Estimation of dietary intake of pesticide residues by the Italian population during 1997

In 1997 the Italian monitoring programme for pesticide residues in food comprised 7951 samples of 152 different foods for which a total of 275 pesticides were analysed. For 90 pesticides, the National Estimated Daily Intakes (NEDIs) were calculated by using the 90th percentile value and the food consumption data for the general Italian population. The calculated NEDIs were found to represent only a small portion of the respective Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI).     

A Spatiotemporal Framework for Estimating Trial-to-Trial Amplitude Variation in Event-Related MEG/EEG

A spatiotemporal framework for estimating trial-to-trial variability in evoked response (ER) data is presented. Spatial and temporal bases capture the aspects of the response that are consistent across trials, while the basis expansion coefficients represent the variable components of the response. We focus on the simplest case of constant spatiotemporal response shape and varying amplitude across trials. Two different constraints on the amplitude evolution are employed to effectively integrate the individual responses and improve robustness at low SNR. The linear dynamical system response constraint estimates the current trial amplitude as an unknown constant scaling of the estimate in the previous trial plus zero-mean Gaussian noise with unknown variance. The independent response constraint estimates response amplitudes across trials as independent Gaussian random variables having unknown mean and variance. We develop a generalized expectation-maximization algorithm to obtain the maximum-likelihood (ML) estimates of the signal waveform, noise covariance matrix, and unknown constraint parameters. ML source localization is achieved by scanning the likelihood over different sets of spatial bases. We demonstrate the variability estimation and source localization effectiveness of the proposed algorithms using both real and simulated ER data.     

Consumption of polyphenolic-rich beverages (mostly pomegranate and black currant juices) by healthy subjects for a short term increased serum antioxidant status, and the serum's ability to attenuate macrophage cholesterol accumulation

The present study analyzed the antioxidative effects of various beverages, in vitro, and also the effect of short term consumption of beverages richest in polyphenols by healthy subjects on serum anti-atherogenic properties. Healthy subjects consumed 250 mL of the selected beverages for 2 h, or daily, for up to 1 week.We hypothesized that differences in the anti-atherogenic properties of the studied beverages could be related, not only to the quantity of polyphenols, but also to their quality. Furthermore, we hypothesized that consumption of these juices by healthy subjects for just a short-term, will increase their serum anti-atherogenic properties, as was demonstrated previously in long-term consumption studies.Of 35 beverages studied, both 100% Wonderful-variety pomegranate and 100% black currant juices were the most potent antioxidants in vitro, as they inhibited copper ion-induced LDL oxidation by up to 94% and AAPH-induced serum lipid peroxidation by up to 38%. Furthermore, they increased in vitro serum paraoxonase 1 (PON1) lactonase activity by up to 51%. Consumption of five selected polyphenol rich beverages by healthy subjects increased serum sulfhydryl group (SH) levels and serum PON1 activities after 2 h, and more so after 1 week of drinking these beverages. These effects were most pronounced after the consumption of 100% Wonderful-variety pomegranate and 100% black currant juices. In conclusion, polyphenolic-rich juices with impressive in vitro antioxidant properties, also demonstrate antioxidant effects in vivo when analyzed for short term consumption. In this respect, 100% Wonderful-variety pomegranate and 100% black currant juices were most the potent.     

Vitamin B12 deficiency in patients with chronic-tinnitus and noise-induced hearing loss

The high rate of comorbidity between major depressive disorder and alcohol abuse is noted and the possible causes of the association are examined. Three reasons for the high degree of comorbidity are discarded--underlying dependent personality disorder and/or childhood deprivation, a common hereditary defect, and self-medication with alcohol for primary depression. Alternative explanations are favored, namely, the chance simultaneous occurrence and subsequent oversampling of two common disorders, and the fact that alcohol abuse is often the "horse" to the "cart" of major depressive disorder. The treatment implications of such a view are discussed.     

