Le api svelano il mistero delle fonti di emissione di particolato inquinante

Si tratta di una ricerca che è durata due anni, ed è stata pubblicata sul numero di luglio 2015 della Rivista scientifica internazionale Plos One. Gli autori: Ilaria Negri, Marco Pellecchia (Koiné - Consulenze Ambientali S.n.c., Parma, Italy), Christian Mavris (Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom), Gennaro Di Prisco, Emilio Caprio (Dipartimento di Agraria, Laboratorio di Entomologia E. Tremblay, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Portici - Napoli). Nello studio scientifico i ricercatori dimostrano che le api si comportano anche come “campionatori” attivi di particolato atmosferico, i cosiddetti PM (dall’inglese “Particulate Matter”), di cui sono ricche le nostre città come troppo spesso avvertono i dati dell’Agenzia Regionale di Protezione dell’Ambiente (ARPA). Dice che l’Iglesiente (Iglesias, Sardegna) è inquinato, fortemente contaminato da metalli pesanti come il piombo e il bario. E svela poi che la salute di chi ci vive potrebbe essere compromessa, se non lo è già, anche dall’alta concentrazione di ferro, silicio e alluminio. Rivela ancora, con scientifica precisione, da dove provengono le micro particelle di queste impercettibilissime polveri: dalle miniere dell’Iglesiente e dalle industrie di Portovesm

Honey Bees (Apis mellifera, L.) as Active Samplers of Airborne Particulate Matter

© 2015 Negri et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. [CC by 4.0] The attached file is the published version of the article

Are Well Performing Catalysts for the Ring Opening Polymerization of l -Lactide under Mild Laboratory Conditions Suitable for the Industrial Process? the Case of New Highly Active Zn(II) Catalysts

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is one of the best candidates as a sustainable plastic material for a circular economy, being biodegradable, bio-based, recyclable, and displaying good thermal and mechanical properties. The industrial production of PLA is mainly based on the ring opening polymerization (ROP) of l-lactide (l-LA) promoted by tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate [Sn(Oct)2] in a continuous solvent-free process operating at temperatures between 180 and 200 °C, above the melting point of the resulting isotactic polymer. Despite the huge efforts in the research of alternative catalysts based on less toxic metals, resulting in a plethora of highly active catalysts under laboratory mild conditions, very few candidates can compete with Sn(Oct)2 under industrially relevant conditions. We report a family of new Zn(II) complexes, bearing variously substituted monoanionic [N,O-] (imidazole[1,5-a]pyrid-3-yl)phenolate ligands, as catalysts for the ROP of l-LA under both mild (20 °C, solvent) and industrially relevant (190 °C, in the melt, technical grade unpurified monomer, very low catalyst loading) conditions. Interestingly, the best performing catalyst under mild conditions is the worst performing under harsh conditions, and, on the contrary, the less active catalysts under mild conditions compete well with Sn(Oct)2 under industrially relevant conditions. Kinetic and DFT mechanistic investigations shed light on the non-trivial role of the 2-pyridine substituent in the catalytic performances at different temperatures. Preliminary depolymerization tests on commercial PLLA samples suggested that the new catalysts can also be a suitable candidate for the chemical recycling of PLA under mild conditions

Mitochondrial DNA diversity of five Italian autochtonous donkey breeds

AbstractTo investigate the mitochondrial DNA diversity of five Italian donkey breeds (Amiata, Martinafranca, Romagnolo, Asinara, and Ragusano), we sequenced the HVR I region (D-loop, 288 bp) and cytochrome b gene (274 bp) in 121 individuals. In the D-loop we found nineteen mutations corresponding to fourteen different haplotypes, while in cyt b coding gene only six mutations were found, originating five different haplotypes. In particular, three mutations out of six were non-synonymous, causing an aminoacidic substitution. About the D-loop region, the value of nucleotide diversity (π) observed within breeds was relatively low, but not far from values detected in other European breeds. Phylogenetic and network analyses disclosed the presence of two divergent maternal lineages within Italian donkeys. These haplogroups correspond to the well known lineages of ancestors (Equus asinus somaliensis and E. a. africanus), as donkeys were domesticated from distinct wild subspecies living in Eastern Africa regions. ..

Structure-guided design and optimization of small molecules targeting the protein-protein interaction between the von hippel-lindau (VHL) E3 ubiquitin ligase and the hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) alpha subunit with in vitro nanomolar affinities

E3 ubiquitin ligases are attractive targets in the ubiquitin-proteasome system, however, the development of small-molecule ligands has been rewarded with limited success. The von Hippel-Lindau protein (pVHL) is the substrate recognition subunit of the VHL E3 ligase that targets HIF-1α for degradation. We recently reported inhibitors of the pVHL:HIF-1α interaction, however they exhibited moderate potency. Herein, we report the design and optimization, guided by X-ray crystal structures, of a ligand series with nanomolar binding affinities