Obtaining geocoded electoral results at precinct level can be challenging in many countries. In this study, we present two validated methodologies developed to overcome these difficulties, and we ...build new geocoded electoral results for several Italian cities. Our dataset covers the last 20 years (1999-2022) and includes data for various types of elections, including national, regional, municipal and referendum. We provide an overview of some notable patterns in voting trends in major Italian cities. These include a high level of heterogeneity in voting within cities, an increase in spatial polarization of voting behaviour, and an increasing concentration of left-wing voters in central and wealthier areas of metropolitan cities. These trends may be influenced by a range of factors and can have significant implications for political representation and policy-making. Our dataset provides a valuable resource for understanding these trends and exploring their underlying causes.
Polyphenols constitute one of the most common groups of substances in plants. Polyphenolic compounds have been reported to have a wide range of biological activities, many of which are related to ...their conventional antioxidant action; however, increasing scientific knowledge has highlighted their potential activity in preventing oral disease, including the prevention of tooth decay. The aim of this review is to show the emerging findings on the anti-cariogenic properties of polyphenols, which have been obtained from several in vitro studies investigating the effects of these bioactive molecules against Streptococcus mutans, as well as in vivo studies. The analysis of the literature supports the anti-bacterial role of polyphenols on cariogenic streptococci, suggesting (1) a direct effect against S. mutans; (2) an interaction with microbial membrane proteins inhibiting the adherence of bacterial cells to the tooth surface; and (3) the inhibition of glucosyl transferase and amylase. However, more studies, particularly in vivo and in situ, are necessary to establish conclusive evidence for the effectiveness and the clinical applications of these compounds in the prevention of dental caries. It is essential to better determine the nature and distribution of these compounds in our diet and to identify which of the hundreds of existing polyphenols are likely to provide the greatest effects.
International football matches are among the highest manifestations of national pride and unity that a country can have in peaceful times. However, some anecdotal evidence suggests that when things ...go wrong (e.g. when the national team loses), the euphoria surrounding these events can easily turn into xenophobic outbursts. We propose a conceptual framework and an empirical analysis to explain whether sports nationalism can fuel xenophobic behavior and attacks against immigrants. Leveraging on new soccer data from Germany and quasi-experimental econometric techniques, we show the existence of a causal nexus between the national team’s performance in prominent international competitions and shifts in nationalist tendencies and xenophobic behaviors against immigrants. In the immediate days following a defeat of the German national team, there is a significant increase in the number of attacks against immigrants in the country. The opposite happens following a victory. Through a variety of robustness tests and different specifications, we show that the effect is specific to attacks against immigrants and not due to a general increase in violent behavior observed in other studies. Finally, we investigate potential underlying mechanisms by looking at the effect of football matches on reported mood and attitudes against immigrants.
The mutualistic interactions between the oleaginous yeast Lipomyces starkeyi and the green microalga Chloroidium saccharophilum in mixed cultures were investigated to exploit possible synergistic ...effects. In fact, microalga could act as an oxygen generator for the yeast, while the yeast could provide carbon dioxide to microalga. The behavior of the two microorganisms alone and in mixed culture was studied in two synthetic media (YEG and BBM + G) before moving on to a real model represented by the hydrolysate of Arundo donax, used as low-cost feedstock, and previously subjected to steam explosion and enzymatic hydrolysis. The overall lipid content and lipid productivity obtained in the mixed culture of YEG, BBM + G and for the hydrolysate of Arundo donax were equal to 0.064, 0.064 and 0.081 glipid·gbiomass−1 and 30.14, 35.56 and 37.22 mglipid·L−1·day−1, respectively. The mixed cultures, in all cases, proved to be the most performing compared to the individual ones. In addition, this study provided new input for the integration of Single Cell Oil (SCO) production with agro-industrial feedstock, and the fatty acid distribution mainly consisting of stearic (C18:0) and oleic acid (C18:1) allows promising applications in biofuels, cosmetics, food additives and other products of industrial interest.
