«L’umanesimo della parola». Studi di italianistica in memoria di Attilio Bettinzoli

By remembering Attilio Bettinzoli with this collection of essays, the intent of friends and colleagues is to recognize the legacy of knowledge and affectionate memories that he left in those who attended him in his intellectual excursions. His entire life was dedicated to literature and teaching, with a fine critical spirit and with joyful curiosity, both on the academic side as a refined reader – in the footsteps of Vittore Branca and exploring paths ranging from Boccaccio, Poliziano, Ficino, Pico and Iacopo Sannazaro up to the poets of the twentieth century, with a predilection for Rebora – and in poetic writing, along an existential line interpreted with dense and suggestive poetic collections that accompany the path of investigation into twentiethcentury poetry in friendly and esteemed voices such as those of Eugenio Montale, Emilio Cecchi, Giovanni Boine, Camillo Sbarbaro, Cristina Campo, Giorgio Caproni and Giorgio Vigolo, often assigned to students as a topic in numerous theses, to attest to research constantly linked to teaching. These are also the thematic and conceptual lines on which the essays offered by colleagues and students move, in a small sign of friendship and gratitude for the path shared over the years

Blockchain and NFTs-based Trades of Second-hand Vehicles

Recently, the automotive industry has been characterized by disruptive innovations, like self-driving cars or hybrid/electric engines. Despite this fact, some operations, such as the trade of second-hand vehicles, still continue to be carried out in the “traditional” way, in which the buyer has to trust the seller about the state of the vehicle. Several studies highlighted that odometer fraud alone could cost around 8.9 billion euros per year. In order to overcome these limitations, which are related to information asymmetries between buyers and sellers, in this work we propose to exploit blockchain technology to store a previous vehicle’s history in a transparent way. To further explore blockchain advantages, we also present how a decentralized second-hand vehicle market – enabling also automatic transfers of ownership upon monetary transfers – can be built, leveraging on Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). We propose an architecture and a practical implementation of a Decentralized Application (Dapp) and discuss the security of the proposed system, its costs, and future developments

Biochemical and immunochemical similarities among mammalian bilitranslocase and a plant flavonoid translocator

Flavonoids are a large class of plant secondary metabolites, belonging to polyphenol family, which possess pharmacological and nutritional properties. Their synthesis takes place only in plants, while mammals can acquire them only with diet. It has been demonstrated that flavonoid uptake occurs in rat also by the activity of bilitranslocase, a carrier that is involved in anion transport in liver cell, vascular endothelium and gastric mucosa. A sequence of bilitranslocase interacting with flavonoid moieties is already known and characterized. Antibody raised against such protein epitope were shown to exhibit cross-reactivity against plant membrane proteins in tissues involved in flavonoid transport and accumulation, such as teguments of carnation petals and skin of grape berries. Further immunolocalization studies allowed to demonstrate the presence of cross-reacting protein not only at the level of tegumental tissues, but also associated to sieve elements and seed teguments in grape berries

Flavonoids and darkness lower PCD in senescing Vitis vinifera suspension cell cultures

Background Senescence is a key developmental process occurring during the life cycle of plants that can be induced also by environmental conditions, such as starvation and/or darkness. During senescence, strict control of genes regulates ordered degradation and dismantling events, the most remarkable of which are genetically programmed cell death (PCD) and, in most cases, an upregulation of flavonoid biosynthesis in the presence of light. Flavonoids are secondary metabolites that play multiple essential roles in development, reproduction and defence of plants, partly due to their well-known antioxidant properties, which could affect also the same cell death machinery. To understand further the effect of endogenously-produced flavonoids and their interplay with different environment (light or dark) conditions, two portions (red and green) of a senescing grapevine callus were used to obtain suspension cell cultures. Red Suspension cell Cultures (RSC) and Green Suspension cell Cultures (GSC) were finally grown under either dark or light conditions for 6 days. Results Darkness enhanced cell death (mainly necrosis) in suspension cell culture, when compared to those grown under light condition. Furthermore, RSC with high flavonoid content showed a higher viability compared to GSC and were more protected toward PCD, in accordance to their high content in flavonoids, which might quench ROS, thus limiting the relative signalling cascade. Conversely, PCD was mainly occurring in GSC and further increased by light, as it was shown by cytochrome c release and TUNEL assays. Conclusions Endogenous flavonoids were shown to be good candidates for exploiting an efficient protection against oxidative stress and PCD induction. Light seemed to be an important environmental factor able to induce PCD, especially in GSC, which lacking of flavonoids were not capable of preventing oxidative damage and signalling leading to senescence

