Pulcherrima Spolia in the Architecture and Urban Space at Tripoli

Die im Beitrag vorgestellten Beispiele belegen eine intensive Verwendung römischer Spolien zur Zeit der frühosmanischen Herrschaft über Tripolis. Während dieser Epoche kam es aus den unterschiedlichsten Gründen zu einer Weiterentwicklung des Stadtbildes. Der Beitrag befasst sich weniger mit der Verwendung von Spolien als Baumaterial in den wichtigsten islamischen Bauten (Moscheen) als vielmehr mit dem Einsatz von Spolien zum Zweck der Bewahrung und dauerhaften Sichtbarmachung der auf die römische Zeit zurückgehenden Stadtstrukturen. Ein besonders aufschlussreiches Beispiel ist das Tetrapylon des Marc Aurel im römischen Tripolis (Oea) und dessen architektonisches/städtebauliches „Zitat“ in Gestalt der Kreuzung von Arbaʾ Arsat, die im arabischen und osmanischen Tarabulus als die „Vier Säulen“ bezeichnet wurde – offensichtlich ein formales und funktionales Abbild des römischen Vorbildes. Auch wenn die Anlage auf die Zeit vor der türkischen Herrschaft zurückgeht, gewann sie in frühosmanischer Zeit deutlich an Symbolkraft.The examples studied testify an ample and significant use of Roman spolia during the first Ottoman domination of Tripoli. In this period a variety of causes led to the improvement of the urban image of the city. The study focuses less on the re-use of spolia as construction material inside the main Muslim buildings (mosques) and more on the re-use of spolia for the specific urban purpose of preserving and immortalizing the Roman urban matrix. Particularly significant is the case of the Tetrapylon of Marcus Aurelius of the Roman Tripoli (Oea), and its ‘quotation’: the cross-roads of Arbaʾ Arsat, known as the Four Columns of the Arab and then Ottoman Tarabulus. The second is an evident reproduction of the form and urban function of a Roman model. Its genesis may have preceded Turkish rule, but its symbolic value was certainly consolidated during the first Ottoman domination

Healthy and beautiful. Italian Colonies during the Fascist Period: two Architectures between Abruzzi’s Mountain and Sea

Le colonie marine, montane ed elioterapiche sono architetture a metà strada tra le strutture sanitarie e quelle educative, volute dal Partito Nazionale Fascista per la cura e la formazione dei giovani italiani.La differenza di committenza e condizioni insediative non consente d’individuare un modello edilizio con tratti unitari per questa nuova tipologia, che supera quella cupa dei centri ospedalieri per la cura della tubercolosi. Le colonie si caratterizzano formalmente per l’aspetto allegorico e ludico, che evoca l’immagine di aeroplani, navi, lettere dell’alfabeto e altro ancora. Gli impianti, però, sono anche complesse “macchine sanitarie” in cui sono messe a punto soluzioni distributive per la salubrità degli edifici, con l’ausilio di materiali moderni e tecniche edilizie innovative.Il contributo ripercorre l’evoluzione architettonica e tipologica degli edifici per la cura dalla tubercolosi da cui originano le colonie, focalizzando l’attenzione su due significativi esempi realizzati in Abruzzo nel Ventennio, uno marino e l’altro montano, al fine di restituire i caratteri originali della loro architettura, le vicende costruttive e i materiali utilizzati per renderli "salubri e belli".Healthy and beautiful. Italian Colonies during the Fascist Period: two Architectures between Abruzzi’s Mountain and SeaSeaside, mountain and heliotherapeutic colonies form a combined health and educational building typology encouraged by the National Fascist Party for the care and training of young Italians.Different commissioning authorities and environmental conditions prevent the adoption of any single model for a new architectural typology that going way beyond the gloomy nineteenth-century medical centres for tuberculosis.Characteristics are allegorical and recreational aspects evoking the images of aeroplanes, ships, letters of the alphabet. These structures, however, are also complex “health-care machines”, developing buildings arrangement to provide health-enhancing ways, including the use of innovatory materials and building techniques.The paper retraces the architectural and typological evolution of the buildings for the treatment of tuberculosis from which the colonies originate, focusing the attention on two of the marine and mountain colonies built in Abruzzo in the fascist period, in order to study its architecture, the construction events and the materials used to make them "healthy and beautiful".Seaside, mountain and heliotherapeutic colonies form a combined health and educational building typology encouraged by the National Fascist Party for the care and training of young Italians.Different commissioning authorities and environmental conditions prevent the adoption of any single model for a new architectural typology that going way beyond the gloomy nineteenth-century medical centres for tuberculosis.Characteristics are allegorical and recreational aspects evoking the images of aeroplanes, ships, letters of the alphabet. These structures, however, are also complex “health-care machines”, developing buildings arrangement to provide health-enhancing ways, including the use of innovatory materials and building techniques.The paper retraces the architectural and typological evolution of the buildings for the treatment of tuberculosis from which the colonies originate, focusing the attention on two of the marine and mountain colonies built in Abruzzo in the fascist period, in order to study its architecture, the construction events and the materials used to make them "healthy and beautiful"

