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Hamamelis virginiana L. a rich source of both condensed and hydrolyzable tannins, utilized to treat dermatological disorders. Since no experimental and clinical data is available for its use as oral formulation in skin related disorders, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Hamaforton™ (Hamamelis virginiana extract) metabolites on gene dysregulation induced by ultraviolet A radiation in cultured human dermal fibroblasts. A combination of in vivo and ex vivo experimental designs has been exploited in order to take into account the polyphenol metabolic transformation that occurs in humans. 12 healthy volunteers received either a capsule of Hamaforton™ or a placebo in a randomized, blinded crossover trial. After Hamaforton™ ingestion, the kinetic of appearance of galloyl derivatives was measured in plasma. Then, in the ex vivo experiment, the serum isolated after supplementation was used as a source of Hamaforton™ metabolites to enrich the culture medium of dermal fibroblasts exposed to ultraviolet A radiation. Three different gallic acid metabolites (4-O-methyl gallic acid, 4-O-methyl gallic acid sulphate and trimethyl gallic acid glucuronide) were identified in volunteer plasma. While, ultraviolet A irradiation of dermal fibroblasts affected the expression of extracellular matrix genes, the presence of Hamaforton™ metabolites in the culture media did not affect the expression of most of those genes. However, the activation of the expression of 10 different genes involved in repair processes for the maintenance of skin integrity, suggest that the metabolites can play a role in damage recovery. To our knowledge, this is the first study that demonstrates the bioavailability of Hamaforton™ phenolic compounds, and the effects of its metabolites on cultured dermal fibroblast response to ultraviolet A irradiation.

Statistical learners are leading towards auto-epistemic logic, but is it the right way to progress in artificial intelligence (AI)? Ways to discover AI fit the senses and the intellect. The structure of symbols–the operations by which the intellectual solution is realized–and the search for strategic reference points evoke essential issues in the analysis of AI. Studying how knowledge can be represented through methods of theoretical generalization and empirical observation is only the latest step in a long process of evolution. In this paper, we try to outline the origin of knowledge and how modern artificial minds have inherited it.

The aim of the present study was to analyze the upper trapezius activity, and its relationship with muscular discomfort perceived, during prolonged smartphone texting. Seventeen healthy young subjects participated in the experiment; they were asked to use their own smartphone for texting (10min), maintaining two different postures, sitting and standing. The muscular activity of the right and left upper trapezius was recorded, and the CR10 BorgScale was administered after each experimental section. To normalize the EMG signals, the maximum voluntary contraction was acquired at the beginning of the experiment. The median, the 10th percentile (P10) and the range (difference between 90th and 10th) of EMG RMS, the relative rest time (RRT), the correlation between P10 and RRT and between P10 and CR10 scale were calculated. The results showed no statistical difference between the postures, and the body side. The value of RMS parameters was around the 2% of MVC, showing a constant muscular activity throughout the experimental section. A significant negative correlation between P10 and RRT suggested that the subjects with greater P10 showed a lower rest period; moreover, the significant positive correlation between P10 and CR10 Borg scale, for both postures, suggested that the subjects with high P10 values perceived greater discomfort in neck and cervical zone. The results support the hypothesis that the prolonged use of smartphone for texting influences the upper trapezius activity and it is strictly linked with the absence of a period of muscular recovery, and with the perception of muscular discomfort: that may be a potential risk factor to develop neck pain and musculoskeletal cervical disorders.

Amputation of a lower limb implies a re-organization in the strategies used to reach a stable walking pattern. The planar covariation law of elevation angles is a well-defined low-dimensional description of the kinematics of movement; according to this law, thigh, shank and foot elevation angle co-vary on a plane, defining a typical gait loop. However, a robust biomechanical interpretation of the outcomes of its related analysis is still missing. In this work, we tested the planar covariation law on a group of 14 trans-femoral amputees, comparing the results with the ones related to 12 healthy people. Moreover, by adopting a common covariance plane for all the subjects, we checked whether the projection of the original elevation angles on this plane is able to yield biomechanically meaningful information on the control of prosthetic gait. A common plane was able to describe the coordination of lower limb elevation angles in all subjects; on this plane, most of the differences among populations were identified on the time course of one principal component.

Smartphone texting while walking is a very common activity among people of different ages, with the so-called “digital natives” being the category most used to interacting with an electronic device during daily activities, mostly for texting purposes. Previous studies have shown how the concurrency of a smartphone-related task and walking can result in a worsening of stability and an increased risk of injuries for adults; an investigation of whether this effect can be identified also in people of a younger age can improve our understanding of the risks associated with this common activity. In this study, we recruited 29 young adolescents (12 ± 1 years) to test whether walking with a smartphone increases fall and injuries risk, and to quantify this effect. To do so, participants were asked to walk along a walkway, with and without the concurrent writing task on a smartphone; several different parameters linked to stability and risk of fall measures were then calculated from an inertial measurement unit and compared between conditions. Smartphone use determined a reduction of spatio-temporal parameters, including step length (from 0.64 ± 0.08 to 0.55 ± 0.06 m) and gait speed (1.23 ± 0.16 to 0.90 ± 0.16 m/s), and a general worsening of selected indicators of gait stability. This was found to be mostly independent from experience or frequency of use, suggesting that the presence of smartphone activities while walking may determine an increased risk of injury or falls also for a population that grew up being used to this concurrency.

