A low initial contamination level of the meat surface is the
to extend the subsequent shelf life of ground beef for as long as possible. Therefore, the short- and long-term effects of a pregrinding ...treatment with electrolyzed water (EW) on the microbiological and physicochemical features of Piedmontese steak tartare were here assessed on site, by following two production runs through storage under vacuum packaging conditions at 4°C. The immersion of muscle meat in EW solution at 100 ppm of free active chlorine for 90 s produced an initial surface decontamination with no side effects or compositional modifications, except for an external color change that was subsequently masked by the grinding step. However, the initially measured decontamination was no longer detectable in ground beef, perhaps due to a quick recovery by bacteria during the grinding step from the transient oxidative stress induced by the EW. We observed different RNA-based metataxonomic profiles and metabolomic biomarkers (volatile organic compounds VOCs, free amino acids FAA, and biogenic amines BA) between production runs. Interestingly, the potentially active microbiota of the meat from each production run, investigated through operational taxonomic unit (OTU)-, oligotyping-, and amplicon sequence variant (ASV)-based bioinformatic pipelines, differed as soon as the early stages of storage, whereas microbial counts and biomarker dynamics were significantly distinguishable only after the expiration date. Higher diversity, richness, and abundance of Streptococcus organisms were identified as the main indicators of the faster spoilage observed in one of the two production runs, while Lactococcus piscium development was the main marker of shelf life end in both production runs.
Treatment with EW prior to grinding did not result in an effective intervention to prolong the shelf life of Piedmontese steak tartare. Our RNA-based approach clearly highlighted a microbiota that changed markedly between production runs but little during the first shelf life stages. Under these conditions, an early metataxonomic profiling might provide the best prediction of the microbiological fate of each batch of the product.
Probiotics (bacteria or yeasts) were defined by the Food Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) joint report as live microorganisms which when administered in ...adequate amounts (in food or as a dietary supplement) confer a health benefit on the host. The best-demonstrated potential clinical benefits of probiotic agents, specifically in the pediatric population, are in the prevention and management of acute diarrhea, antibiotic associated diarrhea, and evidence is mounting on their potential benefits in atopic disease, inflammatory bowel conditions, and necrotizing enterocolitis. Their beneficial effects seem to be strain specific, thus, pooling data from different strains may result in misleading conclusions. Because there was no international consensus on methodology to assess efficiency and safety of probiotics, in 2001 the FAO/WHO undertook work to compile and evaluate the scientific evidence on functional and safety aspects of probiotics. International criteria have been developed to formulate unequivocal criteria for probiotic bacterial strains and products that contain them. More recently, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) highlighted as critical factors for probiotic health claim submissions genetic typing, internationally recognised naming protocols and evidence of consistency in the final product.
Research regarding the protective effects of early physical activity on depression has yielded conflicting results.
Our objective was to synthesize observational studies examining the association of ...physical activity in childhood and adolescence with depression.
Studies (from 2005 to 2015) were identified by using a comprehensive search strategy.
The included studies measured physical activity in childhood or adolescence and examined its association with depression.
Data were extracted by 2 independent coders. Estimates were examined by using random-effects meta-analysis.
Fifty independent samples (89 894 participants) were included, and the mean effect size was significant (
= -0.14; 95% confidence interval CI = -0.19 to -0.10). Moderator analyses revealed stronger effect sizes in studies with cross-sectional versus longitudinal designs (
= 36,
= -0.17; 95% CI = -0.23 to -0.10 vs
= 14,
= -0.07; 95% CI = -0.10 to -0.04); using depression self-report versus interview (
= 46,
= -0.15; 95% CI = -0.20 to -0.10 vs
= 4,
= -0.05; 95% CI = -0.09 to -0.01); using validated versus nonvalidated physical activity measures (
= 29,
= -0.18; 95% CI = -0.26 to -0.09 vs
= 21,
= -0.08; 95% CI = -0.11 to -0.05); and using measures of frequency and intensity of physical activity versus intensity alone (
= 27,
= -0.17; 95% CI = -0.25 to -0.09 vs
= 7,
= -0.05; 95% CI = -0.09 to -0.01).
Limitations included a lack of standardized measures of physical activity; use of self-report of depression in majority of studies; and a small number of longitudinal studies.
Physical activity is associated with decreased concurrent depressive symptoms; the association with future depressive symptoms is weak.
•This meta-analysis of twenty-two studies (20,791 participants) finds that depression is positively associated with concurrent and future inflammation.•Inflammation is also a significant predictor of ...future depression.•Results suggest a link between depression and inflammation among children and adolescents and points to the need for future research to disentangle this bidirectional association.
Increasing evidence suggests that youth with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) exhibit early indicators of cardiovascular disease. A leading hypothesized mechanism of this association is via inflammatory pathways, however, results examining this direct association are mixed. Our objective was to synthesize and quantify observational studies examining the association of depression and inflammation among children and adolescents.
Electronic searches were conducted in MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, and Scopus, yielding 2,757 non-duplicate records from 1946 to 2019. The included studies measured depression or depressive symptoms and examined its association with inflammation in participants younger than 18 years. All relevant articles were reviewed and data extracted by two independent coders. Estimates were examined by using random-effects meta-analysis.
