Bifidobacterium bifidum PRL2010 alleviates intestinal ischemia/reperfusion injury

Mesenteric ischemia/reperfusion is a clinical emergency with high morbidity and mortality due to the transient reduction of blood supply to the bowel. In recent years, the critical contribution of gut microbiome to human health and proper gastrointestinal functions has gradually emerged. In the current study, we investigated the protective effects of five days supplementation with Bifidobacterium bifidum PRL2010 in a murine model of gut ischemia/reperfusion. Our findings indicate that animals pretreated with B. bifidum PRL2010 showed lower neutrophil recruitment in the lungs, remarkably reduced bacterial translocation and decreased transcription levels of TNFalpha and IL-10 both in liver and kidneys, at the same time increasing those of IL-12 in kidneys. Inhibiting the adhesion of pathogenic bacteria and boosting host innate immunity responses are among the possible protective mechanisms enacted by the probiotic. These results demonstrate that short-period treatment with B. bifidum PRL2010 is a potential strategy to dampen remote organ injury due to mesenteric ischemia/reperfusion

The link between perceptual congruence and couple relationship satisfaction in dyadic coping

The current study extends prior research on perceptual congruence within couples by examining some variables of perceptual congruence in the context of dyadic coping. We examined each partner\u2019s perceived similarity in dyadic coping, actual similarity in providing and receiving support in times of stress, and what we call the couple bond, that is, the recognition of each partner\u2019s coping efforts as measured at a couple level. In a sample of 281 married and unmarried couples, we tested the predictive power of perceptual congruence variables on relationship satisfaction. Congruence variables were computed through an idiographic or dyad-centered approach. In order to measure congruence pertaining to each dyad and separate two equally important components of dyadic congruence (i.e., unique similarity and stereotypical similarity), stereotype adjusted and not-adjusted scores were computed. The results indicated that, with adjusted scores, the effect of the perceptual congruence of dyadic coping was weakened but, for women at least, the effect of perceived similarity remained significant and the variable of couple bond was marginally significant. The results provide preliminary clues to the role of dyadic coping within an interpersonal- and social-based perspective

The essentials of marine biotechnology.

Coastal countries have traditionally relied on the existing marine resources (e.g., fishing, food, transport, recreation, and tourism) as well as tried to support new economic endeavors (ocean energy, desalination for water supply, and seabed mining). Modern societies and lifestyle resulted in an increased demand for dietary diversity, better health and well-being, new biomedicines, natural cosmeceuticals, environmental conservation, and sustainable energy sources. These societal needs stimulated the interest of researchers on the diverse and underexplored marine environments as promising and sustainable sources of biomolecules and biomass, and they are addressed by the emerging field of marine (blue) biotechnology. Blue biotechnology provides opportunities for a wide range of initiatives of commercial interest for the pharmaceutical, biomedical, cosmetic, nutraceutical, food, feed, agricultural, and related industries. This article synthesizes the essence, opportunities, responsibilities, and challenges encountered in marine biotechnology and outlines the attainment and valorization of directly derived or bio-inspired products from marine organisms. First, the concept of bioeconomy is introduced. Then, the diversity of marine bioresources including an overview of the most prominent marine organisms and their potential for biotechnological uses are described. This is followed by introducing methodologies for exploration of these resources and the main use case scenarios in energy, food and feed, agronomy, bioremediation and climate change, cosmeceuticals, bio-inspired materials, healthcare, and well-being sectors. The key aspects in the fields of legislation and funding are provided, with the emphasis on the importance of communication and stakeholder engagement at all levels of biotechnology development. Finally, vital overarching concepts, such as the quadruple helix and Responsible Research and Innovation principle are highlighted as important to follow within the marine biotechnology field. The authors of this review are collaborating under the European Commission-funded Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action Ocean4Biotech – European transdisciplinary networking platform for marine biotechnology and focus the study on the European state of affairs

Preferred interpersonal distances: a global comparison

Human spatial behavior has been the focus of hundreds of previous research studies. However, the conclusions and generalizability of previous studies on interpersonal distance preferences were limited by some important methodological and sampling issues. The objective of the present study was to compare preferred interpersonal distances across the world and to overcome the problems observed in previous studies. We present an extensive analysis of interpersonal distances over a large data set (N = 8,943 participants from 42 countries). We attempted to relate the preferred social, personal, and intimate distances observed in each country to a set of individual characteristics of the participants, and some attributes of their cultures. Our study indicates that individual characteristics (age and gender) influence interpersonal space preferences and that some variation in results can be explained by temperature in a given region. We also present objective values of preferred interpersonal distances in different regions, which might be used as a reference data point in future studies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Global study of social odor awareness

