Environmental factors shaping the ecological niches of ammonia-oxidizing archaea

For more than 100 years it was believed that bacteria were the only group responsible for the oxidation of ammonia. However, recently, a new strain of archaea bearing a putative ammonia monooxygenase subunit A (amoA) gene and able to oxidize ammonia was isolated from a marine aquarium tank. Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) were subsequently discovered in many ecosystems of varied characteristics and even found as the predominant causal organisms in some environments. Here, we summarize the current knowledge on the environmental conditions related to the presence of AOA and discuss the possible site-related properties. Considering these data, we deduct the possible niches of AOA based on pH, sulfide and phosphate levels. It is proposed that the AOA might be important actors within the nitrogen cycle in low-nutrient, low-pH, and sulfide-containing environments

Bioactive Phenolic Compounds From Agri-Food Wastes : An Update on Green and Sustainable Extraction Methodologies

Phenolic compounds are broadly represented in plant kingdom, and their occurrence in easily accessible low-cost sources like wastes from agri-food processing have led in the last decade to an increase of interest in their recovery and further exploitation. Indeed, most of these compounds are endowed with beneficial properties to human health (e.g., in the prevention of cancer and cardiovascular diseases), that may be largely ascribed to their potent antioxidant and scavenging activity against reactive oxygen species generated in settings of oxidative stress and responsible for the onset of several inflammatory and degenerative diseases. Apart from their use as food supplements or as additives in functional foods, natural phenolic compounds have become increasingly attractive also from a technological point of view, due to their possible exploitation in materials science. Several extraction methodologies have been reported for the recovery of phenolic compounds from agri-food wastes mostly based on the use of organic solvents such as methanol, ethanol, or acetone. However, there is an increasing need for green and sustainable approaches leading to phenolic-rich extracts with low environmental impact. This review addresses the most promising and innovative methodologies for the recovery of functional phenolic compounds from waste materials that have appeared in the recent literature. In particular, extraction procedures based on the use of green technologies (supercritical fluid, microwaves, ultrasounds) as well as of green solvents such as deep eutectic solvents (DES) are surveyed

Editorial: Strategies to Fight Exercise Intolerance in Neuromuscular Disorders

No abstrac

A study of microbial communities on terracotta separator and on biocathode of air breathing microbial fuel cells

Recently, terracotta has attracted interest as low-cost and biocompatible material to build separators in microbial fuel cells (MFCs). However, the influence of a non-conductive material like terracotta on electroactive microbiological communities remains substantially unexplored. This study aims at describing the microbial pools developed from two different seed inocula (bovine and swine sewage) in terracotta-based air-breathing MFC. A statistical approach on microbiological data confirmed different community enrichment in the MFCs, depending mainly on the inoculum. Terracotta separators impeded the growth of electroactive communities in contact with cathodes (biocathodes), while a thick biofilm was observed on the surface (anolyte-side) of the terracotta separator. Terracotta-free MFCs, set as control experiments, showed a well-developed biocathode, Biocathode-MFCs resulted in 4 to 6-fold higher power densities. All biofilms were analyzed by high-throughput Illumina sequencing applied to 16S rRNA gene. The results showed more abundant (3- to 5-fold) electroactive genera (mainly Geobacter, Pseudomonas, Desulfuromonas and Clostridia MBA03) in terracotta-free biocathodes. Nevertheless, terracotta separators induced only slight changes in anodic microbial communities

Green Corrosion Inhibitors from Natural Sources and Biomass Wastes

Over the past decade, green chemistry has been emphasizing the importance of protecting the environment and human health in an economically beneficial manner aiming at avoiding toxins and reducing wastes. The field of metallic materials degradation, generally faced by using toxic compounds, found a fertile research field in green chemistry. In fact, the use of inhibitors is a well-known strategy when metal corrosion needs to be prevented, controlled, or retarded. Green inhibitors are biodegradable, ecologically acceptable and renewable. Their valorization expands possible applications in industrial fields other than \u2018waste to energy\u2019 in the perspective of circular economy. Although lot of experimental work has been done and many research papers have been published, the topic of green inhibitors is still an open issue. The great interest in the field expanded the research, resulting in high numbers of tested molecules. However, the most frequently adopted approaches are conventional and, hence, not suitable to fully characterize the potential efficacy of inhibitors. All the mentioned aspects are the object of the present review and are meant as a constructive criticism to highlight the weak points of the green inhibitors field as to re-evaluate the literature and address the future research in the field that still lacks rationalization