Biohydrogen production in extreme conditions: A comprehensive study of the fermentative metabolism of a polyextremophilic bacterium

Dark fermentation is a potential carbon neutral process that exploits fermentative microorganisms to convert renewable organic substrates (e.g. lignocellulosic biomass and wastes) to H2, a non-fuel commodity and an ideal and clean energy carrier for replacing fossil fuels in the future. In the quest for developing a robust and efficient dark fermentative process for H2 production at industrial scale, the organism(s) selected to carry out the bioconversion is crucial. Thermophilic anaerobic bacteria have been drawing attention because they come close to meet the features that an ideal H2-producing organism should possess, including efficient breakdown and conversion of complex organic substrates to H2. In this study, a novel microorganism, Caloramator celer (former Thermobrachium celere), was evaluated for its potential to produce H2 from organic substrates. C. celer is a strict anaerobic, alkalitolerant, thermophilic bacterium capable of converting glucose to H2, CO2, acetate, ethanol and formate by mixed acid fermentation. In addition, C. celer shows remarkable features such as an extremely elevated growth rates (doubling time of 10 minutes) and the ability to grow in extreme conditions (Topt= 67 °C; pH67°Copt= 8.2). For these reasons C. celer may be of industrial interest for the conversion of organic waste material to H2 in an open (non-sterile) bioprocess system. However, for a biotechnological exploitation of this bacterium for H2 production it is crucial to understand the factors that regulate carbon and electron flux and therefore the final distribution of metabolites to channel the metabolic flux towards the desired product. The general goal of this study is to investigate the fermentative and energy metabolism of C. celer in order to understand how factors pertaining to the fermentation process can alter the metabolic fluxes. This is achieved by determining the relationship between fermentation conditions, physiological state, genome content, gene expression, metabolic fluxes and end-product yields through the combination of multiple methodologies such as conventional one-factor-at-a-time optimization, batch fermentations, comparative and functional genomics, transcription analysis and metabolic flux analysis. The final goal is to identify the optimal process conditions and metabolic state that maximize the H2 production from C. celer. In this study, glucose fermentation of C. celer was characterized in controlled and non-controlled cultivations and the effect of several parameters on growth and fermentation of C. celer was investigated to identify the optimal conditions for H2 production. In addition, the inhibitory effect of high concentrations of substrate and soluble end-products on growth and H2 production was studied to assess the robustness of C. celer. The whole-genome sequence provided valuable information for interpretation of experimental results and for directing experimental design. Genomic data were employed to design transcriptional analysis, construct a stoichiometric model employed in metabolic flux analysis (MFA), and infer the metabolic network and possible regulatory mechanisms that dictate metabolic fluxes. End-product synthesis profiles, and consequently H2 production, changed in response to several modifications of the culture conditions namely growth rate, growth phase, iron content in the medium, substrate availability and nutrient content, presence of soluble metabolites, pH and H2 concentration. The distribution of the fluxes at key metabolic nodes was found to be a function of thermodynamics as well as several physiological factors including genome content, growth and glycolytic rate, need for maintaining intracellular redox and pH homeostasis and only to some extent control of gene expression. The synthesis of formate and ethanol, two products of the branched metabolism of C. celer, was found to compete with H2-evolving reactions for the disposal of reducing equivalents. Ethanol and formate production served as an alternative to H2 production for regulating the redox state when hydrogenases were inhibited. Moreover, formate synthesis was strictly linked to the growth rate suggesting its possible role in anabolic metabolism. Low growth rates, low substrate availability and nutrient content, high iron availability, presence of subinhibitory concentration of acetate and ethanol, slightly acidic pH and low H2 concentrations minimized the redirection of carbon and electron flow to ethanol and formate synthesis and thus favored efficient H2 production. Kinetics of growth and H2 production were inhibited, albeit to different degrees, by high concentration of substrate and soluble end-products, whereas H2 yields remained marginally affected even in presence of considerable concentration of inhibitors. Acetate, the main soluble metabolite of the fermentation, inhibited H2 productivity due to the increasing ionic strength in the medium, rather than the uncoupling effect of the undissociated form. The critical substrate and salt concentration estimated for C. celer suggests that this organism is not particularly osmotolerant. In conclusion, this study provides valuable information on the capabilities of C. celer to efficiently produce H2 as well as on its limitations through a comprehensive investigation of its fermentative and energy metabolism. C. celer showed a great metabolic flexibility that allows redistribution of fluxes at key metabolic nodes to simultaneously control redox state and efficiently harvest energy from substrate even under unfavorable conditions. Understanding how fermentation conditions control the metabolic fluxes contributes to expand the knowledge of the thermophilic dark fermentative H2 production process