Olfaction plays an important role in human social communication, including multiple domains in which people often rely on their sense of smell in the social context. The importance of the sense of smell and its role can however vary inter-individually and culturally. Despite the growing body of literature on differences in olfactory performance or hedonic preferences across the globe, the aspects of a given culture as well as culturally universal individual differences affecting odor awareness in human social life remain unknown. Here, we conducted a large-scale analysis of data collected from 10,794 participants from 52 study sites from 44 countries all over the world. The aim of our research was to explore the potential individual and country-level correlates of odor awareness in the social context. The results show that the individual characteristics were more strongly related than country-level factors to self-reported odor awareness in different social contexts. A model including individual-level predictors (gender, age, material situation, education and preferred social distance) provided a relatively good fit to the data, but adding country-level predictors (Human Development Index, population density and average temperature) did not improve model parameters. Although there were some cross-cultural differences in social odor awareness, the main differentiating role was played by the individual differences. This suggests that people living in different cultures and different climate conditions may still share some similar patterns of odor awareness if they share other individual-level characteristics

Se sei felice per me sei parte di me! Capitalizzazione, identità di coppia e benessere relazionale

Le persone condividono molto spesso gli eventi positivi accaduti durante la giornata (i.e., capitalizzazione) con il proprio partner. La ricerca ha ampiamente dimostrato che la modalità di risposta a tale condivisone influisce sul benessere di coppia. In particolare, stili di risposta positivi aumentano il benessere relazionale, mentre stili di risposta negativi ne portano a una diminuzione. Un meccanismo che potrebbe spiegare tale legame è l’identità di coppia, ovvero la definizione di sé come parte di una coppia e il senso di appartenenza che ne scaturisce. Lo scopo del presente studio è quello di testare se (a) le risposte di capitalizzazione (attivo-costruttivo, passivo-costruttivo, attivo-distruttivo, passivo-distruttivo) sono associate all’identità di coppia e se (b) l’identità di coppia media la relazione tra le risposte di capitalizzazione e il benessere relazionale. 278 coppie stabili (lunghezza media della relazione: 18 anni) hanno completato un questionario self-report contenente scale volte a misurare la percezione delle risposte di capitalizzazione del partner, l’identità di coppia e la qualità relazionale. I risultati delle analisi svolte attraverso il modello APIM mostrano che le risposte attivo-costruttive e passivo-distruttive sono associate all’identità di coppia e che l’identità di coppia media la relazione tra le risposte attivo-costruttive e passivo-distruttive e il benessere relazionale per entrambi i partner. In sintesi, percepire la risposta del proprio partner come interessata ed entusiastica, o al contrario distante e disinteressata, a seguito della comunicazione di buone notizie impatta sulla propria identità di coppia e di conseguenza sul benessere relazionale

Coparenting in divorced and married parents and children’s psychosocial adjustment

As a distinct construct from both marital relationship and parent-child relationship, coparenting refers primarily to the extent to which parents experience joint responsibility for children’s well-being, are able to cooperate and coordinate in the decisions regarding their children, and trust each other. These aspects concern visible behaviors and interactions between parents, together with their perceptions. In the past decades, a growing number of studies have demonstrated the influence of coparenting on marital and parent-child relationships, and on children’s psychosocial adjustment, from early toddlerhood through adolescence. Coparenting and its effects have been mostly explored among divorced parents or intact families separately. The present study was aimed at comparing perceptions of coparenting in divorced and married parents (100 divorced parents and 85 married parents), both fathers and mothers, and assessing the relation between coparenting and school-age and adolescent children’s psychosocial adjustment. Results showed that divorced parents, especially fathers, perceived a lower level of coparenting. Moreover, children’s adjustment were related to coparenting only in the group of divorced parents

PROMUOVERE LE RELAZIONI FAMILIARI E SOCIALI

Il simposio intende mettere a tema premesse teoriche, risultati di ricerca e benefici degli interventi di promozione dei legami familiari e sociali, quali ambiti di elezione per la costruzione dell\u2019identit\ue0 e del benessere personale. E\u2019 noto infatti che l\u2019identit\ue0, nei suoi aspetti individuali e sociali, si definisce all\u2019interno dei legami cui la persona appartiene. Promuovere questi legami, nei loro aspetti funzionali e generativi, risulta dunque un obiettivo comune a diverse aree della psicologia, dalla psicologia sociale, alla psicologia clinica, alla psicologia dello sviluppo. Il simposio si propone di presentare, dai diversi punti di vista di questi tre settori, dei contributi relativi al potenziamento dei legami in ambito familiare, scolastico e comunitario, sottolineando l\u2019importanza del dialogo tra diversi contesti relazionali. I vari contributi affronteranno il tema della promozione dei legami a partire dalle basi teoriche e di ricerca che ne fondano i presupposti, per poi affrontare il tema dei benefici di tali interventi preventivo-promozionali e delle condizioni alle quali tali benefici possono essere garantiti. In particolare verr\ue0 presentata dapprima una ricerca e un modello di intervento per la promozione del legame di coppia (Donato, Bertoni, Iafrate); una ricerca-intervento che offre spunti per la progettazione di azioni formative per la promozione del legame adottivo (Pace, Santona, Zavattini); i benefici di un intervento di promozione delle abilit\ue0 motorie e di alcune life skills nella prevenzione dell\u2019insuccesso scolastico di bambini affetti da ADHD (Rabaglietti, Zucchetti, Bardaglio, Ciairano); e infine verranno messe a tema la promozione della partecipazione civica in adolescenti e giovani adulti e le condizioni alle quali tali partecipazione pu\uf2 essere auspicata (Mazzoni, Zani, Cicognani, Albanesi