357 research outputs found
Economic factors affecting obesity: an application in Italy
No full textThe World Health Organization has stated that obesity is spreading around the world like a “global epidemic”. In 2004 the percentage of obese people in the Italian population was 9%, but the trend s increasing in recent years. Focusing on this country, the purpose of the paper is to analyze the socio-economic variables affecting obesity by means of a survey conducted in a consumer sample. Our analysis is based on a survey conducted in Italy, and the sample was composed of 999 consumers. We used a binary logit model and the dependent variable is body mass index (BMI), expressed in a dichotomic way (seriously overweight and obese, value 1, and normal weight, value 0). The results show that the condition of the seriously overweight and obese increases with age, especially in people over 65 of age. Also gender is correlated with the pathology: being seriously overweight and obese is far more likely for men than for women. An inverse relation was shown between obesity and education, and between obesity and the level of food knowledge. The results highlight that disadvantaged social categories are more susceptible to the problem of overweight and obesity. A policy implication of the analysis, to limit the spread of obesity, could lie in programs aimed at improving health and food awareness and focused on these minority groups.economics of obesity, BMI and consumer, logit model, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy,
Author response
No full textDetecting pathogens and mounting immune responses upon infection is crucial for animal health. However, these responses come at a high metabolic price (McKean and Lazzaro, 2011, Kominsky et al., 2010), and avoiding pathogens before infection may be advantageous. The bacterial endotoxins lipopolysaccharides (LPS) are important immune system infection cues (Abbas et al., 2014), but it remains unknown whether animals possess sensory mechanisms to detect them prior to infection. Here we show that Drosophila melanogaster display strong aversive responses to LPS and that gustatory neurons expressing Gr66a bitter receptors mediate avoidance of LPS in feeding and egg laying assays. We found the expression of the chemosensory cation channel dTRPA1 in these cells to be necessary and sufficient for LPS avoidance. Furthermore, LPS stimulates Drosophila neurons in a TRPA1-dependent manner and activates exogenous dTRPA1 channels in human cells. Our findings demonstrate that flies detect bacterial endotoxins via a gustatory pathway through TRPA1 activation as conserved molecular mechanism.sponsorship: Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie Alessia Soldano Luis Franco Guangda Liu Natalia Mora Emre Yaksi Bassem A Hassanr Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek G.0702.12 Alessia Soldano Yeranddy A Alpizar Brett Boonen Alejandro Lopez-Requena Natalia Mora Thomas Voets Rudi Vennekens Bassem A Hassan Karel Talaverar Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek G.0077.15 Alessia Soldano Yeranddy A Alpizar Brett Boonen Alejandro Lopez-Requena Natalia Mora Thomas Voets Rudi Vennekens Bassem A Hassan Karel Talaverar Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek G.0680.10 Alessia Soldano Yeranddy A Alpizar Brett Boonen Alejandro Lopez-Requena Natalia Mora Thomas Voets Rudi Vennekens Bassem A Hassan Karel Talaverar Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek G.0681.10 Alessia Soldano Yeranddy A Alpizar Brett Boonen Alejandro Lopez-Requena Natalia Mora Thomas Voets Rudi Vennekens Bassem A Hassan Karel Talaverar Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek G.0503.12 Alessia Soldano Yeranddy A Alpizar Brett Boonen Alejandro Lopez-Requena Natalia Mora Thomas Voets Rudi Vennekens Bassem A Hassan Karel Talaverar Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek G.0654.15 Alessia Soldano Yeranddy A Alpizar Brett Boonen Alejandro Lopez-Requena Natalia Mora Thomas Voets Rudi Vennekens Bassem A Hassan Karel Talaverar Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek G.0761.10N Alessia Soldano Yeranddy A Alpizar Brett Boonen Alejandro Lopez-Requena Natalia Mora Thomas Voets Rudi Vennekens Bassem A Hassan Karel Talaverar Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek G.0596.12 Alessia Soldano Yeranddy A Alpizar Brett Boonen Alejandro Lopez-Requena Natalia Mora Thomas Voets Rudi Vennekens Bassem A Hassan Karel Talaverar Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek G.0565.07 Alessia Soldano Yeranddy A Alpizar Brett Boonen Alejandro Lopez-Requena Natalia Mora Thomas