Corrigendum to "An alternative method of determining the neutrino mass ordering in reactor neutrino experiments" [Phys. Lett. B 772 (2017) 179–183]

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A Comparison of PCA-LDA and PLS-DA Techniques for Classification of Vibrational Spectra

Vibrational spectroscopies provide information about the biochemical and structural environment of molecular functional groups inside samples. Over the past few decades, Raman and infrared-absorption-based techniques have been extensively used to investigate biological materials under different pathological conditions. Interesting results have been obtained, so these techniques have been proposed for use in a clinical setting for diagnostic purposes, as complementary tools to conventional cytological and histological techniques. In most cases, the differences between vibrational spectra measured for healthy and diseased samples are small, even if these small differences could contain useful information to be used in the diagnostic field. Therefore, the interpretation of the results requires the use of analysis techniques able to highlight the minimal spectral variations that characterize a dataset of measurements acquired on healthy samples from a dataset of measurements relating to samples in which a pathology occurs. Multivariate analysis techniques, which can handle large datasets and explore spectral information simultaneously, are suitable for this purpose. In the present study, two multivariate statistical techniques, principal component analysis-linear discriminate analysis (PCA-LDA) and partial least square-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were used to analyse three different datasets of vibrational spectra, each one including spectra of two different classes: (i) a simulated dataset comprising control-like and exposed-like spectra, (ii) a dataset of Raman spectra measured for control and proton beam-exposed MCF10A breast cells and (iii) a dataset of FTIR spectra measured for malignant non-metastatic MCF7 and metastatic MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. Both PCA-LDA and PLS-DA techniques were first used to build a discrimination model by using calibration sets of spectra extracted from the three datasets. Then, the classification performance was established by using test sets of unknown spectra. The achieved results point out that the built classification models were able to distinguish the different spectra types with accuracy between 93% and 100%, sensitivity between 86% and 100% and specificity between 90% and 100%. The present study confirms that vibrational spectroscopy combined with multivariate analysis techniques has considerable potential for establishing reliable diagnostic models

From Microbial Ecology to Innovative Applications in Food Quality Improvements: the Case of Sourdough as a Model Matrix.

Since millennia, humankind has exploited microbial diversity associated to give foodmatrices in order to obtain fermented foods and beverages, resulting in products with improvedquality and extended shelf life. This topic has received deserved and continuous interest in thescientific community, for the reason of its significance as a driver of innovation in the food and beveragesector. In this review paper, using sourdough as a model matrix, we provide some insights into thefield, testifying the relevance as a transdisciplinary subject. Firstly, we encompassed the prokaryoticand eukaryotic microbial diversity associated with the sourdough ecosystems. The importance ofthis micro-biodiversity in the light of flour-related chemical diversity was examined. Finally, wehighlighted the increasing interest in microbial-based applications oriented toward biocontrol solutionin the field of sourdough-based products (i.e., bread)

Microbial Resources and Innovation in the Wine Production Sector

Microbial starter cultures represent a fundamental level of innovation in the wine sector. Selected yeast strains are routinely used to achieve the needed biomass preparation to accelerate and steer alcoholic fermentation in grape must. The use of starter cultures to induce malolactic fermentation in wine relies on the characterisation and propagation of suitable strains of lactic acid bacteria. Furthermore, the selection of new strains, the renewal of management of microbial resources and new technologies allow continuous improvements in oenology, which may increase the beneficial aspects of wine. In this review, with the aim to stimulate microbial-driven, consumer-oriented advances in the oenological sector, we propose an overview of recent trends in this field that are reported by following the classical separation into 'product innovation' and 'process innovation'. Hence, we shall highlight i) the possible positive innovative impacts of microbial resources on the safety and the sensorial and functional properties of wine (product innovation) and ii) the potential microbial-based improvements allowing the reduction of time/costs and the environmental impacts associated with winemaking (process innovation)

