Is type 2 diabetes really resolved after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy? Glucose variability studied by continuous glucose monitoring

The study was carried out on type 2 diabetic obese patients who underwent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG). Patients underwent regular glycemic controls throughout 3 years and all patients were defined cured from diabetes according to conventional criteria defined as normalization of fasting glucose levels and glycated hemoglobin in absence of antidiabetic therapy. After 3 years of follow-up, Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) was performed in each patient to better clarify the remission of diabetes. In this study, we found that the diabetes resolution after LSG occurred in 40% of patients; in the other 60%, even if they showed a normal fasting glycemia and A1c, patients spent a lot of time in hyperglycemia. During the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), we found that 2 h postload glucose determinations revealed overt diabetes only in a small group of patients and might be insufficient to exclude the diagnosis of diabetes in the other patients who spent a lot of time in hyperglycemia, even if they showed a normal glycemia (<140 mg/dL) at 120 minutes OGTT. These interesting data could help clinicians to better individualize patients in which diabetes is not resolved and who could need more attention in order to prevent chronic complications of diabetes

Editorial. The sustainability challenge. New perspectives on the use of microbial approaches and their impact on food and feed

Building a more resilient food chain, reducing food loss and waste, improving food production practices and increasing plant-based food consumption are some of the fundamental actions suggested in The Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations Member States in 20151. The objective of this special issue was to explore how the use of microorganisms as direct or indirect sources of transformation could contribute to these sustainability practices. In this context, the following strategies have been presented: (i) valorization of side-streams and underutilized food resources via fermentation, (ii) improvement of the efficiency of bioprocesses for the food and feed industry, and (iii) understanding and applying the microbiome as a resource to improve the agro-food system

Temperature-Dependent Thévenin Model of a Li-Ion Battery for Automotive Management and Control

This paper focuses on the analysis of Li-ion battery behavior at different temperatures through the Thévenin electrical circuit model. First, evaluations for both steady-state and dynamic battery applications are provided, then an overview of the different battery models to describe their dynamic behavior is analyzed. The focus is dedicated to the double polarization Thévenin-based equivalent circuit model since it represents an optimal trade-off between accuracy and computation effort, which justifies its implementation in a Battery Management System (BMS) for automotive real-time monitoring and control. The model is composed of a voltage source, one series resistor and two series RC blocks. The Hybrid Pulse Power Characterization test (HPPC) is performed inside a climatic chamber to extract the electrical parameters of the model and their dependency from both temperature and State Of Charge (SOC). The load-current effects on the battery performance are not considered for the simplicity and lightness of the presented model. The presented procedure has broader validity and is mostly independent of cell format and Li-ion chemistry, despite a specific cylindrical battery cell is chosen for the study. The results of the test are suitable for the future implementation of a proper algorithm for SOC and State Of Health SOH estimations. Moreover, they provide an effective electrical and thermal characterization of the cell to evaluate the heat generation rate inside the cell

Dynamic Electro-Thermal Li-ion Battery Model for Control Algorithms

This paper presents a fast and effective approach to evaluate the heat generation of a Li-ion battery system. The thermal characterization of Li-ion batteries is a relevant topic for the correct monitoring of the battery pack. In particular, a reduced-order model, that estimates the thermal dynamics of a Li-ion battery cell, is reported. The proposed approach relies on the definition of a boundary-value problem for heat conduction, in the form of a linear partial differential equation with the integration of Equivalent Circuit Model. The model is based on the double polarization Thévenin equivalent circuit model since it represents an optimal trade-off between accuracy and computation effort, which justifies its implementation in a Battery Management System (BMS) for automotive real-time monitoring and control. The resulting model predicts the temperature dynamics at the external surface in relation with the rate of the internal heat generation. In this paper, the model is applied to estimate the temperature of a cylindrical cell during a discharging transient and it uses electrical data acquired from experimental tests and is validated Computational fluid dynamics simulation. The results of the test are suitable for the future implementation of a proper algorithm for State of Charge SOC and State of Health SOH estimations

Electrothermal battery pack model for automotive application: Design and validation

Thermal modeling of the battery is an important way to understand how the design and operating variables affect the thermal response during its operation. This paper presents a method for modeling the electrical and thermal behavior of a battery pack, starting from the characterization of the single Lithium-ion battery cell up to extend its validity to module and pack level. The model takes into account both the reversible entropic heat generation and the irreversible resistive heat to predict the temperature of the battery. A coupled CFD and thermal analysis on an elementary module is proposed and experimentally tested to validate the results obtained from the proposed model. Furthermore, the experimental test will verify the effectiveness of air cooling