Search results for " Sensitivity"

Enhanced glucose clearance and insulin sensitivity in fetuin-deficient mice

2001

Effect of The Gluten-Free Diet on Quality of Life, Gastrointestinal Symptoms and Immune System in Patients with Fibromyalgia and Non-Celiac Wheat Sen…

2021

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a clinical syndrome characterized by chronic pain. FM patients complain hyperalgesia and allodynia and they are frequently affected by Non Celiac Wheat Sensitivity (NCWS), a condition where gastrointestinal and extraintestinal symptoms are triggered by gluten and/or wheat ingestion. The gluten-free diet (GFD) impact was evaluated on fibromyalgia-related and gastrointestinal symptoms, health-related quality of life and immune response of patients with both FM and NCWS in order to detect a possible pathogenetic role of wheat/gluten in the triggering of the inflammatory process. Peripheral blood from 8 FM patients, 10 FM and NCWS patients (FM+NCWS patients), 13 NCWS patien…

Inhalable polymer-glycerosomes as safe and effective carriers for rifampicin delivery to the lungs

2016

Rifampicin loaded glycerosomes, vesicles composed of phospholipids, glycerol and water, were combined with trimethyl chitosan chloride (TMC) to prepare TMC-glycerosomes or, alternatively, with sodium hyaluronate (HY) to obtain HY-glycerosomes. These new hybrid nanovesicles were tested as carriers for pulmonary delivery of rifampicin. Glycerosomes without polymers were also prepared and characterized. All vesicles were similar: they were spherical, multilamellar and able to incorporate good amount of rifampicin (EE%∼55%). The addition of the polymers to the formulations allowed an increase of mean diameter. All the glycerosomes, in particular HY-glycerosomes, were able to deliver the drug to…

Chemical composition and biological activity of Salvia verbenaca essential oil

2011

Salvia verbenaca L. (syn. S. minore) is a perennial herb known in the traditional medicine of Sicily as “spaccapetri” and is used to resolve cases of kidney stones, chewing the fresh leaves or in decoction. The chemical composition of the essential oil obtained from aerial parts of S. verbenaca collected in Piano Battaglia (Sicily) on July 2009, was analyzed by GC and GC-MS. The oil was strongly characterized by fatty acids (39.5%) and carbonylic compounds (21.2%), with hexadecanoic acid (23.1%), ( Z)-9-octadecenoic acid (11.1%) and benzaldehyde (7.3%) as the main constituents. The in vitro activity of the essential oil against some microorganisms in comparison with chloramphenicol by the …

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

2017

Spinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, {\it narrow-band} analyses methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known …

Inter-laboratory validation of procedures for measuring 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine/8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2’-deoxyguanosine in DNA.

2002

The aim of ESCODD, a European Commission funded Concerted Action, is to improve the precision and accuracy of methods for measuring 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine (8-oxoGua) or the nucleoside (8-oxodG). On two occasions, participating laboratories received samples of different concentrations of 8-oxodG for analysis. About half the results returned (for 8-oxodG) were within 20% of the median values. Coefficients of variation (for three identical samples) were commonly around 10%. A sample of calf thymus DNA was sent, dry, to all laboratories. Analysis of 8-oxoGua/8-oxodG in this sample was a test of hydrolysis methods. Almost half the reported results were within 20% of the median value, and half …

Sourdough Fermentation Degrades Wheat Alpha-Amylase/Trypsin Inhibitor (ATI) and Reduces Pro-Inflammatory Activity

2020

The ingestion of gluten-containing foods can cause wheat-related disorders in up to 15% of wheat consuming populations. Besides the role of gluten, &alpha

The role of freshwater copepods in the environmental risk assessment of caffeine and propranolol mixtures in the surface water bodies of Spain

2019

In this study we aimed at assessing: (i) the environmental risk posed by mixtures of caffeine and propranolol to the freshwater ecosystems of Spain; (ii) the sensitivity of freshwater copepod species to the two compounds; (iii) if the toxicity of caffeine and propranolol to freshwater copepods contributes to the environmental risk posed by the two compounds in the freshwater bodies of Spain. The environmental risk was computed as the ratio of MECs (i.e. the measured environmental concentrations) to PNECs (i.e. the respective predicted no-effect concentrations). The effects of caffeine and propranolol on the freshwater cyclopoid Diacyclops crassicaudis crassicaudis were tested both individua…

Bayesian correlated models for assessing the prevalence of viruses in organic and non-organic agroecosystems

2017

Cultivation of horticultural species under organic management has increased in importance in recent years. However, the sustainability of this new production method needs to be supported by scientific research, especially in the field of virology. We studied the prevalence of three important virus diseases in agroecosystems with regard to its management system: organic versus non-organic, with and without greenhouse. Prevalence was assessed by means of a Bayesian correlated binary model which connects the risk of infection of each virus within the same plot and was defined in terms of a logit generalized linear mixed model (GLMM). Model robustness was checked through a sensitivity analysis …

Comparing local strategies and practices: recollections from two qualitative cross-national research projects

2011

The article is based on methodological reflections and recollections from two qualitative cross-national research projects, one of them comparing Finland and Scotland, and the other one Scotland and Spain. One of them was a case-oriented study of local regeneration strategies in two cities, while the other one used an ethnographic approach for the study of local practices on maternity and child healthcare services. The article is based on the authors’ dialogue and it contributes to the discussion about the value of a qualitative approach in cross-national comparisons and its place in the field of comparative research. It points at its advantages in enabling the analysis of societies and th…