The permeability transition in plant mitochondria: The missing link

The synthesis of ATP in mitochondria is dependent on a low permeability of the inner membrane. Nevertheless, mitochondria can undergo an increased permeability to solutes, named permeability transition (PT) that is mediated by a pore (PTP). PTP opening requires matrix Ca2+ and leads to mitochondrial swelling and release of intramembrane space proteins (e.g. cytochrome c). This feature has been initially observed in mammalian mitochondria and tentatively attributed to some components present either in the outer or inner membrane. Recent works on mammalian mitochondria point to mitochondrial ATP synthase dimers as physical basis for PT, a finding that has been substantiated in yeast and Drosophila mitochondria. In plant mitochondria, swelling and release of proteins have been linked to programmed cell death, but in isolated mitochondria PT has been observed in only a few cases and in plant cell cultures only indirect evidence is available. The possibility that mitochondrial ATP synthase dimers could function as PTP also in plants is discussed here on the basis of the current evidence. Finally, a hypothetical explanation for the origin of PTP is provided in the framework of molecular exaptation

Properties of the permeability transition of pea stem mitochondria

In striking analogy with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, etiolated pea stem mitochondria did not show appreciable Ca2+ uptake. Only treatment with the ionophore ETH129 (which allows electrophoretic Ca2+ equilibration) caused Ca2+ uptake followed by increased inner membrane permeability, membrane depolarization and Ca2+ release. Like the permeability transition (PT) of mammals, yeast and Drosophila, the PT of pea stem mitochondria was stimulated by diamide and phenylarsine oxide and inhibited by MgADP and Mg-ATP, suggesting a common underlying mechanism; yet, the plant PT also displayed distinctive features: (i) as in mammals it was desensitized by cyclosporin A, which does not affect the PT of yeast and Drosophila; (ii) similarly to S. cerevisiae and Drosophila it was inhibited by Pi, which stimulates the PT of mammals; (iii) like in mammals and Drosophila it was sensitized by benzodiazepine 423, which is ineffective in S. cerevisiae; (iv) like what observed in Drosophila it did not mediate swelling and cytochrome c release, which is instead seen in mammals and S. cerevisiae. We find that cyclophilin D, the mitochondrial receptor for cyclosporin A, is present in pea stem mitochondria. These results indicate that the plant PT has unique features and suggest that, as in Drosophila, it may provide pea stem mitochondria with a Ca2+ release channel

Agronomic performance of 21 new disease resistant winegrape varieties grown in northeast Italy

The goal of the field trial was to evaluate the agronomic performance of 21 (10 red and 11 white) winegrape varieties obtained from recent breeding programmes for disease resistance developed in Hungary, Germany, and Italy. The tested red varieties were as follows: ‘Cabernet Carbon’, ‘Cabernet Eidos’, ‘Cabernet Volos’, ‘Julius’, ‘Merlot Khorus’, ‘Merlot Kanthus’, ‘Monarch’, ‘Prior’, UD. 31.103, ‘Vinera’. The tested white varieties were as follows: ‘Aromera’, ‘Bronner’, ‘Fleurtai’, ‘Johanniter’, ‘Muscaris’, ‘Souvignier Gris’, ‘Sauvignon Kretos’, ‘Sauvignon Nepis’, ‘Sauvignon Rytos’, ‘Solaris’, ‘Soreli’. ‘Merlot’ (red) and ‘Glera’ (white) were included as control. The experimental vineyard was established in Castelfranco Veneto on the plain, in 2014. Spray treatments were applied against downy and powdery mildew, by using only copper and sulphur. Grape production, grape quality, and phenology were recorded over a six-year-period, while disease resistance (downy mildew, powdery mildew, black rot and anthracnose) was detected only during a few years. The most significant findings were: a) all varieties showed a good level of downy mildew resistance, especially ‘Cabernet Carbon’, ‘Monarch’, ‘Prior’, UD 31.103, ‘Muscaris’, ‘Solaris’, ‘Souvignier Gris’, ‘Bronner’, ‘Fleurtai’, ‘Aromera’; b) no powdery mildew attacks were detected in any variety; c) ‘Monarch’, ‘Muscaris’, ‘Solaris’ and ‘Souvignier Gris’ also showed a high level of resistance towards black rot and anthracnose; d) red grape varieties had an earlier bud burst as compared to ‘Merlot’, and, concerning ripening, some varieties were earlier than ‘Merlot’, other ones were later; e) white varieties had a later bud burst but an earlier ripening time as compared to ‘Glera’; f) grape production and quality changed significantly depending on the varieties, being titratable acidity higher than 6.4 g L-1 tartaric acid and pH lower than 3.5; also the year affected in a significant way those parameters as well as the interaction between the genotype and the year. In conclusion, the tested varieties behaved positively in terms of environmental sustainability

Pornography: Non-consensual, Vengeful, Online

Structural characterization of kaempferol standard by Mass spectra, using MSn. Upper spectrum shows full spectrum of kaempferol. Lower spectrum shows spectrum of CID of the [M-H]ˉ ion at m/z 285 ion of kaempferol. (TIF 32 kb