10610 research outputs found
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Olive tree system in Mediterranean basin: a mid-term survey on C sequestration dynamics and modelling
No full textThe contribution that olive orchards can provide in climate mitigation should be more deeply analyzed given that these systems can stock large amount of C in woody compartments and soils. These systems could play a fundamental role especially over Mediterranean basin that is one of the most sensitive areas to climate change and where they are widely cultivated.
However some issues are still open: what do we really know about the C-sequestration capacity provided by these systems? Can these really contribute to climate change mitigation both for current and future periods?
In order to solve these questions, a mid-term study (3 years) was carried out at Follonica (Tuscany, central Italy), where an eddy covariance tower was installed over a typical rainfed olive orchard. Data from eddy covariance were then used for calibrating and validating two different models able at simulating C-exchange and biomass production from this system.
Our work firstly allowed to assess the C-fluxes dynamics from this system and their relation with the main meteorological parameters and agricultural practices, thus indicating the magnitude of C-sequestration capacity offered by a typical Mediterranean olive orchard; as second the implementation of new tools that can be used for assessing the efficiency of mitigation strategies or to predict changes in mitigation capacity that these systems will probably encounter over the next decades.</br
Progettazione e sviluppo di sistemi di veicolazione non invasivi per neuro-farmaci
No full textDiseases localized in the central nervous system (CNS) are of hard diagnostic and therapeutic target. The blood brain barrier (BBB) plays a fundamental role on this drawback, as it prevents most drugs to reach their site of action within the CNS. To overcome this big issue and to avoid the use of invasive methods of administration (dangerous and costly) brain drug delivery systems have been conceived. Among this, colloidal systems and nasal administration are very attractive non-invasive strategies. Embedding neuro-drugs within nanoparticulate matter can ensure their protection from peripheral degradative mechanisms, that for their cause, the drug can not reach the CNS in sufficient amount. Micro and nanoparticles are also exploited to improve the achievement of a drug to CNS by nasal administration, as alternative to the oral and parenteral routs. Through nasal route, the carriers are able to increase drug amounts in CNS compared then the drug is administrated in the free form, and, thanks to the existence of pathways for the direct transport nose-to-brain, it is possible for a drug to bypass the BBB and to rapidly reach the brain.
This work has been aimed at the design, development and characterization of non-invasive delivery systems for neuro-drugs with particular attention paid to colloidal and to nose-to-brain strategies, in order to encourage the use of neuro-drugs which that is currently restricted to the treatment of a few CNS diseases.</br
Vitrificazione dell'ovocita ovino: analisi delle modificazioni strutturali e molecolari
No full textIn order to improve the vitrification efficiency of ovine oocytes, in the present study we compared two vitrification protocols (V1, V2). V1 protocol was designed to minimize toxicity and osmotic injuries of cryoprotectants (CPAs) by a dynamic exposure of oocytes to gradients of concentration of DMSO and EG, prior cryotop vitrification; V2 consisted in a two-step exposure to higher concentration of CPAs. Immature (GV, experiment 1) and in vitro matured oocytes (MII, experiment 2) of adult and prepubertal oocytes were vitrified by V1 and V2 protocols. After warming, oocytes were evaluated for survival, meiotic competence (GV), chromatin, spindle and actin configuration, gene expression, mitochondrial activity and ROS levels. In Experiment 3, the ability of Raman Microspectroscopy (RMS) to detect changes induced by V2 vitrification on the cortical F-actin of MII adult oocytes was evaluated. Results showed that V1 protocol was more suitable for adult GV and MII oocytes, in terms of survival rate, cytoskeleton integrity and ROS levels, whereas prepubertal oocytes were less affected by the type of the vitrification protocol. Moreover, GV oocytes of prebubertal and adult sheep had a lower resistance to vitrification than MII oocytes as demonstrated by the reduced meiotic competence. RMS analysis was able to discriminate oocytes with normal and abnormal F-actin and could represent an alternative analytical tool for investigating the biochemical modification of the oocyte
<i>MC1R</i> variants increased the risk of sporadic cutaneous melanoma in darker-pigmented Caucasians: a pooled-analysis from the M-SKIP project
