BLIND: a set of semantic feature norms from the congenitally blind

Feature-based descriptions of concepts produced by subjects in a property generation task are widely used in cognitive science to develop empirically grounded concept representations and to study systematic trends in such repre- sentations. This article introduces BLIND, a collection of parallel semantic norms collected from a group of congenital- ly blind Italian subjects and comparable sighted subjects. The BLIND norms comprise descriptions of 50 nouns and 20 verbs. All the materials have been semantically annotated and translated into English, to make them easily accessible to the scientific community. The article also presents a pre- liminary analysis of the BLIND data that highlights both the large degree of overlap between the groups and interesting differences. The complete BLIND norms are freely available and can be downloaded from http://sesia.humnet.unipi.it/ blind_dat

Corrections to the Bethe lattice solution of Anderson localization

We study numerically Anderson localization on lattices that are tree-like except for the presence of one loop of varying length $L$. The resulting expressions allow us to compute corrections to the Bethe lattice solution on i) Random-Regular-Graph (RRG) of finite size $N$ and ii) euclidean lattices in finite dimension. In the first case we show that the $1/N$ corrections to to the average values of observables such as the typical density of states and the inverse participation ratio have prefactors that diverge exponentially approaching the critical point, which explains the puzzling observation that the numerical simulations on finite RRGs deviate spectacularly from the expected asymptotic behavior. In the second case our results, combined with the $M$-layer expansion, predict that corrections destroy the exotic critical behavior of the Bethe lattice solution in any finite dimension, strengthening the suggestion that the upper critical dimension of Anderson localization is infinity. This approach opens the way to the computation of non-mean-field critical exponents by resumming the series of diverging diagrams through the same recipes of the field-theoretical perturbative expansion

Investigation on the Loss of Taste and Smell and Consequent Psychological Effects: A Cross-Sectional Study on Healthcare Workers Who Contracted the COVID-19 Infection

The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between psychological distress and taste and sense of smell dysfunctions on healthcare workers (HCW) who contracted the COVID-19 infection in the midst of the disease outbreak. Reports of sudden loss of taste and smell which persist even after recovery from COVID-19 infection are increasingly recognized as critical symptoms for COVID-19 infections. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional study on COVID-19 HCW (N = 104) who adhered to respond to a phone semistructured interview addressing the virus symptoms and associated psychological distress. Data were collected from June to September 2020. Findings confirm the association between experienced taste/olfactory loss and emotional distress and suggest that dysfunctions of taste and smell correlate positively with anxiety and depression. Furthermore, their psychological impact tends to persist even after the recovery from the disease, suggesting the need for appropriate psychological interventions to prevent people from developing more serious or long-lasting psychological disorders and, as far as HCW, to reduce the risk of work-related distress

Medical physics challenges in clinical MR-guided radiotherapy

The integration of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for guidance in external beam radiotherapy has faced significant research and development efforts in recent years. The current availability of linear accelerators with an embedded MRI unit, providing volumetric imaging at excellent soft tissue contrast, is expected to provide novel possibilities in the implementation of image-guided adaptive radiotherapy (IGART) protocols. This study reviews open medical physics issues in MR-guided radiotherapy (MRgRT) implementation, with a focus on current approaches and on the potential for innovation in IGART.Daily imaging in MRgRT provides the ability to visualize the static anatomy, to capture internal tumor motion and to extract quantitative image features for treatment verification and monitoring. Those capabilities enable the use of treatment adaptation, with potential benefits in terms of personalized medicine. The use of online MRI requires dedicated efforts to perform accurate dose measurements and calculations, due to the presence of magnetic fields. Likewise, MRgRT requires dedicated quality assurance (QA) protocols for safe clinical implementation.Reaction to anatomical changes in MRgRT, as visualized on daily images, demands for treatment adaptation concepts, with stringent requirements in terms of fast and accurate validation before the treatment fraction can be delivered. This entails specific challenges in terms of treatment workflow optimization, QA, and verification of the expected delivered dose while the patient is in treatment position. Those challenges require specialized medical physics developments towards the aim of fully exploiting MRI capabilities. Conversely, the use of MRgRT allows for higher confidence in tumor targeting and organs-at-risk (OAR) sparing.The systematic use of MRgRT brings the possibility of leveraging IGART methods for the optimization of tumor targeting and quantitative treatment verification. Although several challenges exist, the intrinsic benefits of MRgRT will provide a deeper understanding of dose delivery effects on an individual basis, with the potential for further treatment personalization

Variability in genes regulating vitamin D metabolism is associated with vitamin D levels in type 2 diabetes

