Age-related delay in information accrual for faces: Evidence from a parametric, single-trial EEG approach

Background: In this study, we quantified age-related changes in the time-course of face processing by means of an innovative single-trial ERP approach. Unlike analyses used in previous studies, our approach does not rely on peak measurements and can provide a more sensitive measure of processing delays. Young and old adults (mean ages 22 and 70 years) performed a non-speeded discrimination task between two faces. The phase spectrum of these faces was manipulated parametrically to create pictures that ranged between pure noise (0% phase information) and the undistorted signal (100% phase information), with five intermediate steps. Results: Behavioural 75% correct thresholds were on average lower, and maximum accuracy was higher, in younger than older observers. ERPs from each subject were entered into a single-trial general linear regression model to identify variations in neural activity statistically associated with changes in image structure. The earliest age-related ERP differences occurred in the time window of the N170. Older observers had a significantly stronger N170 in response to noise, but this age difference decreased with increasing phase information. Overall, manipulating image phase information had a greater effect on ERPs from younger observers, which was quantified using a hierarchical modelling approach. Importantly, visual activity was modulated by the same stimulus parameters in younger and older subjects. The fit of the model, indexed by R2, was computed at multiple post-stimulus time points. The time-course of the R2 function showed a significantly slower processing in older observers starting around 120 ms after stimulus onset. This age-related delay increased over time to reach a maximum around 190 ms, at which latency younger observers had around 50 ms time lead over older observers. Conclusion: Using a component-free ERP analysis that provides a precise timing of the visual system sensitivity to image structure, the current study demonstrates that older observers accumulate face information more slowly than younger subjects. Additionally, the N170 appears to be less face-sensitive in older observers

Age-Related Differences in Susceptibility to Carcinogenesis. II. Approaches for Application and Uncertainty Analyses for Individual Genetically Acting Carcinogens

In an earlier report we developed a quantitative likelihood-based analysis of the differences in sensitivity of rodents to mutagenic carcinogens across three life stages (fetal, birth to weaning, and weaning to 60 days) relative to exposures in adult life. Here we draw implications for assessing human risks for full lifetime exposures, taking into account three types of uncertainties in making projections from the rodent data: uncertainty in the central estimates of the life-stage–specific sensitivity factors estimated earlier, uncertainty from chemical-to-chemical differences in life-stage–specific sensitivities for carcinogenesis, and uncertainty in the mapping of rodent life stages to human ages/exposure periods. Among the uncertainties analyzed, the mapping of rodent life stages to human ages/exposure periods is most important quantitatively (a range of several-fold in estimates of the duration of the human equivalent of the highest sensitivity “birth to weaning” period in rodents). The combined effects of these uncertainties are estimated with Monte Carlo analyses. Overall, the estimated population arithmetic mean risk from lifetime exposures at a constant milligrams per kilogram body weight level to a generic mutagenic carcinogen is about 2.8-fold larger than expected from adult-only exposure with 5–95% confidence limits of 1.5-to 6-fold. The mean estimates for the 0- to 2-year and 2- to 15-year periods are about 35–55% larger than the 10- and 3-fold sensitivity factor adjustments recently proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The present results are based on data for only nine chemicals, including five mutagens. Risk inferences will be altered as data become available for other chemicals

Dental management considerations for the patient with an acquired coagulopathy. Part 1: Coagulopathies from systemic disease

Current teaching suggests that many patients are at risk for prolonged bleeding during and following invasive dental procedures, due to an acquired coagulopathy from systemic disease and/or from medications. However, treatment standards for these patients often are the result of long-standing dogma with little or no scientific basis. The medical history is critical for the identification of patients potentially at risk for prolonged bleeding from dental treatment. Some time-honoured laboratory tests have little or no use in community dental practice. Loss of functioning hepatic, renal, or bone marrow tissue predisposes to acquired coagulopathies through different mechanisms, but the relationship to oral haemostasis is poorly understood. Given the lack of established, science-based standards, proper dental management requires an understanding of certain principles of pathophysiology for these medical conditions and a few standard laboratory tests. Making changes in anticoagulant drug regimens are often unwarranted and/or expensive, and can put patients at far greater risk for morbidity and mortality than the unlikely outcome of postoperative bleeding. It should be recognised that prolonged bleeding is a rare event following invasive dental procedures, and therefore the vast majority of patients with suspected acquired coagulopathies are best managed in the community practice setting

