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Biotechnological production of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) has become a commercial alternative to fish oil in the past twenty years. Compared to PUFA production by fatty fishes, that from microorganisms has increased due to its promising sustainability and high product safety and to increasing awareness in the expanding vegan market. Although autotrophic production by microalgae seems to be more sustainable in the long term, to date most of the microbial production of omega-3 is carried out under heterotrophic conditions using conventional fermentation technologies. The present review critically analyzes the main reasons for this discrepancy and reports on the recent advances and the most promising approaches for its future development in the context of sustainability and circular economy.

This study investigates the potential of utilizing three food wastes: cheese whey (CW), beet molasses (BM), and corn steep liquor (CSL) as alternative nutrient sources for the cultivation of the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum, a promising source of polyunsaturated eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and the carotenoid fucoxanthin. The CW media tested did not significantly impact the growth rate of P. tricornutum; however, CW hydrolysate significantly enhances cell growth. BM in cultivation medium enhances biomass production and fucoxanthin yield. The optimization of the new food waste medium was conducted through the application of a response surface methodology (RSM) using hydrolyzed CW, BM, and CSL as factors. The results showed a significant positive impact of these factors (p < 0.005), with an optimized biomass yield of 2.35 g L-1 and a fucoxanthin yield of 3.64 mg L-1 using a medium composed of 33 mL L-1 of CW, 2.3 g L-1 of BM, and 2.24 g L-1 of CSL. The experimental results reported in this study showed that some food by-products from a biorefinery perspective could be utilized for the efficient production of fucoxanthin and other high-added-value products such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)., Italian Ministry of Education, Universities, and Research (MIUR), The Spanish Ministry of Science, Education, and Universities/Spanish State Research Agency (PCI2018-093178), Co-funding by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program

Metal foams are promising materials for applications where enhancement of heat transfer is needed. Their performance depends on morphological parameters, such as the diameters of cells, pores, and struts, the porosity, the shape of struts. The effect of strut shape on convection heat transfer and pressure drop in open-cell metal foams has been investigated numerically in this paper by introducing the foam shape factor, a parameter that characterizes the shape of the strut. The analysis has been carried out both on real and ideal foams. The geometry of three 40 Pores Per Inch (PPI) real foams, with 0.87, 0.94 and 0.96 average measured porosities, was determined with X-ray Computed Microtomography (XCT) and a morphological analysis of the XCT data was carried out. The geometry of the ideal foams, based on the Lord Kelvin foam model, with the same PPI and porosities as those of the real foams, was generated with the free-to-use software Surface Evolver, building up foams with different strut shapes. Governing equations have been solved with a finite element scheme, assuming a uniform heat flux condition at the solid/fluid boundary of the foam. Results are presented in terms of convection heat transfer coefficients and pressure distributions as a function of strut shape parameters. The comparison between predictions for ideal and real foams, for different strut shapes, confirms that, in all cases, the closer the form of the ideal strut to that of the real strut the better the agreement among predictions. It is also pointed out that the convection heat transfer coefficient is maximized when, at equal porosity, the ligament shape is convex, while a concave strut shape maximizes the pressure drop.

Androgens stimulate neuronal differentiation of PC12 cells by nontranscriptional action of the endogenous androgen receptor (AR). AR is also required for NGF-induced neuritogenesis of PC12. Androgens or NGF trigger AR association with filamin and TrkA, TrkA interaction with PI3-K δ, and activation of PI3-K δ and Rac., Steroids and growth factors control neuronal development through their receptors under physiological and pathological conditions. We show that PC12 cells harbor endogenous androgen receptor (AR), whose inhibition or silencing strongly interferes with neuritogenesis stimulated by the nonaromatizable synthetic androgen R1881 or NGF. This implies a role for AR not only in androgen signaling, but also in NGF signaling. In turn, a pharmacological TrkA inhibitor interferes with NGF- or androgen-induced neuritogenesis. In addition, androgen or NGF triggers AR association with TrkA, TrkA interaction with PI3-K δ, and downstream activation of PI3-K δ and Rac in PC12 cells. Once associated with AR, filamin A (FlnA) contributes to androgen or NGF neuritogenesis, likely through its interaction with signaling effectors, such as Rac. This study thus identifies a previously unrecognized reciprocal cross-talk between AR and TrkA, which is controlled by β1 integrin. The contribution of FlnA/AR complex and PI3-K δ to neuronal differentiation by androgens and NGF is also novel. This is the first description of AR function in PC12 cells.

