Gluten-Free Bread Making Trials from Cassava (Manihot Esculenta Crantz) Flour and Sensory Evaluation of the Final Product

The aim of this work was to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of cassava flour in bread making, and the sensory acceptability of the final product. Different baking trials were carried out by using egg white and extra-virgin olive oil, in consideration of their high nutritional value with respect to other food additives (i.e., hydrocolloids). Significant (p < 0.05) improvements of loaf specific volume (from 2.24 to 3.93 mL/g) and crumb firmness (from 9.14 to 4.67 N) were achieved by contemporarily including egg white and extra-virgin olive oil in the formulation. Cassava breads containing both these ingredients obtained the best scores from panelists for all the test breads examined and resulted attractive as the wheat bread prepared as reference.     

Characterization of 12 Capsicum varieties by evaluation of their carotenoid profile and pungency determination

In this research 12 different varieties of Capsicum cultivars belonging to three species (Capsicum chinense, Capsicum annuum, Capsicum frutescens) and of various colour, shape, and dimension have been characterised by their carotenoids and capsaicinoids content. The berries were cultivated in the region Emilia-Romagna, in Northern Italy. The native carotenoid composition was directly investigated by an HPLC-DAD-APCI-MS methodology, for the first time. In total, 52 carotenoids have been identified and considerable variation in carotenoid composition was observed among the various cultivars investigated. Among the cultivars with red colour, some Habanero, Naga morich and Sinpezon showed an high β-carotene content, whereas Serrano, Tabasco and Jalapeno showed an high capsanthin content and the absence of β-carotene. Habanero golden and Scotch Bonnet showed a high lutein, α-carotene and β-carotene amounts, and Habanero orange was rich in antheraxanthin, capsanthin and zeaxanthin. Cis-cryptocapsin was present in high amount in Habanero chocolate.     

Aquaporin Inhibition by Gold(III) Compounds: New Insights

Aquaporins (AQPs) are membrane water/glycerol channels with essential roles in biological systems, as well as being promising targets for therapy and imaging. Using a stopped‐flow method, a series of gold(III), platinum(II) and copper(II) complexes bearing nitrogen donor ligands, such as 1,10‐phenatroline, 2,2′‐bipyridine, 4,4′‐dimethyl‐2,2′‐bipyridine, 4,4′‐diamino‐2,2′‐bipyridine and 2,2′;6′,2“‐terpyridine, were evaluated in human red blood cells expressing AQP1 and AQP3, responsible for water and glycerol movement, respectively. The results showed that the gold(III) complexes selectively modulate AQP3 over AQP1. Molecular modeling and density functional theory (DFT) calculations were subsequently performed to rationalize the observations and to investigate the possible molecular mechanism through which these gold compounds act on their putative target (AQP3). In the absence of any crystallographic data, a previously reported homology model was used for this purpose. Combined, the findings of this study show that potent and selective modulation of these solute channels is possible, however further investigation is required into the selectivity of this class of agents against all AQP isoforms and their potential therapeutic uses.     

Route following based on adaptive visual landmark matching

Route following based on visual landmark matching may require many models to cover all different situations. This paper describes a system that is able to adapt template's modelling parameters to environmental conditions (lighting, shadows, etc.) by a genetic learning technique. In addition, the mobile robot self-localisation is obtained by a stereo approach that uses the centres of matching in the two images to solve in a simple way the correspondence problem in the 3D position estimation. The experimental results show that the tracking robustness is improved, while using a small set of templates.     

A layered protocol architecture for multimedia wireless‐PCS networks

Coupled with the growing interest in the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) as a standard for future mobile communications, the need for a set of functions to effectively support multimedia teleservices in such an environment is also increasing. Starting from the idea that multimedia means the integrated manipulation of different information and hence the independent handling of separate information is not satisfactory, an enhanced protocol architecture for the support of multimedia teleservices in Wireless Personal Communication Systems based on UMTS is proposed. It involves Physical, MAC, Data Link, and Network layers. A Synchronisation Sub-Layer is introduced on the MAC level with the main aim of assuring a rough multimedia inter-stream synchronisation over the air interface, which is a first step prior to a fine end-to-end synchronisation performed by higher layers. Proposed functions, their basic algorithms, their location in the protocol stack, as well as the signalling exchange among modules implementing them, on network and user sides, are described in detail in the paper. The resulting architecture well fits the demanding nature of multimedia services and can be easily interfaced with the wired backbone of the system. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Multivariate classification of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo wine samples according to vintage year

Samples of Montepulciano wines from three different vintages (1994, 1995 and 1996), produced in different locations in the Abruzzo region of Italy using different yeasts and processing procedures, were subjected to 17 different chemical analyses. The data were analysed by principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). From a statistical approach it is possible to point out that vintage year, closely connected with climatic conditions, was the factor that best differentiated wines as regards chemical composition, compared with other factors such as place of origin, type of yeast, fermentation vessel, clarification method and time and temperature of maceration. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Homogenized Strategy toward Constitutive Identification of Masonry

The aim of this work is the study of masonry behavior by means of a homogenized model in several perturbative parameters. The difficulty in the mechanical modeling of masonry depends on its discrete character, as such, masonry is composed of blocks between which mortar is laid. Moreover, the building procedure leads to head and bed joint stiffnesses which may be different. Within the limits of the hypotheses of the model, the capacity of the homogenization method to grasp these features was investigated in this study. The homogenization model proposes a constitutive identification between the masonry and a standard continuum. Moreover, the introduction of two perturbative parameters enables one to grasp the influence of variations in the relative thickness of the joints with respect to the dimensions of the blocks, and of variations in the deformability of the latter on the constitutive homogenized functions. On a structural level, for a sample case, the capacity of the homogenized continuous model to describe the characteristic aspects of the behavior of masonry has been investigated by comparison with a discrete model.     

Virus burden in lymph nodes and blood of subjects with primary human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection on bitherapy

At present, it is not known whether undetectable plasma viremia corresponds to an absence of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) replication in lymphoid tissues. This issue has been explored in 11 subjects with primary HIV-1 infection treated with zidovudine plus didanosine by evaluating virologic markers in blood and lymphoid tissues 9-18 months after initiation of treatment. These markers include plasma viremia, measured with a sensitive assay with a detection limit of 20 HIV-1 RNA copies/mL, infectious virus titers and proviral DNA in lymph node mononuclear cells, and HIV-1 RNA in lymphoid tissue. Five subjects had plasma viremia <20 copies/mL and showed no evidence of viral replication in lymphoid tissue. Six subjects had both detectable plasma viremia and evidence of HIV-1 RNA in lymphoid tissue. The results indicate that absence of detectable HIV RNA in lymphoid tissue is associated with viremia levels of HIV-1 RNA <20 copies/mL.     

Evolution of the oxidative and hydrolytic degradation of biscuits' fatty fraction during storage

BACKGROUND: There is little information in the scientific literature on the degradation of the fatty fraction of biscuits during storage. Thus two trials were performed utilizing two different kinds of margarine for a better evaluation of the phenomenon. RESULTS: Covariance analysis of the data evidenced a significant increase of the oxidized triacylglycerols (P < 0.001), together with a significant decrease (P < 0.001) in the amount of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. On the other hand, the level of hydrolytic degradation did not show significant variation. CONCLUSION: Principal components analysis ascertained that about 60% of the variance of the data could be attributed to the quality of the margarine, while about 30% was ascribable to the increase of oxidative degradation induced by storage. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry