The increasing share of renewable energy sources in energy systems will lead to unpredictable moments of surplus/deficit in energy production. To address this issue, users with heat pumps can provide support to power grid operators through flexible unit operation achieved via Demand Response programs. For buildings connected to low-temperature heating networks with ensured third-party access, further room for flexibility can be explored by investigating the production of surplus heat that can be sold to the network. A key aspect lies in the identification of the energy pricing options that could encourage such flexible operation of a heat pump by "thermal prosumers". To this aim, the present study investigates the impact of ad hoc variations in the electricity purchasing price through discounts or penalties included in the "network cost" component of the price on cost-effective operation of a heat pump connected to the thermal network. To discuss the effects of different pricing options in terms of increased flexibility, an office building located in Italy and equipped with a high-temperature heat pump is adopted as the case study. A heuristic profit-oriented management strategy of the heat pump is assumed, and dynamic simulations are performed. The results indicate that at current electricity prices, the heat pump operation is profitable both when supplying the heat to meet the building's requirements and when producing surplus heat for sale to the thermal network. In addition, it is revealed that the penalties applied to the electricity purchasing price are effective in encouraging changes in the heat pump operation strategy, reducing its average production (the building increasingly relying on buying heat from the network) and the associated electricity consumption by 46.0% and 79.7% in the "light" and "severe" local power deficit scenarios, respectively.

During the project management actions, a chain of fine-grained events occur, both of bio-ecological and anthropic origin. While some may be expected or planned, others may be unforeseen. This work proposes the drafting of a 'diary of events' reporting bio-ecological and anthropogenic events, these last having both negative and positive impacts. This diary can be carried out using a schematic form, aiming to highlight the cause-effect relationships between events, the management responses, and the lessons learned. Analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (i.e., the internal and external conditioning factors) linked to these events (SWOT analysis) to make a case of study from the real world, we applied this approach to a project aimed at protecting nests of two species of conservation interest (Charadrius alexandrinus and C. dubius) in a protected coastal area of central Italy.

The paper illustrates the results of a research concerning post-covid public spaces. In this framework shows: the Nua and the proposed updating of the Charter of Public Space; the original methodology carried out to analyse the case studies and the emblematic cases.

Several carrier proteins are involved in protein transport from the cytoplasm to the nucleus in eukaryotic cells. One of those is importin alpha, of which there are several human isoforms; among them, importin alpha 3 (Imp alpha 3) has a high flexibility. The protein NUPR1, a nuclear protein involved in the cell-stress response and cell cycle regulation, is an intrinsically disordered protein (IDP) that has a nuclear localization sequence (NLS) to allow for nuclear translocation. NUPR1 does localize through the whole cell. In this work, we studied the affinity of the isolated wild-type NLS region (residues 54-74) of NUPR1 towards Imp alpha 3 and several mutants of the NLS region by using several biophysical techniques and molecular docking approaches. The NLS region of NUPR1 interacted with Imp alpha 3, opening the way to model the nuclear translocation of disordered proteins. All the isolated NLS peptides were disordered. They bound to Imp alpha 3 with low micromolar affinity (1.7-27 mu M). Binding was hampered by removal of either Lys65 or Lys69 residues, indicating that positive charges were important; furthermore, binding decreased when Thr68 was phosphorylated. The peptide phosphorylated at Thr68, as well as four phospho-mimetic peptides (all containing the Thr68Glu mutation), showed the presence of a sequential NN(i,i+ 1) nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) in the 2D-H-1-NMR (two-dimensional-proton NMR) spectra, indicating the presence of turn-like conformations. Thus, the phosphorylation of Thr68 modulates the binding of NUPR1 to Imp alpha 3 by a conformational, entropy-driven switch from a random-coil conformation to a turn-like structure.

