Canine leishmaniasis in the Salento Peninsulaof Apulia, Italy: a preliminary report

EnCanine leishmaniasis is endemic to the Mediterranean area. In Italy this zoonosis is distributed over a large portion of the Country. We studied a representative sample of 638 dogs of the canine population subjected to routine veterinary check in Salento peninsula (Apulia, Italy) where the exact entity of the zoonosis is currently unknown. Amastigote’s indirect immunofluorescence (IFAT) and electrophoresis of serum proteins were used as specific and non-specific diagnostic tests, respectively. In addition, lymph node and bone marrow aspirates were examined by light microscopy after May-Grunwald Giemsa or Diff Quick staining, to confirm the suspected pathology. Results demonstrated that about 13% of dogs were affected by leishmaniasis. This prevalence value, significantly higher than that reported in a previous study conducted twenty years ago, strongly suggests that leishmaniasis is endemic in Salento.ItLa leishmaniosi canina è una zoonosi endemica dell’area mediterranea. In Italia questa zoonosi è presente nella maggior parte del paese, ma nel Salento (Puglia, Italia) non è nota la distribuzione. In questo studio, un campione rappresentativo composto di 638 cani sottoposti a controllo veterinario periodico è stato monitorato per valutare l’entità della zoonosi nel Salento. Come prove diagnostiche specifiche e non specifiche sono state utilizzate rispettivamente l’immunofluorescenza indiretta (IFAT) e l’elettroforesi delle proteine del siero. In più, sono stati esaminati degli ago-aspirati dei linfonodi e del midollo osseo mediante microscopia ottica dopo colorazione May-Grunwald Giemsa e Diff Quick, per confermare la patologia sospetta. I risultati hanno dimostrato che circa il 13% dei cani era affetto da leishmaniosi canina. Il valore di prevalenza riscontrato è significativamente più alto di quello riportato in uno studio precedentemente condotto venti anni fa, il che suggerisce fortemente che la leishmaniosi canina è endemica nel Salento

LA COMUNITÀ DI GESÙ E L’ECUMENISMO / THE COMMUNITY OF JESUS AND ECUMENISM

RiassuntoL’autore presenta la storia, la natura e gli scopi della Comunità di Gesù, diffusa in diversi paesi del mondo, tra cui l’Argentina; la Comunità di Gesù si caratterizza per una lettura carismatica della missione della Chiesa nell’annuncio dell’evangelo secondo la tradizione della Chiesa Cattolica e proprio da questa lettura nasce l’impegno per la costruzione del dialogo ecumenico, in particolare con il mondo pentecostale evangelico.Parole-chiavi: Chiesa.Ecumenismo. Pentecostali. Papa Francesco.AbstractThe author presents the history, the nature and the aims of the Comunità di Gesù, widespread in various countries of the world, including Argentina: the Comunità di Gesù is characterized by a charismatic reading of the Church's mission in the proclamation of the Gospel according to the tradition of the Catholic Church and from this reading comes the commitment to the construction of ecumenical dialogue, in particular with the Evangelical Pentecostal world.Keywords: Church. Ecumenism. Pentecostal. Pope Francis

Canine leishmaniasis in the Salento Peninsulaof Apulia, Italy: a preliminary report

EnCanine leishmaniasis is endemic to the Mediterranean area. In Italy this zoonosis is distributed over a large portion of the Country. We studied a representative sample of 638 dogs of the canine population subjected to routine veterinary check in Salento peninsula (Apulia, Italy) where the exact entity of the zoonosis is currently unknown. Amastigote’s indirect immunofluorescence (IFAT) and electrophoresis of serum proteins were used as specific and non-specific diagnostic tests, respectively. In addition, lymph node and bone marrow aspirates were examined by light microscopy after May-Grunwald Giemsa or Diff Quick staining, to confirm the suspected pathology. Results demonstrated that about 13% of dogs were affected by leishmaniasis. This prevalence value, significantly higher than that reported in a previous study conducted twenty years ago, strongly suggests that leishmaniasis is endemic in Salento.ItLa leishmaniosi canina è una zoonosi endemica dell’area mediterranea. In Italia questa zoonosi è presente nella maggior parte del paese, ma nel Salento (Puglia, Italia) non è nota la distribuzione. In questo studio, un campione rappresentativo composto di 638 cani sottoposti a controllo veterinario periodico è stato monitorato per valutare l’entità della zoonosi nel Salento. Come prove diagnostiche specifiche e non specifiche sono state utilizzate rispettivamente l’immunofluorescenza indiretta (IFAT) e l’elettroforesi delle proteine del siero. In più, sono stati esaminati degli ago-aspirati dei linfonodi e del midollo osseo mediante microscopia ottica dopo colorazione May-Grunwald Giemsa e Diff Quick, per confermare la patologia sospetta. I risultati hanno dimostrato che circa il 13% dei cani era affetto da leishmaniosi canina. Il valore di prevalenza riscontrato è significativamente più alto di quello riportato in uno studio precedentemente condotto venti anni fa, il che suggerisce fortemente che la leishmaniosi canina è endemica nel Salento

