Exploration of virtual body-representation in adolescence : the role of age and sex in avatar customization

The malleable nature of the self led researchers to investigate the meaning of virtual identity by exploring virtual self-representation through avatars and its association with users\u2019 identity. The present study aims to investigate the changes in virtual body-representation in adolescence related to age levels and sex and the association with adolescents\u2019 self-esteem and body esteem. Anthropometric features, body esteem and self-esteem were used to assess adolescents\u2019 body image and identity. The scoring code of the \u201cDrawing Me\u201d graphical test was used to evaluate the avatars. The sample is composed of 63 adolescents of different ages\u2014early, middle and late adolescence\u2014balanced by sex. Results show that the creation of a digital avatar changes with age and is partially associated with adolescents\u2019 perceptions in terms of body esteem and self-esteem. Moreover, the creation of avatars occurs differently for boys, who enrich their avatars with many sexual features, than for girls, who prefer to detail their avatars\u2019 clothing to enrich them. Critical reflections and implications for psychological interventions that may use avatars to investigate adolescents\u2019 identity in integration with other tools will be discussed

Media use during adolescence: the recommendations of the Italian Pediatric Society.

BACKGROUND: The use of media device, such as smartphone and tablet, is currently increasing, especially among the youngest. Adolescents spend more and more time with their smartphones consulting social media, mainly Facebook, Instagram and Twitter because. Adolescents often feel the necessity to use a media device as a means to construct a social identity and express themselves. For some children, smartphone ownership starts even sooner as young as 7 yrs, according to internet safety experts. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We analyzed the evidence on media use and its consequences in adolescence. RESULTS: In literature, smartphones and tablets use may negatively influences the psychophysical development of the adolescent, such as learning, sleep and sigh. Moreover, obesity, distraction, addiction, cyberbullism and Hikikomori phenomena are described in adolescents who use media device too frequently. The Italian Pediatric Society provide action-oriented recommendations for families and clinicians to avoid negative outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Both parents and clinicians should be aware of the widespread phenomenon of media device use among adolescents and try to avoid psychophysical consequences on the youngest

Interpolative Approach for Solving the Anderson Impurity Model

A rational representation for the self--energy is explored to interpolate the solution of the Anderson impurity model in general orbitally degenerate case. Several constrains such as the Friedel's sum rule, positions of the Hubbard bands as well as the value of quasiparticle residue are used to establish the equations for the coefficients of the interpolation. We employ two fast techniques, the slave--boson mean--field and the Hubbard I approximations to determine the functional dependence of the coefficients on doping, degeneracy and the strength of the interaction. The obtained spectral functions and self--energies are in good agreement with the results of numerically exact quantum Monte Carlo method.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

Lipid metabolism in development and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma

Metabolic reprogramming is critically involved in the development and progression of cancer. In particular, lipid metabolism has been investigated as a source of energy, micro-environmental adaptation, and cell signalling in neoplastic cells. However, the specific role of lipid metabolism dysregulation in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been widely described yet. Alterations in fatty acid synthesis, β-oxidation, and cellular lipidic composition contribute to initiation and progression of HCC. The aim of this review is to elucidate the mechanisms by which lipid metabolism is involved in hepatocarcinogenesis and tumour adaptation to different conditions, focusing on the transcriptional aberrations with new insights in lipidomics and lipid zonation. This will help detect new putative therapeutic approaches in the second most frequent cause of cancer-related death

Molecular Aspects and Treatment of Iron Deficiency in the Elderly

Iron deficiency (ID) is the most frequent nutritional deficiency in the whole population worldwide, and the second most common cause of anemia in the elderly. The prevalence of anemia is expecting to rise shortly, because of an ageing population. Even though WHO criteria define anemia as a hemoglobin serum concentration <12 g/dL in women and <13 g/dL in men, several authors propose different and specific cut-off values for the elderly. Anemia in aged subjects impacts health and quality of life, and it is associated with several negative outcomes, such as longer time of hospitalization and a higher risk of disability. Furthermore, it is an independent risk factor of increased morbidity and mortality. Even though iron deficiency anemia is a common disorder in older adults, it should be not considered as a normal ageing consequence, but a sign of underlying dysfunction. Relating to the molecular mechanism in Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA), hepcidin has a key role in iron homeostasis. It downregulates the iron exporter ferroportin, inhibiting both iron absorption and release. IDA is frequently dependent on blood loss, especially caused by gastrointestinal lesions. Thus, a diagnostic algorithm for IDA should include invasive investigation such as endoscopic procedures. The treatment choice is influenced by the severity of anemia, underlying conditions, comorbidities, and the clinical state of the patient. Correction of anemia and iron supplementation should be associated with the treatment of the causal disease

Time needed to intubate and suction a manikin prior to instituting positive pressure ventilation: a simulation trial

