Influence of high levels of beet pulp in the diet on endocrine/metabolic traits, slaughter dressing percentage, and ham quality in Italian heavy pigs

Seventy two Landrace x Large White barrows were divided into three groups and fed different diets: a control traditional diet based on cereals (C) and two with 15 or 30% dried sugar beet pulp (BP15 and BP30, respectively). Animals weighed 106 kg at start and 167 kg at the end of the experiment. Feeding was restricted (2.5 kg DM/head, on average). The aim of the present experiment was to investigate the influence of high levels of beet pulp in the diet of fattening heavy pigs on some endocrine/metabolic traits, on the slaughter dressing percentage and on some parameters related to meat quality, composition and on the ham quality, after 14 months of seasoning. During the experimental period, jugular vein blood samples were collected from C and BP30-fed pigs and plasma was analysed for several metabolic traits. BP30 diet initially increased the plasma glucose level and decreased free amino acids (P<0.05), but this difference disappeared at the end of the experimental period, when insulin level was decreased (P=0.06) by beet pulp administration. During the entire period, 30% beet pulp diet increased total protein and albumin levels (P<0.001) and decreased urea (P<0.05) without affecting plasma leptin. At slaughter, pigs fed BP30 diet were lighter (P<0.001) and with a lower dressing percentage (P<0.001) in comparison with the other two treatments. Pigs fed BP30 diet also had lower ham and loin weights (P<0.05) (but similar ham and loin percentages) and higher liver weight (P<0.05), liver/carcass ratio (P<0.001), gastrointestinal- tract weight (P<0.001) and gastrointestinal-tract/carcass ratio (P<0.001). Pigs fed C diet had a higher dressing percentage in comparison with pigs fed BP15 diet (P<0.01), but no other significant difference was found between pigs fed diets C and BP15. At slaughter, liver samples were taken from C and BP30-fed pigs in order to evaluate the effect of the diet on liver composition. BP30 diet increased dry liver weight (P<0.05) and liver fat content (P<0.01). The iodine value and the fatty acid composition of the backfat revealed no significant difference between pigs fed the control diet and those fed the high fibre diets. Finally, considering the economic importance of ham production, the characteristics of the seasoned hams were evaluated. No difference was observed on ham quality. In conclusion, feeding a diet with a high percentage of dried sugar beet pulp alters protein and energy metabolism and slaughter parameters, without affecting the quality of the seasoned ham

Subsidence evolution of the Firenze&#8211;Prato&#8211;Pistoia plain (Central Italy) combining PSI and GNSS data

Subsidence phenomena, as well as landslides and floods, are one of the main geohazards affecting the Tuscany region (central Italy). The monitoring of related ground deformations plays a key role in their management to avoid problems for buildings and infrastructure. In this scenario, Earth observation offers a better solution in terms of costs and benefits than traditional techniques (e.g., GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) or levelling networks), especially for wide area applications. In this work, the subsidence-related ground motions in the Firenze&ndash;Prato&ndash;Pistoia plain were back-investigated to track the evolution of displacement from 2003 to 2017 by means of multi-interferometric analysis of ENVISAT and Sentinel-1 imagery combined with GNSS data. The resulting vertical deformation velocities are aligned to the European Terrestrial Reference System 89 (ETRS89) datum and can be considered real velocity of displacement. The vertical ground deformation maps derived by ENVISAT and Sentinel-1 data, corrected with the GNSS, show how the area affected by subsidence for the period 2003&ndash;2010 and the period 2014&ndash;2017 evolved. The differences between the two datasets in terms of the extension and velocity values were analysed and then associated with the geological setting of the basin and external factors, e.g., new greenhouses and nurseries. This analysis allowed for reconstructing the evolution of the subsidence for the area of interest showing an increment of ground deformation in the historic centre of Pistoia Town, a decrement of subsidence in the nursery area between Pistoia and Prato cities, and changes in the industrial sector close to Prato

Delayed Bilateral Symptomatic Vasospasm after Resection of a Skull Base Meningioma: Report on a New Case and Literature Review

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From Picture to Movie: Twenty Years of Ground Deformation Recording Over Tuscany Region (Italy) With Satellite InSAR

Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) techniques have been long exploited for detecting and mapping slow-moving ground surface displacements due to their millimeter accuracy, non-invasiveness and wide area coverage. A review on different applications of Persistent Scatterers InSAR approaches, proposed and applied over Tuscany region (Italy) across time, is here presented. The study area is characterized by both subsidence of alluvial plains and landslides on hilly and mountainous reliefs. Tuscany has a leading role in Italy in the field of interferometric applications: the first InSAR analyses, which date back to 2003, were performed at local basin scale, by exploiting various PSI-based approaches for risk mapping. The first InSAR applications at regional scale date back to 2009, relying on historical SAR archives of ERS and ENVISAT satellites for updating subsidence and landslide inventory maps at a certain temporal date. Nowadays, the availability of Sentinel-1 SAR data with a regular and systematic 6-days acquisitions plan, allows near-real time monitoring of deformative scenario at regional scale rather than solely mapping of geo-hydrological phenomena. Most recent innovative InSAR applications over Tuscany region scan the territory, exploiting the regular repeat pass of Sentinel-1, and promptly highlight the sites affected by the highest ground movements with high temporal frequency. Such approaches permit us to pass from a static ‘picture’ of regional slope instability to a weekly updated ‘movie’ with improved detail, useful for civil protection practices. These last ongoing works significantly enhance the value of multi-temporal InSAR approaches for investigating and managing geo-hazards over the Region

The Florence Psychiatric Interview

The Florence Psychiatric Interview (FPI) is an interviewing instrument for evaluating psychopathology in the community. The FPI is designed to be completed by clinical interviewers, and focuses on single episodes of illness where the symptoms are assessed and graded according to their severity on five-point scales. Psychiatric symptoms are evaluated regardless of their diagnostic collocation, and period and lifetime diagnoses may be generated by combining the episodes and using the appropriate algorithms (the information provided by the FPI covers the requirements of all the present diagnostic systems). Other aspects of psychiatric disorders that are usually ignored in other interviews are investigated (for example, costs of illness, use of health facilities, life events, and personality traits). Data on reliability (inter-rater agreement and test-retest reliability) and agreement with other instruments such as the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) and the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders (SCID) seem encouraging. The FPI's ability to collect lifetime symptoms by combining episodes matches that of an interview (the CIDI) that uses the lifetime approach. Agreement between fully qualified psychiatrists and trained residents was excellent. The ability of the cases to recall symptoms experienced several years before was also acceptable. This instrument is therefore proposed for clinical studies at the epidemiological level. Copyright © 2001 Whurr Publishers Ltd

Influence of the temperature distribution on both high-cycle and low-cycle fatigue life of a motorbike piston

Finite Element analyses are performed to evaluate stresses and strains in a motorbike piston. Non-linear Finite Element models are employed to mimic the piston behaviour when subjected to different loading conditions. In particular, gas forces, inertial forces, and piston-tocylinder contact forces are considered. Temperature distributions formally evaluated and validated against experimental evidences [1] are applied to the model to include thermal stresses and strains into the analysis. Two different thermal configurations are considered: the first has a no-optimized design of the oil jet hitting the underside zone of the piston crown, while the second presents modified parameters able to appreciably increase the heat transfer coefficient. This aspect causes different operating temperature distributions that strongly influence the piston behaviour. This paper aims at performing both low-cycle and high-cycle fatigue analysis to show how the fatigue life and fatigue-critical points change in the two considered thermal configuration

Low-cycle Thermal Fatigue and High-cycle Vibration Fatigue Life Estimation of a Diesel Engine Exhaust Manifold

This paper aims at estimating the low-cycle and high-cycle fatigue life of a turbocharged Diesel engine exhaust manifold. First, a decoupled thermo-structural Finite Element analysis has been performed to investigate low-cycle fatigue phenomena due to the thermal loadings applied to the exhaust manifold. High/low temperature cycles causes stress-strain hysteresis loops in the manifold material whose related dissipated energy can be directly correlated to low-cycle thermal fatigue. Afterwards, a dynamic harmonic analysis has been performed aiming at investigating the existence of high-cycle fatigue phenomena due to vibrational loading applied to the exhaust manifold during the duty cycle. Three direction acceleration experimental loadings have been applied to the model. An ad-hoc methodology has been developed to superimpose thermo-structural results to dynamic harmonic analysis results. In particular, quasi-static thermo-structural results have been employed to identify the mean stress values of vibration fatigue cycles, while alternate stress values have been derived from harmonic analysis. Different combinations of frequencies and phases of the acceleration input signals have been considered to create different high-cycle fatigue loadings. Each cyclic load case has been processed employing the multiaxial Dang Van fatigue criterion