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Analisi dell’Interlingua e CEFR nell’Apprendimento della Lingua Inglese in studenti di scuole secondarie di secondo grado di Sassari
Get PDFThe present study aims to identify, classify and explain features of interlanguage (IL) of learners of English as Foreign Language (FL), in samples of written language, against the CEFR levels of language competence. Some relevant questions we have tried to address are the following:
how can we investigate the relationship between the Interlanguage development and the CEFR? Is it possible to integrate Interlanguage analysis into formative and summative assessment? Which benefits can teachers and learners in EFL classroom obtain?
The study was carried out in two different phases and 156 students were involved, 52 in the first phase and 108 in the second one, subdivided into 10 different classes of three different schools in Sassari.
The students were asked to fill in a personal information questionnaire and to complete a writing test according to the CEFR levels of proficiency and “can do statements”. The manual correction of the written samples took into consideration the number of words used, the number and different types of error, using both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis. The results show that: not always there is correspondence between CEFR levels and learners’ IL; the IL analysis can be integrated into formative assessment; family context has a fundamental role in the language learning process; teachers’ training in interlanguage analysis would be of great benefit for teaching and assessment practices
Study of microbial consortium for table olives production
Get PDFDirectly brined black table olives of Bosana variety are a traditional food produced and consumed in Sardinia. Bosana table olives are produced by “natural” fermentation, an empirical process where yeasts involved. To date, the yeast community of Bosana table olives has not been investigated. In this work yeast isolates were identified by random amplified polymorphic DNA with primer M13 and sequencing of D1/D2 domains of rDNA 26S gene. Technological and probiotic properties were evaluated by biochemical and spectrophotometric methods. Biofilm formation between yeasts and Lactobacillus pentosus was investigated by crystal violet staining. Moreover, ability to form biofilm in vitro and genome sequencing of eight strains of Candida boidinii were investigated. Data of multivariate analysis revealed that Wickeramomyces anomalus Wa1 exhibited better technological characteristics while Saccharomyces cerevisiae Sc24 and Candida boidinii Cb18 showed a probiotic potential. Results about biofilm formation showed that presence of Lactobacillus pentosus stimulates biofilm formation by Candida boidinii. Information about probiotic and technological features of these yeasts can be used to design a potential multifunctional starter in order to improve and optimize natural process and nutritional characteristics of commercialized product of Sardinia.
In addition genomic study of Candida boidinii offers a helpful starting point to understand the mechanism of biofilm formation
Photoacoustic spectroscopy for estimating nutritional indices in Lepidopteran defoliators
No full textLymantria dispar L. and Malacosoma neustrium (L.) are the most serious defoliators of cork oak in the Mediterranean region. For this reason, information on their feeding behaviour are important in pest management. A non-destructive approach by using photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) combined with a partial least squares regression analyses (PLS), has been used to provide a rapid and cost-effective analysis to assess foliage chemistry and to estimate some nutritional indices of these insects
Using terrestrial LiDAR for monitoring canopy structure in cork oak trees
No full textThe main aim of this work was to assess the capabilities of terrestrial laser scanner in measuring both changes by the time and differences among trees of canopy characteristics of Quercus suber L. (cork oak) plants
Study on hemoglobinopathies in central provinces of Vietnam
Get PDFThe Vietnamese population is ethnically highly heterogeneous and the spectrum of β-thalassemia alleles is slowly defining. On the whole, six mutations of the β0- and a mutation of the β+- thalassemia have been identified and observed with distinct incidence in the different areas.
Interaction between these mutations and the rather common Hb E leads to a variety of thalassemia syndromes, in particular to the severe forms of homozygous β-thal and Hb E-β-thal
diseases. Nonetheless, epidemiological data is still insufficient and fragmented. In this Doctoral Thesis, a screening program for hemoglobinopathies was carried out in the central provinces of Vietnam as part of the ongoing cooperation between the Universities of Hue and Sassari.
