Gut Microbiota Features in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Proliferation and/or depletion of clusters of specific bacteria regulate intestinal functions and may interfere with neuro-immune communication and behavior in patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Consistently, qualitative and quantitative alteration of bacterial metabolites may functionally affect ASD pathophysiology. Up to date, age-restricted cohort studies, that may potentially help to identify specific microbial signatures in ASD, are lacking. We investigated the gut microbiota (GM) structure and fecal short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) levels in a cohort of young children (2–4 years of age) with ASD, with respect to age-matched neurotypical healthy controls. Strong increase of Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria and decrease of Actinobacteria was observed in these patients. Among the 91 OTUs whose relative abundance was altered in ASD patients, we observed a striking depletion of Bifidobacterium longum, one of the dominant bacteria in infant GM and, conversely, an increase of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, a late colonizer of healthy human gut and a major butyrate producer. High levels of F. prausnitzii were associated to increase of fecal butyrate levels within normal range, and over representation of KEGG functions related to butyrate production in ASD patients. Here we report unbalance of GM structure with a shift in colonization by gut beneficial bacterial species in ASD patients as off early childhood

The possession of narcotics for personal use in the provincie of Salerno from 2010 to 2016

The core of the analysis presented here is the article n. 75 of D.P.R. 309/90 with subsequent modifications, and therefore the administrative sanctions applied for the personal use of narcotic substances. The analysis was made observing the problem through the data collected at the office N.O.T. of Salerno. The data concerned the subjects reported for the use of narcotic substances from the year 2010 to 2016, residing in the province of Salerno: the statistical analysis indicated that on the territory the phenomenon of consumption of drugs exists and is considerable, and also made possible to outline a general profile of subjects closest to the use of narcotics

A Machine Learning Approach in Stock Risk Management

In this paper, we propose a novel approach in stock clustering with the purpose of the construction of a portfolio optimization strategy. The idea is to exploit hierarchical Neural Network Principal Component Analysis and Adaptive LASSO in combination with the Arbitrage Pricing Theory in order to group stocks whose returns are affected by the same risk factors, and then eliminate such dependence through an appropriately constructed portfolio. We test our proposal on the Italian stock market

Over 45: mai state così bene! L'età della consapevolezza

L'articolo illustra i risultati della ricerca sul rapporto che le donne over 45 hanno con la bellezza e il proprio corp

Hypoxia-Regulated miRNAs in Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells: Exploring the Regulatory Effects in Ischemic Disorders

Human mesenchymal/stromal stem cells (hMSC) are the most promising cell source for adult cell therapies in regenerative medicine. Many clinical trials have reported the use of autologous transplantation of hMSCs in several disorders, but with limited results. To exert their potential, hMSCs could exhibit efficient homing and migration toward lesion sites among other effects, but the underlying process is not clear enough. To further increase the knowledge, we studied the co-regulation between hypoxia-regulated genes and miRNAs. To this end, we investigated the miRNA expression profile of healthy hMSCs in low oxygen/nutrient conditions to mimic ischemia and compared with cells of patients suffering from critical limb ischemia (CLI). miRNAs are small, highly conserved, non-coding RNAs, skilled in the control of the target’s expression level in a fine-tuned way. After analyzing the miRNOme in CLI-derived hMSC cells and healthy controls, and intersecting the results with the mRNA expression dataset under hypoxic conditions, we identified two miRNAs potentially relevant to the disease: miR-29b as a pathological marker of the disease and miR-638 as a therapeutic target. This study yielded a deeper understanding of stem cell biology and ischemic disorders, opening new potential treatments in the future