Efficiency evaluation of food waste materials for the removal of metals and metalloids from complex multi-element solutions

Recent studies have shown the potential of food waste materials as low cost adsorbents for the removal of heavy metals and toxic elements from wastewater. However, the adsorption experiments have been performed in heterogeneous conditions, consequently it is difficult to compare the efficiency of the individual adsorbents. In this study, the adsorption capacities of 12 food waste materials were evaluated by comparing the adsorbents' efficiency for the removal of 23 elements from complex multi-element solutions, maintaining homogeneous experimental conditions. The examined materials resulted to be extremely efficient for the adsorption of many elements from synthetic multi-element solutions as well as from a heavy metal wastewater. The 12 adsorbent surfaces were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and showed different types and amounts of functional groups, which demonstrated to act as adsorption active sites for various elements. By multivariate statistical computations of the obtained data, the 12 food waste materials were grouped in five clusters characterized by different elements' removal efficiency which resulted to be in correlation with the specific adsorbents' chemical structures. Banana peel, watermelon peel and grape waste resulted the least selective and the most efficient food waste materials for the removal of most of the elements

Impairment of the Zn/Cd detoxification systems affects the ability of Salmonella to colonize Arabidopsis thaliana

Salmonella capacity to colonize different environments depends on its ability to respond efficiently to fluctuations in micronutrient availability. Among micronutrients, Zn, besides playing an essential role in bacterial physiology, is a key element whose concentration can influence bacterial survival in a particular niche. Plant colonization by Salmonella enterica was described for several years, and some molecular determinants involved in this host-pathogen interaction have started to be characterized. However, it is still unclear if Zn plays a role in the outcome of this interaction, as well established for animal hosts that employ nutritional immunity strategies to counteract pathogens infections. In this study, we have investigated the involvement of Salmonella Typhimurium main effectors of zinc homeostasis in plant colonization, using Arabidopsis thaliana as a model host. The results show that to colonize plant tissues, Salmonella takes advantage of its ability to export excess metal through the efflux pumps ZntA and ZitB. In fact, the deletion of these Zn/Cd detoxification systems can affect bacterial persistence in the shoots, depending on metal availability in the plant tissues. The importance of Salmonella ability to export excess metal was enhanced in the colonization of plants grown in high Zn conditions. On the contrary, the bacterial disadvantage related to Zn detoxification impairment can be abrogated if the plant cannot efficiently translocate Zn to the shoots. Overall, our work highlights the role of Zn in Salmonella-plant interaction and suggests that modulation of plant metal content through biofortification may be an efficient strategy to control pathogen colonization

Synergistic cytotoxic effect of l-asparaginase combined with decitabine as a demethylating agent in pediatric T-ALL, with specific epigenetic signature

T-Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (T-ALL) remains a subgroup of pediatric ALL, with a lower response to standard chemotherapy. Some recent studies established the fundamental role of epigenetic aberrations such as DNA hypermethylation, to influence patients' outcome and response to chemotherapy. Moreover, L-asparaginase is an important chemotherapeutic agent for treatment of ALL and resistance to this drug has been linked to ASNS expression, which can be silenced through methylation. Therefore, we tested whether the sensitivity of T-ALL cell lines towards L-asparaginase is correlated to the epigenetic status of ASNS gene and whether the sensitivity can be modified by concurrent demethylating treatment. Hence we treated different T-ALL cell lines with L-asparaginase and correlated different responses to the treatment with ASNS expression. Then we demonstrated that the ASNS expression was dependent on the methylation status of the promoter. Finally we showed that, despite the demethylating effect on the ASNS gene expression, the combined treatment with the demethylating agent Decitabine could synergistically improve the L-asparaginase sensitivity in those T-ALL cell lines characterized by hypermethylation of the ASNS gene. In conclusion, this preclinical study identified an unexpected synergistic activity of L-asparaginase and Decitabine in the subgroup of T-ALL with low ASNS expression due to hypermethylation of the ASNS promoter, while it did not restore sensitivity in the resistant cell lines characterized by higher ASNS expression

Long Term Wind Turbine Performance Analysis Through SCADA Data: A Case Study

Performance monitoring of horizontal-axis wind turbines is a complex task because they operate under nonstationary conditions. Furthermore, in real-world applications, there can be data quality issues because the free stream wind speed is reconstructed through a nacelle transfer function from cup anemometers measurements collected behind the rotor span. Given these matters of fact, one of the objectives of the present work is applying an innovative method for correcting the nacelle wind speed measurements, which is based on the manufacturer power curve and statistical considerations. Three operating wind turbines, having 2 MW of rated power and owned by the ENGIE Italia company, are contemplated as test cases. Operation data spanning ten years (2011–2020) are studied: actually, this work aims as well at contributing to the methods for estimating the performance decline with age of wind turbines, basing on long term SCADA data analysis. The raw and corrected wind speed measurements are fed as input to a Support Vector Regression for the power curve: by selecting appropriately the training and validation data sets, it is possible to estimate the average yearly rate of performance decline. Using the corrected wind speed, the estimate obtained in this study is compatible with the most recent findings in the literature, which indicate a -0.17% decline per year

Off-design study of a waste heat recovery ORC module in gas pipelines recompression station

