Nanoparticles synthesis in wet-operating stirred media: Preliminary investigation with DEM simulations

The growing demand of nanomaterials is pushing towards the development of alternative strategies for the safe and sustainable production of nanoparticles. At the same time, to ensure high performances, a fine control over the product specifications is required. We focused on a bottom-up method combined with a mechanical disaggregation technique using a wet bead-stirring process, since it provides numerous advantages over other approaches, including the minimization of the nanoparticles air dispersion and a greater control over the final product. However, given the broad variability of the parameters involved in both the setup and operation of the process, it is essential to combine the experiments with a theoretical-simulative study to optimize the design. The present activity consists in the preliminary simulation of the interactions among the grinding beads, modelled through the discrete element method (DEM), and the magnetic stirrer. This approach, providing information regarding the frequency and energy of collisions, which can be related to the properties of the produced nanoparticles, allows a fine tuning of the process parameters

Italian Mediterranean river buffalo CSN2 gene structure and promoter analysis

The nucleotide sequence of the whole buffalo β-casein encoding gene (CSN2) plus 1,476 nt at the 5' flanking region and 51 nt at the 3' flanking region was determined. The gene is spread over 10.2 kb and consists of 9 exons varying in length from 24 (exon 5) to 498 bp (exon 7) and 8 introns from 92 bp (intron 5) to 22 59 bp (intron 1). Furthermore, highly conserved sequences, mainly located in the 5' flanking region, were found between this gene and the β-casein encoding genes of other species. The comparison between the obtained promoter and exonic regions and buffalo sequences present in EMBL evidenced different polymorphic sites. Finally, 5 interspersed repeated elements (4 in the bovine CSN2 gene) were also identified at 3 different locations of the sequenced region: 5' untranscribed region, intron 1, and intron 4

Preliminary analysis of Stearoyl Co-A Desaturase gene transcripts in River buffalo

Stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs). In cattle, SCD gene extends over a DNA segment of ~17.0 Kb, and it is organized in 6 exons and 5 introns. The SCD gene has been indicated as the candidate gene to change the saturated/unsaturated FAs ratio and hence it has been suggested as the gene influencing the fat quality. In cattle, eight SNPs have been identified and one of them, (T→C) at 231st nt of 5th exon, is responsible for the Val→Ala amino acid change. The C allele has been associated with higher content of MUFAs in carcasses, and it is positively related to a higher index of desaturation (C18:0/C18:1 and C16:0/C16:1) in the milk. In this study, we report on preliminary results of analysis of transcripts of the SCD encoding gene in river buffalo. The electrophoretic analysis of the RT-PCR products and the subsequent sequencing showed at least five different populations of mRNA. The most represented population is correctly assembled (~1300 bp), followed by the one which is deleted of ~750bp, corresponding to the 3rd, 4th and 5th exon and partially to the 2nd and 6th exon

Monitoring and mapping soil functionality in degraded areas of organic European vineyards

Soil malfunctioning, caused by an improper land preparation before vine plantation and/or management, is a common problem in European vineyards. Soil malfunctioning can include: reduced contribution of the soil fauna, poor organic matter content, imbalance nutritional status, altered pH, water deficiency, soil compaction and/or scarce oxygenation. To address these problems, ReSolVe, a transnational European research project, aimed at testing the effects of selected agronomic strategies for restoring optimal soil functionality in degraded areas within organic vineyard. The project involves 8 research groups in 6 different EU countries (Italy, Spain, France, Sweden, Slovenia, and Turkey) with experts from several disciplines including soil science, ecology, microbiology, grapevine physiology, viticulture, and biometry. The experimental vineyards are situated in Italy (Chianti hills and Maremma plain, Tuscany), Spain (La Rioja), France (Bordeaux and Languedoc), and Slovenia (Primorska) for winegrapes, and in Turkey (Adana and Mersin) for tablegrapes. Three different restoring strategies have been implemented: (i) compost, (ii) green manure with winter legumes, and (iii) dry mulching with cover crops. These strategies have being tested according to their efficiency to improve i) plant and root growth; and ii) grape yield and quality; optimize iii) the quality of soil ecosystem services; and iv) the terroir effect. The first activity of the project was characterizing and mapping the degraded areas within experimental vineyards. In the work we used non-invasive technologies to characterize soil and plant status. In Spanish and Italian vineyards, the delineation of degraded areas was performed by gamma-ray spectroscopy for topsoil, RGB machine vision for canopy status and thermography for plant water status. Gamma-ray spectroscopy measured continuously the natural gamma-ray emitted from the first 30-40 cm of soil, calculating the contribution of the main radionuclides (40K, 232Th, and 238U). The spectra of gamma-ray were able to provide information about mineralogy, texture, surficial stoniness and carbonates. RGB and thermal cameras were used to assess canopy porosity, leaf area exposure and vine water status of both degraded and non-degraded areas. All soil, canopy and water status parameters were mapped

