Caratteristiche qualitative delle carni di petto di pollo anomale

Il presente lavoro di tesi ha avuto lo scopo di valutare l’effetto dell’insorgenza delle anomalie “white-striping” e “wooden breast” (sia separatamente che contestualmente nell’ambito dello stesso filetto) su composizione chimica, profilo in acidi grassi e suscettibilità all’ossidazione lipidica e proteica. Le modificazioni riscontrate nella composizione chimica (maggiori livelli di collagene e lipidi a discapito del tenore in proteine) determinano una ridotta qualità nutrizionale con possibili effetti negativi sulla percezione del consumatore, oltre che sulla capacità di ritenzione idrica come riscontrato in precedenti studi. Per quanto riguarda il profilo in acidi grassi, l’effetto delle anomalie è stato più limitato rispetto a quanto ipotizzato. Infatti, nonostante l’aumento dei lipidi totali, le carni di petto anomale non presentano modificazioni nel contenuto di acidi grassi monoinsaturi e polinsaturi totali. Le uniche differenze hanno riguardato il totale degli acidi grassi saturi e il contenuto di acidi grassi essenziali (EPA, DPA, DHA) che sono risultati significativamente inferiori. Le ridotte quantità di EPA e DPA nei petti anomali possono essere correlate alla minore attività degli enzimi Δ5 e Δ6 desaturasi, probabilmente in ragione della complessiva riduzione nell’espressione dei geni che codificano tali enzimi. Da sottolineare infine che le carni anomale hanno presentato livelli inferiori di emepigmenti. Per quanto attiene alle caratteristiche tecnologiche, è stata osservato un maggiore livello di ossidazione delle proteine in relazione alla presenza dell’anomalia wooden breast. Al contrario, l’ossidazione dei lipidi non ha mostrato differenze sostanziali fra i campioni anomali e quelli normali. Nel complesso, pertanto questo lavoro di tesi ha ulteriormente evidenziato i rischi connessi all’utilizzo delle carni anomale, e soprattutto di quelle affette da wooden breast, nella preparazione di prodotti trasformati in relazione al peggioramento delle rese di lavorazione dovuto alla minore concentrazione e qualità delle proteine. La componente lipidica sembra invece essere meno compromessa dalla presenza di tali anomalie.

Progettazione di pavimentazioni portuali

L’oggetto di studio della tesi è centrato sulla progettazione di pavimentazioni ad alta resistenza nell’ambito dei porti commerciali. Nel capitolo 1, viene effettuata una descrizione delle caratteristiche principali dei porti, proseguendo con l’esposizione dei principi organizzativi dei porti commerciali. In particolar modo, vengono illustrate le operazioni che si registrano in un terminal container e le proprietà dei diversi mezzi speciali che vi operano. Nel capitolo successivo, si procede con la definizione dei materiali più comunemente utilizzati nella realizzazione delle pavimentazioni di un porto e quindi con la descrizione delle principali tipologie di soluzioni adottate nella progettazione. Successivamente, nel capitolo 3, vengono enunciati i principali metodi di calcolo per la progettazione di una pavimentazione portuale e si prosegue con l’approfondimento del metodo descritto dal manuale pubblicato dalla British Ports Association (BPA):”The structural design of heavy duty pavements for ports and other industries”. Infine, nell’ultimo capitolo, viene illustrato il processo di progettazione in base al metodo BPA, mediante lo svolgimento di un esempio di calcolo della pavimentazione.

Magic Lantern Slides 2

According to Charles Musser, Huygens had two key innovations for his magic lantern: 1. Images painted on glass instead of etchings on mirrors. 2. An artificial light source was used instead of the reflection of sunlight. (20) Glass slides (often more than one) with hand drawn images are the standard aesthetic for these slides. They are then usually mounted in rectangular wooden frames approx. 4 x 7 inches with a 3 inch circular opening for the image. (Musser 30) The various mechanisms attached to the images are described in the Object Narrative section.

Magic Lantern Slides 4

According to Charles Musser, Huygens had two key innovations for his magic lantern: 1. Images painted on glass instead of etchings on mirrors. 2. An artificial light source was used instead of the reflection of sunlight. (20) Glass slides (often more than one) with hand drawn images are the standard aesthetic for these slides. They are then usually mounted in rectangular wooden frames approx. 4 x 7 inches with a 3 inch circular opening for the image. (Musser 30) The various mechanisms attached to the images are described in the Object Narrative section.

Magic Lantern Slides 1

According to Charles Musser, Huygens had two key innovations for his magic lantern: 1. Images painted on glass instead of etchings on mirrors. 2. An artificial light source was used instead of the reflection of sunlight. (20) Glass slides (often more than one) with hand drawn images are the standard aesthetic for these slides. They are then usually mounted in rectangular wooden frames approx. 4 x 7 inches with a 3 inch circular opening for the image. (Musser 30) The various mechanisms attached to the images are described in the Object Narrative section.

