Isolation of a hydroxytyrosol-rich extract from olive leaves (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Olea Europaea</Emphasis> L.) and evaluation of its antioxidant properties and bioactivity

In this research, a phenol extract of high hydroxytyrosol (OLPE) content was obtained from olive leaves (Olea europaea L.), and subsequently tested under different contexts. The method used to obtain the OLPE basically involved two steps: the use of strongly-acid aqueous steam, generated from 10% HCl (v/v) at 100°C, to directly hydrolyse the native complex phenols from integral olive leaves, and OLPE recovery by liquid–liquid extraction with ethyl acetate. Hydrolysis time was 1 h. Finally, the dried extract was dissolved in distilled water. The OLPE total phenols were determined by Folin–Ciocalteu’s method and by HPLC analysis. Hydroxytyrosol was about 92% of the total phenols present in OLPE, and the yield was about 0.2% on fresh leaves. OLPE showed antioxidant effects on different food lipids and did not inhibit lactic acid bacteria growth; however, it showed cytotoxicity on NIH/3T3 fibroblasts and human umbilical vein endothelial cells at concentrations higher than 0.32 mM (as hydroxytyrosol).     

A Procedure for Evaluating the Compatibility of Surface Water Resources with Environmental and Human Requirements

This paper presents a novel and easy-to-use procedure for controlling and licensing water abstractions from a river based on establishing a balance between surface water resources and environmental and human requirements. Unlike other approaches relying on complex and detailed basin models, this is based simply on the use of the discharge duration curve to represent the available water resources. In particular, the scheme of analysis presented here is composed of four steps: 1) subdivision of a particular river reach into sub-reaches; 2) estimation of the availability of water along each sub-reach over a particular period of time by means of duration curves; 3) estimation of the environmental requirements (minimum instream flow—MIF) and quantities necessary for civil, agricultural and industrial uses over the same period, and 4) establishing a water balance model for each sub-reach, taking into consideration the effects produced by water resource use in the upstream sub-reaches. In particular, this procedure consents (a) quantification of the duration when abstractions are possible along each sub-reach, (b) quantification of the maximum abstraction needed to satisfy the volume requested (thereby enabling comparison with the amount the users can actually obtain through their structures and/or pumps) and (c) identification of situations in which users need to avail themselves of reservoirs for temporarily storing the water abstracted so that they do not exceed the availability on non-abstraction days. The procedure was successfully applied to a basin located in Emilia-Romagna, the Enza River, along which 9 sub-reaches were identified.     

Robust design via simulation experiments: a modified dual response surface approach

The existing procedures for robust design, devised for physical experiments, may be too limiting when the system can be simulated by a computer model. In this paper we introduce a modification of the dual response surface modelling, which incorporates the option of stochastically simulating some of the noise factors when their probabilistic behaviour is known. Our method generalizes both the crossed and the combined array approaches and finds a natural application to integrated parameter and tolerance design. The method appears suitable for designing complex measurement systems and in this paper is applied to the design of a high‐precision optical profilometer. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Proton-conducting membranes based on protic ionic liquids

New classes of proton-conducting membranes formed by incorporating Brönsted acid–base ionic liquids in a poly(vinyldenefluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) PVdF polymer matrix, are here reported and discussed. We show that these membranes are characterized by high, thermally stable proton conductivity. However, this favourable property is in part contrasted by the release of the ionic liquid component, which may affect the long-term stability of the membranes. Various strategies are underway in our laboratory to solve this issue, and in this work we describe one of them, based on the dispersion of selected ceramic fillers in the polymer matrix. We show that this approach, while successful in enhancing the conductivity of the membranes, is not much effective in preventing the release of the ionic liquid component and thus, that other roads have to be explored to reach a satisfactory improvement of the integrity of the membrane.     

Sensor arrays to detect humic substances and Cu(II) in waters

The interaction between poly(o-ethoxyaniline) (POEA) adsorbed onto solid substrates and humic substances (HS) and Cu²⁺ ions has been investigated using UV–vis spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Both HS and Cu²⁺ are able to dope POEA and change film morphology. This interaction was exploited in a sensor array made with nanostructured films of POEA, sulfonated lignin and HS, which could detect small concentrations of HS and Cu²⁺ in water.     

Highly bright and photostable cyanine dye-doped silica nanoparticles for optical imaging: Photophysical characterization and cell tests

Spherical silica nanoparticles containing fluorescent trimethine indocyanine dyes (λ_abs = 547 nm, λ_em = 570 nm) were prepared using a water-in-oil microemulsion method. The nanoparticles were of 50 nm diameter and were almost monodispersed in aqueous solution at pH 5.5. Entrapment of dye molecules in the silica matrix stabilised photoemission over several hours of continuous irradiation. The photoemission intensity of the indocyanine was increased 13-fold over that recorded in solution. As each nanoparticle contained 110 dye molecules, the photoemission brightness of each particle was enhanced by three orders of magnitude. The fluorescent nanoparticles have been tested as imaging tools in in vitro tests. As an example of non-macrophagic cells, a highly differentiated neuronal cell line (GT1-7) was used and the results showed that the prepared nanoparticles can be incorporated into these cells with no apparent toxicity for up to three days.     

