Patulin in apple-based foods: occurrence and safety evaluation

Patulin is a mycotoxin produced by certain species of Penicillium and Aspergillus, often detectable in mouldy fruits and their derivatives. On the basis of a PMTDI of 0.4 mu g/kg bw, limit values of 50 mu g/kg or 50 mu g/l of patulin have been set in fruit derivatives. To estimate the quantity of patulin that can be taken in with the diet, we analysed by HPL C samples of apples and apple derivatives which are most likely to be contaminated with patulin. In apple juices and in homogenized babyfoods, the mycotoxin concentration was always below the established limits, while in some samples of juice with pulp the mycotoxin content exceeded the safe levels. In rotten apples, not only was the amount of patulin extraordinarily high in the rotten area, but the mycotoxin had also spread to the part unaffected by mould. The data presented in this study indicate that the intake of patulin with apple derivatives is usually below the tolerable level of 0.4 mu g/kg bw/day, but since the patulin content in apples can vary considerably, the quality of fruits used in the production of apple derivatives should be strictly controlled in order not to exceed the safe limits.     

Nucleation and Crystallization of a Lithium Aluminosilicate Glass

An aluminosilicate glass of composition 61SiO₂6Al₂O₃10MgO6ZnO·12Li₂O·5TiO₂ (mol%) has been prepared by a melting process and investigated as far as crystallization is concerned. Glass-ceramic is easily obtained because glass shows a high tendency to crystallize starting from 700°C. The crystalline phases evolve with temperature, showing the aluminosilicates to be the main phase up to 1050°C, followed by metasilicates and silicates, some of which have lower melting points. The titanates of Mg and Zn develop from the phase-separated glass, soon after T _g, and grow to form nucleation centers for the other crystalline phases. The evolution from phase-separated glass to glass-ceramic has been followed by many thermal, diffractometric, spectroscopic, and microscopic techniques.     

Automatic verification of distributed systems: The process algebra approach

A survey of tools for the analysis of distributed systems represented through process algebras is presented. The tools are compared with respect to a set of qualitative parameters. From this analysis, the properties which are desirable for concurrency tools are investigated. Criteria to evaluate the suitability of a tool with respect to a particular user are proposed.     

Design knowledge acquisition for DFM methodologies

Design for Manufacturability (DFM) is a philosophy that encourages the communication of manufacturing information at the earliest stages of design in order to design parts and products that can be produced with greater ease and economy. This paper discusses the extensive experience gathered during the development of several DFM models in order to draw some conclusions and express some concerns that should be of interest to all those who develop or use manufacturing models that rely on design knowledge acquisition of knowledge from domain experts and/or industrial sites.     

Control Flow Analysis for BioAmbients

This paper presents a static analysis for investigating properties of biological systems specified in BioAmbients. We exploit the control flow analysis to decode the bindings of variables induced by communications and to build a relation of the ambients that can interact with each other. We eventually apply our analysis to an example of gene regulation by positive feedback taken from the literature.     

Determination of metals in wine with atomic spectroscopy (flame-AAS, GF-AAS and ICP-AES); a review

Metals in wine occur at the mg l 1 level or less and, though not directly related to the taste of the final product, their content should be determined because excess is undesirable, and in some cases prohibited, due to potential toxicity. Lead content in wine, for example, is restricted in several states by legislation to guarantee consumer health protection. Of several methods for metal determination, techniques of atomic spectroscopy are the most sensitive and rapid. Most of the elements present in wine can be determined with these techniques, at concentrations ranging from the mg l -1 to the μg l -1 level. Here, inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), flame atomic absorption spectrometry (flame-AAS) and graphite furnace-atomic absorption spectrometry (GF-AAS) are compared for their characteristics as employed in metal determination in wine.     

Upper and lower bounds for structural design of RC members with ductile response

In the present paper, some of the complex phenomena characterizing the flexural behaviour of reinforced concrete beams, such as hyper-strength and snap-back and snap-through instabilities, are interpreted under a unified approach based on nonlinear fracture mechanics concepts. In particular, they are analysed by means of a numerical algorithm adopting the cohesive crack model for concrete in tension and the overlapping crack model for concrete in compression. According to the latter constitutive law, a fictitious interpenetration is assumed to describe the concrete damage, analogously to the fictitious crack opening used for tension.Such an integrated cohesive-overlapping crack model is applied to assess the minimum reinforcement amount necessary to prevent unstable tensile crack propagation and to evaluate the rotational capacity of plastic hinges. The main novelty is given by the capability to predict the size-scale effects evidenced by several experimental programmes available in the literature. According to the numerical results obtained, new practical design formulae and diagrams are proposed, as well as, upper and lower bounds to the reinforcement amount, the material properties and the structural dimensions are defined in order to avoid brittle failures.     

Cell Cycle Control in Eukaryotes: A BioSpi model

This paper presents a stochastic model of the cell cycle control in eukaryotes. The framework used is based on stochastic process algebras for mobile systems. The automatic tool used in the simulation is the BioSpi. We compare our approach with classical ODE specifications.