979 research outputs found
Prevalence, virulence and antimicrobial susceptibility of Salmonella spp., Yersinia enterocolitica and Listeria monocytogenes in european wild boar (Sus scrofa) hunted in Tuscany (central Italy)
Wild boar is an animal the population of which constantly increases in Europe. This animal plays an important role as a reservoir for several pathogens, including three of the most important zoonoses: salmonellosis, yersiniosis and listeriosis. The aim of this investigation was to eval-uate the occurrence of antimicrobial-resistant and virulence factor genes of Salmonella spp., Yersinia enterocolitica and Listeria monocytogenes isolated from wild boar in Tuscany (Central Italy). During two consequent hunting seasons (2018/2019 and 2019/2020), rectal swabs, spleens and livers were collected from 287 hunted wild boar to isolate strains. Each isolate was tested to investigate its an-timicrobial resistance and to detect virulence factor genes by PCR. Eighteen Salmonella strains (6.27%) were isolated. Of these, 66.7% were resistant to streptomycin, 13.4% to cephalothin, 6.67% to imipenem and one isolate (6.67%) was resistant simultaneously to five antimicrobials. Moreover, the most detected genes were sopE (73.4%), pipB (66.7%), sodCI (53.3%), spvR and spvC (46.7%). In total, 54 (17.8%) Yersinia enterocolitica were isolated; of them, 26 (48.1%), 9 (16.7%), 17 (31.5%), 1 (1.85%) and 1 (1.85%) belonged to biotypes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively. All strains (100%) demon-strated resistance to cephalothin and 70.4% to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, 55.6% to ampicillin, and 37.0% to cefoxitin. Additionally, the most detected genes were ystA (25.9%), inv (24.1%), ail (22.2%), ystB (18.5%) and virF (14.8%). Finally, only one Listeria monocytogenes isolate (0.35%) was obtained, belonging to serogroup IVb, serovar 4b, and it was found to be resistant to cefoxitin, cefotaxime and nalidixic acid. The results highlighted the role of wild boar as a carrier for pathogenic and antimi-crobial-resistant Salmonella spp., Yersinia enterocolitica and Listeria monocytogens, representing a possible reservoir for domestic animals and human pathogens
Coordinated and Interoperable Seismological Data and Product Services in Europe: the EPOS Thematic Core Service for Seismology
In this article we describe EPOS Seismology, the Thematic Core Service consortium for the seismology domain within the European Plate Observing System infrastructure. EPOS Seismology was developed alongside the build-up of EPOS during the last decade, in close collaboration between the existing pan-European seismological initiatives ORFEUS (Observatories and Research Facilities for European Seismology), EMSC (Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center) and EFEHR (European Facilities for Earthquake Hazard and Risk) and their respective communities. It provides on one hand a governance framework that allows a well-coordinated interaction of the seismological community services with EPOS and its bodies, and on the other hand it strengthens the coordination among the already existing seismological initiatives with regard to data, products and service provisioning and further development. Within the EPOS Delivery Framework, ORFEUS, EMSC and EFEHR provide a wide range of services that allow open access to a vast amount of seismological data and products, following and implementing the FAIR principles and supporting open science. Services include access to raw seismic waveforms of thousands of stations together with relevant station and data quality information, parametric earthquake information of recent and historical earthquakes together with advanced event-specific products like moment tensors or source models and further ancillary services, and comprehensive seismic hazard and risk information, covering latest European scale models and their underlying data. The services continue to be available on the well-established domain-specific platforms and websites, and are also consecutively integrated with the interoperable central EPOS data infrastructure. EPOS Seismology and its participating organizations provide a consistent framework for the future development of these services and their operation as EPOS services, closely coordinated also with other international seismological initiatives, and is well set to represent the European seismological research infrastructures and their stakeholders withi
Prevalence of molar incisor hypomineralization among school children in Rome, Italy
Molar incisor hypomineralization (MIH) is a highly prevalent condition associated with increased caries experience, dental pain and treatment need. Aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and severity of MIH in a group of 7â8 years old primary school children living in Rome, Italy; and to assess the association with caries experience and possible perinatal risk factors. A survey has been conducted in the city of Rome, between April 2019 and March 2020 with a total of 49 primary schools and 176 2nd grade primary school classes and a total of 3611 children being involved. Of these, a subset of 346 children of 21 primary schools was selected for the epidemiological investigation. The prevalence of MIH was of 18.2%, with girls showing twice the probability of being subject to a mild-severe condition. Molar location was present in 71.4%, while location on both molar plus incisor was present in 28.6% of cases. The mean DMFT was 0.44â±â0.78, âDâ was 0.17â±â0.58; the mean dmft was 1.7â±â2.56, âdâ was 1.32â±â2.21. Female gender, caries experience, insufficient oral hygiene were risk factors. The incidence of MIH is increasing in the pediatric population. Knowledge about diagnosis and treatment options should be disseminated among dental professionals.publishedVersio
Gene expression profiling of hypertrophic cardiomyocytes identifies new players in pathological remodelling
Aims:
Pathological cardiac remodelling is characterized by cardiomyocyte (CM) hypertrophy and fibroblast activation, which can ultimately lead to maladaptive hypertrophy and heart failure (HF). Genome-wide expression analysis on heart tissue has been instrumental for the identification of molecular mechanisms at play. However, these data were based on signals derived from all cardiac cell types. Here, we aimed for a more detailed view on molecular changes driving maladaptive CM hypertrophy to aid in the development of therapies to reverse pathological remodelling.