Magic Lantern Slides 3

According to Charles Musser, Huygens had two key innovations for his magic lantern: 1. Images painted on glass instead of etchings on mirrors. 2. An artificial light source was used instead of the reflection of sunlight. (20) Glass slides (often more than one) with hand drawn images are the standard aesthetic for these slides. They are then usually mounted in rectangular wooden frames approx. 4 x 7 inches with a 3 inch circular opening for the image. (Musser 30) The various mechanisms attached to the images are described in the Object Narrative section.

Stereoscope

Wheatstone’s stereoscope placed two mirrors on either side that were mounted at a right angle in order to view the two dissimilar drawings presented (Hankins 148). There are two identical monocular tubes that allow each eye to view the images (Hankins 148). Each eye views the image it was intended to see. The two eyes see slightly different images through this binocular vision (Hankins 148). The combination of the two images creates this illusion of depth and solidarity through their superimposition (Hankins 154). In order to view these images, the eyes were covered from all external light (Clay 152). The stereoscope was first seen as a philosophical toy along with other inventions such as the zoetrope, providing entertainment as well as scientific insight (Hankins 148). The stereoscope above is more similar to the “Holmes Stereoscope”, which transformed Wheatstone’s stereoscope into a handheld version that could be put on a stand (Hawkins 155). He replaced the retina of the eye with a sensitive plate; therefore, the lenses acted as the eyes (Silverman 738). In the video, an embellishment adorns the bottom of the stand that holds up the binocular lens and the images. The lenses are in a wooden frame that has an attached stand that holds the slides of images. There also is a knob on the side of the device that can adjust the lens on the two monocular tubes (Bokander 485).

Zoetrope

The size of the Zoetrope was roughly between a foot or two of cubic space, although the exact dimensions vary from model to model. The materials used to create the Zoetrope were fairly basic; the wooden platform served as the stabilizer, the cylinder was mounted on a wooden or metal pole that elevated the viewing platform and the cylinder itself, we can deduce, was made of a flexible paper-like material that allowed slots to be cut into it. The band with the painted or sketched images would be made of a similar if not identical material as it has to change form to fit inside its corresponding cylinder.

Biunal Lantern

A biunial magic lantern is a wooden box with two lenses, one on top of the other. The lenses have shutters and slots to insert glass slides. The light source is placed inside the box and the images are projected through either of the two lenses. It works in the same way as traditional magic lanterns, but allows for dissolving images and special effects.

Another Way of Saying Enough: Environmental Concern and Popular Mobilization in Kyrgyzstan

This article is a foray into the understudied issue of environmental protest politics in Central Asia. Specifically, it uses Kyrgyzstan as a case study to test the argument that environmental concerns mobilized people to engage in protest and in ways different from other kinds of protest. This essay presents the first systematic study of public opinion about the environment in Kyrgyzstan. It includes results from a 2009 nationwide survey, over 100 expert and elite interviews, and newspaper content analysis. Furthermore, it spatially analyzes these results to identify geographical variation in public perception and political event occurrence patterns. Protest engagement is a complex process determined by the interaction of several factors, and is not explained solely by affluence, rationality, or grievances. Eco-mobilization - collective political action about the environment - represents a class of protest events that offers a different view into mass discontent in the former Soviet Union and neo-patrimonial societies. The study finds that these political actions about the environment are not necessarily elite driven; there is a basic foundation of national concern and salience of these issues, and demonstrated environmental beliefs do help to explain protest behavior.

Influence of nest site on the behaviour of laying hens

Low rates of nest acceptance by laying hens are a major problem in commercial poultry farming operations with aviary systems, leading to costly manual collection and cleaning of mislaid eggs. To gain knowledge about factors affecting nest use, laying hens' preferences for different nest locations were tested. Nests are normally installed at one of two sites: against a wall of the hen house or integrated into one tier of the aviary rack The preferences of laying hens for different nest sites have never been examined under commercial conditions. The aim of this study is to investigate whether behavioural differences can be detected between the different nest sites. The study consists of two consecutive trials involving 5027 Lohmann Selected Leghorn hens (LSL) and 601 layer hybrids selected for extensive housing conditions (EXT). The hens were randomly assigned to eight compartments per trial in groups of 355-360 LSL or 300 EXT in a laying hen house. Four compartments were equipped with a Volito Voletage (R) aviary system (VV), and four were equipped with a Rihs Bolegell (R) aviary system (RB), both of which contained either integrated or wall-placed nests when the experiments started. A strongly balanced crossover design with four periods was used. At 36, 44 and 52 weeks of age, the nest site in four out of the eight compartments was switched. Before each change, the fronts of half of the nests were videotaped during the light period, and the behaviour throughout the main laying period was analysed. Furthermore, the numbers of nest eggs and mislaid eggs in each compartment were recorded every day. No differences in the number of mislaid eggs between the two nest sites could be detected, except at the age of 20/21 weeks when hens in VV aviaries mislaid more eggs when nests were integrated (P = 0.0012). More hens stood simultaneously in front of the integrated nests than in front of wall-placed nests (P = 0.015). Activity of the laying hens increased (P = 0.0073), and stationary behavioural patterns declined (P = 0.0093), when the nests were placed by the wall. Hens inspected integrated nests for a longer duration than wall-placed nests, but wall-placed nests were visited more frequently. In addition to the nest site, the width of the platform in front of the nest influenced laying hen behaviour. Compared with narrower platforms, balance movements decreased on wider ones. Additionally, the platform design had to be taken into account as well, given that hens could not stand or walk as securely on wooden slats as on a grid floor. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Simply a nest? Effects of different enrichments on stereotypic and anxiety-related behaviour in mice

