Physical activity and exercise health benefits: cancer prevention, interception, and survival.

Physical activity (PA) has an established role in the promotion of health and fitness and the prevention of disease. Expected overall benefits include reduction of all-cause morbidity and death, weight control, improved quality of life, improved bone health and decreased falls of elderly subjects, , deeper cognition, and reduced risk of depression, anxiety, and sleeplessness. Currently, PA is a mainstay in the management of cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and bone health. Recently, the perception of its role in primary and secondary prevention, interception, and treatment of cancer, however, is also gaining importance. Regular walking, the simplest type of PA, is associated with reduced all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality, and a role in cancer prevention is of increasing interest. Furthermore, PA improves the quality of life of cancer patients, attenuating side effects of chemotherapy, decreasing sarcopenia, increasing fitness, and inhibiting the recurrence and progression of some cancer types. It promotes emotional and psychological benefits in patients, inducing positive changes. While mechanisms, effective levels and useful amount of PA practice are well established in cardiology, they are yet to be fully determined in oncology. Nevertheless, PA is recommended to reduce cancer risk in the general population, and it has been introduced in programs for the prevention of second cancers. In perspective, it will help as integrative therapy in cancer patients and for cancer survivors. The number of beneficial effects in the cancer continuum is highlighted in this review.

Skeletonema marinoi Extracts and Associated Carotenoid Fucoxanthin Downregulate Pro-Angiogenic Mediators on Prostate Cancer and Endothelial Cells.

The exploration of natural preventive molecules for nutraceutical and pharmaceutical use has recently increased. In this scenario, marine microorganisms represent an underestimated source of bioactive products endowed with beneficial effects on health that include anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, differentiating, anti-tumor, and anti-angiogenic activities. Here, we tested the potential chemopreventive and anti-angiogenic activities of an extract from the marine coastal diatom Skeletonema marinoi Sarno and Zingone (Sm) on prostate cancer (PCa) and endothelial cells. We also tested one of the main carotenoids of the diatom, the xanthophyll pigment fucoxanthin (Fuco). Fuco from the literature is a potential candidate compound involved in chemopreventive activities. Sm extract and Fuco were able to inhibit PCa cell growth and hinder vascular network formation of endothelial cells. The reduced number of cells was partially due to growth inhibition and apoptosis. We studied the molecular targets by qPCR and membrane antibody arrays. Angiogenesis and inflammation molecules were modulated. In particular, Fuco downregulated the expression of Angiopoietin 2, CXCL5, TGFß, IL6, STAT3, MMP1, TIMP1 and TIMP2 in both prostate and endothelial cells. Our study confirmed microalgae-derived drugs as potentially relevant sources of novel nutraceuticals, providing candidates for potential dietary or dietary supplement intervention in cancer prevention approaches.

Datasets of harmonized risk assessment of grapevine downy mildew and phenological observations in eight Italian regions (2012-2017).

Phytosanitary bulletins released at weekly interval by eight Italian regional plant protection services in the growing seasons 2012-2017 were used to derive an harmonized dataset of grapevine downy mildew infection risk and phenological observations. The downy mildew infection risk (n = 8816) was classified using a 5-point Likert response item ranging from 'very low' (1) to 'very high' (5) by six independent evaluators with domain expertise in agronomy, phytopathology and agrometeorology. Common criteria have been used in the risk assessment, considering (i) the presence of disease symptoms in field surveys, (ii) the host phenological susceptibility, (iii) the weather forecasts in the next week from the bulletin release date, (iv) the advice to apply a fungicide treatment and (v) the outputs of epidemiological models. The phenological observations are provided as BBCH codes (n = 1689), which have been either transcribed from the phytosanitary bulletins or derived from the narrative description of the visual observation. Phenological data refer to the main early and late grapevine varieties in the eight regions (NUTS-2 administrative unit). Each record is associated with the NUTS-2 and NUTS-3 (31 provinces) administrative unit of reference, to the growing season (2012-2017), and refers to the individual risk assessment by the six evaluators. The dataset is hosted by the Centre for Agriculture and Environment of the Italian Council for Agricultural Research and Economics. These data could be helpful to researchers who develop either grapevine phenological models or process-based epidemiological predictive algorithms in order to refine their calibration and evaluation, as well as being a valuable resource for stakeholders in charge of evaluating the effective implementation of Integrated Pest Management in the decision-making process of public plant protection services in Italy. The dataset is freely available here.

A public decision support system for the assessment of plant disease infection risk shared by Italian regions.

Integrated pest management (IPM) practices proved to be efficient in reducing pesticide use and ensuring economic farming sustainability. Digital decision support systems (DSS) to support the adoption of IPM practices from plant protection services are required by European legislation. Available DSSs used by Italian plant protection services are heterogeneous with regards to disease forecasting models, datasets for their calibration, and level of integration in operational decision-making. This study presents the MISFITS-DSS, which has been jointly developed by a public research institution and nine regional plant protection services with the objective of harmonizing data collection and decision support for Italian farmers. Participatory approach allowed designing a predictive workflow relying on specific domain expertise, in order to explicitly match actual user needs. The DSS calibration entailed the risk of grapevine downy mildew infection (5-point scale from very low to very high), and phenological observations in 2012-2017 as reference data. Process-based models of primary and secondary infections have been implemented and tested via sensitivity analysis (Morris method) under contrasting weather conditions. Hindcast simulations of grapevine phenology, host susceptibility and disease pressure were post-processed by machine-learning classifiers to predict the reference infection risk. Results indicate that IPM principles are implemented by plant protection services since years. The accurate reproduction of grapevine phenology (RMSE = 4-14 days), which drove the dynamic of host susceptibility, and the use of weather forecasts as model inputs contributed to reliably predict the reference infection risk (88% balanced accuracy). We did a pioneering effort to homogenize the methodology to deliver decision support to Italian farmers, by involving plant protection services in the DSS definition, to foster a further adoption of IPM practices.