Ricerc@Sapienza

Getting an overall view of primary data available from existing Earth Observation Systems and networks databases for the Mediterranean Sea, the main objective of this paper is to identify temporal and geographic data gaps and to elaborate a new method for providing a prioritisation of missing data useful for end-users that have to pinpoint strategies and models to fill these gaps. Existing data sources have been identified from the analysis of the main projects and information systems available.

Although in many developed countries the green transition towards sustainable mobility is going faster and faster towards low or zero emission vehicles, road traffic is so far one of the key PM10 pollution source in urban areas. This research compares and analyses correlations between PM10 pollution trends in urban areas and the following parameters: vehicles fleet, rain precipitations and diesel fuel sales. The city of Rome has been selected as pilot area, analysing data gathered by its PM10 monitoring network between 2006 and 2017.

Since Lead-cooled Fast Reactors (LFR) have been conceptualized in the frame of Generation IV International Forum (GIF), great interest has focused on the development and testing of new technologies related to Heavy Liquid Metal (HLM) nuclear reactors. In this frame, ENEA developed one of the larger European experimental fleet of experimental facilities aiming at investigating HLM thermal-hydraulics, coolant chemistry control, corrosion behavior for structural materials, and at developing components, instrumentations and innovative systems, supported by experiments and numerical tools.

The aims of the present studywere to establish reference values useful in monitoring Lithium(Li) treatment and
to trace environmental Li exposure profiles in paediatric age.
A cross-sectional studywas conducted on a group of healthy Italian children aged 5–11. Data on possible predictors
were assessed through a questionnaire, and Li levels in morning and evening urinary samples were determined
by ICP-MS technique.
The reference intervals for the evening and morning samples were respectively 3.8–51.9 μg L−1 or

An innovative approach, based on HyperSpectral Imaging (HSI), was developed in order to set up an efficient method to analyze marine microplastic litter. HSI was applied to samples collected by surface-trawling plankton nets from several parts of the world (i.e. Arctic, Mediterranean, South Atlantic and North Pacific). Reliable information on abundance, size, shape and polymer type for the whole ensemble of plastic particles in each sample was retrieved from single hyperspectral images.

The thermal properties of artichoke waste, a relatively rich source of phenolic antioxidants, were investigated before and after phenolic recovery in order to assess its suitability as a source of bioproducts and bioenergy. The two main fractions of the waste, the bracts and the stems, were submitted to solvent extraction with aqueous ethanol (0, 50, 100% v/v) and the resulting extracts were assayed for total phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidant activity. The polyphenol content of stems was 51.10 ± 0.74 mg GAE/g and that of bracts was 24.58 ± 0.57 mg GAE/g.

The compliance of the chemical and environmental requirements for using woody biomass fly ash (WBFA) as a mineral admixture in cement-based materials was studied in terms of the use of the cement-biomass fly ash concrete where the fluids surrounding and interacting with it renew themselves over time. The study was preceded by a preliminary characterization of WBFA whose results showed that the European chemical requirements (EN 450-1, 2012) established for the reuse of coal fly ash in cement-based materials (there is no normative for WBFA) were met except for the chloride content.

An integrated model of a two-step process for the ex situ bioremediation of xenobiotic contaminated soil has been formulated. The process is characterized by an initial extraction step of the organic contaminants from the polluted soil by contact with inexpensive and commercially-available polymer beads, followed by release and biodegradation of the xenobiotics, with parallel polymer bioregeneration, in a Two-Phase Partitioning Bioreactor (TPPB). The regenerated polymer is cyclically reused in the extraction step, so reflecting the robust and otherwise-inert properties of such polymers.

Extra virgin olive-oil (EVO) production is an important economic activity for several countries, especially in the Mediterranean area such as Spain, Italy, Greece and Tunisia. The two major by-products from olive oil production, solid-liquid Olive Pomace (OP) and the Olive Mill Waste Waters (OMWW), are still mainly disposed on soil, in spite of the existence of legislation which already limits this practice.