Archivio istituzionale della Ricerca - Università degli Studi di Parma
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Circular Economy Outcomes in Banks: The Role of Environmental Strategy, Women, and the Sustainability Committee
No full textDistributed Ledger and Text Watermarking for Fine-Grain Provenance Checking of Textual Content
No full textEpidemiology and Molecular Identification of Dermatophytes: Focus on the Detection of the Emerging Species Trichophyton indotineae in Northern Italy
No full textBackground: Trichophyton indotineae, a new emerging pathogen according to the WHO, is known to cause severe forms of tinea. Given that traditional identification methods rely on morphological characteristics, and the morphological distinctions among T. indotineae, T. mentagrophytes, and T. interdigitale are minimal, the adoption of alternative diagnostic techniques, such as RT-PCR or gene sequencing, has become critically important to prevent misidentification. The purpose of this study was firstly to analyze the local epidemiology of dermatophytes isolated and secondly to investigate the presence of T. indotineae among the isolated strains. Methods: Between January 2021 and June 2024, 1096 samples of skin adnexa were analysed. The isolated strains belonging to the genus Trichophyton were submitted to molecular identification by ITS sequencing, and T. indotineae strains were subjected to squalene epoxidase (SQLE) sequencing analysis. Results: Trichophyton rubrum and Trichophyton interdigitale appear to be the most prevalent pathogenic species. Molecular identification reveals four T. indotineae strains (4/87; 4.61%) from Asian patients, which were also characterized by gene mutations associated with terbinafine resistance. Conclusions: This study has made it clear that there is a need to implement basic mycological diagnostics with molecular methods to avoid misidentifications, ensure the correct identification, and evaluate the presence of mutations associated with antifungal drug resistance
Immune-based Combinations in Intermediate-/Poor-risk Patients with Non–clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma: Results from the ARON-1 Study
No full textBackground and objective: Non–clear cell renal cell carcinoma (nccRCC) lacks direct comparisons of immune-based combinations, presenting an unmet need for defining optimal treatment for this specific population. This study aimed to assess the real-world efficacy of immune-based combinations in intermediate-/poor-risk nccRCC.
Methods: We conducted a multicenter, retrospective study of patients (≥18 yr) with metastatic nccRCC treated with first-line immune-based combinations across 56 centers in 17 countries between January 2021 and December 2024. Patients received pembrolizumab/lenvatinib, pembrolizumab/axitinib, nivolumab/cabozantinib, or nivolumab/ipilimumab. The primary endpoints were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), analyzed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional-hazard models, and overall response rate (ORR) evaluated as per RECIST 1.1 criteria.
Key findings and limitations: Among the 323 patients analyzed (median follow-up: 21.2 mo), the median OS was 31.1 mo (95% confidence interval [CI] 24.6–40.4), with a 2-yr OS rate of 58%. The ORR was 38% (2% complete response and 36% partial response), and the median PFS was 13.0 mo (95% CI 10.0–17.4). Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) plus tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) significantly outperformed ICI doublets across efficacy metrics. Limitations include retrospective design and a selection bias.
