The resilient character of PDO/PGI products in dynamic food markets

The European and Italian food system is experiencing a change in the relationship with the consumer and with the distribution. In fact, customers are increasingly demanding, and are attracted, by products that have high quality content and a strong link with the territory. The brands with the price are the two factors affecting the strategic policies of the food producer firms. At the same time, the retail system has proven to be very sensitive to consumer demands by providing quality products at competitive prices and using their brand as an element of loyalty. In the European context, the Italian agri-food system has the higher number of products with the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) recognition. However, 90% of PDO products are represented by only 15 Designations. This figure shows how different types of products find a much diversified business position in relation to the firm’s characteristics, to the markets characteristics, to the reputation of the Designation and to the consortium strategies in relation to their commercialization. The objective of this research, based on observed data collected through the survey of QUALIVITA Association, is to provide an exhaustive picture of the economic characteristics of the Italian PDO, PGI Designations and define a typology of such Designation according different set of variables as production system, reputation level, role of the territory and distribution channel. The ultimate goal is to determine the strategic levers taken at the marketing stage and to identify which factors clarify their potentiality on the market. The methodology adopted for the quantitative analysis is based on non-hierarchical cluster analysis by the method of k-mean in order to identify clusters of similar designations which explain what variables act on the various strategies adopted and on the related development processes.PDO/PGI, quality, modern distribution, cluster analysis, marketing strategies, development processes, Agricultural and Food Policy, Marketing,

Integrated design of atmospheric pressure non-equilibrium plasma sources for industrial and biomedical applications

In this dissertation are reported the most relevant results obtained during my three years Ph.D. project. An open-air plasma source has been developed to treat plastic and metallic films typically used in food packaging manufacturing. Among others, the DBD configuration was chosen due to its many advantages such as high intensity and uniformity of the treatment, possibility of operating in ambient air as well as ease of scale up. Biological experiments were performed to assess the microbial reduction induced by the plasma treatment. Different operative conditions have been tested in order to identify the most efficient configuration and two distinct behaviours have been observed: low-power density treatment allowed to achieve microbial inactivation values below log 2 independently on treatment time; high-power density treatment where the microbial reduction grew with increasing treatment time. Subsequently, the plasma discharge has been characterized by means of three investigation methods: thermal, electrical and optical absorption spectroscopy (OAS) analysis. The thermal and electrical analyses were employed to identify the best dielectric materials for food packaging manufacturing purposes. Once defined the optimal DBD configuration, OAS was used to measure the absolute concentration of ozone and nitrogen dioxide. Results showed that at low-power density the chemistry is governed by ozone; while at high-power density ozone is consumed by the poisoning effect and only nitrogen dioxide is detectable. Lastly, a numerical simulation has been used to deeper investigate the chemistry governing the plasma discharge; by means of PLASIMO a global model and a fluid model were implemented

Left Side Gallbladder: Clinical and Anatomical Implication

Left side gallbladder is a rare anatomical anomaly reported in the literature. It is associated with various anatomical variations of the biliary way and intrahepatic portal supply. Most of the time, it is discovered as an incidental finding during intervention for cholecystectomy, exposing patients and surgeons to high risk of complication. To prevent this, we analyze the critical aspects that must be known to perform safe interventions either in the normal setting or in the emergency setting. Different theories are proposed to describe this anomaly, but a debate is still open. Reviewing the literature and analyzing the different processes of formation, we create a classification that can explain how this anomaly can occur, dividing into four variation types

Coevolutionary data-based interaction networks approach highlighting key residues across protein families: The case of the G-protein coupled receptors

We present an approach that, by integrating structural data with Direct Coupling Analysis, is able to pinpoint most of the interaction hotspots (i.e. key residues for the biological activity) across very sparse protein families in a single run. An application to the Class A G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), both in their active and inactive states, demonstrates the predictive power of our approach. The latter can be easily extended to any other kind of protein family, where it is expected to highlight most key sites involved in their functional activity

