Relationships Among Heart Rate Monitor Usage, Neuroticism, and Performance in Triathletes

Triathlon, a sport that consists of swimming, biking and running, is growing in popularity throughout the country and the world. There is a large percentage of athletes that rely on the use of a heart rate monitor to gauge effort, but there is also a group of athletes that do not use this technology. The purpose of this research was to determine if personality, specifically neuroticism, played a role in determining which athletes use heart rate monitors and whether these variables had any effect on performance. Ninety-eight triathletes were surveyed from 2 half iron distance triathlons in the summer of 2010. There proved to be no interaction effect between neuroticism and heart rate monitor usage on performance [F 2 = 1.830, p = 0.168]. Interestingly, the data showed that there was no significant relationship between heart rate monitor usage and performance. This finding is interesting because heart rate monitors are widely used in the triathlon community, and these data show that perhaps heart rate monitors are not the best tool for gauging effort

THE IMPACT OF II PILLAR ON THE MULTIFUNCTIONALITY IN ITALIAN FARMS: ANALYSIS ON THE FARM HOLIDAYS

This analysis has examined the relationships between the European funds for rural development and the multifunctionality during a short time, comparing two different situations before and after the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform. The main problem was to find a variable able to describe the multifunctionality; the agritourism, in particular, number of farm holidays farms, has been the dependant variable useful to value the rural multifunctionality and the impact of the increase of II pillar fund. The Principal Component Analysis and the model of Ordinary Least Square have confirmed the positive impact of European Agricultural funds in the rural development and in the increase of active farm holidays farms.agritourism, farm holidays farms, Italian agritourism, II pillar, certified quality food., Agricultural and Food Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, C01, Q18.,

The Evolution of Italian Farms and the Role of Subsidies Paid by the European Union for Rural Development

In Italy, there has been a significant emigration from the countryside towards urban areas with negative downsides on rural communities which have suffered of socio-economic marginalization and negative effects on the environment. The Common Agricultural Policy has been a pivotal tool able to reduce the marginalization in rural territories financing farmers able to promote the multifunctionality and the production of positive externalities. By using a quantitative approach on Farm Accounting Data Network time series on Italian farmers, it has been possible to access the role of subsidies allocated by the European Union on the rural development. The results have pointed out a positive role of financial supports and subsidies allocated by the Common Agricultural Policy to guarantee an adequate level of farm income. In the next period 2014-2020, the national and local authorities should take into account to put into action the Rural Development Programme aimed to implement the socio-economic growth in the Italian countryside specifically towards farms located in less favoured areas

Technical and economic efficiency analysis on Italian smallholder family farms using Farm Accountancy Data Network dataset

More than 90 per cent of Italian farms have a usable agricultural area of less than 9 ha, even if over time there has been a growth of the average agricultural area per farm as a consequence of rural out-migration. This paper compares, using a nonparametric model, the technical efficiency of smallholder family (diretto coltivatrice), co-operative and limited company farms during the period 2000-2011. The diretto coltivatrice farms and the co-operative farms had higher levels of scale efficiency than the limited company farms, with a scale efficiency value equal to 100 per cent in ten years out of twelve. The average technical efficiency of diretto coltivatrice farms was higher than those of co-operative and limited company farms. The second part of the quantitative analysis used the self-organising maps (SOM) proposed by Kohonen. The SOMs indicated that the size of the agricultural area has a direct impact on the technical efficiency of farms and on their level of income

STUDY OF THE INTESTINAL MICROBIOTA IN RELAPSING REMITTING MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS TOWARDS NEW POTENTIAL TREATMENTS