Architettura e Realismo. Programma

Il convegno "«Uno spazio reale adeguato»: architettura e realismo", la giornata di studi e mostra "«Il sempre teorizzar nulla rileva...»: nuovo realismo e architettura della città", il convegno "Per una nozione operativa di realismo: espressione critica e impegno civile e la mostra Il realismo nella didattica del progetto: Torino Napoli Milano", uniti sotto il titolo comune di Architettura e realismo sono promossi da un gruppo di lavoro costituito da giovani ricercatori e docenti delle facoltà di Architettura di Torino, Milano e Napoli, a partire dalla avvertita esigenza di aggiornare la riflessione sulla architettura come pratica costruttiva e sulla città come luogo per eccellenza della vita dell'uomo a partire da una analisi critica di quanto si è prodotto negli ultimi decenni. Da un lato grandi architetture spettacolari che rispondono alle logiche del mercato e della comunicazione e, dall'altro - in una sorta di inspiegabile paradosso - la de- regolazione della città diffusa priva di struttura, elementi riconoscibili e spazio pubblico. In entrambi i casi, pur nella loro diversità, si è prodotto un pericoloso distacco della architettura dal suo obiettivo ultimo: conformare lo spazio fisico dei manufatti e della città, del territorio e del paesaggio, per determinare in maniera consistente lo scenario della vita dell'uomo, nella sua dimensione, innanzitutto, collettiv

Influence of wind-induced effects on laser disdrometer measurements: Analysis and compensation strategies

Nowadays, laser disdrometers constitute a very appealing tool for measuring surface precipitation properties, by virtue of their capability to estimate not only the rainfall amount and intensity, but also the number, the size and the velocity of falling drops. However, disdrometric measures are affected by various sources of error being some of them related to environmental conditions. This work presents an assessment of Thies Clima laser disdrometer performance with a focus on the relationship between wind and the accuracy of the disdrometer output products. The 10-min average rainfall rate and total rainfall accumulation obtained by the disdrometer are systematically compared with the collocated measures of a standard tipping bucket rain gauge, the FAK010AA sensor, in terms of familiar statistical scores. A total of 42 rainy events, collected in a mountainous site of Southern Italy (Montevergine observatory), are used to support our analysis. The results show that the introduction of a new adaptive filtering in the disdrometric data processing can reduce the impact of sampling errors due to strong winds and heavy rain conditions. From a quantitative perspective, the novel filtering procedure improves by 8% the precipitation estimates with respect to the standard approach widely used in the literature. A deeper examination revealed that the signature of wind speed on raw velocity-diameter spectrographs gradually emerges with the rise of wind strength, thus causing a progressive increase of the wrongly allocated hydrometeors (which reaches 70% for wind speed greater than 8 m s−1). With the aid of reference rain-gauge rainfall data, we designed a second simple methodology that makes use of a correction factor to mitigate the wind-induced bias in disdrometric rainfall estimates. The resulting correction factor could be applied as an alternative to the adaptive filtering suggested by this study and may be of practical use when dealing with disdrometric data processing

Bioprospecting antimicrobials from lactiplantibacillus plantarum: Key factors underlying its probiotic action

Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) is a well‐studied and versatile species of lactobacilli. It is found in several niches, including human mucosal surfaces, and it is largely employed in the food industry and boasts a millenary tradition of safe use, sharing a long‐lasting relationship with humans. L. plantarum is generally recognised as safe and exhibits a strong probiotic character, so that several strains are commercialised as health‐promoting supplements and functional food products. For these reasons, L. plantarum represents a valuable model to gain insight into the nature and mechanisms of antimicrobials as key factors underlying the probiotic action of health‐promoting microbes. Probiotic antimicrobials can inhibit the growth of pathogens in the gut ensuring the intestinal homeostasis and contributing to the host health. Furthermore, they may be attractive alternatives to conventional antibiotics, holding potential in several biomedical applications. The aim of this review is to investigate the most relevant papers published in the last ten years, bioprospecting the antimicrobial activity of characterised probiotic L. plantarum strains. Specifically, it focuses on the different chemical nature, the action spectra and the mechanisms underlying the bioactivity of their antibacterial and antiviral agents. Emerging trends in postbiotics, some in vivo applications of L. plantarum antimicrobials, including strengths and limitations of their therapeutic potential, are addressed and discussed