Fever episodes in early life and the development of atopy in children with asthma

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The Oligocene mollusc types of Gaetano Rovereto from Santa Giustina and Sassello (NW Italy).

The present paper examines the type specimens of the bivalve and gastropod taxa described by Gaetano ROVERETO in the years 1897-1914 coming from the Oligocene rocks of Santa Giustina and Sassello areas (Molare Formation, Tertiary Piedmont Basin, Central Liguria, NW Italy). These taxa are part of the "Collezione BTP" (BTP Collection) housed at the Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell'Ambiente e della Vita - DISTAV - of the Universit\ue0 di Genova. The collecting sites reported in the ROVERETO's papers and indicated on labels have been reinvestigated in the field. 22 taxa (6 gastropods and 16 bivalves) are revised and re-documented; 6 have been recognized as younger synonyms of other species, the others are valid taxa. The majority of this fauna is restricted to the Oligocene time and to the Tertiary Piedmont Basin

Hepatic Steatosis and Thyroid Function Tests in Overweight and Obese Children

Objectives. Associations between thyroid function and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are unknown in childhood. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate in 402 consecutive overweight/obese children the association between thyroid function tests and hepatic steatosis as well as metabolic variables. Methods. Hepatic steatosis was diagnosed by ultrasound after exclusion of infectious and metabolic disorders. Fasting serum samples were taken for determination of thyroid function (TSH, FT4, and FT3), along with alanine aminotransferase (ALT), lipid profile, glucose, insulin, and insulin resistance (IR). Results. Eighty-eight children (21.9%) had TSH above the normal range (>4.0 mIU/L). FT3 and FT4 were within the reference intervals in all subjects. Elevated TSH was associated with increased odds of having hepatic steatosis (OR 2.10 (95% CI, 1.22–3.60)), hepatic steatosis with elevated ALT (2.42 (95% CI, 1.29–4.51)), hypertriglyceridemia, elevated total cholesterol, and IR as well as metabolic syndrome (considered as a single clinical entity), after adjustment for age, gender, pubertal status, and body mass index-SD score (or waist circumference). Conclusions. In overweight/obese children, elevated TSH concentration is a significant predictor of hepatic steatosis and lipid and glucose dysmetabolism, independently of the degree of total and visceral obesity

A method for gait events detection based on low spatial resolution pressure insoles data

The accurate identification of initial and final foot contacts is a crucial prerequisite for obtaining a reliable estimation of spatio-temporal parameters of gait. Well-accepted gold standard techniques in this field are force platforms and instrumented walkways, which provide a direct measure of the foot–ground reaction forces. Nonetheless, these tools are expensive, non-portable and restrict the analysis to laboratory settings. Instrumented insoles with a reduced number of pressure sensing elements might overcome these limitations, but a suitable method for gait events identification has not been adopted yet. The aim of this paper was to present and validate a method aiming at filling such void, as applied to a system including two insoles with 16 pressure sensing elements (element area = 310 mm2), sampling at 100 Hz. Gait events were identified exploiting the sensor redundancy and a cluster-based strategy. The method was tested in the laboratory against force platforms on nine healthy subjects for a total of 801 initial and final contacts. Initial and final contacts were detected with low average errors of (about 20 ms and 10 ms, respectively). Similarly, the errors in estimating stance duration and step duration averaged 20 ms and <10 ms, respectively. By selecting appropriate thresholds, the method may be easily applied to other pressure insoles featuring similar requirements

Exploring the Healthy Eye Microbiota Niche in a Multicenter Study

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Dietitians use and recommend dietary supplements: report of a survey

BACKGROUND: Dietary supplement use is common in the United States, with more than half of the population using such products. Nutrition authorities consistently advocate a "food first" approach to achieving nutritional adequacy but some, including the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association), also recognize that dietary supplements have a role to play in improving nutrient intake to support health and wellness. Surveys show that many health professionals use dietary supplements themselves and also recommend dietary supplements to their patients or clients. METHODS: As one component of a series of surveys of healthcare professionals (the "Life...supplemented" HCP Impact Studies), 300 registered dietitians were surveyed in 2009 regarding their personal use of dietary supplements and whether they recommend dietary supplements to their clients. Respondents were registered dietitians whose business involved seeing clients in a private practice or at a clinic. RESULTS: Seventy-four percent of the dietitians surveyed said they were regular users of dietary supplements, while 22% said they used dietary supplements occasionally or seasonally. The primary reasons for using dietary supplements were for bone health (58%), overall health and wellness (53%), and to fill nutrient gaps (42%). When asked if they "ever recommend dietary supplements to clients," 97% of the respondents said they did. The primary reasons were for bone health (70%), to fill nutrient gaps (67%), and overall health and wellness (49%). Eighty-seven percent of the dietitians agreed with the statement, "There are gaps in clients' diets that could effectively be addressed with dietary supplements." The dietitians surveyed said they followed healthy habits including eating a balanced diet (96%), managing stress (92%), visiting their own healthcare professional regularly (86%), exercising regularly (83%), maintaining a healthy weight (80%), and getting a good night's sleep (72%). Nearly all respondents (95%) expressed an interest in continuing education about dietary supplements on a variety of topics. CONCLUSIONS: Many dietitians, like other health professionals, use dietary supplements regularly as part of their own approach to a healthy diet and lifestyle. They also recommend dietary supplements to their clients or patients, to promote health

