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Laboratory evaluation of the suitability of vine mealybug, <i>Planococcus ficus</i>, as a host for <i>Leptomastix dactylopii</i>
No full textPlanococcus ficus (Signoret) is a key pest of grapevines and can cause severe crop losses in table and wine grape cultivars. In order to explore the potential of annual inoculative releases of Leptomastix dactylopii Howard against the vine mealybug, laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the suitability of P. ficus as a host for the parasitoid. The biological performance of L. dactylopii on P. ficus was examined in choice and no-choice tests, and compared with its performance on the primary host, Planococcus citri (Risso). Planococcus ficus supported complete development of the parasitoid with higher than 86% survival rates and a lower than 5% effective encapsulation. The low rates of encapsulation and host-feeding and high survivorship make P. ficus a suitable host for L. dactylopii in mass rearing facilities. In the choice test, parasitoids reared on P. ficus, or with prior oviposition experience on this species, preferred it over P. citri. Unexpectedly, parasitoids reared on P. citri, or with prior oviposition experience on this species, did not show any preference for either mealybug species. Our findings highlight a potential innate preference of L. dactylopii for the vine mealybug and indicate that this innate preference can be modified by the rearing host and early oviposition experiences. Thus, mass rearing of L. dactylopii on P. ficus would increase its preference for the target pest, with a positive impact on biological control programs against the vine mealybug
Genetic variants involved in Blood Pressure response to hydrochlorothiazide identified by GWAS methodology
No full textAim:
To identify new loci regulating blood pressure response to thiazide diuretics (HCTZ) with a genome wide association analysis, thus optimizing therapeutic advantages and minimizing side effects.
Methods:
Treatment started after a 8 week run-in period under standardized dietary regimen to qualify patients as “essential hypertensives”. Never treated mild-to-moderate hypertensive patients were studied in two Italian cohorts: n=343 patients in Sardinia and 142 in Milano. A genome-wide association study and imputation were performed: variants associated with blood pressure response to HCTZ over an 8-weeks follow up period were analysed. The specificity of our findings was confirmed in an independent cohort of never treated essential hypertensives treated with Losartan.
Results:
We identified 141 SNPs and 130 SNPs showing a significant association with for deltaSBP8 for deltaDBP8 (P≤10-5). Six SNPs showed the best association with deltaSBP8 and five SNPs with deltaDBP8, respectively. TET2 and CSMD1 gene variants showed the best effect on deltaSBP after 8 weeks of HCTZ treatment. No association was found in Losartan sample. We looked for replication in other studies (GENRES, GERA1, NORDIL, PEAR and CSN-StayOnDiur).
Conclusions:
TET2 and CSMD1 affect SBP response to HCTZ. TET2, may affect the transcription of αENaC gene thus acting as an aldosterone-responsive mediator. CSMD1 gene was associated with increased risk of hypertension: its putative role in BP regulation remains to be clarified
Ceria nanoparticles as smart platform for biomedical applications
No full textThe present doctoral thesis focuses on the antioxidant activity of cerium oxide nanostructured materials (nanoceria) in biological systems. This goal is obtained through an interdisciplinary approaches spanning from chemistry and physics to biology and medicine. Nanoceria is studied in form of nanoparticles both naked and integrated nanocomposites films. The physicochemical properties are studied by a complete set of characterization techniques such as XRD, FTIR and Raman
spectroscopies, DLS, AFM, μ-XRF, SEM and TEM. A specific emphasis is placed on the interactions with cells (PC12, PBMC, oocyte and spermatozoa) as a function of the nanoceria concentration. Different techniques for cell analysis, such as flow cytometry
and confocal microscopy, allow monitoring the fate and viability of nanoparticles into
the cells. Our results show that nanoceria can be successfully used as antioxidant agent
in biomedical field to improve the cells viability both in physiological condition (IVM) and in Parkinson-like diseases. Moreover, the antioxidant activity of nanoceria
is also verified in composite materials for prospected applications as ophthalmic medical devices and smart Petri dishes. These results pave the way to the development of an innovative smart "platform" based on the antioxidant properties of functional nanoceria
Immunopathological aspects in Human and Bovine Tuberculosis:<br/> - Immunopathological Changes in IRF-8-/- mice during Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection<br/> - Histopathological and Biomolecular Evaluations in Cattle Tuberculin Skin Test positive slaughtered according to The Regional Eradication Program
No full textAmong diseases caused by Mycobacteria, tuberculosis remains an unsolved issue in humans and animals, causing economic and public health repercussions. How the host immune system responds at initial stage of infection is the key factor for progression of disease or for the establishment of latent infection. This thesis is focused on two fundamental aspects in the immunopathology of tuberculosis: firstly, in lungs of IRF-8-/- mice histopathologic alterations in both innate and adaptive immune response were observed, after experimental infection of animals with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Secondly, the presence of mycobacteria in carcass of TST positive cattle was investigated during sporadic cases of bTB in Sardinia. To investigate the immune events histochemistry, immunohistochemistry and molecular analysis have been applied.
