Extra Quality Research Articles

Complexity, Emergence and Embodied Cognition in Education

Complexity and emergence are core notions for understanding and improving learning. On one hand, with complex concepts students struggle and learning becomes very difficult. On the other hand, emergence phenomena looks like magic or cognitive illusions, they seem to rely on extra qualities not included in the subjacent phenomena. Can the teacher simplify complex notions without changing them? In order to do that, we argue complexity and emergency are not exclusively inherent to objects or phenomena. They also depend on the perceptual, motor and cognitive system of the student. Thus, if the teacher helps to connect notions and phenomena to students' innate and embodied knowledge, then these notions become less complex and the emergent phenomenon loses its magic: it becomes logically connected to the subjacent phenomena. In this paper we present empirical evidence of the effect on students understanding due to the connection stablished in two core curriculum mathematical concepts that are considered very challenging.

Involving clinical experts in prioritising topics for health technology assessment: a randomised controlled trial

ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to explore whether reducing the material supplied to external experts during peer review and decreasing the burden of response would maintain review quality into...

Stability of ionized calcium measurements at concentrations less than 0.3 mmol/L by point-of-care blood gas instruments: application for postfilter calcium quality control in patients with citrate anticoagulation during extracorporeal circulation.

Background Measurements of ionized calcium (Ca2+) at concentrations less than 0.3 mmol/L are required for postfilter control in patients who receive extracorporeal circulation with sodium citrate anticoagulation. This study evaluates the stability of the Ca2+ measurements at such concentrations. Methods The stability of the Ca2+ measurements was tested by measuring daily the external standard Qualicheck concentration 3 s7950, Radiometer (0.22-0.25 mmol/L) by blood gas instruments ABL800 and ABL90, Radiometer. Two different Ca2+ membrane lots were tested for the usual membrane lifetime of 12 weeks at ABL800 instruments. For the ABL90 instrument, the sensor cassette (with Ca2+ membrane and electrode) was replaced after four weeks as required. Results We observed over 40% Ca2+ increase within the usual 12 weeks lifetime of the Ca2+ membrane at the ABL800 instruments. Measurements of Ca2+ at concentrations less than 0.3 mmol/L were within acceptable limits for both ABL800 and ABL90 instruments when Ca2+ membrane and sensor cassette were replaced after four weeks. Conclusions For ABL800 instruments, it is necessary to use an extra quality control (<0.3 mmol/L) in addition to the usual quality controls to monitor Ca2+ measurements below 0.3 mmol/L. The acceptable stability of the Ca2+ measurements can be achieved by the Ca2+ membrane and sensor cassette replacement after four weeks. If the usual 12 weeks of Ca2+ membrane lifetime is maintained, it may result in a clinically significant overestimation of Ca2+ by ABL800 instruments.

Top Management Encourangement in Implementing ISO 9001:2015 (Clause 5.1): Review

The Quality Management System provides the environment within which related tools, techniques and procedures can be deployed effectively leading to operational success for a construction project. Top management commitment towards quality management system is generally perceived as one of the key factors in determining its success.The purpose of this research paper was to understand role of top management in connection with implementation of ISO 9001:2015. Extra high quality assurance has been followed for construction of bridge which enabled to set up third party quality assurance consultancy (Lloyd’s Register Asia (LRA)). The author worked with the QA company and thestate department (DTTDC) to perform various quality assurance checks and helped in implementation of quality management system ISO 9001:2015 (clause 5.1). The problem faced by the top management at was to keep track of the various activities at site for e.g. bolt testing which also includes documentation of joints of steel girder that are QA passed. Gantt charts were used to depict the data collected by performing the given set of procedure to check the quality like Bolt tightness and perform various other quality checks related to bolt that helped in successful implementation of ISO 9001:2015.

A comparison of sensory acceptance, purchase intention, and willingness to pay for Pirenaica beef from two different slaughter weight groups, under different consumer information scenarios

AbstractAn experiment was conducted in which a sensory analysis was carried out together with a consumer attitude test to compare the acceptability of beef from animals slaughtered at 18 vs. 12 months, the latter being the type of beef most widely consumed in Spain. Consumers were grouped for three different information scenarios: (1) blind; (2) disclosure of information regarding slaughter weight plus rearing conditions; and (3) disclosure of full details of the beef production system. Meat from animals slaughtered at 18 months scored higher in consumer sensory ratings than meat from yearlings. The most influential socioeconomic variables were consumer age and gender. Additionally, quality‐conscious consumers showing higher purchase intention also showed higher willingness to pay (WTP) for extra quality. The difference in sensory ratings, however, was not reflected in higher intent to purchase or WTP a premium for meat from older animals.Practical applicationsA higher juiciness and flavor scores for the beef from Pirenaica bulls slaughtered at 18 months than for the yearling beef. It would be necessary to conduct a consumer willing to pay survey to determine a price premium for beef with a higher palatability.

