The depletion of resources and the downgrading of the environment, driven by globalization and consumerism phenomena, is worldwide pushing the interest on the Circular Economy (CE) concept. Supposed to substitute the end-of-life notion with restoration and closed-loop product lifecycles, CE wants to eliminate wastes, retain the value embedded into products and materials, foster the use of renewable energies and eliminate toxic chemicals. However, the measurement and assessment of circularity performances are not yet a common practice in companies. To this aim, the paper wants to detect, through a systematic literature review, which are the existing CE performance assessment methods proposed in literature and, based on key findings, develop a positioning framework for measuring and assessing the circularity degree of a company.

The increasing awareness of customers toward climate change effects, the high demand instability affecting several industrial sectors, and the fast automation and digitalization of production systems are forcing companies to re-think their business strategies and models in view of both the Circular Economy (CE) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) paradigms. Some studies have already assessed the relations between CE and I4.0, their benefits, and barriers. However, a practical demonstration of their potential impact in real contexts is still lacking. The aim of this paper is to present a laboratory application case showing how I4.0-based technologies can support CE practices by virtually testing a waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) disassembly plant configuration through a set of dedicated simulation tools. Our results highlight that service-oriented, event-driven processing and information models can support the integration of smart and digital solutions in current CE practices at the factory level.

Among the major regulators of the G 1 restriction point are cyclin D1 and the retinoblastoma gene product (RB). In non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the cyclin D1 gene is amplified/over-expressed in almost 50% of cases, and RB is inactivated in 6-32% of cases. It is of interest to evaluate concurrently the alterations of both genes on the same series of NSCLCs, to investigate whether cyclin D1 and RB alterations are alternative pathways leading to inactivation of the G 1 restriction point or if they can occur in the same tumor, possibly exerting an additive effect on cancer progression. We investigated a series of 57 NSCLCs, analyzing cyclin D1 and RB at the gene and protein levels by Southern blot, Northern blot and immunohistochemistry. The cyclin D1 gene was amplified in 18 cases. cyclin D1 immunoreactivity was seen in 25 tumors. Amplification and expression were significantly associated. RB immunohistochemical expression was absent in 9 of 42 informative cases. RB mRNA expression was low to absent in 9 of 45 informative cases. cyclin D1 amplification was associated with normal RB mRNA, and cyclin D1 over-expression was associated with normal RB immunoreactivity, supporting the hypothesis that alterations of cyclin D1 and RB are alternative mechanisms by which tumor cells may escape the G 1 restriction point. A concurrent alteration of RB and cyclin D1 was seen in a small subset of NSCLCs. Abnormalities of cyclin D1 and/or RB at the gene and/or expression level were present in more than 90% of cases, stressing that cyclin D1 and/or RB alterations represent an important step in lung tumorigenesis. Int. J. Cancer 75:187-192, 1998. Wiley-Liss, Inc.The control of mammalian cell proliferation occurs largely during the G 1 phase of the cell cycle (Pardee, 1989). This control mechanism, known as the restriction point or R-point, consists of a multimolecular system composed of cyclins D, cyclin-dependent kinases (cdk), cdk inhibitors and the retinoblastoma protein (RB) . Alterations of this pathway may represent an obligatory step in tumorigenesis; it is important to evaluate the abnormalities of not only the single genes involved in the pathway, but also the functional alterations of the whole multicomponent mechanism Lukas et al., 1995).Among the major regulators of the G 1 restriction point are cyclin D1 and RB. cyclin D1, by complexing with the cyclin-dependent kinases cdk4 and cdk6, promotes cell proliferation by phosphorylating RB and inactivating its growth-restraining properties (Hatekayama et al., 1994). The interplay of cyclin D1, cdk and cdk inhibitors operates upstream to the RB, and most data support the hypothesis that both the G 1 -accelerating function of cyclin D1/cdk and the growth suppression by cdk inhibitors strictly require the presence of a functional RB . The cyclin D1 gene is amplified/rearranged and/or over-expressed in several types of human neoplasms (Bartkova et al., 1995), and the RB gene is the archetypal tumor suppressor that is inactivated by mutations, deletions or sequestrations of...

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Over the last years, several technologies and control systems have been developed towards the decentralization of automation control architectures for cyber-physical production systems. Nevertheless, only few of these technologies are already in use. To support their adoption in brownfield production sites migration strategies and business case evaluations are necessary. This paper presents a migration approach and a business case evaluation methodology tailored to the migration of legacy automation systems towards the Industry 4.0 paradigm. The proposed approach aims to evaluate opportunities and mitigate the risks of migration from technical, operational, human and business perspectives. The methodology follows an iterative approach starting from the definition of the current situation of the factory and the identification of business goals aiming at evaluating a set of possible migration paths and selecting the optimal one according to a cost-benefit analysis. The paper concludes with an exemplary application of the methodology in a real industrial environment, developed within the FAR-EDGE European Project.