Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Customised visualisations of Linked Open Data

This paper aims to tackle on Linked Open Data (LOD) customised visualisations. The work is part of an ongoing research on interfaces and tools for helping non-programmers to easily present, analyse and support sense making over large semantic dataset. The customisation is a key aspect of our work. Producing effective customised visualisations is still difficult due to the complexity of the existing tools and the limited set of options they offer, especially to those with little knowledge in LOD and semantic data models. How can we give users full control on the primitives of the visualisation and their properties, without requiring them to master Semantic Web technologies or programming languages? The paper presents a conceptual model that can be used as a reference to build tools for generating customisable infoviews. We used it to conduct a survey on existing tools in terms of customisation capabilities. Starting from the feedback collected in this phase, we will implement these customisation features into some prototypes we are currently experimenting on

Customised visualisations of Linked Open Data

This paper aims to tackle on Linked Open Data (LOD) customised visualisations. The work is part of an ongoing research on interfaces and tools for helping non-programmers to easily present, analyse and support sense making over large semantic dataset. The customisation is a key aspect of our work. Producing effective customised visualisations is still difficult due to the complexity of the existing tools and the limited set of options they offer, especially to those with little knowledge in LOD and semantic data models. How can we give users full control on the primitives of the visualisation and their properties, without requiring them to master Semantic Web technologies or programming languages? The paper presents a conceptual model that can be used as a reference to build tools for generating customisable infoviews. We used it to conduct a survey on existing tools in terms of customisation capabilities. Starting from the feedback collected in this phase, we will implement these customisation features into some prototypes we are currently experimenting on

Marfan’s syndrome and pregnancy: a good maternal and fetal outcome

This case report highlights the important role of a multidisciplinary team’s task in the care of pregnant women with Marfan’s syndrome (MFS), a systemic disorder of connective tissue that is transmitted as an autosomal dominant trait. Case: a 42 year-old italian pregnant woman with Marfan’s syndrome and degenerative heart disease (aneurysmatic dilatation of the aortic root, mitral regurgitation and prosthetic mitralic valve) was clinically assessed jointly by an obstetrician and a cardiologist, ‘the obstetric team specialised in management of high risk pregnancy’, every 2-3 weeks from the 21th week of gestation. The first ambulatory monitoring echocardiogra- phy revelead aneurysmatic dilatation of the aortic root (41 mm), good function of the previously replaced mitral valve, cardiac ejection fraction 51% and telediastolic volume 116 ml. The echocardio-graphies showed no changes up to 32 weeks gestation. At the 34th week of gestation she had a slight decrease in cardiac ejection fraction and minimal increase of left ventricular diastolic volume. Therefore she underwent elective cesarean section under general anesthesia at 35 weeks’gestation. The post-partum course was uneventfull for the patient and the baby. Conclusion: pregnant women with heart disease benefit from an appropriate antenatal management, which may result in a favourable outcome

Maternal obesity and adverse respiratory outcomes in late preterm neonates

BACKGROUND: Assessing if obesity is an independent risk factor for neonatal respiratory adverse outcome in late preterm infants. METHODS: Retrospective collection of outcome data of late preterm infants delivered at the Arcispedale Sant’Anna of Ferrara, between 2017 and 2019. A univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis has been performed among variables theoretically conditioning the neonate outcome variables. Among independent variables, Body Mass Index ≥25 and ≥30 was assessed. RESULTS: One-hundred-fifty-five late preterm infants have been enrolled. At univariate analysis, neither obesity (Body Mass Index ≥30) nor overweight (Body Mass Index ≥25) are associated with adverse respiratory outcomes. At multivariate analysis, Body Mass Index ≥30 fails to reach significance for preventing transient tachypnea of the newborn (odds ratio 0.392, 95% confidence intervals 0.138-1.113, P=0.079). Betamethasone administration independently reduces the odds ratio for transient tachypnea, while gestational age of 34 weeks independently increases the odds ratio of adverse neonatal respiratory outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Results of the study does not support the hypothesis that obesity affects respiratory outcomes at birth in late preterm babies. It would push to assess further the relationship with obesity and transient tachypnea of the neonates

