Patrizia Tassinari

University of Bologna | UNIBO

This study aimed to increase the concentrations of vindoline (VDL) and catharanthine (CAT) in Catharanthus roseus plants cultivated in an indoor farming system using artificial lighting and plasma-activated water (PAW). After a 61-days pre-treatment period under fluorescent lamps, plants were exposed to four treatments: white light (W) from the sam...

Green infrastructure can enhance and complement aspects of sustainable urban development, such as water management, climate change mitigation, urban heat island effects, and energy consumption in buildings. This study explores environmental performances and sustainable development benefits of green wall systems, emphasizing their role in urban sett...

Ventilation plays a key role in the livestock buildings since it is important to guarantee a comfortable environment and adequate indoor air quality for the animals. Naturally ventilated barns are usually characterized by high variability in the ventilation conditions. Moreover, the ventilation efficiency can be very different in different areas of...

ABSTRACT: With the escalating urbanization and intensified anthropogenic activities, a pervasive manifestation of global warming has become evident on a global scale. In this study, we analyzed the monthly temperature anomaly trends in comparison to the average of the recent hottest decade (2010-2019), for the two contrasting regions of Italy, witn...

Rapid urbanization has resulted in increased environmental challenges, compounding worries about deteriorating air quality and rising temperatures. As cities become hubs of human activity, understanding the complex interplay of numerous environmental elements is critical for developing effective mitigation solutions. Recognizing this urgency, a fra...

The use of wheat middlings (WM) and rice husks (RH) as biofillers for mixing with poly(lactic acid) (PLA) matrix to produce new 3D-printable biocomposites was assessed. Filaments containing 10 and 20 wt.% agro-waste-derived biofillers were manufactured and, for the sake of comparison, filaments of neat PLA were also produced. The obtained filaments...

This paper investigates the aerodynamic behavior of Basil (i.e., Ocimum basilicum) and Mentuccia (i.e., Clinopodium nepeta (L.) Kuntze), emphasizing the impact of plant structure on drag force. In this paper, the drag coefficient is assessed for the two crop species under various configurations, starting from the pressure drop measured through wind...

The escalating global population and climate change necessitate sustainable livestock production methods to meet rising food demand. Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) integrates information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve farming efficiency and animal health. Unlike traditional methods, PLF uses machine learning (ML) algorithms to a...

Simple Summary Next-generation numerical approaches, such as machine learning techniques and big data analytics, are also increasingly applied in the animal production sector. Still today, one of the most investigated matters in the dairy cow sector is the detection and the evaluation of the effects induced by heat stress condition. This review pro...

Controlling the microclimate condition inside a greenhouse is very important to ensure the best indoor conditions for both crop growth and crop production. To this regard, this paper provides the results of a novel approach to study a greenhouse, aiming to define a porous media model simulating the crop presence. As first, an experimental campaign...

In the dairy cattle sector, the evaluation of the effects induced by heat stress is still one of the most impactful and investigated aspects as it is strongly connected to both sustainability of the production and animal welfare. On the other hand, more recently, the possibility of collecting large dataset made available by the increasing technolog...

Urban green spaces are significant in adjusting the urban microclimate. Street trees are the most influential type of urban vegetation in reducing heat stress. However, simulating trees’ 3D models, wind flow, surface temperature, and radiation parameters in complex urban settings and producing high-resolution microclimate maps is often time-consumi...

This article focuses on rural urban relations, which has traditionally been the focus of attention for agrarian economists and planners who, However, in recent years it has become increasingly important and more valuable in the face of increasing urbanisation and increasing demand for goods and services that peri-urban agricultural areas can provid...

Urbanization strongly correlates with land use land cover (LULC) dynamics, which further links to changes in land surface temperature (LST) & urban heat island (UHI) intensity. Each LULC type influences UHI differently with changing climate, therefore knowing this impact & connection is critical. To understand such relations, long temporal studies...

Purpose Green infrastructures have been considered as a sustainable solution to deal with the problems in dense urban spaces. This acceptance has led to the use of various materials and methods in designing and producing green infrastructures. The purpose of this study is to emphasize the components and materials used in the green walls system. By...

In dairy cattle farming, heat stress largely impairs production, health, and animal welfare. The goal of this study is to develop a workflow and a numerical analysis procedure to provide a real-time 3D distribution of the THI in a generic cattle barn based on temperature and humidity monitored in sample points, besides characterizing the relationsh...

