Evaluation of polymerase chain reaction assay for pathogenic Leptospira detection in stored urine

Pathogenic Leptospira spp. is the etiological agent of leptospirosis, a worldwide zoonotic infectious disease that causes jaundice, hemorrhages, renal failure and abortion in susceptible species. Urine is one of the preferred clinical samples for the detection of the agent. However due to its reliability, detection of leptospires in stored samples is challenged. Here we evaluated the capability of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for detecting pathogenic leptospira DNA in a non-sterile collected urine, stored at different times and temperatures. Our results indicate that the PCR protocol used detect pathogenic leptospira DNA but not non-pathogenic serovars or other non-leptospiral microorganisms. The sensitivity of the assay was of 100 Leptospira interrogans in 10 mL refrigerated neutralized urine within 72 h post collection. This protocol could be of considerable interest for public health workers, field veterinarians and laboratory scientists, in sampling and processing urine for the detection of pathogenic Leptospira spp

Spatial multicriteria analysis for sustainability assessment : a new model for decision making

Policy makers have to consider the sustainability perspective in strategic planning decisions. Identifyand measure the level of sustainability, through its three dimensions, is a priority. Therefore, the aim of this work is to present a new model, called GeoUmbriaSUIT, integrating Multicriteria Analysis and Geographic Information Systems, specifically developed for helping Decision Makers to take policy decisions about sustainability in planning. The model provides outputs which are easy to be understood by not experts; the evaluation path is traceable and transparent, thanks to back analysis. To better explain the potentiality of GeoUmbriaSUIT and its functioning, a case study about Malta is described. Our results showed that in four regions of Malta the best dimension was the environmental one, while only for two regions (Northern Harbour and Southern Harbour) respectively the economic and social dimensions obtained the best scores. The integration of MCDA-GIS resulted to be a useful tool for sustainability assessment.peer-reviewe

Latest Development in the FoTran Project – Scaling Up Language Coverage in Neural Machine Translation Using Distributed Training with Language-Specific Components

We give an update on the Found in Translation (FoTran) project, focusing on the study of emerging language-agnostic representations from neural machine translation (NMT). We describe our attention-bridge model, a modular NMT model which connects language-specific components through a shared network layer. Our latest implementation supports distributed training over many nodes and GPUs in order to substantially scale up the number of languages that can be included in a modern neural translation architecture.Peer reviewe

Sviluppo di moduli multicriteri per la valutazione ambientale in GRASS GIS

Dealing with spatial decision problems means very often to face a GIS and a multi-criteria decision analysis based problem at the same time. GIS and Multi-criteria Decision Analysis are two well defined research areas, but both can benefit one from each other. In the last twenty years several researches have paid attention to MCDA-GIS integration and to the development of Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS), but few papers presented examples of perfect integration. Also in case of perfect integration, they often integrate within GIS only one multicriteria model. Our application is a better contribution in this way. We developed four GRASS modules that permit to implement four different MCDA methods: the Regime, the FUZZY, the ELECTRE and the Dominance-based Rough Set Approach. One of the main advantages of our application over the previous ones is the possibility of a future development in an open-source context. The paper presents an application of the Regime, Electre and Fuzzy modules.Dealing with spatial decision problems means very often to face a GIS and a multi-criteria decision analysis based problem at the same time. GIS and Multi-criteria Decision Analysis are two well defined research areas, but both can benefit one from each other. In the last twenty years several researches have paid attention to MCDA-GIS integration and to the development of Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS), but few papers presented examples of perfect integration. Also in case of perfect integration, they often integrate within GIS only one multicriteria model. Our application is a better contribution in this way. We developed four GRASS modules that permit to implement four different MCDA methods: the Regime, the FUZZY, the ELECTRE and the Dominance-based Rough Set Approach. One of the main advantages of our application over the previous ones is the possibility of a future development in an open-source context. The paper presents an application of the Regime, Electre and Fuzzy modules

Use of an animal model to evaluate anxiolytic effects of dietary supplementation with tilia tomentosa moench bud extracts

Anxiety disorders are common and complex psychiatric syndromes affecting a broad spectrum of patients. On top of that, we know that aging produces an increase in anxiety vulnerability and sedative consumption. Moreover, stress disorders frequently show a clear gender susceptibility. Currently, the approved pharmacological strategies have severe side effects such as hallucinations, addiction, suicide, insomnia, and loss of motor coordination. Dietary integration with supplements represents an intriguing strategy for improving the efficacy and the safety of synthetic anxiolytics. Accordingly, a recent article demonstrated that glyceric bud extracts from Tilia tomentosa Moench (TTBEs) exert effects that are consistent with anxiolytic activity. However, the effects of these compounds in vivo are unknown. To examine this question, we conducted behavioral analysis in mice. A total of 21 days of oral supplements (vehicle and TTBEs) were assessed by Light Dark and Hole Board tests in male and female mice (young, 3 months; old, 24 months). Interestingly, the principal component analysis revealed gender and age-specific behavioral modulations. Moreover, the diet integration with the botanicals did not modify the body weight gain and the daily intake of water. Our results support the use of TTBEs as dietary supplements for anxiolytic purposes and unveil age and gender-dependent responses

The 3Rs: reduction and refinement through a multivariate statistical analysis approach in a behavioural study to unveil anxiolytic effects of natural extracts of Tilia Tomentosa.

Proceedings of the second Centro 3R Annual Meeting - Young Scientists | June 20-21, 2019, Genoa (Italy

An EBIS for charge state breeding in the SPES project

The 'charge state breeder', BRIC (breeding ion charge) is in construction at the INFN section of Bari (Italy). It is based on EBIS scheme and it is designed to accept radioactive ion beam (RIB) with charge state +1 in a slow injection mode. This experiment can be considered as a first step towards the design and construction of a charge breeder for the SPES project. The new feature of BRIC, with respect to the classical EBIS, is given by the insertion, in the ion chamber, of a rf-quadrupole aiming at filtering the unwanted masses and then making a more efficient containment of the wanted ions. In this paper, the breeder design, the simulation results of the electron and ion beam propagation and the construction problems of the device will be reported