No full textThe MC1R gene is a key regulator of skin pigmentation. We aimed to evaluate the association between MC1R variants and the risk of sporadic cutaneous melanoma (CM) within the M-SKIP project, an international pooled-analysis on MC1R, skin cancer and phenotypic characteristics. Data included 5,160 cases and 12,119 controls from 17 studies. We calculated a summary odds ratio (SOR) for the association of each of the nine most studied MC1R variants and of variants combined with CM by using random-effects models. Stratified analysis by phenotypic characteristics were also performed. Melanoma risk increased with presence of any of the main MC1R variants: the SOR for each variant ranged from 1.47 (95%CI: 1.17–1.84) for V60L to 2.74 (1.53–4.89) for D84E. Carriers of any MC1R variant had a 66% higher risk of developing melanoma compared with wild-type subjects (SOR; 95%CI: 1.66; 1.41–1.96) and the risk attributable to MC1R variants was 28%. When taking into account phenotypic characteristics, we found that MC1R-associated melanoma risk increased only for darker-pigmented Caucasians: SOR (95%CI) was 3.14 (2.06–4.80) for subjects with no freckles, no red hair and skin Type III/IV. Our study documents the important role of all the main MC1R variants in sporadic CM and suggests that they have a direct effect on melanoma risk, independently on the phenotypic characteristics of carriers. This is of particular importance for assessing preventive strategies, which may be directed to darker-pigmented Caucasians with MC1R variants as well as to lightly pigmented, fair-skinned subjects
Developing custom fire behavior fuel models for Mediterranean wildland–urban interfaces in southern Italy
No full textThe dramatic increase of fire hazard in wildland–urban interfaces (WUIs) has required more detailed fuel management programs to preserve ecosystem functions and human settlements. Designing effective fuel treatment strategies allows to achieve goals such as resilient landscapes, fire-adapted communities, and ecosystem response. Therefore, obtaining background information on forest fuel parameters and fuel accumulation patterns has become an important first step in planning fuel management interventions. Site-specific fuel inventory data enhance the accuracy of fuel management planning and help forest managers in fuel management decision-making. We have customized four fuel models for WUIs in southern Italy, starting from forest classes of land-cover use and adopting a hierarchical clustering approach. Furthermore, we provide a prediction of the potential fire behavior of our customized fuel models using FlamMap 5 under different weather conditions. The results suggest that fuel model IIIP (Mediterranean maquis) has the most severe fire potential for the 95th percentile weather conditions and the least severe potential fire behavior for the 85th percentile weather conditions. This study shows that it is possible to create customized fuel models directly from fuel inventory data. This achievement has broad implications for land managers, particularly forest managers of the Mediterranean landscape, an ecosystem that is susceptible not only to wildfires but also to the increasing human population and man-made infrastructures
Meta-analysis of the effect of preoperative breast MRI on the surgical management of ductal carcinoma <i>in situ</i>
No full textBackground: MRI has been used increasingly in the diagnosis and management of women with invasive breast cancer. However, its usefulness in the preoperative assessment of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) remains questionable. A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the effects of MRI on surgical treatment of DCIS by analysing studies comparing preoperative MRI with conventional preoperative assessment.
Methods: Using random-effects modelling, the proportion of women with various outcomes in the MRI versus no-MRI groups was estimated, and the odds ratio (OR) and adjusted OR (adjusted for study-level median age) for each model were calculated.
Results: Nine eligible studies were identified that included 1077 women with DCIS who had preoperative MRI and 2175 who did not. MRI significantly increased the odds of having initial mastectomy (OR 1·72, P = 0·012; adjusted OR 1·76, P = 0·010). There were no significant differences in the proportion of women with positive margins following breast-conserving surgery (BCS) in the MRI and no-MRI groups (OR 0·80, P = 0·059; adjusted OR 1·10, P = 0·716), nor in the necessity of reoperation for positive margins after BCS (OR 1·06, P = 0·759; adjusted OR 1·04, P = 0·844). Overall mastectomy rates did not differ significantly according to whether or not MRI was performed (OR 1·23, P = 0·340; adjusted OR 0·97, P = 0·881).
