Both Motor and Non-Motor Fluctuations Matter in the Clinical Management of Patients with Parkinson's Disease: An Exploratory Study.

Non-motor symptoms (NMS) characterize the Parkinson's disease (PD) clinical picture, and as well as motor fluctuations, PD patients can also experience NMS fluctuations (NMF). The aim of this observational study was to investigate the presence of NMS and NMF in patients with PD using the recently validated Non-Motor Fluctuation Assessment questionnaire (NoMoFa) and to evaluate their associations with disease characteristics and motor impairment. Patients with PD were consecutively recruited, and NMS, NMF, motor impairment, motor fluctuations, levodopa-equivalent daily dose, and motor performance were evaluated. One-third of the 25 patients included in the study (10 females, 15 males, mean age: 69.9 ± 10.3) showed NMF, and patients with NMF presented a higher number of NMS (p < 0.01). Static NMS and NoMoFa total score were positively associated with motor performance assessed with the Global Mobility Task (p < 0.01 and p < 0.001), and the latter was also correlated with motor impairment (p < 0.05) but not with motor fluctuations. Overall, this study shows evidence that NMF are frequently reported by mild-to-moderate PD patients and associated with an increased number of NMS. The relationship between NoMoFa total score and motor functioning highlights the importance of understanding the clinical role of NMS and NMF in the management of PD patients.

Large-Scale Plant Production of Lycium barbarum L. by Liquid Culture in Temporary Immersion System and Possible Application to the Synthesis of Bioactive Substance.

Goji (Lycium barbarum L.) has recognized nutritive and antioxidant properties and many products are commercialized for health in food market. Besides its food use, goji has been the subject of more than 2000 years of traditional Chinese medicine, using berries, root bark, and leaves. Here, the potential of the liquid culture in temporary immersion system (TIS) by using the bioreactor PlantformTM was tested for the large-scale production of high-quality goji shoots and the subsequent production of total phenols and flavonoids. The three tested immersion cycles differently influenced the shoot quality in terms of proliferation and hyperhydricity. The best immersion cycle (time and frequency) was proven to have the shortest daily immersion time (6 min every 24 h) which ensured good levels of relative growth and multiplication rate, very limited onset of hyperydricity, and the longest shoots, promoting direct rooting after only 30 days of culture. In comparison with the semisolid culture, the TIS culture resulted in an increase of the total phenolic content (TPC) and in a lower value of the total flavonoid content (TFC). However, considering the higher quantity of biomass produced in the PlantformTM bioreactor, the difference in terms of TFC productivity between semisolid medium and TIS liquid culture was proven to be statistically equivalent.

From by-Product to Unconventional Vegetable: Preliminary Evaluation of Fresh Fava Hulls Highlights Richness in L-Dopa and Low Content of Anti-Nutritional Factor.

Faba bean hulls are a by-product, generated from the processing of beans and usually disposed of as waste, utilized in some recipes of Italian traditional cuisine. In this research, a quality evaluation of faba hulls in six genotypes (four local varieties-'Cegliese', 'Iambola', 'San Francesco' and 'FV5'-and two commercial ones-'Aguadulce supersimonia' and 'Extra-early purple') of faba bean (Vicia faba L. var. major Harz) for fresh consumption grown with two plant densities (4.16 and 2.08 plants m-2) was carried out. For all the measured parameters, the statistical analysis reveals that the interaction between plant density and genotype was not significant. On the other hand, independently of the genotype, the higher the plant's density the higher was the pods' yield per unit area, while the average percentage of hulls was of 75% with little differences between genotypes. All genotypes showed a low content of vicine (12.4 mg 100 g-1 FW), a well know favism-inducing factor, and a very high phenols content (between 443 and 646 mg 100 g-1 FW) and levo-dihydroxy phenylalanine (L-dopa-on average 170 mg 100 g-1 FW), used for the treatment of patients affected by Parkinson's disease. In conclusion, this study highlights the good potential of faba hulls as unconventional vegetable, suggesting its use as a new functional food in the daily diet and also for patients with Parkinson's disease.

Lactic acid bacteria fermentation to exploit the nutritional potential of Mediterranean faba bean local biotypes.

Aiming at evaluating their nutritional profile and pro-technological aptitude, the flour obtained from thirteen Mediterranean faba bean accessions was fermented with Lactobacillus plantarum DPPMAB24W, a lactic acid bacteria strain previously selected for the high ß-glucosidase activity. Before fermentation the flours were characterized for the chemical profile, showing wide variability in protein content (that ranged from 24.83% to 30.03%) and α-galactosides concentration. Slight differences were found among the accessions for trypsin inhibitory activity and for the presence of the antinutritional factors condensed tannins and vicine. The heterogeneity observed for the raw flours was flattened after fermentation, although the different composition of the raw matrix affected the starter performances, especially the production of organic acids. Compared to controls, fermented doughs were characterized by higher free amino acids content and higher in vitro protein digestibility, while antinutritional factors concentrations drastically decreased and in some cases they resulted completely degraded. The results obtained in this study confirmed that fermentation can be considered as a major key-factor in valorizing faba bean employment as food ingredient.

Long-term gait pattern assessment using a tri-axial accelerometer.

In this article, we present a pervasive solution for gait pattern classification that uses accelerometer data retrieved from a waist-mounted inertial sensor. The proposed algorithm has been conceived to operate continuously for long-term applications. With respect to traditional approaches that use a large number of features and sophisticated classifiers, our solution is able to assess four different gait patterns (standing, level walking, stair ascending and descending) by using three features and a decision tree. We assess the algorithm detection performances using data that we retrieved from a validation group composed by nine young and healthy volunteers, for a total number of 36 tests and 12.5 h of recorded acceleration data. Experimental results show that in continuous applications the proposed algorithm is able to effectively discriminate between standing (100%), level walking (∼99%), stair ascending (∼84%), and descending (∼85%), with an average classification accuracy for the four patterns that exceeds 92% in continuous, long-lasting applications.