Mediterranean diet in relation to body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio

OBJECTIVE: The Mediterranean diet is rich in fat and starch, and hence may be related to overweight. We therefore investigated the relationship between adherence to a Mediterranean diet and body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). DESIGN AND SETTING: Data were obtained from the control group of a network of case-control studies on cancer conducted in major teaching and general hospitals in four Italian areas between 1991 and 2002. An interviewer-administered validated 78-item food-frequency questionnaire was used to obtain information on the subjects' habitual diet. Information on socio-economic factors, lifestyle habits and anthropometric measures was also collected. A Mediterranean diet score (MDS) was derived on the basis of eight characteristics of the Mediterranean diet. SUBJECTS: Subjects were 6619 patients (3090 men, 3529 women) admitted to hospital for a wide spectrum of acute, non-neoplastic conditions, unrelated to known risk factors for cancer and long-term modifications of diet. RESULTS: In multiple linear regression models adjusted for age, study centre, education, tobacco smoking, occupational physical activity and total energy intake, the MDS was not related to BMI (beta = 0.05 for men and -0.04 for women) or WHR (beta = 0.000 and 0.001, respectively) in both sexes. CONCLUSIONS: Adherence to the major characteristics of the Mediterranean diet is unrelated to BMI and WHR, confirming previous data from Greece and Spain.     

Compositional and tissue modifications induced by the natural fermentation process in table olives

Olive fruits contain high concentrations of phenols that include phenolic acids, phenolic alcohols, flavonoids, and secoiridoids. The final concentration of phenols is strongly affected by brine conditions. The factors involved in modification by brine are still partially unknown and can include hydrolysis of secoiridoid glucosides and the release of hydrolyzed products. In this study olives from various Italian cultivars were processed by natural fermentation (e.g., without a preliminary treatment of olives with NaOH) using a selected Lactobacillus strain. Processed olives are characterized by a low phenolic concentration of phenols, consisting mainly of phenyl alcohols, verbascoside, and the dialdehydic form of decarboxymethylelenolic acid linked to (3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)ethanol (3,4-DHPEA-EDA), whereas a high level of phenols occurs in olive brine from all the cultivars studied. Olives of the Coratina cultivar, control and with fermentation by Lactobacillus pentosus 1MO, were analyzed in a frozen hydrated state by cryo scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis, on both surface and transversal freeze-fracture planes. Structural modifications, found in olives after fermentation, may explain the phenol release in brine.     

Inflorescence-visiting insects of a functionally dioecious wild grapevine (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Vitis vinifera</Emphasis> subsp. <Emphasis Type="Italic">sylvestris</Emphasis>)

The wild grapevine [Vitis vinifera L. subsp. sylvestris (Gmelin) Hegi] is the Eurasian dioecious ancestral form of mostly monoecious domesticated cultivars (Vitis vinifera subsp. vinifera). There are different hypotheses about grapevine pollination, varying from insect to wind pollination to spontaneous self-pollination. The aim of this paper is to update our knowledge on the biology of the wild grapevine by studying the insects visiting their inflorescences. During the fieldworks, floral visitors were observed, captured and identified. The most frequent insects visiting both sexes of wild grapevine were beetles (55%) followed by bees (45%). The present study shows that although in vineyards the wind may play a role in the cross-pollination, insects can contribute to the reproductive success of the wild grapevine. The knowledge of inflorescence-visiting insects, which potentially can act as pollinators may represent an important contribution to the conservation perspective of wild grapevine.     

Resistance to <Emphasis Type="Italic">Phytophthora infestans</Emphasis>: exploring genes required for disease resistance in Solanaceae plants

The oomycete Phytophthora infestans is the causal agent of potato late blight, one of the most destructive and historically significant pathogens in agricultural production. A virus-induced gene silencing-based screening of the solanaceous model plant N. benthamiana resulted in revealing a wide range of resistance mechanisms of solanaceous plants against this pathogen. In this article, we present an overview of the various pathways involved in the N. benthamiana–P. infestans pathosystem, including some of the follow-up work that was triggered by these findings. The purpose of this review is to assemble these findings and integrate them into our current understanding of plant pathogen defense mechanisms and discuss their potential application for the development of potato resistance to P. infestans.     

A spatial dataset of forest mensuration collected in black pine plantations in central Italy

Key message

The dataset provides an exhaustive tree inventory with forest mensuration and spatial location carried out in 54 plots sampled in 45- to 55-year-old black pine plantations, located in two areas of Tuscany (central Italy). Forest mensuration includes horizontal and vertical structure measurements and a total of 4171 trees were geo-referenced. The most abundant species was the black pine, Pinus nigra spp. laricio , for which a total of 3631 trees were observed. The dataset was collected as part of the SelPiBio LIFE project (LIFE13 BIO/IT/000282). Dataset access at   http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.438681 . Associated metadata available at https://metadata-afs.nancy.inra.fr/geonetwork/apps/georchestra/?uuid=73591027-0f1e-40a3-95d0-b614517c1290&hl=eng .

Context

The main aim of the SelPiBio LIFE project (www.selpibio.eu) is to demonstrate the effects of two thinning regimes, selective and from below, on soil biodiversity in young black pine stands. The spatial structure of forests and the relationships between trees are a good proxy of overall biodiversity level. Spatial datasets with geo referenced trees and related mensurational data represent the highest level of information for forest inventories and research activities.

Aims

This dataset has been developed during the A2 Action (Assessment of structural and mensurational parameters of the forest stands and the dead wood) of the project, to record the main mensurational parameters of the studied black pine stands. A tree-level database was compiled to describe the vertical and horizontal structure of 54 monitoring plots before the application of the silvicultural treatment.

Methods

In addition to classical in-field measurements (e.g. diameters at breast height, total height of the tree, crown depth etc.), all trees were georeferenced by means of polar coordinates collected from the centre of each monitoring plot, including crown projection on the ground, described with eight points. Then, a polynomial spline function was fitted across the recorded data to obtain a convex polygon and to calculate crown area and crown perimeter of each measured tree in GIS environment.

Results

A polygonal ESRI shapefile in ETRS89/UTM32N reference system (EPSG: 25832) with 4171 records representing the crown projections on the ground of each measured tree with all the mensurational parameters included into the attribute table. The database is freely available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4. 182 0 License.

Conclusion

With this database, a wide range of forestry-related indices could be easily calculated, including geostatistical analysis and autocorrelation functions, to compare Italian artificial black pine stands with other studied forests.