Search results for "Gradation"
showing 10 items of 1275 documents
Improving soil and water conservation and ecosystem services by sustainable soil management practices: From a global to an Italian soil partnership
2020
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) identify the need to restore degraded soils in order to improve productivity and the provision of ecosystem services. The aim is to support food production, store and supply clean water, conserve biodiversity, sequester carbon, and improve soil resilience in a context of climate change. Within this framework, in order to achieve the SDGs and to correct land management in the long-term, soil management is considered mandatory. The reduction of land degradation should be based on various sustainable soil management practices that improve and maintain soil organic matter levels, increase water infiltration, and improve soil water management. This tec…
New Insight on Archaeological Metal Finds, Nails and Lead Sheathings of the Punic Ship from Battle of the Egadi Islands
2023
The wreck of the Punic ship exhibited at the Archaeological Park of Lilybaeum (Marsala, Italy) is a unique example in the world. In this paper, the investigation of some metal finds (30 nails and 3 fragments of sheathings) belonging to the wreck of the Punic ship is reported. Portable X-ray fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy allowed us to identify the elements and compounds constituting them and make some deductions about their composition. X-ray diffractometry, polarised optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy of the collected micro-samples allowed us to explain the degradation that occurred in the underwater environment.
Nitric oxide synthase inhibition and oxidative stress in cardiovascular diseases: Possible therapeutic targets?
2013
International audience; Nitric oxide (• NO) is synthetized enzymatically from L-arginine (L-Arg) by three NO synthase isoforms, iNOS, eNOS and nNOS. The synthesis of NO is selectively inhibited by guanidino-substituted analogs of L-Arg or methylarginines such as asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), which results from protein degradation in cells. Many disease states, including cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, are associated with increased plasma levels of ADMA. The N-terminal catalytic domain of these NOS isoforms binds the heme prosthetic group as well as the redox cofactor, tetrahydrobiopterin (BH 4) associated with a regulatory protein, calmodulin (CaM). The enzymatic activity of NOS…
Prospects of in vivo 31P NMR method in glyphosate degradation studies in whole cell system
2009
Abstract The degradation of the phosphonate herbicide glyphosate ( N -phosphonomethylglycine) by four taxonomically distinct microorganisms was studied in vivo in whole cell system using phosphorus nuclear magnetic spectroscopy ( 31 P NMR). The time-course of glyphosate metabolization in dense cell cultures was followed by means of 31 P NMR up to 21 days after the addition. The results obtained by this non-invasive way confirmed that the cells of Spirulina platensis and Streptomyces lusitanus biodegrade herbicide. Moreover, phosphorus starvation influenced the rate of glyphosate degradation by S. platensis . On the other hand, the results of similar measurements in the cultures of green alg…
Sorption of copper(II) ions in the biomass of alga Spirogyra sp.
2012
Abstract Sorption of copper ions by the alga Spirogyra sp. was investigated to determine the influence of experimental conditions and the methods of sample preparation on the process. The experiments were carried out both under the static and the dynamic conditions. Kinetics and equilibrium parameters of the sorption were evaluated. In addition, the influence was studied of the algae preparation methods on the conductivity of demineralized water in which the algae samples were immersed. The static experiments showed that the sorption of Cu2+ ions reached equilibrium in about 30 min, with approximately 90% of the ions adsorbed in the initial 15 min. The sorption capacity determined from the …
The effect of silica nanoparticles on the morphology, mechanical properties and thermal degradation kinetics of PMMA
2012
Abstract Silica–PMMA nanocomposites with different silica quantities were prepared by a melt compounding method. The effect of silica amount, in the range 1–5 wt.%, on the morphology, mechanical properties and thermal degradation kinetics of PMMA was investigated by means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), thermogravimetric analyses (TGA), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), 13 C cross-polarization magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( 13 C{ 1 H} CP-MAS NMR) and measures of proton spin-lattice relaxation time in the rotating frame ( T 1 ρ ( H )), in the laboratory frame ( T 1 ( H )) a…
Categorization of chlordecone potential transformation products to predict their environmental fate
2016
EABIOmE; Chlordecone (C10Cl10O; CAS number 143-50-0) has been used extensively as an organochlorine insecticide but is nowadays banned and listed on annex A in The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). Although experimental evidences of biodegradation of this compound are scarce, several dechlorination products have been proposed by Dolfing et al. (2012) using Gibbs free energy calculations to explore different potential transformation routes. We here present the results of an in silico classification (TyPol similar to Typology of Pollutants) of chlordecone transformation products (TPs) based on statistical analyses combining several environmental endpoints and struc…
A Multiscale Approach to Polycrystalline Materials Damage and Failure
2014
A two-scale three-dimensional approach for degradation and failure in polycrystalline materials is presented. The method involves the component level and the grain scale. The damage-induced softening at the macroscale is modelled employing an initial stress boundary element approach. The microscopic degradation is explicitly modelled associating Representative Volume Elements (RVEs) to relevant points of the macro continuum and employing a cohesive-frictional 3D grain-boundary formulation to simulate intergranular degradation and failure in the Voronoi morphology. Macro-strains are downscaled as RVEs' periodic boundary conditions, while overall macro-stresses are obtained upscaling the micr…
Visible-light photoelectrodegradation of diuron on WO3 nanostructures
2018
[EN] The degradation of pesticide diuron has been explored by photoelectrocatalysis (PEC) under visible light illumination using two different WO3 nanostructures, obtained by anodization of tungsten. The highest degradation efficiency (73%) was obtained for WO3 nanosheets synthesized in the presence of small amounts of hydrogen peroxide (0.05 M). For that nanostructure, the kinetic coefficient for diuron degradation was 133% higher than that for the other nanostructure (anodized in the presence of fluoride anions). These results have been explained by taking into account the different architecture and dimensions of the two WO3 nanostructures under study.
Influence of the heat treatment on the degradation of the minor Fusarium mycotoxin beauvericin
2012
Abstract Beauvericin (BEA) is a bioactive compound produced by the secondary metabolism of several Fusarium strains and known to have various biological activities. This study investigated the degradation of the minor Fusarium mycotoxin BEA present in the concentration of 5 mg/kg in a model solution and in different crispy breads produced with different flours typologies (corn, hole, wheat, durum wheat, soy and rice) during the heat treatment carried out in an oven at three different temperatures of 160, 180 and 200 °C and at 3, 6, 10, 15 and 20 min incubation. The concentration of the bioactive compound studied, analyzed with the technique of the liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrome…