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Circular Economy is an economic concept, aiming at increasing resource efficiency, recirculating resource streams and minimizing waste of an industrial process. Thereby, ideally, environmental impacts can be decreased while the profitability of the considered process is improved. This concept is growing increasingly popular among the scientific community. Yet, due to the immense variety of potential applications, it can be difficult to assess the degree of application in a particular industrial sector at a given time. For this contribution, a survey is conducted among producers of dairy products, in Lombardy, Italy. The aim of the survey is to investigate the current degree of application of Circular Economy among these producers considering waste recovery, by-product valorization, and renewable energy production. Furthermore, the producers’ perception of Circular Economy is tested, and their interest in an intensified implementation inquired. Considering the most relevant resource streams (i.e., by-products, water, energy, and solid waste), more detailed questions are added, focusing on internal management and recovery strategies.

Il Circular Economy Network (CEN) è un progetto che si propone, sulla spinta della strategia europee, di stimolare nel nostro Paese uno sviluppo dell’economia circolare capace di sostenere le sfide climatiche, ecologiche e sociali proposte dalla green economy, accrescendo al tempo stesso la competitività delle nostre imprese sui mercati internazionali. Esso nasce da un’iniziativa della Fondazione per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile ed è aperto a tutte le imprese che intendono condividere queste finalità mediante assunzione di azioni e impegni concreti. Oggi vi partecipano come promotori ben 13 soggetti, a cui si affiancano alcune decine di aderenti. Il lavoro del Circular Economy Network si basa su alcuni assi principali: promuovere, raccogliere e divulgare studi, ricerche ed elaborazioni sull’economia circolare; definire gli indicatori chiave di circolarità e analizzare le performance nazionali; effettuare la ricognizione delle principali criticità e delle barriere da rimuovere, indicando le possibili soluzioni; elaborare strategie, policy e misure da proporre ai decisori politici, favorendo una positiva interlocuzione tra il mondo delle imprese e le istituzioni; valorizzare e contribuire alla diffusione delle buone pratiche e delle migliori tecniche.

After the milling process, wheat bran’s oil content can be higher than 5% if the germ is not completely removed. Therefore, a de-oiling process would contribute to the valorization of waste in a circular economy approach. A Life Cycle Assessment study according to ISO 14040 (2006) was performed to compare the environmental impacts of two technologies for bran’s oil extraction: supercritical fluid (SFE) extraction techonology and solvent technology. Primary data were used for the SFE technology, whereas literature data were used for the solvent technology. Despite having several environmental advantages, results show that the environmental impacts of SFE techonology are higher than those of solvent technology for a percentage ranging from 61% to 95%, mainly due to higher electricity consumption. Improvement options for the SFE technology could be the efficiency optimisation, the use of renewable electricity and the recovery of heat produced.

The agro-food sector is responsible for the production of considerable amounts of by-products and waste, consequently of negative environmental impacts and inefficient economic management. Industrial Symbiosis (IS), through transfer and sharing of resources among companies, can help mitigate environmental losses and enhance resource efficiency. The Food Crossıng District project aims to detect IS paths within the agro-food sector, which can be replicable in the Emilia-Romagna region and at national level. The Interdepartmental Centre for Industrial Agrofood Research and the ENEA Laboratory for the Environment are working together exploiting their specific expertise and involving agro-food companies. The method adopted to foster IS consists of: i) contacting companies to involve in IS paths; ii) mapping companies of the territory for viable solutions; iii) developing operative manuals for selected IS paths; iv) updating and improving the IS.