This study investigates the use of an ORC as heat recovery unit in a natural gas pipeline compression station powered by a gas turbine with the aim of increasing the process energy efficiency. A flexible Matlab® suite, able to investigate both subcritical and supercritical cycle, has been developed for the plant sizing and for the part-load simulation. The methodology to compute the system energetic performance is discussed. The ORC configuration that guarantees the maximum power output (7.22 MWe) is identified. The yearly electricity yield (42615.9 MWh) reveals good perspectives of implementing ORC with the aim of reducing the environmental impact of gas compression stations

Practical aspects related to the measurement of the diffuse field absorption coefficient in scaled reverberation rooms

The scaled reverberation room has proven to be an excellent tool for acoustic consultants and professionals alike to carry out comparison tests between acoustic materials and 3D systems or structures. The suitability of a scaled reverberation room is currently under investigation for the evaluation of the frequency-dependent sound absorption. At present, no standard is available on the methods that could be used to derive acoustic absorption coefficients from scaled measurements. In this work practical aspects of ISO 354 have been investigated within a 1:5 scaled reverberation room: a balance has been sought between reducing sample size, to reduce the manufacturing costs of materials, and finding the appropriate sample area, thickness, orientation and edges treatment, to obtain reliable values at mid and high frequencies. Four different materials have been tested. The paper discusses some of the findings of the measurements conducted on the same materials in a full-scale reverberation room according to ISO 354, in a 1:5 scaled reverberation room and in an impedance tube according to ISO 10534-2. The absorption coefficients data collected have been effective in proving that small reverberation room tests can provide compatible results compared to standard ones in 400-5000 Hz frequency range

Pooled Genome-Wide Analysis to Identify Novel Risk Loci for Pediatric Allergic Asthma

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies of pooled DNA samples were shown to be a valuable tool to identify candidate SNPs associated to a phenotype. No such study was up to now applied to childhood allergic asthma, even if the very high complexity of asthma genetics is an appropriate field to explore the potential of pooled GWAS approach. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We performed a pooled GWAS and individual genotyping in 269 children with allergic respiratory diseases comparing allergic children with and without asthma. We used a modular approach to identify the most significant loci associated with asthma by combining silhouette statistics and physical distance method with cluster-adapted thresholding. We found 97% concordance between pooled GWAS and individual genotyping, with 36 out of 37 top-scoring SNPs significant at individual genotyping level. The most significant SNP is located inside the coding sequence of C5, an already identified asthma susceptibility gene, while the other loci regulate functions that are relevant to bronchial physiopathology, as immune- or inflammation-mediated mechanisms and airway smooth muscle contraction. Integration with gene expression data showed that almost half of the putative susceptibility genes are differentially expressed in experimental asthma mouse models. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Combined silhouette statistics and cluster-adapted physical distance threshold analysis of pooled GWAS data is an efficient method to identify candidate SNP associated to asthma development in an allergic pediatric population

Influence of Classroom Acoustics on Noise Disturbance and Well-Being for First Graders

Several studies have shown so far that poor acoustics inside classrooms negatively affects the teaching and learning processes, especially at the lowest grades of education. However, the extent to which noise exposure or excessive reverberation affect well-being of children at school in their early childhood is still unanswered, as well as their awareness of noise disturbance. This work is a pilot study to investigate to which extent classroom acoustics affects the perceived well-being and noise disturbance in first graders. About 330 pupils aged from 6 to 7 years participated in the study. They belonged to 20 classes of 10 primary schools located in Torino (Italy), where room acoustic measurements were performed and where noise level was monitored during classes. The school buildings and the classrooms were balanced between socioeconomic status and acoustic conditions. Trained experimenters administered questionnaires in each class, where pupils answered all together during the last month of the school year (May). Questions included the happiness scale, subscales assessing self-esteem, emotional health, relationship at home and with friends, enjoyment of school, intensity and noise disturbance due to different sound sources, and quality of voice. The findings of the study suggest that long reverberation times, which are associated with poor classroom acoustics as they generate higher noise levels and degraded speech intelligibility, bring pupils to a reduced perception of having fun and being happy with themselves. Furthermore, bad classroom acoustics is also related to an increased perception of noise intensity and disturbance, particularly in the case of traffic noise and noise from adjacent school environments. Finally, happy pupils reported a higher perception of noise disturbance under bad classroom acoustic conditions, whereas unhappy pupils only reported complaints in bad classroom acoustics with respect to the perception of pleasances with himself or herself and of fitting in at school. Being a mother tongue speaker is a characteristic of children that brings more chances of attending classes in good acoustics, of being less disturbed, and of having more well-being, and richer districts presented better acoustic conditions, in turn resulting in richer districts also revealing a greater perception of well-being

Acoustical performance of an innovative dry-wall facade system with high thermal properties

INTESA (INTegrazione ed elevata Efficienza con sistemi a Secco per l’Abitare, Integration and high efficiency with drywall technology for building envelopes) is an innovative solu-tion of a drywall façade embedding electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems, especially de-signed for residential needs. The INTESA system is usable either for new and retrofit design and is competitive with the traditional wet technology made of clay bricks or blocks. Since the early stage of the project, an integrated approach has been the key element to design the wall system in order to obtain an easy and efficient way of assembling, a perfect integration of the plants, as well as high thermal and acoustical performances. In-field INTESA perfor-mances were tested in laboratory and in a real case study through the construction of a proto-type building located in Calliano d’Asti, near Turin, where the following acoustical parame-ters were measured: the apparent sound reduction index (R’), the standardized sound level difference of a façade (D2m,nT) and the vibration sound reduction index (Kij), a quantity relat-ed to the vibrational power transmission over a junction between structural elements