Dystroglycan versatility in cell adhesion: a tale of multiple motifs

Dystroglycan is a ubiquitously expressed heterodimeric adhesion receptor. The extracellular a-subunit makes connections with a number of laminin G domain ligands including laminins, agrin and perlecan in the extracellular matrix and the transmembrane b-subunit makes connections to the actin filament network via cytoskeletal linkers including dystrophin, utrophin, ezrin and plectin, depending on context. Originally discovered as part of the dystrophin glycoprotein complex of skeletal muscle, dystroglycan is an important adhesion molecule and signalling scaffold in a multitude of cell types and tissues and is involved in several diseases. Dystroglycan has emerged as a multifunctional adhesion platform with many interacting partners associating with its short unstructured cytoplasmic domain. Two particular hotspots are the cytoplasmic juxtamembrane region and at the very carboxy terminus of dystroglycan. Regions which between them have several overlapping functions: in the juxtamembrane region; a nuclear localisation signal, ezrin/radixin/moesin protein, rapsyn and ERK MAP Kinase binding function, and at the C terminus a regulatory tyrosine governing WW, SH2 and SH3 domain interactions. We will discuss the binding partners for these motifs and how their interactions and regulation can modulate the involvement of dystroglycan in a range of different adhesion structures and functions depending on context. Thus dystroglycan presents as a multifunctional scaffold involved in adhesion and adhesion-mediated signalling with its functions under exquisite spatiotemporal regulation

Anti-proliferative effect of Rosmarinus officinalis L. extract on human melanoma A375 cells

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) has been used since ancient times in traditional medicine, while nowadays various rosemary formulations are increasingly exploited by alternative medicine to cure or prevent a wide range of health disorders. Rosemary's bioproperties have prompted scientific investigation, which allowed us to ascertain antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, cytostatic, and cytotoxic activities of crude extracts or of pure components. Although there is a growing body of experimental work, information about rosemary's anticancer properties, such as chemoprotective or anti-proliferative effects on cancer cells, is very poor, especially concerning the mechanism of action. Melanoma is a skin tumor whose diffusion is rapidly increasing in the world and whose malignancy is reinforced by its high resistance to cytotoxic agents; hence the availability of new cytotoxic drugs would be very helpful to improve melanoma prognosis. Here we report on the effect of a rosemary hydroalcoholic extract on the viability of the human melanoma A375 cell line. Main components of rosemary extract were identified by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS/MS) and the effect of the crude extract or of pure components on the proliferation of cancer cells was tested by MTT and Trypan blue assays. The effect on cell cycle was investigated by using flow cytometry, and the alteration of the cellular redox state was evaluated by intracellular ROS levels and protein carbonylation analysis. Furthermore, in order to get information about the molecular mechanisms of cytotoxicity, a comparative proteomic investigation was performed

New technologies for examining neuronal ensembles in drug addiction and fear

Correlational data suggest that learned associations are encoded within neuronal ensembles. However, it has been difficult to prove that neuronal ensembles mediate learned behaviours because traditional pharmacological and lesion methods, and even newer cell type-specific methods, affect both activated and non-activated neurons. Additionally, previous studies on synaptic and molecular alterations induced by learning did not distinguish between behaviourally activated and non-activated neurons. Here, we describe three new approaches—Daun02 inactivation, FACS sorting of activated neurons and c-fos-GFP transgenic rats — that have been used to selectively target and study activated neuronal ensembles in models of conditioned drug effects and relapse. We also describe two new tools — c-fos-tTA mice and inactivation of CREB-overexpressing neurons — that have been used to study the role of neuronal ensembles in conditioned fear

Sustainable use of citrus waste as organic amendment in orange orchards

The use of citrus waste (peel, CW) as organic fertilizer was investigated on soil microbiota and on soil physico-chemical and hydraulic characteristics. The biotic components on CW and the effect on nutritional status, leaf chlorophyll content, fruit set and production of "Tarocco" orange trees were also identified. The citrus waste was supplied to an experimental orchard at different doses: 45 kg m(-2) (with and without Ca(OH)(2) addition) and 90 kg m(-2). The study was conducted in three consecutive years (2015-2017) on 20-year old orange trees at the experimental farm of the University of Catania (Italy). The main results of the study confirm that the use of CW as a biofertilizer offers a great opportunity for sustainable sweet orange production

The echinoderm innate humoral immune response

Abstract: Multicellular organisms have an immune system, which is essential for the survival of living beings. Interest in the immune system has been expanded since common characteristics of innate immunity between Drosophila melanogaster (Meigen, 1830) and mammals were discovered in the 1980. Since then, immunology has mainly focused on the adaptive immune system that seems to be restricted to vertebrates. Unlike the innate immunity, the adaptive one is acquired after exposure to a specific antigen (Ag) and includes: antigen-presenting cells such as macrophages, proliferation of B and T lymphocytes, Ag-specific antibody/cytokine production and immunological memory. Innate immunity is instead a process of cellular defense at low specificity, which is designed to prevent and combat infectious agents that penetrate at the tissue level, and may be the only form of immunity present in invertebrates such as sea urchins. The immune system of invertebrates acts through (i) cellular components (cell-mediated immunity) in which the effectors of defense reactions are represented by immune cells; (ii) soluble factors (humoral immunity), secreted by the immune cells, such as lectins, agglutinins, lysins, antimicrobial peptides and the prophenoloxidase (proPO) activating system, which act in parallel with the immune cells to fight pathogens and other foreign substances. Here we aim to deepen the study on humoral immunity of invertebrates, especially referring to the phylum Echinodermata because of its features shared with protostomes and other deuterostomes, and suggesting a key step during evolution