In recent years, marine natural products have become one of the most important resources of novel lead compounds for critical diseases associated with age. Spirulina, a dietary supplement made from blue-green algae (cyanobacteria: scientific name Arthrospira platensis), is particularly rich in phycocyanin, a phycobiliprotein, which accounts for up to 20% of this cyanobacterium’s dry weight and is considered responsible for its anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. Although the anti-aging activity of phycocyanin has been investigated, how exactly this compound works against aging remains elusive. Aim of our research is to use the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism to investigate the anti-aging properties of phycocyanin from A. platensis. Our results show that phycocyanin has a powerful anti-aging effect, greatly extending the chronological life span of yeast cells in a dose-dependent way, being the effect pronounced also when cells were grown in SD medium under calorie restriction conditions (0.2% glucose). Both ROS and accumulation of dead cells were followed by staining chronologically aged cells with dihydrorhodamine 123 (DHR123) and propidium iodide (PI). Interestingly, we found that most of the aged phycocyanin treated cells, which were unable to form colonies, were actually ROS+/PI–. Finally, we show that the moment in which phycocyanin is added to the culture does not substantially influence its effectiveness in counteracting chronological aging.

The last decade has seen remarkable progress in the characterization of methylation clocks that track biological age in humans and many other mammalian species. While the biological processes of aging that underlie these clocks have remained unclear, several clues have pointed to a link to developmental mechanisms. These include the presence in the vicinity of clock CpG sites of genes that specify development, including those of the Hox (homeobox) and polycomb classes. Here we discuss how recent advances in programmatic theories of aging provide a framework within which methylation clocks can be understood as part of a developmental process of aging. This includes how such clocks evolve, how developmental mechanisms cause aging, and how they give rise to late-life disease. The combination of ideas from evolutionary biology, biogerontology and developmental biology open a path to a new discipline, that of developmental gerontology (devo-gero). Drawing on the properties of methylation clocks, we offer several new hypotheses that exemplify devo-gero thinking. We suggest that polycomb controls a trade-off between earlier developmental fidelity and later developmental plasticity. We also propose the existence of an evolutionarily-conserved developmental sequence spanning ontogenesis, adult development and aging, that both constrains and determines the evolution of aging.

Introduction: Sarcopenia, muscle loss, often coexists with MASLD, a common liver disorder, which is more prevalent in those with sarcopenia. Sarcopenia also increases the risk of liver conditions like steatosis and fibrosis. Studies on sarcopenia in MASLD are common in developed countries, but fewer follow the EWGSOP2 guidelines in Brazil. Aim: to assess sarcopenia prevalence in MASLD patients. Methods: Cross-sectional study conducted at the Gastroen-terology/Hepatology Service of ISCMPA with patients diagnosed with MASLD. The EWGSOP2 criteria were used to evaluate sarcopenia. Categorical data presented as absolute and relative frequency; parametric continuous data ex-pressed as mean±standard deviation; non-parametric continuous data as me-dian and IQR. Gender differences in were analyzed using Fisher's Exact Test or Chi-squared tests, and for continuous variables, T Student tests (parametric) and Mann-Whitney U tests for independent samples (non-parametric). The significance level was set at 5% (p<0.05). Results: The study involved 103 MASLD patients with an average age of 60.39 years, comprising 48 (46.60%) adults and 55 (53.40%) older individuals. Concerning sarcopenia diagnosis, four individuals exhibited decreased muscle strength; two had reduced MME (sarcopenia); and one showed decreased walking speed (severe sarcopenia). Among the participants, 63 (60.6%) were physically active. 35 (62.5%) had mild to moderate steatosis, while 21 (37.5%) had severe steatosis. In terms of EHNA, 13 subjects (24.08%) had moderate to severe EHNA. Regarding fibrosis classi-fication, 68 (72.34%) individuals had undetermined or high probability based on the NAFLD score, with higher prevalence in males (n=23; 88.5%). Fibrosis assessment via liver biopsy revealed 27 (28.72%) in F1 and F2 and 15 (16.96%) in F3 and F4. Stratification of fibrosis into F3 and F4 was more com-mon among men (n=9; 47.4%). Conclusion: Most of the population was physi-cally active. The parameters indicating sarcopenia exceeded the thresholds recommended by EWGSOP2. The prevalence of sarcopenia was low in individuals with MASLD.

Following ischemic stroke, the degradation of myelin and other cellular membranes surpasses the lipid-processing capabilities of resident microglia and infiltrating macrophages. This imbalance leads to foam cell formation in the infarct and areas of secondary neurodegeneration, instigating sustained inflammation and furthering neurological damage. Given that mitochondria are the primary sites of fatty acid metabolism, augmenting mitochondrial biogenesis (MB) may enhance lipid processing, curtailing foam cell formation and post-stroke chronic inflammation. Previous studies have shown that the pharmacological activation of the β2-adrenergic receptor (β2-AR) stimulates MB. Consequently, our study sought to discern the effects of intensified β2-AR signal-ing on MB, the processing of brain lipid debris, and neurological outcome using a mouse stroke model. To achieve this goal, aged mice were treated with formoterol, a long-acting β2-AR ago-nist, daily for two and eight weeks following stroke. Formoterol increased MB in the infarct re-gion, modified fatty acid metabolism, and reduced foam cell formation. However, it did not re-duce markers of post-stroke neurodegeneration or improve recovery. Our findings suggest that boosting MB in myeloid cells is one component of a therapeutic avenue for improving brain lipid debris processing after stroke.

Background: This study aimed to assess the relationship between age-related changes in Neuro-filament Light Chain (NFL), a marker of neuronal function, and various factors including muscle function, body composition, and metabolomic markers. Methods: The study included 40 partici-pants, aged 20 to 85 years. NFL levels were measured, and muscle function, body composition, and metabolomic markers were assessed. Results: NFL levels increased significantly with age, particularly in men. Negative correlations were found between NFL levels and measures of mus-cle function, such as grip strength, walking speed, and chair test performance, indicating a decline in muscle performance with increasing NFL. These associations were more pronounced in men. NFL levels also negatively correlated with muscle quality in men, as measured by 50 kHz phase angle. In terms of body composition, NFL was positively correlated with markers of fat mass and negatively correlated with markers of muscle mass, predominantly in men. Metabolomic analy-sis revealed significant associations between NFL levels and specific metabolites, with gen-der-dependent relationships observed. Conclusions: This study provides insights into the rela-tionship between circulating serum NFL, muscle function, and aging. The findings highlight gen-der differences and contribute to our understanding of age-related changes in neuronal function and their impact on muscle health.

Inotodiol, a lanostane-type triterpenoid, and many phytochemicals from Chaga mushroom have been investigated for various allergic diseases. However, antiaging and anti-inflammatory activities of inotodiol under different types of oxidative stress and impact of inotodiol on collagen and hyaluronan synthesis are not sufficiently studied. Lanostane triterpenoids-rich concentrate, which contained 10% inotodiol as major (the inotodiol concentrate), was prepared from Chaga and compared with pure inotodiol in terms of anti-inflammatory activities on a human keratinocyte cell line, HaCaT cells, under various stimulation such as stimulation with ultraviolet (UV) B or tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α. In stimulation with TNF-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and IL-8 genes were significantly repressed by 0.44~4.0 μg/mL of pure inotodiol. UVB irradiation induced overexpressions of pro-inflammatory cytokines, but those genes were significantly suppressed by pure inotodiol or inotodiol concentrate. Moreover, pure inotodiol/inotodiol concentrate could also modulate synthesis of collagen and hyaluronic acid by controlling COL1A2 and HAS2/3 expression, which implies a crucial role of pure inotodiol/inotodiol concentrate in prevention of skin aging. These results enlighten anti-inflammatory and anti-aging effect of pure inotodiol/inotodiol concentrate, and it is highly conceivable that pure inotodiol and inotodiol concentrate could be promising natural bioactive substances to be incorporated in therapeutic and beautifying applications.

As the world's population ages and the resulting health problems become more serious, medical and health policies in developed countries are focused on how to prevent and treat the diseases of the aging population and how to maintain their quality of life. Typical age-related diseases include deafness, cataracts, osteoarthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus, and dementia. Although the mechanisms by which these diseases develop differ, they are all caused by the accumulation of molecular and cellular damage over time. In addition, age-related diseases can cause a decline in physical and mental functions and the ability to perform activities of daily living, as well as the loss of roles in society and a sense of fulfillment in life. Therefore, there is a need for treatment and measures to accurately grasp and maintain their quality of life.

The CuCrSn alloy is promising as high-strength and high-conductivity Cu alloy due to its relative low smelting requirement, while thus far reports on the CuCrSn alloy is still quite lacked. In this study, the microstructure and properties of Cu-0.20Cr-0.25Sn (wt%) specimens prepared under different rolling and aging combinations were comprehensively characterized, in order to reveal the effects of cold rolling and aging on the CuCrSn alloy. The results show that increasing the aging temperature from 400 ºC to 450 ºC can obviously accelerates the precipitation, and the cold rolling before aging significantly increases the initial microhardness and promotes the precipitation. Whereas, the deformation hardening will be eliminated during the aging process, making the microhardness even decrease monotonically when the aging temperature and the rolling ratio before aging are high. Performing the cold rolling after the aging can maximize the effects of precipitation strengthening and deformation strengthening, and its adverse impact on the conductivity is not serious. A tensile strength of 506.5 MPa and a conductivity of 70.33% IACS were obtained with such a treatment, only the elongation decreases. Different strength-conductivity combinations of the CuCrSn alloy can be achieved through appropriate combinations of the aging and post aging cold rolling conditions.

Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is essential for sustained work ability in good health, but declines with aging as does the functionality of the immune system, the latter process commonly referred to as immunosenescence. This study aimed to compare the capacity of immunosenescence biomarkers with chronological age for predicting low CRF in a cross-sectional sample recruited from the regional working population. CRF was determined by submaximal bicycle ergometer testing in a cross-sectional sample of 597 volunteers aged 20–70 years from the ’Dortmund Vital Study’ (DVS, ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05155397). Low CRF was scored, if the ergometer test was not completed due to medical reasons or if the power output projected to a heart rate of 130 bpm divided by body mass was below sex-specific reference values of 1.25 W/kg for females and 1.5 W/kg for males, respectively. In addition to established biomarkers of immunosenescence, we calibrated a comprehensive metric of immune age to our data and compared its predictive capacity for low CRF to chronological age while adjusting our analysis for the influence of sex, obesity, and level of regular physical activity by applying univariate and multiple logistic regression. While obesity, low physical activity, chronological and immune age were all associated with increased probability for low CRF in univariate analyses, multiple logistic regression revealed that obesity and physical activity together with immune age, but not chronological age, were statistically significant predictors of low CRF outcome. Sex was non-significant due to the applied sex-specific reference values. These results demonstrate that biological age assessed by our immunological metric can outperform chronological age as a predictor for CRF and indicate a potential role for immunosenescence in explaining the inter-individual variability of the age-related decline in cardiorespiratory fitness.

Calorie restriction (CR), defined as a reduction of the total calorie intake of 30% to 60% without malnutrition, is the only nutritional strategy that has proven to extend lifespan, prevent or delay the onset of age-associated diseases, and delay the functional decline in a wide range of species. However, little is known about the effects of CR when started early in life. We sought to analyze the effects of CR in the skeletal muscle of young Wistar rats. For this, 3-month-old male and female rats were subjected to 40% CR or fed ad libitum for 3 months. Gastrocnemius muscles were used to extract RNA and total protein. Western blot and RT-qPCR were performed to evaluate the expression of key markers/pathways modulated by CR and affected by aging. CR decreased body and skeletal muscle weight in both sexes. No differences were found in most senescence, antioxidant, and nutrient sensing pathways analyzed. However, we found a sexual dimorphism in markers of oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis, and mitochondrial function in response to CR. Our data show that young female rats treated with CR exhibit similar expression patterns of key genes/pathways associated with healthy aging when compared to old animals treated with CR, while in male rats these effects are reduced. Additional studies are needed to understand how early or later life CR exerts positive effects on health- and lifespan.

Scientific literature shows increased interest in the aged and the aging phenomenon. The Aging Attitudes Questionnaire - AAQ was validated for the Portuguese population to understand the importance of attitudes towards old age and their impact on the subjective well-being of the elderly. A sample of 400 subjects (from 18 to 93 years) answered a socio-demographic questionnaire, and the AAQ was composed of three subscales (psychosocial losses, physical change, and psychological growth). The CFA confirmed the tri-factorial structure with very good adjustment of the model to the data with the Cronbach alpha of the total scale scoring .84 and ranging from .65 to .77 for each factor. A total of 9 items were omitted both for poor factor loadings (<0.50. Notwithstanding, 3 items below the criteria were maintained, as they conceptually fit into the factor. Of the final 15 AAQp items, 5 belong to the Psychosocial Loss factor, 6 to Physical Change, and 4 to Psychosocial Growth. This tree factor model explained 50.1 % of the total variance. In conclusion, this study supports that AAQ has acceptable validity, confirming the composite reliability and the discriminant validity, but not the convergent validity. Through multi-group analysis, the invariance of the scale was confirmed. This validation is of pivotal importance once it allows measuring the attitudes towards aging, thus facilitating the promotion of wellbeing across the lifespan.

Age-related alterations in the gut microbiome composition and its impacts on the host’s health have been well described; however, detailed analyses of the gut microbial structure defining ecological microbe-microbe interactions is limited. One of the ways to determine these interactions is by understanding microbial co-occurrence patterns. We previously showed promising abilities of Lactobacillus acidophilus DDS-1 on the aging gut microbiome and immune system. However, the potential of the DDS-1 strain to modulate microbial co-occurrence patterns is unknown. Hence, we aimed to investigate the ability of L. acidophilus DDS-1 to modulate the fecal, mucosal and cecal-related microbial co-occurrence networks in young and aging C57BL/6J mice. Our Kendall’s tau correlation measures of co-occurrence revealed age-related changes in the gut microbiome, which were characterized by reduced number of nodes and associations across sample types when compared to younger mice. After four-week supplementation, L. acidophilus DDS-1 differentially modulated the overall microbial community structure in fecal and mucosal samples as compared to cecal samples. Beneficial bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Akkermansia acted as connectors in aging networks in response to L. acidophilus DDS-1 supplementation. Our findings provided the first evidence of the DDS-1-induced gut microbial ecological interactions revealing the complex structure of microbial ecosystems with age.

