How dopamine tunes parvalbumin interneurons in the hippocampus:new experimental observations in Alzheimer's disease

Despite decades of dedicated resea rch,Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age-related and progressive neurodegenerative disorder for which the mechanisms of onset are sti unc ear.AD is cha racterized by featured histological alterations including amyloid-beta (AB) plaque deposition,accumulation of neurofibrillary to ngles of hyperphosphorylated-tau,and neuronal loss,accompanied by progressive cognitive decline and behavioral changes.

Lighting the shades of hidden pain:a role for spinal cord neurons and microglia in vestibulodynia

Vulvodynia,a chronic pain disorder affecting the vulvar region,represents a significant challenge in both diagnosis and treatment within the field of women’s health.This condition is characterized by chronic pain that significantly affects the quality of life of afflicted women.The present perspective paper examines the role of spinal sensitization and microglial activation in vulvodynia.

Calcium handling:a strategy to fight neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease

In the last few years,preclinical and clinical studies identified the ventral tegmental area(VTA)as one of the first brain regions to be affected in the prodromal phase of Alzheimer's disease(AD).The VTA is a deep midbrain nucleus rich in dopaminergic neurons that innervates and releases dopamine(DA)in several cortical and subcortical brain regions.DA plays a crucial role in the modulation of both cognitive and noncognitive functions and failure of its release underlies both cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with AD.

Decreased cross-sectional muscle area in male patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma and peritumoral collateral vessels

BACKGROUND Sarcopenia is the loss of skeletal muscle mass(SMM)and is a sign of cancer cachexia.Patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma(RCC)may show cachexia.AIM To evaluate the amount of SMM in male clear cell RCC(ccRCC)patients with and without collateral vessels.METHODS In this study,we included a total of 124 male Caucasian patients divided into two groups:ccRCCa group without collateral vessels(n=54)and ccRCCp group with collateral vessels(n=70).Total abdominal muscle area(TAMA)was measured in both groups using a computed tomography imaging-based approach.TAMA measures were also corrected for age in order to rule out age-related effects.RESULTS There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of TAMA(P<0.05)driven by a reduction in patients with peritumoral collateral vessels.The result was confirmed by repeating the analysis with values corrected for age(P<0.05),indicating no age effect on our findings.CONCLUSION This study showed a decreased TAMA in ccRCC patients with peritumoral collateral vessels.The presence of peritumoral collateral vessels adjacent to ccRCC might be a fine diagnostic clue to sarcopenia.

Hazelnut mapping detection system using optical and radar remote sensing:Benchmarking machine learning algorithms

Mapping hazelnut orchards can facilitate land planning and utilization policies,supporting the development of cooperative precision farming systems.The present work faces the detection of hazelnut crops using optical and radar remote sensing data.A comparative study of Machine Learning techniques is presented.The system proposed utilizes multi-temporal data from the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 datasets extracted over several years and processed with cloud tools.We provide a dataset of 62,982 labeled samples,with 16,561 samples belonging to the‘hazelnut’class and 46,421 samples belonging to the‘other’class,collected in 8 heterogeneous geograph-ical areas of the Viterbo province.Two different comparative tests are conducted:firstly,we use a Nested 5-Fold Cross-Validation methodology to train,optimize,and compare different Machine Learning algorithms on a single area.In a second experiment,the algorithms were trained on one area and tested on the remaining seven geo-graphical areas.The developed study demonstrates how AI analysis applied to Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data is a valid technology for hazelnut mapping.From the results,it emerges that Random Forest is the classifier with the highest generalizability,achieving the best performance in the second test with an accuracy of 96%and an F1 score of 91%for the‘hazelnut’class.

