EATING DISORDERS: THE ROLE OF CHILDHOOD TRAUMA AND THE EMOTION DYSREGULATION

Background: The present retrospective case-control study is aimed at evaluating the presence of childhood traumatic factors and the difficulty in regulating emotions, within a sample of patients with eating disorders compared to the group of healthy controls. Subjects and methods: We included 65 people assessed for eating disorders, 40 patients and 25 healthy controls, who were given two tests: the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) to investigate the presence of traumatic events and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) to assess the emotional regulation. Results: People with eating disorders showed higher average scores, and therefore greater severity than the control group, in all the domains explored, both considering traumatic experiences and emotional dysregulation. The domain emotional neglect showed the closest correlation with eating disorders (average scoring 15.9 vs 9.9 of healthy controls), followed by emotional abuse (12.2 vs 7.8), physical neglect (8.2 vs 6.6), physical abuse (8.3 vs 6.6) and sexual abuse (7.2 vs 5.6). In the same way, the emotional dysregulation was greater among people with eating disorder than healty controls, concerning every items explored by DERS, as clarity (average scoring 14.8 vs 11.4), awareness (17.1 vs 11.7), goals (16.3 vs 12.9), strategy (22.0 vs 14.7), non acceptance (17.4 vs 12.1) and impulse (16.5 vs 11.4). Conclusions: Childhood traumatic experiences and emotional dysregulation result significantly higher in people with eating disorders than healthy controls

EATING DISORDERS: THE ROLE OF CHILDHOOD TRAUMA AND THE EMOTION DYSREGULATION

Background: The present retrospective case-control study is aimed at evaluating the presence of childhood traumatic factors and the difficulty in regulating emotions, within a sample of patients with eating disorders compared to the group of healthy controls. Subjects and methods: We included 65 people assessed for eating disorders, 40 patients and 25 healthy controls, who were given two tests: the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) to investigate the presence of traumatic events and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) to assess the emotional regulation. Results: People with eating disorders showed higher average scores, and therefore greater severity than the control group, in all the domains explored, both considering traumatic experiences and emotional dysregulation. The domain emotional neglect showed the closest correlation with eating disorders (average scoring 15.9 vs 9.9 of healthy controls), followed by emotional abuse (12.2 vs 7.8), physical neglect (8.2 vs 6.6), physical abuse (8.3 vs 6.6) and sexual abuse (7.2 vs 5.6). In the same way, the emotional dysregulation was greater among people with eating disorder than healty controls, concerning every items explored by DERS, as clarity (average scoring 14.8 vs 11.4), awareness (17.1 vs 11.7), goals (16.3 vs 12.9), strategy (22.0 vs 14.7), non acceptance (17.4 vs 12.1) and impulse (16.5 vs 11.4). Conclusions: Childhood traumatic experiences and emotional dysregulation result significantly higher in people with eating disorders than healthy controls

West Nile virus outbreak in Sardinia, Italy, in 2011

West Nile Virus (WNV) is an enveloped, positive-sense RNA virus belonging to the genus Flavivirus, antigenically related to the Japanese encephalitis complex in the family Flaviviridae. The principal vectors are mosquitoes, in particular Culex spp, and virus amplification seems to occur in susceptible birds that are the principal vertebrate reservoir hosts, whereas humans, horses and other vertebrates are considered incidental or dead-end hosts. The first Italian equine outbreak was reported in late summer of 1998 in Tuscany, in the area surrounding the Fucecchio marshes, where 14 clinical cases of WND in housed equines were recorded. In 2011 WNV appeared for the first time in Sardinia, representing the first clinical cases in equines in Italy in 2011. The outbreak occurred both in humans and in equines. The serological survey performed on 253 equines living in the province of Oristano detected a total of 87 IgG-positive subjects. Among them, 46 horses showed neurological signs such as ataxia, paresis, paralysis, hyperesthesia, muscle fasciculations, seizures, or fever. Nine of them died or were euthanized. In forthcoming years, surveillance of wild birds and insects will be used to forecast the extension and spread of WNV. The information gathered will be used to direct or optimise strategies intended to prevent virus transmission

Adverse food reactions in dogs due to antibiotic residues in pet food: a preliminary study