Microwave-assisted polyol synthesis of sub-micrometer Y2O3 and Yb-Y2O3 particles for laser source application

Sub-micrometer powder (100–150 nm diameter) of Yb-doped yttrium oxide was obtained, for the first time, by microwave-assisted polyol (diethylene glycol, DEG) method. This method is based on fast and homogeneous increase of temperature, due to the microwave heating, and on addition of the hydrolysing agent (water) at high temperature. This promotes a fast nucleation followed by a controlled growth of nuclei. Different procedures were used to process the as-synthesized powders. In some cases washing by ultrapure water was used to dissolve nitrate and DEG by-products, this treatment allowed the use of a lower calcination temperature (150–200 °C less) to obtain the crystalline phase. Analysis of the calcined powder showed different levels of structures: from nanocrystal (10–15 nm), to primary particles (100–150 nm), to micrometer soft aggregates (2–4 μm). The microwave-assisted polyol method resulted an easy way to dope yttria with the desired amount of Yb³⁺. This work was carried out in order to prepare particles to be used as rare-earth doped Y₂O₃ and YAG polycrystalline transparent ceramic for laser source applications.     

Rapid FTIR determination of water,phenolics and antioxidant activity of olive oil

A rapid Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) attenuated total reflectance (ATR) spectroscopic method was applied to the determination of water content (WC), total phenol amount (TP) and antioxidant activity (ABTS ^{. +}) of virgin olive oils (VOO) and olive oils. Calibration models were constructed using partial least squares regression. Oil samples with WC ranging from 289 to 1402 mg water/kg oil, with TP from 46 to 877 mg gallic acid/kg oil and with ABTS ^{. +} from 0 to 5.7 mmol Trolox/kg oil were considered for chemometric analysis. Better results were obtained when selecting suitable spectral ranges; in particular, from 2260 to 1008 cm^?1 for WC, from 3610 to 816 cm^?1 for TP and from 3707 to 1105 cm^?1 for ABTS ^{. +}. Satisfactory LOD values by the FTIR‐chemometric methods were achieved: 9.4 (mg/kg oil) for WC; 12.5 (mg gallic acid/kg oil) for TP, and 0.76 (mmol Trolox/kg oil) for ABTS ^{. +}. The evaluation of the applicability of these analytical approaches was tested by use of validation sample sets (n = 16 for WC, n = 11 for TP and n = 14 for ABTS) with nearly quantitative recovery rates (99–114%). The FTIR–ATR method provided results that were comparable to conventional procedures. Practical applications : The presented method is based on ATR–FTIR in combination with multivariate calibration methodologies and permits a simultaneous evaluation of important quality parameters of VOO (WC, TP and ABTS ^{. +}). This approach represents an easy and convenient means for monitoring olive oil quality with the advantage of ease of operation, speed, no sample pretreatment and no consumption of solvents. The data obtained with this method are comparable to those obtained using the official reference method. Therefore, the technique is highly plausible as an alternative to the standard procedure for routine analysis or control at‐line of production processes.     

Cigarette Smoke Affects ABCAl Expression via Liver X Receptor Nuclear Translocation in Human Keratinocytes

Cutaneous tissue is the first barrier against outdoor insults. The outer most layer of the skin, the stratum corneum (SC), is formed by corneocytes embedded in a lipid matrix (cholesterol, ceramide and fatty acids). Therefore, the regulation of lipids and, in particular, of cholesterol homeostasis in the skin is of great importance. ABCA1 is a membrane transporter responsible for cholesterol efflux and plays a key role in maintaining cellular cholesterol levels. Among the many factors that have been associated with skin diseases, the environmental stressor cigarette smoke has been recently studied. In the present study, we demonstrate that ABCA1 expression in human cells (HaCaT) was increased (both mRNA and protein levels) after CS exposure. This effect was mediated by the inhibition of NFkB (aldehydes adducts formation) that allows the translocation of liver X receptor (LXR). These findings suggest that passive smoking may play a role in skin cholesterol levels and thus affect cutaneous tissues functions.     

Determination of Lutein from Fruit and Vegetables Through an Alkaline Hydrolysis Extraction Method and HPLC Analysis

A simple and rapid analytical method for the determination of lutein content, successfully used for cereal matrices, was evaluated in fruit and vegetables. The method involved the determination of lutein after an alkaline hydrolysis of the sample matrix, followed by extraction with solvents and analysis by normal phase HPLC. The optimized method was simple, precise, and accurate and it was characterized by few steps that could prevent loss of lutein and its degradation. The optimized method was used to evaluate the lutein amounts in several fruit and vegetables. Rich sources of lutein were confirmed to be green vegetables such as parsley, spinach, chicory, chard, broccoli, courgette, and peas, even if in a range of variability. Taking into account the suggested reference values these vegetables can be stated as good sources of lutein.