Perception of Faces and Elaboration of Gender and Victim/Aggressor Stereotypes: The Influence of Internet Use and of the Perceiver's Personality.

The use of social media, particularly among youngsters, is characterized by simple and fast image exploration, mostly of people, particularly faces. The study presented here was conducted in order to investigate stereotypical judgments about men and women concerning past events of aggression-perpetrated or suffered-expressed on the basis of their faces, and gender-related differences in the judgments. To this aim, 185 participants answered a structured questionnaire online. The questionnaire contained 30 photos of young people's faces, 15 men and 15 women (Ma et al., 2015), selected on the basis of the neutrality of their expression, and participants were asked to rate each face with respect to masculinity/femininity, strength/weakness, and having a past of aggression, as a victim or as a perpetrator. Information about the empathic abilities and personality traits of participants were also collected. The results indicate that the stereotypes-both of gender and those of victims and perpetrators-emerge as a consequence of the visual exploration of faces that present no facial emotion. Some characteristics of the personality of the observers, such as neuroticism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and affective empathy, have a role in facilitating or hindering stereotype processing, in different ways for male and female faces by male and female observers. In particular, both genders attribute their positive stereotypical attributes to same-gender faces: men see male faces as stronger, masculine, and more aggressive than women do, and women see female faces as more feminine, less weak, and less as victims than men do. Intensive use of social media emerges as a factor that could facilitate the expression of some stereotypes of violent experiences and considering female subjects as more aggressive. Findings in this study can contribute to research on aggressive behavior on the Internet and improve our understanding of the multiple factors involved in the elaboration of gender stereotypes relative to violent or victim behavior.

Influence of age on sperm characteristics evaluated by light and electron microscopies.

The impact of male aging on male fertility has only recently become of interest to the scientific community. This study aims to assess the relationship between age and fertility among a sample of men, considering the individual and pathological characteristics. In this retrospective study data of semen analysis and medical history of 1294 Italian male patients were considered. Semen analysis was performed by light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy mathematically elaborated. A generalized linear model was used to explore the influence of male age on semen quality, considering as confounders wine consumption, smoking habits, presence of varicocele, consanguinity and positive semen bacteriological analysis and urethral swab. The mean age of the participants was 36.41 ± 6.379. Male aging without impact of confounders was correlated with a decrease in sperm concentration and motility and an increased in sperm necrosis. Sperm concentration and progressive motility were negatively related to the presence of confounders as wine consumption (sperm motility), urogenital infection (sperm concentration and motility), varicocele (sperm concentration) and consanguinity (sperm motility). Urogenital infection, varicocele and consanguinity positively correlated with sperm necrosis. The most important finding was the observation of a negative effect of male aging on sperm parameters such as concentration, motility, and viability. It is possible to hypothesize age-dependent changes of testicular environment, probably related to reactive oxygen species production. The demonstration, in a large sample of patients, that aging influences sperm quality strongly motivates further research focused on the mechanisms involved in this phenomenon and its effects on offspring fitness.

Antioxidants, Dietary Fatty Acids, and Sperm: A Virtual Reality Applied Game for Scientific Dissemination.

Fatty acid (FA) profile appears to be critical to infertility, and the effects of dietary FAs on sperm FA content are a current focus of studies in the field of nutrition and reproduction. Starting from a validated "OXISTRESS" model in which modification of FA content results to influence reactive oxygen species, antioxidants, isoprostanes, cytokines, sperm kinetic, and acrosome reaction, we developed a virtual reality game where the player, in order to improve the health of some virtual spermatozoa, is called to take dietary choices and then discover their consequences on the main biological aspects. In the LabVR of the University of Siena, a team of VR environment designer and developer used Unity development engine to make the experience run on Oculus Quest and a wireless 6DOF (six degrees of freedom of movement in 3D space) VR Headset. In the game, the player is immersed in the epididymis and observes closer how dietary n-3 may change the sperm plasma membrane and consequently modify sperm traits. A simulation game in the virtual reality may represent a tool to give greater visibility to scientific data in the relevance of appropriate dietary habits in the human health.