A study group of 160 subjects referred to Hue Medicine and Pharmacy College and PhuVang District Hospitals for hematological and clinical evaluation and a control group of 193 individuals were included in the study. A total of 89 samples showed abnormal hematological parameters and have undergone to Hbpathies screening. About 30% of them, having qualitative or quantitative alteration in Hb profiles, were investigated by DNA analysis.
Several mutated β-alleles were identified by nucleotide sequencing. Some of them were already described also in other countries of the Southeast Asia with different incidence. On the contrary, the β+ promoter mutation -72 (T→A), found in a 5-year old child and in his relatives, has never been described before. In vitro expression studies were performed into K562 cells. The transcriptional activity of the mutated promoter is roughly half that of the wild type promoter.
Although this is a mild thalassemic mutation, it is impossible to predict the severity of the phenotype and its clinical implications in the interaction with severe β-thalassemic allele. Indeed, because of the extremely high gene frequency for HbE and the widespread occurrence of β-
thalassemia in Vietnam, the incidence of βE/βThal or βThal/βThal compounds is very high.
This result underline the importance of identifying and characterizing new or rare β-thalassemic alleles in carrier screening and prenatal diagnosis in order to reduce the burden of thalassemias, avoid unnecessary transfusions in TI and start early transfusions in TM
Fattori ormonali e rischio di sclerosi multipla nelle donne italiane: the EnvIMS study
Get PDFAim: Sex-related hormonal factors may influence the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), although literature data are controversial. Using data from a large case-control study, we investigated the association between several hormonal factors and the risk of MS in the Italian female population.
Methods: A self-administered postal questionnaire (EnvIMS-Q) which included a set of questions about age at menarche, pregnancy, contraceptives use, hirsutism was sent to individuals with MS and frequency age and sex-matched controls from Italy. The association was examined with odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) using logistic regression and adjusting for covariates as age at the study, smoking and BMI.
Results: The data-set included 1240 women (414 cases and 826 controls). Valid answers to the specific questions were given by a percentage between 93 and 98% of the sample. No evidence of an association was found between MS and age at menarche (OR: 0,92; 95% CI: 0,71-1,20), past pregnancy (OR: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.69-1.11), contraceptive use (OR: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.73-1.21) and hirsutism (OR: 0,97; 95% CI: 0,64-1,49).
Conclusion: Our results on a very large population showed no association between some of the most important sex hormonal factors and MS risk. This is in line with several literature data
Interaction of monocytes and derived macrophage subsets with African swine fever viruses of diverse virulence
No full textAfrican swine fever (ASF) is a devastating disease for which there is no vaccine available. The ASF virus (ASFV) primarily infects cells of the myeloid lineage and this tropism is thought to be crucial for disease pathogenesis. A detailed in vitro characterization of the interactions of a virulent (22653/14) and a tissue culture adapted (BA71V) strains of ASFV with porcine monocytes, un-activated (moM0), classically (moM1) and alternatively (moM2) activated monocyte-derived macrophages was conducted to better understand this relationship. Low concentration of hM-CSF was selected as the method of choice to generate moM0. Using a multiplicity-of-infection (MOI) of 1, both viruses were able to infect monocytes and macrophage subsets, but BA71V presented a reduced ability to infect moM1 compared to 22653/14, with higher expression of early compared to late proteins. Using an MOI of 0.01, only 22653/14 was able to replicate in all the macrophage subsets, with initially lowest in moM1 and moM2 ASFV down-regulated CD16 expression and BA71V-infected but not 22653/14-infected moM0 and moM2 presented with a reduced expression of MHC class I. Higher levels of IL-18, IL-1alpha and IL-1beta were released from moM1 after infection with BA71V. These results revealed differences between these strains, suggesting that virulent isolates have evolved mechanisms to counteract activated macrophages responses, promoting their survival, dissemination in the host and so ASF pathogenesis
Sviluppo e caratterizzazione di un nuovo microsensore per il monitoraggio in tempo reale della autossidazione della dopamina
Get PDFOxidative stress is responsible of the dopaminergic neuronal death at nigro-striatal level, as in Parkinson's Disease. Reactive oxygen species are responsible of the non enzymatic oxidation of dopamine (DA, so called auto-oxidation). Both, the non-enzymatic dopamine auto-oxidation and the enzymatic one, determine the formation of the corresponding ortho-quinone with the production of anion superoxide (O2-) and hydrogen peroxide (HP). In this study we have developed a novel electrochemical device able to monitor the auto-oxidation of DA, induced by HP, exploiting the different catalytic properties of the materials used as electrochemical transducers. The electrochemical cell consists in a buffer solution at pH 7.4, reproducing the cerebral extracellular environment, an Ag/AgCl pseudoreference electrode, an auxiliary electrode and two working electrodes, one made with epoxycarbon (Ep) and the other one with platinum (Pt). Ep sensors were coated with a poly-dopamine (pDA) permselective polymer, while Pt sensors were coated with poly-orthofenilendiamine (pPD). The developed system is able to record the redox interactions between DA and HP in a homogeneous phase and in the presence of interfering molecule such as ascorbic acid. This relative selectivity of the electrochemical transducers and polymers allowed us to discriminate between HP (at Pt/pPD surface) and DA (at Ep/pDA surface) and record their changes
Discovering rare-disease-causing genes in the Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) era: analysis of a heterogeneous cohort of families with rare Mendelian diseases
Get PDFRare Mendelian diseases are estimated to be ~7,000 and while each is individually rare, together contribute significantly to morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. Providing a timely and molecularly defined diagnosis is the goal of the scientific community to make and adequate disease management, to find knowledge-based targeted treatments, to arrange a surveillance program for later-onset comorbidities, to provide a genetic counseling with respect to recurrence risks and prenatal diagnosis options for families. The recent development of methods for exome sequence capture, called Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) made it possible to investigate all the coding variants present in an individual human genome, allowing both the screening of unknown and known disease-genes, rapidly and cost-effectively. Taking advantage of WES, we studied a cohort of 25 families with different rare diseases like: Crisponi syndrome/Cold-induced sweating syndrome type 1, Syndromic Intellectual Disabilities, Progeroid-like syndrome, Osteopetrosis autosomic recessive, Genetic hearing loss and Epileptic Encephalopathy. We found one or more pathogenic variants in 15/25 families and putative pathogenic variant in 3/25 families. We discuss about the issues related to the study of rare diseases and to the analysis of WES data, and conclude with the statement that WES is a powerful, cost effective and rapid way to discover new genes implies in rare disease
Identification, cellular tropism and in vitro transforming properties of ovine papillomaviruses
Get PDFTo date, about 150 animal papillomaviruses (PV) have been identified in benign and malignant lesions of the skin and mucosa in 75 vertebrate host species. In sheep, three ovine PV types have been described so far, namely OaPV1, OaPV2, and OaPV3. All of them infect skin epithelium, but while OaPV1, OaPV2 belong to the Delta-genus and cause benign fibropapillomas, OaPV3 is part of the distant Dyokappa-genus and has been detected in squamous cell carcinomas (SCC). This research aims to identify and genetically characterize novel ovine papillomaviruses types, and to investigate their role in skin carcinogenesis. The identification of OaPV4, a novel ovine PV type within Deltapapillomaviruses 3 in a fibropapilloma of a ram is reported. In vitro transforming abilities of OaPV3 and OaPV4 E6 and E7 PV oncogenes are evaluated in a comparative study to investigate a potential role of Delta and Dyokappa viruses in non-melanoma skin cancer development. Both OaPV3 and OaPV4 E6 and E7 transduction alter cell growth profile of primary human and sheep keratinocytes, but while OaPV4-E6E7 determine a strong lifespan increase OaPV3-E6E7 are able to promote immortalization. Furthermore, pRB protein levels are altered upon E6 and E7 expression, and pulldown assays reveal stronger ability of OaPV3-E7 to efficiently associate with pRB leading to its destabilization. Results support the existence of peculiar in vitro transformation properties for ovine papillomaviruses reinforcing the thesis of a direct link between cutaneous papillomaviruses, cellular transformation, and NMSC progression