Oxidative Stress and Low-Grade Inflammation in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: Controversies and New Insights

The pathophysiology of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is quite complex and different mechanisms could contribute to hyperandrogenism and anovulation, which are the main features of the syndrome. Obesity and insulin-resistance are claimed as the principal factors contributing to the clinical presentation; in normal weight PCOS either, increased visceral adipose tissue has been described. However, their role is still debated, as debated are the biochemical markers linked to obesity per se. Oxidative stress (OS) and low-grade inflammation (LGI) have recently been a matter of researcher attention; they can influence each other in a reciprocal vicious cycle. In this review, we summarize the main mechanism of radical generation and the link with LGI. Furthermore, we discuss papers in favor or against the role of obesity as the first pathogenetic factor, and show how OS itself, on the contrary, can induce obesity and insulin resistance; in particular, the role of GH-IGF-1 axis is highlighted. Finally, the possible consequences on vitamin D synthesis and activation on the immune system are briefly discussed. This review intends to underline the key role of oxidative stress and low-grade inflammation in the physiopathology of PCOS, they can cause or worsen obesity, insulin-resistance, vitamin D deficiency, and immune dyscrasia, suggesting an inverse interaction to what is usually considered.     

On regular drawn symbolic picture languages

Drawn symbolic pictures are an extension of drawn pictures obtained by associating a symbol from an alphabet to each point of the picture. In the paper we will address some new interesting issues derived from the introduction of the symbols and we will identify the conditions, which ensure the preservation of properties holding for drawn pictures in the setting of the proposed extension.     

Proinflammatory Interleukin-33 Induces Dichotomic Effects on Cell Proliferation in Normal Gastric Epithelium and Gastric Cancer

Interleukin (IL)-33 is a member of the interleukin (IL)-1 family of cytokines linked to the development of inflammatory conditions and cancer in the gastrointestinal tract. This study is designed to investigate whether IL-33 has a direct effect on human gastric epithelial cells (GES-1), the human gastric adenocarcinoma cell line (AGS), and the gastric carcinoma cell line (NCI-N87) by assessing its role in the regulation of cell proliferation, migration, cell cycle, and apoptosis. Cell cycle regulation was also determined in ex vivo gastric cancer samples obtained during endoscopy and surgical procedures. Cell lines and tissue samples underwent stimulation with rhIL-33. Proliferation was assessed by XTT and CFSE assays, migration by wound healing assay, and apoptosis by caspase 3/7 activity assay and annexin V assay. Cell cycle was analyzed by means of propidium iodine assay, and gene expression regulation was assessed by RT-PCR profiling. We found that IL-33 has an antiproliferative and proapoptotic effect on cancer cell lines, and it can stimulate proliferation and reduce apoptosis in normal epithelial cell lines. These effects were also confirmed by the analysis of cell cycle gene expression, which showed a reduced expression of pro-proliferative genes in cancer cells, particularly in genes involved in G0/G1 and G2/M checkpoints. These results were confirmed by gene expression analysis on bioptic and surgical specimens. The aforementioned results indicate that IL-33 may be involved in cell proliferation in an environment- and cell-type-dependent manner.     

Minimization of a Detail-Preserving Regularization Functional for Impulse Noise Removal

Recently, a powerful two-phase method for restoring images corrupted with high level impulse noise has been developed. The main drawback of the method is the computational efficiency of the second phase which requires the minimization of a non-smooth objective functional. However, it was pointed out in (Chan et al. in Proc. ICIP 2005, pp. 125–128) that the non-smooth data-fitting term in the functional can be deleted since the restoration in the second phase is applied to noisy pixels only. In this paper, we study the analytic properties of the resulting new functional ℱ. We show that ℱ, which is defined in terms of edge-preserving potential functions φ _α , inherits many nice properties from φ _α , including the first and second order Lipschitz continuity, strong convexity, and positive definiteness of its Hessian. Moreover, we use these results to establish the convergence of optimization methods applied to ℱ. In particular, we prove the global convergence of some conjugate gradient-type methods and of a recently proposed low complexity quasi-Newton algorithm. Numerical experiments are given to illustrate the convergence and efficiency of the two methods.

Real-Time Path Generation and Obstacle Avoidance for Multirotors: A Novel Approach

Multirotors, among all aerial vehicles, are fundamental instruments in many situations, i.e. video recording of sport events, leisure, environmental monitoring before or after a disaster. In particular, in the context of environmental monitoring, the possibility of following a predetermined path while avoiding obstacles is extremely relevant. In this work, we propose a novel method for path definition in presence of obstacles, which describes a curve as the intersection of two surfaces. The planner, based on that path definition along with a Cascaded control architecture and utilizing a nonlinear control technique for both control loops (position and attitude), creates a framework to manipulate the multicopters’ behaviors. The method is demonstrated to be able to generate a safe path taking into account obstacles perceived in real-time and avoids collisions. These algorithms are embedded in a software package to control the flight of a fully autonomous AscTec Firefly hexacopter with two cameras and onboard processing capabilities.     

H2S removal from biogas for fuelling MCFCs: New adsorbing materials

Cu and Zn modified 13X zeolites prepared by ion exchange or impregnation and activated carbons (ACs) treated with KOH, NaOH or Na₂CO₃ solutions were studied as H₂S sorbents for biogas purification for fuelling molten carbonate fuel cells. H₂S sorption was studied in a new experimental set-up equipped with a high sensitivity potentiometric system for the analysis of H₂S. Breakthrough curves were obtained at 40 °C with a fixed bed of 20 mg of the samples under a stream (6 L h⁻¹) of 8 ppm H₂S/He mixture. The adsorption properties of 13X zeolite improved with addition of Cu or Zn:Cu exchanged zeolite showed the best performances with a breakthrough time of 580 min at 0.5 ppm H₂S, that is 12 times longer than the parent zeolite. In general, unmodified and modified ACs were more effective H₂S sorbents than zeolites. Treating ACs with NaOH, KOH, or Na₂CO₃ solutions improved the H₂S adsorption properties: AC treated with Na₂CO₃ was the most effective sorbent, showing a breakthrough time of 1222 min at 0.5 ppm, that is twice the time of the parent AC.     

Profiling selected phytochemicals and nutrients in different tissues of the multipurpose tree Moringa oleifera L., grown in Ghana

The purpose of this new study was to determine the types and levels of major phytochemicals (non-nutrients) and nutrients in the different tissues from vegetative and flowering Moringa oleifera L. an important multipurpose crop. Rhamnose and acetyl-rhamnose-substituted glucosinolates were found in all of the M. oleifera tissues with different profiles depending on the tissue. In addition the tissues of M. oleifera had a relatively complex flavonoid profile consisting of glucosides, rutinosides, malonylglucosides and traces of acetylglucosides of kaempferol, quercetin and isorhamnetin. Fatty acid profiling of the different tissues showed that leaves were rich in palmitic (16:0) and linolenic (18:3) acid whereas seeds were predominated by oleic acid (18:1). Roots were rich in palmitic and oleic acid, whereas stems and twigs predominately contained palmitic acid. Potassium, magnesium and calcium were the predominant minerals in all of the tissues. Low levels of selenium were detected only in whole seeds.     

Reforming of olive mill wastewater through a Pd-membrane reactor

This work investigates the exploitation of olive mill wastewater (OMW) for producing hydrogen in a membrane reformer.