Whole Body Vibration Improves Brain and Musculoskeletal Health by Modulating the Expression of Tissue-Specific Markers: FNDC5 as a Key Regulator of Vibration Adaptations

Whole body vibration (WBV) is well known to exert beneficial effects on multiple tissues, improving synaptic transmission, muscle mass, bone quality, and reducing anxiety and depressive behavior. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are not yet fully understood, and organs and tissues may respond differently to the vibratory stimulus depending on multiple factors. Therefore, we investigated the WBV effects on the brain and musculoskeletal tissue of 4-month-old young mice, evaluating synaptic plasticity by electrophysiological recordings and tissue organization by histology and histomorphometric analysis. Specifically, WBV protocols were characterized by the same vibration frequency (45 Hz), but different in vibration exposure time (five series of 3 min for the B protocol and three series of 2 min and 30 s for the C protocol) and recovery time between two vibration sessions (1 min for the B protocol and 2 min and 30 s for the C protocol). In addition, immunohistochemistry was conducted to evaluate the expression of fibronectin type III domain-containing protein 5 (FNDC5), as well as that of tissue-specific markers, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in brain, myostatin in muscle and collagen I (COL-1) in bone. Our results suggest that the WBV effects depend closely on the type of protocol used and support the hypothesis that different organs or tissues have different susceptibility to vibration. Further studies will be needed to deepen our knowledge of physiological adaptations to vibration and develop customized WBV protocols to improve and preserve cognitive and motor functions.     

Combined Nano‐ and Micro‐Scale Topographic Cues for Engineered Vascular Constructs by Electrospinning and Imprinted Micro‐Patterns

The major cause of synthetic vessel failure is thrombus and neointima formation. To prevent these problems the creation of a continuous and elongated endothelium inside lumen vascular grafts might be a promising solution for tissue engineering. Different micro‐ and nano‐surface topographic cues including grooved micro‐patterns and electrospun fibers have been previously demonstrated to guide the uniform alignment of endothelial cells (ECs). Here, with a very simple and highly versatile approach we combined electrospinning with soft lithography to fabricate nanofibrous scaffolds with oriented fibers modulated by different micro‐grooved topographies. The effect of these scaffolds on the behavior of the ECs are analyzed, including their elongation, spreading, proliferation, and functioning using unpatterned random and aligned nanofibers (NFs) as controls. It is demonstrated that both aligned NFs and micro‐patterns effectively influence the cellular response, and that a proper combination of topographic parameters, exploiting the synergistic effects of micro‐scale and sub‐micrometer features, can promote EC elongation, allowing the creation of a confluent ECs monolayer in analogy with the natural endothelium as assessed by the positive expression of vinculin. Combining different micro‐ and nano‐topographic cues by complementary soft patterning and spinning technologies could open interesting perspectives for engineered vascular replacement constructions.     

Relational aggression, gender, and peer acceptance: Invariance across culture, stability over time, and concordance among informants.

It has been proposed that overt physical and verbal aggression are more prevalent among boys and that covert aggression in the context of interpersonal relationships is more typical of girls. The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend American research on this topic to Italy. Italian elementary school pupils (n?=?314) and their teachers provided nominations for aggression and prosocial behavior on 2 occasions within a single school year. Both peer and teacher nominations were highly stable, though there was very poor concordance between them. Peer nominations for both overt and relational aggression were linked to peer rejection. Contrary to expectations, boys scored higher than girls in both overt and relational aggression. Nevertheless, on the basis of the gender composition of extreme groups, the authors conclude that the distinction between overt and relational aggression is as useful in facilitating research on aggressiveness among girls in Italy as it is in the United States. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Geometric modules in animals' spatial representations: A test with chicks (Gallus gallus domesticus).

Recent work has shown that in place-finding tasks rats rely on the geometric relations between the goal object and the shape of the environment. We tested young chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) on similar tasks in a reference memory paradigm to determine whether differences exist between species in the ability to use geometric and nongeometric spatial information. The main findings were that chicks: (a) encoded and used both geometric and nongeometric (featural) information; (b) did not use the overall spatial arrangement of the features; (c) relied primarily on nongeometric cues when faced with contradictory information. Two mechanisms are evident in chicks' spatial representations: a metric frame for encoding the spatial arrangement of surfaces as surfaces and a cue-guidance system for encoding conspicuous landmarks near the target. The possibility of hierarchical organization and species differences in these two mechanisms are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Global and local processing of hierarchical visual stimuli in tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella).

