4,213 research outputs found
Le «buone letture». 2. Giovanni Casati
No full textIl saggio è costituito da due parti, la prima delle quali, dedicata alla fondazione della Federazione italiana delle biblioteche circolanti cattoliche, è stata pubblicata nel precedente numero dei «Nuovi Annali», XXVII (2013), pp. 137-163. In questa seconda parte viene delineata la figura intellettuale di Giovanni Casati, che diresse la «Rivista di letture» dal 1912 al 1944, trasformando il periodico della Federazione in una rivista impegnata nella divulgazione della cultura cattolica. A questo impegno militante Casati fece corrispondere un intenso programma editoriale, che trovò espressione nella pubblicazione di saggi letterari, di manuali e opere repertoriali.The study consists of two parts; the first is dedicated to the history of the Federazione italiana delle biblioteche circolanti cattoliche since its foundation (1904) up to 1912 and was published in the previous volume of the «Nuovi Annali », XXVII (2013), pp. 137-163. In this second part, the author outlines the intellectual figure of Giovanni Casati, who directed the «Rivista di letture» from 1912 to 1944, transforming the magazine of the Federation in a journal engaged in the spreading of Catholic culture. To this militant engagement Casati matched an intense publishing program, which found its expression in the publication of literary essays, manuals and reference works
Comico e tragico del diritto nella novellistica italiana: il novelliere di Giovanni Sercambi
No full textNelle novelle di età tardomedievale ed umanistica, a causa del loro carattere fortemente realistico, il diritto ha un posto importante, poiché rappresenta un elemento centrale e ineliminabile della vita della comunità. Il novelliere di Giovanni Sercambi da Lucca non fa eccezione, anche se l’autore non ha una cultura giuridica né s’interessa in modo specifico al diritto. Il presente saggio vuole analizzare sotto tale profilo queste novelle per verificare quale concezione del diritto emerge da esse e come la narrazione ne risulti arricchita.In the late medieval and humanistic novellas, owing to their very realistic character, the right is an important central and inevitable element in community life. Giovanni Sercambi’s novelliere is no exception even if the author lacks a legal culture, nor is specifically interested in right. This essay intends to analyze these novellas under this profile to verify what kind of right they consider and how the stories are enriched
Parallel intersection counting on shared-memory multiprocessors and GPUs
No full textComputing intersections among sets of one-dimensional intervals is an ubiquitous problem in computational geometry with important applications in bioinformatics, where the size of typical inputs is large and it is therefore important to use efficient algorithms. In this paper we propose a parallel algorithm for the 1D intersection-counting problem, that is, the problem of counting the number of intersections between each interval in a given set and every interval in a set . Our algorithm is suitable for shared-memory architectures (e.g., multicore CPUs) and GPUs. The algorithm is work-efficient because it performs the same amount of work as the best serial algorithm for this kind of problem. Our algorithm has been implemented in C++ using the Thrust parallel algorithms library, enabling the generation of optimized programs for multicore CPUs and GPUs from the same source code. The performance of our algorithm is evaluated on synthetic and real datasets, showing good scalability on different generations of hardware
Challenges in predicting stabilizing variations: An exploration
No full textAn open challenge of computational and experimental biology is understanding the impact of non-synonymous DNA variations on protein function and, subsequently, human health. The effects of these variants on protein stability can be measured as the difference in the free energy of unfolding (ΔΔG) between the mutated structure of the protein and its wild-type form. Throughout the years, bioinformaticians have developed a wide variety of tools and approaches to predict the ΔΔG. Although the performance of these tools is highly variable, overall they are less accurate in predicting ΔΔG stabilizing variations rather than the destabilizing ones. Here, we analyze the possible reasons for this difference by focusing on the relationship between experimentally-measured ΔΔG and seven protein properties on three widely-used datasets (S2648, VariBench, Ssym) and a recently introduced one (S669). These properties include protein structural information, different physical properties and statistical potentials. We found that two highly used input features, i.e., hydrophobicity and the Blosum62 substitution matrix, show a performance close to random choice when trying to separate stabilizing variants from either neutral or destabilizing ones. We then speculate that, since destabilizing variations are the most abundant class in the available datasets, the overall performance of the methods is higher when including features that improve the prediction for the destabilizing variants at the expense of the stabilizing ones. These findings highlight the need of designing predictive methods able to exploit also input features highly correlated with the stabilizing variants. New tools should also be tested on a not-artificially balanced dataset, reporting the performance on all the three classes (i.e., stabilizing, neutral and destabilizing variants) and not only the overall results
Bird presence vegetation complexity data in Melbourne, Australia. Data created in 2018 by Giovanni Carrabs.
