Determination of U and Th at the Sub-ppt Levels in a Liquid Scintillator Used for Solar Neutrino Measurements

An important experiment (BOREX) currently underway to study the solar neutrino flux requires, as part of its preliminary activities, the determination of U and Th as natural radioactivity background at a level of 10E-16 - 10E-17 g/g. This sensitivity can be obtained by coupling an ICP source with a double focusing MS in a new instrument (Plasmatrace,VG Elemental, UK). In the present paper a High Resolution Mass Spectrometer (HR-ICP-MS) was used to measure radionuclides at ultratrace levels in a TMB (Trimethylborate) matrix

Control of fermentation duration and pH to orient biochemicals and biofuels production from cheese whey

Batch dark fermentation tests were performed on sheep cheese whey, without inoculum addition at different operating pHs, relating the type and production yields of the observed gaseous and liquid by-products to the evolution of fermentation. Cheese whey fermentation evolved over time in two steps, involving an initial conversion of carbohydrates to lactic acid, followed by the degradation of this to soluble and gaseous products including short-chain fatty acids (mainly acetic, butyric and propionic acids) and hydrogen. The operating pH affected the production kinetics and yields, as well as the fermentation pathways. By varying the duration of the fermentation process, different cheese whey exploitation strategies may be applied and oriented to the main production of lactic acid or hydrogen or other organic acids

Evaluation of the environmental sustainability of biorefinery applied to cheese whey

Although the implementation of the waste biorefinery concept can open a wide array of possibilities to shift waste management towards recovery of high added value products, several barriers including technical, environmental, economic, logistic aspects need to be overcome (Alibardi et al., 2020). In particular, when considering environmental sustainability, the question is: do relatively complex processes producing high added-value materials provide better environmental performances with respect to well-established ones? With reference to a specific agro-industrial waste - cheese whey (CW), which is the main by-product of the dairy industry – innovative solutions for its management by biorefinery approach and conventional treatment are compared in this study. In particular, a three-stage polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) production process from CW, based on: i) preliminary dark fermentation (DF) producing H2-rich gas, ii) selection and enrichment of PHA-accumulating biomass in an aerobic sequencing batch reactor (SBR) operated under a feast-and-famine regime, iii) PHA accumulation in a batch reactor, is considered and compared with conventional anaerobic digestion (AD) of CW, assumed as a sort of benchmark in terms of environmental performance

Purification and expansion of stem cells from equine peripheral blood, with clinical applications

Equine peripheral blood (ePB) can be used as a source of stem cells (SCs) in horses, both for research and for practical purposes. A relatively low volume of ePB is sufficient for the purification and expansion of the SCs. The identification of the SCs is performed by demonstrating the presence (CD34, CD90, CD105 and CD117) or absence (CD14) of specific markers on the cell surface by means of fluorescent staining, followed by Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) for sorting out the desired population of SCs. The entire process of SC isolation and enrichment from ePB typically takes three days, after which the enriched SC sample can be sent back to the patient for clinical application. The two most common clinical applications of SCs from ePB will be demonstrated with two field cases. The first case presents a lesion of the body of the suspensory ligament in a 13-year-old warmblood mare and the second case describes a bacterial ulcerative keratitis in a 20-yearold warmblood gelding

Dark fermentation of sheep cheese whey: biochemicals and biofuels production as a function of fermentation time and pH

Cheese whey (CW) is the main by-product of the cheese making process and is composed mainly by lactose, proteins, lipids and mineral salts. The environmental impacts and other potential negative effects linked to the traditional management strategies of CW are no longer considered sustainable, therefore alternatives need to be explored. Dark fermentation (DF) may be a promising approach for CW valorization. Though the issue has been already addressed by several studies with particular emphasis on biohydrogen production, less attention has been paid to the possibility of recovering also other valuable products. Optimizing the effects of operating pH and fermentation time is a strategy worth to be studied in order to obtain specific biochemicals and/or biofuels from CW. In this framework, batch DF tests were performed under mesophilic conditions on sheep CW, without inoculum addition, adopting different operating pHs, and relating type and production yields of the observed gaseous and liquid byproducts to the duration of the process. CW fermentation evolved over time according to two steps; the first phase was characterised by lactose conversion to lactic acid, whilst during the second one lactic acid was degraded to soluble and gaseous products such as short chain fatty acids (mainly acetate, butyrate and propionate) and hydrogen. The adopted operating pHs affected the production kinetics and yields, as well as metabolic pathways. In particular, setting the operating pH to 6 proved to be optimal in terms of both lactic acid or hydrogen production yields

Purification and expansion of stem cells from equine peripheral blood, with clinical applications

Equine peripheral blood (ePB) can be used as a source of stem cells (SCs) in horses, both for research and for practical purposes. A relatively low volume of ePB is sufficient for the purification and expansion of the SCs. The identification of the SCs is performed by demonstrating the presence (CD34, CD90, CD105 and CD117) or absence (CD14) of specific markers on the cell surface by means of fluorescent staining, followed by Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) for sorting out the desired population of SCs. The entire process of SC isolation and enrichment from ePB typically takes three days, after which the enriched SC sample can be sent back to the patient for clinical application. The two most common clinical applications of SCs from ePB will be demonstrated with two field cases. The first case presents a lesion of the body of the suspensory ligament in a 13-year-old warmblood mare and the second case describes a bacterial ulcerative keratitis in a 20-yearold warmblood gelding

Anaerobic Degradation of Disposable Bioplastics

In the present study commercial Polylactic Acid (PLA) and Mater-Bi (MB) disposable cutlery available on the market were selected for lab scale anaerobic degradability tests. The experiments were carried out under thermophilic conditions at different food to microorganisms (F/M) ratios and test material size, and the specific biogas production and associated kinetics were evaluated. PLA maximum biogas production was comparable for almost all the experimental runs (1550-1670 Nml/gTOC) and only test material size reduction appeared to result in higher yields. Mater-Bi items degradation was strongly affected by product composition and resulted in lower yields. The specific methane yield ranged from 430 to 505 Nml/gVSfood for PLA runs and from 322 to 690 Nml/gVSfood for Mater-Bi runs