The European Union (EU), within the renewal plan of the Common Fisheries Policy and the Common Market Organization, with the Cape IV of Reg. (EU) n. 1379/2013 have introduced new requirements for the ...labelling of fisheries and aquaculture products. These, as well as providing consumers with more complete information, integrate the provisions of Reg. (EU) n. 1169/2011 and acts as a tool to prevent frauds and illegal fishing. In this work the new seafood labelling provisions were evaluated, starting from the analysis of the art. 35 of the Chapter IV and comparing it with the previous EU dispositions (Reg. (EC) no. 104/2000 and no. 2065/2001). The exclusion of prepared and processed products and aquatic invertebrates from the application of the mandatory seafood labelling provisions and the role of the mass caterer operators with respect to the labelling requirements were identified as the two major shortcomings that still need to be better addressed by the legislator. Overall, what emerged from this work is that, if on the one hand the European legislation on seafood labelling has achieved important goals, evolving and improving itself, on the other it is still controversial and plagued by the same problems as 15 years ago. Therefore, the authors suggest that the regulation is modified at least extending its scope to all products and to at all stages of the fishery logistic chain.
•Governments worldwide are engaged in improving seafood traceability and labelling.•The EU regulatory framework on seafood labelling and traceability has been evaluated.•EU dispositions on seafood labelling show major and minor shortcomings.•EU should legislate the labelling of processed products and aquatic invertebrate.•EU should define how operators ought to provide seafood information at mass caterers.
The number of seafood species sold on Western markets is constantly growing and many unconventional species are sold in ethnic food outlets. In this work, 68 ethnic seafood products variously ...processed were collected from the Italian market and a molecular analysis was performed by sequencing a full cytochrome c oxidase (COI) DNA barcode (FDB, ∼655 bp) or a mini COI DNA barcode (MDB, ∼139 bp) using universal primers. Barcodes were then compared with sequences available in BOLD and GenBank. In addition, the label information was assessed according to the European legislation. By using the IDs analysis on BOLD a maximum species identity ≥98% was retrieved for 84% of the sequences. Of these, 67% were unambiguously identified at species level (51.3% of the FDB and 74% of the MDB). Using NCBI BLAST, 74% of the sequences scored a maximum species identity ≥98%, of which 73% were identified at species level (52% of the FDB and 61% of the MDB). Both databases performed better in mollusk identification. Overall, 45 products (66%) were not correctly labeled according to the European requirements. Finally, the comparison between the molecular and the label analysis highlighted that 48.5% of the products presented discrepancies between labeling and molecular identification. In particular, health implications were highlighted for 2 samples labeled as squid but identified as Lagocephalus spp., a poisonous puffer fish species banned from the EU market. The present results confirm DNA barcoding as a reliable tool for protecting consumers' health and economic interests.
•Unconventional seafood species are sold in ethnic food retailers in Western countries.•DNA barcoding is a useful tool for seafood species identification.•Full and mini-DNA barcodes have been used for ethnic seafood identification.•Full and mini-DNA barcodes show high discriminatory ability.•Molecular and labeling analysis highlighted widespread mislabeling.