Voets Rudi Vennekens Bassem A Hassan Karel Talaverar KU Leuven GOA/14/011 Alessia Soldano Yeranddy A Alpizar Brett Boonen Luis Franco Alejandro Lopez-Requena Guangda Liu Natalia Mora Emre Yaksi Thomas Voets Rudi Vennekens Bassem A Hassan Karel Talaverar European Commission IUAP P7/13 Alessia Soldano Yeranddy A Alpizar Brett Boonen Luis Franco Alejandro Lopez-Requena Guangda Liu Natalia Mora Emre Yaksi Thomas Voets Rudi Vennekensr KU Leuven OT/12/091 Alessia Soldano Yeranddy A Alpizar Brett Boonen Luis Franco Alejandro Lopez-Requena Guangda Liu Natalia Mora Emre Yaksi Thomas Voets Rudi Vennekens Bassem A Hassan Karel Talaverar KU Leuven PF-TRPLe Alessia Soldano Yeranddy A Alpizar Brett Boonen Luis Franco Alejandro Lopez-Requena Guangda Liu Natalia Mora Emre Yaksi Thomas Voets Rudi Vennekens Bassem A Hassan Karel Talavera (Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek|G.0702.12, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek|G.0077.15, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek|G.0680.10, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek|G.0681.10, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek|G.0503.12, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek|G.0654.15, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek|G.0761.10N, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek|G.0596.12, KU Leuven|GOA/14/011, KU Leuven|OT/12/091, European Commission|IUAP P7/13, KU Leuven PF-TRPLe)status: Publishe
Mapping the Digital Landscape: An Analysis of Party Differences between Conventional and Digital Policy Positions
No full textDie Haltung der Politik zu Digitalthemen mit Wirtschaftsbezug: Ergebnisse einer Befragung von Kandidierenden anlässlich der Schweizer Wahlen 2019
No full textDas Schaffen einer innovationsförderlichen Verwaltungskultur für die digitale Transformation
No full textDieses Kapitel befasst sich mit dem Kulturwandel im öffentlichen Sektor. Es beschreibt die
Elemente, die eine innovationsfreundliche Verwaltungskultur fördern und somit die digitale
Transformation im öffentlichen Sektor erleichtern. Konkret geht der Beitrag auf die
Entwicklung des Diskurses rund um Innovation im öffentlichen Sektor, die Entwicklung einer
neuen Lern- und Kollaborationskultur sowie einer neuen Führungskultur ein
Mapping the Digital Landscape: An Analysis of Party Differences between Conventional and Digital Policy Positions
No full textAlthough digitization is a buzzword in almost every
election campaign, the political parties leave voters largely in the dark
about their specific positions on digital issues. In the run-up to the 2019
elections in Switzerland, the ‘Digitization Monitor’ project (DMP) was
launched in order to change this situation. Within the framework of the
DMP, all 4,736 candidates were surveyed about their digital policy
positions and values. The DMP is designed as a digital policy
supplement to the existing ‘smartvote’ voting advice application. This
enabled a direct comparison of the digital policy attitudes according to
the DMP with the topics of the ‘smartvote’ questionnaire which are
comprehensive in content but mainly related to conventional policy
areas. This paper’s main research goal is to analyze and visualize
possible differences between conventional and digital policy areas in
terms of response patterns between and within political parties. The
analysis is based on dimensionality reduction methods
(multidimensional scaling and principal component analysis) for the
visualization of inter-party differences, and on standard deviation as
measure of variation for the evaluation of intra-party unity. The results
reveal that digital issues show a lower degree of inter-party
polarization compared to conventional policy areas. Thus, the parties
have more common ground in issues on digitization than in
conventional policy areas. In contrast, the study reveals a mixed
picture regarding intra-party unity. Homogeneous parties show a lower
degree of unity in digitization issues whereas parties with
heterogeneous positions in conventional areas have more united
positions in digital areas. All things considered, the findings are
encouraging as less polarized conditions apply to the debate on digital
development compared to conventional politics. For the future, it
would be desirable if in further countries similar projects to the DMP
could emerge to broaden the basis for conclusions
The Use of ICT by Swiss Cantonal Parties for Their Communication With Party Members and in Election Campaigning
No full textApproaches to Good Data Governance in Support of Public Sector Transformation through Once-only
