We set constraints on the trilinear Higgs boson self-coupling, λ3, by combining the information coming from the W mass and leptonic effective Weinberg angle, electroweak precision observables, with ...the single Higgs boson analyses targeting the γγ,ZZ⁎,WW⁎,τ+τ− and b¯b decay channels and the double Higgs boson analyses in the bb¯bb¯,bb¯τ+τ− and bb¯γγ decay channels, performed by the ATLAS collaboration. With the assumption that the new physics affects only the Higgs potential, values outside the interval −1.8λ3SM<λ3<9.2λ3SM are excluded at 95% confidence level. With respect to similar analyses that do not include the information coming from the electroweak precision observables our analysis shows a stronger constraint on both positive and negative values of λ3.
Abstract Despite significant progresses were achieved in tissue engineering over the last 20 years, a number of unsolved problems still remain. One of the most relevant issues is the lack of a proper ...vascularization that is limiting the size of the engineered tissues to smaller than clinically relevant dimensions. Sacrificial molding holds great promise to engineered construct with perfusable vascular architectures, but there is still the need to develop more versatile approaches able to be independent of the nature and dimensions of the construct. In this work we developed a versatile sacrificial molding technique for fabricating bulk, cell-laden and porous scaffolds with embedded vascular fluidic networks. These branched fluidic architectures are created by highly resistant thermoplastic sacrificial templates, made of poly(vinyl alcohol), representing a remarkable progress in manufacturability and scalability. The obtained architecture, when perfused in bioreactor, has shown to prevent the formation of a necrotic core in thick cell-laden constructs and enabled the rapid fabrication of hierarchically branched endothelium. In conclusion we demonstrate a novel strategy towards the engineering of vascularized thick tissues through the integration of the PVA-based microfabrication sacrificial approach and perfusion bioreactors. This approach may be able to scale current engineered tissues to clinically relevant dimensions, opening the way to their widespread clinical applications.
Kawasaki shock syndrome (KSS) is a rare manifestation of Kawasaki disease (KD) characterized by systolic hypotension or clinical signs of poor perfusion. The objectives of the study are to describe ...the main clinical presentation, echocardiographic, and laboratory findings, as well as the treatment options and clinical outcomes of KSS patients when compared with KD patients. This is a retrospective study. All children referred to two pediatric rheumatology units from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2014, were enrolled. Patients were divided into patients with or without KSS. We compared the two groups according to the following variables: sex, age, type of KD (classic, with less frequent manifestations, or incomplete), clinical manifestations, cardiac involvement, laboratory findings, therapy administered, response to treatment, and outcome. Eighty-four patients with KD were enrolled. Of these, five (6 %) met the criteria for KSS. Patients with KSS had higher values of C-reactive protein (
p
= 0.005), lower hemoglobin levels (
p
= 0.003); more frequent hyponatremia (
p
= 0.004), hypoalbuminemia (
p
= 0.004), and coagulopathy (
p
= 0.003); and increase in cardiac troponins (
p
= 0.000). Among the KSS patients, three had a coronary artery involvement, but none developed a permanent aneurysm. Intravenous immunoglobulin resistance was more frequent in the KSS group, although not significantly so (3/5, 60 % vs. 23/79, 30 %, P = NS). None of the five cases was fatal, and all recovered without sequelae. KSS patients are more likely to have higher rates of cardiac involvement. However, most cardiovascular abnormalities resolved promptly with therapy.
An increasing amount of research has examined the effects of bilingualism on performance in theory of mind (ToM) tasks. Bilinguals outperform monolinguals in ToM when comparing groups. However, it is ...unclear what aspects of the bilingual experience contribute to this effect in a dynamic construct like ToM. To date, bilingualism has been conceptualized as a dichotic skill that is distinct from monolingualism, obscuring nuances in the degree that different bilingual experience affects cognition. The current study used a combination of network science, cognitive, and linguistic behavioral measurements to explore the factors that influence perspective-taking ToM based on participants' current and previous experience with language, as well as their family networks' experience with language. The results suggest that some aspects of the bilingual experience predict task performance, but not others, and these predictors align with the two-system theory of ToM. Overall, the findings provide evidence for the extent to which individual differences in bilingualism are related to different cognitive outcomes.
