Integration of functional and traditional food in emerging markets. Regulatory and substantive aspects of yerba mate and quinoa

Given the rising cost of healthcare, the increase in life expectancy and the wish for a better quality of life, the request for foods and beverages producing a beneficial effect on health has increased worldwide. “Functional food” is a new concept and may play a key role in diseases’ prevention and management. Although its meaning is currently under definition, its role in global health improvement is growing constantly. This article aims at giving a description of existing legislation on functional food in South America, identifying future directions for health and marketing policies. Furthermore, authors provide a literature revision on two products widely consumed in Latin American countries: Yerba Mate and Quinoa. Thanks to their beneficial health effects in terms of disease prevention and promotion of well-being, they may be considered as functional foods with a potential key role in health care

Training Future Engineers to Be Ghostbusters: Hunting for the Spectral Environmental Radioactivity

Although environmental radioactivity is all around us, the collective public imagination often associates a negative feeling to this natural phenomenon. To increase the familiarity with this phenomenon we have designed, implemented, and tested an interdisciplinary educational activity for pre-collegiate students in which nuclear engineering and computer science are ancillary to the comprehension of basic physics concepts. Teaching and training experiences are performed by using a 4" x 4" NaI(Tl) detector for in-situ and laboratory {\gamma}-ray spectroscopy measurements. Students are asked to directly assemble the experimental setup and to manage the data-taking with a dedicated Android app, which exploits a client-server system that is based on the Bluetooth communication protocol. The acquired {\gamma}-ray spectra and the experimental results are analyzed using a multiple-platform software environment and they are finally shared on an open access Web-GIS service. These all-round activities combining theoretical background, hands-on setup operations, data analysis, and critical synthesis of the results were demonstrated to be effective in increasing students' awareness in quantitatively investigating environmental radioactivity. Supporting information to the basic physics concepts provided in this article can be found at http://www.fe.infn.it/radioactivity/educational

The Role of Adjunctive Therapies in Septic Shock by Gram Negative MDR/XDR Infections

Patients with septic shock by multidrug resistant microorganisms (MDR) are a specific sepsis population with a high mortality risk. The exposure to an initial inappropriate empiric antibiotic therapy has been considered responsible for the increased mortality, although other factors such as immune-paralysis seem to play a pivotal role. Therefore, beyond conventional early antibiotic therapy and fluid resuscitation, this population may benefit from the use of alternative strategies aimed at supporting the immune system. In this review we present an overview of the relationship between MDR infections and immune response and focus on the rationale and the clinical data available on the possible adjunctive immunotherapies, including blood purification techniques and different pharmacological approaches

A polydnavirus-encoded ANK protein has a negative impact on steroidogenesis and development

Polydnaviruses (PDV) are viral symbionts associated with ichneumonid and braconid wasps parasitizing moth larvae, which are able to disrupt the host immune response and development, as well as a number of other physiological pathways. The immunosuppressive role of PDV has been more intensely investigated, while very little is known about the PDV-encoded factors disrupting host development. Here we address this research issue by further expanding the functional analysis of ankyrin genes encoded by the bracovirus associated with Toxoneuron nigriceps (Hymenoptera, Braconidae). In a previous study, using Drosophila melanogaster as experimental model system, we demonstrated the negative impact of TnBVank1 impairing the ecdysone biosynthesis by altering endocytic traffic in prothoracic gland cells. With a similar approach here we demonstrate that another member of the viral ank gene family, TnBVank3, does also contribute to the disruption of ecdysone biosynthesis, but with a completely different mechanism. We show that its expression in Drosophila prothoracic gland (PG) blocks the larval-pupal transition by impairing the expression of steroidogenic genes. Furthermore, we found that TnBVank3 affects the expression of genes involved in the insulin/TOR signaling and the constitutive activation of the insulin pathway in the PG rescues the pupariation impairment. Collectively, our data demonstrate that TnBVANK3 acts as a virulence factor by exerting a synergistic and non-overlapping function with TnBVANK1 to disrupt the ecdysone biosynthesis

Effect of performance improvement programs on compliance with sepsis bundles and mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies

none8noSeveral reports suggest that implementation of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) guidelines is associated with mortality reduction in sepsis. However, adherence to the guideline-based resuscitation and management sepsis bundles is still poor.Damiani, Elisa; Donati, Abele; Serafini, Giulia; Rinaldi, Laura; Adrario, Erica; Pelaia, Paolo; Busani, Stefano; Girardis, MassimoDamiani, Elisa; Donati, Abele; Serafini, Giulia; Rinaldi, Laura; Adrario, Erica; Pelaia, Paolo; Busani, Stefano; Girardis, Massim

Dyes of a Shadow Theatre: Investigating Tholu Bommalu Indian Puppets through a Highly Sensitive Multi-Spectroscopic Approach

