AUTHOCTHONOUS MICROFLORA IN BIOLOGICAL PRESERVATION OF FOODS: TECHNOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF STRAINS ISOLATED FROM A PGI PRODUCT OF MARCHE REGION: CIAUSCOLO

The results of an investigation concerning the microbial population of Ciauscolo salami produced in the hinterland of the Marche Region, are reported. Phenotypic assays, namely inhibitory activity against Listeria monocytogenes, acidification ability, proteolysis, and lipolysis were performed. The technological characterization highlighted the presence of a high diversity of autochthonous bacterial population among the 14 producers investigated and a certain number of genetically different strains to be potentially used as starter cultures for the manufacture of Ciauscolo

Generalized scaling in fully developed turbulence

In this paper we report numerical and experimental results on the scaling properties of the velocity turbulent fields in several flows. The limits of a new form of scaling, named Extended Self Similarity(ESS), are discussed. We show that, when a mean shear is absent, the self scaling exponents are universal and they do not depend on the specific flow (3D homogeneous turbulence, thermal convection , MHD). In contrast, ESS is not observed when a strong shear is present. We propose a generalized version of self scaling which extends down to the smallest resolvable scales even in cases where ESS is not present. This new scaling is checked in several laboratory and numerical experiment. A possible theoretical interpretation is also proposed. A synthetic turbulent signal having most of the properties of a real one has been generated.Comment: 25 pages, plain Latex, figures are available upon request to the authors ([email protected], [email protected]

The rapid spread of SARS-COV-2 Omicron variant in Italy reflected early through wastewater surveillance

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant emerged in South Africa in November 2021, and has later been identified worldwide, raising serious concerns. A real-time RT-PCR assay was designed for the rapid screening of the Omicron variant, targeting characteristic mutations of the spike gene. The assay was used to test 737 sewage samples collected throughout Italy (19/21 Regions) between 11 November and 25 December 2021, with the aim of assessing the spread of the Omicron variant in the country. Positive samples were also tested with a real-time RT-PCR developed by the European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), and through nested RT-PCR followed by Sanger sequencing. Overall, 115 samples tested positive for Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant. The first occurrence was detected on 7 December, in Veneto, North Italy. Later on, the variant spread extremely fast in three weeks, with prevalence of positive wastewater samples rising from 1.0% (1/104 samples) in the week 5–11 December, to 17.5% (25/143 samples) in the week 12–18, to 65.9% (89/135 samples) in the week 19–25, in line with the increase in cases of infection with the Omicron variant observed during December in Italy. Similarly, the number of Regions/Autonomous Provinces in which the variant was detected increased from one in the first week, to 11 in the second, and to 17 in the last one. The presence of the Omicron variant was confirmed by the JRC real-time RT-PCR in 79.1% (91/115) of the positive samples, and by Sanger sequencing in 66% (64/97) of PCR amplicons. In conclusion, we designed an RT-qPCR assay capable to detect the Omicron variant, which can be successfully used for the purpose of wastewater-based epidemiology. We also described the history of the introduction and diffusion of the Omicron variant in the Italian population and territory, confirming the effectiveness of sewage monitoring as a powerful surveillance tool

Numerical simulations of ion temperature gradient-driven turbulence

High resolution numerical simulations of plasma turbulence driven by ion temperature gradients in the presence of magnetic field inhomogeneities have been performed with special attention to the behavior of the anomalous ion energy flux. The pressure gradient evolution is treated consistently with energy transport, allowing for the study of the saturated state in situations of relevance to tokamak plasmas. It is found that the presence of large‐scale coherent structures significantly affects the turbulent losses, leading to a reduction of the flux with respect to mixing length estimates

Development of Large Scale High Performance Applications with a Parallelizing Compiler

Abstract:- High level environment such as High Performance Fortran (HPF) supporting the development of parallel applications and porting of legacy codes to parallel architectures have not yet gained a broad acceptance and diffusion. Common objections claim difficulty of performance tuning, limitation of its application to regular, data parallel computations, and lack of robustness of parallelizing HPF compilers in handling large sized codes. We have adopted the HPF approach in porting three different applications, performing plasma and molecular dynamics simulation, developed at the Italian National Agency for New Technology, Energy and the Environment (ENEA). We report in this paper our experiences gained during this effort, providing a case study for testing the suitability of the HPF approach to achieve the target of an easy and effective parallelization (or parallel development) and maintenance of real, large sized scientific applications

Numerical simulations of ion temperature gradient driven turbulence

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