Effects of nutrients, mainly from mediterranean dietary foods, on mesenchymal stem derived cells: growth or differentiation

During the last decade the interest for the mesenchymal cells is growing due to their possible uses in therapies to treat certain degenerative pathologies. Mesenchymal stem cells have been found in the bone marrow and they have been shown to be responsible for bone repair and fat cells production. Mesenchymal stromal cells can be obtained from a wide variety of tissues in addition to bone marrow and can differentiate into many other cell types. The study of cell differentiation and programming provides new models for drug discovery and cell therapy that now overcomes gene therapy. Senescence, cancer development and degenerative diseases depend on mesenchymal cells contribution to tissue homeostasis. On the other hand, diet and life style are included among risk factors, which can contribute to the success of pharmacological treatments. This review focuses on nutrients from Mediterranean diet and supplements, which have been shown to influence mesenchymal stem cells and cells derived from them. Dietary intake of nutrients impairs both in vitro and in vivo observations, this review aims to gather the results about the effects of food compounds on mesenchymal cells from which adipocytes and osteoblasts derive. Amino acids and proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, fatty acids and vegetable secondary metabolites, differently act on mesenchymal cells bearing on modulation of gene expression and controlling the fate of cell lineages. Remarkable, the analysis of literature shows that the main effect of nutrients on mesenchymal cells is the stimulation of transcription factors which address the cells toward proliferation or differentiation. For instance, carbohydrates, simple or complex, and lipids appear to stimulate the PPAR receptors, whereas proteins and amino acids result to act on the mTOR system and they can also stimulate the MyoD-1 transcription factor and cooperating proteins. In conclusion, nutrients can promote cell growth and differentiation of mesenchymal cells

The induction of Maspin expression by a glucosamine-derivative has an antiproliferative activity in prostate cancer cell lines

Mammary serine protease inhibitor or Maspin has been characterized as a class II tumor suppressor gene in several cancer types, among them prostate cancer (CaP). Androgen ablation is an effective therapy for CaP, but with short-term effectiveness, thus new therapeutic strategies are actively sought. The present study is aimed to explore the effects of a glucosamine derivative, 2-(N-Carbobenzyloxy)L-phenylalanylamido-2-deoxy-β-D-glucose (NCPA), on two CaP cell lines, PC3 and LNCaP. In particular we analyzed the impact of NCPA on Maspin production, cell viability and cell cycle progression and apoptosis/necrosis pathway activation has been determined in PC3 and LNCaP cell lines. NCPA is able to stimulate Maspin production in PC3 and not in LNCaP cell lines. NCPA blocks the PC3 cell cycle in G1 phase, by inhibiting Cyclin D1 production and induces the apoptosis, therefore interfering with aggressiveness of this androgen-insensitive cell line. Moreover, NCPA is able to induce the expression of Maspin in LNCaP cell line treated with androgen receptor inhibitor, Bicalutamide, and in turn to stimulate the apoptosis of these cells. These findings suggest that NCPA, stimulating the endogenous production of a tumor suppressor protein, could be useful in the design of new therapeutic strategies for treatment of CaP

EXPLORING AND UNDERSTANDING PATTERNS OF EMOTIONS IN THE OVERALL SOUND ENERGY OF THE HUMAN VOICE IN A NATURAL ENVIRONMENT WITH AND THROUGH AN INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION AND VR IMMERSIVE VIDEOS

In today’s era we can say that human reality is often reliant on or intersected with computers. The need of improved communication with devices in a natural way has arisen and led to development of interactive systems. The new channel for detecting emotions presented in this thesis is not so much important for humans as it is for computers that still don’t have human capabilities of recognising emotions. The vision that drives this research project is of an interactive kind of art through which it is possible to implement and enhance our knowledge of emotions in relation to sound, assisted by new technologies. My research concerns the relation between sound and emotions. This research was carried out within two art installations. Research goals • Discover and outline the patterns in the overall sound energy of the human voice, set in a natural environment, that reflect one or more basic emotion (I.e. anger, happiness, sadness); • Use artistic instruments and environment (interactive installation) to carry out this research; and • Represent the collected data and results of the research using virtual reality (VR ). My original contribution to knowledge lies, on the one hand, within the function that both Sounding Out and Seams have on a person’s ability to gain a better understanding of how emotions reflect on sound energy and how sound energy analysis makes the computer able to recognise what we are feeling without understanding the contents we are expressing. On the other hand, this thesis forms a valuable tool of analysis, as well as the installations that I created: Sounding Out is an effective setting for the live detection of emotions, it allows the use of normal persons instead of trained ones. The innovative contribution to the research in the field is making the process of analysis faster and the recognition of emotions in a real-life setting is possible. The installation Seams is innovative in the way it is used to present academic research data. Seams is original in its intentions as it aims to make data more accessible and intuitive and particularly disseminate the study not only to researchers but to a broader audience

Reflections on art, nature and technology: The role of technology, algorithm, nature, psyche and imagination in the aspiration of an aesthetic experience

There is something frustrating in the concept of algorithm that can even worry: its limitations. An algorithm does not need the time to define itself, it possesses in its structure everything that defines it and can work exclusively in a site, such as a computer, which is itself another finite system. Whenever a particular algorithm will be executed it will always be inexorably equal to itself because the number of possible states is finite. A logical-mathematical algorithm is essentially very different from a living being that reveals its being only in the passage of time, in the relationship with the environment, in the happening of events. On the contrary there is a strong relationship between living things and the art, since art essentially needs time to express itself. The art has a time dimension, if for no other reason, because the purpose of art is reaching human beings. But art, through technology, can also broaden its horizons. Art can make use of the technology and can do exactly as the man whose expression is, to grow, to expand, to discover new identities, to conduct an investigation in those distant places, on the border with the irrational

