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Transcript

,
Ambasciata d Italia
Belgrado
Serbia - Italia
Italian - Serbian Cooperation on
Science, Technology and Humanities
(Edited by P. R. Andjus and P. Battinelli)
November 16, 2015, University of Belgrade
AIS3: Italian - Serbian Cooperation on Science, Technology and Humanities
Scientific Committee:
Pavle Andjus
Paolo Battinelli
Miroslav Dramićanin
Gradimir Milanović
Viktor Nedović
Ivanka Popović
Snežana Smederac
Sanja Vraneš
– University of Belgrade
– Italian Embassy
– Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences
– Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
– Ministry of Education, Science and
Technological Development
– University of Belgrade
– University of Novi Sad
– Institute Mihajlo Pupin
ISBN 978-86-7522-048-0
Printed by:
SIGRa star, Belgrade
[email protected]
CONTENTS
PREFACE ................................................................................................................... 7
OPENING SPEECH ...................................................................................................... 9
H.E. Giuseppe Manzo, Ambassador of the Italian Republic ................................. 9
Section I
Research Projects of Particular Relevance 2013 – 2015 ......................... 13
Towards molecular and genomic markers in Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis
Nadia D’Ambrosi, Camilla Bernardini, Mirko Baranzini, Claudia Donno,
Stefan Stamenovic, Mina Peric, Danijela Bataveljic, Pavle Andjus, Fabrizio
Michetti .................................................................................................................................................. 15
FEEDNEEDS: trends in R&D in the Italian and Serbian feed sectors
Pinotti Luciano, Caprarulo Valentina, Ottoboni Matteo, Giromini Carlotta,
Agazzi Alessandro, Rossi Luciana, Tretola Marco, Antonella Baldi, Giovanni
Savoini, Čolović Radmilo, Đuragić Olivera, Vukmirović Ðuro, Lević Jovanka ............ 21
Heavy metals in soils and plants of Rome and Novi Sad urban areas
Angelone M., Manojlovic M., Armiento G., Čabilovski R., Crovato C., De Cassan
M., Massanisso P., Montereali M.R., Vidojević D. .................................................................... 27
A nanoscale insight in radiation damage
Paola Bolognesi, Sanja Tosic, Bratislav Marinkovic, Lorenzo Avaldi ............................ 33
Liquid-crystal-tunable subwavelength optical resonators
Dimitrios C. Zografopoulos, Goran Isić, Borislav Vasić, Radoš Gajić, Romeo
Beccherelli............................................................................................................................................. 39
RObust Decentralised Estimation fOr large-scale systems (RODEO)
Gianluca Fadda, Mauro Franceschelli, Alessandro Pilloni, Alessandro Pisano,
Elio Usai, Željko Ðurovic, Aleksandra Marjanović, Veljko Papić, Predrag
Tadić, Sanja Vujnović ....................................................................................................................... 45
Development and implementation of two novel portable instruments
for the analyses of Cultural Heritage: portable scanner XRF and
portable XRD
Stefano Ridolfi, Maja Gajic Kvascev, Velibor Andric, Daniela Korolija
Crkvenjakov, Milica Maric Stojanovic, Susanna Crescenzi, Ilaria Carocci,
Fabio De Chirico, Giovanni Ettore Gigante .............................................................................. 51
Section II
Research Projects for Exchange of Researchers 2013 – 2015 ............... 59
Cell cycle aberrations and oxidative stress in age related
neurodegenerative diseases: The role of food antioxidants
Francesca Giampieri, Luca Mazzoni, Massimiliano Gasparrini, TamaraYuliett Forbes-Hernandez, Sadia Afrin, Andrea Cabarkapa, Lada Zivkovic,
Vladan Bajic, Dragana Dekanski, Biljana Spremo-Potparevic, Maurizio
Battino .................................................................................................................................................... 61
3
Epidemiological risk models for vector borne diseases in a changing
world
Elisa Angelini, Luisa Filippin, Vally Forte, Valeria Trivellone, Miljana
Jakovljević, Jelena Jović, Milana Mitrović, Oliver Krstić, Andrea Kosovac, Ivo
Toševski, Tatjana Cvrković. ............................................................................................................ 65
Epidemiology of Flavescence dorée, an European quarantine
grapevine disease: the role of wild reservoir plants and potential
insect vectors
Elisa Angelini, Luisa Filippin, Vally Forte, Valeria Trivellone, Miljana
Jakovljević, Jelena Jović, Milana Mitrović, Oliver Krstić, Andrea Kosovac, Ivo
Toševski, Tatjana Cvrković ............................................................................................................. 69
Innovative pectin-based films for food packaging: preparation and
characterization
Sanja Seslija, Aleksandra Nesic, Roberto Avolio, Maria Errico, Gabriela
Santagata, Sava Velickovic, Melina Kalagasidis Krusic, Mario Malinconico ............. 73
Sustainable Place-Based Development Trajectories in the Zlatibor
Region (Serbia): Advantages and Constraints of its Territorial Capital
Elena Battaglini, Marija Babović ................................................................................................. 77
Nanostructurated reactive hydrides for hydrogen storage
Igor Milanović, Sanja Milošević, Ljiljana Matović, Radojka Vujasin, Nikola
Novaković, Bojana Paskaš Mamula, Anđelka Đukić, Bojana Kuzmanović,
Sandra Kurko, Riccardo Checchetto, Jasmina Grbović Novaković.................................. 81
Computational study of bio- and nano-systems: chemical,
spectroscopic and conformational aspects
Sonja Grubišić, Giuseppe Brancato, Vincenzo Barone ......................................................... 85
Italian-Serbian Bilateral Cooperation 2013-2015 Mobility program Project: “Gravity in Quantum Spacetime”
Marija Dimitrijević Ćirić .................................................................................................................. 89
A Multi-State Interferometer on an Atom Chip
F. S. Cataliotti, C. Lovecchio, M. S. Cherukattil, P. Lombardi, L. Pezze, A.
Smerzi, G. Gligoric, A. Maluckov, J. Petrovic ............................................................................. 93
The adsorptive and photocatalytic properties of CeO2 /TiO2 oxide
based nanostructures
Zorana Dohčević-Mitrović, Sandro Santucci, Sonja Aškrabić, Luca Lozzi,
Maurizio Passacantando, Nataša Tomić, Novica Paunović .............................................. 97
Italian - Serbian Bilateral Cooperation - “Dynamically an
Autonomously Reconfigurable Types”
Mariangiola Dezani-Ciancaglini, Silvia Ghilezan, Svetlana Jakšić, Luca
Padovani, Jovanka Pantović ........................................................................................................ 101
Section III
On-going Projects ................................................................................................ 105
Testing Extended Theories of Gravity at Different Astrophysical Scales
Duško Borka, Salvatore Capozziello, Vesna Borka Jovanović, Predrag
Jovanović ............................................................................................................................................ 107
4
Institute for Medical Research: Scientific Cooperation with Italian
Institutions
Diana Bugarski, Snežana Tomanović, Drenka Trivanović ............................................. 109
Italian - Serbian joint development of a standardized mosquito-based
health surveillance of West Nile virus
Mattia Calzolari, Tamaš Petrović, Dušan Petric ................................................................. 111
Project ADRIA – HUB - Bridge technical differences and social
suspicious contributing to transform the Adriatic area in a stable hub
for a sustainable technological development
Novak Nedić, Ana Pavlović, Ljubomir Lukić, Vesna Brašić ............................................. 113
Italian - Serbian Bilateral Cooperation “Kosančićev venac 1941-2015”
Francesco Collotti, Mirjana Roter Blagojević ...................................................................... 119
Nonlinear dynamics of oscillatory chemical reactions related to
antioxidant activity of food and pharmaceuticals
Željko Čupić, Ljiljana Kolar-Anić, Slobodan Anić, Stevan Maćešić, Itana Nuša
M. Bubanja, Nataša Pejić, Dragomir Stanisavljev, Milenković Maja, Ana
Ivanović-Šašić, Vladimir Marković, Emanuela Greco, Rinaldo Cervellati ................. 121
Twinning Alghero – Negotin
Zoran Ðukanović, Arnaldo Bibo Cecchini, Elena Battaglini, Francesca Giofrè,
Alessandro Plaisant, Nadja Beretić .......................................................................................... 125
PACKSENSOR PROJECT: The impact of the controlled atmosphere on
quality and safety of the close-seal- packaged food applied in the
SMEs of South Serbia
L.Cocola, Bojana Danilovic, Massimo Fedel, Luca Poletto, Dragisa Savic ................ 127
Quality assessment and authenticity of local wines from EU accessing
countries: the case of Serbia
Paola Femo, Tešic Živoslav, Milojkovic Opsenica Dušanka, Todic Slavica,
Milic Dragana,Stevanovic Nikola, Gašic Uroš, Fabrizio Gelmini, Giangiacomo
Beretta, Giulio Senni, Maria Barbara Conti .......................................................................... 129
Serbian-Italian Cooperation through researchers mobility within
Erasmus Mundus Program
Katarina Gašić, Enrico Biondi, Davide Giovanardi, Assunta Bertaccini,
Emilio Stefani, Aleksa Obradović .............................................................................................. 133
Health spaces. Hospital Outdoor Environment
Francesca Giofrè, Zoran Ðukanović ......................................................................................... 135
Convergence of markets and regulations between Serbia and Italy on
aflatoxins in human food assessment. Some biostatistical
advancements for sampling procedures
Egle Perissinotto, Tatjana Brankov, Irene Amoruso, Kleut Žana, Djokic
Danilo, Maria Gabriella Vecchio, Dario Gregori, Gianluigi Viglino ............................. 137
The Identification of Titania Polymorphs in Different Samples of
Cultural Heritage by Raman Spectroscopy
M. Grujić-Brojčin, Maja Šćepanović, A.C. Felici, Maja Gajić-Kvaščev .......................... 141
Cooperation between Italy and Serbia to preserve soil and water quality
Sanja Lazić, Marco Contin ........................................................................................................... 145
5
Research Collaboration in the Field of Modelling of Advanced RF and
Microwave Transistors
Zlatica Marinković, Giovanni Crupi, Vera Marković, Alina Caddemi .......................... 147
Italian-Serbian Bilateral Co-operation: ‘Sustainable Development of a
New Pilot Neighbourhood in Belgrade Using IMM Methodology’
Marija Maruna, Massimo Tadi, Ratka Čolić, Mohammad Hadi Mohammad
Zadeh, Luka Stefanović, Ivan Simić, Veljko Ćirić................................................................. 149
FP7 SPARTACUS – Hybrid tracking of assets and personnel for
supporting emergency management in crisis situations
Bogdan Pavković, Lazar Berbakov, Sanja Vraneš .............................................................. 151
Italian - Serbian Cooperation on FP 7 Project: Traditional Food
Network to improve the transfer of knowledge for innovation
Mirjana Pešić, Radosav Cerović, Tanja Petrović, Djuro Kutlača, Dijana
Štrbac, Viktor Nedović .................................................................................................................. 153
New pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine c-Src inhibitors as modulators of
multidrug resistance in cancer
Milica Pešić, Maurizio Botta ....................................................................................................... 155
Collaboration between Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Laboratori Nazionali del Sud and Vinca Institute of Nucelar Sciences:
Hadrons on malignant cells
Ivan Petrović, Aleksandra Ristić Fira, Giacomo Cuttone ................................................. 157
Synthesis and application of geopolymer based materials for
wastewater treatment
Miloš Nenadović, Ljiljana Kljajević, Snežana Nenadović, Claudio Ferone,
Raffaele Cioffi, Giuseppina Roviello ......................................................................................... 159
Novel formulations and valorization of agro-food by-products by
advanced membrane operations
Ljubica Dokić, Lidietta Giorno, Zita Šereš, Alfredo Cassano ........................................... 161
Relations between Italy and Serbia throughout History
Biljana Vučetić, Jovana Šaljić ..................................................................................................... 163
Implementing CERIC-ERIC: Its first year of operation
Carlo Rizzuto, Viktor Nedovic .................................................................................................... 165
AIdAM (Italian Association of Mechatronic Automation): innovative
industrial sector of Mechatronics
Massimo Vacchini ........................................................................................................................... 171
Sustainable management of pome fruit post-harvest losses
Marta Mari, Natasa Duduk ......................................................................................................... 173
6
PREFACE
On November 16th, 2015, the Rector’s palace of the Belgrade
University hosted the Italy-Serbia Day “Growth & Development through
Science & Technology” on occasion of the conclusion of the First
Executive Program of Scientific and Technological Bilateral
Cooperation for the years 2013 – 2015. The meeting was organized by
the Italian Embassy, the Ministry of Education, Science and
Technological Development of Serbia and by the Association of Italian
and Serbian Scientists and Scholars – AIS3. Twenty two projects were
presented at the meeting’s poster session (7 Grande Rilevanza -“Major
importance” projects and 15 Researcher Mobility projects).
After a panel discussion entitled “Societal Challenges:
Integrating Social Science and Humanities with Natural Sciences” the
Second Executive Program of Scientific and Technological Bilateral
Cooperation between the Republic of Italy and the Republic of Serbia
for the years 2016 – 2018 was signed by the Minister of Education,
Science and Technological Development, Dr Srđan Verbić and H.E. Mr.
Giuseppe Manzo, Ambassador of the Italian Republic to Serbia.
Italy-Serbia Day was also the occasion for signing two
important inter-university agreements between Università degli Studi
Roma Tre and the Universities of Belgrade and Novi Sad.
This publication contains the reports of the projects presented at
the meeting as well as a number of articles on other ongoing bilateral
collaborations on different aspects of Science and Technology relations
between Italy and Serbia. A significant number of “Other” topics
exemplifies a traditionally lively interaction of Italian and Serbian
scientists (note a paper herewith by Vučetić and Šaljić entitled
“Relations between Italy and Serbia throughout History”). This also
poses a clear task in front of the AIS3 Steering Committee in promoting
and strengthening further this strategic collaboration. In fact, we
7
would like to see more funding opportunities focused on the interaction
of Italian and Serbian sciences. The contributions in this volume also
demonstrate a wide variety of topics spanning from social studies
towards natural sciences and technology, from basic to applied
research, from research of the Universe to the preservation of Earth’s
environment and of the health of its inhabitants. This also poses a
challenge to connect and intertwine the variety of topics into a
collaborative network. We can also see from these publications that
there are already existing collaborations through European framework
projects and still new trans-European and cross border opportunities
are arising (e.g. see article by Rizzuto and Nedović “Implementing
CERIC-ERIC: Its first year of operation”).
The variability of topics in these proceedings emphasizes the
need for multidisciplinarity in research and also addresses the global
challenge of connecting societal studies with natural sciences. In fact,
the latter challenge initiated the vivid panel discussion organized in the
Rectorate Main hall during the Italy-Serbia Day.
Finally we would hope that the future Italy – Serbia bilateral
grants of the Second Executive Program will advance along these lines
thus achieving and excelling some of the above goals.
Pavle R. Andjus
8
Paolo Battinelli
OPENING SPEECH
H.E. Giuseppe Manzo
Ambassador of the Italian Republic
H.E. Giuseppe Manzo addressing the audience
Let me tell you that it is of a great significance for me, after
these days of mourning, indignation and sorrow for the horrible
attacks in Paris, to be here to talk and take action on sharing and
fostering cooperation in the field of science and knowledge, which
is perhaps one of the most effective antidote to intolerance,
hatred, violence.
I believe that it bears particular meaning that we are
doing this on the day internationally dedicated to tolerance.
Today’s event marks the acme of the “Month of ItalianSerbian Scientific Cooperation”.
A “Month” we opened at Palazzo Italia few weeks ago
gathering Serbian and Italian experts on cancer research, we
continued with a successful meeting in Novi Sad on food safety.
Tomorrow we will go to the University of Kragujevac to open the
Department of Italian studies and sign the inter-university
agreement between the University and University of Roma Tre.
We will conclude the “Month of Italian-Serbian Scientific
Cooperation” with events in mid-December on medical research
and emergency management.
Signing the First Executive Programme on July 2013 was
one of my first public events, upon my arrival in Serbia. So I’m
particularly proud to see today what you have accomplished with
the projects we approved and to launch the new ones for the next
three year program.
EU “Serbia 2015 Report” contains two recommendations
in the field of Science & Research: i) to modernise organisation of
research and innovation in line with the European Research
Area; ii) to stimulate cooperation between industry academia.
Italian and Serbian cooperation goes straight to these
goals: we are both founding Countries of CERIC (Central Europe
Research Infrastructure Consortium) that bring Serbia even more
into the European Research Infrastructure Consortium;
10
cooperation between industry and academia is one of the leading
criteria we set for the selection of the Executive Programme
projects.
For all this, I am fully confident that the Executive
Programme we signed today is a fruitful framework and a
significant step ahead for our bilateral cooperation for the year
2016 to 2018.
I wish you all a bright future for your collaborations and I
renew the will of the Italian Embassy support your activities.
Giuseppe Manzo
Ambassador of the Italian Republic
November 16, 2015 – Rectorate of the University of Belgrade, Ceremonial Hall
11
Section I
Research Projects of Particular
Relevance 2013 – 2015
November 16, 2015 – H.E. Ambassador Giuseppe Manzo and Minister Verbić
signing the Executive Programme of Scientific and Technological Cooperation
between the Italian Republic and the Republic of Serbia for the years 2016 - 2018
Towards molecular and genomic markers in
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
1
1
1
Nadia D’Ambrosi , Camilla Bernardini , Mirko Baranzini , Claudia
1
2
2
2
2
Donno ,Stefan Stamenovic ,Mina Peric ,Danijela Bataveljic , Pavle Andjus *
1
and Fabrizio Michetti *
1Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Catholic University of Rome, Italy
[email protected]
2 Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected]
* Coordinator of the project
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an adult-onset neurodegenerative disorder
characterized by loss of neurons in the upper and lower motor pathways of the cortex,
brainstem and spinal cord (Fig. 1), resulting in muscle atrophy, paralysis, and death
within 3 to 6 years after disease onset (Cleveland and Rothstein 2001; Boillee et al.,
2006; Logroscino et al. 2008; Wijesekera and Leigh, 2009).
In Europe the incidence of ALS is 1,5-2,5 per 100,000 inhabitants. As for the area of
Belgrade in Serbia (Stević, unpublished) according to 2009 census in the eighteen-year
period, 325 new patients were diagnosed
with
probable
or
definite
ALS
(1.11/100,000 inhabitants) and by the end
of 2009, 267 (82.2%) ALS patients had
died (median survival time was 3.0 ± 0.1
years). In Italy, incidence is 3 new cases
per 100,000 inhabitants/year, with a total
number around 6000 patients.
It is well known that the disease is noncell autonomous (with the involvement of
astrocytes and microglia in addition to
neurons). However, there is still no
effective therapy. The vast majority of
cases occurs as sporadic forms and tend to
cluster in selected high risk population
groups. The need for diagnostic and
therapeutic tools for ALS management has
Figure 1. The anatomical scheme of
been stimulating a large amount of basic
ALS occurence.
and clinical researches worldwide (nearly
20,000 scientific articles up to now, and 1,300 just in 2015). An increasing number of
new environmental risk factors is being recognized in the ALS epidemiological
literature. This suggested that ALS represents an emerging public health issue. Both
15
clarification of pathological mechanisms underlying the progress of the disease and
identification of biomarkers that are able to help in detecting early onset of the disease
are highly needed. This project aims to study the molecular mechanisms occurring
during ALS pathogenesis, and to search for reliable biomarkers.
The study has been performed using rodent transgenic ALS models bearing the human
SOD1 gene G93A mutation, which is one of the most widely used strains in ALS
research (Gurney et al., 1994; Howland et al., 2002).
In order to advance in our understanding of the molecular pathology of the disease we
have first searched for the deregulated mRNAs in the spinal cord of SOD1G93A
transgenic rats by performing microarray analysis using the gene chip technology
(Affymetrix Gene Rat 2.0 ST). The list of the selected significantly modulated genes
has been annotated by means of the gene ontology (GO) database (Fig. 2).
Figure 2: Fractions of different gene populations expressed in ALS vs. WT rat lumbal
spinal cord as annotated by means of gene ontology (GO) database.
Among the most up-regulated genes we emphasise the ones related to inflammatory
pathways. In particular the complement component 1 and 3 are upregulated more than 2
times, Tnfaip6 (tumor necrosis factor alpha induced protein 6) is upregulated more than
9 times and Tgfb1 and Tgfbr1 are upregulated more than 2 times.
16
The main pathways that result from this analysis are listed in Tab. 1 and include
chemokine and B cell receptor signaling pathways, complement and coagulation
cascade and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction pathways. Among the biological
processes immune defense and inflammatory responses are over-expressed in our
dataset. Basically the data indicate an activation of immune system in the lumbar spinal
cord of G93A transgenic rats.
Table 1. Selected results of the microarray analysis of deregulated mRNAs in the spinal
cord of SOD1G93A transgenic rats.
Term
Fold Enrichment
P-Value
Genes
Natural killer cell
mediated cytotoxicity
8.52
7.25E-06
PIK3CG, ITGAL, PTPN6,
CD244, FCGR2B, FCER1G,
ITGB2, LCP2, TYROBP
Complement and
coagulation cascades
9.47
7.52E-05
C1QA, C1QB, C3, CFH,
SERPING1, C1S, C1QC
B cell receptor signaling
pathway
8.84
1.11E-04
PIK3CG, PTPN6, LYN,
FCGR2B, LILRB3, INPP5D,
BLNK
Cytokine-cytokine
receptor interaction
4.80
1.66E-04
CCL3, CCR5, CXCL14,
CXCL13, OSMR, CXCL16,
TGFBR1, CX3CR1, CXCL9,
CSF1R
Chemokine signaling
pathway
4.98
3.04E-04
C1QA, C1QB, CD86,
FCGR2B, C3, C1S, C1QC
On the basis of the above data we oriented the investigation towards the study of the
neuroinflammatory pathway. In particular we focused our study on the expression and
secretion of the astrocytic protein S100B and the activation of its receptor, located in
astrocytes as well as in motor neurons, the Receptor for Advanced Glycation Endproducts (RAGE). It is known that in a number of neurodegenerative diseases where
neuroinflammatory processes are involved (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease) the S100B/RAGE
inflammatory pathway is significantly altered contributing to the progress of the disease.
In order to verify if this mechanisms occur also in ALS, thus validating the
S100B/RAGE system as a molecular marker for this pathology, the expression of these
proteins was analysed by immunocytochemistry, immunochemistry and molecular
biology in the same SOD1 G93A rats on samples prepared by the Serbian partner. The
study on rats has been accompanied by the study on a mouse model bearing the same
transgene, available in the Italian laboratory, in order to validate results using another
species.
17
Main objectives of this work were to investigate 1) if the expression of S100B protein
and RAGE change during the course of the disease in the cited rodent models of ALS;
2) if the expression of mutant SOD1 protein per se is sufficient to modify S100B levels
in astrocytic cultures.
We observed that S100B levels and localization are modulated in the spinal cord (Fig.
3) and in the brain cortex of rat and mouse models of ALS.
Figure 3. S100B increase in the spinal cord of SOD1-G93A mice. Equal amounts of
total lumbar spinal cord lysates from non-transgenic (NT) and SOD1-G93A mice were
subjected to Western blotting using anti-S100B antibody (left panel) . Data represent
mean ±SEM of n = 3 independent experiments (right panel).
We also demonstrated a differential expression of RAGE subunits in SOD1-G93A mice
and rats - derived CNS tissues (Fig. 4).
Figure 4. RAGE–corresponding isoforms are differently expressed in the lumbar spinal
cord of SOD1-G93A end-stage mice and rats. Equal amounts of lumbar spinal cord
lysates from non-transgenic (NT) and SOD1-G93A mice and rats were subjected to
Western blotting and immunoreactions using anti-RAGE antibodies, and anti-hSOD1
antibody as a control. The canonical MWs for RAGE isoforms are between 48 and 58
kDa, albeit low molecular weight isoforms were also described (Sterenczak et al., 2013)
18
In addition, we further induced an overexpression of mutant SOD1 in a glial cell line,
and observed that the intracellular levels and even the release of S100B increased in
these cells (Fig. 5). However, overexpression of mutant SOD1 is not enough to induce a
differential expression of RAGE in astrocyte culture. Thus, the mere expression of
mutant SOD1 interferes with the physiological expression of S100B and with its release
at least in cell culture, while the dysregulation of RAGE, which in our conditions is
found only in tissues, might be a phenomenon requiring a more complex interplay
between different cell types and pathways, or merely involving other cell types different
from astrocytes. Overall, these data suggest that S100B may be a toxic mediator
released by astrocytes in the ALS-linked neuroinflammatory process, and that its
receptor RAGE might be involved in this pathway. This possibility might even have
translational consequences, indicating S100B as a possible candidate for a therapeutic
target for ALS-linked neuroinflammatory processes.
Figure 5. SOD1-G93A transient over-expression in C6 rat glioma (astrocyte-like) cells
is sufficient to increase the intracellular content of S100B and its release. C6 glioma
cells were transfected with empty pCMV (mock), pCMV-SOD1-wt or pCMV –SOD1G93A plasmids. After 24h the supernatants of the transfected cells were collected and
soluble S100B amount was assayed using a sandwich ELISA kit and analyzed by a
microplate reader. All data represent mean ± SEM of n = 3 independent experiments.
Statistical significance was calculate calculated by ANOVA
In order to validate the role proposed for S100B and its translational value through
further research we submitted a new proposal to the 2° Executive Program of Scientific
and Technological Bilateral Cooperation Italia/Serbia 2016-18 - with the following
specific aims:
1- to characterize the role of S100B expression and release in ALS astrocytes and their
interplay with neurons;
2- to investigate if S100B inhibition in ALS astrocytes could modify their overall
inflammatory phenotype, and to identify the molecular targets downstream of S100B
that might be responsible for ALS-linked astrocyte activation;
3- to verify if the modulation of S100B in vivo affects the ALS course.
19
Acknowledgements
Bilateral project PGR00151.
References
Boillee S, Velde CV, Cleveland DW. 2006. ALS: A disease of motor neurons and their
nonneuronal neighbors. Neuron. 52:39–59.
Cleveland DW, Rothstein JD. 2001. From Charcot to Lou Gehrig: Deciphering selective
motor neuron death in ALS. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2:806–819.
Gurney ME, Pu H, Chiu AY, Dal Canto MC, Polchow CY, Alexander DD, Caliendo J,
Hentati A, Kwon YW, Deng HX, et al. 1994. Motor neuron degeneration in
mice that express a human Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase mutation. Science.
264:1772–1775.
Howland DS, Liu J, She Y, Goad B, Maragakis NJ, Kim B, Erickson J, Kulik J, DeVito
L, Psaltis G, DeGennaro L, Cleveland DW, Rothstein JD. 2002. Focal loss of
the glutamate transporter EAAT2 in a transgenic rat model of SOD1 mutantmediated amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences. 99,3:1604-1609.
Logroscino G, Traynor BJ, Hardiman O, Chio A, Couratier P, Mitchell JD, Swingler
RJ, Beghi E, Descriptive epidemiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: new
evidence and unsolved issues, J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2008, 79: 6-11
Sterenczak KA, Nolte I, Murua Escobar H. RAGE splicing variants in mammals.
Methods Mol Biol. 2013;963:265-76.
Wijesekera LC, Leigh PN. 2009. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Orphanet Journal of
Rare Diseases. 4:3.
20
FEEDNEEDS: trends in R&D in the Italian and
Serbian feed sectors
1
1
1
Pinotti Luciano , Caprarulo Valentina , Ottoboni Matteo , Giromini Carlotta,
1
1
1
1
Agazzi Alessandro , Rossi Luciana , Tretola Marco , Antonella Baldi , Giovanni
1
2
2
2
2
Savoini , Čolović Radmilo , Đuragić Olivera , Vukmirović Ðuro , Lević Jovanka
1
Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety of the University of Milan (VESPA)
Università degli Studi di Milano, Italia, [email protected], 2 Institute of Food Technology
of the University of Novi Sad (FINS), Serbia
INTRODUCTION
Recent feed sector updates (FEFAC, 2014) report that the EU-28 contributes 16% of
global feed production. The EU feed sector is the most important agricultural input
industry in Europe and is an essential supply partner to the livestock industry
(EUFETEC, 2013). As reported in the latest review of livestock production and trade,
more than 190 million tons of meat, milk and eggs were produced in the EU. To sustain
this scale of livestock production, UE-28 consume 477 million tons of feed a year, of
which one third (155 million tons) is supplied by compound feed manufacturers
(FEFAC, 2014; Pinotti et al., 2014). In spite of these figures, the livestock sector in
general, and the feed sector specifically, need to take into account several new
challenges like environmental impact, the scarcity of raw materials, and societal
acceptance. A common denominator among many of these issues is not only
sustainability, which is often the most politically-sensitive one, but also innovation
(Geraldine, 2014). Indeed, accelerated Research and Technology Development will be
crucial in order to develop feed solutions able to guarantee the EU livestock sector,
remains competitive and sustainable in the global market (EUFETEC, 2013). In this
scenario the FEEDNEEDS project, an Italian-Serbian bilateral project, funded by the
Italian Ministero degli Affari Esteri e per la Cooperazione Internazionale, can be
considered pivotal. Both countries are important in the EU feed industry panorama:
Italy is the sixth country for compound feed production in the EU (Usai, 2015), and
Serbian feed production is one of the largest in the Balkan area (Djuragic, 2014). In this
context, the Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety of the University of
Milan (VESPA), and the Institute of Food Technology of the University of Novi Sad
(FINS), were involved in the FEEDNEEDS project. The main objectives of this surveybased study were to prioritize the main elements of the research and development in the
feed sector, and to obtain opinions of stakeholders on how to translate this concept into
action by integrating its elements and components into practices.
21
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The survey was performed through a questionnaire been sent to Italian ad Serbian feed
companies from June 2014. A questionnaire containing 29 questions was developed and
sent to 113 feed companies. The feed companies list was obtained from the Italian and
Serbian regional trade association databases. The questionnaire was sent randomly to
Italian and Serbian extra small, small, medium and multinational companies (termed as
XS, S, M, L). For this purpose, a standardized questionnaire was developed. Briefly, the
standardized survey was set up on 29 questions with a list of possible answers (multiple
choice answers) or open questions. The questionnaire was based on three main sections:
i) Company Overview (CO) focus on the features of the company like dimension,
owners gender etc.; ii) Products and Process Features (P&P), focused on types of
production lines (monogastric or ruminants), production plants machinery, list of feed
additives used, and so forth; iii) Research, Development and Innovation (R&D) focused
on the area of innovation, perceived difficulties (e.g. economics and bureaucracy),
projects in the past and present, and consistency of a dedicated budget to R&D. The
elements for each dimension (CO, P&P and R&D) and their corresponding questions
were selected using contributions from in-house experts in feed technology, feed and
animal nutrition, and economic science. Data collected have been processed to obtain
frequency statistics and graphs. Behind the survey, the present project provided
improved scientific knowledge sharing within the participants by exchange visits, lab
and deskwork, reports and publications, seminars and workshops organization.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
One-hundred and thirteen feed companies have been contacted. Thirty seven percent of
contacted feed companies contributed to the project by filling the questionnaires, 464
records for Italian (IT), and 319 records for Serbian (RS) feed companies were then
generate. The obtained results outlined as RS companies are of more recent foundation
than the IT and there is a significant age-related gap between older IT and younger RS
owners. From a gender point
of view, RS industries are
totally led by males (100%),
while IT industries by both
males and females (60% and
40%,
respectively).
The
survey results show how IT
industries are manly focused
on ruminant feed production,
whereas RS on pig and
poultry
feed
production
Figure 1. Production sectors in Italian and Serbian
(figure 1).
companes.
22
Considering R&D and Innovation in the past, 7% of Italian responders industries has
not planned any budged for R&D, while for Serbian industries this percentage has
reached 47%; anyway in both countries informal activities of R&D and innovation have
been developed during years.
R&D activities in the recent past for IT industries were focused on industrial processes
(67%), while 64% of RS R&D activities are focused on new products development
(figure 2).
When future
prospective
has
been
considered in both countries
the scenario was different. For
31% of IT companies and for
18% of RS companies, any
budget will be dedicated to
R&D in the near future. These
figures indicate that probably
compared to the past the
economic
crisis
and
Figure 2. Research and Development sectors in the
challenges are affecting this
past in Italian and Serbian feed companies.
area of investment especially
Figure 3. Area of innovation in Research and
Development in the next future for Italian and Serbian
aims of innovations.
Figure 4. Main difficulties limiting innovation
activities in Research and Development.
in Italy. In term of area of
innovation for both countries,
market
strategies
are
important with the majority of
companies reporting that
product
quality,
market
image, new markets, and the
safety of those markets are a
part of their innovation
activities.
The
main
differences between Italian
and Serbian industries are
related to efficiency including
security, profit and cost
reduction (figure 3). These
differences could be due to
the more recent establishment
of the Serbian companies. A
further aspect that has been
tested
was
the
main
difficulties that have limited
investment in R&D. High
costs
for
innovation,
paperwork and bureaucracy
for IT, and bureaucracy and
the lack of government
23
incentives for RS industries are the main concerns for R&D development activities
(figure 4). An outlook on the middle term future shows how R&D investments for IT
companies will be focused on new products in dairy cow and pet sectors, while RS will
improve the compliance with legislative requirements, advertisement and transportation
systems with the main investments in pig and poultry sectors.
In general combining different results and answers obtained in the present survey it can
be suggested that, as expected, the main concerns in both countries are related to the
economic balance between production cost and benefit. Indeed, the research and
development needs manifested by the survey are focused on: cost reduction, decreased
energy consumption, improved quality, improved market image, development of new
markets and satisfying market demand. Some small differences exist between the two
countries probably due to maturity of market in Italy and its potential in Serbia. This
seems to be confirmed by the Italian responders for who product quality is a further
aspect that has been considered for R&D. However matching the “innovation” needs
manifested in the present study with literature and position paper from feed sector and
its associations (FEFAC, 2014, Connely, 2013) it is evident that some differences exist.
Innovation in technological advance, novel ingredients, feed safety, implementation of
automation, and sustainability, are the key factors not only for feed associations (e.g.
FEFAC) but also for the multinational and big industries with a predominant role in the
feed market (Connely, 2013). In the present study however, the implementation of
automation which has been proposed as one of key element in innovation for producing
more feed ensuring traceability, quality and biosecurity, has been not mentioned by
companies involved in the survey. These discrepancies can be attributed to the sampled
companies which were mainly small and medium dimension. In this segment of the feed
sector therefore the research and development needs are more “basic” and focused on
the products, and the main inputs (raw materials, energy etc.). Obsolescence of the
machineries and/or of the feeding plant is still relevant but probably not in a short term
period, as reported in the administered questioners.
CONCLUSIONS
The FEEDNEEDS project during its life span led to an improved collaboration and
synergic activity between the two strictly correlated research sectors such as animal
science (Dept. VESPA, Italy) and feed technologies (FINS, Serbia) with several
significant results from both sides. The main outcomes of the project are a deeper
knowledge of the state of the art of the feed sector in each country, and an outlook on
the needs of R&D activities in Italy and Serbia. In this respect, results obtained in the
present study provide evidence that the feed sectors in both countries are characterized
by some similarities and some differences. In both states, the potential for R&D is quite
high and only a limited proportion of the responders are not interested in R&D in the
near future. Increase in product quality, search for new markets and reduction of energy
consumption has been essential for R&D for both countries, in the near future. In
contrast, the company profile, type of production and production categories due to
different kind of farm on the territory are different between countries. Thus, it can be
concluded that in both countries, feed sector is experiencing several changes, and there
24
is considerable uncertainty as to how these factors will play out in the two regions in the
coming years.
FURTHER PROJECT OUTCOMES
In October 2014 project participants co-organized a dedicate workshop scheduled in the
frame of the II International Congress "Food Technology, Quality and Safety" and the
XVI
International
Symposium
"Feed
Technology"
(FoodTech2014)
(www.foodtech2014.uns.ac.rs) consisting of 5 oral presentations with an overview of
the aims and the dissemination of the preliminary outcomes of project. In May 2015, a
workshop was organized in at FINS Novi Sad. In that occasion, in order to encourage
exchange between institutions and feed industry, Serbian stakeholders and experts have
been invited. Finally the last November a technical and scientific exchange has been
organised and two Scientist from FINS have been hosted by the University of Milan as
visit scientist. Furthermore the FEEDNEEDS project was an opportunity for implement
the scientific collaboration between the two institutions involved. In fact, VESPA and
FINS have applied, as partner in two different consortium, for funding in two different
calls (Fondazione Cariplo- IMETHODS project- and Ministero delle politiche agricole
alimentari e forestali - RidMico). Both projects are under evaluation.
References
Connelly A. (2013). A view on the future of the feed industry.
http://www.allaboutfeed.net/Home/General/2013/7/A-view-on-the-future-of-thefeed-industry-1227213W/. (accessed 27 July 2015)
Djuragic
O.
(2014).
Feed
production
in
Serbia.
http://fins.uns.ac.rs/foodtech/2014/Prezentacije/PDF_FEED/Djuragic_FEEDNE
EDS%20the%20Serbian%20results.pdf. (accessed 27 July 2015)
EUFETEC. (2013). Vision & sria document 2030. Feed for food producing animals.
eufetec – Vision & SRIA document. http://www.fefac.eu/files/42994.pdf,
(accessed 27 July 2015)
FEFAC, (2014). The Feed Chain in Action Animal Nutrition – the key to animal
performance, health & welfare. http://www.fefac.eu/files/54738.pdf (accessed 27
July 2015)
Geraldine E.E. (2014). FEFAC: Innovation at the heart of Europe’s feed milling industry.
FEED
Business
Worldwide.
July,
pp.
36-39.
http://www.feeddesignlab.nl/applications/fdlwebsite/files/Documenten/Persberichten_jpg/FBW36_JULY2014_Fefac_3639.pdf (accessed 27 July 2015)
Pinotti L., Krogdahl A., Givens I., Knight C., Baldi A., Baeten V., Van Raamsdonk L.,
Woodgate S., Perez Marin D. and Luten J. (2014). The role of animal nutrition in
designing optimal foods of animal origin as reviewed by the COST Action Feed
for Health (FA0802). Biotechnol. Agron. Soc. Environ. 18(4), pp. 471-479.
Usai G.G. (2015). L’andamento dell’industria mangimistica nel 2014. Mangimi alimenti n
4, anno IV giugno luglio 2015, pp. 12-14
25
Heavy metals in soils and plants of Rome and Novi
Sad urban areas
1
2
1
2
1
Angelone M ., Manojlovic M ., Armiento G ., Čabilovski R ., Crovato C ., De
1
1
1
3
Cassan M ., Massanisso P ., Montereali M.R ., Vidojević D.
1
ENEA, CR Casaccia, Via Anguillarese 301, 00123 Roma, Italy.
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia.
3
Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, Republic of Serbia.
2
ABSTRACT
A geochemical study in soils and plants in central parks in Rome and Novi Sad has been
carried out in order to determine the level of anthropic influence in two urban areas that
greatly differ in traffic intensity, industrial activities, inhabitants and geology. Data
evidenced high differences principally for those elements mainly related to traffic
emissions.
The BCR extraction procedure showed a higher metal mobility in Novi Sad soils
probably related to the differences of the soil parent material composition. In fact, in
Rome, volcanic rocks predominate, while fluvial sediments and loess occur in Novi
Sad. Moreover, Novi Sad soil received an additional metal input from past industrial
activities that are absent in Rome.
INTRODUCTION
Urban environments are of great interest for the study of the cumulative effects of
anthropic pollution towards population that is continuously exposed to serious health
hazards. In the framework of a scientific collaborative project between Serbia and Italy,
supported by MAECI (Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), a study on soils and plants
has been carried out in urban parks and near main roads in Rome and Novi Sad in order
to identify the effects of the anthropic activity in two cities which are different in traffic
intensity, industrial activities, inhabitants and geology.
Trace elements, (Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, Cr, Co), are related to different sources as
vehicular traffic, buildings and industrial activities. Soil represents the final sink for
these pollutants and the determination of their concentration levels may represent a
useful tool to evaluate the anthropic impact.
Although most of the national environmental directives set strict limits concerning total
concentration levels of toxic elements in soils, suitable information on the associated
risk to population could be obtained by performing metal mobility studies. Moreover, to
fully understand the fate of these elements and their relationship with biota, we have
also measured their contents in common plant species collected in both cities.
27
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Sampling sites (Fig. 1) have been selected in two central public parks in Novi Sad and
in a wide one in Rome; 10 top (0-5 cm) and 10 bottom (40-50 cm) soils were sampled
for each city. Soil samples were air dried at 40°C and ground after being sieved to 2
mm. pH and pedological parameters were obtained following the international standard
procedures.
Figure 1. Sampling sites: A & B, Limanski and Zeleznicki parks, Novi Sad. Site C, Villa
Borghese park, Rome.
The analysis of the total element concentrations in soils was carried out using a
Perkin Elmer Elan 6100 ICP-MS Spectrometer after a microwave digestion with an acid
mixture. The BCR-three step sequential extraction procedure (Rauret et al., 1999),
(Table 1), was applied to four-selected soil, two for both cities. At each step the
supernatant was analysed and the solid residue underwent to the succeeding phase.
After step C, the residue was solubilized by a mixture of: 5ml HNO3, 2 ml HF, 2 ml
H2O2 and 2 ml HCl. This acid solution was also used for the soil samples dissolution to
measure the total metal content.
The laboratory analytical performances were evaluated using proper CRMs both for
total metal contents determination and for the sequential extractions.
28 plants from four species: Taraxacum sp., Bellis Perenis, Tilia sp, and Quercus Ilex
were collected in Rome and 27 in Novi Sad. For wooded plants only leaves at about 1,52,0 m from the soil level were considered. Plant samples were air dried at 40°C and
ground after being sieved to 1 mm. Samples were digested with a mixture of
HNO3:HCIO4 (4:1, v/v), the total element concentrations in plant material were
determined using an Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (Shimadzu 6300) with flame and
graphite technique (Adrian 1973).
Table 1. BCR standardized three-steps sequential extraction procedure.
Steps
Extractant
A: exchangeable and weakly adsorbed fraction
CH3COOH, 0.11 mol L-1
B: reducible fraction (bound to Fe and Mn oxides)
NH2OH - HCl, 0.5 mol L-1
H2O2, 8.8 mol L-1,
C: oxidisable fraction (organically bound and sulphide
then CH3COONH4, 1.0 mol L-1
bound)
at pH 2
28
Top soils pH (Table 2) in Rome and Novi Sad result weakly alkaline while the bottom
soils are alkaline. The grain size analysis evidences prevalence for a silt-sand
composition in Rome while sandy-silt is in Novi Sad.
Organic Matter (OM) shows a wide range of variability in Rome top soils respect to
those in Novi Sad. In both cities OM shows a decreasing trend with depth but similar
concentration ranges at 40-50 cm.
The total metal content in urban soils in Rome and Novi Sad are reported in Table 2
where is evident a high variability of the metal concentrations. In particular, for Pb in
Rome, owing to the high traffic intensity all around the park and, especially along the
NE border, where the highest Pb levels have been found. Moreover, the park
morphology plays a role in heavy metal distribution pattern. Pb, Cu and Zn
concentrations generally decrease with the road distance, as also reported in previous
papers (Cinti, et al., 2002; Calace et al., 2012). According to Salzano and co-workers
(2008), for Cu, Cr and Ni relatively high levels are mainly inherited from the volcanic
parent materials.
Table 2. Pedological and Trace Elements levels in Rome and Novi Sad urban soils.
Co Cu Cr Ni Pb
pH O.M. Sand Silt Clay Cd
%
mg/kg
Rome
Mean*
7,8 8,51 45,8 44,6 9,6 0,49 19,3 111 88 40 442
Min
7,4 1,55 32,0 32,0 4,0 0,07 16,0 66 67 25
63
Max
8,0 14,9 63,0 55,0 17
1,10 23,0 149 124 49 1290
Mean**
7,9 2,17 42,8 44,4 13
0,27 22,7 111 89 42 381
Min
7,1 0,89 25,0 28,0 8,0 0,10 22,7 46 90 42 384
Max
8,3 3,53 64,0 56,0 19
0,55 31,0 177 117 50 914
Novi Sad
Mean*
7,9 5,04 75,8 8,4
16
0,20 11,3 41 90 54 42,2
Min
7,8 2,62 48,6 2,0 1,6 0,08 9,0 25 63 40 28,0
Max
8,3 9,84 96,4 17,9 33
0,33 14,0 60 123 121 76,0
Mean**
8,6 1,48 72,0 9,9
18
0,11 8,7 60 109 46 64,1
Min
8,1 0,27 55,4 3,3 3,6 0,09 4,0 9,0 27 16 9,0
Max
9,8 4,59 85,4 23,8 31,6 0,15 14,0 306 321 146 289
* 0-5 cm; **40-50 cm
Zn
148
93
290
102
85
122
110
80
153
98
36
251
According to Italian regulation on heavy metal concentration limits in public parks (Co:
20, Cd: 2, Cu: 120, Cr: 150, Ni: 120, Pb: 100 and Zn: 150 mg/kg), the studied elements
display levels that, in many cases, exceed these values. Notably, very high
concentrations have still measured for Pb despite unleaded fuels have been introduced
since 2002. In a survey on Pb and Cd in Rome, Pb mean level was 331 with a range 371357 mg/kg and a frequency distribution range from 100 to 300 mg/kg for more than
50% of samples. For Cd, mean and range values were, respectively, 0.31 and 0.03-1,85
mg/kg. (Angelone et al.1995). This finding evidences the very low Pb soil mobility and,
29
being the present days concentrations comparable to those of about 20 years ago, the
effectiveness of use of car catalyst in reducing the emission of some potential toxic
element.
The Serbian limit and remediation values for the soil that is not used for agriculture (OG
RS, 88/210) are the same as the Dutch target and intervention values (VROM, 2000) (Co:
9/240, Cd: 0.8/12, Cu: 36/190, Cr: 100/380, Ni: 35/210, Pb: 85/530 and Zn: 140/720
mg/kg). Similar as in Rome, the studied elements in some cases (Cr, Ni, Pb, Zn, and Co)
exceeded limit values for uncontaminated soils and in the case of Cu even exceeded
remediation value of 190 mg/kg. The average metal concentrations in soils of Novi Sad
from our study (Table 2) are in agreement with the data reported by Mihailović et al.
(2015) with the exception of Cr as values for this element were higher in our study.
In Novi Sad, although unleaded fuels have been introduced recently, Pb levels in soils
are lower than in Rome and display, with the depth, an increasing trend and a wide
concentration range of values. Among the studied elements only Cr exhibits a mean
concentration value and a range of values higher than those found in Rome, consistent
with the presence of ultrabasic rocks in soil parent materials (Manoijlovic and Singh,
2012).
Figure. 2. Results of BCR sequential extraction for top soils (VB1T, VB3T) in Villa
Borghese (Rome) and Limanski (NSL3T) and Zeleznicki (NSZ1T) parks (Novi Sad).
In Fig. 2. the results of the BCR-sequential extraction applied on four selected top soils
(two from Novi Sad and two from Rome) are shown. The amounts of Pb, Cu, Cd and
Zn, sequentially extracted from soils, are expressed as percentage of the cumulative
total (sum of the three steps and of the residue). It can be noticed that the metal
availability for all the studied elements in Novi Sad soil samples is higher than that
obtained in Rome samples.
30
The total concentration of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in plants collected in Rome and Novi Sad
are reported in Table 3. The results show higher trace elements concentrations in grass
plants (Taraxacum sp. and Bellis Perennis) then wooded plants what is also reported in
other studies.
Although total trace elements concentration were higher in Rome soils (except Cr),
concentrations of Cu, Pb and Zn were higher in grass plants from Novi Sad reflecting
higher availability of these elements which was also verified by BCR-sequential
extraction method (Fig. 2). Concentrations of Cd and Pb in plants from Rome and Novi
Sad were low and they were in common range for grasses (0.05-0.32 mg/kg for Cd and
0.4-4.6 mg/kg for Pb) (Kabata-Pendias and Mukherjee, 2007). However, concentration
mean values for Cu and Zn in grass plants were slightly higher than mean values found
in different countries (2-10 mg/kg for Cu and 25-47 mg/kg for Zn) reported by KabataPendias and Mukherjee, (2007).
Table 3. Trace elements concentration levels in plants collected in Rome and Novi Sad.
Cd
Cu
Pb
Zn
mg/kg
Rome
Taraxacum sp.
0,038±0,035
12,21±2,61
0,04±0,03
51,05±18,16
Bellis Perennis
0,07±0,04
10,78±1,70
0,05±0,05
42,29±7,28
Tilia sp.
0,19±0,01
7,18±2,84
0,11±0,05
15,13±2,16
Quercus Ilex
0,004±0,003
5,47±1,78
0,040±0,043
22,24±5,11
Novi Sad
Taraxacum sp.
n.d.
12,51±1,23
0,15±0,03
57,36±11,96
Bellis Perennis
n.d
11,81±0,99
0,20±0,09
69,61±15,40
Tilia sp.
n.d.
4,97±0,72
0,42±0,04
15,83±3,88
n.d. not detected
CONCLUSIONS
This study evidences that traffic emission is an important source of contaminants.
Differences in concentration levels among pollutants in top soils can be ascribed mainly
to their different origin and dispersion patterns. In Novi Sad, where top soils metal
levels are significantly lower than those of Rome, a significant higher metal mobility
has been observed. This outcome can be explained by the presence of different mineral
phases in soil parent materials of the two towns and by a different anthropogenic
influence. In fact, Rome urban soils mainly originate from volcanic rocks characterized
by high natural metals concentrations. In Novi Sad, soils mainly derive from river and
eolic sediments (loess) with very low metal contents. Furthermore, they are probably
affected by an additional metal input related to previous industrial activities that are
absent in Rome, where anthropogenic pollution is mainly associated to vehicular traffic.
As expected, grass plants contain higher metal concentrations than wooden ones
because of their differences in metabolic pathways, morphology and for their different
soil proximity.
31
This work confirms the importance of the study of the mobility of elements derived by
anthropic activities since they exhibit a higher availability than that of elements of
natural origin and they represent a potential risk for people health.
Acknowledgements
Research financially supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
International Cooperation (MAECI), in the framework of the scientific-technical
cooperation program between Italy and the Republic of Serbia in the field of science
and technology for the years 2013-2015, URBESOIL project.
This paper is dedicated in memory of Paolo Massanisso, one of us.
References
Adrian, W.J. (1973): A Comparison of a Wet Pressure Digestion Method with Other
Commonly Used Wet and Dry-Ashing Methods. Analyst, 98, 213.
Angelone M., Teofili C. and Dowgiallo G. (1995) Lead and Cadmium distribution in
urban soils and plants in the city of Rome (Italy). III^ Int. Congress on "The
biogeochemistry of trace elements" ICOBTE, Paris 1995. Calace N., Caliandro L., Petronio B.M., Pietrantonio M., Pietroletti M. and Trancalini V.
(2012). Distribution of Pb, Cu, Ni and Zn in urban soils in Rome city (Italy):
effect of vehicles. Environ. Chem., (9), 69–76.
Cinti D., Angelone M., Masi U. and Cremisini C. (2002). Platinum levels in natural and
urban soils from Rome and Latium(Italy): significance for pollution by
automobile catalytic converter. The Science of the Total Environment, (293), 4757.
Kabata-Pendias A., Mukherjee A. B. (2007) Trace elements from soil to human. Springer
Science & Business Media.
Manojlović M. and Singh BL., (2012) Trace elements in soils and food chains of the
Balkan region. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica Section B, Soil and Plant
Science, 62(8) 673-695
Mihailović A., Budinski-Petković Lj., Popov S., Ninkov J. Vasin J., Ralević M., Vučinić
Vasić M., (2015). Spatial distribution of metals in urban soil of Novi Sad, Serbia:
GIS based approach. Journal of Geochemical Exploration, 150 (2015) 104–114.
OG RS 80/10. Official Gazzette of the Republic of Serbia, RS No. 88/2010. Regulation on
the Program of Systematic Monitoring of Soil Quality, Indicators for Assessing
the Risk of Soil Degradation, and the Methodology for the Development of
Remediation Programs (in Serbian) (2010).
Rauret G., Lopez-Sanchez J.F., Sahuquillo A., Rubio R., Davidson C., Ure, A. and
Quevauviller P. (1999). Improvement of the BCR three step sequential extraction
procedure prior to the certification of new sediment and soil reference materials.
J. Environ. Monit, (1), 57–61.
Salzano R., Angelone M. and Sprovieri F. (2008). Caratterizzazione geochimica dei suoli
dell'area romana. Mem.a descrittiva Cart Geol. d'Italia, (80), 51-64. (In Italian).
32
A nanoscale insight in radiation damage
1
2
2
1
Paola Bolognesi , Sanja Tosic , Bratislav Marinkovic and Lorenzo Avaldi
1
CNR-Istituto di Struttura della Materia, Area della Ricerca di Roma 1, Italia,
[email protected] & [email protected]
2
Institute of Physics, Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected] & [email protected]
INTRODUCTION
The understanding that the macroscopic damage can be tracked down to a microscopic
scale, where the initial processes involving the elementary constituents are the same as
those studied in molecular physics and photochemistry, has been a key development in
the study of radiation damage (Garcia and Fuss 2012). The advent of new radiation
sources and novel instrumentation with the capability of imaging atoms and molecules
disclose the possibility to determine how matter functions during chemical reactions and
physical and biological processes.
One of the aims of the major importance project Italy-Serbia “Nanoscale insights in
radiation damage” is to study basic processes in benchmark molecules of biological
interest exploiting the potentiality of new instrumentation. In this paper the study of two
test cases are reported. In the first one the tunability and intensity of the synchrotron
radiation of Elettra (Trieste) in combination with high selective electron-ion coincidence
techniques has been used to study the fragmentation of 2Br-pyrimidine, while in the
second one angular resolved electron scattering experiments on alanine are reported.
Pyrimidine is one of the building blocks of DNA bases and its halogenated derivatives
represent prototype molecules of radiosensitizing compounds, given to patients who
undergo radiotherapy treatments. Alanine is one of twenty standard aminoacids encoded
by the human genetic code. The investigation of electron interaction with the main
constituents of proteins, like the aminoacids, provide valuable information on the
processes leading to radiation damage of a living cell.
2Br-PYRIMIDINE FRAGMENTATION
The experiments have been performed at the GasPhase photoemission beamline of the
Elettra synchrotron radiation facility, Trieste (Italy), which provides radiation from 13.6 to
above 1000 eV (Blyth et al. 1999). The end station is equipped with a hemispherical
electron energy analyzer (VG 220i) and a Wiley-McLaren Time of Flight (TOF) mass
spectrometer mounted opposite to each other. The electron and ion mass analysers can be
operated independently, for photoemission (PES) and mass spectroscopy measurements,
respectively, as well as simultaneously for electron-ion coincidence experiments.
We have studied the fragmentation of 2Br- pyrimidine following direct valence shell
photoionization as well as C and N 1s inner shell excitations (Bolognesi et al. 2015).
33
The C and N atoms in the 2Br- pyrimidine ring structure are chemically different and
the Br atom, with its strong electronegativity, affects the electron cloud distribution. In
the case of valence ionization the detection of the fragment ions in coincidence with
energy selected photoelectrons, i.e. photoelectron-photoion coincidence experiments
(PEPICO), allows a state selected study on the fragmentation of different cation states.
In the case of inner shell excitation the fragment ions are detected in coincidence with
the resonant Auger electrons, the non-radiative decay that populates the same final
cation states as in direct valence photoionization. The advantage of these latter
experiments is that due to the inner shell absorption the selectivity on the atomic site of
the initial energy deposition is added, too.
HCN
+
[M-BrCN]
+
[M-Br]
+
π1
n⊥
π3
+
M
PEPICO
20
30
40
50
60
m/z
70
80 120 140 160
Yield (arb. units)
PES
9
10
π1
n⊥
π3
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
Binding Energy (eV)
Fig.1 PES spectrum of 2Br-pyrimidine at hv=100 eV (bottom panel). PEPICO spectra,
i.e. mass spectra where the photoelectron kinetic energy selects the ionization of the π3,
n⊥ and π1 valence orbitals (top panel).
34
Fig.1 clearly shows that the type of fragmentation is strongly dependent on the ionic
state populated. For example, the loss of the Br atom occurs preferentially after the
ionization of the n⊥ orbital, while the break of the ring is favoured by the ionization of
the π1 orbital. This means that a preferential bond breaking and the production of a
certain fragment is ruled by the charge distribution and nuclear rearrangement of a
particular cation state. Similar results are observed (Bolognesi et al. 2015) when the
same cation state is populated via inner shell excitation and the following resonant
Auger process. This can be razionalized by the fact that the Auger decay occurs on a
time scale much faster than nuclear rearrangement. In summary these results show that,
similar to the pyrimidine case (Bolognesi et al. 2012) the fragmentation patterns of the
2Br-pyrimidine display a strong selectivity on the final ion states populated by direct
valence ionization or inner shell excitation/decay. The chemical and site sensitivity in
the initial energy deposition affects only the relative intensity of the different
fragmentation channels.
ELECTRON SCATTERING ON ALANINE
The electron scattering experiments have been performed with the modifided electron
spectrometer previously used for metal vapours (ESMA – Electron Spectrometer for
Metal Atoms) (Marinković et al 2008) at the Institute of Physics in Belgrade. The
apparatus consists of a fixed hemispherical monochromator and a rotatable analyzer of
the same size, electrostatic lenses, a single electron channeltron as a detector. An oven
is used as a source of an effusive beam of sublimated alanine molecules. The powder
sample of 99% purity of DL-Alanine was heated to 460 K, a temperature where no
decomposition was observed. The molecular beam was crossed perpendicularly by the
mono-energetic electron beam and the scattered electrons were detected in the angular
range from 0° to 150°.
In the experiments both electron energy loss spectra and electron elastic scattering
differential cross sections (DCS) of alanine at incident energies from 20 to 80 eV have
been measured. In the case of the differential cross sections the measurements extended
from 10° to 150°. In Fig.2 the energy loss spectrum measured at 80 eV incident energy
and 2° scattering angle is reported. The spectrum in the region below the ionization
threshold of the molecule at about 9.6 eV, shows some features which correspond to the
excitation of a bound electron to π* or σ* empty orbitals which involve the CO bond in
the carboxylic group or the CH bonds, respectively. The DCSs for elastic scattering
have been measured on the absolute scale and span from two decades at 20 eV to three
decades at 80 eV. All of them are peaked in the forward direction and display a
minimum at approximately 100° scttaering angle. The full set of recorded data have
been deposited within the BEAMDB (Belgrade Electron Atom/Molecele DataBase
(Marinković et al 2015). The BEAMDB is a part of the RADAM (Radiation Damage)
portal that contains several data bases covering specific interactions of photons,
electron/positrons and ions with biomolecules as well as multiscale and radiobiological
phenomena (Denifl et al, 2013).
35
Fig. 2. An energy loss spectrum of 80 eV electrons scattered at the angle of 2° from
alanine, CH3-CH(NH2)-COOH, molecule.
CONCLUSIONS
As far as the relative biological effectiveness of soft X-ray absorption in cells is
concerned, the results in 2Br-pyrimidine indicate that depending on the ionized orbital
the radiation can induce a direct damage (break of the ring) or an indirect one releasing
a radical (e.g. Br atom) that then can generate secondary damage.
In the interaction of photons or hadrons with cells electrons with a large spread of
energies are produced as the result of the ionization of the medium. These secondary
electrons are the key agents in any therapeutic process. The knowledge of their
scattering cross section and how they deposit energy in the basic constituents of the
cells is fundamental to develop proper Monte Carlo simulations aiming to determine
necessary doses in radiation treatments. The measurements in alanine shown here as
well in the other molecules of life contribute to the development of reliable database for
these simulations.
36
Acknowledgements
Work partially supported by the Serbia – Italy Joint Research Project “Nanoscale
Insight in the Radiation Damage” and MESTD project OI#171020. The support of the
COST Actions nano-IBCT and XLIC via the STSM scheme is acknowledged.
Reference
Blyth R. R. et al. (1999) The high resolution Gas Phase Photoemission Beamline at
Elettra, J. Electron Spect. Rel. Phenom., 101-103, 959-964
Bolognesi P., Kettunen A.,Cartoni A., Richter R., Tosic S., Maclot., Rousseau P.,
Delaunay R. and Avaldi L. (2015) Site- and state- selected photofragmentation
of 2Br-pyrimidine. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 17 (37), 24063-9
Bolognesi P., O’Keffee P. and Avaldi L., Chapter X in Garcia Gomez-Tejedor G. and
Fuss M.C. (2012). Radiation Damage in Biomolecular Systems”, Springer,
2012
S Denifl, G Garcia, B A Huber, B P Marinković, N Mason, J Postler, H Rabus, G
Rixon, A V Solov’yov, E Suraud, and A V Yakubovich, (2013) Radiation
damage of biomolecules (RADAM) database development: current status, J.
Phys. Conf. Ser. 438 012016
Garcia Gomez-Tejedor G. and Fuss M.C. (2012). Radiation Damage in Biomolecular
Systems”, Springer, 2012
Marinković B. P., Blanco F., Šević D., Pejčev V., García G., Filipović D. M., Pavlović
D., and Mason N. J., (2008) Elastic scattering of electrons from alanine, Int. J.
Mass Spectrom. 277 300 – 304.
Marinković B. P., Vujčić V., Sushko G., Vudragović D., Marinković D. B., Đorđević
S., Ivanović S., Nešić M., Jevremović D., V Solov’yov A. and Mason N. J.,
(2015) Development of Collisional Data Base for Elementary Processes of
Electron Scattering by Atoms and Molecules, Nucl.Instrum. Meth. B 354, 9095.
37
Liquid-crystal-tunable subwavelength optical
resonators
1
2
2
2
Dimitrios C. Zografopoulos , Goran Isić , Borislav Vasić , Radoš Gajić , and
1
Romeo Beccherelli
1
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto per la Microelettronica e Microsistemi, Via del
fosso del cavaliere 100, 00133, Roma, Italy, [email protected]
2
Center for Solid State Physics and New Materials, Institute of Physics, University of Belgrade,
Pregrevica 118, 11080 Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected]
INTRODUCTION
Liquid crystals (LCs) are organic materials that exhibit a state of matter characterized
by properties between those of a conventional liquid and a solid crystal. Although fluid,
LC molecules exhibit a degree of ordering, positional and/or orientational, that is
responsible for their anisotropic properties. When it comes to electromagnetic
applications, the large inherent anisotropy of nematic LCs, together with the ability to
control their molecular orientation via the application of external fields, has identified
them as the key material in numerous tunable devices, spanning from the globally
expanded LC display industry to LC-tunable photonic components (Zografopoulos,
2013), and recently to lower frequencies down to the microwave regime (Yaghmaee,
2013).
Irrespective of the target frequency spectrum, the design of LC-tunable components
demands the accurate knowledge of the LC configuration, namely the spatial profile of
the local molecular orientation that determines its electromagnetic properties. Here, we
develop a rigorous approach based on a tensorial formulation for the LC orientation
studies and use it to design novel LC-tunable components. First, as a proof of the
robustness of the implemented formulation, switchable beam splitters (Zografopoulos,
2014) and steerers (Zografopoulos & Kriezis, 2014) are demonstrated at visible
wavelengths, targeting applications in the consumer electronics sector.
In a different context, we design a reflection modulator for terahertz waves, based on an
extremely subwavelength LC cavity sandwiched between a bottom electrode and a
metallic triangular array of interconnected circular patches. By engineering the device
parameters and invoking critical coupling with the incident field, we demonstrate
modulation depths above 23 dB, millisecond response times, low operating voltages,
and a spectral tuning of more than 15% (Isić, 2015).
STUDY OF NEMATIC LIQUID CRYSTAL MOLECULAR ORIENTATION
The electromagnetic response of any LC device depends on its local molecular
orientation that determines the optical axis of the LC anisotropy. When nematic
materials are confined in cavities, the physics of their molecular orientation is governed
39
by the interplay between the energy stored in the LC bulk, the anchoring conditions at
the cavity’s walls, and the presence of external electric or magnetic fields.
Among the various approaches thus far implemented for the solution of this problem,
we have opted for an advanced tensorial formulation that: a) is capable of dealing with
the most general case of biaxial anisotropy, b) calculates the temperature-dependent
spatial variations of the nematic order parameter, c) resolves for point or line
singularities, known as defects, and d) provides the dynamic temporal response of the
system (Zografopoulos, 2014).
Figure 1. Spatial profiles of the nematic director,
nematic order parameter, and the q1 element for the
two stable states of a zenithal bistable sinusoidal
grating with a LC overlayer.
Figure 2. Diffraction efficiency for the two stable
states of a zenithal bistable blazed triangular optical
grating.
40
The LC orientation is expressed via
a traceless and symmetric matrix Q
directly associated with the unit
vectors of the optical axis and the
order parameter of the LC material.
The total bulk energy is composed
of three contributions expressed by
the thermotropic, elastic, and
electromagnetic energy density
functions. Given the anchoring
conditions, the total LC energy is
minimized by solving for a set of
Euler-Lagrange equations, yielding
the local LC direction and, thus,
the local permittivity tensor. The
latter is subsequently fed into a
finite-element-based
electromagnetic solver coupled
with the LC study in a multiphysics
environment.
The
developed
tensorial
formulation
allows
for
the
investigation of complex LC
elements, such as the one depicted
in Figure 1. This particular LC
structure features the property of
bistability, i.e. the existence of two
stable LC configurations, which
correspond to local minima of the
LC energy. Unlike in the case of
typical LC-tunable devices, in this
so-called zenithal bistable (ZB)
device energy consumption is
needed only when switching
between the two states, and not in
order to maintain either of them. At
the peaks and valleys of the
sinusoidal grating point defects are observed in the LC overlayer, which are well
resolved by the implemented formulation.
By special selection of the geometrical and material such ZB structures have been
utilized in the development of zero idle consumption, passively addressed displays for
image storing, which have also resulted in commercial products (Jones, 2012).
Following a different route, we have recently explored the potentiality of ZB devices as
switchable optical elements, such as beam splitters (Zografopoulos, 2014) and beam
steerers (Zografopoulos & Kriezis, 2014). For instance, by optimizing the design of a
triangular blazed grating, efficient beam steering has been demonstrated by switching
between the two stable LC states such that the diffraction efficiency of the 0th and 1st
mode, respectively, is maximized, as demonstrated in Figure 2.
Overall, such components leverage the ease of fabrication, stability, zero-power
requirements, and addressing capabilities of ZBD technology, and aim at functional
components that enable tunable light manipulation and steering for applications in the
visible or infrared spectrum.
LIQUID-CRYSTAL TUNABLE TERAHERTZ REFLECTION MODULATOR
BASED ON CRITICAL ABSORPTION
A significant amount of scientific research has been recently devoted to the field of
terahertz technology, which deals with the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that
bridges the microwave with infrared frequencies. In view of many applications, e.g. in
the sectors of security, biomedicine, and wireless communications, there is a need for
novel terahertz components for the manipulation of THz wave propagation.
Figure 3. Schematic design of the proposed LC-tunable
absorber: (a) cross-section and (b) bird’s-eye view of the
hexagonal unit cell and its six nearest neighbours with
scalable features.
In this context, LCs have
emerged as a promising
solution towards tunable THz
components. A direct scaling
of LC-tunable devices used in
photonics would demand LC
cells of millimetre thickness,
owing to the much larger
wavelength of operation. This
implies very long response
times, as well implications in
the fabrication of the device.
Nevertheless, it has been known that very thin dielectric layers sandwiched between
metallic networks support highly confined electromagnetic modes, which can be
exploited to drastically enhance the light-matter interaction at terahertz frequencies
(Todorov, 2009). Based on this concept, we have designed and optimized a LC-tunable
perfect absorber, whose layout is depicted in Figure 3. A ground electrode carries the
LC cell and is topped by a polymer film that supports the top electrode and encapsulates
the LC in the device. The top electrode is fabricated by patterning a layer of gold on the
polymer film into a triangular lattice of circular patches connected by thin wires. The
41
micron-thick intermediate layer is infiltrated by the high-∆n LC mixture 1825, which is
specially engineered for THz applications (Reuters, 2013).
The alignment of the LC in the nonbiased state is controlled by a thin
layer of rubbed polyimide. By
controlling
the
geometrical
parameters of the device, the decay
rates of radiation and material
absorption can be adjusted so that
critical coupling can be achieved (Isić
& Gajić, 2014), as shown in Figure 4.
Under
that
condition,
the
electromagnetic
energy
of
an
impinging plane-wave is totally
absorbed at the frequency of the
resonant electromagnetic mode that,
Figure 4. Variation of resonant-mode decay rates
in turn, can be tuned by varying the
with the LC cell height h.
metallic patch dimensions. In the
proposed design, critical coupling is
achieved by properly adjusting the thickness of the LC layer, whose optimum value is
around 3.5 µm, namely two orders of magnitude smaller than the free-space wavelength
of the resonant frequency.
This dramatic decrease of the LC
thickness allows the implementation
of standard techniques for the driving
of the LC molecules, such as those
used in the mature LC-photonics
technology. The control voltage is
applied between the ground electrode
and the interconnected metallic layer
patterned on the polymer overlayer.
Dielectric spacers placed in the edges
of the structure, far from the active
region, define the thickness of the
layer. The LC material is infiltrated,
typically in the isotropic state, the
electrodes are connectorized, and the
device is sealed.
Figure 5. (a) Electrical tuning of the modulator’s
reflectance spectra for s- and p-polarized incident
waves. (b) The transient response at f0=1.02 THz.
42
When a voltage is applied, the LC
molecules switch and tend to align
with the direction of the lowfrequency driving electric field. Thus,
the dielectric constant sensed by the
predominantly z-polarized resonant
electromagnetic mode between the
metallic parts obtains progressively higher values, shifting from the ordinary to the
extraordinary LC permittivity. The increase of the effective permittivity in the LC layer
subsequently leads to a shift of the mode’s resonant frequency towards lower values,
which depend on the exact value of the applied voltage.
By employing the tensorial formulation described in Section 2, we rigorously calculate
the voltage-dependent LC orientation profiles and, finally, the electromagnetic response
of the device, as shown in Figure 5(a), for both s- and p-polarization of the excitation
field. Modulation depths above 23 dB are demonstrated, more than 15% spectral tuning,
and very small dependence on the polarization. Finally, the dynamic response is also
studied both in terms of the LC switching and relaxation and the reflectance modulation,
showing response times in the order of 50 ms, i.e. typical of nematic materials in the LC
display and photonics technology.
CONCLUSIONS
The infiltration of nematic liquid crystalline materials in subwavelength resonating
cavities can greatly enhance the interaction between electromagnetic waves and the
properties of this special state of matter. By exploiting the large inherent anisotropy of
LC mixtures specially engineered for terahertz application, we show very large
modulation depths, broad spectral tuning and 50-ms response times in an optimally
designed terahertz absorber enhanced with a thin LC layer. The combination of micronthick LC layers with strongly confined electromagnetic mods in subwavelength cavities
presents a promising route towards low-cost, low-power consumption and dynamically
tunable devices in a broad range of frequencies.
References
Isić G. and Gajić R. (2014). Geometrical scaling and modal decay rates in periodic
arrays of deeply-subwavelength terahertz resonators. Journal of Applied
Physics, 116, 233103.
Isić G. et al. (2015). Electrically tunable critically coupled terahertz metamaterial
absorber based on nematic liquid crystals. Physical Review Applied, 3, 064007.
Jones C. (2012). Handbook of Visual Display Technology, Vol. 3, edited by J. Chen et
al. (Springer, Heidelberg), Chapter 7.3.5, 1507–1543.
Reuters M. et al. (2013). Highly birefringent, low-loss liquid crystals for terahertz
applications. APL Materials, 1, 012107.
Todorov Y. et al. (2009). Strong light-matter coupling in subwavelength metaldielectric microcavities at terahertz frequencies. Physical Review Letters, 102,
186402.
Yaghmaee P. et al. (2013). Electrically tuned microwave devices using liquid crystal
technology. International Journal of Antennas and Propagation, 2013, 824214.
43
Zografopoulos D. C. et al. (2013). Guided-wave liquid-crystal photonics. Lab on a
Chip, 12, 3598-3610.
Zografopoulos D. C. and Kriezis E. E. (2014). Switchable beam steering with zenithal
bistable liquid-crystal blazed gratings. Optics Letters, 39(20), 5842-5845.
Zografopoulos D. C. et al. (2014). Beam-splitter switches based on zenithal bistable
liquid-crystal gratings. Physical Review E, 90, 042503.
Zografopoulos D. C. and Beccherelli R. (2015). Tunable terahertz fishnet metamaterials
based on thin nematic liquid crystal layers for fast switching. Scientific
Reports, 5, 13137.
44
RObust Decentralised Estimation fOr large-scale
systems (RODEO)
1
1
1
Gianluca Fadda , Mauro Franceschelli , Alessandro Pilloni , Alessandro
1
1
2
2
2
Pisano , Elio Usai , and Željko Ðurovic , Aleksandra Marjanović , Veljko Papić ,
2
2
Predrag Tadić , Sanja Vujnović
1
2
Department of Electrical and Electronic Eng., University of Cagliari, Italy, [email protected],
Signal and Systems Department, University of Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected]
INTRODUCTION
The project aims to develop and integrate a set of algorithms for the decentralised
estimation of the system state, possible unknown inputs and faults that affect the
system. Such algorithms will take into account the characteristics of the usual hardware
architectures for the control, supervision and diagnosis of distributed systems, based on
decentralised architectures.
The reaching of the project goal needs the development of the existing state of the art
towards an integration of relatively well known techniques in control theory: consensus,
data-driven analysis and sliding modes.
Decentralised estimation can be achieved by consensus algorithms whose performance
decrease in the presence of uncertainty due to model mismatching and external
disturbances. To compensate or attenuate the loss of performance they can be integrated
by local robust observers and data-driven diagnosis. Robust observers based on higherorder sliding modes are effective for state estimation in the presence of uncertainty.
Furthermore, under some structural conditions, they allow for estimating the unknown
input, i.e., the fault detection and identification.
Data-driven diagnosis and fault detection algorithms have undergone a rapid expansion
over the past years. These methods are multidisciplinary in nature since they rely on
results from a variety of fields, e.g., digital signal processing, statistical data analysis,
pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, estimation and decision theory, softcomputing techniques. They were developed as an alternative to model-based methods,
since they tend to be much more efficient in those cases when the processes under
observation are time-varying, or are affected by disturbances, or the system model is
hard to be defined with the needed accuracy.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Within the above framework, in this contribution we focused on the one of the main
causes of decreasing of performance in a control system: the presence of faults in
sensors and actuators. In a control system, sensors give the information on the plant
45
behaviour that it is used to define the control actions which are exploited by the
actuators. Therefore, a Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD) system able to deal with
faults in both of these two devices is a strategic component needed in order to reach a
robust decentralised control system. Several model-based and data-driven approaches
robust with respect to both matched and unmatched uncertainties are currently under
study.
Hybrid Fault Detection and Diagnosis
In this project we developed a new hybrid approach, in which estimation and partial
isolation of faults can be made by a model-based methodology, while complete fault
isolation and diagnosis is achieved by a novel data-driven technique.
Figure 1. Hybrid FDD Scheme Architecture.
A suitable model-based
observer architecture is
able
to
generate
injection signals that
embed a full knowledge
of the faulty symptom.
Then,
the
exact
information about the
faulty
symptom
is
extracted by analysing
the “fault signature” of
a residual vector, that
can be considered as a
direct extension of the
main idea behind the
concept of “directional
residual set”.
Fault Detection by Residual Generation
The most frequent class of faults are related to performance degradation of the
measurement devices. Let ζ ∈ ℜ a physical quantity of interest, its faulty measurement
can be modelled as: ζ
mes
= (1 + φ )ζ = ζ + fζ , where φ ∈ ℜ is an unknown transfer
function that represents the sensor’s characteristics deviation and fζ is the fault’s
symptom. If the fault dynamics are bounded and they possibly affect both the q inputs
and p outputs measurements of a generic MIMO system, their occurrence can be
detected by the output injections νk (k=1,…,p), but these residual signals in general are
not enough to be able to discriminate the faults, i.e., to achieve a correct fault diagnosis.
Fault Isolation and Diagnosis by Signature Analysis
In order to achieve a full fault Isolation and Diagnosis, we need to extract such
information from the residual signals generated by the Fault Detection (FD) model46
based approach, because they embed all the knowledge about faults. This task could be
completed by taking into account the advantages related to both structured and
directional residual set design approaches. Indeed, by referring to this geometric
framework, the main idea is that to design a suitable set of residuals R={ri} (i=1,…m) as
a basis of the residual space, which dimensionality m will be equal to the number of
faults fi to be isolated. Such a space is spanned by a directional residual vector whose
coordinates are all fault-sensitive, i.e.,
r
r
r (t ) = [ r1 (t ) , r2 (t ) ,… , rm (t )]T = r ( f1 (t ) , f 2 (t ) ,… , f m (t ))
The fault isolation is then achieved by analysing the fault signature of this vector, that is
r
the temporal trajectory generated by r on the residual space when a generic faulty
symptom fi occurs. The standard definition of fault signature given for a directional
residual set is:
r
r
r (t | f i (t )) = αi (t ) ⋅ li , i = {1, … , m}
r
where li is a constant vector that represents the signature direction of the i-th fault in
n
the residual space ℜ , while the scalar αi takes into account size and dynamics of the
fault. To reliably isolate the faults, a one-to-one correspondence among fault signatures
and faults is requested. Therefore, this design method could become unsuitable when
r
one or more components of r are sensitive to several fi. To overcome this limit, we
extended the concept of signature direction. In this novel approach, the signature is a
r
generic time-varying vector Li (t ) that can depict any kind of shape. The new
mathematical notation for the i-th directional residual is then:
r
r
r (t | f i (t )) = αi (t ) ⋅ Li (t ) , i = {1, … , m}
where in this case, the main constraint in order to have a reliable fault isolation is the
distinctness among signatures. By this way, we are re-formulating the fault isolation
task as a pattern recognition problem. Indeed, the isolation of faults could now be
achieved by determining which one of the known fault pattern is the most similar to the
signature generated by the residual vector after a certain fault occurred. In general
terms, given a certain MIMO system with p outputs and m>p I/O faulty measurements,
different residual sets R={ri} (i=1,…,m) can be designed by a proper manipulation of
the output injection signals νk (k=1,…,p) and other available measurements.
SISO system case
By referring to Figure 1 and to the fault modelling approach mentioned before, in this
case we have to deal with two faulty measurements that needs to be detected and
isolated: the faults in the sensor input umes=u+fu and in the sensor output ymes=y+fy .
With a model-based approach, by using a Sliding Mode Observer it is possible to define
as residual the output injection ν eq = f y + Gˆ ⋅ f u , that is a signal sensitive to both faulty
2
symptoms. The residual space related to such a system is ℜ . Therefore, we need to
47
design a residual set R={ru , ry} of dimension m=2 by starting from a single signal that
embeds information about the whole fault dynamics.
During this project, we explored two different ways of using the injection signal νeq and
the measured output ymes in order to design a directional residual vector:
r
r
r (t ) = [r1 (t ), r2 (t )]T = r ( f u (t ), f y (t ))
r
r
 r (t | f u (t )) = α u (t ) ⋅ Lu (t )
r
r
r (t | f y (t )) = α y (t ) ⋅ Ly (t )
In one case (say Ra), r1 is a residual directly related to the fault fy . The missing residual
r2 is designed to be directly related to the fault fu. This result can be obtained by
applying a proper filtering action on νeq. Therefore, in this case the residual set is
defined as follows:
 r ( f , f ) = νeq = f y + Gˆ ⋅ f u
Ra :  1 u y
−1
−1
r2 ( f u , f y ) = ν eq ≈ Gˆ ⋅ν eq = Gˆ ⋅ f y + f u
 f y ≠ 0 ⇒ r1 ≈ f y
⇒
 f u ≠ 0 ⇒ r2 ≈ f u
In the second case (say Rb), r1 and r2 are designed to be both affected in the same way
by the same faulty symptom fu. Such result is obtained by taking into account the
relationship between the injection νeq and its corresponding output ymes. Therefore, in
this case the residual set is defined as follows:
 r ( f , f ) = νeq = f y + Gˆ ⋅ f u
Rb :  1 u y
⊥
mes
r2 ( f u , y ) = ν eq = y − νeq = y − Gˆ ⋅ f u
⇒ y mes = νeq + ν ⊥ eq
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
The effectiveness of our proposal has been tested on real data collected from the Steam
Separator Unit TEKOB1 of the Thermal Power Plant Kostolac in Serbia.
Sensor FDI by SMO in boiler drum
The system under study has been modelled by a MIMO LTI as depicted in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Steam Separator Model LTI.
48
In Figure 3 some experimental results are shown in order to confirm the sensitiveness
of the two output injections to all faults that affect simultaneously both input and output
Figure 3. Output Injection Set: experimental results
measurements. It can be easily noticed that the water flow sensor fault can be directly
isolated by using as residual the injection signal νeq2, while the steam sensor fault and
the level sensor fault are both detected by the injection signal νeq1, which cannot be
separated.
Fault Classification by signature analysis
The isolation of faults on the steam flow and water level sensors has been achieved for
different kind of faulty symptoms by using the two residual sets Ra and Rb.
 r ( f , f ) = νeq1 = f y1 + α f u1 (τ )dτ
∫
Ra :  1 u1 y1
r2 ( f u1 , f y1 ) = ν eq ≈ ν&eq / α ≈ f u1
Figure 4. Fault Signatures generated by residual set Ra.
49
In Figure 4 (top) two different signatures generated by the residual set Ra when an
abrupt fault occur on the level sensor (left) and on the steam flow sensor (right) are
shown. As expected, the shape of each signature is not affected by the fault intensity.
These two different patterns can be detected even when both sensors are faulty
(bottom).
r1 ( f u1 , f y1 ) = νeq1 = f y1 + α f u1 (τ )dτ
∫
Rb : 
⊥
 r2 ( f u1 , y1 ) = ν eq1 = y1 − α ∫ f u1 (τ )dτ
Figure 5. Fault Signatures generated by residual set Rb.
In Figure 5 four different signatures generated by the residual set Rb are shown. They
refer respectively to an abrupt fault (top) and to an incipient fault (bottom) that occurs
on the water level sensor (left) and on the steam flow sensor (right). Also in this case,
the shape of each signature is not affected by the fault intensity.
References
Fadda G., Pilloni A., Pisano A., Usai E., Marjanovic A., Vujnovic S. (2015). Sensor
fault diagnosis in water-steam power plant: A combined observer-based /
pattern-recognition approach. Int. Workshop on Recent Advances in Sliding
Modes (RASM), 2015 (pp. 1-7). IEEE
50
Development and implementation of two novel
portable instruments for the analyses of Cultural
Heritage: portable scanner XRF and portable XRD
1
2
2
Stefano Ridolfi , Maja Gajic Kvascev , Velibor Andric , Daniela Korolija
3
4
1
1
Crkvenjakov , Milica Maric Stojanovic , Susanna Crescenzi , Ilaria Carocci ,
5
6
Fabio De Chirico , Giovanni Ettore Gigante
1
Ars Mensurae, Rome, Italy [email protected], 2Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences,
Belgrade, Serbia [email protected], 3Gallery of Matica Srpska, Novi Sad, Serbia, 4National
Museum in Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 5Sbsae, Umbria, Italy, 6University Sapienza, Rome, Italy.
1) INTRODUCTION
The field of Science applied to Cultural Heritage received new impulse in Serbia
through the activities supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The bilateral
project "Development and implementation of two novel portable instruments for the
analysis of Cultural Heritage: portable scanner XRF and portable XRD" gave a frame
for many improvements: the construction of the necessary scientific equipment as a
joint effort of Italian and Serbian scientists, as well as the scientific study and results of
the selected Cultural Heritage precious material.
Non-invasive and non-destructive analytical techniques are the most desirable for
application in Cultural Heritage (CH). Additional advantage of the analytical procedure
is the possibility to perform scientific analyses in-situ, at the place where the object is.
Making this request realizable, the transportation of CH objects can be avoided,
insurance is not necessary, integrity of the objects can be kept, non-movable objects can
be examined, and so on. Only this short listing of the advantages of performing analysis
by portable instruments is more than sufficient for the scientific community to
strengthen the efforts to adjust more analytical instruments to be portable. Among all
available techniques most widely used, X-ray based spectroscopy techniques are surely
the more important. Portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) is the most
commonly used techniques in the processes of examination of CH objects. Similarly, Xray diffraction spectrometry (XRD) is the technique suitable for the CH objects
examination in non-destructive and non-invasive manner. The project had very different
and some time surprisingly results. Scientific communications, educational yards, media
interests are only part of the final results of the project.
At the end of the project, the scientific instrumentation, both those already existing in
the institutions partners, as well as those developed within the bilateral project, was
applied for the study of four Serbian icons from the XVIII century belonging to the
Gallery of Matica Srpska, Novi Sad and studied in the National Gallery of Perugia.
51
2) PORTABLE SCANNER XRF
Spatially resolved element distributions generated by in situ portable scanner XRF
provide information about works of art which may be difficult to obtain from a single
XRF spot spectrum. In addition to generating visually powerful element maps and line
profiles, this method also generates a spectrum at each image point, and this large data
set is available for additional analysis.
The construction of a portable XRF scanner follows this steps:
•
Engineering and construction of the two stage X-Z step-motor scanner light
and suitable to be transported.
•
Specific control software has to be written to control the motors.
•
Set up of the X Ray tube and SDD detector over the transportable plate.
•
Specific software has to be written, to control the detector (given that the X
Ray tube is kept always running)
•
The two software must be merged in such a way that every XRF spectrum is
saved with the right X-Z coordinates.
In Figure 1 the different parts of the mounted scanner are showed.
The software were written to work with Arduino and LabVIEW.
Figure 1. Portable scanner XRF with the two step motors and the XRF spectrometer
52
3) PORTABLE X-RAY POWDER DIFFRACTOMETER
Several different realisation of the portable XRD spectrometers are already applied in
the examination of CH objects (a nice review of the portable instruments can be found
in the paper of Nakai I. and Abe Y., Portable X-ray powder diffractometer for the
analysis of art and archaeological materials, Applied Physics A, 2011).
Scientists from Chemical Dynamics
Laboratory of Vinca Institute of Nuclear
Sciences several years ago, constructed a
portable XRF spectrometer particularly
suitable
for
the
examination
of
archaeological and artistic materials (more
details about this instrument can be found
for example in the paper of Gajić-Kvaščev,
M., et al, Non-destructive characterisation
and classification of ceramic aretfacts using
pEDXRF and statistical pattern recognition.
Chemistry Central Journal, 2012).
Figure 2. Portable XRF spectrometer
constructed at Vinca Institute of Nuclear
Sciences. Same platform is used for the
newly constructed instrument.
Figure 3. The detector of the pXRD
instrument together with the whole
setup and resulted diffraction.
The main idea was to use all already
existing capacities and to try to adjust them
for the new instrument. The imaging plate
as the detector revealed to be the best
solution for the portable way of operation.
Choosing this option for a pXRD
instrument the Serbian team was in position
to keep already exiting setup which has
already been widely used for pXRF and
pFTIR analysis. The existing X-ray tube
and platform has been kept (with a minimal
adjusting). The detector system of X-ray
diffraction has been constructed. The
imaging plate of rare earth material
(already used for medical purposes) has
been used for conversion of diffracted Xrays to visible pattern. Serbian team,
together with the Italian scientists agreed
that the CCD camera is more suitable to be
used as a detector, comparing to
photographic film (as it was done in the
pXRD setup of the Louvre museum
instrument).
The advantage of such realisation is the
minimal modification of exiting apparatus
and the preservation opportunity to apply
various analysis with the same platform.
53
4) NON INVASIVE MEASUREMENTS ON SERBIAN ICONS IN THE
NATIONAL GALLERY OF PERUGIA
In the framework of the bilateral project, intensive scientific measurements were
fulfilled on four selected icons that are part of the collection of the Gallery of the Matica
Srpska in Novi Sad, the museum partner of the project. The icons studied here are
examples of zograf art – the term that indicates the traditional painters in the Orthodox
countries of the Balcans. The term also indicates anonymous or unknown painters,
monks or itinerate companies of painters of a specific and recognizable artistic style.
They were particularly active from the end of the 17th to the middle of the 18th century.
These icons belong to the period of important changes in Serbian society, in the early
decades after the Great Migration of Serbs in 1690 to the territory of the Hapsburg
monarchy of the time. While there was a growing need for the churches of newly
formed settlements, zograf painters fulfilled the demand for icons to embellish those
churches. Bearing the post-Byzantine style as a tradition, and with elite models far
away, they created icons that mark the beginning of the illumination of artistic
experience. The stylization, ornamentation, and harmonious coloristic scenes served the
function of emphasizing, or even imitating, the appearance of the medieval icons, in
order to achieve the greatest possible convincing and expressive qualities of the
symbols. The zograf
painters, including even
those who were monks,
held tightly to the older
traditions of Eastern
Orthodox iconography,
but the zograf icon was
distinguishable
and
different from the older
icon painting not only in
its artistic specificity, but
also in its use for secular
purposes. As a cultic
object, the zograf icon
became a symbol of
national identity.
The measurements were
fulfilled in 5 days of
work, during the opening
Figure 4. Portable scanner XRF working in National
hours
of the National
Gallery in Perugia, museum partner of the project.
Galley, and while the
tourists were passing by,
educational yards were constantly being set on. The educational yards were proposed by
the Italian and Serbian teams together. In Figure 4 we show the portable scanner XRF
working in front of a Serbian icon.
54
5) DISSEMINATION OF THE RESULTS
An important part of the project activities was the dissemination of the results. This
segment of the project was conceived and implemented with particular attention.
Dissemination of the results was organized in three segments: scientific, educational and
promotive, based on the achieved results of the project and particular needs of the
scientific and local community.
Beside main activities concerning construction of two novel instruments, a scientific
part of the project included presentation of the achievements to the scientific
community. In 2014 the results were presented at two international conferences: 16th
European Conference on
X-Ray
Spectrometry
(EXRS) in Bolgna, Italy,
and
5th
CMA4CH
conference-Employ
of
Multivariate Analysis and
Chemometrics in Cultural
Heritage and Environment
Fields, that was held in
Rome, Italy. In 2015th the
results were presented at
the
international
Figure 5. Results of the project presented at international
conference TECHNART
conferences.
that was held in Catania,
Italy.
Figure 6. The participants and the working part of the conference LANTERNA, 4th Nov.
2014 at the Gallery of Matica srpska, Novi Sad, Serbia.
In the same context of dissemination of the scientific results, Chemical Dynamics
Laboratory of Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences together with the Gallery of Matica
Srpska established and organized the first national conference LANTERNA 2014, aimed
55
to connect scientists
with conservators, art
historians, curators and
all
other
relevant
professionals in the
cultural
heritage
examination
and
protection.
The
LANTERNA
conference was held on
Monday, the 3rd of
Figure 7. Public following the scientific measurements with
November 2014 at the
the explanation of experts during Educational Yards.
Gallery
of
Matica
Srpska in Novi Sad.
Fifteen invited speakers presented their original scientific results, while nearly eighty
participants took part to the conference. According to the conclusions of the conference in
Figure 8. Scientific Lectures at Novi Sad and Rome.
2015th the scientific monography of the results presented at the conference has been
published and the second LANTERNA had been scheduled for 2016, with the wish to
become regional.
Various
occasions
and
meetings during 2014 and
2015 were used to offer
presentations and lectures
related to the topics of the
project, in Novi Sad and
Rome. On 4th of November
2014, S. Ridolfi, M. GajićKvaščev and D. KorolijaCrkvenjakov gave lecture at
the University of Novi Sad,
Faculty
of
Chemistry,
Analytical section of the
Serbian Chemical Society,
Figure 9. Database interface
56
entitled Analysis of the structure and chemical composition of Cultural Heritage using
modern methods of physics and chemistry . On 16th of December 2014, M. GajićKvaščev and D. Korolija-Crkvenjakov gave lecture at the University of Rome Sapienza
to the students of the European master ARCHMAT, entitled Cultural Heritage objects
examination - Serbian achievements.
Figure 10. Press about project activities.
Particularly important goal is the creation of the database which contains the results
obtained during measurements. The database was created in the way to be user friendly
for the professionals in the humanities without losing the scientific importance at the
same time. Chemical Dynamics Laboratory of Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences
together with the Gallery of Matica Srpska owns the data currently deposited into the
database. Database could be easily modify to meet the special needs of potential end
users. The Manual for the users is available in Serbian and in English language.
The museum partners of the project (The Gallery of Matica Srpska, The National
Gallery of Umbria and The National Museum in Belgrade) took the main role in the
educational part of the project, as museums are public oriented institutions. The
activities were realised as didactic programs for pupils and students named Educational
Yard. In May 2014 the diagnostic campaign, including imaging and spectrometry
57
methods measurement, was performed in the Gallery of Matica Srpska. During five
days diagnostic campaign, the Educational Yard named "Analysis of cultural heritage as
a way to teach physics and chemistry" was held. In September 2015 in the organization
of The National Museum in Belgrade-Gallery of frescoes, another Educational Yard
program with in-situ analysis of icon in the context of its attribution to the particular
period was held. Beside professionals and public, the program contained educational
segments in physics and chemistry for the pupils of the Belgrade First Gymnasium.
Sharing the spirit of the synergy in science and humanities, together with spirit of
sharing knowledge which is strongly supported through the activities by the Italian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Italian Embassy in Belgrade, special attention on the
bilateral project Development and implementation of two novel portable instruments for
the analysis of Cultural Heritage: portable scanner XRF and portable XRD, was
dedicated to the promotion not only of the scientific results, but of the role of the
institutional support. To be effective in the promotion of the achievements and the
connection professionals from the different fields of the research, listing all available
resources of the science for the cultural heritage objects examination, the
www.arheometrija.rs web-page has been created.
Some of the national broadcast services was particularly interested to follow activities
on the bilateral project Development and implementation of two novel portable
instruments for the analysis of Cultural Heritage: portable scanner XRF and portable
XRD. In 2014 the Dnevnik newspaper published an article about our activities. The
promotional film was broadcast on web-portal, while national broadcast service Studio
B, followed us during Educational Yard.
58
Section II
Research Projects for Exchange of
Researchers
2013 – 2015
Left: Prof. Bumbširević (Rector of the University of Belgrade) discussing with Prof.
Nikolić (Rector of the University of Novi Sad)
Right: Prof. Panizza (Rector of the University of Roma Tre) signing an Agreement
of Cooperation with the University of Belgrade. The same day, Prof. Panizza
signed a similar agreement with the University of Novi Sad.
Cell cycle aberrations and oxidative stress in age
related neurodegenerative diseases: The role of food
antioxidants
1
1
2
Francesca Giampieri , Luca Mazzoni , Massimiliano Gasparrini , Tamara-Yuliett
2
2
3
3
Forbes-Hernandez , Sadia Afrin , Andrea Cabarkapa , Lada Zivkovic , Vladan
4
5
3
2
Bajic , Dragana Dekanski , Biljana Spremo-Potparevic , Maurizio Battino
1
Department of Agricolture, Food and Enviromental Science, Marche Polytechnic University,
Italy [email protected], [email protected] 2Department of Clinical Sciences, Marche
Polytechnic
University,
Italy
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected] 3Department of Physiology, University of Belgrade, Serbia
[email protected], [email protected] 4Department of Radiobiology and
Molecular Genetics, University of Belgrade, Serbia [email protected] 5Biomedical
Research Institute Galenika A.D., Serbia [email protected].
CELL CYCLE ABERRATIONS AND OXIDATIVE STRESS IN AGE RELATED
NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES: THE ROLE OF FOOD ANTIOXIDANTS.
Alzheimer disease (AD) is characterized by neurodegeneration and cognitive
impairment and is the main cause of senile dementia in people over 85 years. The
precise molecular mechanisms of its pathogenesis are not fully understood, but several
key elements to the disease are noteworthy, such as cell cycle aberration and oxidative
stress. Cell cycle aberrations include the abnormal reentry of quiescent neurons into the
cell cycle, while oxidative stress includes amyloid-ß accumulation that is certainly
detrimental to cell functioning and survival. In neurons, these two factors lead to
dysfunction, decay, and finally to cell death. Cell cycle disturbance and oxidative stress
are not related solely to brain neurons but also to other tissues, such as peripheral blood
lymphocytes. In peripheral blood lymphocytes, cell cycle disturbances in patients with
AD led to centromere instability, especially premature centromere division, which
determines the cell cycle phase, and can be used as a potential cytogenetic biomarker
for AD (Spremo-Potparević et al., 2008; Zivkovic et al., 2013).
The objectives of this project were to examine the degree of DNA damage, the
intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and cell energy metabolism by monitoring
mitochondrial respiration, in lymphocytes of AD patients and healthy elderly subjects
treated with antioxidants from food extracts (strawberry, honey and olive oil) to assess
if antioxidants could improve the physiological status of these individuals.
Strawberries (Fragaria X ananassa, Duch.) are a rich source of a wide variety of
nutritive compounds such as sugars, vitamins, and minerals, as well as non-nutritive,
bioactive compounds such as flavonoids, anthocyanins and phenolic acids (Giampieri et
al., 2012). All of these compounds exert a synergistic and cumulative effect on human
health promotion and in disease prevention (Tulipani et al., 2009). Strawberry phenolics
61
are indeed able (i) to detoxify free radicals blocking their production, (ii) to modulate
the expression of genes involved in metabolism, cell survival and proliferation and
antioxidant defense, and (iii) to protect and repair DNA damage (Giampieri et al., 2013;
Tulipani et al., 2014; Giampieri et al., 2015).
On the other hand, Manuka honey is a monofloral honey derived from the Manuka tree
(Leptospermum scoparium) which grows as a shrub or a small tree throughout New
Zealand and eastern Australia. In traditional medicine it has long been employed for
clearing up infections, including abscesses, surgical wounds, traumatic wounds, burns
and ulcers of different etiology (Patel and Cichello, 2013). Recently, Manuka honey has
greatly attracted the attention of researchers for its biological properties, especially its
antimicrobial and antioxidant capacities (Alvarez-Suarez et al., 2014).
First of all, the nutritional and phytochemical composition of strawberry (cultivar Alba)
and Manuka honey extracts were determined paying particular attention to the total
antioxidant capacity (FRAP, DPPH and TEAC assays), the vitamin C content (HPLC)
and the total phenolic, anthocyanin and flavonoid contents (spectrophotometric
methods) as well as the total protein and free amino acid concentrations
(spectrophotometric methods) only in the case of Manuka honey.
After that, the potential genotoxic and antigenotoxic properties of strawberry extract and
Manuka honey in lymphocytes of healthy young volunteers has been evaluated. The
aim was to estimate if the incubation of cells with both extracts could cause DNA
damage (genotoxic effect) or lead to a decrease of DNA damage induced by oxidative
stress (antigenotoxic properties), determined by Comet assay. The results showed that
the extracts did not produce any fragmentation of nuclear DNA and they were not
genotoxic per se at any of the tested concentrations.
In order to evaluate the ability of the extracts to prevent nuclear DNA in human
peripheral blood leukocytes from the damage induced by H2O2, two types of
interactions of the extracts with the oxidant have been performed: pretreatment and
post-treatment. In the first series (pretreatment protocol), different concentrations of the
extracts were administered and incubated with peripheral blood leukocytes preparations
before adding H2O2. In the second experiment (post-treatment protocol), cell
preparations from same individuals were firstly exposed to oxidant and then post-treated
with the extracts. In pretreatment results, the extracts exhibited protective effects to
some extent, but no significant DNA damage reduction was observed. While increase of
DNA damage was detected in leukocytes exposed only to H2O2, the mean number of
cells with DNA damage was decreased after post-treatment with both extracts. These
results indicate that strawberry and Manuka honey could be used as a post-applicative
rather than protective agent.
In addition, the effects of the extracts on the intracellular ROS production (with Tali
Flow Cytometer) and mitochondrial respiration rate (by XF-24 Extracellular Flux
Analyzer) were also evaluated. A significant decrease in ROS levels and a considerable
improvement in mitochondria oxygen consumption (OCR) were found in cells treated
with strawberry and Manuka honey extracts compared to control cells (H2O2 treatment).
Finally, since AD patients as well as healthy elderly have increased level of DNA
damage compared to healthy young individuals, we examined if the incubation of
lymphocytes with strawberry extract could decrease the levels of DNA damage in the
mentioned groups, measured with comet assay. High basal damage before treatment in
62
both AD patients as well as healthy elderly compared to young was detected. The
number of cells with DNA damage decreased after incubation with the extract in all
groups. Statistical significance was observed before and after treatments in both healthy
elderly subjects and AD patients.
The results of the effects of dry olive leaf extract on cell cycle aberrations and oxidative
stress in AD lymphocytes are still in phase of elaboration.
The results of this research could contribute to a better understanding of the role of food
antioxidants against oxidative stress and cell cycle aberrations and may also address
some mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative processes thus
providing guidance to the prevention, diagnosis, and therapy of AD. The potential
evidence of positive effects related to food antioxidant consumption could be evaluated
in order to include these fruits, or molecules extracted from them, in the dietary
treatments in support of therapies for the best achievement of therapeutic goals.
Furthermore, the researchers involved in the project had the opportunity to acquire new
knowledge and new experiences, from the point of view both of the scientific research
and of the publication.
References
Alvarez-Suarez J. M., Gasparrini M., Forbes-hernandez T. Y., Mazzoni L. and
Giampieri F. (2014). The Composition and Biological Activity of Honey: A
Focus on Manuka
Honey. Foods, 3(3), 420-32.
Giampieri F., Alvarez-Suarez J. M., Mazzoni L., Romandini S., Bompadre S., Diamanti
J., Capocasa F., Mezzetti B., Quiles J. L., Ferreiro M. S., Tulipani S. and
Battino M. (2013). The potential impact of strawberry on human health. Nat
Prod Res, 27(4- 5), 448-55.
Giampieri F., Forbes-Hernandez T. Y., Gasparrini M., Alvarez-Suarez J. M., Afrin S.,
Bompadre S., Quiles J. L., Mezzetti B. and Battino M. (2015). Strawberry as a
health promoter: an evidence based review. Food Funct, 6(5), 1386-98.
Giampieri F., Tulipani S., Alvarez-Suarez J. M., Quiles J. L., Mezzetti B. and Battino
M. (2012). The strawberry: composition, nutritional quality, and impact on
human health. Nutrition, 28(1), 9-19.
Patel S. and Cichello S. (2013). Manuka honey: An emerging natural food with
medicinal use. Nat Prod Bioprospect, 3, 121–28.
Spremo-Potparević B., Zivković L., Djelić N., Plećas-Solarović B., Smith M. A. and
Bajić. (2008). Premature centromere division of the X chromosome in neurons
in Alzheimers disease. J Neurochem, 106(5), 2218-23.
Tulipani S., Armeni T., Giampieri F., Alvarez-Suarez J. M., Gonzalez-Paramás A. M.,
Santos-Buelga C., Busco F., Principato G., Bompadre S., Quiles J. L., Mezzetti
B. and Battino M. (2014). Strawberry intake increases blood fluid, erythrocyte
and mononuclear cell defenses against oxidative challenge. Food Chem, 156,
87-93.
63
Tulipani S., Mezzetti B. and Battino M. (2009). Impact of strawberries on human
health: insight into marginally discussed bioactive compounds for the
Mediterranean diet. Public Health Nutr, 12(9A), 1656-62.
Zivković L., Spremo-Potparević B., Siedlak S. L., Perry G., Plećaš-Solarović B.,
Milićević Z. and Bajić V. P. (2013). DNA Damage in Alzheimer Disease
Lymphocytes and Its Relation to Premature Centromere Division.
Neurodegener Dis, 12(3), 156-63.
64
Epidemiological risk models for vector borne
diseases in a changing world.
1
2
3
4
Tizzani Paolo , Pafundi Donatella , Moriano Roberta , Dino Scaravelli ,
5
6
7
Burazerovic Jelena , Penezic Aleksandra , Zanet Stefania , Tomanovic
8
9
Snežana and Cirovic Duško .
1
University of Turin, Italy, [email protected], 2 University of Turin, Italy,
[email protected], 3 University of Turin, Italy, [email protected],4
University of Bologna, Italy, [email protected], 5 University of Belgrade, Serbia,
[email protected], 6 University of Belgrade, Serbia,
[email protected], 7 University of Turin, Italy, [email protected], 8University
of Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected], 9University of Belgrade, Serbia,
[email protected]
INTRODUCTION
In recent years, vector-borne diseases have emerged or re-emerged and spread across
Europe, due to global and/or local changes that have led to the invasion of new
arthropod vectors, the improvement of their vectorial capacity or to the introduction and
establishment of new pathogens (Rogers and Randolph, 2006, Genchi et al., 2009). The
rise of mean winter temperature (Stainforth et al., 2013) as well as habitat changes,
alterations in water storage and irrigation habits, pollution, development of insecticide
and drug resistance, globalization and the increase in international trade, tourism and
travel (Genchi et al.,2009) caused a significant territorial expansion of new pathogens
(higher latitudes and higher altitudes), an extension of the risk season for infection and a
consequent increase of incidence. Monitoring vector-borne diseases allows to quantify
the effects of global and local drivers on regards of pathogens that pose a serious risk on
human and animal health and are considered emerging diseases in several countries
including Italy and Serbia (Zanet et al., 2014). The goal of the project was to develop
pathogen-specific epidemiological models for vector-borne diseases in wild carnivores
in order to identify the biotic and abiotic factors that influence the presence of vectorborne parasites. The target parasites are transmitted by mosquitos (fam. Culicidae vector of Dirofilaria immitis) and ticks (Fam. Ixodidae - vector of Babesia spp.,
Ehrlichia canis, Anaplasma phagocytophilum) and are cause of zoonotic infections or of
severe disease in domesticated animals.
METHODS
Free-ranging carnivores (fox Vulpes vulpes, wolf Canis lupus, golden Jackal Canis aureus
and wild cat Felis silvetris) were previously tested by polymerase chain reaction (for the
detection of haemoprotozoan infection) of by macroscopic examination (for Dirofilaria
65
immitis identification) (Penezic et al., 2014). Each positive animal was georeferenced and
using a Geographic Information System (GIS) software (QGis Development team, 2014)
was related to specific environmental characteristics of the area where he was collected.
The biotic and abiotic parameters considered as possible covariates in the models are:
mean week summer temperature (Modis Collection MOD11A2, eartexplorer.usgs.gov),
Land cover and Land Use, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (Landsat Shuttle
Radar Topography Mission, eartexplorer.usgs.gov). Vegetational indexes are indirect
indicators of humidity and rainfall, hence of suitability for vector hosts (Kalluri et al.,
2007). Proximity to urban centres (linear distance), elevation (m a.s.l.) and yearly mean
solar radiance (kW/h/year) were also considered as possible covariates.
RESULTS
The model of D. immitis included a total of 40 animals in which the parasite was
isolated from the right atrium and pulmonary arteries (Fig. 1).
Among the biotic and
abiotic factors considered in
the
model
the
only
significant covariate that
increases the risk of wild
carnivores being infected
with D. immitis is the NDVI
(p<0.05). For what concerns
hemoparasites, the low
prevalence detected did not
allow to develop speciesspecific models for each of
the considered pathogens.
Although grouped together
as tick-borne diseases a
clearly
significant
preponderance was found
for rural areas (LandCover
categories: agricultural and
natural deciduous forest)
(p<0.05) and areas with
NDVI values corresponding
to higher presence of
vegetation (p<0.01).
Fig. 1 Spatial localization of Dirofilaria immitis positive animals
66
DISCUSSION
The use of georeferenced information is of paramount importance for contextualizing
epidemiological data to environmental and human-related factors. Especially vectorborne diseases are highly influenced by local and global climate changes and by
alteration and fragmentation of natural habitats (Genchi et al., 2009). The results
presented in this study give a preliminary idea of the importance of monitoring over
time the epidemiological situation of relevant zoonosis and tick-borne diseases. Serbia
is a particularly suitable study ground since human induced alteration on regional and
local scales are very limited. The comparison with a highly urbanized environment like
Northern Italy would suggest useful insights to better understand and thus prevent the
emergence or re-emergence of vector-borne diseases.
References
Genchi C., Mortarino M., Rinaldi L., Cringoli G., Traldia G. and Genchi M. (2009).
Changing climate and changing vector-borne disease distribution: The example
of Dirofilaria in Europe. Veterinary Parasitology, 163(4), 286-292.
Kalluri S, Gilruth P., Rogers D. and Szczur M. (2007). Surveillance of Arthropod
Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases Using Remote Sensing Techniques: A
Review. Plos Pathogens, , DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.0030116.
Penezić A., Selaković S., Pavlović I. and Ćirović D. (2014). First findings and
prevalence of adult heartworms (Dirofilaria immitis) in wild carnivores from
Serbia. Parasitology Research,113, 3281–3285.
QGIS Development Team. 2014. QGIS geographic information system. Open Source
Geospatial Foundation Project. http:// qgis.osgeo.org
Rogers D.J. and Randolph S.E. (2006). Climate change and vector-borne diseases.
Advances in. Parasitology, 62, 345–381.
Stainforth D.A., Chapman S.C. and Watkins N.W. (2013). Mapping climate change in
European temperature distributions. Environmental Research Letters, 8(3).
Zanet S., Trisciuoglio A., Bottero E., Carpignano MG., García Fernández de Mera I.,
Gortazar C. and Ferroglio E. (2014). Piroplasmosis in wildlife: Babesia and
Theileria affecting free-ranging ungulates and carnivores in Northwestern
Italy. Parasites and Vectors, 7(70).
67
Epidemiology of Flavescence dorée, an European
quarantine grapevine disease: the role of wild
reservoir plants and potential insect vectors
1
1
1
2
Elisa Angelini , Luisa Filippin , Vally Forte , Valeria Trivellone , Miljana
3
3
3
3
3
Jakovljević , Jelena Jović , Milana Mitrović , Oliver Krstić , Andrea Kosovac ,
3
3
Ivo Toševski and Tatjana Cvrković
1
CREA-VIT, Centre for Research in Viticulture, Italy, 2 ACW, Research Centre Cadenazzo,
Switzerland, 3 Institute for Plant Protection and Environment, Department of Plant Pests, Serbia,
[email protected]
INTRODUCTION
Viticulture has a long tradition and a great importance both in Italy and Serbia. One of
the most important grapevine diseases is Flavescence dorée (FD), which is caused by
phytoplasmas and has a significant economic impact on grapevine production in both
countries.
FD is a quarantine disease in the EU, epidemically spread from vine to vine by the
leafhopper Scaphoideus titanus. Despite mandatory control programs against the vector
and grubbing of diseased vineyards, the contaminated surfaces increase every year,
suggesting that the epidemiology of FD is still not completely understood. Indeed,
phytoplasmas genetically close or identical to FD phytoplasma (FDp) were detected in
plants of Clematis vitalba, Alnus glutinosa, Ailanthus altissima (tree of heaven),
growing both in viticultural and non-viticultural areas, and other secondary or suspected
vectors were discovered, such as Dictyophara europaea and Orientus ishidae (Maixner
et al., 2000; Angelini et al., 2004; Filippin et al., 2009; Mehle et al., 2010; Filippin et
al., 2011). These findings clearly indicate that FDp exchanges occur between the
viticultural and the wild ecosystems through insect vectors, and raise questions about
possible wild reservoir hosts, alternative vectors and their role during FD outbreaks.
The aim of this project was to get more insight into the role of alternative host plants
and vectors in the epidemiology of FD. Field surveys aimed to identify new potential
vectors and infected plant species, with special regards to A. altissima, transmission
trials and molecular analyses, using also quantitative real time PCR, were performed. At
the same time, the vectoring ability of S. titanus and D. europaea from C. vitalba and A.
altissima to grapevine and periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) were studied.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Plant material. A. altissima plants were sampled in Italian and Serbian areas with high
FD incidence in vineyards.
69
Insect sampling. Different species of insects and potential vectors were collected from
A. altissima infected plants or close to them, using sticky traps and sweep nets. O.
ishidae individuals were collected from woods close to FD-infected vineyards.
Transmission trials. S. titanus and D. europea were reared in mesh cages in semi field
conditions. Adults and 5th instar nymphs were used for acquisition trials from the
infected C vitalba and A. altissima to healthy grapevine and periwinkle (C. roseus)
seedlings. O. ishidae collected in the field were placed in grapevine potted plants for
transmission trials.
Molecular analyses. DNA was extracted from plants and insects collected in the field
and from those used for the transmission trials. Samples were tested with conventional
and quantitative real-time PCR (Angelini at al., 2007; Arnaud et al., 2007; Filippin et
al., 2009). Molecular characterization of some FDp isolates was carried out by
nucleotide sequencing of the 16SrDNA-23SrDNA portion, the secY and the imp genes,
and by RFLP analyses of map gene with double AluI and Eco72I enzymes.
RESULTS
A. altissima infection. In Italy, 35% of the samples were infected with FDp. Occurrence
of FDp was very different among diverse infected areas, ranging from 1 to 100%. In
Serbia, the infection with FDp was recorded for the first time in A. altissima, with a
high incidence ranging from 15 to 88% on different localities.
Molecular characterization of FDp in A. altissima. Molecular characterization of FDinfected A. altissima plants collected in Italy showed that all strains belonged to 16SrVC subgroup. Nucleotide sequencing showed that the strains clustered with FD-D in the
secY and imp genes. RFLP analyses of map gene in A. altissima from Serbia showed
that all infected plants belonged to 16SrV-C subgroup.
Insect collection and analyses. More than 20 Auchenorrhyncha species were recorded in
the weedy plants around A. altissima in Serbia. All of them were polyphagous species
common for the bushes, shrubs and trees near the roads. PCR analyses showed that D.
europaea was positive to FDp.
Sampling and molecular analyses of O. ishidae. The traps placed in 2014 in vineyards
strongly infected with FD allowed us to collect approximately 400 individuals. In
general, a few specimens were present, however in some cases there was a high
occurrence of this species. In 2015 the insect was captured by sweep net in the areas
where it was more abundant. No O. ishidae individual was captured inside the
vineyards, however 23 were collected in the close woods. PCR assays are ongoing.
Transmission trials. D. europaea aquired and transmited FDp from C. vitalba to
grapevine and periwinkle. The qPCR analyses showed that 20% of grapevine and 75%
of C. roseus plants from transmission trials were infected.
70
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Trees of A. altissima were found to be infected with FDp on almost all surveyed
localities, confirming previous reports of host association of this phytoplasma with tree
of heaven. Absence of symptoms on phytoplasma infected trees could be an indication
of commensal relationship between the phytoplasma and its plant host without negative
effects which would lead to a disease development. Plants with this kind of
asymptomatic presence of phytoplasma are considered to be a wild reservoir of the
pathogen. During the survey, clear differences in A. altissima distribution between Italy
and Serbia were observed. Indeed, in Serbia the most of A. altissima plants are growing
close to the roads, very often in association with C. vitalba; in Italy, the tree of heaven is
common both close to the roads and close to the vineyards.
