Heart rate variability reduction is related to a high amount of visceral adiposity in healthy young women

Several heart rate variability (HRV) studies show abnormalities in autonomic nervous control in obese and overweight subjects. However, some of the results appear to be controversial. Here we investigate the HRV profile in seventy adult normotensive women and its association with general and visceral adiposity. Specifically, we recorded the electrocardiographic (ECG) activity in subjects during a supine resting state for five minutes in a quiet room late in the morning. Total fat mass (TFM) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) were instead estimated using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Finally, we used simple a linear regression analysis of frequency and time-domain parameters to study the relationship between HRV and adiposity. Our data showed an overall reduction of the HRV related to an increase of TFM although this regression appeared significant only for high frequencies (HF). When the linear regression was applied between HRV variables and VAT, the slope of the line increases, thus unveiling a statistically significant relation (i.e. the more VAT, the lower HRV). Finally, a control analysis showed that age does not alter the relation between HRV and VAT when used as a confounding factor in multiple regression. To conclude, these findings point to abnormal activity of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in subjects with an excess of VAT and represent a starting point to determine a non-invasive index of cardiac wellness for clinical and nutritional application

GC-MS Based Metabolomics and NMR Spectroscopy Investigation of Food Intake Biomarkers for Milk and Cheese in Serum of Healthy Humans.

The identification and validation of food intake biomarkers (FIBs) in human biofluids is a key objective for the evaluation of dietary intake. We report here the analysis of the GC-MS and 1H-NMR metabolomes of serum samples from a randomized cross-over study in 11 healthy volunteers having consumed isocaloric amounts of milk, cheese, and a soy drink as non-dairy alternative. Serum was collected at baseline, postprandially up to 6 h, and 24 h after consumption. A multivariate analysis of the untargeted serum metabolomes, combined with a targeted analysis of candidate FIBs previously reported in urine samples from the same study, identified galactitol, galactonate, and galactono-1,5-lactone (milk), 3-phenyllactic acid (cheese), and pinitol (soy drink) as candidate FIBs for these products. Serum metabolites not previously identified in the urine samples, e.g., 3-hydroxyisobutyrate after cheese intake, were detected. Finally, an analysis of the postprandial behavior of candidate FIBs, in particular the dairy fatty acids pentadecanoic acid and heptadecanoic acid, revealed specific kinetic patterns of relevance to their detection in future validation studies. Taken together, promising candidate FIBs for dairy intake appear to be lactose and metabolites thereof, for lactose-containing products, and microbial metabolites derived from amino acids, for fermented dairy products such as cheese

ONS : an ontology for a standardized description of interventions and observational studies in nutrition

Background: The multidisciplinary nature of nutrition research is one of its main strengths. At the same time, however, it presents a major obstacle to integrate data analysis, especially for the terminological and semantic interpretations that specific research fields or communities are used to. To date, a proper ontology to structure and formalize the concepts used for the description of nutritional studies is still lacking. Results: We have developed the Ontology for Nutritional Studies (ONS) by harmonizing selected pre-existing de facto ontologies with novel health and nutritional terminology classifications. The ONS is the result of a scholarly consensus of 51 research centers in nine European countries. The ontology classes and relations are commonly encountered while conducting, storing, harmonizing, integrating, describing, and searching nutritional studies. The ONS facilitates the description and specification of complex nutritional studies as demonstrated with two application scenarios. Conclusions: The ONS is the first systematic effort to provide a solid and extensible formal ontology framework for nutritional studies. Integration of new information can be easily achieved by the addition of extra modules (i.e., nutrigenomics, metabolomics, nutrikinetics, and quality appraisal). The ONS provides a unified and standardized terminology for nutritional studies as a resource for nutrition researchers who might not necessarily be familiar with ontologies and standardization concepts

Cancer patients' needs during hospitalisation: a quantitative and qualitative study