Wines with increased lignan content by the addition of lignan extracts

Red and white wines [Grüner Veltliner white wine and Blue Limberger (Blaufränkisch) red wine (vintage 2013)] were enriched with lignan hydroxymatairesinol originated from spruce knots. These spruce knots with removed resin were extracted with ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin. Ethanol extracts of lignans were then used to enrich wine sorts. Enriched wines were stored for 13 months. At 2, 6, and 13 months, samples were taken and subjected to a variety of analyses and sensory evaluations. Analyses included 7-hydroxymatairesinol and alpha-conidendrin lignan content, antioxidant activity (as determined by FRAP), total polyphenols, and sensory evaluation. The obtained data were evaluated using the analysis of variance to determine which factors e.g. wine type, quantity of added lignan extracts, additional sugar, method of preservation, and storage time had the most significant influence on lignan content, antioxidant activity and polyphenol content. In all cases the lignan content in the wines was significantly influenced by the addition of lignan extracts. After one year of storage, lignan contents changed only moderately and added lignans were stable in stored wines. Total polyphenol content in wines and the antioxidant activity of wines were significantly influenced by the type of wine (i.e., red or white). The presented method of wine enrichment with lignans opens the door for the production of extra quality wines.

Shelf Life of Monovarietal Extra Virgin Olive Oils Cv. Arbequina and Coratina from Uruguay

Two monovarietal extra virgin olive oils (Arbequina and Coratina), produced in Uruguay, were studied over a period of 12 months storage in amber bottles at 30 ºC. Peroxide index, K232, K270, ∆K, OSI induction time did not exceed the maximum limits set by the International Olive Council (IOC) during the entire period. However, the content of ethyl esters increased with storage time and it is in relation with the shelf life. The International Olive Council (IOC) establishes the limits in the content of ethyl esters ≤ 35 ppm. The Coratina oil ceased to be extra virgin quality after 6 months of storage due to its content of ethyl esters (46 ppm), and the Arbequina oil after 9 months (52 ppm).Taking into consideration their content of ethyl esters, both the Arbequina and Coratina oils showed a very short shelf life less than six months. The determination of ethyl ester content proved to be a sensitive method for determining the loss of quality of extra virgin olive oils.

Hiding depth information in compressed 2D image/video using reversible watermarking

In this paper, a novel joint coding scheme is proposed for 3D media content including stereo images and multiview-plus-depth (MVD) video for the purpose of depth information hiding. The depth information is an image or image channel which reveals the distance of scene objects' surfaces from a viewpoint. With the concern of copyright protection, access control and coding efficiency for 3D content, we propose to hide the depth information into the texture image/video by a reversible watermarking algorithm called Quantized DCT Expansion (QDCTE). Considering the crucial importance of depth information for depth-image-based rendering (DIBR), full resolution depth image/video is compressed and embedded into the texture image/video, and it can be extracted without extra quality degradation other than compression itself. The reversibility of the proposed algorithm guarantees that texture image/video quality will not suffer from the watermarking process even if high payload (i.e. depth information) is embedded into the cover image/video. In order to control the size increase of watermarked image/video, the embedding function is carefully selected and the entropy coding process is also customized according to watermarking strength. Huffman and content-adaptive variable-length coding (CAVLC), which are respectively used for JPEG image and H.264 video entropy encoding, are analyzed and customized. After depth information embedding, we propose a new method to update the entropy codeword table with high efficiency and low computational complexity according to watermark embedding strength. By using our proposed coding scheme, the depth information can be hidden into the compressed texture image/video with little bitstream size overhead while the quality degradation of original cover image/video from watermarking can be completely removed at the receiver side.

