79,363 research outputs found

    Multi-element analysis and geographical origin classification of italian (Calabrian) wines

    No full text
    Background and Objective: In this article, a comprehensive study was carried out for food authenticity evaluation through chemometric analyses, correlating botanical and geographical origins with food chemical composition. Methods: A total of eighteen Calabrian red, rose and white wines were analyzed through Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Results: The mineral concentrations, determined by ICP-MS in the investigated wine samples, followed the subsequent order: K > P > Mg > Na > Ca > Fe > Cu > Zn > Mn > V. The 2D Scatterplot and loading plot (Principal Component Analysis) showed that all red, rose and white wine samples from “Cirò” DOP area were grouped in the fourth, second and third quadrant, respectively, clearly separated from each other. Samples from “Cirò” red showed positive PC1 and were characterized by higher K, Fe, Mn, Na, V and Zn concentrations. Moreover, the points corresponding to two red wines from the “Terre di Cosenza” DOP area fall into the first quadrant; those corresponding to two rose wines from the “Donnici” and “Sant’Anna di Isola di Capo Rizzuto” DOP areas fall into the third and fourth quadrants, respectively; the point corresponding to a white wine from the “Donnici” DOP area falls into the second quadrant. Conclusion: Experimental results demonstrated that it is possible to strictly relate, through the PCA, wines to their geographical and botanical provenance, thus becoming a useful tool for evaluating the product authenticity and guaranteeing it to the consumers

    Acute amnestic syndrome in fornix lesions: a systematic review of reported cases with a focus on differential diagnosis

    No full text
    Introduction: Acute amnestic syndrome is an uncommon clinical presentation of neurological disease. Differential diagnosis encompasses several syndromes including Wernicke-Korsakoff and transient global amnesia (TGA). Structural lesions of the fornix account for a minority of cases of acute amnestic syndromes. Etiology varies from iatrogenic injury to ischemic, inflammatory, or neoplastic lesions. A prompt diagnosis of the underlying pathology is essential but challenging. The aim of this review is to systematically review the existing literature regarding cases of acute amnestic syndrome associated with non iatrogenic lesions of the fornix. Methods: We performed a systematic literature search on PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science up to September 2023 to identify case reports and case series of patients with amnestic syndrome due to fornix lesions. The systematic review was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. The research was limited to articles written in English. Cases of fornix damage directly ascribable to a surgical procedure were excluded. Results: A total of 52 publications reporting 55 cases were included in the review. Focusing on acute/subacute onset, vascular etiology was highly prevalent, being responsible for 78% of cases, 40/55 (74%) of which were due to acute ischemic stroke. The amnestic syndrome was characterized by anterograde amnesia in all patients, associated with retrograde amnesia in 27% of cases. Amnesia was an isolated presentation in most cases. Up to two thirds of patients had persistent memory deficits of any severity at follow-up. Discussion: Acute amnestic syndrome can be rarely caused by fornix lesions. In most cases of acute/subacute presentation, the etiology is ischemic stroke, mainly caused by strokes involving the subcallosal artery territory. The differential diagnosis is challenging and a distinction from common mimics is often difficult on a clinical basis. A high index of suspicion should be maintained to avoid misdiagnosis and provide adequate acute treatment to patients with time dependent disease, also employing advanced neuroimaging. More research is needed to better understand the outcome and identify prognostic factors in patients with amnestic syndrome due to fornix lesions

    Contribution of soil compositions, harvested times and varieties on chemical fingerprint of Italian and Turkish citrus cultivars

    No full text
    This paper aims to define the stability over the time of chemical elemental patterns in some citrus varieties of PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) and not PGI Interdonato and Lunario cultivars coming from Italy and Turkey and to set up a range of markers useful to trace their geographical origin. During the 2015–2017 growing seasons, all fruits were collected and subjected to Inductively Coupled Mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis, in order to determine the multielemental chemical profiles. The chemical variability was calculated for each element by Multi-way analysis of variance. The results highlighted how the measured Cr, Ni, Al, K, Fe and Zn levels mainly depend on the soil composition and the fingerprint allow to trace the geographical origins. Moreover, the stepwise linear discriminant analysis (SLDA) has allowed to correctly classify the 100% of lemon pulps provenances, based on Ni, Al, K, Ca and Na contents. Finally, our study demonstrates the role played by harvest years, variety and soils composition whose interaction contributed to define the chemical fingerprints

    Results of the Heart Protection Study: Can we still assume a class effect?

