Search results for "Computer Hardware"
showing 10 items of 378 documents
Potential production of biogas from prinkly pear (opuntia ficus-indica L.) in sicilian uncultivated areas
2017
The aim of this work is to evaluate the potential production of biogas and, indirectly, biomethane or electric and thermal energy, from prinkly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica L.), to be grown in a part of Sicilian uncultivated areas and co-digested together with the available livestock manure and slurry. In order to increase the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and reduce the dependency from fossil ones, the conversion of biomass into biogas through Anaerobic Digestion (AD) process is paramount for producing biomethane, to be used as fuel for means of transport and agricultural machines or heating, or electric and thermal energy through Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants. Moreover, the digestat…
Height of water pouring effects on infiltration runs carried out in an initially wet sandy-loam soil
2017
Ring infiltration methods are widely used for field soil hydraulic characterization. Establishing factors affecting these methods is necessary to interpret the collected data. The height from which water is poured on the soil surface is known to influence infiltration in a sandy-loam soil, since low (L, height of water pouring 0.03 m) runs yielded higher infiltration rates than high (H, 1.5 m) runs in previous investigations. The impact of water pouring height on infiltration rates seems to vary with the antecedent soil water content, θi. In this investigation, height effects on infiltration were tested for an initially very wet sandy-loam soil. Two-stage infiltration runs differing by the…
Electrodeposition and characterization of Mo oxide nanostructures
2015
Template electrodeposition has been used to grow uniform arrays of molybdenum oxide nanostructures in polycarbonate membrane. Several parameters have been investigated, like electrodeposition, time and solution pH. These parameters do not influence the nature of the deposit that always consists of mixed valence molybdenum oxides, whereas the nanostructure morphology changes with pH. In particular, at low pH (2.7), nanotubes are formed, whilst arrays of nanowires are obtained above pH 5.5. This change of morphology is likely due to H2 bubbles evolution during the electrochemical deposition, particularly occurring at low pH. It was found that fast removal of H2 bubbles through vigorous stirri…
Noise risk assessment in a modern olive oil mill
2017
High levels of noise usually occur in olive oil mills because of the machines used to extract olive oil with a continuous plant. In Italy Law Decree 81/2008 defined the requirements for assessing and managing noise risk, identifying a number of procedures to be adopted at different noise levels to limit workers exposure. This study aims at evaluating the equivalent and peak noise levels inside a modern oil mill plant area in Sicily, south Italy. Twenty measurement points were identified inside the oil mill plant area where the machines for olive oil extraction were located (about 200 m2). The instrument used for the measurements was a precision integrating portable sound level meter, class …
From microbial proteomics to synthetic biology: Amycolatopsis balhimycina case
2012
Actinomycetes, filamentous Gram-positive bacteria, are usually exploited as bio-farms naturally producing a wide range of small biologically active metabolites, such as antibiotics, extensively used in medicine, food-industry, chemistry and bio-remediation strategies. The development of high throughput technologies, like proteomics, allows functional genomic studies aimed at shedding light on molecular mechanisms controlling the production of useful compounds and macromolecules. Differential proteomic analyses, performed by using Two Dimensional PolyAcrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) procedures, revealed novel links between balhimycin production (a va…
Drying kinetics and physico-chemical quality of mango slices
2019
Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is an important tropical fruit consumed worldwide and grown in Italy only in Sicily, where the areas of the Tyrrhenian coast have proved to be suitable to produce valuable fruits. Mango fruit has a pleasant aroma and taste, which are important qualities for consumer’s sensorial acceptance. However, they are highly perishable, prone to progressive undesired changes if stored untreated, resulting in around 25% postharvest losses, which is further increased during storage and transportation. An alternative for reducing the above-mentioned undesired changes is the dehydration of the cut fruit, which reduce the fruit water activity, thereby avoiding the deteriorative …
Graphene nanosystems as supports in siRNA Delivery
2018
The nature of graphene-based nanosystems, as well as the possibility to synthesize them at low cost, have made them in the last few years, an interesting proposition in tumour therapy as a drug delivery system. Here, a reduced form of graphene oxide (RGO) has been synthesized and conjugated with a specific antibody for active targeting against tumour cells (RGOY). Furthermore, its bi-dimensional nature permits also p- p stacking interactions with planar molecules like siRNA (RGOY-siRNA). All these nano-complexes were characterized by DLS and DSC analysis, TEM and Raman spectroscopy and their biocompatibility was demonstrated by viability assay on cell line ECV 304. The system is able to be …
Formulation of Different Chitosan Hydrogels for Cartilage Tissue Repair
2014
Different formulations of Chitosan/sulphate and Chitosan/PEGDE were produced by physical and chemical reticulation to obtain hydrogels with better physiochemical properties. The hydrogels were analyzed – in terms of their non-toxicity, proliferative, differentiative, inflammatory and immunology responses. Commercial grade Chitosan (Sigma) was solubilized and purified by progressive filtrations. Then, the polymer was freeze-dried in a water soluble cationic form. A physical hydrogel was prepared by mixing a 3 % w/w water solution of the a.m. polymer with different stoichiometric ratios of (SO4=) 1/0.5;1/0.75;1/1 respectively. The hydrogels were cross-linked in multiwells. The chemical hydrog…
Fabrication and characterization of nanostructured Ni and Pd electrodes for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in water-alkaline electrolyzer
2017
In the field of water-alkaline electrolyzer, the development of nanoporous low cost nickel electrodes is one of the potential approaches to increase electrocatalytic activity. Template electrodeposition is a facile and cheap technique for obtaining Ni nanowires (NWs) with high surface area. These nanostructures were fabricated by a two-step procedure. In the first step, a Ni compact layer was deposited on one side of the template where a gold film was previously sputtered, while, in the second-step, an ordered array of Ni-NWs was obtained by electrodeposition inside the template channels. The NWs were firmly connected to the underlying Ni layer, acting as a current collector. In order to en…
Growth and Electrochemical Performance of Lead and Lead Oxide Nanowire Arrays as Electrodes for Lead-Acid Batteries
2013
n this work, we present the growth and electrochemical performance of nanostructured lead and lead oxide electrodes for lead-acid batteries. The electrodes were obtained by template electrodeposition in polycarbonate membranes, acting as template. Electrochemical tests were conducted at constant current in 5M aqueous solution of sulphuric acid, after assembling nanostructured lead and lead oxide electrodes in a zero-gap configuration using a commercially available separator. The main advantages of these electrodes are the high specific energy and power density, and the wide surface area, about 70 times higher than the geometrical one. These features allowed high discharge rates, up to 20C. …