1,354,240 research outputs found
Valorization of Agro-Industrial Orange Peel By-Products through Fermentation Strategies
No full textThe use of whole-cell biocatalysts in microbial cell factories is of great interest to produce
added-value compounds. Through large-scale fermentative processes, which use secondary raw
materials as substrates, it is possible to recycle and upgrade agro-industrial by-products. This review
addresses the main fermentative processes and bioreactors currently used for the valorization of
orange peel, a by-product of the Citrus processing industry. Among the main added-value products,
bioethanol, organic acids, enzymes, single cell proteins (SCPs), dyes and aromatic compounds
have been industrially produced using orange peel via solid state fermentation and submerged
fermentation. This approach fits within the circular economy goals in terms of clean technology and
renewable energy, valorization and recycling, upgrade of industrial by-products and sustainability
Un calcio al turismo. Performance come partecipazione e produzione di patrimonio dal basso
No full textIl contributo intende proporre l’uso della performance come categoria interpretativa di pratiche spontanee che configurano repertori d’uso dissonanti rispetto ai processi di patrimonializzazione in atto nel centro storico di Palermo.
In particolare, si intende analizzare l’uso abituale di una porzione di via Maqueda – asse urbano investito da un massiccio fenomeno di turistification e foodification e da un conseguente processo di codificazione sempre più stringente di ‘condotte ammissibili’ – come area gioco per partite di calcio in orario serale da parte di giovani cittadini tra gli 8 e i 16 anni.
Tale pratica si configura come una forma non normata e non riconosciuta di partecipazione ed esercizio di cittadinanza tanto da parte di bambini e ragazzi di varie etnie quanto da parte delle madri che, lavorando negli esercizi commerciali prospicienti la strada, necessitano di uno spazio di gioco di prossimità come luogo funzionale ad un lavoro di riproduzione sociale.
Per quanto non presenti un carattere di consapevole ed esplicita rivendicazione, riteniamo comunque che tale fenomeno possa essere a pieno titolo interpretato come performance in quanto forma di attuazione di un uso alternativo e non orientato al consumo rispetto ad una generale tendenza neoliberista di mercificazione degli spazi urbani.
Tale lettura in termini di produzione di patrimonio dal basso in opposizione ad una modalità unica di ‘discorso autorizzato’ presenta certamente una criticità: se il riconoscimento del portato politico di pratiche performative spontanee può fornire un impulso al cambiamento di governance, d’altra parte può facilmente essere oggetto di strumentalizzazione e spettacolarizzazione, contribuendo al consolidamento di una narrativa dominante sulla città accogliente e multietnica.The contribution intends to propose the use of performance as an interpretative category of spontaneous practices that configure dissonant repertoires of use with respect to the processes of patrimonialisation taking place in the historical center of Palermo.
In particular, it intends to analyze the habitual use of a portion of Via Maqueda - an urban axis invested by a massive phenomenon of turistification and foodification and a consequent process of increasingly stringent codification of ‘permissible conducts’ - as a play area for soccer games in the evening hours by young citizens between 8 and 16 years old.
This practice takes the form of an unregulated and unrecognized form of participation and exercise of citizenship by both children and young people of various ethnicities and by mothers who, working in the commercial establishments facing the street, need a proximity play space as a functional place for social reproduction work.
Although it does not present a character of conscious and explicit claim, we nonetheless believe that this phenomenon can be fully interpreted as performance insofar as it is a form of implementation of an alternative, non-consumer-oriented use with respect to a general neoliberal trend of commodification of urban spaces.