D. europaea was found naturally infected with FDp, and also it is known to be able
to transmit FDp to grapevine from C. vitalba. Results of nested PCR still did not
confirm the presence of FDp in D. europaea and S. titanus from transmission trials with
A. altissima. On the other hand, analyses with more sensitive real-time PCR are ongoing
and it is possible that they will reveal the phytoplasma infection in both D. europaea
and S. titanus and also in grapevine seedlings. Also results on the potential FDp-vector
O. ishidae are still ongoing, however we expect to get some FDp infected individuals,
as it was found in other areas (Mehle et al., 2010).
In this project, both O. ishidae and D. europaea were found in or close to A.
altissima trees, thus it would be very important to understand which is exactly their role
in FD epidemiology, taking into account that different epidemiological cycles can be
established in diverse environmental conditions, such as Serbia and Italy.
References
Angelini E., Squizzato F., Lucchetta G. and Borgo M. (2004). Detection of a
phytoplasma associated with grapevine Flavescence dorée in Clematis vitalba.
European Journal of Plant Pathology, 110, 193-201.
Angelini E., Bianchi GL., Filippin L., Morassutti C., Borgo M. (2007). A new TaqMan
method for the identification of phytoplasmas associated with grapevine
yellows by real-time PCR assay. Journal of Microbiological Methods, 68, 613622.
Arnaud G., Malembic-Maher S., Salar P. et al. (2007). Multilocus sequence typing
confirms the close genetic interrelatedness of three distinct Flavescence dorée
phytoplasma strain clusters and group 16SrV phytoplasmas infecting grapevine
and alder in Europe. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 73, 4001–4010.
Filippin L., Jović J., Cvrković T., Forte V., Clair D., Toševski I., Boudon-Padieu E.,
Borgo M. and Angelini E. (2009). Molecular characteristics of phytoplasmas
associated with Flavescence dorée in clematis and grapevine and preliminary
results on the role of Dictyophara europaea as a vector. Plant Pathology, 58,
826-837.
71
Filippin L., De Prà V., Zottini M., Borgo M. and Angelini E. (2011). Nucleotide
sequencing of imp gene in phytoplasmas associated to Flavescence dorée from
Ailanthus altissima. Bullettin of Insectology, LXVI, S49-S50.
Mehle N., Seljak G., Rupar M., Ravnikar M. and Dermastia M. (2010). The first
detection of a phytoplasma from the 16SrV (elm yellows) group in the mosaic
leafhopper Orientus ishidae. New Disease Reports, 22, 11.
Maixner M., Reinert W. and Darimont H. (2000). Trasmission of grapevine yellows by
Oncopsis alni (Schrank) (Auchenorrhyncha: Macropsinae). Vitis, 39, 83–84.
72
Innovative pectin-based films for food packaging:
preparation and characterization
1
2
3
3
Sanja Seslija , Aleksandra Nesic , Roberto Avolio , Maria Errico , Gabriela
3
4
4
3
Santagata , Sava Velickovic , Melina Kalagasidis Krusic , Mario Malinconico
1
University of Belgrade, Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, Belgrade, Serbia,
[email protected], 2University of Belgrade, Vinča Institute for Nuclear Sciences, Belgrade,
Serbia, [email protected], 3Institute of Polymer Chemistry and Technology, Pozzuoli (Na), Italy,
[email protected], 4University of Belgrade, Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy,
Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected]
ABSTRACT
This work deals with modification of pectin based films with glycidyl methacrylate
(GMA). In the first step, glycidyl methacrylate was grafted to the pectin backbone,
whereas the system was additionally cross-linked in the second step by UV-induced
polymerization reaction of GMA and benzophenone (BP), as a photoinitiator. The
modified pectin films were characterized by FTIR-ATR, thermal and mechanical
analysis. Addition of the vinyl groups increased hydrophobicity and improved filmforming and mechanical properties of pectin based films.
INTRODUCTION
Pectin is natural polysaccharide, composed mainly of the α-1–4-galacturonic acid units
and their methyl esters. According to its degree of esterification, pectin could be
classified as high methoxylated pectin or low methoxylated pectin. Due to its
biodegradability, biocompatibility, edibility, and versatile chemical and physical
properties (such as gelation, selective gas permeability, etc), pectin has been widely
used for film preparation1. Still, pectin-based films are far away from being ideal due to
its poor film forming, barrier and mechanical properties2.
In order to overcome the drawbacks related to the preparation and end use of films, the
pectin was subjected to the chemical modification using glycidyl methacrylate. Addition
of GMA leads to higher hydrophobicity of the pectin films, as well as improved filmforming and mechanical properties.
EXPERIMENTAL
Materials: Apple pectin (70-75% esterified), glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and
benzophenone (BP) was purchased from Sigma (Switzerland), while poly(ethylene
glycol) 600 was purchased from Merck (Germany).
73
Synthesis: In the first reaction step GMA (10% per the pectin weight) was added into
the aqueous pectin solution (2% wt) and stirred for 6h at 65° C, after which PEG 600
(25% per pectin weight) was added. In the second reaction step BP was added (5% per
GMA weight) and stirred for 30min. The mixture was casted into teflon mould (11 cm
in diameter) and photopolymerized for one hour. The obtained pectin/PEG/GMA films
were dried in an oven at 60 °C for 24 h. The pectin/PEG film were prepared without
GMA and used as reference.
CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PECTIN FILMS
FTIR spectra were obtained in the attenuated total reflection mode (ATR) using a
Perkin–Elmer spectrometer (Norwalk, CT) equipped with universal-ATR accessory.
The analysis was carried out at room temperature and ambient humidity. Spectra were
acquired between 4000 and 400 cm−1 with a spectral resolution of 4 cm−1.
DSC measurements were performed with a Mettler-Toledo DSC 30 calorimeter, purged
with nitrogen and equipped with a liquid-nitrogen accessory for fast cooling. TGA
analyses were carried out with a Mettler-Toledo TG-SDTA 851. The measurements
were performed under nitrogen atmosphere (30 mL/min) between 25 and 800 °C, at
heating rate of 10 °C/min.
Mechanical properties were determined using Instron M 1185 universal testing
machine. Crosshead speed was 2 mm min-1 for all testing samples.
Figure 1 shows the mechanism of the ring opening reaction which took place under
given experimental condition between pectin and GMA.
Figure1. The proposed mechanism of the reaction between pectin and GMA
74
FTIR-ATR analysis of the pectin/PEG/GMA film (data not shown) showed the
reduction in intensity of the peak at 910 cm-1, characteristic for epoxy ring structure3,
confirming the proposed mechanism.
Table 1 presents mechanical properties for the pectin/PEG/GMA film, pectin/PEG film
and pure pectin for comparison. Addition of PEG and GMA into pectin caused the
increase of elongation at break, while TS and modulus decreased. This effect was more
pronounced when the GMA was added.
Table 1. Mechanical properties for pure pectin, PEG and pectin/PEG/GMA film
Sample
ε, %
E(GPa)
TS, MPa
Pectin/GMA/PEG
7.83
0.23
17.63
600
Pectin/PEG 600
6.14
0.36
22.16
Pectin 2%
3.3
1.2
28.63
Considering results of thermal analysis (Table 2), introduction of PEG caused the
decrease in Tg value which indicated the plasticizing effect of PEG. When GMA is
added, the Tg was slightly higher, but still lower compared to the neat pectin. The main
degradation of pectin/PEG/GMA film was related to the degradation of its initial
components, pectin and PEG, and took place at 236 °C and 306 °C, respectively.
Table 2. DSC and TGA analysis of pectin-based films.
Sample
Neat apple pectin
Pectin/PEG 600
Pectin/PEG/GMA/BP
10%
Tg, °C
50.58
43.91
46.79
Onset, oC
225.38
221.63
217.29
Pectin
degradation,
o
C
240.81
238.47
236.34
PEG
degradation,
o
C
351.23
306.05
FUTURE INVESTIGATION
The proposed aproach which involves interaction between pectin and GMA in presence
of the plastisizer (PEG) resulted in modified films with satisfying mechanical properties
wherein formation of cracks and curling was avoided. In order to meet all the criteria
imposed by packaging industry and whole food chain “from the field to table”4, our
further research will be focused toward improvement of barrier and antibacterial
properties of the pectin/PEG/GMA films.
75
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge funding from the Ministry of Education, Science and
Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, Project No. 172062 and 43009.
References
1. P. Judith Pérez Espitia, W.X. Du, R. de Jesús Avena-Bustillos, N. de Fátima Ferreira
Soares, T.H. McHugh, Edible films from pectin: Physical-mechanical and
antimicrobial properties - A review, Food Hydrocolloids 35 (2014) 287-296.
2. V. Venugopal, Marine Polysaccharides: Food Applications, CRC Press , Technology
& Engineering (2011) 0-396.
3. J. Kalal, F. Švec, V. Maroušek, Reactions of epoxide groups of glycidyl methacrylate
copolymers, Journal of Polymer Science Part C, 47 (1974) 155–166.
4. M.J. Fabra, A. López-Rubio, J.M. Lagaron, Biopolymers for food packaging
applications, Smart Polymers and their Applications (2014), 476–509.
76
Sustainable Place-Based Development Trajectories
in the Zlatibor Region (Serbia): Advantages and
Constraints of its Territorial Capital
1
Elena Battaglini and Marija Babović
2
1
IRES – Social & Economic Researc Institute Rome, Italy, [email protected]; 2 Institute For
Sociological Research Faculty of Philosophy University of Belgrade, Serbia,
[email protected].
Main aim of the Mobility programme was the identification and analysis of sustainable
place-based development patterns in the Zlatibor area in Serbia.
Therefore, our studies have developed policy-focused, quali-quantitative, exploratory
research designs aimed at:
• analysing the territorial characterisation of the region, its local heritage dimensions
and development trajectories through the interpretative perspective of ‘territorialisation’
(Battaglini, 2014).
• Identifying the frame of references of effective public policies at different scale
(Local, National, Regional) promoting endogenous place-based development within the
ongoing process of European integration.
• Identifying the main strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a placebased sustainable development’s paths of this region in order to further promote
bilateral economic and commercial cooperation between Italy and Serbia.
• Pinpointing the key factors to further target EU funded research or action-research
projects (Horizon 2020, IPA, CEI funds and others) aimed at the place-based
sustainable development of the Region.
The main results of our studies have been published in the following publications:
1) Battaglini E., Babović M. (2015). Nature and culture in the territorialisation
processes. Challenges and Insights from a case-study in Serbia. In J. Dessein, E.
Battaglini, L. Horlings L. (eds), Cultural Sustainability and Regional Development.
Theories and Practices of Territorialisation, Routledge Studies in Culture and
Sustainable Development, Routledge, London, pp. 59-72.
This chapter challenges the normativity inherent in the conceptual nature of sustainable
development and its globalising logic addressing to the debate on the ‘territoriality’ and
‘territorialisation’ of regional development, for its conceptual strength in framing placebased trajectories. Main aim is to understand how culture interacts with natural hybrids
within the development trajectories. Empirical evidence is given on the basis of a casestudy developed in the Zlatibor rural region of Serbia.
77
2) Battaglini E., Babović M., Bogdanov N. (2015). Framing Resilience in relation to
Territorialisation. In A. Palovita, M. Jarvela, Climate adaptation, policy and food
supply chain management in Europe, Routledge Advances in Climate Change Research,
Routledge, London, pp. 119-131.
In this chapter farm resilience is evoked as an inner dimension of ‘territorialisation’: this
is a process in which the communities settling in a place perceive the specific nature of
that place, attributing symbols to resources and to local peculiarities, and thus reifying,
structuring and organising the space. Resilience, in our understanding, emphasises
forms of learning and processes of development based on local priorities and needs, as
identified by the communities through territorialisation patterns and as pursued in their
daily food production practices. Empirical evidence stemming from a case study run in
the Zlatibor region (Serbia) is supporting our analysis.
Other publications stemming from the Mobility programme:
Battaglini E., Babović M., Bridging culture into sustainable development. The role of
milieu in territorial development trajectories. In Geoforum B, in preparation.
Battaglini E., Marino D., The Reflexive Taste. Bridging Food Production and
Consumption towards Sustainability. In Sociologia Ruralis, submitted.
Battaglini E. (2015). Assessing culture in sustainable development. In J. Dessein, K.
Soini, G. Fairclough and L. Horlings (eds), Culture in, for and as Sustainable
Development. Conclusions from the Cost Action 1007 Investigating Cultural
Sustainability, Jyväskylä University Press, Jyväskylä, pp. 50-54.
Dessein J., Battaglini E., Horlings L. (eds), (2015). Cultural Sustainability and Regional
Development. Theories and practices of territorialisation, Series Routledge
Studies in Culture and Sustainable Development, Routledge, London.
Battaglini E., Horlings L., Dessein J. (2015). Conclusion: Territorialisation, a
Challenging Concept for Framing Regional Development. In J. Dessein, E.
Battaglini, L. Horlings L. (eds), Cultural Sustainability and Regional
Development. Theories and practices of territorialisation, Routledge Studies in
Culture and Sustainable Development, Routledge, London, pp. 249-259.
Battaglini E., Annunziata S. (2015), Territoriality and urban policy. Addressing
territorial complexity. In M. Cerasoli (ed), CITTÀ MEMORIA GENTE CIUDAD MEMORIA GENTE - CITY MEMORY PEOPLE, Proceedings of the
9th Congress ‘Virtual City and Territory’, Rome, October 2-4, 2013, RomaTrEPress, Rome. ISBN 978-88-97524-15-1.
Babović, M., (2014). Rodni aspekti pristupa ekonomskim resursima u procesima
teritorijalizacije: istrazivanje u zlatiborskom regionu (Gender aspects of the
access to economic resources in the territorialization processes: the research in
region of Zlatibor). In Socioloski, 3, pp. 353-381.
78
Battaglini E. (2014). Sviluppo Territoriale. Dal disegno di ricerca alla valutazione dei
risultati, Collana La Cassetta degli Attrezzi. Strumenti per le Scienze Umane,
Franco Angeli, Milano.
Battaglini E. (2013). The analysis of the place-based sustainable development: concepts,
techniques, findings. In M. Petrovic (ed), Izazovi Održivog Razvoja, Čigoja,
Beograd, pp. 169-182.
Spin offs
•
Erasmus+ project proposal, call 2015
Ka2 – Cooperation and innovation for good practices
Title: Nature, culture, innovation. Zero impact city, new territory professions and
professionals? How faculties of architecture can contribute to create green economy
professionals.
Partnership: IRES, University of Roma Tre, University of Belgrade, Faculty of
Architecture - Serbia , University of Arts and Culture, Belgrade, Serbia, University of
Jyväskylä, Finland, MAXXI Foundation Rome, Italy.
•
Ministero Affari Esteri Progetti di Grande Rilevanza Secure, Clean and Efficient
Energy - Environmental Development and Protection. Call 2015
Title: Learning Economies. Modelling Community-Led Local Development For The
Sustainable Economic Trajectories Of The Negotin and Zlatibor Regions
Partnership: IRES, Rome, Italy; University of Belgrade, Faculty of Architecture and
Faculty of Philosophy, Serbia; University of Alghero, Italy.
79
Nanostructurated reactive hydrides for hydrogen
storage
1
1
1
1
Igor Milanović , Sanja Milošević , Ljiljana Matović , Radojka Vujasin , Nikola
1
1
1
1
Novaković , Bojana Paskaš Mamula , Anđelka Đukić , Bojana Kuzmanović ,
1
2
1
Sandra Kurko , Riccardo Checchetto Jasmina Grbović Novaković
1
Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of Belgrade, P.O. Box 522, 11000 Belgrade,
Serbia [email protected]
2
Faculty of Physics, University of Trento, 38123 Povo, Italy, [email protected]
INTRODUCTION
Magnesium hydride fulfil many of technological demands for hydrogen
storage, but sluggish kinetic of sorption and its high thermodynamic stability may
exclude this compound from commercial applications. MgH2 mechanically milled with
metals, their oxides or halides shows improved kinetic and sorption characteristics
(Varin et al., 2009). Hydrogen desorption characteristics and behaviour of MgH2 could
also be improved by mixing and milling with lithium alanate (LiAlH4 in further text). In
comparison with MgH2, MgH2-LiAlH4 composite has some peculiar properties that can
led to practical application of those materials.
Chen et al. (Chen et al., 2010) have concluded that combination of MgH2 and
LiAlH4 destabilizes both compounds, causes lower hydrogen desorption onsets of
MgH2-LiAlH4 system (in comparison with pure MgH2). Vittetoe et al. (Vittetoe et
al.,2009) have reported that destabilization of LiAlH4 was achieved through particle
size reduction during mechanical grinding with MgH2 .They have also shown that the
composite demonstrate reversibility with moderate kinetics at 300°C. On the other hand,
it has been found (Czujko et al., 2011) that LiAlH4 decomposes MgH2 by formation of
solid solution of Al dissolved in Mg. In mentioned studies, there is no experimental data
for MgH2-LiAlH4 composites with small quantity of LiAlH4 compound. Beside the
chemical activation, which is explained in literature very well, catalytic activation was
not investigated, therefore the idea of this work was to study the catalytic influence of
LiAlH4 on MgH2 desorption.
EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
MgH2-LiAlH4 composite was prepared by mechanical milling process in
Turbula Type 2TC Mixer using ball to powder ratio of 10:1 in argon atmosphere in
Vinča Institute of nuclear sciences, while thermodynamic and kinetic behaviour of
material was followed by Thermal Desorption Spectroscopy (TDS) using a home-made
81
apparatus at University of Trento. During isochronal heating of the sample between 60
and 500°C at 5 K/min, the H2 desorption was monitored measuring the H2 flux by a
calibrated mass flow meter. H2 desorption data was analysed using a numerical code
developed by our group.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION
LiAlH4 has a dual effect on destabilization process combining chemical and
catalytic activation. Chemical activation is more frequently evident in composites with
significant quantity of LiAlH4 (in comparison to MgH2). In this case, MgH2 and LiAlH4
chemically react until depletion of one of these two compounds. On the other hand,
catalytic activation is apparent in samples of MgH2-LiAlH4 composites with small
quantity of LiAlH4. This change is caused by distribution of LiAlH4 particles on the
surface of MgH2 particles. It is obvious that MgH2 particles completely change shape
and morphology after milling, giving rise to polymodal particle size distribution (Figure
1).
Figure 1. SEM micrographs of pure MgH2 (AA) and composite material (Li5)
The highly porous matrix, with very small particles, represents excellent host structure
for fast hydrogen sorption processes. The amount of hydrogen evolved from LiAlH4
reduces with increase of milling time, so the decomposition of LiAlH4 is initiated and
some quantity of hydride is always irreversibly destroyed. This can be the reason why
composite milled for 15 minutes shows the best kinetic results. It has been revealed that
non-isothermal Avrami – Erofeev (A-E) model demonstrates the best fit for all samples.
According to this model, the nucleation mechanism was assumed. One can notice that
parameter n has changed from 3 for pure sample to n = 4 for composites (see Table 1).
It is well know that n = β + λ where β is the number of steps involved in nucleus
formation and λ is the number of dimensions in which the nuclei grow (λ = 3 for
spheres or hemispheres, 2 for discs or cylinders and 1 for linear development). Since
parameter n represents desorption performances of compound, the determined value
does not necessarily provide a unique measurement of both β and λ. Therefore, the
difference between AA sample (n = 3) and other samples (n = 4) are either due to a
change in the nucleation or a change in the dimensionality of the growth. Values of
activation energies (obtained by A-E fitting) of all peaks are shown in Table 1. All the
82
LT values of Ea correspond to LiAlH4 decomposition, while IT and HT values
correspond to decomposition of MgH2. Comparing apparent activation energy of as
received MgH2 (AA) with Ea of composite, it is clear that milled MgH2-LiAlH4 shows
better kinetics.
Table 1. Kinetic parameters of as received MgH2 and MgH2 – LiAlH4 composites.
1
R2*
correlation
coefficient
g (θ ) = [− ln (1 − θ )]n
Sample
Peak
θ
Ea
(kJ/mol)
AA
HT
0.3 - 0.8
388
0.980
n=3
LT 1
LT 2
IT
HT
LT
HT
HT
0.3 - 0.8
0.3 - 0.8
0.2 - 0.8
0.2 - 0.8
0.3 - 0.8
0.2 - 0.8
0.2 - 0.8
86
37
127
94
45
72
99
0.997
0.997
0.996
0.997
0.986
0.997
0.990
n=4
Li15
Li30
Li60
(Avrami-Erofeev)
References
Varin R. A., Czujko T. and Wronski Z. S. (2009). Nanomaterials for Solid State
Hydrogen Storage, Springer, New York, USA.
Chen R., Wang X., Xu L., Chen L., Li S. and Chen C. (2010). An investigation on the
reaction mechanism of LiAlH4–MgH2 hydrogen storage system. Material
Chemistry and Physics, 124, 83–87.
Vittetoe A. W., Niemann M. U., Srinivasan S. S., McGrath K., Kumar A., Goswami D.
Y., Stefanakos E. K. and Thomas S (2009). Destabilization of LiAlH4 by
nanocrystalline MgH2. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 34, 2333–
2339.
Czujko T., Zaranski Z., Malka I. E. and Wronski Z.(2011). Composite behaviour of
MgH2 and complex hydride mixtures synthesized by ball milling. Journal of
Alloys Compounds, 509S, S604– S607.
83
Computational study of bio- and nano-systems:
chemical, spectroscopic and conformational aspects
1
2
3
Sonja Grubišić , Giuseppe Brancato and Vincenzo Barone
1
IHTM-Center for Chemistry, Njegoseva 12, University of Belgrade, Serbia,
[email protected], 2 Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy [email protected],
3
Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy [email protected],
INTRODUCTION
The current project is focused on a successful ongoing collaboration between the Italian
and the Serbian research groups, which concerns the development and applications of
state-of-the-art computational tools for simulating biochemical systems of great
relevance for Life Science and Medicine. The accurate molecular dynamics (MD)
simulation of the structural and dynamic properties of biological macromolecules is
largely based on the availability of reliable force fields (FF), which are responsible for
the proper modeling of the behavior of peptides and proteins in their natural
environment at a reasonable computational cost. The popular AMBER-based force-field
(FF) has been developed for the simulations of the α,α dialkylated peptides with cyclic
and linear side chains. Manuscripts summarizing these results have been published
[1,2]. New atom types have been included, and relevant parameters have been fitted
based on geometries, vibrational frequencies and potential energy surfaces computed at
the DFT level, both in vacuo and in different solvents. Particular interest is devoted to
the spin labeled peptides which contain other α-tetra-substituted non-natural amino
acids such as
paramagnetic amino acid 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-N-oxyl-4-amino-4carboxylic acid, TOAC, used as spin label in biologically important protein studies. The
residue is stable under ordinary conditions and can provide access to useful
conformational information through well-established magneto-structural relationships.
The modified force field has been employed in the context of an integrated approach,
that combines enhanced-sampling molecular dynamics (MD) and quantum
computations with experimental measurments, for the investigation of environmental
and nanosecond time scale motions on the spectroscopic data (EPR, NMR) of nitroxide
spin probes [3]. MD plays a fundamental role in characterizing protein disordered states
that are emerging as crucial actors in many biological processes. The parameterization
is not limited to only the NO moiety; rather, the aim is to provide at the force-field level
an accurate description of the whole structure of the nitroxide probes (TOAC, MTSSLmethane thiosulfonate), their solvent interactions, and possibly covalent bonds between
nitroxide probes and diamagnetic species, which are relevant to the situation of sitedirected spin labeling (SDSL) methods.
85
RESULTS
The performances of the FF were evaluated in a series of MD simulations of α,α
dialkylated peptides and proteins in different solutions at different temperatures and
different length size. By comparison of simulated and literature data, we demonstrated
the reliability and accuracy of the force field for predicting stable secondary structures.
Specifically, the conformational equilibrium between 310- and α-helical structure of Ac(Aib)n-NMe homopeptides of various main chain lengths (n=5,6,7,10), solvated in
aqueous and in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) media, all based on the strongly helicogenic
Cα tetrasubstituted α-amino acid (such as α-aminoisobutyric acid), has been studied
using molecular dynamics simulations.
Denaturation of heptapeptide in aqueous solution was monitored as a function of
temperature (in the range from 300 to 400 K). In actual solutions, the formation of 310or α-helices in Aib peptides appear to be finely tuned depending on several factors that
include chain length, temperature and type of solvent (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Representation of heptapeptide in its two helical
conformations in equilibrium according to the temperature
In observed systems, it has been demonstrated that a peptide can adopt 310 and α
conformations and that it is possible to shift the equilibrium between one conformation
to the other by altering the type of the solvent or temperature. Both the simulations in
water and DMSO underwent structural transitions between α-helix and 310-helix with
86
large population of helical structures. The results presented here have allowed detailed
analysis of structural features and peptide lengths preferences, thus shedding light on
the forces that stabilize helical conformations.
Multifrequency electron paramagnetic resonance has been used to define the multistate
structural dynamics of an integral membrane protein, phospholamban (PLB), in a lipid
bilayer. PLB is a key regulator of cardiac calcium transport, and its function requires
transitions between distinct states of intramolecular dynamics. Monomeric PLB was
synthesized with the TOAC spin label at positions 11 (in the cytoplasmic domain) and
46 (in the transmembrane domain) and reconstituted into lipid bilayers [4]. Unlike other
protein spin labels, TOAC reports directly the motion of the peptide backbone, so
quantitative analysis of its dynamics is worthwhile. Following the experimental setup
[4], we have simulated TOAC labeled phospholamban (PLB) in lipid bilayers at
positions 11 and 46, as well as native protein.
Besides, we have performed simulations
of PLB labeled at position 11 with cysdirected methanethiosulfonate spin label
(MTSSL) with AMBER and new
developed force field for MTSSL
residue.
The principal conclusions of the present
study are: MD simulations of TOAC
labeled PLB in membranes reveal that
the peptide backbone of PLB is quite
rigid in the transmembrane domain at
position 46, as expected by experimental
data (Figure 2). However, the
cytoplasmic domain probes at position
11 has two conformational states (Figure
2). Figure 2 shows NMR solution
structure of the ordered conformation,
colored spectrally to indicate backbone
dynamics, increasing from blue to green
to yellow to red (A).
Figure 2. Model of PLB topology and
structural dynamics in the membrane,
based on the NMR structure of AFA-PLB
in detergent micelles and on MD of the
TOAC. derivatives in the present study.
Two-state model supported by the MD,
in which the ordered conformer (Left) is
in dynamic equilibrium with a more
dynamic conformer (Right) is also
presented at Fig. 2 B. This work
presents the power of MD, in
combination with the multifrequency
EPR, for defining the dynamics of spin
labeled proteins.
87
References
1. Grubišić S., Brancato G., Pedone A. and Barone V. (2012), Extension of the
AMBER force field to cyclic α,α dialkylated peptides. PHYSICAL
CHEMISTRY CHEMICAL, 14 (44) 15308-15320.
2. Grubišić S., Brancato G. and Barone V. (2013), An improved AMBER force field
for α, α dialkylated peptides: intrinsic and solvent-induced conformational
preferences of model systems. PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY CHEMICAL, 15
(48) 17395-17407.
3. Grubišić S., Brancato G., Chandramouli B. and Barone V. (2015), Structure
prediction of α-aminoisobutyric acid peptides in solution using molecular
dynamics simulations. In preparation.
4. Karim C. B., Kirby T. L., Zhang Z.,Nesmelov Y., and Thomas D. D. (2004),
Phospholamban structural dynamics in lipid bilayers probed by a spin label
rigidly coupled to the peptide backbone. PNAS, 101 (40) 14437-14442.
88
Italian-Serbian Bilateral Cooperation 2013-2015
Mobility program
Project: “Gravity in Quantum Spacetime”
Marija Dimitrijević Ćirić
1
1
University of Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected]
INTRODUCTION
General Relativity is based on a space-time with continuous and commuting
coordinates, in agreement with our macroscopic intuition. However, measurements of
geometry at very small scales require very energetic probes, and these inevitably modify
the geometry they want to measure. As a consequence no information on structures
smaller than the Planck scale can be obtained, leading to a kind of geometrical
uncertainty principle. Noncommutative (NC) space-time incorporates this uncertainty
principle. In a NC space-time a nonvanishing commutator between coordinates
implements kinematically the idea of a minimum area, a fundamental feature expected
in a quantization of gravity, suggested also in the context of black hole entropy
computations and string/brane theory. Built-in granularity of space-time may also be
essential in ensuring ultraviolet finiteness of a quantum gravity theory, as in the case of
lattice field theories.
During the last ten years different models of NC gravity were formulated. The aim of
our project was to develop further some of these models and to study solutions of
specific NC gravity theories and their cosmological implications.
GRAVITY IN QUANTUM SPACE-TIME
Our research project is in theoretical physics and it concerns gravity theories on
noncommutative space-times: their mathematical content and physical implications. The
collaboration is composed by the Alessandria-Napoli and Belgrade groups. It initiated
ten years ago in Munich with Prof. Julius Wess, where Aschieri (AL), Dimitrijević (BE)
and Fiore (NA) , worked together, and it produced seminal papers on the subject of NC
gravity (Aschieri et al., 2005, 2006), the common book (Aschieri et al. 2009) and many
other publications. Based on this common work, a bilateral project “Gravity in quantum
space-time” was proposed and approved for financing for the period 2013-2015. The
names of the researchers participating the project are given in Table 1 and Table 2.
Aims and expertise. The model we use is based on the NC gauge theory of SO(1,3) or
SO(2,3) groups. The Seiberg-Witten map is used to express the NC theory as a higher
derivatives gravity theory on commutative space-time with extra (scalar or vector) fields
responsible for the noncommutativity (Aschieri et al. 2008, 2010, 2013).
89
Table 1. Serbian research group.
Members
Prof. Dr Marija Dimitrijević Ćirić
(project leader), Prof. Dr Maja Burić,
Prof. Dr Voja Radovanović, Dragan
Prekrat (phd student), Boris
Stupovski (master student)
Dejan Simić (phd student)
Table 2. Italian research group.
Members
Prof. Dr Leonardo Castellani (project
leader), dr Paolo Aschieri
Prof. Dr Fedele Lizzi, dr Patricia
Vitale, dr Francesco D'Andrea, dr
Gaetano Fiore
Institution
Faculty of Physics, University of
Belgrade
Institute of Physics, University of
Belgrade
Institution
Università del Piemonte Orientale,
Alessandria
Università di Napoli Federico II
The Alessandria-Napoli and Belgrade groups share common tools in the formulation of
NC gravity. The Alessandria group is expert in differential geometry aspects, in higher
derivatives theories, in supergravity; the Napoli group has expertize in fuzzy spaces,
cosmology and a complementary approach to NC theories via Spectral Actions; the
Belgrade group is known for studies on renormalizarion of quantum field theory on NC
spaces and its work on gravity and gauge theories on fuzzy spaces.
RESULTS
During the three years of the project various activities took place and results were
obtained. We quote them grouped by the years of the project.
2013. Prof. Dr Marija Dimitrijević visited the University of Torino (14.-24. November
2013). The problem analyzed during the visit was the formulation of noncommutative
(NC) Chern-Simons theories. These theories are used to formulate models of gravity
and supergravity and to describe condensed matter phenomenons like quantum Hall
effect and topological insulators. Dr Paolo Aschieri visited the University of Belgrade
(2.-6. December 2013). During his visit the research started in Torino was continued. In
addition, dr Aschieri gave a mini-course on Geometry of gauge fields. This course was
meant especially to master and phd students, but also to the researchers interested in this
subject.
2014. Prof. dr Fedele Lizzi visited the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Physics (13.20. November 2014). During his prof. Lizzi gave three seminars on Noncommutative
standard model and spectral action. First two seminars were technical and were given
90
for the members of the Belgrade gravity group. The third seminar was a faculty
colloquium, meant for physicists but non-experts in the field. Prof. dr Marija
Dimitrijević visited University of Torino (14.-21. December 2014). The aim of this visit
was to continue the work on noncommutative Cher-Simons theories. First results of this
research were published in (Aschieri et al., 2014). Topological theories of gravity were
also discussed during the visit. The Kaluza-Klein dimensional reduction was reviewed
and its application to the five dimensional topological gravity was analyzed. In
addition, few members of our project gave talks related to the project topics on various
conferences. We mention some of them: Castellani (Bayrischzell, May 2014),
Radovanović (Belgrade, August 2014), Dimitrijević (Sinaia, September 2014).
2015. Prof. dr Leonardo Castellani visited Belgrade (22.-27. June 2015). During his
visit, prof. Castellani gave a course on Supergravity for the phd students and a public
colloquium on General Relativity during the one day conference “GR100: Centennial of
General Relativity” organized by the Belgrade gravity group. In December 2015 the
visit of prof. Dr Marija Dimitrijević Ćirić to the University of Torino is planned. The
aim of this visit will be to continue the work on NC Chern-Simons theories and the
Kaluza-Klein dimensional reductions of 5D Supergravities.
CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK
The obtained results suggest that the collaboration was fruitful and they open new
possibilities for collaborations. Additional motivation comes from the COST action
“Quantum structure of space-time”, which started in April 2015. Both Italian and
Serbian researchers are included in the action: Ascieri (vice chair, MC member), Burić
(MC member), Dimitrijević, Lizzi, Vitale (MC substitutes)). In the framework of this
COST action a school on quantum gravity is planned to be organized in Belgrade in
August 2016.
References
Aschieri P., Blohmann C., Dimitrijević M., Meyer F., Schupp P. and Wess J. (2005). A
Gravity Theory on Noncommutative Spaces. Class. Quant. Grav. 22, 3511.
Aschieri P., Dimitrijević M., Meyer F. and Wess J. (2006). NC Geometry and Gravity.
Class. Quant. Grav. 23, 1883.
Aschieri P., Dimitrijevic M., Kulish P., Lizzi F. and Wess J. (2009). Noncommutative
spacetimes. Lecture notes in physics 774, Springer.
Aschieri P., Castellani L. and Dimitrijević M. (2008). Dynamical noncommutativity and
Noether theorem in twisted Phi^4 theory. Lett. Math. Phys. 85, 39-53.
Aschieri P. and Castellani L. (2010). Noncommutative Gravity Solutions. J. Geom.
Phys. 60375.
91
Aschieri P., Castellani L. and Dimitrijević M. (2013). NC gravity at second order via
Seiberg-Witten map. Phys. Rev. D 87 024017.
Aschieri P. and Castellani L. (2014). Noncommutative Chern-Simons gauge and gravity
theories and their geometric Seiberg-Witten map, JHEP 1411 103.
92
A Multi-State Interferometer on an Atom Chip
1,2
1
1
1
2,3
F. S. Cataliotti , C. Lovecchio , M. S. Cherukattil , P. Lombardi , L. Pezze , A.
2.3
4
4
4
Smerzi , G. Gligoric , A. Maluckov , J. Petrovic
1
European Laboratory for Nonlinear Spectroscopy (LENS), Via N Carrara 1, 50019 Firenze, Italy
QSTAR, Largo E. Fermi 2, 50125, Firenze, Italy
3
Istituto Nazionale di Ottica (INO-CNR), Largo E. Fermi 6, 50125 Firenze, Italy
4
Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of Belgrade, Serbia
[email protected], [email protected]
2
ATOM INTERFEROMETRY
Interferometry has been used as high-precision measurement technique in optics,
acoustics and telecommunications for over 100 years. It exploits the dependence of the
superposition of two waves on their relative phases. Wave-particle duality intrinsic to
quantum mechanics enables construction of matter-wave interferometers. In particular,
atom interferometers have become very useful upon the realization of Bose-Einstein
condensates whose coherent macroscopic quantum nature and extremely low
temperature permit precise interferometric measurements. They have been used to
measure e.g. the internal properties of atoms, many-body effects and gravity (Cronin,
2009).
Recently, different strategies for improvement of interferometer precision have been
explored. They comprise the use of multiple paths and nonlinearity. Eventually,
quantum entanglement has been proposed as the mean of bringing the measurement
sensitivity beyond the standard quantum limit imposed by the classical physics.
In 2013, we have suggested a novel strategy for improvement of the cold-atom
interferometer measurement precision that relies on the simultaneous use of several
atomic spin states (Petrovic, 2013). The bilateral project Italy-Serbia, 2013-2015 has
enabled further comprehensive studies of the interferometer sensitivity and applications.
Here, we first describe the working principle of the interferometer, then present
theoretical and experimental estimates of its sensitivity, and finally demonstrate its
application in the direct quantum memory read-out.
MULTI-STATE ATOM-CHIP INTERFEROMETER
The interferometric scheme is shown in Fig. 1. The interferometric sequence begins by
a coherent splitting of the initial BEC in the |F = 2, mF = 2> state (Herrera, 2013) into
BECs in other Zeeman states mF, j of the same hyperfine level. The splitting is effected
by an RF pulse of duration τ. In a magnetic field, atoms in these states accumulate
different phases ϕj during time T. The second RF pulse maps the phase differences into
the populations of the Zeeman states at the output of the interferometer. A two-step
detection scheme is applied: the states are first separated by a gradient of the magnetic
93
field B and then detected by absorption imaging. Output of the interferometer consists
of 5 signals (fringes) representing population of each state.
Figure 1. Working principle of the multi-state atom interferometer.
Fringes of the multi-state interferometer are sharpened due to the higher-harmonic
phase contributions of the energetically equidistant Zeeman states. The complete
coherence of the atom transfer between the condensates guarantees the full fringe
visibility. In addition, atom-chip realization of BEC alleviates stringent requirements on
alignment and high-resolution imaging present in the multi-path interferometers realized
using optical lattices.
We estimated the sensitivity of the
multi-state
interferometer
both
experimentally
and
theoretically.
Excellent agreement between the
experiment and theory validates the
model (Petrovic, 2013).
In order to assess the measurement
uncertainty we performed a series of
measurements that permitted the
statistical analysis and extension of the
mathematical formalism based on Fisher
information from a two-mode (Pezze,
2015) to a multi-mode interferometer
(Petrovic, 2015). Respecting the
94
normalized populations [%]
SENSITIVITY ESTIMATE
100
80
60
40
20
0
0.00
0.06
0.12
T[µs]
0.18
0.24
Figure 2. Atomic state populations as functions
of delay T (purple - mF=2, green - mF=1, blue mF=0, red - mF=-1, black - mF=-2).
Cramer-Rao's criterion, the highest sensitivity is obtained by tailoring the energy of the
RF pulse to maximize Fisher information. Optimal value is found for the Rabi RF pulse
area of π/2, which corresponds to fringes in Fig. 2. The sensitivity scaling is given by
1 / (M − 1) N , where the scaling with the number of atoms N is the consequence of the
shot noise and the scaling with M stems from the use of M paths.