In the last decades, bio-derived natural materials, such as vegetable oils, polysaccharides and biomass represent a rich source of hydroxyl precursors for the synthesis of polyols which can be potentially used to synthesize "greener" polyurethane foams. Herein a bio-based precursor (obtained from succinic acid) was used as a partial replacement of conventional polyol to synthesize PU foams. A mixture of conventional and bio-based polyol in presence of catalysts, silicone surfactant and diphenylmethane di-isocyanate (MDI) was expanded in a mold and cured for two hours at room temperature. Experimental results highlighted the suitability of this bio-precursor to be used in the production of flexible PU foams. Furthermore the chemo-physical characterization of the resulting foams show an interesting improvement in thermal stability and elastic modulus with respect to the PU foams produced with conventional polyol.

The knowledge of thermal transport characteristics is of primary importance in the application of foams. The thermal characteristics of a foam heavily depend on its microstructure and, therefore, have to be investigated at a pore level. However, this analysis is a challenging task, because of the complex geometry of a foam. The use of foam models is a promising tool in their study. The Kelvin and the Weaire–Phelan foam models, among the most representative practical foam models, are used in this paper to numerically investigate heat transfer and pressure drop in metallic foams. They are developed in the “surface evolver” open source software. Mass, momentum, and energy equations, for air forced convection in open cell foams, are solved with a finite-element method, for different values of cell size and porosity. Heat transfer and pressure drop results are reported in terms of volumetric Nusselt number and Darcy–Weisbach friction factor, respectively. Finally, a comparison between the numerical predictions obtained with the two foam models is carried out, in order to evaluate the feasibility to substitute the more complex and computationally heavier Weaire–Phelan foam structure with the simpler Kelvin foam representation. Negligible differences between the two models are exhibited at high porosities.

Two types of lignin, alkali lignin and lignosulfonic acid sodium salt, are blended into thermoplastic zein through melt mixing in order to develop biodegradable insulator materials for multifunctional applications in electronics. The effects of lignin type and content on the dielectric properties of the resulting bio-nanocomposites are investigated. The results indicate that, by modifying the structural arrangement of the zein with the use of lignin, it is possible to obtain bio-nanocomposites characterized by tunable dielectric properties. The bio-nanocomposites containing low amounts of lignin derivatives exhibit extensive protein structural changes together with a modification of the dielectric properties compared to the pristine thermoplastic zein. Changes in the dielectric properties of these systems are also observed to change over time, indicating a loss of plasticizer, as is evident by a decrease in the glass-transition temperature. At high frequencies, the resulting values of the dielectric permittivity and of the loss tangent demonstrate that the bio-nanocomposite can be used as biodegradable dielectric material for transient (temporary) electronics.

Tissue engineering is one of the major challenges of orthopedics and trauma surgery for bone regeneration. Biomaterials filled with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are considered the most promising approach in bone tissue engineering. Furthermore, our previous study showed that the multi-phase poly [ε-caprolactone]/thermoplastic zein-hydroxyapatite (PCL/TZ-HA) biomaterials improved rabbit (r) MSCs adhesion and osteoblast differentiation, thus demonstrating high potential of this bioengineered scaffold for bone regeneration. In the recent past, CD271 has been applied as a specific selective marker for the enrichment of MSCs from bone marrow (BM-MSCs). In the present study, we aimed at establishing whether CD271-based enrichment could be an efficient method for the selection of rBM-MSCs, displaying higher ability in osteogenic differentiation than non-selected rBM-MSCs in an in vitro system. CD271(+) cells were isolated from rabbit bone marrow and were compared with rMSCs in their proliferation rate and osteogenic differentiation capability. Furthermore, rCD271(+) cells were tested in their ability to adhere, proliferate and differentiate into osteogenic lineage, while growing on PCL/TZ-HA scaffolds, in comparison to rMSCs. Our result demonstrate that rCD271(+) cells were able to adhere, proliferate and differentiate into osteoblasts when cultured on PCL/TZ-HA scaffolds in significantly higher levels as compared to rMSCs. Based on these findings, CD271 marker might serve as an optimal alternative MSCs selection method for the potential preclinical and clinical application of these cells in bone tissue regeneration.