No full textThe Once Only Principle (OOP) drives current public sector modernization through the reduction of administrative burdens. It requires public authorities not to ask citizens and companies to repeatedly provide information to the public authorities. Instead, public authorities shall share and re-use data among themselves in due respect of data protection regulation. The sharing and re-use of sensitive and non-sensitive data among public administrations demands for broad acceptance by all stakeholders. Trust and transparency are key success criteria in such data-driven public sector transformation. Establishing proper governance mechanisms for the data infrastructures that enable the sharing and reuse in public service provisioning, and that provide the necessary transparency
and trust levels is expected to effectively improve public service. This research
investigates approaches for establishing a good data governance in OOP settings
tackling the sharing and re-use of sensitive or personal data. Geographical focus
is on the European Union and Switzerland
ZEBRAFISH AS AN EXPERIMENTAL MODEL OF NEURODEVELOPMENTAL AND NEURODEGENERATIVE DISORDERS: FROM SYNAPSIN III KNOCKDOWN TO α-SYNUCLEIN TRANSGENIC ZEBRAFISH LARVAE
No full textZebrafish (Danio rerio) brain anatomy and function exhibit a remarkable homology to those of humans, thus offering the possibility to carry out studies addressing key pathophysiological aspects of the nervous system. In this project, I exploited zebrafish to study the pathophysiological function of two key synaptic proteins involved in neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration: Synapsin III (SynIII) and α-synuclein (α-syn). SynIII is a neuron-specific phosphoprotein highly expressed in the early stages of cortical and hippocampal neurons development, while in mature neuronal cells, it controls dopamine release. SynIII polymorphisms have been associated with attention deficits and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which is characterized by significant alterations in dopaminergic systems development and function. Of note, SynIII-dependent dopamine release occurs in cooperation with α-syn. This is one of the most abundant synaptic proteins in the nervous system, where it regulates neuronal function and homeostasis. However, α-syn is also a main pathological marker for Parkinson’s disease (PD), as the brain of patients affected by this neurodegenerative disorder is characterized by the deposition of insoluble inclusions mainly composed of fibrillary aggregated α-syn. Notably, SynIII has been recently identified as another key component of these aggregates. In particular, it functions as a main stabilizer of α-syn pathological fibrils.
Aims & Results
My project aimed at the generation of novel zebrafish models of ADHD and PD to study the pathophysiological function of SynIII and α-syn in these disorders.
Specific aims:
1) To study the role of SynIII in dopaminergic neurons development by using a morpholino knock-down-based zebrafish model.
2) To generate a novel human α-syn (hsa.SNCA) transgenic zebrafish line to study SynIII/α-syn pathological interplay.
Aim 1-Task 1: To study the involvement of SynIII in dopaminergic neurons development I perfomed morpholino-mediated syn3 knock down (KD) in zebrafish embryos. Syn3 KD embryos, exhibited a significant reduction of central nervous system development and altered behavior. In particular, Syn3 morphants displayed microcephaly and perturbation of brain morphology as a result of the reduction of neuronal proliferation and differentiation. Consistently, in situ hybridization showed a significant reduction of markers of early forming neurons, particularly in the brain areas hosting dopaminergic nuclei in the syn3 KD embryos. Consistently, I detected a significant reduction of tyrosine-hydroxilase (TH)-immunopositive cells. In the trunk, syn3 KD affected axon elongation, as branches length within somites appeared significantly reduced. The spontaneous tail-coiling measurement and the touch-evoked test revealed that syn3 KD is associated with a hyperactive behavior reminiscent of ADHD.
Finally, the co-injection of syn3 morpholino with a plasmid transducing Rattus Norvegicus SynIII mRNA prevented the onset of the neurodevelopmental dopaminergic deficits, demonstrating the specificity of our morpholino and the conserved function of Syn III among different species. These results support that Syn III is involved in dopaminergic neurons development and provide a rationale for the interpretation of studies linking Syn III alterations to dopamine-related developmental disorders.
