Humans and dolphins: Decline and fall of adult neurogenesis

Pre-clinical research is carried out on animal models, mostly laboratory rodents, with the ultimate aim of translating the acquired knowledge to humans. In the last decades, adult neurogenesis (AN) has been intensively studied since it is viewed as a tool for fostering brain plasticity, possibly repair. Yet, occurrence, location, and rate of AN vary among mammals: the capability for constitutive neuronal production is substantially reduced when comparing small-brained, short living (laboratory rodents) and large-brained, long-living species (humans, dolphins). Several difficulties concerning scarce availability of fresh tissues, technical limits and ethical concerns did contribute in delaying and diverting the achievement of the picture of neurogenic plasticity in large-brained mammals. Some reports appeared in the last few years, starting to shed more light on this issue. Despite technical limits, data from recent studies mostly converge to indicate that neurogenesis is vestigial, or possibly absent, in regions of the adult human brain where in rodents neuronal addition continues into adult life. Analyses carried out in dolphins, mammals devoid of olfaction, but descendant of ancestors provided with olfaction, has shown disappearance of neurogenesis in both neonatal and adult individuals. Heterogeneity in mammalian structural plasticity remains largely underestimated by scientists focusing their research in rodents. Comparative studies are the key to understand the function of AN and the possible translational significance of neuronal replacement in humans. Here, we summarize comparative studies on AN and discuss the evolutionary implications of variations on the recruitment of new neurons in different regions and different species

Genuine quantum and classical correlations in multipartite systems

Generalizing the quantifiers used to classify correlations in bipartite systems, we define genuine total, quantum, and classical correlations in multipartite systems. The measure we give is based on the use of relative entropy to quantify the "distance" between two density matrices. Moreover, we show that, for pure states of three qubits, both quantum and classical bipartite correlations obey a ladder ordering law fixed by two-body mutual informations, or, equivalently, by one-qubit entropies.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Evidence on the prevalence and geographic distribution of major cardiovascular risk factors in Italy

Objective: To assess the prevalence and geographic distribution of major cardiovascular risk factors in a large community-wide sample of the Italian population. Design: A cross-sectional survey. Standardized methods were used to collect and measure cardiovascular risk factors. Data were adjusted for survey weightings. Qualitative and quantitative variables were compared with parametric and non-parametric tests, as appropriate. Setting: Towns (n 193) across different Italian regions. Subjects: Unselected adults (n 24 213; 12 626 men; 11 587 women) aged 18–98 years (mean age 56·9 (sd 15·3) years), who volunteered to participate in a community-wide screening programme over a 2 d period in 2007. Results: Overall, the prevalence of major cardiovascular risk factors was: obesity, 22·7 % (women 18·9 %, men 26·1 %); overweight, 44·7 % (women 31·6 %, men 56·7 %); hypertension, 59·6 % (women 48·3 %, men 70·0 %); dyslipidaemia, 59·1 % (women 57·7 %, men 60·3 %); diabetes, 15·3 % (women 11·2 %, men 19·0 %) and smoking, 19·8 % (women 14·0 %, men 25·2 %). We found a high prevalence of unhealthy eating habits; fruit and vegetable consumption was below the recommended range in 60 % of the study population. Ninety per cent of the study population had more than one cardiovascular risk factor and 84 % had between two and five cardiovascular risk factors. There were differences among Italian macro-areas mainly for obesity, hypertension, dyslipidaemia and diabetes. Conclusions: The study provides alarming evidence on current prevalence data for major cardiovascular risk factors in a large sample of the Italian population. Particularly, obesity and hypertension represent a relevant public health problem. There is a pressing need for effective preventive health measures which must also take into account the differences among Italian macro-areas

Cultural Heritage conservation and communication by digital modeling tools. Case studies: minor architecture of the Thirties in the Turin area

Between the end of the twenties and the beginning of the World war two Turin, as the most of the Italian cities, was endowed by the fascist regime of many new buildings to guarantee its visibility and to control the territory: the fascist party main houses and the local ones. The style that was adopted for these constructions was inspired by the guide lines of the Modern movement which were spreading by a generation of architects as Le Corbusier, Gropius, Mendelsohn. At the end of the war many buildings were reconverted to several functions that led heavy transformations not respectful of the original worth, other were demolished. Today it's possible to rebuild those lost architectures in their primal format as it was created by their architects on paper (and in their mind). This process can guarantee the three-dimensional perception, the authenticity of the materials and the placement into the Turin urban tissue, using static and dynamic digital representation systems. The “three-dimensional re-drawing” of the projects, thought as an heuristic practice devoted to reveal the original idea of the project, inserts itself in a digital model of the urban and natural context as we can live it today, to simulate the perceptive effects that the building could stir up today. The modeling skills are the basis to product videos able to explore the relationship between the environment and “re-built architectures”, describing with the synthetic movie techniques, the main formal and perceptive roots. The model represents a scientific product that can be involved in a virtual archive of cultural goods to preserve the collective memory of the architectural and urban past image of Turin

Accounting for attitudes and perceptions influencing users' willingness to purchase Electric Vehicles through a Hybrid Choice Modeling approach based on Analytic Hierarchy Process

