scholarly journals Sounding out falsified medicines from genuine medicines using Broadband Acoustic Resonance Dissolution Spectroscopy (BARDS)

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anas Alfarsi ◽  
Céline Caillet ◽  
Garry Fawbert ◽  
Simon Lawrence ◽  
Jacob Krüse ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Active Ingredient ◽  
Lower Cost ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Acoustic Resonance ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Acoustic Signatures ◽  
Falsified Medicines ◽  
Acoustic Phenomenon ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThe trade in falsified medicine has increased significantly and it is estimated that global falsified sales have reached $100 billion in 2020. The EU Falsified Medicines Directive states that falsified medicines do not only reach patients through illegal routes but also via the legal supply chain. Falsified medicines can contain harmful ingredients. They can also contain too little or too much active ingredient or no active ingredient at all. BARDS (Broadband Acoustic Resonance Dissolution Spectroscopy) harnesses an acoustic phenomenon associated with the dissolution of a sample (tablet or powder). The resulting acoustic spectrum is unique and intrinsic to the sample and can be used as an identifier or signature profile. BARDS was evaluated in this study to determine whether a product is falsified or genuine in a rapid manner and at lower cost than many existing technologies. A range of genuine and falsified medicines, including falsified antimalarial tablets from south-east Asia, were tested, and compared to their counterpart genuine products. Significant differences between genuine and falsified doses were found in their acoustic signatures as they disintegrate and dissolve. Principal component analysis was employed to differentiate between the genuine and falsified medicines. This demonstrates that the tablets and capsules included here have intrinsic acoustic signatures which could be used to screen the quality of medicines.

scholarly journals The quality of public finance in the light of fiscal governance concept: implications for the European Union countries

Equilibrium ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-426
Author(s):  
Aneta Kargol-Wasiluk ◽  
Anna Wildowicz-Giegiel
Keyword(s):  
Public Finance ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Fiscal Rules ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Eu

Research background: The research area on the quality of public finance (QPF) appears to be intellectually attractive. In the light of the challenges of the 21st century, public finance should be characterized by adequate quality, ensuring effective implementation of the economic functions of government. The problem of QPF is increasingly more frequent in the face of a deteriorating fiscal situation of most countries in Europe and around the world. Hence, it is worth considering which factors determine the quality of public finance. Purpose of the article: This article aims to show the possibility of assessing the quality of public finance in the light of fiscal governance concept.  The identification of the key components of QPF seems to be useful from the point of view of empirical research, and can be implemented to assess the quality of public finance in the EU–28. Methods: Descriptive analysis along with principal component analysis (PCA) was implemented to indicate dimensions of QPF. Findings & Value added: The quality of public finance consists of a well-designed fiscal rules (numerical and non-numerical) and institutions, as well as structural reforms. The obtained results allow to characterize the quality of public finance through the prism of six identified principal components. They have a mixed character, two of them are partly or totally related to the institutional aspects of public finance, which proves their importance in the process of improving the quality of public finance. Improving the quality of public finance remains a key challenge for policy makers in the EU. The growing impact of globalization and the aging population also cause the need to improve the qualitative aspects of fiscal policy. The study contributes to the literature on public finance, particularly in the empirical dimension through broadening the knowledge on institutional factors which can be used to measure QPF index. The results of research have certainly enriched the existing knowledge on the phenomenon of QPF and the ways of its measurement.

