Patch-Based Far-Infrared Radiation (FIR) Therapy Does Not Impact Cell Tracking or Motility of Human Melanoma Cells In Vitro.

Far-Infrared Radiation (FIR) is emerging as a novel non-invasive tool for mitigating inflammation and oxidative stress, offering potential benefits for certain medical conditions such as cardiovascular disease and chronic inflammatory disorders. We previously demonstrated that the application of patch-based FIR therapy on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) reduced the expression of inflammatory biomarkers and the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Several in vitro studies have shown the inhibitory effects of FIR therapy on cell growth in different cancer cells (including murine melanoma cells), mainly using the wound healing assay, without direct cell motility or tracking analysis.

Artistic turns: laterality in paintings of kisses and embraces.

Many lateral biases exist in human behavior, often implicit and not deliberated. Romantic kissing and embracing received experimental attention in the last three decades. We investigated laterality in paintings depicting these social interactions using two methodologies to assess whether painters depicted such biases and whether these biases could be due to observers' aesthetic preferences or painters' ability in portraying naturalistic interactions.

A Critical Analysis of All-Cause Deaths during COVID-19 Vaccination in an Italian Province.

Immortal time bias (ITB) is common in cohort studies and distorts the association estimates between the treated and untreated. We used data from an Italian study on COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness, with a large cohort, long follow-up, and adjustment for confounding factors, affected by ITB, with the aim to verify the real impact of the vaccination campaign by comparing the risk of all-cause death between the vaccinated population and the unvaccinated population. We aligned all subjects on a single index date and considered the "all-cause deaths" outcome to compare the survival distributions of the unvaccinated group versus various vaccination statuses.

Functional lateralization in social-emotional processing: The influence of sexual orientation and gender identity on cradling preferences.

The left-cradling bias (i.e., the motor asymmetry for cradling infants on the left side) has often been associated to the right-hemispheric social-emotional specialization, and it has often been reported to be stronger in females than in males.

Ex Vivo Antiplatelet Effects of Oral Anticoagulants.

Background: The impact of non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) on platelet function is still unclear. We conducted a comprehensive ex vivo study aimed at assessing the effect of the four currently marketed NOACs on platelet function.

Methods: We incubated blood samples from healthy donors with concentrations of NOACs (50, 150 and 250 ng/mL), in the range of those achieved in the plasma of patients during therapy.

COVID-19 vaccination and all-cause and non-COVID-19 mortality. A revaluation of a study carried out in an Italian Province.

The COVID-19 vaccination prevents COVID-19 specific mortality. Well planned population-based studies, however, are necessary to evaluate the overall effectiveness of vaccination programmes. A study carried out in the province of Pescara is used to illustrate the potential biases that may affect such studies.

An Appraisal of the Oleocanthal-Rich Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) and Its Potential Anticancer and Neuroprotective Properties.

Dietary consumption of olive oil represents a key pillar of the Mediterranean diet, which has been shown to exert beneficial effects on human health, such as the prevention of chronic non-communicable diseases like cancers and neurodegenerative diseases, among others. These health benefits are partly mediated by the high-quality extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), which is produced mostly in Mediterranean countries and is directly made from olives, the fruit of the olive tree ( L.).

Organization and Activity of Italian Echocardiographic Laboratories: A Survey of the Italian Society of Echocardiography and Cardiovascular Imaging.

Background: The Italian Society of Echocardiography and Cardiovascular Imaging (SIECVI) conducted a national survey to understand better how different echocardiographic modalities are used and accessed in Italy.

Methods: We analyzed echocardiography laboratory activities over a month (November 2022). Data were retrieved via an electronic survey based on a structured questionnaire, uploaded on the SIECVI website.

The Predictive Role of the Posterior Cerebellum in the Processing of Dynamic Emotions.

Recent studies have bolstered the important role of the cerebellum in high-level socio-affective functions. In particular, neuroscientific evidence shows that the posterior cerebellum is involved in social cognition and emotion processing, presumably through its involvement in temporal processing and in predicting the outcomes of social sequences. We used cerebellar transcranial random noise stimulation (ctRNS) targeting the posterior cerebellum to affect the performance of 32 healthy participants during an emotion discrimination task, including both static and dynamic facial expressions (i.

Novel therapeutic approaches based on the pathological role of gut dysbiosis on the link between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and insulin resistance.

The growing global epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus has determined an increased prevalence of NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease), making it the most common chronic liver disease in the Western world and a leading cause of liver transplantation. In the last few years, a rising number of studies conducted both on animal and human models have shown the existence of a close association between insulin resistance (IR), dysbiosis, and steatosis. However, all the mechanisms that lead to impaired permeability, inflammation, and fibrosis have not been fully clarified.

A Novel Mix of Polyphenols and Micronutrients Reduces Adipogenesis and Promotes White Adipose Tissue Browning via UCP1 Expression and AMPK Activation.

: Obesity is a pandemic disease characterized by excessive severe body comorbidities. Reduction in fat accumulation represents a mechanism of prevention, and the replacement of white adipose tissue (WAT) with brown adipose tissue (BAT) has been proposed as one promising strategy against obesity. In the present study, we sought to investigate the ability of a natural mixture of polyphenols and micronutrients (A5) to counteract white adipogenesis by promoting WAT browning.

