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Purpose For the development of any life cycle assessment study, the practitioner frequently integrates primary data collected on-field, with background data taken from various life cycle inventory databases which are part of most commercial LCA software packages. However, such data is often not generally applicable to all product systems since, especially concerning the agri-food sector, available datasets may not be fully representative of the site specificity of the food product under examination. In this context, the present work investigates the background, sources and methodological aspects that characterise the most known commercial databases containing agri-food data, with a focus on four agri-food supply chains (olive oil, wine, wheat products and citrus fruit), which represent an important asset for the Italian food sector. Methods Specifically, the paper entails a review of currently available LCI databases and their datasets with a twofold scope: firstly, to understand how agri-food data is modelled in these databases for a coherent and consistent representation of regional scenarios and to verify whether they are also suitable for the Italian context and, secondly, to identify and analyse useful and relevant methodological approaches implemented in the existing LCI databases when regional data are modelled. Results Based on the aforementioned review, it is possible to highlight some problems which may arise when developing an LCI pertaining to the four Italian agri-food supply chains, namely: 1. The need for specific inventory datasets to tackle the specificities of agri-food product systems. 2. The lack of datasets, within the existing DBs, related to the Italian context and to the abovementioned supply chains. In fact, at present, in the currently available LCI DBs, there are very few (or in some cases none) datasets related to Italian wine, olive oil, wheat-based products and citrus fruit. The few available datasets often contain some data related to the Italian context but also approximate data with that of product systems representing other countries. Furthermore, the present study allowed to identify and discuss the main aspects to be used as starting elements for modelling regional data to be included in a future Italian LCI database of the abovementioned four supply chains. Conclusions The results of the present study represent a starting point for the collection of data and its organisation, in order to develop an Italian LCI agri-food database with datasets which are representative of the regional specificities of four agri-food supply chains which play an important role in the Italian economy.

The newly released version of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD 2010) ranks migraine between the most disabling diseases, the first among neurological ones, with a two-fold increase with respect to the previous GBD 2000 version. Almost 3 % of worldwide disability attributable to a specific disease, in terms of years lived with a disability, is due to migraine. The public health impact of migraine and headache disorders is thus a consolidated fact; however, further research is needed to provide stronger recognition of and policy actions for headache disorders in general, and in particular with regard to chronic forms of headache.

Our study aimed to test the hypothesis that supplementation with a combination of dry grape extracts (DGS) and olive-originated hydroxityrosol (HxT) polyphenols during ovine gestation under moderate nutritional restriction allows for the improvement of the birth weight and size of newborn lambs, especially in more demanding pregnancies such as twins. Twenty-six pregnant ewes (fourteen ewes with singleton pregnancies and twelve ewes with twin pregnancies) were divided in two equal groups, treated or not with the polyphenols, and involved in the study. The results indicate that supplementation with the combination of polyphenols, without modifying maternal body weight and body condition score, increased the maternal total antioxidant capacity ( < 0.05) and, interacting with pregnancy rank, improved maternal metabolic status by reducing β-hydroxybutyrate and non-esterified fatty acids ( < 0.05). Afterwards, supplementation improved birth weight and size of newborns in the most compromised pregnancies (i.e., twin pregnancies; twins lambs born to supplemented ewes were significantly heavier than those born to control ewes (3.3 ± 0.13 vs. 2.8 ± 0.23 kg, respectively; < 0.05).

Ovine reproduction efficiency in herds at high altitude (ha) is lower than that at low altitude (la). In ewes, ha effects are due to hypoxia and oxidative stress. Our aim was to establish the effect of antioxidant vitamin supplementation on semen traits and antioxidant status of rams exposed to short or long time ha. A total of 32 rams native to la (~500 m) were used, 16 were kept at la and the other 16 were brought to ha (~3600 m), where they were placed in the same flock as the ha native rams (n=16). Half of the animals in each group were supplemented daily with vitamins C 600 mg and E 450 IU per os, during the entire experimental period, starting the 4th day after animal’s arrival at ha (day 0). At days 0, 30 and 60 of treatment, blood and semen samples were collected for evaluation of antioxidant status and semen standard characteristics. Data were compared within each experimental time by analysis of variance using a general linear model. Elevated concentrations of oxidative stress biomarkers were present in blood from animals maintained at ha. Ejaculates from ha exposed rams showed decreased sperm concentration, progressive motility and viability, in addition to decreased antioxidant status in seminal fluid. A total of 30 days of oral supplementation with vitamins C and E prevented some ha negative effects on semen characteristics, mainly in recently ha exposed rams. It is concluded that exposure of rams to ha negatively affects semen quality, where oxidative stress plays a predominant role. These effects are mainly prevented by oral supplementation of vitamins C and E, which constitutes a simple and cheap alternative to improve semen quality of rams when they are moved to ha.

Migraine affects work productivity in terms of missed workdays and days with reduced productivity. In this literature review, we looked for papers addressing specific difficulties in work-related activities. Twenty-three papers were included in the review, reporting data on 51,135 patients. Results showed that there is some evidence for limitations in skills such as problem solving, and activities such as speaking and driving. However, the way in which problems with remunerative employment are addressed is limited to concepts such as reduced performance or inability to work as usual. Given the paucity of data, a return to patient-derived data will be needed to develop an assessment instrument that is able to collect information on headache-related problems in work activities.