Tholu Bommalu are typical leather puppets of the traditional Indian shadow theatre. Two of these objects are part of a collection in the International Puppets Museum “Antonio Pasqualino” (Palermo, Sicily, Italy), which can count on one hundred-seventy-three of artifacts. These Indian puppets were investigated to obtain information related to the use of dyes for their manufacturing through a multi-technical approach exploiting the combination of highly sensitive spectroscopic techniques. Wet cotton stubbons were used to entrap small particles of dyes on the fibers from the art objects for the consequent analyses. Visible Light Micro-Reflectance spectroscopy was employed for the preliminary identification of the molecular class of dyes directly on the swabs, while Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering allowed the identification of the specific dye. Several synthetic dyes belonging to different typologies of coloring compounds were identified. The study resulted in an interesting overview of dyes used in recent Tholu Bommalata manufacturing through the combination of micro-invasive techniques directly on the sampling substrate

Compact high-brightness and highly manufacturable blue laser modules

Blue laser diode sources have already proved to be an effective alternative for material processing, especially of high reflective materials, such as copper; now the challenge is to increase their power while improving brightness and reducing the cost-per-watt. The paper presents the development of a family of blue laser modules that, making use of the same platform and assembly lines of similar 9xx nm modules, can achieve an unprecedented combination of power, brightness, compactness and cost reduction. These modules rely on a proprietary architecture to combine a plurality of chips through spatial and polarization multiplexing, obtaining up to 100W of output power in a 100 μm fiber. Preliminary experimental results for module making use of spatial multiplexing report 35W output power in a 50 μm fiber

Postextractive alveolar ridge preservation using L-PRF: clinical and histological evaluation

Leukocyte- and platelet-rich fibrin (L-PRF) is an autologous platelet concentrate rich in growth factors and plasma proteins, obtained by centrifugation of patient whole blood, and widely used in oral surgery. This report describes a case of alveolar ridge preservation with L-PRF membranes. Postextractive alveolar healing was then assessed through a histologic and histomorphometric analysis. A patient requiring tooth extraction and subsequent implant rehabilitation was treated with simple extraction and socket filling with L-PRF membranes. Implant placement was performed at 3 months, and a bone biopsy was obtained for histomorphometric analysis. Histological examination of the grafted sites showed that the use of L-PRF could achieve good results in terms of bone dimension and quality and soft tissue healing. The results of this study support the use of L-PRF membranes to preserve hard and soft tissues after tooth extraction

The prevention of implant surface alterations in the treatment of reri-implantitis: comparison of three different mechanical and physical treatments

The surgical treatment of peri-implantitis is currently based on the removal of biofilms from the implant surface by primary means of mechanical and physical treatments. However, such approaches often determine some alterations of the implant surface with detrimental effects on re-osseointegration. This study aims to evaluate the effects of four different mechanical and physical treatments on titanium samples with moderately rough surface. Air powder abrasion (AP) with glycine powder, a titanium brush (TB) and a diode laser at 3 W (L3) and 4 W (L4) were tested. Surface morphology, roughness and chemical composition were then assessed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), white light interferometer and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. The microscopic analysis revealed significant alterations in surface morphology on TB samples, while AP and L3 had only a minor or null impact. L4 samples revealed signs of overheating due to the excessive power. Nevertheless, the overall roughness of the samples was not significantly altered in terms of roughness parameters. Similarly, surface chemical composition was not significantly affected by the treatments. Among the treatments tested in this study, air powder abrasion with glycine powder and 3 W diode laser had the lowest impact on surface physicochemical properties.

Platelet rich fibrin (PRF) and its related products: biomolecular characterization of the liquid fibrinogen

Liquid fibrinogen is an injectable platelet concentrate rich in platelets, leukocytes, and fibrinogen obtained by blood centrifugation. The aim of this study was to analyze the release of different growth factors in the liquid fibrinogen at different times and to assess possible correlations between growth factors and cell counts. The concentration of transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1), platelet-derived growth factor-AB (PDGF-AB), platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB), bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2), fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) released by liquid fibrinogen were examined with ELISA at three time points (T0, time of collection; T7, 7 days; T14, 14 days). The cellular content of the liquid fibrinogen and whole blood was also calculated for each volunteer. A mean accumulation of platelets of almost 1.5-fold in liquid fibrinogen compared to whole blood samples was found. An increase of TGF-β1, PDGF-AB, FGF-2, and VEGF levels was detected at T7. At T14, the level of TGF-β1 returned to T0 level; PDGF-AB amount remained high; the levels of FGF-2 and VEGF decreased with respect to T7, but remained higher than the T0 levels; PDGF-BB was high at all time points; BMP-2 level was low and remained constant at all time points. TGF-β1, PDGF-AB, and PDGF-BB showed a correlation with platelet amount, whereas BMP-2, FGF-2, and VEGF showed a mild correlation with platelet amount. Due to the high concentration of platelets, liquid fibrinogen does contain important growth factors for the regeneration of both soft and hard tissue. The centrifugation protocol tested in this study provides a valid solution to stimulate wound healing in oral and periodontal surgery