5,047 research outputs found
Natural zeolites and white wines from Campania region (Southern Italy): a new contribution for solving some oenological problems
The purpose of this research is to provide a new mixture of Campanian zeolitized tuffs for solving two specific problems in the production of white wines: the protein and tartaric stability. In fact, a very frequent cause of turbidity and formation of organic deposits in white wines is the occurrence of thermolabile and thermostable proteins colloidal suspensions which precipitate in time, especially in summertime and during the storage and transport. Normally, to mitigate this risk wine producers use organic and inorganic stabilizers and clarifiers. The best known treatment, recognized also by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) foresees the use of bentonite with a montmorillonite content not lower than 80%. The present paper aims at evaluating the use of two high zeolite grade Italian volcanoclastites such as the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (NYT) and the Yellow Facies of the Campanian Ignimbrite (YFCI), in the treatment of three peculiar white wines of the Campanian region (Southern Italy): Falanghina, Fiano di Avellino and Greco di Tufo. Granulates were produced starting from tuff blocks as provided by quarries. Some grain size fractions have been prepared to investigate the zeolite content (phillipsite + chabazite + analcime) by X-ray diffraction (XRD). A 2-5 mm grain size fraction was chosen for NYT and a 5-10 mm for YFCI. Three Campanian monocultivar white wines were used for the test: the Falanghina 2006 vintage, the Fiano di Avellino DOCG 2007 vintage, and the Greco di Tufo DOCG 2008 vintage. 48 samples with mixture of the zeolitized tuffs, 1 sample with mixture of a synthetic zeolite A and 1 sample with mixture of a commercial sodium activated bentonite were prepared. ICP-OES analysis for the determination of ECEC, Ion Chromatography (IC) analyses for the determination of some major cations and Turbidimetric tests for the definition of the protein stabilization process before and after treatments were also carried out. It was evidenced that high zeolitized tuff/wine ratios enable the protein stabilization whereas a significant decrease of potassium ion after the treatment with a zeolite-rich powder improves the tartaric stability, a serious problem in all the wine productions. The results of these tests refer to a laboratory scale research. A transfer of the experiment to a pilot plant scale is in progress
Detecting High-Energy Cosmic Ray Electrons With CREST (the Cosmic Ray Electron Synchrotron Telescope).
The Cosmic Ray Electron Synchrotron Telescope (CREST) was a balloon-borne
detector designed to measure the high-energy cosmic ray all-electron energy spectrum. It utilized a novel indirect technique proposed in 1983 by Stephens and Balasubrahmanyan to detect electrons by means of the synchrotron radiation they produce while interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field. CREST took data during a 10-day circum-anti-polar flight originating near McMurdo Station, Antarctica from December 2011-January 2012. In this work I describe the instrument’s design, assembly, operation, detection scheme, launch, flight and recovery, as well as my original work on displaying and analyzing the flight data. In particular I describe a novel detection method combining direct detection of the primary electron and indirect detection of the electron’s secondary synchrotron photons. Further I characterize CREST’s ability to determine the momentum direction of signal electrons, and outline a method for determining the charge of primary leptons making use of that pointing capability. I also propose an improved detector surface configuration suitable for future CREST-like detectors which greatly reduces sensitivity to the ubiquitous charged particle background.PhDPhysicsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113331/1/jgennaro_1.pd
Narcolepsy and emotional experience: a review of the literature
Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations, and sleep paralysis. This disease affects significantly the overall patient functioning, interfering with social, work, and affective life. Some symptoms of narcolepsy depend on emotional stimuli; for instance, cataplectic attacks can be triggered by emotional inputs such as laughing, joking, a pleasant surprise, and also anger. Neurophysiological and neurochemical findings suggest the involvement of
emotional brain circuits in the physiopathology of cataplexy, which seems to depending on the dysfunctional interplay between the hypothalamus and the amygdala associated with an alteration of hypocretin levels. Furthermore, behavioral studies suggest an impairment of emotions processing in narcolepsy-cataplexy (NC), like a probable coping strategy to avoid or reduce the frequency of cataplexy attacks. Consistently, NC patients seem to use coping strategies even during their sleep, avoiding unpleasant mental sleep activity through lucid dreaming. Interestingly, NC patients, even during sleep, have a different emotional experience than healthy subjects, with more vivid, bizarre, and frightening dreams. Notwithstanding this evidence, the relationship between emotion and narcolepsy is poorly investigated. This review aims to provide a synthesis of behavioral, neurophysiological, and neurochemical evidence to discuss the complex relationship between NC and emotional experience and to direct future research
Research focusing on plant performance in constructed wetlands and agronomic application of treated wastewater – A set of experimental studies in Sicily (Italy)
Constructed wetlands are sustainable technologies for the treatment of wastewater. These biological systems have been widely studied throughout the world for more than 30 years; however, most studies have focused on the effects of design and engineering on pollutant removal from wastewater. Undoubtedly, agro-technical aspects have been given too little consideration by research. This paper reports the main results of a set of experiments carried out on two pilot horizontal subsurface flow systems in Sicily (Italy). Festuca, Lolium and Pennisetum spp. in combination and three emergent macrophytes–Arundo donax L., Cyperus alternifolius L. and Typha latifolia L.–alone, were assessed. The aim of the study was to demonstrate that, under predetermined hydraulic and design conditions, the choice of plant species and the management of the vegetation can significantly affect the pollutant
