Technical Feasibility of Extraction of Freshwater from Produced Water with Combined Forward Osmosis and Nanofiltration.

This study assesses the technical feasibility of a forward-osmosis-based system for concentrating produced water and extracting freshwater. Forward osmosis was combined with nanofiltration, the latter system used to restore the initial osmotic pressure of the diluted draw solutions while concurrently obtaining the final freshwater product. Three draw solutions, namely, MgCl2, NaCl, and C3H5NaO2, were initially tested against a synthetic water mimicking a pretreated produced water effluent having an osmotic pressure equal to 16.3 bar. MgCl2 was thus selected for high-recovery experiments. Different combinations of draw solution osmotic pressure (30, 40, 60, 80, and 120) and draw-to-feed initial volume ratios (1, 1.6, and 2.2) were tested at the laboratory scale, achieving recovery rates between roughly 35% and 70% and water fluxes between 4 and 8 L m-2h-1. One-dimensional, system-wide simulations deploying the analytical FO water flux equation were utilized to validate the experiments, investigate co-current and counter-current configurations, and understand the system potential. The diluted draw solutions were then transferred to nanofiltration to regenerate their original osmotic pressure. There, the highest observed rejection was 96.6% with an average flux of 21 L m-2h-1, when running the system to achieve 100% relative recovery.

Framing Effects on Willingness and Perceptions towards COVID-19 Vaccination among University Students in Italy: An Exploratory Study.

Vaccine hesitancy is a diffused psychological phenomenon that has been increasingly addressed in several studies since the COVID-19 pandemic. Communication campaigns play a pivotal role influencing recipients' perceptions and may affect the likelihood to vaccinate or to show hesitancy. In the context of communicating risks during the COVID-19 pandemic, we hypothesized that highlighting different aspects of data on the effectiveness of vaccines would influence people's willingness and attitudes to vaccinate. In this exploratory study, we administered two versions of a survey to a convenience sample of students from three universities in Italy. In the first version, salience was placed on the effectiveness of the vaccine in terms of reducing the probability of infection. In the second version, salience was placed on the effectiveness of the vaccine in terms of reducing the probability of hospitalization after being infected by COVID-19. The results confirmed our hypothesis: participants reported that they were more willing to become vaccinated when exposed to the hospitalization frame (main dimension). Conversely, we found mixed effects of the frame on the following sub-dimensions: reliability, trust, protection, safety, and confidence. Taken together, we show that it is possible to influence, to some extent, university students' attitudes and perceptions toward COVID-19 vaccination by acting on how information is framed. We discuss the implications of these findings for the development of behaviorally informed policies.

Tutorial. A Behavioral Analysis of Rationality, Nudging, and Boosting: Implications for Policymaking.

As recent trends in policymaking call for increased contributions from behavioral science, nudging and boosting represent two effective and relatively economic approaches for influencing choice behavior. They utilize concepts from behavioral economics to affect agents' concurrent suboptimal choices: in principle, without applying coercion. However, most choice situations involve some coercive elements. This study features a functional analysis of rationality, nudging, and boosting applied to public policy. The relationship between behavior and environmental variables is termed a "behavioral contingency," and the analysis can include social and cultural phenomena by applying a selectionist perspective. Principles of behavioral control, whether tight or loose, may be exerted by policymakers or regulators who subscribe to paternalistic principles and may be met with demands of libertarianism among their recipients. This warrants discussion of the legitimacy and likelihood of behavioral control and influence on choices. Cases and examples are provided for extending the unit of analysis of choice behavior to achieve outcomes regulated by policies at the individual and group levels, including health, climate, and education. Further research and intervention comprise the study of macrocontingencies and metacontingencies. Advancing the understanding and application of behavioral science to policymaking may, therefore, benefit from moving from the relatively independent contributions of behavioral economics and behavior analysis to an inclusive selectionist approach for addressing choice behavior and cultural practices.

