Renewable Polysaccharides Micro/Nanostructures for Food and Cosmetic Applications

The worldwide diffusion of nanotechnologies into products nowadays has completely revolutionized human life, providing novel comfort and benefits. Their inclusion in food and cosmetic has a heavy impact over the market, allowing the development of higher value products with enhanced properties. Natural origin polymers and in particular polysaccharides represent a versatile platform of materials for the development of micro/nanostructured additives for food and cosmetic products due to their chemical versatility, biocompatibility, and abundance. Here, we review the current applications of polysaccharides-based micro/nanostructures, taking into consideration the precursors’ production, isolation, and extraction methods and highlighting the advantages, possible drawbacks, and market diffusion

What's inside the hole? A review of European dendrolimnetic moth flies (Diptera: Psychodidae: Psychodinae)

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Data acquisition and imaging using wavelet transform: a new path for high speed transient force microscopy

The unique ability of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to image, manipulate and characterize materials at the nanoscale has made it a remarkable tool in nanotechnology. In dynamic AFM, acquisition and processing of the photodetector signal originating from probe–sample interaction is a critical step in data analysis and measurements. However, details of such interaction including its nonlinearity and dynamics of the sample surface are limited due to the ultimately bounded bandwidth and limited time scales of data processing electronics of standard AFM. Similarly, transient details of the AFM probe's cantilever signal are lost due to averaging of data by techniques which correlate the frequency spectrum of the captured data with a temporally invariant physical system. Here, we introduce a fundamentally new approach for dynamic AFM data acquisition and imaging based on applying the wavelet transform on the data stream from the photodetector. This approach provides the opportunity for exploration of the transient response of the cantilever, analysis and imaging of the dynamics of amplitude and phase of the signals captured from the photodetector. Furthermore, it can be used for the control of AFM which would yield increased imaging speed. Hence the proposed method opens a pathway for high-speed transient force microscopy

Physiological recovery among workers in long-distance sleddog race: a case study on female veterinarians in Finnmarksløpet.

During Finnmarksløpet (FL, one of the longest distance sleddog races in the world), veterinarians are exposed to extreme environmental conditions and tight working schedules, with little and fragmented sleep. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this case study was to examine cardiovascular parameters and sleep-wake patterns among veterinarians working within FL, during and after (for a month) the end of the race. METHODS: Six female veterinarians volunteered for the study. The participants wore a wrist device for a total of eight weeks in order to passively and semi-continuously record physiological responses throughout the day (i.e., heart rate, heart rate variability, number of steps, and sleep quality). Moreover, perceived sleep quality was assessed by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). RESULTS: During and for one month after completion of the FL, most veterinarians presented an alteration of cardiovascular parameters and sleep quality. The heart rate circadian rhythm returned to pre-race values within about two weeks. CONCLUSIONS: The long-lasting alteration of the veterinarians’ cardiovascular parameters and sleep-wake patterns might have negative consequences for their health in the long-term, especially if similar experiences are repeated more times though the course of a year or season. More research is needed in order to understand the health risks, as well as how to prevent them, among veterinarians in long-distance sleddog races or other similar events.acceptedVersio