A multidisciplinary approach to the comparison of three contrasting treatments on both lampenflora community and underlying rock surface.

Removing lampenflora, phototrophic organisms developing on rock surfaces in tourist cavities due to the artificial lighting, is a challenge for sustainable and appropriate long-term management of caves. Photosynthetic-based biofilms usually cause rock biodeterioration and an ecological imbalance in cave ecosystems. In this work, a detailed investigation of the effects of the 3 most commonly used lampenflora cleaning operations (NaClO, HO and UVC) was carried out in Pertosa-Auletta Cave (Italy).

Advanced treatment of toluene emissions with a cutting-edge algal bacterial photo-bioreactor: Performance assessment in a circular economy perspective.

A novel approach for the treatment of VOCs (by using toluene used as a model compound) and the simultaneous conversion of carbon dioxide into valuable biomass has been investigated by using a combination of an activated sludge moving bed bioreactor (MBBR) and an algal photo-bioreactor (PBR). The first unit (MBBR, R1) promoted toluene removal up to 99.9 % for inlet load (IL) of 119.

Air quality trends and implications pre and post Covid-19 restrictions.

Air pollution causes millions of premature deaths every year. Thus, air quality assessment is essential to preserve human health and support authorities to identify proper policies. In this study, concentration levels of 6 air contaminants (benzene, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ground level ozone, particulate matters) as monitored in 2019, 2020 and 2021 by 37 stations, located in Campania (Italy) were analysed.

Tourism affects microbial assemblages in show caves.

Anthropogenic disturbance on natural ecosystems is growing in frequency and magnitude affecting all ecosystems components. Understanding the response of different types of biocoenosis to human disturbance is urgently needed and it can be achieved by adopting a metacommunity framework. With the aid of advanced molecular techniques, we investigated sediment communities of Fungi, Bacteria and Archaea in four Italian show caves, aiming to disentangle the effects induced by tourism on their diversity and to highlight changes in the driving forces that shape their community composition.

Living membrane bioreactor for highly effective and eco-friendly treatment of textile wastewater.

The treatability of synthetic textile wastewater containing model dyes, such as reactive black and direct black dye (25.0 ± 2.6 mg/L), with chemical oxygen demand (COD, 1000 ± 113 mg/L), ammonia‑nitrogen (NH-N, 140 ± 97 mg/L) and sulphate ions (SO₄, 1357 ± 10.

The Impact of Meteorological Conditions and Agricultural Waste Burning on PM Levels: A Case Study of Avellino (Southern Italy).

In this work, the effect of the meteorological conditions and the agricultural waste burning on PM air pollution levels has been investigated in the city of Avellino, located in the Sabato Valley (southern Italy). Avellino has been described among the most polluted towns in Italy in terms of particulate matter (PM) during the last 10 years. The main aim of this study was to analyze the air quality data collected in Avellino and its surroundings during September 2021.

Effect of the Polarity of Solvents on Periodic Precipitation: Formation of Hierarchical Revert Liesegang Patterns.

Liesegang pattern (LP) is one example of self-organized periodic precipitation patterns in nonequilibrium systems. Several studies have demonstrated that the LP morphology can track physicochemical environmental conditions (e.g.

Metallothionein gene expression in rat tissues: response to dietary restriction after orally dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) exposure and high-fat feeding.

Dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) is an environmental pollutant that accumulates in adipose tissue through the food chain. Hypercaloric, high-fat diet is considered to promote the accumulation of toxic lipophilic substances in tissues, whereas the loss of body fat through caloric restriction results in a recirculation of these substances. In rats, oral administration of DDE causes the onset of tissues damage; the concomitant intake of a high-fat diet ameliorates tissues status, probably because of the entrapment of the lipophilic substance in fat depots.

Underground Ecosystem Conservation Through High-resolution Air Monitoring.

In cave ecosystems tourists represent moving sources of discontinuous disturbances, able to induce transient system responses whose knowledge is crucial in defining appropriate conservation measures. Here we propose an approach to evaluate the amplitude and scales of cave alterations based on high-resolution air monitoring, through the use of purposely developed low-cost monitoring stations and a consistent analytical framework for information retrieval based on time series analysis. In particular, monitoring stations adopt a modular structure based on physical computing platforms acquiring data through several sensors, with means of preventing humidity damages and guaranteeing their continuous operation.