Methods and results:
Utilizing CM-specific reporter mice exposed to pressure overload by transverse aortic banding and CM isolation by flow cytometry, we obtained gene expression profiles of hypertrophic CMs in the more immediate phase after stress, and CMs showing pathological hypertrophy. We identified subsets of genes differentially regulated and specific for either stage. Among the genes specifically up-regulated in the CMs during the maladaptive phase we found known stress markers, such as Nppb and Myh7, but additionally identified a set of genes with unknown roles in pathological hypertrophy, including the platelet isoform of phosphofructokinase (PFKP). Norepinephrine-angiotensin II treatment of cultured human CMs induced the secretion of N-terminal-pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-pro-BNP) and recapitulated the up-regulation of these genes, indicating conservation of the up-regulation in failing CMs. Moreover, several genes induced during pathological hypertrophy were also found to be increased in human HF, with their expression positively correlating to the known stress markers NPPB and MYH7. Mechanistically, suppression of Pfkp in primary CMs attenuated stress-induced gene expression and hypertrophy, indicating that Pfkp is an important novel player in pathological remodelling of CMs.
Conclusion:
Using CM-specific transcriptomic analysis, we identified novel genes induced during pathological hypertrophy that are relevant for human HF, and we show that PFKP is a conserved failure-induced gene that can modulate the CM stress response
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Search for lepton-flavour-violating decays of Higgs-like bosons.
A search is presented for a Higgs-like boson with mass in the range 45 to 195 GeV/c2 decaying into a muon and a tau lepton. The dataset consists of proton-proton interactions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV , collected by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2 fb-1 . The tau leptons are reconstructed in both leptonic and hadronic decay channels. An upper limit on the production cross-section multiplied by the branching fraction at 95% confidence level is set and ranges from 22 pb for a boson mass of 45 GeV/c2 to 4 pb for a mass of 195 GeV/c2
INFN What Next: Ultra-relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions
This document was prepared by the community that is active in Italy, within
INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), in the field of
ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The experimental study of the phase
diagram of strongly-interacting matter and of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP)
deconfined state will proceed, in the next 10-15 years, along two directions:
the high-energy regime at RHIC and at the LHC, and the low-energy regime at
FAIR, NICA, SPS and RHIC. The Italian community is strongly involved in the
present and future programme of the ALICE experiment, the upgrade of which will
open, in the 2020s, a new phase of high-precision characterisation of the QGP
properties at the LHC. As a complement of this main activity, there is a
growing interest in a possible future experiment at the SPS, which would target
the search for the onset of deconfinement using dimuon measurements. On a
longer timescale, the community looks with interest at the ongoing studies and
discussions on a possible fixed-target programme using the LHC ion beams and on
the Future Circular Collider.Comment: 99 pages, 56 figure
Effective Rheology of Bubbles Moving in a Capillary Tube
We calculate the average volumetric flux versus pressure drop of bubbles
moving in a single capillary tube with varying diameter, finding a square-root
relation from mapping the flow equations onto that of a driven overdamped
pendulum. The calculation is based on a derivation of the equation of motion of
a bubble train from considering the capillary forces and the entropy production
associated with the viscous flow. We also calculate the configurational
probability of the positions of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Measurement of the lifetime
Using a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of ,
collected by the LHCb experiment in collisions at centre-of-mass energies
of 7 and 8 TeV, the effective lifetime in the
decay mode, , is measured to be ps. Assuming
conservation, corresponds to the lifetime of the light
mass eigenstate. This is the first measurement of the effective
lifetime in this decay mode.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and
additional information, are available at
https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2016-017.htm
Study of charmonium production in b -hadron decays and first evidence for the decay Bs0
Using decays to Ï-meson pairs, the inclusive production of charmonium states in b-hadron decays is studied with pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fbâ1, collected by the LHCb experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. Denoting byBC ⥠B(b â C X) Ă B(C â ÏÏ) the inclusive branching fraction of a b hadron to a charmonium state C that decays into a pair of Ï mesons, ratios RC1C2 ⥠BC1 /BC2 are determined as RÏc0ηc(1S) = 0.147 ± 0.023 ± 0.011, RÏc1ηc(1S) =0.073 ± 0.016 ± 0.006, RÏc2ηc(1S) = 0.081 ± 0.013 ± 0.005,RÏc1 Ïc0 = 0.50 ± 0.11 ± 0.01, RÏc2 Ïc0 = 0.56 ± 0.10 ± 0.01and Rηc(2S)ηc(1S) = 0.040 ± 0.011 ± 0.004. Here and below the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic.Upper limits at 90% confidence level for the inclusive production of X(3872), X(3915) and Ïc2(2P) states are obtained as RX(3872)Ïc1 < 0.34, RX(3915)Ïc0 < 0.12 andRÏc2(2P)Ïc2 < 0.16. Differential cross-sections as a function of transverse momentum are measured for the ηc(1S) andÏc states. The branching fraction of the decay B0s â ÏÏÏ is measured for the first time, B(B0s â ÏÏÏ) = (2.15±0.54±0.28±0.21B)Ă10â6. Here the third uncertainty is due to the branching fraction of the decay B0s â ÏÏ, which is used for normalization. No evidence for intermediate resonances is seen. A preferentially transverse Ï polarization is observed.The measurements allow the determination of the ratio of the branching fractions for the ηc(1S) decays to ÏÏ and p p asB(ηc(1S)â ÏÏ)/B(ηc(1S)â p p) = 1.79 ± 0.14 ± 0.32
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