Surface ElectroMyography (sEMG) is widely used as a non-invasive tool for the assessment of motor control strategies. However, the standardization of the methods used for the estimation of sEMG amplitude is a problem yet to be solved; in most cases, sEMG amplitude is estimated through the extraction of the envelope of the signal via different low-pass filtering procedures with fixed cut-off frequencies chosen by the experimenter. In this work, we have shown how it is not possible to find the optimal choice of the cut-off frequency without any a priori knowledge on the signal; considering this, we have proposed an updated version of an iterative adaptive algorithm already present in literature, aiming to completely automatize the sEMG amplitude estimation. We have compared our algorithm to most of the typical solutions (fixed window filters and the previous version of the adaptive algorithm) for the extraction of the sEMG envelope, showing how the proposed adaptive procedure significantly improves the quality of the estimation, with a lower fraction of variance unexplained by the extracted envelope for different simulated modulating waveforms (p < 0.005). The definition of an entropy-based convergence criterion has allowed for a complete automatization of the process. We infer that this algorithm can ensure repeatability of the estimation of the sEMG amplitude, due to its independence from the experimental choices, so allowing for a quantitative interpretation in a clinical environment.

Mts. Simbruini karst aquifer feeds important springs whose capture contributes to the water supply of Rome City. To improve the geochemical characterization of this aquifer, we analyzed 36 groundwater samples, 29 from springs and 7 from shallow wells, collected in 1996 and 2019. Atomic adsorption spectroscopy, tritration, ionic chromatography and mass spectrometry were the used analytical methods. Ground waters are bicarbonate alkaline-earth type and HCO3 dominance confirms that the aquifer is hosted in carbonate rocks. Total alkalinity vs. cations plot indicates that CO2 driven weathering controls the water chemistry. The probability plots of HCO3, cations and Ca2+ +Mg2+ indicate four groundwater populations with the less represented one (9 samples) characterized by the highest PCO2 values (>0.3 atm). Most anomalous values of the dissolved PCO2 are from springs located near the center of the studied area. Four samples have negative values of d13CCO2 (about -22‰ vs. PDB), indicating its organic origin, but two other samples have positive values (1.6 and 2.6 ‰ vs. PDB), similar to those observed in the CO2 of deep origin discharged at the close Colli Albani volcano. Therefore, geochemical evidence indicates that the Mts. Simbruini aquifer is locally affected by the input of deep originated CO2, likely rising up along fractures, interacting with a recharge of meteoric origin, as evidenced by its d2H and d18O isotopic signatures.

This work describes an untargeted analytical approach for the screening, identification, and characterization of the trans-epithelial transport of green tea (Camellia sinensis) catechin extracts with in vitro inhibitory effect against the SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease (PLpro) activity. After specific catechin extraction, a chromatographic separation obtained six fractions were carried out. The fractions were assessed in vitro against the PLpro target. Fraction 5 showed the highest inhibitory activity against the SARS-CoV-2 PLpro (IC50 of 0.125 μg mL−1). The untargeted characterization revealed that (−)-epicatechin-3-gallate (ECG) was the most abundant compound in the fraction and the primary molecule absorbed by differentiated Caco-2 cells. Results indicated that fraction 5 was approximately 10 times more active than ECG (IC50 value equal to 11.62 ± 0.47 μg mL−1) to inhibit the PLpro target. Overall, our findings highlight the synergistic effects of the various components of the crude extract compared to isolated ECG.

Prosthetic gait implies the use of compensatory motor strategies, including alterations in gait biomechanics and adaptations in the neural control mechanisms adopted by the central nervous system. Despite the constant technological advancements in prostheses design that led to a reduction in compensatory movements and an increased acceptance by the users, a deep comprehension of the numerous factors that influence prosthetic gait is still needed. The quantitative prosthetic gait analysis is an essential step in the development of new and ergonomic devices and to optimize the rehabilitation therapies. Nevertheless, the assessment of prosthetic gait is still carried out by a heterogeneous variety of methodologies, and this limits the comparison of results from different studies, complicating the definition of shared and well-accepted guidelines among clinicians, therapists, physicians, and engineers. This perspective article starts from the results of a project funded by the Italian Worker's Compensation Authority (INAIL) that led to the generation of an extended dataset of measurements involving kinematic, kinetic, and electrophysiological recordings in subjects with different types of amputation and prosthetic components. By encompassing different studies published along the project activities, we discuss the specific information that can be extracted by different kinds of measurements, and we here provide a methodological perspective related to multimodal prosthetic gait assessment, highlighting how, for designing improved prostheses and more effective therapies for patients, it is of critical importance to analyze movement neural control and its mechanical actuation as a whole, without limiting the focus to one specific aspect.

