Hierarchical Clustering Methodologies for the Detection of Senescent Cells

This Master Thesis project is related to a data set of microscope images whose puppose is to analyze senescence. Senescence is a dynamic process whereby cells stop to duplicate and change their morphology. The results here described are a first attempt to classify cells by their morphology, in order to find a method to detect the cluster of senescent cells. The microscope images are first of all preprocessed and the objects are properly segmented. Then some features are extracted for each object, namely "area", "circularity", "eccentricity" and "convexity defects". With these features, an Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering is applied with different methods. It results that, on the basis of the extracted features, the cells in 24 hours can be classified in 4 clusters with diffent morphological characteristics

From farm to fork: lipid oxidation in fish products. A review

Lipid oxidation is a very complex and important event threatening the quality of foods especially of those containing highly unsaturated fats. Fish are the main source of polyunsaturated fatty acids that, unfortunately, are highly susceptible to degradation process, such as oxidation. Fish supply chain generally involves many steps and each of them together with their interaction might play a central role in muscle quality maintenance. From this review emerged that antioxidants supplementation diet can play a central role to limit the detrimental effects of stress (pre-slaughter or at killing) and storage. In this sense, lycopene shows the best antioxidant activity during stressful conditions while α-tocopherol acts preferentially in long-term frozen storage. Stress just before or at slaughter can greatly threaten flesh quality both immediately and after storage by inducing numerous metabolic pathways, that often involve the production of very reactive molecular species, such as hydroperoxides. A common operation such as bleeding can significantly reduce both reactive molecules and haemoglobin (Hb), which is recognised as a great pro-oxidant. Temperature and duration are two critical points of storage phase which has to be considered even by consumers. Frozen storage at very low temperatures (−30 °C, −40 °C) confirms to be the best storage practise. Finally, cooking can compromise aromatic profile of cooking fillets. Thus, feeding antioxidant, reducing stress both during pre-slaughter practise and at killing, good storage practises, if associated with an appropriate cooking method (low temperature, short time) seems to be the clues for preserving the fragile lipid fraction from farm to fork

A large-N approximated field theory for multipartite entanglement

We study the characterization of multipartite entanglement for the random states of an $n$-qbit system. Unable to solve the problem exactly we generalize it, changing complex numbers into real vectors with $N_c$ components (the original problem is recovered for $N_c=2$). Studying the leading diagrams in the large-$N_c$ approximation, we unearth the presence of a phase transition and, in an explicit example, show that the so-called entanglement frustration disappears in the large-$N_c$ limit.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figure

Cancerogenic parasites in veterinary medicine: a narrative literature review

Parasite infection is one of the many environmental factors that can significantly contribute to carcinogenesis and is already known to be associated with a variety of malignancies in both human and veterinary medicine. However, the actual number of cancerogenic parasites and their relationship to tumor development is far from being fully understood, especially in veterinary medicine. Thus, the aim of this review is to investigate parasite-related cancers in domestic and wild animals and their burden in veterinary oncology. Spontaneous neoplasia with ascertained or putative parasite etiology in domestic and wild animals will be reviewed, and the multifarious mechanisms of protozoan and metazoan cancer induction will be discussed

A commercial macroalgae extract in a plant-protein rich diet diminished saturated fatty acids of Oncorhynchus mykiss Walbaum fillets

