Search results for "Chara"

Chemical–physical characteristics, polyphenolic content and total antioxidant activity of three Italian-grown pomegranate cultivars

2019

Background: In Mediterranean countries, there is an increasing demand for pomegranate fruits due to their antioxidant properties and nutritional values. The large diffusion of new genotypes and cultivars requires the knowledge of all fruit characteristics in connection with the cultivation area, to satisfy the market demand. This study seeks to determine the fruit quality attributes and nutraceutical values of three pomegranate cultivars (Wonderful, Acco and Kamel) grown in the Mediterranean climate. Methods: The fruits were evaluated for their main physico-chemical traits (weight, volume, height, width, thickness, total arils number, total arils weight, juiciness, fruit index, peel index a…

Quantitative and qualitative profiles of circulating monocytes may help identifying tuberculosis infection and disease stages

2017

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most important cause of morbidity and death among infectious diseases, and continuous efforts are needed to improve diagnostic tools and therapy. Previous published studies showed that the absolute cells number of monocytes or lymphocytes in peripheral blood or yet the ratio of monocytes to lymphocytes displayed the ability to predict the risk of active TB. In the present study we evaluated the ratio of monocytes to lymphocytes variation and we also analyzed the ex-vivo expression of CD64 on monocytes as tools to identify biomarkers for discriminating TB stages. Significant differences were found when the average ratio of monocytes to lymphocytes of active TB…

The genetic prehistory of the Baltic Sea region

2018

Correction: Nature communications 9 (2018), art. no. 1494 doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03872-y While the series of events that shaped the transition between foraging societies and food producers are well described for Central and Southern Europe, genetic evidence from Northern Europe surrounding the Baltic Sea is still sparse. Here, we report genome-wide DNA data from 38 ancient North Europeans ranging from similar to 9500 to 2200 years before present. Our analysis provides genetic evidence that hunter-gatherers settled Scandinavia via two routes. We reveal that the first Scandinavian farmers derive their ancestry from Anatolia 1000 years earlier than previously demonstrated. The range of Mesolit…

OFIP/KIAA0753 forms a complex with OFD1 and FOR20 at pericentriolar satellites and centrosomes and is mutated in one individual with oral-facial-digi…

2016

Item does not contain fulltext Oral-facial-digital (OFD) syndromes are rare heterogeneous disorders characterized by the association of abnormalities of the face, the oral cavity and the extremities, some due to mutations in proteins of the transition zone of the primary cilia or the closely associated distal end of centrioles. These two structures are essential for the formation of functional cilia, and for signaling events during development. We report here causal compound heterozygous mutations of KIAA0753/OFIP in a patient with an OFD VI syndrome. We show that the KIAA0753/OFIP protein, whose sequence is conserved in ciliated species, associates with centrosome/centriole and pericentrio…

2018

The expertise of humans for recognizing faces is largely based on holistic processing mechanism, a sophisticated cognitive process that develops with visual experience. The various visual features of a face are thus glued together and treated by the brain as a unique stimulus, facilitating robust recognition. Holistic processing is known to facilitate fine discrimination of highly similar visual stimuli, and involves specialized brain areas in humans and other primates. Although holistic processing is most typically employed with face stimuli, subjects can also learn to apply similar image analysis mechanisms when gaining expertise in discriminating novel visual objects, like becoming exper…

Rocker: Open source, easy-to-use tool for AUC and enrichment calculations and ROC visualization

2016

Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve with the calculation of area under curve (AUC) is a useful tool to evaluate the performance of biomedical and chemoinformatics data. For example, in virtual drug screening ROC curves are very often used to visualize the efficiency of the used application to separate active ligands from inactive molecules. Unfortunately, most of the available tools for ROC analysis are implemented into commercially available software packages, or are plugins in statistical software, which are not always the easiest to use. Here, we present Rocker, a simple ROC curve visualization tool that can be used for the generation of publication quality images. Rocker also…

Bioequivalence decision for nanoparticular iron complex drugs for parenteral administration based on their disposition

2017

Although parenteral iron products have been established to medicinal use decades before, their structure and pharmacokinetic properties are not fully characterized yet. With its' second reflection paper on intravenous iron-based nano-colloidal products (EMA/CHMP/SWP/620008/2012) the European Medicine Agency provided an extensive catalogue of methods for quality, non-clinical and pharmacokinetic studies for the comparison of nano-sized iron products to an originator (EMA, 2015). For iron distribution studies, the reflection paper assumed the use of rodents. In our tests, we used a turkey fetus model to investigate time dependent tissue concentrations in pharmacological and toxicological rele…

Predictive ability of the Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form (MNA-SF) in a free-living elderly population: a cross-sectional study

2017

Background Various scales have been used to perform a quick and first level nutritional assessment, and the MNA is one of the most used and recommended by experts in the elderly in all areas. This scale has a short form, the MNA-SF, revised and validated in 2009, which has two versions: the BMI-MNA-SF contains the first six items of the full scale including Body Mass Index while the CC-MNA-SF includes Calf Circumference instead of BMI. Objective To evaluate the predictive ability for nutritional status of the two versions of the MNA-SF against the MNA in free-living elderly in the province of Valencia. Methods Cross-sectional study of 660 free-living elderly in the province of Valencia sel…

A Guide to Applying the Sex-Gender Perspective to Nutritional Genomics

2018

Precision nutrition aims to make dietary recommendations of a more personalized nature possible, to optimize the prevention or delay of a disease and to improve health. Therefore, the characteristics (including sex) of an individual have to be taken into account as well as a series of omics markers. The results of nutritional genomics studies are crucial to generate the evidence needed so that precision nutrition can be applied. Although sex is one of the fundamental variables for making recommendations, at present, the nutritional genomics studies undertaken have not analyzed, systematically and with a gender perspective, the heterogeneity/homogeneity in gene-diet interactions on the diffe…

Dietary fiber and the glycemic index: a background paper for the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2012

2013

The aim of this study is to review recent data on dietary fiber (DF) and the glycemic index (GI), with special focus on studies from the Nordic countries regarding cardiometabolic risk factors, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and total mortality. In this study, recent guidelines and scientific background papers or updates on older reports on DF and GI published between 2000 and 2011 from the US, EU, WHO, and the World Cancer Research Fund were reviewed, as well as prospective cohort and intervention studies carried out in the Nordic countries. All of the reports support the role for fiber-rich foods and DF as an important part of a healthy diet. All of the five identified N…