Comparison of fatty acid profile in lamb meat and baby food based on lamb meat

The aim of this study was to compare the fatty acid (FA) profile of fresh lamb meat with those of baby foods based on lamb meat. For this purpose, samples of commercial homogenized (HO) and lyophilized (LIO) baby food based on lamb meat and fresh lamb meat (FM) were analyzed for their FA composition. All fatty acids, except for oleic acid and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), differed among the three baby products tested. The sum of omega-6 FA and the ratio omega 6/omega 3 FA were lower in FM and LIO meat compared to HO samples. The content of total PUFA n-3 was the highest in FM, because of its highest content of C18:3 n3, EPA, DPA and DHA compared to LIO and HO baby food. The content of arachidonic acid was more than 6-fold higher in FM compared to LIO and HO. This study evidenced the possibility of enhancing the FA profile of commercial baby food based on lamb meat by using meat with healthier FA profile

Francesco Piro, Manuale di educazione al pensiero critico. Comprendere e argomentare, prefazione di Tullio De Mauro, Napoli, 2015, Editoriale Scientifica - Collana punto org., pp. 280

“Il nostro impegno consiste nel portare la scuola del Novecento in questo secolo. Ciò significa saper innovare contenuti e metodi senza stravolgere un modello educativo che funziona e che ha prodotto eccellenze nei secoli, da Galileo a Fabiola Gianotti. Perciò non intendiamo sostituire il modello knowledge-based su cui si fonda la scuola italiana con il modello skill-based più tipico del mondo anglosassone. Il nostro obiettivo è di sviluppare nuove competenze e nuove abilità pratiche, sulla base di una solida conoscenza teorica”. Così afferma il Ministro Stefania Giannini in una intervista con Armando Massarenti pubblicata il 22 febbraio 2015 su “Il Sole 24 ore”. Con tatto e al tempo stesso con ferma decisione, Giannini pone una questione di fondo per lo sviluppo economico e culturale del nostro Sistema-Paese: se è vero che l’educazione scolastica (e universitaria) in Italia è basata sulla trasmissione di conoscenze, è altresì fondamentale riconoscere come la trasmissione di conoscenze non basta più, da sola, per formare il personale oggi necessario a sostenere nel lungo periodo la competitività delle aziende e, più in generale, di tutte quelle organizzazioni (Istituzioni, Terzo settore etc.), dove prendono corpo i processi di creazione di valore. Ciò che urge sempre di più, in un mercato del lavoro dove la flessibilità è metodo, è un personale dotato di competenze trasversali, ovvero di competenze che hanno una base metacognitiva, più che cognitiva

Li-ion batteries. Characterization of the thermal runaway reactions using a DSC

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in many applications due to their formidable performance and characteristics. Numerous accidents involving lithium-ion batteries have occurred in recent years and this has led to focus on safety issues related to their extensive use. In this work the Panasonic’s NCR18650 lithium-ion cylindrical cells were investigated by Differential Scanning Calorimetry. The aim is to identify and characterize the main reactions that occur at the anode under thermal abuse conditions and which can lead to thermal runaway. The kinetics of these reactions are assessed using the Kissinger and Ozawa methods. Furthermore, the results show the relationship between the initial state of charge of the cell and the progress of reactions

Structural relaxation in PLLA: Contribution of different scale motions

The enthalpy relaxation in amorphous and semi-crystalline poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) has been investigated at low and high undercooling to identify the different scale motions that contribute to physical ageing, and the temperature ranges in which they are active. The temperature limit below which exclusively small-scale localized motions produce structural relaxation in PLLA has been identified. In addition, motions different from pure cooperative large-scale motions and pure small-scale local rearrangements, localized in the mobile amorphous fraction, are found to mainly contribute to structural relaxation at intermediate undercoolings. These motions are suggested to be related with the Johari-Goldstein process

Cagliari capital and frontier city in the Mediterranean of the modern age: the use of space and walls in archival sources

[EN] In a city already formed in its essential traits, with its historic districts of Castello, Stampace, Villanova and Llapola, the Hispanic Monarchy had a great influence on Cagliari urban structure adapting the defenses to the new war needs, exploiting to the most the internal walls space and encouraging the cultivation of extra moenia areas left in a state of abandonment. Cagliari was a composite city, were the inner integration between Catalans-Aragonese and Sardinians progressively settled and interacted with different ethnicities, as in other urban realities of the Mediterranean frontiers of that time. Through the archive sources (emphyteusis concessions of state property and notarial acts), it is possible to perceive a lively city and locate the sacred and profane places: palaces, streets, squares, fountains, churches and convents are cited as fundamental citizen reference points. The emphyteusis give us an important basic framework which allows us to know both the urban structure and the policy of the Crown at the same time, through the management of the state properties. Notary’s acts integrate these data bringing interesting information on private estates and on architectural characteristics of the realty.Mele, M. (2020). Cagliari capitale e città di frontiera nel Mediterraneo di età moderna: l’utilizzo dello spazio e le mura nelle fonti d’archivio. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 647-654. https://doi.org/10.4995/FORTMED2020.2020.11547OCS64765

Colloqui.AT.e 2019 - Ingegno e costruzione nell’epoca della complessità atti del congresso (Torino, 25-27 settembre 2019)