Crop diversification can enhance farm economic sustainability while reducing the negative impact on the environment and ecosystem services related. Despite the market and non-market benefits of crop ...diversification, monocropping is a widely used dominant practice in Europe. In this context, this works aims to assess the overall economic impact of several crop diversification systems across Europe and compared it to the monocropping system. For this purpose, an economic valuation by integrating market and non-market values for eight case studies distributed across three different European pedoclimatic regions (Southern Mediterranean, Northern Mediterranean and Boreal) is proposed. The economic valuation was conducted both in the short and medium-long term. For the short-term we conducted a social gross margin analysis, while for the medium-long term a cost-benefit analysis is developed. The results show an improvement in social gross margins for most of the diversification scenarios assessed when environmental and socio-cultural benefits are considered in the short-term. In the medium and long-term the transformation of cropping towards a more diversified agriculture is encouraged by greater economic benefits. These results provide a first insight in global economic performance of diversified cropping systems, whose main contribution relies on the integration of market and non-market values of ecosystem services from crop diversification. They are expected to be useful for guiding policy makers to promote crop diversification practices as a key instrument for building resilience in farming systems for an adaptive management to climate change.
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•First insight in global economic performance of diversified cropping systems is provided.•Diversified cropping systems are assessed in terms of market and non-market values.•Social gross margins and cost-benefit analysis were applied in three European regions.•Market benefits provide the largest contribution to the value of crop diversification.•Internalising non-market value of agroecosystems is key to ensure farm sustainability.
Morphological brain changes as a consequence of new learning have been widely established. Learning a second language (L2) is one such experience that can lead to rapid structural neural changes. ...However, still relatively little is known about how levels of proficiency in the L2 and the age at which the L2 is learned influence brain neuroplasticity. The goal of this study is to provide novel evidence for the effect of bilingualism on white matter structure in relatively proficient but late L2 learners who acquired the second language after early childhood. Overall, the results demonstrate a significant effect on white matter fractional anisotropy (FA) as a function of L2 learning. Higher FA values were found in a broad white matter network including the anterior thalamic radiation (ATR), the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), the Uncinate Fasciculus (UF), and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF). Moreover, FA values were correlated with age of L2 acquisition, suggesting that learning an L2, even past childhood, induces neural changes. Finally, these results provide some initial evidence that variability in the age of L2 acquisition has important consequences for neural plasticity.
Eating disorders (EDs) are syndromes with a multifactorial etiopathogenesis, involving childhood traumatic experiences, as well as biological factors. Human microbiome has been hypothesised to play a ...fundamental role, impacting on emotion regulation, as well as with eating behaviours through its metabolites such as short chain fatty acids (SCFAs). The present study investigated the interactions between psychopathology of EDs, the gut microbiome and SCFAs resulting from bacterial community metabolic activities in a population of 47 patients with Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Binge Eating Disorder and in healthy controls (HCs). Bacterial gut microbiota composition differences were found between subjects with EDs and HCs, especially in association with different pathological behaviours (binge-purge vs restricting). A mediation model of early trauma and ED-specific psychopathology linked reduction of microbial diversity to a typical microbiota-derived metabolite such as butyric acid. A possible interpretation for this model might be that childhood trauma represents a risk factor for gut dysbiosis and for a stable modification of mechanisms responsible for SCFAs production, and that this dysfunctional community is inherited in the passage from childhood to adulthood. These findings might open the way to novel interventions of butyric acid-like compounds as well as faecal transplant.
