1,122 research outputs found
SociApi: Sviluppo di attività apistiche finalizzate all’inclusione sociale di fasce deboli e giovani
No full textNell’ambito dell’Agricoltura Sociale, la costituenda ATS SOCIAPI, un partenariato con soggetti pubblici e/o privati, intende erogare servizi alla collettività attraverso il coinvolgimento di fasce deboli (reinserimento sociale e lavorativo di detenuti ed ex detenuti affidati alla cooperativa sociale G. Siani), nonché di giovani alla ricerca del primo impiego (giovani disoccupati, selezionati tra gli studenti che frequentano il corso di Apicoltura presso il Dipartimento di agraria). Dopo un primo periodo di coinvolgimento e addestramento alla gestione dell’alveare e alla produzione del miele, i soggetti con la migliore propensione saranno coinvolti nella produzione della pappa reale, una produzione che necessita maggiore meticolosità operativa.
L’iniziativa è volta a creare i presupposti per nuova occupazione nelle imprese agricole e per la realizzazione di una fattoria sociale da parte della Cooperativa Sociale Giancarlo Siani, che a tal fine ha già pianificato la sua realizzazione ed è in attesa di assegnazione di un fondo confiscato alla camorra
Effetto di stress biotici e abiotici sui livelli di infezione virale nell'ape (Apis mellifera)
No full textMethods to quantify biological contaminants in microalgae cultures
No full textMicroalgae cultivation processes are becoming increasingly used for food and feed production and for wastewaters treatment. Large part of laboratory experiments and industrial processes are carried out with microalgae cultivated in non-aseptic environments containing biological contaminants as bacteria, fungi, viruses and grazers. Such contaminants can significantly influence microalgae growth through interactions such as competition, parasitism, predation and mutualism. Accurate and selective quantification of contaminants and microalgae in terms of cell and biomass concentration and of elemental composition is fundamental to understand how and how much such interactions affect microalgae growth and the quality of the produced biomass. In this work a review is made about the main analytical methods that have been employed, and that might be potentially used in the future, to quantify microalgae and their biological contaminants in heterogeneous samples. Large part of data available about biological contaminants in microalgae cultures come from cell concentration analysis or from qualitative methods. Bacteria and grazers have been the mostly investigated contaminants, while less attention has been given to viruses and fungi. Flow cytometry and DNA analysis are two of the most powerful and promising techniques for cell concentration measurement, however relevant work is still required for protocols optimization, in particular to attain quantitative and reproducible methods. Biomass concentration and elemental composition of contaminants inside microalgae cultures has been scarcely investigated. For this aim, different innovative techniques for single cell mass and elemental composition analysis have been described, focusing on their potential application for microalgae samples
A fattening factor to quantify the accumulation ability of microorganisms under N-starvation
No full textMany microorganisms can accumulate biomass in the form of lipids and polysaccharides, which can be used for biofuels, bioplastics, food and feed. Some innovative bioprocesses exploit the competitive advantage provided by such accumulation ability, mainly under N-starvation, to select high-accumulating strains against biological contaminants, by using uncoupled nutrient feeding. However, there is no general and easily comparable parameter available to compare biomass accumulation ability among different microbial strains, which could measure the competitive advantage. Here, a parameter termed “fattening factor” (ηx) is described to quantify such strain-specific biomass accumulation ability in bacteria, yeasts and microalgae. This parameter measures how many fold a microbial population can increase its biomass just as the result of accumulation. It is derived from considerations about the main metabolic aspects of cells’ response to N-starvation, which induces variations in cell cycle, biomass production and biochemical composition. The fattening factor described here should be easily estimatable in N-starvation for every culturable microbial strain, by measuring the amount of accumulated biomass
Impatto della presenza di thoron sulle prestazioni dei monitor attivi per la misura della concentrazione di radon in continuo