Identification of MOR-positive B cell as possible innovative biomarker (Mu lympho-marker) for chronic pain diagnosis in patients with fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis diseases

Fibromyalgia (FM) diagnosis follows the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria, based on clinical evaluation and written questionnaires without any objective diagnostic tool. The lack of specific biomarkers is a tragic aspect for FM and chronic pain diseases in general. Interestingly, the endogenous opioid system is close to the immune one because of the expression of opioid receptors on lymphocytes membrane. Here we analyzed the role of the Mu opioid receptor on B lymphocytes as a specific biomarker for FM and osteoarthritis (OA) patients. We enrolled three groups of females: FM patients, OA patients (chronic pain control group) and healthy subjects (pain-free negative control group). We collected blood samples to apply immunophenotyping analysis. Written tests were administrated for psychological analysis. Data were statistically analyzed. Final results showed that the percentage of Mu-positive B cells were statistically lower in FM and OA patients than in pain-free subjects. A low expression of Mu-positive B cell was not associated with the psychological characteristics investigated. In conclusion, here we propose the percentage of Mu-positive B cells as a biological marker for an objective diagnosis of chronic pain suffering patients, also contributing to the legitimacy of FM as a truly painful disease

Longitudinal study of Salmonella infection in four Italian farrow-to finish swine herds

A longitudinal study of Salmonella enterica infection was carried out in 4 Italian farrow-to-finish swine herds. In each herd 5 litters were randomly selected and in each litter 6 piglets ear tagged. Thus, on each farm 30 pigs were included in the study. Individual blood samples were collected for serologic examination at weaning from all piglets and in the same day from all sows 1n the farrowing unit. Piglets were bled again at approximately 60, 90, 150, 210 and 270 days of life with the last blood sample collected at slaughtering. In one herd, in which the duration of productive cycle was about 12 months, the last blood samples was collected at 350 days of life. 5 pen pooled faecal samples were collected from each herd for bacteriological examination with the same time schedule of blood samples. At slaughtering mesenteric lymph nodes were collected from each ear tagged pig. Sera-prevalence (cutoff S/P ratio 0,25) in sows varied from 93,8% to 100%. In all herds sera-prevalence in piglets showed a similar profile with complete decline of maternal antibodies at day 60 and clear sera-conversion between day 90 and day 150. The peak of sera-prevalence was observed between day 210 and day 270. Sera-prevalence at slaughtering varied from 66% to 100%. Salmonella was isolated from faecal samples in 3 out of 4 herds. No Salmonella was isolated from mesenteric lymph nodes at slaughter in 2 herds. Culture prevalence from mesenteric lymph nodes in the other herds was respectively 3,3% and 30%. This longitudinal study provides original information about epidemiological dynamics of Salmonella enterica infection in Italian swine herds in consideration of the typical longer fattening cycles

A lentiviral vector with a short troponin-I promoter for tracking cardiomyocyte differentiation of human embryonic stem cells

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Genome sequence analysis of a distinctive Italian infectious bursal disease virus.

ABSTRACT In a recent study, an emerging infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) genotype (ITA) was detected in IBDV-live vaccinated broilers without clinical signs of infectious bursal disease (IBD). VP2 sequence analysis showed that strains of the ITA genotype clustered separately from vaccine strains and from other IBDV reference strains, either classic or very virulent. In order to obtain a more exhaustive molecular characterization of the IBDV ITA genotype and speculate on its origin, genome sequencing of the field isolate IBDV/Italy/1829/2011, previously assigned to the ITA genotype, was performed, and the sequences obtained were compared to the currently available corresponding sequences. In addition, phylogenetic and recombination analyses were performed. Interestingly, multiple amino acid (AA) sequence alignments revealed that the IBDV/Italy/1829/2011 strain shared several AA residues with very virulent IBDV strains as well as some virulence markers, especially in the VP1 protein. Nevertheless, sequence analysis demonstrated the presence of several residues typical of IBDV strains at a low degree of virulence in the IBDV/Italy/1829/2011 strain. Although homologous recombination and reassortant phenomena may occur naturally among different IBDV strains, no evidence of those events was found in the genome of the IBDV/Italy/1829/2011 strain, which was confirmed to be a genetically distinctive IBDV genotype