Mutation of the Conserved Threonine 8 within the Human ARF Tumour Suppressor Protein Regulates Autophagy.

Background: The ARF tumour suppressor plays a well-established role as a tumour suppressor, halting cell growth by both p53-dependent and independent pathways in several cellular stress response circuits. However, data collected in recent years challenged the traditional role of this protein as a tumour suppressor. Cancer cells expressing high ARF levels showed that its expression, far from being dispensable, is required to guarantee tumour cell survival.

Versatile Preparation of Branched Polylactides by Low-Temperature, Organocatalytic Ring-Opening Polymerization in -Methylpyrrolidone and Their Surface Degradation Behavior.

We describe how the organocatalytic, 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU)-based lactide ring-opening polymerization can be effectively performed in a very polar solvent, -methylpyrrolidone (NMP).

Pharmacological Rescue of the Brain Cortex Phenotype of Mouse Mutants: Significance for 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome.

Objectives: mutant mice are a widely used model of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) because they manifest a broad spectrum of physical and behavioral abnormalities that is similar to that found in 22q11.

Copolymerization of L-Lactide and ε-Caprolactone promoted by zinc complexes with phosphorus based ligands.

The zinc complexes and bearing chelating phosphorous based pincer ligands were found to catalyze the ring-opening copolymerization of L-lactide and ε-caprolactone in the melt at 110 °C to obtain a series of random copolymers in which the monomer distributions were coherent with the monomer ratio in the feed. All the obtained copolymers showed high molecular masses with monomodal and moderately narrow distributions. The thermal properties of the achieved copolymers (T, glass transition temperature, and T, melting temperature) were strongly dependent on their composition.

Air quality evaluation during COVID-19 in Southern Italy: the case study of Avellino city.

The present study relies on the air quality evaluation during COVID-19 pandemic in Avellino, described in the last years and for several consecutive years, among the worst Italian cities in this context. The main purpose of this manuscript was to investigate the effects of quarantine and lockdown measures on air pollution. The concentrations of the main atmospheric pollutants (Carbon monoxide (CO), Ozone (O), Fine Particulate (PM and PM), Benzene (CH) and Nitrogen dioxide (NO) were recorded during the period January-December 2020 using two stationary monitoring stations (AV1 and AV2) of the Regional Environmental Protection Agency (ARPAC).

A Boron-Containing Compound Acting on Multiple Targets Against Alzheimer's Disease. Insights from Ab Initio and Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Given the multifactorial nature and pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, therapeutic strategies are addressed to combine the benefits of every single-target drug into a sole molecule. Quantum mechanics and molecular dynamics (MD) methods were employed here to investigate the multitarget action of a boron-containing compound against Alzheimer's disease. The antioxidant activity as a radical scavenger and metal chelator was explored by means of density functional theory.

Sustainable Myrcene-Based Elastomers via a Convenient Anionic Polymerization.

Soluble heterocomplexes consisting of sodium hydride in combination with trialkylaluminum derivatives have been used as anionic initiating systems at 100 °C in toluene for convenient homo-, co- and ter-polymerization of myrcene with styrene and isoprene. In this way it has been possible to obtain elastomeric materials in a wide range of compositions with interesting thermal profiles and different polymeric architectures by simply modulating the alimentation feed and the (monomers)/(initiator systems) ratio. Especially, a complete study of the myrcene-styrene copolymers (PMS) was carried out, highlighting their tapered microstructures with high molecular weights (up to 159.

The Mediterranean diet from past to future: Key concepts from the second "Ancel Keys" International Seminar.

The year 2020 celebrated the tenth anniversary of the recognition of the Mediterranean Diet as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee. This event represented a milestone in the history of nutrition, as the Mediterranean diet was the first traditional food practice to receive such award. Since then, a lot has been discussed not only on the beneficial aspects of the Mediterranean diet, but also on its complex role as a lifestyle model that includes a set of skills, knowledge and intercultural dialogue.

Endocrine disrupting effects of copper and cadmium in the oocytes of the Antarctic Emerald rockcod Trematomus bernacchii.

Antarctica has long been considered a continent free from anthropic interference. Unfortunately, recent evidence indicate that metal contamination has gone so far and that its effects are still unknown. For this reason, in the present work, the potential endocrine disrupting effect of two highly polluting metals, copper and cadmium, were examined in the Antarctic teleost Trematomus bernacchii.

