BACKGROUND Vitamin D exerts multiple pleiotropic effects beyond its role in calcium-phosphate metabolism. Growing evidence suggest an association between hypovitaminosis D and sleep disorders, thus increasing the interest on the role of this vitamin in the regulatory mechanisms of sleep-wake cycle. OBJECTIVE To explore and summarize the current knowledge about the role of vitamin D in sleep regulation and the impact of vitamin D deficiency on sleep disorders. METHODS The main regulatory mechanisms of vitamin D on sleep are explained. The literature was scanned to identify clinical trials and correlation studies showing an association between vitamin D deficiency and sleep disorders. RESULTS Vitamin D receptors and the enzymes that control its activation and degradation are expressed in several areas of the brain involved in sleep regulation. Vitamin D is also involved in the pathways of production of Melatonin, the hormone involved in the regulation of human circadian rhythms and sleep. Furthermore, vitamin D can affect sleep indirectly through non specific pain disorders, correlated with alterations in sleep quality, such as restless legs syndrome and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. CONCLUSIONS Vitamin D has both a direct and an indirect role in the regulation of sleep. Although vitamin D deficiency has been associated to sleep disorders, there is still scant evidence to concretely support the role of vitamin D supplementation in the prevention or the treatment of sleep disturbances; indeed more intervention studies are needed to better clarify these aspects. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.The encapsulation of bioactive compounds (BC) is an emerging technique for finding new medicines since it provides protection against degradation ambient factors before reaching the target site. Nanotechnology provides new methods for encapsulating BC and hence, for drug carrier development.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/oxiglutatione.html  Nanocarriers satisfactorily impact the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion rate when compared to conventional carriers. The nanocarrier material needs to be compatible and easily bind to the drug, and to be bio-resorbable. In this context, the physicochemical characterization of encapsulated BC is fundamental to guarantee quality, reproducibility and safety of the final pharmaceutical product. In this review, we present the physicochemical techniques mostly used today by researchers to characterize BC in nanocarriers, and the main information provided by each technique such as, morphology, size, crystallinity degree, long-term stability, efficacy of drug encapsulation, amount of BC released as a function of time and chemical bonds resulting from BC and nano-carrier interactions. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.The interaction between meal timing and light regulates circadian rhythms in mammals and not only determines the sleep-wake pattern but also the activity of the endocrine system. Related with that, the necessity to fulfil energy needs is a driving force that requires the participation of cognitive skills whose performance has been shown to undergo circadian variations. These facts have led to the concept that cognition and feeding behaviour can be analysed from a chronobiological perspective. In this context, research carried out during the last two decades has evidenced the link between feeding behaviour/nutritional habits and cognitive processes, and has highlighted the impact of circadian disorders on cognitive decline. All that has allowed to hypothesize a tight relationship between nutritional factors, chronobiology and cognition. In this connection, experimental diets containing elevated amounts of fat and sugar (high-fat diets; HFDs) have been shown to alter in rodents the circadian distribution of meals, and to have a negative impact on cognition and motivational aspects of behaviour that disappear when animals are forced to adhere to a standard temporal eating pattern. In this review we will present relevant studies focussing on the effect of HFDs on cognitive aspects of behaviour, paying particular attention to the influence that chronobiological alterations caused by these diets may have on hippocampal-dependent cognition. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of chronic liver disease affecting approximately 25% of the global population. There is a collinearity between the severity of NAFLD and the components of the metabolic syndrome. NAFLD is also independently associated with cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The progressive potential of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is today indisputable, and the histological spectrum of NAFLD ranges from isolated steatosis to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), with risk of developing fibrosis and subsequent cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. There is a substantial inter-patient variation in disease progression, therefore, this review will focus on potential modifiers of fibrosis progression, development of liver cirrhosis, decompensation and liver-related mortality. The potential drivers of disease progression that is discussed are; T2DM and Insulin Resistance, body weight, alcohol consumption, genetics (including HFE and alfa-1-antitrypsin) as well as histological features predictive of disease progression. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.The number of human death caused by malaria is increasing day-by-day. In fact, the mitochondrial proteins of the malaria parasite play vital roles in the organism. For developing effective drugs and vaccines against infection, it is necessary to accurately identify mitochondrial proteins of the malaria parasite. Although, precise details for the mitochondrial proteins can be provided by biochemical experiments, they are expensive and time-consuming. In this review, we summarized the machine learning-based methods for mitochondrial proteins identification in malaria parasite and compared the construction strategies of these computational methods. Finally, we also discussed the future development of mitochondrial proteins recognition with algorithms. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.