19 research outputs found
Glyceridic and Unsaponifiable Components of Microencapsulated Sacha Inchi (Plukenetia huayllabambana L. And Plukenetia volubilis L.) Edible Oils
Sacha inchi (Plukenetia huayllabambana L. and Plukenetia volubilis L.) edible oils were microencapsulated and the lipid fraction of the microparticles was characterized. Hi-cap®, Capsule®, Arabic gum, and the binary combination of Arabic gum + maltodextrin and the ternary combination of Arabic gum + maltodextrin + whey protein isolate, were used as coating materials for the encapsulation process using spray-drying. The surface and the total oils obtained from the microparticles were evaluated in terms of fatty acid composition, minor glyceride polar compounds, polymers, oxidized triglycerides, diglycerides, monoglycerides, and free fatty acids, along with their unsaponifiable components, sterols, and tocopherols. Differences between the original oils and the microencapsulated ones were determined. The most remarkable results included the presence of polymers when there were none in the original oils, the slight loss in ¿3-fatty acids, up to 6%, the loss in tocopherols, in some of the cases around 30%, the maintaining of the phytosterol in their initial levels and the presence of cholesterol in the oils encapsulated with whey protein isolate
A flexible and fast PyTorch toolkit for simulating training and inference on analog crossbar arrays
We introduce the IBM Analog Hardware Acceleration Kit, a new and first of a
kind open source toolkit to simulate analog crossbar arrays in a convenient
fashion from within PyTorch (freely available at
https://github.com/IBM/aihwkit). The toolkit is under active development and is
centered around the concept of an "analog tile" which captures the computations
performed on a crossbar array. Analog tiles are building blocks that can be
used to extend existing network modules with analog components and compose
arbitrary artificial neural networks (ANNs) using the flexibility of the
PyTorch framework. Analog tiles can be conveniently configured to emulate a
plethora of different analog hardware characteristics and their non-idealities,
such as device-to-device and cycle-to-cycle variations, resistive device
response curves, and weight and output noise. Additionally, the toolkit makes
it possible to design custom unit cell configurations and to use advanced
analog optimization algorithms such as Tiki-Taka. Moreover, the backward and
update behavior can be set to "ideal" to enable hardware-aware training
features for chips that target inference acceleration only. To evaluate the
inference accuracy of such chips over time, we provide statistical programming
noise and drift models calibrated on phase-change memory hardware. Our new
toolkit is fully GPU accelerated and can be used to conveniently estimate the
impact of material properties and non-idealities of future analog technology on
the accuracy for arbitrary ANNs.Comment: Submitted to AICAS202
Olive oil quality and authenticity: A review of current EU legislation, standards, relevant methods of analyses, their drawbacks and recommendations for the future
Background: The physical, chemical and organoleptic characteristics of olive oil (OO) are regulated by the
European Union (EU) by Reg. (EEC) 2568/91 as amended, which also establishes methods for their analysis.
Despite the fact that the OO sector is highly regulated, it is acknowledged that there are still problems; fats
and oils, including OOs, are ranked third, after meat and meat products and fish and fish products, in the 2016
EU Food Fraud report on non-compliances per product category.
For this reason, EU legislation, among the most advanced in the field, continuously chases after the emerging
frauds. The process of proposing new methods or reviewing those current is constantly in progress, to ensure the
robustness and the clarity required by official standardised procedures.
Scope and approach: This review will identify current gaps in EU legislation and discuss drawbacks of existing
analytical methods with respect to OO. Suggestions for replacement of specific steps within the present EU
methods with more efficient analytical solutions to reduce time and/or solvent consumption will be proposed.
