Undeclared animal species in dry and wet novel and hydrolyzed protein diets for dogs and cats detected by microarray analysis

Abstract Background Although the European Pet Food Industry Federation (FEDIAF) stated that labels must be accurate and provide detailed information on the ingredients, mislabeling of pet food has been documented by several authors. This phenomenon is of particular concern when related to products used as elimination diets for the diagnosis of adverse food reaction (AFR) in dogs and cats because the presence of undeclared ingredients may negatively interfere with the trial and prevent the veterinarian from making an appropriate diagnosis. The aim of this study was to shed light upon the problem of contamination and mislabeling in both dry and wet novel protein diets (NPDs) and hydrolyzed protein diets (HPDs) using a microarray-based commercial kit which tests for the presence of 19 animal species. Results Of the 40 analyzed products (9 dry NPDs, 22 wet NPDs, 6 dry HPDs and 3 wet HPDs), ten presented a content that correctly matched the label, while five did not contain the declared animal species, twenty-three revealed the presence of undeclared animal species, and two had a vague label that did not allow the evaluation of its accuracy. The most frequently contaminants identified in both dry and wet pet foods were pork, chicken and turkey. The presence of undeclared animal species was higher in dry than wet pet foods; furthermore, a lower number of contaminating animal species was identified in HPDs than NPDs (4 vs 10), and a lower number of contaminated HPDs (6 out of 9, 67%) than contaminated NPDs was detected (24 out of 31, 77%). Thirteen out of 14 brands tested presented at least one mislabeled product. Conclusions Mislabeling seems to be a widespread issue in pet foods used as elimination diets. Contamination can occur in all types of products used for the purpose, although dry NPDs are the main issue. Due to the high risk of contamination, particular attention should be given to both the selection of raw material suppliers and the production process

A Prediction Model for Energy Production in a Solar Concentrator Using Artificial Neural Networks

Solar energy is widely adopted today and produced by photovoltaic or concentrator solar power (CSP). Photovoltaic technology is the most prevalent, thanks to its well-established technology and low costs. CSP technology, on the other hand, has received less attention and interest, as it requires larger investments and a considerable surface. A relevant difficulty connected to the CSP is decoupling solar randomness and energy production. This paper proposes an artificial neural network (ANN) which foresees energy production using a solar parabolic dish installed at Politecnico di Torino (Energy Center Lab). The investigation was performed using a backpropagation ANN. Different learning algorithms were used: Levenberg-Marquardt, Bayesian regularization, resilient backpropagation, and scaled conjugate gradient. Seven atmospheric condition parameters were adopted (humidity, temperature, pressure, wind velocity and direction, solar radiation, and rain), to calculate the receiver temperature as an output. Bayesian regularization was found to be the optimal model for CSP energy production. The results of this investigation suggest that the ANNs are a strong, reliable, and useful tool for predicting temperature in a CSP receiver that can be of great value in the forecasting of energy production. The outcome of this investigation can simplify energy production forecasting using readily available meteorological data

Permutation entropy of of weakly noise-affected

L.R. and A.P. contributed equally to this work. Funding: This research received no external funding.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Convolution kernels versus spectral multipliers for sub-Laplacians on groups of polynomial growth

Let $\mathcal{L}$ be a sub-Laplacian on a connected Lie group $G$ of polynomial growth. It is well known that, if $F : \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{C}$ is in the Schwartz class $\mathcal{S}(\mathbb{R})$, then the convolution kernel $\mathcal{K}_{F(\mathcal{L})}$ of the operator $F(\mathcal{L})$ is in the Schwartz class $\mathcal{S}(G)$. Here we prove a sort of converse implication for a class of groups $G$ including all solvable noncompact groups of polynomial growth. We also discuss the problem whether integrability of $\mathcal{K}_{F(\mathcal{L})}$ implies continuity of $F$.Comment: 27 page

Progettazione dell'architettura e modellazione CAD 3D di una piattaforma Cubesat 2U

Il progetto di tesi consiste nel progettare e modellare, utilizzando un software di disegno CAD 3D, l’architettura di un nanosatellite CubeSat a partire dallo sviluppo della struttura. Nello specifico esso si declina in una prima parte, dedicata allo sviluppo della struttura con relative analisi per la verifica della resistenza della stessa ai carichi a cui sarà sottoposta durante il lancio, e in una seconda con la quale si ottiene il modello completo passando per la descrizione dei componenti e sottosistemi inseriti. L’obiettivo del presente elaborato è valutare la possibilità di integrare i componenti necessari ad una missione di raccolta dati per una navigazione GPS con componenti miniaturizzati all'interno di una struttura che rientri nella specifica CubeSat 2U

Conjunto residencial Monterinaldi

En una hermosa colina, situada a unos ocho kilómetros de Florencia, y con grandiosas vistas sobre la ciudad, se han distribuido un grupo de villas, con un criterio doble de uniformidad formal y mimetismo asombroso con la naturaleza circundante

Estetica e social trend di un’adolescenza senza filtri. Dinamiche di produzione e marketing in Euphoria.