Analysis of noise as a way of understanding emotion and making an installation: Reflection on phenomenological, parametric, inner and outer worlds meeting and becoming audible

This article is centred on the idea that from the analysis and interpretation of data from the crowd noise (at historical and engaging events) it is possible to define the manifestation of extroversion of people's perceptions and emotions. What I seek to reveal in my artistic research is not the conjugation of perceptions and emotions for individual participants but rather the collective feeling, the energy that connects and refines the involvement of individuals and creates from it a new and indivisible whole: A collective perception and sentiment that in the multilayering of noise finds its full manifestation. Crowd noise, therefore, represents the synthesis of this unique collective emotion, a psychological and physical synergic experience channelling its force, energy and form into a distinctive event that is noise itself. What I am investigating is the sum, neutralization, enrichment and suppression of the constitutive elements of the emotion experienced by participants in an event, and noise 'as a register of the intensity of relationships' between them. Showing and describing an event, its sensations and atmosphere, or the perceptions and emotions of a moment, is impossible. The questions, how emotions emerge, how mental and physical perceptions are stimulated by our senses or how consciousness develops, are unanswerable; what is possible to show as an artist is what happens in the middle, what lies between the lines, within the fabric of events, and what one grasps and realizes from the exploration of what is in the involuntary traces the experience itself leaves behind

A novel mutation in isoform 3 of the plasma membrane Ca2+ pump impairs cellular Ca2+ homeostasis in a patient with cerebellar ataxia and laminin subunit 1\u3b1 mutations.

The particular importance of Ca2+ signaling to neurons demands its precise regulation within their cytoplasm. Isoform 3 of the plasma membrane Ca2+ ATPase (the PMCA3 pump), which is highly expressed in brain and cerebellum, plays an important role in the regulation of neuronal Ca2+. A genetic defect of the function of the PMCA3 pump has been described in one family with X-linked congenital cerebellar ataxia. Here we describe a novel mutation of the PMCA3 pump (ATP2B3) in a patient with global developmental delay, generalized hypotonia and cerebellar ataxia. The mutation (a R482H replacement) impairs the Ca2+ ejection function of the pump. It reduces the ability of the pump expressed in model cells to control Ca2+ transients generated by cell stimulation and impairs its Ca2+ extrusion function under conditions of low resting cytosolic Ca2+ as well. In silico analysis of the structural effect of the mutation suggests a reduced stabilization of the portion of the pump surrounding the mutated residue in the Ca2+-bound state. The patient also carries two missense mutations in LAMA1, encoding for laminin subunit 1\u3b1. On the basis of the family pedigree of the patient, the presence of both PMCA3 and LAMA1 mutations appears to be necessary for the development of the disease. Considering the observed defect in cellular Ca2+ homeostasis and the previous finding that PMCAs act as digenic modulators in Ca2+-linked pathologies, the PMCA3 dysfunction along with LAMA1 mutations could act synergistically to cause the neurological phenotype

Le imprese e l’equivoco ABF

On average, 70% of the claims brought by undertakings before the Banking and Financial Arbitrator (‘ABF’) is unsuccessful. Moving from this observation, we analyse the admissible claims that were successful on their merit, as well as the ABF’s decisions on them, to identify their main features. Our analysis seeks to shed light on the most conflicting aspects of the relations between undertakings and banks and, most importantly, to clarify how the ABF reaches a decision and why it dismisses appeals at such high rates. Ultimately, we contribute to the academic literature on the topic by identifying what it takes for an appeal before the ABF to be successful. Our analysis also provides some helpful indications that prospective claimants before the ABF can consider when drafting and submitting their claims

The effect of parity number on the metabolism, inflammation, and oxidative status of dairy sheep during the transition period.

The objective of this study was to evaluate whether dairy sheep during the transition period are affected by their parity numbers with regard to (1) body weight (BW), body condition score (BCS), and production performance (milk yield and composition) and (2) metabolic, inflammation, and stress biomarkers. For this purpose, 30 Sarda dairy ewes [15 primiparous (PRP) and 15 multiparous (MUP) ewes] were recruited on d 90 of gestation. Each group was homogeneous according to age, BW, and BCS. Sampling was carried out at -60, -30, -7, 0, +30, and +60 d from lambing. The MUP ewes showed a higher BW (46.32 vs. 38.71 kg) and larger litter size (1.45 vs. 1.06 kg) but a lower BCS (2.47 vs. 2.70) than the PRP ewes. Furthermore, the MUP ewes had lower concentrations of glucose (3.49 vs. 4.27 mol/L), cholesterol (1.63 vs. 1.81 mmol/L), free fatty acids (0.47 vs. 0.62 mmol/L), and triglycerides (0.22 vs. 0.25 mmol/L) compared with PRP ewes. With regard to inflammation and oxidative stress parameters, the PRP group had higher haptoglobin (0.48 vs. 0.18 g/L) and paraoxonase (187.90 vs. 152.11 U/L) activity than the MUP group. Overall, the MUP ewes were characterized by greater milk production performance and greater feed intake, resulting in a better energy balance, than the PRP ewes. Interestingly, these findings highlighted a different metabolic and inflammatory response over the transition period between PRP and MUP ewes, with the latter displaying lower concentrations of inflammatory-related biomarkers