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This thesis presents a computational study of water and ion dynamics in modified hydrophobic silicon nitride (Si3N4) nanopores, aimed at enhancing protein sequenc- ing technologies. By employing molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, the research investigates the wetting-dewetting behavior within nanopores as an indirect measure of amino acid residue hydrophobicity, focusing on how post-translational modifications (PTMs) of lysine, particularly the acetylation of lysine residues, influence nanopore hydrophobicity and ionic conductance. The study reveals that nanopore radius and hydrophobicity significantly affect water and ion permeation, with smaller nanopores oscillating between open and closed states, while larger ones remain open. Using umbrella sampling and the Weighted Histogram Analysis Method (WHAM), the potential of mean force (PMF) for potassium (K+), chloride (Cl−), and water within the nanopores was determined, showing distinct PMF profiles based on lysine and acetyl- lysine presence. The modulation of ionic currents as a tool for protein sequencing was explored, demonstrating that different amino acid residues affect ionic currents by par- tially blocking the pore and altering local permeability, thereby enabling differentiation based on size, shape, charge, and hydrophobicity. The findings suggest that silicon nitride pore hydrophobicity can be tailored for nanopore sequencing, correlating changes in ionic currents with amino acid residue translocation. This research enhances the understanding of interactions within nanopore environments, potentially leading to more precise nanopore-based sequencing methods.

We study the diffusion of a true and a false message (the rumor) in a social network. Upon hearing a message, individuals may believe it, disbelieve it, or debunk it through costly verification. Whenever the truth survives in steady state, so does the rumor. Communication intensity in itself is irrelevant for relative rumor prevalence, and the effect of homophily depends on the exact verification process and equilibrium verification rates. Our model highlights that successful policies in the fight against rumors increase individuals’ incentives to verify. (JEL D83, D85, L82, Z13), info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The use of autonomous vehicles for target localization in modern applications has emphasized their superior efficiency, improved safety, and cost advantages over human-operated methods. For localization tasks, autonomous vehicles can be used to increase efficiency and ensure that the target is localized as quickly and precisely as possible. However, devising a motion planning scheme to achieve these objectives in a computationally efficient manner suitable for real-time implementation is not straightforward. In this paper, we introduce a motion planning solution for enhanced target localization, leveraging Bernstein polynomial basis functions to approximate the probability distribution of the target's trajectory. This allows us to derive estimation performance criteria which are used by the motion planner to enhance the estimator efficacy. To conclude, we present simulation results that validate the effectiveness of the suggested algorithm., Comment: 6 pages

We study the diffusion of a true and a false message when agents are (i) biased towards one of the messages and (ii) agents are able to inspect messages for veracity. Inspection of messages implies that a higher rumor prevalence may increase the prevalence of the truth. We employ this result to discuss how a planner may optimally choose information inspection rates of the population. We find that a planner who aims to maximize the prevalence of the truth may find it optimal to allow rumors to circulate.

Los retos a la hora de recopilar datos sobre las personas desplazadas y las comunidades de acogida se complican aún más en el contexto de la pandemia de COVID-19. Sin embargo, la necesidad de evaluar el impacto de esta enfermedad epidémica también está impulsando innovaciones en la recopilación, metodología, análisis e intercambio de conocimientos especializados.

