Finsler geodesics in the presence of a convex function and their applications

We obtain a result about the existence of only a finite number of geodesics between two fixed non-conjugate points in a Finsler manifold endowed with a convex function. We apply it to Randers and Zermelo metrics. As a by-product, we also get a result about the finiteness of the number of lightlike and timelike geodesics connecting an event to a line in a standard stationary spacetime.Comment: 16 pages, AMSLaTex. v2 is a minor revision: title changed, references updated, typos fixed; it matches the published version. This preprint and arXiv:math/0702323v3 [math.DG] substitute arXiv:math/0702323v2 [math.DG

Shelf life extension of Italian mozzarella by use of calcium lactate buffered brine

Italian traditional mozzarella is a high moisture table cheese that is sold packaged in water for preserving freshness. Despite of the high foreign demand, high perishability limits export. For extending shelf life, the dairy industries have long been engaged in controlling the growth of spoilage microflora, which is the main responsible of alteration. The present paper describes the results of a study that aimed to assess if using acidified brine instead of water, the growth of these microorganisms could be delayed. A suitable brine was first developed, based on calcium lactate and lactic acid, that did not impair the sensory characteristics of the cheese. Then, the shelf-life study was carried out, and the results revealed a significant delay of the growth of total mesophilic bacteria, Pseudomonas spp. and Enterobacteriaceae. The sensory characteristics of the cheese remained within the acceptability limits until 21 days and, compared with the sample stored in water, the shelf life was extended of more than 50% Very interestingly, the experimental brine also prevented the occurrence of the blue discoloration defect, known to be caused by Pseudomonas fluorescens. Even though further investigation is needed, the results obtained can open new marketing perspectives for producers of traditional mozzarella

Legumes as basic ingredients in the production of dairy-free cheese alternatives: a review

Research into dairy-free alternative products, whether plant-based or cell-based, is growing fast and the food industry is facing a new challenge of creating innovative, nutritious, accessible, and natural dairy-free cheese alternatives. The market demand for these products is continuing to increase owing to more people choosing to reduce or eliminate meat and dairy products from their diet for health, environmental sustainability, and/or ethical reasons. This review investigates the current status of dairy product alternatives. Legume proteins have good technological properties and are cheap, which gives them a strong commercial potential to be used in plant-based cheese-like products. However, few legume proteins have been explored in the formulation, development, and manufacture of a fully dairy-free cheese because of their undesirable properties: heat stable anti-nutritional factors and a beany flavor. These can be alleviated by novel or traditional and economical techniques. The improvement and diversification of the formulation of legume-based cheese alternatives is strongly suggested as a low-cost step towards more sustainable food chains. © 2021 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry

Radical scavenging activity of olive oil phenolic antioxidants in oil or water phase during the oxidation of O/W emulsions: An oxidomics approach

Omics approaches are recently being applied also in food lipid oxidation, to increase knowledge of oxidation and antioxidation mechanisms. The so-called oxidomics throws a wider spot of light on the complex patterns of reactions taking place in food lipids, especially in dispersed systems. This research aimed to investigate the radical scavenging activity of olive oil phenolic antioxidants (OPAs) in O/W emulsions, as affected by the phase in which they were added. This allowed one to assess whether different behaviors could be expected from antioxidants originally present in phenolic-rich olive oils compared to natural antioxidants added in the water phase during emulsion production. Hydroperoxide decomposition kinetics and the analysis of volatile pattern provided an outline of antioxidation mechanisms. Though being effective in slowing down oxidation when added both in the oil and water phase, OPAs interfered in different ways with oxidation pathways, based on the phase in which they were added. OPAs added to the water phase were more effective in slowing down hydroperoxide decomposition due to the hydrophilic radical initiator. On the other hand, OPAs present in the oil were more effective in preventing radical propagation, with relevant consequences on the volatile pattern

The potential of apulian olive biodiversity: The case of oliva rossa virgin olive oil