UNSTRUCTURED Many mobile health application interventions include virtual representations of the self in varying forms, such as agents, or avatars to initiate behaviour change. This review aimed to determine: (i) which virtual representations and digital features are effective in mHealth application interventions, and (ii) whether if any studies implemented specific mechanisms (the psychological causes of change) and BCTs implemented to influence positive behaviour change were identified. Following PRISMA guidelines, a narrative systematic review of empirical studies from ten different databases (ranging from MEDLINE to Cochrane Library) from inception to October 2021, published from any time point, which included a virtual representation mHealth app intervention that addressed and reported a variety of outcome health behaviours. Out of the 2,579 original hits, five eligible studies (total participants = 509), with low to moderate quality were included. It was found that customisable avatar or agent-based interventions that included mechanisms such as motivation, feedback, self-image, and BCTs such as goal setting, and self-monitoring were effective in encouraging behaviour change and app adherence. However, there is limited evidence available to determine to which these influences are a result of the virtual representations, or the intervention design.

Documenting cultural heritage by using artificial intelligence (AI) is crucial for preserving the memory of the past and a key point for future knowledge. However, modern AI technologies make use of statistical learners that lead to self-empiricist logic, which, unlike human minds, use learned non-symbolic representations. Nevertheless, it seems that it is not the right way to progress in AI. If we want to rely on AI for these tasks, it is essential to understand what lies behind these models. Among the ways to discover AI there are the senses and the intellect. We could consider AI as an intelligence. Intelligence has an essence, but we do not know whether it can be considered “something” or “someone”. Important issues in the analysis of AI concern the structure of symbols -operations with which the intellectual solution is carried out- and the search for strategic reference points, aspiring to create models with human-like intelligence. For many years, humans, seeing language as innate, have carried out symbolic theories. Everything seems to have skipped with the advent of Machine Learning. In this paper, after a long analysis of history, the rule-based and the learning-based vision, we propose KERMIT as a unit of investigation for a possible meeting point between the different learning theories. Finally, we propose a new vision of knowledge in AI models based on a combination of rules, learning and human knowledge.

The Rome region contains several sites where endogenous gas is brought to the surface through deep reaching faults, creating locally hazardous conditions for people and animals. Lavinio is a touristic borough of Anzio (Rome Capital Metropolitan City) that hosts a country club with a swimming pool and an adjacent basement balance tank. In early September 2011, the pool and the tank had been emptied for cleaning. On 5 September, four men descended into the tank and immediately lost consciousness. On 12 August 2012, after a long coma the first person died, the second one reported permanent damage to his central nervous system, and the other two men recovered completely. Detailed geochemical investigations show that the site is affected by a huge release of endogenous gas (CO2 ≈ 96 vol.% and H2S ≈ 4 vol.%). High soil CO2 and H2S flux values were measured near the pool (up to 898 and 7.155 g·m−2·day−1, respectively), and a high CO2 concentration (23–25 vol.%) was found at 50–70 cm depth in the soil. We were able to demonstrate that gas had been transported into the balance tank from the swimming pool through two hubs connected to the lateral overflow channels of the pool. We show also that the time before the accident (60 hr), during which the balance tank had remained closed to external air, had been largely sufficient to reach indoor nearly lethal conditions (oxygen deficiency and high concentration of both CO2 and H2S)., Key Points In volcanic and geothermal areas, the emission of deep gas locally creates hazardous conditions for people and animals, as at LavinioLavinio country club hosts a swimming pool with a basement tank, where an accident occurred on 5 September 2011 causing the death of a manGeochemical studies show that the man inhaled a nearly lethal CO2‐H2S‐rich air mixture, transported from the pool into the basement tank

This work inserts in the research field regarding the effects of altered gravity conditions on biological plant processes. Pinus pinea seeds germination was studied in simulated microgravity (2x10−3g) and hypergravity (20g) conditions. The effects of simulated gravity were evaluated monitoring the levels of the key enzymes, involved in the main metabolic pathway during germination process of lipid–rich seeds (oilseeds): isocitrate lyase and malate synthase for glyoxylate cycle, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase for beta-oxidation, isocitrate dehydrogenase for Krebs cycle, pyruvate kinase for glycolysis and glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase for pentose phosphate shunt. The simulated micro and hypergravity conditions were obtained by a Random Position Machine and a Hyperfuge, respectively. Results show that the levels of some tested enzymes, at different lag times of the germination process, have the same trend of controls (g = 1), but with significant differences from quantitative point of view. They are higher in microgravity conditions and lower in hypergravity ones, suggesting that, from a biochemical point of view, the germination process results accelerated in microgravity conditions and delayed in hypergravity ones. These biochemical results show a good correlation with morphological ones, obtained with the measurement of the length of the seeds sprouting radicle. These results give promising indications regarding the possibility to grow plant with lipid-rich seeds in spatial environment, to obtain food sources for astronauts during long term space missions and to reconstitute new atmosphere.

