Search

Vittorio Scuderi, Letizia Mannino, Giuseppe Santisi Department of Educational Sciences, University of Catania, Catania, ItalyCorrespondence: Giuseppe Santisi Email gsantisi@unict.itPurpose: Wine has a purely symbolic connotation in the eyes of consumers and the market. Therefore, it could lead to a different consideration and perception of buying local wine which could be sensed as a social experience rather than an automatic action. The research aim is to highlight the bond between customers and the product (Sicilian DOC wine) by overcoming the utilitarian limit and showing the social one. This study has the purpose of understanding in depth how individual behavior and social relationships are able to influence people’s behavioral intentions which lead to an increase in wine consumption.Methods: The sample was characterized by 302 consumers of Sicilian DOC wine who gave their consent to participate to the research to verify how the social aspects may lead to the behavioral Intentions of purchase. The cross-sectional research has been conducted using an online survey which was available to be filled in by participants from May 2019 to December 2019. Data were analyzed using SPSS.Results: The results show how subjective norms and social activity constitute two crucial dimensions for consumption behavior through mediating the effect of individuals identification with people that tend to choose and consume Sicilian DOC wine (social identity) on the behavioral intention of that product to fulfill their desire. Both indirect effects of social identity on behavioral intentions (IE = 0.04; C.I. = 0.01– 0.05; IE = 0.02; C.I. = 0.005– 0.03) are significant and mediated by subjective norms and social activity.Conclusion: Social activities and subjective norms influence people’s intention to purchase a Sicilian DOC wine for purely social and symbolic purposes.Keywords: social activity, subjective norms, business, consumption, products, intensity

Neural tissue has high metabolic requirements. Following spinal cord injury (SCI), the damaged tissue suffers from a severe metabolic impairment, which aggravates axonal degeneration and neuronal loss. Impaired cellular energetic, tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and oxidative phosphorylation metabolism in neuronal cells has been demonstrated to be a major cause of neural tissue death and regeneration failure following SCI. Therefore, rewiring the spinal cord cell metabolism may be an innovative therapeutic strategy for the treatment of SCI. In this study, we evaluated the therapeutic effect of the recovery of oxidative metabolism in a mouse model of severe contusive SCI. Oral administration of TCA cycle intermediates, co-factors, essential amino acids, and branched-chain amino acids was started 3 days post-injury and continued until the end of the experimental procedures. Metabolomic, immunohistological, and biochemical analyses were performed on the injured spinal cord sections. Administration of metabolic precursors enhanced spinal cord oxidative metabolism. In line with this metabolic shift, we observed the activation of the mTORC1 anabolic pathway, the increase in mitochondrial mass, and ROS defense which effectively prevented the injury-induced neural cell apoptosis in treated animals. Consistently, we found more choline acetyltransferase (ChAT)-expressing motor neurons and increased neurofilament-positive corticospinal axons in the spinal cord parenchyma of the treated mice. Interestingly, oral administration of the metabolic precursors increased the number of activated microglia expressing the CD206 marker suggestive of a pro-resolutive, M2-like phenotype. These molecular and histological modifications observed in treated animals ultimately led to a significant, although partial, improvement of the motor functions. Our data demonstrate that rewiring the cellular metabolism can represent an effective strategy to treat SCI.