Capuchin monkeys' (Cebus apella) relative accuracy in the processing of the global shape or the local features of hierarchical visual stimuli was assessed. Three experiments are presented featuring manipulations of the arrangement and the density of the local elements of the stimuli. The results showed a clear advantage for local level processing in this species, which is robust under manipulations of the density of the local elements of the stimuli. By contrast, the density of the component elements linearly affected accuracy in global processing. These findings, which support those from other studies in which a local superiority emerged in animals, challenge the generality of early claims concerning the adaptive value of global advantage in the processing of hierarchical visual patterns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Current technologies and new insights for the recovery of high valuable compounds from fruits by-products

The recovery of high valuable compounds from food waste is becoming a tighten issue in food processing. The large amount of non-edible residues produced by food industries causes pollution, difficulties in the management, and economic loss. The waste produced during the transformation of fruits includes a huge amount of materials such as peels, seeds, and bagasse, whose disposal usually represents a problem. Research over the past 20 years revealed that many food wastes could serve as a source of potentially valuable bioactive compounds, such as antioxidants and vitamins with increasing scientific interest thanks to their beneficial effects on human health. The challenge for the recovery of these compounds is to find the most appropriate and environment friendly extraction technique able to achieve the maximum extraction yield without compromising the stability of the extracted products. Based on this scenario, the aim of the current review is twofold. The first is to give a brief overview of the most important bioactive compounds occurring in fruit wastes. The second is to describe the pro and cons of the most up-to-dated innovative and environment friendly extraction technologies that can be an alternative to the classical solvent extraction procedures for the recovery of valuable compounds from fruit processing. Furthermore, a final section will take into account published findings on the combination of some of these technologies to increase the extracts yields of bioactives.     

Exploitation of Polyphenolic Extracts from Grape Marc as Natural Antioxidants by Encapsulation in Lipid-Based Nanodelivery Systems

Phenolic compounds were extracted from grape marc by means of high pressure and temperature extraction. In order to increase their dispersability in the aqueous phase, the polyphenolic extracts were encapsulated at a final concentration of 0.1 % (w/w) in nanoemulsion-based delivery systems, which were formulated with natural ingredients, using either a liquid (sunflower oil) or a solid (palm oil) lipid phase, as well as the combination of a hydrophilic and hydrophobic emulsifier, and were produced by high-pressure homogenization. The delivery systems were characterized in terms of physicochemical stability under accelerated ageing (storage at 4 °C, 30 °C, and 55 °C for 14 days), by recording the evolution of the mean droplet size, the creaming index as well as the UV–vis absorption spectra of the encapsulated polyphenols. The antioxidant activity of the encapsulated extracts was measured with two different chemical assays (FRAP and ORAC) and a cellular antioxidant assay. Sunflower oil-based nanoemulsions resulted to be the most physically and chemically stable, with no significant variation of the mean droplet size and no degradation of the encapsulated compounds under the different conditions tested. The FRAP and ORAC assays showed that the antioxidant compounds, when encapsulated, are as available as unencapsulated polyphenols in scavenging the peroxyl radicals (ORAC), but are less available in reducing the ferric tripyridyltriazine complexes (FRAP). Remarkably, the cellular antioxidant activity was significantly higher for the encapsulated grape marc polyphenols than for the unencapsulated ones, suggesting the fundamental role of the nanoemulsions in favoring the delivery through the biological membranes.     

Iodine Value and Fatty Acids Determination on Pig Fat Samples by FT-NIR Spectroscopy: Benefits of Variable Selection in the Perspective of Industrial Applications

In this work, FT-NIR spectroscopy was employed to determine iodine value (IV) and fatty acids (FA) content of pig fat samples, through the combined use of signal preprocessing, multivariate calibration, and variable selection methods. In particular, the main focus was on the use of variable selection methods, both in order to improve the predictive performance of the calibration models, and to identify relevant wavelengths that could be subsequently used for the development of simple, fast, and cheap hand-held devices, able to measure IV and FA content directly on the fat without the need of any sample pretreatment. Firstly, for each property of interest, partial least squares (PLS) multivariate calibration models were calculated considering the whole spectral range and testing different signal preprocessing methods. Then, once chosen the optimal signal preprocessing method, a two-step variable selection procedure was applied. In the first step, the interval-PLS variable selection algorithm was used to calculate a set of calibration models, whose outcomes were considered altogether in the second step, in order to select the optimal calibration model. The variable selection procedure allowed to lower the number of spectral variables retained by the model, and often led to an increase of the performance in prediction of the external test set samples.