Primo Bilancio di Genere dell'Ateneo Fridericiano

YesThe first annual report on Gender at the Federico II University.FP

Effects of clipping frequency, row spacing and nitrogen fertilization in Digitaria eriantha cv. Irene

During the yearly cycles 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 an experiment was conducted with the perennial grass, Digitaria eriantha cv. Irene, at Bahía Blanca (Argentina). In randomized blocks-design with three replications and a 2 x 2 x 3 factorial arrangement of treatments, the factors studied were: 1) cutting frequency: continuous, whenever the plants reached a height of 26-28 cm; and seasonal, with one cutting at the end of spring and of summer; 2) row spacing: 30 and 50 cm; and 3) levels of nitrogen fertilization: 0, 50, and 100 kg/ha. Forage harvested in spring and summer was weighed to determine dry matter yields per season and annual total (MS, kg/ha). Crude protein content (% PC), CP yield (kg/ha), efficiency of N utilization (ENU, kg MS/kg N) and N recovery in forage (% NR) were also determined. Fertilization was the most influential factor in addition to rainfall. Mean total yields of DM with 0, 50, and 100 kg N/ha were, in drier 2000-2001: 1632, 2122, and 2539 kg/ha, and in rainier 2001-2002: 2564, 4474, and 4708 kg/ha, respectively. Mean of CP of both years for the same N levels, were 6.8, 9.0, and 10.7, respectively. Yields of CP were also highest with 100 kg N/ha, but ENU and NR were better with the lower level of N application. These results suggest that N fertilization at a level close to 50 kg/ha is recommendable. Continuous cutting reduced forage yields (P<.05), but gave higher % CP relative to seasonal cutting (P<.05). Row spacing had no consistent effect on these variables, but 30 cm is favored to reduce soil erosion

Comercialización de productos ganaderos en el partido de Saavedra (Buenos Aires)

p.63-73El objetivo del trabajo fue caracterizar en el partido de Saavedra (Buenos Aires) la comercialización ganadera, modalidades de compra y venta de vacunos, destinos, plazos de pago, compra de insumos y asociaciones agropecuarias. Se utilizó información de una encuesta del ciclo 1998 -1999 a una muestra representativa de productores en 6 áreas edáficas homogéneas (AEH). Las ventas fueron a través de consignatarios (63,6 por ciento), directas (25,1 por ciento) y cooperativas (11,3 por ciento). Los destinos de consignatarios fueron remates locales (10 por ciento), Liniers (35 por ciento) u otros (55 por ciento); los de directas : frigoríficos (44 por ciento) o particulares (56 por ciento). En todas las AEH predominaron los consignatarios mientras que en los estratos menores de algunas AEH se destacaron las cooperativas y en los mayores los consignatarios. Predominaron los plazos de pago mayores de 15 días y sólo el 15 por ciento de los productores formó asociaciones. Se concluye que los consignatarios predominan porque son conocidos regionalmente y los remates locales fueron poco elegidos debido a ventajas de las otras modalidades. La escasez de asociaciones se explicaría por desconocimiento y/o tradicionalismo

Indicadores económicos ganaderos de los sistemas agropecuarios extensivos del partido de Saavedra (Buenos Aires)

p.227-236El objetivo fue determinar los resultados económicos ganaderos de los agrosistemas del partido de Saavedra (Buenos Aires) y compararlos con los de la agricultura. Se calcularon los ingresos netos (IN), costos directos (CD), márgenes brutos (MB) y la relación IN-CD. Los MB de los conglomerados, subsistemas ganaderos y estratos por superficie tuvieron mayor dependencia de los IN que de los CD. Los MB de los conglomerados, promedios de las áreas edáficas homogéneas (AEH), oscilaron entre 33 y 93 pesos-ha y la relación IN-CD no siempre coincidió con los MB. El 94,8 por ciento de los IN fueron por ventas de hacienda vacuna. Los MB de los subsistemas de cría, cría-recría, cría-recría-engorde y engorde, promedios de Saavedra, fueron: 42, 37, 67 y 48 pesos-ha, respectivamente. El tamaño de los estratos no restringió el resultado económico excepto en los de superficie muy reducida. Los MB ganaderos fueron inferiores a los agrícolas en todas las AEH y en el promedio de Saavedra fueron 54,7 y 104,3 pesos-ha, respectivamente. Los resultados ganaderos sugieren que en la etapa final de modelación se debería contemplar: 1) incluir el subsistema de ciclo completo preferentemente, 2) incrementar la superficie de pasturas perennes y disminuir la de verdeos, y 3) establecer los supuestos tecnológicos en cada AEH acorde a sus recursos naturales

In Vitro Antitumor Effects of the Cold-Water Extracts of Mediterranean Species of Genus Pleurotus (Higher Basidiomycetes) on Human Colon Cancer Cells

The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether the cold-water extract of Pleurotus eryngii var. ferulae (CWE-Pef) and Pleurotus nebrodensis (CWE-Pn), two of the most prized wild and cultivated edible mushrooms can affect the tumour phenotype of human colon cancer HCT116 cells. Our results showed that treatment with CWE-Pef and CWE-Pn resulted in a significant inhibition of the viability of HCT116 cells and promoted apoptosis as also demonstrated by the increase of bax/bcl-2 mRNA ratio. Moreover, we observed that both extracts were able to inhibit cell migration and to affect homotypic and heterotypic cell-cell adhesion. It was also found that treatment with CWE-Pef and CWE-Pn negatively modulated the protein tyrosine phosphorylation as well as the phosphorylation levels of ERK1/2. In conclusion, the in vitro antitumor effects of CWE-Pef and CWE-Pn indicate that they can be considered as possible sources for new alternative therapeutic agents for cancer treatment

