Search

Abstract People with Parkinson’s disease (PWP) face critical challenges, including lack of access to neurological care, inadequate measurement and communication of motor symptoms, and suboptimal medication management and compliance. We have developed QDG-Care: a comprehensive connected care platform for Parkinson’s disease (PD) that delivers validated, quantitative metrics of all motor signs in PD in real time, monitors the effects of adjusting therapy and medication adherence and is accessible in the electronic health record. In this article, we describe the design and engineering of all components of QDG-Care, including the development and utility of the QDG Mobility and Tremor Severity Scores. We present the preliminary results and insights from an at-home trial using QDG-Care. QDG technology has enormous potential to improve access to, equity of, and quality of care for PWP, and improve compliance with complex time-critical medication regimens. It will enable rapid “Go-NoGo” decisions for new therapeutics by providing high-resolution data that require fewer participants at lower cost and allow more diverse recruitment.

Repurposing saffron (Crocus sativus) waste presents a sustainable strategy for generating high-value products within the bioeconomy framework. Typically, flower components are discarded after stigma harvest, resulting in significant waste—350 kg of tepals per kilogram of stigmas. This research employed a comprehensive approach, integrating bioactivity studies (in vitro and in silico) with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) evaluations, to extract and assess bioactive compounds from C. sativus tepals sourced in Tuscany, Italy. Phytochemical characterization using UPLC-MS/MS revealed a high abundance and variety of flavonoids in the hydro-ethanolic extract (CST). The antioxidant capacity was validated through various assays, and the ability to mitigate H2O2-induced oxidative stress and enhance fermentation was demonstrated in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This study reports that C. sativus tepals extract reduces oxidative stress and boosts ethanol fermentation in yeast, paving the way for applications in the food and biofuels sectors. Further validation in RAW 264.7 macrophages confirmed CST’s significant anti-inflammatory effects, indicating its potential for pharmaceutical, cosmeceutical, and nutraceutical applications. In silico studies identified potential targets involved in antioxidant and anti-inflammatory processes, shedding light on possible interaction mechanisms with Kaempferol 3-O-sophoroside (KOS-3), the predominant compound in the extract. The integration of LCA studies highlighted the environmental benefits of this approach. Overall, this research underscores the value of using waste-derived extracts through “green” methodologies, offering a model that may provide significant advantages for further evaluations compared to traditional methodologies and supporting the circular bioeconomy.

In the last decades, the slow-spreading Red Sea rift has been the objective of several geophysical investigations to study the extension of the oceanic crust, the thickness of the sedimentary cover, and the formation of transform faults. However, local seismology datasets are still lacking despite their potential to contribute to the understanding of the tectonic evolution of the Red Sea. The Zabargad Fracture Zone is located in the Northern Red Sea and significantly offsets the rift axis to the East. Thus, it is considered a key tectonic element to understand better the formation of the Red Sea rift. To fill the gap in the dataset availability, we deployed the first passive seismic network in the Red Sea, within the Zabargad Fracture Zone. This network included 12 Lobster OBSs from the DEPAS pool, 2 OBS developed and deployed by Fugro, and 4 portable seismic land stations deployed on islands and onshore on the Saudi Arabian coast. Our data-quality analysis confirms that the head-buoy cable free to strum, as well as other additional elements of the DEPAS OBSs, generate seismic noise at frequencies $>$ 10 Hz. However, the Fugro OBSs show high-frequency disturbances even if they lack vibrating elements. Comparison between land and OBS stations reveals that noise between 1 and 10 Hz is due to ocean-generated seismic noise, and not due to resonance of the OBS elements. We also found that waveforms of teleseismic earthquakes recorded by the Fugro OBSs, islands, and onshore stations have comparable signal-to-noise ratios. Instead, differences in signal-to-noise ratio for local earthquakes are affected more by site and path effects than instrument settings.

