1,720,991 research outputs found
Non-destructive depth profile reconstruction of bio-engineered surfaces by parallel angle resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
No full textLabel-free biosensors are of considerable interest for various clinical and biological applications. In these systems, achieving an optimized receptor immobilization strategy critically influence the sensing performance in terms of specificity, sensitivity, response kinetics and detection limits. However, monitoring the receptor spatial organization and the interfaces composition on a nanometer or sub-nanometer scale is a very hard challenge.
In the present contribution Parallel Angle Resolved X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (PAR-XPS) was proposed as useful tool to address the challenge of probing the near-surface region of bio-active sensors surface (1). A model receptor was chosen and a well-established functionalization procedure (2) was systematically characterized by PAR-XPS. Commercially available Thermo Avantage-ARProcess software was used to generate non-destructive concentration depth profiles of protein functionalized silicon oxide substrates. At each step of the functionalization procedure, the surface composition, the over layer thickness, the in-depth organization and the in-plane homogeneity were evaluated. Compared to multi-techniques characterization approaches previously proposed in the literature, the present analytical approach boasted the peculiar advantage of providing, simultaneously, morphological and compositional information from the same data set. The critical discussion of the generated profiles highlighted the relevance of the information provided by PAR-XPS technique
Allelic variation of gliadin-encoding genes in a collection of tetraploid wheat genotypes
Full text linkWheat is one of the main crops bred worldwide. Durum wheat, specifically, is a key element of the Mediterranean diet, representing an élite crop grown in Italy. Durum wheat nutritional and technological values are largely due to the grain protein content (GPC), a complex genetic trait strongly affected by environmental factors and management practices. In the last decades, several breeding programs have been focused on improving GPC by both traditional and innovative approaches. Among seed storage proteins, prolamins, including both gliadins and glutenins, represent the major component. These two classes of proteins are indeed responsible of gluten formation and confer the extensibility and elasticity to the dough. Besides being of crucial importance for both technological properties and rheological characteristics, prolamins, and especially gliadins, have been found to be major triggers for human health, as involved in a number of wheat consumption-related conditions, such as the celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity, defined as the onset of a variety of manifestations related to wheat, rye and barley ingestion, and wheat allergies, both due to wheat ingestion or inhalation (of flour or pollen). The identification of loci responsible for the gliadin expression, and particularly of polymorphism in the aforementioned genes, which could result in a lower immunogenic/toxic potential, could be of great importance in breeding programs. For this purpose, we screened a collection of tetraploid wheat genotypes for allelic variants of annotated gliadin genes in the durum wheat genome, in order to identify genetic resources available to breeders to improve wheat nutritional and technological properties. Phylogenetic analysis among different species of Triticum genus and an in silico expression data analysis may also be useful in the exploitation of the complex scenario of gliadin–glutenin interaction and gluten role in the adverse reactions due to wheat consumption
FMECA Analysis of Healthcare Services: the evaluation of the efficiency of an Hospital Department
No full textOne shot-proteomic profiling, allergenicity assessment and varietal discrimination of lentils seeds by discovery high resolution tandem mass spectrometry
No full textLentils ( Lens culinaris ) represent important food staple replacing meat products in human diet with various applications of foods and feeds due to the high protein content. This work reported on the comparative proteomic profiling of four lentils commercial varieties Crimson, Eston, Laird and Black, providing novel knowledge on the differential expression of specific protein accessions with specific focus placed on the major protein families also investigating their allergenicity risk. The electrophoretic profile of lentil extracts confirmed that most of the proteomic profile was conserved across the investigated varieties, with only few differences highlighted for convicillin, vicilin and legumin subunits. A more in-depth analysis was carried out by one-shot discovery proteomics and provided the unequivocal identification and label -free quantification of 365 protein entries ranked into the main protein families. Statistically significant differences were disclosed for most of these protein groups and/or subgroups, cupins being the major contributors to the protein profile for all lentil samples. Noteworthy, the 7 S/11 S ratio describing seed nutritional quality highlighted clear differences among the four varieties with highest values reported for Eston and Laird samples. However, such higher nutritional quality was offset by a higher risk of allergenicity for sensitized individuals; indeed, the in-silico allergenicity prediction reported that most of the identified proteins presented either strong or weak evidence of immunogenicity with highest abundance in the Eston and Laird lentil samples. In perspective, the differential expression of specific protein accessions suggested the possibility to identify protein markers for varietal discrimination: a preliminary multivariate statistical analysis was accomplished to this aim
MODELING AND SIMULATION OF A TERRITORIAL HEALTH CARE SERVICE (HCS): PATIENTS VS HCS MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE
No full textNowadays the increase of healthcare costs leads to the need to control healthcare expenditure and to assure high service quality. Methods and techniques adopted in the industrial systems’ context can be adopted to develop innovative operational practices in management of Health-Care Systems (HCSs).
This paper is developed under the Research Project of National Interest (PRIN-2007) “Innovation of Healthcare Service Networks by using Supply Chain Management Techniques”. The aim of the project is to
support public decision makers to face with the main problems of health-social network coordination problems among various Local Healthcare Agency (LHA) structures.
This paper introduces a new approach based on a patient-center perspective aiming to model territorial
healthcare service networks in order to analyze their efficiency in term of resource allocation and usage. A model able to evaluate the interaction among different service units belonging to the same network is proposed in order to support public decision makers to face with the design of healthcare network. The paper focuses on three features: to define the burdens of a territorial network and its characteristics; to classify the services provided and the interactions among them; to define the performance indicators of each service based on the most critical resources usage and on the quality of the service provided. Finally, preliminary results concerning a first model application to the LHA of Brindisi (in the Apulia Region) are presented
FMECA Analysis of Healthcare Services: the evaluation of the efficiency of an Hospital Department
No full textDrop-coating Silanization of Silicon Substrates as a Step towards the Fabrication of CMOS-based MEMS Biosensors
No full textLearning sustainability through competitive game: experiences from the Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM) case study
No full textThe change of current design perspective in the industrial context towards a more sustainable one is a complex and challenging problem. Experiential learning performed through a “sustainable” competitive game could help practitioners, engineers and master students in being aware of the problem complexity. The paper describes objectives, methods, expected results and evaluation criteria of a learning competitive game. The goal of the “sustainable” game is two-fold: to identify the optimal site location of a new Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM) production plant in a given regional supply-chain; to find the best Pollution Prevention Equipment (PPE) configuration allowing to meet both the required level of plant availability and the environmental regulation limit of the air emissions. In both cases the sustainable solution of the problem shall be consistent with economic, as well as environmental constraints. This “reality” experience on sustainable design has been tested during the XIV Summer School “Franceso Turco” – Sustainable Development: The Role of Industrial Engineering
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