Nota sull’uso di dimidiatus (Gell., Noct. XII 1. 6)

Lexical choices made by Aulus Gellius in the Noctes Atticae are characterised by originality: the analysis conducted on the use of the adjective dimidiatus in the passage in question, semantically marked in the previous attestations, aims to show how the author uses a term foreign to the moral vocabulary in order to support his thesis.[it] Le scelte lessicali operate da Aulo Gellio nelle Noctes Atticae si caratterizzano per una particolare originalità: l’analisi condotta sull’uso dell’aggettivo dimidiatus nel passo in questione, semanticamente connotato nelle attestazioni precedenti alla scrittura gelliana, mira a dimostrare come l’autore adoperi un termine estraneo al lessico morale allo scopo di supportare la propria tesi

Can patients with epilepsy become bone marrow donors? A case report of allogeneic hematopoietic stem transplantation from child with seizures

Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation is an important treatment option for malignant and non-malignant hematopoietic disorder in adults and children. For long time epilepsy was temporary exclusion condition to voluntary donation, and donors had to be medication or seizure free. It is still unclear if people with history of epilepsy are indeed potential eligible donors, even if a significant increased risk of adverse events in these donors has not been demonstrated. We studied a 10-year-old boy with symptomatic focal epilepsy who was the only available donor for his monozycote twin, suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A total of 3.39 x 108/kg HSCs were collected and reinfused to the leukemic brother after conditioning treatment. At the end of follow-up, our epilepsy patient had no consequences and his brother is in complete remission of the disease at 3 years from the transplant procedure. Our observation confirms that a patient with epilepsy can be a donor, without consequences for himself and for the recipient

Alterations of gustatory sensitivity and taste liking in individuals with blindness or deafness

Food ingestion is crucial for an organism, and eating and drinking are multisensory, complex experiences affected by all functioning modalities. Still, little is known about gustatory perception in blindness and deafness. Empirical studies with this regard have been very scarce and the aim of the current study was to explore whether gustatory compensation may occur like the adjustments observed in other aspects of sensory processing, or if liking of various tastes is affected by blindness or deafness. We hypothesized a decreased gustatory sensitivity and lower liking of all tastes in subjects with hearing disabilities; expected outcomes in the group with blindness were less well justified by the mixed results reported to date. To address the relationship of gustatory sensitivity and taste liking with sensory impairments, we compared the gustatory acuity and liking of bitter, salty, sour and sweet tastes of 100 individuals with blindness and 74 people with deafness with matched control groups without sensory impairments. We found that deafness was associated with lower gustatory sensitivity toward the basic tastes and their decreased likeability, and that blindness predicted an increased sensitivity only towards the salty taste, and just among individuals with an early visual loss. Our results suggest that auditory and visual deficits may undermine food experience and may lead to altered taste liking. Reasons of these outcomes discussed in the current article vary from anatomy to social and economic decisions driving gustatory experience

Chemical Composition and Biological Activities of Prangos ferulacea Essential Oils

Prangos ferulacea (L.) Lindl, which belongs to the Apiaceae family, is a species that mainly grows in the eastern Mediterranean region and in western Asia. It has been largely used in traditional medicine in several countries and it has been shown to possess several interesting biological properties. With the aim to provide new insights into the phytochemistry and pharmacology of this species, the essential oils of flowers and leaves from a local accession that grows in Sicily (Italy) and has not yet been previously studied were investigated. The chemical composition of both oils, obtained by hydrodistillation from the leaves and flowers, was evaluated by GC-MS. This analysis allowed us to identify a new chemotype, characterized by a large amount of (Z)-beta-ocimene. Furthermore, these essential oils have been tested for their possible antimicrobial and antioxidant activity. P. ferulacea essential oils exhibit moderate antimicrobial activity; in particular, the flower essential oil is harmful at low and wide spectrum concentrations. They also exhibit good antioxidant activity in vitro and in particular, it has been shown that the essential oils of the flowers and leaves of P. ferulacea caused a decrease in ROS and an increase in the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) in OZ-stimulated PMNs. Therefore, these essential oils could be considered as promising candidates for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical preparations

High Test-Retest Reliability of the Extended Version of the "Sniffin' Sticks” Test

The "Sniffin' Sticks” test kit is a validated and commonly used tool for assessment of olfactory function in subjects with normal sense of smell and in individuals with smell loss. That test incorporates subtests for odor threshold, discrimination, and identification. To gain higher subtest reproducibility, tests on odor discrimination and odor identification were extended using 32 instead of the usually applied 16 single trials each. In developing the extended Sniffin' Sticks test, a number of preliminary experiments were performed in 46 healthy, normosmic individuals 1) to evaluate intensity and familiarity of the additionally selected odors, 2) to select distractors for the discrimination and identification test, and 3) to evaluate the test-retest reliability of each subtest. Furthermore, the extended test was applied to 126 patients with olfactory loss and 71 normosmic individuals. Follow-up investigation could be performed in 69 controls within an average interval of 4 days. Results revealed significant differences between patients and healthy subjects. Estimated intensity and familiarity of the newly selected 16 items of the discrimination test did not differ significantly from the 16 standard items. Test-retest reliability was found to be r = 0.80 (odor discrimination), r = 0.88 (odor identification), and r = 0.92 (odor threshold). In conclusion, the extended test kit allows a precise evaluation of olfactory function, especially when different olfactory tasks are assessed using individual subtests. Furthermore, the high test-retest reliability of both the 16 and the 32-item tests allows the evaluation of even relatively small changes of olfactory function over time by means of either tes