Collaborative Interlaboratory Studies for the Validation of ELISA Methods for the Detection of Allergenic Fining Agents Used in Wine According to the Criteria of OIV Resolution 427–2010 Modified by OIV–Comex 502–2012

The clarification or fining of wine removes undesired substances (mainly proteins, phenols, and tannins), which would roil the wine and cause bitterness and astringency. A common fining agent, egg white, can be directly added to wine through the inlet of a circulating pump, but more typically egg white comes as commercial preparation in powdered form (commercially named egg albumin). Skimmed milk or more frequently purified caseinates are used to remove bitterness and hardness of white wine and sherry. Both egg white and caseinates are fining agents with optimal enological properties, but their residues could represent a risk for subjects suffering from food allergy. The rules for allergen labeling were detailed in Directives 2003/89/EC, and Directive 2005/26/EC established a list of food ingredients provisionally excluded from labeling, that included wine fining agents. Extended till June 2012, wine labeling exemption can be now maintained only if (1) egg and milk derivatives are not used and cross-contamination is under control; and (2) wine clarified with such products is negative for the presence of residues using techniques with detection and quantification limits of 0.25 and 0.5 ppm, respectively. Analytical requirements were defined in the OIV resolution 427–2010 (OIV 2010) modified by OIV/COMEX 502–2012 (OIV 2012). On the basis of a previous experience, an interlaboratory collaborative trial was organized to validate a commercial ELISA kit designed to measure allergenic residues in red wine fined with egg white proteins. In the meantime, the performance of the commercial caseinate ELISA kit for white wine was rechecked according to the new limit of detection and limit of quantification values, recommended by OIV in 2012. The collaborative interlaboratory studies showed that both ELISA kits had good reproducibility, repeatability, and robustness in detecting residues of allergenic fining agents in wine, in good agreement with the requirements of the OIV resolution 427–2010 modified by OIV/COMEX 502–2012

skin reaction in antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis c a role for polyethylene glycol interferon

In the past decade, different modalities of antiviral therapy have been adopted aimed at eradicating hepatitis C virus infection. Initially, interferon was used in monotherapy, then interferon combined with ribavirin and amantadine. Recently, interferon has been conjugated with polyethylene glycol to allow optimization of its pharmacokinetic properties and to improve its antiviral activity. This study focused on the characteristics of the skin reactions that we observed in 27 patients with naive hepatitis C who received polyethylene glycol interferon-ribavirin-amantadine or polyethylene glycol interferon-ribavirin and in 10 previous non-responders to interferon monotherapy who were retreated with triple therapy. In 9 patients (7 on triple therapy) dermatitis-like lesions were observed, and in 5 the severity of the lesions necessitated withdrawal from therapy

The rapid spread of SARS-COV-2 Omicron variant in Italy reflected early through wastewater surveillance

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant emerged in South Africa in November 2021, and has later been identified worldwide, raising serious concerns. A real-time RT-PCR assay was designed for the rapid screening of the Omicron variant, targeting characteristic mutations of the spike gene. The assay was used to test 737 sewage samples collected throughout Italy (19/21 Regions) between 11 November and 25 December 2021, with the aim of assessing the spread of the Omicron variant in the country. Positive samples were also tested with a real-time RT-PCR developed by the European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), and through nested RT-PCR followed by Sanger sequencing. Overall, 115 samples tested positive for Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant. The first occurrence was detected on 7 December, in Veneto, North Italy. Later on, the variant spread extremely fast in three weeks, with prevalence of positive wastewater samples rising from 1.0% (1/104 samples) in the week 5–11 December, to 17.5% (25/143 samples) in the week 12–18, to 65.9% (89/135 samples) in the week 19–25, in line with the increase in cases of infection with the Omicron variant observed during December in Italy. Similarly, the number of Regions/Autonomous Provinces in which the variant was detected increased fromone in the first week, to 11 in the second, and to 17 in the last one. The presence of the Omicron variant was confirmed by the JRC real-time RT-PCR in 79.1% (91/115) of the positive samples, and by Sanger sequencing in 66% (64/97) of PCR amplicons

The rapid spread of SARS-COV-2 Omicron variant in Italy reflected early through wastewater surveillance

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant emerged in South Africa in November 2021, and has later been identified worldwide, raising serious concerns. A real-time RT-PCR assay was designed for the rapid screening of the Omicron variant, targeting characteristic mutations of the spike gene. The assay was used to test 737 sewage samples collected throughout Italy (19/21 Regions) between 11 November and 25 December 2021, with the aim of assessing the spread of the Omicron variant in the country. Positive samples were also tested with a real-time RT-PCR developed by the European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), and through nested RT-PCR followed by Sanger sequencing. Overall, 115 samples tested positive for Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant. The first occurrence was detected on 7 December, in Veneto, North Italy. Later on, the variant spread extremely fast in three weeks, with prevalence of positive wastewater samples rising from 1.0% (1/104 samples) in the week 5-11 December, to 17.5% (25/143 samples) in the week 12-18, to 65.9% (89/135 samples) in the week 19-25, in line with the increase in cases of infection with the Omicron variant observed during December in Italy. Similarly, the number of Regions/Autonomous Provinces in which the variant was detected increased from one in the first week, to 11 in the second, and to 17 in the last one. The presence of the Omicron variant was confirmed by the JRC real-time RT-PCR in 79.1% (91/115) of the positive samples, and by Sanger sequencing in 66% (64/97) of PCR amplicons. In conclusion, we designed an RT-qPCR assay capable to detect the Omicron variant, which can be successfully used for the purpose of wastewater-based epidemiology. We also described the history of the introduction and diffusion of the Omicron variant in the Italian population and territory, confirming the effectiveness of sewage monitoring as a powerful surveillance tool

