Soil and grapevine leaf quality in organic vineyards of different ages in DO Rioja-Alavesa, northern Spain

[eng] The soil from three organically cultivated plots in Rioja Alavesa vineyards, specifically in Lanciego (Álava, Spain), and the foliage of their vines were analyzed. The aim of this study was to determine differences in soil and grapevine quality between different aged vineyards. The first 20 centimeters of the soil were sampled and leaves were collected during the growing season. The results show that the quality of the soil in the three plots was optimal and did not differ from reported values of soils from traditionally cultivated plots. The only element found at a lower concentration in the three plots and the leaves was iron. Organic cultivation of vineyards is a viable mode of cultivation and could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contamination by pesticides and fertilizers. [spa] Se analizó el suelo y el follaje de tres parcelas cultivadas orgánicamente en viñedos de la Rioja Alavesa, concretamente en Lanciego (Álava, España). El objetivo de este estudio fue determinar las diferencias de calidad del suelo y de la vid entre viñedos de diferentes edades. Se tomaron muestras de los primeros 20 centímetros del suelo y se recogieron las hojas durante el período vegetativo. Los resultados muestran que la calidad del suelo en las tres parcelas era óptima y no difería de la de los suelos de las parcelas cultivadas tradicionalmente. El único elemento que se encontró en menor concentración en las tres parcelas y en las hojas fue el hierro. El cultivo orgánico de viñedos es un modo de cultivo viable y podría ayudar a reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero y la contaminación por pesticidas y fertilizantes

Fast Chromatographic Method for Explosive Profiling

peer reviewe

SIMULTANEOUS MULTIPLE SPME FIBERS SAMPLING TO MAXIMIZE THE SAMPLE POTENTIAL

editorial reviewe

Volatile organic compound profiling to explore primary graft dysfunction after lung transplantation

Primary graft dysfunction (PGD) is a major determinant of morbidity and mortality following lung transplantation. Delineating basic mechanisms and molecular signatures of PGD remain a fundamental challenge. This pilot study examines if the pulmonary volatile organic compound (VOC) spectrum relate to PGD and postoperative outcomes. The VOC profiles of 58 bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and blind bronchial aspirate samples from 35 transplant patients were extracted using solid-phase-microextraction and analyzed with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The support vector machine algorithm was used to identify VOCs that could differentiate patients with severe from lower grade PGD. Using 20 statistically significant VOCs from the sample headspace collected immediately after transplantation (< 6 h), severe PGD was differentiable from low PGD with an AUROC of 0.90 and an accuracy of 0.83 on test set samples. The model was somewhat effective for later time points with an AUROC of 0.80. Three major chemical classes in the model were dominated by alkylated hydrocarbons, linear hydrocarbons, and aldehydes in severe PGD samples. These VOCs may have important clinical and mechanistic implications, therefore large-scale study and potential translation to breath analysis is recommended

Correlation Among instrumental texture, chemical composition and presence of characteristic holes in a semi-hard italian cheese

The present study examines how composition, casein proteolysis and characteristic holes are related to the rheological behaviour of a typical semi-hard Italian cheese. The texture parameters were evaluated using the force-deformation curves obtained from the textural profile analysis (TPA) test. Instrumental detection of hardness, fracturability, gumminess and chewiness were positively correlated with compositional data and negatively correlated with extent and dimension of the holes. Therefore, it has been possible to define mathematical equations that can be used to evaluate the characteristic textural parameters of the product and thus determine composition characteristics

SPME-GC×GC-TOF MS fingerprint of virally-infected cell culture: Sample preparation optimization and data processing evaluation

Untargeted metabolomics study of volatile organic compounds produced by different cell cultures is a field that has gained increasing attention over the years. Solid-phase microextraction has been the sampling technique of choice for most of the applications mainly due to its simplicity to implement. However, a careful optimization of the analytical conditions is necessary to obtain the best performances, which are highly matrix-dependent. In this work, five different solid-phase microextraction fibers were compared for the analysis of the volatiles produced by cell culture infected with the human respiratory syncytial virus. A central composite design was applied to determine the best time-temperature combination to maximize the extraction efficiency and the salting-out effect was evaluated as well. The linearity of the optimized method, along with limits of detection and quantification and repeatability was assessed. Finally, the effect of i) different normalization techniques (i.e. z-score and probabilistic quotient normalization), ii) data transformation (i.e. in logarithmic scale), and iii) different feature selection algorithms (i.e. Fisher ratio and random forest) on the capability of discriminating between infected and not-infected cell culture was evaluated

The diagnostic purpose of odorant patterns for clinical applications using GC×GC

The advances in hardware components and software tools which characterized the youth of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC × GC) are, as a natural evolution of a novel technique, more and more associated with application-oriented studies covering a wide range of fields. In addition, the high-selectivity and separation power of GC × GC have made the technique one of the most powerful tool for untargeted analysis, especially when coupled with mass spectrometry (MS). It is in this context that this chapter is placed, and specifically in the use of odorant patterns in clinical applications, with these intended as the subset of small volatile metabolites which characterize biological samples. During the last decade, the significance of testing of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in clinical samples has become high, holding a great potential in offering perspectives of non-invasiveness, availability, and time-effectiveness. Depending on the application, the VOCs emitted from clinical matrices can represent (I) metabolites from the altered physiological status (e.g. cancer), (II) metabolites of the infecting pathogen, (III) reflect the pathogen-induced host responses, or (IV) a combination of both. An initial examination of the analytical challenges which characterize the complexity of the samples will be described. Dedicated sample preparation techniques, as well as multidimensional chromatographic configurations hyphenated to MS will be reported. A collection on milestone papers, sorted by biomedical sample type, will also be discussed, showing the potential of the GC × GC technique in unravelling the complexity of the odorant patterns in clinical application