    No full text
    Statins share several common features including the mechanism of action, i.e. inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase, as well as LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglyceride lowering properties. However, statins show minor differences in chemical structure, lipophilicity that could translate into a different pharmacological properties. For example, simvastatin exerted a more favorable effect on HDL-C levels than did atorvastatin when higher doses of the two drugs were compared. Finally, the major considerations to chose between statins for CVD patient therapy include clinical benefits and safety (i.e. evidence-based medicine). Primary prevention trials with pravastatins and lovastatin and secondary prevention trials with pravastatin, fluvastatin and simvastatin have established the clinical benefits of statins. In addition, HPS study was designed to investigate the benefits of simvastatin 40 mg in a broad range of patients at high risk for heart disease including women, the elderly and those with a history of hearth attacks, diabetes, hypertension or vascular disease. The results show the ability of simvastatin to reduce all causes of mortality, vascular death and cardiovascular morbidity. The trial also confirms the safety of simvastatin 40 mg although 60% of patients were receiving additional pharmacological treatment. In summary, it appears that statins are not the same and the choice of the more appropriate statin in high-risk patients should be driven by the evidence-based medicine both in terms of safety and efficacy

    A Relational Unsupervised Approach to Author Identification

    No full text
    In the last decades speaking and writing habits have changed. Many works faced the author identification task by exploiting frequencybased approaches, numeric techniques or writing style analysis. Following the last approach we propose a technique for author identification based on First-Order Logic. Specifically, we translate the complex data represented by natural language text to complex (relational) patterns that represent the writing style of an author. Then, we model an author as the result of clustering the relational descriptions associated to the sentences. The underlying idea is that such a model can express the typical way in which an author composes the sentences in his writings. So, if we can map such writing habits from the unknown-author model to the known-author model, we can conclude that the author is the same. Preliminary results are promising and the approach seems viable in real contexts since it does not need a training phase and performs well also with short texts

    Variations on the Author

    No full text
    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Also By The Same Author: AKTiveAuthor, a Citation Graph Approach to Name Disambiguation

    No full text
    The desire for definitive data and the semantic web drive for inference over heterogeneous data sources requires co-reference resolution to be performed on those data. In particular, name disambiguation is required to allow accurate publication lists, citation counts and impact measures to be determined. This paper describes a graph-based approach to author disambiguation on large-scale citation networks. Using self-citation, co-authorship and document source analyses, AKTiveAuthor clusters papers, achieving precision of 0.997 and recall of 0.818 over a test group of eight surname clusters

    Detection of weak stochastic forces in a parametrically stabilized micro-optomechanical system

    No full text
    Measuring a weak force is an important task for micromechanical systems, both when using devices as sensitive detectors and, particularly, in experiments of quantum mechanics. The optimal strategy for resolving a weak stochastic signal force on a huge background (typically given by thermal noise) is a crucial and debated topic, and the stability of the mechanical resonance is a further, related critical issue. We introduce and analyze the parametric control of the optical spring, which allows us to stabilize the resonance and provides a phase reference for the oscillator motion, yet conserving a free evolution in one quadrature of the phase space. We also study quantitatively the characteristics of our micro-optomechanical system as detector of stochastic force for short measurement times (for quick, high-resolution monitoring) as well as for the longer-term observations that optimize the sensitivity. We compare a simple strategy based on the evaluation of the variance of the displacement which is a widely used technique) with an optimal Wiener-Kolmogorov data analysis. We show that, due to the parametric stabilization of the effective susceptibility, we can more efficiently implement Wiener filtering, and we investigate how this strategy improves the performance of our system. We finally demonstrate the possibility to resolve stochastic force variations well below 1% of the thermal noise.MicroelectronicsElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

    Traceability of Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) Interdonato lemon pulps by chemometric analysis of the mineral composition

    No full text
    In the last years, element content has been used as geographical tracer to determine the provenance of food. In the present work the content of 19 minerals (K, Ca, Mg, Na, Fe, Zn, B, Cu, Al, Mn, Ni, Cr, Pb, Co, As, Se, Cd, Sb and V) and 13 lanthanide elements (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm and Lu) in Protect Geographical Indication (PGI) Interdonato lemon Messina (Italy) and non-PGI Turkish lemon pulps was evaluated by ICP-MS. The collected data were used to discriminate geographical origin of lemon samples (PGI or non-PGI) through statistical analyses. The discrimination between Italian and Turkish lemons was achieved by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and also by Canonical Discriminant Analysis (CDA). The results indicate that the 100% of total samples were correctly classified. The present study suggests that it is possible to relate lemons to their geographical origins, representing a necessary condition for traceability of these peculiar products. Unfortunately, Italian and Turkish lemon pulps cannot be considered “rich in” or “source of” analyzed minerals. However, these fruits can be considered safe for their low content in toxic elements

    Landsat MSS classification of fire fuel types in Wood Buffalo National Park, northern Canada

    No full text
    J1: Global Ecology & Biogeography Letters; M3: Article; Milne, David Franklin, Steven E. Wilson, Bradley A. Ghitter, Geoff Heathcott, Mark McCaffrey, Thomas M. Ow, Charlotte F. Y.; Source Information: Mar1994, Vol. 4 Issue 2, p33; Subject Term: FOREST fires; Author-Supplied Keyword: Canada (Wood Buffalo National Park); Author-Supplied Keyword: Forest fire; Author-Supplied Keyword: Fuel type classification; Author-Supplied Keyword: Landsat data; Number of Pages: 0p; Document Type: Articl
    corecore