A novel fluorimetric method to evaluate red wine antioxidant activity

In the light of the increasing use of red wine in the diet, due to its antioxidant properties, the availability of a simple and fast method to assay the antioxidant activity of this beverage is needed. Here we measured wine antioxidant capacity (WAC) via "crocin bleaching test", wine polyphenol content (WPC), via Folin Ciocalteu method, and fluorimetric response (WF) of 13 Italian red wines. A fairly good correlation between WAC and WF (R = 0.82) was found, thus validating the fluorimetric method as a simple, fast and cheap method to evaluate the antioxidant activity of red wines

The effect of autistic traits on disembedding and mental rotation in neurotypical women and men

Funder: Autism Research TrustFunder: Templeton World Charitable FundFunder: NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100018956Funder: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health ResearchFunder: Care East of England at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation TrustAbstractRecent data has revealed dissociations between social and non-social skills in both autistic and neurotypical populations. In the present study, we investigated whether specific visuospatial abilities, such as figure disembedding and mental rotation, are differently related to social and non-social autistic traits, in neurotypical women and men. University students (N = 426) completed the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), figure disembedding and mental rotation of two-dimensional figures tasks. AQ social skills (AQ-social) and attention-to-details (AQ-attention) subscales were used as measures of social and non-social autistic traits, respectively. Mental rotation was affected by a significant interaction between sex, social and non-social traits. When non-social traits were above the mean (+ 1 SD), no sex differences in mental rotation were found. Instead, below this value, sex differences depended on the social traits, with men on average outperforming women at middle-to-high social traits, and with a comparable performance, and with women on average outperforming men, at lower social traits. A small positive correlation between figure disembedding and social traits was observed in the overall sample. These results are interpreted in terms of the hyper-systemizing theory of autism and contribute to the evidence of individual differences in the cognitive style of autistic people and neurotypical people with autistic traits.</jats:p

The effect of autistic traits on disembedding and mental rotation in neurotypical women and men

Funder: Autism Research TrustFunder: Templeton World Charitable FundFunder: NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100018956Funder: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health ResearchFunder: Care East of England at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation TrustAbstractRecent data has revealed dissociations between social and non-social skills in both autistic and neurotypical populations. In the present study, we investigated whether specific visuospatial abilities, such as figure disembedding and mental rotation, are differently related to social and non-social autistic traits, in neurotypical women and men. University students (N = 426) completed the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), figure disembedding and mental rotation of two-dimensional figures tasks. AQ social skills (AQ-social) and attention-to-details (AQ-attention) subscales were used as measures of social and non-social autistic traits, respectively. Mental rotation was affected by a significant interaction between sex, social and non-social traits. When non-social traits were above the mean (+ 1 SD), no sex differences in mental rotation were found. Instead, below this value, sex differences depended on the social traits, with men on average outperforming women at middle-to-high social traits, and with a comparable performance, and with women on average outperforming men, at lower social traits. A small positive correlation between figure disembedding and social traits was observed in the overall sample. These results are interpreted in terms of the hyper-systemizing theory of autism and contribute to the evidence of individual differences in the cognitive style of autistic people and neurotypical people with autistic traits.</jats:p