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS). The most frequent form is represented by the relapsing-remitting one (RRMS). Studies revealed that many genes associated with the differentiation, activation, and proliferation of CD4+ helper T cells are linked to MS susceptibility. In particular, the most involved are CD4+ T helper 1 (Th1) and T helper 17 (Th17) lymphocytes. Although the etiology and pathogenesis of MS remains unclear, it is known that the cause of MS is multifactorial and includes genetic predisposition together with environmental factors. Among the latter ones, bacterial or viral infections are listed. In the last years, evidence showed that MS patients have an altered gut microbiota (intestinal dysbiosis) and that specific bacteria could be used to relieve disease symptoms in a mouse model. Since several studies have shown that probiotics (live microorganisms promoted with claims that they provide health benefits) and prebiotics (high-fiber foods that act as food for human microflora) can modulate microbial community and improve gastrointestinal symptoms and multi-organ inflammation in different pathologies including MS, the aims of this thesis were to study the gut microbiota in Sicilian MS patients to identify the bacteria inducing intestinal dysbiosis. Moreover, given the correlation between the onset of multiple sclerosis and infectious diseases, the spread of two pathogens (Bartonella henselae and Mycoplasma mycoides) related to MS in the environment and their presence in the MS patients were evaluated. Eventually, the biological activities of root extracts of the Helleborus bocconei plants, endemic in Sicily, were studied to understand whether these molecules may possess anti-inflammatory activity in MS. The main results of this research project are shortly listed below. The microbiota study revealed a higher abundance in MS patients of bacterial species correlated with the inflammatory state: Ruminococcus lactaris, Alistipes putredinis, Gemmiger formicilis and Bacteroides caccae. Although B. henselae and M. agalactiae were isolated in the analyzed environments, they were not found in MS patients. H. bocconei extracts induced a reduction in IL-1β and iNOS gene expression of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) suggesting their potential use as mediators of the inflammatory response. Finally, H. bocconei butanol extracts showed potential anti-viral activity against the Herpes virus, one of the main risk factors of MS. Thus, Helleborus extracts could be exploited as a therapy to reduce the inflammatory state of MS patients

Understanding the Barrier to Integrating Empathy Education into Pre-Medical Curriculum

The overwhelming consensus in healthcare research over the past two decades supports that healthcare providers demonstrating empathy is an integral component of quality of care and health outcomes. The benefits of empathy in patient-provider relationships range from stronger immune responses from patients to a lowered burden on the healthcare system to fewer malpractice lawsuits against providers. Even with this research suggesting that providers should be empathetic throughout patient interactions, there are barriers to implementation. The barrier that my research will focus on is time–specifically how time constraints throughout professional schooling prevent a broad education that would teach providers how to best demonstrate empathy to patients. My work focuses on a literature review to understand why empathy should be studied as the marker for success in patient-provider relationships and how empathy competency is being taught and subsequently measured in clinical practice. I, then, investigate time as the inescapable barrier to empathy education. With this foundational knowledge, I propose a recommendation that focuses on integrating empathy education, focusing on empathy as an attainable, measurable skill, into the pre- medical curriculum at universities

