The Jolly Day : March

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-me/1112/thumbnail.jp

Electrografting of thin polymer films: Three strategies for the tailoring of functional adherent coatings

Cathodic electrografting is an efficient technique to impart adhesion to poly(meth)acrylate coatings onto inorganic conducting surfaces. Although this technique was restricted for many years to very few monomers ((meth)acrylonitrile and (meth)acrylates) and to deposition of very thin polymer films, recent developments have overcome these limitations. First of all, classical controlled/living polymerization techniques have been combined with cathodic electrografting as a powerful strategy for tuning thickness, properties and reactivity of the chemisorbed organic films. Secondly, thanks to the successful electrografting of a new reactive monomer bearing an activated ester, electrografted surfaces are now available for further derivatization by a wide variety of nucleophiles. Finally, the electrografting process has been extended to the direct electrografting of reactive polymers, i.e. preformed polymers beating pendant acrylic functions, which opens the way to the grafting of, e.g., polycondensates

Euryhaline Aliens Invading Italian Inland Waters: The Case of the Atlantic Blue Crab Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896

none6Alien invasive species represent a major threat in Italian freshwaters. Despite national and European regulations aimed at the control and prevention of new invasive species, the number of allochthonous species is increasing and so is the rate of spread. One of the most widespread invasive animals in coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea is the blue crab Callinectes sapidus, a native of the Western Atlantic from Nova Scotia to Argentina. The species is euryhaline, and besides coastal waters, it is also commonly recorded in upper estuaries and lower reaches of rivers. Considering its fast adaptability and invasiveness, the main purpose of this work is to assess whether its biological plasticity and invasive capability may represent, in addition to marine and coastal habitats, also a potential threat for inland waters. Samples were collected in seven sites distributed between Southern and Central Italy. The new records are herein presented, starting from the original introduction by ballast waters and the actual westward migration in inland waters of Latium and Tuscany. In addition, the threat to biodiversity is also discussed, considering the blue crab aggressiveness toward both vertebrates and invertebrates, which may limit the distribution of native freshwater fish and macrofauna.Massimiliano Scalici, Stefania Chiesa , Giorgio Mancinelli, Pietro Maria Rontani, Andrea Voccia, Francesco Nonnis MarzanoScalici, Massimiliano; Chiesa, Stefania; Mancinelli, Giorgio; Maria Rontani, Pietro; Voccia, Andrea; Nonnis Marzano, Francesc

Efficiency of DNA mini-barcoding to assess mislabeling in commercial fish products in italy: An overview of the last decade

The problem of fish traceability in processed products is still an important issue in food safety. Major attention is nowadays dedicated to consumer health and prevention of possible frauds regulated by national and international laws. For this reason, a technical approach is fun-damental in revealing mislabeling at different levels. In particular, the use of genetic markers has been standardized and DNA barcoding is considered the gold-standard strategy to examine and prevent species substitution. Considering the richness of available DNA databases, it is nowadays possible to rapidly reach a reliable taxonomy at the species level. Among different approaches, an innovative method based on DNA mini barcoding has recently been proposed at an international level. Starting from this evidence, we herein illustrate an investigation dealing with the evolution of this topic in Italy over the last decade. The molecular analysis of 71 commercial fish samples based on mini-COI sequencing with two different primer sets reached an amplification success rate of 87.3 and 97.2%. The investigation revealed four major frauds (5.8%) and four minor ones (5.8%). Results highlighted a decrease in incorrect labeling in Italy from 32% to 11.6% over the last decade, although a recurrent involvement of “endangered” species sensu IUCN was still observed

Strengths and weaknesses of different italian fish indices under the water framework directive guidelines

The ISECI (or F index) has been the first fish index to be recommended by the Italian Ministry of the Environment to assess the rivers ecological status with regard to fish communities, in accordance with the Water Framework Directive 2000/60 EC. In addition to ISECI, other fish indices have been developed such as the Forneris Ichthyic Index (I.I.) and a revised version of ISECI, the so-called NISECI. The latter is nowadays the reference Italian index in the framework of the Water Framework Directive. In this work, we analyzed 30 sampling sites along 18 watercourses in Northern Italy and computed the results of fish monitoring to evaluate the strength of ISECI and NISECI, as well as to assess weak points limiting their application. We detected several issues that undermine the ISECI effectiveness. The weakest point regarded the mismatch between the expected reference fish community and the sampled ones, which decreased the overall algorithm efficiency in the evaluation process. On the other hand, the results confirm the improvements introduced by NISECI. Although with some advancement, all three proposed indices revealed their weaknesses in the overall assessment of the ecological status of the water course, as also highlighted by a pioneering comparison with three expert-based blind judgements