On 6 February 2023, two large earthquakes with magnitude 7.8 and 7.6 rocked south‐central Türkiye and northwestern Syria. At the time of writing, the death toll exceeded 50,000 in Türkiye and 7200 in Syria. The epicenter of the first mainshock was located ∼15 km east of the east Anatolian fault (EAF), the second large earthquake (9 hr later) initiated ∼90 km to the north on the east–west‐trending Sürgü fault. Aftershocks delineate fault lengths of ∼350 and ∼170 km, respectively. Using satellite and seismic data for first‐order analyses of surface‐fault offsets, space–time rupture evolution, and recorded ground motions, our study sheds light on the reasons for the extensive destruction. The first event ruptured the EAF bilaterally, lasted for ∼80 s, and created surface fault offsets of over 6 m. The second event also ruptured bilaterally with a duration of ∼35 s and more than 7 m surface offsets. Horizontal ground accelerations reached locally up to 2g in the first mainshock; severe and widespread shaking occurred in the Hatay‐Antakia area with values near 0.5g. Both earthquakes are characterized by directivity effects and abrupt rupture cessation generating stopping phases that contributed to strong seismic radiation. Shaking was further aggravated locally by site‐amplification effects.

Ocean-bottom seismometers (OBSs) are equipped with seismic sensors that record acoustic and seismic events at the seafloor, which makes them suitable for investigating tectonic structures capable of generating earthquakes offshore. One critical parameter to obtain accurate earthquake locations is the absolute time of the incoming seismic signals recorded by the OBSs. It is, however, not possible to synchronize the internal clocks of the OBSs with a known reference time, given that GNSS signals are unable to reach the instrument at the sea bottom. To address this issue, here we introduce a new method to synchronize the clocks of large-scale OBS deployments. Our approach relies on the theoretical time-symmetry of time-lapse (averaged) crosscorrelations of ambient seismic noise. Deviations from symmetry are attributed to clock errors. This implies that the recovered clock errors will be obscured by lapse crosscorrelations' deviations from symmetry that are not due to clock errors. Non-uniform surface wave illumination patterns are arguably the most notable source which breaks the time symmetry. Using field data, we demonstrate that the adverse effects of non-uniform illumination patterns on the recovered clock errors can be mitigated by means of a weighted least-squares inversion that is based on station-station distances. In addition, our methodology permits the recovery of timing errors at the time of deployment of the OBSs. This error can be attributed to either: i) a wrong initial time synchronization of the OBS or ii) a timing error induced by changing temperature and pressure conditions while the OBS is sunk to the ocean floor. The methodology is implemented in an open-source Python package named OCloC, and we applied it to the OBS recordings acquired in the context of the IMAGE project in and around Reykjanes, Iceland. As expected, most OBSs suffered from clock drift. Surprisingly, we found incurred timing errors at the time of deployment for most of the OBSs.

In recent decades, the fight against climate change and the commitment to reduce greenhouse gases have shed a light on the production of energy from renewable sources, in particular those derived from solar energy. This has required the involvement of all stakeholders (producers, but also energy operators, authorities, distributors, and final consumers) which has led to the outline of a new scenario characterized by more efficient technologies, dedicated strategies and business models, and the research of alternatives solutions. Within solar technology, great attention has been given in recent years to concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies, both from research studies and technological development sides. This paper provides a theoretical framework based on a CSP literature review to define the state of the art and to identify research gaps and future research steps related to this technology. The work is based on an innovative bibliometric study to explore technical fields related to CSP, providing both a comprehensive framework with reference to the state of the art of the technology investigated, and a detailed analysis on CSP commercial applications, making the review a very useful tool for stakeholders and decision makers The results of the analysis: (1) help to clarify the technological advances of CSP, the strengths and weaknesses of the current technologies used (parabolic and tower systems are the most widespread), and indications of the prospects for dish systems; (2) identify an alternative to the economic problem that represents an obstacle to the diffusion of CSP, for example, by identifying the ability to couple it with thermal storage as a valid method to increase the flexibility of the system and reduce costs; (3) suggested hybrids, both with renewable and non-renewable technologies, identifying strengths and weaknesses for all the proposed proposals; (4) show that it is possible to identify new ongoing research such as that related to hydrogen production. This paper represents the first part of a larger research study developed within the SOLARGRID Project, which promotes and supports the development of innovative solutions for systems and components for CSP and concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) technologies, with the aim to enhance their energetic performances and economic competitiveness in applications for the distributed generation of both electric and thermal energy frameworks. The main findings of our study highlight that, though there is an increasing number of papers on the topic of CSP, several issues remain neglected.

