Since December 2019, the dramatic escalation in coronavirus (COVID-19) cases worldwide has had a significant impact on health care systems. Family physicians (FPs) have played a critical role in the ...coordination of care.
In April 2020, we performed an online prospective survey to assess the impact of the pandemic on FPs' practices.
Three hundred FPs were included. Mean age was 53.6 ± 13.5 years. Before the pandemic, 60.2% reported >75 outpatient visits/week, which reduced down to an average of <20/week for 79.8% of FPs; 24.2% of FPs discontinued home visits, while for 94.7% of FPs there was a >50% increase in the number of telephone consultations. Concern related to the risk of contagion was elevated (≥3/5 in 74.6%) and even higher to the risk of infecting relatives and patients (≥3/5 in 93.3%). The majority of FPs (87%) supported the role of telemedicine in the near future. Satisfaction regarding the network with hospitals/COVID-19-dedicated wards received a score ≤2/5 in 46.9% of cases.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the working practices of FPs. A collaboration is needed with well-established networks between FPs and referral centers to provide new insights and opportunities to inform future working practices.
This paper explores Internet tools used for consensus building during the 2010 Italian regional elections, especially focusing on the use of the Internet to involve the electorate in a background of ...political disaffection. Previous experience from the United States and European countries suggests that the Internet is an interesting tool for the creation and development of consensus and shows an increasing use of Internet-based communication for elections. In this context, the research has two objectives. The first is to measure the degree of use of Internet tools by the main candidates to develop participation in several local areas, more limited than those traditionally investigated in the literature. To this end, we used the technique of analysis of site functionality, properly integrated to make it suitable for measuring the use of tools for participation, to compute for each candidate a reliable index of participation. Second, the work aims to understand how different contexts of electoral competition may encourage or lessen the inclination to use Internet communication tools in a participative sense. The analysis reveals a positive correlation between the affiliation of the candidate for the ruling party and the tendency for this candidate to use tools of participation more than the competitor.
Questo articolo si concentra sulle applicazioni digitali nella comunicazione politica e nello sviluppo del consenso, partendo dal presupposto che sia necessario superare la concezione di Internet ...come semplice mezzo di comunicazione di massa, ma che que- sto vada analizzato come strumento sociale di acquisizione, attivazione e coinvolgimento di persone attorno ad un movimento o idea politica. Le evoluzioni in senso sociale in atto nella Rete Internet stanno portando ad un’integrazione tra reale e virtuale, e stanno rendendo Internet una rappresentazione sempre più fedele della realtà e delle reti sociali dei diversi soggetti: da qui nasce una grande opportunità di costruzione del consenso. Sulla base di queste considerazioni, viene elaborato un modello di comunicazione politica in Internet, integrato nel processo di marketing politico ed articolato nelle fasi di acquisizione, attivazione e difesa. Il modello è basato sulla significativa esperienza di Barack Obama.
Food technology has played a crucial role since the beginning of human civilization. Throughout the centuries, the evolution of food processing has led to an increase of food safety and quality, ...enhancing the overall quality of human life. Lately, academic research and industries have gained awareness about the impact of conventional preservation technologies like heat sterilization and chemical preservatives on environment and economy, besides the detrimental effects on the organoleptic and nutritional quality of foods. This consciousness oriented the efforts towards more sustainable techniques, paving the way to a new “green era” of food technology.
This work explores seven non-thermal technologies, describing their theoretical principles, mechanism of action, effect on microorganisms, advantages, and limitations. Besides, the concept of hurdle technology to overcome the criticisms related to single processing techniques is highlighted.
Non-thermal technologies have the potential to substitute conventional techniques for microbial inactivation, improving the safety and quality of food. The efficiency of each technique strongly relies on the process parameters (treatment intensity; exposure time), equipment (geometry; conformation), product (physical state; composition; viscosity; geometry), and microorganism characteristics (strain; concentration; growth phase; resistance mechanisms). In this sense, the hurdle approach allows to overcome the limitations related to the single technologies, broadening their efficiency and application range, and minimizing their impact on food quality. Further studies are recommended to better understand the mechanisms of mutual interaction among these techniques when combined together in specific conditions, in view of their scaling-up for commercial applications.
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•Non-thermal techniques can substitute thermal treatments and chemical preservatives.•The hurdle approach overcomes the limitations related to the single technologies.•Hurdle technology broadens the efficacy and application range of single techniques.•Hurdle technology minimises the impact on food quality.