Gaudí y la reinvención del orden arquitectónico

The term "re-invention", used in the title, draws suggestion from the article Gli ordini architettonici rinascita o invenzione? (The Architectural Order Revival or Invention?). In this paper, the two authors, Christof Thoenes and Hubertus Günther, already foreshadowed in the header their considerations on coding and theory of the architectural order made in the Renaissance.The paper stressed such as the testing, carried out between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, was aiming at the creation of an instrument of rational design. Even Gaudí sounder new rules of composition through the comparison with contemporary manuals and the analysis of architectural heritage of the past, the knowledge of which was only minimally direct. So he came to the reinvention of the Doric order adopted in the hypostyle hall or "greek theater" of the Park Güell.The text explores this architecture, the only where Gaudí took the lintel system, using a Doric where the morphological accordance of the elements - shaft, capital, architrave, frieze and cornice - with the old model and the relationship between the individual parts and the whole do not break the stylistic unity.A reflection that even touches the its definition of "archaic" and "Mediterranean".Keywords: Anton Gaudì, Parque Güell, Doric order, Barcelona.Gaudí e la reinvenzione dell’ordine architettonicoIl termine "reinvenzione", usato nel titolo, trae suggerimento dall’articolo Gli ordini architettonici rinascita o invenzione? in cui i due autori, Christof Thoenes e Hubertus Günther, preannunciavano già nella intestazione le loro considerazioni sulla codificazione e teorizzazione dell’ordine architettonico formulate nel Rinascimento. Il saggio sottolineava come la sperimentazione svolta tra il Quattro e il Cinquecento mirasse alla creazione di uno strumento di progettazione razionale.Anche Gaudí scandagliò nuove regole compositive attraverso la collazione della manualistica contemporanea e del patrimonio architettonico del passato, la cui conoscenza era solo in minima parte diretta. Così egli pervenne alla reinvenzione dell’ordine dorico adottato nella sala ipostila o teatro greco del parco Güell. Il testo indaga quest’opera la sola in cui Gaudí impiegò il sistema architravato, utilizzando un ordine dorico dove la conformità morfologica degli elementi - fusto, capitello, architrave, fregio e cornice  - con il modello antico e i rapporti reciproci tra le singole parti e il tutto non rompono l’unità stilistica. Una riflessione che tocca anche la sua definizione di architettura "arcaica" e "mediterranea".Keywords: Anton Gaudì, Parque Güell, ordine dorico, Barcellona. El término "reinvención” utilizado en el título se inspira en el artículo Gli ordini architettonici rinascita o invenzione? en el que los dos autores, Christof Thoenes y Hubertus Günther, anunciaban ya en el título sus consideraciones sobre la codificación y la teoría del orden arquitectónico formuladas en el Renacimiento. Dicho ensayo subrayaba cómo la experimentación llevada a cabo entre los siglos XV y XVI aspiraba a la creación de una herramienta de proyección racional.Gaudí también tanteó nuevas reglas compositivas a través del cotejo de los manuales contemporáneos y del patrimonio arquitectónico del pasado, cuyo conocimiento era directo solo en una mínima parte. De este modo llegó a la reinvención del único orden arquitectónico adoptado en la sala hipóstila o teatro griego del Parque Güell. El texto indaga en esta obra, la única en la que Gaudí empleó el sistema arquitrabado, utilizando un orden dórico en el que la correspondencia morfológica de los elementos (fuste, capitel, arquitrabe, friso y cornisa) con el modelo antiguo y la relación recíproca entre las partes y el todo no rompen la unidad estilística.Una reflexión que toca también su definición de “arcáica” y “mediterránea”.Keywords: Anton Gaudì, Parque Güell, orden dórico, Barcelona

