105 research outputs found
Berry ripening, pre-processing and thermal treatments affect the phenolic composition and antioxidant capacity of grape (Vitis vinifera L.) juice
No full textParola poetica e silenzio in Gregorio di Nazianzo: considerazioni storico-religiose su alcune riletture di Odisseo
No full textThis paper aims to consider, through the historical-comparative methodology of the history of religions, integrated with some instruments and suggestions issued from a discursive analysis of the texts, the relation between poetry and silence in Gregory of Nazianzus. We investigate how, according to this author, the silence sets off the beauty of the verses as reflection of the divine Beautiful. In particular, we analyze the interpretation Gregory proposes of some famous passages of Odyssey, reading Odysseus as symbol of the poetic word
Metabolomics Approach to Studying Minimally Processed Peach (Prunus persica) Fruit
No full textFresh-cut fruit products for both retail and food service applications have increasingly appeared in the market place in recent years. Among different fruit types, peaches can be used and are highly appreciated as fresh-cut product although their commercial success is limited due to their short shelf-life and the quick onset of wounding-related physiological reactions. In this work we analyzed the technological and physiological changes induced by fresh-cut preparation in three different types of peach cultivars: 'Fayette' (melting), 'Wilhelmina' (non-melting) and 'Ghiaccio3' (stony hard). We performed a metabolite targeting profiling to focus on the changes in organic acid levels, important components of fruit taste and organoleptic quality of peaches. Interestingly, 'Ghiaccio3' showed an increase of several organic acids after cutting while 'Fayette' and 'Wilhelmina' showed unchanged amounts or a general reduction. Cutting induces a similar pattern of change in important metabolites (i.e., dehydroascorbate, alanine) in all the three peach types while other metabolites (i.e., citric acid) appeared to be differentially regulated in the considered peach cultivars
Fifteen-year follow-up of Italian families affected by arginine glycine amidinotransferase deficiency
No full textBackground: Arginine:glycine amidinotransferase deficiency (AGAT-d) is a very rare inborn error of creatine synthesis mainly characterized by absence of brain Creatine (Cr) peak, intellectual disability, severe language impairment and behavioural disorder and susceptible to supplementary Cr treatment per os. Serial examinations by magnetic resonance spectroscopy are required to evaluate Cr recovery in brain during treatment of high doses of Cr per os, which have been proved beneficial and effective in treating main clinical symptoms. A long term study with detailed reports on clinical, neurochemical and neuropsychological outcomes of the first Italian patients affected by AGAT-d here reported can represent a landmark in management of this disorder thus enhancing medical knowledge and clinical practice. Results: We have evaluated the long term effects of Cr supplementation management in four Italian patients affected by AGAT-d, correlating specific treatments with serial clinical, biochemical and magnetic resonance spectroscopy examinations as well as the neuropsychological outcome by standardized developmental scales. Consecutive MRS examinations have confirmed that Cr depletion in AGAT-d patients is reversible under Cr supplementation. Cr treatment is considered safe and well tolerated but side effects, including weight gain and kidney stones, have been reported. Conclusions: Early treatment prevents adverse developmental outcome, while patients diagnosed and treated at an older age showed partial but significant cognitive recovery with clear improvements in adaptive functioning
A non-invasive method for a quantitative evaluation of muscle involvement in MRI of Neuromuscular Diseases
No full textThis work reports a study of Neuromuscular Diseases (NMD) by Magnetic Resonance Imaging as reliable and non invasive instrument for NMD diagnosis and follow up. The evaluation of the images is now only visual, while standardization procedures and quantitative methods could be very useful instruments to optimize the diagnostic performances. We propose a new method to evaluate the fat infiltration in tissues developed and retrospectively applied to images of the human leg. Through a muscle segmentation algorithm on structural T1-weighted magnetic resonance images (MRIs), the estimated non-muscle percentage (eNMP) in the segmented muscle area has been evaluated in healthy subjects as a reference value. A semi-automated procedure allows extending the algorithm to MRIs of NMD patients. A strong correlation has been demonstrated between this index and the disease severity. The final aim is to obtain a quantitative evaluation of fat infiltration percentage and to relate it to the grade of muscle impairment in subjects affected by Neuromuscular Diseases
Arginine : glycine amidinotransferase (AGAT) deficiency in a newborn: Early treatment can prevent phenotypic expression of the disease
No full textArginine:glycine amidinotransferase deficiency is a treatable inborn error of creatine synthesis, characterized by mental retardation, language impairment, and behavioral disorders. We describe a patient in whom arginine:glycine amidinotransferase was diagnosed at birth and treated at 4 months with creatine supplementation. In contrast with his 2 older sisters, he had normal psychomotor development at 18 months
Effect of selenium enrichment on metabolism of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruit during post-harvest ripening
No full textSelenium (Se) enrichment of plants seems effective in enhancing the health-related properties of produce, and in delaying plant senescence and fruit ripening. The current study investigated the effects of Se on tomato fruit ripening. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plants were grown in hydroponics with different Se-enriched nutrient solutions. Se, as sodium selenate, was added at rate of 0 mg L-1 (control), 1 mg L-1, and 1.5 mg L-1.
