Extract of Salicornia europaea in fresh pasta to enhance phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity

Extract from Salicornia europaea was added to durum wheat fresh pasta. Sensory properties, cooking quality, microbiological stability, content in bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity, before and after pasta digestion were studied. The extract was obtained by ultrasound-assisted extraction. From the technological point of view the extract did not affect pasta dough and the cooking parameters and sensory properties of the enriched samples were found similar to the control pasta. No antimicrobial effect was exerted by the extract. From the chemical point of view interesting findings were recorded for pasta before and after digestion. Specifically, data of bioaccessible fraction of digested sample showed a significantly higher amount of total phenols and flavonoid content (11.52 mg gallic acid g⁻¹ and 0.55 mg quercetin g⁻¹ respectively) than digested control pasta (9.54 mg gallic acid g⁻¹ and 0.23 mg quercetin g⁻¹ respectively). The antioxidant activity of enriched sample also increased compared to the control pasta (6.20 vs. 2.50 μmoles FeSO₄ g⁻¹).     

A contact model for rough crushable sand

Sand roughness is now accessible to measurement. Incorporating this parameter into sand models using the discrete element method (DEM) is known to improve bulk small strain response. In this work we explore the effect on problems where particle crushing takes place. A well-established DEM particle crushing model and a rough Hertzian contact model are here combined to incorporate both effects in a single contact model. Including contact roughness results in stronger particles whilst all other material parameters being equal. The model is then used to simulate high pressure oedometric compression tests on a strong silica sand. It is shown that including realistic values of surface roughness enables to correctly capture both load-unload behaviour and particle size distribution evolution while using realistic values of elastic bulk properties for the sand grains. Roughness is then a model refinement that may result in simpler, more objective DEM calibrations.     

Construction of a polynomial invariant annihilation attack of degree 7 for T-310

Abstract

Cryptographic attacks are typically constructed by black-box methods and combinations of simpler properties, for example in [Generalised] Linear Cryptanalysis. In this article, we work with a more recent white-box algebraic-constructive methodology. Polynomial invariant attacks on a block cipher are constructed explicitly through the study of the space of Boolean polynomials which does not have a unique factorisation and solving the so-called Fundamental Equation (FE). Some recent invariant attacks are quite symmetric and exhibit some sort of clear structure, or work only when the Boolean function is degenerate. As a proof of concept, we construct an attack where a highly irregular product of seven polynomials is an invariant for any number of rounds for T-310 under certain conditions on the long term key and for any key and any IV. A key feature of our attack is that it works for any Boolean function which satisfies a specific annihilation property. We evaluate very precisely the probability that our attack works when the Boolean function is chosen uniformly at random.     

Current technologies and new insights for the recovery of high valuable compounds from fruits by-products

The recovery of high valuable compounds from food waste is becoming a tighten issue in food processing. The large amount of non-edible residues produced by food industries causes pollution, difficulties in the management, and economic loss. The waste produced during the transformation of fruits includes a huge amount of materials such as peels, seeds, and bagasse, whose disposal usually represents a problem. Research over the past 20 years revealed that many food wastes could serve as a source of potentially valuable bioactive compounds, such as antioxidants and vitamins with increasing scientific interest thanks to their beneficial effects on human health. The challenge for the recovery of these compounds is to find the most appropriate and environment friendly extraction technique able to achieve the maximum extraction yield without compromising the stability of the extracted products. Based on this scenario, the aim of the current review is twofold. The first is to give a brief overview of the most important bioactive compounds occurring in fruit wastes. The second is to describe the pro and cons of the most up-to-dated innovative and environment friendly extraction technologies that can be an alternative to the classical solvent extraction procedures for the recovery of valuable compounds from fruit processing. Furthermore, a final section will take into account published findings on the combination of some of these technologies to increase the extracts yields of bioactives.     

Unpatterned Bioactive Poly(Butylene 1,4-Cyclohexanedicarboxylate)-Based Film Fast Induced Neuronal-Like Differentiation of Human Bone Marrow-Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Herein, we present poly(butylene 1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylate) (PBCE) films characterized by an unpatterned microstructure and a specific hydrophobicity, capable of boosting a drastic cytoskeleton architecture remodeling, culminating with the neuronal-like differentiation of human bone marrow-mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSCs). We have used two different filming procedures to prepare the films, solvent casting (PBCE) and compression-moulding (PBCE*). PBCE film had a rough and porous surface with spherulite-like aggregations (Ø = 10–20 μm) and was characterized by a water contact angle = 100°. PBCE* showed a smooth and continuous surface without voids and visible spherulite-like aggregations and was more hydrophobic (WCA = 110°). Both surface characteristics were modulated through the copolymerization of different amounts of ether-oxygen-containing co-units into PBCE chemical structure. We showed that only the surface characteristics of PBCE-solvent-casted films steered hBM-MSCs toward a neuronal-like differentiation. hBM-MSCs lost their canonical mesenchymal morphology, acquired a neuronal polarized shape with a long cell protrusion (≥150 μm), expressed neuron-specific class III β-tubulin and microtubule-associated protein 2 neuronal markers, while nestin, a marker of uncommitted stem cells, was drastically silenced. These events were observed as early as 2-days after cell seeding. Of note, the phenomenon was totally absent on PBCE* film, as hBM-MSCs maintained the mesenchymal shape and behavior and did not express neuronal/glial markers.     

Efficient geometrical parametrization for finite-volume-based reduced order methods

In this work, we present an approach for the efficient treatment of parametrized geometries in the context of proper orthogonal decomposition (POD)-Galerkin reduced order methods based on finite-volume full order approximations. On the contrary to what is normally done in the framework of finite-element reduced order methods, different geometries are not mapped to a common reference domain: the method relies on basis functions defined on an average deformed configuration and makes use of the discrete empirical interpolation method to handle together nonaffinity of the parametrization and nonlinearities. In the first numerical example, different mesh motion strategies, based on a Laplacian smoothing technique and on a radial basis function approach, are analyzed and compared on a heat transfer problem. Particular attention is devoted to the role of the nonorthogonal correction. In the second numerical example, the methodology is tested on a geometrically parametrized incompressible Navier-Stokes problem. In this case, the reduced order model is constructed following the same segregated approach used at the full order level.     

The impact of the dependence structure in risk management: a focus on credit-risk

The aim of the paper is to discuss the important role of the dependence structure in risk management. Therefore, we focus on credit-risk and propose an innovative model to value the credit risk of a portfolio. This new approach (HYC for short) is based on a hierarchical hybrid copula and involves a clusterization of the portfolio in several risk's classes. The HYC model is classified as hybrid because the computation of the loss cdf depends on the class's cardinality: for large groups one is justified to apply a limiting approach, while for small ones one applies a procedure preserving the granularity of the group itself. In order to appreciate the impact of the dependence structure in credit-risk evaluation, a VaR analysis based on the HYC loss function is here compared to the CreditMetrics approach in an in-sample exercise and to the empirical VaR in an out-of sample exercise aimed to test the forecasting effectiveness of the model. This comparison allows us to appreciate over/under-valuation of the capital detained from the financial institution. Moreover, the impact of an enlargement of the dependence structure is discussed with respect to the systemic/contagious effects in the context of a portfolio optimisation with constraint on a sub-portfolio's risk.