Current trends of minimally invasive therapy for cholecystocholedocholithiasis

IntroductionThe minimally invasive approach of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided procedures for cholecystocholedocholithiasis, such as EUS-guided gallbladder drainage (EUS-GBD), EUS-guided rendezvous (EUS-RV), and EUS-guided biliary drainage (EUS-BD), is affirmed as an effective treatment for patients with acute cholecystitis (AC) who are unfit for surgery and for patients with common bile duct stones (CBDSs) who have experienced a previous ERCP failure. Furthermore, in cases of difficult CBDS extraction during endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), cholangioscopy-guided electrohydraulic lithotripsy (CS-EHL) has showed optimal results. The main objective of our study was to evaluate the effectiveness of EUS-GBD and percutaneous gallbladder drainage (PT-GBD) in patients with AC who are unfit for surgery. We also aimed to evaluate the efficacy of EUS-GBD, EUS-BD, and EUS-RV following ERCP failure and the effectiveness of CS-EHL for difficult CBDS extraction in our hospital. The secondary aim was to examine the safety of these procedures.Materials and methodsWe conducted a retrospective evaluation of all the EUS-GBD, PT-GBD, EUS-BD, EUS-RV, and CS-EHL procedures, which were prospectively collected in the gastroenterology and digestive endoscopy unit and the general surgery unit from January 2020 to June 2023. The efficacy was expressed in terms of technical and clinical success rates, while safety was assessed based on the rate of adverse events (AEs).ResultsWe enrolled 83 patients with AC and high surgical risk. Among them, 57 patients (68.7%, 24/57 male, median age 85 ± 11 years) underwent EUS-GBD, and 26 (31.3%, 19/26 male, median age 83 ± 7 years) underwent PT-GBD. The technical and clinical success rates were 96.5 and 100% for EUS-GBD, and 96.1 and 92% for PT-GBD. The AEs for EUS-GBD were 1.7%, and for PT-GBD, it was 12%. ERCP for CBDS extraction failed in 77 patients. Among them, 73 patients (94.8%) underwent EUS-RV with technical and clinical success rates of 72.6% (53/73) and 100%, respectively. No AEs were reported. Four out of 77 patients were directly treated with EUS-BD for pyloric inflammatory stenosis. In 12 patients (16.4%), following unsuccessful EUS-RV with a CBD diameter ≥ 12 mm, an EUS-BD was performed. Both technical and clinical success rates for EUS-BD were 100%, and no AEs were reported. EUS-GBD was the treatment of choice for the remaining 8 (10.9%) patients after failure of both ERCP and EUS-RV. The procedure had high technical and clinical success rates (both at 100%), and no AEs were reported. The 12 difficult CBDS extraction treated with CS-EHL also showed high technical and clinical success rates (both at 100%), with no reported AEs.ConclusionThe minimally invasive approach for cholecystocholedocholithiasis, especially EUS-guided procedures, had high efficacy and safety in treating AC in high-risk surgical patients and CBDS extraction after a previously unsuccessful ERCP

Synthesis, size-dependent optoelectronic and charge transport properties of thieno(bis)imide end-substituted molecular semiconductors

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Effect of cold plasma generated with different gas mixtures on safety, quality and nutritional aspects of fresh sea bream fillets

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is a non-thermal technology, successfully used to decontaminate and extend the shelf-life of various foods. However, since CAP is highly oxidative, it can cause quality deterioration in sensitive matrices, such as fish products. This research aimed to evaluate the effect of CAP treatment with a surface dielectric barrier discharge (SDBD) with different gas mixtures (80% Ar/20% O2, or 80% N2/20% O2) on the decontamination of inoculated pathogens (E.coli and L.innocua; log 4 CFU/g inoculum) and endogenous spoilage microbiota and on the main quality indices of seabream (Spaurus aurata) fillets. For selected appropriate treatments, the impact on the nutritional value of the products was investigated through in vitro digestion, bioaccessibility of fatty acids and the degree of protein hydrolysis. The use of CAP resulted in a decrease in the bacterial load in the fresh sea bream fillets up to 1 log CFU/g obtained with Ar/O2 gas mixture for 20 min, affected by the treatment duration, but not by the gas mixture. Although a slight increase in lipid oxidation was observed (from 0.5 mg MDA/kg to a maximum of 4 mg MDA/kg), the digestibility of the products was not affected. Industrial relevance From an industrial point of view, increasing shelf-life of perishable products such as fish fillets with an environmentally friendly and non-thermal technology could represent a great advantage; however, maintaining quality is of paramount importance for the industrial use of this novel processing technology. The results of the present study show negligible effects on the nutritional quality of seabream fillets, which encourages further research.publishedVersio

The impact of anastomotic leak on long-term oncological outcomes after low anterior resection for mid-low rectal cancer: extended follow-up of a randomised controlled trial

The impact of anastomotic leaks (AL) on oncological outcomes after low anterior resection for mid-low rectal cancer is still debated. The aim of this study was to evaluate overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and local and distant recurrence in patients with AL following low anterior resection

Validation of techniques to mitigate copper surface contamination in CUORE

In this article we describe the background challenges for the CUORE experiment posed by surface contamination of inert detector materials such as copper, and present three techniques explored to mitigate these backgrounds. Using data from a dedicated test apparatus constructed to validate and compare these techniques we demonstrate that copper surface contamination levels better than 10E-07 - 10E-08 Bq/cm2 are achieved for 238U and 232Th. If these levels are reproduced in the final CUORE apparatus the projected 90% C.L. upper limit on the number of background counts in the region of interest is 0.02-0.03 counts/keV/kg/y depending on the adopted mitigation technique.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 6 table