Developing solar energy conversion devices is one key driver of the energy transition pathway [...]

This work aims to review the most significant studies dealing with the environmental issues of the use of lead in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). A careful discussion and rationalization of the environmental and human health toxicity impacts, evaluated by life cycle assessment and risk assessment studies, is presented. The results of this analysis are prospectively related to the possible future massive production of PSC technology.

The overexploitation of fossil fuels as main energy source to support the global economy is identified as the most responsible of the current critical situation from an environmental viewpoint. The need to replace fossil fuels has posed the attention on alternative energy sources such as biofuels, in both developed and developing countries. Africa, for example, has enormous natural resources in the form of biomass from agriculture and other related processes (i.e., food residues). An action that can help fight climate change is the implementation of biofuel refineries to maximize the value of biomass by converting it into a range of products, like energy vectors, biomaterials, feed and fertilizers. By using emergy evaluation and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) this study focused on the potential development of sustainable biotechnological processes fed by biowaste and bioresidues in two African countries (Egypt and Ghana). We assessed the sustainability level of two biofuel productions based on starch and lignocellulosic feedstocks (i.e., cassava peel and corn stover, respectively). A first understanding of the sustainability of the case studies was obtained and the results showed that the biorefinery based on cassava peel was more sustainable from both the user and donor perspectives. Indeed, the LCA results showed that impact categories Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Acidification Potential (AP) had lower values for cassava compared to corn stover biorefinery and emergy outcomes highlighted that the starch-rich feedstock had lower Unit Emergy Value (UEV) and higher renewability percentage (94%). These results suggest that biorefineries are an option for world bioeconomy strategy as they enable optimization of agricultural and food residues and their environmental performance in producing a renewable substitute for fossil fuels and other non-renewable materials is promising.

Datasets concerning the European electricity mix, built employing the Ecoinvent database v.3.3 processes, are reported in this paper. Foreseen future scenarios are modelled based on acknowledged projections for energy market in Europe in 2050. These electricity mix data inventories could be useful for any academic or stakeholder interested in performing long-term prospective assessment of innovative generation technologies in the future European energy market.

New generation photovoltaic devices have attracted much attention in the last decades since they can be efficiently manufactured employing abundant raw materials and with less-energy intensive processes. In this context, the use of powerful environmental assessment is pivotal to support the fine-tuning of solar cells fabrication and hit the target of manufacturing effective sustainable technological devices. In this work, a mass-based green metrics and life cycle assessment combined approach is applied to analyze the environmental performances of an innovative synthetic protocol for the preparation of organic dye TTZ5, which has been successfully proposed as sensitizer for manufacturing dye sensitized solar cells. The new synthetic strategy, which is based on the C-H activation process, has been compared with the previously reported synthesis employing classic Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling chemistry. Results highlight the contribution of direct energy consumption and purification operations in organic syntheses at lab scale. Furthermore, they demonstrate the usefulness of the environmental multifaceted analytic tool and the power of life cycle assessment to overcome the intrinsic less comprehensive nature of green metrics for the evaluation of organic synthetic protocols.