Il volume raccoglie e sistematizza all'interno della disciplina dell'Architettura Tecnica i contributi al Congresso "colloqui.AT.e 2019", articolato in tre ambiti principali (Storia della costruzione e recupero edilizio, Prestazioni dell'edificio, del sistema e dei componenti, Progetto alle diverse scale e tecnologie). Si tratta di oltre un centinaio di contriibuti di studiosi afferenti alle principali scuole di ingegneria ed architettura anche internazionali che rintracciano lo stato dell'arte in materia di intervento sul nuovo e sull'esistente, a livello di territorio, di edificio e di componente

Holographic Aspects of Quantum Gravity

The unification of quantum principles with Einstein's geometric conception of spacetime and gravity into a consistent theory of quantum gravity is one of the main open challenges at the foundations of modern theoretical physics. Among several approaches developed over the years, the two main candidates are string theory and loop quantum gravity (LQG). Both theories are characterized by their own achievements and open issues so that the solution to the problem of quantum gravity remains still elusive. In lack of experimental guidance, in order to make progress, it becomes important to single out common features shared by different approaches allowing to merge tools and ideas, thus providing indirect tests to potentially overcome current limitations. In this respect, one of the major recent developments is the so-called holographic principle and its string theory-based realization within the Anti-de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence, a conjectured duality between string theory in asymptotically AdS spacetime and a SU(N) gauge theory thought of as living on its conformal boundary. As such it provides a promising arena to look for possible connections between non-perturbative LQG and string theory non-perturbatively defined via its dual field theory. With this motivation in mind, in this thesis we focus on effective symmetry-reduced models for resolved cosmological and black hole singularities to which lot of effort has been devoted within the LQG community and their possible embedding within the AdS/CFT framework. First of all, we focus on the field theory signatures of the singularity resolution in the bulk of Kasner-AdS spacetimes and show via several examples of quantum corrected effective geometries that the finite-distance pole in the boundary two-point correlator previously interpreted as the holographic signature of the bulk singularity is smoothed out by quantum gravity effects. The time dependence of the boundary spacetime however prevents us from setting up an independent field theory computation to compare with the bulk gravity results. We move then to black hole (BH) singularities whose asymptotic boundary is Minkowski or AdS. Since no fully satisfactory effective LQG model is available already for the simplest static spherically symmetric case with zero cosmological constant, we consider the case of a 4-dimensional Schwarzschild BH as a necessary preparation for higher dimensional extensions to AdS BHs. New models based on new sets of canonical variables directly related to the Kretschmann scalar are thus introduced to take the onset of quantum effects under control, and the resulting quantum corrected spacetime structure is discussed in detail. A key ingredient of our analysis is the study of Dirac observables for the asymptotic ADM masses and their relation with admissible initial conditions for the effective dynamics compatibly with the requirement of a unique upper bound on curvature invariants resolving the central singularity. Finally, quantum corrections to thermodynamic quantities are also analyzed and, coming back to the original motivation of using LQG techniques for AdS/CFT, a possible extension to arbitrary dimensions and negative cosmological constant is sketched

Verso la creazione di sistemi e sub-sistemi di difesa del Regno di Sardegna: piazzeforti, galere e prime torri nella prima metà del Cinquecento

[EN] The defense of the Kingdom of Sardinia with Fernando II of Aragon was based on control of urban fortifications and galley fleets from other realms of the Crown. In the conflict between Hispanic Monarchy, Turkish-Berber towns and Ottoman Empire is necessary to adapt the urban fortifications to modern needs and control territory. With Carlos V began to build the first coastal towers to protect ports and the mouths of major waterways. The galleys of Doria and the Carròs-Centelles ensured the mobile defense. A mid-sixteenth century, a project of a Franco-Ottoman attack showed the danger of losing the kingdom. Next to strengthen the city's defenses, other coastal towers to defend the territory formed real and specific sub-systems that materialize only from the eighties of the century.Mele, MG. (2015). Verso la creazione di sistemi e sub-sistemi di difesa del Regno di Sardegna: piazzeforti, galere e prime torri nella prima metà del Cinquecento. En Defensive architecture of the mediterranean: XV to XVIII centuries. Vol. I. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 117-124. https://doi.org/10.4995/FORTMED2015.2015.1679OCS11712

"Looking at What One Believies". Indagine sulla Relazione tra Movimenti Oculari e Associazioni Implicite

Social information processing involves embodiment, i.e. thoughts comprise mental simulations of bodily experiences, and, at the same time, cognition directly affects the content of sensory-motor systems. We investigate whether it is possible to observe a top-down effect of implicit association on eye gaze behaviour by means of eye-tracking methods and techniques. We assume that if attitudes, social perception, and emotion are the outcome of embodied processes, then people with different kinds of mental attributes (e.g. racial prejudices) must perform different kinds of eye gaze movements when they explore the visual content of implicit association tasks. The relationship between the eye movements –recorded by the open-source ITU Gaze Tracker eye tracking system– and implicit associations occurring during an Implicit Association Test (IAT) on hidden ethnic biases of about 80 Caucasian participants was investigated in two experiments with the same experimental paradigm. Both total times of fixations and total number of fixations emerged as significant predictors of IAT scores. The analysis carried out on the number of fixations showed that subjects implicitly watch what they believe, i.e. the association according to their psychological attributes. Eye-tracking methodology hence seems to be a promising approach to obtain objective measures to investigate the unintended characteristics underlying behaviour in ecological settings and could be applicable to different research contexts such as studies on stereotypes, implicit attitudes, self-esteem, and self-concept