Migraine is associated with reduced productivity in work-related activities. The degree to which problems with work are, in turn, associated to the level of migraine-related disability as well as to headache frequency has been poorly explored. The aim of the study was to assess if migraine patients with different degrees of work difficulties showed a different level of migraine-related disability. A consecutive sample of patients with episodic migraine (EM) or with chronic migraine (CM) with medication overuse (MO) attending the Headache Centre of the Neurological Institute C. Besta of Milan was studied. All patients completed the MIDAS and the WHODAS 2.0 questionnaires. The total scores of both questionnaires, frequency of headaches, average pain intensity, and the scores of each subscale of the WHODAS 2.0 were calculated separately for EM and CM patients. The score of WHODAS 2.0 “Work difficulties” subscale was used to divide the studied patients into two groups, i.e. those above and those below the median “Work difficulties” subscale score. Independent sample t test was used to compare these two groups as far as all the other studied variables. A total of 296 patients (102 with EM and 194 with CM-MO) were enrolled. Patients with higher work difficulties score also displayed higher scores in the other WHODAS 2.0 subscales; for those with CM-MO, the differences were significant. The results of this study indicate that having more and more severe workplace problems is associated to a higher disability level in migraineurs. Further studies are needed to better understand workplace disability in different migraine forms, particularly in a qualitative way.

Histidine-rich glycoprotein (HRG) is a relatively abundant plasma protein that is synthesized by parenchymal liver cells. Using Western blot analysis and immunoperoxidase techniques, we have previously shown the presence of HRG in human skeletal muscle. This paper reports the results of immunofluorescence experiments carried out on sections of human normal skeletal muscle biopsies to investigate the subcellular localization of HRG. The HRG localization was also compared with that of skeletal muscle AMP deaminase (AMPD1), since we have previously described an association of the enzyme with the protein. The obtained results give evidence for a preferential localization of HRG at the I-band level, where it shows the same distribution of actin and where AMPD1 is present in major concentration.

Headache disorders determine relevant personal and societal burden, and thus the use of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) investigating the level of disability and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) have been increasingly used in headache research. The aim of this review was to address the status of research on disability and HRQoL, by addressing results from recently published clinical trials as well as in longitudinal observational studies on headache patients. PubMed has been searched for papers in which measures of HRQoL and/or disability were used as primary or secondary outcome on adult subjects with primary headache, and published in 2010–2012. Among the 70 records retrieved, 12 papers were selected for narrative synthesis. They included data on 2,621 patients with episodic migraine with and without aura, chronic daily headache, and/or chronic migraine with and without medication overuse. The selected trials investigated the efficacy of different pharmacological prophylaxis, of some surgical approaches, of education programmes and osteopathic manipulative treatment; two studies reported longitudinal observations of patients currently under treatment. Overall, the results of our review showed that headache frequency as well as HRQoL and disability were positively impacted by treatment interventions; positive outcomes were less evident in two studies, and similar results were found in the two observational studies. Our findings confirmed that the most commonly used PROMs, including disease-specific tools to assess disability and HRQoL and SF-36, are sensitive to the beneficial effects occurring over time in functioning and quality of life domains in headache patients. They also suggest that the personal and societal costs of headache disorders are likely to be reduced when headache patients receive appropriate treatments and when continuity of care is offered. In terms of future directions, we note that the systematic use of appropriate PROMs should be encouraged both in the clinical practice and in the research field, as they offer a valid option to assess the global effect of treatments on patient-perceived sense of well-being and quality of performance.

In the last few years, new drugs for the treatment of schizophrenia have been introduced in therapy which have noticeably improved the quality of life of many schizophrenic patients. These new \"atypical\" drugs have chemical, pharmacological and clinical properties which are different from those of the classical neuroleptics. The most used drugs among the \"atypical\" antipsychotics are clozapine, olanzapine, quetiapine and risperidone. Despite several differences in their pharmacokinetic and pharmacodinamic profiles, they show some common properties: e.g. they dont cause extrapyramidal side effects, and they are active against the negative as well as positive symptoms of schizophrenia. The need for clinical monitoring of patients undergoing therapy is still evident because the onset of side effects is often related to high plasma concentrations of the drug. The clinical monitoring of patients can significantly improve the knowledge of pharmacological interactions among different CNS drugs, as well as enhance the compliance of the patients, thus leading to higher treatment efficacy. In order to carry out efficient clinical monitoring, reliable analytical methods are needed to determine the analytes even at very low concentrations and in the presence of other drugs. For this purpose, analytical techniques such as gas or liquid chromatography are often used coupled with sensitive and selective means of detection, such as fluorimetric, electrochemical or mass spectrometry detectors. The most recent studies on the determination of atypical antipsychotics will be reviewed in addition to the issue of sample pretreatment which is a critical step when the analysis of biological fluids is concerned.