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Introduction: Abnormal large artery function plays an important role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular (CV) diseases. Prior studies have suggested that the principal determinants of arterial stiffening are age, Blood Pressure (BP) and others CV risk factors such as dyslipidemia and diabetes. However the role of psychological characteristics on the long-term progression of arterial stiffness has not yet been evaluated. Aim: To evaluate the psychological determinants of the Puse Wave Velocity (PWV) progression over a 3 years follow-up period in treated hypertensive patients. Methods: We enrolled 350 consecutive 18–80 aged outpatients, followed by the Hypertension Unit of S. Gerardo Hospital (Monza, Italy) affected by essential hypertension. At baseline (T0) anamnestic data, clinical BP, laboratory data and PWV were evaluated; also psychological tests were performed. In a subgroup of 50 subjects, after a median follow-up time of 2.96 ± 0.33 years, we performed again psychological tests and PWV examination (T1). Psychological tests were administered by trained researchers for measuring perceived stress, resiliency factors (self-esteem, sense of coherence), and perceived social support. Results: At T0 the mean age was 55.9 ± 10.1 years, SBP and DBP were 135.6 ± 17.7 and 82.5 ± 9.1 mmHg and PWV was 8.6 ± 2.1 m/s. Despite a significant improvement in the blood pressure control (from 72 to 84 %; PAS from 135.6 ± 17.7 to 130.1 ± 14.2, p = 0.08; PAD from 82.5 ± 9.1 to 77.5 ± 9.4, p\0.05), at follow-up examination PWV didn’t showed significant changes (from 8.6 ± 2.1 to 8.6 ± 2.4, p = 0.87) with a mean DPWV of - 0.05 ± 2.8 m/s. Focusing on PWV changes over the follow-up period and on psychological test, subjects where then divided accordingly to their DPWV in those in which an increase was showed and those in which the values decrease. For similar baseline values, subjects with positive DPWV showed higher T1 values of stress (37.4 ± 1.1 vs 36.8 ± 0.8, p = 0.02) and lower values of self-esteem (2.9 ± 0.5 vs 3.3 ± 0.4, p = 0.02), sense of coherence (4.4 ± 0.7 vs 4.9 ± 0.8, p = 0.02), and a worse family climate (3.5 ± 0.9 vs 4.1 ± 0.8, p = 0.02). No significant differences were showed regarding BP values and CV risk factors. Conclusions: The current longitudinal study shows that arterial stiffness didn’t shown any significant changes despite BP improvement. PWV increase is related to higher stress and lower self-esteem and familiar support.

The ultimate goal of this research is to investigate the propagation of large-amplitude elastic waves in periodic multilayer structures. Sources of nonlinearity are associated with large-strain kinematics, material nonlinearity, and bifurcation paths. In this study, we use a numerical approach to investigate the propagation of nonlinear waves of finite deformation in polymeric structures of finite size. Insights on the dispersion properties of such systems, and their functional dependence on the strain levels, are obtained by postprocessing the time-history results obtained through time-domain simulations. In particular, we highlight the nonlinear effects of amplitude parameters on the bandgaps and wave directionality of the considered systems.

In this work, the use of a gas chromatography coupled to an ion mobility spectrometer with a tritium source was investigated for the discrimination of virgin olive oils previously sensory assessed (EU Reg. 1227/2016) and characterized by different quality grades (extra virgin, virgin, lampante). The samples were injected by a headspace system and, after the gas chromatographic separation, the ion mobility data coming from the eluted volatiles were processed with various chemometric tools. The preliminary elaboration evidenced a promising capacity to discriminate the samples according to their quality grade. The proposed approach is also sustainable and fast. This work was developed in the context of the project OLEUM “Advanced solutions for assuring authenticity and quality of olive oil at global scale“ funded by the European Commission within the Horizon 2020 Programme (2014–2020, grant agreement no. 635690). The information expressed in this abstract reflects the authors’ views; the EC is not liable for the information contained therein. The authors are grateful to the six sensory panels of the OLEUM consortium for the sensory evaluation of samples.