Grapevine performances in five area of Chianti Classico

The research was carried out in the ‘Chianti Classico’ area and it was part of the ‘Chianti Classico 2000’ research project. The performances ‘Sangiovese’ grapevine (clone ‘SSF-A548’) grafted on ‘1103P’ and ‘420A’ rootstocks, were evaluated during a six years period, on five experimental vineyards located in the Province of Florence and Siena. The vineyards were established at a density of 3500 plants per hectare, trained to horizontal spur cordon (m 0.7 from the ground) with 30000 buds per hectare. The main meteorological data were monitored by automatic stations and soil analysis was performed at the beginning of the trials. Vines were planted in a randomized block design with four or five replication according to the vineyard size and uniformity. During six consecutive years on 30 plants from each thesis were carried out the following observations: phenology earliness (budbreak, veraison), bud fertility, bunch weight, and yield and pruning weight per plant, must characteristics of the berries at harvest. Physical and chemical analysis of wines obtained from microvinification (made in 500 L containers), were also performed. The climatic differences resulted among the zones of the ‘Chianti Classico’ examined, had a significant effect on vine phenology also in relationship with altitude, which together to soil characteristics contributed to affect the agronomic behaviour of the three varieties, the must composition and the wine characteristics. Discriminant analysis allowed distinguishing some sites, whose differences can be ascribed to the territorial influence on the vegetative and productive activity of the grapevine, berry ripening and wine composition. Hierarchical influences due to clone ‘SSF-A548’ according to the site and year are presented

Clinical effects of Streptococcus salivarius K12 in hospitalized COVID-19 patients: results of a preliminary study

Anatomical and physiological considerations indicate that the oral cavity is a primary source of the lung microbiota community, and recent studies have shown that the microbiota in the lungs contributes to immunological homeostasis, potentially altering the organ’s susceptibility to viral infection, including SARS-CoV-2. It has been proposed that, in the case of viral infection, lung Gram-negative bacteria could promote the cytokine cascade with a better performance than a microbiota mainly constituted by Gram-positive bacteria. Recent observations also suggest that Prevotella-rich oral microbiotas would dominate the oral cavity of SARS-CoV-2-infected patients. In comparison, Streptococcus-rich microbiotas would dominate the oral cavity of healthy people. To verify if the modulation of the oral microbiota could have an impact on the current coronavirus disease, we administered for 14 days a well-recognized and oral-colonizing probiotic (S. salivarius K12) to hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The preliminary results of our randomized and controlled trial seem to prove the potential role of this oral strain in improving the course of the main markers of pathology, as well as its ability to apparently reduce the death rate from COVID-19. Although in a preliminary and only circumstantial way, our results seem to confirm the hypothesis of a direct involvement of the oral microbiota in the construction of a lung microbiota whose taxonomic structure could modulate the inflammatory processes generated at the pulmonary and systemic level by a viral infection

Quercetin as a possible complementary agent for early-stage COVID-19: concluding results of a randomized clinical trial

Background: Quercetin, a natural polyphenol with demonstrated broad-spectrum antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties, has been proposed as an adjuvant for early-stage coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. Objective: To explore the possible therapeutic effect of quercetin in outpatients with early-stage mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19. Methods: This was an open-label randomized controlled clinical trial conducted at the department of medicine, King Edward Medical University, Lahore, PK. Patients were randomized to receive either standard of care (SC) plus an oral quercetin supplement (500 mg Quercetin Phytosome®, 1st week, TDS: 2nd week, BDS) (n = 50, quercetin group) or SC alone (n = 50, control group). Results: After one week of treatment, patients in the quercetin group showed a speedy recovery from COVID-19 as compared to the control group, i.e., 34 patients (vs. 12 in the control group) tested negative for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (p = 0.0004), and 26 patients (vs. 12 in the control group) had their COVID-19-associated acute symptoms resolved (p = 0.0051). Patients in the quercetin group also showed a significant fall in the serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) mean values i.e., from 406.56 ± 183.92 to 257.74 ± 110.73 U/L, p = 0.0001. Quercetin was well-tolerated by all the 50 patients, and no side effects were reported. Conclusion: Our results, suggest the possible therapeutic role of quercetin in early-stage COVID-19, including speedy clearance of SARS-CoV-2, early resolution of the acute symptoms and modulation of the host’s hyperinflammatory response. Clinical Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov, identifier NCT04861298

Functional Conservation of the Drosophila gooseberry Gene and Its Evolutionary Alleles

