Effects of Tray-Drying on the Physicochemical, Microbiological, Proximate, and Sensory Properties of White- and Red-Fleshed Loquat (Eriobotrya Japonica Lindl.) Fruit

Loquat fruits, highly valued by consumers for their characteristic aroma and pleasant taste, have a short post-harvest life and are susceptible to mechanical damage, loss of firmness, and initial organoleptic characteristics. The aim of this work was to develop a drying method suitable for storing loquat fruits in polyamide/polyethylene (PA/PE) bags containing two gaseous mixtures (treatments): MAPN2 (100% N2) and MAPP (21% O2 and 0.04% CO2), at room temperature for at least 2 months. The effects of these conditions on the physico-chemical, microbiological, proximate, and sensory properties of fruit stored over a 50-day time interval were studied. The results showed that convective tray dehydration treatment at 70 for 12 h had good drying efficiency for loquat slices. In addition, the MAPN2 packaging limited the browning of the slices, keeping the microbial groups below the detection limits, with a clear positive effect on some minerals and vitamins, which were higher in concentration compared to the MAPP-packed samples. From an applicative point of view, the tray drying method for loquat fruits is useful on a small scale but could also be easily industrialized

QRouteMe: A Multichannel Information System to Ensure Rich User-Experience in Exhibits and Museums

In this article the QRouteMe system is presented. QRouteMe is a multichannel information system built to ensure rich user experiences in exhibits and museums. The system starts from basic information about a particular exhibit or museum while delivering a wide user experience based on different distribution channels. The organization of the systems’ components allow to build different solutions that can be simultaneously delivered on different media. A wide range of media from touch-screen installations to portable devices like smartphones have been used. The used devices can communicate each others to increase the usability and the user experience for the visitors. Another important feature of the system is the definition of an inexpensive auto-localization system based on fiduciary marks distributed all around the building. In this article the system is presented from an architectural and functional point of view. A case study and analysis of experimental results are also provided in a real environment where the system was deployed

A pilot study about on-farm assessment of health and welfare in rabbits kept in different housing systems

This pilot study tested an on-farm protocol based on resource, management, and animal-based measures to evaluate the on-farm health and welfare of rabbits kept in four different housing systems. In detail, the four housing systems were (1) standard breeding cages for reproducing does (3,300 cm2) with their litters associated with bicellular cages for growing rabbits (1,200 cm2); (2) dual-purpose cages for both reproducing does and growing rabbits (3,655 cm2); (3) enriched cages (4,739 cm2) for both reproducing does and growing rabbits equipped with a wire-mesh elevated platform (1,015 cm2); (4) parks (30,977 cm2) made up of four modules (7,744 cm2 each) joined by removing the wire net walls between them with growing rabbits kept in collective parks and reproducing does individually in the single modules. A total of 12 commercial farms (three farms/four housing systems) were visited during three seasons (summer, autumn, and winter) on two occasions each: (1) a pre-weaning visit for recordings on reproducing does and litters and (2) a pre-slaughtering visit for recordings on growing rabbits. At the pre-weaning visit, the prevalence of health concerns did not differ among does and litters kept in the different housing systems. At the pre-slaughtering visit, a higher prevalence of dermatomycosis was found in farms with dual-purpose cages and parks. Overall, taking into account the limitations due to the small sample size per housing system and the field conditions, the on-farm assessment tested in the present pilot study did not highlight major differences in the welfare and health of reproducing does and their kits as well as of growing rabbits in farms using different housing systems, which need to be confirmed on a large number of farms. The study also outlined the role of several management and environmental factors changing from one farm to another, which stresses the troubles of accounting for on-farm rabbit welfare and health exclusively to the housing system.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

QRouteMe: A Multichannel Information System to Ensure Rich User-Experiences in Exhibits and Museums, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2012, nr 1

In this article the QRouteMe system is presented. QRouteMe is a multichannel information system built to ensure rich user experiences in exhibits and museums. The system starts from basic information about a particular exhibit or museum while delivering a wide user experience based on different distribution channels. The organization of the systems’ components allow to build different solutions that can be simultaneously delivered on different media. A wide range of media from touch-screen installations to portable devices like smartphones have been used. The used devices can communicate each others to increase the usability and the user experience for the visitors. Another important feature of the system is the definition of an inexpensive auto-localization system based on fiduciary marks distributed all around the building. In this article the system is presented from an architectural and functional point of view. A case study and analysis of experimental results are also provided in a real environment where the system was deployed

EVALITA Evaluation of NLP and Speech Tools for Italian - December 17th, 2020

Welcome to EVALITA 2020! EVALITA is the evaluation campaign of Natural Language Processing and Speech Tools for Italian. EVALITA is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC, http://www.ai-lc.it) and it is endorsed by the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA, http://www.aixia.it) and the Italian Association for Speech Sciences (AISV, http://www.aisv.it)

A Multimodal Fruition Model for Graphical Contents in Ancient Books

One of the most common and efficient way to preserve ancient books is to digitize them, and make their content someway browsable. However, this process often does not take into account the fruition point of view. Exploiting the currently available technologies allows for new ways of content fruition, to attract more people and help them to better understand the available information. In this paper, we present a solution for an innovative and multimodal exploration of ancient books contents, using both touch and touchless gestures. This allows people for both near and far distance interaction, which results in different interaction models

A novel approach to a quantitative estimate of permeability from resistivity log measurements

Description of the material. In this paper a novel methodology for the estimation of the formation permeability, based on the integration of resistivity modeling and near wellbore modeling, is presented. Results obtained from the application to a real case is shown and discussed. The well log interpretation process provides a reliable estimation of the main petrophysical parameters such as porosity, fluid saturations and shale content, but the formation permeability is traditionally obtained through laboratory tests on plugs, at the scale of centimeters, and through well test interpretation, at the scale of tens or hundreds of meters. However, log measurements, and in particular resistivity logs, are strongly affected by the presence of the near wellbore zone invaded by mud filtrate. In turn, the extension of the invaded zone depends on formation properties and, in particular, on permeability. As a consequence, the resistivity measured by the tools (the apparent resistivity) has to be properly corrected through a resistivity modeling process to obtain the true formation resistivity and the geometry and resistivity of the invaded zone. Resistivity profiles within the invaded zone are function of fluid properties, petrophysical properties and rock-fluid interaction properties. The novelty of the approach is to numerically simulate the mud invasion phenomenon and match the resistivity profile provided by resistivity modeling to estimate the formation permeability. In the proposed methodology the match of the resistivity profile is obtained by integrating the near wellbore simulator with an optimization algorithm. Application. This novel approach was applied to a heterogeneous shaly-sand oil-bearing reservoir in the Norwegian offshore area. The analyzed sequence was characterized by a high degree of variations in the layers' thickness, from meters down to below tools' vertical resolution. A complete set of wireline logs were acquired in the considered well; several cores were cut and routine and special core analyses performed. Results, Observations, and Conclusions. First, a conventional petrophysical characterization was achieved and the appropriate resistivity corrections were calculated. Then, the modeled resistivity was used as the input for the optimization algorithm so as to obtain a continuous quantitative estimation of permeability in the entire logged interval. The results were satisfactorily compared to core measurements: in both thick, conventional layers and thinner beds the match was very accurate. Significance of subject matter. The new approach provided a robust permeability estimate also in un-cored intervals and, more generally, can be used to predict permeability in un-cored and un-tested wells