Atypical chronic myeloid leukemia (aCML) shares clinical and laboratory features with CML, but it lacks the BCR-ABL1 fusion. We performed exome sequencing of eight aCMLs and identified somatic alterations of SETBP1 (encoding a p.Gly870Ser alteration) in two cases. Targeted resequencing of 70 aCMLs, 574 diverse hematological malignancies and 344 cancer cell lines identified SETBP1 mutations in 24 cases, including 17 of 70 aCMLs (24.3%; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 16-35%). Most mutations (92%) were located between codons 858 and 871 and were identical to changes seen in individuals with Schinzel-Giedion syndrome. Individuals with mutations had higher white blood cell counts (P = 0.008) and worse prognosis (P = 0.01). The p.Gly870Ser alteration abrogated a site for ubiquitination, and cells exogenously expressing this mutant exhibited higher amounts of SETBP1 and SET protein, lower PP2A activity and higher proliferation rates relative to those expressing the wild-type protein. In summary, mutated SETBP1 represents a newly discovered oncogene present in aCML and closely related diseases. © 2013 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.

Prato rappresenta uno dei più grandi distretti industriali italiani e uno dei centri più importanti a livello mondiale per le produzioni di filati e tessuti di lana. Da sempre il comparto ha promosso un approccio di piena collaborazione e compenetrazione fra i diversi attori, rappresentando dunque quello che oggi chiamiamo un esempio virtuoso di simbiosi industriale di distretto, grazie alla tipicità delle relazioni tra le imprese, il collegamento con il contesto sociale e la forte specializzazione. Un punto di forza della produzione tessile pratese è infatti il processo del riutilizzo dei tessuti per la produzione di lana e filati, che rappresenta un vantaggio strategico per la riduzione del consumo di materia prima e dei costi di produzione. Nel 2015 è stato creato il marchio “Cardato Recycled”, basato su approccio di ciclo di vita, che valorizza i prodotti del distretto pratese e certifica come essi siano realizzati con almeno il 65% di materiale riciclato.

Il settore agroalimentare genera quantità rilevanti di sottoprodotti e scarti, il cui smaltimento produce impatti ambientali ed economici. L’obiettivo del progetto FOOD CROSSING DISTRICT è l’individuazione di soluzioni per la valorizzazione di scarti e sottoprodotti agroalimentari derivanti da due filiere produttive dell’Emilia-Romagna. In particolare, saranno valorizzati bucce e semi provenienti dalla lavorazione del pomodoro e crusca e cruschello, ottenuti dalla lavorazione del grano. Grazie all’impiego di tecnologie a basso impatto ambientale si otterranno un olio da co-frangitura di olive con bucce e semi di pomodoro, una crusca disoleata ed un olio di germe di grano. Sarà inoltre effettuata la valutazione della sostenibilità ambientale ed economica a livello industriale e di mercato, tramite un approccio di LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) e saranno definiti percorsi di simbiosi industriale per il miglioramento della competitività delle imprese.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays a fundamental role in soil health, and its storage in soil is an important element to mitigate climate change. How to include this factor in Life Cycle Assessment studies has been the object of several papers and is still under discussion. SOC storage has been proposed as an additional environmental information in some applications of the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF). In the framework of wider activity aimed at producing the PEF of olive oil, the RothC model was applied to an olive cultivation located in Lazio region (Italy) to calculate the SOC storage and assess four scenarios representing different agricultural practices. RothC applicability, possible use of its results for improving product environmental performance, and relevance of SOC storage in terms of CO2eq compared to greenhouse gas emissions of the life-cycle of olive oil are discussed in this paper. According to the results, in all scenarios, the contribution in terms of CO2eq associated with SOC storage is remarkable compared to the total greenhouse gas emissions of the olive oil life-cycle. It is the opinion of the authors that the calculation of the SOC balance allows a more proper evaluation of the agricultural products contribution to climate change, and that the indications of the scenarios analysis are useful to enhance the environmental performance of these products. The downside is that the application of RothC requires additional data collection and expertise if compared to the execution of PEF studies.