Borehole thermal energy storage systems represent a potential solution to increase the energy efficiency of renewable energy plants, but they generally have to comply with strict regulatory frameworks, mainly due to the deliberate modification of the subsoil’s natural state. This paper presents the design, testing, and monitoring phases carried out...

The rural landscape can provide a wide range of cultural ecosystem services to humans through direct and in situ interactions. The benefits provided depend on the quality of the landscape, but also on the real possibility for people to access and enjoy it. One of the best ways is to do it in a “slow” way, namely active and non-motorized, through a...

The circular economy can find a wide range of application in the agricultural sector given the countless possibilities of transforming crop residues and recycling precious resources, playing a strategic role in increasing the sustainability of the agriculture. Under this perspective, crop production provides several residues and waste along the pro...

Utilizing recycled aggregates of Construction and Demolition (C&D) and other wastes from different civil engineering activities in several layers of pavements, especially in low traffic roads, revealed a huge potential of improving sustainability in the infrastructures of rural transportation. Using modern smart technologies like Continuous Compact...

Predominantly, dense historical cities face insufficient pedestrian-level greenery in the urban spaces. The lack of greenery impacts the human thermal comfort on the walking paths, which contributes to a considerable reduction in pedestrian flow rate. This study aims at developing a model to assess pedestrian-level thermal comfort in city environme...

Biopolymers, such as poly(lactic) acid (PLA), which is obtained through green synthesis pathways from renewable resources, has attracted considerable interest in recent years because of the increasing need to reduce petroleum‐based plastic pollution and bringing their prices comparable with conventional thermoplastic commodities’ price (e.g., polye...

Landscape analysis and planning have been facing more and more challenging goals with the rapid evolution of socioeconomic and environmental processes, the increasingly strict connections between urban and rural areas and the progressively multifaceted nature of many landscapes, the increasing need of activating virtuous circular processes among th...

Light emitting diode (LED) lamps are increasingly being studied in cultivation of horticultural, ornamental and medicinal plants as means to increase yield, quality, stress resistance, and bioactive compounds content. Enhancing the production of metabolites for medicinal or pharmaceutical use by regulating LED intensity and spectra is a challenging...

The introduction of the sustainability principle in building design is driving more and more research towards the development of thermal and acoustic building insulating materials using natural- or recycled-based materials and reducing as small as possible energy consumptions during the processes. In this context, among the mostly investigated mate...

Accurate prediction of building energy need plays a fundamental role in building design, despite the high computational cost to search for optimal energy saving solutions. An important advancement in the reduction of computational time could come from the application of machine learning models to circumvent energy simulations. With the goal of dras...

With the remarkable growth of cities and the increase of built-up areas, mitigation of urban heat island effects has become one of the most crucial challenges in social and environmental sustainability with significant impacts on public health. This has led to an increasing development of urban green infrastructure. Among those nature-based solutio...

Airflow in naturally ventilated barns usually presents high variability with time and it is rather difficult to estimate because of the presence and interaction of the animals. On the other hand, appropriate ventilation is an essential requirement to ensure animal welfare and efficient and sustainable production. In this regard, the computational f...

Shading devices are widely used in the Mediterranean area, since they reduce strong solar radiation effects in the closed environment. On the contrary, they have negative effects on the internal ventilation, especially if they have low porous texture limiting the air exchange with the external environment. This work aims to characterize by means of...

Content NIR Sensors Challenges and potential of NIR sensors to simplify the generation of nitrogen flow balances – Digital mapping of nitrogen cycles ..... 1 On Farm Validation of different NIR Sensors for Manure Sensing ..... 9 Combine Harvester Analysis of Combine Harvester Threshing Systems Across Different Climate Regions ..... 17 An interactiv...

Content NIR Sensors Challenges and potential of NIR sensors to simplify the generation of nitrogen flow balances – Digital mapping of nitrogen cycles ..... 1 On Farm Validation of different NIR Sensors for Manure Sensing ..... 9 Combine Harvester Analysis of Combine Harvester Threshing Systems Across Different Climate Regions ..... 17 An interactiv...

Content NIR Sensors Challenges and potential of NIR sensors to simplify the generation of nitrogen flow balances – Digital mapping of nitrogen cycles ..... 1 On Farm Validation of different NIR Sensors for Manure Sensing ..... 9 Combine Harvester Analysis of Combine Harvester Threshing Systems Across Different Climate Regions ..... 17 An interactiv...

Content NIR Sensors Challenges and potential of NIR sensors to simplify the generation of nitrogen flow balances – Digital mapping of nitrogen cycles ..... 1 On Farm Validation of different NIR Sensors for Manure Sensing ..... 9 Combine Harvester Analysis of Combine Harvester Threshing Systems Across Different Climate Regions ..... 17 An interactiv...

