Comparision of the frying performance of olive oil and palm superolein

Deep-fat frying is an important method of food preparation in wich foods are immersed in hot oil. Repeated use of frying oils is a common practice and in the presence of atmospheric oxygen it produces various undesiderable reactions in used oils. Stable frying oils usually required low linolenic acid (LnA < 3%). The aim of this study was to establish the behaviour of palm superolein (PSO) (OA 45%, LA 12.5%, LnA 0.2%) and olive oil (OO) during repeated, discontinous deep frying of French fries. The behaviour of the oils under controlled heating conditions was also studied by maintaining all of the process variables the same as those in deep frying except that there was no food in the oil. The PSO selected to be tested in this study may represent an alternative to OO as a frying medium. Although PSO presented a faster increase in some oxidation indices, such as free acid and total polar compounds, for other indicators, PSO showed better behaviour than OO (less formation of C8:0 and lower peroxide value)

Treatment of saline produced water through photocatalysis using rGO-TiO 2 nanocomposites

Graphene like-TiO2 nanocomposites (rGO-TiO2) are prepared via hydrothermal route by following different synthetic protocols. The as-prepared nanostructured materials exhibit higher photocatalytic activity than bare TiO2 in the treatment of synthetic produced water containing high salinity levels and different compositions of recalcitrant dissolved organic matter. The effect of the preparation method on the physico-chemical properties is assessed by performing a wide characterization combining different analyses, such as nitrogen physic-adsorption (BET), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), UV-VIS Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRUV) and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR). The effect of several operative variables (i.e., TiO2/rGO weight ratios, and addition of hydrogen peroxide) on the photocatalytic activity is also critically evaluated. The highest photocatalytic activity is obtained for a rGO/TiO2 weight ratio of about 10%, for which a good compromise between uniformity of dispersion of the TiO2 particles on the rGO layers and covering degree of the titania photoactive surface is achieved. This study can contribute to open new perspectives in the design of high performance graphene like-based TiO2 photocatalysts for removing hydrophobic bio-recalcitrant pollutants from saline water.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Real-time Hybrid Locomotion Mode Recognition for Lower-limb Wearable Robots

Real-time recognition of locomotion-related activities is a fundamental skill that the controller of lower-limb wearable robots should possess. Subject-specific training and reliance on electromyographic interfaces are the main limitations of existing approaches. This study presents a novel methodology for real-time locomotion mode recognition of locomotion-related activities in lower-limb wearable robotics. A hybrid classifier can distinguish among seven locomotion-related activities. First, a time-based approach classifies between static and dynamical states based on gait kinematics data. Second, an event-based fuzzy logic method triggered by foot pressure sensors operates in a subject-independent fashion on a minimal set of relevant biomechanical features to classify among dynamical modes. The locomotion mode recognition algorithm is implemented on the controller of a portable powered orthosis for hip assistance. An experimental protocol is designed to evaluate the controller performance in an out-of-lab scenario without the need for a subject-specific training. Experiments are conducted on six healthy volunteers performing locomotion-related activities at slow, normal, and fast speeds under the zero-torque and assistive mode of the orthosis. The overall accuracy rate of the controller is 99.4% over more than 10,000 steps, including seamless transitions between different modes. The experimental results show a successful subject-independent performance of the controller for wearable robots assisting locomotion-related activities

Glyphozines and treatment of cardiac disease

Glyphozines also called SGLT2 inhibitors, are a new class of agents that inhibit reabsorption of glucose in the kidney, in proximal tubules, and therefore lower blood sugar. They act by inhibiting sodiumglucose transport protein 2 (SGLT2). Glyphozines are used in the treatment of type II diabetes mellitus. In studies with canagliflozin, a member of this class, the medication was found to enhance blood sugar control as well as reduce body weight and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. In addition to regulate blood glucose, recent studies have shown that glyphozines have important positive cardiovascular benefits, such as weight loss, decreased volaemia and PA, reduced triglycerides, natriuresis and improved endothelial wall dysfunction. Clinical studies have shown reduction in deaths from cardiovascular events among diabetic patients treated with glyphozines. At the moment these drugs are being studied for an extension of the therapeutic indication also for cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure. In this review, we discuss the class of SGLT2 inhibitors in the treatment of diabetes, and studies focused on their possible role in the treatment of cardiac disease

Identification of protein-protein interactions of human HtrA1.

