Suitability of dried olive pulp in slow-growing broilers: performance, meat quality, oxidation products, and intestinal mucosa features.

To assess the effect of dietary dried olive pulp (DOP) on growth performance, meat traits and oxidation, and intestinal mucosa features, a total of 180 male slow-growing broiler chickens (Hubbard) were divided into 3 groups and fed 3 isonitrogenous and isoenergetic diets from 14 d of age until slaughter (49 d). The treatments varied according to 3 DOP levels: a control diet without DOP (DOP0, 0%) and 2 test diets containing 5 and 10% of DOP (DOP5 and DOP10, respectively). Duodenal morphometric indices were measured at the end of the feeding period and included: villus height, crypt depth, villus-to-crypt ratio, and villus surface area. Dietary DOP had no adverse effect on growth performance, dressing percentage, or breast yield of broilers. The breast muscle pH at 24 h was significantly higher in birds fed DOP10 diet compared to those on DOP0 and DOP5 diets. Meat color was also affected by dietary treatments. Feeding DOP did not influence breast meat fatty acid composition, whereas meat from DOP-fed broilers resulted less susceptible to lipid and protein oxidation compared to control diet. Including DOP up to 10% in diet resulted in higher duodenal villus height, crypt depth, and villus height to crypt depth ratio as well as villus surface area. Based on our findings, dietary DOP supported productive traits of slow-growing broilers preserving meat from oxidation and improving intestinal morphometric features. As a result, the current study assessed that olive by-product can be used in broiler ration, resulting in a valuable ingredient as replacement for conventional feeds, which could reduce feeding costs due to the low cost of the olive by-product. Thus, using olive by-products as poultry feed may become economically feasible for producers where the olive oil industries play an important economic role.

Transcriptomic and genomic structural variation analyses on grape cultivars reveal new insights into the genotype-dependent responses to water stress.

Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) is importantly cultivated worldwide for table grape and wine production. Its cultivation requires irrigation supply, especially in arid and semiarid areas. Water deficiency can affect berry and wine quality mostly depending on the extent of plant perceived stress, which is a cultivar-specific trait. We tested the physiological and molecular responses to water deficiency of two table grape cultivars, Italia and Autumn royal, and we highlighted their different adaptation. Microarray analyses revealed that Autumn royal reacts involving only 29 genes, related to plant stress response and ABA/hormone signal transduction, to modulate the response to water deficit. Instead, cultivar Italia orchestrates a very broad response (we found 1037 differentially expressed genes) that modifies the cell wall organization, carbohydrate metabolism, response to reactive oxygen species, hormones and osmotic stress. For the first time, we integrated transcriptomic data with cultivar-specific genomics and found that ABA-perception and -signalling are key factors mediating the varietal-specific behaviour of the early response to drought. We were thus able to isolate candidate genes for the genotype-dependent response to drought. These insights will allow the identification of reliable plant stress indicators and the definition of sustainable cultivar-specific protocols for water management.

Correlations between cephalic posture and facial type in patients suffering from breathing obstructive syndrome.

AIM: In this teleradiographic study, the authors investigate the correlations between facial kind, breathing pattern and cephalic posture. METHODS The research was conducted on a 94 schoolchildren sample. For each patient teleradiographic analysis in-L-L projection and rhinomanometric examination were performed. On the basis of clinical evidences, rhinomanometric results and nasopharyngeal space evaluation, the sample was divided into two groups: the first one included 36 oral breather patients (OB), the second one 58 nasal breathers (NB). RESULTS: The two groups do not differ significantly, with the exception of divergence values, frequently higher in OB than NB. The comparison of craniofacial features and cephalic posture among the groups points out to correlations between large craniocervical angle and skeletal Class II, mandibular retrognathia and increased gonial angle, respectively, not related to breathing patterns. CONCLUSION: According to the authors' results, it can be stated that morphological characteristics classically associated with breathing obstructive syndrome could be induced by altered cephalic posture instead.

[Epidemiological study of the frequency of caries and malocclusion in school-age children]. / Studio epidemiologico sulla frequenza della carie e delle malocclusioni in eta' scolare.

The authors have made an epidemiological survey on a population in the school-age group, with the aim to evaluate the right incidence of the decay and dysgnathias and about the possible ethiopatogenetic relationship between these two pathologies. The results are very close to other similar researches.