The role of Digital Humanities in Papyrology

My dissertation investigates the impact of digital resources and methods on papyrology, the study of the production of Greek and Latin books and documents as directly witnessed by archaeological findings. This is an extremely fruitful discipline to survey for insight into the changes that digital and Internet technologies have brought to humanities research, because of its long-standing and intensive adoption of diverse resources. The goal of this thesis is to understand to what extent digital humanities methodologies have influenced the papyrologist's work, in terms of both changes in their research practices and evolution of their instruments. This has been achieved by contextualising papyrological resources against the backdrop of digital progress in other classics and humanities disciplines, and by placing them within the framework of digital humanities scholarship. It is the first systematic attempt to carry out a comprehensive analysis of papyrological projects from this perspective. First, I present the reference methodological framework, illustrating the key characteristics to accessibility, usability and sustainability of digital humanities efforts to be evaluated in the resources under scrutiny (ch. 1). Then, I analyse a diverse range of collections, starting from the most common type, corresponding to the most familiar way in which humanities scholars and libraries interact with and organise digital content, namely, by making primary materials directly searchable and browsable. These projects were split in two groups: digitised collections that arise from material ones (ch. 2) and corpora and databases relating to a text category or a theme (ch. 3). The thesis then moves on to examining the less usual type of initiatives, but one that prioritises advanced modalities of access to papyri, through interrelationships among primary sources, derivative information and functional layers (ch. 4). The final chapter draws the conclusion of the dissertation by discussing opportunities and current issues of digital papyrology efforts as a whole. Overall, it can be said that among the strengths of digital papyrology is the remarkable work already carried out. Many institutions have made available online high-quality digital surrogates and catalogue information, to enhance access to their items and encourage understanding of them. Several other types of digital resources for the discipline have been provided by classics departments and papyrological research centres, in form of theme-based collections of digital texts and data, despite the complexity of this damaged and lacunose evidence. Benefits brought by digital methods to papyrological science often concern enhanced access to items and to their components through digital surrogates, digital editions, metadata catalogues and reference works. On the whole, the processes of text digitisation and image capture have been well-exploited in papyrology, although access to papyrus texts would benefit from a more extensive use of deep markup to enable more complex and semantically rich queries. Also, more granular access within items might be provided by allowing navigation not only within text but also within images, with the help of automated alignment techniques. Additionally, there is another opportunity for amelioration by resorting more often to visualisation techniques, for deeper integration between written content and external evidence. Another effect of the digital medium in papyrological research practices is that it has provided the means to virtually assemble many different types of objects, viz. diverse primary sources and scholarly aids, which tend to be scattered across libraries and museums, and analytical tools, so as to construct environments with supportive context for the research process, as is typified by the Papyri.info and Trismegistos platforms. Nevertheless, an important research challenge will be to interlink papyrological textual databases with the available online lexical tools, for instant access to more updated information than in print reference works. Although increasing amounts of digital content for papyrological research are being published, it is worth recognising too that there are questions about their sustainability, which may hinder their maintenance in the long term and investment in further digital projects. While some initiatives have taken steps to ensure ongoing availability, others do not show clear planning that will enable long-term access and curation. Even though issues remain regarding the vulnerability of some resources to future funding, digital papyrology efforts have provided a very valuable contribution to substantively improve modes of research and communication in the discipline, as I hope I have shown. At the same time, I have delineated the challenges that need to be addressed so that the resources may not only continue to aid in the research process, but also, increasingly, be themselves the expression of new research

Microbiological quality of filled pasta in relation to the nature of heat treatment.

The microbial population present in 49 samples of Italian industrially processed filled pasta was characterized and its changes during refrigerated storage were evaluated. The most frequently isolated species belonged to the genus Bacillus. No pathogenic organisms were isolated from the processed industrial pasta. As a consequence of the diversity of composition and thermal treatment a wide variability was observed (from less than 3 days to more than 1 month) in the shelf life at 4 degrees C of the industrial "fresh filled pasta." However, the results obtained suggested that the shelf life of the processed products depend not only on the number of surviving cells but also on the textural or microstructural changes induced by the heat treatment. Challenge tests using Staphylococcus aureus showed that even pasteurization values (P 70(10), expressed as an equivalent process time, in minutes, necessary to obtain at 70 degrees C the same lethal effect as during the actual process) not exceeding 2 were able to remarkably reduce the cell load of this organism. Subsequent growth of the surviving S. aureus cells occurred only at temperatures > 7 degrees C, particularly when the water activity (aw) values were higher than 0.97

Flavonoids uptake and their effect on cell cycle of human colon adenocarcinoma cells (Caco2).