Assessment of metabolic flux distribution in the thermophilic hydrogen producer Caloramator celer as affected by external pH and hydrogen partial pressure

Background: Caloramator celer is a strict anaerobic, alkalitolerant, thermophilic bacterium capable of converting glucose to hydrogen (H2), carbon dioxide, acetate, ethanol and formate by a mixed acid fermentation. Depending on the growth conditions C. celer can produce H2 at high yields. For a biotechnological exploitation of this bacterium for H2 production it is crucial to understand the factors that regulate carbon and electron fluxes and therefore the final distribution of metabolites to channel the metabolic flux towards the desired product. Results: Combining experimental results from batch fermentations with genome analysis, reconstruction of central carbon metabolism and metabolic flux analysis (MFA), this study shed light on glucose catabolism of the thermophilic alkalitolerant bacterium C. celer. Two innate factors pertaining to culture conditions have been identified to significantly affect the metabolic flux distribution: culture pH and partial pressures of H2 (PH2). Overall, at alkaline to neutral pH the rate of biomass synthesis was maximized, whereas at acidic pH the lower growth rate and the less efficient biomass formation are accompanied with more efficient energy recovery from the substrate indicating high cell maintenance possibly to sustain intracellular pH homeostasis. Higher H2 yields were associated with fermentation at acidic pH as a consequence of the lower synthesis of other reduced by-products such as formate and ethanol. In contrast, PH2 did not affect the growth of C. celer on glucose. At high PH2 the cellular redox state was balanced by rerouting the flow of carbon and electrons to ethanol and formate production allowing unaltered glycolytic flux and growth rate, but resulting in a decreased H2 synthesis. Conclusion: C. celer possesses a flexible fermentative metabolism that allows redistribution of fluxes at key metabolic nodes to simultaneously control redox state and efficiently harvest energy from substrate even under unfavorable conditions (i.e. low pH and high PH2). With the H2 production in mind, acidic pH and low PH2 should be preferred for a high yield-oriented process, while a high productivity-oriented process can be achieved at alkaline pH and high PH2

Novel agonists for serotonin 5-HT7 receptors reverse metabotropic glutamate receptor-mediated long-term depression in the hippocampus of wild-type and Fmr1 KO mice, a model of Fragile X Syndrome