The Drosophila Pax gene gooseberry (gsb) is required for development of the larval cuticle and CNS, survival to adulthood, and male fertility. These functions can be rescued in gsb mutants by two gsb evolutionary alleles, gsb-Prd and gsb-Pax3, which express the Drosophila Paired and mouse Pax3 proteins under the control of gooseberry cis-regulatory region. Therefore, both Paired and Pax3 proteins have conserved all the Gsb functions that are required for survival of embryos to fertile adults, despite the divergent primary sequences in their C-terminal halves. As gsb-Prd and gsb-Pax3 uncover a gsb function involved in male fertility, construction of evolutionary alleles may provide a powerful strategy to dissect hitherto unknown gene functions. Our results provide further evidence for the essential role of cis-regulatory regions in the functional diversification of duplicated genes during evolution

The Homeodomain Protein Defective Proventriculus Is Essential for Male Accessory Gland Development to Enhance Fecundity in Drosophila

The Drosophila male accessory gland has functions similar to those of the mammalian prostate gland and the seminal vesicle, and secretes accessory gland proteins into the seminal fluid. Each of the two lobes of the accessory gland is composed of two types of binucleate cell: about 1,000 main cells and 40 secondary cells. A well-known accessory gland protein, sex peptide, is secreted from the main cells and induces female postmating response to increase progeny production, whereas little is known about physiological significance of the secondary cells. The homeodomain transcriptional repressor Defective proventriculus (Dve) is strongly expressed in adult secondary cells, and its mutation resulted in loss of secondary cells, mononucleation of main cells, and reduced size of the accessory gland. dve mutant males had low fecundity despite the presence of sex peptide, and failed to induce the female postmating responses of increased egg laying and reduced sexual receptivity. RNAi-mediated dve knockdown males also had low fecundity with normally binucleate main cells. We provide the first evidence that secondary cells are crucial for male fecundity, and also that Dve activity is required for survival of the secondary cells. These findings provide new insights into a mechanism of fertility/fecundity

Secondo Convegno Nazionale della Societ\ue0 Italiana di Scienze Sensoriali : Atti dei LavoriMilano, 30 giugno – 1 luglio 2008

Over the last decade there has been a growing interest in sensory science in Italy. This has clearly resulted in an increase in the number of researchers engaged in this sector and the number of companies that exploit sensory evaluations for product innovation and enhancement and in quality control. In Italy, in the sphere of the valorisation of prestige foodstuffs there is an increasing sensitivity towards the adoption of strict methods for describing the sensory properties of the products and ascertaining compliance with defined sensory standards. The Societ\ue0 Italiana di Scienze Sensoriali has played a decisive role in activating and guiding this development. Pursuing this approach, in 2008 the Society organised the 2nd National Convention as an occasion for exchange among professionals working in the field of sensory science.Nel corso dell\u27ultimo decennio in Italia si \ue8 assistito a un crescente interesse per le scienze sensoriali. Di conseguenza \ue8 aumentato il numero di ricercatori impegnati in questo settore cos\uec come continuano a crescere le aziende che utilizzano le valutazioni sensoriali nell\u27innovazione e ottimizzazione di prodotto e nel controllo qualit\ue0. Nella valorizzazione delle produzioni alimentari di pregio del nostro Paese \ue8 sempre maggiore la sensibilit\ue0 verso l\u27adozione di metodi rigorosi nella descrizione delle propriet\ue0 sensoriali dei prodotti e nelle attivit\ue0 di verifica della conformit\ue0 a definiti standard sensoriali. La Societ\ue0 Italiana di Scienze Sensoriali ha svolto un ruolo determinante nell\u27attivare e guidare questo sviluppo. Per il 2008, in continuit\ue0 con l\u27attivit\ue0 svolta, la Societ\ue0 ha voluto organizzare il II Convegno Nazionale per un confronto fra tutti coloro che nel nostro Paese operano nel campo delle scienze sensoriali

Day and Night at the Museum: Intangible Computer Interfaces for Public Exhibitions

Computer technologies have been adopted in many different venues, including public exhibitions and museums, as they can easily support the exchange of natural interactions and provide unimaginable exploration tools of masterpieces and exhibits. This has led many to design and implement a plethora of different technologies for the detection, tracking and action recognition of visitors within a museum. Nonetheless, no single approach has been firmly accepted so far, as it typically suffers from the limitation of adopting separate techniques for detecting, tracking and recognizing the actions of visitors. The contribution of this paper is that of filling this gap: we propose a unifying methodology through which all of the abovementioned services can be handled within a museum. Furthermore, such methodology results being: (a) simple to implement, (b) non-invasive and (c) requiring minimal hardware resources. As significant evidence, we present the experimental results drawn from two relevant implementations: Mercator Atlas Robot exhibited at the Poggi Palace Museum of Bologna and Tortellino X-Perience at the World Expo held in Shanghai. Finally, we indicate how the presented approach can be extended to efficiently support any interaction with several visitors simultaneously