Application of D-optimal mixture design for the formulation of inulin-based fat replacers

The awareness and knowledge of the diet-disease consequences led consumers to make well- informed and healthier food choices selecting foods with reduced sugar, fat and salt. Indeed, there is increasing interest in improving the nutritional value of foods characterized by high level of cholesterol and fatty saturated acids, such as meat products. Animal fat reduction may result in the deterioration of the sensory and technological aspects of reformulated meat products, therefore, researchers focused on suitable ingredients able to substitute animal fat in meat products. Fibres have been widely used as fat replacers in cured meats, and among them, inulin has been tested as fat replacers in cured meat products showing prebiotic and gelling properties. Since the polymerization degree of inulin may have a significant influence on the rheological properties, in this study the optimization of the fat replacer was carried out considering two dinstinct D-optimal mixture x process designs, one for HDP inulin and one for LDP inulin. The aim was to optimize the amounts of inulin, water and guar gum to reach similar rheological properties of the beef fat. Frequency sweep tests highlighted an elastic-like behaviour of the inulin gels, with a dominant storage modulus (G’>G”) forming a structure type gel. Results from the shear rate ramp showed that inulin gels were characterized by a higher consistency index, compared to beef fat. The application of the D-optimal mixture design allows to find ranges of formulation with viscosity comparable to the control fat with potential application as fat replacer in low-fat hamburgers

Waiting list mortality and 5-year transplant survival benefit of patients with MASLD: An Italian liver transplant registry study

Background & Aims: International consensus has recently introduced a new definition of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). We sought to analyse epidemiological trends, prognostic features, and transplant survival benefits of patients with MASLD and without MASLD waiting for liver transplantation (LT) in Italy. Methods: Using the Italian Liver Transplant Registry database, we analysed data from adult patients listed for primary LT attributable to end-stage chronic liver disease between January 2012 and December 2022. Independent multivariable waiting lists and post-transplant survival models were developed for patients with and without hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A Monte Carlo simulation was used to create 5-year transplant benefit distributions based on the presence of MASLD, HCC, and model for end-stage liver disease (MELD)-sodium values. Results: A total sample of 1,941 patients with MASLD and 11,201 patients without MASLD was considered. A significant increase in the prevalence of MASLD as an indication for LT was observed from 2012 to 2022, for both cohorts with HCC (from 17.7 to 30%) and without HCC (from 9.5 to 11.8%) cohorts. Projections suggest that, as early as next year, MASLD will overcome HCV as the second most common indication for transplantation after alcoholic liver disease in Italy. According to univariate and multivariate analyses, MASLD was not an independent predictive factor for patient survival after transplantation. However, it increased the risk of death for patients on the waiting list without HCC (hazard ratio 1.62, p <0.001). At the same MELD-sodium, the 5-year transplant benefit was higher in patients with non-HCC MASLD, followed by patients with HCC, whereas it was lower in patients without HCC and without MASLD. Conclusions: Patients with non-HCC MASLD had an increased waitlist mortality and 5-year transplant survival benefit compared with other candidates. Impact and implications: The present research addresses the critical need to understand the evolving landscape of liver transplantation indications, mainly focusing on metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) in Italy. Given the significant rise in MASLD cases, these findings highlight that patients with non-HCC MASLD face increased waitlist mortality and benefit more from liver transplantation within 5 years compared with other candidates. The significance of these results lies in their emphasis on the necessity of focusing on patients with MASLD on waiting lists to improve outcomes. By tailoring transplant eligibility criteria and resource allocation, the study provides actionable insights to improve patient survival and optimise liver transplantation practices

Religione

Un inquadramento della parola costituente "Religione" in una più ampia disamina sulla libertà religiosa e sui diritti fondamentali, anche alla luce di recenti orientamenti giurisprudenziali

The relationship between corporate sustainability and performance: an analysis of agri‐food cooperatives

