Impact of Sanitizers on Salmonella enterica Contamination and Microbial Populations of Poultry Processing Reuse Water

As human populations increase in numbers, access to clean, fresh water is becoming increasingly difficult to balance between agricultural and municipal demands. Water scarcity is a limiting factor of food production in many countries, whether they are emerging or established economies. In conventional poultry processing systems, access to water is particularly critical for the maintenance and disinfection of processing areas, as well as in processing operations such as scalding, chilling, and carcass washing. The need for sustainable alternatives to single-use water supplies is becoming increasingly more urgent, and as a result, the implementation of water reuse in poultry processing plants has emerged as an attractive alternative means to meet water requirements during processing. To effectively reuse water, it is essential to decontaminate the water with chemical sanitation. Currently, peracetic acid (PAA) is widely utilized in poultry processing water to disinfect the final product and reduce bacterial loads in the water. However, PAA can be corrosive and potentially dangerous to processing workers. As such, sodium bisulfate (SBS) may be utilized in poultry processing facilities due to its antimicrobial potential. This thesis investigates the impact these acid-based sanitizers have on bacterial loads and potential Salmonella Typhimurium contamination within poultry processing reuse water. A literature review is provided, detailing the reuse of water within conventional poultry processing systems, the efficacy of acid sanitizers, and an evaluation of potential mitigation strategies (Chapter 1). It also details the rationale for decreasing the environmental footprint of poultry processing and how reusing water plays a potential role in this aspect. The first research chapter evaluates the ability of acid sanitizers to inactivation Salmonella Typhimurium in reuse poultry processing water (Chapter 2). The second research chapter evaluates the ability of acid sanitizers to impact bacterial loads and the microbiome in reuse poultry processing water (Chapter 3). Data presented herein will provide novel insight into reuse water, remediation of Salmonella, and impacts on the microbiome caused by application of acid sanitizers

Physical properties of gravitational solitons

Soliton solutions of Einstein's field equations for space–times with two non-null, commuting Killing Vectors are exact solutions obtained using the solution-generating techniques that resemble the well-known Inverse Scattering Methods that have been widely used m the solution of certain nonlinear PDE's such as Korteweg–de Vries, Sine–Gordon, non-linear Schrödinger. There exist two main soliton techniques in General Relativity. The Belinski–Zakharov technique allows for purely gravitational solutions. The Alekseev technique allows for solutions of the Einstein–Maxwell equations. In both techniques, solitons arise in connection with the poles of a certain so-called "dressing matrix". [Continues.

Informatizzazione dei servizi amministrativi del corso di laurea tramite integrazione di sistemi intranet

Nel mondo odierno le telecomunicazioni stanno cambiando il modo di lavorare e comunicare. Diventa sempre piu importante per le pubbliche amministrazioni e le aziende riuscire ad offrire servizi veloci ed affidabili e spesso questo bisogno viene soddisfatto dalle enormi potenzialità offerte dalle reti di teelcomunicazioni. Questa tesi si pone come obiettivo di analizzare, studiare e "informatizzare" alcune procedure amministrative del Corso di Laurea Specialistica in Ingegneria Informatica dell'Università di Pisa. Delle procedure esistenti sono tre quelle che sono state studiate e che hanno subito il "processo di informatizzazione". Il sistema realizzato si poggia su una piattaforma intranet che si chiama Intellimaker, fornita all'università dall'omonima ditta, ed è in collegamento con altre strutture dell'ateneo che forniscono un sistema di account per gli utenti. I servizi relizzati sono stati resi disponibili agli utenti attraverso il sito del corso di laurea

Exploring the landscape of dismantling strategies based on the community structure of networks

Network dismantling is a relevant research area in network science, gathering attention both from a theoretical and an operational point of view. Here, we propose a general framework for dismantling that prioritizes the removal of nodes that bridge together different network communities. The strategies we detect are not unique, as they depend on the specific realization of the community detection algorithm considered. However, when applying the methodology to some synthetic benchmark and real-world networks we find that the dismantling performances are strongly robust, and do not depend on the specific algorithm. Thus, the stochasticity inherently present in many community detection algorithms allows to identify several strategies that have comparable effectiveness but require the removal of distinct subsets of nodes. This feature is highly relevant in operational contexts in which the removal of nodes is costly and allows to identify the least expensive strategy that still holds high effectiveness

Economic sector identification in a set of stocks traded at the New York Stock Exchange: a comparative analysis

We review some methods recently used in the literature to detect the existence of a certain degree of common behavior of stock returns belonging to the same economic sector. Specifically, we discuss methods based on random matrix theory and hierarchical clustering techniques. We apply these methods to a set of stocks traded at the New York Stock Exchange. The investigated time series are recorded at a daily time horizon. All the considered methods are able to detect economic information and the presence of clusters characterized by the economic sector of stocks. However, different methodologies provide different information about the considered set. Our comparative analysis suggests that the application of just a single method could not be able to extract all the economic information present in the correlation coefficient matrix of a set of stocks.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 2 Table

Networks of equities in financial markets

We review the recent approach of correlation based networks of financial equities. We investigate portfolio of stocks at different time horizons, financial indices and volatility time series and we show that meaningful economic information can be extracted from noise dressed correlation matrices. We show that the method can be used to falsify widespread market models by directly comparing the topological properties of networks of real and artificial markets.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in EPJ

Gene-based and semantic structure of the Gene Ontology as a complex network

The last decade has seen the advent and consolidation of ontology based tools for the identification and biological interpretation of classes of genes, such as the Gene Ontology. The Gene Ontology (GO) is constantly evolving over time. The information accumulated time-by-time and included in the GO is encoded in the definition of terms and in the setting up of semantic relations amongst terms. Here we investigate the Gene Ontology from a complex network perspective. We consider the semantic network of terms naturally associated with the semantic relationships provided by the Gene Ontology consortium. Moreover, the GO is a natural example of bipartite network of terms and genes. Here we are interested in studying the properties of the projected network of terms, i.e. a gene-based weighted network of GO terms, in which a link between any two terms is set if at least one gene is annotated in both terms. One aim of the present paper is to compare the structural properties of the semantic and the gene-based network. The relative importance of terms is very similar in the two networks, but the community structure changes. We show that in some cases GO terms that appear to be distinct from a semantic point of view are instead connected, and appear in the same community when considering their gene content. The identification of such gene-based communities of terms might therefore be the basis of a simple protocol aiming at improving the semantic structure of GO. Information about terms that share large gene content might also be important from a biomedical point of view, as it might reveal how genes over-expressed in a certain term also affect other biological processes, molecular functions and cellular components not directly linked according to GO semantics

Primi dati zooarcheologici dal santuario della Malophoros a Selinunte (TP). Firts Results from the Archaeozoological Study at the Sanctuary of Malophoros in Selinunte (TP)

Gli aspetti religiosi ricoprivano un ruolo essenziale nella vita degli antichi greci. Tale ritualità si esprimeva attra- verso un’articolazione multiforme e diversif icata, spesso di diff icile lettura per gli archeologi. Tuttavia, è possibile identif icare all’interno di queste pratiche religiose un denominatore comune nella presenza degli animali come principale offerta sacrif icale. Il presente lavoro riguarda i primi dati zooarcheologici provenienti dalle recenti ricerche che hanno interessato l’area del santuario della Malophoros a Selinunte. La nostra indagine si pone come obiettivo principale l’esplora- zione delle modalità sacrif icali utilizzate dagli antichi frequentatori del santuario, ponendo particolare attenzione su tutti quegli elementi tafonomici riferibili ad un particolare trattamento subito dall’animale a scopo rituale. Le analisi f ino ad ora effettuate hanno riguardato un totale di 2299 resti faunistici di cui 805 attribuiti a livello specif ico. L’analisi incrociata dei reperti combusti e della distribuzione dei diversi elementi anatomici all’interno del campione ha mostrato che durante i riti che prevedevano la combustione dell’animale veniva preferita una particolare porzione: la coscia o le sue ossa. Sebbene si tratti di dati preliminari, le informazioni provenienti dallo studio delle faune sembrerebbero evidenzia- re la presenza di diversi utilizzi dell’animale a scopo rituale (olocausto, moirocausto, θυσία) che ben si accorda con la generale complessa articolazione del santuario selinuntino.Rituals played an essential role in the life of the ancient Greeks. These rituals were often expressed through multifaceted and diverse ways that are often diff icult to read in the archaeological record. However, it is possible to identify a common denominator in the use of animals as the main sacrif icial offering within these religious practices. We are presenting here the f irst zooarchaeology data from recent excavations in the area of the sanctuary of Malophoros at Selinunte. The main aim of our investigation, which is still ongoing, is the exploration of ancient sacrif icial rituals. We are paying particular attention to taphonomic aspects that are indicative of any specif ic treatment of animals for ritual purposes. The analysis carried out has included a total of 2,299 animal remains, of which 805 are attributed to species level. The combined analysis of burnt remains and that of the distribution of body parts showed that the preferred part offered to some deities was the thigh bone. The preliminary results of our data seem to highlight the presence of different uses of the animals for ritual purposes (holocaust, moirocaust, θυσία). The evidence is consistent with the articulation of the sanctuary