Green tea, mainly through its constituents epigallocatechin gallate, epigallocatechin, epicatechin gallate and epicatechin, has demonstrated anticarcinogenic activity in several animal models, including those for skin, lung and gastro-intestinal tract cancer, although less is known about colorectal cancer. Quercetin, the major flavonoid present in vegetables and fruit, exerts potential anticarcinogenic effects in animal models and cell cultures, but less is known about quercetin glucosides. The objectives of this study were to investigate (i) the antioxidant activity of the phenolic compounds epicatechin, epigallocatechin gallate, gallic acid and quercetin-3-glucoside; (ii) the cytotoxicity of different concentrations of epicatechin, epigallocatechin gallate, and gallic acid; (iii) the cellular uptake of epicatechin, epigallocatechin gallate, gallic acid and quercetin-3-glucoside and (iv) their effect on the cell cycle. Human colon adenocarcinoma cells were used as experimental model. The results of this study indicate that all dietary flavonoids studied (epicatechin, epigallocatechin gallate, gallic acid and quercetin-3-glucoside) show a significant antioxidant effect in a chemical model system, but only epigallocatechin gallate or gallic acid are able to interfere with the cell cycle in Caco2 cell lines. These data suggest that the antioxidant activity of flavonoids is not related to the inhibition of cellular growth. From a structural point of view, the galloyl moiety appears to be required for both the antioxidant and the antiproliferative effects. comCopyright 2002 Cancer Research U

Survival and fatty acid composition of UV-C treated Staphylococcus aureus

Ultraviolet irradiation (UV-C) is proven to be effective to inactivate microorganisms. The present study investigates the effect of sublethal UV-C rays on the membrane fatty acid profile of four Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from air, patient, food and animal. Our results show that S. aureus isolated from patients and air are the most sensitive to UV-C rays and that their inactivation achieves a greater than 2-log reduction after a UV-C exposure of 210 mJ cm−2. However, the strain isolated from food is the most resistant one. The fatty acid analysis indicates that this strain (food) reveals a decrease of branched chain fatty acids (BCFA iso and anteiso) and an increase of straight chain saturated fatty acids (SCFA)

SP134GUT - KIDNEY AXIS IN THE PATHOGENESIS OF IGA NEPHROPATHY

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Micromeria thymifolia Essential Oil Suppresses Quorum-sensing Signaling in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The chemical composition, antimicrobial and antiquorum sensing activity of the essential oil of Micromeria thymifolia (Scop.) Fritsch were investigated. Limonene, piperitone epoxide and piperitenone epoxide were found as the main constituents using a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry technique. In vitro antimicrobial activity of the oil was tested against six bacterial and seven fungal strains and high antimicrobial potential was noticed. Minimum inhibitory concentration varied from 0.031 mg/mL to 0.5 mg/mL for bacterial and 0.062 mg/mL to 0.5 mg/mL for fungal strains. The antiquorum properties of the essential oil were evaluated on Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1. The oil was tested at subMiC concentrations for anti-quorum sensing activity. The analyses on quorum-sensing functions have been carried out by evaluating twitching and swarming of bacterial cultures and the total amount of pyocyanin production produced by P. aeruginosa. This study showed that M thymifolia essential oil exhibited antiquorum sensing activity and may be used as an antipathogenic drug

Antioxidant and Functional Features of Pre-Fermented Ingredients Obtained by the Fermentation of Milling By-Products

The use of milling by-products as ingredients in food formulations has increased gradually over the past years, due to their well-recognized health properties. Fermentation performed with selected microbial strains or microbial consortia is the most promising way to reduce antinutritional factors of cereals and bran, while increasing their nutritional and functional properties. This work, developed within the BBI project INGREEN, was aimed to study the functional, nutritional and technological features of a pre-fermented ingredient obtained from the fermentation of a mixture of rye bran and wheat germ by a selected microbial consortium composed of yeasts (Kazachstania unispora and Kazachstania servazii) and lactic acid bacteria (Latilactobacillus curvatus) using as reference the unfermented mixture and the same mixture fermented by a baker’s yeast. The selected microbial consortium improved the complexity of the volatile molecules such as acids, alcohols and esters. A better retention of color parameters was maintained compared to the product fermented by a baker’s yeast. In addition, the fermentation by the selected consortium showed a significant increase in short chain fatty acids (more than 5-fold), antioxidant activity (22– 24%), total phenol content (53–71%), bioactive peptides (39–52%), a reduction of 20–28% in phytic acid content and an increase in prebiotic activity not only compared to the unfermented product but also compared to the preferment obtained with a baker’s yeast. Overall, the fermentation by the selected microbial consortium can be considered a valuable way to valorize milling by-products and promote their exploitation as food ingredients