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Italy has been defined as the "logistics platform" of the Mediterranean Sea. The Italian port system, with 11.6 million TEUs handled and 61.4 million passengers in 2022 (Assoporti data January–December 2022), is the key to fulfilling this title through adequate levels of reliability, safety, and sustainability. This contribution addresses port logistics and shipping, focusing on primary issues related to the energy sector with a specific focus on what can be observed in the Italian context. Specifically, the decarbonization of the maritime sector and related infrastructural problems (e.g., cold ironing or alternative fuels, where the uncertainty about resource availability and related costs do not allow for easy strategic planning by both the ship owner and the port authority), as well as policies such as the Emission Trading System (ETS), will be analyzed. All these issues, hereafter addressed with a systematic critical review of the existing literature and other relevant sources, could represent the driving force of the growth of the national port sector toward its competitiveness at a global scale. The review was performed through a wide search and analysis of studies published in well-known online research databases (Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect), sector studies, or specialized technical magazines. The review focuses on the results of each analyzed contribution rather than on the analysis method adopted with the final aim to identify useful hints and innovative ideas for further studies on the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inelastic response of reinforced concrete (RC) frames under seismic loading is influenced by mechanical and geometrical properties and by the reinforcement arrangement of the beam–column members. In this paper, the seismic response and recentering behavior of RC frames is investigated numerically via cyclic pushover analysis and described by means of three synthetic behavioral indexes, namely a recentering index, a hardening index, and a ductility index. A fiber–hinge formulation is used to describe the inelastic behavior of the RC elements, and the versatile pivot hysteresis model is implemented at the material level to capture the possible pinching effects ascribed to the weak transverse reinforcement and to poor construction details that might be observed in the existing RC structures. This model is first validated against the experimental results from the literature and then applied, within a wide parametric study, to a set of 80 RC frame scenarios featured by various combinations of axial load levels and reinforcing details. As the output of this parametric study, practical design abacuses are constructed to describe the trends of the above-mentioned behavioral indexes, which are usefully related to specific mechanical and loading features of the analyzed RC frames. The reliability of the obtained results and the usefulness of the constructed abacuses in anticipating the overall cyclic behavior of a generic RC building, depending on the actual mechanical parameters of the RC sections at each story level, is finally demonstrated through a nonlinear time history analysis of an eight-story RC frame, representative of the substandard RC frames built in the 1970s in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reinforced concrete (RC) structures located in aggressive environment, for example, RC bridge piers close to the sea and experiencing chloride attacks, may be exposed to an increased seismic vulnerability. This requires practical yet effective safety assessment strategies aimed to determine the seismic behavior by incorporating corrosion deterioration phenomena. An easy‐to‐use phenomenological model is here developed to describe the seismic behavior of corroded RC elements based on a fiber hinge formulation wherein the corrosion‐induced mechanical degradation of concrete and steel is implemented through appropriate constitutive laws at the fiber level. The developed fiber hinge formulation is first validated against experimental cyclic tests of corroded RC columns from the literature. Then, the proposed approach is used for the seismic vulnerability assessment of the Zappulla multi‐span viaduct (southern Italy), whose RC bridge piers (with a box‐shaped, two‐cell hollow rectangular cross section) are exposed to carbonation and chloride‐induced corrosion. A comprehensive in‐situ testing campaign is conducted for the mechanical characterization of the materials in the RC piers. Corrosion potential mapping, carbonation tests and tensile tests on corroded bars extracted from RC piers are critically interpreted to calibrate the constitutive laws of the fiber‐hinge model. Motivated by experimental findings, numerical seismic analyses (including linear dynamic, nonlinear static and nonlinear dynamic analyses) are performed under two different corrosion scenarios to quantify the impact of corrosion on the resulting seismic vulnerability conditions of bridge piers with corroded bars. The proposed approach is characterized by low computational cost and lends itself to large‐scale seismic vulnerability assessment of other existing RC bridges placed in corrosive environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 epidemic, draconian countermeasures forbidding nonessential human activities have been adopted in several countries worldwide, providing an unprecedented setup for testing and quantifying the current impact of humankind on climate and for driving potential sustainability policies in the postpandemic era from a perspective of complex systems. In this study, we consider heterogeneous sources of environmental and human activity observables, considered as components of a complex socioenvironmental system, and apply information theory, network science, and Bayesian inference to analyze their structural relations and nonlinear dynamics between January 2019 and August 2020 in northern Italy, i.e., before, during, and after the national lockdown. The topological structure of a complex system strongly impacts its collective behavior; therefore, mapping this structure is essential to fully understand the functions of the system as a whole and its fragility to unexpected disruptions or shocks. To this aim, we unravel the causal relationships between the 16 environmental conditions and human activity variables, mapping the backbone of the complex interplay between intervening physical observables—such