Evaluation of organic matter stability during the composting process of agroindustrial wastes.

Composting of wastes from citrus industrial processing (pastazzo and sludge) was studied in order to evaluate the evolution of organic matter during the process and to individuate chemical and/or biochemical techniques able to set the stability of the final product. Composts from two open-air piles of different composition were sampled every month during the whole period of composting (5 months) and the organic matter of each sample was characterised by chemical and biochemical techniques. Humification rate (HR%) and humification index (HI) were determined. Extracted organic matter of six samples collected for each compost was investigated by isoelectric-focusing technique (IEF). The biochemical analysis was based on the study of C-mineralisation after the addition of each collected sample to soil. Results obtained clearly demonstrated organic matter evolution during composting processes. Humification rates increased and humification indexes decreased over time, while extracted organic matter showed electrophoretic behaviour typical of stabilised organic compounds. Moreover, mineralisation patterns confirmed the increased level of organic matter stability during the composting process

Orbital degeneracy loci and applications

Degeneracy loci of morphisms between vector bundles have been used in a wide variety of situations. We introduce a vast generalization of this notion, based on orbit closures of algebraic groups in their linear representations. A preferred class of our orbital degeneracy loci is characterized by a certain crepancy condition on the orbit closure, that allows to get some control on the canonical sheaf. This condition is fulfilled for Richardson nilpotent orbits, and also for partially decomposable skew-symmetric three-forms in six variables. In order to illustrate the efficiency and flexibility of our methods, we construct in both situations many Calabi--Yau manifolds of dimension three and four, as well as a few Fano varieties, including some new Fano fourfolds.Comment: To appear in Ann. Sc. Norm. Super. Pisa Cl. Sci. (5

Climate change may have minor impact on zooplankton functional diversity in the Mediterranean Sea

Aim To assess the impact of climate change on the functional diversity of marine zooplankton communities. Location The Mediterranean Sea. Methods We used the functional traits and geographic distributions of 106 copepod species to estimate the zooplankton functional diversity of Mediterranean surface assemblages for the 1965–1994 and 2069–2098 periods. Multiple environmental niche models were trained at the global scale to project the species habitat suitability in the Mediterranean Sea and assess their sensitivity to climate change predicted by several scenarios. Simultaneously, the species traits were used to compute a functional dendrogram from which we identified seven functional groups and estimated functional diversity through Faith's index. We compared the measured functional diversity to the one originated from null models to test if changes in functional diversity were solely driven by changes in species richness. Results All but three of the 106 species presented range contractions of varying intensity. A relatively low decrease of species richness (−7.42 on average) is predicted for 97% of the basin, with higher losses in the eastern regions. Relative sensitivity to climate change is not clustered in functional space and does not significantly vary across the seven copepod functional groups defined. Changes in functional diversity follow the same pattern and are not different from those that can be expected from changes in richness alone. Main conclusions Climate change is not expected to alter copepod functional traits distribution in the Mediterranean Sea, as the most and the least sensitive species are functionally redundant. Such redundancy should buffer the loss of ecosystem functions in Mediterranean zooplankton assemblages induced by climate change. Because the most negatively impacted species are affiliated to temperate regimes and share Atlantic biogeographic origins, our results are in line with the hypothesis of increasingly more tropical Mediterranean communities

A Visual Summary for Linked Open Data sources

In this paper we propose LODeX, a tool that produces a representative summary of a Linked open Data (LOD) source starting from scratch, thus supporting users in exploring and understanding the contents of a dataset. The tool takes in input the URL of a SPARQL endpoint and launches a set of predefined SPARQL queries, from the results of the queries it generates a visual summary of the source. The summary reports statistical and structural information of the LOD dataset and it can be browsed to focus on particular classes or to explore their properties and their use. LODeX was tested on the 137 public SPARQL endpoints contained in Data Hub (formerly CKAN), one of the main Open Data catalogues. The statistical and structural information of the 107 well performed extractions are collected and available in the online version of LODeX (http://dbgroup.unimo.it/lodex)