Experimental and Visco-Plastic Self-Consistent evaluation of forming limit diagrams for anisotropic sheet metals: An efficient and robust implementation of the M-K model

In the present work, an efficient formulation for the prediction of forming-limit diagrams (FLDs) based on the well-known Marciniak and Kuczynski (M−K) theory using a Visco-Plastic Self-Consistent (VPSC) crystal-plasticity model has been detailed. The present model extends the previous MK-VPSC implementation (Signorelli et al., Predictions of forming limit diagrams using a rate-dependent polycrystal self-consistent plasticity model, International Journal of Plasticity 25 (2009) 1–25) based on the Newton–Raphson (N-R) method, which gives no guarantee of a robust iterative procedure. In order to avoid convergence problems and to reduce the computational cost of the coupled MK-VPSC scheme, a direct approach (DA) is proposed. The DA eliminates the need of the Jacobian evaluation associated with the N-R method as well as the iterative procedure tied to other possible minimization techniques. Moreover, the mechanical states outside and inside the groove are solved in the sample reference frame, avoiding the need to rotate the crystallographic orientations and the internal variables to the current band reference frame at each increment. In this way, only two calls to the material law are required per M−K increment, obtaining a more robust numerical procedure with a significant computational cost reduction. Interestingly, the requirement of more complex boundary conditions does not substantially increase the number of internal VPSC iterations to achieve a given tolerance. Simulation results show that the direct MK-VPSC approach is consistent with that based on the N-R method. The generalized boundary conditions in the polycrystal model allowed us to calculate either strain-rate ratio or stress ratio based FLDs. The effect of using either strain-rate ratio or stress ratio paths on the FLDs has been investigated by imposing three types of pre-straining on the sheet metals. Formability predictions for a randomly-textured FCC material and for textured FCC, BCC and HCP polycrystals are presented and discussed. Finally, by considering dissimilar metals – extra deep-drawing quality steel (EDDQ), dual-phase steel (DP-780) and pure zinc (Zn20) – we evaluated the MK-VPSC model's ability to predict forming-limit strains irrespective of microstructure and crystallography. The predicted results have been compared with experimental data and good agreement was found.

NĚKTERÉ SLOŽKOVÉ A ZDRAVOTNÍ UKAZATELE KVALITY MLÉKA DOJNIC S VYŠŠÍ UŽITKOVOSTÍ PŘI ZAŘAZENÍ VYBRANÝCH DRUHŮ OBILOVIN DO KRMNÉ DÁVKY

Because of economical reasons the substitution of maize by feed corn as wheat (Sulamit) and triticale (Kitaro) was revolved in concentrate part of dairy cow feeding rations. The design of mentioned replacement in feeding rations was carried out according to results of previous research (Pozdíšek and Vaculová, 2008) for nutrition experiment. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the possible effects of corn replacement in cow feeding rations on milk composition and properties. The expressively different variants of corn were selected for experiment in comparison to maize (reference). Dairy cows were fed by total mixed ration on the basis of maize and clover silage and hay. Otherwise the identical day feeding rations among cow groups differed only in concentrate portions ((K, control group) maize 1.5 kg, wheat (P1) 2.0 kg and triticale (P2) 2.0 kg (experimental groups)). Group feeding rations 1 (K), 2 (P1) and 3 (P2) had: NEL/kg dry (DM) matter (6.524, 6.512 and 6.491); NL % in DM (17.9, 18.2 and 17.9); fibre % in DM (15.96, 15.74 and 15.72); PDIN/PDIE (1.189, 1.189 and 1.191). The experiment took six weeks, there were included 8, 9 and 9 cows (n = 26) of Czech Fleckvieh breed. Feed groups were well balanced in terms of milk yield, days in milk and number of lactation. The tie stable and pipeline milking equipment were used in experiment. Animals were milked twice a day and sampled at morning milking in intervals about seven days approximately. Cows were relatively healthy in terms of occurrence of milk secretion disorders. Within groups the individual milk samples (in total 182 in experiment) were aggregated into bulk samples (n = 21 = 3 groups × 7 sampling periods), which were analysed on 45 milk indicators, 18 of them were evaluated in this paper. The differences in milk yield were significantly advantageous for K group (15.32 &gt; 14.07 (wheat) or 13.86 kg (triticale) at morning milking), while fat (3.27 &lt; 3.47 or 3.44 %) was lower (P &lt; 0.05). Lactose was not influenced. More important differences were in total dry matter, 12.09 (K) &lt; 12.23 (P1) or 12.40 % (P2). While for wheat was not for triticale was similar effect observed in crude protein (CP) of milk (3.08 (K) or 3.05 (P1) &lt; 3.23 % (P2)). Similar trend was also confirmed in casein (CAS; 2.43 or 2.44 &lt; 2.55 %; from P &lt; 0.05 to P &lt; 0.001 for CP and CAS). There were insignificant differences between groups for casein number, pH acidity, electrical conductivity, Mg and Cu (P &gt; 0.05). Milk specific weight was lowest in P1 (P &lt; 0.01), but this indicator is practically less important. More expressive differences were in somatic cell count (SCC) in geometric mean 249 (P2) &gt; 76 (K) or 72 103/ml (P1). Because of quite typical high SCC variability in tri­ti­ca­le P2 group (in opposite to this low variability in K and P1 groups) it could be caused by chance in animal selection for groups and all values met the standard demand for extra quality of milk. Therefore, it is not necessary to over estimate this result. Milk urea as metabolical indicator was higher in wheat group, significantly (P &lt; 0.05) versus triticale group (23.39 (P1) &gt; 20.80 (K) and 20.50 mg / 100ml (P2), but all values lay in respected physiological range (from 20 to 30 mg / 100ml). In the Ca case it was significantly higher (P &lt; 0.05 versus wheat) in triticale milk group by 5.7 and 4.0 % (1306 (P2) &gt; 1231 (K) or 1253 (P1) mg / kg). This increase could be interested in terms of milk nutritive value, but not for routine milk payment. The levels of P and Fe in milk were higher in K versus experimental groups (P &lt; 0.05). It is less interesting in terms of economy or nutrition. In general milk was a little different according to differences in corn portions of cow feeding rations and corn variant replacement. In terms of experiment the concrete corn replacement in concentrate portion of feeding ration could not have an essential impact on milk quality and it si possible to agree with such conception. However, the milk quality and yield were not overcome by replacement of maize by wheat (Sulamit) or triticale (Kitaro). At triticale the lower milk yield was compensated by higher levels of DM, fat, CP, CAS, Ca and also SCC as compared to maize and wheat. The used corn replacement variants were not expressively worse than maize.