MEASUREMENT OF ATOM COHERENCE
We further used the interferometer as a tool for the direct read-out of the atomic
quantum memory (Lombardi, 2014). Writing into the memory is realized by imprinting
a phase into Zeeman atomic states by application of a bi-chromatic coherent light field
closing a Raman transition. The light pulses replace the first beam splitter (RF pulse) of
the interferometer. By applying the second RF pulse as described above and
simultaneously measuring the beat note between the transmitted light pulses we
univocally relate the Raman phase to the phase of the atomic coherence. Results for the
memory read-out by population measurement and the memory lifetime are shown in
Fig. 3.
a)
Figure 3.
b)
(a) Raman phase read-out as atom population distribution.
(b) Quantum memory decay.
CONCLUSIONS
A novel multi-state interferometer on an atom chip has been realized, characterized and
tested in applications. It is achieved by coherent manipulation of BECs in M different
Zeeman states of the same hyperfine level by means of radio-frequency and static
magnetic fields. The sensitivity of such an interferometer is improved by the factor of
( M − 1) with respect to the ideal 2-state interferometer with the same energy
difference between the neighbouring states. Smart state preparation and simultaneous
detection of all output states open numerous possibilities for its use as multiport device.
Our future work will be directed towards the use of multiple ports in multi-parameter
sensing schemes.
95
References
Cronin A. D., Schmiedmayer J. and Pritchard D. (2009) Optics and interferometry with
atoms and molecules. Review Modern Physics, 81, 1051.
Petrovic J., Herrera I., Lombardi P., Schaefer F. and Cataliotti F. S. (2013) A MultiState Interferometer on an Atom Chip. New Journal of Physics, 15, 043002.
Herrera I., Petrovic J., Lombardi P., Consolino L., Bartalini S. and Cataliotti F. S.
(2012) Degenerate Quantum Gases Manipulation on Atom Chips. Physica
Scripta, T149, 014002.
Pezze L., Hyllus P. and Smerzi A. (2015) Phase-sensitivity bounds for two-mode
interferometers. Physical Review A, 91, 032103.
Petrovic J., Gligoric G., Maluckov A., Cherukattil M. S., Lovecchio C., Cataliotti F. S.,
Pezze L. and Smerzi A. (2015) Sensitivity of A Multi-State Atom
Interferometer, 19th SFKM, Belgrade, Serbia
Lombardi P., Schaefer F., Herrera I., Cherukattil S., Petrovic J., Lovecchio C., Marin F.
and Cataliotti F. S. (2014) Reading the phase of a Raman excitation with a
multi-state atomic interferometer, Optics Express, 22, 19141.
96
The adsorptive and photocatalytic properties of
CeO2 /TiO2 oxide based nanostructures
1
2
1
2
Zorana Dohčević-Mitrović , Sandro Santucci , Sonja Aškrabić , Luca Lozzi ,
2
1
1
Maurizio Passacantando , Nataša Tomić and Novica Paunović
1
Center for Solid State Physics and New Materials, Institute of Physics Belgrade, University of
Belgrade, Pregrevica 118, 11080 Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected]
2
Department of Physical and Chemical Sciences, University of L’Aquila, Via Vetoio, 67100
L’Aquila, Italy
ABSTRACT
Ultrafine CeO2-δ nanopowder, prepared by self-propagating room temperature synthesis
method (SPRT), showed high adsorption capability for removal of Reactive Orange 16
(RO16), Methyl Orange (MO), and Mordant Blue 9 (MB9). The highest adsorption
capacity of CeO2-δ was obtained for the MO (113 mg g-1) and then for the MB9 (101
mg g-1) and RO16 (91 mg g-1). Adsorption of MO, RO16, and MB9 dyes followed the
pseudo-second order equation. The adsorption process implied that besides strong
electrostatic sorption, chemisorption mechanism may play an important role for the dye
adsorption.
TiO2/WO3 composite and pure TiO2 coatings were prepared on titania substrates using
plasma electrolytic oxidation process. The photocatalytic efficiency of pure TiO2 and
TiO2/WO3 samples was evaluated by performing the photodegradation experiments in
an aqueous solution of Rhodamine 6G and Mordant Blue 9, as model pollutants, under
the visible and UV light. The composite catalysts presented much higher photocatalytic
activity than pure TiO2 under visible light and better photoefficiency than TiO2 after
exposure to UV light as well. The photodegradation reaction in the case of both azo
dyes followed pseudo-first order kinetics. Photoactivity of TiO2/WO3 samples was much
higher under the visible irradiation.
The ultrafine CeO2-δ nanopowder, of averaged crystallite size ∼6 nm and specific
surface area of 74 m2 g-1, was produced by self-propagating room temperature synthesis
method (SPRT). CeO2-δ was tested as potential adsorbent for removal of three azo dyes
from aqueous solution, Reactive Orange 16 (RO16), Methyl Orange (MO), and Mordant
Blue 9 (MB9) (Tomić, 2014). The adsorption experiments were carried out as batch
tests with three different concentrations (50, 100 and 200 mg L-1) of MO, MB9 and
RO16 dye solutions at initial pH values of 6.2, 6 and 4.6 for MO, MB9 and RO16
97
solutions. The working volume (25 mL) and the quantity of ceria nanopowder (50 mg)
was kept fixed.
(a)
(b)
Figure 1. (a) Photo images of (a) RO16, (b) MO and (c) MB9 dye solutions (50 mg L-1)
before and two minutes after introducing CeO2-δ nanoparticles (2 g L-1). (b)
Adsorption rate and amount of adsorbed dyes for the solutions of MO, RO16
and MB9 (200 mg L-1) in the presence of CeO2-δ nanopowder.
After two minutes, RO16 was removed from the solution, whereas the other two dyes
were present in a very low concentration (Fig. 1a). The adsorption rate and the amount
of adsorbed dye with contact time for the solutions of RO16, MO and MB9
(200 mg L-1) are illustrated in Figure 1b. The adsorption process is rapid in the initial
stage for all three dyes. The adsorption rate for RO16 was higher at the beginning, but
after 60 min, MO was much better eliminated from the solution. Adsorption isotherms
were analyzed according to Langmuir and Freundlich models. Both models give
reasonable good fit in the case of MO and RO16. The sorption data of MB9 are much
better represented by the Freundlich model which expresses adsorption in a multilayer
manner on an energetically heterogenous surface. The maximal adsorption capacity
values of CeO2-δ nanopowder from isotherm data were found to be 113, 101 and 91 mg
g-1 in the case of MO, MB9 and RO16, respectively. The formation of bidentate type
bridge between sulfonate group and Ce4+ cations and the protonation of ceria surface
hydroxyls can be responsible for effective adsorption process (Tomić, 2014).
98
TiO2/WO3 coatings were prepared on Ti substrate using plasma electrolytic oxidation
(PEO) process, varying the time of PEO process from 90 s up to 300 s (DohčevićMitrović, 2015). XRD and Raman analysis showed that coatings are composed of
monoclinic WO3 and anatase TiO2 phase. With increasing PEO time, content of WO3
increased, causing a decrease of optical band gap and shift from near UV to visible
spectral region. The photocatalytic activity of TiO2/WO3 samples was evaluated by
monitoring the decomposition of Rhodamine 6G (R6G) (initial concentration in water, 1
mg/L, pH=7) and Mordant Blue 9 (MB9) (initial concentration in water, 50 mg/L,
pH=6) under the irradiation of two different light sources: fluorescent (36 W, Hyundai
eagle) and UV lamps (150 W, mercury lamp). From Fig. 2a it can be seen that
TiO2/WO3 samples have shown much higher degradation rate of R6G under the visible
light irradiation than that of pure TiO2. Under the UV light (Fig. 2b), the TiO2/WO3
photocatalysts have shown better photocatalytic activity for the degradation of MB9
than pure TiO2. The kinetics of the reaction in the case of both azo dyes followed the
pseudo first order and showed that the photoactivity of TiO2/WO3 samples is higher
under the visible than under UV irradiation.
Due to reduced band gap and higher acidity of the TiO2/WO3 surface, charge separation
efficiency is increased and more H2O and OH− can be adsorbed on their surface,
generating moreOH• radicals responsible for dyes degradation.
(C)
Figure 2. Photocatalytic degradation of (a) R6G under visible light and (b) MB9 under
UV light and (c) proposed mechanism of photodegradation.
99
CONCLUSION
CeO2-δ nanopowder and TiO2/WO3 coatings exhibited excellent adsorptive and
photocatalytic properties for degradation of harmful organic pollutants such as azodyes.
High adsorption capability of CeO2-δ nanopowder relies on the combined effect of
strong electrostatic sorption and chemisorption mechanism. The enhanced
photocatalytic activity of TiO2/WO3 coatings under the visible light is attributed to
better light absorption, increased charge separation efficiency and higher affinity for
chemical species having unpaired electrons.
References
Dohčević-Mitrović Z., Stojadinović S., Lozzi L., Aškrabić S., Tomić N., Paunović N.,
Lazović S., Santucci S. (2015). TiO2/WO3 composite coatings as efficient
photocatalysts for degradation of organic poluttants, Appl. Catal. B: Environ.
(submitted).
Tomić N. M., Dohčević-Mitrović Z. D., Paunović N. M., Mijin D. Ž., Radić N. D.,
Grbić B. V., Aškrabić S. M., Babić B. M. and Bajuk-Bogdanović D. V. (2014).
Nanocrystalline CeO2-δ as effective adsorbent of azo dyes, Langmuir, 30,
11582-11590.
100
Italian - Serbian Bilateral Cooperation
“Dynamically an Autonomously Reconfigurable
Types”
1
2
3
Mariangiola Dezani-Ciancaglini and Silvia Ghilezan and Svetlana Jakšić and
4
5
Luca Padovani and Jovanka Pantović
1
Università di Torino, Italy, [email protected], 2 Univerzitet u Novom Sadu, Serbia,
[email protected], 3 Univerzitet u Novom Sadu, Serbia, [email protected], 4 Università
di Torino, Italy, [email protected], 5 Univerzitet u Novom Sadu, Serbia,
[email protected]
INTRODUCTION
Modern society is increasingly dependent on complex software systems involving large
numbers of heterogeneous, autonomous components interconnected by networks with
dynamic topologies. As these systems provide access to fundamental services, their
correctness and reliability is becoming a prominent aspect of everyday life. And yet,
their design and deployment pose unprecedented challenges, mostly because they must
account for unforeseen changes and evolutions of the environment in which they
execute. Because of their complex and dynamic nature, classical formal methods for
software development, analysis and verification are not yet able to provide sufficiently
strong guarantees on the correctness and reliability of such systems. This calls for a new
generation of formal methods to assist software developers. Types are a flexible and
expressive way of specifying and analyzing software properties and the ongoing
research on type systems shows that their full potential is yet to be fully uncovered. The
goal of the "Dynamically and Autonomously Reconfigurable Types" (DART) project is
to propose a new comprehensive view of types to face the new challenges of
programming autonomic and distributed systems, providing at the same time: 1) formal
theories defining new type systems, 2) effective analysis techniques based on these type
systems and 3) tools for program specification and verification.
MAIN RESULTS
In this section, we provide an overview of the main scientific results achieved during
mutual visits and meetings of the project participants from the Università di Torino and
the Univerzitet u Novom Sadu.
Exception Handling for Copyless Messaging.
Copyless messaging is a
communication paradigm in which only pointers to messages are exchanged between
sender and receiver processes. Because of its intrinsically low overhead, copyless
messaging is suitable for the efficient implementation of communication-intensive
101
software systems where processes have access to a shared address space. Unfortunately,
the very nature of the paradigm fosters the proliferation of programming errors due to
the explicit use of pointers and to the sharing of data. In this work we put forward an
original type discipline for copyless messaging that, together with some minimal
support from the runtime system, is able to guarantee the absence of communication
errors, memory faults, and memory leaks in presence of exceptions. We show how to
take advantage of the invariants guaranteed by the type system in order to reduce the
cost of exception handling.
Results of this work are published in (Jakšić, Padovani, 2014).
Session Types Isomorphisms. Retrieving functions from function libraries using their
types as search keys has been widely studied in literature. In a similar manner, one can
search component libraries using the behavioural type of a component as a search key.
These libraries might contain components whose type differs from the searched one in
the order of messages or in the position of branching points. Thus, it makes sense to
look for different components having isomorphic types to the searched one to realize a
form of automatic component adaptation. We have introduced semantic and axiomatic
characterizations of isomorphic session types, grounded on a non-standard notion of
equivalence between processes. The notion of session type isomorphism characterizes
in a formal and precise way a particular form of component adaptation in which there is
no loss of information.
Results of this investigation have been presented at the workshop “Programming
Language Approaches to Concurrency and Communication-cEntric Software
(PLACES’14)” and published in (Dezani-Ciancaglini, Padovani, Pantović, 2014).
Preciseness of Subtyping in Intersection Types. The notion of subtyping has gained
an important role both in theoretical and applicative domains: in lambda and concurrent
calculi as well as in programming languages. We have considered denotational and
operational preciseness of subtyping in the setting of the concurrent λ-calculus with
intersection and union types. We propose a technique for formalising and proving
denotational and operational preciseness of subtyping, operational completeness being
the real novelty. The key feature is the link between typings and the operational
semantics. For the denotational preciseness we interpret a type as the set of terms
having that type. For the operational preciseness we take the view that well-typed terms
always evaluate to values. Lastly, we can make soundness and completeness more
operational by asking that some applications converge instead of being typable.
The paper (Dezani-Ciancaglini and Ghilezan, 2014) was accepted and presented at the
Joint 25th International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications, at the
12th International Conference on Typed Lambda Calculus and Applications in July 2014
in Vienna, Austria, and at a Shonan Meeting in Japan in October 2015.
Precise Subtyping for Synchronous Multiparty Sessions. In modelling distributed
systems, where many processes interact by means of message passing, one soon realises
102
that most interactions are meant to occur within the scope of private channels according
to disciplined protocols. Such private interactions are called multiparty sessions and the
protocols that describe them multiparty session types. We show the operational and
denotational preciseness of the subtyping introduced for a synchronous multiparty
session calculus. The novelty of this paper is the introduction of characteristic global
types to prove the operational completeness.
Results of this investigation were presented at the workshop “Programming Language
Approaches to Concurrency and Communication-cEntric Software (PLACES’15)” and
published in (Dezani-Ciancaglini, Ghilezan, Jakšić, Pantović, Yoshida, 2015).
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The outcomes of the project are expected to have a significant impact on the scientific
community, on the practice of software development, and ultimately on the civil
society. At the level of scientific community, the project aims at advancing the
foundations of type theories in such a way that they can be successfully applied to
challenging new scenarios characterized, on one side, by the focus on interaction and
dynamicity of computational units, and on the other side by the need to deal with
untrusted components. At the level of software development, the project provides
effective analysis techniques for the deployment of correct software systems.
Ultimately, the techniques developed in the project will impact the modern civil society,
which is characterized by the prominent and increasing reliance upon complex
information systems such as those for business and government services, health care
and transportation facilities.
References
Dezani-Ciancaglini, M. and Ghilezan, S. (2014). Preciseness of subtyping on
intersection and union types.
Proceedings of the Joint International
Conference on Rewriting and Typed Lambda Calculus (RTA-TLCA’14),
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 8560, pp. 194-207, Springer.
Dezani-Ciancaglini, M. Ghilezan, S., Jakšić, S., Pantović J. and Yoshida, N. (2015).
Precise subtyping for synchronous multiparty sessions. Proceedings of
Programming Language Approaches to Concurrency and CommunicationcEntric Software (PLACES'15), pp. 1-15.
Dezani-Ciancaglini, M. Padovani, L. and Pantović J. (2014). Session Type
Isomorphisms. Proceedings of Programming Language Approaches to
Concurrency and Communication-cEntric Software (PLACES'14), Electronic
Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science, vol. 155, pp. 61-71.
Jakšić, S. and Padovani, L. (2014). Exception handling for copyless messaging. Science
of Computer Pogramming, Vol. 84, pp. 22-51, Elsevier.
103
Section III
On-going Projects
November 16, 2015 – Round-Table: form the left, Prof. F. Michetti, Prof. C. Rizzuto,
Prof. S. Vraneš, dr. S. Taylor, Prof. S. Smederevac and Prof. P.R. Andjus
Testing Extended Theories of Gravity at
Different Astrophysical Scales
1
2
1
Duško Borka , Salvatore Capozziello , Vesna Borka Jovanović and Predrag
3
Jovanović
1
Atomic Physics Laboratory (040), Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of Belgrade,
P.O. Box 522, 11001 Belgrade, Serbia, 2 Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Napoli "Federico
II", Compl. Univ. di Monte S. Angelo, Edificio G, Via Cinthia, I-80126, Napoli, Italy,
3
Astronomical Observatory, Volgina 7, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia
SHORT SCIENTIFIC INTRODUCTION
We investigate theoretically the possibility to explain the observed galactic and
extragalactic dynamics using gravitational potentials derived from Extended Gravity
Theories (ETGs) (Capozziello and de Laurentis, 2011) without need for dark matter
(DM). ETGs are alternative theories of gravitational interaction, developed starting from
General Relativity with the aim to cure its shortcomings. They are based on
straightforward generalizations of the Einstein theory assuming that the gravitational
action is not only linear in the Ricci curvature scalar R but can be any function of
curvature invariants, in particular f(R) gravity, i.e. the simplest case is just the General
Relativity. These theories can have observational signatures at astrophysical and
cosmological scales. We consider possible signatures for different ETG potentials
within the Galactic Central Parsec (Borka et al., 2012, 2013; Capozziello et al., 2014).
We compare the simulated stellar orbits in modified gravity potentials with
astronomical observations. In that way we obtained strong constraints on the gravity
interaction parameters and on the final theory of gravity. We use ETGs to investigate
the possible existence of further gravitational radii which can play analogue roles as the
Schwarzschild radius. Such new fundamental lengths emerge thanks to the further
degrees of freedom of the considered theories. Our aim is to see if such features can be
identified in the galactic and extragalactic structures. Because of that we investigate the
baryonic Tully-Fisher relation of gas-rich galaxies and the Fundamental Plane of
elliptical galaxies in order to see if their intrinsic relations come out without the DM
hypothesis. We believe that astrophysical structures could be naturally explained
without DM since no final evidence of this ingredient has been found, up to now, also
with very high precision experiments as those running at CERN.
ITALIAN-SERBIAN COOPERATION
The cooperation about ETG between Italian and Serbian team started recently. The
Italian team is led by Prof. Salvatore Capozziello, full professor in Astrophysics at the
University of Napoli Federico II. He is internationally recognized as leader in studies
related to ETGs at astrophysical and fundamental levels. Other members from Italian
107
side are: Prof. Gaetano Lambiase (Associate Professor at the University of Salerno), Dr.
Mariafelicia De Laurentis (Research Professor at Tomsk State Pedagogical University,
Tomsk, Russia and Associate Researcher at Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN
sez. di Napoli)), Dr. Arturo Stabile (Researcher at the University of Sannio
(Benevento)) and Riccardo Moriconi (PhD student at the Department of Physics at
Napoli University). Additionally members of the Italian team are also PhD students
Andronikos Paliathanasis and Mariacristina Paolella from the Department of Physics at
Napoli University who are also working in the research group led by Prof. Capozziello.
The members of the Serbian team are: Dr. Predrag Jovanović (Research Professor and
the leader of the project No. 176003: "Gravitation and the large scale structure of the
Universe", funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological
Development of the Republic of Serbia.), Dr. Duško Borka (Associate Research
Professor and leader of the project task "Effect of modified gravity theories in the large
scale structure of the Universe", which is a part of the project No. 176003), Dr. Vesna
Borka Jovanović (Assistant Research Professor and leader of the project task "Radio
sources and the matter structure at cosmological scales", which is a part of the project
No. 176003), PhD students Damir Devetak and Milan Stojanović (participants of the
National project No. 171019: "High energy physics with CMS detector", funded by the
Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of
Serbia).
These two groups started collaboration using Short Term Scientific Mission through the
COST action MP1304: Exploring fundamental physics with compact stars
(NewCompStar).
http://www.cost.eu/COST_Actions/mpns/MP1304
The aim of this project is to develop and extend this collaboration and exchange ideas
and knowledge about gravity and certain related phenomena between a group of
researchers from Serbia and a group for extended theories of gravity led by Dr.
Capozziello who is leading expert in this field. This project will lead to more extensive
collaboration between these two groups, in view of submitting joint Horizon 2020
projects proposals.
References
1. Capozziello S. and de Laurentis M. (2011), Extended Theories of Gravity, Physics
Reports 509, 167-320.
2. Borka D., Jovanović P., Borka Jovanović V. and Zakharov A. F. (2012). Constraints
on R^n gravity from precession of orbits of S2-like stars. Physical Review D
85, 124004-1-11.
3. Borka D., Jovanović P., Borka Jovanović V. and Zakharov A. F. (2013). Constraining
the range of Yukawa gravity interaction from S2 star orbits. Journal of
Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 11 050, 1-15.
4. Capozziello S., Borka D., Jovanović P. and Borka Jovanović V. (2014), Constraining
Extended Gravity Models by S2 star orbits around the Galactic Centre,
Physical Review D 90, 044052-1-8.
108
Institute for Medical Research:
Scientific Cooperation with Italian Institutions
1
2
Diana Bugarski , Snežana Tomanović and Drenka Trivanović
3
1
Institute for Medical Research, University of Belgrade, [email protected]
3
2
BRIEF REPORT
Institute for Medical Research (IMR) is leading institute in the field of biomedicine in
Serbia for more than 65 years. Today, IMR includes laboratories which conduct
investigations in the areas of cardiovascular physiology, parasitology, nutrition,
neurophysiology, neuroendocrinology, immunology and hematology. Moreover, IMR
houses two Centres of Excellence: Centre for Food- and Vector-borne Zoonoses and
Centre of Excellence for Nutrition and Metabolism. Beside its scientific activities in
fundamental, translational and clinical research, IMR, as a member of the University of
Belgrade, is involved in PhD study programs (at Faculty of Biology, School of
Medicine, Faculty of Dental Medicine), actively participates in the work of various
University bodies, and is also engaged in undergraduate student exchange programs.
During last years IMR was involved in 20 nationally funded projects and participated in
numerous international funded projects, collaborating with different European partners,
including Italian.
COLLABORATION WITH UNIVERSITY OF TURIN
Project “Epidemiological risk models for vector borne diseases in a changing world:
The case study of mosquito and tick-borne diseases under different conditions of habitat
integrity, environment and climate” was conducted in partnership of Faculty of Biology
University of Belgrade, Serbia (principal investigator Dr. Duško Ćirović) with IMR
participation (Laboratory for Medical Entomology, as a part of Center for Excellence
for Food- and Vector-borne Zoonoses) and the Department of Veterinary Science,
University of Turin, Italy (principal investigator Dr. Paolo Tizziani). The project was
supported through scientific and technological cooperation between the republics of
Serbia and Italy 2013-2015. The aim of this project was to investigate the epidemiology
of tick-borne diseases through evaluation of the influence of anthropogenic impact and
climate changes on the risk of vector-borne diseases transmission. Additional focus was
on the development of an epidemiological model for vector-borne diseases under
different Italian and Serbian environmental characteristics.
After initial contact within the COST Action (TD1303) Dr. Snežana Tomanović
(Laboratory for medical Entomology, IMR) and Dr. Laura Tomassone (Department of
Veterinary Science, University of Turin) established cooperation which resulted with
109
two joint applications during 2014 and 2015, one for Horizont 2020 call and other for
ECDC tender “Guidance, data collection and scientific advice on tick‐borne diseases“
COLLABORATION WITH UNIVERSITY OF SASSARI
Dr. Garippa Giovanni (Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sassari)
initiated cooperation with Dr. Snežana Tomanović (Laboratory for Medical
Entomology, IMR) and as first outcome application for Projects of major importance in
the Scientific and Technological Collaboration Executive Program (Grande Rilevanza)
was made.
COLLABORATION WITH UNIVERSITY OF TRENTO
Within an internship program for young scientists, a PhD student form Centre of
Excellence in Nutrition and Metabolism (CENM), spent two months at the Microsoft
Research – University of Trento Centre for Computational and System Biology –
COSBI. The focus of the training was to investigate rational strategies based on
advanced statistical methods and bioinformatics tools, in order to reveal putative
relationships between different parameters and selected biomarkers available from
dietary intervention studies on the effects of plant bioactives on platelet function.
CENM has already developed infrastructure for conducting dietary intervention studies,
but thanks to the expertise of the host institution advanced statistical, genetics and
network analysis was also adopted. Innovative computational methods enhanced the
CENM research in system biology regarding bioactive compounds and their effects.
PROSPECTIVE COLLABORATION WITH UNIVERSITY OF FEDERICO II
UNIVERSITY OF NAPLES
Project conceived by Dr. Drenka Trivanović from Laboratory for Experimental
Hematology and Stem Cells (IMR) and Dr. Pietro Formisano and Dr. Vittoria
D’Esposito from Department for Translational Medicine (Federico II University of
Naples, UNINA) has been proposed for supporting resources provided through the
Serbia/Italy bilateral cooperation for the 2016-2018 period. Within the project
investigation of the crosstalk of adipose tissue stem cells (ASCs) and breast cancer cells
was suggested and three major objectives were set:
- Analysis of ASCs effects on brest cancer cell stemness by modifying the
expression of pluripotency markers (Nanog, Oct-4, SOX-2 and SSEA4);
- Analysis of ASCs effects on capacity of breast cancer cells for mamosphere
formation;
- Analysis of the effects of breast cancer cell-derived paracrine factors on the
differentiation and migration capacity of ASCs.
The research will allow novel insights into the mutual relation between the ASCdominated brest cancer environment and the cancer cells, which is of great importance
prior developing therapeutic strategies involving adult stem cells. In addition to the
scientific value, the new collaboration will enable further exchange of knowledge,
training and communication.
110
Italian - Serbian joint development of a standardized
mosquito-based health surveillance of West Nile virus
1
2
Mattia Calzolari , Tamaš Petrović and Dušan Petric
3
1
IZSLER, Italy, [email protected], 2 Scientific Veterinary Institute "Novi Sad", Serbia,
[email protected], 3 University of Novi Sad, Serbia, [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Close strains of the neurothopphic West Nile virus circulated in Serbia and Italy in
recent years, causing several human cases. The entomological surveillance gives
encouraging results in term of precocity and virus spread detection. The standardization
of an Italian-Serbian mosquito-based surveillance in could constitute the foundation for
a public health alert system targeting mosquito-borne viruses, and the base for a creation
of a European network of Arbovirus surveillance.
INTRODUCTION
West Nile virus (WNV) constitutes a serious health problem in Europe, including Italy
and Serbia. This virus is circulating between mosquito (vectors) and wild birds
(reservoirs–some of them are endangered by infections e.g. corvids and birds of prey), and
affect humans and horses like dead end hosts, causing meningitis in most serious cases.
Apart from health risk, WNV impose a heavy burden to the economies of Italy and Serbia
and WN circulation imposed expansive controls on blood begs to guarantee transfusion
safety (Bellini et al. 2015). The estimated direct and indirect medical and loss of
productivity costs of the WNV outbreak in Texas exceeded $47 million with average per
patient costs of $25,482 (Murray et al. 2013). Entomological surveillance can highlight
the circulation of a virus early in the season, and provide quantifiable information on
intensity of virus transmission by data on mosquito infection rates, consequently providing
information on potential risk to humans and animals. Recent data confirmed that, if
mosquito trapping effort is intensive, detection of WNV in mosquitoes precede for several
weeks human cases; this provide a priceless time window for preparation of preventive
control measures (Bellini et al. 2015, Calzolari et al. 2015). Moreover circulation of other
virus can be detected by the surveillance (Calzolari et al. 2010).
AIMS
The final goal of the project it is to set up a sensitive, cost effective surveillance system
in defined area of the two countries by developing early warning system of viral
circulation based on mosquito vector surveillance. It will provide tool to detect
circulation of pathogenic Arbovirus well before they start to cause problems in animal
and human populations, to detect not jet reported mosquito viruses, to reveal the
potential role as vector of most numerous nuisance mosquitoes in Serbia and in Italy.
Another aim is the harmonization of standard procedures in mosquito-based
surveillance (like trap model, positioning of the traps, identification, handling and
111
processing of mosquitoes, biomolecular protocols for virus detection), which could
constitute the base for a creation of a European network of Arbovirus surveillance.
DATA
In 2012 and 2014 close strains of WNV, belonging to lineage II, circulate in Italy and Serbia.
A total of 50, 69, and 24 human cases of WNV were reported in Italy and 71, 303 and 76 in
Serbia, which placed both countries in group of endemic and most endangered countries in
Europe (Table 1). Moreover, over to WNV presence, mosquito-borne viruses were already
reported in Italy and could be detected in Serbia (Batai virus, Tahyna virus, Usutu virus)
(Calzolari et al. 2010, Calzolari et al. 2015). The preliminary results obtained in Italy so far
by mosquito-based surveillance systems are encouraging and constitute the foundation for a
public health alert system targeting mosquito-borne viruses. In Serbia, Ministry of
Agriculture, Veterinary Directorate started to finance WNV surveillance in 2014, and will
greatly benefit from Italian experience and collaboration with Italian experts.
CONCLUSION
Prosperity of Public Health and Health systems in both countries will be supported by
lowering the costs of expensive controls of blood bags, and then in hospitalization of the
patients. The last but not the least, establishing of the early alert system in Italy and Serbia
will be beneficial for both citizens and the tourists, supporting the economic growth of
both countries. So the early warning system based on mosquito surveillance, once
established will be beneficial for both natives and visitors as well as for the wild life.
Table 1. WNV human cases reported in the two countries (ECDC data)
Human cases
2012 2013 2014 Tot
Italy
50
69
24
143
Serbia 71
303
76
450
121
372
100
593
References
Bellini R., Calzolari M., Mattivi A., Tamba M., Angelini P., et al. (2014) The
experience of West Nile virus integrated surveillance system in the EmiliaRomagna region: five years of implementation, Italy, 2009 to 2013. Euro
Surveill. 19(44)pii: 20953.
Calzolari M., Pautasso A., Montarsi F., Albieri A., Bellini R., et al. (2015) West Nile
Virus Surveillance in 2013 via Mosquito Screening in Northern Italy and the
Influence of Weather on Virus Circulation. Plos One 10(10):e0140915.
Calzolari M., Bonilauri P., Bellini R., Caimi M., Defilippo F., et al. (2010) Arboviral
survey of mosquitoes in two northern Italian regions in 2007 and 2008. Vector
Borne Zoonotic Dis. 10(9):875-84.
Murray K.O., Ruktanonchai D., Hesalroad D., Fonken E., Nolan M.S. (2013) West Nile
Virus, Texas, USA, 2012. Emerg Infect Dis. 19: 1836–838.
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Project ADRIA – HUB - Bridge technical differences
and social suspicious contributing to transform the
Adriatic area in a stable hub for a sustainable
technological development
1
2
3
Novak Nedić , Ana Pavlović , Ljubomir Lukić , Vesna Brašić
4
1,3,4
Faculty of Mechanical and Civil Engineering Kraljevo - University of Kragujevac, Serbia,
Department of Industrial Engineering, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Italy
1
[email protected], [email protected] [email protected],
4
[email protected]
2
GENERAL ABOUT PROJECT
The Vision of Europe as knowledge-based society is funded on availability and
application of knowledge in all segments of European life. Universities, as key provider
of knowledge, and industry, as its largest consumer, are two pillars of this vision. Their
harmonic action is of vital importance for achieving the proclaimed goals. Academic
Institutions have a double role in provisioning of knowledge: “research” for creation of
new knowledge and “education” as dissemination of current knowledge.
By a stable process of “transfer of technology”, the universities on Adriatic can act as
useful Research and Technological Developer, pushing enterprises to overcome the
current barriers of innovation and competitiveness. But, separated into small countries,
burdened with recent political and economic breakdowns, West Balkan is mainly
characterized by a large number of little enterprises, which are rarely capable to take
advantage of the academic research partners. In addition, usually private companies in
the Adriatic area have not enough economical and technical resources to commit joint
project with universities. Therefore establishment of mechanisms for cooperation
between universities and industry should be done from outside, using predominantly
university resources, following successful examples and under leadership of
experienced partners. Only creating and powering institutionalized mechanisms able to
support a strong integration between University and Business beyond these difficulties,
a social and industrial development can be obtained on Adriatic area.
The project AdriaHUB financed by the programm IPA-CBC ADRIATIC Cross –
border cooperation 2007 – 2013, is contributing to transfer technological development
in Adriatic area. The project has duration of 3 years, from 2013 October 25th till 2016
Jun 25th and the total budget of about 2 200 000€.
Lead Partner: Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna (IT)
Partners (14 partners from 5 countries):
Inter-University Consortium AlmaLaurea (IT)
Faculty of Engineering, University of Kragujevac (SRB)
113
Faculty of Mechanical and Civil Engineering in Kraljevo, University of Kragujevac
(SRB)
Chamber of Commerce and Industry Banja Luka Region (B&H)
Faculty of Electronic Engineering, University of Nis (SRB)
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Rijeka (CRO)
Regional Chamber of Commerce Kragujevac (SRB)
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Banja Luka (B&H)
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Montenegro (MNE)
CNA Provincial Associates of Ravenna (IT)
Autec Srl (IT)
Friuli Innovazione, Research and Technology Transfer Center (IT)
Venetian Cluster of Cultural and Environmental Heritage (IT)
Uteco Srl (IT)
THE PROJECT SUMMARY
ADRIA–HUB is a project creating to develop a stable sustainable platform of
technology transfer between universities, business organizations and companies from
Adriatic Region with a direct technological and economic impact on the most subject in
this area. Essential aim and main objective is a sustainable process of social and
economic development realizing through: definition of technological challenges and
objectives, scientific research and growth of knowledge, improvements in high
education and professional training, transfer of technological knowledge and human
capital, product and process innovation, optimization of life-cycle according to the ecosustainability.
THE MAIN PROJECT ACTIVITIES AND OBJECTIVES
Establishing a successful institutional network of cooperation on Adriatic area by
developing of two different ICT platforms: “Workforce Platform” and “R&D Service
Platform”, promoting joint research activities between enterprises and universities,
developing of competitive and cooperative mechanisms groups of researchers, creating
an international technological platform on Adriatic, made by public and private research
performers, specialized in wood processing, fostering joint research trough pilot
projects. Focusing on wood processing, attention is paid to technical solutions
improving eco-sustainability and efficient use of resources, acting on complementary
aspects like: modifying the approach to design with “eco-efficiency” as a key-driver for
design of solutions, virtual machining to foresee and optimize the industrial process,
using innovative materials to raise performances, accurately controlling the dynamic
response of machines, developing a better way to use cutting tools.
114
MAIN PROJECT RESULTS
Following previous experiences of Academic-Business integration successfully
performed in Italy, the project intends to develop an innovative ICT platform, able to
collect technical information from West Balkan universities and to provide them to the
Industry. The platform is tested on the wood processing industry in the region. Beyond
this challenge for a new collaborative approach, other political and economic aspects
has been considered:
1. Italian wood-working machines manufacturers are strong players on WB:
technological innovations could have high impact on both sides of
Adriatic.
2. Within Bologna Process, all the universities have to move towards
flexible and modern curricula meeting needs of the labour market and
establishing trustworthy quality assurance systems; the project is in lines
with their present efforts.
Figure 1. Adria-HUB Platform for students CVs and Enterprises
Establishing the Transnational Education and ICT platform for graduates and
enterprises. Adria-HUB platform for students CVs and enterprises can be used trough
following web site: http://international.almalaurea.it/adriahub/, where about 400 CV has
been included till now (Fig.1). Different pilot projects were realized by choosing
students from AdriHUB data base on demand of enterprise form the wood technology
as a target that was imposed by the project activates:
1. Computer Aided Design, Rapid Prototyping (RP) and lab testing of wood
furniture elements and tools – RP Tools (MNE)
115
2. Study for the introduction of Virtual Prototyping in manufacturing
companies, producing precision tools for wood processing (IT)
3. Restoration and optimization of local wood value chains: reforestation
projects and enhancement of wood areas in the Adriatic area (IT)
4. Increasing efficiency of cutting tools using a new platform for design (IT)
5. Improvement the process of production using agent based systems
(IT+CRO)
6. Improving dynamic behaviour of wood machinery (IT+SRB)
7. Study of influence of material, geometry, rotational speed and heat
generated by wood cutting on vibrations of circular saw blades. (CRO)
8. Study on the dynamics of the CNC machine tool support structure,
responsible for poor quality of wood products surface (CRO+IT)
9. Study of the application of control algorithms for pneumatic parallel robot
platform on a woodworking machine (SRB+CRO)
10. Automatic machines with CNC control and technologies with multiple axes wood processing in small and medium enterprises (SRB +CRO)
References
Journal reference
Andrea Camelli, Gilberto Antonelli, Angelo di Francia, Matteo Sgarzi (2013),
AlmaLaurea Inter-university Consortium: connecting universities effectively
with labour markets and professionals, Introdusiong bologna objectives and
tools, B1.4-3, BH1-17 10 09
Marco Savoia, University of Bologna, Italy, Miladin Stefanovic, University of
Kragujevac, Serbia (2015). Wood: an Ancient Material for a Modern Quality.
International Journal for Quality Research, ISSN: 1800 – 6450 e-ISSN: 1800 –
7473
Ante Skoblar, Roberto Žigulić, Sanjin Braut, Engineering, University of Rijeka.(2015).
Numerical evaluation of analytical solution for the dynamic response of
uniform Euler-Bernoully beam with mode superposition method . Proceedings
of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical
Engineering Science
Ana Pavlovic, Cristiano Fragassa, Michelle Mazza , Industrial Department, University
of Bologna; SCM Group – Italy (2015). Innovative methodology for flexible
curtains optimization through numerical simulation. Proceedings of the
Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical
Engineering Science
Aleksandar Vujović, Zdravko Krivokapić, Rade Grujičić, Jelena Jovanović, University
of Montenegro – Montenegro (2015). Optimising the Montenegrin (traditional)
chair using FEM and neural networks. Proceedings of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science
116
Ljubomir Lukić, Aleksandra Petrović, University of Kragujevac- Serbia (2015).
Optimization of tool path for wood machining on CNC machines. Proceedings
of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical
Engineering Science
Dragan Pršić, Novak Nedić, Vladimir Stojanović, University of Kragujevac – Serbia,
(2015) A nature inspired optimal control of pneumatic driven parallel robot
platform. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C:
Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science
Nikola Anđelić, Roberto Žigulić, Marko Čanađija, University of Rijeka – Croatia.
