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This paper discusses activities and results of the REBAF project: a two-year Italian regional research project focused on the energy conversion of biomass residues from river, canals and basins maintenance activities. Innovative pathways for the exploitation of grass and woodsy biomasses were investigated. Gasification and pyrolysis are the key technologies for biomass conversion into energy. Woodsy biomass was tested as fuel in a small scale commercial gasification power plants that produce heat and power using a IC engine. A valuable by-product of the process was biochar. This was tested as soil improver in giant reed crop parcels and a sensible increase of dry biomass production was achieved in comparison with control parcels. The grass residues obtained from canals maintenance were carbonized in lab-scale pyrolyzer at a temperature of about 450 °C through the hot exhaust of the engine fueled by the gasifier. The pyrolysis gases were used directly in the gasifier in substitution of the gasifying agent. The residual carbon afterward the pyrolysis process was used as filler in cements, plasters and polyurethane panels increasing performance of these building materials., Proceedings of the 27th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 27-30 May 2019, Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 50-56

Drypetes klainei Pierre ex Pax is used in Cameroon by Baka people in the wound healing process and for the treatment of burns. In a previous paper we demonstrated the ability of both water (WE) and defatted methanol (DME) extracts to accelerate scratch wound closure in fibroblast cultures, thus validating the traditional use of D. klainey stem bark in the treatment of skin lesions. In this work we carried out a bioassay-guided fractionation of the most active DME, which exhibited in vitro efficacy in accelerating wound healing process, in order to isolate and identify the compound/s responsible for the assessed biological activity. HPLC was used for the metabolite profiling of DME and fractions (analytical) and for the isolation of the bioactive compound (semi-preparative). MS analyses and NMR spectroscopy were used for identifying the isolated compound. The abilities of treatments in accelerating wound healing were studied on murine fibroblasts in terms of cell viability and cell migration (scratch wound-healing assay). The results obtained allowed to unambiguously identify the isolated bioactive compound as nigracin, a known phenolic glycoside firstly isolated and characterized from bark and leaves of Populus nigra in 1967. However, this is the first time that nigracin is identified in the Drypetes genus and that a wound healing activity is demonstrated for this molecule. Specifically, we demonstrated that nigracin significantly stimulates fibroblast growth and improves cell motility and wound closure of fibroblast monolayer in a dose-dependent manner, without any toxicity at the concentrations tested, and is still active at very low doses. This makes the molecule particularly attractive as a possible candidate for developing new therapeutic options for wound care.

Acute liver failure is a rare but catastrophic condition which can progress rapidly to multi-organ failure. Studies investigating the onset of individual organ injury such as the liver, kidneys and brain during the evolution of acute liver failure, are lacking. MicroRNAs are short, non-coding strands of RNA that are released into the circulation following tissue injury. In this study, we have characterised the release of both global microRNA and specific microRNA species into the plasma using a porcine model of acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure. Pigs were induced to acute liver failure with oral acetaminophen over 19h±2h and death occurred 13h±3h thereafter. Global microRNA concentrations increased 4h prior to acute liver failure in plasma (P