The production of a Quantum Dots-Light Emitting Diode by Direct Laser Patterning is a new strategy to draw luminous patterns on Organic Light Emitting Diodes. The laser patterned Quantum Dots-Light Emitting Diode improves the optical performances of Organic Light Emitting Diodes introducing Quantum Dots as luminophores and avoids the use of photolithography to draw patterns, thus simplifying the manufacturing process. The purpose of this study is to describe the production of a Quantum Dots-Light Emitting Diode prototype using Direct Laser Patterning technology and to assess its environmental performance, by means of Life Cycle Assessment method, with the aim to identify the hotspots in the production chain and to support a more environmentally-friendly product design. The goal of the Life Cycle Assessment study is to evaluate the environmental impacts of the production of one Quantum Dots-Light Emitting Diode with a surface of 4 cm2 and a laser patterning surface of 25 mm2. The system boundaries were from cradle to gate and included the production of the following elements: the cadmium sulphide precursor for Quantum Dots, the organic electroluminescent polymer, the anode and cathode as well as laser patterning. Primary data were collected at laboratory scale and IMPACT 2002+ impact assessment method was used. Results show that the main hotspots are the production of the electroluminescent polymer and the indium tin oxide glass used as anode. Therefore, other materials could be used as anode and polymer with the aim to improve the environmental performances of the device. Moreover, a comparative analysis between the environmental impacts of the new patterning technology and that of the traditional photolithography shows that their environmental performances are quite similar. However, the use of the new Quantum Dots-Light Emitting Diode technology is advisable because of its better technological performance, lower costs and processing time. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd

Four breeding piggeries and eight growing-fattening piggeries were analyzed to estimate potential environmental impacts of heavy pig production (>. 160 kg of live height at slaughtering). Life Cycle Assessment methodology was adopted in the study, considering a system from breeding phase to growing fattening phase. Environmental impacts of breeding phase and growing-fattening phase were accounted separately and then combined to obtain the impacts of heavy pig production. The functional unit was 1 kg of live weight gain. Impact categories investigated were global warming (GW), acidification (AC), eutrophication (EU), abiotic depletion (AD), and photochemical ozone formation (PO).The total environmental impact of 1 kg of live weight gain was 3.3 kg CO2eq, 4.9 E-2 kg SO2eq, 3.1 E-2 kg PO4 3-eq, 3.7 E-3 kg Sbeq, 1.7 E-3 kg C2H4eq for GW, AC, EU, AD, and PO respectively.Feed production was the main hotspot in all impact categories. Greenhouse gases responsible for GW were mainly CH4, N2O, and CO2. Ammonia was the most important source of AC, sharing about 90%. Nitrate and NH3 were the main emissions responsible for EU, whereas P and NOx showed minor contributions. Crude oil and natural gas consumption was the main source of AD. A large spectrum of pollutants had a significant impact on PO: they comprised CH4 from manure fermentation, CO2 caused by fossil fuel combustion in agricultural operations and industrial processes, ethane and propene emitted during oil extraction and refining, and hexane used in soybean oil extraction. The farm characteristics that best explained the results were fundamentally connected with performance indicators Farms showed a wide variability of results, meaning that there was wide margin for improving the environmental performance of either breeding or growing-fattening farms. The effectiveness of some mitigation measures was evaluated and the results that could be obtained by their introduction have been presented. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.

Pesticides are commonly applied in conventional agricultural systems, but they can lead to serious environmental contamination. The calculation of on-field pesticide emissions in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies is challenging, because of the difficulty in the calculation of the fate of pesticides and, therefore, several literature approaches based on different dispersion models have been developed. PestLCI 2.0 model can provide simultaneous assessment of the emission fractions of a pesticide to air, surface water and groundwater based on many parameters. The goal of this study is to exploit the extent of PestLCI 2.0 sensitivity to soil variations, with the ultimate goal of increasing the robustness of the modelling of pesticide emissions in LCA studies. The model was applied to maize cultivation in an experimental farm in Northern Italy, considering three tests, which evaluated the distribution of pesticides among environmental compartments obtained considering different soil types. Results show that small variations in soil characteristics lead to great variation of PestLCI 2.0, with a significance that depends on the type of environmental compartment. The compartment most affected by soil variations was groundwater, whereas surface waters were dominated by meteorological conditions, pesticides’ physical and chemical properties and wind drift, which are independent from soil characteristics. Therefore, the use of specific soil data in PestLCI 2.0 results in the availability of a comprehensive set of emission data in the different compartments, which represents a relevant input for the inventory phase of LCA studies and can increase their robustness. Nevertheless, PestLCI 2.0 requires a great effort for the data collection and a specific expertise in soil science for interpreting the results. Moreover, characterization factors for pesticide groundwater emissions should be developed, in order to exploit these detailed results in the impact assessment phase, Finally, the study provides further insights into future improvement of PestLCI 2.0. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.