The rising packaging industry together with global demand for sustainable production has increased the interest in developing biodegradable packaging materials. The aim of the study was to develop ...edible films based on pectin, gelatin, and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and evaluate their applicability as biodegradable packaging materials for gilthead seabream fillets. Mechanical properties, water barriers, wettability of the films through contact angle measurement, optical, and UV-Vis barrier properties were evaluated for food packaging applications. The effective blend of polysaccharide and protein film-forming solutions was confirmed by the produced films with excellent optical properties, acceptable mechanical properties and adequate barriers to water vapor. The contact angle for pectin based and gelatin based films were higher than 90° indicating the hydrophobic films, while HPMC based films had contact angle lower than 90°. The produced films were tested as alternative and environmentally friendly packaging materials for gilthead seabream fillets during refrigerated storage. All tested packaging conditions resulted in similar shelf-life in packed gilthead seabream fillets (i.e. 7-8 days at 2 °C). The results showed that the developed films may reduce the use of conventional petroleum-based food packaging materials without affecting the shelf-life of fish.
Recently, academic research and industries have gained awareness about the economic, environmental, and social impacts of conventional plastic packaging and its disposal. This consciousness has ...oriented efforts towards more sustainable materials such as biopolymers, paving the way for the “green era” of food packaging. This review provides a schematic overview about polymers and blends of them, which are emerging as promising alternatives to conventional plastics. Focus was dedicated to biopolymers from renewable sources and their applications to produce sustainable, active packaging with antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. In particular, the incorporation of plant extracts, food-waste derivatives, and nano-sized materials to produce bio-based active packaging with enhanced technical performances was investigated. According to recent studies, bio-based active packaging enriched with natural-based compounds has the potential to replace petroleum-derived materials. Based on molecular composition, the natural compounds can diversely interact with the native structure of the packaging materials, modulating their barriers, optical and mechanical performances, and conferring them antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Overall, the recent academic findings could lead to a breakthrough in the field of food packaging, opening the gates to a new generation of packaging solutions which will be sustainable, customised, and green.
To date, approximately 30-50% of food is wasted from post-harvesting to consumer usage. Typical examples of food by-products are fruit peels and pomace, seeds, and others. A large part of these ...matrices is still discarded in landfills, while a small portion is valorized for bioprocessing. In this context, a feasible strategy to valorize food by-products consists of their use for the production of bioactive compounds and nanofillers, which can be further used to functionalize biobased packaging materials. The focus of this research was to create an efficient methodology for the extraction of cellulose from leftover orange peel after juice processing and for its conversion into cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) for use in bionanocomposite films for packaging materials. Orange CNCs were characterized by TEM and XRD analyses and added as reinforcing agents into chitosan/hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (CS/HPMC) films enriched with lauroyl arginate ethyl (LAE®). It was evaluated how CNCs and LAE® affected the technical and functional characteristics of CS/HPMC films. CNCs revealed needle-like shapes with an aspect ratio of 12.5, and average length and width of 500 nm and 40 nm, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy and infrared spectroscopy confirmed the high compatibility of the CS/HPMC blend with CNCs and LAE®. The inclusion of CNCs increased the films' tensile strength, light barrier, and water vapor barrier properties while reducing their water solubility. The addition of LAE® improved the films' flexibility and gave them biocidal efficacy against the main bacterial pathogens that cause foodborne illness, such as
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Fruits are particularly susceptible to post-harvest decay. In this context, bio-based coatings could be a useful and sustainable approach to overcome this problem. The EU Commission is very ...restrictive about food additives and materials in contact with food, regulated respectively by Reg. UE (CE) 1333/2008 and Reg. UE (CE) 10/2011. In this research, different percentages of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (H)-guar gum (G) (1–2% w/v) and potassium sorbate (PS) (0–2% w/v) were used to produce coatings to be applied on tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) and oranges (Citrus sinensis). The efficacy of the coatings was firstly evaluated through an accelerated test (28 °C 90% RH, 20 days) on artificially wounded fruits, and then under storage conditions (8 °C 95% RH, 6 weeks). The physical and chemical parameters of the fruits were periodically analyzed and used to evaluate the effect of the coatings on the fruit quality through a multivariate approach (PCA). All coatings were effective in preserving fruits under refrigeration against Penicillium spp. and Alternaria spp., but PS led to significant fruit weight loss despite its strong fungistatic activity. Biopolymers showed potential for preserving fruit freshness, but alternative antifungal agents without adverse weight effects should be explored using a similar statistical approach.
•Confirmed efficacy of potassium sorbate as a compatible antifungal compound.•Potassium sorbate increased the weight loss of fruits.•Coatings based on biopolymers can replace the function of chemical preservatives.•Multivariate analysis is a useful tool to monitor the effectiveness of the coatings.
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