Cryptococcus neoformans causes meningoencephalitis in immunocompromised individuals, which is treated with Fluconazole (FLC) monotherapy when resources are limited. This can lead to azole resistance, which can be mediated by overexpression of ABC transporters, a class of efflux pumps. ABC pump-mediated efflux of FLC is also augmented in 10-generation old C. neoformans cells. Here, we describe a new ABC transporter Afr3 (CNAG_06909), which is overexpressed in C. neoformans cells of advanced generational age, that accumulate during chronic infection. The delta-afr3 mutant strain showed higher FLC susceptibility by FLC E-Test strip testing and also by a killing test that measured survival after 3 h FLC exposure. Furthermore, delta-afr3 cells exhibited lower Rhodamine 6G efflux compared to the H99 wild type cells. Afr3 was expressed in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae AD-delta strain, which lacks several drug transporters, thus reducing background transport. The AD-delta + Afr3 strain demonstrated a higher efflux with both Rhodamine 6G and Nile Red, even though the FLC MICs were not changed. Characterization of the delta-afr3 mutant revealed unattenuated growth but a prolongation (22%) of the replicative life span. In addition, delta-afr3 exhibited decreased resistance to macrophage killing and attenuated virulence in the Galleria mellonella infection model. In summary, our data indicate that a novel ABC pump Afr3p, which is upregulated in C. neoformans cells of advanced age may contribute to their enhanced FLC tolerance, by promoting drug efflux. Lastly, its role in macrophage resistance may also contribute to the selection of older C. neoformans cells during chronic infection.

Epigenetics, specifically DNA methylation, allows for estimation of animal age from blood or remotely sampled skin. This multi tissue epigenetic aging clock uses 110 longitudinal samples from 34 Navy bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), identifying 195 cytosine-phosphate-guanine sites associated with chronological aging via leave-one-individual-out-cross-validation (R2=0.95). With a median absolute error of 2.5 years this clock improves age estimation capacity in wild dolphins, expanding conservation efforts, enabling better understanding of population demographics.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a complex, multifactorial neurodegenerative disease that constitutes the most common cause of irreversible blindness in the elderly in developed countries. Incomplete knowledge about its pathogenesis prevents the search for effective methods of prevention and treatment of AMD, primarily its “dry” type, which is by far the most common (90% of all AMD cases). In recent years, AMD became younger: late stages of the disease are now detected in relatively young people. It is known that AMD pathogenesis—according to the age-related structural and functional changes in the retina—is linked with inflammation, hypoxia, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and an impairment of neurotrophic support, but the mechanisms that trigger the conversion of normal age-related changes to the pathological process as well as the reason for early AMD development remain unclear. In the adult mammalian retina, de novo neurogenesis is very limited. Therefore, the structural and functional features that arise during its maturation and formation can exert long-term effects on further ontogenesis of this tissue. The aim of this review is to discuss possible contributions of the changes/disturbances in retinal neurogenesis to the early development of AMD.

The significance of diversity, composition, and functional attributes of the gut microbiota is recognized in human health and disease. Studies have also shown that the gut microbiota is related to human aging, and a causal relationship between gut microflora dysbiosis and chronic age-related disorders is also becoming apparent. Further, emerging evidence indicates that age-associated changes in the gut microbiome are predictors of human survival and longevity. Recent advances in our understanding of the cellular and molecular aspects of biological aging have revealed a cellular senescence-centric view of the aging process. However, the association between gut microbiome and cellular senescence is only beginning to be understood. The present review provides an integrative view of the emerging relationship between the gut microbiome and cellular senescence in aging and disease. Evidence relating to microbiome-mediated modulation of senescent cells, as well as senescent cells-mediated changes in intestinal homeostasis have been discussed. Unanswered questions and future research directions have also been deliberated to truly ascertain the relationship of the gut microbiome and cellular senescence for developing microbiome-based age-delaying and longevity promoting therapies.

The ability to express and recognize emotion via facial expressions is well known to change with age. The present study investigated the differences in the facial recognition and facial expression of the elderly (n = 57) and the young (n = 115) and measure how each group uses different facial muscles for each emotion with Facial Action Coding System (FACS). In facial recognition task, the elderly did not recognize facial expressions better than young people and reported stronger feelings of fear and sad from photographs. In making facial expression task, the elderly rated all their facial expressions as stronger than the younger, but in fact, they expressed strong expressions in fear and anger. Furthermore, the elderly used more muscles in the lower face when making facial expressions than younger people. These results help to understand better how the facial recognition and expression of the elderly change, and show that the elderly do not effectively execute the top-down processing concerning facial expression.

The recent COVID-19 outbreak in China led to a worldwide pandemic associated with a severe acute respiratory illness. A higher incidence of COVID-19 infection was demonstrated in cancer patients, including patients with lung cancer. This study was conducted to get insights into the reasons for this enhanced frequency of COVID-19 infection. Methods: Using different bioinformatic tools, the expression and methylation pattern of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 gene were analyzed in healthy and malignant tissues with a focus on lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and correlated to clinical parameters and smoking history. Results: ACE2 and TMPRSS2 were heterogeneously expressed across 36 healthy tissues with the highest expression in digestive, urinary and reproductive organs, while their expression was significantly lower in 36 cancer tissues. In LUAD, ACE2, but not TMPRSS2 was overexpressed, which inversely correlated to the promoter methylation. An age-dependent upregulation of ACE2 expression was found in LUAD compared to normal lung tissues. In a healthy lung, TMPRSS2 expression was dependent on sex and smoking history and downregulated in LUAD of smokers. Cancer progression was associated with decreased TMPRSS2, but unaltered ACE2 expression, while ACE2 expression in lung metastases of different cancers was higher than in metastasis of other sites. TMPRSS2, but not ACE2 expression, was associated with LUAD patients’ survival. Conclusions: Comprehensive molecular analyses revealed a heterogeneous, distinct expression and methylation profile of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in healthy lung vs LUAD tissues across sex, age and smoking history, which is associated with clinical parameters and might have implications for COVID-19 disease.

Eye movements support memory encoding by binding distinct elements of the visual world into coherent representations. However, the role of eye movements in memory retrieval is less clear. We propose that eye movements play a functional role in retrieval by reinstating the encoding context. By overtly shifting attention in a manner that broadly recapitulates the spatial locations and temporal order of encoded content, eye movements facilitate access to, and reactivation of, associated details. Such mnemonic gaze reinstatement may be obligatorily recruited when task demands exceed cognitive resources, as is often observed in older adults. We review research linking gaze reinstatement to retrieval, describe the neural integration between the oculomotor and memory systems, and discuss implications for models of oculomotor control, memory, and aging.

The results of this study offer a potential to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the falls in the elderly. The results were recorded for a group of 27 women in a control group (CON) and 16 women in an experimental group (EXP), aged 60-70. Participants took part in the six-weeks Elderly Recreation Movement Program (ERMP) with the difference, that the EXP group practiced twice as often as the CON group. The measurement of variations in the index called limits of stability (LOS) was performed by application of Kistler force plate and the coactivation index (CI) was registered by means of sEMG. The results demonstrate the existence of statistically significant differences in terms of the principal outcome of the exercise time in the measurements of LOS (F (1.42) = 10.0, p = 0.003), and CI (F (1.42) = 10.5, p = 0.002). The effect of the program was associated with an increase the level of the maximum LOS, and a decrease of the CI level, especially in the experimental group. Hence, the implementation of an innovative ERMP exercise program results in the improvement of the physical capabilities of senior subjects and a reduction of the risk of falls.

This review was written with the aim of examining the effects that caused an insult such as a wound to an organ such as the skin. Before examining the cellular mechanisms relating to wound healing, the reader is invited to read the structure of the skin as a necessary basis for understand-ing the final aim of this review. The structure of the skin as a basis for understanding the phe-nomena relating to wound healing is addressed taking into account updated literature that ad-dresses the numerous problems of the skin microenvironment. Starting from this awareness, the paragraph dedicated to wound healing becomes complicated when this phenomenon is not im-plemented and therefore the problems dedicated to chronic wounds, keloids and hypertrophic scars are addressed, pathologies that are still difficult to understand and treat today.

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a viral disease of cattle and water buffalo characterized by cutaneous nodules, biphasic fever and lymphadenitis. LSD is endemic in Africa and Middle East but in recent years has spread in different Asian countries. Drop of animal productions, vaccination campaign, surveillance costs and trade restrictions have significant impact on the economy of affected countries. The disease is well characterized in cattle while little is known in buffaloes and no experimental studies have been conducted in this species. Six buffaloes and two cattle were inoculated with an Albanian LSD virus (LSDV) field strain. Over a period of 42 days animals were clinically monitored and sampled for serological and virological analysis. Only two buffaloes showed clinical sign, fever, skin nodules and lymphadenitis. All samples tested in real time PCR (blood, swabs, biopsies and organ) gave negative results. Three buffaloes seroconverted at day 39 and 42 post-inoculation, detected by ELISA, but all sera were negative in serum neutralization test. Cattle showed more severe clinical signs. Moreover, viraemia and virus shedding were proven by positive PCR results and antibodies were detected by both ELISA and serum neutralization test. These findings demonstrated the limited susceptibility of buffaloes compared to cattle once experimental infected with LSDV. Further studies are needed to investigate the epidemiological role of the buffaloes.

Skin cancer is a prevalent type of malignancy on a global scale, and the early and accurate diag-nosis of this condition is of utmost importance for the survival of patients. The clinical assessment of cutaneous lesions is a crucial aspect of medical practice, although it encounters several obsta-cles, such as prolonged waiting time and misinterpretation. The intricate nature of skin lesions, coupled with variations in appearance and texture, presents substantial barriers to accurate clas-sification. As such, skilled clinicians often struggle to differentiate benign moles from early ma-lignant tumors in skin images. Although deep learning-based approaches such as convolution neural networks have made significant improvements, their stability and generalization continue to confront difficulties, and their performance in accurately delineating lesion borders, capturing refined spatial connections among features, and using contextual information for classification is suboptimal. To address these limitations, we propose a novel approach for skin lesion classification which combines snake models of Active Contour (AC) Segmentation, ResNet50 for feature ex-traction and a Capsule Network with a fusion of lightweight attention mechanisms, to attain the different feature channels and spatial regions within feature maps, enhance the feature discrimi-nation, and improve accuracy. We employed the Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) optimization algorithm to optimize the model's parameters. The proposed model is implemented on publicly available datasets, namely HAM10000 and ISIC 2020. The experimental results showed that the proposed model achieved an accuracy of 98% and AUC-ROC of 97.3%, showcasing substantial potential in terms of effective model generalization compared to existing state-of-the-art (SOTA) approaches. These results highlight the potential for our approach to reshape automated derma-tological diagnosis and provide a helpful tool for medical practitioners.

To investigate the associated mechanisms concerning collagen and the expression of apoptosis-related proteins in porcine skin injuries induced by laser exposure, pig skin was treated with a 1064 nm laser. The healing process of the laser-treated areas, alterations in collagen structure, and changes in apoptosis were continuously observed and analyzed from 6 hours to 28 days post-irradiation. On the 28th day following exposure, wound contraction and recovery were notably sluggish in the medium-high dose groups, displaying more premature and delicate type III collagen within the newly regenerated tissues. The collagen density in these groups was roughly 37-58% of that in the normal group. Between days 14 and 28 after irradiation, there was a substantial rise in apoptotic cell count in the forming epidermis and granulation tissue of the medium-high dose group, in contrast to the normal group. Notably, the expression of proapoptotic proteins bax, caspase-3, and caspase-9 surged significantly 14 days after irradiation in the medium-high dose groups and persisted at elevated levels on the 28th day. During the later stage of wound healing, the augmented apoptotic cell population and insufficient collagen generation in the newborn skin tissue of the medium-high dose groups were closely associated with delayed wound recovery.

Background: Patients with burn scars often suffer from a ‘vicious cycle’ in which their skin becomes dry and pruritus. This greatly reduces patients' quality of life, but there is no well-known mechanism yet, and the development of drugs for effective treatment is necessary. Objective: This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of cosmetic formulation containing arginine glutamate ion pair (named as RE:pair) on epidermal barrier function and reducing pruritus. Materials and Methods: A total of 20 patients [15 male and 5 female; average age 48.35 ± 13.13 years] participated in evaluating the effectiveness of using the RE:pair formula topically twice daily for up to 4 weeks after burn pruritus. Treatment efficacy was evaluated by Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) for itching and pain, transepidermal water loss (TEWL), skin hydration, Vancouver Scar Scale (VSS) evaluation, and the patient’s overall satisfaction. Results: This formula was well-tolerated, with significant relief of NRS for itching and pain score after 2nd weeks and 4th weeks of application (p &lt; 0.05). The itching score was high in some patients, and overall, it decreased significantly after 4 weeks compared to before application. Also, the personal pain score decreased after 4th weeks. Overall TEWL showed 35 % improvement after 4th week, and 52 % improvement was confirmed in arms and 19 % in legs. The overall improvement effect of skin hydration was also 45 % (p = 0.0012), and the improvement effect was 40 % (p = 0.0371) in areas including arms and 54 % (p = 0.0313) in areas including legs. All patient satisfactory evaluations were "excellent". Conclusions: RE:pair formula was safe and effective in improving skin barrier and itch relief, and if further studies are conducted, it can be used as an excellent topical treatment for post-burn scar that strengthens the skin barrier.