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a rare congenital osteodystrophy. Patients with OI present with osteoporosis, extreme bone fragility and severe deformities of the lower limbs, which predispose them to frequent fractures. The aim of our study is to describe the minimally invasive osteotomy technique to correct the tibial deformities in patients with OI type III, using the Fassier-Duval (FD) intramedullary nailing, which is considered the gold standard in this kind of surgery. We analyzed the results obtained from 14 patients with OI type III, treated for tibial deformities with the minimally invasive percutaneous osteotomy technique and osteosynthesis with the FD telescopic nail. The results were compared with that of a control group composed of 18 patients with OI type III, treated for tibial deformities with open technique osteotomies and osteosynthesis with FD telescopic nail. The follow-up was set at 18 months postoperatively. The data concerning the following were collected from the two groups: duration of surgery, number of osteotomies performed, postoperative pain, time required for functional recovery, and for the formation of bone callus. To analyze the variations in the quality of life, all the patients were given the Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument questionnaire, before surgery and at the end of the follow-up. In patients who underwent corrective surgery with the percutaneous technique, the average duration of surgery was inferior, the postoperative pain was significantly lower, the recovery of 90° range of motion of knee flexion was reached at an average of 37.8 days, and they ambulated bearing full weight on the leg without auxiliary aids on average 45 days after surgery. The Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument questionnaire values were satisfactory in both groups. The osteosynthesis with the FD telescopic nail, performed with the minimally invasive surgical technique, has improved the management of deformities in OI. The minimally invasive technique, however, requires the maturation of three distinct learning curves: surgery on patients with OI, open technique with the FD nail, and percutaneous technique with the FD nail.

When analyzing a financial asset, it is essential to study the trend of its time series. It is also necessary to examine its evolution and activity over time to statistically analyze its possible future behavior. Both retail and institutional investors base their trading strategies on these analyses. One of the most used techniques to study financial time series is to analyze its dynamic structure using auto-regressive models, simple moving average models (SMA), and mixed auto-regressive moving average models (ARMA). These techniques, unfortunately, do not always provide appreciable results both at a statistical level and as the Risk-Reward Ratio (RRR); above all, each system has its pros and cons. In this paper, we present CryptoNet; this system is based on the time series extraction exploiting the vast potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Specifically, we focused on time series trends extraction by developing an artificial neural network, trained and tested on two famous crypto-currencies: Bitcoinand Ether. CryptoNet learning algorithm improved the classic linear regression model up to 31% of MAE (mean absolute error). Results from this work should encourage machine learning techniques in sectors classically reluctant to adopt non-standard approaches.

A preceding paper has shown that a hempseed peptic hydrolysate displays a cholesterol-lowering activity with a statin-like mechanism of action in HepG2 cells and a potential hypoglycemic activity by the inhibition of dipeptidyl peptidase-IV in Caco-2 cells. In the framework of a research aimed at fostering the multifunctional behavior of hempseed peptides, we present here the identification and evaluation of some antioxidant peptides from the same hydrolysate. After evaluation of its diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, a trans-epithelial transport experiment was performed using differentiated Caco-2 cells that permitted the identification of five transported peptides that were synthesized and evaluated by measuring the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), the ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and the 2,2-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic) acid (ABTS), and diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical DPPH assays. The most active peptides, i.e. WVSPLAGRT (H2) and IGFLIIWV (H3), were then tested in cell assays. Both peptides were able to reduce the H2O2-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS), lipid peroxidation, and nitric oxide (NO) production levels in HepG2 cells, via the modulation of Nrf-2 and iNOS pathways, respectively.

This paper examines the political determinants of income composition inequality in 32 advanced and emerging economies between 2006 and 2018. Income composition inequality is defined as the extent to which the income composition in capital and labor income is unevenly distributed across the income distribution. High levels of income composition inequality are associated with class-fragmented societies, whereas low levels are typical of multiple-sources-of-income societies. We find that a higher seat share of left parties in the governing coalition and higher globalization, as measured by trade, capital openness, and FDI inflows, are linked to lower income composition inequality. Higher economic development and a higher capital income share are, instead, related to higher inequality in income composition. We discuss the mechanisms behind these relationships and check the robustness of our findings. To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies looking into the causes of the dynamics of this dimension of economic inequality. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper)