The effect of plant density with different row spacing on quality of the fatty acid composition and grain yield of sunflower

This research was aimed to assess the influence of density with different row spacing on sunflower crop in two different locations in southern Italy. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with four replicates. It involved the comparison of sunflower grown in the field on 25 m2-2), obtained by keeping a constant number of plants within the row (3 plants m-1) and varying the spacing between rows (0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 m). In the crops grown at the density of 7.5 plants m-2 (0.4 m row spacing) achene and oil yields were significantly lower as compared to the other treatments. Therefore, the mean values of the two trials did not show any statistical difference between the two densities of 3.75 and 5 plants m-2 (0.8 and 0.6 m row spacing, respectively). However, the superiority in the quality of the fatty acid composition was observed in the crops grown at lower density. Therefore, the row spacing of 0.8 m seems to be a good compromise between achene production and good acid composition of oil.Key words: Helianthus annuus L, plant distribution, plant density, achene yield, oil fatty acid composition

Rotational Effects associated with ground motion during the Mw 6.3 2009 L’Aquila (Central Italy) Earthquake

The Mw 6.3 2009 L’Aquila (Central Italy) earthquake produced more than one hundred rotational effects on chimneys, pillars, capitals and gravestones. In this paper we focus on the 37 objects that can be more reliably considered as representative of pure rotational ground motion, and find a relation between the distribution of the observed rotations, the epicentral distance, the macroseismic intensities and the directivity effects that characterize the L’Aquila event. We also find sound relationships between the type of observed rotations and the geophysical, geotechnical and geomorphological characteristics of the site of observation. In downtown L’Aquila we find 1) a remarkable convergence between distribution of the rotations and of the damage; 2) 100% of the rotations occurred at sites characterized by high factors of amplification and poor geological setting; 3) the ground rotations are not strongly dependent on topographic effects. Finally, from quantitative analyses of GPS data we find that the effect of the seismic arrival on an individual vertical object retrieved rotated is an overall rotation with a substantially unpredictable directio

Study of semi-synthetic plastic objects of historic interest using non-invasive total reflectance FT-IR

A significant proportion of modern and contemporary artifacts and objects of historical interest, are composed of materials in the form of synthetic, semi-synthetic, and natural polymers. Each class of polymer and corresponding composite plastics are subject to different degradation processes. This means that conservators and curators of 20th century collections are faced with varied, nontrivial preservation issues. An unresolved problem is the identification of early plastics based on semi-synthetic polymers such as cellulose nitrate, cellulose acetate, and casein formaldehyde, which were often used to imitate the more valuable natural materials such as ivory, tortoiseshell, ebony, and bone. This exemplifies the need for non-invasive methods specifically tailored for identification of plastic materials in collections, so as to provide conservators with a means of materials classification to support preventive conservation strategies and interventive treatments. The present work is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of non-invasive Total Reflectance (TR) FT-IR spectroscopy, coupled with a custom reference spectral TR FT-IR library, for the identification of materials comprising a series of unknown objects. A set of ten heritage objects made from early semi-synthetic materials was used as a training test set to validate the proposed methodological approach. The FT-IR data acquired on the test objects were pre-processed and finally classified using commercial software tools used for the automatic classification of spectra in FT-IR spectroscopy. The procedure was successfully applied to several cases, although residual uncertainties remained in a few examples. The results obtained are critically analyzed and discussed in the perspective of proposing a robust method for in-field prescreening of the chemical composition of plastic artistic and historical objects

Effects of organic fertilization from wet olive pomace on emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum Shrank) grain yield and composition

In a circular economy framework, the evaluation of waste by-product use as fertilizer is essential to promote sustainable agriculture. Olive oil wet pomace can be a valuable alternative as organic fertilizer on cereal crops. Aim of the study is to evaluate the effects of organic (with olive oil waste pomace) fertilization, on grain yield, protein and polyphenol content of emmer wheat grown in Southern Italy. Different amounts, time and amount of application of organic fertilizer were compared to a traditional mineral fertilizer treatment. The chemical analysis, mainly grain protein content and phenolic acids contents, were carried out on the hulled seeds. Agronomic traits showed that the application of olive wet pomace at 140 Mg ha−1 in the first year and 70 Mg ha−1 in the second year, gave the best grain yield than an annual amount application of 70 Mg ha−1. No difference between organic and mineral fertilization was observed when the latter was carried 1 or 2 years before, and the organic fertilization increased grain protein content respect to mineral one. Polyphenol content was not significantly affected by fertilization treatments, while ferulic acid in the emmer grain recently fertilized with wet pomace showed a higher content than emmer fertilized 2–3 years before