People living in highly populated cities increasingly experience decreased quality of life due to pollution and traffic congestion. With the objective of reducing the number of circulating vehicles, we investigate a novel approach to boost ride-sharing opportunities based on the knowledge of the human activities behind individual mobility demands. We observe that in many cases the activity motivating the use of a private car (e.g., going to a shopping mall) can be performed in many different places. Therefore, when there is the possibility of sharing a ride, people having a pro-environment behavior or interested in saving money can accept to fulfill their needs at an alternative destination. We thus propose activity-based ride matching (ABRM), an algorithm aimed at matching ride requests with ride offers, possibly reaching alternative destinations where the intended activity can he performed. By analyzing two large mobility datasets extracted from a popular social network, we show that our approach could largely impact urban mobility by resulting in an increase up to 54.69% of ride-sharing opportunities with respect to a traditional destination-oriented approach. Due to the high number of ride possibilities found by ABRM, we introduce and assess a subsequent ranking step to provide the user with the topk most relevant rides only. We discuss how ABRM parameters affect the fraction of car rides that can he saved and how the ranking function can be tuned to enforce pro-environment behaviors.

With this study we intend to describe the prerogatives of the qualified between 2010 and 2012 in the professional training courses provided by the Piedmont Region, through the Structural Funds ESF 2007-2013. What are the characteristics of young people attending vocational training courses aimed at fulfilling compulsory education? Which courses do they prefer? Are there any significant gender and citizenship differences? These are some of the questions we have tried to answer through the data coming from the administrative databases. The paper is aimed at analysing youth transitions to the labour market, one and five years after the end of the training courses, by a preliminary descriptive analysis.

The dynamism of proteins is central to their function, and several proteins have been described as flexible, as consisting of multiple domains joined by flexible linkers, and even as intrinsically disordered. Several techniques exist to study protein structures, but small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) has proven to be particularly powerful for the quantitative analysis of such flexible systems. In the present report, we have used SAXS in combination with X-ray crystallography to highlight their usefulness at characterizing flexible proteins, using as examples two proteins involved in different steps of ribosome biogenesis. The yeast BRCA2 and CDKN1A-interactig protein, Bcp1, is a chaperone for Rpl23 of unknown structure. We showed that it consists of a rigid, slightly elongated protein, with a secondary structure comprising a mixture of alpha helices and beta sheets. As an example of a flexible molecule, we studied the SBDS (Shwachman-Bodian-Diamond Syndrome) protein that is involved in the cytoplasmic maturation of the 60S subunit and constitutes the mutated target in the Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome. In solution, this protein coexists in an ensemble of three main conformations, with the N- and C-terminal ends adopting different orientations with respect to the central domain. The structure observed in the protein crystal corresponds to an average of those predicted by the SAXS flexibility analysis.

Design and development of a training protocol to improve creative thinking in elderlies with cognitive impairments in order to help them facing everyday life.

This paper describes the design of a training program for adults with cognitive impairments associated to brain damages. The goal is to improve flexibility through a creative thinking approach inspired to everyday problems and challenges with the innovative support of technology. The training is grounded on the three fundamental components of creativity: widening, connecting, and reorganizing. It consists of 5 units, each of them scheduled across 4 steps. Units 2 and 5 include a fifth step consisting of two serious games based on the technological support of a laptop. The training program has been implemented in a pilot study, whose outcomes will be the base for future improvements of the whole training.

The recent economic and social changes have prompted PhDs to broaden their working horizons and to search for jobs more and more in sectors other than research. The title of doctor is no longer just an introduction to academic career, and this evolution leads careers for PhDs less linear and predictable. In this paper, we analyse the careers of more than 1,000 PhDs, based on data collected by the project POCARIM in 13 European countries, in order to identify which elements influence the change or constancy in a working sector in a moment of passage between two different jobs. The aim of this paper is to identify useful elements to describe evolution of job carrier for PhDs.

A new flexible manufacturing process has been implemented in order to produce bounded fabrics with customized properties. A stretch-leather is the target with customized properties to be developed through a continuous bounding, thermal treatment and chemical treatment. Flexibility has been exploited in terms of customizable textile materials and fabrics to bound with leather (substitution of traditional Lycra and latex for bounding process), changing of mechanical stretch and enlargement of working area. The SCADA software developed within the project, aimed at supervising the machine behavior and controlling main parameters allowing the customization of mechanical properties (elasticity, resiliency, surface resistance, thickness) functional properties (breathability, absorption, softness, thermal regulation) and productivity.