No full textLe prestazioni dei monitor attivi per la misura della concentrazione di radon in continuo (Continuous Radon Monitors – CRMs) sono generalmente valutate (ad esempio, in termini di accuratezza, linearità della risposta e influenza dei differenti parametri climatici) in condizioni controllate all’interno di camere radon, spesso anche nell’ambito di interconfronti. In alcuni casi, tali interconfronti hanno stimato anche l’impatto della presenza di thoron (interferenza al thoron) sulla risposta dei CRMs, generalmente tramite esposizioni dei rivelatori a concentrazioni note di thoron all’interno di camere thoron in cui la concentrazione di radon ha valori molto bassi. Tuttavia, negli ambienti indoor sono presenti, a concentrazioni variabili, sia il radon che il thoron e, pertanto, le stime di interferenza al thoron riportate in letteratura non sono generalmente applicabili per valutare l’impatto della presenza di thoron sulla risposta dei CRMs posizionati all’interno dei suddetti ambienti. Per questo motivo, uno studio sperimentale è stato condotto in un ambiente indoor con concentrazioni attese di radon e thoron (in prossimità delle pareti) medio-alte finalizzato alla valutazione dell’interferenza al thoron dei seguenti quattro CRMs: 1) AlphaGUARD PQ2000PRO; 2) AlphaGUARD D50; 3) RadonEye+ e 4) TERA–TSR2. La concentrazione di thoron è stata valutata per mezzo di due monitori attivi: RAD7 e AlphaGUARD DF2000. Inoltre, per i CRMs con interferenza al thoron stimata essere non trascurabile, si è proposto un metodo indiretto per la valutazione della concentrazione del thoron mediante l’uso di due dispositivi identici posizionati in diversi punti della stanza: i) uno in prossimità delle pareti; ii) uno al centro della stanza
Ultrasound-assisted extraction of carbohydrates from microalgae
No full textMicroalgae are a promising new source of carbohydrates usable for several industrial applications in the food and biomaterial sector. Previous works on carbohydrate extraction from microalgae were mainly carried out by using destructive chemical hydrolysis, aiming at the extraction of simple sugars. Here in this work, a physical ultrasonication method was investigated to develop a process to extract microalgal carbohydrates in their polysaccharide form, as starch. To this end, different operative parameters were investigated: biomass concentration (3-6 g L-1), microalgae strain (Tetradesmus obliquus and Chlorella sp.), extraction time, amplitude (21-90 μm) and the configuration of the ultrasonication system (cyclic treatment, pulsed and continuous). The highest extractions were attained with higher amplitude (90 μm). The pulsed ultrasonication (ton/toff = 0.2) worked remarkably better than the continuous one, allowing to attain about 3 folds more carbohydrate extraction yield and consuming 6 folds less kWh per kg of extracted carbohydrates. The higher yield achieved with pulsed ultrasonication was related with a lower drop in the applied power during the ultrasonication treatment, which was -65 % with the continuous system and only -31 % with the pulsed one. The ultrasonication treatment induced a temperature increase up to 70 °C, that caused starch gelatinization and its solubilization in the recovered aqueous solution. Future studies should investigate better the effect of the ton/toff ratio, to limit the dead times (toff) of the process. The specific energy consumption was still too high for many practical applications; however, future optimizations on biomass concentration and operative temperature are expected to reduce remarkably the energy demand of the process
Integrated microalgae biomass production and olive mill wastewater biodegradation: optimization of the wastewater supply strategy
No full textOlive mill wastewater (OMW) was supplied to Scenedesmus sp. cultures to simultaneously achieve biomass production and wastewater biodegradation. Two OMW supply strategies were implemented to prevent the reduced growth performances that are attained, compared to photoautotrophic cultivation, when OMW is supplied at the beginning of cultivation (batch strategy). A fed-batch strategy including the gradual OMW supply yielded a biomass production equal to 0.86 g/L, while 1.4 g/L was attained by a two-stage strategy including OMW addition during nitrogen-starvation. OMW enhanced the carbohydrate accumulation (up to 44%) through the removal of OMW sugars (60–70%). About 55% OMW phenol removal was achieved by the fed-batch strategy when the phenol concentration was lower than 100 mg/L, and by the two-stage strategy when the heterotrophic stage lasted longer than 8–10 days. The illustrated results indicate that the OMW supply strategy can be purposefully tailored to regulate biomass production and OMW biodegradation
Thaumastocoris peregrinus Carpintero & Dellapé (Heteroptera, Thaumastocoridae): un nuovo aplotipo in Italia
No full textValutazione della capacità di traslocazione e persistenza di Abamectina, Azadiractina e Clothianidin somministrati mediante endoterapia in Phoenix canariensis
No full textAl fine di migliorare le strategie di difesa fitosanitaria per la lotta al Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier, 1790) è stata attivata una sperimentazione tesa a valutare la capacità di traslocazione nella palma Phoenix canariensis dell’abamectina, dell’azadiractina e del clothianidin con applicazioni endoterapiche secondo il metodo
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