Antimicrobial coatings are being increasingly used as a means to extend the shelf life of food products. This extension helps consumers cut down on the food waste generated at household level, while at the same time reducing the impact, which these products' life cycle has on the environment. The aim of this Life Cycle Assessment study is thus to assess the consequences on the environment arising from the application of an antimicrobial coating onto the packaging of a fresh milk product, while also taking into account the reduction in milk waste. The antimicrobial coating considered is a synthetic derivative of lauric acid. The application of the coating involves additional environmental impacts caused by all the inputs and outputs which occur during its life cycle. At the same time, however, the use of this coating allows to extend the fresh milk's shelf life with a consequent reduction in food waste. The data related to the production and application of the coating were provided by the packaging laboratory of the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (Valencia) and by manufacturing companies. The data related to food waste, milk processing, refrigeration transports, storage, and end of life of both product and packaging were obtained from previous studies, institutional reports and Ecoinvent database v2.2. The Midpoint Impact 2002 method was used to assess impacts. The results show how the reduction in milk waste achievable by using the coating generates higher environmental benefits than the impacts caused by the coating's life cycle due to milk saving. Furthermore this study demonstrates the importance of including food waste in Life Cycle Assessment studies of packaging systems. The connection between packaging design and food waste is a decisive aspect in the evaluation of actual environmental sustainability and should thus be considered in all assessments of packaging solutions. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Aims: Vorinostat (suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid; SAHA) is a histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi) approved in the clinics for the treatment of T-cell lymphoma and with the potential to be effective also in breast cancer. We investigated the responsiveness to SAHA in human breast primary tumors and cancer cell lines. Results: We observed a differential response to drug treatment in both human breast primary tumors and cancer cell lines. Gene expression analysis of the breast cancer cell lines revealed that genes involved in cell adhesion and redox pathways, especially glutathione metabolism, were differentially expressed in the cell lines resistant to SAHA compared with the sensitive ones, indicating their possible association with drug resistance mechanisms. Notably, such an association was also observed in breast primary tumors. Indeed, addition of buthionine sulfoximine (BSO), a compound capable of depleting cellular glutathione, significantly enhanced the cytotoxicity of SAHA in both breast cancer cell lines and primary breast tumors. Innovation: We identify and validate transcriptional differences in genes involved in redox pathways, which include potential predictive markers of sensitivity to SAHA. Conclusion: In breast cancer, it could be relevant to evaluate the expression of antioxidant genes that may favor tumor resistance as a factor to consider for potential clinical application and treatment with epigenetic drugs (HDACis). Antioxid. Redox Signal. 23, 15–29.

Currently, stakeholders’ increasing attention to quality is driving the wine sector to rethink and change its own production processes. Amongst product quality dimensions, the environment is gaining ever-growing attention at various levels of policy-making and business. Given its soundness, the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has become widespread in many application contexts. Apart from applications for communication purposes, LCA has also been used in the wine sector to highlight environmental hot spots in supply chains, to compare farming practices and to detect improvement options, inter alia. Case studies whose focus is the wine industry abound in high quality publications. This Chapter has a two-fold focus: firstly, an analysis of the methodologies and standards of the Life Cycle Thinking concept, related to wine, and secondly, a critical analysis of wine LCA case studies in order to compile a list of scientificallybased environmental hot-spots and improvements. The chapter also expands the knowledge on LCA’s application to the wine industry by discussing how best to contribute to: • the identification of the critical environmental issues of the wine supply-chain and the essential elements that an LCA case study in the sector should consider; • the identification of an optimal set of indicators and methodologies for the evaluation of the environmental impacts of wine; • the comparability of results; • the improvement of the environmental research quality in this sector.

