Clinical Efficacy of A Nutraceutical Approach for the Management of Dyslipidemia in Metabolic Disorders: A One-Year Treatment With Armolipid Plus

n/

Could Hair-Lichens of High-Elevation Forests Help Detect the Impact of Global Change in the Alps?

Climate change and the anthropic emission of pollutants are likely to have an accelerated impact in high-elevation mountain areas. This phenomenon could have negative consequences on alpine habitats and for species of conservation in relative proximity to dense human populations. This premise implies that the crucial task is in the early detection of warning signals of ecological changes. In alpine landscapes, high-elevation forests provide a unique environment for taking full advantage of epiphytic lichens as sensitive indicators of climate change and air pollution. This literature review is intended to provide a starting point for developing practical biomonitoring tools that elucidate the potential of hair-lichens, associated with high-elevation forests, as ecological indicators of global change in the European Alps. We found support for the practical use of hair-lichens to detect the impact of climate change and nitrogen pollution in high-elevation forest habitats. The use of these organisms as ecological indicators presents an opportunity to expand monitoring activities and develop predictive tools that support decisions on how to mitigate the effects of global change in the Alps

Witnesses of coherence and dimension from multiphoton indistinguishability tests

Quantum coherence marks a deviation from classical physics, and has been studied as a resource for metrology and quantum computation. Finding reliable and effective methods for assessing its presence is then highly desirable. Coherence witnesses rely on measuring observables whose outcomes can guarantee that a state is not diagonal in a known reference basis. Here, we experimentally measure a type of coherence witness that uses pairwise state comparisons to identify superpositions in a basis-independent way. Our experiment uses a single interferometric setup to simultaneously measure the three pairwise overlaps among three single-photon states via Hong-Ou-Mandel tests. Aside from coherence witnesses, we show the measurements also serve as a Hilbert-space dimension witness. Our results attest to the effectiveness of pooling many two-state comparison tests to ascertain various relational properties of a set of quantum states

Morphological and Chemical Traits of Cladonia Respond to Multiple Environmental Factors in Acidic Dry Grasslands

Terricolous lichen communities in lowlands occur especially in open dry habitats. Such communities are often dominated by species of the genus Cladonia, which are very variable in morphology, reproduction strategies, and secondary metabolites. In this work, we investigated traits-environment relationships considering vegetation dynamics, substrate pH, disturbance, and climate. A total of 122 plots were surveyed in 41 acidic dry grasslands in the western Po Plain (Northern Italy). Relationships between Cladonia traits and environmental variables were investigated by means of a model-based Fourth Corner Analysis. Thallus morphology and metabolites responded to vegetation dynamics, substrate pH, disturbance, and climate, whereas reproduction strategies responded only to vegetation dynamics. Traits\u2019 correlations with vegetation dynamics elucidate their colonization patterns in open dry habitats or suggest biotic interactions with bryo-phytes and vascular plants. In addition, correlations between metabolites and environmental factors support interpretations of their ecological roles. Our results also stress the importance of studying traits\u2019 relationships with climatic factors as an alert towards lichen reactions to climate change

Experimental quantification of genuine four-photon indistinguishability

Photon indistinguishability plays a fundamental role in information processing, with applications such as linear-optical quantum computation and metrology. It is then necessary to develop appropriate tools to quantify the amount of this resource in a multiparticle scenario. Here we report a four-photon experiment in a linear-optical interferometer designed to simultaneously estimate the degree of indistinguishability between three pairs of photons. The interferometer design dispenses with the need of heralding for parametric down-conversion sources, resulting in an efficient and reliable optical scheme. We then use a recently proposed theoretical framework to quantify genuine four-photon indistinguishability, as well as to obtain bounds on three unmeasured two-photon overlaps. Our findings are in high agreement with the theory, and represent a new resource-effective technique for the characterization of multiphoton interference.Comment: 8+8 pages, 5+5 figure