This paper aims at indicating and certifying the implemented framework for forecasting buildings' energy demand of the city of Bologna, Italy. The method is developed through an automated calibration and is based on 7 known, physics-based building parameters and 6 unknown, and highly uncertain variables. The proposed method focuses on reducing comp...

The present study aimed to evaluate animal welfare of pigs from the same farm, raised with two ventilation systems. The study involved 60 pens of fattening pigs, raised in two buildings: one naturally ventilated (NV) and the other mechanically ventilated (MV). Pigs were assessed on three observation days: at 40 kg (T1), 100 kg (T2), and 160 kg (T3)...

Circular economy plays a key role in increasing the sustainability of the agricultural sector, given the countless possibilities of transforming crop residues and recycling precious resources. The maize cultivation process produces a significant amount of residual organic materials, commonly left on the field, as a soil conditioner and source of nu...

In recent years, the agricultural sector has taken advantage of real time monitoring, particularly in delicate systems such aquaculture plants. In this context there is a need to develop integrated systems for sustainable production of both vegetable crops and fish. Since a monitoring system able to collect all the involved metrics is not available...

Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) relies on several technological approaches to acquire, in the most efficient way, precise and real-time data concerning production and welfare of individual animals. In this regard, in the dairy sector, PLF devices are being increasingly adopted, automatic milking systems (AMSs) are becoming increasingly widespread...

Precision Livestock Farming relies on several technological approaches to acquire in the most efficient way precise and up-to-date data concerning individual animals. In dairy farming, particular attention is paid to the automatic cow detection and tracking, as such information is closely related to animal welfare and thus to possible health issues...

Pavements are an expensive part of transportation infrastructures, as their construction and maintenance require large amounts of resources and materials every year and all over the world. A sustainable solution for considering environmental concerns about roads and pavements, in general, is utilizing recycled materials for their construction. This...

Background and Aims The importance of indoor environmental conditions in a cellar is well known and continuously investigated. The process of wine ageing consists of several steps, during which temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) play a fundamental role as the quality of the final product is strongly related to stable and suitable environmen...

The residential building sector is recently experiencing a large reduction of energy demand for conditioning, nevertheless, the use of energy in agro-industrial productions is constantly growing and the research of alternative and more sustainable sources has become necessary. In the greenhouses production, the energy problem is relevant since high...

Integrated energy planning (IEP) plays a vital role in the promotion of energy efficiency in the large-scale building stock. IEP can facilitate the evaluation of energy supply and demand in current rural and urban areas for the proper allocation of available resources. This paper presents a comprehensive review of large-scale energy planning and a...

This paper presents an innovative ground heat exchanger with double-circuit, GeoUWT (Geothermal Underground Water Tanks), and the required preconditions for installing this kind of configuration in the livestock sector. Dedicated Thermal Response Test was conducted on the test site to represent barn conditions and to estimate the heat exchange capa...

In the recent years, very promising solutions are available for energy-efficient building envelope. Particular interest is risen by the use of innovative natural or bio-based materials. Even if, in some cases, they are wastes coming from industrial or agricultural processes, they can be effectively applied as by-product for the creation of new more...

In urban areas, a considerable proportion of energy demand is allocated to buildings. Since rooftops constitute one-fourth of all urban surfaces, an increasing amount of attention is paid to achieving the most efficient shapes and component designs compatible with every climate and urban context, for rooftops of varying sizes. In this study, three...

The importance of internal environmental conditions in a wine cellar is well known and investigated. The process of wine preparation consists in several steps, where temperature and humidity play a fundamental role, since the quality of the final products is strongly affected by constant and suitable environmental conditions. However, various criti...

The path towards nearly-Zero Energy Buildings has enforced stricter constraints in construction design while promoting the investigation of new architectural solutions, in residential and producing sectors. Energy simulations, integrated with machine learning, helps academics and professionals to investigate novel strategies for energy saving. We p...

The use of shading screens in the protected cultivation sector is widespread, due to the fact they allow both to reduce the heat load and thus to control temperature, and to have lower and uniform levels of light intensity inside greenhouses. An extended selection of shading screens is available on the market, with different colors, material, and t...

Among the most straining trends that farmers have to face there are: on one side, to guarantee welfare and adequate life conditions for animals and to reduce the environmental footprint, on the other side, to develop new strategies to improve farm management reducing costs. The current conditions and the expected developments of the dairy sector hi...