NUTRITIONAL VALUES OF PSEUDOCEREALS FLOUR MIXTURES USED IN GLUTEN-FREE SWEET BAKERY PRODUCTS

Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disorder caused by a reaction of the body’s immune system to prolamins found in wheat (gliadin), rye (secalin), barley (hordein) and their crossbreeds. At present, the only effective treatment for coeliac people is a lifelong gluten-free diet, but it is difficult to follow such a diet, due to the many gluten containing products excluded. Starting from these considerations, this study aimed to investigate some nutritional parameters, in order to support the use of pseudocereal gluten-free flour mixtures (amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa, respectively) along with rice flour, for obtaining gluten-free sweet bakery products, with a high nutritional value and acceptability. Thus, each sort of flour was used in various amounts of 10%, 20% and 30%, respectively, along with rice flour, in order to obtain the best gluten-free sweet products (muffins), regarding its nutritional value and acceptability score. Gluten-free sweet products were prepared by the same recipe, in three trials each, in which rice flour and amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa flour, respectively, varied: T1-RF:AF(90:10), T2-RF:AF(80:20), T3-RF:AF(70:30), T4-RF:BWF(90:10), T5-RF:BWF(80:20), T6-RF:BWF(70:30), T7-RF:QF(90:10), T8-RF:QF(80:20), T9-RF:QF(70:30). A blank sample of the sweet gluten-free bakery product was prepared by using rice flour only, as basis

photoluminescence of a single quantum emitter in a strongly inhomogeneous chemical environment

A comprehensive photoluminescence study of defect centers in single SiO2 nanoparticles provides new insight into the complex photo-physics of single quantum emitters embedded into a random chemical environment

Treatment Options of Periodontal Disease and its Complications in Patient with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetes mellitus type 2 is the most commonly diagnosed metabolic disorder, and its prevalence is expected to increase so much, that by 2030 approximately 10% of the population will have diabetes (especially type 2). The aim of this study: is to assess the treatment methods used for oral odontogenic infections in patients with type 2 diabetes, as well as postoperative complications depending on the applied treatment method. Materials and methods: a group of 112 patients with marginal inflammatory pathology was selected and evaluated. The followed parameters were: age, gender, inflammatory lesions, treatment type, one week, three and six months postoperative evolution. Data were centralized in electronic format using Microsoft Excel software. Results: The average age of patients was 57.3, and gender distribution was almost equal (51.78% males vs. 48.21% females). The majority of patients (47.32%) underwent a conservative treatment, while almost 68% had a very good postoperative healing at the 7 day postoperative recall. There was also a significant improvement of the values of glycated hemoglobin at both the three and the six months recall, with almost 2/3 of the patients presenting a normal gingival status. Conclusion : Periodontal disease has a negatively impact on diabetes control, and can worsen its complications, but periodical periodontal treatment improves glycemic status, the latter contributing further to better oral status and lower the incidence of complications

Periodontal Disease in Patient with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Type 2 diabetes is one of the most important growing health problems worldwide causing several complications in different parts of the organism, including the oral cavity. Aim: The purpose of this study is to assess the periodontal disease of type 2 diabetes patients which came randomly and voluntarily for evaluation of their oral health. Materials and methods: 112 patients with marginal inflammatory pathology were selected and evaluated. The followed parameters were: age, gender, environment, status of diabetes, oral non-odontogenic lesions, local aspects of marginal tissue inflammation. Data were centralized in electronic format using Microsoft Excel software. Results: The average age of patients was 57.3, 56.25% of all patients had uncompensated diabetes with HbA1c levels over 7.5%. Most of them were males (52%) and lived in an urban community (83.93%). 52.27% had severe forms of periodontitis, requiring radical treatment, while the most common oral non-odontogenic pathology was candidosis (40.98%). Conclusion: By modifying local metabolism, diabetes increases the risk of inflammatory lesions, especially periodontitis

Glycation and diabetes: The RAGE connection

The hyperglycaemic state seen in diabetes mellitus is associated with the development of diabetes-specific microvascular complications and accelerated macrovascular disease. Evidence implicates the formation and subsequent effects of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) as a contributing cause. AGEs exert their effects through interaction with the Receptor for AGE (RAGE) which upregulates expression of the receptor and induces a cascade of cytotoxic pathways. Accumulation of AGE/RAGE can be seen at sites of vascular disease in both animal models of diabetes and human diabetic subjects. Blockade of RAGE in animal models of diabetes suppresses development of dysfunction in the vasculature and atherosclerosis development. Genetic studies of RAGE reveal that a number of allelic variants of RAGE occur in key protein and regulatory domains. A Gly to Ser change at position 82 and two 5¢¢ flanking polymorphisms at position –374 and –429 lead to altered function and expression of RAGE which may impact on diabetic vascular disease development. Therapy aimed to block RAGE upregulation may prove to be useful in treating individuals with diabetic vascular disease