Twenty-two studies (20,791 participants) were included. Significant associations were observed between concurrent depression and CRP (n = 7; r = 0.12; 95% confidence interval CI = 0.04 to 0.19), and IL-6 (n = 7; r = 0.17; 95% CI= 0.10 to 0.24). Longitudinal analyses revealed that depression is a significant predictor of IL-6 (n = 3; r = 0.29; 95% CI= 0.04 to 0.50) and conversely, that inflammation (measured by CRP or IL-6) predicts future depression (n = 4; r = 0.04; 95% CI= 0.00 to 0.08).
Results are limited by the small number of studies preventing examination of some moderator variables. Findings are correlational, not causal.
Depression is positively associated with concurrent and future inflammation among children and adolescents. Results suggest that bidirectional associations may exist between depression and a pro-inflammatory state.
Skeletal muscle is essential for mobility, stability and whole body metabolism, and muscle loss, for instance, during sarcopenia, has profound consequences. Satellite cells (muscle stem cells) have ...been hypothesized, but not yet demonstrated, to contribute to muscle homeostasis and a decline in their contribution to myofibre homeostasis to play a part in sarcopenia. To test their role in muscle maintenance, we genetically labelled and ablated satellite cells in adult sedentary mice. We demonstrate via genetic lineage experiments that, even in the absence of injury, satellite cells contribute to myofibres in all adult muscles, although the extent and timing differs. However, genetic ablation experiments showed that satellite cells are not globally required to maintain myofibre cross-sectional area of uninjured adult muscle.
To investigate the association between survival and postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) in patients with resected non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Within the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End ...Results database, we selected patients with stage II or III NSCLC who underwent a lobectomy or pneumonectomy. Only those patients coded as receiving PORT or observation were included. To account for perioperative mortality, we excluded patients who survived less than 4 months. As a result of our inclusion criteria, we selected a total of 7,465 patients, with a median follow-up time of 3.5 years for patients still alive.
Predictors for the use of PORT included age less than 50 years, higher American Joint Committee on Cancer stage, T3-4 tumor stage, larger tumor size, advanced node stage, greater number of lymph nodes involved, and a ratio of lymph nodes involved to lymph nodes sampled approaching 1.00. On multivariate analysis, older age, T3-4 tumor stage, N2 node stage, male sex, fewer sampled lymph nodes, and greater number of involved lymph nodes had a negative impact on survival. The use of PORT did not have a significant impact on survival. However, in subset analysis for patients with N2 nodal disease (hazard ratio HR = 0.855; 95% CI, 0.762 to 0.959; P = .0077), PORT was associated with a significant increase in survival. For patients with N0 (HR = 1.176; 95% CI, 1.005 to 1.376; P = .0435) and N1 (HR = 1.097; 95% CI, 1.015 to 1.186; P = .0196) nodal disease, PORT was associated with a significant decrease in survival.
In a population-based cohort, PORT use is associated with an increase in survival in patients with N2 nodal disease but not in patients with N1 and N0 nodal disease.
•An Italian BERT model (AlBERTo) has been fine-tuned on financial sentences.•AlBERTino can determine the sentiment score of news present in financial newspapers.•The sentiment score is used to drive ...the parameters of GBM through a MCMC.•The average of Monte Carlo simulation paths is the predicted stock value.
BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) is one of the most popular models in Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Sentiment Analysis. The main goal is to classify sentences (or entire texts) and to obtain a score in relation to their polarity: positive, negative or neutral. Recently, a Transformer-based architecture, the fine-tuned AlBERTo (Polignano et al. (2019)), has been introduced to determine a sentiment score in the financial sector through a specialized corpus of sentences. In this paper, we use the sentiment (polarity) score to improve the stocks forecasting. We apply the BERT model to determine the score associated to various events (both positive and negative) that have affected some stocks in the market. The sentences used to determine the scores are newspaper articles published on MilanoFinanza. We compute both the average sentiment score and the polarity, and we use a Monte Carlo method to generate (starting from the day the article was released) a series of possible paths for the next trading days, exploiting the Bayesian inference to determine a new series of bounded drift and volatility values on the basis of the score; thus, returning an exact “directed” price as a result.
The diaphragm is a domed muscle between the thorax and abdomen essential for breathing in mammals. Diaphragm development requires the coordinated development of muscle, connective tissue, and nerve, ...which are derived from different embryonic sources. Defects in diaphragm development cause the common and often lethal birth defect, congenital diaphragmatic hernias (CDH). HGF/MET signaling is required for diaphragm muscularization, but the source of HGF and the specific functions of this pathway in muscle progenitors and effects on phrenic nerve have not been explicitly tested. Using conditional mutagenesis in mice and pharmacological inhibition of MET, we demonstrate that the pleuroperitoneal folds (PPFs), transient embryonic structures that give rise to the connective tissue in the diaphragm, are the source of HGF critical for diaphragm muscularization. PPF-derived HGF is directly required for recruitment of MET+ muscle progenitors to the diaphragm and indirectly (via its effect on muscle development) required for phrenic nerve primary branching. In addition, HGF is continuously required for maintenance and motility of the pool of progenitors to enable full muscularization. Localization of HGF at the diaphragm's leading edges directs dorsal and ventral expansion of muscle and regulates its overall size and shape. Surprisingly, large muscleless regions in
and
mutants do not lead to hernias. While these regions are likely more susceptible to CDH, muscle loss is not sufficient to cause CDH.
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