UVscope and its application aboard the ASTRI-Horn telescope

UVscope is an instrument, based on a multi-pixel photon detector, developed to support experimental activities for high-energy astrophysics and cosmic ray research. The instrument, working in single photon counting mode, is designed to directly measure light flux in the wavelengths range 300-650~nm. The instrument can be used in a wide field of applications where the knowledge of the nocturnal environmental luminosity is required. Currently, one UVscope instrument is allocated onto the external structure of the ASTRI-Horn Cherenkov telescope devoted to the gamma-ray astronomy at very high energies. Being co-aligned with the ASTRI-Horn camera axis, UVscope can measure the diffuse emission of the night sky background simultaneously with the ASTRI-Horn camera, without any interference with the main telescope data taking procedures. UVscope is properly calibrated and it is used as an independent reference instrument for test and diagnostic of the novel ASTRI-Horn telescope.Comment: Published (Open Access) in "Experimental Astronomy

Potential Activity of Albino Grifola frondosa Mushroom Extract against Biofilm of Meticillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Mushroom extracts are a rich source of natural compounds with antimicrobial properties, which are able to prevent, to some extent, the growth of foodborne pathogens. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of extracts from albino Grifola frondosa (GF), commonly known as maitake, to inhibit the growth of some bacteria and the biofilm production by Staphylococcus aureus. We obtained not only a significant reduction of OD score between biofilm and biofilm plus albino G. frondosa extract group, but also a reduction of category of biofilm. In addition, we observed a significant presence of isolates with strong category for the biofilm group and a significant presence of isolates with absent category for the biofilm plus albino G. frondosa extract group. These results confirm that the use of albino G. frondosa extract reduces in significant way the presence of biofilm. Our results suggest and confirm that albino G. frondosa extracts could be employed as functional food and could be used as a natural additive for food process control and food safety

Simulating the High Energy Gamma-ray sky seen by the GLAST Large Area Telescope

This paper presents the simulation of the GLAST high energy gamma-ray telescope. The simulation package, written in C++, is based on the Geant4 toolkit, and it is integrated into a general framework used to process events. A detailed simulation of the electronic signals inside Silicon detectors has been provided and it is used for the particle tracking, which is handled by a dedicated software. A unique repository for the geometrical description of the detector has been realized using the XML language and a C++ library to access this information has been designed and implemented. A new event display based on the HepRep protocol was implemented. The full simulation was used to simulate a full week of GLAST high energy gamma-ray observations. This paper outlines the contribution developed by the Italian GLAST software group.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium ''Frontiers of Fundamental and Computational Physics'' (FFP6), Udine (Italy), Sep. 26-29, 200

Profiling of a high mannose-type N-glycosylated lipase using hydrophilic interaction chromatography-mass spectrometry

Many industrial enzymes exhibit macro- and micro-heterogeneity due to co-occurring post-translational modifications. The resulting proteoforms may have different activity and stability and, therefore, the characterization of their distributions is of interest in the development and monitoring of enzyme products. Protein glycosylation may play a critical role as it can influence the expression, physical and biochemical properties of an enzyme. We report the use of hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS) to profile intact glycoform distributions of high mannose-type N-glycosylated proteins, using an industrially produced fungal lipase for the food industry as an example. We compared these results with conventional reversed phase LC-MS (RPLC-MS) and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel-electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). HILIC appeared superior in resolving lipase heterogeneity, facilitating mass assignment of N-glycoforms and sequence variants. In order to understand the glycoform selectivity provided by HILIC, fractions from the four main HILIC elution bands for lipase were taken and subjected to SDS-PAGE and bottom-up proteomic analysis. These analyses enabled the identification of the most abundant glycosylation sites present in each fraction and corroborated the capacity of HILIC to separate protein glycoforms based on the number of glycosylation sites occupied. Compared to RPLC-MS, HILIC-MS reducted the sample complexity delivered to the mass spectrometer, facilitating the assignment of the masses of glycoforms and sequence variants as well as increasing the number of glycoforms detected (69 more proteoforms, 177% increase). The HILIC-MS method required relatively short analysis time (<30 min), in which over 100 glycoforms were distinguished. We suggest that HILIC(-MS) can be a valuable tool in characterizing bioengineering processes aimed at steering protein glycoform expression as well as to check the consistency of product batche

Particle-hole excited states in 133 Te

Excited states in neutron-rich ${}^{133}\mathrm{Te}$ have been identified with the Gamma sphere array by measuring three- and higher-fold prompt coincidence events following spontaneous fission of ${}^{252}\mathrm{Cf}.$ Four types of particle-hole bands built on the known 334.3 keV isomer in ${}^{133}\mathrm{Te}$ are identified. The yrast and near yrast particle-hole states observed up to 6.2 MeV in ${}^{133}\mathrm{Te}$ have characteristics quite similar to those in ${}^{134}\mathrm{Te}.$ These states are interpreted as a result of coupling a neutron \ensuremath{\nu}{h}_{11/2} hole to the ${}^{134}\mathrm{Te}$ core. The group of states observed above 5.214 MeV is the result of a neutron particle-hole excitation of the double magic core nucleus ${}^{132}\mathrm{Sn},$ and is a candidate for a tilted rotor band. Shell-model calculations considering ${}^{132}\mathrm{Sn}$ as a closed core have been performed and have provided guidance to the interpretation of the levels below 4.3 MeV. Very good agreement between theory and experiment is obtained for these states