Improving the home cages of laboratory mice by environmental enrichment has been widely used to reduce cage stereotypies and anxiety-related behaviour in behavioural tests. However, enrichment studies differ substantially in type, complexity and variation of enrichments. Therefore, it is unclear whether success depends on specific enrichment items, environmental complexity, or novelty associated with enrichment. The aim of this study was therefore to dissociate the effects of environmental complexity and novelty on stereotypy development and compare these effects with the provision of nesting material alone. Thus, 54 freshly weaned male ICR (CD-1) mice were pairwise allocated to standard laboratory cages enriched in three different ways (n = 18 per group). Treatment 1 consisted of cotton wool as nesting material. Treatments 2 and 3 were structurally more complex, including a shelter and a climbing structure as additional resources. To render complexity and novelty independent of the specific enrichment items, three shelters (cardboard house, plastic tunnel, red plastic house) and three climbing structures (ladder, rope, wooden bars) were used to create nine different combinations of enrichment. In treatment 2 (complexity), each pair of mice was assigned to a different combination that remained constant throughout 9 weeks, whereas in treatment 3 (novelty), each pair of mice was exposed to all 9 combinations in turn by changing them weekly in a pseudorandom order. After 9 weeks, stereotypic behaviour in the home cage was assessed from video recordings, and anxiety-related behaviour was assessed in two behavioural tests (elevated zero-maze, open-field). However, no significant differences in stereotypy scores and no consistent differences in anxiety-related behaviours were found between the three groups. These findings indicate that within standard laboratory cages neither complexity nor novelty of simple enrichments have additional effects on stereotypic and anxiety-related behaviour beyond those of adequate nesting material. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Hydrologic monitoring of an integrated low impact development (LID) underdrained stormwater management system

In 2005, Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc. (WSSI) installed an extensive Low Impact Development (LID) stormwater management system on their new office site in Gainesville, Virginia. The 4-acre site is serviced by a network of LID components: permeable pavements (two proprietary and one gravel type), bioretention cell / rain garden, green roof, vegetated swale, rainwater harvesting and drip irrigation, and slow-release underground detention. The site consists of heavy clay soils, and the LID components are mostly integrated by a series of underdrain pipes. A comprehensive monitoring system has been designed and installed to measure hydrologic performance throughout the LID, underdrained network. The monitoring system measures flows into and out of each LID component independently while concurrently monitoring rainfall events. A sensitivity analysis and laboratory calibration has been performed on the flow measurement system. Field data has been evaluated to determine the hydrologic performance of the LID features. Finally, hydrologic models amenable to compact, underdrained LID sites have been reviewed and recommended for future modeling and design.

Accounting for warping and differential drying shrinkage mechanisms in the design of jointed plain concrete payments

When a concrete slab experiences differential volume change due to temperature, moisture, and shrinkage gradients, it deforms. The stresses induced by these differential volume changes can reduce the pavement’s fatigue life. Differential volume change is quantified by the equivalent temperature difference required to deform a comparable flat slab to the same shape as the actual slab. This thesis presents models to predict the equivalent temperature difference due to moisture warping and differential drying shrinkage. Moisture warping occurs because a portion of drying shrinkage is reversible, while differential drying shrinkage is due to the irreversible portion of drying shrinkage. The amount of reversible shrinkage was investigated for concretes made with different types of aggregate, including lightweight and recycled. Another source of differential volume change is built-in curl, which is caused by temperature gradients at the time of paving. This thesis also presents a comparison of methods used to quantify built-in curl.

Expansion of mortar bars in the presence of potassium acetate deicer

Carboxylate-based deicing and anti-icing chemicals became widely used in the mid 1990s, replacing more environmentally burdensome chemicals. Within a few years of their adoption, distress of portland cement concrete runways was reported by a few airports using the new chemicals. Distress manifested characteristics identical to that of alkali silica reactivity (ASR), but onset occurred early in the pavement’s operating life and with pavements thought to contain innocuous aggregate. The carboxylate-based deicing chemicals were suspected of exacerbating ASR-like expansion. Innocuous, moderately, and highly reactive aggregates were tested using modified ASTM C1260 and ASTM C1567 procedures with soak solutions containing deicer solutions and sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. ASR-like expansion is exacerbated in the presence of potassium acetate. The expansion rate produced by a given aggregate is also a function of the alkali hydroxide used. Petrographic analyses were performed on thin sections prepared from mortar bars used in the experiments. Expansion occurred via two mechanisms; rupture of aggregate grains and expansion of paste.