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SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with frequent thrombotic events, at the micro and macro-vascular level, due to the perpetuation of a state of hypercoagulability. The so-called ‘COVID-19 associated coagulopathy’ (CAC) represents a key aspect in the genesis of organ damage from SARS-CoV-2. The main coagulative alterations described in the literature are represented by high levels of D-dimer and fibrinogen. Although CAC has some common features with disseminated intravascular coagulation and sepsis-induced coagulopathy, there are important differences between these clinical pictures and the phenotype of CAC is unique. The pathogenesis of CAC is complex and is affected by the strong interconnection between the inflammatory system and coagulation, in the phenomenon of immunothrombosis and thrombo-inflammation. Several mechanisms come into play, such as inflammatory cytokines, neutrophils, the complement system as well as an alteration of the fibrinolytic system. Finally, an altered platelet function and especially endothelial dysfunction also play a central role in the pathophysiology of CAC. Heparin has several potential effects in CAC, in fact in addition to the anticoagulant effect, it could have a direct antiviral effect and anti-inflammatory properties. The high incidence of thrombo-embolic phenomena despite the use of antithrombotic prophylaxis have led some experts to recommend the use of anticoagulant doses of heparin, but at present the optimal anticoagulant regimen remains to be determined.

Botrytis cinerea is the causative agent of gray mold disease, which causes considerable economic losses to winemakers. The extent of gray mold infection of winegrapes is commonly visually estimated, a method that is prone to assessor bias. Here, we used rapid and simple enzyme-based screening consisting of carbon-electrode, screen-printed amperometric biosensors to estimate gluconic acid and glycerol concentration in winegrapes infected with different degrees of B. cinerea. The lower limits of quantification of the screen-printed amperometric biosensors were 3 mg/L for gluconic acid (corresponding to an infection rate of less than 1%) and 35 mg/L for glycerol; the response times with a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min were in a range of 0.5 to 2 min in the linear ranges of the two assays. This study demonstrates the efficacy of amperometric biosensors for rapid analysis of gluconic acid and glycerol in grapes. The measurements confirmed that concentrations of both compounds are highly correlated with the rate of B. cinerea infection (R2 = 0.98). Thus, the biosensor developed to measure gluconic acid in grapes (or must) was more precise and gave a faster response than methods that currently exist for determining the rate of B. cinerea infection of grape berries.

Gene therapy may provide a cure for hemophilia and overcome the limitations of protein replacement therapy. Increasing the potency of gene transfer vectors may allow improvement of their therapeutic index, as lower doses can be administered to achieve therapeutic benefit, reducing toxicity of in vivo administration. Here we generated codon-usage optimized and hyperfunctional factor IX (FIX) transgenes carrying an R338L amino acid substitution (FIX Padua), previously associated with clotting hyperactivity and thrombophilia. We delivered these transgenes to hemophilia B mice by hepatocyte-targeted integration-competent and -defective lentiviral vectors. The hyperfunctional FIX transgenes increased FIX activity reconstituted in the plasma without detectable adverse effects, allowing correction of the disease phenotype at lower vector doses and resulting in improved hemostasis in vivo. The combined effect of codon optimization with the hyperactivating FIX-R338L mutation resulted in a robust 15-fold gain in potency and therefore provides a promising strategy to improve the efficacy, feasibility, and safety of hemophilia gene therapy.

Chestnuts are characterized by limited shelf-life because of their high water activity and sugar content. For this reason, air-drying is typically performed to achieve physicochemical and microbiological stability of such fruits. However, undesired structural changes can occur during drying owing to the achievement of high processing temperature. These modifications can affect water permeability ruling out the possibility of uniformly rehydrating the dried fruit. This contribution provides an experimental and modeling study of the rehydration process of air-dried chestnuts. With the objective of characterizing the effect of the drying temperature on water permeability, chestnuts previously dried at 40, 60 and 80 °C are rehydrated by immersion in water at 90 °C and sorption curves are constructed. Under the explored processing conditions, a purely Fickian diffusion model fails to describe the evolution of the absorbed amount of water due to the occurrence of swelling and starch gelatinization. Therefore, a mathematical model is formulated simultaneously accounting for the effect of diffusion, swelling and starch gelatinization on the transport of water. Parametric estimation of the model parameters is performed, based on the results of rehydration tests, by nonlinear regression techniques. In this way, satisfactory agreement between model predictions and derived experimental data is achieved and valuable information about the influence of the drying pre-processing conditions on water transport are obtained.

An alternative physical method for enhancing the drying rate of plums is proposed. It consists of the superficial abrasion of the plums' peel using an inert abrasive material to remove the cuticular waxy layer, the limiting factor for moisture loss. The physical pre-treatment was compared with a chemical treatment in which the plums were dipped into a solution of ethyl oleate. The drying kinetics of the above samples, including the untreated one, were reconstructed by using a mathematical model. The drying process, carried out at 60 C to reduce the prunes' quality loss, showed the great capability of both pre-treatments to enhance water diffusivity in the plum peel with respect to the untreated samples. Moreover, it was found that the physical treatment was more effective than the chemical one. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

An investigation was carried out on virgin olive oils of the Gentile (Larino), Gentile (Colletorto), Coratina, and Leccino varieties, harvested at different times, to assess their oxidation stability. The olive oils were analyzed by means of peroxide, K-232, and K 270 values at 1, 6, 12, and 18 mon of storage in green bottles, in the dark, at temperatures ranging from a mean of 6degreesC in winter to 12degreesC in summer. A subsample was also oven-tested at 75degreesC and then analyzed on a weekly basis using the same oxidative parameters. The less ripe the olives (harvested in the same area, during 1 mon), the more resistant the olive oils were to forced oxidation. The amount of total phenols in the oils was found to be directly related, even if to a low degree, to the oleuropein content in the olives and inversely related, to the same degree, to (3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)ethanol. The latter is a derivative of oleuropein; (3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)ethanol content increases as the olives ripen, but it is very low in fresh virgin olive oils, owing to the hydrophilic nature of the phenolic alcohol, which goes mainly into the waste-water during processing. Among the varieties considered, Coratina oils showed the highest resistance to forced oxidation because of their high total phenol content.