Multivariate micropollutants analysis in marine waters

1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 341-348
Author(s):  
V. Librando ◽  
G. Magazzù ◽  
A. Puglisi
Keyword(s):  
Multivariate Data Analysis ◽  
Partial Least Squares Regression ◽  
Environmental Chemistry ◽  
Sampling Site ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
Organic Micropollutants ◽  
Suspended Material ◽  
The Difference

The monitoring of water quality today provides a great quantity of data consisting of the values of the parameters measured as a function of time. In the marine environment, and especially in the suspended material, increasing importance is being given to the presence of organic micropollutants, particularly since some are known to be carcinogenic. As the number of measured parameters increases examining the data and their consequent interpretation becomes more difficult. To overcome such difficulties, numerous chemometric techniques have been introduced in environmental chemistry, such as Multivariate Data Analysis (MVDA), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR). The use of the first technique in this work has been applied to the interpretation of the quality of Augusta bay, by measuring the concentration of numerous organic micropollutants, together with the classical water pollution parameters, in different sites and at different times. The MVDA has highlighted the difference between various sampling sites whose data were initially thought to be similar. Furthermore, it has allowed a choice of more significant parameters for future monitoring and more suitable sampling site locations.

scholarly journals Exploratory Monitoring of the Quality and Authenticity of Commercial Honey in Ecuador

Foods ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorena Salvador ◽  
Michelle Guijarro ◽  
Daniela Rubio ◽  
Bolívar Aucatoma ◽  
Tanya Guillén ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bees ◽  
Reducing Sugars ◽  
Conductivity Measurement ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Economic Importance ◽  
Critical Problem ◽  
Spectroscopic Analyses ◽  
Chemical Threats ◽  
Raman And Ir Spectroscopy

Honey is one of the oldest sweetening foods and has economic importance, making this product attractive to adulteration with cheap sugars. This can cause a critical problem in the honey industry and a possible health risk. The present work has the aim of evaluating the authenticity of honey commercialized in two different provinces of Ecuador (Pichincha and Loja) by performing physicochemical and spectroscopic analyses. For this study 25 samples were collected from different places and markets and characterized by water, sucrose, reducing sugars and electric conductivity measurement. Also, their Raman and Infrared (IR) spectra were recorded and analysed using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in order to verify the quality of the honeys. In addition, a screening of several pesticides was performed in order to verify possible chemical threats to human health and honey bees. It was found that 8 samples have a deviation from the Standard established parameters. Two of them have a high difference in the content of sucrose and reducing sugars, which are located deviated from all the other samples in the PCA of the applied vibrational spectroscopy (IR/Raman), shaping two clear clusters. The results show that Raman and IR spectroscopy is appropriate techniques for the quality control of honey and correlates well with the physicochemical analyses.

scholarly journals Supranational Assessment of the Quality of Probiotics: Collaborative Initiative between Independent Accredited Testing Laboratories

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1456
Author(s):  
Jean-Pol Warzée ◽  
Marina Elli ◽  
Abdoulaye Fall ◽  
Daniela Cattivelli ◽  
Jean-Yves François
Keyword(s):  
Daily Basis ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Close Collaboration ◽  
Quality Label ◽  
Accredited Laboratories ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
Quality Of Food ◽  
The Eu

Recent acquisitions about the role of the microbiota in the functioning of the human body make it possible to envisage an increasing use of beneficial microbes, and more particularly of probiotics as well as their metabolites, as nutritional supplements. National and EU authorities are engaged in assuring the safety and quality of food supplements and in defining rules to assess and communicate their efficacy on human health. The quality of probiotics, intended as strains’ identification, viability, and stability over time, is a crucial factor of credibility with consumers and health professionals. Analytical technologies for the quality control of probiotics must also be adapted to new preparations, such as those including new multistrains complex combinations. Accredited laboratories face this relevant challenge on a daily basis. Through its close collaboration with the laboratory commissioned to produce the specifications for its ESLP quality label (identification and quantitative analyses) together with its scientific committee, the ESLP has been focusing on this issue for 10 years. Recently, as part of the internationalization of the ESLP quality label, a new and unique initiative in Europe for the evaluation of the quality of probiotic preparations has been carried out. The collaboration between two accredited laboratories in Belgium and in Italy represented a concrete example of supranational collaboration in the assessment of the quality of probiotic preparations. Results show that both laboratories are in line as expected in terms of performance. Common approaches to the qualitative assessment of probiotic preparations, especially for complex and composite recipes, in terms of number of strains and included substances, should be encouraged and promoted all over the EU.

