Grape berry responses to sequential flooding and heatwave events: a physiological, transcriptional, and metabolic overview

Grapevine cultivation, such as the whole horticulture, is currently challenged by several factors, among which the extreme weather events occurring under the climate change scenario are the most relevant. Within this context, the present study aims at characterizing at the berry level the physiological response of Vitis vinifera cv. Sauvignon Blanc to sequential stresses simulated under a semi-controlled environment: flooding at bud-break followed by multiple summer stress (drought plus heatwave) occurring at pre-vèraison. Transcriptomic and metabolomic assessments were performed through RNASeq and NMR, respectively. A comprehensive hormone profiling was also carried out. Results pointed out a different response to the heatwave in the two situations. Flooding caused a developmental advance, determining a different physiological background in the berry, thus affecting its response to the summer stress at both transcriptional levels, with the upregulation of genes involved in oxidative stress responses, and metabolic level, with the increase in osmoprotectants, such as proline and other amino acids. In conclusion, sequential stress, including a flooding event at bud-break followed by a summer heatwave, may impact phenological development and berry ripening, with possible consequences on berry and wine quality. A berry physiological model is presented that may support the development of sustainable vineyard management solutions to improve the water use efficiency and adaptation capacity of actual viticultural systems to future scenario

Learning the Optimal Control of Coordinated Eye and Head Movements

Various optimality principles have been proposed to explain the characteristics of coordinated eye and head movements during visual orienting behavior. At the same time, researchers have suggested several neural models to underly the generation of saccades, but these do not include online learning as a mechanism of optimization. Here, we suggest an open-loop neural controller with a local adaptation mechanism that minimizes a proposed cost function. Simulations show that the characteristics of coordinated eye and head movements generated by this model match the experimental data in many aspects, including the relationship between amplitude, duration and peak velocity in head-restrained and the relative contribution of eye and head to the total gaze shift in head-free conditions. Our model is a first step towards bringing together an optimality principle and an incremental local learning mechanism into a unified control scheme for coordinated eye and head movements

Monkeys and Humans Share a Common Computation for Face/Voice Integration

Speech production involves the movement of the mouth and other regions of the face resulting in visual motion cues. These visual cues enhance intelligibility and detection of auditory speech. As such, face-to-face speech is fundamentally a multisensory phenomenon. If speech is fundamentally multisensory, it should be reflected in the evolution of vocal communication: similar behavioral effects should be observed in other primates. Old World monkeys share with humans vocal production biomechanics and communicate face-to-face with vocalizations. It is unknown, however, if they, too, combine faces and voices to enhance their perception of vocalizations. We show that they do: monkeys combine faces and voices in noisy environments to enhance their detection of vocalizations. Their behavior parallels that of humans performing an identical task. We explored what common computational mechanism(s) could explain the pattern of results we observed across species. Standard explanations or models such as the principle of inverse effectiveness and a “race” model failed to account for their behavior patterns. Conversely, a “superposition model”, positing the linear summation of activity patterns in response to visual and auditory components of vocalizations, served as a straightforward but powerful explanatory mechanism for the observed behaviors in both species. As such, it represents a putative homologous mechanism for integrating faces and voices across primates

Mineral Paraffins in olives and olives oils

Mineral paraffins are used as markers of contamination with mineral oils. Toxic effects are observed in Fisher 344 rats at concentrations of 0.01\u201320 mg kg1 bw, depending on the type of paraffins administered. Concerns arise about possible presence (in contaminated foods) of toxic aromatics and additives and for the ability of mineral paraffins to bioaccumulate also in human tissues. Olives and olive oils generally contain not detectable amounts of mineral paraffins, while all the olive oils analyzed were contaminated (6\u201330 mg kg1 of mineral paraffins). Contamination levels exceeding 100 mg kg1 were found in olive-pomace oils. Atmospheric fall-out and incorrect practices of pomace storage have been suggested to be the main sources of contamination. A conclusive proof of the mineral origin of the contamination was provided through hopane analysis

Contamination of vegetables oils with mineral oils [La contaminazione degli oli vegetali con oli minerali]

Mineral oils are complex mixtures of hydrocarbons (saturated and unsaturated) deriving from petroleum. Different products such as combustible oils, fuel oils, bases for lubricating oils, motor oils, hydraulic oils and purified mineral oils (food grade), are obtained from fractional distillation and further processing of petroleum. Toxicity of mineral oils depends on the molecular weight of the hydrocarbons and the refining degree. Raw mineral oils contain high amounts of aromatics and are classified as carcinogens to humans, meanwhile refined paraffins are responsible for adverse effects when administered to rats (F-344) at levels ranging from 0.01 to 20 mg/kg b.w. (Depending on the oil type and its viscosity). High contamination levels have been also found in human milk and adipose tissues. There are many possible sources of contamination for vegetable oils and we can not exclude a contribution by the environment. Among other possible sources we can remember: the lubricating oils used in the extraction plant, storage and transport in jute bags, transport in ship previously used to transport mineral oils, handling and storage of the raw matter (it is the case of pomace) under inappropriate conditions. Coupled LC-GC represents an optimal choice for determining the contamination: it allows to analyse a high number of samples per day, minimising sample preparation which is reduced to a simple sample dilution before injection. Except for extra virgin olive oils, which rarely result contaminated with levels above the detection limit, the different types of vegetable oils have a contamination level generally above 10 mg/kg. Among the different vegetable oils, pomace olive oils result to be the most contaminated (with amounts always higher than 100 mg/kg)