In the last decades, adverse food reactions have increased considerably in dogs and cats. In this study we report on the possible onset of food intolerances symptoms, including otitis, diarrhoea, generalised anxiety, and dermatitis in a cohort of 8 dogs consuming commercial diets. All dogs received an organic chicken-based diet for 15 days. We performed analysis of blood biochemical parameters, kibble composition, and oxytetracycline (OTC) serum concentration before and after 15 days of organic chicken-based diet supplementation. We hypothesised that a chronic intake of contaminated food enhanced by the presence of nanoparticle aggregates might be at the base of the onset of pharmacologic or idiopathic food intolerances. At the end of the evaluation period, an overall significant reduction of otitis, diarrhoea, generalised anxiety, and dermatitis was observed. Biochemical analyses indicate a significant increase in the alkaline phosphatase, from 41 to 52.5 U/L, after 15 days (\u2022\u2022p <0.01), while a significant decrease in Gamma-glutamyl transferase and urea, from 9.37 to 6.25 U/L and from 32.13 \ub1 8.72 to 22.13 \ub1 7.8 mg/dL, respectively, was observed (\u2022p <0.05). A significant decrease, from 0.22 to 0.02 \u3bcg/mL, in mean OTC serum concentration was also observed (\u2022\u2022p <0.01). Composition analysis revealed the presence of OTC, calcium, aluminium, silicon, and phosphorous nanoparticle aggregates. Further research on a wider sample size would help to confirm the hypothesis proposed here

Nanostructures for SERS in living cell

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has received renewed interest in recent years in fields such as trace analysis, biorelated diagnosis, and living cell study. However, the interference of impurities left on the surface from the preparation process of substrates limits to some extent the application of SERS. In the present paper, we propose a method to prepare clean SERS substrates by a combined method of hydrothermal green synthesis and thermal treatment to obtain a clean and impurity-free surface for SERS measurements, suitable for cells growth. The goal of such activity was the study of the membrane proteome, with special attention to prion protein (PrPC), in its physiological ambient. SERS has been used to evidence the PrPC-Cu(II) interaction in a rat neuroblastoma cell line (B104), known to overexpress the cellular prion protein PrPC

In-Vivo Real-Time Control of Protein Expression from Endogenous and Synthetic Gene Networks

We describe an innovative experimental and computational approach to control the expression of a protein in a population of yeast cells. We designed a simple control algorithm to automatically regulate the administration of inducer molecules to the cells by comparing the actual protein expression level in the cell population with the desired expression level. We then built an automated platform based on a microfluidic device, a time-lapse microscopy apparatus, and a set of motorized syringes, all controlled by a computer. We tested the platform to force yeast cells to express a desired fixed, or time-varying, amount of a reporter protein over thousands of minutes. The computer automatically switched the type of sugar administered to the cells, its concentration and its duration, according to the control algorithm. Our approach can be used to control expression of any protein, fused to a fluorescent reporter, provided that an external molecule known to (indirectly) affect its promoter activity is available

The cosmic X-ray background and the population of the most heavily obscured AGNs

We report on an accurate measurement of the CXB in the 15-50 keV range performed with the Phoswich Detection System (PDS) instrument aboard the BeppoSAX satellite. We establish that the most likely CXB intensity level at its emission peak (26-28 keV) is ~40 keV/cm2/s/sr, a value consistent with that derived from the best available CXB measurement obtained over 25 years ago with the first High Energy Astronomical Observatory satellite mission (HEAO-1; Gruber et al. 1999), whose intensity, lying well below the extrapolation of some lower energy measurements performed with focusing telescopes, was questioned in the recent years. We find that 90% of the acceptable solutions of our best fit model to the PDS data give a 20-50 keV CXB flux lower than 6.5E-08 erg/cm2/s/sr, which is 12% higher than that quoted by Gruber et al. (1999) when we use our best calibration scale. This scale gives a 20-50 keV flux of the Crab Nebula of 9.22E-09 erg/cm2/s, which is in excellent agreement with the most recent Crab Nebula measurements and 6% smaller than that assumed by Gruber et al. (1999). In combination with the CXB synthesis models we infer that about 25% of the intensity at ~30 keV arises from extremely obscured, Compton thick AGNs (absorbing column density N_H > 1.0E+24 H/cm2), while a much larger population would be implied by the highest intensity estimates. We also infer a mass density of supermassive BHs of ~3.0E+05 Msol/Mpc3. The summed contribution of resolved sources (Moretti et al. 2003) in the 2-10 keV band exceeds our best fit CXB intensity extrapolated to lower energies, but it is within our upper limit, so that any significant contribution to the CXB from sources other than AGNs, such as star forming galaxies and diffuse Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM), is expected to be mainly confined below a few keV.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Main: 30 pages, 3 Tables, 8 Figures. Many revisions due to the change of the Journa