Can ICT Tool Effectively Contribute to Pursue Long-Term Sustainability Targets in Small-Scale Fisheries Segment? Preliminary Results on the Adoption of a VirtualMarketplace (VirMa) in Artisanal Fishery Sector

Small-scale fisheries play a key role in poverty alleviation and eradication, other than food nutrition and sustainable utilization of marine resources. This activity is one of the most relevant in the fisheries sector, especially for coastal communities, both in terms of employees and catches (representing 90\uf642 of the world\u2019s capture fishers and fish workers). Similarly, for Mediterranean riparian countries the small-scale fisheries are crucial in sustaining the region\u2019s coastal communities, where they represent over 80\uf642 of the total number of fishing vessels. It iswidely recognized that the fishery sector is currently facing serious challenges, with 78\uf642 of fish stocks exploited outside safe biological limits, as reported by the State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries (fao, 2018). In this context, a series of initiatives are in place to pursue ambitious targets: promoting at once a sustainable future of the planet under an economic, social and environmental point of view, contributing to the poverty eradication, improving socio-economic situation of fishworkers, enhancing the progressive realization the right to adequate food, and providing guidance for state and stakeholders for the participatory policies that are ecosystem friendly. During a consultation of small-scale fishers in the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, several issues have emerged, especially related to the market aspects, such as competition, lack of common strategies, logistical and organizational deficiencies, and access to new markets. Although small-scale fishers represent the focal players in their respective value chain, they are receiving scarce economic benefits for their products. Aiming at achieving long-term sustainability from an economic, social and biological resource perspective, Information and Communication Technologies (icts) were adopted to develop a tool able to explore new markets, increase focus on promotion and marketing, and potentially contribute for making pricing methodsmore transparent and consistent. The concept behind that tool is to safeguard the interest of small-scale fishers by enabling them to obtain prices and profits that let them achieving the sustainability targets. In this view, in order to explore the potential capability of ict tools to effectively contribute to promote economic, social and environmental targets for small-scale fisheries, we developed an experimental virtual marketplace (VirMa) for smart technology devices

"Acoustical vision" of below threshold stimuli: Interaction among spatially converging audiovisual inputs

Crossmodal spatial integration between auditory and visual stimuli is a common phenomenon in space perception. The principles underlying such integration have been outlined by neurophysiological and behavioral studies in animals; this study investigated whether the integrative effects observed in animals also apply to humans. In this experiment we systematically varied the spatial disparity (0\ub0, 16\ub0, and 32\ub0) and the temporal interval (0, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 ms) between the visual and the auditory stimuli. Normal subjects were required to detect visual stimuli presented below threshold either in unimodal visual conditions or in crossmodal audiovisual conditions. Signal detection measures were used. An enhancement of the perceptual sensitivity (d\u2032) for luminance detection was found when the audiovisual stimuli followed a simple spatial and temporal rule, governing multisensory integration at the neuronal level. \ua9 Springer-Verlag 2004

DETC2006-99354 A MULTICRITERIA SYSTEM-BASED METHOD FOR SIMULATION-DRIVEN DESIGN SYNTHESIS

ABSTRACT This paper presents an algorithmic, physics-based, design synthesis method aimed at facilitating synthesis through automated generation of a range of feasible and optimally directed design alternatives. The method assists designers in the exploration of performance limits and trade-offs for synthesis tasks as well as reducing design time through rapid, computational generation. The method introduced combines a multicriteria generate-and-test search algorithm, called Burst, with a Connected Node System (CNS) design representation and provides automatic links to multiphysics simulation for quantitative evaluation of design performance throughout the synthesis process. The CNS-Burst method is applied to two benchmark synthesis tasks in the domain of MEMS to validate the method. The solutions generated meet the modeled design requirements and the variety of designs generated offers designers the possibility of selecting devices according to their preferences among performance trade-offs. The potential for extension to larger, more complex MEMS design synthesis and optimization tasks is discussed. INTRODUCTION New approaches to computational design increasingly assist designers to realize reliable and cost-effective products faster. Design software has progressed from simple drawing systems to powerful tools for product modeling, performing sophisticated simulations of behavior, as well as virtual simulation of assembly and manufacturing. However, these tools are limited to modeling designers' ideas or tuning design parameters, e.g. using parametric optimization software, rather than actively contributing to the design synthesis process by generating new design solutions beyond their own experience. In the last few decades research in computational design synthesis has addressed this area developing methods to automate the generation of solutions to design problems. The goal is not to entirely automate the design process, but rather to help designers to achieve the most beneficial design alternatives and propose new solutions that go beyond their own insight. A wide range of problems may now be solved through computational synthesis techniques, based on eithe