Core microbiome and bacterial diversity of the Italian Mediterranean river buffalo milk

Milk is one of the most nutritionally complete foods and plays an important role in the human diet. Buffalo milk represents 15% of worldwide milk production and is an important source of bioactive compounds. Buffalo milk has a great market in the Mediterranean area, and dairy products, such as Mozzarella and Ricotta di Bufala Campana, obtained with the Italian Mediterranean buffalo milk, are acknowledged with the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). This study aimed to characterize, using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, the milk core microbiome of water buffalo rises in the Amaseno Valley included in the Mozzarella PDO region. The principal features of the core and the auxiliary buffalo milk microbiome are the predominance of Firmicutes and Lactococcus, one of the most important lactic acid bacteria (LAB) taxa in the dairy industry. The comparative analysis of the core microbiomes indicated that the milk of the Italian Mediterranean Buffalo and other mammals share the presence of Streptococcus-affiliated OTUs (operational taxonomic units). Our data also demonstrated that the core microbiome of milk samples collected from PDO and non-PDO regions differ in the number and type of taxa. KEY POINTS: • Buffalo milk and their derivate products are becoming more popular worldwide. • Dairy locations and practice management affect the structure of the milk microbiota. • Next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis allows to identify the features of the Italian Buffalo milk microbiome.6n

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) as a tool for studying thermal properties of a crude cellulase cocktail

Abstract: Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used as an efficient and rapid tool in studying the conformational transitions between the folded and unfolded structures of cellulolytic enzymes. The thermal properties of two crude hydrolytic enzyme cocktails containing extracellular cellulases from Trichoderma longibrachiatum DIBAF-10 were analyzed and compared with three commercial cellulase preparations. Differences in the thermal behavior of fungal cellulases in the liquid phase, freeze-dried state, liquid formulations in sodium citrate buffer (pH 4.8), and contact with cellulose, carboxymethyl cellulose, and cellobiose were evaluated. DSC profiles of cellulases from the DIBAF-10 strain provided important thermodynamic information about the thermal stability of the included proteins. Crude enzyme cocktails underwent a reproducible and irreversible exothermic aggregation phenomenon at 52.45 ± 0.90 °C like commercial β-glucosidase. Freeze-dried and resuspended in a sodium citrate buffer, cellulases from T. longibrachiatum showed an endothermic peak dependent on buffer and enzyme concentration. In the enzyme-substrates systems, a shift of the same peak was recorded for all substrates tested. The thermal analysis of freeze-dried cellulase samples in the range of 20–150 °C gave information on the denaturation process. In conclusion, we demonstrated that DSC is a cost-effective tool for obtaining "conformational fingerprinting" of crude fungal cellulase preparations. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].6n

The customer’s preference in light cannabis: an Italian perspective

Nowadays, the light hemp is promoted by different stakeholders and the customer’s preference due to the different use of crop products. The aim of this chapter was to discuss the Italian perspectives concerning the utilization of light hemp connected to customer’s preferences. It is discussed the sustainability of hemp crop to produce wellness products in Italy. It is applied as a cost model based on empirical data from hemp farmers. Customers’ preferences on light cannabis wellness products are analyzed through an online survey in Italy and other six European countries. A general misunderstanding about the differences between psychoactive hemp and nonpsychoactive hemp (light cannabis) makes the demand unstable. Light hemp business in Italy is new and there are a few studies that help entrepreneurs in assessing the attractiveness of certain investment analyzing the demand for such a product. Demand for CBD-based products indicates interest, but customers’ confusion highlights a lack of regulation and transparency about CBD-cannabis.4n

Individuale e collettivo. Introduzione alle teorie sociologiche.

