Land degradation assessment for sustainable soil management

Desertification is a complex phenomenon defined as the extreme degree of land degradation induced by human activities and climatic conditions. Climate change is accelerating and widening these areas. Previews analysis and studies assessed the vulnerability to desertification in Italy at national and regional level through a methodological approach based on integrating climate, soil, vege-tation, and socio-economic data (ESA). The studies carried out by ISPRA aim to provide an update of the of land degradation assessment in Italy, based on Trends.Earth methodology and of the three UN-SDGs sub-indicators on Target 15.3.1 (land use/land cover, land productivity and soil organic carbon above and below ground status and trends), together with additional dimensions of land degradation considered crucial for national land characters. Final assessment of the percentage of degraded land is around 36% of national area. This exercise demonstrates the importance to con-sider a larger number of data and include information on other fac-tors, such as climate, physical, chemical data. This integrated approach to the assessment of land degradation will allow to describe also of the loss of related ecosystem services

Treatment decision making in patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy: State of the art

No abstract availabl

Therapeutic management in Sicilian patients with definite arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy and focus on the role of implantable cardioverter-defibrillator therapy

No abstract availabl

G-protein-coupled receptor kinase 5 polymorphism and Takotsubo cardiomyopathy.

BACKGROUND: Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC) is an increasingly reported clinical syndrome that mimics acute myocardial infarction without obstructive coronary artery disease and is characterized by transient systolic dysfunction of the apical and/or mid-segments of the left ventricle. The syndrome mainly occurs in postmenopausal women with high adrenergic state conditions. Nowadays, the pathophysiology of TTC is not yet known and the possibility of a genetic predisposition is controversial. AIMS: The purpose of this study was to assess the genetic susceptibility to TTC through analysis of the L41Q polymorphism of the G-protein-coupled receptor kinase 5 (GRK5). METHODS AND RESULTS: In a cohort of 20 patients enrolled in two tertiary Italian centers with diagnosis of TTC, accordingly to the commonly accepted Mayo Clinic criteria and in 22 healthy individuals (control) we have evaluated the polymorphism in GRK5 gene. The TTC patients had a mean age of 65 ± 9 years and 19 of 20 were women. The presence of one or two L41 alleles of GRK5 was significantly more frequent in TTC group than in the control group (40 vs. 8%, P = 0.0372). CONCLUSION: In our study, we have found a significant difference in the frequency of GRK5 polymorphism between TTC patients and controls, supporting a genetic predisposition to this cardiac syndrome

Combined Point-of-Care Nucleic Acid and Antibody Testing for SARS-CoV-2 following Emergence of D614G Spike Variant

Rapid COVID-19 diagnosis in the hospital is essential, although this is complicated by 30%-50% of nose/throat swabs being negative by SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT). Furthermore, the D614G spike mutant dominates the pandemic and it is unclear how serological tests designed to detect anti-spike antibodies perform against this variant. We assess the diagnostic accuracy of combined rapid antibody point of care (POC) and nucleic acid assays for suspected COVID-19 disease due to either wild-type or the D614G spike mutant SARS-CoV-2. The overall detection rate for COVID-19 is 79.2% (95% CI 57.8-92.9) by rapid NAAT alone. The combined point of care antibody test and rapid NAAT is not affected by D614G and results in very high sensitivity for COVID-19 diagnosis with very high specificity

Combined Point-of-Care Nucleic Acid and Antibody Testing for SARS-CoV-2 following Emergence of D614G Spike Variant

Rapid COVID-19 diagnosis in the hospital is essential, although this is complicated by 30%–50% of nose/throat swabs being negative by SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT). Furthermore, the D614G spike mutant dominates the pandemic and it is unclear how serological tests designed to detect anti-spike antibodies perform against this variant. We assess the diagnostic accuracy of combined rapid antibody point of care (POC) and nucleic acid assays for suspected COVID-19 disease due to either wild-type or the D614G spike mutant SARS-CoV-2. The overall detection rate for COVID-19 is 79.2% (95% CI 57.8–92.9) by rapid NAAT alone. The combined point of care antibody test and rapid NAAT is not affected by D614G and results in very high sensitivity for COVID-19 diagnosis with very high specificity