Key findings and conclusions: This review critiques existing regulatory methods and standards, highlights
weaknesses and proposes possible solutions to safeguard the consumer and protect the OO market
Olive oil quality and authenticity: a review of current EU legislation, standards, relevant methods of analyses, their drawbacks and recommendations for the future
Final version is available in open access in publisher’s site.-- This abstract is based on the published article Lanfranco Conte, Alessandra Bendini, Enrico Valli, Paolo Lucci, Sabrina Moret, Alain Maquet, Florence Lacoste, Paul Brereton, Diego Luis GarcÃa-González, Wenceslao Moreda, Tullia Gallina Toschi, Olive oil quality and authenticity: A review of current EU legislation, standards, relevant methods of analyses, their drawbacks and recommendations for the future, Trends in Food Science & Technology, Volume 105, 2020,
Pages 483-493, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2019.02.025.-- http://hdl.handle.net/10261/198878Peer reviewe
Canagliflozin and renal outcomes in type 2 diabetes and nephropathy
BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, but few effective long-term treatments are available. In cardiovascular trials of inhibitors of sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), exploratory results have suggested that such drugs may improve renal outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS In this double-blind, randomized trial, we assigned patients with type 2 diabetes and albuminuric chronic kidney disease to receive canagliflozin, an oral SGLT2 inhibitor, at a dose of 100 mg daily or placebo. All the patients had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 30 to <90 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 of body-surface area and albuminuria (ratio of albumin [mg] to creatinine [g], >300 to 5000) and were treated with renin–angiotensin system blockade. The primary outcome was a composite of end-stage kidney disease (dialysis, transplantation, or a sustained estimated GFR of <15 ml per minute per 1.73 m2), a doubling of the serum creatinine level, or death from renal or cardiovascular causes. Prespecified secondary outcomes were tested hierarchically. RESULTS The trial was stopped early after a planned interim analysis on the recommendation of the data and safety monitoring committee. At that time, 4401 patients had undergone randomization, with a median follow-up of 2.62 years. The relative risk of the primary outcome was 30% lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group, with event rates of 43.2 and 61.2 per 1000 patient-years, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59 to 0.82; P=0.00001). The relative risk of the renal-specific composite of end-stage kidney disease, a doubling of the creatinine level, or death from renal causes was lower by 34% (hazard ratio, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.81; P<0.001), and the relative risk of end-stage kidney disease was lower by 32% (hazard ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.86; P=0.002). The canagliflozin group also had a lower risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.95; P=0.01) and hospitalization for heart failure (hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.80; P<0.001). There were no significant differences in rates of amputation or fracture. CONCLUSIONS In patients with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, the risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular events was lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group at a median follow-up of 2.62 years
OLIVE OIL QUALITY AND AUTHENTICITY: A REVIEW OF CURRENT EU LEGISLATION, STANDARDS, RELEVANT METHODS OF ANALYSES, THEIR DRAWBACKS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE [QUALITÀ E AUTENTICITÀ DELL'OLIO D'OLIVA: UNA REVISIONE DELL'ATTUALE LEGISLAZIONE UE, NORME, METODI DI ANALISI RILEVANTI, LORO LIMITAZIONI E RACCOMANDAZIONI PER IL FUTURO]
Olive oil quality and authenticity: a review of current EU legislation, standards, relevant methods of analyses, their drawbacks and recommendations for the future:A review of current EU legislation, standards, relevant methods of analyses, their drawbacks and recommendations for the future
Background: The physical, chemical and organoleptic characteristics of olive oil (OO) are regulated by the European Union (EU) by Reg. (EEC) 2568/91 as amended, which also establishes methods for their analysis.
Despite the fact that the OO sector is highly regulated, it is acknowledged that there are still problems; fats and oils, including OOs, are ranked third, after meat and meat products and fish and fish products, in the 2016 EU Food Fraud report on non-compliances per product category.
For this reason, EU legislation, among the most advanced in the field, continuously chases after the emerging frauds. The process of proposing new methods or reviewing those current is constantly in progress, to ensure the
robustness and the clarity required by official standardised procedures.
Scope and approach: This review will identify current gaps in EU legislation and discuss drawbacks of existing analytical methods with respect to OO. Suggestions for replacement of specific steps within the present EU methods with more efficient analytical solutions to reduce time and/or solvent consumption will be proposed.
Key findings and conclusions: This review critiques existing regulatory methods and standards, highlights weaknesses and proposes possible solutions to safeguard the consumer and protect the OO market