The Role of DPP4 Activity in Cardiovascular Districts: In Vivo and In Vitro Evidence

The introduction of incretin hormone-based therapies represents a novel therapeutic strategy, since these drugs not only improve glycemia with minimal risk of hypoglycemia, but also have other extraglycemic beneficial effects. These agents, which are effective in improving glucose control, could also have positive effects on the incidence of cardiovascular events. The aim of this review is to summarize the present literature about the role of dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) in cardiovascular districts, not only strictly correlated to its effect on glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) circulating levels, but also to what is known about possible cardiovascular actions. Actually, DPP4 is known to be present in many cells and tissues and its effects go beyond purely metabolic aspects. Almost always the inhibition of DPP4 activity is associated with improved cardiovascular profile, but it has shown to possess antithrombotic properties and these different effects could be connected with a site and/or species specificity of DPP4. Certainly, DPP4 seems to exert many functions, both directly and indirectly, on cardiovascular districts, opening new possibilities of prevention and treatment of complications at this level, not only in patients affected by diabetes mellitus

Studio idrogeologico delle acque minerali dell'area di Zinnigas(Siliqua, Sardegna SW)

In the area of Zinnigas (near Siliqua, Sardegna SW) a limited extension drainage basin is present with numerous springs. The area is center of activity for catchment and bottling of the mineral waters. We think that the dimension of the ground water basin is greater than hydrologic basin. The aim of the study is to improve the knowledges on the basin and particularly:to settle the formalities of circulation of the underground waters; to reconstruct the acquifer geometry;to draw the main hydrologic parameters

A Sparse and Locally Coherent Morphable Face Model for Dense Semantic Correspondence Across Heterogeneous 3D Faces

The 3D Morphable Model (3DMM) is a powerful statistical tool for representing 3D face shapes. To build a 3DMM, a training set of face scans in full point-to-point correspondence is required, and its modeling capabilities directly depend on the variability contained in the training data. Thus, to increase the descriptive power of the 3DMM, establishing a dense correspondence across heterogeneous scans with sufficient diversity in terms of identities, ethnicities, or expressions becomes essential. In this manuscript, we present a fully automatic approach that leverages a 3DMM to transfer its dense semantic annotation across raw 3D faces, establishing a dense correspondence between them. We propose a novel formulation to learn a set of sparse deformation components with local support on the face that, together with an original non-rigid deformation algorithm, allow the 3DMM to precisely fit unseen faces and transfer its semantic annotation. We extensively experimented our approach, showing it can effectively generalize to highly diverse samples and accurately establish a dense correspondence even in presence of complex facial expressions. The accuracy of the dense registration is demonstrated by building a heterogeneous, large-scale 3DMM from more than 9,000 fully registered scans obtained by joining three large datasets together

Studio idrogeologico degli acquiferi profondi del Sinis(Sardegna Centro-Occidentale)

Sinis area is located in the north western sector of Campidano plain, to the North of the Gulf of Oristano. In that sector of Sardinia underground waters constitute the most important water resource for agriculture. In Sinis area two deep aquifers have been placed. The first, placed in the western part, is constituted by sands and gravels and it is overhung by a very thick clayey marl’s layer. The water yeld of the confined aquifer has been determined by pumping tests from which it results that the pumping rate varies between 6 and 13.5 l/sec. The average Transmissivity is 1.7 x 10-3 m2/s. The other aquifer system, already known and studied for a long time, belongs to the alluvial multilayered aquifer of Campidano. It is constituted by very permeable layers of sands and gravels alternated to impervious or semi confining silty clay layers. The Transmissivity of this aquifer results superior to 10-3 m2/sec. Pumping rates are at least 6-7 l/sec. Chemical analysis showed that some samples of water taken in the southern part of Sinis present some anomalous values and they show thermal waters typical characters. This fact is confirmed by the average temperatures around 23°C. It could be a ground water recharge by deep thermal waters, with which waters coming from Montiferru would be mixed

Statistical model of dephasing in mesoscopic devices introduced in the scattering matrix formalism

We propose a phenomenological model of dephasing in mesoscopic transport, based on the introduction of random phase fluctuations in the computation of the scattering matrix of the system. A Monte Carlo averaging procedure allows us to extract electrical and microscopic device properties. We show that, in this picture, scattering matrix properties enforced by current conservation and time reversal invariance still hold. In order to assess the validity of the proposed approach, we present simulations of conductance and magnetoconductance of Aharonov-Bohm rings that reproduce the behavior observed in experiments, in particular as far as aspects related to decoherence are concerned.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

A review on diversity, conservation and nutrition of wild edible fruits

The United Nations adopted the Millennium Declaration of September 2009 to improve the global living conditions through reducing poverty and hunger. However, considerable numbers of people are still living in utter penury and are deprived of a dignified living. In such tough circumstances nature’s free gift in the form of wild edible foods are benefiting the vulnerable and dependent communities. Wild edible plants (WEPs) are the species those are neither cultivated nor domesticated however are available in their wild natural habitat and used as sources of these plants have played a significant role in the development and civilization of human history throughout the ages and globe. These wild edible plants have played a significant role in supplying food and nutritional requirements of poor communities in many rural parts of the world. These wild edibles can be popularized only when they are comparedfor their nutritional and health benefits with major or widely used cultivated plants. The social, cultural, religious, and belief system of the rural communities are incomplete without these wild edible plants. Domestication of these wild edible plants can increase their use and their conservation as well. The present review paper has described the wild edible plants in context of their diversity, traditional knowledge, conservation practices and nutritional composition from the available secondary literature. Authors feel there is still scope to incorporate more contextual variables for explaining more variations embedded with local people’s perception on values and usage of these wild edible fruits