Development of a cardiac patch for the regeneration of infarcted hearts

Previously held under moratorium from 13 June 2019 until 28 July 2021The inflammation that occurs after cardiac ischemia/reperfusion leads to high levels of oxidative stress, which produces deleterious effects that ultimately limit regeneration of the myocardium. This stress response can be prolonged, thereby affecting various stages of cardiac repair remodelling. Efforts to control such remodelling and stimulate cardiac tissue regeneration have therefore included the use of antioxidant or anti-inflammatory drug strategies. To date, such approaches have involved delivery of the drugs orally or by injection. The use of a scaffold that can be placed onto the heart immediately following surgery would allow sustained delivery of high concentrations of drug in situ, directly targeting the affected area. Moreover, implantation of such a material has the potential to encourage cell infiltration into the matrix, thereby promoting regeneration. The ultimate aim of this project was to develop a cardiac scaffold loaded with a drug with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. Pyruvate is a well characterised anti-inflammatory and antioxidant drug. It has been added to cardioplegia by some surgical groups for its potential cardioprotective effects, although the therapeutic value of sustained delivery of this drug into the myocardium following cardiac surgery has not been investigated. Ethyl Pyruvate (EP) is a more stable form of this drug and was therefore the drug selected for investigation in the present study. Various alginate scaffolds were developed as drug delivery vehicles, with EP release characterised in vitro. Alginate gels prepared with (1-2%) low viscosity high guluronate alginate and crosslinked with 1:1 (0.6-1%) calcium chloride solution provided sustained release of about 2,000 – 3,000 µM of EP over 28-days period, characterised by an initial burst of about 85% of EP released in the first week, and the remaining EP was released over the following weeks.Since it is likely that an optimal scaffold for cardiac regeneration will have a porous structure with interconnected pores to allow cell infiltration and proliferation, a series of macro-porous alginate scaffolds were developed. Different methods were used to prepare the scaffolds and thus different EP release profiles were obtained. Overall, the scaffolds prepared with 1% low viscosity high guluronate alginate and double crosslinked with 1:1 (0.4-1%) calcium gluconate solution and 0.2 M calcium chloride bath and prepared with one cycle of free-drying (method 6) released about 5,000- 5,500 µg over 28 days (with 88-98% drug loading efficiency), the highest compared to the other formulations. The potential therapeutic benefits of such EP release were then investigated in vitro. When primary rat cardiac fibroblast cells were exposed to hydrogen peroxide (150 μM) in the presence of EP (1,000 – 20,000 μM), EP improved cell viability as measured by alamarBlue assay. Moreover, at (1,000 - 10,000 μM), EP significantly increased cell viability compared to the control. In contrast, EP had no protective effect on the cells that had been previously exposed to H2O2 (150 μM) for 24 hours. Alginate macro-porous scaffolds (prepared using method 6), which showed high porosity, the best EP release profiles and the highest EP loading efficiency, were then tested in a cardiac fibroblasts culture and cell viability was measured by Neutral Red assay after 5 days. In order to improve cell attachment in the scaffolds prepared in this study, Arginine-Glycine-Aspartic acid modified RGD alginate was also used to prepared the scaffolds for the cardiac fibroblast study. Cells seeded onto the RGD- Alginate + EP scaffolds presented higher cell viability compared to the scaffolds without EP, demonstrating that the cells benefit from the structure of the scaffold, as well as from the presence of EP. This study has demonstrated for the first time that alginate represents a suitable delivery system for providing sustained release of EP. The protective effective of this drug on cardiac fibroblasts shown here, combined with the promising cell viability observed within the delivery scaffold, mean that this approach has significant potential for future development towards clinical evaluation.The inflammation that occurs after cardiac ischemia/reperfusion leads to high levels of oxidative stress, which produces deleterious effects that ultimately limit regeneration of the myocardium. This stress response can be prolonged, thereby affecting various stages of cardiac repair remodelling. Efforts to control such remodelling and stimulate cardiac tissue regeneration have therefore included the use of antioxidant or anti-inflammatory drug strategies. To date, such approaches have involved delivery of the drugs orally or by injection. The use of a scaffold that can be placed onto the heart immediately following surgery would allow sustained delivery of high concentrations of drug in situ, directly targeting the affected area. Moreover, implantation of such a material has the potential to encourage cell infiltration into the matrix, thereby promoting regeneration. The ultimate aim of this project was to develop a cardiac scaffold loaded with a drug with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. Pyruvate is a well characterised anti-inflammatory and antioxidant drug. It has been added to cardioplegia by some surgical groups for its potential cardioprotective effects, although the therapeutic value of sustained delivery of this drug into the myocardium following cardiac surgery has not been investigated. Ethyl Pyruvate (EP) is a more stable form of this drug and was therefore the drug selected for investigation in the present study. Various alginate scaffolds were developed as drug delivery vehicles, with EP release characterised in vitro. Alginate gels prepared with (1-2%) low viscosity high guluronate alginate and crosslinked with 1:1 (0.6-1%) calcium chloride solution provided sustained release of about 2,000 – 3,000 µM of EP over 28-days period, characterised by an initial burst of about 85% of EP released in the first week, and the remaining EP was released over the following weeks.Since it is likely that an optimal scaffold for cardiac regeneration will have a porous structure with interconnected pores to allow cell infiltration and proliferation, a series of macro-porous alginate scaffolds were developed. Different methods were used to prepare the scaffolds and thus different EP release profiles were obtained. Overall, the scaffolds prepared with 1% low viscosity high guluronate alginate and double crosslinked with 1:1 (0.4-1%) calcium gluconate solution and 0.2 M calcium chloride bath and prepared with one cycle of free-drying (method 6) released about 5,000- 5,500 µg over 28 days (with 88-98% drug loading efficiency), the highest compared to the other formulations. The potential therapeutic benefits of such EP release were then investigated in vitro. When primary rat cardiac fibroblast cells were exposed to hydrogen peroxide (150 μM) in the presence of EP (1,000 – 20,000 μM), EP improved cell viability as measured by alamarBlue assay. Moreover, at (1,000 - 10,000 μM), EP significantly increased cell viability compared to the control. In contrast, EP had no protective effect on the cells that had been previously exposed to H2O2 (150 μM) for 24 hours. Alginate macro-porous scaffolds (prepared using method 6), which showed high porosity, the best EP release profiles and the highest EP loading efficiency, were then tested in a cardiac fibroblasts culture and cell viability was measured by Neutral Red assay after 5 days. In order to improve cell attachment in the scaffolds prepared in this study, Arginine-Glycine-Aspartic acid modified RGD alginate was also used to prepared the scaffolds for the cardiac fibroblast study. Cells seeded onto the RGD- Alginate + EP scaffolds presented higher cell viability compared to the scaffolds without EP, demonstrating that the cells benefit from the structure of the scaffold, as well as from the presence of EP. This study has demonstrated for the first time that alginate represents a suitable delivery system for providing sustained release of EP. The protective effective of this drug on cardiac fibroblasts shown here, combined with the promising cell viability observed within the delivery scaffold, mean that this approach has significant potential for future development towards clinical evaluation