In line with the Green Supply Chain Management, Sustainable Supply Chain Management and Natural-Resource-Based Views (NRBV), the present study is as further step of a long range research program initiated in 2004. The project aims to demonstrate municipal bio-waste (MBW) as feedstock to produce bio based chemicals alternative to fossil sourced products. Previous work demonstrated MBW as source of polymeric biosurfactants (BPS) with multiple properties for use in chemical and agriculture sectors. The present paper reports now a new BPS feature, i.e. that BPS are efficient active principles for soil remediation. The study involves three BPS obtained by alkaline hydrolysis from different streams of an MBW treatment plant: the anaerobic digestate of food kitchen waste (FORSUD), the compost (CV) of gardening residues and the compost (CVDF) of a mix of gardening residues, digestate and sewage sludge. The BPS have 5 to over 750 kg/mol molecular weight, characterized by the presence of aliphatic C chains substituted by aromatic moieties and several different acid and basic functional groups. They were used at 0.1–100 g L−1 in aqueous solution to wash soil sampled from an Italian metal polluted site. Collected data statistical analysis was carried out by ANOVA. The recovered washing solutions were analyzed for Cu, Cr, Ni, Zn, Pb. The 50–100 g/L CVDF BPS solutions exhibited 98-81% extraction efficiency, compared to 70-60% for CV and FORSUD. Compared to conventional commercial extractants, CVDF BPS extraction efficiency ranked as CVDF = diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid > ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid > sodium dodecyl sulphate. A new two steps process was studied: (1) use of BPS solution for washing the polluted soil; (2) treating the recovered solution by acidification and membrane filtration to separate a pollutant concentrate from water for further use. Results indicate membrane filtration more efficient and/or sustainable. They confirm BPS as value added produ

Herein, porous photoactive nanocomposites are prepared by a simple one-pot synthesis approach using a salt and aqueous media. Within this reactive hypersaline route, the salt not only serves in the structuring of the composite but also becomes an integral active part of it. Here, the addition of sodium thiocyanate to a titania precursor guides, on the one hand, the formation of needleshaped nanoparticles and, on the other hand, forms yellow compound isoperthiocyanic acid, which is homogeneously incorporated into the porous nanocomposite. Compared to a pure titania reference, this material reveals a 7-fold-increased photodegradation rate of Rhodamine B as a model compound. This reveals the reactive hypersaline route to be a promising and facile synthesis route toward photoactive porous materials.

Participation in formal education during adulthood (ages 25–54) is a key part of lifelong learning. Employing unique longitudinal data for Australia, we highlight the prevalence of such study, the varied reasons for undertaking it (consumption, career development, job and home disruption), and investigate whether it is socially valuable. Our more detailed estimates of the labour market return to adult education (wage rates, employment, hours of work and occupational status) confirm previous studies that generally found such returns to be small and isolated. We contribute to this literature by also estimating the effect of adult education on job satisfaction and satisfaction with employment opportunities. Increases in satisfaction help rationalise the education enrolment decisions of these adults.

In this study, chitosan, a commercially-available linear polysaccharide mainly used as antibacterial agent, functional coating and drug-delivery system, is investigated to enlighten both water interactions and its thermal stability by using a set of complementary advanced thermal techniques, rarely applied in polysaccharides characterizations. DSC and TGA, here coupled with FTIR and GCMS analysis of the exhausted gas, were used to reveal thermal events and identify degradation products as a function of the temperature: three main steps in chitosan (N-deacetylation degree, DD = 78%) thermal degradation were highlighted and mechanism proposed. In order to make a comparison with other analogous polymeric systems and validate the results obtained, a medical grade chitosan (DD > 93%) and a commercial chitin were investigated too. Moreover, the water adsorption capacity of chitosan (DD = 78%) was followed by using thermo-microgravimetry (TMG) and the distinction between weight losses of both physically and chemically adsorbed water molecules was achieved. The approach followed allows a complete characterization of the thermal behaviors of the chitosan and highlights the need for complementary advanced thermal techniques in the detailed characterization of complex biopolymers.