scholarly journals A Methodology Based on FT-IR Data Combined with Random Forest Model to Generate Spectralprints for the Characterization of High-Quality Vinegars

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 1411
Author(s):  
José Luis P. Calle ◽  
Marta Ferreiro-González ◽  
Ana Ruiz-Rodríguez ◽  
Gerardo F. Barbero ◽  
José Á. Álvarez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Random Forest ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Hierarchical Cluster ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Protected Designation Of Origin ◽  
Ft Ir

Sherry wine vinegar is a Spanish gourmet product under Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). Before a vinegar can be labeled as Sherry vinegar, the product must meet certain requirements as established by its PDO, which, in this case, means that it has been produced following the traditional solera and criadera ageing system. The quality of the vinegar is determined by many factors such as the raw material, the acetification process or the aging system. For this reason, mainly producers, but also consumers, would benefit from the employment of effective analytical tools that allow precisely determining the origin and quality of vinegar. In the present study, a total of 48 Sherry vinegar samples manufactured from three different starting wines (Palomino Fino, Moscatel, and Pedro Ximénez wine) were analyzed by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The spectroscopic data were combined with unsupervised exploratory techniques such as hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA), as well as other nonparametric supervised techniques, namely, support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF), for the characterization of the samples. The HCA and PCA results present a clear grouping trend of the vinegar samples according to their raw materials. SVM in combination with leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) successfully classified 100% of the samples, according to the type of wine used for their production. The RF method allowed selecting the most important variables to develop the characteristic fingerprint (“spectralprint”) of the vinegar samples according to their starting wine. Furthermore, the RF model reached 100% accuracy for both LOOCV and out-of-bag (OOB) sets.

scholarly journals Relationship between Antioxidant Components and Oxidative Stability of Peanut Oils as Affected by Roasting Temperatures

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 300
Author(s):  
Jhih-Ying Ciou ◽  
Hsin-Chun Chen ◽  
Chih-Wei Chen ◽  
Kai-Min Yang
Keyword(s):  
Oxidative Stability ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Tocopherol Content ◽  
Total Phenolic ◽  
Flavonoid Content ◽  
Natural Logarithm ◽  
Phytosterol Content ◽  
Rancimat Method ◽  
Nutritional Benefits

The study sought to investigate the effect of roasting temperatures on antioxidant components and oxidative stability of peanut oils. The total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, α–tocopherol content, and phytosterol content in peanut oils was influenced by roasting at temperatures of 120 °C, 140 °C, and 160 °C, while those roasting temperatures had no effect on the fatty acid profile and γ–tocopherol content of peanut oils. Roasting promotes the quality of peanut oil aroma via the Maillard reaction, particularly when it is derived from N–heterocyclic compounds (such as pyrazine and pyrrole). The oxidative stability of peanut oils was investigated using the Rancimat method, and the results show that there is a linear relationship between roasting and natural logarithm of the induction period (R2: 0.959~0.998). This was determined based on the Arrhenius equation, which indicated the activation energy (Ea) was in the range of 82.08~108.61 kJ/mol. In principal component analysis (PCA) analysis, the antioxidant stability of the increase levels of phenols released in the peanut oils was found to rise with the increment of roasting temperatures. The data obtained in this study should be confirmed as the nutritional benefits of peanut oils that will be most appealing to consumers.

Regulating Proxy Advisors Through Transparency: Pros and Cons of the EU Approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaia Balp
Keyword(s):  
Status Quo ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
European Regulation ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Status ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Proxy Advisors ◽  
Legal Constraints ◽  
The Eu