Background: Laser therapies can cause hyper- and hypopigmentation of the skin. There is little evidence in the literature of effective treatments for these types of problems in Fitzpatrick IV-VI skin phototypes. The main aim of this retrospective study is to evaluate the effects of a new therapy combining the application of electromagnetic fields and vacuum on a subject with Fitzpatrick VI skin phototype, presenting an extensive, laser-induced facial dyschromia. The secondary aim is to test the effectiveness of a free imaging software for assessing skin pigmentation. Methods: The level of improvement after the therapy was evaluated, with a 5-point Likert scale, one month after the end of the treatment by both the subject, and the doctor who performed the treatment, and by two blinded dermatologists. With the free software, a three-dimensional reconstruction of the area treated and the evaluation of colour distribution were performed. Results: Both the subject and the doctors involved in the study positively evaluated the effects of the treatment. The image analysis highlighted the homogenization of the skin colour in the treated area. Conclusions: The combination of electromagnetic fields and vacuum for dyschromia treatments appears promising. The new method of assessing melanin levels resulted particularly efficient.

Background and Objectives: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may affect organs outside the intestines, it is called extraintestinal manifestations of IBD. Data on the prevalence of mucocutaneous manifestations in IBD patients are very limited, therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of skin and mucosal lesions and to determine the relationship with demographic factors, clinical features, and systemic treatment. Materials and Methods: Prospective study included 162 out-patients with IBD who were managed in the tertiary care center. Ulcerative colitis (UC) was diagnosed in 117 patients, Crohn's disease (CD) in 45. Patients completed the questionnaire containing demographic and IBD data, questions about mucocutaneous lesions (in past or present state). Results: Skin lesions were reported by 40.7% of patients, oral mucosal lesions were reported by 16.7%, without significant differences between sexes or IBD types. In 47 (29%) of patients, skin lesions appeared together with IBD or during the course of the disease. The most common skin lesions were psoriasis (8.0%), erythema nodosum (5.6%), pyoderma gangrenosum and acne (3.7% each). UC patients mostly reported about psoriasis (9.4%), while CD patients – erythema nodosum (11.1%). There were more frequent skin lesions in patients with more extensive UC type (p = 0.01), while no difference was noticed between different types of CD. The average duration of IBD in patients with skin lesions was similar to those without lesions (9.3±6.7 vs. 9.4±6.7 years). Conclusions: Mucocutaneous lesions were reported by 48.8% of inflammatory bowel disease patients. The frequency of mucocutaneous lesions does not differ significantly between UC and CD, and a longer duration of illness is not a predictive factor for the appearance of lesions. More extensive UC is related to higher frequency of skin lesions.

There is a growing demand and use of herbal cosmetics for skin purposes due to their perceived safety when applied to the skin. Three Cassipourea species commonly known as “ummemezi” are used interchangeable by women in rural areas of Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces to treat hypermelanosis as well as sun protection. We conducted a phytochemical comparison of three Cassipourea species; C. flanaganii, C. gummiflua and C. malosana by LC-MS/MS analysis in negative mode. The results obtained from the LC-MS/MS yielded a total number of twenty-four compounds of different chemical classes, including fatty acids, steroids, di- and tri-terpenoids, flavonoids, phenolic acids were detected, and eighteen among them were tentatively identified. Despite the recent popularity of modern cosmetic products, it is clear that plants continue to play an important role in the local cosmetics industry in South Africa's Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal community provinces. The findings of this study suggest that an alternative treatment for hyper-melanosis disorders should be developed further. The residual wild plant stocks are insufficient to meet commercial needs, thus, encouraging their sustainable use is a means of harnessing the conservation of these plants. Indigenous communities should be supported in the commercialization which could be linked to the rural economic development.

Introduction: Skin cancer is the 5th most common cancers in western countries with surge in the cases of occurrence with the passing time making it a global burden on health care system. In this present study, the cancer preventive activities of Argemone mexicana Linn (AM), which has been widely used by folklores to treat different ailments. Aim: The experiment advocates the cancer preventive activity of ethanolic extract of AM and to against DMBA/TPA induced skin cancer in mice model. Materials and Methods: Experimental animals were divided into doses group,100mg/kg B.W, 250mg/kg B.W, 500mg/kg B.W and 1000mg/kg B.W and subjected to toxic dose determination. The DMBA/TPA method was followed to induce the skin cancer in mice along with the feeding of non-toxic doses of 100mg/ kg, 250mg/kg, 500mg/kg mice were given as a pretreatment and 500mg/kg as a separate post treatment group as per body weight. The anti-cancerous activity was determined by different parameters on 0day, 30th day and 60th day including change in incidence of tumour induction, haematological parameters, histopathology and changes in pattern of TNF-α secretion and NF-kB (p65 subunit) signaling pathway in the blood serum. Results: The 1000 mg/kg BW was found to exhibit sub-acute toxicity. It was observed that the 500mg/kg BW pretreated group resisted and delayed the tumour formation for up to 8 weeks as compared to the Negative Control group where growth was seen in 4 weeks. The tumour burden was also found to be varying in a dose-dependent where on 60th day, Negative Control group and 100mg/kg BW was found to possess significantly high (p&lt;0.001) tumour burden in comparison to the 500mg/kg BW group where tumour burden was not found till 60th day. The study was validated by body weight, blood parameters, histopathology and altered pattern in regulation of TNF-α and NF-kB signaling pathway which play an important role in cancer progression. The expression of TNF-α and p65 subunit of NF-kB signaling pathway was found to be reduced significantly in a dose dependent manner and found to be highly reduced in 500mg/kg BW group (p&lt;0.001) as compared to Negative control. Conclusion: The 500mg/kg BW pretreated group was found to have significant results in comparison to 500mg/kg BW post treatment group. The study revealed effective cancer preventive activity of Argemone mexicana Linn leaves (AML) in the mice model and paved a pathway for molecular approaches which could be explored more in future studies.

Skin cancer is a condition characterized by the abnormal growth of skin cells, primarily caused by exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun or artificial sources like tanning beds. Different types of skin cancer include melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma. Despite the advancements in targeted therapies, there is still a need for a safer, highly efficient approach to preventing and treating cutaneous malignancies. Spices have a rich history dating back thousands of years and are renowned for their ability to enhance the flavor, taste, and color of food. Derived from various plant parts like seeds, fruits, bark, roots, or flowers, spices are important culinary ingredients. However, their value extends beyond the culinary realm. Some spices contain bioactive compounds, including phenolic compounds, which are known for their significant biological effects. These compounds have attracted attention in scientific research due to their potential health benefits, including their possible role in disease prevention and treatment, such as cancer. This review focuses on examining the potential of spice-derived phenolic compounds as preventive or therapeutic agents for managing skin cancers. By compiling and analyzing the available knowledge, this review aims to provide insights that can guide future research in identifying new anticancer phytochemicals and uncovering additional mechanisms for combating skin cancer.

Keywords: Convolutional Neural Network, Deep Learning, Skin cancer, Generative Adversarial Network

Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by recurrent erythema, flushing, telangiectasia, papules, pustules, and phymatous changes in the central area of the face. Patients with this condition often experience a significant negative impact on their quality of life, self-esteem, and overall well-being. Despite its prevalence, the pathogenesis of rosacea is not yet fully understood. Recent research advances are reshaping our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of rosacea, and treatment options based on the pathophysiological perspective hold promise to improve patient outcomes and reduce incidence. In this comprehensive review, we investigate the pathogenesis of rosacea in-depth, with a focus on emerging and novel mechanisms, and provide an up-to-date overview of therapeutic strategies that target the diverse pathogenic mechanisms of rosacea. Lastly, we discuss potential future research directions aimed at enhancing our understanding of the condition and developing effective treatments.

In the first wave of COVID-19, up to 20% of patients had skin lesions with variable characteristics. There is no clear evidence of the involvement of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in all the cases; some of these lesions may be secondary to drug hypersensitivity. To analyze the possible cause of the skin lesions, we performed a complete allergology study on 11 patients. One year after recovery from COVID-19, we performed a lymphocyte transformation test (LTT) and Th1/Th2 cytokine secretion assays of PBMC. We included 5 nonallergic patients treated with the same drugs without lesions. Except for one patient who had an immediate reaction to azithromycin, all patients had a positive LTT to at least one of the drugs tested (azithromycin, clavulanic acid, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir, and ritonavir). None of the nonallergic patients had a positive LTT. We found mixed Th1/Th2 cytokine secretion (IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, and IFN-γ) in patients with skin lesions corresponding to mixed drug hypersensitivity type IVa and IVb. In all cases, we identified a candidate drug as the culprit for skin lesions during SARS-CoV-2 infection, although only three patients had a positive drug challenge. Therefore, it would be reasonable to recommend avoiding the drug in question in all cases.

Medical management of chronic canine pruritic dermatologic conditions is challenging and often frustrating. This is a report that shows one way of aiding the management of pruritic dogs using a remote monitoring device. It is often difficult for veterinarians to get dog owners to return to the clinic once a dog is treated. It is possible that a 3-D accelerometer device could provide information to the clinic staff on the success or failure of a pruritus treatment plan while the dog was cared for at home. Eighty-seven dogs and their owners came to a Florida dermatology specialty clinic or its general practice hospital to be evaluated and treated for pruritus. An ANIMO® 3-D accelerometer was placed on the collar of dogs diagnosed and treated for pruritus. Dogs that completed the study were monitored for 120 days (4 months). The ANIMO app monitored a dog’s daily scratching, shaking, sleeping, activity, resting, barking and calories consumed and summarized this information in a daily report visible on the pet owner’s smart phone. An additional variable (grooming minutes per day) could be seen by the Sure Petcare R&amp;D Team that was not yet available in the app. The use of a 3-D accelerometer enabled veterinarians to continuously monitor dogs at home when they were being treated for itching. Clinic staff kept in touch with the owners by phone and could change therapy or bring the dog back for a recheck if problems were seen. Daily reports were combined into line charts that showed plots of scratching, shaking, grooming and sleeping over four months. Veterinarians were able to remotely monitor dogs that had been treated for pruritus for up to four months through the use of a collar-borne monitoring device. Dog owners and clinic staff used the daily summaries which were accessible through a smart phone app. Dogs seemed to tolerate the device well because of its small size and unobtrusive nature.

Extracts of Cordyceps militaris which possess the bioactive capacity such as antimicrobial activity and DPPH-free radical scavenging capacity, are applied to the serum product. This finished serum product has been evaluated the in vitro bioactivity and the stability with expect to find out a good extract with a suitable percentage used for serum product as natural materials on preservatives and antioxidation.

Jaundice is a common condition for newborns, and its complications can be severe and cause permanent damage to the patient’s brain if no action is taken at its early stages. Current methods for jaundice detection are invasive, which include collecting blood samples from the patient, which can be painful and stressful and may cause some complications. Alternatively, a non-invasive approach can be used to diagnose jaundice through image-processing and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, requiring a database of infant images to achieve a high-accuracy diagnosis. This data article provides a collection of newborn images, called NJN, with various birthweight and skin tones, with ages ranging from 2 to 8 days, and an excel sheet file in CSV format for the values of RGB and YCrCb channels and the status for each raw which is freely accessible at (https://sites.google.com/view/neonataljaundice). It also provides Python code for data testing using different AI techniques. Thus, this article offers a unique resource for all AI researchers to train their AI system and develop algorithms to help neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) healthcare specialists monitor neonates and provide fast, real-time, non-invasive, and accurate jaundice diagnosis.

Human pigmentation has been largely associated with different disease prevalence among populations, but most of these studies are observational and inconclusive. Known to be genetically determined, pigmentary traits have been largely studied by GWAS, mostly in Caucasian ancestry cohorts from North Europe, identifying robustly, several loci involved in many of the pigmentary traits. Here, we conduct a detailed analysis of 13 pigmentary-related traits in a South European cohort of Caucasian ancestry (n=20,000). We observed fair phototype strongly associated with non-melanoma skin cancer and other dermatoses and confirmed by PRS-approach the shared genetic basis with skin and eye diseases, such as melanoma (OR=0.95), non-melanoma skin cancer (OR=0.93), basal cell carcinoma (OR=0.97) and darker phototype with vitiligo (OR=1.02), and cataracts (OR=1.04). Detailed genetic analyses revealed 37 risk loci associated with 10 out of 13 analyzed traits, and 16 fine-mapped genes significantly associated with at least two pigmentary traits. Some of them widely reported, such as MC1R, HERC2, OCA2, TYR, TYRP1, SLC45A2, and unveiling three new candidates RP11-1084J3.4, C1QTNF3 and C17orf112, not reported in GWAS Catalog. These results highlight the importance of phototype assessment as a genetic proxy of skin functionality when evaluating disease screening in mixed populations.

Skin cancer is an uncommon but serious malignancy. Dermoscopic images examination and biopsy are required for cancer detection. Deep learning (DL) is extremely effective in learning characteristics and predicting malignancies. However, DL requires a large number of images to train. Image augmentation and transferring learning were employed to overcome the lack of images issue. In this study we divided images into two categories: benign and malignant. To train and test our models, we used the public ISIC 2020 database. Melanoma is classified as malignant in the ISIC 2020 dataset. Along with categorization, the dataset was studied to demonstrate variation. The performance of three top pretrained models was then benchmarked in terms of training and validation accuracy. Three optimizers were employed to optimize the loss: RMSProp, SGD, and ADAM. Using ResNet, VGG16, and MobileNetV2, we obtained training accuracy of 98.73%, 99.12%, and 99.76%, respectively. Using these three pretrained models, we attained a validation accuracy of 98.39%.

