Search Results (3)

Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes characterized by an extremely low rate of progression. It takes several years to move from the onset of diabetes, both type 1 and type 2, to the development of retinal microaneurysms, then leading to proliferative diabetic retinopathy and vision loss. The recent demonstration that retinal microaneurysms are preceded and, possibly, caused by a subclinical neurodegeneration mainly affecting the neurovascular unit has suggested, on one hand, the possible existence of a previously unknown early neurodegenerative stage of diabetic retinopathy and, on the other, that an early “neuroprotective” treatment could end up preventing the development of the microvascular stages. This review summarizes the present situation in the field and focuses on the prevention of diabetic retinopathy, which seems, for the first time, to be within reach. Full article

Knowledge about the hydrogeological behaviour of heterogeneous low-permeability media is an important tool when designing anthropogenic works (e.g., landfills) that could potentially have negative impacts on the environment and on people’s health. The knowledge about the biogeochemical processes in these media could prevent “false positives” when studying groundwater quality and possible contamination caused by anthropogenic activities. In this research, we firstly refined knowledge about the groundwater flow field at a representative site where the groundwater flows within an evaporite-bearing low-permeability succession. Hydraulic measurements and tritium analyses demonstrated the coexistence of relatively brief to very prolonged groundwater pathways. The groundwater is recharged by local precipitation, as demonstrated by stable isotopes investigations. However, relatively deep groundwater is clearly linked to very high tritium content rainwater precipitated during the 1950s and 1960s. The deuterium content of some groundwater samples showed unusual values, explained by the interactions between the groundwater and certain gases (H₂S and CH₄), the presences of which are linked to sulfate-reducing bacteria and methanogenic archaea detected within the saturated medium through biomolecular investigations in the shallow organic reach clayey deposits. In a wider, methodological context, the present study demonstrates that interdisciplinary approaches provide better knowledge about the behaviour of heterogeneous low-permeability media and the meaning of each data type. Full article

The Munich ChronoType Questionnaire (MCTQ) has now been available for more than 15 years and its original publication has been cited 1240 times (Google Scholar, May 2019). Additionally, its online version, which was available until July 2017, produced almost 300,000 entries from all over the world (MCTQ database). The MCTQ has gone through several versions, has been translated into 13 languages, and has been validated against other more objective measures of daily timing in several independent studies. Besides being used as a method to correlate circadian features of human biology with other factors—ranging from health issues to geographical factors—the MCTQ gave rise to the quantification of old wisdoms, like “teenagers are late”, and has produced new concepts, like social jetlag. Some like the MCTQ’s simplicity and some view it critically. Therefore, it is time to present a self-critical view on the MCTQ, to address some misunderstandings, and give some definitions of the MCTQ-derived chronotype and the concept of social jetlag. Full article