Delay discounting of money and health outcomes, and adherence to policy guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Delay discounting refers to the observation that the subjective value of an outcome decreases as the delay to its receipt increases. It is well-established that steep delay discounting is related to various maladaptive behaviors, including poorer health-related choices. One of the current challenges of public health policies that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic is to encourage preventive behaviors against infectious diseases. In this study, we aimed to explore possible underpinnings of adherence to COVID-19 related public health policy guidelines such as disinfection, distancing, and masks (DDM). Participants completed monetary and health discounting tasks across two outcome amounts in gain and loss conditions, and they provided self-report measures of adherence to the DDM policy. Contrary to the theoretically plausible prediction that higher discounting rates would be negatively associated with adherence to health-related public policy guidelines, we found no compelling evidence to support such statement. We discuss the potential weaknesses of declarative measurements of attitudes toward COVID-19 and consider using behavioral interventions for influencing discounting rates for complementing and enhancing current policy guidelines.

Underlying Principles of a Covid-19 Behavioral Vaccine for a Sustainable Cultural Change.

Until pharmacological measures are effective at containing the COVID-19 outbreak, adopting protective behaviors is paramount. In this work, we aim at informing interventions to limit the spread of the contagion and prepare against any future outbreaks by developing a behavioral framework to interpret and prescribe both the individual and large-scale uptake of non-pharmaceutical measures. First, we analyze the barriers and facilitators to adherence to protective behaviors according to a three-term contingency by exploring potential gaps in terms of setting stimuli, motivating operations, delayed consequences, and positive or negative consequences. We explore their roles in the likelihood of individual compliance to protective behaviors, taking physical distancing as an example of functional analysis. Second, we interpret contagion control as the cumulative effect of large-scale adherence to protective behaviors. We explore the interrelations between societal problems caused or amplified by similar behaviors presented by many individuals and the coordination of agents or agencies aiming at promoting large-scale behavioral change. Then, we highlight the potential of developing a behavioral vaccine, and practical steps for applying it to promote sustainable cultural change that may protect against health, social, and economic losses in future outbreaks.

Models of Cognition and Their Applications in Behavioral Economics: A Conceptual Framework for Nudging Derived From Behavior Analysis and Relational Frame Theory.

This paper puts forward a rounder conceptual model for interpreting short- and long-term effects of choice behavior. As a further development of dual-process theory, Kahneman (2003) distinguished between intuition and reasoning, which served as the respective precursors of the cognitive processing systems 1 and 2. We maintain that they reflect the more rigorous distinction between brief and immediate and extended and elaborated relational responding, which may be reinterpreted through an analysis of their functional properties. Repertoires of relational responding are offered by the multi-dimensional multi-level model. Specifically, we provide a conceptual account of how nudging, or the manipulation of environmental contingencies, works on the creation and modification of relational framing. Educative nudges, or boosts, are a subset of nudges that may more easily maintain target choice behavior in the future. The central role of verbal behavior is essential toward formulating rules, which inform and guide choice behavior over time. Although nudges are traditionally regarded as System 1-steered aspects, they are herein regarded as cues for responding to relational frames, which may induce System 2-steered aspects. We suggest adopting the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) to inform how coherent and immediate responding to novel relational responding may occur in the presence of choice behavior. Several examples are included to support the claim of encompassing relational responding and choice behavior. We address the instances of consumer behavior, stereotypy and prejudices, eating behavior, and overcoming cognitive biases. The conclusions depict a promising way forward for the study of choice: an improved model for interpreting and overcoming human errors, due to changes in the contingencies of behavior.

On the adsorption of toluene on amorphous mesoporous silicas with tunable sorption characteristics.

