Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna
Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di BolognaNot a member yet
336958 research outputs found
Sort by
Selective salt recovery through novel nanofiltration membranes based on 2D-C3N4 materials
No full textNanofiltration (NF) is increasingly explored not only for conventional wastewater treatment but also for the selective recovery of valuable elements from saline sources such as seawater and brine. However, most commercially available NF membranes are negatively charged and produced via interfacial polymerization, which limits their effectiveness in selectively recovering cations like magnesium (Mg2+). In this study, a novel positively charged 2D nanofiltration membrane was developed using an environmentally sustainable Mayer rod coating technique. The membrane was fabricated on a commercial ultrafiltration substrate, with an active layer composed of chitosan a natural biopolymer blended with varying percentages of carbon nitride to enhance cation selectivity. Performance was evaluated using single-salt solutions (1 g/L) of MgCl2, Mg(NO3)2, Na2SO4, and NaCl. The membrane containing 60 % chitosan and 40 % carbon nitride exhibited the best performance, achieving 87.1 % rejection of MgCl2 and 83.2 % rejection of Mg(NO3)2, outperforming the commercial reference membrane (NF270) in the selective rejection of Mg over sodium ions. Additionally, a preliminary life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted using a cradle-to-gate approach to evaluate the environmental impact of the fabricated membranes, highlighting that the primary environmental impacts stem from the polysulfone substrate and carbon nitride components
Performance of Two Custom Probe Kits for In-Solution Enrichment of Ancient Avian DNA
No full textAncient DNA (aDNA) analysis remains challenging due to low endogenous DNA content of degraded samples. Hybridisation-based in-solution enrichment has emerged as an effective tool for targeting genomic regions, enhancing endogenous DNA yield while minimising overall sequencing effort. Despite their widespread use, the performance of different probe kits in capture efficiency remains insufficiently understood, particularly in nonhuman model organisms. In this study, we examined the performance of two commercially available custom probe systems, the RNA-based myBaits and DNA-based Twist, in enriching endogenous aDNA (0.9%-90.1%) extracted from crow bones collected from the early to late Holocene (100-14,000 years ago). The target regions included a panel of 104 K genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified from modern populations of the Corvus corone species complex. Both custom probe kits substantially improved fold enrichment and target site detection rates compared with shotgun sequencing. Between the two kits, myBaits consistently achieved higher capture efficiency. In contrast, Twist retained a greater proportion of endogenous DNA, but most of this originated from off-target regions, resulting in lower target efficiency under our experimental conditions. Twist demonstrated higher coverage in regions with extreme GC content, highlighting its utility for applications targeting GC-rich genomic regions. These findings provide insights into the performance of commercially available DNA enrichment methods and help guide study design
Sliding properties of transition metal dichalcogenide bilayers
No full textTransition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are valuable as solid lubricants because of their layered structure, which allows for easy shearing along the basal planes. Using Density Functional Theory (DFT), we conducted a first-principles study of the sliding properties of several TMD bilayers: MoS2, MoTe2, WS2, WSe2, VS2, VSe2, TaS2, TaSe2, TiS2, TiSe2, HfS2, ZrS2, MoS2WS2, and MoS2VS2. Given the crucial role of van der Waals (vdW) interactions in accurately describing the interlayer interactions in TMD bilayers, we employed vdW-corrected DFT functionals. Our research confirms the dominance of vdW effects by estimating the fraction of interlayer binding energy attributable to these interactions. We also examined how the choice of different vdW-corrected DFT functionals might influence quantitative results. Using MoS2 as a reference TMD bilayer system, we found that most other TMD bilayers studied exhibit stronger interlayer bonds and greater corrugation. However, TiSe2 shows a profile similar to MoS2, while, interestingly, TiS2, VS2, and ZrS2 are characterized by weaker bonding and lower corrugation than MoS2. We explored relationships between various properties of TMD bilayers, with a particular focus on potential connections between tribological and electronic properties often characteristic of solid interfaces. To this end, we evaluated adhesion energies, work of separation, charge density redistributions in interface regions, differential charge densities, and corrugation. While corrugation and, therefore, resistance to sliding generally tend to increase with the size of the chalcogen element and are typically proportional to the adhesion energy, the relationships between other structural, energetic, and electronic properties do not follow a single, well-defined trend
Targeting isoprenoid-precursor biosynthesis in Klebsiella pneumoniae: Design, synthesis and evaluation of 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate synthase (DXPS) inhibitors
No full textKlebsiella pneumoniae is a critical-priority pathogen based on the 2024 WHO list and poses a significant threat to human health. The methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway, crucial for isoprenoid biosynthesis in many pathogenic bacteria, including K. pneumoniae, represents a promising source of targets for antibacterial drug discovery. In this study, we targeted the enzyme 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate synthase (DXPS) from K. pneumoniae that catalyzes the initial step of the MEP pathway and, apart from broad-spectrum thiamine analogues, has no reported inhibitors to date.