The skin acts as a protective barrier, guarding the body against microorganisms, chemicals, and several environmental factors. Accordingly, this all-important organ must be kept healthy to maintain its optimal functionality. One approach to maintain skin health is the application of multifunction bioactive sunscreens containing antioxidant molecule(s). Rosmarinic acid (RA), a phenolic compound, is known for its antioxidant activity. Herein, the safety and efficacy of a multifunction prototype sunscreen were investigated, aiming to probe putative synergies of this polyphenol with two known and widely used UV filters (bemotrizinol and octyl p-methoxycinnamate). Samples protected the DNA fragmentation compared to UV control, by the comet assay, and showed good skin compatibility in subjects. Formulations F1 and F3 were able to increase skin hydration, and, possibly, the RA interfered with this attribute. An increase in transepidermal water loss was observed for formulations F1, F2 and F4, which may be related to vehicle containing or not the RA. No decreases were observed in the inflammatory reaction caused by the ethyl nicotinate with any of the evaluated formulations. As a perspective, we suggest trials with a greater number of subjects or protocol modifications. Altering the vehicle qualitative and quantitative composition is also a pertinent perspective.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic and allergic skin disease, however, there is no cure for the disease. Many studies have shown anti-AD potentials of red ginseng, while red ginseng marc (RGM) remained after the ginseng extraction is discarded as industrial waste. However, it is recently reported that RGM, particularly fermented RGM (fRGM), still contains the bioactive properties. Thus, anti-allergic effects of fRGM were examined in 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene-induced AD-like mice model. The model was topically treated with distilled water (control), dexamethasone, or fRGM for six weeks. The treatments of fRGM alleviated the skin lesions and reduced serum IgE levels, compared with the control. The fRGM also reduced skin levels of lipid peroxidation and superoxide anion, however, increased glutathione contents, with down-regulated gene expressions for inflammatory mediators. The histopathological analyses demonstrated that fRGM suppressed the epidermal thickening, collagen deposition, and inflammatory cell and mast cell infiltration, which involved the anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-apoptotic effects. Further, fRGM suppressed hypertrophic changes and inflammatory responses in the spleen and lymph node. The beneficial effects were observed in the dexamethasone and fRGM groups, however, the antioxidant effects were evident only in the fRGM treatments. These provide useful information for developing fRGM as therapeutic sources for AD.

Treating infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa is increasingly difficult due to high antimicrobial resistance, materialized through the presence of multiple resistance strains, as well as due to rapid development of resistance throughout treatment. The present survey was conducted to investigate the antibiotic susceptibility profile of Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogens, in two University Veterinary hospitals from different geographical regions of Romania (i.e., south-west - Timisoara county and north-east – Iasi county) involved in canine superficial infections. A total of 142 swab specimens were collected from dogs with superficial infections (superficial skin infections, otitis externa, perianal abscess), with the aim of assessing the presence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, based on phenotypic and molecular characterization. Fifty-eight samples (40.84%; 58/142) were positive for Pseudomonas aeruginosa (according to their confirmed morphological and molecular features). Susceptibility to usual antibiotics used in the treatment of canine skin conditions was tested for all Pseudomonas strains that were isolated from canine superficial infections, using the Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method. Drug resistance was observed in the case of all tested antibiotics. The susceptibility rate of P. aeruginosa strains that were tested in this study was in the following order: ampicillin sulbactam (55.17%; 32/58), followed by ceftazidime (53.44%; 31/58), aztreonam (51.72%; 30/58), amikacin (44.82%; 26/58), azithromycin (41.37%; 24/58), gentamycin (37.93%; 22/58), cefepime (36.20%; 21/58) meropenem (25.86%; 13/58), piperacillin-tazobactam (25.86%; 13/58) imipenem (22.41%; 13/158), ciprofloxacin (17.24%; 10/58) tobramycin (8.62; 5/58), and polymyxin B (1.72; 1/58) respectively. The results highlight the importance of antibiotic susceptibility testing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from dogs with superficial infections, in order to use an adequate treatment plan for the management of the skin condition, and other pathology (otitis externa and perianal abscesses).

Dermal water content is an important biophysical parameter in preserving skin integrity and preventing skin damage. Traditional electrical-based and open-chamber evaporimeters have several well-known limitations. In particular, such devices are costly, sizeable, and only provide arbitrary outputs. They also do not permit continuous and non-invasive monitoring of dermal water content, which can be beneficial for various consumer, clinical and cosmetic purposes. We report here on the design and development of a digital multi-wavelength optical sensor that performs continuous and non-invasive measurement of dermal water content. In-silico investigation on porcine skin was carried out using the Monte Carlo modelling strategy to evaluate the feasibility and characterise the sensor. Subsequently, an in-vitro experiment was carried out to evaluate the performance of the sensor and benchmark its accuracy against a high-end, broad band spectrophotometer. Reference measurements were made against gravimetric analysis. The results demonstrate that the developed sensor can deliver accurate, continuous, and non-invasive measurement of skin hydration through measurement of dermal water content. Remarkably, the novel design of the sensor exceeded the performance of the high-end spectrophotometer due to the important denoising effects of temporal averaging. The authors believe, in addition to wellbeing and skin health monitoring, the designed sensor can particularly facilitate disease management in patients presenting diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism, malnutrition, and atopic dermatitis.

Background: Excessive sun exposure, together with insufficient protection, is the main risk factor for the onset of Melanoma and Non Melanoma skin cancer, namely the most common cancer in fair-skinned populations across the world, and of several other skin and eye adverse health effects. Epidemiological data show the existence of scant awareness of this risk, and of high rates of sunburn among young people. The main aim of the present study is to examine sun exposure habits and protection behaviour in university students. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study to investigate sun exposure and protection practices in a group of education sciences students at a university in southern Spain. This survey provided data for a descriptive and comparative analysis, by groups and gender, of photoprotection and skin self-examination practices. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire have been analysed. Results: The questionnaire was completed by 315 students. Most of them (74.6%) have suffered at least one sunburn in the last year. The use of sunscreen or protective clothing is not frequent, and 89.5% of students do not self-examine their skin. The metric properties of the questionnaire showed high values of reliability and validity. Conclusions: The awareness of solar exposure risk in Spanish university students of Education Sciences is low, self-protection is scant, the potential exposure to dangerous levels of UV radiation is high and most students have suffered one or more sunburns in the last year. Intervention strategies should be introduced in these students to highlight the risks involved and the need of more adequate sun protection practices. Information campaigns should be conducted to address the problem so that, when these students become teachers, they have an adequate knowledge of the risk and of the benefits of a higher attention to this problem, and can translate these competences in health education.

Skin and proximity effects have a considerable impact on current distribution in multi-strand cable lines. Under unfavorable heat exchange conditions some strands may be subject to excessive overheating, what may lead to serious malfunctions or even fires of the installation. The paper proposes a new criterion for a quick choice of spatial configurations, for which the effect might be minimized. A comprehensive analysis of literature cases is provided, including the recommendations of the U.S. National Code and the Canadian standard.

Capacitive contact imaging has shown potential in measuring skin properties including hydration, micro relief analysis, as well as solvent penetration measurements. Through calibration we can also measure the absolute permittivity of the skin, and from absolute permittivity we then work out the absolute solvent content in skin. In this paper, we present our latest study of capacitive contact imaging for skin characterizations and vivo skin solvent penetration. We will show how to use capacitive occlusion measurements to characterize skin damages, and how to calculate the absolute water content and solvent content in skin.

There is scientific consensus that organismal aging did not evolve by natural selection (NS) because it lacks individual benefit. Nonetheless it exists, leading to much speculation about its origins, and when the diminishing force of selection begins. Both concepts are based upon two misconceptions; that aging occurs in and of itself and is caused by the declining strength of NS during the reproductive lifespan. Although lacking individual benefit, aging evolved by NS as a tradeoff of survival for reproduction. Based upon regulatory dynamics that participate in this tradeoff, aging begins once reproductive success has been achieved through offspring nurturing. Thereafter, the strength of NS wanes to exponentially accelerate aging, leading to death. Assumptions of the theory are that: (1) a life-long, “holistic” regulatory mechanism whose genic expression is modified epigenetically, originates in ontogenesis; (2) the regulatory mechanism of the last developmental stage becomes redundantly expressed during “morphostasis”, a non-aging, life interval of peak vitality to ensure completion of reproduction through nurturing, and (3) thereafter, loss of regulatory redundancy causes aging which reduces the strength of natural selection and allows accumulation of randomly occurring somatic damage.

In the article, the results of research on a NiTi alloy with a high nickel content (51.7 at.%), produced using the additive technology SLM method and subjected to isothermal aging after so-lution annealing, are presented. The study involved the determination of the sequence of phase transformations occurring using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and the determination of the temperature range of these transformations. In parallel, the phase composition was determined using the XRD method; hardness and the Young’s modulus were also determined. The analysis of the DSC results obtained indicates the following characteristic features of the NiTi alloy, which change with ageing time: (1) during cooling (from +1500C to -500C), the type of transformation changes from a one-step transformation after solution annealing to a two-step transformation after the ageing process over 1, 20 and 100 hours at 500°C; (2) during heating (from -500C to +1500C) for all the samples, regardless of the ageing time, only a one-step transformation from martensite M(B19’) to austenite A(B2) is observed; (3) the temperature at which the transformation starts increases with the ageing time, (4) the width of the total temperature range of the transformation M(B19’)  A(B2) during heating changes from large (∆T=49,7°C), after solution annealing, to narrow (∆T=19.3°C and ∆T=17.9°C after 20 h and 100 h of ageing) and, most importantly, (5) a comparison with literature data shows that, irrespective of the composition of the NiTi alloy and the manufacturing technology of the alloy samples (regardless of the fact whether this was traditional or additive technology), a sufficiently long ageing process period leads to the occurrence of the martensite  austenite transformation in the same temperature range.

Treatment options for sarcopenia are currently limited, primarily relying on two main therapeutic approaches: resistance-based physical activity and dietary interventions. However, details about specific nutrients in the diet or supplementation are unclear. Our objective is to investigate the relationship between nutrient intake and lean mass, function, and strength. Data were derived from the Gothenburg H70 birth cohort study in Sweden, including 719 70-year-olds born in 1944 (54,1 % females). For independent variables, the diet history method (face-to-face interviews) was used to estimate habitual food intake during the preceding three months. Dependent variables were gait speed (muscle performance), hand grip strength (muscle strength) and appendicular lean soft tissue index (ALSTI). Linear regression analyses were performed to analyze the relationship between the dependent variables and each of the covariates. Several nutrients were positively associated with ALSTI, such as polyunsaturated fatty acids (DHA, EPA), selenium, zinc, riboflavin, niacin equivalent, vitamin B12, vitamin D, iron, and protein. After correction for multiple tests, there were no remaining correlations with handgrip and gait speed. Findings of positive correlations for some nutrients with lean mass suggest a role for these nutrients for maintaining muscle volume. These results can be used to inform clinical trials to expand the preventive strategies and treatment options for individuals at risk of muscle loss and sarcopenia.

Since the integration of electronic devices and intelligent electronic devices into the power grid, power quality (PQ) has consistently remained a significant concern for system operators and experts. Maintaining high standards of power quality is crucial to prevent malfunctions and faults in electric assets and in connected loads. Recently, PQ studies have shifted their focus to a specific frequency range, previously not considered problematic, the supraharmonic 2kHz–150kHz range. This range is not populated by the harmonic components of the 50-60 Hz mains fundamental, but a combination of intentional emissions, switching and non-linearity by-products and various types of resonances. This paper aims to provide a detailed analysis of the impact of SH on power network operation and assets, focusing on the most relevant documented negative effects, namely power loss and heating of grid elements, aging of dielectric materials, failure of medium voltage (MV) cable terminations, and interference to equipment and to power line communication (PLC) technology in particular. Under some shareable assumptions limits are derived and compared to existing ones for harmonic phenomena, providing a clear identification of the primary issues associated with supraharmonics and suggestions for the standardization process. Strictly related is the problem of grid monitoring and assessment of SH distortion, discussing the suitability of normative requirements for instrument transformers (ITs) with specific focus on their accuracy.

Adipose stem cells (ASCs) have multilineage differentiation capacity and hold great potential for regenerative medicine. Compared to bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (bmMSCs), ASCs are easier to isolate from abundant sources with significantly higher yields. It is generally accepted that bmMSCs show age-related changes in their proliferation and differentiation potentials, whereas this aspect is still controversial in the case of ASCs. In this review, we evaluated the existing data on the effect of donor age on the osteogenic potential of human ASCs. Overall, a poor agreement has been achieved because of inconsistent findings in the previous studies. Finally, we attempted to delineate the possible reasons behind the lack of agreements reported in the literature. ASCs represent a heterogeneous cell population and the osteogenic potential of ASCs can be influenced by donor-related factors such as age, but also gender, lifestyle, and the underlying health and metabolic state of donors. Furthermore, future studies should consider experimental factors in in-vitro conditions, including passaging, cryopreservation, culture conditions, variations in differentiation protocols, and readout methods.

As an essential component of our innate immune system, the complement system is responsible for our defense against pathogens. The complement cascade has complex roles in the central nervous system (CNS), most of what we know about it stems from its role in brain development. However, in recent years, numerous reports have implicated the classical complement cascade in both brain development and decline. More specifically, complement dysfunction has been implicated in neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which is the most common form of dementia. Synapse loss is one of the main pathological hallmarks of AD and correlates with memory impairment. Throughout the course of AD progression, synapses are tagged with complement proteins and are consequently removed by microglia which express complement receptors. Notably, astrocytes are also capable of secreting signals that induce the expression of complement proteins in the CNS. Both astrocytes and microglia are implicated in neuroinflammation, another hallmark of AD pathogenesis. In this review, we provide an overview of previously known and newly established roles for the complement cascade in the CNS and we explore how complement interactions with microglia, astrocytes, and other risk factors such as TREM2 and ApoE4, modulate the processes of neurodegeneration in both amyloid and tau models of AD.