In the last decades, the interest in bioactive compounds derived from natural sources including bacteria, fungi, plants, and algae has significantly increased. It is well-known that aquatic or ...terrestrial organisms can produce, in special conditions, secondary metabolites with a wide range of biological properties, such as anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial activities. In this study, we focused on the extremophilic microalga
as a possible producer of bioactive compounds with antiviral activity. The algal culture was subjected to organic extraction with acetone. The cytotoxicity effect of the extract was evaluated by the 2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The antiviral activity was assessed through a plaque assay against herpesviruses and coronaviruses as enveloped viruses and poliovirus as a naked one. The monolayer was treated with different concentrations of extract, ranging from 1 µg/mL to 200 µg/mL, and infected with viruses. The algal extract displayed strong antiviral activity at non-toxic concentrations against all tested enveloped viruses, in particular in the virus pre-treatment against HSV-2 and HCoV-229E, with IC
values of 1.7 µg/mL and IC
of 1.8 µg/mL, respectively. However, no activity against the non-enveloped poliovirus has been detected. The inhibitory effect of the algal extract was confirmed by the quantitative RT-PCR of viral genes. Preliminary chemical profiling of the extract was performed using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS), revealing the enrichment in primary fatty acid amides (PFAA), such as oleamide, palmitamide, and pheophorbide A. These promising results pave the way for the further purification of the mixture to explore its potential role as an antiviral agent.
The use of microalgae as a food source is still poorly developed because of the technical difficulties related to their cultivation and the limited knowledge about their chemical composition and ...nutritional value. The unicellular red microalga
Galdieria sulphuraria
has a very high daily productivity and its cultivation under acidic conditions avoided any bacterial contamination.
G. sulphuraria
can be cultured under autotrophic and heterotrophic conditions: in this study a screening of 43 strains showed that in the latter case a duplication of biomass production was obtained. The proximate composition (protein, carbohydrates, fiber and lipids), the micronutrient content (carotenoids, phycobiliproteins, chlorophylls and vitamins) together with the antioxidant activity of the biomass produced by a selected strain of
G. sulphuraria
under both cultivation conditions were determined. Results showed that the material is rich in proteins (26-32%) and polysaccharides (63-69%) and poor in lipids. Under heterotrophic cultivation conditions, the lipid moiety mainly contained monounsaturated fatty acids. Among micronutrients, some B group vitamins are present, beta-carotene is the main carotenoid and phycobiliproteins are present under both cultivating conditions.
G. sulphuraria
proteins are strictly associated with polysaccharide components and therefore not digestible. In the second part of the work, an extraction protocol using Viscozyme L, a commercial enzymatic preparation containing a mixture of polysaccharidases, was developed which made
G. sulphuraria
proteins a good substrate for human gastrointestinal enzymes. All in all, the data suggested that
G. sulphuraria
biomass has a potential use as food ingredients both for protein-rich or insoluble dietary fibre-rich applications. The low concentration of lipids and the absence of green color make this microalgae source particularly useful for the addition to many food preparations.
The use of microalgae as a food source is still poorly developed because of the technical difficulties related to their cultivation and the limited knowledge about their chemical composition and nutritional value.
The methanol extracts of the aerial part of four ethnomedicinal plants of Mediterranean region, two non-seed vascular plants, Equisetum hyemale L. and Phyllitis scolopendrium (L.) Newman, and two ...Spermatophyta, Juniperus communis L. (J. communis) and Cotinus coggygria Scop. (C. coggygria), were screened against four human cells lines (A549, MCF7, TK6 and U937). Only the extracts of J. communis and C. coggygria showed marked cytotoxic effects, affecting both cell morphology and growth. A dose-dependent effect of these two extracts was also observed on the cell cycle distribution. Incubation of all the cell lines in a medium containing J. communis extract determined a remarkable accumulation of cells in the G2/M phase, whereas the C. coggygria extract induced a significant increase in the percentage of G1 cells. The novelty of our findings stands on the observation that the two extracts, consistently, elicited coherent effects on the cell cycle in four cell lines, independently from their phenotype, as two of them have epithelial origin and grow adherent and two are lymphoblastoid and grow in suspension. Even the expression profiles of several proteins regulating cell cycle progression and cell death were affected by both extracts. LC-MS investigation of methanol extract of C. coggygria led to the identification of twelve flavonoids (compounds 1-11, 19) and eight polyphenols derivatives (12-18, 20), while in J. communis extract, eight flavonoids (21-28), a α-ionone glycoside (29) and a lignin (30) were found. Although many of these compounds have interesting individual biological activities, their natural blends seem to exert specific effects on the proliferation of cell lines either growing adherent or in suspension, suggesting potential use in fighting cancer.