Approaching the Sarcopenic Patient with Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis-related Cirrhosis

Sarcopenia is a well-known complication of chronic liver disease(CLD),and it is almost always observed in patients with cirrhosis,at least in those with decompensated disease.Since nonalcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD),recently renamed metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease(MASLD),is becoming the leading cause of end-stage liver disease,a new scenario characterized by the frequent coexistence of NAFLD,obesity,and sarcopenia is emerging.Although it is not yet resolved whether the bidirectional relationship between sarcopenia and NAFLD subtends causal determinants,it is clear that the interaction of these two conditions is associated with an increased risk of poor outcomes.Notably,during the course of CLD,deregulation of the liver-muscle-adipose tissue axis has been described.Unfortunately,owing to the lack of properly designed studies,specific therapeutic guidelines for patients with sarcopenia in the context of NAFLD-related CLD have not yet been defined.Strategies aimed to induce the loss of fat mass together with the maintenance of lean body mass seem most appropriate.This can be achieved by properly designed diets integrated with specific nutritional supplementations and accompanied by adequate physical exercise.Future studies aiming to add to the knowledge of the correct assessment and approach to sarcopenia in the context of NAFLD-related CLD are eagerly awaited.

Transcranial alternating current stimulation(tACS)at gamma frequency:an up-and-coming tool to modify the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease

The last decades have witnessed huge efforts devoted to deciphering the pathological mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s Disease(AD)and to testing new drugs,with the recent FDA approval of two anti-amyloid monoclonal antibodies for AD treatment.Beyond these drug-based experimentations,a number of pre-clinical and clinical trials are exploring the benefits of alternative treatments,such as non-invasive stimulation techniques on AD neuropathology and symptoms.Among the different non-invasive brain stimulation approaches,transcranial alternating current stimulation(tACS)is gaining particular attention due to its ability to externally control gamma oscillations.Here,we outline the current knowledge concerning the clinical efficacy,safety,ease-of-use and cost-effectiveness of tACS on early and advanced AD,applied specifically at 40 Hz frequency,and also summarise pre-clinical results on validated models of AD and ongoing patient-centred trials.

Ionized jet deposition of antimicrobial and stem cell friendly silver-substituted tricalcium phosphate nanocoatings on titanium alloy

Orthopedic infections pose severe societal and economic burden and interfere with the capability of the implanted devices to integrate in the host bone,thus significantly increasing implants failure rate.To address infection and promote integration,here nanostructured antibacterial and bioactive thin films are proposed,obtained,for the first time,by Ionized Jet Deposition(IJD)of silver-substituted tricalcium phosphate(Ag-TCP)targets on titanium.Coatings morphology,composition and mechanical properties are characterized and proof-of-concept of biocompatibility is shown.Antimicrobial efficacy is investigated against four Gram positive and Gram negative bacterial strains and against C.albicans fungus,by investigating the modifications in planktonic bacterial growth in the absence and presence of silver.Then,for all bacterial strains,the capability of the film to inhibit bacterial adhesion is also tested.Results indicate that IJD permits a fine control over films composition and morphology and deposition of films with suitable mechanical properties.Biological studies show a good efficacy against Escherichia coli,Staphylococcus aureus,Pseudomonas aeruginosa,Enterococcus faecalis and against fungus Candida albicans,with evidences of efficacy against planktonic growth and significant reduction of bacterial cell adhesion.No cytotoxic effects are evidenced for equine adipose tissue derived mesenchymal stem cells(ADMSCs),as no reductions are caused to cells viability and no interference is assessed in cells differentiation towards osteogenic lineage,in the presence of silver.Instead,thanks to nanostructuration and biomimetic composition,tricalcium phosphate(TCP)coatings favor cells viability,also when silver-substituted.These findings show that silver-substituted nanostructured coatings are promising for orthopedic implant applications.

A new hybrid AI optimal management method for renewable energycommunities

In this study, we propose a hybrid AI optimal method to improve the efficiency of energy managementin a smart grid such as Renewable Energy Community. This method adopts a Time Delay Neural Networkto forecast the future values of the energy features in the community. Then, these forecasts are used by astochastic Model Predictive Control to optimize the community operations with a proper control strategy ofBattery Energy Storage System. The results of the predictions performed on a public dataset with a predictionhorizon of 24 h return a Mean Absolute Error of 1.60 kW, 2.15 kW, and 0.30 kW for photovoltaic generation,total energy consumption, and common services, respectively. The model predictive control fed with suchpredictions generates maximum income compared to the competitors. The total income is increased by 18.72%compared to utilizing the same management system without exploiting predictions from a forecasting method.