Definition of a practical multi-criteria procedure for selecting the best coagulant in a chemically assisted primary sedimentation process for the treatment of urban wastewater

Chemically assisted primary sedimentation (CAPS) or chemically enhanced primary treatment (CEPT) consists of adding chemicals in order to increase the coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation of raw wastewater. Over the last twenty years, the use of CAPS has increased due to the development of better coagulants and flocculation enhancers, stricter standards as well as the need for low-energy treatment technologies, especially in developing countries. This paper defines a very simple multi-criteria procedure to be used in order to select the best combination of coagulant and dose when using jar tests. It is based on the adoption of the following 5 criteria: COD percentage removal, sludge volume after 2 h, coagulant dose, coagulant cost, pH percentage variation. The mathematical affordability of the procedure was tested by comparing it with the well known analytic hierarchy process.     

Identification of new epidemiological molecular markers by comparative proteomics of serogroup A meningococcal isolates from three pandemic waves

We previously described the first reference map for the proteome of one strain of serogroup A Neisseria meningitidis (MenA), a major cause of epidemic meningitis in humans. As a preliminary finding, in that work we noted that 2‐DE protein maps of closely related MenA isolates from different epidemics spreads could be easily compared to detect minor differences and that 2‐DE phenotypes attributable to the well‐known epidemiological marker tbpB agreed with the genoclouds model of MenA epidemiological variation during pandemic waves. We explored here the possibility that an extended comparative study of 2‐DE maps of isolates representative of the nine genoclouds described by Achtman and collaborators could be used to discriminate between strains otherwise undistinguishable. We showed the example of 14 proteins with different 2‐DE spot patterns in different genoclouds that could be considered as putative tracers for alike‐strains discrimination. We introduce the novel concept that comparative proteomics can be useful in identifying new epidemiological markers for N. meningitidis.     

Citrus flavonoids: Molecular structure,biological activity and nutritional properties: A review

Epidemiological studies have shown an inverse relationship between dietary flavonoid intakes and cardiovascular diseases. Citrus fruits are the main winter fruits consumed in the Mediterranean diet, so they are the main source of dietary flavonoids. The possible beneficial effects are due, not only to the high amounts of vitamins and minerals, but also to the antioxidant properties of their flavonoids. Dietary flavonoids may help to supplement the body antioxidant defences against free radicals. These compounds’ possible beneficial effects are due to their antioxidant activity, which is related to the development of atherosclerosis and cancer, and to anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activity. The present review summarizes the existing bibliography on biological and pharmacological studies of Citrus flavonoids, both in vitro and in vivo.     

Blame culture and defensive medicine

Introduction  

Defensive medicine takes place when healthcare personnel (doctors and nurses) order unnecessary treatments (positive defensive medicine) or avoid high-risk procedures or patients (negative defensive medicine) with the principle—though not exclusive—aim of reducing their expose to damages claims. This phenomenon is directly related to the significant growth in medical malpractice litigation over recent years. Defensive medicine increases the cost of healthcare and may expose patients to unnecessary risks. In fact, the large number of legal initiatives taken by patients have induced many doctors to set in place a defensive “strategy” so as to avoid placing their careers at risk. The threat of medical malpractice litigation constitutes a major obstacle to improving the reliability of healthcare organizations and patient safety.     

Optimal running and planning of a biomass-based energy production process

We propose mathematical programming models for solving problems arising from planning and running an energy production process based on burning biomasses. The models take into account different aspects of the problem: determination of the biomasses to produce and/or buy, transportation decisions to convey the materials to the respective plants, and plant site locations. Whereas the “running model” is linear, we propose two “planning models”, both of which are mixed-integer nonlinear programming problems. We show that a spatial branch-and-bound type algorithm applied to them is guaranteed to converge to an exact optimum in a finite number of steps.     

The antioxidant capacity of red wine in relationship with its polyphenolic constituents

The “antioxidant power” of a food is an expression of its capability both to defend the human organism from the action of the free radicals and to prevent degenerative disorders deriving from persistent oxidative stress. Purpose of this study is to analyse the antioxidant capacity (measured by means of the crocin bleaching method) of several samples of Sicilian red wines and to evaluate their dependency on the vintage and on the grape variety. Finally, the correlation between the single flavonoids compounds and the antioxidant capacity has been investigated. The analyses show that the antioxidant properties of red wine appear to be unequally influenced by the vintages for the different cultivars and that the correlation between antioxidant capacity and the total phenolic contents is weak. The latter can be explained by the fact that the wine’s antioxidant properties are influenced differently by each polyphenolic molecule.     

Photocatalytic oxidation of aliphatic and aromatic sulfides in the presence of silica adsorbed or zeolite-encapsulated 2,4,6-triphenyl(thia)pyrylium

Solid photocatalysts in which the 2,4,6-triphenylpyrylium (TP) or 2,4,6-triphenylthiapyrylium cation (TTP) are encapsulated within zeolite Y or deposited on mesoporous silica are used as photosensitizers for the oxidation of sulfides, both aromatic and aliphatic, in solvents of various polarity. Contrary to the same cations in solution, these solid sensitizers are not significantly degraded during operation. An effective oxygenation takes place leading to sulfoxides, disulfides, sulfinic and sulfenic esters as well as sulfonic acids. This large scope method shows a limited dependence on the substrate structure and on conditions and is suitable for the abatement of sulfur-containing pollutants.     

A new adaptive integration methodology for estimating flux in induction machine drives

This paper proposes a simple adaptive notch filter for the elimination of the dc component in the integration of signals used for the flux estimation in high performance ac drives. This integration method is composed of two identical adaptive noise cancellers using a linear neural network with just one bias weight. Its behavior has been investigated in simulation as applied to electrical drives and compared with other four traditional integration algorithms. A test bench has been then developed for its experimentation in a field oriented controlled induction machine. It has been verified that this integration algorithm outperforms the other algorithms in estimating the rotor flux even at low speeds.