A Comprehensive Optimization of Ultrasound\u2010Assisted Extraction for Lycopene Recovery from Tomato Waste and Encapsulation by Spray Drying

This study aimed to extract bioactive compounds from tomato waste through ultrasoundassisted extraction (UAE), using ethanol as solvent. Process optimization was carried out by a central composite design of 33 runs for response surface modelling, simultaneously analyzing the effect of temperature (T), time (t), volume (V), liquid\u2010to\u2010solid ratio (L/S), amplitude (A), the pulser duration (on), and their interaction. The best conditions found by the desirability method (T = 65 \ub0C, t = 20 min, L/S = 72 mL/g, A = 65%, on = 33 s, V = 90 mL) were experimentally verified, leading to the production of an extract with interesting properties (total carotenoids of 1408 \ub114 \u3bcglycopene equivalents/g, lycopene yield of 1536 \ub1 53 \u3bcg/g, 36.1 \ub1 0.9 \u3bcgtrolox equivalents/g as antiradical power). Due to the instability of lycopene, the extract encapsulation by spray drying was undertaken using inulin and maltodextrins as coating agents. The evaluation of wall material composition provided high product recovery (73%), a high content of encapsulated compared to superficial lycopene (15.3 \ub1 2.9 and 0.30 \ub1 0.02 \u3bcg/g), and a product with good water solubility. The novelty of this work concerned the simultaneous study of the effect and interdependences of the UAE parameters, and the use of inulin to enhance the properties of microparticles

A field study on human factor and safety performances in a downstream oil industry

afety culture and awareness by workers are pivotal tools for the implementation of systematic procedures aiming to risk mitigation in the process industry. The evaluation of human factors on safety performance can reveal unsafe attitudes and failures in training, supervision and management, whose correction greatly contribute to the enhancement of safety program. In this work, the role of human factors in an oil industry was studied by the collection of field data through a structured questionnaire filled by shift, daily and outsourced workers. A deep investigation on the variables involved in the process was carried out, firstly quantifying three conceptual key dimensions (individual, human resource management, equipment and technology) and then analyzing data by means of Response Surface Methodology (RSM), to identify the statistical significant factors and the overall level of safety awareness, behaviour and risk perception of the respondents

Understanding Link Dynamics in Wireless Sensor Networks with Dynamically Steerable Directional Antennas

Abstract. By radiating the power in the direction of choice, electronicallyswitched directional (ESD) antennas can reduce network contention and avoid packet loss. There exists some ESD antennas for wireless sensor networks, but so far researchers have mainly evaluated their directionality. There are no studies regarding the link dynamics of ESD antennas, in particular not for indoor deployments and other scenarios where nodes are not necessarily in line of sight. Our long-term experiments confirm that previous findings that have demonstrated the dependence of angleof-arrival on channel frequency also hold for directional transmissions with ESD antennas. This is important for the design of protocols for wireless sensor networks with ESD antennas: the best antenna direction, i.e., the direction that leads to the highest packet reception rate and signal strength at the receiver, is not stable but varies over time and with the selected IEEE 802.15.4 channel. As this requires protocols to incorporate some form of adaptation, we present an intentionally simple and yet efficient mechanism for selecting the best antenna direction at run-time with an energy overhead below 2 % compared to standard omni-directional transmissions.

Accent attribution in speakers with Foreign Accent Syndrome

Purpose: The main aim of this experiment was to establish the extent to which the impression of foreignness in speakers with Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) is in any way comparable to the impression of foreignness in speakers with a real foreign accent. Method: Three groups of listeners attributed accents to conversational speech samples of 5 FAS speakers which were embedded amongst those of 5 speakers with a real foreign accent and 5 native speaker controls. The listener groups differed in their familiarity with foreign accented speech and speech pathology. Results: The findings indicate that listeners’ perceptual reactions to the three groups of speakers are essentially different at all levels of analysis. The native speaker controls are unequivocally considered as native speakers of Dutch while the speakers with a real foreign accent are very reliably assessed as non-native speakers. The speakers with Foreign Accent Syndrome, however, are in some sense perceived as foreign and in some sense as native by listeners, but not as foreign as speakers with a real foreign accent nor as native as real native speakers. This result may be accounted for in terms of the trigger support model of foreign accent perception. Conclusions: The findings of the experiment is consistent with the idea that the very nature of the foreign accent in different in both groups of speakers, although it cannot be fully excluded that the perceived foreignness in the two groups is one of degree

A predictive index of axillary nodal involvement in operable breast cancer.

