Potential biogas production from agricultural by-products in Sicily. A case study of citrus pulp and olive pomace

Renewable energy sources represent a suitable alternative to conventional fossil fuels, due to the possible advantages in terms of environmental impact reduction. Anaerobic digestion of biomasses could be considered an environmental friendly way to treat and revalorise large amounts of by-products from farming industries because it ensures both pollution control and energy recovery. Therefore, the objective of this study was to define a methodology for evaluating the potential biogas production available from citrus pulp and olive pomace, which are suitable agricultural by-products for biogas production. In the first phase of the study, the spatial distribution of both olive and citrus-producing areas was analysed in Sicily, a geographical area of the Mediterranean basin highly representative of these types of cultivation. Then, a GIS-based model, which had been previously defined and utilised to evaluate the amount of citrus pulp and olive pomace production, was applied to this case study. Based on the results obtained for the different provinces of Sicily, the province of Catania was chosen as the study area of this work since it showed the highest production of both citrus pulp and olive pomace. Therefore, a further analysis regarded the quantification of olive pomace and citrus pulp at municipal level. The results of this analysis showed that the total amount of available citrus pulp and olive pomace corresponded theoretically to about 11,102,469 Nm3/year biogas. Finally, the methodology adopted in this study made it possible to identify suitable areas for the development of new biogas plants by considering both the spatial distribution of the olive and citrus growing areas and the locations of the existing processing industries

Versatile electrochemiluminescent organic emitters

namely polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, have been the first molecules investigated since the beginning of ECL studies. Moving from organic solvents to water-based solutions in view of analytical applications, the attention on ECL emitters shifted to soluble inorganic complexes, which prevailed in both fundamental and applied research. However, the investigation of organic molecules has recently revived owing to new synthetic procedures and concepts. Polymeric nanoparticles, and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) sparked the research with renovated interest for organic molecules. Here, we introduce and summarise these new concepts behind organic emitters for ECL

Enhanced osteogenic differentiation in zoledronate-treated osteoporotic patients

Bisphosphonates are well known inhibitors of osteoclast activity and thus may be employed to influence osteoblast activity. The present study was designed to evaluate the in vivo effects of zoledronic acid (ZA) on the proliferation and osteoblastic commitment of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) in osteoporotic patients. We studied 22 postmenopausal osteoporotic patients. Densitometric, biochemical, cellular and molecular data were collected before as well as after 6 and 12 months of ZA treatment. Peripheral blood MSC-like cells were quantified by colony-forming unit fibroblastic assay; their osteogenic differentiation potential was evaluated after 3 and 7 days of induction, respectively. Circulating MSCs showed significantly increased expression levels of osteoblastic marker genes such as Runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2), and Osteonectin (SPARC) during the 12 months of monitoring time. Lumbar bone mineral density (BMD) variation and SPARC gene expression correlated positively. Bone turnover marker levels were significantly lowered after ZA treatment; the effect was more pronounced for C terminal telopeptide (CTX) than for Procollagen Type 1 N-Terminal Propeptide (P1NP) and bone alkaline phosphatase (bALP). Our findings suggest a discrete anabolic activity supported by osteogenic commitment of MSCs, consequent to ZA treatment. We confirm its anabolic effects in vivo on osteogenic precursors

Metrology and multipartite entanglement in measurement-induced phase transition

Measurement-induced phase transition arises from the competition between a deterministic quantum evolution and a repeated measurement process. We explore the measurement-induced phase transition through the Quantum Fisher Information in two different metrological scenarios. We demonstrate through the scaling behavior of the quantum Fisher information the transition of the multi-partite entanglement across the phases. In analogy with standard quantum phase transition, we reveal signature of a measurement-induced phase transition in the non-analytic behaviour of the quantum Fisher information as the measurement strength approaches the critical value. Our results offer novel insights into the features of a quantum systems undergoing measurement-induced phase transition and indicate potential avenues for further exploration in the field of quantum physics

Involvement of bovine lactoferrin metal saturation, sialic acid and protein fragments in the inhibition of rotavirus infection

Although the antiviral activity of lactoferrin is one of the major biological functions of this iron binding protein, the mechanism of action is still under debate. We have investigated the role of metal binding, of sialic acid and of tryptic fragments of bovine lactoferrin (bLf) in the activity towards rotavirus (intestinal pathogen naked virus) infecting enterocyte-like cells. The antiviral activity of bLf fully saturated with manganese or zinc was slightly decreased compared to that observed for apo- or iron-saturated bLf. The antiviral activity of differently metal-saturated bLf towards rotavirus was exerted during and after the virus attachment step. The removal of sialic acid enhanced the anti-rotavirus activity of bLf. Among all the peptidic fragments obtained by tryptic digestion of bLf and characterised by advanced mass spectrometric methodologies, a large fragment (86-258) and a small peptide (324-329: YLTTLK) were able to inhibit rotavirus even if at lower extent than undigested bLf. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Axion field influence on Josephson junction quasipotential

The direct effect of an axion field on Josephson junctions is analyzed through the consequences on the effective potential barrier that prevents the junction from switching from the superconducting to the finite-voltage state. We describe a method to reliably compute the quasipotential with stochastic simulations, which allows to span the coupling parameter from weakly interacting axion to tight interactions. As a result, we obtain that the axion field induces a change in the potential barrier, therefore determining a significant detectable effect for such a kind of elusive particle.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Electrochemiluminescent immunoassay enhancement driven by carbon nanotubes

Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) is a leading analytical technique for clinical monitoring and early disease diagnosis. Carbon nanotubes are used as efficient nanomaterials for ECL signal enhancement providing new insights into the mechanism for the ECL generation but also affording application in bead-based immunoassay and ECL microscopy-based bioimaging

Boron-Doped Diamond Electrode Outperforms the State-of-the-Art Electrochemiluminescence from Microbeads Immunoassay

Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) is a powerfultransduction technique where light emission from a molecularspecies is triggered by an electrochemical reaction. Application tobiosensors has led to a wide range of electroanalytical methods withparticular impact on clinical analysis for diagnostic and therapeuticmonitoring. Therefore, the quest for increasing the sensitivity whilemaintaining reproducible andeasy procedures has broughtinvestigations and innovations in (i) electrode materials, (ii)luminophores, and (iii) reagents. Particularly, the ECL signal isstrongly affected by the electrode material and its surfacemodification during the ECL experiments. Here, we exploit boron-doped diamond (BDD) as an electrode material in microbead-basedECL immunoassay to be compared with the approach used in commercial instrumentation. We conducted a careful characterizationof ECL signals from a tris(2,2 '-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) (Ru(bpy)32+)/tri-n-propylamine (TPrA) system, both homogeneous (i.e.,free diffusing Ru(bpy)32+) and heterogeneous (i.e., Ru(bpy)32+bound on microbeads). We investigated the methods to promoteTPrA oxidation, which led to the enhancement of ECL intensity, and the results revealed that the BDD surface properties greatlyaffect the ECL emission, so it does the addition of neutral, cationic, or anionic surfactants. Our results from homogeneous andheterogeneous microbead-based ECL show opposite outcomes, which have practical consequences in ECL optimization. Inconclusion, by using Ru(bpy)32+-labeled immunoglobulins bound on microbeads, the ECL resulted in an increase of 70% and adouble signal-to-noise ratio compared to platinum electrodes, which are actually used in commercial instrumentation for clinicalanalysis. This research infers that microbead-based ECL immunoassays with a higher sensitivity can be realized by BDD