1,721,814 research outputs found
Combining computer aided food engineering and electro-heating applications as contribution to food processing sustainability
Full text linkCan the combination of computer aided food engineering and electro-heating applications contribute to food processing sustainability? To what United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) this combination could contribute? Those are the questions addressed in this perspective. SDG7 is aimed to ensure the access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable and modern energy for all. According to World Bank, ensuring access to modern food cooking solutions is a key component to achieving for SDG7, and -since cooking is mainly based on heating processing- also the access to modern food heating solutions must be considered as a key component to achieving for SDG7. Electro-heating applications (EHA) in food processing include all processes using the interaction of a food material or product with an electromagnetic field, as in microwave, radio-frequency, and moderate electric fields processing. These technologies involve the use of electrical and -more recently- electronic circuits and require professional figures in their design. As result, the installation cost of these technologies is way higher than installation cost for heating processes using fossil sources, as fuel for fire boilers, as an example. Furthermore, at industrial level, these technologies may require ad-hoc design. Consequently, the food processing industry is quite slow in embracing such technologies along the productive lines. Computer aided food engineering (CAFE) has been recognized as valuable approach to shifts the paradigm from trial-and-error-based design to model-based design, using digital tools for the virtual representation of a food product or process, predicting the behavior of it. The combination of CAFE and EHA is the only way to help the food industry to embrace sustainability in most operations in which the heat transfer is involved. This paper presents a viewpoint on the challenges and opportunity to combine CAFE and EHAs as contribution to food processing sustainability
Reply to 'Genetic and clinical data reinforce the role of GAS6 and TAM receptors in liver fibrosis'
No full textOpen gridded climate datasets can help investigating the relation between meteorological anomalies and geomorphic hazards in mountainous areas
Full text linkThe initiation of geomorphic hazards in mountainous environments is highly susceptible to temperature and precipitation forcing. To assess future changes in these hazards, statistical methods linking meteorological anomalies with the occurrence of past hazards can be employed. These methods are currently trained using long records from in-situ meteorological stations. This requires large efforts for data access, collection and homogenisation, which severely limit the scalability of these approaches. Here, we use a consolidated statistical method and a vast catalogue of geomorphic hazards occurred across the Alpine range to show that open-access datasets of gridded temperature and satellite-based precipitation estimates can be used as surrogates of in-situ observations. Further, we find that satellite data can capture precipitation anomalies leading to debris flows that are missed by in-situ observations
Rhinocerotidae (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from the chrono-stratigraphically constrained Pleistocene deposits of the urban area of Rome (Central Italy)
No full textIn the present paper we provide a revision of the Pleistocene Rhinocerotidae remains collected so far in the sedimentary deposits of the urban area of Rome. Five Pleistocene species have been identified: Stephanorhinus etruscus (Falconer), Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis (Toula), Stephanorhinus hemitoechus (Falconer), Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis (Jäger), and Coelodonta antiquitatis (Blumenbach). By establishing correlations of the sedimentary sections hosting the fossil remains with the geochronolog- ically-constrained, astronomically-forced aggradational successions of the Paleo-Tiber River, we frame the fossil remains within a detailed chronostratigraphic scheme with no equivalent in the previous literature. This approach leads to new considerations on the occurrences and paleobiogeography of the recovered species. Based on the studied material, the last occurrence of S. etruscus in Italy is here referred to a timespan between 0.86 and 0.82 Ma, thus suggesting a long persistence of this species. Recalibration of the considered deposits enabled us to refer the first evidence of S. hundsheimensis in Italy to approximately 0.8 Ma (Ponte Milvio gravels and sands; urban area of Rome). In the Roman area, specimens referred to S. hundsheimensis are coeval with relatively smaller and slender remains of an undefined rhinoceros species. S. hemitoechus is recorded in fossiliferous deposits earlier than 0.4 Ma and its persistence in the studied area is reported at least until 0.19 Ma. S. kirchbergensis occurs for the first time in Italy at ca. 0.56-0.5 Ma (Tor di Quinto deposit; urban area of Rome) and persists in the considered area until 0.37-0.29 Ma. C. antiquitatis is here reported for the first time within the Roman area, so adding a new record of this species in Italy. Unfortunately, the exact locality in which the specimens were collected is unknown, preventing from precise chronostratigraphic assessment
Advances in Food Processing Through Radio Frequency Technology: Applications in Pest Control, Microbial and Enzymatic Inactivation