LODeX: A tool for Visual Querying Linked Open Data

Formulating a query on a Linked Open Data (LOD) source is not an easy task; a technical knowledge of the query language, and, the awareness of the structure of the dataset are essential to create a query. We present a revised version of LODeX that provides the user an easy way for building queries in a fast and interactive manner. When a user decides to explore a LOD source, he/she can take advantage of the Schema Summary produced by LODeX (i.e. a synthetic view of the dataset’s structure) and he/she can pick graphical elements from it to create a visual query. The tool also supports the user in browsing the results and, eventually, in refining the query. The prototype has been evaluated on hundreds of public SPARQL endpoints (listed in Data Hub) and it is available online at http://dbgroup.unimo.it/lodex2. A survey conducted on 27 users has demonstrated that our tool can effectively support both unskilled and skilled users in exploring and querying LOD datasets

C2-Symmetric Val-Val Dipeptide Isosteres via Diethylaluminium Azide Ring Opening of Epoxyalcohols

Diethylaluminium azide has been used as a highly regio- and stereo-selective reagent for the ring opening of valine-derived, sterically hindered epoxyalcohols. This reagent has enabled extending a previously described synthesis of diaminodiol dipeptide isosteres (P1-Ψ[CH(OH)-CH(OH)]-P1\u27) also to isosteres with branched residues in position P1\u27. The new methodology is compatible with Boe and Cbz proteetion of the starting aminoacid and has been applied to the synthesis of a C2-symmetric diaminodiol Val-Val dipeptide isostere 11, starting from the methyl ester of L-valine, in 25% over-all yield over seven (for Boe proteetion) or six (for Cbz proteetion) passages. A C2-symmetric di-MEM proteeted diaminodiol 17 and a mono-Boc proteeted, desymmetrized derivative 10 have also been obtained by the same approach. Compounds 10, 11 and 17 can be used as core units of C2-symmetric and non-symmetric peptido-mimetic inhibitors of aspartic proteases and as intermediates for the synthesis of cyclic urea inhibitors of HIV-protease

Online Index Extraction from Linked Open Data Sources

The production of machine-readable data in the form of RDF datasets belonging to the Linked Open Data (LOD) Cloud is growing very fast. However, selecting relevant knowledge sources from the Cloud, assessing the quality and extracting synthetical information from a LOD source are all tasks that require a strong human effort. This paper proposes an approach for the automatic extraction of the more representative information from a LOD source and the creation of a set of indexes that enhance the description of the dataset. These indexes collect statistical information regarding the size and the complexity of the dataset (e.g. the number of instances), but also depict all the instantiated classes and the properties among them, supplying user with a synthetical view of the LOD source. The technique is fully implemented in LODeX, a tool able to deal with the performance issues of systems that expose SPARQL endpoints and to cope with the heterogeneity on the knowledge representation of RDF data. An evaluation on LODeX on a large number of endpoints (244) belonging to the LOD Cloud has been performed and the effectiveness of the index extraction process has been presented

The geometry of the Coble cubic and orbital degeneracy loci

The Coble cubics were discovered more than a century ago in connection with genus two Riemann surfaces and theta functions. They have attracted renewed interest ever since. Recently, they were reinterpreted in terms of alternating trivectors in nine variables. Exploring this relation further, we show how the Hilbert scheme of pairs of points on an abelian surface, and also its Kummer fourfold, a very remarkable hyper-Kähler manifold, can very naturally be constructed in this context. Moreover, we explain how this perspective allows us to describe the group law of an abelian surface, in a strikingly similar way to how the group structure of a plane cubic can be defined in terms of its intersection with lines

Identifying copepod functional groups from species functional traits

International audienceWe gathered information on the functional traits of the most representative copepod species in the Mediterranean Sea. Our database includes 191 species described by 7 traits encompassing diverse ecological functions: minimal and maximal body length, trophic group, feeding type, spawning strategy, diel vertical migration and vertical habitat. Cluster analysis in the functional trait space revealed that Mediterranean copepods can be separated into groups with distinct ecological roles