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Pasture contains a lot of terpenes, able to pass throughout oral assumption and inhalation into meat. The aim of this paper was to verify if limonene accumulates in meat after oral or respiratory exposure and to assess its effects on animal oxidative status and meat quality. Thirty-six goat kids were involved and assigned for 1 week to three treatment groups: control group (CG); an oral group (OG), where limonene was administered directly into the mouth (drenched); and a respiratory group (RG), in which limonene was administered via inhalation. The meat limonene concentration for the OG was the highest (P 0.01), although RG showed the highest rate of transfer (P 0.001). Limonene gives the possibility to delay lipid oxidative processes, reducing discoloration and rancidity in meat. However, the respiration route seems to be able to guarantee a greater limonene transfer into meat compared to the oral one.

Nowadays, the application of a PAT (Pump as Turbine) has been developed in several applications as pressure dropping valve. Generally, pump manufacturers do not provide the characteristic curves of their pump working as turbine and researchers have the objective of build a model to predict the turbine operation of pumps for energy recovery schemes. This paper shows a methodology based on a mathematical model of a centrifugal pump used as a PAT in an urban hydraulic network, to solve this kind of problem. The model was built up, starting from the real geometry, with a commercial tridimensional code, which is particularly suitable to simulate pumps and valves. The aim of this paper isthe investigation on the possibility to use a simulation methodologyto obtain the inverse characteristic of a commercial centrifugal pump. First, the model results were compared with the data declared by the pump manufacturer and after it was used to obtain the inverse characteristic (PAT mode). Furthermore, an experimental test bench was used to obtain the reverse mode pump characteristic, in terms of flow-rate/head. In both cases, the simulation model showed good accuracy, there is a low difference between simulated results and manufacturer/experimental data. The model results, which represents the first step of this activity, revealed that it is possibleto obtain the pump characteristic in reverse mode, which is not declared in the commercial pump datasheet.

Vanadium compounds can exert anticancer effects, partly due to inhibition of tyrosine phosphatases. Here, we report the effect of N,N'-ethylenebis (pyridoxylideneiminato) vanadium (IV) complex (Pyr2 enV(IV)), that induced 93% and 57% of cell mortality in A375 (human melanoma) and A549 (human lung carcinoma) cells, respectively; the mortality was

The evaluation of odor emissions and dispersion is a very arduous topic to face; the real-time monitoring of odor emissions, the identification of chemical components and, with proper certainty, the source of annoyance represent a challenge for stakeholders such as local authorities. The complaints of people, often not systematic and variously distributed, in general do not allow us to quantify the perceived annoyance. Experimental research has been performed to detect and evaluate olfactory annoyance, based on field testing of an innovative monitoring methodology grounded in automatic recording of citizen alerts. It has been applied in Taranto, in the south of Italy where a relevant industrial area is located, by using Odortel(®) for automated collection of citizen alerts. To evaluate its reliability, the collection system has been integrated with automated samplers, able to sample odorous air in real time, according to the citizen alerts of annoyance and, moreover, with meteorological data (especially the wind direction) and trends in odor marker compounds, recorded by air quality monitoring stations. The results have allowed us, for the first time, to manage annoyance complaints, test their reliability, and obtain information about the distribution and entity of the odor phenomena, such that we were able to identify, with supporting evidence, the source as an oil refinery plant.

Vanadium compounds can exert anticancer effects, partly due to inhibition of tyrosine phosphatases. Here, we report the effect of N,N'-ethylenebis (pyridoxylideneiminato) vanadium (IV) complex (Pyr2 enV(IV)), that induced 93% and 57% of cell mortality in A375 (human melanoma) and A549 (human lung carcinoma) cells, respectively; the mortality was24% in other cancer cell lines and in human normal epidermal keratinocytes, lung cells and peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The mechanism of Pyr2 enV(IV) effect relied on apoptosis induction; this was triggered by ROS increase, followed by mitochondrial membrane depolarization. Indeed, the addition of N-acetyl cysteine to cell cultures abated Pyr2 enV(IV)-induced apoptosis. These results disclose the pro-apoptotic activity of Pyr2 enV(IV) and its mechanism, relying on intracellular ROS increase.

Le recenti politiche europee sono rivolte alla valutazione dei possibili effetti nocivi di miscele complesse di sostanze chimiche (REACH) utilizzando metodi che escludano l'impiego di vertebrati. In questa relazione vengono illustrati gli effetti di tossicità di particolato atmosferico su due organismi modello: Caenorhabditis elegans e Rhodobacter sphaeroides. I campioni di particolato sono stati raccolti in due siti della città di Bari e da questi sono stati estratti i composti organici solubili in acetone ed esano. I risultati ottenuti da tali test hanno mostrato un effetto tossico sul nematode C. elegans, mentre nel caso del batterio fotosintetico gli effetti sono limitati ad una leggera diminuzione della velocità di crescita. Gli sviluppi futuri di questo studio saranno orientati verso frazioni granulometriche quali PM1 e nano particolato e verso altri sistemi modello.

Background: In multiple myeloma (MM) patients (pts) undergone high dose therapy, the outcome of the transplant is better if a good response is achieved before the procedure. Therefore, different attempts have been made in intensifying pre-transplant chemotherapy to improve the response. Aim of the study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Thal-Dex in improving the response rate after initial VAD therapy. Methods: 61 untreated MM pts aged ≤65 years were addressed to high dose program with a debulking therapy with 3 pulse-VAD cycles followed by Thal-Dex for 3 months at the following schedule: Thal 100 mg/d orally at bed time, continuously for 3 months, Dex 20 mg/d orally on days 1–4 and 14–17 every 28 days. Response at the end of each phase was defined as follows: complete remission (CR), disappearance of serum and urine monoclonal component (MC) by immunofixation and bone marrow plasmocytosis (BMPC) Results: Responses after VAD were evaluable in 60 pts: RC 7%, VGPR 38%, PR 27%, MR 10%, SD 10%, progression 8%. Four pts dropped out after pulse-VAD for progression and in 1 for toxicity. Responses after Thal-Dex in 52 evaluable pts were: RC 12%, VGPR 40%, PR 17%, MR 4%, SD 4%, Progression 23%. Three pts dropped-out during Thal-Dex, 1 for progression and 2 for toxicity. Of note, pts who obtained a scarce response to VAD, namely a MR or SD, showed a higher probability (85% of cases) to have a progression during or after the administration of Thal-Dex. Statistical analysis (Kendall Concordance Coefficient (p Conclusions: The combination thalidomide-dexamethasone after pulse-VAD is not effective in improving response rate, and shows an additional toxicity. Thus it does not seem useful for the intensification before transplant.