Macro and micro elements in traditional meals of Mediterranean diet: Determination, estimated intake by population, risk assessment and chemometric analysis

The aim of the study was to estimate the dietary exposure of the main macro and micro elements from meals typically consumed by the Mediterranean population, in particular Sicilian by samples prepared and cooked prior to analysis. A total of 57 typical Mediterranean meals samples were analysed for 4 macro elements: Calcium (Ca), Potassium (K), Magnesium (Mg) and Sodium (Na) and 13 micro elements: Aluminium (Al), Arsenic (As), Cadmium (Cd), Cobalt (Co), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Mercury (Hg), Manganese (Mn), Nickel (Ni), Lead (Pb), Zinc (Zn) and Vanadium (V) by inductively coupled plasma - mass spectrometry and atomic absorption spectrometry. Mercury concentration was quantified directly on the food samples by using the DMA-80 (Direct for Mercury Analysis). Daily Estimated Element Intake was calculated for essential element and assessment of health risk associated with intake of investigated elements was performed. In particular, analysed samples supply from 3.7% to 62% of sodium, 0.05–19% of potassium, 0.1–3.2% of calcium, 1.6–16% of magnesium, 2.1–37% of iron, 0.7–48% of zinc and 0.98–339% of chromium. some of the foods prepared are lacking in all macroelements (Na, K, Ca, Mg). The quantity of macroelements taken from a single portion of 100 g of several food, compared to the recommended quantities, is low, but it should be considered that on average in one day (breakfast, lunch and dinner), undoubtedly, the inhabitants of the Mediterranean area consume much higher quantities for a total of 500–1000 g, therefore, this study confirmation for the populations concerned, the low probability of nutritional or health risks due to the consumption of foods, indeed, the consumption of Mediterranean dietary foods, has not shown particular risk assessments from heavy metals

Spiro-derivatives as hole transporting materials for improving the performance of perovskite solar cells

The Sun is the most powerful source of energy in the Earth's solar system, which, in part, can be exploited by all the inhabitants of the Earth. The optimal exploitation of the fraction that arrives on earth is, undoubtedly, among the most important challenges nowadays of science. To convert sun light into chemical energy, the first silicon-based device Photovoltaic (PV) solar cells, prepared by Chapin in 1954 exhibiting an efficiency around 6% [1,2] used different semiconducting materials (inorganic, organic, molecular, polymeric, hybrids, quantum dots, etc.). Today the most promising technology to replace/complement crystalline silicon PV [3] are the Perovskites solar cells (PSCs) that emerged since 2009, achieving efficiencies of ~26 %. These results were obtained using commercially available spiro-OMeTAD as hole-transporting material (HTM) that are expensive materials due to its difficult purification and multi-step synthetic protocols (in harsh conditions) which limits its future use in large-scale applications. Considering the negative aspects related to the industrial production of the spiro-OMeTAD, we synthesized some intermediates necessary for the subsequent synthesis of four spiro-derivatives. Excellent results were obtained with some derivatives based on electron-rich spiranic scaffolds [4], synthesized by the Buchwald-Hartwig reaction, carried out in toluene. In this way it was possible to obtain the spiro-PTZ functionalized, by making structural modifications to the previously obtained derivatives, the yield of this synthesis was around 21%. The compounds obtained were incorporated into perovskite solar cells providing efficiencies higher than the standard used (spiroOMeTAD). The devices have been tested under illumination and have shown good stability over time

Voltammetry for Monitoring Platinum, Palladium and Rhodium in Environmental and Food Matrices

The interest of researchers on quantification of Pt, Pd and Rh in the environmental and food matrices is the consequence of the production of catalytic converters for car engines. Sensitization, mutagenic effects in bacterial and mammalian cells, and increased tumour incidence are the effects of Pt, Pd and Rh at high concentrations reported in medical and occupational researches while their effects at the low environmental concentrations have not been determined. Voltammetric techniques are very advantageous to quantify PGEs in environmental and food matrices due to their intrinsic sensitivity derived from the electrochemical pre-concentration of the analyte at the electrode surface, the capability to distinguish between different redox species and/or labile from non-labile metal complexes, with applications for metal speciation studies. The analysis of PGEs by spectrophotometric methods (atomic absorption, ICP-MS, ICP-OES, etc.) suffers from several practical problems. In this article we take into consideration the research concerning environmental and food matrices from 1996 to 2022

A Short Review of Simple Analytical Methods for the Evaluation of PAHs and PAEs as Indoor Pollutants in House Dust Samples

Studies on indoor air quality are indispensable when considering that people spend approximately 85% of their time in confined environments. This short review mostly takes into consideration research that uses passive samplers to evaluate the quality of indoor environments (houses, school, cars, etc.). This short review summarizes most analytical methods to detect and quantify PAHs and PAEs in house dust used as a passive sampler. The objective of house dust analysis is to identify the presence, amount and distribution of specific hazardous substances in confined spaces and, if possible, to identify their sources. Household dust and the compounds present in it can enter the human body by inhalation, non-food ingestion and absorption through the skin. The observed differences in concentrations of house dust may also indicate important differences in the chemical and physical nature of pollutants caused by air filtration and absorption during the migration of ambient air into the indoor environment