The development of novel adsorbents for the purification of natural gas from aromatic hydrocarbons and the optimization of adsorption processes represent some of the most crucial environmental challenges. In this work, two amorphous mesoporous silica (AMS) samples with different sorption characteristics were prepared by modifying the synthesis method of amorphous mesoporous silica-aluminas, and tested as adsorbents of aromatic molecules for the purification of natural gas. The physico-chemical properties of the obtained materials were finely characterized by means of different experimental techniques (including FTIR and solid-state NMR) with the aim of determining their sorption and surface features. The adsorption capacity of the produced solids towards toluene, chosen as the reference of aromatic molecules, was determined by using FTIR, solid-state NMR spectroscopy and microgravimetric analysis. Finally, in view of applications under more realistic conditions, the adsorption properties of the AMS materials were also investigated after prolonged treatments in water.

Hybrid Forward Osmosis⁻Nanofiltration for Wastewater Reuse: System Design.

The design of a hybrid forward osmosis-nanofiltration (FO-NF) system for the extraction of high-quality water from wastewater is presented here. Simulations were performed based on experimental results obtained in a previous study using real wastewater as the feed solution. A sensitivity analysis, conducted to evaluate the influence of different process parameters, showed that an optimum configuration can be designed with (i) an influent draw solution osmotic pressure equal to 15 bar and (ii) a ratio of influent draw solution to feed solution flow rate equal to 1.5:1. With this configuration, the simulations suggested that the overall FO-NF system can achieve up to 85% water recovery using Na2SO4 or MgCl2 as the draw solute. The modular configuration and the size of the NF stage, accommodating approximately 7000 m2 of active membrane area, was a function of the properties of the membranes selected to separate the draw solutes and water, while detailed simulations indicated that the size of the FO unit might be reduced by adopting a counter-current configuration. Experimental tests with samples of the relevant wastewater showed that Cl-- and Mg2+-based draw solutes would be associated with larger membrane fouling, possibly due to their interaction with the other substances present in the feed solution. However, the results suggest that fouling would not significantly decrease the performance of the designed system. This study contributes to the further evaluation and potential implementation of FO in water reuse systems.

Combinatorial synthesis and characterization of metal-open frameworks in mild and friendly conditions: application to CO2 adsorption.

Combinatorial screening using precipitation methods at room temperature can lead to a great diversity of carboxylate based Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) including already known or original porous solids. The investigation of the synthesis of MOFs in different solvent and solvent mixtures includes the use of solvents such as alcohols and tetrahydrofuran (THF) which would greatly facilitate large scale production. We also show the application of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and clustering techniques on large libraries of XRD diffraction files in order to identify classes of similar phases and peculiar phases. The combinatorial screening of 105 samples in the La/btc system has led to the identification of two phases which are solvent depending. On the La(btc) compound, the CO2 adsorption measurements reveal a guest-host interactions as supported by XRD phase transformation upon thermal treatment. The mass transport can be assigned to a "single file diffusion" regime due to the one dimensional channel porous structure associated to small pore size.

Synthesis and characterization of hybrid organic/inorganic nanotubes of the imogolite type and their behaviour towards methane adsorption.

Imogolite-like nanotubes have been synthesised in which SiCH(3) groups have been introduced in place of the SiOH groups that naturally occur at the inner surface of imogolite, an alumino-silicate with formula (OH)(3)Al(2)O(3)SiOH, forming nanotubes with inner and outer diameter of 1.0 and 2.0 nm, respectively. The new nanotubular material, composition (OH)(3)Al(2)O(3)SiCH(3), has both larger pores and higher specific surface area than unmodified imogolite: it forms as hollow cylinders 3.0 nm wide and several microns long, with a specific surface area of ca. 800 m(2) g(-1) and intriguing surface properties, due to hydrophobic groups inside the nanotubes and hydrophilic Al(OH)Al groups at their outer surface. Adsorption of methane at 30 °C has been studied in the pressure range between 5 and 35 bar on both the new material and unmodified imogolite: it resulted that the new material adsorption capacity is about 2.5 times larger than that of imogolite, in agreement with both its larger pore volume and the presence of a methylated surface. On account of these properties and of its novelty, the studied material has several potential technical applications, e.g. in the fields of gas chromatography and gas separation.