Dietary Vitamin E as a Protective Factor for Parkinson's Disease: Clinical and Experimental Evidence

Effective disease-modifying treatments are an urgent need for Parkinson's disease (PD). A putative successful strategy is to counteract oxidative stress, not only with synthetic compounds, but also with natural agents or dietary choices. Vitamin E, in particular, is a powerful antioxidant, commonly found in vegetables and other components of the diet. In this work, we performed a questionnaire based case-control study on 100 PD patients and 100 healthy controls. The analysis showed that a higher dietary intake of Vitamin E was inversely associated with PD occurrence independently from age and gender (OR = 1.022; 95% CI = 0.999–1.045; p < 0.05), though unrelated to clinical severity. Then, in order to provide a mechanistic explanation for such observation, we tested the effects of Vitamin E and other alimentary antioxidants in vitro, by utilizing the homozygous PTEN-induced kinase 1 knockout (PINK1−/−) mouse model of PD. PINK1−/− mice exhibit peculiar alterations of synaptic plasticity at corticostriatal synapses, consisting in the loss of both long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD), in the absence of overt neurodegeneration. Chronic administration of Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol and the water-soluble analog trolox) fully restored corticostriatal synaptic plasticity in PINK1−/− mice, suggestive of a specific protective action. Vitamin E might indeed compensate PINK1 haploinsufficiency and mitochondrial impairment, reverting some central steps of the pathogenic process. Altogether, both clinical and experimental findings suggest that Vitamin E could be a potential, useful agent for PD patients. These data, although preliminary, may encourage future confirmatory trials

The DEMO Water-Cooled Lead–Lithium Breeding Blanket: Design Status at the End of the Pre-Conceptual Design Phase

The Water-Cooled Lead–Lithium Breeding Blanket (WCLL BB) is one of the two blanket concept candidates to become the driver blanket of the EU-DEMO reactor. The design was enacted with a holistic approach. The influence that neutronics, thermal-hydraulics (TH), thermo-mechanics (TM) and magneto-hydro-dynamics (MHD) may have on the design were considered at the same time. This new approach allowed for the design team to create a WCLL BB layout that is able to comply with different foreseen requirements in terms of integration, tritium self-sufficiency, and TH and TM needs. In this paper, the rationale behind the design choices and the main characteristics of the WCLL BB needed for the EU-DEMO are reported and discussed. Finally, the main achievements reached during the pre-conceptual design phase and some remaining open issues to be further investigated in the upcoming conceptual design phase are reported as well

Design and Integration of the EU-DEMO Water-Cooled Lead Lithium Breeding Blanket

The water-cooled lead lithium breeding blanket (WCLL BB) is one of two BB candidate concepts to be chosen as the driver blanket of the EU-DEMO fusion reactor. Research activities carried out in the past decade, under the umbrella of the EUROfusion consortium, have allowed a quite advanced reactor architecture to be achieved. Moreover, significant efforts have been made in order to develop the WCLL BB pre-conceptual design following a holistic approach, identifying interfaces between components and systems while respecting a system engineering approach. This paper reports a description of the current WCLL BB architecture, focusing on the latest modifications in the BB reference layout aimed at evolving the design from its pre-conceptual version into a robust conceptual layout. In particular, the main rationale behind design choices and the BB’s overall performances are highlighted. The present paper also gives an overview of the integration between the BB and the different in-vessel systems interacting with it. In particular, interfaces with the tritium extraction and removal (TER) system and the primary heat transfer system (PHTS) are described. Attention is also paid to auxiliary systems devoted to heat the plasma, such as electron cyclotron heating (ECH). Indeed, the integration of this system in the BB will strongly impact the segment design since it envisages the introduction of significant cut-outs in the BB layout. A preliminary CAD model of the central outboard blanket (COB) segment housing the ECH cut-out has been set up and is reported in this paper. The chosen modeling strategy, adopted loads and boundary conditions, as well as obtained results, are reported in the paper and critically discussed

Eurofusion-DEMO Divertor - Cassette Design and Integration

The Eurofusion-DEMO design will complete the Pre Conceptual Design phase (PCD) with a PCD Gate, named G1, scheduled to take place in Q4 2020 that will focus on assessing the feasibility of the plant and its main components prior to entering into the Conceptual Design phase. In the paper first an overview is given of the Eurofusion-DEMO Divertor Assembly including design and interface description, systems and functional requirements, load specification, system classification, manufacturing procedures and cost estimate. Then critical issues are discussed and potential design solutions are proposed, e.g.:- Neutron material damage limits of the different (structural) materials present in the divertor assembly (as CuCrZr, Eurofer) and in the vacuum vessel (AISI 316 L(N)-IG);- Temperature hot spots in parts of the divertor assembly exposed to high nuclear heating and high heat radiation (from the plasma core or the separatrix) causing difficulties for active or passive cooling (e.g. cassette body structure, liner support structures, mechanical supports, divertor toroidal rails);- Arrangement and design of plasma-facing components and liner with pumping slot in the divertor cassette to enable pumping of exhaust gases from the lower port

Figurazioni sociali e trasfigurazioni testuali: il potere della scrittura-lettura sulla rifigurazione delle identità

La scrittura e la lettura influenzano e significano l'identità delle culture, in quanto le trasfigurazioni testuali, poetiche e, in particolare, narrative, arricchiscono le figurazioni sociali e co-modellano l'io analogo, metaforico, co-presente nell'ipseità del soggetto, la cui identità viene suggerita dalla personografia narrativa. Nel contributo vengono messi in relazione critica C. Lévi-Strauss, H.R. Jauss, N. Holland Norman, R. Girard e G. Flaubert