Inactivation of Mucor plumbeus by the combined actions of chitinase and high hydrostatic pressure

Sporangiospores were treated with high hydrostatic pressure and/or fungal chitinase in order to study the inhibition of germination and growth of the food spoiling mold Mucor plumbeus. Total fungal inhibition was obtained either at 4.0 kbar or by 10 U/ml of chitinase from Penicillium janthinellum. A pretreatment with 1 U/ml of the same chitinase reduced the pressure necessary to obtain complete spore inhibition to 3 kbar.     

LCA of strippable coatings and of steam vacuum technology used for nuclear plants decontamination

The application of strippable coatings is an innovative technology for decontamination of nuclear plants and for any decontamination project aiming at removing surface contamination. An adhesive plastic coating is applied on the contaminated surface. The strippable coating is allowed to cure for up to 24 h, after which it can be easily peeled. The coating traps the contaminants in the polymer matrix. Strippable coatings are non-toxic and do not contain volatile compounds or heavy metals. Since the coating constitutes a solid waste, disposal is easier than treating contaminated liquid wastes, produced by the baseline technology: steam vacuum cleaning, based upon superheated pressurized water in order to remove contaminants from floors and walls. A life cycle assessment (LCA) has been carried out with the purpose of comparing the strippable coating with the steam vacuum technology. The functional unit of the study is represented by a surface of 1 m² to be decontaminated. The results of LCA achieved using Sima Pro 5.0^® software confirm the good environmental performances of strippable coatings. Taking into account both LCA and environmental costs for liquid wastes, the advantages of strippable coatings will be more and more evident.     

Visual Cortex Engagement in Retinitis Pigmentosa

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a family of inherited disorders caused by the progressive degeneration of retinal photoreceptors. There is no cure for RP, but recent research advances have provided promising results from many clinical trials. All these therapeutic strategies are focused on preserving existing photoreceptors or substituting light-responsive elements. Vision recovery, however, strongly relies on the anatomical and functional integrity of the visual system beyond photoreceptors. Although the retinal structure and optic pathway are substantially preserved at least in early stages of RP, studies describing the visual cortex status are missing. Using a well-established mouse model of RP, we analyzed the response of visual cortical circuits to the progressive degeneration of photoreceptors. We demonstrated that the visual cortex goes through a transient and previously undescribed alteration in the local excitation/inhibition balance, with a net shift towards increased intracortical inhibition leading to improved filtering and decoding of corrupted visual inputs. These results suggest a compensatory action of the visual cortex that increases the range of residual visual sensitivity in RP.     

Human segmentation in surveillance video with deep learning

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Advanced intelligent surveillance systems are able to automatically analyze video of surveillance data without human intervention. These systems allow high...     

3D source simulation method for static fields in inhomogeneous media

In this paper, an integral approach based on the source simulation method (SSM) for the solution of three dimensional (3D) static electric fields is presented. This is an extension of the well‐known charge simulation method to the electric and current static fields. The formulation allows the solution of 3D electrostatic or static current field problems, where several perfectly conducting bodies (electrodes) are placed in inhomogeneous media. Only electrode surfaces and dielectric interfaces need to be discretized by triangular elements. Matrix coefficients are accurately evaluated by using closed integral forms of 1/r and of grad(1/r). Dirichlet and Neumann conditions can be imposed on the different conducting bodies; in particular, floating potential problem can also be solved. The method of images allows ground plane to be taken into account. The procedure has been applied to several practical cases and it represents an efficient tool for the evaluation of lumped circuit parameters such as capacitances of 3D conducting bodies and ground resistances of grounding systems. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Catalytic diastereoselective hydrogenation of (>S)-proline-modified anthranilic acid

The hydrogenation of (S)-proline-modified anthranilic acid was studied on Rh and Ru catalysts. The hydrogenation occurred with a very high diastereoselectivity but a moderate chemoselectivity. In general, the carbon-supported catalysts exhibited a higher activity but a lower diastereoselectivity than the alumina-supported catalysts. The use of water as the solvent instead of ethanol resulted in higher activities but lower diastereoselectivities. Rh- and Ru-based homogeneous catalysts gave a comparable selectivity but a lower activity than their heterogeneous counterparts. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Identification method for a circuit model of scalar static hysteresis

We present a new identification procedure for a hysteresis model based on nonlinear circuit cells. The response of elementary cells is equal to a generalized play operator. The procedure identifies exactly the limit symmetric hysteresis loop and can minimize the reconstruction error on minor loops. We present test cases for three different soft magnetic materials with peculiar behavior and we discuss the results.