In this study the occurrence of visible anisakid larvae in semi-preserved anchovy products sold on the Italian market was investigated. Totally, 107 ready to eat products (33 salted-ripened, 49 in ...oil and 25 marinated) were sampled. Each sample was digested, then the digested material was observed under natural and UV light. Parasites were counted, collected and microscopically identified to genus level. A representative subset was molecularly identified using the cox2 gene. At least one visible Anisakis sp. larva was found in 54.2% of the total 107 products analysed and totally 1283 dead larvae were collected. Anisakis sp. larvae were found in all the 33 salted products and 1139 (88.8%) larvae were collected, with a range of 1–105 parasites per product. Larval density per gram was 0.13. Anisakis sp. larvae were found in 49.0% of the products in oil and 143 (11.1%) larvae were isolated, with a range of 0–28 and a density of 0.03. Only 1 larva was found in the 25 marinated products (4.0%, density 0.00). A highly significant difference between all the product categories in respect of number of larvae per product, frequency of products contaminated by at least one larva and larval density per gram was found. Within the subset of larvae molecularly analysed (n=122), 92 (75.4%) were identified as A. pegreffii and 30 (24.6%) as A. simplex. This study showed that semi-preserved anchovy products heavily contaminated with Anisakis spp. larvae reach the market. Beyond the negligible risk for anisakidosis, the presence of dead visible parasites may cause immediate rejection in consumers. In addition, the potential risk related to allergic reactions in sensitized individuals needs to be further assessed. In order to avoid commercialization of obviously contaminated products, fresh anchovies' batches intended for the production of such products should be accurately selected by the processing industry applying inspection methods.
•Different kinds of ready to eat anchovy products were analysed by digestion.•At least one visible Anisakis spp. larva was found in 54.2% of the products.•A total of 1283 dead larvae were collected.•The product category influenced the number of larvae and contamination rate.•Salted products were found to be the most contaminated (100%).
This study aimed at selecting effective histological indicators of the freezing process, for the discrimination of fresh and frozen common octopus
Octopus vulgaris
. Histological indices of freezing ...process were selected in mantle and arm muscle and axial nerve tissues. Seven histological parameters were chosen: overall muscle tissue structural organization (a); gaping among muscle bundles (b); presence of optically empty spaces between and within muscle bundles (c); white spaces percentage between and within muscle bundles (d); overall nerve structural organization (e); presence of linear fissures and/or empty spaces within neuropil and axonal tract (f); presence of empty spaces within connective tissue matrix surrounding the nerve (g); empty space percentage within arm axial nerve region (h). The parameters were assessed on 150 mantle muscle sections (a, b, c, d), 150 arm muscle (b, c) and nervous (e, f, g, h) tissue sections belonging to 20 fresh exemplars further subdued to conventional freezing procedure at − 20 °C, 25 fresh curled exemplars, 25 exemplars industrially frozen at − 80 °C, and 20 thawed, curled, and individually quick frozen exemplars. Overall structural organization (a, e), gaping (b), and presence of optically empty spaces (c, f) confirmed significant morphological freezing indices in mantle and arm sections. In mantle, two d values (d < 25% and 25% < d < 33%) were proposed as complementary thresholds to be applied in association with b and c indices for freezing discrimination. These parameters appear eligible to set a method for discriminating fresh/thawed octopus products to be applied both in official control and self-check activities.
The European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), one of the most important pelagic fish resources in the Mediterranean Sea, is frequently infected by anisakid larvae. Food Business Operators (FBOs) ...should use appropriate sampling plans and analytical methods to avoid commercialization of massively infected batches and reduce the risk of transmission of viable zoonotic larvae. In this study, performed at FishLab (Department of Veterinary Sciences of the University of Pisa) during 2016, an official sampling plan was associated with a digestion protocol for the inspection of anchovies. Considering that anisakid larvae are usually located in the fish visceral cavity and in the adjacent muscles (VM), this part was analyzed. In particular, we assessed the reliability of the digestion of a subsample of 150g (±30g) of VM, randomly collected from 29 specimens, in estimating the marketability of the anchovies' batch. Fifty-seven samples of 29 anchovies were collected. Each anchovy was sectioned to separate VM. All the subsamples were digested, and visible larvae counted. A high correlation between the number of larvae in VM regions and in the total batch was observed, indicating a very significant contribution of the VM region on total number of parasites. The Mean Abundance (MA) was used to assess the batch marketability according to a threshold calculated on the basis of the maximum number of nematodes tolerated per sample. Considering that the MA can be calculated only when the number of examined specimens is known, the number of visible Larvae per gram of tissue (LpG) was calculated on 150g (±30g) of VM subsamples. A LpG marketability threshold was calculated dividing the maximum number of tolerated nematodes by the average weight of a sample of 29 anchovies calculated considering data available in literature. To evaluate the diagnostic performance of the LpG threshold, the marketability of 57 batches assessed on the basis of the MA threshold was assumed as the gold standard. The proposed LpG showed very high Specificity and Sensitivity. These findings suggest that the analysis of VM is representative of the overall infestation of the batch, both when considering the absolute number of parasites and the LpG, and may represent a valid alternative to the whole anchovy digestion. In particular, the use of an automated digestive method, coupled with the aforesaid sampling plan, could allow the procedure to be used by FBOs in operational conditions.
•Visible parasites in viscera/adjacent muscle (VM) were used as a predictor of infection.•Anchovies' marketability was assessed according to Larvae per gram (LpG) of VM tissue.•LpG showed good diagnostic performances when compared to the gold standard.•The method is an easy tool for inspecting anchovies timely as they reach the market.•The method will prevent the commercialization of massively infected fish.
•We present an automatic method for estimating features describing speech F0 contour.•Analysis on acted emotional speeches distinguished high- from low-arousal emotions.•Intra-subject analysis on ...bipolar patients found out differences between mood states.•The results on bipolar patients are subject-specific and task-dependent.•Results on controls confirmed a good specificity of the proposed features.
Bipolar disorders are characterized by a mood swing, ranging from mania to depression. A system that could monitor and eventually predict these changes would be useful to improve therapy and avoid dangerous events. Speech might convey relevant information about subjects’ mood and there is a growing interest to study its changes in presence of mood disorders. In this work we present an automatic method to characterize fundamental frequency (F0) dynamics in voiced part of syllables. The method performs a segmentation of voiced sounds from running speech samples and estimates two categories of features. The first category is borrowed from Taylor's Tilt intonational model. However, the meaning of the proposed features is different from the meaning of Taylor's ones since the former are estimated from all voiced segments without performing any analysis of intonation. A second category of features takes into account the speed of change of F0. In this work, the proposed features are first estimated from an emotional speech database. Then, an analysis on speech samples acquired from eleven psychiatric patients experiencing different mood states, and eighteen healthy control subjects is introduced. Subjects had to perform a text reading task and a picture commenting task. The results of the analysis on the emotional speech database indicate that the proposed features can discriminate between high and low arousal emotions. This was verified both at single subject and group level. An intra-subject analysis was performed on bipolar patients and it highlighted significant changes of the features with different mood states, although this was not observed for all the subjects. The directions of the changes estimated for different patients experiencing the same mood swing, were not coherent and were task-dependent. Interestingly, a single-subject analysis performed on healthy controls and on bipolar patients recorded twice with the same mood label, resulted in a very small number of significant differences. In particular a very good specificity was highlighted for the Taylor-inspired features and for a subset of the second category of features, thus strengthening the significance of the results obtained with patients. Even if the number of enrolled patients is small, this work suggests that the proposed features might give a relevant contribution to the demanding research field of speech-based mood classifiers. Moreover, the results here presented indicate that a model of speech changes in bipolar patients might be subject-specific and that a richer characterization of subject status could be necessary to explain the observed variability.