Genetic Contributions to the Development of Complications in Preterm Newborns

<div><p>Aim</p><p>We aimed to identify specific polymorphisms of genes encoding for vascular endothelial growth factor A (<i>VEGFA</i>), endothelial nitric oxide synthase (<i>eNOS</i>), renin-angiotensin system (angiotensinogen gene [<i>AGT</i>], angiotensinogen type 1 receptor [<i>AGTR1</i>], angiotensin-converting enzyme [<i>ACE</i>]), and heme oxygenase-1 (<i>HMOX-1</i>) in a cohort of preterm infants and correlate their presence with the development of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) requiring mechanical ventilation (MV), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).</p><p>Study Design</p><p>We carried out a retrospective study to evaluate the allele frequency and genotype distribution of polymorphisms of <i>VEGFA</i>, <i>eNOS</i>, <i>AGT</i>, <i>AGTR1</i>, <i>ACE</i>, and <i>HMOX-1</i> in a population of preterm neonates (n=342) with a gestational age ≤28 weeks according to the presence or absence of RDS requiring MV, BPD, IVH, or ROP. Moreover, we evaluated through the haplotype reconstruction analysis whether combinations of the selected polymorphisms are related to the occurrence of RDS, BPD, IVH and ROP.</p><p>Results</p><p>In our population 157 infants developed RDS requiring MV, 71 BPD, 70 IVH, and 43 ROP. We found that TC+CC rs2070744 <i>eNOS</i> (41.7 vs. 25.4%, p=0.01) and GT+TT rs1799983 <i>eNOS</i> (51.8 vs. 35.2%, p=0.01) polymorphisms are independent risk factors for BPD. Haplotype reconstruction showed that haplotypes in VEGF and <i>eNOS</i> are significantly associated with different effects on RDS, BPD, IVH, and ROP in our population.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>We found that TC+CC rs2070744 <i>eNOS</i> and GT+TT rs1799983 <i>eNOS</i> polymorphisms are independent predictors of an increased risk of developing BPD. Haplotypes of <i>VEGFA</i> and <i>eNOS</i> may be independent protective or risk markers for prematurity complications.</p></div

Investigation on Silent Bacterial Infections in Specimens from Pregnant Women Affected by Spontaneous Miscarriage.

Miscarriage is one of the main complications occurring in pregnancy. The association between adverse pregnancy outcomes and silent bacterial infections has been poorly investigated. Ureaplasma parvum and urealiticum, Mycoplasma genitalium and hominis and Chlamydia trachomatis DNA sequences have been investigated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods in chorionic villi tissues and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from females with spontaneous abortion (SA, n = 100) and females who underwent voluntary interruption of pregnancy (VI, n=100). U. parvum DNA was detected in 14% and 15% of SA and VI, respectively, with a mean of bacterial DNA load of 1.3 × 10−1 copy/cell in SA and 2.8 × 10−3 copy/cell in VI; U. urealiticum DNA was detected in 3% and 2% of SA and VI specimens, respectively, with a mean DNA load of 3.3 × 10−3 copy/cell in SA and 1.6 × 10−3 copy/cell in VI; M. hominis DNA was detected in 5% of SA specimens with a DNA load of 1.3 × 10−4 copy/cell and in 6% of VI specimens with a DNA load of 1.4×10−4 copy/cell; C. trachomatis DNA was detected in 3% of SA specimens with a DNA load of 1.5 × 10−4 copy/cell and in 4% of VI specimens with a mean DNA load of 1.4 × 10−4 copy/cell. In PBMCs from the SA and VI groups, Ureaplasma spp, Mycoplasma spp and C. trachomatis DNAs were detected with a prevalence of 1%–3%. Bacteria were investigated, for the first time, by quantitative real‐time PCR (qPCR) in chorionic villi tissues and PBMCs from women affected by SA and VI. These data may help to understand the role and our knowledge of the silent infections in SA

Haplotypes of VEGF and <i>eNOS</i> genes significantly associated with weight and gestational age at birth.

<p>Haplotypes of VEGF and <i>eNOS</i> genes significantly associated with weight and gestational age at birth.</p