An innovative bio-engineering retaining structure for supporting unstable soil

The paper presents a new prefabricated bio-engineering structure for the support of unstable soil. This prefabricated structure is made of a steel frame which is completely filled with soil and a face made of tree trunks among which scions or autochthonous bushes are planted. Due to the difficulties in interpreting the complex interaction between soil and structure during the installation and lifetime, an in situ test was carried out in order to evaluate the state of stress in the steel frame and to understand the global behavior of the structure under service loads. On the basis of the obtained results, a procedure for checking the structure safety was proposed and discussed. An easy design method was developed during the research. Moreover, the use of this type of prefabricated structure shows several advantages, such as good performances in terms of stabilizing effects, and easy assembly and transport.     

Mapping wastes in complex projects for Lean Product Development

Lean Product Development (LPD) is suggested as an approach that can reduce waste in projects aimed at developing technically complex items, which typically present substantial uncertainty about their output, as well as higher costs and longer development times. However, how can LPD be implemented in complex projects, where some redundancies in the development process are considered necessary in order to guarantee the quality of the final outcome? This paper answers this question, through a survey conducted at INAF, the Italian Institute of Astrophysics, that runs complex projects. The evidence shows that complex projects can actually be affected by the types of waste reported in LPD literature. Still, researchers may fail to determine the real priorities of intervention as they have trouble distinguishing between value-adding and value-destroying activities. Furthermore, they do not perceive the relevance of addressing the wastes generated by their own work; on the contrary, they place considerable attention on inefficiencies that are beyond the scope of their direct responsibilities. Recommendations to overcome this problem are proposed.     

Global volatile signature and polyphenols patterns in Vespolina wines according to vintage

The global volatile signature of Vespolina wines from different vintages was established using solid-phase microextraction combined with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS-SPME/GC-qMS). Wines were also characterised in terms of bioactive compounds (such as individual polyphenols, biogenic amines and their precursors) by high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). In addition, some physicochemical parameters, such as the total phenolic content, total tannins and antioxidant capacity, were evaluated. Seventy-one volatile compounds and thirty-three bioactive compounds were identified in Vespolina wines. The application of multivariate analysis to the obtained data revealed that 2-phenylethyl acetate, ethyl nonanoate, 2-hexanol, isoamyl octanoate and ethyl 2-hydroxymethylbutanoate were the primary compounds responsible for Vespolina wines classification, mainly indicative for wines of 2015 and 2013 vintages. Conversely, wines from 2008 and 2009 vintages showed highest values of procyanidin B1, catechin, gallic acid, trans-piceid and trans-resveratrol.     

Mass spectrometry in the characterization of reactive metal alkoxides

Metal alkoxides are metal‐organic compounds characterized by the presence of M?O?C bonds (M = metal). Their chemistry seems to be, in principle, relatively simple but the number of possible reactant species arising as a consequence of their behavior is very remarkable. The physico‐chemical properties of metal alkoxides are determined by many different parameters, the most important ones being the electronegativity of the metal, the ramification of the ligand, and the acidity of the corresponding alcohol. Their reactivity makes them suitable and versatile candidates for many applications, including homogeneous catalysis, synthesis of new ceramic materials through the sol‐gel process and, recently, also for Cultural Heritage. Metal alkoxides are characterized by a strong tendency to give clusters and/or oligomers through oxo‐bridges. Mass spectrometry has been successfully employed for the characterization of metal alkoxides in the gas‐phase. Electron ionization (EI) allowed the assessment of the molecular weight and of the most relevant decomposition pathways giving information on the relative bond strength of differently substituted molecules. On the other hand, information on the reactivity in solution of these molecules have been obtained by electrospray ionization (ESI)‐matrix assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) experiments performed on their reaction products. These data were relevant to investigate the sol‐gel process. In this review, these aspects are described and the results obtained are critically evaluated. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Mass Spec Rev     

Effect of roasting on chlorogenic acids,caffeine and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons levels in two Coffea cultivars: Coffea arabica cv. Catuaí Amarelo IAC‐62 and Coffea canephora cv. Apoatã IAC‐2258

During coffee roasting process, several substances may be formed or eliminated. The influence of roasting on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), caffeoylquinic acids (CQAs) and caffeine levels was studied in Coffea arabica cv. Catuaí Amarelo IAC‐62 and Coffea canephora cv. Apoatã IAC‐2258, roasted in three roasting degrees. CQAs and caffeine were determined simultaneously by HPLC‐DAD, and PAHs by HPLC‐FLD. Caffeine levels were higher in canephora (1486–1884 mg per 100 g) than in arabica (1110–1255 mg per 100 g) and increased up to 21% at darker roasts. Summed CQA levels were higher in green coffee (4661 and 4946 mg per 100 g) and decreased at darker roasts (234 and 377 mg per 100 g), showing no difference between the coffee cultivars studied. PAH summed levels varied from 0.052 to 0.814 μg kg^?1 (arabica) and 0.108 to 0.392 μg kg^?1 (canephora). No correlation was observed between roasting degree, coffee cultivar and PAH levels. Results were also analysed using hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis.     

Variability in Immunohistochemical Detection of Programmed Death Ligand 1 (PD-L1) in Cancer Tissue Types

In normal cell physiology, programmed death 1 (PD-1) and its ligand, PD-L1, play an immunoregulatory role in T-cell activation, tolerance, and immune-mediated tissue damage. The PD-1/PD-L1 pathway also plays a critical role in immune escape of tumor cells and has been demonstrated to correlate with a poor prognosis of patients with several types of cancer. However, recent reports have revealed that the immunohistochemical (IHC) expression of the PD-L1 in tumor cells is not uniform for the use of different antibodies clones, with variable specificity, often doubtful topographical localization, and with a score not uniquely defined. The purpose of this study was to analyze the IHC expression of PD-L1 on a large series of several human tumors to correctly define its staining in different tumor tissues.     

Immobilisation and stabilisation of β-galactosidase from Kluyveromyces lactis using a glyoxyl support

β-galactosidase from Kluyveromyces lactis was covalently immobilised on a Glyoxyl Sepharose (GS) support by multi-point attachment. The enzyme immobilisation process was very efficient; the supports immobilised almost all the protein responsible for the catalytic activity in a short period of time, retaining approximately 82% of the activity in the case of the optimal immobilised preparations. Stability of the GS derivatives varied as a function of enzyme-support incubation time. The optimal immobilised preparation was produced after 2 h of incubation with the support at alkaline pH. This derivative, obtained by multi-point covalent attachment, was 100-fold more stable at pH 7 and 50 °C than the cyanogen bromide Sepharose derivative obtained by a one-point covalent immobilisation method. Stabilisation was also observed under a wide range of experimental conditions. This method allowed the immobilisation of 9000 IU enzyme g^?1 of support, resulting in highly active and stable derivatives suitable for industrial processes.     

Expanding a multilingual media monitoring and information extraction tool to a new language: Swahili

The Europe Media Monitor (EMM) family of applications is a set of multilingual tools that gather, cluster and classify news in currently fifty languages and that extract named entities and quotations (reported speech) from twenty languages. In this paper, we describe the recent effort of adding the African Bantu language Swahili to EMM. EMM is designed in an entirely modular way, allowing plugging in a new language by providing the language-specific resources for that language. We thus describe the type of language-specific resources needed, the effort involved, and ways of boot-strapping the generation of these resources in order to keep the effort of adding a new language to a minimum. The text analysis applications pursued in our efforts include clustering, classification, recognition and disambiguation of named entities (persons, organisations and locations), recognition and normalisation of date expressions, as well as the identification of reported speech quotations by and about people.