Tracheal suctioning in non-vigorous newborn delivered through meconium-stained amniotic fluid (MSAF) is supposed to delay initiation of positive pressure ventilation (PPV), but the magnitude of such delay is unknown. To compare the time of PPV initiation when performing immediate laryngoscopy with intubation and suctioning vs. performing immediate PPV without intubation in a manikin model. Randomized controlled crossover (AB/BA) trial comparing PPV initiation with or without endotracheal suctioning in a manikin model of non-vigorous neonates born through MSAF. Participants were 20 neonatologists and 20 pediatric residents trained in advanced airway management. Timing of PPV initiation was longer with vs. without endotracheal suctioning in both pediatric residents (mean difference 13\ua0s, 95% confidence interval 8 to 18\ua0s; p\ua0< 0.0001) and neonatologists (mean difference 12\ua0s, 95% confidence interval 8 to 16\ua0s; p < 0.0001). The difference in timing of PPV initiation was similar between pediatric residents and neonatologists (mean difference 12 1\ua0s, 95% confidence interval 12 7 to 6\ua0s; p\ua0= 0.85). Conclusions: Performing immediate laryngoscopy with intubation and suctioning was associated with longer\u2014but not clinically relevant\u2014time of initiation of PPV compared with immediate PPV without intubation in a manikin model. While suggesting negligible delay in starting PPV, further studies in a clinical setting are warranted. Registration: clinicaltrial.gov NCT04076189.What is Known:\u2022 Management of the non-vigorous newborn delivered through meconium-stained amniotic fluid remains still controversial.\u2022 Tracheal suctioning in non-vigorous newborn delivered through meconium-stained amniotic fluid is supposed to delay initiation of positive pressure ventilation, but the magnitude of such delay is unknown.What is New:\u2022 Performing immediate ventilation without intubation was associated with shorter\u2014but not clinically relevant\u2014time of initiation of ventilation compared to immediate laryngoscopy with intubation and suctioning in a manikin model.\u2022 Further studies in a clinical setting are warranted

Forman's Ricci curvature - From networks to hypernetworks

Networks and their higher order generalizations, such as hypernetworks or multiplex networks are ever more popular models in the applied sciences. However, methods developed for the study of their structural properties go little beyond the common name and the heavy reliance of combinatorial tools. We show that, in fact, a geometric unifying approach is possible, by viewing them as polyhedral complexes endowed with a simple, yet, the powerful notion of curvature - the Forman Ricci curvature. We systematically explore some aspects related to the modeling of weighted and directed hypernetworks and present expressive and natural choices involved in their definitions. A benefit of this approach is a simple method of structure-preserving embedding of hypernetworks in Euclidean N-space. Furthermore, we introduce a simple and efficient manner of computing the well established Ollivier-Ricci curvature of a hypernetwork.Comment: to appear: Complex Networks '18 (oral presentation

Profile and potential bioactivity of the miRNome and metabolome expressed in Malva sylvestris L. leaf and flower

Malva sylvestris L. (common mallow) is a plant species widely used in phytotherapy and ethnobotanical practices since time immemorial. Characterizing the components of this herb might promote a better comprehension of its biological effects on the human body but also favour the identification of the molecular processes that occur in the plant tissues. Thus, in the present contribution, the scientific knowledge about the metabolomic profile of the common mallow was expanded. In particular, the phytocomplex of leaves and flowers from this botanical species and the extraction capacity of different concentrations of ethanol (i.e., 95%, 70%, 50%, and 0%; v/v in ddH2O) for it were investigated by spectrophotometric and chromatographic approaches. In detail, 95% ethanol extracts showed the worst capacity in isolating total phenols and flavonoids, while all the hydroalcoholic samples revealed a specific ability in purifying the anthocyanins. HPLC–DAD system detected and quantified 20 phenolic secondary metabolites, whose concentration in the several extracts depended on their own chemical nature and the percentage of ethanol used in the preparation. In addition, the stability of the purified phytochemicals after resuspension in pure ddH2O was also proved, considering a potential employment of them in biological/medical studies which include in vitro and in vivo experiments on mammalian models. Here, for the first time, the expressed miRNome in M. sylvestris was also defined by Next Generation Sequencing, revealing the presence of 33 microRNAs&nbsp;(miRNAs), 10 typical for leaves and 2 for flowers. Then, both plant and human putative mRNA targets for the detected miRNAs were predicted by bioinformatics analyses, with the aim to clarify the possible role of these small nucleic acids in the common mallow plant tissues and to try to understand if they could exert a potential cross-kingdom regulatory activity on the human health. Surprisingly, our investigations revealed that 19 miRNAs out of 33 were putatively able to modulate, in the plant cells, the expression of various chromosome scaffold proteins. In parallel, we found, in the human transcriptome, a total of 383 mRNAs involved in 5 fundamental mammalian cellular processes (i.e., apoptosis, senescence, cell-cycle, oxidative stress, and invasiveness) that theoretically could be bound and regulated by M. sylvestris miRNAs. The evidence collected in this work would suggest that the beneficial properties of the use of M. sylvestris, documented by the folk medicine, are probably linked to their content of miRNAs and not only to the action of phytochemicals (e.g., anthocyanins). This would open new perspectives about the possibility to develop gene therapies based on miRNAs isolated from medicinal plants, including M. sylvestris

La valutazione delle emissioni atmosferiche in relazione alle scelte di mobilità urbana degli abitanti

Analisi per le principali otto città italian

Asymptotic analysis for the generalized langevin equation

Various qualitative properties of solutions to the generalized Langevin equation (GLE) in a periodic or a confining potential are studied in this paper. We consider a class of quasi-Markovian GLEs, similar to the model that was introduced in \cite{EPR99}. Geometric ergodicity, a homogenization theorem (invariance principle), short time asymptotics and the white noise limit are studied. Our proofs are based on a careful analysis of a hypoelliptic operator which is the generator of an auxiliary Markov process. Systematic use of the recently developed theory of hypocoercivity \cite{Vil04HPI} is made.Comment: 27 pages, no figures. Submitted to Nonlinearity