Health impact of natural gas emission at Cava dei Selci residential zone (metropolitan city of Rome, Italy).

Natural gas hazard was assessed at Cava dei Selci, a residential neighbourhood of Marino (Rome) by a joint study of gas emissions and related health problems. Here a densely urbanized zone with 4000 residents surrounds a dangerous natural gas discharge where, along the years, dozens of animals were killed by the gas. Gas originates from Colli Albani volcano and consists mostly of CO with ~ 1 vol% of HS.

Glucose determination by means of a new reactor/sensor system operating under non-isothermal conditions.

The dynamic and steady-state responses as well as the response times of a glucose biosensor have been studied under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions as a function of analyte concentration. The presence of a temperature gradient across the catalytic membrane system improved the biosensor characteristics, because the dynamic and steady-state responses increased and the response times decreased under non-isothermal conditions. For example, a macroscopic temperature difference of 20 degrees C applied across the catalytic membrane system increases the biosensor sensitivity of 70% and reduces of 50% its response time.

Synthesis of mitochondrial DNA during the cell cycle of the petite negative yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

Synthesis of mitochondrial DNA (mitDNA) and nuclear DNA (nucDNA) during growth of synchronously dividing cultures of Schizosaccharomyces pombe (S. pombe) was followed by pulse labelling with radioactive adenine and determination of its rate of incorporation into total protoplast DNA and into the DNA of DNase-treated mitochondria at different stages of the cell cycle. It could be demonstrated that both mitDNA and nucDNA were synthesised discontinuously and at different points in the cell cycle.