removal performance of constructed wetlands. In addition, wastewater (after treatment) can also be used for agricultural purposes leading to increased sustainability in agricultural systems. Arundo and Typha-planted units performed better than Cyperus-planted units in terms of chemical, physical and microbiological contaminant removal. All the species adapted extremely well to wetland conditions. Polyculture systems were found to be more efficient than monocultures in the removal of dissolved organic compounds. The reuse of treated wastewater for the irrigation of open fields and horticultural crops led to significant savings in the use of freshwater and fertilizers. The results of physical-energy characterization of A. donax above-ground plant residues and pellets highlighted the fact that a constructed wetland could also be a potential source of bioenergy
Hierarchical structuring of Cultural Heritage objects within large aggregations
Huge amounts of cultural content have been digitised and are available
through digital libraries and aggregators like Europeana.eu. However, it is not
easy for a user to have an overall picture of what is available nor to find
related objects. We propose a method for hier- archically structuring cultural
objects at different similarity levels. We describe a fast, scalable clustering
algorithm with an automated field selection method for finding semantic
clusters. We report a qualitative evaluation on the cluster categories based on
records from the UK and a quantitative one on the results from the complete
Europeana dataset.Comment: The paper has been published in the proceedings of the TPDL
conference, see http://tpdl2013.info. For the final version see
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-40501-3_2
The spectroscopic evolution of the -ray emitting classical nova Nova Mon 2012. I. Implications for the ONe subclass of classical novae
Nova Mon 2012 was the first classical nova to be detected as a high energy
-ray transient, by Fermi-LAT, before its optical discovery. We study a
time sequence of high resolution optical echelle spectra (Nordic Optical
Telescope) and contemporaneous NOT, STIS UV, and CHIRON echelle spectra (Nov
20/21/22). We use [O III] and H line fluxs to constrain the properties
of the ejecta. We derive the structure from the optical and UV line profiles
and compare our measured line fluxes for with predictions using Cloudy with
abundances from other ONe novae. Mon 2012 is confirmed as an ONe nova. We find
E(B-V)=0.850.05 and hydrogen column density
cm. The corrected continuum luminosity is nearly the same in the entire
observed energy range as V1974 Cyg, V382 Mon, and Nova LMC 2000 at the same
epoch after outburst. The distance, about 3.6 kpc, is quite similar to V1974
Cyg. The line profiles can be modeled using an axisymmetric bipolar geometry
for the ejecta with various inclinations of the axis to the line of sight, 60
\le i \le 80 degrees, an opening angle of \approx\Delta
R/R(t)\approx 0.4f\approx 0.1-0.3\leq 6\times
10^{-5}_\odot\gamma$-ray emission may be a generic phenomenon, common to all ONe novae,
possibly to all classical novae, and connected with acceleration and emission
processes within the ejecta (abstract severely truncated).Comment: Submitted to A&A 9/1/2013; Accepted 27/2/2013 (in press
A model-driven approach to better identify older people at risk of depression
Depression in later life is one of the most common mental disorders. Several instruments have been developed to detect the presence or the absence of certain symptoms or emotional disorders, based on cut-off points. However, the use of a cut-off does not allow identification of depression sub-types or distinguish between mild and severe depression. As a result, depression may be under- or over-diagnosed in older people. This paper aims to apply a model-driven approach to classify individuals into distinct sub-groups, based on different combinations of depressive and emotional conditions. This approach is based on two distinct statistical solutions: first, a latent class analysis is applied to the items collected by the depression scale and, according to the final model, the probability of belonging to each class is calculated for every individual. Second, a factor analysis of these classes is performed to obtain a reduced number of clusters for easy interpretation. We use data collected through the EURO-D scale in a large sample of older individuals, participants of the sixth wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. We show that by using such a model-based approach it is possible to classify individuals in a more accurate way than the simple dichotomisation ‘depressed’ versus ‘non-depressed’
Experimental evidence of s-wave superconductivity in bulk CaC
The temperature dependence of the in-plane magnetic penetration depth,
, has been measured in a c-axis oriented polycrystalline
CaC bulk sample using a high-resolution mutual inductance technique. A
clear exponential behavior of has been observed at low
temperatures, strongly suggesting isotropic s-wave pairing. Data fit using the
standard BCS theory yields Angstroem and
meV. The ratio
gives indication for a conventional weakly coupled superconductor.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Methodology for Detecting Trace Amounts of Microchimeric DNA from Peripheral Murine White Blood Cells by Real-Time PCR
Real-time PCR methodology can successfully quantitate microchimeric cell populations at a concentration of 100 microchimeric cells/100,000 host cells; however, it has not been successful in quantitating DNA from trace numbers of microchimeric white blood cells which we reported are present in murine peripheral blood at a concentration as low as 2/100,000 host cells. We report methodology using primers for a portion of the H2-k(b) murine histocompatibility sequence, specific for the C57BL/6J mouse. When these primers were used in the presence of 11,000 μM primer, a 20-fold increase in the median manufacturer’s recommended concentration, the assay could be optimized to detect 34 pg of C57BL/6J DNA in a background of 2.5 μg of carrier BALB/cJ DNA (1/100,000). These conditions resulted in a detection limit half as sensitive as that found when no carrier DNA was present
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