The Single, Ancient Origin of Chromist Plastids Yoon, Hwan Su; Hackett, Jeremiah D.; Pinto, Gabriele ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS,
11/2002, Letnik:
99, Številka:
24
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Algae include a diverse array of photosynthetic eukaryotes excluding land plants. Explaining the origin of algal plastids continues to be a major challenge in evolutionary biology. Current knowledge ...suggests that plastid primary endosymbiosis, in which a single-celled protist engulfs and "enslaves" a cyanobacterium, likely occurred once and resulted in the primordial alga. This eukaryote then gave rise through vertical evolution to the red, green, and glaucophyte algae. However, some modern algal lineages have a more complicated evolutionary history involving a secondary endosymbiotic event, in which a protist engulfed an existing eukaryotic alga (rather than a cyanobacterium), which was then reduced to a secondary plastid. Secondary endosymbiosis explains the majority of algal biodiversity, yet the number and timing of these events is unresolved. Here we analyzed a five-gene plastid data set to show that a taxonomically diverse group of chlorophyll c2-containing protists comprising cryptophyte, haptophyte, and stramenopiles algae (Chromista) share a common plastid that most likely arose from a single, ancient (≈1,260 million years ago) secondary endosymbiosis involving a red alga. This finding is consistent with Chromista monophyly and implicates secondary endosymbiosis as an important force in generating eukaryotic biodiversity.
The potential impact of cyanobacteria and microalgae on the weathering of calcareous tesserae from a Roman mosaic of the II Century CE has been followed through in vitro experiments. Laboratory tests ...were carried out by inoculating mosaic tiles with single strains of Cyanobacteria or Chlorophyta to evaluate the roles of pioneer phototrophic microrganism on the resulting architecture of biofilms. The interaction between tesserae and strains was assessed at the whole substratum and micrometer scales, by image analysis and Confocal Laser Scanning (CLS) microscopy, respectively. The biofilm surface coverage on each tessera varied from 19% (Fischerella ambigua) to 97% (Microcoleus autumnalis). Cyanobacteria showed a better growth on calcareous tesserae, whereas the only green alga attaining a superficial coverage higher than 50% was Coelastrella rubescens. CLS microscopy evidenced two different types of spatial arrangement of the phototrophic organisms on the tesserae, that were defined as compact or porous, respectively. In the first one was measured a reduced number of empty spaces between cells or filaments, whereas in the second type, a reticulate texture allowed the presence of numerous empty volumes. The colonization processes observed are an intrinsic characteristic of each strain. We have proposed a colonization index IC as a sensible tool to describe, in a quantitative way, the pioneering attitude of each photosynthetic microorganism to colonize lithic substrates under laboratory conditions.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Microalgal biofilm-based technologies are of strong interest due to their high biomass concentrations and ability to remove nutrients from wastewater, utilize CO
2
and produce secondary valuable ...products. This study investigated the biomass production and nutrient removal efficiency of the microalgae
Scenedesmus vacuolatus
ACUF_053 and
Chlorella vulgaris
ACUF_809 from a synthetic wastewater, describing a start-up process in a new biofilm photobioreactor (PBR) configuration. Two sets of experiments were performed. The first one compared the performance of a suspended and attached cell system under batch conditions. The second set of experiments was addressed under semi-batch conditions to study the microalgae biofilm development in the PBR. Five stages in the development of the biofilm were identified for
S. vacuolatus
: attachment, biofilm formation, maturation I, adaptation and maturation II. The biofilm development phases had a different nutrient removal efficiency.
S. vacuolatus
biofilm showed a higher phosphate demand during the first attachment and formation phases, while it had a higher nitrate demand during the subsequent phases.
C. vulgaris
biofilm formation was affected by the pH increase (up to 10.6). The biofilm PBR design using both
S. vacuolatus
and
C. vulgaris
showed potential for wastewater treatment due the higher nutrient removal rates.
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