1,720,986 research outputs found
FORMULATION OF A NEW NUTRACEUTICAL INGREDIENT USING GREEN TECHNOLOGIES
No full textThis PhD thesis is the result of my three-year research in the fields of food chemistry and green extraction, primarily conducted in the Food and Dietary Products Laboratory of the Department of Pharmacy (DIFAR) at the University of Genoa. This work also benefited from collaborations with other research groups at the University of Genoa, the Synthesis Team of AIMPLAS (Valencia, Spain), THEMIS S.p.A. (Milan, Italy), the Green Extraction Team of ANFACO-CECOPESCA (Vigo, Spain), and the Green Extraction Team of Norwegian food research institute NOFIMA (Tromsø, Norway) .
Formulating a new and green nutraceutical ingredient involves several steps to ensure it is both effective and environmentally friendly. These steps include identifying the health benefit, selecting sustainable ingredients, implementing green manufacturing practices, developing formulations, and verifying regulatory compliance and possibly clinical testing.
Following the preliminary introduction in Chapter 1, this thesis investigates some of these topics to obtain well-known healthy ingredients such as Collagen, Hydrolysed Peptides, Omega-3-rich oils, and Chitin/Chitosan from innovative sustainable sources using green processes. Three case studies are reported, focusing on valorising innovative biomasses from food industry side-streams (fishery, aquaculture, and insect larvae production) through green extraction methods to isolate both bioactive and functional compounds.
The study highlights the use of unsorted, pretreated, and unusual by-products from food/feed industrial chains and the application of green extraction techniques (Enzyme-Assisted Extraction, Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction, Green Solvent-Assisted Extraction). The Multivariate Design of Experiments (DoE) was applied, in each case study, to optimize the extraction conditions of the proposed protocols. The extracted compounds were purified, stabilized mainly by spray-drying, chemically characterized, and tested for their potential industrial applications.
Chapter 2 describes the extraction of collagen-derived bioactive compounds (Pepsin-Soluble Collagen, Gelatine, and Hydrolysed Gelatine Peptides) from fishery biomasses. Biomasses from undersized or damaged fishes (e.g., Mugil Cephalus) were used after dehydration by lyophilization to stabilize them. This process aimed to show that unwanted catches and/or by-catches can be used to extract bioactive compounds like Pepsin-Soluble Collagen (PSC), demonstrating a sustainable multi-circular economy model in the Liguria region of Italy. The study also involved extracting PSC from dehydrated by-products of the yellowfin tuna canning industry, as part of the Horizon 2020 project, EcoeFISHent (GA 101036428).
Chapter 3 describes the implementation of two methods for extracting fish oils from EcoeFISHent fishery biomasses: solid/solvent extraction using green solvents (e.g. thanol and ethyl acetate) and enzyme-assisted extraction (EAE). The study compared these methods in terms of extraction yield, quality of the extracted oils, and their advantages and disadvantages. The novelty lies in using both green technologies and unsorted biomass from industrial filleting processes, which includes various parts like heads, scales, bones, and skin. This biomass was previously dehydrated by an industrial patented process to improve logistics and avoid the costly cold chain, focusing on maintaining food quality by preventing lipid oxidation.
Chapter 4 describes the study to isolate chitin/chitosan from both edible larvae and adult insects of Tenebrio Molitor comparing a traditional chemical extraction with an innovative enzymatic-assisted extraction (EAE) method, optimized by design of experiments (DoE). The process involved, deproteinization, and deacetylation to obtain chitosan, which was chemically characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis (TGA). FT-IR results confirmed that the absorption bands of the prepared chitosan matched the standard compound. Finally, the chitosan was preliminarily tested as a potential functional ingredient in potential nutraceutical formulations, with bioactive compounds such as the fish oil and the hydrolysed peptides extracted as described in the previous chapters
Central precocious puberty in a girl with LEGIUS syndrome: an accidental association?
Full text linkBACKGROUND: Central precocious puberty is a condition characterized by precocious activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. It may be idiopathic or secondary to organic causes, including syndromes such as Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1).CASE PRESENTATION: We presented a girl of 6years and 10months with almost 11 cafe-au-lait skin macules, without other clinical or radiological signs typical of NF1, and with a central precocious puberty. Genetic analysis evidenced the new variant NM-152594.2:c.304delAp. (Thr102Argfs*19) in SPRED1 gene, which allowed to diagnose Legius syndrome.CONCLUSIONS: We report for the first time a case of central precocious puberty in a girl with Legius syndrome. The presence of central precocious puberty in a child with characteristic cafe-au-lait macules should suggest pediatricians to perform genetic analysis in order to reach a definitive diagnosis. Further studies on timing of puberty in patients with RASopathies are needed to better elucidate if this clinical association is casual or secondary to their clinical condition
The history of clinical renal transplant.
No full textAfter pioneeristic clinical and experimental work done by Jaboulay and Carrel in Lyon at the begining of the XX century, it was only in 1936 that Yu Yu Voronoy in Ukraine and then in 1945 Landsteiner and Hufnagel in Boston, USA, transplanted human kidneys. In 1955 Murray reported the first successful homotransplantation in identical twins and he later received the Nobel Prize in 1990 for this achievement. These milestones associated to the broadening of knowledge in the field of tissue typing, allowed the diffusion of kidney and other organ transplantation
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
Variations on the Author
Full text link“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
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Cationic Polystyrene-Based Hydrogels: Low-Cost and Regenerable Adsorbents to Electrostatically Remove Nitrites from Water
No full textNitrites are metastable anions that are derived from the oxidation of ammonia by agricultural pollution, sewage, decaying protein, and other nitrogen sources. They are a recognized environmental issue due to their role in eutrophication, as well as in surface and groundwater contamination, being toxic to almost all living creatures. Recently, we reported on the high efficiency of two cationic resins (R1 and R2) forming hydrogels (R1HG and R2HG) by dispersion in water in removing anionic dyes from water by electrostatic binding. Here, aiming at developing adsorbent materials for nitrite remediation, R1, R2, R1HG, and R2HG were first tested in adsorption experiments in batches monitored by UV–Vis methods, using the Griess reagent system (GRS) in order to assess their removal efficiency by contact over time. Particularly, samples of water appositely contaminated with nitrites were analyzed by UV–Vis before and during treatment with the hydrogels. The initial concentration of nitrites was quantified (118 mg/L). Then, the removal of nitrites over time, the removal efficiency of R1HG (89.2%) and of R2HG (89.6%), their maximum adsorption (21.0 mg/g and 23.5 mg/g), as well as the adsorption kinetics and mechanisms were evaluated. Additionally, R1HG- and R2HG-based columns (h = 8–10 cm, ØE = 2 cm) mimicking mini-scale decontamination systems by filtration were used to rapidly filter samples of water polluted with nitrite that were under pressure. R1HG and R2GH were capable of totally removing nitrites (99.5% and 100%) from volumes of nitrite solutions that were 118 mg/L that is 10 times the volumes of resins used. Additionally, when extending filtration to increasing volumes of the same nitrite solution up to 60 times the volume of resins used, the removal efficiently of R1HG decreased, and that of R2HG remained stable at over 89%. Interestingly, both the worn-out hydrogels were regenerable by 1% HCl washing, without a significant reduction in their original efficiency. There is a lack of studies in the literature reporting on novel methods to remove nitrite from water. R1HG and especially R2HG represent low-cost, up-scalable, and regenerable column-packing materials with promise for applications in the treatment of drinking water contaminated by nitrites
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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