Aim 2-Task 2: To generate the zebrafish hsa.SNCA transgenic line as a novel PD model, a Tol2 vector was designed to drive N-terminal mCherry-tagged hsa.SNCA (mChαSyn) expression under a the guidance of a modified version of the pan-neuronal promoter zHuC/elavl3. mChαSyn was efficiently expressed in neurons soma and branches. Acridine orange assay and visual-motor response tests showed that mChαSyn expression in zebrafish embryos did not exert toxic effects nor alteration of neurological function. This study represents a first step toward the generation of a novel zebrafish-based PD model.Il sistema nervoso di Zebrafish (Danio rerio) gode di una notevole conservazione anatomica e funzionale rispetto all’uomo offrendo,quindi, la possibilità di studiare gli aspetti patofisiologici del sistema nervoso.In questo progetto ho utilizzato lo Zebrafish per lo studio di due proteine sinaptiche coinvolte nel neurosviluppo e nella neurodegenerazione: Sinapsina III (SynIII) e α-sinucleina (α-syn).SynIII è una proteina neuronale espressa ad alti livelli nelle fasi precoci dello sviluppo dei neuroni corticali e ippocampali. Nell’adulto essa controlla il rilascio di dopamina.Polimorfismi di SynIII sono associati al disturbo da deficit dell’attenzione/iperattività (ADHD), caratterizzato da alterazioni a carico del sistema dopaminergico. Il rilascio di dopamina SynIII-dipendente avviene in cooperazione con α-syn,tra le più abbondanti proteine del sistema nervoso, nel quale regola l’omeostasi e la funzionalità neuronale.Essa rappresenta però anche uno dei principali marcatori della malattia di Parkinson (Parkinson Disease, PD). Il cervello dei pazienti affetti è infatti caratterizzato dalla presenza di inclusioni insolubili contenenti aggregati fibrillari di α-syn. Recentemente, SynIII è stata identificata come un altro fattore chiave nella composizione di questi aggregati, nei quali agirebbe come principale fattore stabilizzante delle fibrille di α-syn.
Obiettivi & Risultati
L’obiettivo del mio progetto è stata la generazione di modelli di PD e ADHD in zebrafish, volti alla comprensione del contributo di SynIII e α-syn all’insorgenza di queste patologie.
Obiettivi specifici:
1)Studiare il ruolo di SynIII nello sviluppo dei neuroni dopaminergici utilizzando un modello di silenziamento genico-morfolino dipendente.
2)Generare una linea transgenica di zebrafish per il gene umano codificante α-syn (hsa.SNCA), al fine di studiare l’interazione patologica α-syn/SynIII.
Obiettivo1-Task1: Per studiare il coinvolgimento di SynIII nello sviluppo dei neuroni dopaminergici, ho eseguito il silenziamento del gene Syn3 in embrioni di zebrafish. Gli embrioni silenziati mostrano una notevole riduzione nello sviluppo del sistema nervoso e alterazioni comportamentali. Nello specifico, i morfanti sono caratterizzati da modificazioni nella morfologia cerebrale, risultato di una riduzione nei processi di proliferazione e differenziamento neuronale. Difatti, la tecnica di ibridazione in situ ha evidenziato una riduzione di marker di neuroni immaturi, in particolar modo nelle aree cerebrali che ospitano i neuroni dopaminergici. Coerentemente, è stata ivi osservata una riduzione significativa di cellule positive per la tirosina-idrossilasi. Nella coda, il silenziamento di Syn3 ha comportato una compromissione nell’estensione degli assoni. Valutazioni nei morfanti del comportamento motorio spontaneo (tail coiling) e stimolo-indotto (touch-evoked) hanno rivelato un’iperattività basale che richiama l’ADHD.
La coiniezione di morfolino e del messaggero codificante per SynIII di Rattus Norvegicus previene la comparsa dei deficit nel processo di sviluppo dei neuroni dopaminergici, dimostrando la specifità del morfolino e la conservazione funzionale di SynIII in specie diverse. Questi risultati evidenziano il coinvolgimento di SynIII nello sviluppo del sistema dopaminergico e forniscono nuovi spunti per la comprensione dei disturbi ad esso correlati.
Obiettivo2-Task2: La generazione della linea transgenica di zebrafish hsa.SNCA come nuovo modello di PD, è stata effettuata mediante creazione di un vettore Tol2 in grado di esprimere il gene hsa.SNCA con un tag mCherry N-terminale (mChα-syn) sotto la guida del promotore pan-neuronale elavl3. mChα-syn risulta espressa nel soma e nelle ramificazioni neuronali, non correlata ad una riduzione della vitalità cellulare o ad una compromissione delle funzioni neurologiche. Questo studio rappresenta il primo passo nella generazione di un nuovo modello di PD in zebrafis
Social Network to analyse the relationship between ‘victim-author’ and ‘motivation’ of violence against women in Italy.
No full textThe paper aims to analyse the phenomenon of Violence against women in the Italian context during 2020. It proposes to study the relationship between ‘victim-author’ and ‘motivation’ in femicides committed in domestic environment. By means of the properties of the Social Network Analysis on bimodal data, the study detected main actors and motivations that generated the homicides with female victims. At the same time, the structural relationships allowed to investigate the existence of motivations that better characterized the action of the various actors. The bipartite graph visualization and centrality scores calculated have demonstrated the effectiveness of the methodology for the pursued objectives
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