(2015), On the influence of thermal stresses on eigenvalues of the circular saw
blade. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal
of Mechanical Engineering Science
Massimo Mele, Ilaria Broussard, Cristiano Fragassa, Giuseppe Lucisano Aurea Servizi
Srl, Industrial Department, University of Bologna; SCM Group – Italy.(2015).
Methodology of project for industrialization of wooden boats. Proceedings of
the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical
Engineering Science
G. Balsamini, C. Fragassa, G. Zizzi, L. Berardi., Autec Srl, Industrial Department,
University of Bologna – Italy (2015). Detection of the load curve and technical
control in feedback clutch magneto-rheological. Proceedings of the Institution
of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science
N.Grujovic, M.Sljivic, F. Zivic,A. Radovanovic, M. Miladinovic, University of
Kragujevac, University of Banja Luka, Application aditive manufacturing
technology for composite prototype construction joinery elements promoted
from the aspect of energy efficiency , Conference for maintaining and
production engineering , KODIP 2015
Lj. Lukic, N.Nedic, D.Prsic, Z. Petrovic (2015). NC Programming System for
Interpolation of Tools' Circular Trajectories during Multi-axis Wood
Machining. Proceedings of 8th International Congress of Croatian Society of
MechanicsSeptember 29th - October 2nd, 2015 Opatija - Croatia.
N.Nedic, Lj. Lukic, D.Prsic, V. Stojanovic, D. Dubonjic. Analysis and Simulation of
Stewart Platform Manipulator Behavior Driven byPneumatic Cylinders
Applied in Wood Processing. Proceedings of 8th International Congress of
Croatian Society of MechanicsSeptember 29th - October 2nd, 2015Opatija Croatia.
Novak Nedić, Ljubomir Lukić, Dragan Pršić, Ljubiša Dubonjić, Vesna Brašić (2014)
Automatic Machines with Multiple Axes Wood Processing in Small and
Medium Enterprises , XII Triennial International SAUM Conference on
Systems, Automatic Control and Measurements, Niš, Serbia, 12 – 14
November, pp. , ISBN: 978-86-6125-117-7.
117
Book reference
M.Slivic, K. Fragasa, M. Stanojevic and A. Pavlovic (2014), Introduction in Production
Technologies, University of Banja Luka, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,
ISBN: 978-99938-39-48-4.
CAN Ravenna and University of Bologna (2014), How to “Bridge the Gap” between
University and Business, ISBN 978-88-901080-9-9, Bologna
N.Nedic, M. Zivkovic (editors) (2015).Wood and technological methods of processing
in the Balkans publication, Engineering Faculty, University of Kragujevac,
ISBN: 978-86-6335-019-9.
N.Nedic, LJ. Lukic, D.Prsic, V. Stojanovic and D.Dubonjic (2015), Parallel robots
based on the Stewart-Gough platform, publication. Faculty of Mechanical and
Civil Engineering in Kraljevo, University of Kragujevac, ISBN: 978-8682631-79-8.
D.Prsic (2015), Matlab with examples, publication. Faculty of Mechanical and Civil
Engineering in Kraljevo, University of Kragujevac, ISBN: 978-86-82631-781.
Online reference
Official web site and logo of the project: www.adri-hub.eu
Alma Laurea: http://www.almalaurea.it/en / http://international.almalaurea.it/adriahub
Facebook profile: ADRIA-HUB https://www.facebook.com/adriahub/
You tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQhTrO9jq1aAipDciNHpMoA
118
Italian - Serbian Bilateral Cooperation
“Kosančićev venac 1941-2015”
1
Francesco Collotti and Mirjana Roter Blagojević
2
1
University of Florence, DIDA, Italy, [email protected], 2University of Belgrade, Faculty
of Architecture, Serbia, [email protected]
ARCHITECTURE AND TOWN LAB
The relations between the Department of Architecture of the University of Florence
(DIDA) and the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade are governed by
an official and bilateral agreement made in 2009, renewed in 2015 for a period of 84
months for cooperation in the field of architecture and urbanism (see online
references). This agreement provides cultural and scientific interactions, mobility of
academic and administrative staff, together with a mutual research activities. During the
2014-2015, we strengthened our relations, managing different courses together, with
several workshops in Belgrade with professors and students of the Design Laboratories
of DIDA (October 2014 and March 2015) (Fig.1 see also online references).These
workshops were held by the professors of the University of Belgrade, Prof. M. Roter
Blagojević, with Prof.Z. Djukanović; and the University of Florence,Prof. F.Collotti,
with teachersG. Giovannoni,E.Anguillari,E.Trevisiol and T.Matteini.
The research projects of
these workshops will be on
display in Belgrade during
the
period
from 1218/11/2015. Works of the
students will be presented in
a small publication that will
even more strengthen our
relationship (see below book
references Collotti F. Roter
Blagojević M. 2015).
Figure1. Workshop team in Belgrade (Photo C.Perini)
The question is everywhere the same, site specific declinated: building the city of the
future in the belief that we can learn from the past. From the former Serbian National
Library destroyed in 1941 German bombardment, remained only a burnt book and the
perimeter walls of brick. The City of Belgrade, as well as the country of Serbia, have
always been on the crossroads between east and west cultures. Country so small, with a
big city as capital, has been destroyed and conquered so many times during the history.
119
Probably, if we could ask one stone or brick, found on the way to retell us the history of
the place, it would have probably so many interesting stories to tell. Just one among
many others stones found on the Kosančićev venac area in Belgrade would be sufficient
to retell us the story about the early Sunday morning on the April 6th 1941, on the time
of the Eastern holiday, when Nazi bombed the main sites of Serbian cultural heritage.
Nowadays, natural, historical, cultural, memorial, urban and architectural values of the
Kosančićev venac area definitely deserve thoughts of new approach and need to
consider the issue of re-establishment of its values in accordance with the modern
principles of cultural heritage preservation. In order to overcome its present neglected
conditions and to improve the life of residents and visitors, the future approach need
better compliance with the principles of preservation of authenticity and integrity of
cultural heritage as a unity of cultural, architectural and natural values of historical
environments which define their specific character.
On this theme, students gathered to reconstruct the building, visioning their own project,
remodeling the underlying ancient Roman villa that the bombing revealed, learning in
particular how to work with an old wall, how to remodel the ruin and to bring back the
life in the empty urban space. It may heal the wounds, repair the holes of the ruins and
recall our memory. The aim is building the city of men.
References
Book reference
Вученовић,С.(ед.) 1979. Косанчићев венац. Београд: Завод за заштиту споменика
културе града Београда. (Vučenović, S. (ed.) 1979. Kosančićev venac.
Belgrade: Тhe Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of
Belgrade).
Roter Blagojević M. , Nikolić M. , 2015. Active preservation and use of historical
urban centers – the case study of the Belgrade old city core, REHAB 2015,
Proceedings of the 2ndInternational Conference, Porto, Portugal, 22-24 July,
2015, pp. 1095-1104.
Collotti F. , (2001). Architekturtheoretische Notizen (architectural theoretical notes),
Quart Verlag, Luzern, Switzerland.
Collotti F. , Roter Blagojević M. (2015). Firenze-Beograd-Firenze, Kosančićev venac
1941-2015, Grafix, Beograd, Serbia.
Online reference
http://accordiinternazionali.cineca.it/accordi.php?continenti=%25&paesi=%25&univ_stran=%25&un
iv_ita=10&anni=%25&btnSubmit=Cerca&pag=2&pag=3 (accessed 20 October 2015)
http://www.arh.bg.ac.rs/2015/03/31/poseta-studenata-arhitektonskog-fakultetaizfirence-radionica-architecture-and-town-lab (accessed 29 October 2015)
120
Nonlinear dynamics of oscillatory chemical reactions
related to antioxidant activity of food and
pharmaceuticals
1
1
1
1
Željko Čupić , Ljiljana Kolar-Anić , Slobodan Anić , Stevan Maćešić , Itana Nuša
1
1
1
1
M. Bubanja , Nataša Pejić , Dragomir Stanisavljev , Milenković Maja , Ana
1
1,2
3
3
Ivanović-Šašić , Vladimir Marković , Emanuela Greco and Rinaldo Cervellati
1
University of Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected], 2 Present address: Istituto
Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy, 3 Università di Bologna, Italy,
[email protected]
INTRODUCTION
Chemical oscillations can be observed in batch conditions in few classical chemical
oscillators like the Bray-Liebhafsky (BL), Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) and BriggsRauscher (BR) reactions, but also in the systems like KSCN-H2O2-CuSO4-NaOH,
which is known as the Orbàn-Epstein reaction (OE). A common feature of BL, BR and
OE oscillating reactions is hydrogen peroxide as a reagent. The presence of Oxygencentered radicals such as ●OH and ●OOH as intermediates has been postulated in the
mechanisms of these reactions (Furrow et al, 2002). Even if the debate on the effective
role of these radicals is still open, some experimental evidence of their presence has
been recently reported in a subsystem of BL and BR reactions (Stanisavljev et al, 2011;
Milenković and Stanisavljev, 2012). Indirect experimental evidence of ●OOH radicals
involvement in the BR reaction mechanism come by investigation of perturbations
provoked by the addition of diphenols to active BR mixtures (Cervellati and Furrow,
2013). Presence of highly reactive chemical species in all those systems gives them
ability to interact with biologicaly active materials, and nonlinear dynamic is
responsible for high sensitivity to perturbation with such probes.
A new method for the measurement of antioxidative activity reported earlier (Cervellati
et al, 2001) is based on the inhibitory effects by antioxidants on the oscillations of the
hydrogen peroxide, acidic iodate, malonic acid, MnII-catalyzed system, known as the
Briggs_Rauscher (BR) reaction. The inhibitory effect of antioxidants added to an active
oscillating BR mixture consists of an immediate cessation of oscillations, an inhibition
time that linearly depends on the concentration of the antioxidant added in a wide range
of concentration, and subsequent regeneration of oscillations. The method was validated
on substituted diphenols (=benzenediol derivatives; Ar(OH)2) (Cervellati et al, 2001)
and was successfully tested on sixteen German white wines (Höner et al, 2002), fruit
and vegetable extracts (Höner and Cervellati, 2002), and natural polyphenolic
compounds (Cervellati et al, 2002).
On the other side, the techniques are developed to apply oscillating reactions in
analytical determinations of many substances. (Pejić et al, 2007a, b)
121
Therefore, between two groups, one from Italy and the other from Serbia, cooperation
was initiated in investigation of different oscillating reactions with possible applications
in characterization of food or pharmaceuticals with antioxidative potential.
PROJECT REPORT
In two ocasions during 2012 (March 13th) and 2013 (from October 2nd to October 30th
2013), Dr Željko Čupić from the University of Belgrade, held lectures at the University
of Bologna, related to Application of Nonlinear Dynamics, predominantly the
application of the oscillatory chemical reactions for the examinations of antioxidant
activity of natural and synthetic substances and free radical scavengers existing in the
food including fruits, drinks and pharmaceuticals. The lectures were organized, for the
students of Doctoral studies and researchers having this scientific orientation. The last
visit was organized within the Bilateral Researcher Mobility project between University
of Belgrade and University of Bologna.
During the visit, research cooperation was developed between two groups of
researchers, resulting in two joint papers. (Čupić et al, 2014; Čupić et al, 2015)
PARTICULAR RESULTS
Intermittent bursts were generated in BR reaction perturbed by phenolic compounds in
both, batch and CSTR conditions. Deterministic nature of intermittences was identified
through the influences of phenol concentration on characteristic times of the
oscillogram - duration of gaps and bursts. (Čupić et al, 2014) Several student works
resulted also from these joint investigations. Cooperation was also extended in this area
to the Laboratory of Prof Furrow from Reading, USA.
E / mV
650
700
750
0
2
4
6
8
t / 1000 s
Figure 1 Intermittances generated in a BR reaction perturbed with 2.2 10-5 M phenol
under the CSTR conditions.
122
The OE reaction was explored in a wide concentration range of all components, and the
temperature dependence showing an Arrhenius-type behavior was detected. The OE system
was also perturbed by the addition of diphenols. The perturbation effect consists of an
immediate quenching of oscillations, an inhibitory time that linearly depends on the
concentration of the diphenol added, and a subsequent regeneration of oscillations. Basic
features are satisfactorily described by a modified and simplified model. (Čupić et al, 2015)
References
Cervellati R., Furrow S.D. (2013). Effects of additives on the oscillations of the BriggsRauscher reaction. Russian J. Phys. Chem., 87(13), 2121-2126.
Cervellati R., Höner K., Furrow S. D., Neddens C., Costa S. (2001). The BriggsRauscher Reaction as a Test to Measure the Activity of Antioxidants. Helv.
Chim. Acta 2001, 84(12), 3533-3547.
Cervellati R., Renzulli C., Guerra M.C., Speroni E. (2002). Evaluation of Antioxidant
Activity of Some Natural Polyphenolic Compounds Using the
Briggs−Rauscher Reaction Method. J. Agric. Food Chem. 50(26), 7504-7509.
Čupić Ž.D., Greco E., Cervellati R. (2015). New Experimental and Mechanistic
Investigation on the KSCN-H2O2-NaOH-Cu(II)-catalyzed Oscillating System
(Orbàn-Epstein Reaction). Inhibitory Effects by Diphenols.” International
Journal of Chemical Kinetics, 47(2), 82-92.
Čupić Ž.D., Kolar-Anić Lj.Z., Anić S.R., Maćešić S.R., Maksimović J.P., Pavlović
M.S., Milenković M.C., Bubanja I.N.M., Greco E., Furrow S.D. and Cervellati
R. (2014) Regularity of Intermittent Bursts in Briggs-Rauscher Oscillating
Systems with Phenol, Helvetica Chimica Acta, 97(3), 321-333.
Furrow S.D, Cervellati R., Amadori G. (2002). New Substrates for the Oscillating
Briggs−Rauscher Reaction. J. Phys. Chem. A, 106(24), 5841-5850.
Höner K., Cervellati R. (2002). Measurements of the antioxidant capacity of fruits and
vegetables using the BR reaction method. Eur. Food Res. Technol. 2002,
215(5), 437-442.
Höner K., Cervellati R., Neddens C. (2002). Measurements of the in vitro antioxidant
activity of German white wines using a novel method. Eur. Food Res. Technol.
214(4), 356-360.
Milenković M.C., Stanislavjev D.R., (2012) Role of Free Radicals in Modeling the
Iodide–Peroxide Reaction Mechanism. J. Phys. Chem. A, 116(23), 5541-5548.
Pejić N.D., Blagojević S.M., Anić S.R., Vukojević V.B., Mijatović M.D., Ćirić J.S.,
Marković Z.S., Marković S.D., Kolar-Anić Lj.Z. (2007) Kinetic determination
of morphine by means of Bray–Liebhafsky oscillatory reaction system using
analyte pulse perturbation technique, Analytica Chimica Acta 582(2), 367–374
123
Pejić N., Blagojević S., Vukelić J., Kolar-Anić Lj., Anić S. (2007) Analyte Pulse
Perturbation Technique for the Determination of 6-O-Acetylmorphine in
Seized Street Drug Samples. Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn. 80(10), 1942-1948.
Stanislavjev D.R., Milenković M.C., Mojović M.D., Popović-Bijelić A.D. (2011).
Oxygen Centered Radicals in Iodine Chemical Oscillators. J. Phys. Chem. A,
115(27), 7955-7958.
124
Twinning Alghero – Negotin
1
2
3
4
Zoran Ðukanović ; Arnaldo Bibo Cecchini ; Elena Battaglini ; Francesca Giofrè ;
5
6
Alessandro Plaisant ; Nadja Beretić
1
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Architecture, Department of Urbanism, Serbia,
[email protected]; 2Dipartimento di Architettura, Design e Urbanistica dell'Università degli
Studi di Sassari, [email protected]; 3Istituto di Ricerche Economiche e Sociali - IRES
Nazionale, [email protected]; 4Sapienza University of Rome, Faculty of Architecture,
Department Planning Technology of Architecture Italy, [email protected];
5
Dipartimento di Architettura, Design e Urbanistica dell'Università degli Studi di Sassari,
[email protected]; 6Dipartimento di Architettura, Design e Urbanistica dell'Università degli
Studi di Sassari, [email protected]
On May 2014, based on previously established cooperation , representatives of
Negotin Municipality have visited Faculty of architecture University of Belgrade to ask
for academic support and help for the realization of the guidelines from their, top actual
and new “Strategy of Sustainable Development of Negotin 2012 – 2021” and “Rural
development strategies municipality Negotin 2013 – 2018”. They also noted that needed
foreign experience to reach knowledge and funds for their realization.
Development guidelines, which are pointed in aforementioned strategies, are cleverly
oriented mainly to the development of agriculture, wine production and tourism. On the
other hand, Facultys’ network reaches a lot of countries and academic institutions from
all around the world. Among all of these countries and in relation to Negotins’
development guidelines, it is obvious that Italian experience would be more than
appropriate to offer to Negotin.
Italy is not so far. Italy is more than famous for its agriculture, wine and overall the
tourism. Faculty of architecture already has very well developed academic cooperation
with several referent Italian institutions and with the Italian embassy in Belgrade, as
well. But also, it was necessary to find an appropriate Italian partner who would be
interested in this cooperation, for whom Negotin would be “visible” and acceptable for
such a long-term collaboration.
After all, the decision to invite institutions from the Comune di Alghero / Sardinia /
Italy was more than appropriate. Counting on a lot of obvious similarities between these
two cities, it was expected that Negotin would be visible for Alghero.
On the other hand, Sardinian and Algherian excellent products and desirable offerings
almost don’t exist on the Serbian market. There is only one tourist agency which offers
Sardinia, particularly Alghero as a tourist destination, although that Sardinia is a
desirable place for Serbian tourists, but the prevailing opinion is that it’s an elite place
for a holiday, which means “too expensive” for the average Serbian tourists.
Additionally, Sardinian and Algherian agriculture and wine products are very rare and
almost accidentally appearing in the Serbian markets.
125
All these similarities and differences, between the city of Negotin and the city of
Alghero gave birth to another important idea about official institutionalization of
twinning of these two cities. In this way, new possibilities for a direct exchange of
knowledge and experiences, between these two cities administrations, would be widely
open. Also, this sort of cooperation would offer a lot of opportunities for new bilateral
relations between nongovernmental institutions from different fields, from both cities
(private sector, civil sector, etc.). It would open a wide field for exchange, not only
knowledge and experience, but also ideas, technologies, investments and finally
friendship. The general objective: Institutionalization of the twinning, "city2city"
cooperation, Negotin-Alghero as an interface for the transfer of knowledge, experiences
and good practices in the main aim to build the supportive, inclusive, solidarity and
partnership oriented cultural, business and market cooperative environment. The
specific objectives: 1) Increasing and strengthening the local capacity and sustainable
regional development of the agriculture, wine producing and tourism in the municipality
of Negotin, and improving know-how capacity to reach international markets with local
offerings from these fields. 2) Algherian and Sardinian products and offerings do more
visible, accessible and desirable in the Serbian market. 3) Establishing, improving and
diversifying mutual bilateral cooperation and exchanging knowledge and experience in
the fields of academic education and science, culture, sport, energy, technology, risk
management and good government practice.
The performance of the twinning must be guided by the principle of subsidiarity and
requires interaction among administrative structures, universities, agricultural SME,
tourist societies, market actors and local communities. This implies an integrated
approach, starting off with the active involvement of various stakeholders and
institutions at different levels in a process of sensitivity and mutual learning. This means
adjusting tasks and competencies both of the technical administrative structures and
local stakeholders to new generations of strategies, in order to deal with related
situations, since all the activities will produce favorable impacts, e.g. in the wine sector
and in rural and environmentally sensitive tourism.
Mutual efforts of both sides can provide a lot of new mutual ideas for new mutual
projects, which would be interesting for different EU and other financial funds. It could
open new opportunities for funding new development projects. In mutual networking
with other cities and regions possibilities are arising.
Current partners in the project network are: University of Belgrade, Faculty of
Architecture; Architettura ad Alghero - Dipartimento di Architettura, Design e
Urbanistica dell'Università degli Studi di Sassari; Istituto di Ricerche Economiche e
Sociali - IRES Nazionale; Sapienza University of Rome, Faculty of Architecture;
Municipality of Negotin; Comune di Alghero; Cantina Santa Maria La Palma;
Ambasciata d'Italia a Belgrado and many experts from both sides.
The network will invite additional actors to join offering assistance and services to the
members, but also to spin new projects according to TwAN agreement. The success of
the TwAN, and promotion and dissemination of its best practice results, will be the best
motivator for new twining projects which would be appeared in Serbia and Italy.
126
PACKSENSOR PROJECT:
The impact of the controlled atmosphere on quality
and safety of the close-seal- packaged food applied
in the SMEs of South Serbia
1
2
1
1
L.Cocola , Bojana Danilovic , Massimo Fedel* , Luca Poletto , Dragisa Savic*
2
1
National Council for Research of Italy - Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies (CNRIFN), 2 Faculty of Technology in Leskovac, University of Nis
Corresponding authors. emails: [email protected], [email protected]
In order to maintain the quality and extend the shelf-life of the food products, different
technologies for the food packaging have been applied in the SMEs of South Serbia
Region. The choose of packaging is according to existing technology or choose
empirically. The kind and package material are very important and have a great
influence on food quality and safety. Unfortunately, influence of the package on the
quality and safety of food out of the factories has not been monitored in the Region. The
importance of this kind of monitoring has been recognized by the food producers and
the users, but not still implemented.
Faculty of Technology in Leskovac (TfL) is the only research and high educational
institution in the Region organizing activities regard to food technology. TfL have a
skilled staff and are equipped with instruments for chemical and microbiological control
in food processing. However, the control of the packaged food and influence of package
on the food quality and safety have not be organized yet due to deficiency in proper
equipment and trained personal.
PACKSENSOR project will develop and validate in the project timeframe a nonintrusive laser gas sensors completely contactless based on laser spectroscopy, leaving
the gas mix in the package unchanged. The device will be used for a variety of activities
at TfL. It can operate on food trays, bags, bottles.
In this field training and technological transfer is one of the main activities of the
applicant (IFN-CNR). These technologies have already been implemented in prototypes
that precisely fulfil the before mentioned requirements. With PACKSENSOR project
we would like to implement the above technologies directly in a wide range of food
packaging applied in the region of South Serbia.
In food processing, the use of Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) is growing.
The food producers in Serbia and other Central and Southeast Europe regions have great
interest to monitor changes in Q&S and to detect the causes of eventually changes.
It follows that the precise measurement and control of both the content of the gases of
interest and in the case of fermented products also the variation of CO2 represent a
requirement in the food packaging industries. The control can be made e.g. immediately
127
after closure or later also for monitoring the integrity of the seal and its evolution in
time.
PACKSENSOR aims to develop and install a new innovative technology of contactless
sensor to detect in a non-intrusive way the interested gases composition in the food
packages The Projects has scientific and technical objectives. The scientific objectives
of the project are:
•
develop innovative non-destructive gas sensors for food packaging industry;
•
applying laser spectroscopy with a new method of inspection and its adaptation
to measuring closed containers whose optical properties can be extremely
variable (food trays, bags, milk containers, bottles of different shape, color, and
many times not transparent);
•
investigation of the quality of the used package material in keeping the
atmospheres of packages.
The specific technical objectives are:
•
the installation of the instruments of innovative technology on TfL, as central
place for organized Q&S.
•
introducing the food producer from Region with a simply, fast, non-destructive
and not expensive technique for monitoring the Q&S of their products.
This project has received funding from the Central European Initiative (CEI) Fund at
the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
First prototype developed for CO2 measurement in dairy products
128
Quality assessment and authenticity of local wines
from EU accessing
countries: the case of Serbia
1
2
2
2
Paola Femo , Tešic Živoslav , Milojkovic Opsenica Dušanka , Todic Slavica ,
2
2
2
3
Milic Dragana ,Stevanovic Nikola , Gašic Uroš , Fabrizio Gelmini ,
3
4
4
Giangiacomo Beretta , Giulio Senni , Maria Barbara Conti
1
University of Milan, Department of Chemistry, Milan, Italy, [email protected]
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Chemistry, Belgrade, Serbia
3
University of Milan, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Milan, Italy
4
S.AGRI.V.IT. srl, http://www.castellodimagione.it/sagrivit.php Magione (PG), Italy
2
INTRODUCTION
The aim of the proposed project is the set up of methodologies for the determination of
wine authenticity and the characterization of its chemical profile. This will be realized
through the collaboration between two research groups, one Italian and one Serbian,
which consists in the exchange of knowledge and experiences to develop reliable
analytical methods for the determination of authenticity of wine and the quantification
of some phytochemicals marked as natural antioxidants, whose beneficial effects on
human health are well known and emphasized by numerous articles recently published.
Authenticity is an important tool for traceability, food safety and quality control of
foodstuffs and requires sophisticated complementary equipment available in both
institutions as well as researchers’ knowledge and skills to develop and apply reliable
analytical methods.
Since sophisticated instruments allow producing great amounts of information
(variables), the obtained multivariate data matrices require the use of contemporary
statistical procedures, in order to efficiently extract the maximum useful information
from experimental results. In that sense, full chemometric processing of the collected
data, applying statistical tools for classification, is planned.
As a final goal the methodological set-up will be applied to the comparative assessment
of wine varieties from both Italian and Serbian local winemakers.
The aim of the proposed project is the development of rapid screening and reliable
analytical methods for authentication of wines (determination of their geographical
origin), quality assessment and detection of adulteration by addition of water and/or
sugars. This will strongly favour and enhance the scientific cooperation between the two
institutions in all areas of interest to the two parties.
in both institutions. The set-up analytical procedures will be applied to the analysis of
wines produced by local winemakers, both Serbian and Italian.
Concerning the Italian partner the collaboration with University institutes is
advantageous since it allows assess the quality of their wines with the most modern
129
methodologies. Serbia is one of the EU accessing countries and the quality assessment
of local wines will
undoubtedly be advantageous for both national and international market. The final goal
of the proposed bilateral project is an increase of joint application to EU project calls in
both research and innovative projects.
METHODOLOGIES
Reliable analytical methods must be applied for estimation of authenticity of wines.
Several factors, such as detection limits, sample preparation, cost, and throughput, drive
method selection. Therefore, in the present project the development and application of
different chromatographic (HPLC, TLC, IC, GC) and hyphenated techniques (LC-MS,
TLC-MS, GC-MS) are planned.
Serbian group has experiences in application of LTQ OrbiTrap MS and EA/LC-IRMS
in food authenticity, i.e. determination of botanical and geographical origin of food. In
addition, expertise of Serbian team in application of different chemometric methods in
classification of food provides complementarity between both research groups.
A statistically significant number of authentic samples of both Italian and Serbian wines
will be collected from various regions and vineyards (for Italy: S.AGRI.V.IT. srl,
http://www.castellodimagione.it/sagrivit.php Magione (PG), Italy; for Serbia:
experimental school estate “Radmilovac” of University of Belgrade - Faculty of
Agriculture).
The systematic chemical analysis of the collected wine samples will be carried out:
determination of sugars and sugar alcohols, content of macro, micro and trace elements
as useful indicators in tracing regional differences between samples, content of both
inorganic and organic anions, determination of volatile compounds, polyphenolic
profiles, total phenolic content, antioxidative activity, analysis of stable C, H and O
isotope ratios.
A detailed chemical analysis of commercial wine samples from both Italian and Serbian
market will be performed; the Italian winemaker involved in the project coordinates a
consortium of 14 producers located throughout Italian territory (Friuli Venezia Giulia,
Veneto, Umbria, Puglia and Sicily).
Taking into account an influence of an annual (micro) climate parameters on the wine
composition and quality, a three-year bilateral research is proposed. In such a way, a
natural variability of the samples will be taken into consideration in a statistically
significant manner.
The results of this project will serve in the future for the investigation of authenticity as
challenging task in food analysis which will enforce the quality insurance of wine
produced in Serbia and its neighbouring.
In addition concerning the cooperation with the Italian producers they will take
advantages from the output of the project in terms of increased knowledge and access to
modern and up to date tools for the quality assessment of their products.
130
References
Beretta, G., Fermo, P., Maffei Facino, R., Simple and rapid simultaneous profiling of
minor components of honey by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) coupled
to ultraviolet diode array detection (UV- DAD), combined with chemometric
methods, Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 58 (2012)193199.
Paola Fermo, Giangiacomo Beretta, Roberto Maffei Facino, Fabrizio Gelmini, Andrea
Piazzalunga, Ionic profile of honey as a potential indicator of botanical origin
and global environmental pollution, Environmental Pollution 178 (2013) 173181.
Beslic, Z., Todic, S., Korac, N., Lorenz, S., Emanuelli, F., Grando, M.S. (2012):
Genetic characterization and relationships of traditional grape cultivars from
Serbia. Vitis, 2012. Vol. 51 (4) 183-189.
M. Pantelic, D. Dabic, S. Matijaševic, S. Davidovic, B. Dojcinovic, D. MilojkovicOpsenica, Ž. Tešic, and M. Natic, Chemical Characterization of Fruit Wine
Made from Oblacinska Sour Cherry, The Scientific World Journal, Vol. 2014,
Article ID 454797 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/454797
P. Ristivojevic, J. Trifkovic, U. Gašic, F. Andric, N. Nedic, Ž. Tešic, D. MilojkovicOpsenica. Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry
(UHPLC–LTQ OrbiTrap MS/MS) study of phenolic profile of Serbian poplar
type propolis, Phytochemical analysis, 26 (2015) 127–136.
131
Serbian-Italian Cooperation through researchers
mobility within Erasmus Mundus Program
1
2
3
2
Katarina Gašić , Enrico Biondi , Davide Giovanardi , Assunta Bertaccini , Emilio
3
4
Stefani , Aleksa Obradović
1
Institute for Plant Protection and Environment, Teodora Drajzera 9, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia,
[email protected], 2DipSA, Plant Pathology, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of
Bologna,
via
Fanin
42,
40127
Bologna,
Italy,
[email protected],
[email protected], 3Department of Life Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio
[email protected],
Emilia, via Amendola 2, 42122 Reggio Emilia, Italy,
[email protected], 4University of Belgrade, Faculty of Agriculture, Nemanjina 6, 11080
Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected]
Mutual interests in agricultural research provide continuous opportunity for cooperation
among Serbian and Italian institutions. Recently, bilateral cooperation between Serbia
and Italy was implemented through the postdoctoral research of Dr. Katarina Gašić,
research associate from the Institute for Plant Protection and Environment, Belgrade,
Serbia. Dr. Gašić spent nine months on a postdoctoral scholarship (2014-2015),
received from the Erasmus Mundus Action 2 - Join EU-SEE IV Program, at the
University of Bologna, Department of Agricultural Sciences, Laboratory of
Phytobacteriology, Italy, under the supervision of Prof. Assunta Bertaccini. During her
stay, Dr. Gašić also visited the Department of Life Sciences of the University of
Modena and Reggio Emilia and participated to a research on the management of seed
transmitted bacteria, that was part of the ongoing project: EU-FP7 Project
„Development of seed testing methods for pests and pathogens of plant health concern
(TESTA; www.seedtesta.eu)“, under the supervision of Prof. Emilio Stefani; and
III46008 project “Development of integrated management of harmful organisms in plant
production in order to overcome resistance and to improve food quality and safety”,
coordinator Prof. Aleksa Obradović, financed by Ministry of Education, Science and
Technological Development, Republic of Serbia.
Postdoctoral research activities involved seed transmission studies of some regulated
plant pathogenic bacteria and development of seed disinfection methods. Experiments
were conducted considering different pathosystems: Xanthomonas vesicatoria (Xv) and
Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis (Cmm) on tomato and Acidovorax
citrulli (Ac) on watermelon and melon. Seeds of tomato and watermelon have been
produced from experimentally inoculated fields with Cmm, Xv or Ac. Those naturally
contaminated seeds were sown and seedlings obtained were transplanted in the field
during 2014, to investigate the relationship between the seed contamination rate and
diseases severity, as well as pathogens transmission from seeds to plants under field
conditions.
Greenhouse seed transmission studies started by transforming pathogen wild type
strains of Cmm, Xv and Ac to express the green fluorescent protein (GFP), using the
plasmid pUFZ75 (carrying gfp), which was inserted by electroporation. Plasmid
133
stability in the transformed pathogen strains was confirmed by growing mutants on
nutrient media. Mutants’ virulence evaluation was done by spraying their respective
host plants with water suspensions containing the mutants and the wild type pathogen.
Disease severity assessments were done 14-21 days after experimental inoculation. In
order to evaluate pathogens’ transmission, tomato and watermelon plantlets were
sprayed with water suspensions of the GFP mutant strains. The presence of bacteria
colonising leaves and xylem vessels was assessed with microscopy, from the first
symptoms of disease to the plant senescence. All stem sections (1 cm length) were hand
sliced with sterile razors and visualized using fluorescence microscopy.
Bacterial DNA extraction protocols suitable for seed analyses were implemented in
order to accomplish maximum sensitivity and robustness of detection protocols for
Cmm, Xv and Ac affecting tomato and cucurbit seeds, respectively. In particular,
different DNA extraction and purification procedures, with or without the use of
commercial mini columns kits, were addressed, in order to enhance sensitivity of
official PCR protocols developed in the framework of the EPPO activity.
Finally, in order to develop effective disinfection methods not affecting seed
germination rate, seed treatment experiments were performed in greenhouse using
different control agents: bacterial antagonists, a commercial microbial consortium and
specific bacteriophages.
Moreover, postdoctoral research also included studies of bacteriophages as biocontrol
agents. Bacteriophages specific to Erwinia amylovora, causal agent of fire blight, were
characterized and their host range was studied. Diversity of bacteriophage strains was
investigated by RFLP analysis and RAPD-PCR. Bacteriophage efficacy in controlling
fire blight was evaluated in standardised conditions using detached pear flowers.
The research carried out by Dr. Gašić strengthened the link between the Italian and
Serbian researchers and institutions, resulting in some publications. It was a good
opportunity for both, Italian and Serbian researchers, to verify effectiveness of different
approaches in solving problems regarding plant bacterial diseases and their control.
Knowledge and experience acquired by Dr. Gašić during her postdoctoral studies at
both University of Bologna and University of Modena and Reggio Emilia was further
transferred to colleagues in Serbia and implemented in order to improve the quality of
the research.
134
Health spaces. Hospital Outdoor Environment
1
Francesca Giofrè and Zoran Ðukanović
2
1
Sapienza University of Rome, Faculty of Architecture, Department Planning Technology of
Architecture Italy, [email protected], 2 University of Belgrade, Faculty of
Architecture, Department of Urbanism, Serbia, [email protected]
It was February 2012 at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade during the
course “Health Urban Design” when we have developed the topic of Healthy spaces
around the hospital complex. Thanks to the Basileus Erasmus Mundus programme, we
had the chance to work together for one month and then we have received the funds by
Sapienza International Office on the basis of the mutual agreement between our
Institutions, to go on with our research and teaching activities.
The Serbian students, during the Course, worked
on the regeneration of the outdoor environments at
the Clinical Center of Serbia in Belgrade. To let
them fully understand the topic, the students
together with us, met the board of management of
the Clinical Center and they interviewed, through
a questionnaire given by us, 108 users amongst
which there were patients, hospital staff, students
and visitors. The interviews’ results were really
interesting. On the one hand the results highlight
the bad feelings of users towards outdoor
environments, on the other hand the great
importance of outdoor environments for the users
as an integral part of surroundings city and the
importance of the relation with the indoor
activities of the hospital.
We discussed the topic in deep, concluding that
there are a lot of places around the world where
the outdoor environments around the big hospitals
Figure 1. Cover book “Health
are not properly taken into account by the
spaces.
Hospital
Outdoor
designers. Even if the hospitals occupy a big
environment”.
portion of the city, the outdoor spaces are not
integrated into the city, nor used as an extension of the healthcare activities. It can be
argued that the ‘outdoor spaces’ are not ‘places characterized’ but only physically ‘open
spaces’.
We decided to write a book on this topic jointly. The book comes from that teaching
experience and from the studies made during these years. The book titled “Health
spaces. Hospital Outdoor Environments”, involves different Italian and Serbian experts
135
in the healthcare design and landscape, aware of the need for interdisciplinary
approaches and of the significant importance that landscape design gains in these last
years. The book discusses and shows design solutions aimed at creating the right
balance as much between the city and the hospital’s outdoors, that much between
hospital open spaces and indoor environments, in accordance with users’ needs and
behaviors.
The book develops the topic starting from a
general approach to go on in the real case
study’s analysis. According to that, it is
divided in two parts: the first part collects
essays on planning and design approach and
the second part shows significant case studies
located in Serbia and in Italy.
The first part of the book collected six papers,
written by Z. Ðukanović, F. Terranova, N.
Beretić, F. Quici, F. Giofrè, R., R. Božović
Stamenović. They explore theoretically the
main topic from different points of view, from
different disciplines of the architecture.
The second part of the book collected seven
papers written by R. D’Onofrio and E.
Trusiani, A.M. Giovenale; F. Giofrè, I.
Miletić, V. Napoli and G. Primiceri, V.
Figure 2. Word map of the book
Mandić and T. Stanisavljević , R. Belibani
keywords.
and M. Ciardi.
The papers analyze several case study as the
Piacenza Hospital complex, Policlinico
Umberto I of Rome (Italy); the Clinical Center in Belgrade, Clinical Centre of Niš and
Clinical Centre of Vojvodina in Novi Sad (Serbia) and more.
The book is edited by Francesca Giofrè and Zoran Ðukanović and it contains a forwards
by Romano Del Nord, director of Inter-University Research Centre “Systems and
Technologies for Healthcare Buildings”, University of Florence and Vladan Đokić, dean
of the Faculty of Architecture of Belgrade.
The book is on publishing by Inter-University Research Centre “Systems and
Technologies for Healthcare Buildings”, Tesis, in which is part Sapienza University of
Rome, Department Planning, Design, Technology of Architecture, with Faculty of
Architecture University of Belgrade, Serbia, in which is part the educational program
Public Art & Public Space (PaPs).
The book “Health spaces. Hospital Outdoor Environments” is the first of series that we
are planning to write on this topic, according to our mutual ongoing research.
