Characterization of craft beer through flavour component analysis by GC-MS and multivariate statistical tools

Beer is a rather popular drink and represents the most widely consumed alcoholic beverage in the world.The present research aims at characterizing the flavour profile of lager pilsner, the category of low fermentation beers most common in Europe. The largest portion of the global market is dominated by a few multinational companies, but in the last years the number of independent craft breweries has increased very rapidly also in countries where there weren’t an established craft brewing tradition. According to the Italian Brewers Association, in Italy there are eight brewing companies which operate 14 industrial breweries, which in the years have standardized the product to increase their slice of market. The craft-beer sector represents a niche market, about 3% of total production (1% in 2011) [EU Report, 2016]. Italy has a relatively young craft brewing tradition, but the data together with the new ways of consumption, can be considered promising for the sector development. In 2016, the “craft beer” has been defined for the first time in Italy with DDL 1328-B (art.35). Legislation does not consider the quality of the raw materials, but only the manufacturing processes: the artisanal beer-making is a beer obtained without microfiltration and pasteurization steps, unlike industrial products. In this contest, the aim of the study was to characterize the beers (all lager style) purchased on the market through the analysis of the aromatic profile of samples produced under different processes (craft methods or industrial processes). In fact, in addition to smaller production scale and independent, the main characteristic of craft beer is to put the emphasis on flavour and brewing techniques. Flavour, consisting of a large number of volatile compounds, has a great influence on consumer acceptability and, when safety and nutritional value are guaranteed, sensory parameters become the discriminating factor in the product quality assessment which determines the differentiation on the market. The identification of specific compounds, which confer a particular aroma, suitable to be used as potential quality/process markers in order to discriminate beer samples according to their production method. A headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) was performed to evaluate the beer samples fingerprint. Multivariate statistical methods were then applied to the collected profiles to built model which could allow differentiating craft beers from all the others. Hence, the proposed method may represent an interesting tool to authenticate craft beer by verification of the compliance with their label description which, at the same time, can entail brand protection

Characterization of polyphenols in a sicilian autochthonous white grape variety (PDO) for monitoring production process and shelf-life of wines

Sicilian wines have shown a growing expansion in the international market, and over 60% of the production of them is focused on quality products. Grillo is a white grape variety, and it is among the best-known variety, with a cultivated area of 6300 ha and with the vocation of being particularly predisposed to aging for years or even decades. This paper aimed to perform a physiochemical (SSC and pH) and polyphenolic characterization of Grillo wines that were produced by a selected winery in the years 2011–2021 using an optimized RP-HPLC-DAD method. The polyphenols fraction was assessed by means a semiquantitative analysis on which, statistical processing was carried out. The HCA and PCA highlighted the presence of three clusters in the samples. Cluster 1 was composed of the samples from the years 2011–2014, cluster 2 composed of the samples from 2015–2017, and cluster 3 composed of the samples from 2019–2021. Using an HSD Tukey test, it was possible to point out that some compounds were makers of specific clusters and therefore, specific vintages. This preliminary study showed that polyphenols are suitable markers that can be used to identify Grillo vintages, and they should be also related to the storage conditions or different production processe

Power flow optimization in a microgrid with two kinds of energy storage

The purpose of this paper is to present the optimization of the power flows inside a microgrid with renewable sources and two kinds of storage. The considered microgrid consists in commercial buildings with maximum daily peak value of 50 kW, photovoltaic arrays with total capacity of 175 kW, a 50 kW/50 kWh high speed flywheel storage and a 50 kW/50 kWh set of Li-ion accumulators. The power flows in the microgrid are optimized the day ahead at one hour discretization in order to minimize the electric bill. Several scheduling strategies are proposed for solving the corresponding optimization problem including standard deterministic methods, stochastic algorithms and hybrid heuristics.All scheduling strategies investigated in the paper are compared with regard to their accuracy and computational time. Beyond the comparison of different algorithms devoted to the power flow optimization problem, the authors approach also addresses the integration of battery ageing in the scheduling strategy

Could food delivery involve certified quality products? An innovative case study during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Italy

This study evaluates the feasibility of a new food delivery service involving only food products with quality certification. In particular, through an ad hoc survey, it evaluates the influence of consumers’ personal characteristics and choice motives on joining this innovative service and the willingness to pay of the respondents. A survey was completely anonymously and voluntarily administered during the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic. A total of 630 answers were collected. Logit and ordinal logit regression were carried out to analyze data. Women and respondents who have more leisure time are more likely to join the service. The analysis of choice motives suggests that consumers more concerned with food quality, and those devoting a higher weekly budget to buying groceries are more likely to be interested in the proposed service. Individuals willing to buy groceries based on certifications and organoleptic properties and people who habitually consume one to five meals outside were more likely to be willing to increase their weekly budget to join the service. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study evaluating the influence of personal characteristics and choice motives on an innovative food delivery service involving only certified quality products in Italy

Proposed roles of the immune response regulator-ThPOK in human colorectal cancer progression