LA REALTÀ VIRTUALE IMMERSIVA PER LA CONOSCENZA DEL PATRIMONIO CULTURALE: IL QUARTIERE ALESSANDRINO A ROMA.

Virtual reality as a means of knowledge is, to date, still little developed and widespread. There are few and rare cases in which it is used in museums as a tool for disseminating information that is more understandable in an immersive reality. The themes are among the most disparate, but it is obvious that the common concept of every VR project is the representation of a three-dimensional space, be it real but digitalized, invented or reconstructed. Surely this last case is the one of most interest, because it allows the first-person navigability of architectures never realized, or, even more suggestive, of projects or neighbourhoods no longer built because destroyed by man or by natural causes. In Rome, to build the Empire Road in the 1930s, the entire Alessandrino district was razed to the ground. For years the research group has been carrying out studies on the virtual reconstruction of the area, with highly detailed models linked to the rigorous and scientific correspondence of the result with the archival documentation. Today, thanks to the collaboration with Imago, we begin the process of Virtual Reality of the district that allows 360 ° immersive VR navigation through devices (viewers and mobile phones with Android and iOS operating systems) of the 3D elaboration on an obligatory exploratory path. The possibility of proposing the virtualization of the virtual space, for example at the Rome museum at Palazzo Braschi, where the wooden model of the reconstruction of the neighbourhood is already exposed, is only one of the possible outlets of the current state of research

In-Gel Assay to Evaluate Antioxidant Enzyme Response to Silver Nitrate and Silver Nanoparticles in Marine Bivalve Tissues

Silver is back in vogue today as this metal is used in the form of nanomaterials in numerous commercial products. We have developed in-gel electrophoretic techniques to measure the activity of the antioxidant enzymes catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase (GPX), and used the same techniques in combination with HSP70Western blot analysis to evaluate the effects of nanomolar amounts of silver nitrate and 5 nm alkane-coated silver nanoparticles in tissues of the marine bivalve Mytilus galloprovincialis (Lam.) exposed for 28 days in mesocosms. Our results showed a negligible effect for nanosilver exposure and dose-dependent effects for the nitrate form

Mercury induced haemocyte alterations in the terrestrial snail Cantareus apertus as novel biomarker

The aim of the present work was to study the response of a suite of cellular and biochemical markers in the terrestrial snail Cantareus apertus exposed to mercury in view of future use as sensitive tool suitable formercury polluted soil monitoring and assessment. Besides standardized biomarkers (metallothionein, acetylcholinesterase, and lysosomal membrane stability) novel cellular biomarkers on haemolymph cells were analyzed, including changes in the spread cells/round cells ratio and haemocyte morphometric alterations. The animals were exposed for 14 days to Lactuca sativa soaked for 1 h in HgCl2 solutions (0.5 e 1 μM). The temporal dynamics of the responses were assessed by measurements at 3, 7 and 14 days. Following exposure to HgCl2 a significant alteration in the relative frequencies of round cells and spread cellswas evident, with a time and dose-dependent increase of the frequencies of round cells with respect to spread cells. These changes were accompanied by cellular morphometric alterations. Concomitantly, a high correspondence between these cellular responses and metallothionein tissutal concentration, lysosomal membrane stability and inhibition of AChE was evident. The study highlights the usefulness of the terrestrial snail C. apertus as bioindicator organism for mercury pollution biomonitoring and, in particular, the use of haemocyte alterations as a suitable biomarker of pollutant effect to be included in a multibiomarker strategy

Colorimetric method and apparatus for measuring the toxic effect of environmental pollutants on hemoglobin

Method for measuring the toxicity of environmental matrices characterized in that it uses the oxidation of the iron present in the hemoglobin molecule as indicator of toxicity of said environmental matrices according to the steps of adding hemoglobin in an aqueous sample of environmental matrix, adding potassium thiocyanate, quantifying the oxidation state of thè iron present in the hemoglobin molecule by means of colorimetric analysis of the sample