Search results for "CATA"

Interactive Tools for the Preservation, Dissemination and Study of Silk Heritage—An Introduction to the SILKNOW Project

2018

Silk was a major factor for progress in Europe, mostly along the Western Silk Road’s network of production and market centers. The silk trade also allowed for the exchange of ideas and innovations, having impacts at economic, technical, functional, cultural and symbolic levels. However, silk has today become a seriously endangered heritage. Although many European specialized museums are devoted to its preservation, they usually lack the size and resources to take advantage of state-of-the-art digital technologies. The aim of this paper is twofold; firstly, we introduce SILKNOW, an interdisciplinary project that has been recently funded by the H2020 Programme of the European Union in order t…

Thiazolium salts as catalysts for etherification reaction

2014

Carboxylate catalyzed isomerization of β,γ‐unsaturated N-acetylcysteamine thioesters

2022

We demonstrate herein the capacity of simple carboxylate salts – tetrametylammonium and tetramethylguanidinium pivalate – to act as catalysts in the isomerization of β,γ-unsaturated thioesters to α,β-unsaturated thioesters. The carboxylate catalysts gave reaction rates comparable to those obtained with DBU, but with fewer side reactions. The reaction exhibits a normal secondary kinetic isotope effect ( k 1H / k 1D = 1.065±0.026) with a β,γ−deuterated substrate. Computational analysis of the mechanism provides a similar value ( k 1H / k 1D = 1.05) with a mechanism where γ-reprotonation of the enolate intermediate is rate determining. peerReviewed

Oxidation-responsive and "clickable" poly(ethylene glycol) via copolymerization of 2-(methylthio)ethyl glycidyl ether

2016

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is a widely used biocompatible polymer. We describe a novel epoxide monomer with methyl-thioether moiety, 2-(methylthio)ethyl glycidyl ether (MTEGE), which enables the synthesis of well-defined thioether-functional poly(ethylene glycol). Random and block mPEG-b-PMTEGE copolymers (Mw/Mn = 1.05-1.17) were obtained via anionic ring opening polymerization (AROP) with molecular weights ranging from 5 600 to 12 000 g·mol-1. The statistical copolymerization of MTEGE with ethylene oxide results in a random microstructure (rEO = 0.92 ± 0.02 and rMTEG E = 1.06 ± 0.02), which was confirmed by in situ 1H NMR kinetic studies. The random copolymers are thermorespon…

Protein tyrosine nitration and thiol oxidation by peroxynitrite-strategies to prevent these oxidative modifications.

2013

The reaction product of nitric oxide and superoxide, peroxynitrite, is a potent biological oxidant. The most important oxidative protein modifications described for peroxynitrite are cysteine-thiol oxidation and tyrosine nitration. We have previously demonstrated that intrinsic heme-thiolate (P450)-dependent enzymatic catalysis increases the nitration of tyrosine 430 in prostacyclin synthase and results in loss of activity which contributes to endothelial dysfunction. We here report the sensitive peroxynitrite-dependent nitration of an over-expressed and partially purified human prostacyclin synthase (3.3 μM) with an EC50 value of 5 μM. Microsomal thiols in these preparations effectively co…

Universities’ “Third” Mission, Industrial Conversion and the Quest for Surgical Masks: A Sicilian Tale from the First COVID-19 Lockdown

2022

This contribution is a brief testimony of a “third mission” project conducted in collaboration by two university departments that, despite the operational difficulties, and thanks to institutional support, have promoted an initiative aimed at the productive reconversion of a clothing sector company into a health sector company. The project highlights the benefits of integrating different areas of scientific expertise and highlights the role of full involvement and co-creation of a new production unit. Moreover, it is an example of the role that the university can play in a complex operational context in support of a constructive relationship between public and private actors for the develop…

Red list of threatened vascular plants in Italy

2021

Italy has a rich natural heritage, which is dangerously under pressure. In recent years, there is an increased awareness of the crucial role of plants in ecosystem functioning and in providing ecosystem services. Consequently, an updated Red List of the Italian vascular flora was compiled in this work, at the request of the Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea Protection, with the scientific support of the Italian Botanical Society. The IUCN Red List criteria were applied to 2,430 Italian native vascular plant taxa to assess their current extinction risk and to highlight the major threats affecting the Italian flora. Our results revealed that 54 taxa (2.2% of the assessed taxa) are extinc…

Taxa a rischio nella flora vascolare della Sicilia

2011

Biogeographia vol. XgO( - 2011 (Pubblicato il 23 dicembre 2011) La Biogeografia de/Ia Sicilia Taxa a rischio nella flora vascolare della Sicilia FRANCESCO MARIA RAIMONDO, GIUSEPPE BAZAN, ANGELO TROIA Dzjzartimento di Biologia Ambientale e Biodiversitd, Universird di Palermo via Arc/aimfi 38, 90123 Palermo (Italy) Key words: threatened species, vascular flora, red list, Sicily. SUMMARY An analysis was made to update the regional red list of endangered vascular plants in Sicily which, with 3,252 taxa (including a noteworthy number of endemic species), is one of the richest areas in the Mediterranean region. Considering previous regional and national red lists, recent taxonomic and floristic lite…

Implementation of IUCN criteria for the definition of the Red List of Ecosystems in Italy, Plant Biosystems.

2020

The present work is aimed at presenting the data, methods and criteria that are being used for the assessment of ecosystem collapse risk in Italy.

A Time-Non-Homogeneous Double-Ended Queue with Failures and Repairs and Its Continuous Approximation

2018

We consider a time-non-homogeneous double-ended queue subject to catastrophes and repairs. The catastrophes occur according to a non-homogeneous Poisson process and lead the system into a state of failure. Instantaneously, the system is put under repair, such that repair time is governed by a time-varying intensity function. We analyze the transient and the asymptotic behavior of the queueing system. Moreover, we derive a heavy-traffic approximation that allows approximating the state of the systems by a time-non-homogeneous Wiener process subject to jumps to a spurious state (due to catastrophes) and random returns to the zero state (due to repairs). Special attention is devoted to the cas…