Characterization of vb_stus_mmda13, a newly discovered bacteriophage infecting the agar-degrading species sphingomonas turrisvirgatae

Members of Sphingomonas genus have gained a notable interest for their use in a wide range of biotechnological applications, ranging from bioremediation to the production of valuable compounds of industrial interest. To date, knowledge on phages targeting Sphingomonas spp. are still scarce. Here, we describe and characterize a lytic bacteriophage, named vB_StuS_MMDA13, able to infect the Sphingomonas turrisvirgatae MCT13 type strain. Physiological characterization demonstrated that vB_StuS_MMDA13 has a narrow host range, a long latency period, a low burst size, and it is overall stable to both temperature and pH variations. The phage has a double-stranded DNA genome of 63,743 bp, with 89 open reading frames arranged in two opposite arms separated by a 1186 bp non-coding region and shows a very low global similarity to any other known phages. Interestingly, vB_StuS_MMDA13 is endowed with an original nucleotide modification biosynthetic gene cluster, which greatly differs from those of its most closely related phages of the Nipunavirus genus. vB_StuS_MMDA13 is the first characterized lytic bacteriophage of the Siphoviridae family infecting members of the Sphingomonas genus

Identification of the optimal trajectory for a race driver

Due to increasing demands for time and cost efficient vehicle design, numerical simulation of closed loop maneuvers has become more and more important. Therefore the driver has to be included into the modeling. In the literature driver models are generally regarded as controllers acting through throttlesteer- brake inputs on a nonlinear plant (i.e. the vehicle) with the aim to follow a planned trajectory maintaining the vehicle stability. It is thus straightforward to understand that in the case of race driver models, the generation of a proper reference trajectory is essential, since it must allow achieving the minimum lap time with respect of the circuit geometry and of the vehicle dynamic characteristics. The issues concerned with the generation of reference trajectories are ought to: the reciprocal interaction between longitudinal and lateral vehicle dynamics, the driver's maneuvers and the shape of the circuit. All these information have to be comprehensively analyzed through simplified logics in order to reduce the complexity of the problem. A methodology for identifying the trajectory allowing the minimization of the lap time is proposed in this paper. It splits the analysis into two steps: studying a geometric tool able to generate trajectories as a compromise between minimum space and minimum curvature paths; another one that according to the vehicle dynamic characteristics generates limit curves in order to obtain the speed profile associated to each trajectory. Combining the results of the developed tools the trajectory associated with the minimum lap time can thus be identified