No full textBird presence and vegetation complexity data from Melbourne, Australia. Data created for a university thesis project and publication in 2018. Author: Giovanni Carrabs.</p
Identification of a new member of Pleurotus ostreatus laccase family from mature fruiting body
No full textLaccases (benzenediol:oxygen oxidoreductases, EC 1.10.3.2) are blue multicopper oxidases, catalyzing the oxidation of an array of aromatic substrates concomitantly with the reduction of molecular oxygen to water. Most of the known laccases have fungal or plant origins, although few laccases have been also identified in bacteria and insects. Most of the fungal laccases reported thus far are extra-cellular enzymes, whereas only few enzymes from fruiting bodies have been described so far. Multiple isoforms of laccases are usually secreted by each fungus depending on species and environmental conditions. As a fact, a laccase gene family has been demonstrated in the white-rot fungus Pleurotus ostreatus.
This work allowed identification and characterization of the first laccase isoenzyme from the fruiting body of P. ostreatus. Discovery through mass spectrometry of LACC12 proves the expression of a functional protein by the related deduced encoding transcript. The topology of phylogenetic tree of fungal laccases proves that LACC12 falls in cluster with the members of P. ostreatus LACC10 (=POXC) subfamily, although lacc12 deduced intron-exon structure differs from that of the subfamily members and the related locus is located in a different chromosome. Results show that the evolutionary pattern of lacc12 and that of the other laccase isozyme genes may have evolved independently, possibly through duplication-divergence events.
The reported data add a new piece to the knowledge about P. ostreatus laccase multigene family and shed light on the role(s) played by individual laccase isoforms in P. ostreatus
Crossbreeding to improve local chicken breeds: predicting growth performance of the crosses using the Gompertz model and estimated heterosis
No full textABSTRACT: The present study aims to validate the Gompertz model to predict the growth performance of chicken crosses according to growth curve parameters of the parental lines and the estimated heterosis for each curve parameter. A total of 252 one-day-old chicks of both sexes belonging to 6 genotypes, including Ross 308, Sassò (SA), Bionda Piemontese (BP), and Robusta Maculata (RM), and the crosses between these local breeds and SA (BP × SA and RM × SA) were randomly allocated in 18 pens (3 pens/genotype) in mixed-sex groups (14 animals/pen; 7 females and 7 males). The individual body weight (BW) of all birds was recorded once a week from hatching until slaughtering (81 d for Ross 308; 112 d for SA, 140 d for the other genotypes). We drew up our final dataset with 240 birds (40 birds/genotype; 20 females and 20 males). The growth curve of each genotype was described using the Gompertz model, and the heterosis for each growth curve parameter was calculated as the difference between F1 crosses and the average of parental breeds. The predicted growth curve parameters were evaluated by cross-validation. The Gompertz model accurately estimated the growth curves of all the genotypes (R2 > 0.90). Heterosis was significant for almost all growth curve parameters in both crosses (P < 0.05). Heterosis ranged from −13.0 to +11.5%, depending on parameters, but varied slightly between the crossbreeds (BP × SA and RM × SA). The predicted values of adult BW, weight at the inflection point, and maximum growth rate were overestimated for BP × SA and underestimated for RM × SA, with a mean error between observed and predicted values <│2.7│% for all the curve parameters. In conclusion, the growth performance of chicken crosses between local breeds and commercial strains can be accurately predicted with Gompertz parameters of the parental lines adjusting for heterosis
New lipases by mining of Pleurotus ostreatus genome.
No full textThe analysis of Pleurotus ostreatus genome reveals the presence of automatically annotated 53 lipase and 34 carboxylesterase putative coding-genes. Since no biochemical or physiological data are available so far, a functional approach was applied to identify lipases from P. ostreatus. In the tested growth conditions, four lipases were found expressed, with different patterns depending on the used C source. Two of the four identified proteins (PleoLip241 and PleoLip369), expressed in both analysed conditions, were chosen for further studies, such as an in silico analysis and their molecular characterization. To overcome limits linked to native production, a recombinant expression approach in the yeast Pichia pastoris was applied. Different expression levels were obtained: PleoLip241 reached a maximum activity of 4000 U/L, whereas PleoLip369 reached a maximum activity of 700 U/L. Despite their sequence similarity, these enzymes exhibited different substrate specificity and diverse stability at pH, temperature, and presence of metals, detergents and organic solvents. The obtained data allowed classifying PleoLip241 as belonging to the "true lipase" family. Indeed, by phylogenetic analysis the two proteins fall in different clusters. PleoLip241 was used to remove the hydrophobic layer from wool surface in order to improve its dyeability. The encouraging results obtained with lipase treated wool led to forecast PleoLip241 applicability in this field
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