Effectiveness of the handgrip test for assessing readiness in national level basketball players: a cohort study.

Background: Assessing player readiness is crucial in elite basketball. This study aims to provide a practical method for monitoring player readiness through the handgrip test and identify associations with wellness scales.

Methods: Fifteen players (age: 25.

Understanding the vicious cycle of myopic foresight and constrained technology deployment in transforming the European energy system.

Short-term planning of myopic decision-makers jeopardizes the long-term energy transition, especially since constraints in deploying clean energy technologies further inhibit their rapid scale-up. Here, we show that the European energy transition followed myopic decision-making in the past and investigate how policy-based tools can secure the energy transition against myopic planning. Short-term decision-making in the European energy transition may fail to comply with climate goals and lead to substantial over-capacities.

L.: literature quantitative research analysis.

Purslane ( L.) has always been considered a plant with excellent qualities; in fact, it has been consumed for centuries as an edible plant but also used in folk medicine. This work aims to give an updated shot of the main features and potentialities of purslane.

Legumes and common beans in sustainable diets: nutritional quality, environmental benefits, spread and use in food preparations.

In recent decades, scarcity of available resources, population growth and the widening in the consumption of processed foods and of animal origin have made the current food system unsustainable. High-income countries have shifted towards food consumption patterns which is causing an increasingly process of environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources, with the increased incidence of malnutrition due to excess (obesity and non-communicable disease) and due to chronic food deprivation. An urgent challenge is, therefore, to move towards more healthy and sustainable eating choices and reorientating food production and distribution to obtain a human and planetary health benefit.

Cost-competitive decentralized ammonia fertilizer production can increase food security.

The current centralized configuration of the ammonia industry makes the production of nitrogen fertilizers susceptible to the volatility of fossil fuel prices and involves complex supply chains with long-distance transport costs. An alternative consists of on-site decentralized ammonia production using small modular technologies, such as electric Haber-Bosch or electrocatalytic reduction. Here we evaluate the cost-competitiveness of producing low-carbon ammonia at the farm scale, from a solar agrivoltaic system, or using electricity from the grid, within a novel global fertilizer industry.

Effects of emissions caps on the costs and feasibility of low-carbon hydrogen in the European ammonia industry.

The European ammonia industry emits 36 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, primarily from steam methane reforming (SMR) hydrogen production. These emissions can be mitigated by producing hydrogen via water electrolysis using dedicated renewables with grid backup. This study investigates the impact of decarbonization targets for hydrogen synthesis on the economic viability and technical feasibility of retrofitting existing European ammonia plants for on-site, semi-islanded electrolytic hydrogen production.

Development of a Database of LanguaL and FoodEx2 Codes of 50 Ready-to-Eat Products.

Ready-to-eat (RTE) and ready-to-heat (RTH) dishes are food items that help save time, physical energy, and mental effort in all food-related activities. Convenience of use, variability of supply, and adaptability to different consumption occasions have led to an increase of acceptance among consumers through the years. Specialized databases can help in this context, where food composition databases can provide information and data to create sustainable nutritional models by reducing the now growing number of chronic diseases.

Gas Flow Models and Computationally Efficient Methods for Energy Network Optimization.

The equations governing gas flow dynamics are computationally challenging for energy network optimization. This paper proposes an efficient solution procedure to enable tractability for an hourly resolved yearly decision horizon. The solution procedure deploys linear and second-order cone gas flow models alternatively based on the length-diameter ratio of pipes, achieving maximum efficiency within accuracy limits.

Global land and water limits to electrolytic hydrogen production using wind and solar resources.

Proposals for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 include scaling-up electrolytic hydrogen production, however, this poses technical, economic, and environmental challenges. One such challenge is for policymakers to ensure a sustainable future for the environment including freshwater and land resources while facilitating low-carbon hydrogen production using renewable wind and solar energy. We establish a country-by-country reference scenario for hydrogen demand in 2050 and compare it with land and water availability.

Metal enrichment in ice-melt water and uptake by chironomids as possible legacy of World War One in the Italian Alps.

Relics of World War One (WW1) were buried in alpine glaciers around 100 years ago. Today, these are emerging from the ice due to widespread glacier retreat, and are in direct contact with glacial meltwater-fed streams. To address a possible emergent contamination, we quantified major and trace elements (M-TEs) by mass spectrometry in water and larvae of Diamesa zernyi from three glacial streams fed by glaciers differently impacted by the Italian Austro-Hungarian war, in the Adamello-Presanella mountain range (Italian Alps): Lares and Presena, the two main battlefields, and Amola, 8 km from the front.

How to make climate-neutral aviation fly.

The European aviation sector must substantially reduce climate impacts to reach net-zero goals. This reduction, however, must not be limited to flight CO emissions since such a narrow focus leaves up to 80% of climate impacts unaccounted for. Based on rigorous life-cycle assessment and a time-dependent quantification of non-CO climate impacts, here we show that, from a technological standpoint, using electricity-based synthetic jet fuels and compensating climate impacts via direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) can enable climate-neutral aviation.

