Searching Biotechnology Information in the 2010s

La grande quantità di dati ed informazioni in materia di biotecnologie presenti nel dominio pubblico, sparse tra banche dati e tipi di documenti differenti, rende particolarmente difficile l'identificazione, l'estrazione e l'aggregazione delle informazioni di interesse scientifico e commerciale. Il seminario ha inteso fornire una serie di nozioni, strumenti e tecniche per migliorare la scelta delle fonti e l'efficacia delle ricerche di informazioni in ambito biotecnologico e biomedico in generale.2015-09-15Cittadella Universitaria di Monserrato (CA) Aula formazione della Biblioteca del Distretto Biomedico-scientificoDall'idea al mercato: ciclo di seminari su come realizzare un'ide

Electrochemistry as a tool for nano-TiO2 deposition and for photoremediation pollutant monitoring

In the present work electrochemical technologies are used i) to obtain nanotitania films, by electrophoretic deposition from a slurry of commercial TiO2 in acetylacetone and ii) to monitor in situ the photodegradation of a model organic molecule (formic acid) in water, by using the same electrodeposited layers, which permit the elimination of filtration steps. Keywords: Nanotitania, Electrophoretic deposition, Photocatalysis, In situ voltammetric monitorin

Analyses of odours from concentrated animal feeding operations: a review

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are widely present all over the world due to the high population demand for food and products of animal origin. However, they have generated several environmental concerns, including odour nuisance, which affects people health and quality of life. Odours from livestock are a very complex mixtures of molecules and their analytical investigation is highly demanding. Many works have been published regarding the study of odours from CAFOs, using different techniques and technologies to face the issue. Thus, the aim of this review paper is to summarize all the ways to study odours from CAFOs, starting from the sampling methods and then treating in general the principles of Dynamic Olfactometry, Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry and Electronic Noses. Finally, a deep literature summary of Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry and Electronic Noses applied to odours coming from poultry, dairy and swine feeding operations is reported. This work aims to make some order in this field and it wants to help future researchers to deal with this environmental problem, constituting a state-of-the-art in this field

SBAGLIANDO SI SPARA: LA CONTESTAZIONE DEL 1977 IN ITALIA E LA REAZIONE DELLO STATO

Questa ricerca si propone di contribuire ad una prima analisi storiografica del ciclo di protesta esploso in Italia nel 1977. A nove anni dal ’68, la contestazione tornò ad agitare le università e le piazze, lottando sul terreno della creatività e dell’ironia, ma esprimendo contestualmente una forte carica violenta. L’illegalità di massa e la guerriglia diffusa finirono infatti per ingrossare le fila del «partito armato» e del terrorismo. Il ‘movimento’ degli indiani metropolitani e delle P38, proprio in ragione di questa ambiguità, fatica ancora a trovare una descrizione esaustiva, mentre la sua escalation violenta è ancora in attesa di un’eziologia convincente. Questo studio tenta quindi, in primo luogo, di ricostruire un’immagine unitaria e realistica di quel fenomeno socio-politico, a partire dalle fonti del ‘movimento’ e dalle cronache. In secondo luogo, integra la variabile istituzionale nello studio della protesta, al fine di verificare quale grado di influenza ebbe lo Stato sui processi di riattivazione della mobilitazione e, soprattutto, sulla radicalizzazione dello scontro. Il focus dell’analisi è rappresentato dall’azione assai controversa del ministero dell’Interno, allora guidato da Francesco Cossiga, che viene qui ricostruita sulla base di documenti provenienti dagli archivi di Stato. Il policing of protest è infine messo a confronto con quello della Francia dei primi anni dopo il maggio ’68, quando l’estrema sinistra minacciò una deriva violenta ma si arrestò prima di passare all’atto.his research aims to contribute to a first preliminary historiographical analysis of the cycle of protest which spread out in Italy in 1977. Nine years after 1968, revolts started again on in the streets and inside universities. This new wave of protest was characterized by the use of creativity and humour but also by the acceptance of the violence: illegal action and urban guerrilla warfare became quite common and contributed to the expansion of the red terrorism. As a matter of fact, this ‘movement’ shows an inherent ambiguity: it put together political emulators of Dadaism with old-styled armed revolutionaries. Therefore, it is still hard and an open challenge to find an inclusive description of it and the escalation of political violence is still waiting for a convincing aetiology. The objective of this is research is twofold. On the one hand, it tries to rebuild a coherent and realistic picture of this phenomenon under analysis, adopting insider sources of the ‘movement’ and chronicles. On the other hand, it aims at integrating the institutional variable in the study of the protest, in order to verify to which extent the State was can be held responsible for the mobilization processes and, especially, for the radicalization of the social conflict. The analysis is centred on the action of the ministry of Interior and based on records from State archives. The Italian policing of protest is finally compared with to the case study of France during the first years after May 68. At that time, extreme-left activists threatened a similar escalation of violence, but they came to a halt before shooting