CON-TEMPORARY LIVING. UNEXPECTED HOUSING SOLUTIONS IN PUBLIC SPACES

In this book we will analyse the meaning of the word temporary in relation to the change between space and time, time and use, use and memory. Specifically, we will look at the value of the temporary nature of design as applied to the world, the city and its inhabitants, the temporary urban solutions (Fassi, 2012), and finally the key place designed to host people’s life: the home. Although it can be said that today the meaning of the term “living” is broader and indicates more than a place to sleep, and therefore to the small domestic space of a house. This is shown by the fact that today we live at work, we live on the go, we live in the movement, but, the house still plays a central role (Galluzzo, 2018). We will then draw up a categorization of the different types of temporary housing. Examples that in the world of design are multiple and, especially in recent years, have increased exponentially. Temporary design has become an excellent instrument to occupy peripheral, degraded and underutilized areas of the city, to give them a new personality and new value, and to then find a more permanent form of use for them. In this sense, the temporary city is one that takes its least used areas and aspects and transforms them to accommodate new uses, new identities and new inhabitants

An analysis of technical efficiency in Icelandic dairy and sheep farms

Usable agricultural land in Iceland is predominantly represented by permanent grasslands and pasture used for livestock grazing, while the cultivation of arable crops such as cereals and potatoes has a very modest incidence on the total agricultural surface area. The main purpose of this research, therefore, was to assess the technical efficiency of dairy and sheep farming across Iceland’s regions using annual census data for the years 2008 and 2017. The assessment of the technical efficiency of farms – one that is able to analyse multi-input/output production functions – has been estimated through the use of the non-parametric approach of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The research findings have highlighted the need for farmers to reduce certain inputs such as labour costs and general productive overheads, as well as to address their efforts to extensive forms of livestock farming, notably sheep rearing, which is able to take advantage of the abundant and rich grasslands. In general, sheep farms have been found to be technically more efficient than dairy, while farms located in the capital region have been shown to have lower levels of technical efficiency overall