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Lors d’une enquête judiciaire, le médecin légiste est fréquemment requis pour examiner la victime d’incendie hospitalisée. Il doit établir un certificat descriptif des brûlures en précisant leur origine, leur gravité et le pronostic vital. L’évaluation des séquelles en vue de leur indemnisation ne peut s’effectuer qu’au terme d’une longue période de soins nécessaire à la cicatrisation. L’expertise nécessite de connaître les règles médico-légales qui permettent d’apprécier les spécificités des séquelles cutanées chez les victimes de brûlure grave. Lors de la découverte d’un cadavre sur les lieux d’un incendie, le but de l’autopsie médico-légale est de vérifier que les brûlures sont bien la cause du décès. Les lésions les plus fréquemment observées sont des brûlures graves d’origine thermique. Elles sont souvent associées à une inhalation de fumées. La carbonisation du corps étant souvent utilisée pour dissimuler un homicide, la confrontation des constatations post mortem aux données de l’enquête de police est alors indispensable. Les modifications entraînées par le feu impliquent l’utilisation d’un protocole précis pour l’identification, notamment en situation de catastrophe.

Bien que la cicatrisation des plaies soit un thème médico-chirurgical essentiel depuis l’Antiquité, il a été longtemps négligé. L’essor dans ce domaine, ces 20 dernières années, de la recherche fondamentale et le développement de nouvelles techniques ont fait que la cicatrisation est devenue une entité à part entière, transversale, intéressant plusieurs spécialités. Il a semblé souhaitable, en nous appuyant sur des arguments étymologiques, sémantiques et botaniques, de proposer un néologisme pour regrouper sous une même appellation tous les professionnels de santé oeuvrant dans ce secteur de soins et magnifier ainsi le concept « Plaies et Cicatrisation ».

The valorization of residual biomass plays today a decisive role in the concept of &ldquo, circular economy&rdquo, according to which each waste material must be reused to its maximum extent. The collection and energy valorization at the local level of biomass from forest management practices and wildfire prevention cutting can be settled in protected areas to contribute to local decarbonization, by removing power generation from fossil fuels. Despite the evident advantages of bioenergy systems, several problems still hinder their diffusion, such as the need to assure their reliability by extending the operating range with materials of different origin. The Italian project &ldquo, INNOVARE&mdash, Innovative plants for distributed poly-generation by residual biomass&rdquo, funded by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (MISE), has the main scope of improving micro-cogeneration technologies fueled by biomass. A micro-combined heat and power (mCHP) unit was chosen as a case study to discuss pros and cons of biomass-powered cogeneration within a national park, especially due to its flexibility of use. The availability of local biomasses (woodchips, olive milling residuals) was established by studying the agro-industrial production and by identifying forest areas to be properly managed through an approach using a satellite location system based on the microwave technology. A detailed synergic numerical and experimental characterization of the selected cogeneration system was performed in order to identify its main inefficiencies. Improvements of its operation were optimized by acting on the engine control strategy and by also adding a post-treatment system on the engine exhaust gas line. Overall, the electrical output was increased by up to 6% using the correct spark timing, and pollutant emissions were reduced well below the limits allowed by legislation by working with a lean mixture and by adopting an oxidizing catalyst. Finally, the global efficiency of the system increased from 45.8% to 63.2%. The right blending of different biomasses led to an important improvement of the reliability of the entire plant despite using an agrifood residual, such as olive pomace. It was demonstrated that the use of this biomass is feasible if its maximum mass percentage in a wood matrix mixture does not exceed 25%. The project was concluded with a real operation demonstration within a national park in Southern Italy by replacing a diesel genset with the analyzed and improved biomass-powered plant and by proving a decisive improvement of air quality in the real environment during exercise.

Road transport exhaust emissions represent the main sources of atmospheric pollution in urban areas, due to the growing number of circulating vehicles and travelled distances. In order to reduce this pollution source, stricter emission standards are periodically set by governments through- out the world. Consequently, the concentrations of gaseous pollutants and particulate mass to be measured during type-approval tests of new vehicles are becoming progressively lower; moreover from 2011, diesel cars have to comply with particle number limit. In order to assess emission levels of different technology vehicles and investigate the use of a particulate number measurement technique at the exhaust of very low-emitting vehicles, an experimental activity was carried out on three in-use vehicles: a diesel car equipped with a particulate trap (DPF), a hybrid gasoline-elec- tric car and a bi-fuel passenger car fuelled with compressed natural gas (CNG). Cold and hot gaseous and particulate emission factors and fuel consumption were measured during the execution of real and regulatory driving cycles on a chassis dynamometer. Particulate was characterized in terms of mass only for the diesel car and of particle number for all vehicles. The emissions measured over the NEDC show that all three vehicles comply with their standard limits, except CO for CNG passenger car and NOx for diesel car. Cold start influences CO and HC emissions and fuel consumption for all the tested vehicles and in particular for the hybrid car. The real driving cycle is the most critical pattern for the emissions of almost all pollutants. During constant speed tests, the emissions of particles of hybrid car are an order of magnitude lower than those of the CNG car.