Curcumin, Polydatin and Quercetin Synergistic Activity Protects from High-Glucose-Induced Inflammation and Oxidative Stress

none10noChronic hyperglycemia, the diagnostic biomarker of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), is a condition that fosters oxidative stress and proinflammatory signals, both involved in the promotion of cellular senescence. Senescent cells acquire a proinflammatory secretory phenotype, called SASP, exacerbating and perpetuating the detrimental effects of hyperglycemia. Bioactive compounds can exert antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. However, the synergistic anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of the most extensively investigated natural compounds have not been confirmed yet in senescent cells and in hyperglycemic conditions. Here, we exposed young and replicative senescent HUVEC (yHUVEC and sHUVEC) to a high-glucose (HG) condition (45 mM) and treated them with Polydatin (POL), Curcumin (CUR) and Quercetin (QRC), alone or in combination (MIX), to mirror the anti-inflammatory component OxiDefTM contained in the novel nutraceutical GlicefenTM (Mivell, Italy). In both yHUVEC and sHUVEC, the MIX significantly decreased the expression levels of inflammatory markers, such as MCP-1, IL-1β and IL-8, and ROS production. Importantly, in sHUVEC, a synergistic effect of the MIX was observed, suggesting its senomorphic activity. Moreover, the MIX was able to reduce the expression level of RAGE, a receptor involved in the activation of proinflammatory signaling. Overall, our data suggest that the consumption of nutraceuticals containing different natural compounds could be an adjuvant supplement to counteract proinflammatory and pro-oxidative signals induced by both hyperglycemic and senescence conditions.openMatacchione, Giulia; Valli, Debora; Silvestrini, Andrea; Giuliani, Angelica; Sabbatinelli, Jacopo; Giordani, Chiara; Coppari, Sofia; Rippo, Maria Rita; Albertini, Maria Cristina; Olivieri, FabiolaMatacchione, Giulia; Valli, Debora; Silvestrini, Andrea; Giuliani, Angelica; Sabbatinelli, Jacopo; Giordani, Chiara; Coppari, Sofia; Rippo, Maria Rita; Albertini, Maria Cristina; Olivieri, Fabiol

Lobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm.: The Multifaceted Suitability of the Lung Lichen to Monitor Forest Ecosystems

Lobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm. is a tripartite, broad-lobed foliose lichen usually found on bark and on epiphytic and epilithic mosses in humid forests. Currently, the species is threatened in most European countries because of its sensitivity to environmental alterations. In this paper, a total of 107 previous studies across more than 50 years were analysed to gain insight into the multiple roles that L. pulmonaria plays in forest habitats, specifically relating to ecosystem services and as environmental bioindicator. Content analysis was employed to systematically characterise and classify the existing papers on the functions performed by L. pulmonaria into several groups mostly based on research topic and scope. Two main types of ecosystem services (N2 fixation and feeding) offered by L. pulmonaria have been identified, with varying research aims and types of parameters measured in the studies. Two aspects of current biomonitoring applications using L. pulmonaria in forest habitats (concerning atmospheric pollution and forest management) were analysed, and it was found that the number of related studies increased significantly in recent years. Finally, the current practices of monitoring using L. pulmonaria as a biological indicator are discussed, and recommendations are provided

Boson Sampling in a reconfigurable continuously-coupled 3D photonic circuit

Boson Sampling is a computational paradigm representing one of the most viable and pursued approaches to demonstrate the regime of quantum advantage. Recent results have demonstrated significant technological leaps in single-photon generation and detection, leading to progressively larger experimental instances of Boson Sampling experiments in different photonic systems. However, a crucial requirement for a fully-fledged platform solving this problem is the capability of implementing large scale interferometers, that must simultaneously exhibit low losses, high degree of reconfigurability and the realization of arbitrary transformations. In this work, we move a step forward in this direction by demonstrating the adoption of a novel compact and reconfigurable 3D-integrated platform for photonic Boson Sampling. We perform 3- and 4-photon experiments by using such platform, showing the possibility of programming the circuit to implement a large number of unitary transformations. These results show that such compact and highly-reconfigurable layout can be scaled up to experiments with larger number of photon and modes, and can provide a viable direction for hybrid computing with photonic processors.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figure