Iron-based nanomaterials have found many applications in several technologic fields, including drug delivery systems or waste-water treatments [1], due to their unique magnetic properties. The main advantage related to the use of iron salts and oxides is their relatively low toxicity and cheapness. In addition, the production of materials containing magnetic nanoparticles (m-NPs) offers advantages over the non-magnetic ones because they can be easily separated from liquid and solid media applying an external magnetic field. However, problems related to this system is that m-NPs tend to easily aggregate and oxidize into the non-magnetic hematite, thus m-NPs need to be stabilized in order to preserve their behaviors. This can be obtained covering m-NPs with protective coatings, such as organic and/or polymeric matrices. Magnetic materials consisting of iron oxide particles (typically magnetite and/or maghemite) dispersed in organic matrices received great attention as a new generation of magnetic-responsive hybrid materials, which combine the features of both components [2]. Chitosans (biopolymers derived from fish industry wastes) and soluble bio-based products (SBOs, macromolecules obtained from green wastes composted) are considered potential candidates for the production of magnetic composites for their very limited cost and for the wastes valorization. Thanks to their complex and versatile structures, these classes of compounds were used and tested in the waste water purification from heavy metals and/or dyes, in marine water bioremediation from oil spills, in membrane technologies, etc. [3,4]. Aim of this study is the synthesis of hybrid systems obtained by alkaline coprecipitation method from Fe (II) and Fe (III) salts in aqueous media in the presence of different amount of chitosans and SBOs [5]. The resulting hybrid magnetic systems are physico-chemical characterized by means of microscopic, diffractometric, spectroscopic, gas-volumetric and thermo-gravimetri

The tracking of students in upper-secondary school is often criticised for narrowing the post-secondary pathways of student in the vocational education and training (VET) track, which can stigmatise VET. To tackle this problem, countries have introduced courses that integrate aspects of VET and academic study, which provide the dual purpose of preparing students for work and vocational study and providing university pathways for more academic students in the VET track. In this study we assess the latter purpose by examining the outcomes of university aspirants who take these courses in their final year of school. Using rich survey and administrative data from Australia and propensity score matching we find that these courses are associated with lower academic performance and a lower chance of attaining a university offer. Decomposition results show that poor performance in integrated courses is the main driver, which points to potential tension between the two purposes.

The aim of INSPIRATION is to establish and promote the adoption of a strategic research agenda for land use, land-use changes and soil management in the light of current and future societal challenges. Main objectives are:- Formulate, consult on and revise an end-user oriented strategic research agenda (SRA);- Scope out models for implementing the SRA;- Prepare a network of public and private funding institutions willing to commonly fund the SRA.The proposed methodology is based on a multi-stakeholder, multi-national and interdisciplinary approach that covers the variety of stakeholders (public bodies, business, scientific community citizens and society) and the variety of relevant funders. The vehicle to engage with relevant stakeholders across the Member States is a National Focal Point (NFP) in 17 countries1. Between March 2015 and March 2016 The NFP’s interviewed National Key Stakeholders (NKS), performed a desk study and organized workshops with national stakeholders of funders, end-users and researchers across the various soil and land management disciplines. The goal of these exercises was to gather information and support the main objectives as stated above.The collated results will be structured along four integrative themes: 1) resources demand and efficiency; 2) natural capital stewardship; 3) land management; 4) net impact on global, EU and local scale (see section 1.3) and merging into thematic knowledge needs to satisfy the as yet unmet societal challenges and to ensure that knowledge contributes primarily to enable meeting these challenges. Based on these results, a cross-border and cross-discipline dialogue will subsequently be organized among the relevant user communities, funding bodies and scientific communities in Europe in order to reach a trans-national, prioritized SRA as well as a model for execution of this SRA. Thus a SRA will be produced which will give national funders confidence that for each Euro they spend, they will get multiple Euros

SOPHIE is a collaborative research project, coordinated by Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, that has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (Grant Agreement 278173) from November 2011 to October 2015. More information: www.sophie-project.eu

This paper studies the respective influences of intergenerational transmission and the environment in shaping individual trust. Focusing on second generation immigrants in Australia and the United States, we exploit the variation in the home country and in the host country to separate the effect of cultural transmission from that of the social and economic conditions on individual trust. Our results indicate that trust in the home country contributes to the trust of second generation immigrants in both of the host countries, and marginally more in the United States. Social and economic conditions in the host country also affect individual trust.