RESULTS: Selenium was absorbed by roots and translocated to leaves and fruit. Se enrichment did not significantly affect the qualitative parameters of fruit at commercial harvest, instead it delayed ripening by affecting specific ripening-related processes (respiration, ethylene production, color evolution) during postharvest. In the current experiment 100 g of tomato hydroponically grown with a 1.5 mg Se L-1 enriched solution provided a total of 23.7 μg Se. Selenium recommended daily intake is 60 μg for women and 70 μg for men, thus the daily consumption of 100 g of enriched tomato would not lead to Se toxicity, but would provide a good Se diet supplementation. CONCLUSIONS: The cultivation of tomato plants in a Se-enriched solution appeared effective in producing tomato fruit with improved performances during storage and postharvest shelf life, and also with greater potential health-promoting properties
Transient modulation of cytoplasmic and nuclear retinoid receptors expression in differentiating human teratocarcinoma NT2 cells.
No full textHuman embryonal carcinoma Ntera2/D1 (NT2) cells treated with retinoic acid (RA) differentiate into several cell types including post-mitotic neurons. In this study we asked if RA-induced differentiation alters the expression of RA and retinol (ROL) binding proteins. The regulation of the intracellular carrier proteins for ROL and RA, cellular retinol binding protein I (CRBP-I), and cellular retinoic acid binding protein I and II (CRABP-I, CRABP-II) were studied along with the nuclear RA receptors RARalpha, RARbeta and RARgamma2. PCR analysis of total mRNA from RA-treated cells showed a biphasic early induction of CRBP-I, CRABP-II, and RARgamma2 genes. The immediate early gene Krox-24, a zinc finger transcription factor which is up-regulated during neuronal differentiation, was also induced, but after 1 week of treatment. The induction of CRBP-I protein synthesis in differentiating NT2 cells was confirmed by western blotting and immunofluorescence experiments. Conversely, the synthetic retinoid N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)retinamide, which induces cell death, but not differentiation in different tumour cell types, did not produce the same modulation on gene expression in NT2 cells. These data suggest that the RA-specific induction of CRBP-I and CRABP-II could be an early event in the process leading to neuronal differentiation of NT2 cells
Weak and strong cross-section dependence and estimation of large panels
No full textThis paper introduces the concepts of time-specific weak and strong cross-section dependence, and investigates how these notions are related to the concepts of weak, strong and semi-strong common factors, frequently used for modelling residual cross-section correlations in panel data models. It then focuses on the problems of estimating slope coefficients in large panels, where cross-section units are subject to possibly a large number of unobserved common factors. It is established that the common correlated effects (CCE) estimator introduced by Pesaran remains asymptotically normal under certain conditions on factor loadings of an infinite factor error structure, including cases where methods relying on principal components fail. The paper concludes with a set of Monte Carlo experiments where the small sample properties of estimators based on principal components and CCE estimators are investigated and compared under various assumptions on the nature of the unobserved common effects. © 2011 The Author(s). The Econometrics Journal © 2011 Royal Economic Society
Hospital quality interdependence in a competitive institutional environment: Evidence from Italy
No full textCopyright © 2021 The Author(s). In this paper we explore the geographical scope of hospital competition on quality, using Italian data on over 207,000 patients admitted to 174 hospitals located in the Lombardy region in the years 2008–2014. We propose an economic framework that incorporates both local and global forms of quality competition among hospitals, the latter emerging from periodically released hospital performance rankings. Under this framework, we derive the hospital reaction functions and, accordingly, we characterize the structure of interdependence among hospital qualities. We employ recent methods from the graphical modelling literature to estimate the set of local rivals for each hospital, as well as the degree of global interdependence among hospitals. Consistently with our micro-founded framework, our results show a significant positive degree of short- and long-range dependence, suggesting the existence of forms of local and global competition amongst hospitals with relevant implications for health care policy
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