Indulgent consumption: Exploring its role on consumers’ regret and well-being

Marketing research on indulgent consumption: Exploring its faces and role on well-being. Indulgence in everyday lives: Exploring how consumers and media narrate about indulgent consumption. How Handmade Becomes Tempting: The influence of Production Mode on Consumers’ Regret and Tendency to Indulge

Super-resolution imaging with stochastic single molecule localization: concepts, technical developments, and biological applications

Light microscopy has undergone a revolution with the advent of super-resolution microscopy methods that can surpass the diffraction limit. These methods have generated much enthusiasm, in particular with regards to the new possibilities they offer for biological imaging. The recent years have seen a great advancement both in terms of new technological developments and exciting biological applications. Here, we review some of the important milestones in the field and highlight some recent biological applications. Microsc. Res. Tech. 77:502–509, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

The missed constitutional reform and its possible impact on the sustainability of the italian national health service

The rejection of the Constitutional Law Bill No.1429-D in the December 2016 referendum, has stimulated a cause for reflection on current health legislation and the future prospects of the Italian National Health Service; also in the context of the recent approval of the new Essential Levels of care (LEA) and other relevant laws approved by the Parliament. This article analyzes possible future legislative and organizational scenarios with particular regard to issues related to National health system’s sustainability

Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-dendron phospholipids as innovative constructs for the preparation of super stealth liposomes for anticancer therapy.

Pegylation of nanoparticles has been widely implemented in the field of drug delivery to prevent macrophage clearance and increase drug accumulation at a target site. However, the shielding effect of polyethylene glycol (PEG) is usually incomplete and transient, due to loss of nanoparticle integrity upon systemic injection. Here, we have synthesized unique PEG-dendron-phospholipid constructs that form super stealth liposomes (SSLs). A \u3b2-glutamic acid dendron anchor was used to attach a PEG chain to several distearoyl phosphoethanolamine lipids, thereby differing from conventional stealth liposomes where a PEG chain is attached to a single phospholipid. This composition was shown to increase liposomal stability, prolong the circulation half-life, improve the biodistribution profile and enhance the anticancer potency of a drug payload (doxorubicin hydrochloride)

Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-dendron phospholipids as innovative constructs for the preparation of super stealth liposomes for anticancer therapy

n/

2D- and 3D-cultures of human trabecular meshwork cells: A preliminary assessment of an in vitro model for glaucoma study

A physiologically relevant in vitro human-based model could be the \u2018gold standard\u2019 to clarify the pathological steps involved in glaucoma onset. In this regard, human 3D cultures may represent an excellent starting point to achieve this goal. Indeed, the 3D matrix allows to re-create the in vivo-like tissue architecture, maintaining its functionality and cellular behaviour, compared to the 2D model. Thus, we propose a comparison between the 2D and 3D in vitro models of human trabecular meshwork cells in terms of cellular responses after chronic stress exposure. Our results showed that 3D-cells are more sensitive to intracellular reactive oxidative specie production induced by hydrogen peroxide treatment, compared to 2D cultures. Additionally, in 3D cultures a more accurate regulation of the apoptosis trigger and cell adaptation mechanisms was detected than in 2D models. In line with these findings, the 3D-HTMC model shows the ability to better mimic the in vivo cell behaviour in adaptive responses to chronic oxidative stress than 2D

Cumulative asbestos exposure and mortality from asbestos related diseases in a pooled analysis of 21 asbestos cement cohorts in Italy