The economic crisis, the increasing unemployment rate and the ICT revolution make the education reform deeply challenging, since the young must be prepared to face and handle a more and more unpredictable labour market. Methods that had been applied for decades, in consequence, have to be revised in depth. Traditional teaching provides students with a strong preparation, so as to make them able to keep up to date and master new subjects and technologies in rapid evolution. Such fundamental skills must now be enforced: flexibility, autonomy, interdisciplinary work, capability to face new tasks in new environments. This work discusses some aspects of the problem and proposes a possible revision of traditional face to face lectures. This method can be applied to primary and secondary school as well and is mainly based on some teaching experiments carried out during a long-lasting experience as a lecturer at the School of Engineering of Ferrara University (Italy).

Bovine seminal ribonuclease (BS-RNase) is made-up by two identical subunits bridged through two disulfide bonds. In solution, it exists as a 2:1 equilibrium mixture between two forms, with (MxM) and without swapping (M=M) of the N-terminal arms. The swapping endows BS-RNase with some special biological functions, including antitumor activity, since MxM retains a dimeric structure even under reducing conditions, thus evading the cytosolic ribonuclease inhibitor. To investigate the structural basis of domain swapping in BS-RNase we have obtained several mutants by replacing selected residues with the corresponding ones of its monomeric counterpart, bovine pancreatic ribonuclease (RNase A). We have already shown that, in contrast with all other cases of swapped proteins, the swapping propensity of BS-RNase does not depend on the specific sequence of the 16-22 hinge loop, which connects the main body to the dislocating arm. In this paper we report the design, the expression and the structural characterization of two mutants obtained by replacing Arg80 with Ser either in BS-RNase and in the mutant containing already the 16-22 hinge sequence of RNase A. NMR and circular dichroism data indicate that, in the monomeric form of the latter mutant, Ser80 acts as a switch for the conformation of the hinge region. Accordingly, in the dimeric form of the same mutant the MxM:M=M equilibrium ratio is inverted to 1:2. Overall, these data suggest that the presence of Arg80 triggers the swapping of Nterminal ends and plays a relevant role in the stability of the swapped form of BS-RNase.

Administration of methylphenidate (MPH, Ritalin®) to children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is an elective therapy, but raises concerns for public health, due to possible persistent neurobehavioral alterations. Wistar adolescent rats (30 to 46 day old) were administered MPH or saline (SAL) for 16 days, and tested for reward-related and motivational-choice behaviors. When tested in adulthood in a drug-free state, MPH-pretreated animals showed increased choice flexibility and economical efficiency, as well as a dissociation between dampened place conditioning and more marked locomotor sensitization induced by cocaine, compared to SAL-pretreated controls. The striatal complex, a core component of the natural reward system, was collected both at the end of the MPH treatment and in adulthood. Genome-wide expression profiling, followed by RT-PCR validation on independent samples, showed that three members of the postsynaptic-density family and five neurotransmitter receptors were upregulated in the adolescent striatum after subchronic MPH administration. Interestingly, only genes for the kainate 2 subunit of ionotropic glutamate receptor (Grik2, also known as KA2) and the 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) receptor 7 (Htr7) (but not GABAA subunits and adrenergic receptor alpha1b) were still upregulated in adulthood. cAMP responsive element-binding protein and Homer 1a transcripts were modulated only as a long-term effect. In summary, our data indicate short-term changes in neural plasticity, suggested by modulation of expression of key genes, and functional changes in striatal circuits. These modifications might in turn trigger enduring changes responsible for the adult neurobehavioral profile, that is, altered processing of incentive values and a modified flexibility/habit balance.

Two molecular dynamics simulations have been performed for 2 ns, at room temperature, on fully hydrated wild type and Cys3Ala/Cys26Ala double-mutant azurin, to investigate the role of the unique disulfide bridge on the structure and dynamics of the protein. The results show that the removal of the -SS- bond does not affect the structural features of the protein, whereas alterations of the dynamical properties are observed. The root mean square fluctuations of the atomic positions are, on average, considerably reduced in the azurin mutant with respect to the wild type form. The number of intramolecular hydrogen bonds between protein backbone atoms that are lost during the simulation, with respect to the starting configuration, are reduced in the absence of the disulfide bond. The analysis of the dynamical cross-correlation map, characterising the protein co-ordinated internal motions, demonstrates in the mutated azurin a significant decrease in anti-correlated displacements between protein residues, with the only exception occurring in the region of the mutation sites. The overall findings show a relevant reduction in flexibility as a consequence of the disulfide bridge depletion in azurin, suggesting that the -SS- bond is a structural element which significantly contributes to the dynamic properties of the native protein. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.