Mortality rate is increased in type 2 diabetes (T2D). Low vitamin D levels are associated with increased mortality risk in T2D. In the general population, genetic variants affecting vitamin D metabolism (DHCR7 rs12785878, CYP2R1 rs10741657, GC rs4588) have been associated with serum vitamin D. We studied the association of these variants with serum vitamin D in 2163 patients with T2D from the "Sapienza University Mortality and Morbidity Event Rate (SUMMER) study in diabetes". Measurements of serum vitamin D were centralised. Genotypes were obtained by Eco™ Real-Time PCR. Data were adjusted for gender, age, BMI, HbA1c, T2D therapy and sampling season. DHCR7 rs12785878 (p = 1 x 10-4) and GC rs4588 (p = 1 x 10-6) but not CYP2R1 rs10741657 (p = 0.31) were significantly associated with vitamin D levels. One unit of a weighted genotype risk score (GRS) was strongly associated with vitamin D levels (p = 1.1 x 10-11) and insufficiency (<30 ng/ml) (OR, 95%CI = 1.28, 1.16-1.41, p = 1.1 x 10-7). In conclusion, DHCR7 rs12785878 and GC rs4588, but not CYP2R1 rs10741657, are significantly associated with vitamin D levels. When the 3 variants were considered together as GRS, a strong association with vitamin D levels and vitamin D insufficiency was observed, thus providing robust evidence that genes involved in vitamin D metabolism modulate serum vitamin D in T2D

Isolation and characterization of extracellular vesicles secreted by pre-pubertal Sertoli cells

Recent studies have shown that extracellular vesicles (Ev) are an important mechanism of intercellular communication. In fact, Ev may contain proteins, DNA and mRNA. In particular, the latter play an important role in various biological processes including regulation and cell differentiation [1]. Sertoli cells (SC), previously considered as a mere “sustentacular cell”, were re-evalued in their functions and elevated to the rank of a “sentinel” in spermatogenesis due to production of trophic, differentiation and immune-modulators factors. Porcine pre-pubertal SC, isolated by our method [2], upon 48 hours culture, SC were stimulated with recombinant a-follitropin (rFSH) or FSH + testosterone (T) to evaluate both the presence in the medium of SC-derived Ev (SC-Ev) and SC-Ev content, in terms of mRNA for Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), inhibin B, Androgen Binding Protein (ABP) and FSH-receptor (FSH-r), by RT-PCR. SEM analysis highlighted the presence of SC-Nv in culture medium with mean diameters < 149 nm. We have also demonstrated, within the SC-Ev, significant increase in mRNA for AMH, ABP and FSH-r after both FSH and FSH+T stimulation, as compared to unstimulated SC-Ev. Differently from unstimulated SC-Ev, mRNA inhibin B levels were unchanged in FSH-stimulated SC-Ev, and increased after FSH+T stimulation. Interestingly, an opposite trend was shown in mRNA secretion, in control SC monolayer where, we demonstrated a decrease of AMH and FSH-r mRNA (after both stimulations with FSH or FSH + T) and an increase of inhibin B mRNA. On the contrary, mRNA ABP levels, in SC monolayer, decreased after stimulation with FSH but were unchanged in the presence of FSH+T. For the first time in the Literature, our work has shown the presence of SC-Nv containing AMH, inhibin B, ABP and FSH-r mRNA regulated by FSH with or without T. This result may suggest that other testicular cells could produce factors that, until now, were considered an exclusive SC secretory product.This work was supported by Mr.Gary Harlem (Altucell Inc. 3 Astor Court, Dix Hills, New York, NY) and Merck-Serono (London, UK)

Xenograft of free or microencapsulated Sertoli cells as a potential therapy for experimental Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Introduction and Aim. Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), one of the world’s most important, common and costly diseases associated with devastating complications, is caused by insulin resistance mainly due to a chronic inflammation of the visceral adipose tissue with local and systemic increases in proinflammatory cytokines and adipokines such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and IL-6. Sertoli cells (SC), considered mere mechanical cell aids, have been recently revisited with respect to their functional competence showing that these cells may provide immunomodulatory and trophic factors that are able to ameliorate survival and development of different cell types and constitute an immuno-protective shield for transplantation in many diseases such as Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. Aim of this work was to verify if the injection of free (subcutaneously) or microencapsulated (intraperitoneally) SC would reverse hyperglycaemia in db/db mice spontaneous T2DM Materials and Methods. Porcine pre-pubertal SC were isolated, according to previously established methods, after finely chopping the retrieval testicles, with double enzymatic digestion with Collagenase P and a mixed solution of trypsin and DNase I. SC enveloped in Barium alginate-based microcapsules (Ba-SCMCs) were prepared according to our method, by a mono air-jet device system. Free SC and Ba-SCMCs were examined as far as: (a) SC morphology by light microscopy; (b) SC viability, by fluorescence microscopy after staining with ethidium bromide and fluorescein diacetate; (c) SC in vitro function (α-aromatase activity and IGF-I secretion); (d) reversal of T2DM in spontaneous diabetes db/db mice, were concerned. Results. Ba-SCMCs showed excellent features in terms of size, morphology, sphericity and coalescence. SC viability, both in free and microencapsulated SC, was very high (over 90%). Very good α-aromatase activity and IGF-I secretion were associated with the examined SC preparations. Both subcutaneous free SC injection and intraperitoneal transplantation of Ba-SCMCs demonstrated a significant reduction, in 60% of the treated mice, of HbA1c (6.6 % vs 8.8 %) with a normalization of intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test. Conclusions. SC may be enveloped in Ba-SCMCs with no loss of their functional properties and morphology. Xenograft of SC, both free and enveloped in barium alginate microcapsules, induced an important reduction of HbA1c blood levels with a normalization of glucose tolerance test (IPGTT). This result might open new perspectives for the future therapy of human T2DM