Background: Despite the available information on cancer risk, asbestos is used in large areas in the world, mostly in the production of asbestos cement. Moreover, questions are raised regarding the shape of the dose response relation, the relation with time since exposure and the association with neoplasms in various organs. We conducted a study on the relationship between cumulative asbestos exposure and mortality from asbestos related diseases in a large Italian pool of 21 cohorts of asbestos-cement workers with protracted exposure to both chrysotile and amphibole asbestos. Methods: The cohort included 13,076 workers, 81.9% men and 18.1% women, working in 21 Italian asbestos-cement factories, with over 40 years of observation. Exposure was estimated by plant and period, and weighted for the type of asbestos used. Data were analysed with consideration of cause of death, cumulative exposure and time since first exposure (TSFE), and by gender. SMRs were computed using reference rates by region, gender and calendar time. Poisson regression models including cubic splines were used to analyse the effect of cumulative exposure to asbestos and TSFE on mortality for asbestos-related diseases. 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) were computed according to the Poisson distribution. Results: Mortality was significantly increased for ‘All Causes’ and ‘All Malignant Neoplasm (MN)’, in both genders. Considering asbestos related diseases (ARDs), statistically significant excesses were observed for MN of peritoneum (SMR: men 14.19; women 15.14), pleura (SMR: 22.35 and 48.10), lung (SMR: 1.67 and 1.67), ovary (in the highest exposure class SMR 2.45), and asbestosis (SMR: 507 and 1023). Mortality for ARDs, in particular pleural and peritoneal malignancies, lung cancer, ovarian cancer and asbestosis increased monotonically with cumulative exposure. Pleural MN mortality increased progressively in the first 40 years of TSFE, then reached a plateau, while peritoneal MN showed a continuous increase. The trend of lung cancer SMRs also showed a flattening after 40 years of TSFE. Attributable proportions for pleural, peritoneal, and lung MN were respectively 96, 93 and 40%

Corrigendum to An advanced in vitro model to assess glaucoma onset.

In this manuscript, which appeared in ALTEX 37, 265-274 (doi: 10.14573/altex.1909262), the affiliation of Stefania Vernazza should read: Stefania Vernazza 5# 5 IRCCS-Fondazione Bietti, Rome, Italy and the address for correspondence should read: Stefania Vernazza, PhD, IRCCS, Fondazione Bietti via Livenza 3, 00198 Rome, Italy ([email protected])

The actin cytoskeleton modulates the activation of iNKT cells by segregating CD1d nanoclusters on antigen-presenting cells

Invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells recognize endogenous and exogenous lipid antigens presented in the context of CD1d molecules. The ability of iNKT cells to recognize endogenous antigens represents a distinct immune recognition strategy, which underscores the constitutive memory phenotype of iNKT cells and their activation during inflammatory conditions. However, the mechanisms regulating such “tonic” activation of iNKT cells remain unclear. Here, we show that the spatiotemporal distribution of CD1d molecules on the surface of antigen-presenting cells (APCs) modulates activation of iNKT cells. By using superresolution microscopy, we show that CD1d molecules form nanoclusters at the cell surface of APCs, and their size and density are constrained by the actin cytoskeleton. Dual-color single-particle tracking revealed that diffusing CD1d nanoclusters are actively arrested by the actin cytoskeleton, preventing their further coalescence. Formation of larger nanoclusters occurs in the absence of interactions between CD1d cytosolic tail and the actin cytoskeleton and correlates with enhanced iNKT cell activation. Importantly and consistently with iNKT cell activation during inflammatory conditions, exposure of APCs to the Toll-like receptor 7/8 agonist R848 increases nanocluster density and iNKT cell activation. Overall, these results define a previously unidentified mechanism that modulates iNKT cell autoreactivity based on the tight control by the APC cytoskeleton of the sizes and densities of endogenous antigen-loaded CD1d nanoclusters

Defective proteasome biogenesis into skin fibroblasts isolated from Rett syndrome subjects with {MeCP}2 non-sense mutations

Rett Syndrome (RTT) is a rare X-linked neurodevelopmental disorder which affects about 1: 10000 live births. In >95% of subjects RTT is caused by a mutation in Methyl-CpG binding protein-2 (MECP2) gene, which encodes for a transcription regulator with pleiotropic genetic/epigenetic activities. The molecular mechanisms underscoring the phenotypic alteration of RTT are largely unknown and this has impaired the development of therapeutic approaches to alleviate signs and symptoms during disease progression. A defective proteasome biogenesis into two skin primary fibroblasts isolated from RTT subjects harbouring non-sense (early-truncating) MeCP2 mutations (i.e., R190fs and R255X) is herewith reported. Proteasome is the proteolytic machinery of Ubiquitin Proteasome System (UPS), a pathway of overwhelming relevance for post-mitotic cells metabolism. Molecular, transcription and proteomic analyses indicate that MeCP2 mutations down-regulate the expression of one proteasome subunit, α7, and of two chaperones, PAC1 and PAC2, which bind each other in the earliest step of proteasome biogenesis. Furthermore, this molecular alteration recapitulates in neuron-like SH-SY5Y cells upon silencing of MeCP2 expression, envisaging a general significance of this transcription regulator in proteasome biogenesis