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Maternal cytokine profiles during pregnancy are characterized by significant deviations, varying substantially between gestational time points and tissues. Obesity, in turn, is linked with low-grade inflammation in adipose tissue and increased concentrations of systemic inflammatory mediators. However, the balance of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in obese pregnancy has remained elusive. In view of the demonstrations that the obesity is a global epidemic in the population at reproductive age with a strong intergenerational impact, we investigated the relation of gestational immune adaptations and obesity-induced inflammation. We found a significant decrease in systemic IL-1β and MCP-1 concentration from 1st to 3rd trimester of pregnancy while IL-10 concentration increased, respectively. However, in obese pregnancies this reduction of pro-inflammatory mediators was not detected. This may constitute an additional risk factor in obese pregnancies in which the concentration of MCP-1 is already upregulated compared to normal weight mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pleasant taste and flavor of coffee are responsible for making it one of the most preferred and consumed beverages around the world. Industrial coffee plants usually roast both coffee and adulterants together, which affects directly the quality of the product, specially the sensorial characteristics of the drink. Therefore, this work aims the identification of adulterations in ground roasted coffees (due to the presence of husks and sticks) using ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy and the Successive Projections Algorithm for variable selection in association with Linear Discriminant Analysis (SPA-LDA). For this purpose, extracts of ground roasted coffees prepared in hot water alone (representing the final product as ingested by the consumers) were then analyzed. The proposed methodology obtained a 100% classification in both training and test sets, providing a simple and fast analysis of the aqueous extracts of ground roasted coffees. Moreover, it can also afford security to coffee consumers and regulatory agencies, preventing the fraudulent labeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A core feature of schizophrenia may be disturbed self-experience. • The neural underpinnings of disturbed self-experience are not yet clear. • This study found a relationship between source monitoring deficits and disturbed self-experience in early psychosis patients. • Aberrant salience showed a relationship with general psychopathology. • A revised neurophenomenological model of schizophrenia spectrum disorders is proposed. The integration of various domains or levels of analysis (clinical, neurobiological, genetic, etc.) has been a challenge in schizophrenia research. A promising approach is to use the core phenomenological features of the disorder as an organising principle for other levels of analysis. Minimal self-disturbance (fragility in implicit first-person perspective, presence and agency) is emerging as a strong candidate to play this role. This approach was adopted in a previously described theoretical neurophenomenological model that proposed that source monitoring deficits and aberrant salience may be neurocognitive/neurobiological processes that correlate with minimal self-disturbance on the phenomenological level, together playing an aetiological role in the onset of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The current paper presents full cross-sectional data from the first empirical test of this model. Fifty ultra-high risk for psychosis patients, 39 first episode psychosis patients and 34 healthy controls were assessed with a variety of clinical measures, including the Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE), and neurocognitive and neurophysiological (EEG) measures of source monitoring deficits and aberrant salience. Linear regression indicated that source monitoring (composite score across neurocognitive and neurophysiological measures), with study group as an interaction term, explained 39.8% of the variance in EASE scores (R2 = 0.41, F(3,85) = 14.78, p < 0.001), whereas aberrant salience (composite score) explained only 6% of the variance in EASE scores (R2 = 0.06, F(3,85) = 1.44, p = 0.93). Aberrant salience measures were more strongly related to general psychopathology measures, particularly to positive psychotic symptoms, than to EASE scores. A neurophenomenological model of minimal self-disturbance in schizophrenia spectrum disorders may need to be expanded from source monitoring deficits to encompass other relevant constructs such as temporal processing, intermodal/multisensory integration, and hierarchical predictive processing. The cross-sectional data reported here will be expanded with longitudinal analysis in subsequent reports. These data and other related recent research show an emerging picture of neuro-features of core phenomenological aspects of schizophrenia spectrum disorders beyond surface-level psychotic symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]