Electric production from geothermal energy is still little exploited compared to its large potential and to the World renewable energy production from other sources. Some countries have exploited this energy source in order to enhance their transition to renewables. Today the largest geothermal energy producers in the world are New Zealand, U.S.A, Mexico, Philippines, Italy, Iceland, and, more recently, Turkey (Geothermal, 2012).Differently from other renewable sources, geothermal energy produces impacts on the environment that are very site-specific because of the nature of the resource and its geological characteristics Bravi et al.,2010; Parisi et al.,2013. In the same way, the atmospheric emissions associated to the activity of geothermal power plants for electric or heat production (mainly CO2, H2S, NH3, Hg, CH4) are also site-specific. In fact, due to technological and geographical differences among the geothermal installations operating all over the World, it is quite impossible to identify and attribute typical emission patterns, to perform forecasts valid for multiple sites or to collect universal data. Furthermore, it is virtually impossible the comparison among technologies located in different regions or countries. Definitively, inventories of primary data, as accurate and complete as possible, are essential to correctly evaluate the peculiarities of geo-thermoelectric energy production Parisi et al.,2018.Data reported here try to fill the gap in respect to the Italian situation. To this end, a complete survey of the atmospheric emissions from all the geothermal power plants in operation in the Tuscany Region is performed. In addition to data reporting, also some statistical analysis is performed to process data and to operate a further level of simplification which averages the emissions on the basis of geothermal sub-areas.The data collected is related to the research article “Life cycle assessment of atmospheric emission profiles of the Italian geothermal power plants” Parisi et al.,2019. Keywords: Atmospheric emissions, Geo-thermoelectric power plants, Tuscany region, Regional agency for environment protection, AMIS abatement system

Heat production from a geothermal energy source is gaining increasing attention due to its potential contribution to the decarbonization of the European energy sector. Obtaining representative results of the environmental performances of geothermal systems and comparing them with other renewables is of utmost importance in order to ensure an effective energy transition as targeted by Europe. This work presents the outputs of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) performed on the Rittershoffen geothermal heat plant applying guidelines that were developed within the H2020 GEOENVI project. The production of 1 kWhth from the Rittershoffen heat plant was compared to the heat produced from natural gas in Europe. Geothermal heat production performed better than the average heat production in climate change and resource use, fossil categories. The LCA identified the electricity consumption during the operation and maintenance phase as a hot spot for several impact categories. A prospective scenario analysis was therefore performed to assess the evolution of the environmental performances of the Rittershoffen heat plant associated with the future French electricity mixes. The increase of renewable energy shares in the future French electricity mix caused the impact on specific categories (e.g., land use and mineral and metals resource depletion) to grow over the years. However, an overall reduction of the environmental impacts of the Rittershoffen heat plant was observed.

This paper presents an environmental sustainability assessment of residential user-scale energy systems, named solar home systems, encompassing their construction, operation, and end of life. The methodology adopted is composed of three steps, namely a design phase, a simulation of the solar home systems’ performance and a life cycle assessment. The analysis aims to point out the main advantages, features, and challenges of lithium-ion batteries, considered as a benchmark, compared with other innovative devices. As the environmental sustainability of these systems is affected by the solar radiation intensity during the year, a sensitivity analysis is performed varying the latitude of the installation site in Europe. For each site, both isolated and grid-connected solar home systems have been compared considering also the national electricity mix. A general overview of the results shows that, regardless of the installation site, solid state nickel cobalt manganese and nickel cobalt aluminium lithium-ion batteries are the most suitable choices in terms of sustainability. Remarkably, other novel devices, like sodium-ion batteries, are already competitive with them and have great potential. With these batteries, the solar home systems’ eco-profile is generally advantageous compared to the energy mix, especially in on-grid configurations, with some exceptions.

