Pasta consumption and connected dietary habits: Associations with glucose control, adiposity measures, and cardiovascular risk factors in people with type 2 diabetes—TOSCA.IT study

Background: Pasta is a refined carbohydrate with a low glycemic index. Whether pasta shares the metabolic advantages of other low glycemic index foods has not really been investigated. The aim of this study is to document, in people with type-2 diabetes, the consumption of pasta, the connected dietary habits, and the association with glucose control, measures of adiposity, and major cardiovascular risk factors. Methods: We studied 2562 participants. The dietary habits were assessed with the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) questionnaire. Sex-specific quartiles of pasta consumption were created in order to explore the study aims. Results: A higher pasta consumption was associated with a lower intake of proteins, total and saturated fat, cholesterol, added sugar, and fiber. Glucose control, body mass index, prevalence of obesity, and visceral obesity were not significantly different across the quartiles of pasta intake. No relation was found with LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, but there was an inverse relation with HDL-cholesterol. Systolic blood pressure increased with pasta consumption; but this relation was not confirmed after correction for confounders. Conclusions: In people with type-2 diabetes, the consumption of pasta, within the limits recommended for total carbohydrates intake, is not associated with worsening of glucose control, measures of adiposity, and major cardiovascular risk factors

Covid-19 and diabetes mellitus: unveiling the interaction of two pandemics

A novel RNA betacoronavirus causing coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has now been declared pandemic disease by WHO. Guo et al published the first report of biochemical features in patients with diabetes and the further risk that this disease can determine to the progression of Covid-19. Among different cytokines found significantly higher in patients with diabetes compared to those without, Interleukin-6 (IL-6), which is already increased in conditions of chronic inflammation, may play a more deleterious role in Covid-19 infection. Targeting the overexpression of Il-6 effects with a monoclonal antibody against IL-6 receptor or using Janus Kinase inhibitors may be particularly helpful for treatment of Covid-19 pneumonia in diabetes

Dietary Fat, Sugar Consumption, and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Patients With Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is associated with obesity and, indirectly, with unhealthy diet. The role of dietary components in HFpEF is, however, largely unknown. In this study, the authors showed that in obese HFpEF patients, consumption of unsaturated fatty acids (UFA), was associated with better cardiorespiratory fitness, and UFA consumption correlated with better diastolic function and with greater fat-free mass. Similarly, mice fed with a high-fat diet rich in UFA and low in sugars had preserved myocardial function and reduced weight gain. Randomized clinical trials increasing dietary UFA consumption and reducing sugar consumption are warranted to confirm and expand our findings

n-XYTER: A CMOS read-out ASIC for a new generation of high rate multichannel counting mode neutron detectors

For a new generation of 2-D neutron detectors developed in the framework of the EU NMI3 project DETNI [1], the 128-channel frontend chip n-XYTER has been designed. To facilitate the reconstruction of single neutron incidence points, the chip has to provide a spatial coordinate (represented by the channel number), as well as time stamp and amplitude information to match the data of x- and y-coordinates. While the random nature of the input signals calls for self-triggered operation of the chip, on-chip derandomisation and sparsi cation is required to exploit the enormous rate capability of these detectors ( 4 106cm2s1). The chosen architecture implements a preampli er driving two shapers with di erent time constants per channel. The faster shaper drives a single-pulse discriminator with subsequent time-walk compensation. The output of this circuit is used to latch a 14-bit time stamp with a 2 ns resolution and to enable a peak detector circuit fed by the slower shaper branch. The analogue output of the peak detector as well as the time stamp are stored in a 4-stage FIFO for derandomisation. The readout of these FIFOs is accomplished by a token-ring based multiplexer working at 32 MHz, which accounts for further derandomisation, sparsi cation and dynamic bandwidth distribution. The chip was submitted for manufacturing in AMS's C35B4M3 0.35µm CMOS technology in June 2006

‘Il limite che mi conteneva nell’ordine’. Emilio Cecchi ‘odeporico’ fra le ere: Messico (1932)

Emilio Cecchi (1884-1966) reached the United States in August 1930 as a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. At this occasion, he visited Mexico, passing through Arizona and New Mexico. Out of this experience, Messico (1932) was born. The book is the author’s first literary reportage: a collection of prose texts that had previously been published in the Milanese newspaper Corriere della Sera. This article focuses precisely on the transition from the essay form, which the author had successfully experimented with in his first collection, Pesci rossi (1920), to the literary reportage. It investigates some of the (inter)textual and conceptual characteristics of Messico, as a result of this transition. To begin with, we will look at the influence of Henri Bergson’s theories on time; we will then move on to the importance that essays on film montage had on the prose and structure of Messico; in particular, we will consider the writings of Sergei Michajlovič Ejzenštejn, whom Cecchi knew from his earliest translations. We will then conclude with a reflection on the influence that Carlo Cattaneo, with his essay Gli antichi messicani, had on Cecchi (and on Messico) in terms of method and style