Star Formation in the Starburst Cluster in NGC 3603

We have used new, deep, visible and near infrared observations of the compact starburst cluster in the giant HII region NGC 3603 and its surroundings with the WFC3 on HST and HAWK-I on the VLT to study in detail the physical properties of its intermediate mass (~ 1 - 3 M_sun) stellar population. We show that after correction for differential extinction and actively accreting stars, and the study of field star contamination, strong evidence remains for a continuous spread in the ages of pre-main sequence stars in the range ~ 2 to ~ 30 Myr within the temporal resolution available. Existing differences among presently available theoretical models account for the largest possible variation in shape of the measured age histograms within these limits. We also find that this isochronal age spread in the near infrared and visible Colour-Magnitude Diagrams cannot be reproduced by any other presently known source of astrophysical or instrumental scatter that could mimic the luminosity spread seen in our observations except, possibly, episodic accretion. The measured age spread and the stellar spatial distribution in the cluster are consistent with the hypothesis that star formation started at least 20-30 Myrs ago progressing slowly but continuously up to at least a few million years ago. All the stars in the considered mass range are distributed in a flattened oblate spheroidal pattern with the major axis oriented in an approximate South-East - North-West direction, and with the length of the equatorial axis decreasing with increasing age. This asymmetry is most likely due to the fact that star formation occurred along a filament of gas and dust in the natal molecular cloud oriented locally in this direction.Comment: 21 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

Automatic Identification of Defects on Eggshell Through a Multispectral Vision System

The objective of this research was to develop an off-line artificial vision system to automatically detect defective eggshells, i.e., dirty or cracked eggshells, by employing multispectral images with the final purpose to adapt the system to an on-line grading machine. In particular, this work was focused to study the feasibility of identifying organic stains on brown eggshells (dirty eggshell), caused by blood, feathers, feces, etc., from natural stains, caused by deposits of pigments on the outer layer of clean eggshells. During the analysis a total of 384 eggs were evaluated (clean: 148, dirty: 236). Dirty samples were evaluated visually in order to classify them according to the kind of defect (blood, feathers, and white, clear or dark feces), and clean eggshells were classified on the basis of the colour of the natural stains (clear or dark). For each sample digital images were acquired by employing a Charged Coupled Device (CCD) camera endowed with 15 monochromatic filters (440-940 nm). A Matlab® function was developed in order to automate the process and analyze images, with the aim to classify samples as clean or dirty. The program was constituted by three major steps: first, the research of an opportune combination of monochromatic images in order to isolate the eggshell from the background; second, the detection of the dirt stains; third, the classification of the images samples into the dirty or clean group on the basis of geometric characteristics of the stains (area in pixel). The proposed classification algorithm was able to correctly classify near 98% of the samples with a very low processing time (0.05s). The robustness of the proposed classification was observed applying an external validation to a second set of samples (n = 178), obtaining similar percentage of correctly classified samples (97%)

The star formation in the L1615/L1616 cometary cloud

The present work aims at performing a comprehensive census and characterisation of the pre-main sequence (PMS) population in the cometary cloud L1615/L1616, in order to assess the significance of the triggered star formation scenario and investigate the impact of massive stars on its star formation history and mass spectrum. Our study is based on UBVRcIc and JHKs photometry, as well as optical multi-object spectroscopy. We performed a physical parametrisation of the young stellar population in L1615/L1616. We identified 25 new T Tauri stars mainly projected on the dense head of the cometary cloud, almost doubling the current number of known members. We studied the spatial distribution of the cloud members as a function of the age and H$\alpha$ emission. The star formation efficiency in the cloud is about 7-8 %, as expected for molecular clouds in the vicinity of OB associations. The slope of the initial mass function (IMF), in the mass range 0.1<M<5.5 $M_{\odot}$, is consistent with that of other T and OB associations, providing further support of an universal IMF down to the hydrogen burning limit, regardless of environmental conditions. The cometary appearance, as well as the high star formation efficiency, can be explained in terms of triggered star formation induced by the strong UV radiation from OB stars or supernovae shockwaves. The age spread as well as both the spatial and age distribution of the PMS objects provide strong evidence of sequential, multiple events and possibly still ongoing star formation activity in the cloud.Comment: 59 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Ap