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Background and aims Food processing has been indicated as a factor capable of negatively affecting the global food system, including the profile of consumers’ diets. The objectives of the present study were to provide a description of the consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) in the large population of children, adolescents and adults from eight European countries participating to the I.Family study, and to investigate the association between UPFs intake and nutritional quality of the diet. Methods and results Dietary intake was assessed using a 24-h dietary recall. The quality of the diet was evaluated by the Healthy Dietary Adherence Score (HDAS) using an FFQ. UPFs were classified according to the NOVA classification. Almost half of the daily energy intake of the 7073 participants came from UPFs, and this trend decreased progressively with age. UPFs contributed more than 50 % of the daily intake of total and saturated fat, carbohydrates and about 70 % of sugars intake in children and adolescents. No differences in UPFs consumption were found according to the educational and socio-economic status of the population. Energy intake increased across the quintiles of UPFs intake, while HDAS decreased. The frequency of consumption of fruit and vegetable, fish, and fibre rich foods was low in the fifth quintile of UPFs intake, both in adolescents and in adults. The consumption of foods rich in calories and low in nutritional content, operationally defined as “junk food”, was significantly higher in the fifth quintile. Conclusions In the population of the European I.Family study, UPFs contributed a large proportion of the daily energy intake, especially in children and adolescents. Higher consumption of UPFs was associated with a lower quality of the diet. Registration number for clinical trials ISRCTN62310987.

Supramolecular polymers are class of materials that are formed by non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding, π-π interactions, electrostatic interactions and the hydrophobic effect. The design and development of supramolecular polymers in aqueous solution gained a particular attention for the wide variety of applications in the biomedical field. In water, the self-assembly of well-defined nanostructures is mainly determined by the combination of hydrophobic effect with hydrogen bonding interactions in the monomer design. When squaramide-based monomer self-assemble, the formation of stable nanostructures in water is determined by the formation of directional hydrogen bonds which are strengthened by the partial aromatic character of the squaramide. In this thesis, the self-assembly properties of a panel of squaramide-based monomers is examined in aqueous solution through modulating the monomer chemical structure, co-assembly and introduction of light responsive chemistries.

Questo technical report riporta la prima versione della Security Policy dell'Istituto di Informatica e Telematica, adottata nel rispetto della normativa vigente "Misure minime di sicurezza ICT per le pubbliche amministrazioni" previste dall'Agenzia per l'Italia Digitale. Tratta gli aspetti necessari per rilevare eventuali criticità di sicurezza informatica e stabilisce le azioni da intraprendere per accrescere il livello di sicurezza dell'intero ecosistema informatico dell'Istituto. Definisce inoltre un insieme di misure organizzative e comportamentali da adottare, da parte del personale dello IIT, per contrastare le minacce informatiche più frequenti e gestire eventuali incidenti. Un ulteriore obiettivo è la consultazione e divulgazione della policy stessa ad altri istituti del CNR, enti di ricerca e Pubblica Amministrazione, al fine di supportarli nella definizione di una politica di sicurezza per la propria organizzazione.

The European Commission funded project Stance4Health (S4H) aims to develop a complete personalised nutrition service. In order to succeed, sources of information on nutritional composition and other characteristics of foods need to be as comprehensive as possible. Food composition tables or databases (FCT/FCDB) are the most commonly used tools for this purpose. The aim of this study is to describe the harmonisation efforts carried out to obtain the Stance4Health FCDB. A total of 10 FCT/FCDB were selected from different countries and organizations. Data were classified using FoodEx2 and INFOODS tagnames to harmonise the information. Hazard analysis and critical control points analysis was applied as the quality control method. Data were processed by spreadsheets and MySQL. S4H’s FCDB is composed of 880 elements, including nutrients and bioactive compounds. A total of 2648 unified foods were used to complete the missing values of the national FCDB used. Recipes and dishes were estimated following EuroFIR standards via linked tables. S4H’s FCDB will be part of the smartphone app developed in the framework of the Stance4Health European project, which will be used in different personalized nutrition intervention studies. S4H FCDB has great perspectives, being one of the most complete in terms of number of harmonized foods, nutrients and bioactive compounds included. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Objective: Consumption of fruits and vegetables (F&V) among adolescents falls below recommendations in many Western countries. The impact of social and emotional aspects of family life on adolescent dietary behaviour may contribute to this, yet remains under-investigated. The present study examines the association between adolescents'' perceptions of emotional home atmosphere (EHA) and their F&V consumption frequency. Design: An FFQ was used to assess F&V consumption frequency. EHA was assessed by an eight-item measure with three subscales: Perceived home warmth, strictness and relational tension. EHA subscales were used as binary variables: A score equal to or above the median value was considered as a higher perception, while a score below the median was considered as a lower perception of the EHA in question. Country differences in meeting the European 5-a-day recommendations were described. Further, the association between EHA and F&V consumption frequency was investigated using multiple linear regression. Setting: Regional examination centres in eight European countries. Participants: Adolescents (n 3196) aged 12-18 years. Results: The mean F&V consumption frequency was 3·27 (sd 2·84) times/d. Only 16·1 % of boys and 18 % of girls in our study sample met the recommendation of five F&V daily. After controlling for age, sex, education level of the parents and country of origin, perceived home warmth was associated with a 16 (95 % CI 9, 22) % higher F&V consumption frequency (P < 0·001). Conclusions: F&V consumption frequency was suboptimal in the survey areas. Interventions targeting perceived warmth as a component of EHA could potentially have a positive effect on adolescents'' dietary behaviour.

BACKGROUND: Levels of physical activity and variation in physical activity and sedentary time by place and person in European children and adolescents are largely unknown. The objective of the study was to assess the variations in objectively measured physical activity and sedentary time in children and adolescents across Europe. METHODS: Six databases were systematically searched to identify pan-European and national data sets on physical activity and sedentary time assessed by the same accelerometer in children (2 to 9.9¿years) and adolescents (=10 to 18¿years). We harmonized individual-level data by reprocessing hip-worn raw accelerometer data files from 30 different studies conducted between 1997 and 2014, representing 47, 497 individuals (2-18¿years) from 18 different European countries. RESULTS: Overall, a maximum of 29% (95% CI: 25, 33) of children and 29% (95% CI: 25, 32) of adolescents were categorized as sufficiently physically active. We observed substantial country- and region-specific differences in physical activity and sedentary time, with lower physical activity levels and prevalence estimates in Southern European countries. Boys were more active and less sedentary in all age-categories. The onset of age-related lowering or leveling-off of physical activity and increase in sedentary time seems to become apparent at around 6 to 7¿years of age. CONCLUSIONS: Two third of European children and adolescents are not sufficiently active. Our findings suggest substantial gender-, country- and region-specific differences in physical activity. These results should encourage policymakers, governments, and local and national stakeholders to take action to facilitate an increase in the physical activity levels of young people across Europe.