Correction: Rheometry-on-a-chip: measuring the relaxation time of a viscoelastic liquid through particle migration in microchannel flows

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The peculiar structural features of kiwi fruit pectin methylesterase: amino acid sequence, oligosaccharides structure, and modeling of the interaction with its natural proteinaceous inhibitor

Pectin methylesterase (PME) from kiwi fruit (Actinidia deliciosa) is a glycoprotein, showing an apparent molecular mass of 50 kDa upon size exclusion chromatography and SDS-PAGE. The primary structure, elucidated by direct sequencing of the protein, comprises 321 amino acid residues providing a molecular mass of 35 kDa. The protein has an acetylated Thr residue at the amino terminus and five N-glycosylation consensus sequences, four of which are actually glycosylated. A careful investigation of the oligosaccharide structures demonstrated that PME glycans belong to complex type oligosaccharides essentially consisting of xylosylated polyfucosylated biantennary structures. Alignment with known mature plant PME sequences indicates that the postulated active site residues are conserved. Kiwi PME activity is inhibited following the interaction with the proteinaceous inhibitor PMEI, isolated from the same source. Gel-filtration experiments show that kiwi PME/PMEI complex is stable in a large pH range and dissociates only at pH 10.0. Modeling of the interaction with the inhibitor was performed by using the crystal structure of the complex between kiwi PMEI and tomato PME as a template. The model shows that the binding site is the same reported for tomato PME. However, additional salt link interactions are found to connect the external loops of kiwi PME to PMEI. This finding may explain the higher pH stability of the complex formed by the two kiwi proteins respect to that formed by PMEI and tomato PME

Monitoring and mapping soil functionality in degraded areas of organic European vineyards

Póster presentado en el 11th International Terroir Congress, celebrado en Willamette Valley, Oregon (Estados Unidos) del 10 al 14 de julio de 2016.Soil malfunctioning, caused by an improper land preparation before vine plantation and/or management, is a common problem in European vineyards. Soil malfunctioning can include: reduced contribution of the soil fauna, poor organic matter content, imbalance nutritional status, altered pH, water deficiency, soil compaction and/or scarce oxygenation. To address these problems, ReSolVe, a transnational European research project, aimed at testing the effects of selected agronomic strategies for restoring optimal soil functionality in degraded areas within organic vineyard. The project involves 8 research groups in 6 different EU countries (Italy, Spain, France, Sweden, Slovenia, and Turkey) with experts from several disciplines including soil science, ecology, microbiology, grapevine physiology, viticulture, and biometry. The experimental vineyards are situated in Italy (Chianti hills and Maremma plain, Tuscany), Spain (La Rioja), France (Bordeaux and Languedoc), and Slovenia (Primorska) for winegrapes, and in Turkey (Adana and Mersin) for tablegrapes. Three different restoring strategies have been implemented: (i) compost, (ii) green manure with winter legumes, and (iii) dry mulching with cover crops. These strategies have being tested according to their efficiency to improve i) plant and root growth; and ii) grape yield and quality; optimize iii) the quality of soil ecosystem services; and iv) the terroir effect. The first activity of the project was characterizing and mapping the degraded areas within experimental vineyards. In the work we used non-invasive technologies to characterize soil and plant status. In Spanish and Italian vineyards, the delineation of degraded areas was performed by gamma-ray spectroscopy for topsoil, RGB machine vision for canopy status and thermography for plant water status. Gamma-ray spectroscopy measured continuously the natural gamma-ray emitted from the first 30-40 cm of soil, calculating the contribution of the main radionuclides (40K, 232Th, and 238U). The spectra of gamma-ray were able to provide information about mineralogy, texture, surficial stoniness and carbonates. RGB and thermal cameras were used to assess canopy porosity, leaf area exposure and vine water status of both degraded and non-degraded areas. All soil, canopy and water status parameters were mapped.Peer Reviewe

Italian Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (SIGO): Consensus paper on induction of labor with oral administration of Misoprostol

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Exploring the Energy Landscape of the Charge Transport Levels in Organic Semiconductors at the Molecular Scale

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