Conclusions and clinical implications: Our analysis suggests ICI/TKI combinations as the optimal strategy for intermediate-/poor-risk nccRCC, with pembrolizumab/lenvatinib showing marked benefits. Further studies are needed to validate these findings
Key Metrics for Energy Planning in Academic Institutions
No full textAcademic institutions represent significant energy consumers, not only due to the magnitude and variability of their energy demand over time but also because of their institutional responsibility to promote sustainable practices. Despite this relevance, the scientific literature still lacks comprehensive benchmark indicators specifically tailored to the energy behavior of universities, thereby hindering the development of effective energy planning strategies in this sector. This study helps to address this gap by analyzing key energy performance indicators, with a focus on electricity consumption, across a representative experimental dataset. The dataset comprises 156 consumption units from ten Italian universities, selected to capture a broad spectrum of climatic zones, urban environments, energy systems, functional uses of spaces, and levels of utility availability. The analysis revealed an average electricity consumption of approximately 60 kWh/m2/year, with significantly higher values in warmer regions, mainly due to the widespread adoption of fully electric thermal systems. A baseline consumption level of around 35 kWh/m2/year was identified. Furthermore, electricity consumption normalized by Heating Degree Days reached values of approximately 500 kWh/HDD/year, particularly in centers with a prevalence of laboratories. The findings offer relevant insights for stakeholders (including designers, facility and energy managers, and policymakers), supporting data-driven decision making in the energy planning processes of academic environments
Synthesis of Vinyl Azetidines and β-Lactams from Allenamides via Energy-Transfer Relay
No full textAzetidines and beta-lactams are useful and versatile building blocks with ample synthetic applications and pharmaceutical uses. However, few catalytic methods provide densely functionalized monocyclic derivatives, and none could easily afford both azetidines and beta-lactams. Herein, we solved this issue with allenamides. The challenging substrates were activated by energy transfer combining a tailor-made Ir(III) complex and a binaphthyl cocatalyst, which acts as a triplet-state relay and stabilizes intermediates via dispersion interactions. A triplet intermediate with a vinyl-radical character gives the strained heterocycles upon 1,5 hydrogen atom transfer. Products have a congested all-carbon quaternary center and a useful allylamine unit and are prepared at room temperature with complete atom economy. The utility of the method is shown by further downstream derivatization
Genome-wide DNA methylation patterns in Daphnia magna are not significantly associated with age
No full textBackground: DNA methylation plays a crucial role in gene regulation and epigenetic inheritance across diverse organisms. Daphnia magna, a model organism in ecological and evolutionary research, has been widely used to study environmental responses, pharmaceutical toxicity, and developmental plasticity. However, its DNA methylation landscape and age-related epigenetic changes remain incompletely understood. Results: In this study, we characterized DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) and mapped DNA methylation across the D. magna genome using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing. Our analysis identified three DNMTs: a highly expressed but nonfunctional de novo methyltransferase (DNMT3.1), alongside lowly expressed yet functional de novo methyltransferase (DNMT3.2) and maintenance methyltransferase (DNMT1). D. magna exhibits overall low DNA methylation, targeting primarily CpG dinucleotides. Methylation is sparse at promoters but elevated in the first exons downstream of transcription start sites, with these exons showing hypermethylation relative to adjacent introns. To examine age-associated DNA methylation changes, we analyzed D. magna individuals across multiple life stages. Our results showed no significant global differences in DNA methylation levels between young, mature, and old individuals, nor any age-related clustering in dimensionality reduction analyses. Attempts to construct an epigenetic clock using machine learning models did not yield accurate age predictions, likely due to the overall low DNA methylation levels and lack of robust age-associated methylation changes. Conclusions: This study provides a comprehensive characterization of D. magna’s DNA methylation landscape and DNMT enzymes, highlighting a distinct pattern of exon-biased CpG methylation. Contrary to prior studies, we found no strong evidence supporting age-associated epigenetic changes, suggesting that DNA methylation may have a limited role in aging in D. magna. These findings enhance our understanding of invertebrate epigenetics and emphasize the need for further research into the interplay between DNA methylation, environmental factors, and gene regulation in D. magna
Phenyl thiosemicarbazide cyclization leads to the versatile 1,3,4-thiadiazole scaffold: Structural analysis of its copper(I) complex
No full textIn an attempt to extend the synthesis of N,N-dialkyl formamidines to thiosemicarbazides, we unexpectedly obtained
2-phenylamino-1,3,4-thiadiazole as the cyclization product. Since the coordination chemistry of this
versatile scaffold is poorly investigated, we have examined its interaction with CuI, resulting in the isolation of a
novel 1D coordination polymer. In this polymer, each copper(I) ion is coordinated to two nitrogen atoms from
two different 1,3,4-thiadiazole ligands, along with two iodide ions, forming a distorted tetrahedral geometry.
Notably, the copper(I) complex exhibits solid-state white emission