La storia del pensiero sociologico può essere letta in base alla contrapposizione tra una concezione evoluzionistica e una concezione costruttivistica dell’ordine sociale, ovvero tra chi ritiene che siano gli individui, interagendo tra di loro, a dar luogo, nella maggior parte dei casi inintenzionalmente, a istituzioni e strutture collettive (società, stato, mercato, ecc.) e chi ritiene invece che il “tutto” sia indipendente dalle parti e determini i comportamenti dei singoli. Questo volume presenta brevi “bozzetti” relativi alle principali scuole di sociologia il cui contributo è rielaborato con la chiave di lettura unitaria (e prioritaria) del confronto tra individualismo e collettivismo metodologico.2n

Abrasive fluidized bed finishing of additive manufactured cobalt-chrome parts: effects on surface morphology and fatigue behavior

The possibility of processing cobalt-chrome parts by additive manufacturing opens the way to the production of complex net-shaped parts able to withstand high loads and at the same time resist the corrosive environment or thermal loads. However, the surface morphology typical of additive manufactured parts could be detrimental to the fatigue life, and finishing operations become necessary. In this paper, the adoption of abrasive fluidized bed (AFB) processing as a finishing solution is explored, and the effect of the main process parameters, namely the abrasive type, treatment time, and rotational speed, on morphological features and fatigue life is investigated. Field emission gun-scanning electron microscopy and contact gauge profilometry showed an improvement in sample finishing due to the AFB process. The advantages in surface properties were related to an increase in fatigue life. The experimental results show that AFB has a beneficial effect both on the finishing and fatigue behavior of additively manufactured components; a smoother surface was obtained, and the crack initiation during fatigue tests was retarded.n

Alberto Maria De Agostini nella letteratura di viaggio italiana

Il saggio analizza tre romanzi italiani pubblicati tra il 2011 e il 2019 in cui il padre Alberto Maria De Agostini è considerato autorevole compagno di viaggio, una guida (non solo spirituale) per affrontare il lungo cammino verso le estreme propaggini della Terra del Fuoco.n

Phase change materials-impregnated biomass for energy efficiency in buildings: Innovative material production and multiscale thermophysical characterization

In this work, different phase change materials (PCMs) were stabilized in biochar and lignin by vacuum impregnation technique and later incorporated into gypsum panels in real building applications. We used three types of paraffin, with phase transition temperatures of 21, 27, and 31 °C, respectively, i.e., within the most common thermal comfort conditions in building applications and two bio-based porous matrices, lignin and biochar. In doing so, we aimed at producing and characterizing an environmentally friendly shape-stabilized material, to be easily integrated into gypsum-based building components. The obtained compounds were analyzed at various scales of investigations using Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), Hot Disk, Fourier-Transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), thermal cycling, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), and Thermogravimetric (TGA) analyses, to adequately assess the composites' thermophysical performance and long-term stability. The obtained results highlight the promising thermal buffer capability of the shape-stabilized samples, particularly in the case of the paraffin with a melting temperature of 21 °C, which obtained the highest impregnation rate. In general, all the compounds tend to lose PCM during cycling. However, significant leakage was only found above 100 °C, therefore, the samples show a relatively stable behavior for applications within the most common local boundary conditions in the built environment

Simultaneous removal of nitrate and pesticides from contaminated groundwater using aerobic granular biomass technology

Aerobic Granular Biomass (AGB) technology is widely used for urban and industrial wastewater treatment, however, its application in groundwater remediation, is practically unknown. A mixture of carbendazim, simazine, and diuron were amended to the nitrate-polluted synthetic groundwater at increasing concentrations to validate the ability of technology to remove both kind of pollutants, pesticides and nitrate which are commonly found in the water resources. The nitrate removal was a success with values below 0.010 g·L-1. The increased concentration of pesticides in the influent did not distort the pattern observed for pesticide removal. Carbendazim was almost completely eliminated, followed by simazine elimination, while diuron showed adsorption-desorption patterns during experimentation. The addition of pesticides had a drastic effect on the basal community conducted by proliferation of Hyphomicrobium and Dokdonella. The pesticide compounds had a negative effect on number of copies for fungal population, while archaeal population was unharmed, according to qPCR results. Denitrifying bacteria need 70 days as acclimatization period for achieving activity values as initial inoculum. The results obtained have shown for the first time the capacity of AGB system to treat groundwater polluted with nitrate and pesticide using low carbon load. Therefore, the results suggested the potential application of AGB technology for the purification of groundwater polluted with both nitrates and pesticides.8s

Testing the theoretical principles of citizen science in monitoring stream water levels through photo-trap frames

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