Such a reading in terms of the production of heritage from below as opposed to a unique mode of ‘authorized discourse’ certainly presents a critical issue: if the recognition of the political bearing of spontaneous performance practices can provide an impetus for governance change, on the other hand it can easily be subject to instrumentalization and spectacularization, contributing to the consolidation of a dominant narrative about the welcoming and multiethnic city
Optical variability of the strong-lined and X-ray-bright source 1WGA J0447.9-0322
No full textWe present the historic light curve of 1WGA J0447.9-0322, spanning the time interval from 1962 to 1991, built using the Asiago archive plates. The source shows small fluctuations of about 0.3 mag around B 16 until 1986 and a fast dimming of its average level by about 0.5 mag after that date, again with small short-term variations. The variability pattern is within the values shown by other QSOs with long-term monitoring, notwithstanding its high X-ray/optical ratio. We also present its overall spectral energy distribution using literature data and recent UV-optical Swift observations
From Plant Infectivity to Growth Patterns: The Role of Blue-Light Sensing in the Prokaryotic World
No full textFlavin-based photoreceptor proteins of the LOV (Light, Oxygen, and Voltage) and BLUF (Blue Light sensing Using Flavins) superfamilies are ubiquitous among the three life domains and are essential blue-light sensing systems, not only in plants and algae, but also in prokaryotes. Here we review their biological roles in the prokaryotic world and their evolution pathways. An unexpected large number of bacterial species possess flavin-based photosensors, amongst which are important human and plant pathogens. Still, few cases are reported where the activity of blue-light sensors could be correlated to infectivity and/or has been shown to be involved in the activation of specific genes, resulting in selective growth patterns. Metagenomics and bio-informatic analysis have only recently been initiated, but signatures are beginning to emerge that allow definition of a bona fide LOV or BLUF domain, aiming at better selection criteria for novel blue-light sensors. We also present here, for the first time, the phylogenetic tree for archaeal LOV domains that have reached a statistically significant number but have not at all been investigated thus far
Distance-tree analysis, distribution and co-presence of bilin- and flavin-binding prokaryotic photoreceptors for visible light
No full textIn recent years it has become increasingly evident that prokaryotic organisms can sense and react to light
stimuli via a variety of photosensory receptors and signal transduction pathways. There are two main
superfamilies of non-membrane-bound photoreceptors: the bilin-binding phytochrome-related proteins
based on GAF (cGMP-specific phosphodiesterases, cyanobacterial adenylate cyclases, and transcription
activator FhlA) domains (bilin-GAF proteins), and the flavin-binding proteins (FL-Blues), photoperceptive
thanks to their LOV (Light, Oxygen and Voltage) and BLUF (Blue Light sensing Using Flavins) domains. In
this manuscript we present a comprehensive scenario of the existence of bilin-GAF, LOV and BLUF proteins
in the prokaryotic world and inspect possible phylogenetic pathways, also defining novel criteria for
identifying gene (and protein) sequences based on experimentally assessed photochemical events. As a
whole we have inspected almost 2000 proteins recovered in 985 bacteria and 16 archaea. For LOV and
BLUF proteins, ten and, respectively, twelve superconserved amino acids have been identified, which
were used as criterion for selection. A similarly strict parameter cannot be applied to the more variegate
family of bilin-GAF domains. The co-presence of bilin-GAF and FL-Blues occurs in 22% of the analyzed
bacteria, with emphasis on the bilin-GAF/LOV co-presence in cyanobacteria and of bilin-GAF/BLUF in the
Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi group. For construction of phylogeny/distance-trees we used the neighboringmethod
to obtain a branching pattern, limited to photosensing domains. We observed that in many
cases organisms belonging to the same phylum are neighbors, but clustering mostly occurs according to
the type of functional domain associated with the photosensing modules
The Evolution and Functional Role of Flavin-based Prokaryotic Photoreceptors
No full textFlavin-based photoreceptor proteins of the LOV (light, oxygen
and voltage) superfamily are ubiquitous and appear to be
essential blue-light sensing systems not only in plants, algae
and fungi, but also in prokaryotes, where they are represented
in more than 10% of known species. Despite their broad occurrence,
only in few cases LOV proteins have been correlated
with important phenomena such as bacterial infectivity, selective
growth patterns or/and stress responses; nevertheless these
few known roles are helping us understand the multiple ways
by which prokaryotes can exploit these soluble blue-light photoreceptors.
Given the large number of sequences now deposited
in databases, it becomes meaningful to define a signature
for bona fide LOV domains, a procedure that facilitates identification
of proteins with new properties and phylogenetic analysis.
The latter clearly evidences that a class of LOV proteins
from alpha-proteobacteria is the closest prokaryotic relative of
eukaryotic LOV domains, whereas cyanobacterial sequences
cluster with the archaeal and the other bacterial LOV
domains. Distance trees built for LOV domains suggest complex
evolutionary patterns, possibly involving multiple horizontal
gene transfer events. Based on available data, the in vivo
relevance and evolution of prokaryotic LOV is discussed
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
An intrinsic source of reddening in the cataclysmic variable SS Cygni
No full textBy using the INES archive of the IUE satellite, we analyzed the spectra of SS Cygni in quiescence in order to determine the value of the reddening of the binary system. The reddening of the system is reported in the literature with values that vary significantly from one another. The results demonstrate that the reddening is comprised by two components: the first, interstellar in origin, with a value E(B − V) = 0.04 ± 0.02 mag, and the second, intrinsic to the binary system, with values up to E(B − V) = 0.16 ± 0.02 mag. The intrinsic value of the reddening is variable along the quiescent phase and with orbital phase
Variations on the Author
No full text“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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