Geothermal energy could play a crucial role in the European energy market and future scenarios focused on sustainable development. Thanks to its constant supply of concentrated energy, it can support the transition towards a low-carbon economy. In the energy sector, the decision-making process should always be supported by a holistic science-based approach to allow a comprehensive environmental assessment of the technological system, such as the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. In the geothermal sector, the decision-making is particularly difficult due to the large variability of reported results on environmental performance across studies. This calls for harmonized guidelines on how to conduct LCAs of geothermal systems to enhance transparency and results comparability, by ensuring consistent methodological choices and providing indications for harmonized results reporting. This work identifies the main critical aspects of performing an LCA of geothermal systems and provides solutions and technical guidance to harmonize its application. The proposed methodological approach is based on experts’ knowledge from both the geothermal and LCA sectors. The recommendations cover all the life cycle phases of geothermal energy production (i.e., construction, operation, maintenance and end of life) as well as a selection of LCA key elements thus providing a thorough base for concerted LCA guidelines for the geothermal sector. The application of such harmonized LCA framework can ensure comparability among LCA results from different geothermal systems and other renewable energy technologies.

Technologies to produce electric energy from renewable geothermal source are gaining increasing attention, due to their ability to provide a stable output suitable for baseload production. Performing life cycle assessment (LCA) of geothermal systems has become essential to evaluate their environmental performance. However, so far, no documented nor reliable information has been made available for developing robust LCA studies. This work provides a comprehensive inventory of the Italian Bagnore geothermal power plants system. The inventory is based exclusively on primary data, accounting for every life cycle stage of the system. Data quality was assessed by means of a pedigree matrix. The calculated LCA results showed, with an overall low level of uncertainty (2–3%), that the commissioning and operational phases accounted for more than 95% of the environmental profile. Direct emissions to atmosphere were shown to be the major environmental impact, particularly those released during the operational phase (84%). The environmental performances comparison with the average Italian electricity mix showed that the balance is always in favor of geothermal energy production, except in the climate change impact category. The overall outcome confirms the importance, for flash technology employing fluid with a high concentration of gas content, of using good quality primary data to obtain robust results.

The prediction of ground-state redox potentials by quantum chemical methods has a prominent role in the rational design of novel organic photosensitizers both for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and photocatalytic systems for the production of H2. Indeed, the ground-state redox potential of the photosensitizers is one of the key parameters to identify the most promising candidates for such applications. Here, the ground-state redox potentials of 16 organic donor-π-acceptor D-π-A and donor-acceptor-π-acceptor D-A-π-A dyes having a medium to large size of the conjugated scaffold are evaluated, using the methods of the Density Functional Theory (DFT), in terms of free energy differences between their neutral and oxidized ground-state forms. These results are compared to the available experimental data and to the computed highest occupied molecular orbital energy −ε(HOMO) values as an approximation of ground-state redox potentials according to Koopmans’ theorem. Using the MPW1K functional in combination with the 6-31+G* basis set, the strategy based on the free energy cycle, including solvent effects, reproduces with a good level of accuracy the observed values (mean absolute error (MAE) < 0.2 eV) and trend of redox potentials within related families of dyes. On the other hand, the −ε(HOMO) values are only able to capture the experimental trends in redox potential values.

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of mortality among gynecologic malignancies, with most cases diagnosed at an advanced stage. Despite an initial response, most develop a recurrence and subsequent resistance to standard therapies. Pemetrexed (AlimtaTM) is a new generation multi-targeted antifolate initially approved for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma. In recent years, it has shown promise in the treatment of recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer. In this review, we outline the current literature and discuss the future of pemetrexed in the setting of recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer.

This special issue of JWSR presents new research on the environment from a distinctly world-system perspective. World-system studies have recently discovered the environment. The turn toward the environment in any number of disciplines has resulted in the greening of this and that area of study. Now it is world-system studies turn. It is a little late; but better late than never. Actually, environmental and world-system studies have a great deal to offer each other. For environmental studies the focus upon the world economy as a whole makes a great deal of sense. Industrial plants in one country, or one region of the world may generate acid rain, but it can fall on other countries. The environment knows no political borders, hence a focus upon the world economy rather than the French, American or Brazilian economy, makes more sense. It is also the case that looking for systemic effects of different types of economics and political systems on the environment should follow the general direction of political/economic theory, which has been ratcheting its level of analysis ever upward to include more and more parts of the world as components of a singular world system. In effect, if we now believe that the most primal locus of economic and political process resides at the level of global interactions then to study the effects of political/economic processes upon the environment means studying the dynamics of the world-system. It is somewhat inevitable.