Evaluation of the Effect of Packaging Materials and Storage Temperatures on Quality Degradation of Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Olives Grown in Palestine

The quality of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is intimately affected by packaging material and storage temperature. In this study, the influence of packaging materials and elevated temperature on EVOO quality was investigated during six months. At ambient temperatures, oil maintained EVOO when stored in glass, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high density polyethylene (HDPE), cans and Pottery in terms of chemical tests (acidity, peroxide value, K232, and K270). Loss of phenols was the highest in pottery-stored oil and the lowest was found in glass-stored oil. Only PET-stored oil maintained the EVOO grade in terms of sensory evaluation when stored at room temperature. At elevated temperature, oil stored in all packaging materials lost extra virgin quality in terms of chemical tests. The loss of phenols was the largest in HDPE and smallest in cans-stored oil. Sensory evaluation, maintained glass-stored oil and PET-stored oil as EVOO. This study has reaffirmed that at both storage temperatures, the best container in maintaining the EVOO quality was glass and the worst was pottery. Grading of stored olive oil under investigation using sensory evaluation solely was not sufficient. Also it was clear that the absorption coefficient K270 was the most sensitive determinant chemical test that determines the quality of stored olive oil and could be used as a rapid indicator test.

Extending Lifetime of Biomedical Wireless Sensor Networks using Energy-Aware Routing and Relay Nodes

Biomedical wireless sensor networks are a key technology to enable the development of new healthcare services and/or applications, reducing costs and improving the citizen's quality of life. However, since they deal with health data, such networks should implement mechanisms to enforce high levels of quality of service. In most cases, the sensor nodes that form such networks are small and battery powered, and these extra quality of service mechanisms mean significant lifetime reduction due to the extra energy consumption. The network lifetime is thus a relevant feature to ensure the necessary quality of service requirements. In order to maximise the network lifetime, and its ability to offer the required quality of service, new strategies are needed to increase the energy efficiency, and balance in the network. The focus of this work goes to the effective use of the available energy in each node, combined with information about the reliability of the wireless links, as a metric to form reliable and energy-aware routes throughout the network. This paper present and discusses two different deployment strategies using energy-aware routing and relay nodes, assessed for different logical topologies. The authors' conclusion is that the use of energy-aware routing combined with strategic placed relay nodes my increase the network lifetime as high as 45%.