Serotonin 5-HT7 receptors are expressed in the hippocampus and modulate the excitability of hippocampal neurons. We have previously shown that 5-HT7 receptors modulate glutamate-mediated hippocampal synaptic transmission and long-term synaptic plasticity. In particular, we have shown that activation of 5-HT7 receptors reversed metabotropic glutamate receptor-mediated long-term depression (mGluR-LTD) in wild-type (wt) and in Fmr1 KO mice, a mouse model of Fragile X Syndrome in which mGluR-LTD is abnormally enhanced, suggesting that 5-HT7 receptor agonists might be envisaged as a novel therapeutic strategy for Fragile X Syndrome. In this perspective, we have characterized the basic in vitro pharmacokinetic properties of novel molecules with high binding affinity and selectivity for 5-HT7 receptors and we have tested their effects on synaptic plasticity using patch clamp on acute hippocampal slices. Here we show that LP-211, a high affinity selective agonist of 5-HT7 receptors, reverses mGluR-LTD in wt and Fmr1 KO mice, correcting a synaptic malfunction in the mouse model of Fragile X Syndrome. Among novel putative agonists of 5-HT7 receptors, the compound BA-10 displayed improved affinity and selectivity for 5-HT7 receptors and improved in vitro pharmacokinetic properties with respect to LP-211. BA-10 significantly reversed mGluR-LTD in the CA3-CA1 synapse in wt and Fmr1KO mice, indicating that BA-10 behaved as a highly effective agonist of 5-HT7 receptors and reduced exaggerated mGluR-LTD in a mouse model of Fragile X Syndrome. On the other side, the compounds RA-7 and PM-20, respectively arising from in vivo metabolism of LP-211 and BA-10, had no effect on mGluR-LTD thus did not behave as agonists of 5-HT7 receptors in our conditions. The present results provide information about the structure-activity relationship of novel 5-HT7 receptor agonists and indicate that LP-211 and BA-10 might be used as novel pharmacological tools for the therapy of Fragile X Syndrome

Altered surface mGluR5 dynamics provoke synaptic NMDAR dysfunction and cognitive defects in Fmr1 knockout mice

Metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5 (mGluR5) is crucially implicated in the pathophysiology of Fragile X Syndrome (FXS); however, its dysfunction at the sub-cellular level, and related synaptic and cognitive phenotypes are unexplored. Here, we probed the consequences of mGluR5/Homer scaffold disruption for mGluR5 cell-surface mobility, synaptic N-methyl-D-Aspartate receptor (NMDAR) function, and behavioral phenotypes in the second-generation Fmr1 knockout (KO) mouse. Using single-molecule tracking, we found that mGluR5 was significantly more mobile at synapses in hippocampal Fmr1 KO neurons, causing an increased synaptic surface co-clustering of mGluR5 and NMDAR. This correlated with a reduced amplitude of synaptic NMDAR currents, a lack of their mGluR5-Activated long-Term depression, and NMDAR/hippocampus dependent cognitive deficits. These synaptic and behavioral phenomena were reversed by knocking down Homer1a in Fmr1 KO mice. Our study provides a mechanistic link between changes of mGluR5 dynamics and pathological phenotypes of FXS, unveiling novel targets for mGluR5-based therapeutics

The epistatic interaction between the dopamine D3 receptor and dysbindin-1 modulates higher-order cognitive functions in mice and humans

The dopamine D2 and D3 receptors are implicated in schizophrenia and its pharmacological treatments. These receptors undergo intracellular trafficking processes that are modulated by dysbindin-1 (Dys). Indeed, Dys variants alter cognitive responses to antipsychotic drugs through D2-mediated mechanisms. However, the mechanism by which Dys might selectively interfere with the D3 receptor subtype is unknown. Here, we revealed an interaction between functional genetic variants altering Dys and D3. Specifically, both in patients with schizophrenia and in genetically modified mice, concomitant reduction in D3 and Dys functionality was associated with improved executive and working memory abilities. This D3/Dys interaction produced a D2/D3 imbalance favoring increased D2 signaling in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) but not in the striatum. No epistatic effects on the clinical positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) scores were evident, while only marginal effects on sensorimotor gating, locomotor functions, and social behavior were observed in mice. This genetic interaction between D3 and Dys suggests the D2/D3 imbalance in the PFC as a target for patient stratification and procognitive treatments in schizophrenia