Graphene Oxide Nanosheets Tailored With Aromatic Dipeptide Nanoassemblies for a Tuneable Interaction With Cell Membranes

Engineered graphene-based derivatives are attractive and promising candidates for nanomedicine applications because of their versatility as 2D nanomaterials. However, the safe application of these materials needs to solve the still unanswered issue of graphene nanotoxicity. In this work, we investigated the self-assembly of dityrosine peptides driven by graphene oxide (GO) and/or copper ions in the comparison with the more hydrophobic diphenylalanine dipeptide. To scrutinize the peptide aggregation process, in the absence or presence of GO and/or Cu2+, we used atomic force microscopy, circular dichroism, UV–visible, fluorescence and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopies. The perturbative effect by the hybrid nanomaterials made of peptide-decorated GO nanosheets on model cell membranes of supported lipid bilayers was investigated. In particular, quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching techniques were used to track the changes in the viscoelastic properties and fluidity of the cell membrane, respectively. Also, cellular experiments with two model tumour cell lines at a short time of incubation, evidenced the high potential of this approach to set up versatile nanoplatforms for nanomedicine and theranostic applications

Mpeg-plga nanoparticles labelled with loaded or conjugated rhodamine-b for potential nose-to-brain delivery

Nowdays, neurodegenerative diseases represent a great challenge from both the therapeutic and diagnostic points of view. Indeed, several physiological barriers of the body, including the blood brain barrier (BBB), nasal, dermal, and intestinal barriers, interpose between the development of new drugs and their effective administration to reach the target organ or target cells at therapeutic concentrations. Currently, the nose-to-brain delivery with nanoformulations specifically designed for intranasal administration is a strategy widely investigated with the goal to reach the brain while bypassing the BBB. To produce nanosystems suitable to study both in vitro and/or in vivo cells trafficking for potential nose-to-brain delivery route, we prepared and characterized two types of fluorescent poly(ethylene glycol)-methyl-ether-block-poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA\u2013PEG) nanoparticles (PNPs), i.e., Rhodamine B (RhB) dye loaded-and grafted-PNPs, respectively. The latter were produced by blending into the PLGA\u2013PEG matrix a RhB-labeled polyaspartamide/polylactide graft copolymer to ensure a stable fluorescence during the time of analysis. Photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS), UV-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopies, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to characterize the RhB-loaded and RhB-grafted PNPs. To assess their potential use for brain targeting, cytotoxicity tests were carried out on olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) and neuron-like differentiated PC12 cells. Both PNP types showed mean sizes suitable for nose-to-brain delivery (<200 nm, PDI < 0.3) and were not cytotoxic toward OECs in the concentration range tested, while a reduction in the viability on PC12 cells was found when higher concentrations of nanomedicines were used. Both the RhB-labelled NPs are suitable drug carrier models for exploring cellular trafficking in nose-to-brain delivery for short-time or long-term studies

A tunable nanoplatform of nanogold functionalised with Angiogenin peptides for anti-angiogenic therapy of brain tumours

Angiogenin (ANG), an endogenous protein that plays a key role in cell growth and survival, has been scrutinised here as promising nanomedicine tool for the modulation of pro-/anti-angiogenic processes in brain cancer therapy. Specifically, peptide fragments from the putative cell membrane binding domain (residues 60-68) of the protein were used in this study to obtain peptide-functionalised spherical gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) of about 10 nm and 30 nm in optical and hydrodynamic size, respectively. Different hybrid biointerfaces were fabricated by peptide physical adsorption (Ang60-68) or chemisorption (the cysteine analogous Ang60-68Cys) at the metal nanoparticle surface, and cellular assays were performed in the comparison with ANG-functionalised AuNPs. Cellular treatments were performed both in basal and in copper-supplemented cell culture medium, to scrutinise the synergic effect of the metal, which is another known angiogenic factor. Two brain cell lines were investigated in parallel, namely tumour glioblastoma (A172) and neuron-like differentiated neuroblastoma (d-SH-SY5Y). Results on cell viability/proliferation, cytoskeleton actin, angiogenin translocation and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) release pointed to the promising potentialities of the developed systems as anti-angiogenic tunable nanoplaftforms in cancer cells treatment