Abstract Despite clinical treatments for adipose tissue defects, in particular breast tissue reconstruction, have certain grades of efficacy, many drawbacks are still affecting the long-term survival ...of new formed fat tissue. To overcome this problem, in the last decades, several scaffolding materials have been investigated in the field of adipose tissue engineering. However, a strategy able to recapitulate a suitable environment for adipose tissue reconstruction and maintenance is still missing. To address this need, we adopted a biologically and mechanically driven design to fabricate an RGD-mimetic poly(amidoamine) oligomer macroporous foam (OPAAF) for adipose tissue reconstruction. The scaffold was designed to fulfil three fundamental criteria: capability to induce cell adhesion and proliferation, support of in vivo vascularization and match of native tissue mechanical properties. Poly(amidoamine) oligomers were formed into soft scaffolds with hierarchical porosity through a combined free radical polymerization and foaming reaction. OPAAF is characterized by a high water uptake capacity, progressive degradation kinetics and ideal mechanical properties for adipose tissue reconstruction. OPAAF's ability to support cell adhesion, proliferation and adipogenesis was assessed in vitro using epithelial, fibroblast and endothelial cells (MDCK, 3T3L1 and HUVEC respectively). In addition, in vivo subcutaneous implantation in murine model highlighted OPAAF potential to support both adipogenesis and vessels infiltration. Overall, the reported results support the use of OPAAF as a scaffold for engineered adipose tissue construct.
This study used a word dictation task to examine the influence of a variety of factors on word writing production: cognate status (cognate vs. non-cognate words), orthographic (OS) and phonological ...similarity (PS) within the set of cognate words, and language learning background late bilinguals (LBs) with academic literacy and formal instruction in English and Spanish, and heritage speakers (HSs) with academic literacy and formal instruction only in English. Both accuracy and reaction times for the first key pressed by participants (indicating lexical access), and the time required to type the rest of the word after the first keypress (indicating sublexical processing) was assessed. The results revealed an effect of PS on the dictation task particularly for the first keypress. That is, cognates with high PS were processed faster than cognates with low PS. In contrast to reading studies in which PS only revealed a significant effect when the OS between languages was high (O+P+ vs. O+P−), in the dictation to writing task, the phonology had a more general effect across all conditions, regardless of the level of OS. On the other hand, OS tended to be more influential for typing the rest of the word. This pattern is interpreted as indicating the importance of phonology (and PS in cognates) for initial lexical retrieval when the input is aural. In addition, the role of OS and PS during co-activation was different between groups probably due to the participants’ linguistic learning environment. Concretely, HSs were found to show relatively lower OS effects, which is attributed to the greater emphasis on spoken language in their Spanish language learning experiences, compared to the formal education received by the LBs. Thus, the study demonstrates that PS can influence lexical processing of cognates, as long as the task demands specifically require phonological processing, and that variations in language learning experiences also modulate lexical processing in bilinguals.
Intuitive eating (IE) is a non-dieting approach that promotes listening to internal cues of hunger and satiety, rather than adhering to external dietary restrictions aimed at weight loss. However, ...the role of IE in dieting behaviors related to weight-loss approaches is still unclear. To address this issue, the aim of this study was to compare IE levels between dieting and non-dieting individuals, exploring the relationship between IE and dieting-related psychological and physical factors. A sample of 2059 females was recruited via social media and self-reported questionnaires were administered to measure IE, eating psychopathology, self-efficacy, and quality of life. Individuals with a history of dieting exhibited lower IE levels, a higher BMI, and a greater eating psychopathology, as well as a reduced self-efficacy and quality of life, compared to non-dieters. IE showed a protective effect against dieting behaviors, with higher IE levels being associated with a lower likelihood of dieting. Additionally, higher BMI and eating psychopathology were predictors of dieting. Promoting IE could represent a relevant clinical target strategy to address disordered eating and enhance overall well-being, underscoring the need for interventions that foster a healthier relationship with food and bodily internal sensations.
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