Well-defined second-order nonlinear optical polymers by controlled radical polymerization,via multifunctional macromolecular chain transfer agent: Design,synthesis, and characterizations

To address the issue of the aggregation in second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) polymers we developed an approach based on the synthesis of a multifunctional macromolecular chain transfer agent. The controlled monomer insertion polymerization into the main chain by a ‘reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer’ (RAFT) mechanism allows the spatial arrangement of the NLO chromophores along the polymeric chain in order to obtain sequence-ordered polymers. In a first step, a novel trithiocarbonate based macroinitiator containing the disperse red 19 (DR19) units in the main chain was synthesized by polycondensation; in a second step, this polymeric precursor was applied to the synthesis of a sequentially ordered polymer by controlled insertion radical polymerization of styrene. Size exclusion chromatography (SEC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data revealed that, (i) for the first time, polystyrenes (PS) bearing DR19 dyes covalently bounded were obtained, and (ii) both the insertion reaction and the length of the polystyrene segments were accurately controlled. Whatever the incorporated dye amount, all the copolymers were soluble in common solvents. Second-order optical nonlinearity in corona-poled thin films was evaluated, and second harmonic coefficients up to 80 pm/V were determined for loading ratio lower than 10 wt-% (DR19/PS). This approach opens up opportunities for the incorporation of more efficient chromophores even in apolar matrices.     

Single-molecule dynamics in a self-assembled 2D molecular sieve

A two-dimensional molecular sieve has been realized. It consists of a host matrix of molecularly engineered building blocks self-assembled at the liquid-solid interface. The simultaneous size- and shape-dependent dynamics of different guest molecules is observed in situ, in real time with submolecular resolution using a scanning tunneling microscope both at the liquid-solid interface and under vacuum. The temperature-dependent dynamics reveals that the diffusion proceeds through thermally activated channeling between single-molecule surface cavities.     

An Expectation–Maximization Method for Spatio–Temporal Blind Source Separation Using an AR-MOG Source Model

In this paper, we develop a maximum-likelihood (ML) spatio-temporal blind source separation (BSS) algorithm, where the temporal dependencies are explained by assuming that each source is an autoregressive (AR) process and the distribution of the associated independent identically distributed (i.i.d.) innovations process is described using a mixture of Gaussians. Unlike most ML methods, the proposed algorithm takes into account both spatial and temporal information, optimization is performed using the expectation-maximization (EM) method, the source model is adapted to maximize the likelihood, and the update equations have a simple, analytical form. The proposed method, which we refer to as autoregressive mixture of Gaussians (AR-MOG), outperforms nine other methods for artificial mixtures of real audio. We also show results for using AR-MOG to extract the fetal cardiac signal from real magnetocardiographic (MCG) data.     

Horizons for Modern Electrochemistry Related to Energy Storage and Conversion,a Review

The purpose of this paper is to suggest frontier inter‐disciplinary research directions that can be considered as important horizons of modern electrochemistry in the field of energy storage and conversion. We selected several topics that call for advancements in solid‐state, interfacial, analytical and energy‐related electrochemical science. A dramatic improvement in the performance of energy storage and conversion devices is needed to meet the urgent demands of our society. Significantly more efficient devices are needed to meet two major challenges: electro‐mobility, namely electrochemical propulsion of electric vehicles, and the ability to store and convert large quantities of energy generated from sustainable sources such as sun and wind. We suggest promotion of breakthroughs in several important directions. The examples chosen include: Development of novel in‐situ methodologies for design and testing composite electrodes for advanced energy storage devices; Improving the electrochemical performance of high specific capacity, but hard to control, LiNiO₂ cathodes for advanced lithium ion batteries designed for electric vehicles, with a quantitative goal of stable specific capacity >230 mAh/g with a charging potential lower than 4.3 V; Advancing aqueous electrochemical systems for large energy storage based on sodium electrochemistry; Promoting development of batteries based on multivalent active metals with magnesium as the most advanced example. There is a strong incentive to promote fundamental and practical progress in the field of rechargeable Mg batteries using new electrodes’ configurations and advanced electroanalytical methods. All these directions require deep efforts in basic, fundamental studies, in order to reach important practical goals.