Microbial biotechnologies for production of biochemicals intermediates, bioenergy and biomaterials

Le lavorazioni agro-industriali e alimentari producono quantità non trascurabili di scarti e sottoprodotti di natura organica di ottima qualità, utilizzabili per la produzione di bioenergie e biomateriali. Infatti, impiegando biotecnologie microbiche, è possibile sviluppare un sistema integrato per la produzione di fonti di energia, come idrogeno e metano (attraverso un processo anaerobico) e biopolimeri, come i polidrossialcanoati (PHA) (attraverso un processo aerobico), impiegati nella produzione delle bioplastiche. A tal fine, tra i vari rifiuti di natura organica, gli scarti dell’industria lattiero casearia risultano particolarmente interessanti grazie al loro elevato carico organico. I primi risultati ottenuti da prove di biodigestione in batch (250 mL) evidenziavano l’influenza della concentrazione di inoculo sulla produzione di biogas ottenendo circa 8,9 mL di H2/gSSV e 2,16 mL di CH4/gSSV negli esperimenti con concentrazioni più elevate di inoculo. Contestualmente alla produzione di biogas, la carica batterica degli anaerobi totali aumentava (8,1±0,0 log UFC/mL) e i batteri lattici diminuivano da 7,0±0,1 a 5,7 ± 0,0 log UFC/mL (p ≤ 0,05). L’analisi molecolare cultural-indipendent (PCR- DGGE) permetteva di identificare nei campioni esaminati, specie microbiche appartenenti ai generi Methanosarcina, Methanobrevibacter, Methanoculleus, Methanocorpusculum. Lo “scale-up” di processo era effettuato utilizzando biodigestori da 5 L per valutare l’evoluzione delle popolazioni microbiche di batteri e Archea, coinvolti nel processo di biodigestione. L’abbondanza relativa dei taxa (analizzata tramite Next Generation Sequencing, NGS) mostrava la quasi totale assenza di Archea (<0,1%) nella miscela di siero e latticello non inoculata mentre. Il genere Methanoculleus era predominante nelle fasi finali del processo, in quanto al T30 aumentava fino al 99%. Nell’ottica di sviluppare un sistema integrato, gli acidi organici dell’effluente dell’ultimo esperimento di biodigestione, erano estratti ed utilizzati come componenti di substrati nutritivi per valutare la capacità di 15 ceppi batterici di crescere e accumulare biopolimeri (polidrossialcanoati, PHA) in essi. La crescita dei ceppi di Pseudomonas resinovorans SA38 e SA39 (collezione microbica della Sezione di Microbiologia) era favorita dalla presenza di acidi organici raggiungendo mediamente 10,4±0,0 log CFU/mL in 48h. L’accumulo di PHA era monitorato mediante osservazioni al microscopio a fluorescenza dei PHA prodotti e quantificati mediante saggio spettrofotometrico. Per ottimizzare la produzione di PHA, un sistema in “fed-batch” inoculato con colture miste selezionate ed alimentato con una similare miscela di acidi organici, permetteva l’accumulo di oltre l’80% (1,36 gPHA/L)

Territorio e rappresentazione

Nell'ambito del Workshop BETTER LAND, L’OSSERVAZIONE COME METODO Conoscenza, fruizione e valorizzazione del territorio e dell’ambiente, è stata illustrata ai partecipanti del workshop una metodologia innovativa, ancora in fase di sperimentazione, per valutare in maniera scientifica gli effetti visivi di una trasformazione apportata in un determinato brano di paesaggio a seguito dell'inserimento di un'infrastruttura, quale ad esempio un elettrodotto, pale eoliche o pannelli fotovoltaici in retrofit nei centri sotric

Windows of memory: perspective panels to communicate archeological heritage

Virtual Archaeology assumed, since the second half of 1900, an educational role: digital reconstructions of monuments, cities and territories aim to communicate the ancient cultural heritage using tools, immediately suitable for the large public, which can thus make a proper, yet intuitive reading of the past, thanks to the likelihood of the images represented. However, this "virtuality" in no way can be compared with the excitement of the visit to an archaeological site, which inevitably leads to a strong impact on the cognitive processes of the visitors. We propose an innovative exhibition in situ of some Greek and Roman ruins, based on a correct hypothesis of reconstruction with a virtual 3D model: the aim of our project is to help the visitor to interpreter the lost spatiality of the monument during the visit archaeological tour. In order to enrich the emotional impact of the visitor and make easier to communicate the historical and architectural value of the archaeological heritage, our project provides a display based on a brand new visual effect of anamorphic perspectives that, overlapping a drawing to the ruins still visible, reconstructs in the eyes of the observer, the original shape of the building. It is a recomposition of signs in a single perspective view, transcribed on a glass panel that we have named "Windows of memory". The transparent panels on which are printed some perspective views taken from the 3D virtual model, collaborate actively in the unveiling the lost architecture, in a cognitive process of strong impact, comparable only to the more expensive "augmented reality", that, however, interposes an electronic device between the object and the observer, where anamorphosis allows you to enjoy the architectonic space only through the direct vision. The project we propose in the article is a flexible solution to be adapted to several archeological sites. It will provide the observer with an emotional experience, so communicating, through a multisensorial effect, the inner value of the good visited

Dynamically controlling the emission of single excitons in photonic crystal cavities

Single excitons in semiconductor microcavities represent a solid-state and scalable platform for cavity quantum electrodynamics (c-QED), potentially enabling an interface between flying (photon) and static (exciton) quantum bits in future quantum networks. While both single-photon emission and the strong coupling regime have been demonstrated, further progress has been hampered by the inability to control the coherent evolution of the c-QED system in real time, as needed to produce and harness charge-photon entanglement. Here, using the ultrafast electrical tuning of the exciton energy in a photonic crystal (PhC) diode, we demonstrate the dynamic control of the coupling of a single exciton to a PhC cavity mode on a sub-ns timescale, faster than the natural lifetime of the exciton, for the first time. This opens the way to the control of single-photon waveforms, as needed for quantum interfaces, and to the real-time control of solid-state c-QED systems.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Well-being in the Guidance and Counselling and Career Development programs at James Cook University

The post-digital fourth industrial revolution is already impacting heavily on university life. Traditional university classrooms are being replaced by an expanding array of blended learning options that include both face-to-face and rapidly transforming computer-generated possibilities. This is compounded by rising student numbers, wider cultural diversity, and student centred approaches to learning and assessment where simulation often replaces real experience. What it means to be a scholar is being redefined. Within this context students may be more actively engaged, independently and collaboratively, but for many, this is unchartered territory, alien and impersonal, with the potential to generate emotional insecurities and/or escalate pre-existing mental health conditions. In response to these challenges, we advocate promoting the mental health and well-being of students, deeming wellbeing foundational to meaningful student learning experiences, engagement, retention and academic success. Our roles as counsellor and career development educators, practitioners and researchers, commit us to integrating mental health promotion strategies within our programs, not as an optional extra, but as an integral, highly synthesised feature of the courses themselves

An optimization procedure based on thermal discomfort minimization to support the design of comfortable Net Zero Energy Buildings

The European standard EN 15251 specifies design criteria for dimensioning of building systems. In detail, it proposes that the adaptive comfort model is used, at first, for dimensioning passive means; but, if indoor operative temperature does not meet the chosen long-term adaptive comfort criterion in the “cooling season”, the design would include a mechanical cooling system. In this case, the reference design criteria are provided accordingly the Fanger comfort model. However, there is a discontinuity by switching from the adaptive to the Fanger model, since the best building variant, according to the former, may not coincide with the optimal according to the latter. In this paper, an optimization procedure to support the design of a comfort-optimized net zero energy building is proposed. It uses an optimization engine (GenOpt) for driving a dynamic simulation engine (EnergyPlus) towards those building variants that minimize, at first, two seasonal long-term discomfort indices based on an adaptive model; and if indoor conditions do not meet the adaptive comfort limits or analyst’s expectations, it minimizes two seasonal long-term discomfort indices based on the Fanger model. The calculation of such indices has been introduced in EnergyPlus via the Energy Management System module, by writing computer codes in the EnergyPlus Reference Language. The used long-term discomfort indices proved to provide similar ranking capabilities of building variants, even if they are based on different comfort models, and the proposed procedure meets the two- step procedure suggested by EN 15251 without generating significant discontinuities

Chapter An immersive experience for the room with agrestic paintings in Carditello (CE)

The 43rd UID conference, held in Genova, takes up the theme of ‘Dialogues’ as practice and debate on many fundamental topics in our social life, especially in these complex and not yet resolved times. The city of Genova offers the opportunity to ponder on the value of comparison and on the possibilities for the community, naturally focused on the aspects that concern us, as professors, researchers, disseminators of knowledge, or on all the possibile meanings of the discipline of representation and its dialogue with ‘others’, which we have broadly catalogued in three macro areas: History, Semiotics, Science / Technology. Therefore, “dialogue” as a profitable exchange based on a common language, without which it is impossible to comprehend and understand one another; and the graphic sign that connotes the conference is the precise transcription of this concept: the title ‘translated’ into signs, derived from the visual alphabet designed for the visual identity of the UID since 2017. There are many topics which refer to three macro sessions: - Witnessing (signs and history) - Communicating (signs and semiotics) - Experimenting (signs and sciences) Thanks to the different points of view, an exceptional resource of our disciplinary area, we want to try to outline the prevailing theoretical-operational synergies, the collaborative lines of an instrumental nature, the recent updates of the repertoires of images that attest and nourish the relations among representation, history, semiotics, sciences

Passive house optimization for Southern Italy based on the “New Passivhaus Standard”

The IEE Passive-On project has drafted a proposal to adapt that Standard to the conditions that characterize Southern Europe, which is described in this paper together with its rationale. Compared with the original definition, one of the main changes is the introduction of explicit requirements on internal comfort during summer, in parallel to a limit to energy needs for cooling. The dynamic simulations conducted to test the new definition of the Standard in the context of Southern Italy (e.g. Palermo) show that the requirements identified by the Passivhaus Standard can be met by simplifying the envelope technologies (e.g. relaxing air-tightness design value) used in the context of Central Europe and adopting passive cooling strategies appropriately adjusted. Some simplifications of the ventilation system can be compensated by an increased role of thermal insulation of the building envelope and some of the choices can make energy needs tend to zero. In accordance with EN15251, thermal comfort is characterized according to Fanger’s PMV in cases where mechanical cooling is still required for peak situations, and according to the adaptive model where no mechanical cooling is required

The impact of mental health in the university sector: a preliminary study

Recently, the popular press labelled Australians as a "Nation of Dropouts". The Minister for Education blamed universities attributing low completion rates to a lack of transparency within universities. Other commentators from industry bodies such as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry assign the blame to factors such as parental pressure to attend university and/or a lack of alignment of degrees with employment pathways. However, analysis of the factors impacting upon course completion suggests a more complex picture