This article outlines potential pros and cons of a future European regulation of proxy advisory firms, as set forth in the Commission’s Proposal for a Directive amending Directive 2007/36/EC. After summarizing criticisms concerning the proxy advisory industry, and findings regarding its de facto influence on investors’ voting conduct both in the US and in the European context, the article adverts to why the power of proxy advisors appears to be overestimated. Uncertainty on the status quo of the industry’s actual impact on key decisions in listed companies, as well as costs associated with a regulation, need to be considered for assessing the suitability of the rules drafted to ensure adequate levels of independence and quality of voting recommendations. While transparency rules may be preferred to stricter legal constraints or requirements in a first stage, possible shortcomings of the Draft Directive exist that may undermine its effectiveness. Analyzing the amendments to the Proposal adopted by the European Parliament, and the Council’s Presidency compromise text, may suggest a preferable approach as regards single rules still making their way through the European legislative process.

scholarly journals Photo-selective shade nets on the production and quality of sugarcane plantlets

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 366-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
José J. F. Cordeiro Júnior ◽  
Héliton Pandorfi ◽  
José A. D. Barbosa Filho ◽  
Alex S. Moraes ◽  
Luiz A. de Almeida Neto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Substrate Temperature ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Global Solar Radiation ◽  
Saccharum Officinarum ◽  
Low Density Polyethylene ◽  
Low Density ◽  
Randomized Design ◽  
Completely Randomized Design

ABSTRACT Brazil is the world’s largest producer of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) and research aimed at propagation has promoted higher quality in production. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of the variation of micrometeorological elements on the survival and quality of pre-sprouted sugarcane plantlets. The study was carried out in a protected environment (UFRPE). Plantlets of the cultivar RB92579 were obtained by the technique of production of pre-sprouted plantlets. The protected environments were divided into four modules covered with low-density polyethylene plastic + photo-selective shade nets and one module without shade net. Micrometeorological data of global and photosynthetically active solar radiation, air temperature, substrate temperature, relative humidity and the solar radiation spectrum were recorded in each module. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design and the principal component analysis was used to verify the association between the cultivation modules, micrometeorological variables and crop variables. Anti-UV low-density polyethylene plastic + freshnet led to lower transmittance of global solar radiation, higher percentage of photosynthetically active radiation and lower plantlet mortality. Substrate temperature above 30.2 °C resulted in higher plantlet mortality. Larger spectrum in the red range led to the production of better quality plantlet. The use of freshnet shade net promoted adequate conditions for the cultivation of sugarcane plantlets and allows obtaining better quality plantlets.

scholarly journals Small-Scale Coastal Fisheries in the Midst of Adaptation and Diversification: Insights from Southern Italy

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7393
Author(s):  
Agata Nicolosi ◽  
Donatella Di Gregorio ◽  
Giuseppe Arena ◽  
Valentina Rosa Laganà ◽  
Donatella Privitera
Keyword(s):  
Southern Italy ◽  
Multiple Correspondence Analysis ◽  
Marketing Strategies ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Artisanal Fishing ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Coastal Fisheries ◽  
Cluster Identification ◽  
The Eu

The study looks at the problems facing coastal fishing communities. It highlights the impacts that, in the complex framework of the EU reforms, have manifested themselves on economic activities and on society. The aim of the paper is twofold: to examine small-scale artisanal fishing in an area of Southern Italy in order to develop resilience and diversification and at the same time to outline the profiles of local bluefish buyers to highlight development strategies for the sector. The research carried out through a direct survey by administering a questionnaire to fishermen operating in areas of Southern Italy and the data cross-referenced with the opinions of local consumers. A conjoint experiment, followed by a multiple correspondence analysis and cluster identification, was used to outline the profiles of local bluefish buyers. The results of the analysis reveal that the fish market and the restaurant sector are the main distribution channels preferred by fishermen. Furthermore, fishermen are very sensitive to environmental issues and are willing to collaborate and actively participate in the environmental protection of the sea. Consumers recognise the quality of local bluefish, and they implicitly perceive the sustainability of the method of capture. The results show the need to undertake synergistic actions for the fishing industry, capable of activating marketing strategies adequately to support, promote and develop the sector. The results of the study provide helpful information for food companies in order to better segment their market and target their consumers, as well as to effectively promote their product using brands, certifications and traceability.

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