Solid tumours are commonly infiltrated by several immune cells [1-3]. In cancer, immune cells play conflicting roles with both the potentials to eliminate or to promote malignancy. In contrast to infiltration of cells responsible for chronic inflammation, the presence of high numbers of lymphocytes, especially T cells, has been reported to be important as indicator of good prognosis in many types of cancer [4-7]. The thorough knowledge of both manners and pathways with which tumors are able to evade immune-mediated attack, once established, is therefore of crucial importance. The strategies to escape anti-tumor immune responses include the limited priming or differentiation of antitumor T cells and the role of tumor microenvironment in order to prevent infiltration or activation of effector phase functions. We proposed to evaluate the role of Th inducing POZ-Kruppel Factor (ThPOK), a transcriptional regulator of T cell fate, in tumour-induced immune system plasticity during colorectal carcinogenesis. Data were collected on the amounts of CD4+, CD8+ and CD56+ as well as on ThPOK+ cells infiltrated in normal colorectal mucosa (NM), in dysplastic aberrant crypt foci (microadenomas, MA, the earliest detectable lesions in colorectal carcinogenesis) and in colorectal carcinomas (CRC); moreover, the colocalization of ThPOK with the above-mentioned markers of immune cells was evaluated using confocal microscopy. Interestingly, ThPOK showed a prominent increase since MA. A strong colocalization of ThPOK with CD4 both in NM and in MA was observed, weaker in carcinomas. Surprisingly, there was a peak in the colocalization levels of ThPOK with CD8 in MA, which was evident, although to a lesser extent, also in carcinomas. In conclusion, according to the data of the present study, ThPOK may be considered a central regulator of the earliest events in the immune system during colorectal cancer development. The novelty of the present study is the proposed role of ThPOK in influencing the immune response against cancer cells. References [1] Dunn et al. (2004) The immunobiology of cancer immunosurveillance and immunoediting. Immunity 21: 137-148. [2] Knaapen et al. (2006) Neutrophils and respiratory tract DNA damage and mutagenesis: a review. Muta-genesis 21: 225-236. [3] Coussens and Werb (2002) Inflammation and cancer. Nature 420: 860-867. [4] Watt and House (1978) Colonic carcinoma: a quantitative assessment of lymphocyte infiltration at the periphery of colonic tumors related to prognosis. Cancer 41: 279-282. [5] Galon et al. (2006) Type, density, and location of immune cells within human colorectal tumors predict clinical outcome. Science 313: 1960-1964. [6] Pagès et al. (2009) In situ cytotoxic and memory T cells predict outcome in patients with early-stage colorectal cancer. J Clin Oncol 27: 5944-5951. [7] Mlecnik et al. (2010) Biomolecular network reconstruction identifies T-cell homing factors associated with survival in colorectal. Gastroenterology 138: 1429-1434

PLZF expression during colorectal cancer development and in normal colorectal mucosa according to body size, as marker of colorectal cancer risk.

Promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger protein (PLZF) is a protein involved in various signaling, growth regulatory, and differentiation pathways, including development/function of some T cells. Here, we aimed at the detection of PLZF during colorectal carcinogenesis, using immunofluorescence, and at the evaluation of the colocalization of PLZF with CD2 and CD56 positive cells (T, \u3b3\u3b4, NK, and NKT cells), using confocal-microscopy, along colorectal carcinogenesis, since its earliest stages, that is, dysplastic aberrant crypt foci (ACF). Furthermore, we analyzed PLZF in the normal colonic mucosa (NM) according to anthropometric parameters of the subject. NM exhibited strong CD56 fluorescent staining. This infiltration was lost in both ACF and colorectal carcinoma (CRC), while PLZF presence increased from NM to ACF and CRC. Strong association was found between CD56+ colonic mucosa cell infiltration and body mass index. Interestingly, an increased stromal PLZF-reactivity was present in NM of obese subjects. This study shows that overexpression of PLZF and exclusion of NK cells in dysplastic microenvironment are very early events in the stepwise sequence leading to CRC and that lower levels of CD56+ cells in NM, together with increased levels of PLZF+ cells, can be a reflection of colon cancer risk due to obesity

Matrix metalloproteinases 15 and 19 are stromal regulators of colorectal cancer development from the early stages

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have been well characterized for their ability to degrade extracellular matrix proteins and, thus, they have been studied to elucidate their involvement in both tumor development and progression. In the present study, attention was focused on MMP-15 and MMP-19, two less known members of the MMP family. The expression profile of MMP-15 and -19 was assayed in samples of normal colorectal mucosa, microadenomas and cancer using confocal analysis, western blotting and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Both qRT-PCR and western blotting showed that MMP-15 and MMP-19 appeared to be upregulated during colorectal tumorigenesis, with different expression patterns: MMP-15 expression level increases from normal mucosa to microadenomas, with a reduced level in cancer with respect to microadenomas; the semiquantitative immunofluorescence analysis showed a stromal localization of this protein in the early phases of neoplastic transformation. Increasing amount of MMP-19 mRNA and protein levels were observed in the progression of colonic lesions; MMP-19 staining increased in the normal mucosa-microadenoma-carcinoma sequence. Such different expression patterns, are probably due to the different roles played in colorectal tumorigenesis by these two molecules. Conflicting data on the role of these proteins in tumor progression have been reported, thus, an improved understandingof the biological roles of MMPs, in particular the lesser known members such as MMP-15 and 19, in colorectal cancer may lead to a re-evaluation of the use of MMP inhibitors and suggests the need of integrated translational studies on MMP expression patterns