The human heat shock protein HtrA1, a member of the HtrA family of serine proteases, is a evolutionarily highly conserved factor which displays a widespread pattern of expression. The yeast two-hybrid technique was employed to identify new cellular proteins physically interacting with HtrA1, and thus potential targets of this serine protease. An enzymatically inactive HtrA1 point mutant, HtrA1-S328A, was generated and used as bait in a yeast two-hybrid system. Fifty-two plasmids were isolated from primary positive yeast clones. Subsequent sequencing and BLAST analysis revealed cDNAs encoding for 13 different proteins. These putative binding partners of HtrA1 appeared to be a) components of extracellular matrix; b) factors related to signal pathways, and c) unknown proteins. Among the 13 positive clones identified and reported here, it is worth of note that the interaction of HtrA1 with tubulin and collagen (extracellular matrix proteins) and with tuberin (cytoplasmic protein) is confirmed by other studies, and this further supports previous findings in which HtrA1 can be found active as an intracytoplasmic protein or as secreted protein as well

A low-power ankle-foot prosthesis for push-off enhancement

Passive ankle-foot prostheses are light-weighted and reliable, but they cannot generate net positive power, which is essential in restoring the natural gait pattern of amputees. Recent robotic prostheses addressed the problem by actively controlling the storage and release of energy generated during the stance phase through the mechanical deformation of elastic elements housed in the device. This study proposes an innovative low-power active prosthetic module that fits on off-the-shelf passive ankle-foot energy-storage-and-release (ESAR) prostheses. The module is placed parallel to the ESAR foot, actively augmenting the energy stored in the foot and controlling the energy return for an enhanced push-off. The parallel elastic actuation takes advantage of the amputee’s natural loading action on the foot’s elastic structure, retaining its deformation. The actuation unit is designed to additionally deform the foot and command the return of the total stored energy. The control strategy of the prosthesis adapts to changes in the user’s cadence and loading conditions to return the energy at a desired stride phase. An early verification on two transtibial amputees during treadmill walking showed that the proposed mechanism could increase the subjects’ dorsiflexion peak of 15.2% and 41.6% for subjects 1 and 2, respectively, and the cadence of about 2%. Moreover, an increase of 26% and 45% was observed in the energy return for subjects 1 and 2, respectively

Controlling a robotic hip exoskeleton with noncontact capacitive sensors

For partial lower-limb exoskeletons, an accurate real-time estimation of the gait phase is paramount to provide timely and well-tailored assistance during gait. To this end, dedicated wearable sensors separate from the exoskeletons mechanical structure may be preferable because they are typically isolated from movement artifacts that often result from the transient dynamics of the physical human-robot interaction. Moreover, wearable sensors that do not require time-consuming calibration procedures are more easily acceptable by users. In this study a robotic hip orthosis was controlled using capacitive sensors placed in orthopedic cuffs on the shanks. The capacitive signals are zeroed after donning the cuffs and do not require any further calibration. The capacitive sensing-based controller was designed to perform online estimation of the gait cycle phase via adaptive oscillators, and to provide a phase-locked assistive torque. Two experimental activities were carried out to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. Experiments conducted with seven healthy subjects walking on a treadmill at different speeds demonstrated that the controller can estimate the gait phase with an average error of 4%, while also providing hip flexion assistance. Moreover, experiments carried out with four healthy subjects showed that the capacitive sensing-based controller could reduce the metabolic expenditure of subjects compared to the unassisted condition (mean ± SEM, -3.2% ± 1.1)

Disease Rescue and Increased Lifespan in a Model of Cardiomyopathy and Muscular Dystrophy by Combined AAV Treatments

The BIO14.6 hamster is an excellent animal model for inherited cardiomyopathy, because of its lethal and well-documented course, due to a spontaneous deletion of delta-sarcoglycan gene promoter and first exon. The muscle disease is progressive and average lifespan is 11 months, because heart slowly dilates towards heart failure.Based on the ability of adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors to transduce heart together with skeletal muscle following systemic administration, we delivered human delta-sarcoglycan cDNA into male BIO14.6 hamsters by testing different ages of injection, routes of administration and AAV serotypes. Body-wide restoration of delta-SG expression was associated with functional reconstitution of the sarcoglycan complex and with significant lowering of centralized nuclei and fibrosis in skeletal muscle. Motor ability and cardiac functions were completely rescued. However, BIO14.6 hamsters having less than 70% of fibers recovering sarcoglycan developed cardiomyopathy, even if the total rescued protein was normal. When we used serotype 2/8 in combination with serotype 2/1, lifespan was extended up to 22 months with sustained heart function improvement.Our data support multiple systemic administrations of AAV as a general therapeutic strategy for clinical trials in cardiomyopathies and muscle disorders