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Extraction methods and their influence on yield when extracting thermo-vacuum-modified chestnut wood

Improvements in the yield and solubility of chestnut wood extractives, by using different extraction methods and molybdenum catalysts as support, have rarely been reported in literature. Many studies focus on the different parts of trees, except for the chemical characteristics of the remaining extractives achieved from thermally modified (THM) chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill) wood. This research seeks to better understand the effects of extraction techniques and catalysts on the yield and solubility of extractives. GC-MS analysis of the chloroform soluble and insoluble fractions was also used. Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE) 110◦C, Soxhlet, and autoclave extraction techniques were used to obtain extractives from untreated and thermally modified (THM) chestnut wood (170◦C for 3 h). Ethanol/H2O, ethanol/toluene, and water were the solvents used for each technique. A polyoxometalate compound (H3PMo12O40 ) and MoO3 supported on silica were used as catalysts. The THM induced a change in the wood’s surface color (∆E = 21.5) and an increase in mass loss (5.9%), while the equilibrium moisture content (EMC) was reduced by 17.4% compared to the control wood. The yields of the extractives and their solubility were always higher in THM and mainly used ASE as the technique. GC-MS analysis of the extractives, without catalyst support, showed different results for each extraction technique and type of wood (untreated and THM). Ultimately, the amount of extractive compound dissolved in each solvent will differ, and the choice of extraction technique will depend on the intended final application of the extracted chemical product

Body composition and cardiovascular risk factors in pretransplant hemodialysis patients

BACKGROUND: Obesity, hyperlipemia and cardiovascular complications contribute to a significant proportion of morbidity and mortality of renal transplant patients and have negative effects on renal survival. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the main abnormalities in body composition and the prevalence of some cardiovascular risk factors in a population of hemodialyzed (HD) patients awaiting renal transplantation. METHODS: We studied 151 HD patients, all included in a waiting list for renal transplantation, 97 males and 54 females, with mean age 47.4+/-12 years. Patients were divided into three groups according to their body mass index (BMI) (kg/m2): 18.5 to 24.9 (normoweight, NW); 25.0 to 29.9 (overweight, OW); > or =30 (obese, OB). The body composition measurements were obtained the day after the mid-week HD session using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). RESULTS: We found that 47 patients were NW (31%), while 56 were OW (37%), and 48 were OB (32%). BIA-measured body cell mass was (BCM) significantly increased in the OW as compared with the NW group (P<0.001), but, of note, no significant difference was found in OB group in comparison with the OW. Total cholesterol and triglycerides plasma levels were significantly elevated in OW and OB patients with respect to NW (P<0.05) and an increased prevalence of diabetes was seen in OB patients (NW: 6%, OW: 5%, OB: 12%). CONCLUSIONS: These data show that a large proportion of patients awaiting renal transplant are overweight or obese and a consistent part of them have other cardiovascular risk factors associated. Furthermore, obese HD patients have a BCM lower than predicted on the basis of BMI and show an altered metabolic profile. A better understanding of the characteristics of patients included in the renal transplant waiting list is crucial in order to design prospective studies that aim to define the proper risk profile for the selection of patients

Hybrid synchronization in coupled ultracold atomic gases

We study the time evolution of two coupled many-body quantum systems, one of which is assumed to be Bose condensed. Specifically, we consider two ultracold atomic clouds each populating two localized single-particle states, i.e., a two-component bosonic Josephson junction. The cold atom cloud can retain its coherence when coupled to the condensate and displays synchronization with the latter, differing from usual entrainment. We term this effect among the ultracold and the condensed clouds as hybrid synchronization. The onset of synchronization, which we observe in the evolution of average properties of both gases when increasing their coupling, is found to be related to the many-body properties of the quantum gas, e.g., condensed fraction quantum fluctuations of the particle number differences. We discuss the effects of different initial preparations and the influence of unequal particle numbers for the two clouds, and we explore the dependence on the initial quantum state, e.g., coherent state, squeezed state, and Fock state, finding essentially the same phenomenology in all cases.This work was supported by China Scholarship Council, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 11104217, No. 11205121, and No. 11402199). We acknowledge also partial financial support from the MINECO (Spain) Grants No. FIS2011-24154, No. FIS2014-54672-P, and No. FIS2014-60343-P; the Generalitat de Catalunya Grant No. 2014SGR-401; and European Union project QuProCS (Grant No. 641277). B.J.-D. is supported by the Ramón y Cajal program.Peer Reviewe

COMPARISON RESULTS FOR SOLUTIONS OF PARABOLIC EQUATIONS WITH A SINGULAR POTENTIAL

We consider the solution u of the Cauchy-Dirichlet problem for a class of linear parabolic equations in which the coefficient of the zero order term could have a singularity at the origin of the type 1/|x|^2 . We prove that u can be compared “in the sense of rearrangements” with the solution v of a problem whose data are radially symmetric with respect to the space variable.We consider the solution u of the Cauchy-Dirichlet problem for a classof linear parabolic equations in which the coefficient of the zero order term could have a singularity at the origin of the type 1/|x|^2. We prove that u can be compared &ldquo;in the sense of rearrangements&rdquo; with the solution v of a problem whose data are radially symmetric with respect to the space variable