Seaweeds are considered novel feed ingredients, nutraceutical compounds and source of pigments and proteins. They appear to possess bioactive properties, such as hypolipidemic, antioxidant and immune-stimulative actions; furthermore, their proteins are considered just as nutritious as terrestrial vegetables. In the present work, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss Walbaum) was fed for 95 days with three diets: a fishmeal-based positive control diet (C+), a vegetable protein-based negative control diet (C−) and a diet similar to C − where 5% of soybean concentrate was replaced by a commercial blend of seaweeds (T). The monitored parameters were fish performance, physical and marketable characteristics, fillet oxidative status and fatty acid content. The estimated indices of enzyme activities involved in lipid metabolism were calculated. Fish performances were reduced in C − and T fish; C − and T fillet fatty acid (FA) profiles globally showed the same pattern and were distinct from C+, i.e. with a lower content of polyunsaturated FAs and a higher content of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated n6 FAs; contrarywise, saturated FAs were significantly lower in T group in comparison to the other two groups (p <.01). The estimated indices of enzyme activity highlighted differences between dietary groups; desaturase activities of C18 and n3 FAs were higher in T in comparison to C− (p <.001). A slight impoverishment of antioxidant activity was found in T compared to C + group. Dietary seaweeds seemed to be capable of influencing fillet FA composition as well as the activity of enzymes related to lipid metabolism. Further studies in this regard are encouraged.Highlights Seaweeds are novel feed ingredients with nutraceutical properties Saturated fatty acids of rainbow trout fillets were lowered by seaweed inclusion in the diet Estimated desaturase activities of C18 and n3 fatty acids were higher in seaweed-fed trout

Analysis of General Practitioners’ Attitudes and Beliefs about Psychological Intervention and the Medicine-Psychology Relationship in Primary Care: Toward a New Comprehensive Approach to Primary Health Care

The biopsychosocial paradigm is a model of care that has been proposed in order to improve the effectiveness of health care by promoting collaboration between different professions and disciplines. However, its application still faces several issues. A quantitative-qualitative survey was conducted on a sample of general practitioners (GPs) from Milan, Italy, to investigate their attitudes and beliefs regarding the role of the psychologist, the approach adopted to manage psychological diseases, and their experiences of collaboration with psychologists. The results show a partial view of the psychologist’s profession that limits the potential of integration between medicine and psychology in primary care. GPs recognized that many patients (66%) would often benefit from psychological intervention, but only in a few cases (9%) were these patients regularly referred to a psychologist. Furthermore, the referral represents an almost exclusive form of collaboration present in the opinions of GPs. Only 8% of GPs would consider the joint and integrated work of the psychologist and doctor useful within the primary health care setting. This vision of the role of psychologists among GPs represents a constraint in implementing a comprehensive primary health care approach, as advocated by the World Health Organization

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) powder as dietary supplementation in rabbit: life performances, carcass characteristics and meat quality

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of dietary Zingiber officinale Roscoe (ginger) powder on rabbit productive performances, meat quality and shelf-life of raw and cooked meat. Ninety hybrid rabbits of 60 days old were fed three different diets: basal diet (control, C), basal diet supplemented by 4 g of ginger powder on 100 g of feed (G4) and basal diet supplemented by 8 g of ginger powder on 100 g of feed (G8) (3.6 and 7.2 g/100 g of dry matter for G4 and G8, respectively). Live weight, average daily gain and feed intake were recorded. Ten rabbits of each group were slaughtered at 90 days of age and meat quality was assessed during seven days of storage at 4 °C. Live performance and slaughter traits did not show any significant differences. Dietary ginger powder induced modification in pH of raw samples and in colour indexes of both raw and cooked meat. Lipid oxidation of raw samples was delayed in time by ginger feed addition even if no modification was highlighted in antioxidant capacity. Ginger powder could be a potential supplementation in diet of rabbits for increasing meat shelf-life

Integration of amorphous silicon balanced photodiodes and thin film heaters for biosensing application

This work presents the development and testing of an integrated system for on-chip detection of thermochemiluminescent biomolecules. The activation energy of the reaction is provided by a transparent structure of thin film heaters deposited on one side of a glass substrate. Light, passing through the substrate, reaches an array of amorphous silicon differential structure deposited on the opposite side of the glass substrate. The structure is designed to perform differential current measurements between a light- shielded diode, whose current is sensitive only to temperature, and a photosensor, sensitive to both incident light and temperature. The device therefore balances the thermal variations of the photodiode current and reduces the dark-current noise. These features make the presented system very appealing as highly miniaturized micro-analytical devices for biosensing applications