Transfer of aflatoxin from feed to milk and curd in Sarda ewes with different milk production level

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a toxin produced by some strains of Aspergillus growing in feedstuffs. Dairy animals fed with diet containing AFB1 excrete aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) into the milk. The carry over ratio (AFM1 excreted in milk/ AFB1 ingested) has been found lower in sheep (Battacone et al., 2002a) than in cattle (Veldman et al., 1992). Being AFM1 linked to milk proteins, its concentration in curd is higher than in milk. The AFM1 concentration in milk resulted not influenced by milk production level in cattle, therefore the total amount of AFM1 excreted in milk and, consequently, the carry-over ratio increased with milk yield (Munksgaard et al., 1987; Veldman et al., 1992). A previous study carried out on isoproductive dairy ewes showed an increase of the AFM1 concentration both in milk and in curd as the amount of AFB1 ingested increased (Battacone et al., 2002b). Aim of the present work is to study the influence of AFB1 dose and milk production level on the transfer of AFB1 from feeds to milk and curd as AFM1 in dairy ewes

Structured meshes: composition and remeshing guided by the Curve-Skeleton

Virtual sculpting is currently a broadly used modeling metaphor with rising popularity especially in the entertainment industry. While this approach unleashes the artists' inspiration and creativity and leads to wonderfully detailed and artistic 3D models, it has the side effect, purely technical, of producing highly irregular meshes that are not optimal for subsequent processing. Converting an unstructured mesh into a more regular and struc- tured model in an automatic way is a challenging task and still open prob- lem. Since structured meshes are useful in different applications, it is of in- terest to be able to guarantee such property also in scenarios of part based modeling, which aim to build digital objects by composition, instead of modeling them from a scratch. This thesis will present methods for obtaining structured meshes in two different ways. First is presented a coarse quad layout computation method which starts from a triangle mesh and the curve-skeleton of the shape. The second approach allows to build complex shapes by procedural composition of PAM's. Since both quad layouts and PAMs exploit their global struc- ture, similarities between the two will be discussed, especially how their structure has correspondences to the curve-skeleton describing the topology of the shape being represented. Since both the presented methods rely on the information provided by the skeleton, the difficulties of using automat- ically extracted curve-skeletons without processing are discussed, and an interactive tool for user-assisted processing is presented

Influence of different drying parameters on the composition of volatile compounds of thyme and rosemary cultivated in Sardinia

The shelf life of spices is traditionally extended by drying. Fresh herbs, due to their high water content, undergo microorganism growth and adverse biochemical reactions. On the other hand drying may result in a lot of physical and chemical alterations. Air and oven-dehydration are the main methods used to stabilize spices. During oven drying, in general, losses of volatile compounds are directly dependent on the temperature and time used. This paper deals with the effect of different drying temperatures and air fluxes on the volatiles in rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) and thyme (Thymus officinalis L.) cultivated in Sardinia. Fresh leaves were collected and soon divided in two batches, which were subjected to hydro distillation and GC-MS analysis, the first batch as fresh, the second one after drying in a laboratory pilot dryer. Three drying temperatures were used, 30, 38 and 45°C, and for each one two airflow rates were set. The fresh and dried plant material were hydro distilled for 4 hours using a Clevenger-type apparatus (Italian Official Pharmacopeias X). The oils (liquid and light yellow) were recovered directly from above the distillate without adding any solvent and stored at –20°C before analyses, which were carried out on two replicates of each sample by gas chromatography, using a flame ionization detector. The diluted samples were injected using a split/splitless automatic injector (using 2,6-dimethylphenol as internal standard). Qualitative analysis was done by GC/Mass and mass units were monitored from 10 to 450 at 70 eV. Results of the influence of the different drying conditions on volatile compounds of the two herbs will be reported

Isolamento ed analisi di molecole bioattive da estratti di <i>Pistacia Terebinthus L.</i> vegetante in Sardegna

Il genere Pistacia (Anacardiacee) include P. Terebinthus, piccolo albero a foglie decidue presente in Sardegna solo in una ristretta area calcarea della costa est, Cala Gonone (NU). Le specie del genere Pistacia hanno un largo uso in etnobotanica; venivano usati come antiinfiammatori, antibatterici, nel trattamento dell’eczema. Questo ci ha portato a pensare, anche in base alla letteratura presente, che nelle piante appartenenti a questo genere ci siano delle molecole particolarmente importanti dal punto di vista farmaceutico. Partendo dalle osservazioni di etnobotanica abbiamo voluto investigare la composizione chimica di questa specie con lo scopo di trovare, eventualmente, dei nuovi nutraceutici

