Short Lingual Frenulum as a Risk Factor for Cerebral Vasculopathies

Introduction: Tongue is the first functioning organ in the embryonic era. Its developmental alterations can result in malfunctions with damage in distant districts. Craniocervical anatomy suggests that tongue dysfunction may be involved in the damage to the arteriovenous encephalic flow. Objective: To evaluate the possible relationship between short frenulum and cerebral vasal problems. Method: We conducted an epidemiological research comparing the presence of vascular problems in families where the visited subject had short frenulum (which is a genetically transmitted pathology) and families where the visited subject did not have abnormality of the frenulum. Results: The presence of short tongue frenulum was correlated with the presence of episodes of vascular damage in about 80% of cases, while in families not affected by this tongue alteration the percentage of damage was between 10 and 13%. Conclusions: The enormous influence that the presence of an altered tongue frenulum seems to have on the future possibility of developing vascular problems should induce a more careful assessment of the presence of an incorrect-sized frenulum

Le Comunità rurali nella Sardegna medievale (secoli XI-XV)

«L’esperienza legislativa dei Giudicati e successivamente l’esperienza della legislazione nazionale […], sono state le esperienze giuridicamente più intense della Sardegna, anche se in modi diversi […], e sono più intimamente penetrate nelle consuetudini locali, determinandone spesso la crisi totale, altre volte consentendo, stimolando e condizionando sul lato esterno, quella storia, interna al progresso delle consuetudini originarie, che definisce il più vasto orizzonte culturale delle esperienze autonome e originarie della cultura sarda, pur nei suoi residui arcaici». Così Antonio Pigliaru, professore di Filosofia del diritto nell’Università di Sassari, poneva nel suo La vendetta barbaricina come ordinamento giuridico (1959) il problema del rapporto tra la tradizione consuetudinaria e il sistema giuridico codificato. Pigliaru, ispirandosi alle teorie di Santi Romano, di Widar Cesarini Sforza e di Giuseppe Capograssi sulla pluralità degli ordinamenti, riteneva che la società agro-pastorale sarda avesse elaborato un sistema di norme e al suo interno, un «codice della vendetta», strutturato come un ordinamento giuridico autonomo, che avrebbe regolato le relazioni tra gli individui prescindendo dalle istituzioni dominanti, molto spesso identificate con gli apparati repressivi dello Stato (tribunali, carceri, caserme dei carabinieri). In sostanza Pigliaru ipotizzava che le comunità rurali della Sardegna avessero conservato inalterato nel tempo un patrimonio consuetudinario che affondava le radici negli istituti della normativa statutaria trecentesca e in particolare nella Carta de Logu d’Arborea

Biofortification of baby leafy vegetables using nutrient solution containing selenium

Background: Biofortification of vegetables is an important innovation technique in the horticultural sector. Vegetables can be a vector of different minor elements that have beneficial effects on human health. Selenium (Se) is an important element for human nutrition and plays a significant role in defence mechanisms. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of Se in the nutrient solutions on the crop biofortification ability, yield, and quality parameters of four baby leafy vegetables destined to the minimally processed industry. Experiments were performed on lamb's lettuce, lettuce, wild rocket, and spinach. These crops were cultivated in the floating systems with nutrient solution enriched with 0, 2.6, 3.9, and 5.2 μmol L-1 Se provided as sodium selenate. Results: At harvest, Se concentrations, yield, nitrate concentration, sugars, and some mineral elements were measured. Data collected and analyses showed that yield, nitrate, sucrose, and reducing sugars were not affected by Se treatments, even if varied among species. Se concentrations linearly increased in leaves of different species by increasing the Se concentration in the nutrient solution. Rocket was the species with the highest accumulation ability and reached a concentration of 11 μg g-1 fresh weight Se in plants grown with 5.2 μmol L-1 Se. Conclusion: A floating system with Se-enriched nutrient solution is an optimal controlled growing biofortification system for leafy vegetables. The accumulation ability decreased in different species in the order wild rocket, spinach, lettuce, and lamb's lettuce, highlighting a crop-dependent behaviour and their attitude to biofortification. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry

Chlorophyll a Fluorescence as a Tool in Evaluating the Effects of ABA Content and Ethylene Inhibitors on Quality of Flowering Potted Bougainvillea

Flowering potted plants during the postproduction stage are usually stored in inadequate environmental conditions. We evaluated the effect of the most common storage conditions and treatments on two Bougainvillea cultivars after harvest and during recovery. Flowering potted Bougainvillea plants were treated with 100 mL 2 mM amino-oxyacetic acid (AOA) or 500 ppb 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) prior storage in dark at 14°C for simulating transport or storage conditions and, subsequently, transferred to growth chambers at 20°C in the light for one week for evaluating the recovery ability. The plant stress during the experiments was assessed by ethylene, ABA, and chlorophyll a fluorescence measurements. Ethylene production was affected by temperature rather than treatments. ABA concentration declined in leaves and flowers during storage and was not affected by treatments. Fluorescence parameters appear to be very useful for screening Bougainvillea cultivars resistant to prolonged storage periods

Effects of abscisic acid on ethylene biosynthesis and perception in Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L. flower development

The effect of the complex relationship between ethylene and abscisic acid (ABA) on flower development and senescence in Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L. was investigated. Ethylene biosynthetic (HrsACS and HrsACO) and receptor (HrsETR and HrsERS) genes were isolated and their expression evaluated in three different floral tissues (petals, style\u2013stigma plus stamens, and ovaries) of detached buds and open flowers. This was achieved through treatment with 0.1 mM 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) solution, 500 nl l21 methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), and 0.1 mM ABA solution. Treatment with ACC and 1-MCP confirmed that flower senescence in hibiscus is ethylene dependent, and treatment with exogenous ABA suggested that ABA may play a role in this process. The 1-MCP impeded petal in-rolling and decreased ABA content in detached open flowers after 9 h. This was preceded by an earlier and sequential increase in ABA content in 1-MCP-treated petals and style\u2013stigma plus stamens between 1 h and 6 h. ACC treatment markedly accelerated flower senescence and increased ethylene production after 6 h and 9 h, particularly in style\u2013stigma plus stamens. Ethylene evolution was positively correlated in these floral tissues with the induction of the gene expression of ethylene biosynthetic and receptor genes. Finally, ABA negatively affected the ethylene biosynthetic pathway and tissue sensitivity in all flower tissues. Transcript abundance of HrsACS, HrsACO, HrsETR, and HrsERS was reduced by exogenous ABA treatment. This research underlines the regulatory effect of ABA on the ethylene biosynthetic and perception machinery at a physiological and molecular level when inhibitors or promoters of senescence are exogenously applied

Primordial black holes in the curvaton model: possible connections to pulsar timing arrays and dark matter

We revise primordial black holes (PBHs) production in the axion-curvaton model, in light of recent developments in the computation of their abundance accounting for non-gaussianities (NGs) in the curvature perturbation up to all orders. We find that NGs intrinsically generated in such scenarios have a relevant impact on the phenomenology associated to PBHs and, in particular, on the relation between the abundance and the signal of second-order gravitational waves. We show that this model could explain both the totality of dark matter in the asteroid mass range and the tentative signal reported by the NANOGrav and IPTA collaborations in the nano-Hz frequency range. En route, we provide a new, explicit computation of the power spectrum of curvature perturbations going beyond the sudden-decay approximation.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figure

Spatial and temporal distribution of mineral nutrients and sugars throughout the lifespan of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L. flower

AbstractAlthough the physiological and molecular mechanisms of flower development and senescence have been extensively investigated, a whole-flower partitioning study of mineral concentrations has not been carried out. In this work, the distribution of sucrose, total reducing sugars, dry and fresh weight and macro and micronutrients were analysed in Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L. petals, stylestigma including stamens and ovary at different developmental stages (bud, open and senescent flowers). Total reducing sugars showed the highest value in petals of bud flowers, then fell during the later stages of flower development whereas sucrose showed the highest value in petals of senescent flowers. In petals, nitrogen and phosphorus content increased during flower opening, then nitrogen level decreased in senescent flowers. The calcium, phosphorus and boron concentrations were highest in ovary tissues whatever the developmental stage. Overall, the data presented suggests that the high level of total reducing sugars prior the onset of flower opening contributes to support petal cells expansion, while the high amount of sucrose at the time of petal wilting may be viewed as a result of senescence. Furthermore, this study discusses how the accumulation of particular mineral nutrients can be considered in a tissue specific manner for the activation of processes directly connected with reproduction