Combined Experimental and Multivariate Model Approaches for Glycoalkaloid Quantification in Tomatoes

The intake of tomato glycoalkaloids can exert beneficial effects on human health. For this reason, methods for a rapid quantification of these compounds are required. Most of the methods for α-tomatine and dehydrotomatine quantification are based on chromatographic techniques. However, these techniques require complex and time-consuming sample pre-treatments. In this work, HPLC-ESI-QqQ-MS/MS was used as reference method. Subsequently, multiple linear regression (MLR) and partial least squares regression (PLSR) were employed to create two calibration models for the prediction of the tomatine content from thermogravimetric (TGA) and attenuated total reflectance (ATR) infrared spectroscopy (IR) analyses. These two fast techniques were proven to be suitable and effective in alkaloid quantification (R² = 0.998 and 0.840, respectively), achieving low errors (0.11 and 0.27%, respectively) with the reference technique.     

The role of quality management system in the monitoring and continuous improvement of GMP-regulated short-lived radiopharmaceutical manufacture

The last decade has seen extraordinary growth in the clinical use of Positron Emission Tomography (PET), an in vivo molecular imaging modality widely used in oncology that requires the use of radiopharmaceuticals labeled with short-lived radionuclides. These medicinal products have found widespread application in Nuclear Medicine departments equipped with PET scanners. Due to the great increase in radiopharmaceutical demand, their production has been centralized and moved to industrial manufacturing sites in which Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) principles and guidelines for medicinal products are to be applied. The production of PET radiopharmaceuticals features particular aspects such as the use of the lot before the completion of all tests, the multiplicity of batches produced per single day and the absence of product stock due to radionuclide short half-life. In this context, the application of quality principles to all stages of the process and the implementation of a quality management system (QMS) are of primary importance. This paper reports on the development of a QMS applied to a GMP manufacturing site of an in vivo PET diagnostic product, and on how its application can describe the performance of the site. Data were collected over a 6-year period (2008–2013) and demonstrate the ability of Key Performance Indicators, strictly related to the structure and organization of the QMS, and quality tools (data analysis, internal audit, etc.) to monitor process performance in terms of effectiveness, efficacy and stability.     

Growth of manganese silicide films by co-deposition of Mn and Si on Si(1 1 1): A spectroscopic and morphological investigation

MnSi is a ferromagnetic compound with a Curie temperature of 29 K. Recent theoretical studies predict that 2 ML of MnSi epitaxially grown on Si show a ferromagnetic metallic ground state with spin polarization of about 50%. This would allow the development of spintronic devices based on the injection of spin-polarized current from a ferromagnetic metal into a semiconductor.In this context the possibility of growing in situ MnSi on the Si(1 1 1) surface has been explored. Thermal reaction, crystalline structure and electronic properties of the grown films have been studied in situ by photoemission spectroscopy (PES), X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), and low energy electron diffraction (LEED). Depositing a thin film of Mn on Si(1 1 1) the formation of ordered islands (with dimensions dependent on the amount of deposited Mn) is driven by annealing at selected temperatures, as already observed. Our preliminary studies show that by simultaneously depositing Mn and Si in 1:1 stoichiometry on Si(1 1 1) a large improvement in the homogeneity of the MnSi films is achieved.     

Modì: a new mobile instrument for in situ double-pulse LIBS analysis

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a promising technique for in situ elemental analysis. A new mobile instrument for LIBS analysis, developed in a collaboration between Marwan Technology s.r.l. and the Applied Laser Spectroscopy Laboratory in Pisa, is presented, and some applications of it and results from it are outlined. The innovative experimental set-up, based on the use of two suitably retarded laser pulses and a standardless analysis procedure, which overcomes problems related to matrix effects, greatly improves the potential of this technique for accurate quantitative analysis.      

The degree of the bicanonical map of a surface with

In this note it is shown that, given a smooth minimal complex surface of general type with , , for which the bicanonical map is a morphism, the degree of is not 3. This completes our earlier results, showing that if is a minimal surface of general type with , such that is free, then the bicanonical map of can have degree 1, 2 or 4.

     

Regular canonical covers

We construct three sequences of regular surfaces of general type with unbounded numerical invariants whose canonical map is 2–to–1 onto a canonically embedded surface. Only sporadic examples of surfaces with these properties were previously known.