Smart Containers With Bidding Capacity: A Policy Gradient Algorithm for Semi-Cooperative Learning

Smart modular freight containers -- as propagated in the Physical Internet paradigm -- are equipped with sensors, data storage capability and intelligence that enable them to route themselves from origin to destination without manual intervention or central governance. In this self-organizing setting, containers can autonomously place bids on transport services in a spot market setting. However, for individual containers it may be difficult to learn good bidding policies due to limited observations. By sharing information and costs between one another, smart containers can jointly learn bidding policies, even though simultaneously competing for the same transport capacity. We replicate this behavior by learning stochastic bidding policies in a semi-cooperative multi agent setting. To this end, we develop a reinforcement learning algorithm based on the policy gradient framework. Numerical experiments show that sharing solely bids and acceptance decisions leads to stable bidding policies. Additional system information only marginally improves performance; individual job properties suffice to place appropriate bids. Furthermore, we find that carriers may have incentives not to share information with the smart containers. The experiments give rise to several directions for follow-up research, in particular the interaction between smart containers and transport services in self-organizing logistics.Comment: 15 page

Nanostructured Photoelectrochemical Biosensing Platform for Cancer Biomarker Detection

The innovative photoelectrochemical properties of multifunctional nanomaterials are here investigated for the development of biosensing platforms for rapid and sensitive detection of a class of cancer biomarker candidates, known as microRNAs. Many different transducers have been proposed, so far, for microRNA detection. Recently, with the emergence of novel photoelectrochemically active species and new detection schemes, photoelectrochemistry has received increasing attention. Gold nanostructures have been, here, used to modify TiO2 electrodes. The surface of the nanostructured platform has been modified by nucleic acid capture probes (CPs). Biotinylated target miRNAs have been recognized by the specific CPs. The biosensing platform has been incubated with streptavidin alkaline phosphatase and exposed to a proper substrate. The product of the enzymatic reaction has been photoelectrochemically monitored. A compact and hand-held analytical device has been developed in order to have a final prototype in line with the concept of point of care testing. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd

Barbel species arrangement in a regional Natura 2000 network (Emilia Romagna, Northern Italy): An altitudinal perspective

Southern Europe hosts a large number of critical catchments for freshwater biodiversity, including endemic fish species. Unfortunately, these areas are severely threatened due to direct and indirect anthropogenic effects. In this context, with the aim to improve the effectiveness of threatened fish protection, the Life project BARBIE (LIFE13 NAT/IT/001129) started in 2014 and focused on three congeneric species of the genus Barbus: two of "priority interest" sensu Habitats Directive [Barbus caninus (Bonaparte, 1839), and B. plebejus (Bonaparte, 1839)], and one alien [Barbus barbus (Linnaeus, 1758)]. Our main objective was to assess the contribution of a complex of protected areas included in the Natura 2000 network – located in the provinces of Parma, Piacenza and Reggio Emilia (Norther Italy) – to support the presence of the three barbel species in analysis. Additionally, we explored the role of a set of environmental variables (i.e., physical, chemical, biological, and land-use descriptors) to drive the current conditions of the study sites and the responses of Barbus species. As a general rule, the present study confirmed a clear decline of the local native barbel populations, and confirmed the existence of a zonation pattern of the barbel taxa. Hence, we observed a strong altitude segregation between native vs. alien species, with the exotic B. barbus currently limited to plain and only sporadically present in the Apennine areas as genetic introgression. These evidences mirrored the altitudinal gradients of anthropogenic disturbance. The main causes were the progressive disappearance of well-structured riparian stripes, and the intense land use change, ranging from semi-natural patches (mountain and hill sectors) to land clearing for intensive agriculture (lowland sectors). This highlights the need to take into account the spatial dynamics of alien invasive species in programming recovery actions that could have unexpected impacts to the native fish populations, for example the reduction of the hydraulic fragmentation along rivers.</p