Studying the evolution in time of bimetallic nanoparticles morphology by Cyclic Voltammetry

Over the last decades, bimetallic nanosized systems have attracted more and more interest thanks to their novel optical, catalytic, magnetic, and sensing properties, often different from the ones of their monometallic counterparts. Studies directed towards the size, shape, composition, and functionalization of the bimetallic nanoparticles are optimized to design sophisticated materials for the intended applications. Considering these facts, it is important to evaluate not only the type and the quantity of the two metals involved, but also their morphological distribution (e.g. alloy or core-shell). Characterization techniques normally used to investigate bimetallic systems are HR-TEM and EXAFS, very expensive and not so easily accessible. Recently, electrochemistry has been employed as alternative or complementary, low-cost, efficient technique with very promising results, allowing the discrimination between alloyed and perfect or defective core-shell systems after their synthesis. A further achievement is the possibility to follow step by step the formation morphology of these nanomaterials during their synthetic procedure. In the present work, we present a study on Au-Pt bimetallic nanoparticles, in form of alloy or core-shell. Cyclovoltammetry (CV) is used as a fast, low-cost and simple screening technique to distinguish the general composition of the sample and to understand the evolution in time of the systems morphology during their synthesis. An additional advantage is the possibility to conduct the study of the material simply in liquid form, without the need of using solid supports, as normally required by other characterization techniques. Interesting results are obtained for Au-based bimetallic samples, gaining information in accordance with TEM images and EXAFS spectra. This fact moves the interest towards the study of other bimetallic systems, to be used in catalytic, electrocatalytic and electroanalytical applications

Efficiency of an Air Cleaner Device in Reducing Aerosol Particulate Matter (PM) in Indoor Environments

Abstract: Indoor air quality (IAQ) in household environments is mandatory since people spend most of their time in indoor environments. In order to guarantee a healthy environment, air purification devices are often employed. In the present work, a commercial household vacuum cleaner has been tested in order to verify its eciency in reducing the mass concentration and particle number of aerosol particulate matter (PM). The eciency has been tested measuring, while the instrument was working, PM10 (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 m), PM2.5 (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 m), PM1 (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 1 m), and 7 size-fractions in the range between 0.3 and >10 m. Measurements have been carried out by means of a portable optical particle counter instrument and simulating the working conditions typical of a household environment. It has been found that the tested commercial device significantly reduces both PM concentrations and particle number, especially in the finest fraction, i.e., particles in the range 0.3\u20130.5 m, allowing an improvement of indoor air quality

Microplastics in deep water : a combined GC-MS e FT-IR approach

Microplastics are water-insoluble, solid polymer particles that are 645\u202fmm in size. A lower size boundary has not been defined, but particles below 1\u202f\u3bcm are usually referred to as nanoplastics rather than microplastics. The ubiquity of microplastics of all sizes in surface water, groundwater and wastewater has raised the question if pollution of drinking water occurs and to date, few studies indeed described the presence of this new contaminant in tap and bottled water. Toxicity it is not yet known, they might cause local inflammations in the gut, but a transport into organs might occur. As a final problem in this field, microplastics in the environment are difficult to sample, to identify and standardized methods do not exist. For this reason, we have been involved in a research project finalized to the definition of a protocol strategy for sampling and analysis of microplastics in drinking waters, coming from deep water wells, in the networks of three large cities in the Northern part of Italy. The project is on going and presently two groups of deep water samples have been collected in the city of Milano and Brescia, before and after the treatment stages used for the urban network. Great attention has been paid to sampling and extraction steps as microplastic contamination, in this kind of samples, is expected to be very low and contamination during sampling might occur through air or materials. Analytical methods have been defined for the detection of main microplastic contamination, like PE/PP, PS, PA, PVC e PET residues > 1 \ub5m. Samples have been analysed first by a non-destructive approach using a Spotlight 200i microscope equipped with a \ub5ATR probe and coupled to an FT-IR spectrophotometer, followed by a mass spectrometric characterization of the polymers by a solid phase microextration (SPME) GC-MS of thermal decomposition products (TED) of microplastic residues. Results will be presented and critically discussed

