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The fourth industrial revolution is based on a few technological advancements that promise an industrial transformation based on achieving sharing and circular economies. Selecting and applying these advancements correctly, i.e., following relevant value drivers, is a key to the success of manufacturing firms. This results in an increasing body of knowledge from academy and practitioners in the domain of the adoption of digital technology in industry. Given the breadth of the topic, the literature deals with both a vast amount of promising technologies and related existing and prospect industrial application. This work focuses on the contributions in the production sub-domain of assembly systems and technology. In detail, relevant high-impact scientific and engineering works have been identified and analyzed with the purpose of highlighting the innovation patterns in term of the prominent technological advancement (push) and related application (pull). The results of the present study show that the most relevant areas of research are: (1) the Industrial Internet of Things, (2) Augmented and Virtual Reality as assistance to the assembly and applied to the training of operators, and (3) the horizontal and vertical system integration through Digital Twins (DT) and Cyber Physical Systems (CPS). The prominent value drivers are the improvement of resources and processes as well as asset utilization and labor. Moreover, this work represents a first step towards a unitary framework to synchronize different research efforts in the domain of assembly and support the envisaged green industrial transformation.

Peritoneal dissemination from colorectal cancer (CRC) has long been associated with unfavorable prognosis. However, in the last decades, the combination of cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) was able to obtain up to 30% 5-year survival rate in selected centers. Despite the wide diffusion of CRS and HIPEC, until now, there are no clear recommendations on the drug of choice for HIPEC nor its technique, and safety and efficacy data of HIPEC regimens and techniques are lacking. We performed a retrospective analysis of a prospectively maintained database of 26 CRS and mitomycin C HIPEC with CO2recirculation (HIPEC-CO2) for CRC peritoneal metastasis (PM) performed at our center. The main endpoints were morbidity, mortality, the temperature of perfusate during HIPEC and metabolic changes throughout the procedure. Morbidity was assessed by analysis of postoperative adverse events according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE version 4.0). Continuous variables of Arterial Blood Gas (ABG) analysis at three time-points were compared by the Student ttest. There were no postoperative deaths. The overall grade 3–4 CTCAE complications rate at 30 days was 38.4%, with ten severe adverse events occurring to six (23.0%) patients. The temperature within HIPEC perfusion maintained between 41 and 42 °C in all cases and we experienced no HIPEC-related intraoperative complications. We observed a significant difference between all baseline and pre-HIPEC ABG parameters evaluated but no statistically significant differences between pre- and post-HIPEC ABG outcomes. This study shows that mitomycin C HIPEC-CO2is feasible and has a safety profile comparable to that of other HIPEC techniques reported in the literature. Further research is needed to validate prospectively the safety and efficacy of this technique.

Few patients affected by gastric cancer peritoneal metastasis (GCPM) are offered locoregional treatment, despite several proof-of-efficacy trials. Pressurized intraperitoneal aerosol chemotherapy (PIPAC) has emerged in recent years as a promising tool to control peritoneal carcinomatosis. The combination of PIPAC with systemic chemotherapy may offer a greater clinical benefit than standard treatment alone.

The role of loco-regional treatment of peritoneal carcinomatosis using intraperitoneal chemotherapy is still investigated. Actually, new technologies are suitable for these procedures, especially a new hybrid system using CO2called Peritoneal Recirculation System (PRS-1.0 Combat). A HIPEC procedure in a porcine model using the PRS system was conducted. The objective of experimentation was to assess the distribution of liquid inside the abdomen, by using methylene blue instead of chemotherapy. Moreover, we positioned six different thermal probes in different abdominal regions inside the abdomen to measure the temperature during procedure. During the procedure, all thermal probes recorded an average temperature of 41.5°. At the end of infusion, the abdomen was emptied and then opened; the tracer distribution was recorded. No technical problems were recorded during the procedure. Good distribution of tracer was recorded. More studies are needed to investigate better this new technology.

A room temperature structural study has been performed through the whole compositional range of the (Ce1–xLux)O2–x/2system by synchrotron X-ray diffraction and μ-Raman spectroscopy. Samples were synthesized by thermal treatment in air at 1373 K of coprecipitated mixed oxalates. A CeO2-based solid solution with a fluorite-type structure (F) was found to be stable up to x= 0.4, while at higher Lu content a (F + C) biphasic region was observed, with C being the cubic atomic arrangement typical of sesquioxides of the heaviest rare earths. A comparative approach including also results deriving from other (Ce1–xREx)O2–x/2systems (RE  Gd and Sm) allowed us to conclude that the compositional extent of the F solid solution is a complex function of RE3+size and RE compressibility. On this basis, the dependence of ionic conductivity on the RE identity was interpreted as related both to the Ce4+/RE3+size closeness and to RE compressibility. Ce4+/RE3+dimensional issues were also revealed to rule the appearance of the hybrid structure observed in the two aforementioned systems, consisting of the intimate intergrowth of C microdomains within the F-based host lattice. Moreover, a more extended definition of F-based solid solution, including also the hybrid structure, is formulated; the latter is meant as a modification of the former, occurring when mainly RE–vacancy aggregates are incorporated into the host lattice in spite of isolated RE ions. By μ-Raman spectroscopy it was possible to demonstrate that the mechanism of oxygen vacancy formation is common to all the systems studied, provided that the structure of the F-based solid solution, also including the hybrid structure, is retained.

A series of luminescent rare-earth ion-doped hexagonal II-type Gd oxycarbonate phosphors Gd2–xRExO2CO3(RE = Eu3+, Yb3+, Dy3+) have been successfully synthesized by thermal decomposition of the corresponding mixed oxalates. The Yb3+doped Gd-oxycarbonate has evidenced a high persistent luminescence in the NIR region, that is independent from the temperature and makes this materials particular attractive as optical probes for bioimaging.