1,721,079 research outputs found
Is obesity the missing link between COVID-19 severity and air pollution?
No full textIn the previous publication “Can atmospheric pollution be considered a co-factor in extremely high level of SARS-CoV-2 lethality in Northern Italy?” Conticini et al. hypothesized that the surplus of lethality of the novel SARS-CoV-2 in Northern Italy may be at least in part explained by the evidence of highest pollution reported in this area, as both severe COVID-19 and smog exposure are correlated to an innate immune system hyper-activation with subsequent lung inflammation and injury. Since this hypothesis alone does not fully explain why specific subgroups of patients are at major risk, we hypothesized that obesity may be one of the links between COVID-19 severity and high level of air pollution. First, obesity is a predisposing factor for SARS-Cov-2 infection and worse COVID-19 outcomes, and unequivocal evidence demonstrated that fat mass excess is independently associated with several pulmonary diseases and lung inflammation. Moreover, it has been shown that obesity may intensify the detrimental effects of air pollution on the lungs, and this is not surprising if we consider that these conditions share an excessive activation of the immune system and a lung inflammatory infiltrate. Finally, fat mass excess has also been speculated to be itself a consequence of air pollutants exposure, which has been proved to induce metabolic disruption and weight gain in murine models. In conclusion, although many variables must be taken into account in the analysis of the pandemic, our observations suggest that obesity may act as effect modifier of smog-induced lung-injury, and the concomitant presence of these two factors could better explain the higher virulence, faster spread and greater mortality of SARS-CoV-2 in Northern Italy compared to the rest of the country
Chronobiology and Metabolism: Is Ketogenic Diet Able to Influence Circadian Rhythm?
No full textCircadian rhythms underpin most physiological processes, including energy metabolism. The core circadian clock consists of a transcription-translation negative feedback loop, and is synchronized to light-dark cycles by virtue of light input from the retina, to the central clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the hypothalamus. All cells in the body have circadian oscillators which are entrained to the central clock by neural and humoral signals. In addition to light entrainment of the central clock in the brain, it now emerges that other stimuli can drive circadian clock function in peripheral tissues, the major one being food. This can then drive the liver clock to be misaligned with the central brain clock, a situation of internal misalignment with metabolic disease consequences. Such misalignment is prevalent, with shift workers making up 20% of the working population. The effects of diet composition on the clock are not completely clarified yet. High-fat diet and fasting influence circadian expression of clock genes, inducing phase-advance and phase-delay in animal models. Ketogenic diet (KD) is able to induce a metabolic switch from carbohydrate to fatty acid oxidation, miming a fasting state. In recent years, some animal studies have been conducted to investigate the ability of the KD to modify circadian gene expression, and demonstrated that the KD alters circadian rhythm and induces a rearrangement of metabolic gene expression. These findings may lead to new approaches to obesity and metabolic pathologies treatment
Therapeutic educational robot enhancing social interactions in the management of obesity
Full text linkObesity is a chronic multifactorial pathology determined by many factors, including incorrect eating habits and a low level of physical activity. There is an urgent need to promote a persistent change in lifestyle in obese subjects, but very few individuals maintain long-term results achieved after diet therapies. Therapeutic Education (TE) has taken over an important role as a multidisciplinary intervention aimed at improving lifestyle and at acquiring new skills for the management of the disease. However, only a small portion of patients can maintain participation in such programs and fully benefit from them. Assistive technologies, and in particular assistive social robots, are powerful tools to boost independence and improve participation in educational activities. The aim of the research work described in this article is to evaluate the effect of employing a social robot as a therapeutic educational robot helping the expert therapist in the education activity. This article describes the implementation, deployment, and evaluation of a social educational robot used as a TE assistant. Although we cannot provide statistically significant results due to the limited number of people involved in the experimental protocol, all experimental results show a positive trend, indicating that the robot can enhance the social interactions between the patients and the therapist and among the patients, thus bringing to better overall results of the TE sessions, measured with standard tests for obesity management
Natural antioxidant ice cream acutely reduces oxidative stress and improves vascular function and physical performance in healthy individuals
No full textObjective The formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) contributes to the pathogenesis and progression of several diseases. Polyphenols have been shown to be beneficial against ROS. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a natural antioxidant ice cream on oxidative stress, vascular function, and physical performance. Methods In this controlled, single-blind, crossover study, 14 healthy individuals were randomized to consume 100 g of either antioxidant ice cream containing dark cocoa powder and hazelnut and green tea extracts or milk chocolate ice cream (control ice cream). Participants were studied at baseline and 2 h after ingesting ice cream. Serum polyphenols, antioxidant status (ferric-reducing ability of plasma [FRAP]), nitric oxide (NOx) bioavailability, markers of oxidative stress (determination of reactive oxygen metabolites [d-ROMs] and hydrogen peroxide [H2O2]), endothelium function (flow-mediated dilation [FMD] and reactive hyperemia index [RHI]), and exercise tolerance (stress test) were assessed, and the double product was measured. Results Serum polyphenols (P < 0.001), NOx (P < 0.001), FRAP (P < 0.005), FMD (P < 0.001), and RHI (P < 0.05) increased significantly, oxidative stress decreased (d-Roms, P < 0.001; H2O2, P < 0.001), and the double product (P < 0.001) was improved only after antioxidant ice cream ingestion. No changes were found after control ice cream ingestion. Conclusions To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that a natural ice cream rich in polyphenols acutely improved vascular function and physical performance in healthy individuals through a reduction in oxidative stres
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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