Composition, volatile profiles and functional properties of virgin olive oils produced by two-phase vs three-phase centrifugal decanters

The present study was designed to compare the impact of a two- vs a three-phase decanter on the quality parameters, sterols, fatty acids, terpenes, phenolic compounds and volatile compounds, as well as antiradical activity of the obtained oils. Moreover, serum lipid antioxidant capacity and anti-inflammatory potential in human mononuclear cells were tested as more biologically relevant assays than the chemical radical scavenging assays. Results show that the cold pressed olive oils obtained from both technologies were of the extra virgin quality. Peroxide values were significantly lower in two-phase decanter samples, while ω6 polyunsaturated fatty acids were higher in two- vs three-phase samples. The significantly higher phenolics content in oil produced by two- vs three-phase centrifuge was attributed to higher hydroxytyrosol, as well as to higher tyrosol, vanillin and homovanillic alcohol levels. Evaluation of the effect of centrifuge system on oils' functional properties showed a clear superiority of two-phase decanter samples as to health maintenance, as these exerted higher ferric reducing capacity, elongation of serum lipid lag time and decrease in cytokine response of stimulated human mononuclear cells, compared to those from three-phase decanter. The two-phase oil samples contained more volatile aroma compounds and more C5–C6 alcohols and aldehydes.

Exploring the Economic Implications of a Group-Based Lifestyle Intervention for Middle-Aged Adults with Chronic Schizophrenia and Co-Morbid Type 2 Diabetes

Objective: People with schizophrenia are at elevated risk of having type 2 diabetes, compared to the general population. Although there is a growing body of literature on the effectiveness of behavioural interventions to improve physical activity levels and healthy eating habits, there are very few economic evaluations conducted for people with severe mental illness and physical health problems. The aim of this study is to explore the cost-effectiveness of group-based lifestyle interventions for middle-aged adults with enduring long-term schizophrenia and co-morbid type 2 diabetes. Methods: Deterministic decision analytical modelling techniques are applied to explore cost-effectiveness based on the findings from a systematic review on this population. The intervention refers to a group-based lifestyle intervention, which is a combination of exercise, diet and diabetes education over 6 months. The intervention costs are estimated to reflect the UK local context. Results: From the UK National Health Service perspective, the group-based lifestyle intervention is potentially cost-effective, relative to usual care. It costs £80 to achieve an additional unit of Body Mass Index (BMI) lost and the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio is just below £700 to gain an extra Quality Adjusted Life Year, which lies well within the conventionally acceptable threshold values in the UK. Conclusions: Group based life style intervention for this population is effective and can be cost-effective in reducing BMI and improving diabetes knowledge, at least in the short-term. More co-ordinated policies among relevant sectors are required to facilitate behavioural change and better maintain an improved lifestyle. An integrated approach is needed to make this more sustainable in the long-term.

Banking and business of interest in Early times of India (Special reference with inscriptions &amp; dharmasastras)

kautilya attests to their function of money- lending when he says, King's spies disguised as merchants may borrow from corporations bar gold and coined gold for various kinds of merchandise to be procured from abroad no hint is available from arthasastra that the guilds were functioning as banks for the public in general. Kautilya mentions some extra qualities which were necessary for a guild to function as bank. This shows that not all the guilds were capable to function as banks. The receiving guild was expected to relieve misery it also points to the fact that the guilds had to be necessarily wealthy in order to be in a position to render help by making advances on interest. It is also likely that some fee was charged from those who received instruction.The guild should enjoy the confidence of other guilds. This point is significant as financial matters could only be entrusted to reputed institutions. The receiving guild should also be adequately competent to undertake any artistic work expected from it. We have seen till now how deposits, pledges mortgages and endowments were made in various places by different persons from time to time. In all such transaction, interest always played a prominent if not the most important role. The levying and recovery of interest have been two of the most vital functions of banking in India from early ages. Interest ware one of the essential factors between debtors and creditors in their various transactions. The welfare of the Kingdom depends on the nature of such transactions they should always be scrutinized.

Direct GC–(EI)MS determination of fatty acid alkyl esters in olive oils

A new analytical method for fatty acid alkyl esters (FAAEs) determination by GC-MS in virgin olive oils is proposed. No sample preparation is required and FAAEs are directly thermo-desorbed and cryo-focalised in the cooled injector of a GC-MS (EI) instrument. The analytical conditions were optimized by Design of Experiment (DoE) techniques (an exploratory Plackett-Burman design followed by a factorial design on three selected variables). After the improvement of method performances, several samples of extra virgin and low quality virgin olive oils were analyzed both by the new method and by the Official EU Method of analysis. The application of Principal Component Analysis to the obtained results confirmed that the ability of the proposed method to discriminate between extra virgin and lower quality olive oils is at least equal to that of the Official Method, but the new method is faster, simpler, requires a much lower amount of organic solvents and significantly enhances method repeatability.

Boundary-conformed machining for trimmed free-form surfaces based on mesh mapping

Boundary-conformed iso-parametric or streamline-like tool paths are highly desired for machined surfaces requiring extra high finish quality or superior aerodynamic effect in some applications. However, for a trimmed free-form surface, its trimmed boundaries usually do not follow the original iso-parametric curves. As a result, conventional iso-parametric tool path methods are not applied readily on the trimmed surface to generate boundary-conformed tool path, especially on the multiple-trimmed surfaces. In this study, a new method to the problem of boundary-conformed tool path generation on the trimmed surfaces is proposed. The basic idea of the method is to map directly the trimmed surface onto a 2D parametric square domain using mesh mapping technique. Then, the iso-parametric lines on the parametric domain are inversely mapped onto the original trimmed surface to regenerate boundary-conformed tool paths. As the method does not rely on processing on the original parametric domain of the surface patches, it is not limited to the single-trimmed surface and is also well applicable to the multiple-trimmed surfaces and mesh surfaces. The proposed method is implemented and tested on several typical examples to demonstrate its validity and significance.

THU0429 Extra Hepatic Symptoms and Quality of Life before and after Antiviral Treatment in Patients with Hepatitis C

BackgroundHepatitis C (HCV) infection is associated with musculoskeletal manifestations such as chronic widespread pain (CWP), sicca syndrome, polyarthritis and a reduced health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Little data is available...

Impact of Bacterial and Somatic Cells Content on Quality Fresh Milk in Small-Scale Dairy Farms in Kosovo

The basic goal of this research was to determine the impact of the presence of bacterial (CFU) and somatic cells count content (SCC) in quality of fresh milk in some small cattle farms in Kosovo. The survey was based on existing standards for milk quality in Kosovo placed under administrative guidance MA-no. 20/2006. The study was based on fresh milk analysis of 150 farms performed during the period September-December 2012, which was obtained in 9 different localities (collection points) of the Kosovo. Our study reveals that CFU and SCC in fresh milk were significantly affected by a number of factors, as: sampling period (repetition), locality, breed, and time of sampling (evening or/and morning). According to the results for CFU and SCC, there were big differences between the farms (milk collection points) included in the study (P < 0.0403) and (P < 0.0293). The results show that small size breed like Busha and its crosses tend to be less exposed to SCC/mL in milk (72.840) and (293.592), compared to Black Holstein (613.462), Simmental (521.519) and Brown Swiss (418.44). Milk produced in evening tended to be of better quality (259.854 CFU/mL) compared to the one from morning milking (576.689 CFU/mL). Fresh milk quality analyzed in the third repetition was better for about 33.3% compared with the repletion first. For CFU and SCC, the analyses show that about 74.7% and 64.7% of milk produced belongs to extra quality, while lower quality of milk of category three is 12.0% and 23.3%, respectively. Considering that about 85% of milk produced in Kosovo comes from small-scale dairy farms, the current study sets out that small-scale milk production system cannot be neglected by interest parties in dairy sector and needs permanent following up and improvement.

Piedmont olive oils: Compositional characterization and discrimination from oils from other regions

Piedmont olive oils collected in 2010 were characterized, for the first time, in terms of their fatty acid profile using GC and 1H NMR and compared to other oils from five Italian regions. Applying NMR spectroscopy on the olive oil samples, without manipulation, it is possible to calculate the proportion of the different acyl groups in the oil samples. As the area of the signals is proportional to the number of each type of proton in the sample, saturated, monounsaturated (oleic acid) and polyunsaturated (linoleic and linolenic acids) fatty acids were determined. All analyzed samples can be categorized as virgin olive oil extra quality according to the oleic/linoleic ratio. Based on a preliminary geographical investigation, olive oils produced in the North of Italy show a good separation from those from Central and Southern regions. Practical applications: Oil characterization of new products is the basis for further nutritional and food technological investigations and the quality of edible oils is of great concern especially for products available on the market. The two adopted techniques show a remarkable agreement in the evaluation of fatty acid composition of oil samples. Also, this research, by means of 1H NMR, provides information on geographical origin of the olive oils of Northern Italian regions with respect to Central and Southern regions.