IRF-8 KO mice Mtb-infected showed severe tissue damage in the lungs correlated with an uncontrolled growth of granulomas. In addition, in these animals, an altered inflammatory exudate was observed, constituted by a large number of neutrophils with poor recruitment of lymphocytes, resulting in a higher susceptibility to Mtb infection.
In TST cattle, discovering mycobacteria within the carcass using collateral diagnostic methods (histopathology and PCR) have increased the diagnosis of infection of 5% in post-mortem examination.
Therefore, for different purposes, investigating the immunopathology in tuberculosis in humans and cattle is even more important in order to perform an earlier diagnosis, aimed to improve better treatment and eradication of disease
I Processi partecipativi nelle politiche del paesaggio: il caso della pianificazione paesaggistica della Sardegna
No full textThe research has as its object the participatory processes in the landscape policies, specifically in the case of landscape planning in Sardinia. Based on the research question "What effect participatory processes (activated in the landscape planning in Sardinia) have produced in terms of empowerment at the local level?", the study is based mainly on the analytical framework defined by Ciaffi and Mela. The first part of the work focuses on governance, on the concepts of participation, participatory and deliberative democracy. The second part of the work focuses on the subject of government land and landscape, with specific focus on the principles of the European Landscape Convention of 2000, the theoretical and the importance of participation in policy and landscape planning. The third part covers mainly the Regional Landscape Plan, the Conference of co - planning of 2006 and the participatory process Sardegna Nuove Idee. The fourth part instead refers to empirical research, and therefore the analysis of the background at national but also the qualitative interviews aimed to twelve witnesses identified on the basis of their leading role in the events landscape of Sardinia, in order to achieve satisfactory results for to answer the research question
Society, languages and ideologies in the Oasis of Siwa (Egypt): listening to people’s voices
No full textThe present thesis proposes a linguistic ethnography of the oasis of Siwa, an Amazigh enclave situated in the Western Egyptian desert. De facto independent for centuries, it is only during the 20th century that this area started undergoing processes of modernization and Arabization with a consequent inclusion in the national (Egyptian) and the international (Amazigh) arenas. Although representing an interesting field for sociolinguistic research, this subject has not attracted scholarly attention so far and this work is a first attempt to fill that gap.
This research has a multidisciplinary approach built on sociolinguistic and linguistic anthropological theories. It falls into the field of language attitudes and ideologies’ studies, and it developed a combined method including ethnographic interviewing and participant observation. The thesis presents the dynamics of language use within the oasis from an insider perspective and discusses the mechanisms and the ideologies underlying both speakers’ practices and attitudes, arguing that the emerging differentiation of linguistic practices is related to the attitudinal variation across specific social categories, which adhere to different ideologies. The study portrays a multiform community in a phase of socio-economic transition and sociolinguistic change in progress
Politica del cambiamento del clima e territorio: la giustizia climatica al tempo del capitalismo urbano del XXI secolo
No full textThe aim of this research is to analyse, deconstruct and expose the current framework of climate change policies, in order to link climate change issues to their socio-spatiality, and to reframe the problem.
The first question is how to move beyond the fetishization of CO2 which dominates the current climate change narrative. The market approach fostering carbon trading and financialization is widening the distance between real processes and the representation of climate change. The problem is limited to CO2 assumed as the Enemy, reducing the complexity of territories and practices underlying the carbon emissions trends.
How, then, to embrace the socio-spatiality of injustice beyond the simplistic consideration of its geopolitical component? Indeed, the apocalyptic frame dominating the climate change discourse reflects the tendency towards a depoliticization of society through environmental issues. On the contrary, the mutually sustaining processes of spatial and capitalist uneven development are active in the production of climate change, as one of the contradictions emerging as a threat to the survival of the minorities and of the spaces of confrontation.
The hypothesis of this research is that widening the perspective by exploring the situations of conflict can help avoiding this impasse. The struggles demanding the right to the city as appropriation are the most fertile terrain for the insurgence of different approaches to the environmental issues, including climate change
Profili normativi sulla regolamentazione del trasporto pubblico locale
No full textThis research project has as its aim the analysis and in-depth study of the norms and regulations regarding local public transportation (LPT), with particular reference to the evolution of the norms and organization of the sector within internal and European jurisprudence.
This body of rules for this particular type of local public service has been characterized since its origin by its own set of issues and problems, as, it has, on the one hand, been directly affected by the regulation of public services, and on the other hand, been typified by a specific and complex apparatus sector-specific norms. These norms have been affected over the years by deep processes of pre-ordered renewal so as to foster liberalization of the sector, and therefore, enhancement of the principle of competition, which is of EU origin.
Regulation of the LPT has also been affected by the changed face of legislative authority between State and Region, pursuant to article 117 of the Constitution, as well as the intervention of the European legislator via approval of Regulation (CEE) n. 1370/2007 dedicated to the organization of the sector of public passenger transportation.
Recently, within the regulatory framework relative to local public transport, an independent Authority has arisen among the various functions assigned: an Agency for the regulation of transport.
Current norms, however, are strongly conditioned by the tension between the needs to control public accounts and the agencies for the maintenance of an appropriate and efficient level of service (having social relevance) of public transportation
Monitoraggio real-time della neurochimica corticale in topi liberi di muoversi durante il sonno, la privazione di sonno e la veglia medinte microdialisi in vivo e neurosensori amperometrici
No full textAim: for millennia, mankind has tried to understand the function and the importance of sleep and this is a mystery that biology has yet to solve. The purpose of this research was study neurochemistry during sleep, sleep deprivation and wakefulness by means of in-vivo microdialysis and amperometric neurosensors.
Method: the neurochemistry of the brain was studied by the combination of electrochemical and microdialysis techniques, electroencephalographic (EEG) and electromyographic (EMG) recordings. The mice were implanted with three electrodes for electroencephalographic recordings and two microdialysis probes. During the experiment, samples were taken every 15 minutes and then analyzed by UHPLC/CD ORBITRAP that allows to analyze all the molecules present the sample. Moreover, the biochemical dynamics of Ascorbic Acid (AA) have been extensively studied both in vitro and in vivo by the development of a nanostructured amperometric microsensor decorated with multiwall carbonanotubes (MWCNTs).
Results: through multiple experiments it was possible to study the variation in levels of cortical AA in freely moving mice during sleep and sleep deprivation, furthermore, the microdialysis technique, combined with EEG and EMG, allowed to monitor extracellular molecules (as neurotransmitters) that are involved in the neurochemistry of sleep, sleep deprivation and wakefulness.
Conclusion: understand the biology that is the basis of sleep is the goal of many researchers. It seems to be involved in different processes such as learning and memory, also, his disorders are the basis of diseases (i.e. depression). This study allows, for the first time, to have an overview of the neurochemistry of sleep contribute, therefore, to better understanding of its mechanisms and functions and laying the groundwork for future studies
Chemical characterization, antioxidant capacity and antimicrobial activity against food related microorganisms of <i>Citrus limon</i> var. <i>pompia</i> leaf essential oil
No full textIn this study, leaves of Citrus limon var. pompia (pompia) were subjected to hydro-distillation and an essential oil (EO) was obtained. Gas chromatographic analysis allowed us to determine its chemical composition, both qualitatively and quantitatively: the major compounds in the EO were limonene, geranial and neral. In vitro DPPH and ABTS assays, conducted on the EO, demonstrate its ability to act as an antioxidant. The antimicrobial activity of the EO against 12 bacteria and 4 yeasts was tested by a microdilution broth test; in addition the effect on maximum growth rate (μ) and lag phase (λ) was assessed. Results show a low inhibitory activity against food grade and Lactobacillus strains, whereas Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus were inhibited at low EO concentration. The pompia EO demonstrated an antimicrobial activity against yeast, with Saccharomyces cerevisiae being the most sensitive strain. The pompia EO, even at sub-MIC concentration, negatively affects the microbial growth rate (μ) and delayed the lag phase on all pathogens microbial strains tested, except Candida albicans 3993