This study aims to investigate a friction stir welded joint between steel and aluminum alloy. Friction stir welding is nowadays one of the most interesting joining technique due to the possibility to connect materials and thicknesses that are difficult or impossible to weld with traditional techniques. The main advantage is that Materials are not affected by thermal cycle problems during solidification and cooling and the absence of fumes and pollution during the process favors the quality of the welded joint. The life of metal joints could be greatly reduced in a corrosive environment, since the less noble material will tend to increase its corrosion rate while the nobler one will reduce its electrochemical dissolution. Accelerated ageing tests (i.e. salt fog test) are used to estimate the lifetime of metal joints in highly aggressive environments. The aim of the present work is to evaluate the durability at long ageing time in salt spray test (according to ASTM B117) of carbon steel/aluminum alloy joints, obtained by FSW. In this first part, mechanical tests results are reported. A deep metallographic and chemical investigation are going to be reported in the part 2.

We aim to examine how happiness modifies and mediates the impact of physical activity and nu-trition on cognitive function among 699 seniors aged 60 and above in Shanghai, China. Linear regression models were used to validate the effects of nutrition and exercise on cognitive function, and to test their interaction effects with happiness. When the interactions were significant, strati-fied analyses in sub-groups were conducted. Mediation effects of happiness were examined using two-step causal mediation models. We confirmed that better nutrition (p < 0.001) and exercise (p = 0.009) were significantly associated with less cognitive decline. Furthermore, the effects of nu-trition and exercise on cognitive decline were significant in the unhappy (happiness < 20) (p <0.001) and younger (age < 74) sub-groups (p = 0.015). Happiness partially mediated 11.5% of the negative association of cognitive decline with nutrition (p = 0.015) and 23.0% of that with exercise (p = 0.017). This study suggests that happiness moderates and also partially mediates the effects of exercise and nutrition on cognitive status. The beneficial effects of exercise and nutrition were stronger in less happy or younger seniors. Future intervention studies are required to confirm this path relationship.

Beef dry aging consist in a selection of unpackaged primal cuts that are placed in a refrigerator room with controlled environment for several weeks. The goals are the concentration of flavor, like nutty and beefy and tenderness improvement. In this study it was intended verify the microbiological and physicochemical behavior and the meat sensorial perception during a process example of meat dry aging. Twelve beef loins were selected for 90 days of dry aging and placed in a refrigerator room with average temperature, relative humidity and forced air 3.17 ± 0.68 °C, 60.65 ± 4.23 % and 0.5-2 m/s, respectively. On 1, 14, 21, 35, 60 and 90 days of dry aging, were taken two samples, crust and lean meat for microbiological counts, pH, aw, color L*a*b* and sensorial analysis. During drying, there weren´t any pathogenic bacteria counts and the average counts were higher for the crust. The aw and pH had an average of 0.98 ± 0.02 and 5.77± 0.015, with a slightly decrease and increase respectively (P&lt;0.05) along aging days. The dry aging process practices, with room refrigeration at RH&lt;65.00% and temperature &lt;4.00 °C can be the reason for aw&lt;0.98 and meat pH&lt;6.00 and therefore for the absence of pathogenic bacteria. The lower microbial counts on the lean meat and the overall acceptability assessed by the sensory panel confirm the importance of the good trimming and storage practices for the dry aged beef.

Cellular aging has drawn the attention of researchers, scientists, and biotech businesses for the treatment of a number of medical conditions. Cellular aging is primarily defined by consistent cessation of proliferative development in response to internal and external stressors, including DNA damage, telomere shortening, mitochondrial dysfunction, and regulation of the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Disturbances involving these factors may contribute to age-related disease development. Therefore, the current review aims to explore anti-aging factors targeting DNA damage response and SASP regulation and their detailed signaling networks. In addition, it provides an opportunity for researchers to identify not only anti-aging targets, but also anti-aging therapeutic strategies based on identified and non-identified targets.

The aim was to determine the effect of Sechium edule var. nigrum spinosum (chayote) on gene ex-pression related to antioxidant protection mechanisms and the inflammatory process in older adults with metabolic syndrome (MetS). A quasi-experimental study was carried out in a con-venience sample of 46 older adults diagnosed with MetS: (i) placebo group (PG; n=20), (ii) ex-perimental group (EG; n=26). Clinical, biochemical, and anthropometric parameters, SOD, GPx, and CAT enzyme activity, total oxidant status (TOS), total antioxidant status (TAS), oxidative stress index (OSI), cytokines (IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α) and mRNA expression of (SOD, GPx, CAT, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, Nrf2, NFkB p50 and NFkB p65), were measured at baseline and 6 months post-intervention. A statistically significant decrease was observed in TOS (baseline, 28.9 ± 3.6 vs. post, 23.7 ± 3.4, p < 0.01) and OSI (baseline, 24.1 ± 3.8 vs. post, 17.7 ± 4). As well as the increase in IL-6 (baseline, 10.7 ± 1.1 vs. post, 12.3 ± 2, p = 0.03), SOD activity (baseline, 167.1 ± 11.9 vs. post, 180.6 ± 7.6, p < 0.05), CAT activity (baseline, 1.0 ± 0.2 vs. post, 1.3 ± 0.2, p < 0.01) and TAS (baseline, 1.1 ± 0.1 vs. post, 1.4 ± 0.1, p < 0.01) in the EG compared to the PG. Regarding the expression of Nrf2, SOD and IL-6, the EG showed a significant increase vs basal levels (47%, 44% and 43%, re-spectively). Our findings suggest that Sechium edule supplementation promotes the antioxidant response and decreases oxidative stress via Nrf2.

The United Nations Organization in its agenda for 2023 approved Health and Well-being as one of the objectives of sustainable development, in this sense, Higher Education Insti-tutions contribute with interventions to improve each human process that generates a healthy life. In Latin America as well as in European countries, studies have been con-ducted to observe psychological well-being at this stage of life. The present study analyzes in a longitudinal way the psychological well-being in three times in people who attend group dynamics programs. The sample is 668 participants, with an age range between 65 and 80 years. The sample has been distributed in two analysis groups controlling for gender and age: group 1 (with group dynamics) and group 2 (without group dynamics). The Spanish adaptation of Ryff's (2006) Psychological Well-being scale α= 0.87 was ap-plied to both groups. The scale is composed of six dimensions of psychological well-being (self-acceptance, positive relationships, autonomy, mastery of the environment, purpose in life and personal growth). Statistical analyses showed significant differences between the two groups: greater psychological well-being and differences in the dimensions of positive relationships and personal growth in group 1. In addition, logistic regression analysis was carried out to test the predictive capacity of psychological well-being by the existence or not of group dynamics, with significant results in several dimensions. With the results obtained, we can conclude that group dynamics have a relevant role in con-tributing to the development of better levels of psychological well-being of the elderly with longitudinal increase in time. Future studies should be aimed at evaluating the value of group dynamics in the way of successful aging.

Seeds stored for a prolonged period are subject to aging and reduction in germination potential (GP), which will negatively affect seed sales. Rare-earth elements have a synergistic effect on the improvement of seed GP. In this study, we examined the effects of neodymium on biochemical components, the antioxidant protective system, and metabolism-related enzymes during germination of naturally and artificially aged seeds of three wheat cultivars. Seed germination indices, biochemical substance contents, and enzyme activities decreased after seed aging. Soaking seeds in neodymium nitrate solution revived aged wheat seeds at an optimal concentration of 20 µmol/L for 8 h. Soaking in neodymium nitrate solution increased the GP (by 2.25%–60.9%), germination index (by 1.69%–29.2%), and vigor index (by 3.36%–18.7%) of aged seeds. Compared with non-soaked seeds, soaking significantly changed the contents of biochemical substances, and the activities of antioxidant protective enzymes and metabolic enzymes in seedlings were increased. Soaking with neodymium may revive aged seeds by regulating the synthesis of soluble sugars, soluble proteins, chlorophyll, and carotenoids, and decomposing malondialdehyde, in the germinating seed. Root dehydrogenase and amylase showed different responses to the aging modes. The differential responses of root dehydrogenase and amylase may reflect differences in the resistance of enzymes to long-term mild seed aging and short-term severe environmental aging.

Age-related changes in behavior and sensory perception have been observed in a wide variety of animal species. In ants and other eusocial insects, workers often progress through an ordered sequence of olfactory-driven behavioral tasks. Notably, these behaviors are plastic, and workers adapt and rapidly switch tasks in response to changing environmental conditions. In the Florida carpenter ant, smaller minors typically perform most of the work needed to maintain the colony while the larger majors are specialized for nest defense and rarely engage in these routine tasks. Here, we investigate the effects of age and task group on olfactory responses to a series of odorant blends in minor and major worker castes. Consistent with their respective roles within the colony, we observed significant age-associated shifts in the olfactory responses of minors as they transitioned between behavioral states, whereas the responses of majors remained consistently low regardless of age. Furthermore, we identified a unitary compound, 3-methylindole, which elicited significantly higher responses and behavioral aversion in minor nurses than in similarly aged foragers suggesting that this compound may play an important role in brood care. Taken together, our results suggest that age- and task-associated shifts in olfactory physiology may play a critical role in the social organization of ant colonies.

It is widely reported that the mitochondrial membrane potential, ∆Ψm, is reduced in aging animals. It was recently suggested that the lower ∆Ψm in aged animals modulate mitochondrial bioenergetics and that this effect is a major cause of aging since artificially increased ∆Ψm in C. elegans increased lifespan. Here I review, critically, studies that reported reduction of ∆Ψm in aged animals, including worms, and conclude that many of these observations are best interpreted as evidence that the fraction of depolarized mitochondria is increased in aged cells because of the enhanced activation of the mitochondrial Permeability Transition Pore, mPTP. Activation of the voltage-gated mPTP depolarizes the mitochondria, inhibits oxidative phosphorylation, releases large amounts of calcium and mROS, and depletes cellular NAD+, thus accelerating degenerative diseases and aging. Since the inhibition of mPTP was shown to restore ∆Ψm and retard aging, the reported lifespan extension by artificially generated ∆Ψm in C. elegans is best explained by inhibition of the voltage-gated mPTP. Similarly, the reported activation of the mitochondrial Unfolded Protein Response by reduction of ∆Ψm, and the reported preservation of ∆Ψm in dietary restriction treatment in C. elegans are best explained as a resulting from activation or inhibition of the voltage-gated mPTP, respectively.

Sarcopenia becomes more common with age, being most prevalent among elderly individuals. According to the EWGSOP, muscle mass is one of the criteria for the evaluation of sarcopenia. The main methods for evaluating muscle mass are CT, MRI, and DXA, but these methods are difficult to apply in the field due to equipment costs, radioactivity, and lack of portability. BIVA and PhA are alternative approaches for assessing somatic cell mass and volume and do not require predictive equations. These variables are clinically relevant parameters that indicate cell health, especially cell membrane integrity and cell function. This study in sarcopenic and nonsarcopenic elderly volunteers aimed to determine the BIVA distribution pattern among individual sarcopenia patients; to evaluate the relationship between PhA and muscle strength, muscle quality, and physical function; and to find any correlates of PhA. The sample comprised 134 free-living elderly individuals of both sexes aged 69–91 years. Anthropometric parameters, grip strength, DXA findings, BIA results, and physical performance (the 6-meter walk test) were measured. Impedance vector distributions were evaluated in sarcopenia patients and healthy elderly individuals using BIVA. According to the AWGS criteria, sarcopenia was diagnosed according to DXA findings, grip strength and physical performance test results. Group differences were evaluated using the t test, Mann‒Whitney U test, and Hotelling's T2 test. Correlation analysis was performed to identify variables significantly associated with PhA. Linear regression analysis was performed to determine whether PhA was associated with muscle strength, muscle quality and physical function. BIVA detected a significant difference between the sarcopenia and non-sarcopenia groups (both sexes) due to higher R/H values and lower phase angles in a few individuals, whereas Xc/Ht values did not differ between the two groups. The sarcopenia group had a significantly lower PhA than the non-sarcopenia group among both males (p&lt;0.01) and females (p&lt;0.05). PhA was significantly correlated with age, ASM, HGS, and muscle quality in both sexes and significantly correlated with ASM/Ht2 and physical performance in males. PhA was a significant indicator of muscle strength in both males (β = 2.6; p&lt;0.01) and females (β = 3.4; p&lt;0.01), a significant indicator of muscle quality in both males (β = 0.07; p&lt;0.05) and females (β = 0.17; p&lt;0.01), and a significant indicator of physical performance in males (β = 0.3; p&lt;0.01). BIVA can detect changes in muscle mass in individuals with sarcopenia and is a practical method for the assessment of sarcopenia in the field. PhA is a good indicator of muscle strength, muscle quality and physical performance (in males). These methods can help diagnose sarcopenia in elderly individuals with reduced mobility.

The problem of increasing life expectancy is solved with the help of many medical and social areas. It has been established that piRNAs and miRNAs can significantly modify the expression of protein-coding genes by suppressing the translation process. The aim of this work was to establish the possibility of binding piRNAs and miRNAs with mRNA of the KLOTHO and FGF23 genes, which promote health and increase life expectancy through participation in key metabolic processes. We used the MirTarget program, which determines the quantitative characteristics of complementary interactions of all piRNAs and miRNAs nucleotides with mRNA of the genes. piR-44682, piR-1940042, piR-3008660, piR-3215034, piR-6885965, piR-7980636 and one miRNA (ID00756.3p-miR) binding to the mRNA of the KLOTHO gene were found in one cluster of binding sites (BSs). piRNA-6890096 interacted with the mRNA of KLOTHO gene in a fully complementary manner using only canonical nucleotides. Among 17494 human genes, target genes interacting with five piRNAs that bind to the mRNA of KLOTHO gene were identified. mRNA of the AFF2, BCL2L11, CPT1A, DAZAP1, NDRG3, SKIDA1, WBP4, ZIC5, ZSWIM6 genes interacted with piR-3215034 and piR-6885965, which formed clusters of BSs located in 5'UTR, CDS and 3'UTR. The piR-576442, piR-1501557, piR-1845735, piR-2069834, and piR-3029987 had BSs in the mRNAs of the FGF23 gene, located only in the 3'UTR. It is proposed to use piRNAs and miRNAs as regulators of the expression of KLOTHO and FGF23 anti-aging genes.