Risorse agroforestali e sviluppo nella VIII Comunità montana Marghine-Planargia

In questo lavoro è stato dato largo spazio allo studio del settore agricolo dell'VIII Comunità Montana. Esso rappresenta un campo d'indagine, forse il primo da approfondire data l'importanza che tale attività riveste nel territorio. Sono stati richiamati i problemi legati all'assetto del capitale fondiario e, nella Comunità, il particolare problema dei rapporti fra proprietà ed affitto non si discosta dal panorama complessivo sardo e nazionale

Quality Is more Important than Quantity: Social Presence and Workplace Ergonomics Control Predict Perceived Remote Work Performance

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a widespread disruption to the way that we work. One of its lasting consequences will be the ubiquity of remote work. The effective use of collaboration tools is therefore a critical factor for information systems (IS) research when design the workplaces of the future. We theorize that social presence and workplace ergonomics control are important predictors of perceived performance. Moreover, we investigate how different factors (i.e., collaboration tool efficacy, mode of work, and number of meetings) influence social presence. Using survey data (N = 389), we provide evidence that workplace ergonomics control and social presence are indeed important for perceived performance. Surprisingly, we observe that only collaborative platform efficacy has a significant impact on social presence, and that neither the number of meetings nor the modality were significant factors. Based upon these results, we derive implications for theory and practice

Alcune applicazioni dell’illusione di Müller-Lyer alla gestione dello spazio espositivo a scaffale.

In questo lavoro illustriamo come, facendo leva sull’illusione ottico-geometrica di Müller-Lyer (M-L), si possa alterare la percezione, da parte della clientela, circa la quantità di spazio espositivo allocato ad una referenza. 60 soggetti hanno partecipato a tre esperimenti di laboratorio, condotti secondo il metodo degli stimoli costanti, in cui si è valutata la presenza (ed intensità) dell’illusione di M-L con riferimento a realistiche porzioni di display. Nel primo studio, l’intensità dell’illusione di M-L si è rivelata mediamente pari, in termini di facing, al +5,65%(SD=3,04%). Nel secondo studio, invece, abbiamo riscontrato una sottostima del lineare espositivo della referenza, sempre in termini di facing, pari al –4,43%(SD=1,54%). Il terzo studio, infine, ha evidenziato un effetto illusivo del +3,28%(SD=1,38%). I risultati dei nostri esperimenti hanno alcune implicazioni manageriali: i retailer potrebbero impiegare l’effetto illusivo concernente il lineare espositivo per aumentare/ridurre la visibilità di alcune referenze rispetto ad altre, condizionandone, in tal modo, le vendite

A Protocol for microbiologically safe preparation, storage, and use of autologous serum eye-drops in low-income countries

Introduction: The study aimed to investigate whether the preparation, storage, and use of autologous serum in insulin syringes is microbiologically safe. Methodology: Blood samples (10 mL) were obtained from 10 volunteers. After centrifugation, the supernatant serum was removed and distributed in 5 sterile insulin syringes for each sample; syringes were numbered 0 to 4 and labelled with the subject’s details. Syringes were immediately transported to the microbiology laboratory and stored in a refrigerator at +4°C. The “0” labelled syringes were separated from the others and 100 μl of serum from each syringe was immediately seeded on chocolate and Sabouraud agar plates, which were incubated aerobically at 37°C for 96 hours to detect any bacterial and/or fungal contamination. In the next 4 days, the same procedure was repeated for the remaining syringes: on day 1, the “1” labelled syringes were analyzed; on day 2, the “2” labelled ones, and so on. In a second experiment, blood samples were obtained from 5 different volunteers. The same procedure as above was followed, but each syringe was used for repeated cultures at 2-hour intervals, for a total of 12 cultures/day. The needle was removed and replaced for each inoculation and the syringes were stored in the refrigerator after use. Results: Under these experimental conditions, none of the cultures showed microbial growth. Conclusions: Results suggest that, under the protocol described, preparation, storage and use of undiluted autologous serum in insulin syringes is inexpensive, fast, and microbiologically safe. This is of great importance for low-income countries.</br