The aim of the research is twofold: to investigate the corporate sustainability profile of agri-food cooperatives and to analyze its impact on cooperative performance. This study attempts to fill a gap in the literature represented by the limited investigation of sustainability according to the integrated approach proposed by the Triple Bottom Line. This study applies the Structural Equation Modeling on data provided by the administration of a questionnaire to the managers of a sample of Italian cooperatives operating in the agri-food sector, selected among the members of the General Association of Italian Cooperatives. The results show that environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainability are relevant to shape the cooperatives corporate sustainability, but they do not impact the agri-food cooperatives performance. Consequently, the cooperative’s management should give more consideration to renewable energy practices and make sustainability practices positively influence the cooperative’s performance through: increasing internal communication strategies, moving from competition to coopetition, developing skills to make sustainability a performance enhancing factor. Furthermore, cooperative management should improve the external communication strategies used to communicate the adopted sustainability practices, in order to make sure that the knowledge of the sustainability profile by the market leads to an increase in consumer loyalty

Definire la competenza dei docenti all’uso dei dati. Riflessioni a margine di una scoping review

The most recent trends in the field of school improvement and teacher education pointed out the crucial role of data and emphasised how it is important preparing teachers to read, interpret, and use data to inform their practice at school. If, on the one hand, it has been clearly showed how an effective teachers’ data use would lead to school improvement, also in student learning achievement; on the other hand, the attempts to reach a common definition of teacher data literacy and to understand how support teachers in data use require more research. Given this consideration, the present article, through a scoping review, analyses how, during the last 5 years (2018-2022) the concept of teacher data literacy has been defined. Documenting and contrasting the different definitions reported in the 20 selected articles, a substantial anchorage to the Mandinach e Gummer’s (2016) definition emerged. Conclusions critically reflect on likely implications for educational research and practice

Search for the rare decay of charmed baryon Λc+ into the pμ+μ- final state

A search for the nonresonant Λc+→pμ+μ- decay is performed using proton-proton collision data recorded at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb-1. No evidence for the decay is found in the dimuon invariant-mass regions where the expected contributions of resonances is subdominant. The upper limit on the branching fraction of the Λc+→pμ+μ- decay is determined to be 2.9(3.2)×10-8 at 90%(95%) confidence level. The branching fractions in the dimuon invariant-mass regions dominated by the η, ρ and ω resonances are also determined

Indennità sostitutiva per ferie non godute nella PA: un’utile, ma scontata, pronuncia della Corte di Giustizia

L'autore colloca la sentenza della Corte di Giustizia 18.1.2024 (C-218/22), relativa alla spettanza dell'indennità finanziaria per ferie non godute alla data della cessazione del rapporto, nel quadro della giurisprudenza della Corte relativa alla disciplina europea sull’organizzazione dell’orario di lavoro; una produzione costantemente improntata a un approccio teleologico, fortemente radicato, sin dall’origine, nella funzione protettiva della sicurezza e della salute dei lavoratori, ma talora trascurato dal legislatore interno e da taluni interpreti

Women in leadership positions in Italian neurosurgery

The article by Weiss et al. (2023) was truly enlightening and thought-provoking. It sparked a significant reflection, prompting an exploration of the frameworks shaping the careers of female neurosurgeons in Italy in comparison to the broader European landscape. As the authors point out, the number of women in medicine has been steadily increasing. Italy is no exception to this trend, with Primary Medical and Surgical Qualifications degrees (MBBS) now consisting of 60% women ( Women in Surgery, 2018). Despite this progression, the proportion of female medical students pursuing surgical careers hasn't aligned accordingly

N-(2-(Benzylamino)ethyl)-4-(naphthalene-1-sulfonamido)benzamide

In this study, we report the synthesis of N-(2-(benzylamino)ethyl)-4-(naphthalene-1-sulfonamido)benzamide, designed on the basis of the structures of the PPARγ partial agonist SR2067 and of the commercial acetylcholinesterase inhibitor drug donepezil, aiming for a multi-target approach for the therapy of elderly diseases, such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. The compound was fully characterized by using 1H and 13C NMR, FT-IR and HRMS

La vendita dei prodotti agroalimentari

Il capitolo si occupa dell'inquadramento della vendita dei prodotti agroalimentari, dei contratti di vendita e della qualificazione della vendita diretta dei prodotti da parte dell'imprenditore agricol