We identified thienopyrimidinone 6 as a promising initial hit against KpDXPS and conducted a structure–activity relationship (SAR) exploration to enhance potency, solubility and toxicity profiles. This effort led to the development of compounds 14 and 19, which exhibit improved solubility and reduced toxicity while maintaining inhibitory activity against KpDXPS. These findings provide a strong foundation for the development of novel anti-infective agents to address infections caused by K. pneumoniae
Gender and Sex-related differences in Type 2 Myocardial Infarction: the undervalued side of a neglected disease
No full text: Type 2 myocardial infarction (T2MI) occurs due to an imbalance between coronary blood supply and myocardial oxygen demand, leading to ischemia without the rupture of an atherosclerotic plaque, distinguishing it from Type 1 myocardial infarction (T1MI). Although T2MI is frequently diagnosed in clinical practice and associated with a poor prognosis, there is limited understanding of the sex differences in this condition, despite women representing a higher proportion of T2MI cases compared to T1MI. This review explores the definitions, epidemiological aspects, and clinical scenarios that reveal significant differences in T2MI between men and women that contribute to disparities in outcomes. It examines the unique roles that sex and gender play in the development, presentation, and diagnosis of T2MI, emphasizing the need for greater awareness of these factors. Understanding how these differences contribute to this condition is essential for developing patient-tailored approaches to managing this often-undervalued disease and improving outcomes
The IMPULSE Project: Advancing Immersive Digitization for Sustainable Digital Cultural Heritage Integration within ECCCH.
No full textThis article critically analyses the assumptions of the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH) and explores how the impact and results of the ongoing IMPULSE project can contribute to and integrate within its broader framework. In particular, IMPULSE offers a relevant testing ground for ECCCH to advance the management of immersive digital cultural heritage objects. A key focus is on the sustainability of IMPULSE’s outcomes and their potential to address the fragmentation that characterizes the digital cultural heritage landscape. This fragmentation affects different aspects of the digitization process, such as technical issues, standardization, interoperability, user experience, and legal dimensions. Many cultural collections in Europe are still not digitized, with significantly low figures for high-quality three-dimensional representations essential for scientific collaboration. Existing standards and methodologies are neither uniform, traceable, nor fully secure, and practical techniques enabling accurate physical simulations of digitized heritage objects remain largely unexplored. Against this issue, IMPULSE is positioned to develop and test new approaches connected to metadata standardisation and immersive interaction with digital objects that capture not only the visual but also the dynamic characteristics of cultural heritage assets and practices. Starting from the analysis of these aspects and given the alignment with the strategic objectives of the European Commission, IMPULSE's ongoing research contributes to technical de- fragmentation by providing the development of an EU-based Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE) for visualising and interacting with 3D assets. Its approach emphasizes interoperability, ensuring that data formats, protocols, and tools align with existing cultural heritage infrastructures, making integration into platforms and digital twins more feasible. IMPULSE research is also aimed at defining protocols and tools to provide data in a standardised and easily understandable format, based on three IMPULSE prototypes. The ongoing research on IMPULSE is relevant when considering uninvolved users, as it provides prototypes and tests of immersive interaction geared towards diverse audiences (academics, artists, cultural and creative industries). By focusing on immersive interaction with CH objects in virtual environments, IMPULSE contributes not only to advancing digital heritage methodologies but also to ensuring their sustainability and integration within the ECCCH
Investigating coupling and intensification mechanisms in multi‐shaft digesting stirring reactors using POD
No full textThe energy crisis and environmental challenges are driving the development of digesting mixers toward larger scales and higher efficiency. This work investigates a multi-shaft digesting stirring reactor, using large eddy simulations (LES) to obtain flow fields under various operating conditions, validated by simultaneous particle image velocimetry experiments. Subsequently, the LES flow field of stationary and rotating zones was decomposed using proper orthogonal decomposition. By analyzing time coefficients and flow fields for different modes, the characteristics of flow structures and their roles in the mixing process were clarified. Additionally, Lissajous curves and fast Fourier transform analysis were used to analyze wave-vortex coupling strength at different scales. Two key indicators were examined: minimizing the flow field scale to match the microbial scale and reducing shear forces to protect microorganisms. Based on these, optimal operating conditions were identified. This work provides a theoretical foundation for optimizing digesting reactor operations
Separable hierarchical priors applied to analysis of synergies in human locomotion
No full textIt has been hypothesized that during a motion task the central nervous system controls the skeletal muscles partitioning them into synergetic groups, hence effectively reducing the dimensionality of the control problem. The identification of muscle groups that are co-activated remains an open problem: its solution could have important implications in the design of training or rehabilitation protocols. In this article, we combine Bayesian inverse problem techniques and data science algorithms to identify muscle synergies in human motion from the motion tracker time series of positions of fiducial markers on the body during the task. The inverse problem of estimating the muscle activation patterns from the motion tracking data is cast in the Bayesian framework, and the posterior distribution of muscle activations is explored using Myobolica, a Gibbs-sampler-based Markov chain Monte Carlo sampler. A low-rank approximation of the muscle activation patterns is then obtained via a sparsity promoting Bayesian non-negative matrix factorization of the sample mean, where the sparse coefficient vectors correspond to groups of muscles that show co-activation over the sample.This article is part of the theme issue 'Frontiers of applied inverse problems in science and engineering'