Full text linkFoodborne illnesses occur due to contamination by pathogenic microorganisms. Therefore, decontaminating food is vital before marketing and circulation. Radio frequency (RF) heating stands out in several branches of industry, mainly food processing, as an alternative method to conventional pasteurization which takes long process times and overheating. RF heating functions without relying on heat conduction. It generates internal heat by inducing the rotation of polar molecules and the motion of ions. The advantages of dielectric heating with greater wave penetration include rapid, uniform and volumetric heating, presenting high energy efficiency. Furthermore, it is an effective, validated method for eliminating pathogens in agricultural products and is free from chemical residues. Although many reviews have discussed this technology, few reviews have covered the research trends in this field in the recent years, during which the number of studies discussing RF treatment of foods have increased. Therefore, this review focuses on the RF applications in the food industry for pest control, microbial and enzymatic inactivation of solid, liquid, and powdered foods in the last five years. Besides covering the fundamental aspects of RF technology, we also examine its benefits and drawbacks, address the challenges it presents, and explore future prospect
Medaglioni preparatori per "Maestri di Ateneo"
Full text linkThe bio-bibliographical profiles of certain jurists who have shown by their presence the University of Urbino, in particular the Faculty of Law, during the twentieth century are here proposed. It is the "preparatory works" – so to speak – of a much more expansive and articulate "anthology" which is being published by the University under the title "The Masters of the University. The lecturers of the University of Urbino in the twentieth century". The vast breadth of these "sketches" and the atmosphere that is created through them – even because they are here in chronological order – around what was the only faculty of the University at the beginning of the century, may justify a reproduction, that is not a mere repetition. This applies even if it is a few items that relate to the Roman law, and more.Si propongono qui i profili bio-bibliografici di taluni giuristi che hanno illustrato con la loro presenza l’Università di Urbino, in particolare la Facoltà di Giurisprudenza, nel corso del XX secolo. Si tratta dei “lavori preparatori” – per così dire – di una ben più ampia ed articolata “antologia” che sta per essere pubblicata a cura dell’Ateneo con il titolo di “Maestri di Ateneo. I docenti dell’Università di Urbino nel Novecento”. La maggior ampiezza di questi “bozzetti” e il clima che attraverso essi viene a crearsi attorno a quella che all’inizi del secolo era l’unica Facoltà dell’ateneo urbinate può giustificare questa che non è una mera riproposizione. E ciò anche se si tratta di solo 5/6 voci che riguardano il diritto romano, e non solo.DOI: 10.4459/STU.2013.002.I
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Non-linear response to periodic forcing of methane-air global and detailed kinetics in continuous stirred tank reactors close to extinction conditions
No full textThis paper focus on the behavior of a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) subject to perturbations of finite amplitude and frequency. Two main objectives are pursued: to determine the extinction line in the equivalence ratio (φ) - residence time (τ) plane, fixed the thermodynamic state conditions; and to characterize the response of the chemical system to periodic forcing of the residence time. Transient simulations of combustion of methane with air, using both global single-step and detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms, have been conducted and the corresponding asymptotic solutions analyzed. Results indicate very different dynamical behaviors, posing the issue of a proper choice of the kinetic scheme for the numerical study of combustion oscillations
Uncertainty in Estimation of Debris-Flow Triggering Rainfall: Evaluation and Impact on Identification of Threshold Relationships
No full textOperational debris-flow warning systems are often based on the use of empirical rainfall thresholds derived from rain gauge observations. However, rain gauges are usually located away from the actual debris-flow locations thus estimation of triggering rainfall properties from rain gauges can be associated with considerable uncertainty. This work examines the uncertainty in gauge-based estimation of debris-flow triggering rainfall and evaluates its impact on the identification of rainfall thresholds used for debris-flows prediction. These issues are assessed by using high-resolution radar data to represent "actual" space-time patterns of precipitation at and around the debris-flow initiation points. Rain-gauge network sampling is simulated by randomly sampling radar-rainfall fields. Rainfall is estimated by using three rainfall interpolation methods: Nearest neighbor (NN), inverse distance weighting (IDW), and ordinary kriging (OK). Comparison of results from these three methods shows that no particular benefit in intensity-duration threshold estimation is obtained by using approaches that are more complex than the NN method. NN provides estimates with smaller bias than IDW and OK but larger estimation variance. On average, decrease in gauge density leads to increased underestimation of debris-flow rainfall and subsequently this results in large underestimation of the intensity-duration thresholds
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