The photovoltaic (PV) sector has undergone both major expansion and evolution over the last decades, and currently, the technologies already marketed or still in the laboratory/research phase are numerous and very different. Likewise, in order to assess the energy and environmental impacts of these devices, life cycle assessment (LCA) studies related to these systems are always increasing. The objective of this paper is to summarize and update the current literature of LCA applied to different types of grid-connected PV, as well as to critically analyze the results related to energy and environmental impacts generated during the life cycle of PV technologies, from 1st generation (traditional silicon based) up to the third generation (innovative non-silicon based). Most of the results regarded energy indices like energy payback time, cumulative energy demand, and primary energy demand, while environmental indices were variable based on different scopes and impact assessment methods. Moreover, the review work allowed to highlight and compare key parameters (PV type and system, geographical location, efficiency), methodological insights (functional unit, system boundaries, etc.), and energy/environmental hotspots of 39 LCA studies relating to different PV systems, in order to underline the importance of these aspects, and to provide information and a basis of comparison for future analyses.

The development of perovskite solar cell technology is steadily increasing. The extremely high photoconversion efficiency drives factor that makes these devices so attractive for photovoltaic energy production. However, the environmental impact of this technology could represent a crucial matter for industrial development, and the sustainability of perovskite solar cell is at the center of the scientific debate. The life cycle assessment studies available in the literature evaluate the environmental profile of this technology, but the outcomes vary consistently depending on the methodological choices and assumptions made by authors. In this work, we performed the harmonization of these life cycle assessment results to understand which are effectively the environmental hotspots of the perovskite solar cell fabrication. The outcomes of this analysis allowed us to outline an environmental ranking of the profiles of the several cell configurations investigated and, most importantly, to identify the material and energy flows that mostly contribute to the technology in terms of environmental impact.

We propose a statistical measure, based on correlation networks, to evaluate the systemic risk that could arise from the resolution of a failing or likely-to-fail financial institution, under three alternative scenarios: liquidation, private recapitalization, or bail-in. The measure enhances the observed CDS spreads with a risk premium that derives from contagion effects across financial institutions. The empirical findings reveal that the recapitalization of a distressed bank performed by the other banks in the system and the bail-in resolution minimize the potential losses for the banking sector with respect to the liquidation scenario, thus posing limited systemic risks. A closer comparison between the private intervention recapitalization and the bail-in tool shows that the latter slightly reduces contagion effects with respect to the private intervention scenario.

We propose a novel credit risk measurement model for Corporate Default Swap (CDS) spreads that combines vector autoregressive regression with correlation networks. We focus on the sovereign CDS spreads of a collection of countries that can be regarded as idiosyncratic measures of credit risk. We model CDS spreads by means of a structural vector autoregressive model, composed by a time dependent country specific component, and by a contemporaneous component that describes contagion effects among countries. To disentangle the two components, we employ correlation networks, derived from the correlation matrix between the reduced form residuals. The proposed model is applied to ten countries that are representative of the recent financial crisis: top borrowing/lending countries, and peripheral European countries. The empirical findings show that the contagion variable derived in this study can be considered as a network centrality measure. From an applied viewpoint, the results indicate that, in the last 10 years, contagion has induced a “clustering effect” between core and peripheral countries, with the two groups further diverging through, and because of, contagion propagation, thus creating a sort of diabolic loop extremely difficult to be reversed. Finally, the outcomes of the analysis confirm that core countries are importers of risk, as contagion increases their CDS spread, whereas peripheral countries are exporters of risk. Greece is an unfortunate exception, as its spreads seem to increase for both idiosyncratic factors and contagion effects.