Search results for "Sound"

Comparative Chemical Composition and Bioactivity of Opuntia ficus‐indica Sanguigna and Surfarina Seed Oils Obtained by Traditional and Ultrasound‐Ass…

2018

This study investigates the seed oils obtained from two different varieties of Opuntia ficus-indica (Sanguigna and Surfarina) growing in Sicily, Italy. Soxhlet and ultrasound-assisted extraction procedures are used to obtain the seed oils. The fatty acid profile, γ-tocopherols, carotenoid content, and the bioactivity in terms of the antioxidant effects (using ABTS, DPPH, FRAP, and β-carotene bleaching tests), and carbohydrate-hydrolysing enzyme inhibitory activity (α-amylase and α-glucosidase) are determined. The extraction procedure does not significantly affect the fatty acid composition of the oil, but it does affect the tocopherol and carotenoid contents, as well as the antioxidant and …

Urban upbringing and childhood respiratory and allergic conditions: A multi-country holistic study

2018

Objective: We integratively assessed the effect of different indoor and outdoor environmental exposures early in life on respiratory and allergic health conditions among children from (sub-) urban areas. Methods: This study included children participating in four ongoing European birth cohorts located in three different geographical regions: INMA (Spain), LISAplus (Germany), GINIplus (Germany) and BAMSE (Sweden). Wheezing, bronchitis, asthma and allergic rhinitis throughout childhood were assessed using parental-completed questionnaires. We designed “environmental scores” corresponding to different indoor, green- and grey-related exposures (main analysis, a-priori-approach). Cohort-specific…

Coronary Artery Fistula in Down Syndrome: A Hidden Association

2017

Cytokine profile of breast cell lines after different radiation doses

2017

Purpose: Ionizing radiation (IR) treatment activates inflammatory processes causing the release of a great amount of molecules able to affect the cell survival. The aim of this study was to analyze the cytokine signature of conditioned medium produced by non-tumorigenic mammary epithelial cell line MCF10A, as well as MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines, after single high doses of IR in order to understand their role in high radiation response. Materials and methods: We performed a cytokine profile of irradiated conditioned media of MCF10A, MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines treated with 9 or 23 Gy, by Luminex and ELISA analyses. Results: Overall, our results show that both 9 Gy and 23 …

Somatosensory Brain Function and Gray Matter Regional Volumes Differ According to Exercise History : Evidence from Monozygotic Twins

2017

Associations between long-term physical activity and cortical function and brain structure are poorly known. Our aim was to assess whether brain functional and/or structural modulation associated with long-term physical activity is detectable using a discordant monozygotic male twin pair design. Nine monozygotic male twin pairs were carefully selected for an intrapair difference in their leisure-time physical activity of at least three years duration (mean age 34 ± 1 years). We registered somatosensory mismatch response (SMMR) in EEG to electrical stimulation of fingers and whole brain MR images. We obtained exercise history and measured physical fitness and body composition. Equivalent ele…

Vitamin D Status and the Relationship with Bone Fragility Fractures in HIV-Infected Patients: A Case Control Study

2018

HIV-infected patients show high risk of fracture. The aims of our study were to determine the prevalence of vertebral fractures (VFs) and their associations with vitamin D in HIV patients. 100 patients with HIV infection and 100 healthy age-and sex-matched controls were studied. Bone mineral density was measured by quantitative ultrasound at the non-dominant heel. Serum osteocalcin and C-terminal telopeptide of collagen type 1 served as bone turnover markers. Bone ultrasound measurements were significantly lower in patients compared with controls (Stiffness Index (SI): 80.58 ± 19.95% vs. 93.80 ± 7.10%, respectively, p < 0.001). VFs were found in 16 patients and in 2 controls. HIV patie…

Is laterality of congenital diaphragmatic hernia a reliable prognostic factor? French national cohort study.

2020

International audience; Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess whether the laterality of congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) was a prognostic factor for neonatal survival.Methods : This was a cohort study using the French national database of the Reference Center for Diaphragmatic Hernias. The principal endpoint was survival after hospitalization in intensive care.We made a comparative study between right CDH and left CDH by univariate and multivariate analysis. Terminations and stillbirths were excluded from analyses of neonatal outcomes.Results: A total of 506 CDH were included with 67 (13%) right CDH and 439 left CDH (87%). Rate of survival was 49% for right CDH and 74% …

Passive exposure to speech sounds induces long-term memory representations in the auditory cortex of adult rats

2016

AbstractExperience-induced changes in the functioning of the auditory cortex are prominent in early life, especially during a critical period. Although auditory perceptual learning takes place automatically during this critical period, it is thought to require active training in later life. Previous studies demonstrated rapid changes in single-cell responses of anesthetized adult animals while exposed to sounds presented in a statistical learning paradigm. However, whether passive exposure to sounds can form long-term memory representations remains to be demonstrated. To investigate this issue, we first exposed adult rats to human speech sounds for 3 consecutive days, 12 h/d. Two groups of …

The effect of silent gaps on temporal weights in loudness judgments

2020

Abstract Human loudness judgments of time-varying sounds show a non-uniform temporal weighting pattern with increased weights at the beginning of a sound. Four experiments were conducted to investigate whether this primacy effect reoccurs after a silent gap of an appropriate duration that is inserted into a level-fluctuating sound. In three of the experiments, contiguous sounds as well as sounds containing silent gaps of different durations were presented. The temporal loudness weights were compared between the sounds that contained a gap and the sounds without a gap. The data showed that with increasing gap duration an increasingly pronounced primacy effect reoccurred on the second sound p…

Effect of Low-Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound on Osteogenic Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells Commitment in a New Bone Scaffold

2017

Purpose Bone tissue engineering is helpful in finding alternatives to overcome surgery limitations. Bone growth and repair are under the control of biochemical and mechanical signals; therefore, in recent years several approaches to improve bone regeneration have been evaluated. Osteo-inductive biomaterials, stem cells, specific growth factors and biophysical stimuli are among those. The aim of the present study was to evaluate if low-intensity pulsed ultrasound stimulation (LIPUS) treatment would improve the colonization of an MgHA/Coll hybrid composite scaffold by human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and their osteogenic differentiation. LIPUS stimulation was applied to hMSCs cultured on …