We investigated the association between pathological characteristics of primary breast cancer and degree of axillary nodal involvement and obtained a predictive index of the latter from the former. In 2076 cases, 17 histological features, including primary tumour and local invasion variables, were recorded. The whole sample was randomly split in a training (75% of cases) and a test sample. Simple and multiple correspondence analysis were used to select the variables to enter in a multinomial logit model to build an index predictive of the degree of nodal involvement. The response variable was axillary nodal status coded in four classes (N0, N1-3, N4-9, N > or = 10). The predictive index was then evaluated by testing goodness-of-fit and classification accuracy. Covariates significantly associated with nodal status were tumour size (P < 0.0001), tumour type (P < 0.0001), type of border (P = 0.048), multicentricity (P = 0.003), invasion of lymphatic and blood vessels (P < 0.0001) and nipple invasion (P = 0.006). Goodness-of-fit was validated by high concordance between observed and expected number of cases in each decile of predicted probability in both training and test samples. Classification accuracy analysis showed that true node-positive cases were well recognised (84.5%), but there was no clear distinction among the classes of node-positive cases. However, 10 year survival analysis showed a superimposible prognostic behaviour between predicted and observed nodal classes. Moreover, misclassified node-negative patients (i.e. those who are predicted positive) showed an outcome closer to patients with 1-3 metastatic nodes than to node-negative ones. In conclusion, the index cannot completely substitute for axillary node information, but it is a predictor of prognosis as accurate as nodal involvement and identifies a subgroup of node-negative patients with unfavourable prognosis

Solid-pseudopapillary tumour of the pancreas as a rare cause of gastric outlet obstruction: a case report

The presence of a large bulky pancreatic tumour in a young female should raise suspicions of the diagnosis of solid-pseduopapillary tumour of the pancreas

The first case of acinic cell carcinoma of the breast within a fibroadenoma: Case report

AbstractA case of acinic cell carcinoma of the breast is reported in a 26-year-old woman. She presented a lump in her right breast, that seemed to be a fibroadenoma. The open biopsy revealed a well-bordered fibroadenoma, together with a proliferation of cells characterized by serous acinar differentiation and eosinophilic cytoplasmic granules. Tumor cells stained for amylase, lysozyme, α-1-antichymotripsin, epithelial membrane antigen, S-100 protein, pan-cytokeratin, cytokeratin 7 and E-cadherin. Estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 overexpression, CD10, P63, smooth muscle actin, cytokeratin 5/6 were negative. The sentinel node was negative. 8 months after surgery she is in good clinical conditions without recurrence or metastases

Recupero di antiossidanti da Arthrospira platensis. Estrazione di polifenoli mediante alte pressioni e temperature e successiva purificazione

Nel presente lavoro \ue8 stata confermata la capacit\ue0 di A. platensis di crescere in presenza di intenso stress ossidativo indotto da UV e TiO2. L\u2019induzione di stress ossidativo, oltre a modificare la composizione fenolica, induce il cianobatterio a rilasciare polifenoli nelterreno di crescita.Le prove di coagulazione delle proteine ed estrazione con acetato di etile dell\u2019estratto portano ad un campione contenente una frazione fenolica pi\uf9 concentrata

A 48-week update of a multicentre real-life experience of dupilumab in adult patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis

The long-term efficacy and safety of dupilumab has been demonstrated in clinical trials and only in few real-world studies. We conducted an extension analysis from a previous 16-week study on 109 adult patients affected by moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis treated with dupilumab. Eczema-Area-and-Severity-Index (EASI), itch numerical-rating-score (itch-NRS), Dermatology-Life-Quality-Index (DLQI) scores, drug survival rate and occurrence of adverse events after 24 and 48 weeks of dupilumab treatment were retrospectively collected. Dupilumab demonstrated sustained improvement of disease severity, pruritus, and quality of life in our series with an increasing percentage of patients gaining EASI75 and EASI90 response during the study period. Few patients interrupted treatment resulting in a very high drug survival rate. We also confirmed the favorable safety profile of the drug with absence of serious adverse events and serious infections throughout the 48-week period. The prevalence of conjunctivitis was low and mainly occurred in the mid-term with resolution of the majority of cases at 48 weeks