Microbial Community Characterizing Vermiculations from Karst Caves and Its Role in Their Formation.

The microbiota associated with vermiculations from karst caves is largely unknown. Vermiculations are enigmatic deposits forming worm-like patterns on cave walls all over the world. They represent a precious focus for geomicrobiological studies aimed at exploring both the microbial life of these ecosystems and the vermiculation genesis.

Combination of flow cytometry and molecular analysis to monitor the effect of UVC/HO vs UVC/HO/Cu-IDS processes on pathogens and antibiotic resistant genes in secondary wastewater effluents.

The efficiency of a new Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP), namely the photo Fenton like process UV-C/HO/IDS-Cu, in removing determinants of antibiotic resistance and pathogenic bacteria was compared to a consolidated AOP (namely UV-C/HO) in a secondary treated municipal WasteWater (WW). A reductionist experimental laboratory-based approach was applied on real WW and the parameters were collected by an alternative integrated approach using (i) flow cytometry to enumerate bacteria and test for the fitness of the bacterial communities and (ii) molecular analyses to define the community composition (16S rRNA amplicon sequencing) and the abundances of Antibiotic Resistance Genes (ARGs) and of the class 1 integron (intI1 gene) (by quantitative PCR). The same approach was applied also to post-treatment regrowth tests (24 h) to define the potential persistence of the tested parameters.

NIR multiphoton ablation of cancer cells, fluorescence quenching and cellular uptake of dansyl-glutathione-coated gold nanoparticles.

Theranostics based on two-photon excitation of therapeutics in the NIR region is an emerging and powerful tool in cancer therapy since this radiation deeply penetrates healthy biological tissues and produces selective cell death. Aggregates of gold nanoparticles coated with glutathione corona functionalized with the dansyl chromophore (a-DG-AuNPs) were synthesized and found efficient nanodevice for applications in photothermal therapy (PTT). Actually the nanoparticle aggregation enhances the quenching of radiative excitation and the consequent conversion into heat.

Acute effects of PAH contamination on microbial community of different forest soils.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are hazardous organic compounds with mutagenic, genotoxic and carcinogenic properties. Although PAHs in soil can cause toxicity to microorganisms, the microbial community is able to degrade these compounds. For this reason, it is important to study acute and short-term effects of PAH contamination on soil microbial community, also to shed light on its possible exploitation in soil restoration.

Exposure to Dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) and Metallothionein Levels in Rats Fed with Normocaloric or High-Fat Diet: A Review.

The growing number of studies on metallothioneins (MTs), cysteine-rich metal-binding proteins, have been disclosing new functions of these proteins. Thanks to their inducibility, they were considered to play a pivotal role in regulating trace metals homeostasis and in detoxification from heavy metals; nowadays, it is known that they are involved in various physiological and pathological processes, such as regulation of apoptosis, elimination of free radicals, and protection of nucleic acids against toxic insults. MT induction has been demonstrated following stress factors other than heavy metals, such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals, insecticides, and herbicides.

Chronic sublethal effects of ZnO nanoparticles on Tigriopus fulvus (Copepoda, Harpacticoida).

This study investigated for the first time the effects of ZnO nanoparticle (NP) chronic exposure (28 days) on Tigriopus fulvus. Acute toxicity (48 h) of three Zn chemical forms was assessed as well including the following: (a) ZnO nanoparticles (NPs), (b) Zn from ZnO NP suspension after centrifugation (supernatant) and (c) ZnSO HO. Physical-chemical and electronic microscopies were used to characterize spiked exposure media.

Removal of carbamazepine, diclofenac and trimethoprim by solar driven advanced oxidation processes in a compound triangular collector based reactor: A comparison between homogeneous and heterogeneous processes.

Contaminants of emerging concern (including pharmaceuticals) are not effectively removed by municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), so particular concern is related to agricultural wastewater reuse due to their possible uptake in crops irrigated with WWTPs effluents. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and solar AOPs have been demonstrated to effectively remove pharmaceuticals from different aqueous matrices. In this study, an heterogeneous photocatalytic process using powdered nitrogen-doped TiO immobilized on polystyrene spheres (sunlight/N-TiO) was compared to the benchmark homogenous AOP sunlight/HO in a compound triangular collector reactor, to evaluate the degradation of three pharmaceuticals (carbamazepine (CBZ), diclofenac (DCF), trimethoprim (TMP)) in water.