136
Convergence of markets and regulations between
Serbia and Italy on aflatoxins in human food
assessment. Some biostatistical advancements for
sampling procedures
1
2
3
4
Egle Perissinotto , Tatjana Brankov , Irene Amoruso , Kleut Žana , Djokic
5
6
7
8
Danilo , Maria Gabriella Vecchio , Dario Gregori and Gianluigi Viglino
1
University of Padova, Italy, [email protected], 2University of Belgrade, Serbia,
[email protected], 3University of Padova, Italy, [email protected], 4Faculty of
Economics Subotica, University of Novi Sad, Serbia, [email protected], 5Faculty of
Economics Subotica, University of Novi Sad, Serbia, [email protected], 6Zeta Research
Srl, Trieste, Italy, [email protected], 7University of Padova, Italy,
[email protected] 8Ferrero Inc., Italy, [email protected]
INTRODUCTION
Aflatoxins are produced by the secondary metabolism of some fungal strains of
Aspergillus spp., which may contaminate a variety of foodstuffs such as crops
(particularly maize), dried fruit (hazelnuts), oilseeds (such as peanuts) and spices, both
during cultivation and post-harvest storage. Contaminated food must be destroyed, or its
price has to be reduced. Losses due to the presence of aflatoxin in food commodities, in
the USA, are measured in hundreds of millions of USD (1).
Given that the formation of fungal toxins depends of weather conditions, aflatoxins
contamination is considered an unavoidable risk and prevention hard to achieve.
Many important diseases caused by chronic or acute exposure to aflatoxins affect
human and animal populations. As consequence, main health damages involve liver,
kidneys, cardiovascular and nervous system, by expressing the carcinogenic,
teratogenic, mutagenic and immunosuppressive effects. Moreover, aflatoxins are listed
among main causes of hepatocellular carcinoma (2).
Many regulatory policies have been issued independently by several countries, resulting
in a heterogeneous legislative scenario. Interestingly, countries and nations that share
strong food trade relations tend to have similar regulations on allowable levels of
aflatoxins in foodstuffs (3, 4).
Developing new techniques for a more efficient and precise estimation of aflatoxins
contamination in food is of great interest both for the agricultural, industrial and
regulatory sector.
Our project is aimed at comparing the performance of new techniques for assessing
aflatoxins from a statistical perspective, as a preliminary step toward the estimation of
the impact that several approaches and regulatory mandates have on public health.
137
PRECISION OF THE ESTIMATION PROCEDURE
Total variability in estimating the contamination level of aflatoxins is commonly split
into the sum of the variances observed in each step of the testing process.
Indeed, current procedure (e.g.: in US), are based on a series of steps: (i) a sample is
randomly extracted from the batch, (ii) the sample isprepared usually by smashing it,
(iii) a further sample is taken from the smashed sample and (iv) aflatoxin presence is
investigated by analytical procedure.
Thus, assuming additivity, total variance (VT) can be split as
VT=VS+VSS+VA
(0.1)
Where VS is representing the statistical variability associated to the chosen sampling
procedure, VSS the variability associated with sample preparation and handling and
finally VA as the variability associated with the analytical procedure. There’s a general
agreement among researchers that the major contribution to VT is provided by VS.
This happens mostly because of the very limited prevalence of aflatoxin contamination,
usually lower than 1 over 1000 sampled nucleus, with the statistical complication that,
although rare, the contamination level, when observed, can be also very high at each
contaminated nucleus.
A common formula for the estimation of VS is provided by Johansson (5)
 12.95  0.98
VS = 
M
 ns 
(0.2)
where M is the aflatoxin concentration in nanograms and ns is sample size expressed in
Kg of nuts. Such formula, derived on empirical basis, is at the ground of the most used
regulatory approaches around the world.
In the last few years, several alternative approaches have been proposed and investigate,
in a view of controlling costs of assessment maintaining (if not lowering) VT at the
nominal level required by regulatory agencies. Indeed, as clearly seen in Figure 2 the
same statistical precision (i.e. the inverse of VT), can be obtained under different
alternative scenarios of pre-sampling smashing, increasing or not analytical testing.
138
Figure 2. Aflatoxin detection rates under different sampling schemes.
The most crucial (and yet less investigated) point from the statistical perspective is that
VT is overall a function of the mean contamination level, as shown in Figure 2. This
introduces the need for sampling schemes overcoming the classical and most adopted
assumption of linearity and normality. The latter in particular, forces to assume a
constant mean-variance relationship, which leads to a potential underestimation of the
upper tails of the probability distribution of the contamination levels. This implies that,
for a given sample size, higher risks are potentially underestimated with lower
precision. Still not solving the problem from a theoretical point of view, most adopted
procedures are addressing the issue by putting more information in the model, like for
instance batch quality.
NOVEL APPROACHES
Novel approaches tends to use the concept of Receiver Operating Curve for measuring
the risk of misclassification. This leads to a novel perspective, where the regulatory
threshold is seen as a result of a virtual negotiation between producer and consumer in
therm of teh risk levels and their acceptability from a public health perspective.
Obviously, if such perspective is taken, the precision of the estimated risk function is
crucial for making an informed choice about the acceptability of risks. As seen above,
actual methods provide only a rough estimation of risks, which is also depending fro
mthe quality of the additional information included in the model.
The joint work carried over by our teams is aimed at understaning the biases associated
with the classical risk estimation procedure, by (i) comapring, from a theretical
perspetice, most commonly used approaches, and by (ii) addressing their performances
using stochastic simulations. This in particular to unedrstand the potential benefits and
139
gains associated with very promising novel approaches represented by Bayesian and
sequantial designs.
In a broader perspective, this work constitutes the basis for explorign the public health
implications of each procedure of aflatoxin contamination. Also, a direct benefit is
provided to industry, informing it about the relative efficiency and potential gains and
the corresponding cost-reduction by adopting a given assessment procedure and, in a
broader perspective, increasing its competitive advantage.
References
1. Wu F. Mycotoxin Risk Assessment for the Purpose of Setting International
Regulatory Standards. Environmental Science & Technology. 2004
2004/08/01;38(15):4049-55.
2. Liu Y, Wu F. Global burden of aflatoxin-induced hepatocellular carcinoma: a risk
assessment. Environ Health Perspect. 2010 Jun;118(6):818-24. PubMed PMID:
20172840. Pubmed Central PMCID: PMC2898859. Epub 2010/02/23. eng.
3. Papić Brankov T, Jovanović M, Grujić B. AFLATOXIN STANDARDS AND
MAIZE TRADE. Economics of Agriculture. 2013;60(3).
4. Shashidhar J, Sashidhar RB, Deshpande V. Role of mycoferritin from Aspergillus
parasiticus (255) in secondary metabolism (aflatoxin production). FEMS
Microbiol Lett. 2005 Oct 1;251(1):113-7. PubMed PMID: 16143460. Epub
2005/09/07. eng.
5. Whitaker TB, Johansson AS. Sampling uncertainties for the detection of chemical
agents in complex food matrices. J Food Prot. 2005 Jun;68(6):1306-13.
PubMed PMID: 15954725. Epub 2005/06/16. eng.
140
The Identification of Titania Polymorphs in Different
Samples of Cultural Heritage by Raman
Spectroscopy
1
1
2
3
M. Grujić-Brojčin , Maja Šćepanović , A.C. Felici , and Maja Gajić-Kvaščev
1
Center for Solid State Physics and New Materials, Institute of Physics, University of Belgrade,
Serbia, [email protected]
2
Department of Basic and Applied Sciences for Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy,
[email protected]
3
Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected]
The identification of materials used in artworks is of great importance for conservation,
restoration and research in the field of Cultural Heritage. Among many experimental
tools, the Raman spectroscopy is now well established method in the investigation a
variety of objects of Cultural Heritage, particularly in pigments and ancient pottery
fragments (Bersani, 2011; Clark, 2007; Midleton, 2005). Raman spectroscopy is based
on the Raman effect, which provides chemical and structural information of almost any
material. It is easily conducted, short and nondestructive experimental procedure, acting
on unprepared samples in the air. The Raman spectrum is a "fingerprint" of particular
compound – an unique spectrum which can be easily distinguished, even in the
compounds with the same elementary content, but different symmetry and structure.
Titanium dioxide (TiO2, also known as titania) may be found in various polymorphs
occurring naturally: rutile, anatase and brookite. Titania was identified in ilmenite rocks
at the end of XVIII century; it is produced as a pigment on an industrial scale from the
beginning of XX century (Bruni, 2012; Clark, 2007). Although the titanium traces have
been found in artefacts produced prior to XX, the titania compounds, particularly anatase,
have been used as date-marker pigment (Clark, 2007, Colomban, 2013). In this report the
short study of anatase and rutile in ancient ceramics will be presented, as a part of
ongoing research.
Several samples of ancient ceramics have been investigated by Raman spectroscopy in
order to get insight in their mineral composition. Raman measurements have been
performed in the backscattering geometry at room temperature in the air, using JobinYvon T64000 triple spectrometer. The spectra have been excited by 514.5 and 532 nm
laser lines with output power of about 40 mW.
It is known that the color of the natural titania crystals may vary from white and yellow
to brown, even black (Edwards, 2006). In this research the spectra corresponding to
anatase and rutile have been measured on white or gray areas of sample cross-section
(often as the mixtures with other materials, such as quartz, but also with hematite in red
areas of sample cross-section).
141
Figure 1. The Raman spectra of (a) anatase and rutile phase measured in KaleKrševica samples (south Serbia, IV-II B.C.) and (b) Islamic stone-paste ceramics from
Ghaznavide Mas’ud III Sultan palace in Ghazni (Afghanistan, XI-XII A.D.).
In Figure 1(a) the Raman spectra of ancient ceramics (Kale-Krševica samples, south
Serbia, IV-II B.C.) are shown. The Raman modes of anatase (A) and rutile (R) are
clearly identified and assigned in several different samples of painted pottery, as well as
both polymorphs in one sample. The titania content in some samples is mixed with αquartz (denoted by Q). In Figure 2(b) the Raman spectra of Islamic stone-paste ceramics
(Ghaznavide Mas’ud III Sultan palace in Ghazni, Afghanistan, XI-XII A.D.) are shown,
corresponding only to anatase and anatase mixed with α-quartz. The images
corresponding to the spectra were taken under the microscope with 50× magnification,
whereby measuring point was located approximately in the center of image.
The origin of titania polymorphs in artefacts and archaeological materials, belonging to
the period before XX century, are still the matter of discussion. In regard to wide use of
synthetic titania pigments in modern age, many authors have tried to use Raman
spectroscopy to differentiate original artworks from fake, by tracing anatase as datemarker pigment (Bruni, 2012; Clark, 2007; Colomban, 2013). At the same time some
authors have reported the presence of anatase in ancient ceramics and other
archaeological materials, suggesting that it has been used as a white pigment in the past
(Edwards, 2006) or naturally occurring trace material in ancient pottery (Clark, 2007
142
and references therein; Raškovska 2010). Also, rutile polymorph has been recorded in
ceramics from 16th and 17th century (de Waal, 2004). However, even from trace
amounts of titania polymorphs in ceramics body, highly intense Raman scattering may
be obtained, due to their high cross-section for Raman scattering (Clark, 2007); the
spectra in this study are also well defined, clearly distinguishable from background.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to differentiate mineral from synthetic anatase neither by
Raman nor infrared spectroscopy, because of their identical crystal structures (Clark,
2007). Therefore the use of anatase as a potential date-marker pigment in Cultural
Heritage is still matter of discussion. It should also be noticed that, by means of Raman
spectroscopy, the synthetic titania polymorphs could be separated from mineral ones by
the particle size and particle size distribution, expecting smaller particles and narrow
distribution in materials synthesized by modern techniques. However, the presence of
anatase, known as low temperature titania polymorph, at least may indicate that the
firing temperature of ceramic body did not exceeded ~800 oC (Raškovska, 2010).
This research is a part of Italia-Serbia Bilateral Project “Scientific and technological
cooperation between Sapienza University of Rome and University of Belgrade in the
area of Cultural Heritage” (2013-2015), supported by the Serbian Ministry of
Education, Science and Technological Development, project No. III45018.
References
Bersani D. and Madariaga J.M. (2011). Applications of Raman spectroscopy in art and
archaeology. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 43, 1523–1528.
Bruni S., Maino G., Vaccaro C. and Volpe L. (2012). Investigation and Characterization
of Artistic Techniques in Works of Modern and Contemporary Art. EAI
Speciale II, Knowledge, Diagnostics and Preservation of Cultural Heritage.
Clark R.J.H,Wang Q., and Correia A. (2007). Can the Raman spectrum of anatase in
artwork and archaeology be used for dating purposes? Identification by Raman
microscopy of anatase in decorative coatings on Neolithic (Yangshao) pottery
from Henan, China. Journal of Archaeological Science, 34, 1787-1793.
Colomban P. and Mancini D. (2013). Lacquerware Pigment Identification with Fixed
andMobile Raman Microspectrometers: A Potential Technique to Differentiate
Original/Fake Artworks. Arts, 2, 111-123.
Edwards H.G.M., Hassan N.F.N., and Middleton P.S. (2006). Anatase e a pigment in
ancient artwork or a modern usurper? Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry,
384, 1356-1365.
Middleton A. P., Edwards H. G. M., Middleton P. S., and Ambers J. (2005).
Identification of anatase in archaeological materials by Raman spectroscopy:
implications and interpretation. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 36(10), 984–
987.
143
Raškovska A., Minčeva B., Šukarova O. and Colomban Ph. (2010) Characterization of
pottery from Republic of Macedonia II. Raman and infrared analyses of glazed
pottery finds from Skopsko Kale. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 41, 431–
439.
de Waal, D. (2004). Raman investigation of ceramics from 16th and 17th century
Portuguese shipwrecks. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 35, 646-649.
144
Cooperation between Italy and Serbia to preserve
soil and water quality
1
2
Sanja Lazić and Marco Contin
1
University of Novi Sad, Serbia, [email protected], 2 Department of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences, University of Udine, Udine, Italy, [email protected]
INTRODUCTION
The initiative formulated in the European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD)
requires a good ecological status in European river basins. One of the important steps
towards a realistic and cost-benefit implementation of the WFD should be the
identification and quantification of the environmental contaminants. Intensive
agriculture production has resulted in large quantities of organic and inorganic wastes
being released into environment, causing serious environmental problems and
disturbance of the ecosystem, as well as a risk for the human health (Seccia et al., 2011).
The results are an increase in toxic elements in air, soil and water resources. The
intensive agricultural production in the north part of Serbia, i.e. Vojvodina, is possible
due to rivers Danube and Tisa and the well developed network of canals that enables
crops irrigation. However, special problem of this system present dispersed pollution
sources originating from agriculture. According to good agricultural practices, the more
recent developed active substances are designed to offer advantages of the highest
selectivity together with the lowest persistence in the environment, such as sulfonylurea
herbicides. After prohibition of triazines and some chloroacetanilides as priority water
pollutants (2013/39/EU), the use of sulfonylurea herbicides has been significantly
increased (De Lafontaine et al., 2014). As a consequence, there is a possibility of
significant accumulation of pesticides and related adverse effects on the whole
ecosystem. Given their field half-lives, high GUS index values and relatively high water
solubility, SUs can leach to groundwater as well as enter surface waters of streams and
rivers via soil erosion and surface runoff (Almvik et al., 2011; Struger et al., 2011). In
addition to pesticides, heavy metals also form an important pollutant group. Agricultural
production is one of the most important anthropogenic sources of heavy metals
pollution, especially due to long-term use of metal-based pesticides and the use of
fertilizers and organic amendments rich in such elements.
AIM OF THE PROJECT
This project aimed to investigate presence of pollutants (sulfonylurea herbicides and
heavy metals) in both water and soil in the main agricultural areas. The general objective
is the preservation of environmental quality in two regions particularly exposed to intense
agricultural practices. The main objectives of our project will be development and
improvement of analytical methods for the simultaneous determination of sulfonylurea
herbicides in water and soil, measurement of these pollutants in the soils and river systems
and evaluation of the potential of introducing sustainable agricultural techniques to reduce
the diffusion of these priority contaminants.
145
METHODOLOGY AND ACTIVITIES
In this project, analytical parameters will be investigated to evaluate the viability of the
proposed method, according to criteria EUROPEAN COMMISSION Directorate
General Health and Consumer Protection SANCO/825/00 rev. 8.1 16/11/2010. The
collaboration between Italian and Serbian partners will be very important to select and
apply the most modern and powerful methodology in order to measure either pesticides
or heavy metals up to very low detection limits. The first part of this project is related to
the setup of the analytical methodology to measure heavy metals and pesticides in both
surface waters and soils. During the second and third part of the project surface water
will be sampled and analyzed in spring and autumn in the localities where the
sulfonylurea herbicides were intensively applied. Agricultural soil will be also sampled
for the determination of sulfonylurea herbicides and heavy metals. Determination of SU
herbicides in water and soil samples by HPLC-DAD and LC-MS/MS, and
determination of heavy metals content by ICP-MS will be carried out as a part of
cooperation between Italian and Serbian partners. Assessment of potentially phytoavailable metals will be obtained by DTPA/TEA method developed by Lindsay and
Norvell (1978) and leaching protocol. The concentration of metals in soil extracts will
be determined by ICP-AES or ICP-MS. The forth part of the project will be dedicated to
the diffusion and dissemination of the results of the project.
References
Almvik M., Riise G., Bolli R., Christiansen A., Odenmarck S.R., Børresen T., Tveit
C.W. (2008). Transport of sulfonylurea herbicides froma barley field in
Norway: Field and laboratory studies. Bioforsk Report, 3(105), 57.
de Lafontaine Y., Beauvais C., Cessna A.J., Gagnon P., Hudon C. and Poissant L.
(2014). Sulfonylurea herbicides in an agricultural catchment basin and its
adjacent wetland in the St. Lawrence River basin. Science of Total
Environment, 479–480(1), 1–10.
Directive 2013/39/EU of the European Parliament, 24 August 2013, Official Journal of
the European Union, L 226/1.
EU COMMISSION, Directorate General Health and Consumer Protection,
SANCO/825/00 rev. 8.1 16/11/2010, Guidance document on pesticide residue
analytical methods.
Lindsay W.L. and Norvell W.A. (1978). Development of a DTPA soil test for zinc, iron,
manganese, and copper. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 42, 421-428.
Seccia S., Albrizio S., Fidente P. and Montesano D. (2011). Development and
validation of a solid-phase extraction method coupled to high-performance
liquid chromatography with ultraviolet-diode array detection for the
determination of sulfonylurea herbicide residues in bovine milk samples.
Journal of Chromatography A, 1218(9), 1253–1259.
Struger J., Grabuski J., Cagampan S., Rondeau M., Sverko E. and Marvin C. (2011).
Occurrence and Distribution of Sulfonylurea and Related Herbicides in Central
Canadian Surface Waters 2006-2008. Bulletin of Environmental
Contamination and Toxicology, 87, 420-425.
146
Research Collaboration in the Field of Modelling of
Advanced RF and Microwave Transistors
1
2
1
2
Zlatica Marinković , Giovanni Crupi , Vera Marković , Alina Caddemi
1
University of Niš, Faculty of Electronic Engineering, Serbia, [email protected],
[email protected], 2 University of Messina, DICIEAMA, Italy, [email protected],
[email protected]
RF and microwave transistors are the key components of circuits in modern
communication systems. Design of the communication systems strongly requests
accurate and efficient models of their components. Modelling of RF and microwave
transistors is the research topic that has been jointly studied by the microwave
electronics researchers from the University of Niš and the University of Messina. The
very beginning of collaboration was in early 2000s, when Prof. Marković and Prof.
Caddemi started to exchange their research papers on the topic, as in that time it was not
always possible to access online all the published articles, especially conference papers.
The exchange of papers was followed by exchange of research ideas that soon resulted
in the first joint conference paper (Marinković, 2003). In the period form 2006 to 2009
the members of the two research groups participated in the European Commission
TEMPUS project JEP 41112-2006 “Development of Master Study Programmes in
Telecommunications and Control”. This project provided opportunities to visit each
other and to have fruitful discussions. Since then several mutual visits have been
realized, in the form of short visiting research stays or participation at the conferences
held at these two universities.
The research activities have been mainly performed by professors Caddemi and
Marković and their PhD students at that time Dr. Giovanni Crupi and Dr. Zlatica
Marinković, who are now assistant professors. Also a few other researchers from the
University of Niš have contributed to the development of this research collaboration.
The Italian researchers have a strong expertise in the field of measurements of
microwave transistors as well as in development of standard equivalent circuit based
models, whereas the Serbian researchers have a significant experience in development
of the models based on application of artificial neural networks. It should be mentioned
that in collaboration also researchers from University of Ferrara, Italy (Prof. Giorgio
Vannini, Dr. Antonio Raffo) and from KU Leuven, Belgium (Prof. Dominiques
Schreurs, Dr. Gustavo Avolio) have actively participated. As a result of the
collaboration, 23 publications have been published up today: one book chapter
(Marinković et al., 2011), eight papers published in international journals with impact
factor (Crupi et al., 2014, Marinković et al., 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015a,
2015b), three papers in international journals, 10 papers presented at international IEEE
conferences (all well known in the research field) and one paper presented at a national
conference. The most of the published work is related to development of small-signal
and noise modelling of FET transistors in GaAs technology. The first joint steps in
nonlinear model development have been recently done. In particular, the tested devices
147
have been GaAs and LDMOSFET transistors. The further research work will be aimed
at developing models of advanced transistors made in GaN technology and moving also
in the direction of modelling not only the transistors but also amplifiers. It should be
mentioned, that although a part of the research has been conducted within Serbian
and/or Italian national projects funded by the Ministries of Science, the research has not
been carried under a formal joint project framework. Therefore, one of the future
activities will be also applying for projects with the aim to improve and facilitate the
further research.
References
Crupi, G., Raffo, A., Marinković, Z., Avolio, G., Caddemi, A., Marković, V., Vannini, G.,
and Schreurs, D. (2014). An extensive experimental analysis of the kink effects in
S22 and h21 for a GaN HEMT. IEEE Trans. on Microwave Theory and Technique,
62 (3), 513-520.
Marinković, Z., Marković, V., Caddemi, A., Milovanović, B. Microwave transistor noise
models including temperature dependence. 6th Conference on Telecomm. in
Modern Satellite, Cable and Broadcasting Services TELSIKS 2003, Niš,
Yugoslavia, 561-564.
Marinković, Z., Crupi, G., Caddemi, A., Marković, V. (2010). Comparison between
analytical and neural approaches for multibias small signal modeling of microwave
scaled FETs. Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, 52(10), 2238-2244.
Marinković, Z., Marković, V., Caddemi, A. (2011). Artificial Neural Networks in SmallSignal and Noise Modeling of Microwave Transistors. Chapter 6 in „Artificial
Neural Networks“ edited by Seoyun J. Kwon, Nova Science Publishers Inc.
Marinković, Z., Crupi, G., Schreurs, D., Caddemi, A., Marković, V. (2011). Microwave
FinFET modeling based on artificial neural networks including lossy silicon
substrate. Microelectronic Engineering, 88(10), 3158-3163.
Marinković, Z., Crupi, G., Schreurs, D., Caddemi, A., Marković, V. (2012). “Multi-bias
neural modeling of FinFET admittance parameters. Microwave and Optical
Technology Letters, 54 (9), 2082-2088.
Marinković, Z., Ivković, N., Pronić-Rančić, O., Marković, V., Caddemi, A. (2013).
Analysis and validation of neural approach for extraction of small-signal models of
microwave transistors. Microelectronics Reliability, 53(3), 414–419.
Marinković, Z., Crupi, G., Schreurs, D., Caddemi, A., Marković, V. (2014). Microwave
neural modeling for silicon FinFET varactors. International Journal of Numerical
Modeling: Electronic Networks, Devices and Fields, 27(5-6), 834-845.
Marinković, Z., Crupi, G., Caddemi, A., Avolio, G., Raffo, A., Marković, V., Vannini, G.,
and Schreurs, D. (2015). Neural approach for temperature-dependent modeling of
GaN HEMTs. Int. Journal of Numerical Modeling: Electronic Networks, Devices
and Fields, 28(4), 359-370.
Marinković, Z., Ivković, N., Pronić-Rančić, O., Marković, V., Caddemi, A. (2015). Novel
neural approach for parameter extraction of microwave transistor noise models. Int.
Journal of Numerical Modeling: Electronic Networks, Devices and Fields, 28 (6),
707-716.
148
Italian-Serbian Bilateral Co-operation: ‘Sustainable
Development of a New Pilot Neighbourhood in
Belgrade Using IMM Methodology’
1
2
1
Marija Maruna , Massimo Tadi , Ratka Čolić , Mohammad Hadi Mohammad
2
2,
1
1
Zadeh , Luka Stefanović Ivan Simić and Veljko Ćirić
1
2
University of Belgrade, Serbia, Faculty of Architecture, www.arh.bg.ac.rs
Politecnico di Milano, Italy, IMM Design Lab, ABC Department, www.immdesignlab.com
In the spring of 2014, the University of Belgrade Faculty of Architecture and the
Politecnico di Milano School of Architectural Engineering signed an agreement on
international academic co-operation in the field of sustainable urban development.
Particular emphasis was placed on the use of Integrated Modification Methodology
(IMM), an innovative design methodology developed by the IMM Design Lab
(http://www.immdesignlab.com/immdesignlab.com/Home.html) at the Politecnico di
Milano’s ABC Department. The IMM aims at improving energy-related and
environmental performance of urban systems. The two schools worked together during the
autumn term of the 2014-15 academic year as part of the Integral Urbanism Master’s
Degree course offered by the Belgrade Faculty of Architecture and the Design Studio Lab
A Master of Science course at the School of Architectural Engineering in Milan. As
proposed by the Belgrade Urban Planning Institute, and in view of the documentation
available, Block 39 in New Belgrade was chosen as IMM test site. Support was provided
by the Italian Embassy in Belgrade and the Italian-Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
Figure 3. Photograph taken at the defence of the findings of the final
workshop at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Architecture
149
A total of 28 first-year Master’s degree students from Belgrade and seven students in
the second year of their Master’s degree in Milan took part in this collaborative effort.
Throughout the semester, the students successively improved their knowledge of IMM
by testing clearly defined phases of the methodology in the selected neighbourhood in
New Belgrade, with the help of on-line tutorials and week-long lectures held via Skype
by the team of Politecnico di Milano teachers, as well as through student interaction on
social networks. At the end of the project, a one-week joint workshop for all participants
was organised at the Faculty of Architecture; at this event, the students finalised the
results of their collaboration throughout the semester and formulated proposals for
solutions (Figure 1). Students’ activities were supervised and controlled by teams of
teachers and students from both Universities. Experts from the Urban Planning Institute
provided additional support for this effort by preparing specific data for use with the
IMM approach.
The IMM® methodology is a multi-stage iterative process that shows how incorporating
a wide range of issues makes is possible to improve the metabolism of the city as well
as its energy performance. It is applied to complex urban systems, with reference to
local contexts, through an interconnected Phasing Design Process. The IMM is
grounded in the development of applicable solutions, and its learning process includes
fieldwork that allows application of a research-based approach and problem evaluation,
as well as validation of options and critical points of the actual context at hand. In the
IMM, traditional forms of instruction (teaching, mentorship through work, practice) are
integrated with research-based activities (research centres and studios, fieldwork), and
together interact with selected local social actors (in this case the Urban Planning
Institute). The ultimate aim is to establish a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary approach
to instruction that serves to verify and apply methods and instruments developed at
research centres and validate findings in each particular case.
This international academic co-operation project, designed to promote an integrated
approach to production of results, has generated multiple benefits at three basic levels:
academic co-operation, institutional co-operation, and co-operative learning. Academic
co-operation contributed primarily to more effective learning through the exchange of
new knowledge and methodology; experience in the use of new distance learning
instruments; and linkage of knowledge derived from research with the teaching process.
On the other hand, institutional co-operation has allowed insight into different ways to
understand each problem and made it possible to recognise diverse professional
experiences and different expectations of the results of research. Co-operative learning,
achieved as part of both the learning process and production of results through
interaction between students from different socio-economic and cultural contexts, levels
of study, and disciplines, has contributed to a significant increase in student confidence
in their own knowledge and skills, and thus significantly enhanced their creativity.
150
FP7 SPARTACUS – Hybrid tracking of assets and
personnel for supporting emergency management in
crisis situations
1
2
Bogdan Pavković , Lazar Berbakov and Sanja Vraneš
3
1, 2, 3
University of Belgrade, Serbia, Institute “Mihajlo Pupin”, Belgrade, Serbia
[email protected]
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
FP7 SPARTACUS project (http://www.spartacus-project.eu/) has a goal to provide a
complete solution for overall security in emergency management through efficient
Location Awareness and Logistic tools that can be deployed during disaster, replacing
the traditional use of terrestrial networks, which are supposed to fail or been denied
during disasters. FP7 SPARTACUS project designs, develops, and will demonstrate in
real-world scenarios a system for tracking and tracing relief goods, critical
transportation assets, and first responders in order to assure their safety and efficient
crisis management operation. SPARTACUS aims at providing an anytime anywhere
localization through combined use of existing GNNS, forthcoming GALILEO, and
innovative dead-reckoning systems. SPARTACUS merges geo-referenced multimedia
data (images, videos, and situation reports) with satellite maps to provide an efficient
situation awareness platform and a Decision Support System. SPARTACUS enables
real-time updates and information exchange through a portable and independent
communication unit (3G/4G/WiFi/TETRA-alike) with satellite back-hauling.
SPARTACUS project is being coordinated by Italian company D’Appolonia, whereas
Institute “Mihajlo Pupin” have collaborated with other Italian partners: University of
Bologna and Pavia on the realization of tracking technologies presented below.
SPARTACUS TRACKING UNIT (STrackU)
STrackU is a device that fulfils the following roles: continuous tracking and tracing
(hybrid use of GNSS and INS readings), low-power local communication with a
collection unit over a Wireless Sensor Network, and finally acquisition of local sensor
readings (container monitoring e.g. temperature, humidity, or detection of a door open
state).
Even though SPARTACUS envisages developing and deploying different "flavours" of
STrackU depending on its specific role and requirements, in the bottom line, they will
all have the same communication capabilities. STrackU will dispose with low-power
wireless (ZigBee) communication means. It offers security mechanisms to encrypt and
securely transfer data. Wireless connection is convenient for use when units are
physically apart (until the limit of wireless communication range). Entire WSN ZigBee
network will follow a convergecast tree topological structure, specifically optimized for
collecting periodic reportings from potentially large number of end-devices. Local
151
precise GNSS time source ensures alignment of STrackU synchronization to overall
SPARTACUS timescale.
STrackU provides substantial advantages over the SoA approaches for tracking
railway/relief goods (RFID readers, MeshNetworks, simple GNSS receivers): it is not
infrastructure based, thus it provides portable/mobile units to be deployed on demand; it
does not have limited tracking resolutions, on contrary it provides near any-where anytime real-time continuous tracking and tracing updates; finally, it provides substantial
tracking history necessary for logistic and tracking logs.
Figure 1. Interface of FLARE tracking application.
SPARTACUS TRACKING APPLICATION – FLARE
FLARE aims at providing a high accuracy, robust, and infrastructure-less pedestrian
localization - a challenging goal unmet by existing SoA technologies. On one side, GNSS
can provide positioning with the accuracy of around 1 m in the clear sky conditions.
Nevertheless, GNSSs is efficient only if a sufficient number of satellites with acceptable
signal quality is visible thus making the indoor localization quite challenging. On the other
hand, RF localization technologies heavily rely on infrastructure, are prone to interference
and multi-path thus yielding a limited accuracy in challenging environment.
We have built a prototype Android application that uses step detection, gyroscope,
magnetometer and barometer for indoor positioning (see Figure 1 for the application
interface). The application allows a user to see its current position overlaid on the building
blueprints (if available). In addition, the application can guide the user to the starting
position. This feature, called backtracking, is very useful especially in situations where
blueprints are unavailable and first responder needs to quickly find its way out of the
building. In multi-floor buildings, the application is able to automatically detect the current
floor (by atmospheric pressure), and update the screen with the corresponding blueprint
accordingly. The information on doors, corners, and walls location can be used to constrain
the user’s motion and improve the overall positioning accuracy. Positioning data are logged
locally and subsequently sent to the remote server so that the mission commanders can be
aware of first responder’s positions at all times. The user is able to set its starting position
either manually or automatically by last GNSS position fix, so that whenever a satellite
signal is lost, the dead-reckoning starts working from the last known position.
152
Italian - Serbian Cooperation on FP 7 Project:
Traditional Food Network to improve the transfer of
knowledge for innovation
1
2
1
3
Mirjana Pešić , Radosav Cerović , Tanja Petrović , Djuro Kutlača , Dijana
3
1
Štrbac , Viktor Nedović
1
University of Belgrade-Faculty of Agriculture, Serbia, [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected]
2
University of Belgrade-Innovation Center of Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, Serbia,
[email protected],
3
University of Belgrade-Institute Mihajlo Pupin, [email protected], [email protected]
TRAFOON: GENERAL PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The food industry in the EU consists mainly of SMEs and the importance of knowledge
transfer has become essential for EU food industries’ competitiveness (Braun &
Hadwiger, 2011). To support traditional food SMEs, TRAFOON Project started in
November 2013 whit the aim at establishing knowledge transfer network with a focus on
food products made of grains, fish, fruits, vegetables and mushrooms. Serbia participates
in formation of sub-network “Traditional Products of Fruits” whereas Italy participates
information of sub-networks “Traditional Products of Vegetables and Mushrooms”.
The network will act as a mediator of information about
innovations in production, processing, packaging,
certification, food safety, marketing and related topics of
traditional food, will foster entrepreneurship in the sector
of traditional food producers and researchers as well as
will develop strategic research and innovation agendas
for the traditional food sectors to be competitive on
future markets.
Figure 1. TRAFOON project partners
TRAFOON INVENTORY OF SMEs NEEDS
In the first year of the TRAFOON project, European SMEs producing traditional foods and
food raw materials were asked for their current needs and their opinion of future challenges.
In Serbia and Italy, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were carried out using the
TRAFOON innovation audit form. SWOT analysis of the obtained results was performed in
each country and then the data was compared with other countries involved in the formation
of the same sub-network on multi-stakeholder workshops (Pešić et al, 2015).
In Serbia, the strainghts of traditional sweet fruit sectors are based on the local
production of the high quality fruits, authentic and traditional product associated with
the strong brands whereas the strong trend for healthy lifestyle among the consumers
153
was recognised as the opportunity of this sector. In Italy, appriciation by consumers,
direct sale (from producers to consumers), reduced use of agrochemicals and awearness
of consumers that quality costs were the strainghts of traditional vegetables sector. In
both countries, lack of marketing skills and lack of new technologies required for
production and processing were emerged as weaknesses whereas the need of
simplification and harmonisation of EU legislation was appeared as shared treat.
TRAFOON TRAINING WORKSHOPS
Based on the identified needs and demands for traditional food producing SMEs in
Italy and Serbia, the Training Workshops designed and held during the second year of
the Project. University of Belgrade organized two training workshops “Innovation in
production and processing of raspberry” in Belgrade and Ivanjica whereas University of
Bologna organized two days workshop “Traditional food, typicity and organic farming opportunities and perspectives”.
Trainings included technical innovations which are specific to the traditional foods
category, as well as generic topics on food processing, food packaging, food safety,
food quality and stabilization of processing protocols, marketing, legal issues, European
food law, IPR, certification and labelling. In addition, issues of entrepreneurship and
innovation are raised in order to open new perspectives in traditional food processing.
Next year, second round of Training workshops will be held and strategic research and
innovation agendas for traditional food sectors will be developed.
STRATEGIC RESEARCH & INNOVATION AGENDA
Based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the inventories of needs of the
SMEs, Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda will be developed for production and
processing of raspberries in Serbia and for vegetables in Italy. These SRIA will be
integrated into a collective SRIA for traditional food sector. Next step will be
development of the Implementation plan with a detailed description of the activities
planned for the various phases of the realisation of future research and innovation
agenda. The implementation plan will list all the major milestones such as events,
deliverables and decision points. The collective Strategic Research & Innovation
Agenda (SRIA) will be targeted first at all the stakeholders with a strong influence in
the area, such as policy makers, Unions of Associations, or universities in order to
secure strong and succesfull dissemination of the project’s results.
References
Braun, S., & Hadwiger, K. (2011). Knowledge transfer from research to industry
(SMEs) – An example from the food sector. Trends in Food Science &
Technology, 22, Supplement 1, S90-S96.
Pešić M.B., Petrović T.S., Kutlača Dj., Štrbac D., Nedović, V.A. (2015) Outputs from
TRAFOON Project: SWOT analysis of traditional sweet fruits sector in three
European countries. 26th International scientific-expert conference of
agriculture and food industry, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hercegovina, 27-30.
September, Book of Abstracts, 88.
154
New pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine c-Src inhibitors as
modulators of multidrug resistance in cancer
1
2
Milica Pešić and Maurizio Botta
1
University of Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected], 2 University of Siena, Italy,
[email protected]
INTRODUCTION
Cancer remains an unsolved health issue despite the significant advances in our
understanding of this multifactorial disease. Significant obstacle in cancer treatment is
the development of multidrug resistance (MDR) that may arise even after application of
a single drug. The most relevant mechanism of MDR is the overexpression of Pglycoprotein (P-gp/MDR1/ABCB1). P-gp acts as a transmembrane efflux pump for
various cytotoxic drugs, such as anthracyclines, vinca alkaloids, taxanes,
epipodophyllotoxins as well as for some of the recently introduced targeted therapies
(imatinib, nilotinib, everolimus). So far, the list of P-gp substrates is not final and
clinical trials with compounds targeting P-gp have not shown overall satisfactory
results. There is a strong need for identifying new anticancer agents as either P-gp
substrates, or P-gp inhibitors, or compounds able to exert better effect in P-gp
overexpressing cancer cells. In the last decade, application of tyrosine kinase inhibitors
became a promising anticancer approach. c-Src is the most extensively studied
representative of the non-receptor tyrosine kinases Src family. Besides stimulation of
cell proliferation, migration, invasion and angiogenesis, c-Src contributes to the
acquisition of drug resistance by direct participating in the turnover of P-gp. Therefore,
the use of c-Src inhibitors could help in overcoming drug resistance. To that end, we
started to elucidate the activity of novel c-Src/Abl inhibitor LDS10 containing
pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine scaffold (Tintori et al., 2015) and its water soluble prodrug in
P-gp overexpressing cancer cells. In addition, we compared the activity of new
inhibitors with clinically approved drug - dasatinib, a Bcr-Abl and Src family tyrosine
kinase inhibitor.
RESULTS
LDS10 and its prodrug exerted stronger cytotoxic effect in MDR cells. The efficacy of
dasatinib, LDS10 and prodrug was compared in non-small cell lung carcinoma cell line
NCI-H460 and corresponding MDR – P-gp overexpressing cell line NCI-H460/R
(Podolski-Renic et al., 2013).
Table 1. Cytotoxicity of tested c-Src inhibitors.