The generation of vascular stroma is essential for solid tumor growth and involves stimulatory and inhibiting factors as well as stromal components that regulate functions such as cellular adhesion, ...migration, and gene expression. In an effort to obtain a more integrated understanding of vascular stroma formation in breast carcinoma, we examined expression of the angiogenic factor vascular permeability factor (VPF)/vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF); the VPF/VEGF receptors flt-1 and KDR; thrombospondin-1, which has been reported to inhibit angiogenesis; and the stromal components collagen type I, total fibronectin, ED-A+ fibronectin, versican, and decorin by mRNA in situ hybridization on frozen sections of 113 blocks of breast tissue from 68 patients including 28 sections of breast tissue without malignancy, 18 with in situ carcinomas, 56 with invasive carcinomas, and 8 with metastatic carcinomas. A characteristic expression profile emerged that was remarkably similar in invasive carcinoma, carcinoma in situ, and metastatic carcinoma, with the following characteristics: strong tumor cell expression of VPF/VEGF; strong endothelial cell expression of VPF/VEGF receptors; strong expression of thrombospondin-1 by stromal cells and occasionally by tumor cells; and strong stromal cell expression of collagen type I, total fibronectin, ED-A+ fibronectin, versican, and decorin. The formation of vascular stroma preceded invasion, raising the possibility that tumor cells invade not into normal breast stroma but rather into a richly vascular stroma that they have induced. Similarly, tumor cells at sites of metastasis appear to induce the vascular stroma in which they grow. We conclude that a distinct pattern of mRNA expression characterizes the generation of vascular stroma in breast cancer and that the formation of vascular stroma may play a role not only in growth of the primary tumor but also in invasion and metastasis.
INTRODUCCION: El melanoma cutáneo es un tumor maligno, cuya prevalencia, incidencia y mortalidaddependen de las características de la población afectada, por ello, conocer la epidemiología de ...nuestraregión podría mejorar procesos de prevención.OBJETIVO: Conocer la incidencia de melanoma cutáneo, las características clínicas de la poblaciónafectada y las características histológicas de las lesiones estudiadas.PACIENTES Y METODOS: Estudio observacional, retrospectivo y descriptivo. Se incluyeron pacientesmayores de 18 años de ambos sexos con diagnóstico histopatológico de melanoma cutáneo (MC), asistidosen la Clínica Universitaria Reina Fabiola (CURF) entre enero 2007 y diciembre 2017. Se excluyeronpacientes con registros incompletos y melanoma metastásico. Se analizaron las variables clínicas: sexo,edad, localización, antecedentes familiares de melanoma, y variables histológicas: subtipo, espesor deBreslow (EB), nivel de Clark (NC), ulceración, mitosis/mm², regresión, infiltración linfocítica (TIL),microsatelitosis, invasión angiolinfática o perineural. Análisis estadístico: La incidencia se presentó comonúmero de casos/ 100.000 pacientes/año. Se calcularon distribuciones de frecuencia absoluta y porcentualespara las variables categóricas y las medidas estadísticas media y desviación estándar para las variablescuantitativas.RESULTADOS: Sobre 918988 pacientes en el periodo 2007-2017, se detectaron 44 casos de MC,resultando una incidencia de 4,8/100.000/año. Predominaron mujeres (59,1%). La edad media (desviaciónestándar) fue 49,5 + 16.4 años. Los hombres eran mayores en edad que las mujeres al momento deldiagnóstico, con edad media de 52,2 + 14,5 vs 47,6 + 17,5 respectivamente. Ningún paciente tuvoantecedentes familiares de melanoma. La localización más frecuente fue extremidad inferior en mujeres(42,3%) y dorso en hombres (39%). Predominó el subtipo extensivo superficial (72,7%). El 54,4% tuvo EB< 1 mm, 77,3% no se ulceraron, 40,9% tuvieron NC III, 40,9% presentó TIL moderado, 6,8% tuvo invasiónangiolinfática, 93,2% mostraron más de 1 mitosis/mm2, 25,6% no tuvo regresión. Ningún caso mostrómicrosatelitósis, ni invasión perineural.CONCLUSIÓN: La incidencia de MC en nuestro estudio fue de 4,8 /100.000 pacientes/año. Predominaronlas mujeres en la quinta década de la vida, con MC localizado en tronco, sin antecedentes familiares.Prevalecieron las variables histológicas subtipo extensivo superficial, con EB < 1mm en mujeres, sinmicrosatelitosis, ulceración, regresión o invasión angiovascular o perineural, con NC III, TIL moderado ymás de 1 mitosis/mm2.
PDF