BACKGROUND: The evaluation of cancer patients needs, especially during that delicate period when they are hospitalized, allows the identification of those areas of care that require to be improved. Aims of the study were to evaluate the needs in cancer inpatients and to improve the understanding of the meanings of the needs expressed. METHODS: The study was conducted during a "sample day", with all the cancer patients involved having been hospitalized at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milan (INT) for at least 48 hours beforehand. The study was carried out using quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The quantitative part of the study consisted in making use of the Needs Evaluation Questionnaire (NEQ), a standardized questionnaire administered by the INT Psychology Unit members, supported by a group of volunteers from the Milan section of the Italian League Against Cancer. The aim of the qualitative part of the study, by semi-structured interviews conducted with a small sample of 8 hospitalized patients, was to improve our understanding of the meanings, implications of the needs directly described from the point of view of the patients. Such an approach determines the reasons and conditions of the dissatisfaction in the patient, and provides additional information for the planning of improvement interventions. RESULTS: Of the 224 eligible patients, 182 (81%) completed the questionnaire. Four of the top five needs expressed by 40% or more of the responders concerned information needs (diagnosis, future conditions, dialogue with doctors, economic-insurance solutions related to the disease). Only one of the 5 was concerned with improved "hotel" services (bathrooms, meals, cleanliness). Qualitative analysis showed that the most expressed need (to receive more information on their future conditions) has the meaning to know how their future life will be affected more than to know his/her actual prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: Some of the needs which emerged from this investigation could be immediately satisfied (the need for psychological support, the need for economic aid, the need for spiritual support), while others will have to be faced in the longer term; for example, the presence of a high percentage of needs in patient-physician relationships and/or information-communication issues, could be resolved by setting up structured introductory training courses for all clinicians in the institution. On the other hand, the needs related to the living infrastructure (bathrooms, meals, etc...) could encourage the Institution to improve its services

Definition of food quality by NMR-based foodomics

Quality definition of food includes several complex factors like physical, compositional and microbial features, modifications induced by technological processes or storage, nutritional value and safety. Foodomics is a holistic approach applying omics technologies to observe food along the entire production/consumption chain. In the present review, we present key applications of nuclear magnetic resonance in foodomics described in the 2012–2015 period, in the quest for robust and thorough information required by the scientific community. In doing so, we summarize the issues connected to food traceability and authenticity, composition and physical characteristics, processing and storage and health, that mostly impact food qualit

RemoteTest: A Framework for Testing Distributed Systems

This work deals with general difficulties and aims when testing complex distributed systems, especially when heterogeneous interfaces are used. As a solution RemoteTest is proposed, a framework for the test of distributed systems and their interfaces. This is done by integrating individual system components into a virtual environment that emulates the adjacent modules of the system. The interface details are thereby abstracted by the framework and there is no special interface knowledge necessary by the tester. In addition to the decoupling of components and interface abstraction, RemoteTest facilitates the testing of distributed systems with flexible mechanisms to write test scripts and an architecture that can be easily adapted to different systems

Identification of Urinary Food Intake Biomarkers for Milk, Cheese, and Soy-Based Drink by Untargeted GC-MS and NMR in Healthy Humans.

The measurement of food intake biomarkers (FIBs) in biofluids represents an objective tool for dietary assessment. FIBs of milk and cheese still need more investigation due to the absence of candidate markers. Thus, an acute intervention study has been performed to sensitively and specifically identify candidate FIBs. Eleven healthy male and female volunteers participated in the randomized, controlled crossover study that tested a single intake of milk and cheese as test products, and soy-based drink as a control. Urine samples were collected at baseline and up to 24 h at distinct time intervals (0-1, 1-2, 2-4, 4-6, 6-12, and 12-24 h) and were analyzed using an untargeted multiplatform approach (GC-MS and <sup>1</sup> H NMR). Lactose, galactose, and galactonate were identified exclusively after milk intake while for other metabolites (allantoin, hippurate, galactitol, and galactono-1,5-lactone) a significant increase has been observed. Urinary 3-phenyllactic acid was the only compound specifically reflecting cheese intake although alanine, proline, and pyroglutamic acid were found at significantly higher levels after cheese consumption. In addition, several novel candidate markers for soy drink were identified, such as pinitol and trigonelline. Together, these candidate FIBs of dairy intake could serve as a basis for future validation studies under free-living conditions