Drugs
IC50 (µM) in NCI-H460
LDS10
6.2 ± 0.7
Prodrug
2.4 ± 0.4
Dasatinib
3.9 ± 0.3
IC50 (µM) in NCI-H460/R
1.9 ± 0.2
0.9 ± 0.1
6.9 ± 0.6
155
Cell viability was examined by MTT test. MDR cancer cells were more sensitive to
both LDS10 and prodrug than their sensitive counterpart cells (Table 1). Contrary, the
presence of MDR phenotype diminished the cytotoxicity of dasatinib. Lower IC50 value
(concentration necessary to reduce cell viability to 50%) implies higher drug efficacy
(Table 1).
LDS10 and its prodrug
inhibited the activity of
P-gp. The P-gp activity
(functioning)
was
studied by Rhodamine
123 accumulation in
MDR
cancer
cells
(Figure 1). Rhodamine
123 is a substrate for Pgp widely used for P-gp
functional
studies.
LDS10 and prodrug
Figure 1. Different effects on P-gp function induced
enabled
prominent
by c-Src inhibitors.
increase in Rhodamine
123 accumulation inducing P-gp inhibition, while dasatinib applied in the same
concentration (10 µM) exerted an opposite effect (Figure 1).
CONCLUSION
Herein, we presented preliminary results of bilateral project proposed for “Major
Importance” in “Executive Programme of Scientific and Technological Cooperation
between Italy and Serbia for the years 2016 – 2018”. Our collaboration is aimed to
identify c-Src inhibitors that could prevent or overcome MDR in cancer. First results
indicated that LDS10 and its prodrug are more cytotoxic to MDR cancer cells showing
potential to interact with and inhibit P-gp activity.
References
Podolski-Renić A., Jadranin M., Stanković T., Banković J., Stojković S., Chiourea M.,
Aljančić I., Vajs V., Tešević V., Ruždijić S., Gagos S., Tanić N., Pešić M.
(2013). Molecular and cytogenetic changes in multi-drug resistant cancer cells
and their influence on new compounds testing. Cancer Chemotherapy and
Pharmacology, 72(3), 683-697.
Tintori C., Fallacara A. L., Radi M., Zamperini C., Dreassi E., Crespan E., Maga G.,
Schenone S., Musumeci F., Brullo C., Richters A., Gasparrini F., Angelucci A.,
Festuccia C., Delle Monache S., Rauh D., Botta M. (2015). Combining X-ray
crystallography and molecular modeling toward the optimization of
pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines as potent c-Src inhibitors active in vivo against
neuroblastoma. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 58(1), 347-361.
156
Collaboration between Istituto Nazionale di Fisica
Nucleare - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud and Vinca
Institute of Nucelar Sciences: Hadrons on malignant
cells
1
1
2
Ivan Petrović , Aleksandra Ristić Fira and Giacomo Cuttone
1
University of Belgrade, Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Serbia, [email protected]
University of Belgrade, Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Serbia, [email protected]
3
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Italy, [email protected]
2
INTRODUCTION
Research groups from Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali del
Sud (INFN-LNS) and Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences (VINS) of the University of
Belgrade have combined their efforts during 18 years in the field of medical physics and
radiation biology, specifically concerning the studies of cell lines irradiated with the 62
MeV/u therapeutic proton and carbon ion beams. This collaboration has also an official
form in the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Directors of the two
institutions. The group from LNS has an important and well-established tradition in
medical physics, since at LNS is located CATANA (Centro di AdroTerapia e
Applicazioni Nucleari Avanzate), the first Italian facility for treatment of tumors with
proton beams. The group from VINS due to the multidisciplinary structure of the
Institute has also an extensive experience in the in vitro studies of radio-biological
effects of different radiation qualities on cell lines as well as in nuclear physics.
METHODOLOGY
The aim of the research is to improve hadron therapy to fight malignant diseases.
Research activities are particularly focused on radiation biology of cell. Using
multidisciplinary approach by combining knowledge from biology, nuclear physics and
medicine direct and indirect effects of ionizing radiation on normal and malignant cells
are studied. Apart from conventional gamma radiation, the major part of research
concerns the effects of high ionizing radiation, i.e., protons and carbon ions that are
used in cancer therapy. The principal aim of the research is the improvement of
treatment planning system and prediction of cellular response to damage induced by
high ionizing radiation. The main topics are radiobiological and biomedical studies.
Within radiobiology, radiation effects are followed by estimation of cellular radio
sensitivity levels using clonogenic survival that provides radiobiological parameters and
by different viability and proliferation tests. In order to compare DNA damages
produced by irradiations with the effects of chemotherapeutic drugs and novel agents
used in the targeted molecular therapy (anti-EGFR therapy), their outcomes are
evaluated through biological end points such as cell cycle distribution, specific gene
expression and types of cell death (apoptosis, senescence and autophagy). Another
biomedical aspect of the research is the evaluation of the appearance of phosphorylated
157
H2AX foci (γ-H2AX) at the DNA damaged sites. This approach might be used as a tool
kit for quick detection and follow up of the cellular radio-sensitivity in preclinical
studies as well as during irradiation of patients. In addition, the two groups contribute to
the international collaboration based on comparisons and interpretations of experimental
results by using and further developing GEANT4 (GEometry ANd Tracking) numerical
simulation code in order to improve treatment planning system for cancer patients.
RESULTS
The collaboration was initiated in 1997 and it has increased as from 2001. Since 2004
the first two authors are continuously Guest Researchers at INFN-LNS. As a result of
the very fruitful collaboration between INFN-LNS and VINS more than 80 scientific
articles were published in leading international scientific journals and conference
proceedings. In addition, 4 PhD Theses, defended at the University of Belgrade, are also
the outcome of this cooperation, while another 2 are being prepared. Joint research
activities of the two groups got financial support from FP7 of EC, within ENSAR
(European Nuclear Science and Applications Research) through Transnational Access
Activities (TNAs) and from Horizon 2020 within ENSAR2 through TNAs and
Networking Activities (NAs). Members of both research groups are involved together in
the large international collaboration project GEANT4, regarding development of a
multidisciplinary simulation code, that is coordinated by CERN. The Serbian group is
also involved in the Italian project ELIMED (Medical and Multidisciplinary
Applications at ELI-Beamlines), which is a part of the project Extreme Light
Infrastructure (ELI) that is of pan-European interest.
References
Petrović I. et al., (2006). Radiobiological analysis of human melanoma cells on the 62
MeV CATANA proton beam. International Journal of Radiation Biology,
82(4), 251-265.
Petrović I. et al., (2010). Response of a radio-resistant human melanoma cell line along
the proton spread-out Bragg peak. Int. Journal of Radiation Biology, 86(9),
742-751.
Ristić-Fira A. et al., (2011). Proton inactivation of melanoma cells enhanced by
fotemustine. Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 143, 503-507.
Ristić-Fira A. et al., (2011). Cellular Response to Conventional Radiation and Hadrons.
Physiological research, 60, 129-135.
Cirrone G.A.P. et al., (2011). Hadrontherapy: a Geant4-Based Tool for Proton/IonTherapy Studies. Progress in Nuclear Science and Technology, 2, 207-212.
Romano F. et al., (2014). A Monte Carlo study for the calculation of the average linear
energy transfer (LET) distributions for a clinical proton beam line and a
radiobiological carbon ion beam line. Physics in Medicine and Biology, 59,
2863-2882.
Keta O. et al., (2014). Radiosensitivity of human ovarian carcinoma and melanoma cells
to gamma-rays and protons, Archives of Medical Science, 10(3), 578-586.
Keta O. et al., (2014). Radiosensitization of Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma by EGFR
Inhibition, Nuclear Technology & Radiation Protection, 29(3), 233-241.
158
Synthesis and application of geopolymer based
materials for wastewater treatment
1
2
2
3
Miloš Nenadović , Ljiljana Kljajević , Snežana Nenadović , Claudio Ferone ,
3
3
Raffaele Cioffi and Giuseppina Roviello
1
Institute of Nuclear Sciences ″Vinča″, Laboratory for Atomic Physics, University of Belgrade,
P.O. Box 522, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected]
2
Institute of Nuclear Sciences ″Vinča″, Laboratory for Materials Sciences, University of
Belgrade, P.O. Box 522, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected], [email protected]
3
Department of Engineering, University of Naples Parthenope, INSTM Research Group Napoli
Parthenope, Centro Direzionale Napoli, Isola C4, Naples 80143, Italy
[email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]
MATERIALS FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT
Water pollution is the contamination of natural water bodies (e.g. lakes, rivers,
oceans, aquifers and groundwater) by chemical, physical, radioactive or pathogenic
microbial substances. This form of environmental degradation occurs when pollutants are
directly or indirectly discharged into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove
harmful compounds. Water pollution affects the entire biosphere-plants and organisms
living in these bodies of water. In almost all cases, the effect is damaging not only to
individual species and population, but also to the natural biological communities.
Some of the earlier studies of the Serbian team members (1-3) were related to the
problem of pollution in wastewater. Solving this problem by immobilization of lead and
cesium using natural materials was their research subject (1-6). The basic idea of this
project was to synthesize the material, employing natural or waste materials, for
wastewater treatment in cooperation with Italian team members. The Italian team has
extensive experience in the synthesis of innovative geopolymers based materials (7-11)
that can be used for this purpose, so we came up with the idea for the joint project
"Synthesis and application of geopolymer based materials for wastewater
treatment".
Geopolymers are a new class of aluminosilicate materials and are attractive
because of their excellent mechanical properties, durability and thermal stability. In
addition, they are of great interest because of the reduced energy requirement for their
manufacture and the high sustainability. In fact, industrial and natural waste can be
employed as precursors and immobilization and adsorption of heavy metals can be
obtained, too. The synthesis procedure is extremely versatile, thus it is possible to obtain
tailored properties by changing several parameters, i.e. the precursors, the solution/solid
ratio, or the addition of additives. In this way, it is possible to obtain high porosity
materials to be applied in many different technological fields thanks to their high gas
permeability, large surface area, high temperature stability, and thermal shock resistance.
The potential uses in the area of environmental protection include filters, and membranes
(for micro- and ultra-filtration, separation), gas or chemical sensors, and support materials
159
for catalysis or adsorbents for different waste compounds or elements. The goal of this
project is the development of functional high porosity geopolymers, based on local
resources such as kaolin soil, clay, diatomaceous earth, zeolite, for the construction of
water purifier media. For silica based materials it is known that three different groups are
present on the surface: siloxane bridges (-Si-O-Si-), hydroxyl groups (-OH) and
coordinatively unsaturated Si atoms. Since the hydrophobicity of silica surface increases
with the decreasing of the amount of hydroxyl groups, the stability of silica in water can
be improved by increasing the sintering temperature or by introducing some organic or
inorganic groups to substitute the hydroxyl groups. The modified silica materials, or
modified geopolymers can attain selective and determined adsorption of environment
pollutants.
Preliminary Project of the Italian and Serbian team members is written so that its
implementation is forthcoming.
References
1. S. Dragicevic, Snežana Nenadović, Bojana Jovanović, M.Milanović, I. Novković, D. Pavic and
M. Lješević, Degradation of Topciderska river water quality (Belgrade), Carpathian
journal of earth and environmental sciences, 5 (2) (2010) 177-184.
2. S. Nenadovic, M. Nenadovic, R. Kovacevic, Lj. Matovic, B. Matovic, Z. Jovanovic and J.
Grbovic Novakovic, Influence of diatomite microstructure on its adsorption capacity for
Pb(II), Science of Sintering, 41(3) (2009) 309-317.
3. S. Nenadović, Lj. M. Kljajević, B. Ž. Šešlak, N. N. Obradović, I. S. Vukanac, V. B. Pavlović,
Cesium removal from aqueous solution by natural mineral clinoptilolite, Nuclear
Technology and Radiation Protection, 29 (2) (2014) 135-141.
4. S. Nenadovic, Lj. M. Kljajevic, M. T. Nenadovic, M. M. Mirkovic, S. B. Markovic, Z.. Lj.
Rakocevic, Mechanochemical treatment and structural properties of lead adsorption on
kaolinite (Rudovci, Serbia), Environmental Earth Science (2015) 73: 7669-7677.
5. S. Nenadović, Lj. Kljajević, S. Marković, M. Omerašević, U. Jovanović, V. Andrić and I.
Vukanac, Natural diatomite (Rudovci, Serbia) as adsorbent for removal Cs from
radioactive waste liquids, Science of Sintering (in press)
6. K. Trivunac, Lj. M. Kljajević, S. Nenadović, J. Gulicovski, M. Mirković, B. Babić, S.
Stevanovića, Microstructural Characterization and Adsorption Properties of AlkaliActivated Materials Based on Metakaolin, Science of Sintering (in press)
7. C. Ferone, F. Colangelo, G. Roviello, R. Cioffi, C. Menna, D. Asprone, A. Balsamo, A. Prota,
G. Manfredi, Application-oriented chemical optimization of a metakaolin based
geopolymer. Materials 6 (2013) 1920-1939.
8. C. Ferone, G. Roviello, F. Colangelo, R. Cioffi, O. Tarallo, Novel Hybrid Organic-Geopolymer
materials. Applied Clay Science 73 (2013) 42–50.
9. C. Ferone, B. Liguori, I. Capasso, F. Colangelo, R. Cioffi, E. Cappelletto, R. Di Maggio,
Thermally treated clay sediments as geopolymer source material, Applied Clay Science,
107 (2015) 195–204.
10. G. Roviello, L. Ricciotti, C. Ferone, F. Colangelo, O. Tarallo, Fire resistant melamine based
organic-geopolymer hybrid composites, Cement & Concrete Composites, 59 (2015) 89–
99.
11. F. Messina, C. Ferone, F. Colangelo, R. Cioffi, Low temperature alkaline activation of
weathered fly ash: influence of mineral admixtures on early age performance.
Construction and Building Materials, 86 (2015) 169-177.
160
Novel formulations and valorization of agro-food byproducts by advanced membrane operations
1
2
3
4
Ljubica Dokić , Lidietta Giorno , Zita Šereš , Alfredo Cassano
1
University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technology, Serbia, [email protected], 2Istituto per la
Tecnologia delle Membrane (ITM-CNR), Italy, [email protected], 3University of Novi Sad,
Faculty of Technology, Serbia, [email protected], 4Istituto per la Tecnologia delle Membrane
(ITM-CNR), Italy, [email protected]
INTRODUCTION
The presented research theme, which is applied for the next term of bilateral
cooperation, is the outcome of the AIS3 cooperation.
New regulations in environment protection, global energy crises and increasing market
demands for “green” companies are forcing the industry to consider finding new and
sustainable methods of by-products utilization. This project emphasizes the application
of integrated membrane processes in formulation of low-fat mayonnaise with high
oxidative stability through the valorisation of food industry by-products. The
interdisciplinary approach of this project aims to set-up a low energy and cost effective
process of a by-product utilization through the combination of fundamental science and
modern applied technologies.
Existing technologies require additional treatments and a great investment. Due to those
facts, the attention of the scientific community is facing with membrane techniques that
eventually could replace some stages of the process or could be incorporated into the
existing technological process. The possibility to integrate various membrane operations
in the same process or in the combination with conventional separation units, promotes
better performance in terms of decreasing production costs, energy consumption, waste
generation and environmental impact, equipment size and product quality resulting in
cheaper and sustainable technical solutions.
Moreover, membrane technology can also assist formulation. Over the last 10 years,
there has been an increasing interest in a membrane emulsification technique for the
production of micro- and nanoparticulates. The technique is highly attractive given its
simplicity, potentially lower energy demands, need for less surfactant and the resulting
narrow droplet-size distributions. It is applicable to both oil-in-water (o/w) and waterin-oil (w/o) emulsions.
Therefore, partners have strong interest in joining their expertises for developing
membrane emulsification processes (in which Italian Partner has solid expertise) for
food formulation (in which Serbian Partner has solid expertise).
This bilateral project would aim to develop a sustainable method for utilization of byproducts from agro-food industry. The main objective of this project isan introduction
of phenolic antioxidant compounds from olive oil pulp in the light mayonnaise
161
formulation using modern membrane processes. Development of the optimal process,
including identifying sources of variation, defining the operating parameters that both
control variation and provide a successful outcome, and determining the measurements
of process success are the main goals which we aim to achieve through different
approaches of process management and knowledge transfer between two groups of
scientists in the fields of membrane technology and food processing and formulation.
The key feature will be in identifying and integrating of highly precise and selective
membrane operations in order to minimize waste generation while obtaining high
quality food product and valuable co-producs instead of by-products.
The membrane operations in the main focus of this project will be membrane
emulsification and nanofiltration. Therefore, the partnership will be set up between the
Faculty of Technology (Novi Sad, Serbia) and Institute of Membrane Technology
(Rende, Italy) as a perfect partner to share its experience about membranes with
scientist from Serbia and vice versa. Both partners are able to conduct membrane
emulsification using different membrane types and emulsification techniques. However,
in order to tune the process of emulsification and introduce the obtained product to the
food formulation it is crucial to study and compare different methods of process
operation carried out by Italian and Serbian partners.
The aim of this collaboration is to find an appropriate method to identify, valorize and
exploit obtained biocomponents from by-products from olive oil industry using the new
membrane techniques such as and ultra- and nanofiltration, and incorporate in
mayonnaise using membrane emulsification.
The practical objective of this study is to develop light mayonnaise with high oxidative
stability by adding the potential antioxidants from olive oil pulp and reducing the fat
content to 40-50%.
The research team of Italy contributed to development of new droplet size controlling
strategies at low shear conditions that permit to produce bioactive particles systems with
controlled and selected properties in terms of droplet size, size distribution in order to
promote the use of membrane-based method at industrial level. However, in the past
years, the research team of Serbia has expanded their equipment regarding new
membrane emulsification technologies and the instruments for droplet size distribution
control.
Considering previous expertise in the field of emulsion formation, both partners will
simultaneously develop optimal conditions for membrane emulsification regarding
droplet size, emulsion stability, rheology, etc.
The introduction of obtained phenolic compounds and formulation of final product will
be performed by Serbian partner. Moreover, full rheology analysis, stability and
oxidation characteristics of realized product will be determined at Faculty of
Technology from Novi Sad.
162
Relations between Italy and Serbia throughout
History
1
Biljana Vučetić and Jovana Šaljić
1
2
2
Institute of History, Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected]
Institute of History, Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected]
Serbian and Italian historiography has dealt with Serbian-Italian relations, but
the subject has not been completely researched. Previous research focused on the
process of liberation and unification of Italy and similarities with the Serbian national
movement in the 19th century. Also, the subject of research was the role of Italy in the
unification of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
Therefore, the Institute of History from Belgrade and the Sapienza University
of Rome started cooperation in order to encourage the research development of SerbianItalian relations from the very beginnings until the present time. We should not forget
that Italy is the first country with which the Principality of Serbia established diplomatic
relations after gaining independence at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. Ties between the
two countries date back to the time of the unification of Italy, in which Serbia saw a role
model. Serbia was often called the Piedmont of Balkan peoples.
The first step in cooperation was to
organize
the
International
Scientific
Conference Serbian-Italian relations: History
and Modern Times, which was held in
Belgrade on 28 May 2014. The conference
was attended by sixteen participants, six
colleagues from Sapienza University and ten
participants from Serbia. This international
conference dealt with some of the topics that
were not in the focus of researchers from the
two countries. Serbian-Italian relations were
presented and examined in the wider context
of Balkan and European relations, not only
diplomatic, political and military, but also
social and cultural. The development of
Serbian-Italian relations in the post-war period
was presented in the framework of ItalianYugoslav relations. The collection of papers
titled Serbian-Italian relations: History and
Modern Times was printed as a result of this
very successful scientific meeting organized by the Institute of History and the Sapienza
University of Rome. Still, the subject of Serbian-Italian relations is not exhausted and
provides new directions for research.
163
The next step was signing of the Collaboration Agreement between the
Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza – Centro di Ricerca “Cooperazione con
l’Eurasia, il Mediterraneo e l’Africa sub-sahariana” (CEMAS), represented by the
Director, Professor Antonello Biagini and the Institute of History (Историјски
институт, Београд), represented by the Director, Srđan Rudić, PhD, Rome/Belgrade,
12 November 2014.
Through this Agreement and for the entire scheduled duration, the parties
undertook scientific collaboration on the following research theme: Relations between
Italy and Serbia throughout History. The CEMAS, within its activities aimed at
conducting research into historical issues, intends to propose a joint research in the field
of history and political science to the Institute. It is in the CEMAS’s interests to create
relationships with external organisations in order to develop partnerships in the field of
scientific research and to try to carry out new technical and scientific activities. Within
this framework, the research activities set forth herein have the connotation of scientific
collaboration, which is of equal interest to both the CEMAS and the Institute. The above
research activities are in any case compatible with the scientific research activities
carried out by the two parties. The achievable results are of particular importance in the
field of history and political science.
Three researchers from the Institute participated in the International Scientific
Conference The First World War in Eastern Europe: Causes and Consequences, held in
Rome on 12 November 2014. The one-day conference was attended by scientists from
Serbia, Romania, Montenegro, Turkey and Italy. Conference exceeded the framework
of diplomatic history as the topics dealt with cultural, humanitarian and religious issues,
as well as the issues of minorities.
Giordano Merlicco, a Ph.D. student of political science from Sapienza
University conducted research at the Institute of History during 2014, under supervision
of Biljana Vučetić, Ph.D. The cooperation between the Institute of History and CEMAS
continued as professor Giuseppe Motta from Sapienza University became a member of
the Editorial Board of the Historical Review, which is the official publication of the
Institute of History, issued since 1948. The Historical Review deals with economic,
social, political and cultural history of the Serbian people, and its links with SouthSlavic and other Balkan nations, while at the same time advancing all branches of
historical science.
Considering the importance of cooperation, director of the Institute of History
was asked to be a part of the scientific board of the international multidisciplinary
conference Dynamics and Policies of Prejudice from the Eighteenth to the Twenty-First
Century, which is to be held on 23–24 June 2016. The conference will deal with studies
of various phenomena of racism, anti-Semitism, prejudice, xenophobia, discrimination,
ethnic and national conflicts from historical, political, legal, economic and sociological
perspectives. The participation of scholars from different scientific fields is encouraged.
164
Implementing CERIC-ERIC: Its first year of operation
1
Carlo Rizzuto and Viktor Nedovic
2
1
CERIC-ERIC, Italy, [email protected], 2 Ministry of Education, Science and
Technological Development, Serbia, [email protected]
CERIC-ERIC is a distributed research facility set up by the European Commission in
June 2014 (Commission Implementing Decision, 2014), Figure 1, as a European
Research Infrastructure Consortium ERIC (Council Regulation, 2009). The founding
members are the Governments of Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Romania, Serbia
and Slovenia, while Croatia, Hungary and Poland participate as Observers, pending
their formal entry. Italy is acting as the host Member State upon indication of the
founding Members of CERIC-ERIC, and the initial legal seat of the consortium has
been established in Trieste. CERIC-ERIC integrates the research activities and the
research and technological facilities of leading national research infrastructures into a
single and unique world-level research infrastructure which, alongside excellent inhouse research, allows a one-stop access to cutting edge complementary instruments
and services in the fields of Analysis, Synthesis and research in Materials, Biomaterials
and Nanotechnology, using photon, electron, neutron, and ion based techniques.
The support from the Countries participating in the Consortium is provided through one
Representing Entity (RE) each, having the capability to ensure the ordinary activity of
one excellent Partner Facility (PF) including its free access for external users selected
solely on the quality of their proposals (Figure 2). The resources for the operation of the
PFs are the in-kind contributions by the Member Countries to CERIC-ERIC, and are
accounted for in the CERIC annual reports. Italy with its financial support and through
its Representing Entity has allowed to reach full operation from the beginning of 2014,
before the EC Implementing Decision (Figure 3).
The Representing Entities so far designated are: Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste (Italy), TU
Graz (Austria), Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic), INFM in Magurele
(Romania) and NMR Center in Lubljana (Slovenia). Also the Oservers (Croatia,
Hungary and Poland) have already provided the Representing Entities and the facilities.
Each PF has been accepted after an international evaluation of its quality and effective
complementarity to the other PFs by an independent international committee of
scientific experts. Moreover each PF acts as national contact and entry point, ensuring
outreach to all national scientific communities.
The governing structure of the consortium involves ministerial and scientific
representatives of the Member Countries, as well as the directors of the Partner
Facilities. The CERIC managerial approach is also distributed in the participating
Countries and covers administration, communication, technology transfer and project
staff.
165
Figure 1. CERIC-ERIC “Plate ceremony”, 22 July2014
A common mission and support system allows the distributed staff to operate in an
integrated way for transnational and cooperative projects and joint ventures.
Finally, as provided for in the ERIC EU Council Regulation, CERIC-ERIC may carry
out limited economic activities closely related to its mission and compatible with it.
Scientific activities and development
The implementation of a single entry point with a uniform proposal format for a
distributed facility, with such a wide range of different techniques, has required an
important harmonization effort (Rizzuto, 2015). The solid collaboration between the
different laboratories has helped to develop a common proposal format with a unique
evaluation procedure, and an increasing number of joint projects is taking place. This is
supported by an integrated IT platform based on the Virtual User Office used by Elettra
and specifically developed to address the needs of CERIC users.
With launching first test call for proposals, Call Zero, in Spring 2014, the scientific
activities have started well ahead the official beginning of CERIC and are the specific
addition to the operations already taking place in the consortium.
However, the evaluation of these multi-technique proposals, adding to the over 1000
proposals evaluated each year in the ordinary operations of the PFs, posed some new
questions and problems to be specifically addressed. Excellent single technique
166
proposals include cutting edge problems to be approached by one cutting-edge
technique, and their prioritization is more straightforward.
Figure 2. CERIC-ERIC Partner Facilities
Excellent proposals requiring a multi-technique approach may need to integrate some
cutting-edge techniques with more standard methods and evaluators face the specific
difficulties met whenever a multidisciplinary aspect is present, to balance different
disciplinary evaluations into a single one, and evaluate the overall innovative value of
the proposal while assessing the technical aspects of the multi-technique access. Also
users face the new challenge to write a convincing proposal for different referees
evaluating different techniques or methods, whose use and scope they need to explain in
a clear way.
To meet these new interesting challenges a two-step evaluation concept was developed.
In Call Three, proposals could use a pre-submission and first evaluation with direct
involvement of the technical staff of the facilities who suggest technical improvements.
An improvement interval between pre-submission and final submission allowed the
proposer to improve the content prior to the scientific evaluation process. This approach
proved to be very successful and almost completely eliminated the rejection of a
proposal for technical reasons.
The first two calls have already reached oversubscription in some of the techniques.
This indicates that their availability should be expanded. Some other techniques are not
yet required to the level at which they have been made available. To balance single- and
167
multi-technique services in the various PFs Call Three included the possibilities to
submit single technique proposals for specific instruments through the CERIC entry
point, and this approach will be gradually enlarged. These developments resulted in a
widening of the user community, including a first user group from the University of
Belgrade, and a further improvement of the scientific quality.
The multi-technique approach of CERIC is completely new and its potential needs to be
efficiently communicated and developed with perspective users in various fields.
Building a base of expertise will help to attract further users and generate excellent
research results.
Possible Future Developments.
The successful user operations paved the way for more integrated activities in the
scientific field and the PFs are currently setting up a joint scientific program to promote
and support multi-technique research. Moreover, the full eligibility of CERIC-ERIC as
a partner in European Funding schemes provides new possibilities. In the last year a
Horizon2020 proposal was submitted by all PFs under the roof of the consortium with
the aim of setting up a common PhD program based in Central-Eastern Europe.
The creation of CERIC grant like funding for excellent young researchers within the
consortium is discussed as well as common projects designed for upgrading PFs or
acquire new instruments within.
Figure 3. CERIC-ERIC Team at Elettra, the Italian Partner Facility
168
Another development of strategic importance is the establishment of an international
network of Industrial Liaison and Technology Transfer officers within the consortium to
strengthen innovation and industry with the new multi technique approach.
CERIC is one of two ERICs in which Serbia is included until now. This kind of
partnership is of strategic importance for the country. It was pointed out and
recommended by EC during the negotiation process in the field of science and research
(Chapter 25). It allows the best Serbian (young) researchers to realize their scientific
ideas and accomplish their experiments at the world class research
infrastructures/instruments in any of the partner facilities, but also, from the other side,
it will open each of the infrastructures to the excellent talents from abroad.
In addition to this immediate impact, it will bring long term effects as it will create new
partnerships and networks by integrating the efforts of all Countries, reach world level
capacity and quality and generate new projects, provide a strong platform for experience
and knowledge exchange. A strong influence is expected also on the education process
through student’s exchange and giving open thesis capabilities to research students. It
will also open new opportunities for the industry and facilitate the innovation process
and environment in a wider market. Last but not least it will further strengthen the links
and already well developed cooperation between Serbian and Italian research
communities.
In agreement with the partner countries of the CERIC, and taking into account that the
infrastructure road map in the country will be developed and adopted in 2016, Serbia
will propose the Representing Entity and its facility in due course.
References
COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION of 24 June 2014 on setting-up the
Central European Research Infrastructure Consortium (CERIC-ERIC), (2014/392/EU)
COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 723/2009 of 25 June 2009 on the Community
legal framework for a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC)
Rizzuto (2015): CERIC-ERIC Annual Report 2014,
http://www.ceric-eric.eu/uploads/Main/Report2014_pages_FINAL_HQ.pdf
169
AIdAM (Italian Association of Mechatronic
Automation): innovative industrial sector of
Mechatronics
1
Massimo Vacchini , AIdAM Associazione Italiana di Automazione Meccatronica
Viale Fulvio Testi 128, 20092 Cinisello Balsamo MI, Italia, [email protected]
Mechatronics is the science in which concepts from mechanical engineering, electrical
engineering, and computer science are merged to design, build and operate products.
This disciplines were traditionally divided by specific knowledge, however now they
are necessarily more and more in continuous contact between them in the research of
solutions for Industrial Automation needs (Assembly, Testing, Product Handling).
AIdAM is the category Association that gathers together the Italian companies working
in the branch of Mechatronic Automation, with particular significance in the sectors of
Special Machinery, Robotics, Vision Systems and Intelligent Components, operating in
the main segments of the Italian manufacturing industry.
To this day, the over 70 companies associated are able to provide highly technological
productive solutions, supporting the growth of the branch in Italy and Overseas.
One of the main activities on which AIdAM focuses its efforts is the development of
international relationships to promote the collaboration agreements between nations,
indispensable for the growth of the Mechatronic Automation branch: this is the reason
why we strongly wanted the establishment of ISCP – Italian Serbian Collaboration
Platform (more information available here: http://www.ais3.ac.rs/iscap-expression-ofinterest/).
Another important activity to us is the development of new technologies: nowadays in
Europe on of the main topic of discussion is the possibility to product objects
increasingly complex, smart and adjustable in different variations, reducing the
realization time, the design, development and production costs, shrinking the quantity
handled on stock and increasing the warranty periods of the products.
All this themes have largely to do with the possibility to make that the objects
communicate between them during the productive process. Themes that can be merged
into the main topic of INDUSTRY 4.0, subsequently declined into the various
arguments such as “Internet of Things”, “Additive Manufacturing”, extended usage of
ICT; practically what is defined “Smart Factory”.
171
Sustainable management of pome fruit
post-harvest losses
1
Marta Mari and Natasa Duduk
1
2
2
Department of Agricultural Science - University of Bologna, Italy, [email protected],
University of Belgrade - Faculty of Agriculture, Serbia, [email protected]
The consumption of fruits and vegetables is abundant in the traditional Mediterranean
diet, recognized worldwide as a health model to meet nutritional demands. In particular,
the fruit sector contributes significantly to the economy of the European countries
among the leading exporters of fruits in the world. According to FAO statistics in 2013,
the apple world production was of 80.8 Mt, with Italy being the 6th country producer
with 2.2 M tons and Serbia the 48th with 0.33 Mt. While the pear production was of
25.2 Mt, 0.7 Mt and 0.07Mt for world, Italy and Serbia respectively. Due to the high
content of fibre, minerals, vitamin and other phytochemicals pomefruit are considered a
key factor for weight control and increase the feeling of satiety. In particular the high
content of phenolic compounds having a strong antioxidant activity render apples
potential allies against the development of diseases including cancer, cardiovascular
disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and other degenerative disease states (Hyson,
2011). There are about 7.000 varieties of apple in the world, but the more
representative are about thirty grouped in three groups relating to harvest time: early
(‘Gala group’), mead (‘Red Delicious’, ‘Golden Delicious’, ‘Pinova’, etc.) and late
(‘Breaburn’, ‘Stayman’, ‘Granny Smith’, ‘Pink Lady®’ ‘Gold Rush®’, etc.) season
cultivars. Less are the varieties of pears, among them the most representative are
‘Conference’, ‘Doyenne du Comice’ ‘Abate Fetel’, ‘Kaiser’, etc.
With few exception including pears that develop mealy texture and poor flavor when
allowed to ripen on the tree, most fruits reach their best eating quality when ripened on the
plant; on the other hand, fruit become generally more susceptible to fungal pathogens and
mechanical injuries as ripening progresses. In addition apple and pears are climacteric
fruits, able to ripen on or off the tree and they are usually harvested mature but not ripe.
The maturity indices currently recommended for their harvest are based on the
compromise between those parameters that would ensure the best eating quality to the
consumer and those that provide minor losses during handling, storage and marketing
(Kader, 2005). Between harvest and consumption both quantitative and qualitative fruit
losses can occur, caused by diseases, disorders and progressive deterioration of fruit
quality. Due to economic impact and health benefits of fruits, the control of their losses in
the postharvest chain is decisive. To maintain quality, improve shelf life and extend
marketing period of fruit, the control of environmental conditions during storage and
transportation are important prerequisites. Postharvest losses of apple can be high, ranging
from 10% and 40% depending on the pathogens and the technologies used in the
packinghouses. Postharvest disease losses in pome fruits are mainly caused by Penicillium
expansum and P. crustosum (Vico et al. 2014a; Vico et al. 2014b) causing agent of blue
mould, grey mold caused by Botrytis cinerea (Jakovljević et al. 1998), brown rot caused
173
by Monilinia fructigena, M. fructicola, M. laxa and Monilia polystroma (Martini et al.
2015; Vasić et al. 2011; Vasić et al. 2012; Vasić et al. 2013a), white rot caused by B.
dothidea (Vasić et al. 2013b), black rot caused by B. obtusa (Stojanović et al. 1996) and
bull´s eye rot caused by Neofabraea vagabunda (Vico et al. 2015). Colletotrichum
acutatum and C. gloeosporioides have also been reported as causal agents of apple fruit
bitter rot (Grahovac et al. 2010; Mari et al. 2012).
Blue mould is known in all pome fruit growing areas and under favorable conditions can
cause severe losses, over 50% penetrating through the wounds and micro-wounds
produced during harvest and handling. The disease develops even below 0°C, although the
pathogen proceeds slowly at cold storage temperatures. In addition, P. exapansum aroused
a health hazard caused by the ability of the pathogen to produce patulin a mutagenic and
embryo toxic substance produced by most isolated of Penicillium spp. For this mycotoxin
the limits of 50,25 and 10 g/kg have been set in Europe for fruit juices and fruit nectar,
solid apple products and apple based products for infants and young children, respectively
(Neri et al., 2010). Pears seem more sensitive to blue mould than apples and within pears
‘Conference’ and ‘Bosc’ are the most susceptible. In the past, the disease has been
controlled by postharvest treatments based on benzimidazole fungicide as thiabendazole
and benomyl, although their intense use produced the appearance of resistant strains with
a great reduction of their efficacy (Baraldi et al., 2003.). Another important pathogen for
apple fruit growing in the European temperate and humid areas of the North is N.
vagabunda causing the bull’s eye rot in apple stored for long time (more than 3 months).
The late season cultivars as ‘Pink Lady®’ are more susceptible to the disease with an
incidence that can range from 10 to 40% after 120 days of cold storage. Fruit infections
occurs in the field, but disease symptoms appear only several months of storage when
numerous lesion may develop on a single fruit. The pathogen arrests its growth and
remains quiescent until the fruit reaches a certain stage of ripeness, when it can invade
fruit tissues. Current measures to control N. vagabunda infection include pre and postharvest treatments with thiabendazole fungicide.
Although the use of synthetic chemical fungicides remains a primary method of
controlling postharvest diseases, the global trend appears to be shifting towards a
reduced use of fungicides on produce and hence there is a strong public and scientific
desire to seek safer and eco-friendly alternatives to reduce postharvest losses. Biological
control using microbial antagonists such as bacteria and yeasts has emerged as one of
the most promising of these alternatives (Janisiewicz and Korsten, 2002). Some
biological control agents (BCAs) have been formulated and commercialized, but
nevertheless, they are not entered routinely in the postharvest treatments. There are
several reasons for this limited diffusion, some relate to an intrinsic ineffectiveness of
BCAs such as their inconsistency, and the variability of the control under commercial
conditions. Some relate to their formulation that reduces the activity of antagonists with
respect to the fresh cells, the high cost of the production, and the regulatory barriers to
BCA registration in different countries that do not encourage their dissemination. Plant
secondary metabolites, as essential oils and volatile products of Brassicaceae plant
tissues have shown promising potential in the control of postharvest pathogens (Duduk
et al. 2013; Duduk et al. 2015) however also in this case the application of these
products remains limited to experimental trials and few are the example of commercial
174
application. Among physical methods, heat treatment seems to represent an interesting
alternative to the conventional means of postharvest disease control. Heat can be
applied to fruit in the form of hot water, vapor heat, hot air or hot water rinse-brushing.
Hot water treatment appears to be one of the most effective and promising methods and
is especially useful for organic crops to control relatively high rates of postharvest
decays including blue mould, brown rot, gray mould and bull’s eye rot (Neri et al. 2009;
Spadoni et al. 2015). Heat-based treatments has advantages over the other nonconventional methods as BCAs and natural compounds that they do not require any
registration from European Community and are ready to use. In addition, hot water
treatments appear particularly attractive to the fruit industry since it could be
immediately utilized and incorporated into handling practices before storage and
without extensive technical modification.
CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, the concern about public health and the environment has
considerably limited the use of synthetic fungicides for the control of fruit postharvest
diseases. Future scenarios are tending increasingly more towards integrated crop
management and organic fruit production, with a consequent reduced use of fungicides,
for a sustainable agriculture system. This goal requires new technologies that are not
still deeply investigated. However, it is unrealistic to assume that BCAs, heat treatments
and natural volatile compounds can substitute completely fungicide treatments. For this
reason, an integrated approach appears the best method to obtain acceptable results. The
research should lead to the development of appropriate tools to tailor a complete
integrated disease management strategy specific for each situation that takes into
account factors such as species, climate and seasonal condition, and the market
destination.
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