Understanding the spatial distribution pattern and evolution characteristics of the elderly population in urban areas is of great significance for the development of urban planning and the implementation of public management policies in the context of rapid aging. Accurately identifying the spatial distribution and evolution characteristics of the elderly population in the city requires a comprehensive analysis of multiple indicators and large-scale data. Taking Wuhan city as an example, this article measures the spatial distribution characteristics and evolution trend of the elderly population from 2000 to 2020 at the street/township level, based on the fifth, sixth, and seventh census data, using methods such as kernel density hotspot detection, spatial clustering analysis, and standard deviation ellipse analysis. The results show that: ① there are significant differences in the aging spatial pattern between the central area and the suburban areas of Wuhan; ② overall, Wuhan's aging rate shows a typical "core-periphery" growth mode in space, while the density of the elderly population has significant spatial aggregation characteristics and shows an evolution trend of "centralized concentration, peripheral outliers, axial development, and near-field growth"; ③the center of gravity of the elderly population remains relatively stable over time.

Caseinolytic peptidase P (CLPP) plays a central role in mitochondrial unfolded protein response (mtUPR) by promoting the breakdown of misfolded proteins and setting in motion a cascade of reactions to re-establish protein homeostasis. Global germline deletion of Clpp in mice results in female infertility and accelerated follicular depletion. Telomeres, on the other hand, are tandem repeats of 5’-TTAGGG-3’ sequences found at the ends of the chromosomes. Telomeres are essential for maintaining chromosome stability during somatic cell division and their shortening is associated with cellular senescence and aging. In this study, we asked whether the infertility and ovarian aging phenotype caused by global germline deletion of Clpp is associated with somatic aging, and tested telomere length in tissues of young and aging mice. We found that impaired mtUPR caused by the lack of CLPP is associated with accelerated telomere shortening in both oocytes and somatic cells of aging mice. In addition, expression of several genes that maintain telomere integrity were decreased, and double strand DNA breaks were increased in telomeric regions. Our results highlight how impaired mtUPR can affect telomere integrity and demonstrate a link between loss of mitochondrial protein hemostasis, infertility, and somatic aging.

The ever deepening population aging has brought opportunities and challenges to the continued expansion of tourism consumption in China. In this article, the impact of population aging on household tourism consumption was studied from both theoretical and empirical aspects. First, the micro mechanisms of the impact of population aging on household tourism consumption were analyzed, which include economic condition mechanism, intergenerational care mechanism, health status mechanism and Internet use mechanism. Subsequently, the impact of population aging on household tourism consumption and its impact mechanisms were tested, and the heterogeneity analysis was conducted, by using the data of China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) from 2014, 2016 and 2018. The main conclusions of the article are as follows: (1) Population aging has a significant negative impact on household tourism consumption, and a series of robustness test results such as endogenous treatment support this finding. (2) The results of the impact mechanism test show that population aging has a negative mediating effect on household tourism consumption by reducing household economic conditions. The moderating effect of intergenerational care on the effect of population aging on household tourism consumption is insignificant. Health status of the elderly and Internet use have a significant positive moderating effect on the impact of population aging on household tourism consumption. (3) The results of the heterogeneity analysis show that the negative impact of population aging on household tourism consumption in urban areas is greater than that in rural areas, and the negative impact of population aging on household tourism consumption of families with the old-old elderly is greater than that of falimies with the young-old elderly. The conclusions of this article provide important references for activating tourism consumption in China in the context of population aging.

The restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic left many older adults isolated and confined. Under active aging theory, self-management is crucial for well-being among older adults coping with aging. The current study examines how (a) initial self-management, and (b) changes in self-management due to independent physical training, affect psychological outcomes in a sample of care home residents following outbreak of the pandemic. 64 older adults (53 females, 11 males), mean age is 82.23, reported on their self-management abilities, then embarked on six months of training in chair exercises (one session per week). The training exercises were halted after 22 sessions due to the pandemic, but some residents continued to practice independently. Eight weeks after the outbreak of the pandemic, residents who had continued to practice at least once per week (n = 35) and those who had not continued to practice (n = 29) were questioned again about their self-management, and about five psychological outcomes: anxiety, traumatic stress, satis-faction, general mood, and post-traumatic growth (PTG). Self-management improved among older adults who independently practiced the exercises, and declined among those who did not. Pre-pandemic self-management significantly predicted post-outbreak traumatic stress symptoms, anxiety, general mood, and satisfaction with life, but not PTG. However, the difference in self-management between the pre-pandemic and post-outbreak measures was associated with PTG, and made a unique contribution to prediction of the other effects. Self-management abilities among older adults can be seen as a protective factor against adverse psychological outcomes at times of trauma. Further, the improvement in self-management among older adults who independently practiced physical excises made a unique contribution beyond initial self-management abilities.

The circadian clock regulates daily changes in behavioral, endocrine and metabolic activities in mammals. Circadian rhythms in cellular physiology are significantly affected by aging. In particular, we previously found that aging has profound impact on daily rhythms in mitochondrial functions, leading to increased oxidative stress. However, this is unlikely due to malfunction of molecular clocks in the suprachiasmatic nucleus or peripheral tissues, as robust clock oscillations are observed therein in old animals. Nonetheless, aging induces changes in gene expression levels and rhythms in various peripheral and probably central tissues. In this article, we review findings on the roles of the circadian clock and aging in regulating mitochondrial rhythms and redox homeostasis. Chronic sterile inflammation is implicated in mitochondrial dysfunction and increased oxidative stress during aging. In particular, upregulation of CD38 by inflammatory response can disturb mitochondrial functions in multiple ways.

mTORC1 regulates mammalian cell metabolism and growth, in response to diverse environmental stimuli. Nutrient signals control the localization of mTORC1 onto lysosome-surface scaffolds that are critically implicated in its amino acid-dependent activation. Arginine, Leucine and S-Adenosyl-Methionine (SAM) can serve as major mTORC1-signaling activators, with SAM binding to SAMTOR (SAM + TOR), a fundamental SAM sensor, abolishing protein’s (SAMTOR’s) inhibitory action(s) against mTORC1, thereby releasing its (mTORC1) kinase activity. Given the lack of knowledge regarding the role of SAMTOR in invertebrates, we have, in silico, identified the Drosophila SAMTOR homologue (dSAMTOR) and have, herein, genetically targeted it, through utilization of the GAL4/UAS transgenic tool. Survival profiles and negative geotaxis patterns were examined both in control and dSAMTOR-downregulated adult flies, during aging. One of the two gene-targeted schemes resulted in lethal phenotypes, whereas the other one caused rather moderate pathologies in most tissues. Screening of head-specific kinase activities, via PamGene technology application, unveiled the significant upregulation of several kinases, including the dTORC1 characteristic substrate, dp70S6K, in dSAMTOR-downregulated flies, thus strongly supporting the inhibitory dSAMTOR function(s) upon dTORC1/dp70S6K signaling axis in Drosophila-brain settings. Importantly, genetic targeting of the Drosophila BHMT -bioinformatics- counterpart (dBHMT), an enzyme that catabolizes Betaine to produce Methionine (the SAM precursor), led to severe compromises in fly longevities, with glia-, motor neuron- and muscle-specific dBHMT downregulations exhibiting the strongest effects. Abnormalities in wing-vein architectures were also detected in dBHMT-targeted flies, thereby justifying their notably reduced negative geotaxis capacities, herein, observed, mainly in the brain-(mid)gut axis. In vivo adult-fly exposure to clinically relevant doses of Methionine revealed the mechanistic synergism of decreased dSAMTOR and increased Methionine levels in pathogenic longevity, thus rendering (d)SAMTOR an important component in Methionine-associated disorders, including Homocystinuria(s).

A thermal-oxidative aging test at 120°C was condutcted on Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM) vulcanizates of the semi-efficient vulcanization system. The effect of thermal-oxidative aging on EPDM vulcanizates was systematically studied by curing kinetics, aging coefficient, cross-linking density, macroscopic physical properties, contact angle, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and thermal decomposition kinetics. The results show that the content of hydroxyl and carbonyl groups as well as the carbonyl index increased with increasing aging time, indicating that EPDM vulcanizates are gradually oxidized and degraded. As a result, the EPDM vulcanized rubber chains were cross-linked, and its conformational transformation was limited and its flexibility was weakened. The thermogravimetric analysis demonstrates the thermal degradation of EPDM vulcanizates had competitive reactions of cross-linking and degradation, and the thermal decomposition curve can be divided into three stages, meanwhile the thermal stability of EPDM vulcanizates gradually decreases with the increase of aging time. The introduction of antioxidant in the system can promote the cross-linking speed and reduce the cross-linking density of EPDM vulcanizates, while inhibiting the surface thermal and oxygen aging reaction. This is attributed to the fact that the antioxidant can reduce the thermal degradation reaction level, but it is not conducive to the formation of a perfect crosslinking network structure and reduce the activation energy of thermal degradation of the main chain.

Physicists have employed various approaches to solve the “paradox” and offered a consistent conclusion that the traveller twin is younger than the homebody twin. However, some authors attribute the cause of differential aging to acceleration, while others believe that acceleration should not be regarded as the source of differential aging, but frame switch is. So far there is no agreement on this issue. Actually, acceleration and frame switch should not be regarded as the source of differential aging. The author will introduce a thought experiment in which two very long spacecraft are moving in opposite directions at a speed close to the speed of light to discuss the real cause of differential aging. The author found that the real cause of differential aging in the twin “paradox” is because of the asymmetry of destination choice. People always choose their destinations in the universe rather than in spacecraft. The destinations are always stationary relative to the homebody twin and moving relative to the traveller twin. Once we choose a destination in a reference frame, the distance is the proper length in this reference frame, but the distance will contract in another moving reference frame, thus the recording time will be shorter.

Energy metabolism, including alterations in energy intake and expenditure, is closely related to aging and longevity. Metabolomics studies have recently unraveled changes in metabolite composition in plasma and tissues during aging and have provided critical information to elucidate the molecular basis of aging process. However, the metabolic changes in tissues responsible for food intake and lipid storage have remained unexplored. In this study, we aimed to investigate aging-related metabolic alterations in these tissues. To fill this gap, we employed NMR-based metabolomics in several tissues, including different parts of the intestine (duodenum, jejunum, ileum) and brown/white adipose tissues (BAT, WAT) of young (9-10 weeks) and old (96-104 weeks) wild-type (mixed genetic background of 129/J and C57BL/6) mice. We further included plasma and skeletal muscle of the same mice to verify previous results. Strikingly, we found that duodenum, jejunum, ileum, and WAT do not metabolically age. In contrast, plasma, skeletal muscle, and BAT show a strong metabolic aging phenotype. Overall, we provide first insights into the metabolic changes of tissues essential for nutrient uptake and lipid storage and have identified biomarkers for metabolites that could be further explored to study the molecular mechanisms of aging.

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is an essential molecule involved in various metabolic reactions, acting as an electron donor in the electron transport chain and as a co-factor for NAD+-dependent enzymes. In the early 2000s, reports that NAD+ declines with aging introduced the notion that NAD+ metabolism is globally and progressively impaired with time. Since then, NAD+ became an attractive target for potential pharmacological therapies aiming to boost NAD+ levels to promote vitality and protect against age-related diseases. This review summarizes and discusses a collection of studies that report the levels of NAD+ with aging in different species (i.e., yeast, C. elegans, rat, mouse, monkey, and human) to determine whether the notion that overall NAD+ levels decrease with aging stands true. We find that despite systematic claims of overall changes in NAD+ levels with aging, the evidence to support it is very limited and often restricted to a single tissue or cell type. This is particularly true in humans, where the development of NAD+ levels during aging is still poorly characterized. There is a need for much larger, preferably longitudinal, studies aimed to assess how NAD+ levels develop with aging in various tissues. This will strengthen our conclusions on NAD+ during aging and should provide a foundation for better pharmacological targeting of relevant tissues.

Many cognitive functions face a decline in the healthy elderly. Within the cognitive domains, both attentional processes and executive functions are impaired with aging. Attention includes three attentional networks, i.e., alerting, orienting, and executive control that showed a hemispheric lateralized pattern in adults. This lateralized pattern could have a role in modulating the efficiency of attentional networks. For these reasons could be relevant to analyze the age-related change of hemispheric specialization of attentional networks. This study aims to clarify this aspect with a lateralized version of the ANTI-Fruit. One hundred sixty-seven participants took part in this study. They are divided in three age groups: early adulthood (N=57; Range: 20-30); late adulthood (N=57; Range 31-64) and elderly/older people (N=57; Range: 65-87). Results confirm the previous outcomes on the efficiency and interactions among attentional networks. Moreover, an age-related generalized slowness was evidenced. These findings also support the hypothesis of a hemispheric asymmetry reduction in elderly/older adults. This pattern could partially explain the decrease in attentional functioning in elderly/older age.

Small RNAs are essential for the coordination of many cellular processes, including the regulation of gene expression patterns, the prevention of genomic instability, and the suppression of mutagenic transposon activity. These processes determine aging, longevity, and sensitivity of cells and an organism to stress factors (particularly, ionizing radiation). The biogenesis and activity of small RNAs are provided by proteins of the Argonaute family. These proteins participate in the processing of small RNA precursors and the formation of an RNA-induced silencing complex. However, the role of Argonaute proteins in the regulation of lifespan and radioresistance remains poorly explored. We studied the effect of knockdown of Argonaute genes (AGO1, AGO2, AGO3, piwi) in various tissues on the Drosophila melanogaster lifespan and survival after the γ-irradiation at a dose of 700 Gy. In most cases, these parameters were reduced or did not change significantly in flies with tissue-specific RNA interference. Surprisingly, piwi knockdown in both the fat body and the nervous system caused a lifespan increase. But changes in radioresistance depended on the tissue in which the gene was knocked out. In addition, analysis of changes in retrotransposon levels and expression of stress response genes allowed us to determine associated molecular mechanisms.

