The third age: physical activity and culture over 65.

Abstract: The present research focuses on the delicate and complex process of senilization of the population, being one of the most important anthropological and social problems of our time. These considerations lead us to examine not so much the aging process itself, but the relationship between the third age and society, focusing on the factors that promote or inhibit well-being and the relative perceptions that emerged in the sample. In this sense, an online questionnaire was administered, by email and by telephone message, over a period of approximately 10 months starting from March 2021 until December 2021. The questionnaire included multiple choice questions that produced clear data and simple analysis, arriving at an accurate analysis (qualitative and quantitative), on the topics of interest: the role of nutrition and sport in the over 65s, not only by the subjects in question, but also the considerations and perceptions of subjects belonging to different age groups with reference to the topics of interest relating to the third age. The sample results, allow us to identify the appropriate interven-tion strategies and policies useful for eradicating the stereotype that accompanied the concept of old age until a few years ago, making it synonymous with illness, loneliness, fragility and uselessness. Finally, today, we have freed ourselves from the role of "sedentary elderly" and motor activity in the third age is increasingly widespread and relevant as can be seen from the data analysis. This research is the result of a program that has been in place for several years now to combat the hypokinesis diseases, through physical movement and particularly by examples of appropriate lifestyles. This initiative was conceived and implemented by C.I.S.C.O.D. (Comitato Italiano Sport Contro Droga) and CO.NA.P.E.F.S. (Collegio Nazionale Professori Educazione Fisica e Laureati in Scienze Motorie), two C.O.N.I. well-deserving associations, and carried out as part of a larger "Survey on nutrition and culture over 65" project, proclaimed by Sport & Salute S.p.A.

Facile synthesis of 3D flower-like Pt nanostructures on polypyrrole nanowire matrix for enhanced methanol oxidation.

Here we report the simple and rapid synthesis of three-dimension Pt flower-like nanostructures (PtNFs) on a polypyrrole nanowires (PPyNWs) matrix. Both PtNFs and PPyNWs are prepared by an electrochemical approach without using any seed, template or surfactant. The morphology and chemical composition of the resulting PtNF/PPyNWs hybrids are characterized by scanning electron microscopy and by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. Taking methanol oxidation as a model catalysis reaction, the electrocatalytic performance of the as-prepared PtNF/PPyNWs system has been evaluated by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry, evidencing that these 3D materials exhibit excellent electrocatalytic activity and high level of poisoning tolerance to the carbonaceous oxidative intermediates. Such electrocatalytic performances can be ascribed to the combined effect of the flower-like structure promoting the exposure of more sites and the polymer nanowires matrix endorsing high dispersion of PtNF on a high electrochemically active surface area, besides the removal of sub-products from electrocatalytic sites.

[New bibliometric indicators for the scientific literature: an evolving panorama].

INTRODUCTION: Bibliometrics is a science which evaluates the impact of the scientific work of a journal or of an author, using mathematical and statistical tools. Impact Factor (IF) is the first bibliometric parameter created, and after it many others have been progressively conceived in order to go beyond its limits. Currently bibliometric indexes are used for academic purposes, among them to evaluate the eligibility of a researcher to compete for the National Scientific Qualification, in order to access to competitive exams to become professor. OBJECTIVE: Aim of this study is to identify the most relevant bibliometric indexes and to summarized their characteristics. METHODS: A revision of bibliometric indexes as been conducted, starting from the classic ones and completing with the most recent ones. RESULTS: The two most used bibliometric indexes are the IF, which measures the scientific impact of a periodical and bases on Web of Science citation database, and the h-index, which measures the impact of the scientific work of a researcher, basing on Scopus database. Besides them other indexes have been created more recently, such as the SCImago Journal Rank Indicator (SJR), the Source Normalised Impact per Paper (SNIP) and the CiteScore index. They are all based on Scopus database and evaluate, in different ways, the citational impact of a periodic. The i10-index instead is provided from Google Scholar database and allows to evaluate the impact of the scientific production of a researcher. Recently two softwares have been introduced: the first one, Publish or Perish, allows to evaluate the scientific work of a researcher, through the assessment of many indexes; the second one, Altmetric, measure the use in the Web of the academic papers, instead of measuring citations, by means of alternative metrics respect to the traditional ones. CONCLUSIONS: Each analized index shows advantages but also criticalities. Therefore the combined use of more than one indexes, citational and not, should be preferred, in order to correctly evaluate the work of reserchers and to finally improve the quality and the development of scientific research.

A simple approach to synthetize folic acid decorated magnetite@SiO2 nanostructures for hyperthermia applications.

Superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles were synthetized and capped by a SiO2 shell in order to avoid oxidation and aggregation of the iron oxide nanostructures. The inorganic capping was then further decorated by folic acid molecules, by using a very simple procedure exploiting supramolecular interactions among the organic moieties and the inorganic nanoparticles. The supramolecular nanoadduct thanks to folic acid molecules could act as a "Trojan horse" for the cancer cells and due to its superparamagnetic properties could induce local heat generation upon an appropriate magnetic field application. In fact, temperature was increased up to 42 °C when a 18 mT magnetic field was applied to the nanoparticles and the hybrid nanostructures were verified to be selectively internalized by HeLa cells, a human cervical cancer line known to overexpress the folic acid receptor.