Euphoria è una serie televisiva che ha ottenuto un successo di pubblico senza precedenti, conseguito svariati premi dalla critica ed influenzato il mondo della moda. Inoltre, la serie ha fatto avanzare il tipo di narrazione e rappresentazione televisiva proponendo contenuti sovversivi ed inediti. L’elaborato si concentra sul marketing presente sin dalla fase di sviluppo di Euphoria fino alla presentazione al pubblico. Il primo capitolo introduce il teen drama, genere di appartenenza della serie, e lo sviluppo delle tematiche che lo caratterizzano, per poi concentrarsi su Euphoria e i suoi elementi di innovazione e trasgressività. Il secondo capitolo analizza la serie nei suoi selling elements interni, ovvero le scelte dei reparti di produzione, soffermandosi sul loro valore di marketing. Il terzo capitolo, infine, tratta il digital marketing della serie focalizzandosi sulle diverse strategie adottate per la promozione

Babies under 1 year with atypical development. Perspectives for preventive individuation and treatment

A baby's first year of life is a time of immense development and cerebral plasticity. Following today's research and clinical observation, the period of the first year of life provides a new challenge inasmuch it is presently clear that it is possible to identify developmental anomalies in this window of time. Effecting early screening procedures could prove very useful, especially where we find genetic vulnerabilities in brothers and sisters of autistic subjects. Interventions of this kind, already practiced by some Public Health systems, can mean taking early action and primary protective measures with significant impacts not only on the subjects (babies and family members) concerned, but also on the public purse. It is, therefore, essential to provide for specific professionalized procedures for psychologists, pediatricians and neuropsychologists to be introduced through personnel highly specialized in interventions during the first year of life

Dust Evolution in Protoplanetary Disks

(abridged) In the core accretion scenario for the formation of planetary rocky cores, the first step toward planet formation is the growth of dust grains into larger and larger aggregates and eventually planetesimals. Although dust grains are thought to grow from the submicron sizes typical of interstellar dust to micron size particles in the dense regions of molecular clouds and cores, the growth from micron size particles to pebbles and kilometre size bodies must occur in protoplanetary disks. This step in the formation of planetary systems is the last stage of solids evolution that can be observed directly in young extrasolar systems. In this chapter we review the constraints on the physics of grain-grain collisions as they have emerged from laboratory experiments and numerical computations. We then review the current theoretical understanding of the global processes governing the evolution of solids in protoplanetary disks, including dust settling, growth, and radial transport. The predicted observational signatures are summarized. We discuss recent developments in the study of grain growth in molecular cloud cores and in collapsing envelopes of protostars as these provide the initial conditions for the dust in disks. We discuss the observational evidence for the growth of grains in young disks from mm surveys, as well as the recent evidence of radial variations of the dust properties in disks. We include a brief discussion of the constraints on the small end of the grain size distribution and on dust settling as derived from optical and IR observations. The observations are discussed in the context of global dust evolution models, in particular we focus on the emerging evidence for a very efficient early growth of grains and the radial distribution of grain sizes in disks. We also highlight the limits of current models, including the need to slow the radial drift of grains.Comment: Accepted for publication as a chapter in Protostars and Planets VI, University of Arizona Press (2014), eds. H. Beuther, R. Klessen, C. Dullemond, Th. Hennin

Photonic lattices of coaxial cables: flat bands and artificial magnetic fields

We propose the use of networks of standard, commercially-available coaxial cables as a platform to realize photonic lattice models. As a specific example, we consider a brick wall lattice formed from coaxial cables and T-shaped connectors. We calculate the dispersion of photonic Bloch waves in the lattice: we find a repeated family of three bands, which include a flat band and two Dirac points. We then demonstrate a method to displace the Dirac points, leading to an induced artificial gauge field, and a method to energetically isolate the flat band. Our results readily suggest that the interplay of nonlinearities and non-trivial topology are a natural avenue to explore in order to unlock the full power of this proposed platform