Neurovegetative and Emotional Modulation Induced by Mozart's Music.

Introduction: Since decades, the "Mozart effect" has been studied. However, the diverse effects of Mozart's music components have not been yet defined. Authors aimed to identify a differential response to short-term exposure to Mozart's music, or to its rhythmic signature only, on subjective and objective measures.

Crying the blues: The configural processing of infant face emotions and its association with postural biases.

Several studies have exploited the face inversion paradigm to unveil the mechanisms underlying the processing of adult faces, showing that emotion recognition relies more on a global/configural processing for sadness and on a piecemeal/featural processing for happiness. This difference might be due to the higher biological salience of negative rather than positive emotions and consequently should be higher for infant rather than adult faces. In fact, evolution might have promoted specific adaptations aimed to prioritize the infant face by the attention system in order to foster survival during infancy, a rather long period during which the newborn depends entirely on adults.

The Protective Effect of a Unique Mix of Polyphenols and Micronutrients against Neurodegeneration Induced by an In Vitro Model of Parkinson's Disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is second-most common disabling neurological disorder worldwide, and unfortunately, there is not yet a definitive way to prevent it. Polyphenols have been widely shown protective efficacy against various PD symptoms. However, data on their effect on physio-pathological mechanisms underlying this disease are still lacking.

Human Lateralization, Maternal Effects and Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

In humans, behavioral laterality and hemispheric asymmetries are part of a complex biobehavioral system in which genetic factors have been repeatedly proposed as developmental determinants of both phenomena. However, no model solely based on genetic factors has proven conclusive, pushing towards the inclusion of environmental and epigenetic factors into the system. Moreover, it should be pointed out that epigenetic modulation might also account for why certain genes are expressed differently in parents and offspring.

The causal involvement of the right supramarginal gyrus in the subjective experience of time: A hf-tRNS study.

Neural populations in the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) of the right hemisphere have been shown to be involved in processing the subjective experience of time, particularly because of their selectivity to specific temporal durations. To directly investigate this relationship, we applied high-frequency transcranial Random Noise Stimulation (hf-tRNS) on the right SMG during a duration judgment task: 24 participants were required to judge the duration of a test visual stimulus (350, 450, 550, 650 ms) as shorter or longer than the duration of a reference auditory stimulus (500 ms). In half of the trials this procedure was preceded by a visual adaptation paradigm, used as a tool to manipulate the subjective experience of time: for 12 participants the adaptor was shorter than the test (250 ms), and for 12 participants it was longer than the test (750 ms).

The Role of Ethnic Prejudice in the Modulation of Cradling Lateralization.

The left-cradling bias is the tendency to cradle an infant on the left side, regardless of the individuals' handedness, culture or ethnicity. Many studies revealed associations between socio-emotional variables and the left-side bias, suggesting that this asymmetry might be considered as a proxy of the emotional attunement between the cradling and the cradled individuals. In this study we examined whether adult females with high levels of prejudice toward a specific ethnic group would show reduced left-cradling preferences when required to cradle an infant-like doll with ethnical features of the prejudiced group.

Evolutionary motor biases and cognition in children with and without autism.

Evolution has endowed vertebrates with a divided brain that allows for processing of critical survival behaviours in parallel. Most humans possess a standard functional brain organisation for these ancient sensory-motor behaviours, favouring the right hemisphere for fight-or-flight processes and the left hemisphere for performing structured motor sequences. However, a significant minority of the population possess an organisational phenotype that represents crowding of function in one hemisphere, or a reversal of the standard functional organisation.

Laterality in Children: Evidence for Task-Dependent Lateralization of Motor Functions.

The behavioral preference for the use of one side of the body starts from pre-natal life and prompt humans to develop motor asymmetries. The type of motor task completed influences those functional asymmetries. However, there is no real consensus on the occurrence of handedness during developmental ages.

Effects of a novel nutraceutical combination (BruMeChol™) in subjects with mild hypercholesterolemia: study protocol of a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial.

Background: Elevated cholesterol levels and systemic inflammation are considered relevant risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) development and progression. Increasing evidence suggests that cholesterol-lowering and inflammation-lowering nutraceuticals are useful in the management of moderate hypercholesterolemia. Here, we describe the study protocol of a clinical trial aimed to evaluate the cholesterol and inflammatory lowering effect of an innovative dietary supplement (BruMeChol™, Mivell S.

Received Cradling Bias During the First Year of Life: A Retrospective Study on Children With Typical and Atypical Development.

A population-level left cradling bias exists whereby 60-90% of mothers hold their infants on the left side. This left biased positioning appears to be mutually beneficial to both the mother and the baby's brain organization for processing of socio-emotional stimuli. Previous research connected cradling asymmetries and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), entailing impairment in socio-communicative relationships and characterized by an early hypo-lateralization of brain functions.

The association between received maternal cradling and neurodevelopment: Is left better?

The vast majority of women (60-90%) hold infants on their left side. Such a population-level lateral bias has been shown to improve the processing of socio-emotional stimuli in both the woman and the baby. Recently, some studies related cradling lateralization and Autism Spectrum Disorders (which entail socio-communicative deficits and a reduction of the typical lateralization of brain functions), raising the possibility that the asymmetrical cradling behavior experienced during infanthood might be related to the infant's neurodevelopment.