Comunità microbica associata a Hyalesthes obsoletus Signoret, vettore del Legno nero della vite

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Empirical Ground-Motion Prediction Equations for Northern Italy Using Weak- and Strong-Motion Amplitudes, Frequency Content, and Duration Parameters

The goals of this work are to review the Northern-Italy ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) for amplitude parameters and to propose new GMPEs for frequency content and duration parameters. Approximately 10,000 weak and strong waveforms have been collected merging information from different neighboring regional seismic networks operating in the last 30 yr throughout Northern Italy. New ground-motion models, calibrated for epicentral distances ≤100 km and for both local (ML) and moment magnitude (Mw), have been developed starting from a high quality dataset (624 waveforms) that consists of 82 selected earthquakes with ML and Mw up to 6.3 and 6.5, respectively. The vertical component and the maximum of the two horizontal components of motion have been considered, for both acceleration (peak ground horizontal acceleration [PGHA] and peak ground vertical acceleration [PGVA]) and velocity (peak ground horizontal velocity [PGHV] and peak ground vertical velocity [PGVV]) data. In order to make comparisons with the most commonly used prediction equations for the Italian territory (Sabetta and Pugliese, 1996 [hereafter, SP96] and Ambraseys et al. 2005a,b [hereafter, AM05]) the coefficients for acceleration response spectra (spectral horizontal acceleration [SHA] and spectral vertical acceleration [SVA]) and for pseudovelocity response spectra (pseudospectral horizontal velocity [PSHV] and pseudospectral vertical velocity [PSVV]) have been calculated for 12 periods ranging between 0.04 and 2 sec and for 14 periods ranging between 0.04 and 4 sec, respectively. Finally, empirical relations for Arias intensities (IA), Housner intensities (IH), and strong motion duration (DV) have also been calibrated. The site classification based on Eurocode (hereafter, EC8) classes has been used (ENV, 1998, 2002). The coefficients of the models have been determined using functional forms with an independent magnitude decay rate and applying the random effects model (Abrahamson and Youngs, 1992; Joyner and Boore, 1993) that allow the determination of the interevent, interstation, and record-to-record components of variance. The goodness of fit between observed and predicted values has been evaluated using the maximum likelihood approach as in Spudich et al. (1999). Comparing the proposed GMPEs with SP96 and AM05, it is possible to observe a faster decay of predicted ground motion, in particular for distances greater than 25 km and magnitudes higher than 5.0. The result is an improvement in fit of about one order of size for magnitudes spanning from 3.5 to 4.5

Empirical ground motion prediction equations for northern italy using weak and strong motion amplitudes, frequency content and duration parameters