as NO2 emissions, energy consumption, intervening climate variables, and different flavors of human mobility flows—to a causal network model. To identify a tipping point during the period of observation, denoting the presence of a regime shift between distinct network states (i.e., before and during the shock), we introduce a novel information-theoretic method based on statistical divergence widely used in statistical physics. We find that despite a measurable decrease in NO2 concentration, due to an overall decrease in human activities, locking down a region as a climate change mitigation is an insufficient remedy to reduce emissions. Our results provide a functional characterization of socioenvironmental interdependent systems, and our analytical framework can be used, more generally, to characterize environmental changes and their interdependencies using statistical physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Manufacturing of full-scale large-size FREIs with polyester fibre and soft rubber compound. • Full-scale testing of two FREI large-size prototypes in unbounded configuration under static and dynamic loading. • Initial type tests as per standard provisions for conventional laminated rubber bearings [EN15129]. • Stable hysteretic behaviour up to 100% shear strain with damping ratio up to 20% of critical. • Satisfactory performance via numerical analysis of a case-study frame building isolated at the base with FREIs in comparison to laminated rubber bearings. Fiber reinforced elastomeric isolators (FREIs) have shown to be a promising option as an alternative to classical steel reinforced elastomeric isolators (SREIs). Previous investigations were limited to scaled-geometries without any attempt to test such devices under code-compliant protocols as per international standards. In the present study the authors investigated two circular full-scale (diameter 620 mm) FREIs manufactured with a non-standard process adopting a soft rubber compound and polyester fibers. Experimental tests were performed in unbounded configuration through the large anti-seismic device test facility at the EUROLAB of the University of Messina, Italy. A significant number of protocols were imposed to the prototypes in order to demonstrate the effect of different loading conditions, i.e., strain level, frequency of the excitation, axial load and repeated loading. The tests confirmed the significant dependency of mechanical behavior on axial load which tends to increase damping (i.e., higher friction mechanisms) while reducing stiffness (i.e., lower stability limits). Due to internal slippage at the fiber-rubber layers interface, damping capacity of FREIs achieved 20% of critical, i.e., significantly higher than that commonly achieved in SREIs with the same rubber compound. Even if adequate capacity was reached in compression, the run-in effect would limit the axial stiffness of FREIs. A significant roll-over phenomenon was detected under lateral loading up to a maximum shear strain of 100% without damage and permanent deformation after unloading. A numerical study finally demonstrated the effectiveness of FREIs when compared to SREIs in a base isolation system designed for a 3-storey reinforced concrete frame located in a high seismicity region in Italy. Lower axial stiffness of FREIs did not affect the seismic performance of the building due to limited rocking motion component and beneficial higher damping mechanism. This paper provides a significant contribution to the standardization of FREIs to be adopted in base isolation of conventional buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ochratoxin A is a typical cereal contaminant with strong nephrotoxic activity. To estimate the quantity of ochratoxin A that can be taken in by a child in the weaning period, several samples of cereal-based baby foods were analysed. Although most samples analysed contained ochratoxin A in undetectable amounts or below the Italian legal limit of 0.5 μg kg[sub -1], some irregular products were found. In particular, the analyses of the 119 batches (338 samples) of baby foods considered indicated that: 20 batches (16.8%) contained detectable quantities of ochratoxin A and four of these (3.4% of the total) contained ochratoxin A above the Italian permitted value. All samples coming from agricultural practices based on integrated pest management contained undetectable amounts of ochratoxin A, while ∼5% of batches coming from conventional and organic agricultural practices were above the legal limit. On the basis of the established provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI), there is no significant toxicological risk for a child who occasionally consumes a formula with ochratoxin concentration slightly above the permitted level. However, stricter controls have to be applied to reject the batches containing irregular concentrations of ochratoxin A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An outbreak of winter dysentery, complicated by severe respiratory syndrome, occurred in January 2020 in a high production dairy cow herd located in a hilly area of the Calabria region. Of the 52 animals belonging to the farm, 5 (9.6%) died with severe respiratory distress, death occurring 3–4 days after the appearance of the respiratory signs (caught and gasping breath). Microbiological analysis revealed absence of pathogenic bacteria whilst Real-time PCR identified the presence of RNA from Bovine Coronavirus (BCoV) in several organs: lungs, small intestine (jejunum), mediastinal lymph nodes, liver and placenta. BCoV was therefore hypothesized to play a role in the lethal pulmonary infection. Like the other CoVs, BCoV is able to cause different syndromes. Its role in calf diarrhea and in mild respiratory disease is well known: we report instead the involvement of this virus in a severe and fatal respiratory disorder, with symptoms and disease evolution resembling those of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromes (SARS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data concerning the transmission of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in paucisymptomatic patients are lacking. We report an Italian paucisymptomatic case of coronavirus disease 2019 with multiple biological samples positive for SARS-CoV-2. This case was detected using the World Health Organization protocol on cases and contact investigation. Current discharge criteria and the impact of extra-pulmonary SARS-CoV-2 samples are discussed.