for high-quality and timely geo-spatial information based on EO technologies.In Europe,in particular,this development is promoted and facilitated by an array of international and supra-national(EU),interacting policies and legislation.It appears,however,that additional initiatives and technological progress in EO functionalities and the information technology are needed together with more targeted policy and legislation frameworks to provide vital information for the management of the coastal flood risk.