The aims of this work are to review the Northern-Italy ground motion prediction equations (hereinafter GMPEs) for amplitude parameters and to propose new GMPEs for frequency content and duration parameters. Approximately 10.000 weak and strong waveforms have been collected merging information from different neighbouring regional seismic networks operating in the last 30 years throughout Northern Italy. New ground motion models, calibrated for epicentral distances ≤ 100 km and for both local (Ml) and moment magnitude (Mw), have been developed starting from a high quality dataset (624 waveforms) which consists of 82 selected earthquakes with Ml and Mw up to 6.3 and 6.5 respectively. The vertical component and the maximum of the two horizontal components of motion have been considered, for both acceleration (PGHA and PGVA) and velocity (PGHV and PGVV) data. In order to make comparisons with the most commonly used prediction equations for the Italian territory (Sabetta and Pugliese, 1996 and Ambraseys et al. 2005a,b hereinafter named SP96 and AM05) the coefficients for acceleration response spectra (SHA and SVA) and for pseudo velocity response spectra (PSHV and PSVV) have been calculated for 12 periods ranging between 0.04 s and 2 s and for 14 periods ranging between 0.04 s and 4 s respectively. Finally, empirical relations for Arias and Housner Intensities (IA, IH) and strong motion duration (DV) have also been calibrated. The site classification based on Eurocode (hereinafter EC8) classes has been used (ENV, 1998). The coefficients of the models have been determined using functional forms with an independent magnitude decay rate and applying the random effects model (Abrahamson and Youngs, 1992; Joyner and Boore, 1993) that allow the determination of the inter-event, inter-station and record-to-record components of variance. The goodness of fit between observed and predicted values has been evaluated using the maximum likelihood approach as in Spudich et al. (1999). Comparing the proposed GMPEs both with SP96 and AM05 it is possible to observe a faster decay of predicted ground motion, in particular for distances greater than 25 km and magnitudes higher than 5.0. The result is a fit improvement of about one order of size for magnitudes spanning from 3.5 to 4.5

One-Year Quality of Life Trends in Early-Stage Lung Cancer Patients After Lobectomy

Objective: Quality of Life (QoL) is an important predictor of patient's recovery and survival in lung cancer patients. The aim of the present study is to identify 1-year trends of lung cancer patients' QoL after robot-assisted or traditional lobectomy and investigate whether clinical (e.g., pre-surgery QoL, type of surgery, and perioperative complications) and sociodemographic variables (e.g., age) may predict these trends. Methods: An Italian sample of 176 lung cancer patients undergoing lobectomy completed the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire—Core 30 (QLQ-C30) at the pre-hospitalization (t0), 30 days (t1), 4 months (t2), 8 months (t3), and 12 months (t4) after surgery. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics (age, gender, perioperative complications, and type of surgery) were also collected. The individual change over time of the 15 dimensions of the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the effects of pre-surgery scores of QoL dimensions, type of surgery, perioperative complications, and age on patients' QoL after surgery were studied with the individual growth curve (IGC) models. Results: Patients had a good recovery after lobectomy: functioning subscales improved over time, while most of the symptoms became less severe over the care process. Perioperative complications, type of surgery, pre-surgery status, and age significantly affected these trends, thus becoming predictors of patients' QoL. Conclusion: This study highlights different 1-year trends of lung cancer patients' QoL. The measurement of pre- and post-surgery QoL and its clinical and sociodemographic covariables would be necessary to better investigate patients' care process and implement personalized medicine in lung cancer hospital divisions

Pectin-Based Formulations for Controlled Release of an Ellagic Acid Salt with High Solubility Profile in Physiological Media

Among bioactive phytochemicals, ellagic acid (EA) is one of the most controversial because its high antioxidant and cancer-preventing effects are strongly inhibited by low gastrointestinal absorption and rapid excretion. Strategies toward an increase of solubility in water and bioavailability, while preserving its structural integrity and warranting its controlled release at the physiological targets, are therefore largely pursued. In this work, EA lysine salt at 1:4 molar ratio (EALYS), exhibiting a more than 400 times increase of water solubility with respect to literature reports, was incorporated at 10% in low methoxylated (LM) and high methoxylated (HM) pectin films. The release of EA in PBS at pH 7.4 from both film preparations was comparable and reached 15% of the loaded compound over 2 h. Under simulated gastric conditions, release of EA from HM and LM pectin films was minimal at gastric pH, whereas higher concentrations-up to 300 μM, corresponding to ca. 50% of the overall content-were obtained in the case of the HM pectin film after 2 h incubation at the slightly alkaline pH of small intestine environment, with the enzyme and bile salt components enhancing the release. EALYS pectin films showed a good prebiotic activity as evaluated by determination of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) levels following microbial fermentation, with a low but significant increase of the effects produced by the pectins themselves. Overall, these results highlight pectin films loaded with EALYS salt as a promising formulation to improve administration and controlled release of the compound