In this study, the drupes and virgin olive oils extracted from the Oliva Rossa landrace are characterized. Oliva Rossa is an old landrace part of the autochthonous Apulian olive germplasm for which only few data have been reported till now. During the study, the maturity patterns of the drupes had been followed. Four samplings per year were planned, one every 14 days starting from the middle of October. The pigmentation index, the oil content and the total phenolic content of the drupes were measured. Simultaneously, virgin olive oils were extracted at the lab scale and analyzed for the fatty acid composition, the basic quality parameters and the content of minor compounds. The pigmentation pattern of the drupes was different among the years and, despite this trend, at the third sampling time the stage of maximum oil accumulation was always over. The extracted virgin olive oils had a medium to high level of oleic acid. With colder temperatures, a higher level of monounsaturated fatty acids, oleic/linoleic ratio and antioxidants was observed. The phenolic profile was dominated by 3,4-DPHEA-EDA and p-HPEA-EDA while the volatile profile by (E)-2-hexenal and 3-ethyl-1,5-octadiene

The artificial retina for track reconstruction at the LHC crossing rate

We present the results of an R&D study for a specialized processor capable of precisely reconstructing events with hundreds of charged-particle tracks in pixel and silicon strip detectors at $40\,\rm MHz$, thus suitable for processing LHC events at the full crossing frequency. For this purpose we design and test a massively parallel pattern-recognition algorithm, inspired to the current understanding of the mechanisms adopted by the primary visual cortex of mammals in the early stages of visual-information processing. The detailed geometry and charged-particle's activity of a large tracking detector are simulated and used to assess the performance of the artificial retina algorithm. We find that high-quality tracking in large detectors is possible with sub-microsecond latencies when the algorithm is implemented in modern, high-speed, high-bandwidth FPGA devices.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, ICHEP14. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1409.089

Simulation and performance of an artificial retina for 40 MHz track reconstruction

We present the results of a detailed simulation of the artificial retina pattern-recognition algorithm, designed to reconstruct events with hundreds of charged-particle tracks in pixel and silicon detectors at LHCb with LHC crossing frequency of $40\,\rm MHz$. Performances of the artificial retina algorithm are assessed using the official Monte Carlo samples of the LHCb experiment. We found performances for the retina pattern-recognition algorithm comparable with the full LHCb reconstruction algorithm.Comment: Final draft of WIT proceedings modified according to JINST referee's comment

LHCb VELO Upgrade: Technical Design Report

The upgraded LHCb VELO silicon vertex detector is a lightweight hybrid pixel detector capable of 40 MHz readout at a luminosity of 2×10^33 cm^−2 s^−1. The track reconstruction speed and precision is enhanced relative to the current VELO detector even at the high occupancy conditions of the upgrade, due to the pixel geometry and a closest distance of approach to the LHC beams of just 5.1 mm for the first sensitive pixel. Cooling is provided by evaporative CO2 circulating in microchannel cooling substrates. The detector contains 41 million 55μ×55μ pixels, read out by the custom developed VeloPix front end ASIC. The detector will start operation together with the rest of the upgraded LHCb experiment after the LHC LS2 shutdown, currently scheduled to end in 2019. This Technical Design Report describes the upgraded VELO system, planned construction and installation, and gives an overview of the expected detector performanc

Infinitesimal and local convexity of a hypersurface in a semi-Riemannian manifold

Given a Riemannian manifold M and a hypersurface H in M, it is well known that infinitesimal convexity on a neighborhood of a point in H implies local convexity. We show in this note that the same result holds in a semi-Riemannian manifold. We make some remarks for the case when only timelike, null or spacelike geodesics are involved. The notion of geometric convexity is also reviewed and some applications to geodesic connectedness of an open subset of a Lorentzian manifold are given.Comment: 14 pages, AMSLaTex, 2 figures. v2: typos fixed, added one reference and several comments, statement of last proposition correcte

A Specialized Processor for Track Reconstruction at the LHC Crossing Rate

We present the results of an R&D study of a specialized processor capable of precisely reconstructing events with hundreds of charged-particle tracks in pixel detectors at 40 MHz, thus suitable for processing LHC events at the full crossing frequency. For this purpose we design and test a massively parallel pattern-recognition algorithm, inspired by studies of the processing of visual images by the brain as it happens in nature. We find that high-quality tracking in large detectors is possible with sub-$\mu$s latencies when this algorithm is implemented in modern, high-speed, high-bandwidth FPGA devices. This opens a possibility of making track reconstruction happen transparently as part of the detector readout.Comment: Presented by G.Punzi at the conference on "Instrumentation for Colliding Beam Physics" (INSTR14), 24 Feb to 1 Mar 2014, Novosibirsk, Russia. Submitted to JINST proceeding