A standard ISO Life Cycle Assessment study was carried out to evaluate the environmental sustainability of electricity production from an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant using a mixture of dedicated energy crops, agricultural residues and livestock effluents as input materials. The functional unit was 1 MJ of electricity. System boundaries were from cradle to grave and covered all the phases from energy crops cultivation to the production of biogas and its use in a Combined Heat and Power plant to produce electricity. Liquid and solid digestate storage and spreading on agricultural land were included. Primary data were collected from the AD plant for all the above phases. Since heat produced is used only internally, no allocation was applied in the study. As regards digestate management, CH4 emissions were calculated from literature, whereas four literature methods were applied for calculation of nitrogen emissions with the goal to perform a sensitivity analysis on LCA results. ILCD Handbook impact assessment methodologies were used. Results show that the main hotspots are energy crops cultivation and the management of digestate, mainly because of both nitrogen and methane emissions, affecting Global Warming, Acidification, Marine and Freshwater Eutrophication. Finally, a detailed Monte Carlo analysis, was carried out to evaluate the results uncertainty. The study represents the state of the art about the environmental performance of the AD plant with the use of sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, which both improve the reliability of results, and allows drawing general conclusions on how to mitigate the environmental impacts of AD process. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

This study quantifies the environmental impact of milk production of Italian Mediterranean buffaloes and points out the farm characteristics that mainly affect their environmental performance. Life cycle assessment was applied in a sample of 6 farms. The functional unit was 1kg of normalized buffalo milk (LBN), with a reference milk fat and protein content of 8.3 and 4.73%, respectively. The system boundaries included the agricultural phase of the buffalo milk chain from cradle to farm gate. An economic criterion was adopted to allocate the impacts on milk production. Impact categories investigated were global warming (GW), abiotic depletion (AD), photochemical ozone formation (PO), acidification (AC), and eutrophication (EU). The contribution to the total results of the following farm activities were investigated: (1) on-farm energy consumption, (2) manure management, (3) manure application, (4) on-farm feed production (comprising production and application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides), (5) purchased feed production, (6) enteric fermentation, and (7) transport of purchased feeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides from producers to farms. Global warming associated with 1kg of LBN resulted in 5.07kg of CO 2 Eq [coefficient of variation (CV)=21.9%], AD was 3.5×10 −3 kg of Sb Eq (CV=51.7%), PO was 6.8×10 −4 kg of C 2 H 4 Eq (CV=28.8%), AC was 6.5×10 −2 kg of SO 2 Eq (CV=30.3%), and EU was 3.3×10 −2 kg of PO 4 3− Eq (CV=36.5%). The contribution of enteric fermentation and manure application to GW is 37 and 20%, respectively; on-farm consumption, on-farm feed production, and purchased feed production are the main contributors to AD; about 70% of PO is due to enteric fermentation; manure management and manure application are responsible for 55 and 25% of AC and 25 and 55% of EU, respectively. Methane and N 2 O are responsible for 44 and 43% of GW, respectively. Crude oil consumption is responsible for about 72% of AD; contribution of CH 4 to PO is 77%; NH 3 is the main contributor to AC (92%); NO 3 − and NH 3 are responsible for 55 and 41% of EU, respectively; contribution of P to EU is only 3.2%. The main characteristics explaining the significant variability of life cycle assessment are milk productivity and amount of purchased feed per kilogram of LBN. Improvement of LBN production per buffalo cow is the main strategy for reducing GW and PO; improvement of the efficiency of feed use is the strategy proposed for mitigating AD, PO, AC, and EU.