A reappraisal of the 1978 Ferruzzano earthquake (southern Italy) from new estimates of hypocenter location and moment tensor inversion

The March 11th, 1978 Ferruzzano earthquake is the most recent moderate-to-major earthquake occurred in the southern Calabrian region (southern Italy), one among the highest seismic risk areas of the whole Mediterranean. Previous information available from the literature on the 1978 earthquake is quite contrasting and not well framed in the regional seismotectonic scenario. In the present study we selected and digitized analog seismograms coming from stations of the Euro-Mediterranean region to invert for the deviatoric seismic moment tensor through a time-domain algorithm properly implemented to analyze data recorded before the advent of the digital era. Moreover, we estimated a new hypocentral location by using original bulletin data and a non-linear probabilistic earthquake location technique working with 3D velocity models. The quality and stability of the obtained results, both for hypocenter location and moment tensor inversion, were accurately checked by several inversion tests. Our results indicate that the 1978 earthquake (i) occurred westward and at a shallower depth respect to previous hypocenter locations, (ii) is characterized by a ca. N-S trending normal faulting mechanism and (iii) has a moment magnitude of 4.7, thus suggesting an overestimate of previous evaluations. This study furnishes new information on the 1978 Ferruzzano earthquake allowing to better frame it in the regional seismotectonic scenario and also proves that the time-domain waveform inversion algorithm applied to digitized old seismograms is capable to successfully invert also M w < 5 earthquakes. The obtained results pave the way for future analyses of the early instrumental seismicity potentially capable to furnish new constraints to local and regional seismotectonic modeling.Published34-443T. Sorgente sismica4T. Sismicità dell'Italia6T. Studi di pericolosità sismica e da maremotoJCR Journa

Thyroid hormone regulation of pancreatic genes identified by cDNA microarray

P3-173 San Francisco, CA, U.S.A

Integration of geological and geophysical data for re-evaluation of local seismic hazard and geological structure: the case study of Rometta, Sicily (Italy)

The village of Rometta, northern-eastern Sicily (Southern Italy), experienced severe damage during the most energetic earthquakes that occurred in eastern Sicily and southern Calabria in the last centuries. Geological maps indicate that Rometta primarily lies on a stiff plate of Upper Pliocene – Lower Pleistocene calcarenites and only to minor extent on Middle Pleistocene overlying clays. Rometta represents an interesting case study for site response investigation because of the apparent mismatch between the currently available geological knowledge and the level of damage caused by historical seismic events. The local seismic response has been investigated through a grid of 64 single-station measurements of ambient seismic noise by the Horizontal to Vertical Noise Spectral Ratio technique (H/V). Also, phase velocity dispersion curves from seismic array through the Extended Spatial Auto-Correlation method were analyzed. The H/V curves obtained show a ubiquitous frequency peak between 0.5 Hz and 0.9 Hz due to the deep interface between the metamorphic substrate and sedimentary sequence, and a secondary peak in the 2.5–15 Hz interval in most of the measurement points that may be related to a larger extent of the clay outcrops with respect to what is already known from geological investigations. Joint inversion of dispersion and H/V curves was also performed in order to obtain the velocity profile. Results acquired through the combined use of geophysical methods furnished useful information for seismic hazard evaluation where surface geology is not clearly visible because of urbanization and vegetation cover, thus suggesting that a wide extent of clays may reasonably be the cause of past earthquake damage distribution.

Ambient noise measurements for preliminary microzoning studies in the city of Messina, Sicily

On December 28th 1908 the city of Messina was destroyed by one of the most catastrophic Italian earthquakes of the last centuries (Mw=7.1, I = XI) which caused more than 60000 deaths and destruction in many localities of Sicily and Calabria. In this study we present the results of more than 100 seismic ambient noise measurements carried out in the framework of the first massive seismic site response survey performed in the city of Messina. Starting from geological information and historical reports reconstructing the damage scenario of the 1908 event, we have identified several sites particularly interesting for seismic response investigations. This extensive survey allowed us to evaluate the fundamental resonance frequency for each investigated site and to identify the areas prone to site amplification. Measurements have been performed by using 3-component velocimeter, Micromed Tromino, and the collected dataset has been processed by applying the Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral Ratio technique. For each investigated site we provide the fundamental resonance frequency and a preliminary information on the metamorphic bedrock depth. The massive dataset collected and the results obtained will be useful for the seismic microzonation of the urban territory of Messina.

Characterization and regulation of the mouse insulin receptor substrates-3 (IRS-3) gene promoter

Sidney, Australi