Collaborative and selfish mitigation strategies to tackle energy scarcity: The case of the European gas crisis.

Following the disruption of Russian natural gas flows to Europe, we investigate the impact of collaborative and selfish behavior of European countries to tackle energy scarcity and supply electricity, heat, and industrial gas to end users. We study how the operation of the European energy system will need to adapt to the disruption and identify optimal strategies to overcome the unavailability of Russian gas. Those strategies include diversifying gas imports, shifting energy generation to non-gas-based technologies, and reducing energy demands.

The Fate of the Chlorophyll Derivatives in Olives Preserved and/or Packaged in Presence of Exogenous Copper.

Chlorophyll pigments are thought to be responsible for the highly appreciated green color of unfermented Castelvetrano-style table olives, but no studies have considered the effects of a controlled addition of copper during storage or packaging at the industrial level. For this purpose, chlorophyll derivatives were analyzed in Nocellara cultivar table olives debittered industrially using the Castelvetrano method, via means of HPLC and MS analyses, following the addition of copper in alkaline brines stored at 4 °C for 3 months in 220 L barrels, and during the subsequent storage in acid brines in commercial 400 g packages at 4 °C for up to 18 months. The presence of copper in storage or in packaging brines both contributed significantly to maintaining the green color of the olives, which was associated with a specific pattern of chlorophyll derivatives, as evidenced by principal component analysis.

Identifying the provenance and quantifying the contribution of dust sources in EPICA Dronning Maud Land ice core (Antarctica) over the last deglaciation (7-27 kyr BP): A high-resolution, quantitative record from a new Rare Earth Element mixing model.

Antarctic ice cores have revealed the interplay between dust and climate in the Southern Hemisphere. Yet, so far, no continuous record of dust provenance has been established through the last deglaciation. Here, using a new database of 207 Rare Earth Element (REE) patterns measured in dust and sediments/soils from well-known potential source areas (PSA) of the Southern Hemisphere, we developed a statistical model combining those inputs to provide the best fit to the REE patterns measured in EPICA Dronning Maud Land (EDML) ice core (E.

Application of Rapeseed Meal Protein Isolate as a Supplement to Texture-Modified Food for the Elderly.

Rapeseed meal (RSM), a by-product of rapeseed oil extraction, is currently used for low-value purposes. With a biorefinery approach, rapeseed proteins may be extracted and recovered for high-end uses to fully exploit their nutritional and functional properties. This study reports the application of RSM protein isolate, the main output of a biorefining process aimed at recovering high-value molecules from rapeseed meal, as a supplement to texture-modified (TM) food designed for elderly people with mastication and dysphagia problems.

Storage power purchase agreements to enable the deployment of energy storage in Europe.

We propose a contractual setup, the proxy storage power purchase agreement (PPA), to foster the deployment of energy storage technologies. We define a threshold price below which the PPA becomes financially attractive for PPA buyers. We compute the threshold price for several storage technologies and configurations, in seven European countries.

Valorization Potentials of Rapeseed Meal in a Biorefinery Perspective: Focus on Nutritional and Bioactive Components.

Rapeseed meal (RSM), a by-product of oilseed extraction connected to the agri-food and biofuel sectors, is currently used as animal feed and for other low-value purposes. With a biorefinery approach, RSM could be valorized as a source of bio-based molecules for high-value applications. This study provides a chemical characterization of RSM in the perspective of its valorization.

Fitness profiles of elite male Italian teams handball players.

Background: The aim of this study was to examine the fitness profile of the Italian national male Team-Handball players of different competitive level.

Methods: Forty-one male handball players from the senior (N.=21, height 1.

Gender differences in instep soccer kicking biomechanics, investigated through a 3D human motion tracker system.

Background: This study aims at describing and comparing each other male and female soccer players kicking instep a stationary ball. The different measures we collected by the 3D motion capture system Movit G1 and the High-Speed Camera (240 fps) were considered as dependent variables, whereas the gender was considered as the independent one.

Methods: Twenty soccer well trained non-professional players: 10 men (age: 25.

Towards a Valorization of Corn Bioethanol Side Streams: Chemical Characterization of Post Fermentation Corn Oil and Thin Stillage.

First-generation biofuel biorefineries may be a starting point for the development of new value chains, as their by-products and side streams retain nutrients and valuable molecules that may be recovered and valorized for high-value applications. This study provides a chemical characterization of post-fermentation corn oil and thin stillage, side streams of dry-grind corn bioethanol production, in view of their valorization. An overall long-term study was conducted on the two co-products collected over 1 year from a bioethanol plant.

Sprint Endurance Abilities in Elite Female Soccer Players.

Purpose: To profile sprint endurance performance of elite-level female soccer players.

Methods: Twenty-five female national-team soccer players (age 25.1 [2.