A Concerted Investigation For Metal/Semiconductor Nanointerface : Interlayer Charge Transfer At Ag/TiO2

In the field of hybrid materials, suitably designed nanoheterojunctions enhance synergistic functionalities and allow to obtain \u201cbrave new materials\u201d with physicochemical properties that are not simply the addition of the precursors\u2019 ones, but are completely new, different, and sometimes unexpected. For these reasons, the use of them has paved the way toward promising applications in many fields, such as electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, electroanalysis, and environmental chemistry, impacting on the everyday life [1]. However, research on such systems is most often dominated by trial and error procedures, while a deep atomistic understanding of the phenomena inside the junction region driving appropriate design of the final device is missing. Here, a concerted theoretical and electrochemical investigation is proposed to gain insights into the important class of heterojunctions made by metal-semiconductor interfaces. The presented case of study is the silver/anatase hybrid nanocomposite, a very promising material for advanced sensing applications [2]. Considering that in most cases titania semiconductors are useless in electroanalysis and silver is subject to fouling and oxidation/passivation, such broad outcomes were totally unexpected. Specifically, Ag/TiO2 interfase provided the first photorenewable sensor device, pushing the limits in terms of accuracy, sensitivity, detection limits, and photoactivity [3]. Despite the ongoing research, a quantitative and comprehensive understanding of the physics behind this nanocomposite is still missing, thus preventing its full exploitation and the extension of the same paradigm to other systems and devices. In particular, cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy are used in combination with periodic plane-wave DFT calculations, giving comparable qualitative, but also quantitative results. We measure the exceptional electrochemical virtues of the Ag/TiO2 junction in terms of current densities and reproducibility, providing their explanation at the atomic-scale level and demonstrating how and why silver acts as a positive electrode [4]. We theoretically estimate the overall amount of electron transfer toward the semiconductor side of the interface at equilibrium and suitably designed electrochemical experiments strictly agree with the theoretical charge transfer estimates. Moreover, photoelectrochemical measurements and theoretical predictions show the unique permanent charge separation occurring in the device, possible because of the synergy of Ag and TiO2, which exploits in a favorable band alignment, in a smaller electron\u2013hole recombination rate and in a reduced carrier mobility when electrons cross the metal\u2013semiconductor interface. Finally, the hybrid material is proven to be extremely robust against aging, showing complete regeneration, even after one year [4]. [1] A.V. Emeline, V.N. Kuznetsov, V.K. Ryabchuk, N. Serpone, Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 19 (2012) 3666\u20133675. [2] G. Soliveri, V. Pifferi, G. Panzarasa, S. Ardizzone, G. Cappelletti, D. Meroni, K. Sparnacci, L. Falciola, Analyst 140 (2015) 1486\u20131494. [3] V. Pifferi, G. Soliveri, G. Panzarasa, G. Cappelletti, D. Meroni, L. Falciola, Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 408 (2016) 7339\u20137349. [4] G. Di Liberto, V. Pifferi, L. Lo Presti, M. Ceotto, and L. Falciola, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 8 (2017) 5372\u20135377

Special issue on the 2nd E3 Mediterranean symposium foreword

As Guest Editors, we are delighted to introduce this Special Issue made to celebrate the '2nd E3 Mediterranean Symposium: Electrochemistry for Environment and Energy', which was held in Palazzo Feltrinelli, Gargnano, Italy, from 14 to 16 September 2016 following the 'Giornate dell'Elettrochimica Italiana'

Metal-free phthalimide-labeled peptide nucleic acids for electrochemical biosensing applications

Peer reviewedPublisher PD