Environmental factors as maternal high-fat diet (HFD) intake can increase the risk of age-related cognitive decline in adult offspring. The epigenetic mechanisms are a possible link between diet effect and neurodegeneration across generations. Here, we found a significant decrease in triglyceride levels in a high-fat diet with resveratrol HFD+RV group and the offspring. Firstly, we obtained better cognitive performance in HFD+RV groups and their offspring. Molecularly, a significant increase in 5-mC levels, as well as increased gene expression of Dnmt1 and Dnmt3a in HFD+RV F1 group, were found. Furthermore, a significantly increased of m6A levels in HFD+RV F1 were found, and there were changes in gene expression of its enzymes (Mettl3 and Fto). Moreover, we found a decrease in gene expression levels of pro-inflammatory markers such as Il1-β, Il-6, Tnf-α, Cxcl-10, Mcp-1 and Tgf-β1 in HFD+RV and HFD+RV F1 groups. Moreover, there was increased gene expression of neurotrophins such as Ngf and Nt3 and its receptors TrkA and TrkB. Likewise, an increase in protein levels of BDNF and p-Akt in HFD+RV F1 was found. These results suggest that maternal RV supplementation under HFD intake prevents cognitive decline in SAMP8 adult offspring, promoting a reduction in triglycerides and leptin plasma levels, changes in the pro-inflammatory profile, restoring the epigenetic landscape as well as synaptic plasticity.

The extrinsic and intrinsic factors are essential in glioma initiation. Many extrinsic factors (UV, radiation, food, etc.) and intrinsic factors (proteins, hormones, ageing, DNA and RNA damages, etc.) was reported to being responsible for glioma initiation and progression. However, the cell responsible for glioma origin is still unknown. Many research papers have reported that glioma stem cells, senescent cells, injured cells, and death neurons are the cells of glioma origin. However, gene mutation and oncogene protein overexpression doesn’t occur only in cancer but during life evolution. The source of genetic mutations has become a fundamental issue in understanding its role in the initiation of glioma. The glioma is the precise coordination of several distant factors that work together in the initiation and development of glioma. However, the role and effects of the genes (GDNF and SOX1) on cancer cells are well known, but their gene mutation origin is controversial. Several models and theories have been proposed to explain the origins of GDNF and SOX1 genetic mutations and epigenetic modification related to cancer. Our aim in this review is to clear that incertitude about glioma origin (gene mutation and epigenetic modifications) and those factors involved in glioma initiation and recurrence.

The application of Virtual Reality in a driving simulation is not novel, yet little is known about the use of this technology by senior populations. The effects of age, sex, control device (joystick or handlebar), and task type on wayfinding proficiency using a virtual reality (VR) driving simulation were explored. The driving experimental model involved 96 randomly recruited participants, including 48 young people and 48 seniors (split evenly by gender in each group). The experimental results and statistical analyses indicate that in a VR driving scenario task type significantly affected VR driving performance. Navigational scores were significantly higher for the straight (easy) task than for the curved (difficult) task. The aging effect was the main reason for significant and interacting effects of sex and control device. It was found that interactions between age and sex difference indicated that the young group exhibited better wayfinding performance than the senior group, and in the young group males had better performance than females. Similarly, interactions between age and control device indicated that the handlebar control device type resulted in better performance than the joystick device in the young group, but no difference was found in the senior group due to age or learning effects. Findings provide an understanding of the evaluation of the interface designs of navigational support systems, taking into consideration any effects of age, sex, control device, and task type within three-dimensional VR games and driving systems. With a VR driving simulator, seniors can test drive inaccessible products, such as electric bicycles or cars, using a computer at home.

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been extensively used for the nanoscale characterization of polymeric materials. The coupling of AFM with infrared spectroscope (AFM-IR) provides another advantage to the chemical analyses and thus helps to shed light upon the study of polymers. In this perspective paper, we review recent progress in the use of AFM-IR in polymer science. We describe first the principle of AFM-IR and the recent improvements to enhance its resolution. We discuss then the last progress in the use of AFM-IR as a super-resolution correlated scanned-probe IR spectroscopy for chemical characterization of polymer materials dealing with polymer composites, polymer blends, multilayers and biopolymers. To highlight the advantages of AFM-IR, we report here several results in studying crystallization of both miscible and immiscible blends as well as polymer aging. Then, we demonstrate how this novel technique can be used to determine phase separation, spherulitic structure and crystallization mechanisms at the nanoscale, which have never been achieved before. The review also discusses future trends in the use of AFM-IR in polymer materials, especially in polymer thin film investigation.

Cognitive impairment and sarcopenia may share common risk factors and pathophysiological pathways. This study was performed to examine the association between impairments in specific cognitive domains and sarcopenia (and its defining components) in a large group of community-dwelling older adults. Cross-sectional analysis was performed on the baseline data of 3,014 adults aged 70–84 years enrolled in the Korean Frailty and Aging Cohort Study (KFACS). The final analysis included 1,887 adults underwent dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and cognitive function assessments. Those with disability in activities of daily living, dementia, severe cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease, musculoskeletal complaints, neurological disorders, or who were illiterate were excluded. Cognitive function was assessed using the Korean version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Packet, the Frontal Assessment Battery. For sarcopenia, we used the diagnostic criteria of the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia. The prevalence of sarcopenia was 9.6% for men and 7.6% for women. Sarcopenia (odds ratio [OR] 1.76, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04–2.99) and slow gait speed (OR 2.58, 95% CI 1.34–4.99) were associated with cognitive impairment in men. Only slow gait speed (OR 1.88, 95% CI 1.05–3.36) was associated with cognitive impairment in women. Sarcopenia is associated with cognitive impairment mainly due to slow gait speed. Our results suggested that cognitive impairment domains, such as processing speed and executive function, are associated with sarcopenia-related slow gait speed.

During the last decade, essential polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) derived from marine sources have been investigated as nonpharmacological dietary supplements to improve different pathological conditions, as well as aging. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of dietary n-3 PUFA monoacylglycerides (MAG, both EPA and DHA) on the mitochondrial metabolism and oxidative stress of a short-lifespan model, Drosophila melanogaster, sampled at five different ages. Our results showed that diets supplemented with MAG-EPA and MAG-DHA increased median lifespan by 14.6% and decreased mitochondrial proton leak resulting in an increase of mitochondrial coupling. The flies fed on MAG-EPA also had higher electron transport system capacity and mitochondrial oxidative capacities. Moreover, both n-3 PUFAs delayed the occurrence of lipid peroxidation, but only flies fed the MAG-EPA diet showed maintenance of superoxide dismutase activity during aging. Our study therefore highlights the potential of n-3 PUFA monoacylglycerides as nutraceutical compounds to delay the onset of senescence by acting directly or indirectly on the mitochondrial metabolism, and suggests that Drosophila could be a relevant model for the study of the fundamental mechanisms linking the effects of n-3 PUFAs to aging.

We have experimentally analyzed multi-azimuth degradation mechanisms that govern failures of commercially-available high-power (1 Watt) phosphor-coated white (hppc-W) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) covered with peanut-shaped lens under three current-stress aging (CSA) conditions. Comprehensive analyses focus on photometric, chromatic, electrical, thermal, and packaging characteristics. At the packaging level, (a) the decrease of the phosphor-conversion efficiency, (b) the yellow-browning of the optical lens, and (c) the darkening of the silver-coated reflective layer deposited with extraneous chemical elements (e.g., C, O, Si, Mg, and Cu, respectively) contribute collectively to the integral degradation of the optical power. By contrast, Ohmic contacts, thermal properties, and angles of maximum intensity remain unchanged after 3840 h aging in three cases. Particularly at the chip level, the formation of point defects increases the number of non-radiative recombination centers, and thus decreases the optical power during aging stages. Nevertheless, in view of the change of the ideality factor, the dopant activation and the annealing effect facilitate the increase of the optical power in two specific aging stages (192 h∼384 h and 768 h∼1536 h), respectively. This work offers a systematic guidance for the development of reliable LED-based light sources in general-lighting areas.

Inadequate protein intake can impair protein balance and lead to skeletal muscle atrophy, impaired body growth, and functional decline. Foods provide both non-essential (NEAAs) and essential amino acids (EAAs) that may convey different metabolic stimuli to specific organs and tissues. In this study, we sought to evaluate the impact of six diets with various EAA/NEAA blends on body composition and the risk of developing tissue wasting in late middle-aged male mice. Mice consuming NEAA-based diets, although showing increased food and calorie intake, suffered the most severe weight loss. Interestingly, even moderate NEAAs prevalence was able to induce inflammatory catabolic stimuli, generalized body wasting and systemic metabolic alterations. Complete depletion of retroperitoneal white adipose tissue and a severe loss (>75%) of brown adipose tissue were observed together with muscle wasting. Conversely, EAA-based diets induced significant decreases in weight by reducing primarily fat reserves, but improved clinical parameters. Tissue wasting was caused by altered AA quality, independent of reduced nitrogen or caloric intake. Our results indicate that an optimized balance of AA composition is necessary for preserving overall bodily energy status. These findings are particularly relevant in the context of aging and may be exploited for contrasting its negative correlates including body wasting.

Maintaining the high overall health of farmed animals is a central tenant of their well-being and care. Intense animal crowding in aquaculture promotes animal especially in the absence of straightforward methods for monitoring their health. Here, we used bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing to measure population dynamics occurring during P. salmonis outbreaks. Our findings revealed a complex bacterial community consisting of a previously undescribed core pathobiome. Notably, we detected Aliivibrio wodanis and Tenacibaculum dicentrarchi on the skin ulcers of salmon infected with P. salmonis, while Vibrio spp. were enriched on infected gills. The prevalence of these co-occurring networks indicates the influence that coinfection plays in P. salmonis pathogenicity.

Advances in biomimetic triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have significant implications for electronic skin (e-skin) and human-machine interaction (HMI). Emphasizing the need to mimic complex functionalities of natural systems, particularly human skin, TENGs leverage triboelectricity and electrostatic induction to bridge the gap in traditional electronic devices' responsiveness and adaptability. The exploration begins with an overview of TENGs' operational principles and modes, transitioning into structural and material biomimicry inspired by plant and animal models, proteins, fibers, and hydrogels. Key applications in tactile sensing, motion sensing, and intelligent control within e-skins and HMI systems are highlighted, showcasing TENGs' potential in revolutionizing wearable technologies and robotic systems. This review also addresses the challenges in performance enhancement, scalability, and system integration of TENGs. It points to future research directions, including optimizing energy conversion efficiency, discovering new materials, and employing micro-nanostructuring techniques for enhanced triboelectric charges and energy conversion. The scalability and cost-effectiveness of TENG production, pivotal for mainstream application, are discussed along with the need for versatile integration with various electronic systems. The review underlines the significance of making bioinspired TENGs more accessible and applicable in everyday technology, focusing on compatibility, user comfort, and durability. Conclusively, it underscores the role of bioinspired TENGs in advancing wearable technology and interactive systems, indicating a bright future for these innovations in practical applications.

Antibiotic-free approaches are more important than ever to deal with the rapidly growing problem of antibiotic resistance. The blue light 460nm (BL460nm) has been shown to effectively attenuate Staphylococcus aureus to chemical and physical agents through photolysis of the bacterial virulence factor Staphyloxanthin. However, the phototherapy using BL640nm has yet to be investigated in detail for its safety in eradicating Staphylococcus aureus in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we used a LED source producing a continuous wavelength of 460 nm along with hydrogen peroxide to treat S. aureus in culturing conditions and a wound abrasion mouse model. The results proved the safety of the combined therapy when it did not modify the bacterial virulence factors or the susceptibility to the widely used antibiotics. In addition, the experimental results on the mouse skin infection model also showed that the combined therapy is safe to apply to mouse skin and that it did not cause adverse skin irritation. Furthermore, the therapy can help Staphylococcus aureus-infected wounds heal with efficacy comparable to the topical antibiotic Fucidin. The above results suggest that the combination therapy of 460nm blue light and hydrogen peroxide can be safely used as an alternative to or adjunct to antibiotics in treating S. aureus-infected wounds.

An investigation of compressible flow over two-dimensional obstacles is presented in this paper. When shock waves are formed on surfaces due to compressibility and these shocks interfere with the boundary layer, undesirable effects such as friction, separation, and flow instability occur. To weaken the shock and reduce its effects, various methods have been employed in the past, including surface suction, surface blowing, and vortex generators. Using numerical solutions, the present work attempts to reduce the negative effects of the shock generated by the obstacle by creating porosity on its surface. Numerical methods such as the finite volume method and the Navier-Stokes equations as well as the Spalart-Allmaras model are used. By creating suction and blowing and increasing the cross-sectional area of the flow, porous surfaces reduce the effects of shock. Achieving around 50% porosity on the obstacle weakened the shock and reduced the Mach number after it, according to this paper's results. Also, the area under the skin friction diagram has decreased by about 38% as a result of less interference between the shock and the boundary layer and blowing caused by the porous surface.