Monophasic and Biphasic Electrical Stimulation Induces a Precardiac Differentiation in Progenitor Cells Isolated from Human Heart

Electrical stimulation (ES) of cells has been shown to induce a variety of responses, such as cytoskeleton rearrangements, migration, proliferation, and differentiation. In this study, we have investigated whether monophasic and biphasic pulsed ES could exert any effect on the proliferation and differentiation of human cardiac progenitor cells (hCPCs) isolated from human heart fragments. Cells were cultured under continuous exposure to monophasic or biphasic ES with fixed cycles for 1 or 3 days. Results indicate that neither stimulation protocol affected cell viability, while the cell shape became more elongated and reoriented more perpendicular to the electric field direction. Moreover, the biphasic ES clearly induced the upregulation of early cardiac transcription factors, MEF2D, GATA-4, and Nkx2.5, as well as the de novo expression of the late cardiac sarcomeric proteins, troponin T, cardiac alpha actinin, and SERCA 2a. Both treatments increased the expression of connexin 43 and its relocation to the cell membrane, but biphasic ES was faster and more effective. Finally, when hCPCs were exposed to both monophasic and biphasic ES, they expressed de novo the mRNA of the voltage-dependent calcium channel Cav 3.1(α(1G)) subunit, which is peculiar of the developing heart. Taken together, these results show that ES alone is able to set the conditions for early differentiation of adult hCPCs toward a cardiac phenotype

Machine Learning for Early Diagnosis of ATTRv Amyloidosis in Non-Endemic Areas: A Multicenter Study from Italy

Background: Hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis with polyneuropathy (ATTRv) is an adult-onset multisystemic disease, affecting the peripheral nerves, heart, gastrointestinal tract, eyes, and kidneys. Nowadays, several treatment options are available; thus, avoiding misdiagnosis is crucial to starting therapy in early disease stages. However, clinical diagnosis may be difficult, as the disease may present with unspecific symptoms and signs. We hypothesize that the diagnostic process may benefit from the use of machine learning (ML). Methods: 397 patients referring to neuromuscular clinics in 4 centers from the south of Italy with neuropathy and at least 1 more red flag, as well as undergoing genetic testing for ATTRv, were considered. Then, only probands were considered for analysis. Hence, a cohort of 184 patients, 93 with positive and 91 (age- and sex-matched) with negative genetics, was considered for the classification task. The XGBoost (XGB) algorithm was trained to classify positive and negative TTR mutation patients. The SHAP method was used as an explainable artificial intelligence algorithm to interpret the model findings. Results: diabetes, gender, unexplained weight loss, cardiomyopathy, bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), ocular symptoms, autonomic symptoms, ataxia, renal dysfunction, lumbar canal stenosis, and history of autoimmunity were used for the model training. The XGB model showed an accuracy of 0.707 ± 0.101, a sensitivity of 0.712 ± 0.147, a specificity of 0.704 ± 0.150, and an AUC-ROC of 0.752 ± 0.107. Using the SHAP explanation, it was confirmed that unexplained weight loss, gastrointestinal symptoms, and cardiomyopathy showed a significant association with the genetic diagnosis of ATTRv, while bilateral CTS, diabetes, autoimmunity, and ocular and renal involvement were associated with a negative genetic test. Conclusions: Our data show that ML might potentially be a useful instrument to identify patients with neuropathy that should undergo genetic testing for ATTRv. Unexplained weight loss and cardiomyopathy are relevant red flags in ATTRv in the south of Italy. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings