Age-Related Properties of Aquaponics-Derived Tilapia Skin (Oreochromis niloticus): A Structural and Compositional Study.

In the last two decades, fisheries and fish industries by-products have started to be recovered for the extraction of type I collagen because of issues related to the extraction of traditional mammalian tissues. In this work, special attention has been paid to by-products from fish bred in aquaponic plants. The valorization of aquaponic fish wastes as sources of biopolymers would make the derived materials eco-friendlier and attractive in terms of profitability and cost effectiveness. Among fish species, Nile Tilapia is the second-most farmed species in the world and its skin is commonly chosen as a collagen extraction source. However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have been carried out to investigate, in depth, the age-related differences in fish skin with the final aim of selecting the most advantageous fish size for collagen extraction. In this work, the impact of age on the structural and compositional properties of Tilapia skin was evaluated with the aim of selecting the condition that best lends itself to the extraction of type I collagen for biomedical applications, based on the known fact that the properties of the original tissue have a significant impact on those of the final product. Performed analysis showed statistically significant age-related differences. In particular, an increase in skin thickness (+110 µm) and of wavy-like collagen fiber bundle diameter (+3 µm) besides their organization variation was observed with age. Additionally, a preferred collagen molecule orientation along two specific directions was revealed, with a higher fiber orientation degree according to age. Thermal analysis registered a shift of the endothermic peak (+1.7 °C) and an increase in the enthalpy (+3.3 J/g), while mechanical properties were found to be anisotropic, with an age-dependent brittle behavior. Water (+13%) and ash (+0.6%) contents were found to be directly proportional with age, as opposed to protein (-8%) and lipid (-10%) contents. The amino acid composition revealed a decrease in the valine, leucine, isoleucine, and threonine content and an increase in proline and hydroxyproline. Lastly, fatty acids C14:0, C15:0, C16:1, C18:2n6c, C18:3n6, C18:0, C20:3n3, and C23:0 were revealed to be upregulated, while C18:1n9c was downregulated with age.

Consumer Acceptance and Preference for Olive Oil Attributes-A Review.

Olive oil is largely produced in southern European countries. It encompasses a mix of search (e.g., price, color, packaging features), experience (e.g., taste), and credence attributes (e.g., organic, health claim). The importance of these attributes on consumers' attitudes and preferences for Olive oil has been explored quite extensively in the past. However, a recent body of literature has focused on product nutritional information and health claims in shaping consumers' attitudes and preferences for Olive oil. This work aims to offer an updated review of consumers' acceptance and preferences for Olive oil features. Applying the Systematic Literature Review method, a sample of 47 studies published over the last 20 years was reviewed through descriptive and content analysis. The following attributes, grouped in search, experience, and credence categories, were discussed: origin, sustainability, brand, health and safety, the production process, packaging, color, taste and flavor, and product features. The discussion of marketing and research implications closes the study. The study provides an overview of the literature background of consumer behaviors of Olive Oil, investigating the recent literature focused on product nutritional information and health claims.

A Monitoring Framework with Integrated Sensing Technologies for Enhanced Food Safety and Traceability.

A novel and low-cost framework for food traceability, composed by commercial and proprietary sensing devices, for the remote monitoring of air, water, soil parameters and herbicide contamination during the farming process, has been developed and verified in real crop environments. It offers an integrated approach to food traceability with embedded systems supervision, approaching the problem to testify the quality of the food product. Moreover, it fills the gap of missing low-cost systems for monitoring cropping environments and pesticides contamination, satisfying the wide interest of regulatory agencies and final customers for a sustainable farming. The novelty of the proposed monitoring framework lies in the realization and the adoption of a fully automated prototype for in situ glyphosate detection. This device consists of a custom-made and automated fluidic system which, leveraging on the Molecularly Imprinted Polymer (MIP) sensing technology, permits to detect unwanted glyphosate contamination. The custom electronic mainboard, called ElectroSense, exhibits both the potentiostatic read-out of the sensor and the fluidic control to accomplish continuous unattended measurements. The complementary monitored parameters from commercial sensing devices are: temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, volumetric water content, electrical conductivity of the soil, pH of the irrigation water, total Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and equivalent CO2. The framework has been validated during the olive farming activity in an Italian company, proving its efficacy for food traceability. Finally, the system has been adopted in a different crop field where pesticides treatments are practiced. This has been done in order to prove its capability to perform first level detection of pesticide treatments. Good correlation results between chemical sensors signals and pesticides treatments are highlighted.

Aquaponics-Derived Tilapia Skin Collagen for Biomaterials Development.

Collagen is one of the most widely used biomaterials in health-related sectors. The industrial production of collagen mostly relies on its extraction from mammals, but several issues limited its use. In the last two decades, marine organisms attracted interest as safe, abundant, and alternative source for collagen extraction. In particular, the possibility to valorize the huge quantity of fish industry waste and byproducts as collagen source reinforced perception of fish collagen as eco-friendlier and particularly attractive in terms of profitability and cost-effectiveness. Especially fish byproducts from eco-sustainable aquaponics production allow for fish biomass with additional added value and controlled properties over time. Among fish species, Oreochromis niloticus is one of the most widely bred fish in large-scale aquaculture and aquaponics systems. In this work, type I collagen was extracted from aquaponics-raised Tilapia skin and characterized from a chemical, physical, mechanical, and biological point of view in comparison with a commercially available analog. Performed analysis confirmed that the proprietary process optimized for type I collagen extraction allowed to isolate pure native collagen and to preserve its native conformational structure. Preliminary cellular studies performed with mouse fibroblasts indicated its optimal biocompatibility. All data confirmed the eligibility of the extracted Tilapia-derived native type I collagen as a biomaterial for healthcare applications.

Marine collagen and its derivatives: Versatile and sustainable bio-resources for healthcare.

In the last two decades, marine collagen has attracted great scientific and industrial interest as a 'blue resource', with potential for use in various health-related sectors, such as food, medicine, pharmaceutics and cosmetics. In particular, the large availability of polluting by-products from the fish processing industry has been the key factor driving the research towards the conversion of these low cost by-products (e.g. fish skin and scales) into collagen-based products with high added value and low environmental impact. After addressing the extraction of collagen from aquatic sources and its physicochemical properties, this review focuses on the use of marine collagen and its derivatives (e.g. gelatin and peptides) in different healthcare sectors. Particular attention is given to the bioactive properties of marine collagen that are being explored in preclinical and clinical studies, and pave the way to an increased demand for this biomaterial in the next future. In this context, in addition to the use of native collagen for the development of tissue engineering or wound healing devices, particularly relevant is the use of gelatin and peptides for the development of dietary supplements and nutraceuticals, specifically directed to weight management and glycemic control. The marine collagen market is also briefly discussed to highlight the opportunities and the most profitable areas of interest.

Reconstruction of a Real World Social Network using the Potts Model and Loopy Belief Propagation.

The scope of this paper is to test the adoption of a statistical model derived from Condensed Matter Physics, for the reconstruction of the structure of a social network. The inverse Potts model, traditionally applied to recursive observations of quantum states in an ensemble of particles, is here addressed to observations of the members' states in an organization and their (anti)correlations, thus inferring interactions as links among the members. Adopting proper (Bethe) approximations, such an inverse problem is showed to be tractable. Within an operational framework, this network-reconstruction method is tested for a small real-world social network, the Italian parliament. In this study case, it is easy to track statuses of the parliament members, using (co)sponsorships of law proposals as the initial dataset. In previous studies of similar activity-based networks, the graph structure was inferred directly from activity co-occurrences: here we compare our statistical reconstruction with such standard methods, outlining discrepancies and advantages.