Conclusion: Preoperative MRI in women with DCIS is not associated with improvement in surgical outcomes
Intra- and intermale variability of mature sperm traits analysed in two brackish water populations of the pipefish Syngnathus abaster (Syngnathidae)
No full textSperm cells are highly diversified in animals, and considerable research effort has focused on variation in sperm morphology among species. Surprisingly, little is known about intraspecific variation in sperm morphology. We analysed within- and between-male variation in mature sperm traits in two brackish water populations of the pipefish Syngnathus abaster. Four morphometric parameters, such as the width and length of the head (including nucleus, and midpiece), length of flagellum and total sperm length were taken into account. The differences in all morphometric parameters analysed between populations were not statistically significant. Moreover, the multidimensional scaling analysis shows that (i) the two populations seem to be indistinguishable based on their spermatozoa and (ii) there is not polymorphism, being sperm not distinguishable into discrete classes both within a single male and between males of each populations. The latter datum does not seem to support the presence of polymorphic sperm in syngnathids. Both populations, however, exhibit a high variation in all sperm traits, both among individual sperm within an ejaculate and among males within each population. The relationship between sperm traits variability and the low selection pressure determined by the absence of postcopulatory sexual selection (i.e. absence of sperm competition) is discussed
Neurological morphofunctional differentiation induced by REAC technology in PC12: a neuro protective model for Parkinson's disease
No full textResearch for the use of physical means, in order to induce cell differentiation for new therapeutic strategies, is one of the most interesting challenges in the field of regenerative medicine, and then in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, Parkinson’s disease (PD) included. The aim of this work is to verify the effect of the radio electric asymmetric conveyer (REAC) technology on the PC12 rat adrenal pheochromocytoma cell line, as they display metabolic features of PD. PC12 cells were cultured with a REAC regenerative tissue optimization treatment (TO-RGN) for a period ranging between 24 and 192 hours. Gene expression analysis of specific neurogenic genes, as neurogenin-1, beta3-tubulin and Nerve growth factor, together with the immunostaining analysis of the specific neuronal protein beta3-tubulin and tyrosine hydroxylase, shows that the number of cells committed toward the neurogenic phenotype was significantly higher in REAC treated cultures, as compared to control untreated cells. Moreover, MTT and Trypan blue proliferation assays highlighted that cell proliferation was significantly reduced in REAC TO-RGN treated cells. These results open new perspectives in neurodegenerative diseases treatment, particularly in PD. Further studies will be needed to better address the therapeutic potential of the REAC technology
High-quality permanent draft genome sequence of <i>Rhizobium sullae</i> strain WSM1592; a <i>Hedysarum coronarium</i> microsymbiont from Sassari, Italy
No full textRhizobium sullae strain WSM1592 is an aerobic, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming rod that was isolated from an effective nitrogen (N2) fixing root nodule formed on the short-lived perennial legume Hedysarum coronarium (also known as Sulla coronaria or Sulla). WSM1592 was isolated from a nodule recovered from H. coronarium roots located in Ottava, bordering Sassari, Sardinia in 1995. WSM1592 is highly effective at fixing nitrogen with H. coronarium, and is currently the commercial Sulla inoculant strain in Australia. Here we describe the features of R. sullae strain WSM1592, together with genome sequence information and its annotation. The 7,530,820 bp high-quality permanent draft genome is arranged into 118 scaffolds of 118 contigs containing 7.453 protein-coding genes and 73 RNA-only encoding genes. This rhizobial genome is sequenced as part of the DOE Joint Genome Institute 2010 Genomic Encyclopedia for Bacteria and Archaea-Root Nodule Bacteria (GEBA-RNB) project
Effects of trophic status on microcystin production and the dominance of cyanobacteria in the phytoplankton assemblage of Mediterranean reservoirs
No full textThe aim of our study was to evaluate the abundance of cyanobacteria and microcystins in four Sardinian reservoirs (Italy) characterised by different trophic status to define a reference picture for future changes. Increasing levels of eutrophication and the abundance of cyanobacteria are expected to occur due to climate change, especially in the southern Mediterranean. Consequently, an in-depth study of the occurrence of harmful cyanobacteria is important to develop appropriate management strategies for water resources at a local scale. Monthly samples were collected at one station in each reservoir over an 18-month period. The Analysis of similarity indicated that cyanobacterial abundance and species composition differed significantly among the reservoirs. The Redundancy analysis highlighted their relationship to trophic, hydrological and seasonal patterns. Spearman’s analysis indicated that there were significant correlations among the most important species (Planktothrix agardhii–rubescens group, Aphanizomenon flos-aquae and Dolichospermum planctonicum), nutrients and microcystins. We highlighted that the species composition during periods of maximum microcystin concentrations differed from those typically reported for other Mediterranean sites. We found new potential microcystin producers (Aphanizomenon klebahnii, Dolichospermum macrosporum and Dolichospermum viguieri), which emphasised the high diversity of cyanobacteria in the Mediterranean area and the need for detailed research at the local scale