Dermal penetration is considered to mainly occur via passive diffusion. Therefore, a high concentration gradient of dissolved active ingredient between formulation and skin is needed to achieve an effective dermal penetration. The concentration gradient between formulation and skin can be changed by changing the amount of dissolved active ingredient in the formulation. In case of poorly soluble active ingredients this can be achieved by using nanosized drug material instead of larger sized material. The smaller size and the resulting larger surface increase the kinetic solubility and thus increase the concentration gradient of dissolved active ingredient between formulation and skin, which then results in an increased dermal penetration. In this study we demonstrated that the concentration gradient between formulation and skin can also be influenced by the number of particles being present in the formulation and by the dose (volume of formulation) applied to the skin. Particles of undissolved active ingredient are known to act as a reservoir by releasing dissolved molecules in the liquid phase of the formulation. It could now be demonstrated that the particles - once the liquid in which they are dispersed evaporates - can connect to the skin via an aqueous meniscus. The aqueous meniscus contains dissolved active ingredient and therefore creates a small local spot with a locally high concentration gradient and improved dermal penetration. Therefore, the dermal penetration can be increased with formulations that contain high amounts of particles. This can be achieved by applying formulations with high numbers of particles and/or by applying larger volumes of particle containing formulations to the skin.

The Korean water deer (WD), the dominant wildlife species in South Korea, is classified as vul-nerable on the IUCN Red List. Beside their several unique characteristics, they have a lower in-cidence of tick bites compared to other Cervidae species, particularly roe deer (RD). In natural environments, ticks exhibit questing behavior by waiting on grasses to climb onto host's hair coat. They use sensory organs to detect signals such as body temperature and chemicals from the host's skin, then move to preferred feeding location. Therefore, we conducted a comparative analysis of the skin tissue and hair features of both species to compare the factors leading to lower incidence of tick bites in WD. Notably, WD had significantly larger blood vessels, sebaceous glands, and sweat glands which maintain the barrier functions of the skin (p≤0.004), irregular scale surfaces in hair cuticles, and stiff and 2.83-times thicker primary hair diameter (p<0.001). Each parameters made the ticks difficult to move onto the epidermis of WD. To our knowledge, this is the first report which is focused on the comparative analysis for skin and hair feature in WD and RD. We suggest that these differences may attribute to evade tick bites in WD.

Marine macroalgae have garnered significant attention in the field of cosmeceutical research due to their rich abundance of bioactive compounds. These compounds offer remarkable skin benefits without inducing any adverse effects on human health, such as cytotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, genotoxicity, mutagenicity, or carcinogenicity. Among the various bioactive compounds found in brown algae, phenolic compounds exhibit diverse chemical structures and are present in high concentrations. In addition to phenolic compounds, brown algae also contain terpenoids, bro-mophenols, mycosporine amino acids (MAAs), and flavonoids, with the well-studied poly-phenol compound, phlorotannin, being particularly prominent. Marine macroalgae further possess an array of pigments derived from their natural pigmentation, including chlorophylls, carotenoids (such as fucoxanthin and β-carotene), phycobiliproteins (such as phycoerythrin and phycocyanin), and melanin. These pigments have been extensively investigated for their potential cos-meceutical applications. The phenolic compounds and pigments derived from marine macroalgae have been thoroughly studied for their beneficial effects on the skin, including skin whitening, moisturizing, photoprotection, anti-aging, anti-wrinkle, anti-melanogenic, and anti-oxidant properties. This comprehensive review aims to explore the extraction, characterization, and skin cosmetic effects of phenolic compounds and pigments derived from marine macroalgae, as documented in the existing literature, thereby enhancing our understanding of their therapeutic potential.

The use of metal oxide nanoparticles as an alternative antimicrobial agent has gained attention due to the increasing problem of antibiotic resistance. Understanding its properties and potential benefits can contribute to the development of more effective and sustainable treatments in veterinary medicine. The aim of this study was to characterize TiO2-NP formulations and evaluate their antibacterial and wound healing abilities. The diameters and zeta potentials were determined using the Zetasizer in conjunction with dynamic light scattering. The agar-well diffusion method, time-kill kinetic assay and crystal violet assay were used to evaluate their antimicrobial activities. Wound healing assays were conducted both in-vitro and in-vivo. The study demonstrated that TiO2-NP formulations exhibit significant antimicrobial properties against various bacterial strains such as S. aureus and E. coli. No measurable E. coli growth was observed within a 15-mins period following exposure to TiO2-NP formulations. The TiO2-NP formation can improve wound healing by enhancing cell migration and collagen formation in both in-vitro and in-vivo conditions. In summary, our study suggests that TiO2-NP has the potential for use as an antimicrobial agent for animal wound treatment due to its ability to suppress bacterial growth and biofilm formation, as well as to enhance wound healing.

The combined muscle-skeletal traumas (MST) are very frequent over the last few years. The emergency care try to save the life of the patient and to receive resuscitation treatment. The role of Trauma surgeon is to choose the right moment for surgery. Aim: To present the management of patient with combined height injury, fracture stabilization, partial foot amputation, local flaps, skin grafting and HIFU – thermotherapy as scar treatment. Materials and methods: 40 years old mail patient, injured after a fall from 8 meters in an elevator shaft. After resuscitation treatment to control the shock the Imaging results are: burst fracture of L3 with spinal canal stenosis, fracture of the sacral bone Denis I, fracture of the right humerus in the proximal third, Monteggia fracture of the left arm, fracture of the proximal third of the right tibia as well as comminuted fractures of both calves and of both heel bones. Results: After a few operations his final result was well healed bone fractures and a good quality soft tissue coverage allowing the patient a satisfactory quality of life. Conclusions: Combined traumas of the muscle- skeletal system are severe, serious and difficult to manage. The good outcome in their treatment requires a team approach between the different medical specialists.

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) serve prominent roles in melanocyte lineage physiology, with an impact at all stages of development, as well as on mature melanocyte functions. GPCR ligands are present in the skin and regulate melanocyte homeostasis, including pigmentation. The role of GPCRs in the regulation of pigmentation and, consequently, protection against external aggression, such as ultraviolet radiation, has long been established. However, evidence of new functions of GPCRs directly in melanomagenesis has been highlighted in recent years. GPCRs are coupled, through their intracellular domains, to heterotrimeric G proteins, which induce cellular signaling through various pathways. Such signaling modulates essential cellular processes of melanomagenesis, such as proliferation and migration. GPCR-associated signaling in melanoma can be activated by the binding of paracrine factors to their receptors or directly by activating mutations. In this review, we present melanoma-associated alterations of GPCRs and their downstream signaling and discuss the various preclinical models used to evaluate new therapeutic approaches against GPCR activity in melanoma. Recent striking advances in our understanding of the structure, function, and regulation of GPCRs will undoubtedly broaden treatment options in melanoma in the future.

Skin disease is a very common disease for humans. In the medical industry detecting skin disease and recognizing its type is a very challenging task. Due to the complexity of human skin texture and the visual closeness effect of the diseases, sometimes it is really difficult to detect the exact type. Therefore, it is necessary to detect and recognize the skin disease at its very first observation. In today's era, artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly growing in medical fields. Different machine learning (ML) and deep learning(DL) algorithms are used for diagnostic purposes. These methods drastically improve the diagnosis process and also speed up the process. In this paper, a brief comparison between the machine learning process and the deep learning process was discussed. In both processes, three different and popular algorithms are used. For the machine Learning process Bagged Tree Ensemble, K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), and Support Vector Machine(SVM) algorithms were used. For the deep learning process three pre-trained deep neural network models

Collagen is the most abundant protein in the animal kingdom. Industrial collagen is mainly bovine and porcine origin. However, due to religious beliefs, allergic issues, and infectious diseases, alternative sources of collagen as marine are gaining increasing interest. In this work, the acid-soluble collagen (ASC) were extracted from salt-cured Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) skin and characterized. The extraction yield was about 2.0%, equivalent to the extraction yield reported for other fish skins. The electrophoretic pattern showed the typical type I structure (α, β and γ chains). UV-VIS and FTIR absorbance spectra suggested a very pure ASC with an intact triple helical structure. The integrity and the adequate porosity required for different applications were then confirmed by electron micrograph. Our findings allow us to say that, for the first time, we extracted acid-soluble type I collagen from salt-cured Atlantic cod skin, with characteristics suitable for application in various fields, such as biomedical.

The majority of skin cancers are caused by over exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The effects of UV radiation on the expression of drug transporters expressed in human skin has never been studied. In this the effects of UVA and UVB irradiation on the expression of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters and Solute carrier (SLC) transporters was evaluated in normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEK) and normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDF) in primary culture. First experiments were intended to validate the inflammatory reaction in response to stimulation by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in NHEK, NHDF and 3D-reconstructed human epidermis (3D-RHE) model. LPS treatment has shown to increase the expression of IL-8 and TNF-alpha in all three in vitro models. Expression of the most expressed ABC and SLC transporters was then measured in NHEK and NHDF after UVA (30 J/m²) and UVB (40 mJ/m²) irradiation. The most striking result was a significant 29-fold increase of the expression of SLCO4A1 in normal human dermal fibroblasts. In summary, this study shows for the first time a significant regulation of the expression of SLCO4A1 in human dermal fibroblasts induced by UVA irradiation. This finding is of particular interest as most of skin cancers are caused by over exposure to ultraviolet radiation and need to be considered in pharmacokinetic evaluation of topical drugs.

Ulmus species have been widely used in Korean folk medicine because of their anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties. We intended to investigate the wound healing effect of the powder of Ulmus parvifolia (UP) root bark in a mouse wound healing model. We also determined the mechanisms of effects of Ulmus parvifolia (UP) in skin and skin wound healing effect using keratinocyte model. in vivo experiments showed that the wound lesions in the mice decreased by U. parvifolia with 200 mesh size of root bark powder and significantly reduced by treatment with UP, compared with those treated with U. macrocarpa (UM). Results from in vitro experiments also revealed that UP extract promoted the migration of human skin keratinocytes. UP powder treatment upregulated the expression of the matrix metalloproteinase-2 and -9 protein and significantly increased transforming growth factor (TGF)-β levels. We confirmed that topical administration of the bark powder of exerted a significant effect on skin wound healing by upregulating the expression of MMP and transforming growth factor-β. TGF-β In, Our study suggests that U. parvifolia may be a potential candidate for skin wound healing including epidermal skin rejuvernation.

Automated skin lesion analysis is one of the trending fields that has gained attention among the dermatologists and healthcare practitioners. Skin lesion restoration is an essential preprocessing step for lesion enhancements for accurate automated analysis and diagnosis. Digital hair removal is a non-invasive method for image enhancement by solving the hair-occlusion artefact in previously captured images. Several hair removal methods were proposed for skin delineation and removal. However, manual annotation is one of the main challenges that hinder the validation of these proposed methods on a large number of images or using benchmarking datasets for comparison purposes. In the presented work, we propose a realistic hair simulator based on context-aware image synthesis using image-to-image translation techniques via conditional adversarial generative networks for generation of different hair occlusions in skin images, along with the ground-truth mask for hair location. Besides, we explored using three loss functions including L1-norm, L2-norm and structural similarity index (SSIM) to maximise the synthesis quality. For quantitatively evaluate the realism of image synthesis, the t-SNE feature mapping and Bland-Altman test are employed as objective metrics. Experimental results show the superior performance of our proposed method compared to previous methods for hair synthesis with plausible colours and preserving the integrity of the lesion texture.

This paper studies the combined effect of corrosion and fatigue on the growth of cracks in aircraft and on the effect of skin corrosion and stress corrosion cracking on the load bearing capacity of rib stiffened aircraft wings. In this context it is shown that the growth of cracks from surface pitting, and also from intergranular cracking at a fastener hole, can be accurately computed using the Hartman-Schijve variant of the NASGRO crack growth equation. The examples studied support the lead crack approach, that has been independently developed by the USAF and the Australian Defence Science Technology Group, in which the growth of lead cracks is often exponential. In the case of skin corrosion it is shown that to be consistent with the US Joint Service Structural Guidelines (JSSG2006) assessment of its effect on the load bearing capacity of the wing should involve an assessment of whether at 115% DLL the remaining material exceeds the yield stress of the material.

Physical inactivity, highly dependent on community and environmental conditions, is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. The objective of Every Walk You Take initiative was to co-design and test a mHealth intervention prototype (mobile app) to promote active living, and to identify barriers and facilitators for active living in individuals older than 55 years. Community stakeholders that included citizen scientists, teachers, researchers, health professionals and policy makers, familiar with the social and economic burden of aging in developed societies, codesigned the prototype. The app functionalities included recommendations on healthy routes in the city (parks, pedestrian lanes and streets) according to environmental variables (air quality and climate) and personal preferences (route difficulty, distance and geolocalization); and the collection of ecological momentary assessments (pictures and voice notes) to identify the barriers and facilitators to perform the routes. The prototype was tested in a pilot study in two deprived neighbourhoods of Barcelona. A total of 21 citizen scientists [mean age=67 (standard deviation=7)], 86% of them female collected, during two 7-day cycles, 112 comments and 48 pictures describing the barriers and facilitators for active living. The negative impact of dirty or damaged roads on citizen scientists’ motivation to engage in physical activity was highly reported as a barrier indicating that city infrastructure directly influences the public's inclination towards adopting active lifestyles. However, citizen scientists highlighted murals and urban green spaces they encountered, which made their walks more enjoyable and stimulating, as facilitators for active living. Every Walk You Take initiative constitutes the foundation for the development of novel models of health surveillance to address gaps in the current research landscape of active living. Moreover, the increased health literacy of the individuals ensures that they are more conscious about the role of physical activity in healthy ageing.

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) play a significant role in the aging processes, further regarding as a hallmark of aging. Despite the importance, a lack of monitoring tools has hampered the study of relationship between AGEs and aging. Here, we firstly report a novel AGEs-selective probe, AGO. AGO presented its ability to detect AGEs more sensitively than a conventional approach of measuring autofluorescence from AGEs. In addition, we confirmed that AGO can detect AGEs depending on kinetics, reflecting by a preference to ribose-derived AGEs. Finally, AGO revealed its competence to visualize glycation products in glycation mimicking model, made by collagen framework. We believe that this study will enrich molecular toolboxes to understand physiological processes of AGEs during aging processes.