Beta-D-glucan in patients with haematological malignancies

(1-3)-beta-D-glucan (BDG) is an almost panfungal marker (absent in zygomycetes and most cryptococci), which can be successfully used in screening and diagnostic testing in patients with haematological malignancies if its advantages and limitations are known. The aim of this review is to report the data, particularly from the last 5 years, on the use of BDG in haematological population. Published data report mainly on the performance of the Fungitell™ assay, although several others are currently available, and they vary in method and cut-off of positivity. The sensitivity of BDG for invasive fungal disease (IFD) in haematology patients seems lower than in other populations, possibly because of the type of IFD (lower sensitivity was found in case of aspergillosis compared to candidiasis and pneumocystosis) or the use of prophylaxis. The specificity of the test can be improved by using two consecutive positive assays and avoiding testing in the case of the concomitant presence of factors associated with false positive results. BDG should be used in combination with clinical assessment and other diagnostic tests, both radiological and mycological, to provide maximum information. Good performance of BDG in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has been reported. BDG is a useful diagnostic method in haematology patients, particularly for pneumocystosis or initial diagnosis of invasive fungal infections

Combining environmental niche models, multi-grain analyses, and species traits identifies pervasive effects of land use on butterfly biodiversity across Italy.

Understanding how species respond to human activities is paramount to ecology and conservation science, one outstanding question being how large-scale patterns in land use affect biodiversity. To facilitate answering this question, we propose a novel analytical framework that combines environmental niche models, multi-grain analyses, and species traits. We illustrate the framework capitalizing on the most extensive dataset compiled to date for the butterflies of Italy (106,514 observations for 288 species), assessing how agriculture and urbanization have affected biodiversity of these taxa from landscape to regional scales (3-48 km grains) across the country while accounting for its steep climatic gradients. Multiple lines of evidence suggest pervasive and scale-dependent effects of land use on butterflies in Italy. While land use explained patterns in species richness primarily at grains ≤12 km, idiosyncratic responses in species highlighted "winners" and "losers" across human-dominated regions. Detrimental effects of agriculture and urbanization emerged from landscape (3-km grain) to regional (48-km grain) scales, disproportionally affecting small butterflies and butterflies with a short flight curve. Human activities have therefore reorganized the biogeography of Italian butterflies, filtering out species with poor dispersal capacity and narrow niche breadth not only from local assemblages, but also from regional species pools. These results suggest that global conservation efforts neglecting large-scale patterns in land use risk falling short of their goals, even for taxa typically assumed to persist in small natural areas (e.g., invertebrates). Our study also confirms that consideration of spatial scales will be crucial to implementing effective conservation actions in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. In this context, applications of the proposed analytical framework have broad potential to identify which mechanisms underlie biodiversity change at different spatial scales

Two ways to be endemic. Alps and Apennines are different functional refugia during climatic cycles

Endemics co-occur because they evolved in situ and persist regionally or because they evolved ex situ and later dispersed to shared habitats, generating evolutionary or ecological endemicity centres, respectively. We investigate whether different endemicity centres can intertwine in the region ranging from Alps to Sicily, by studying their butterfly fauna. We gathered an extensive occurrence data set for butterflies of the study area (27,123 records, 269 species, in cells of 0.5 × 0.5 degrees of latitude-longitude). We applied molecular-based delimitation methods (GMYC model) to 26,557 cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) sequences of Western Palearctic butterflies. We identified entities based on molecular delimitations and/or the checklist of European butterflies and objectively attributed occurrences to their most probable entity. We obtained a zoogeographic regionalisation based on the 69 endemics of the area. Using phylogenetic ANOVA we tested if endemics from different centres differ from each other and from nonendemics for key ecological traits and divergence time. Endemicity showed high incidence in the Alps and Southern Italy. The regionalisation separated the Alps from the Italian Peninsula and Sicily. The endemics of different centres showed a high turnover and differed in phylogenetic distances, phenology and distribution traits. Endemics are on average younger than nonendemics and the Peninsula-Sicily endemics also have lower variance in divergence than those from the Alps. The observed variation identifies Alpine endemics as paleoendemics, now occupying an ecological centre, and the Peninsula-Sicily ones as neoendemics, that diverged in the region since the Pleistocene. The results challenge the common view of the Alpine-Apennine area as a single “Italian refugium”

The Butterfly Fauna Of The Italian Maritime Alps:Results Of The «Edit» Project

Bonelli, Simona, Barbero, Francesca, Casacci, Luca Pietro, Cerrato, Cristiana, Balletto, Emilio (2015): The butterfly fauna of the Italian Maritime Alps: results of the EDIT project. Zoosystema 37 (1): 139-167, DOI: 10.5252/z2015n1a6, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5252/z2015n1a

Karyological and flow cytometric evidence of triploid specimens in Bufo viridis (Amphibia Anura)

Karyological and flow cytometric (FCM) analyses were performed on a group of 14 green toads of the Bufo viridis species from seven Eurasian populations. Both approaches gave concordant results concerning the DNA ploidy level. All the populations examined were represented exclusively by diploid or tetraploid specimens, except one, where triploids were found. Results evidenced an interpopulation variability in DNA content against the same ploidy level, as well as an unusually high number of triploids in a particular reproductive place. The origin of polyploidy and the presence and persistence of a high number of triploids in a particular population are discussed

The isolated Erebia pandrose Apennine population is genetically unique and endangered by climate change

Climate change is causing shifts in the distribution of many species and populations inhabiting mountain tops are particularly vulnerable to these threats because they are constrained in altitudinal shifts. Apennines are a relatively narrow and low mountain chain located in Southern Europe, which hosts many isolated populations of mountain species. The butterfly Erebia pandrose was recorded for the last time in the Apennines in 1977, on the top of a single massif (Monti della Laga). We confirmed the presence of a small, isolated population of E. pandrose in the Apennines, at a distance of more than 400 km to any other known populations. Then, we examined the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 mitochondrial DNA marker of this species across the Palaearctic area and estimated the potential decline over the Alps and the Apennines due to future climatic changes. The Apennine population represents an endemic lineage characterised by eight mutations over the 658 bp analysed (1.2%). In the Alps and Apennines, this species has shifted uphill more than 3 m per year since the end of the 19th century and more than 22 m per year since 1995. Species distribution models suggested that these mountain populations will experience a generalised loss of climatic suitability, which, according to our projections, could lead to the extinction of the Apennine population in a few decades. Erebia pandrose has the potential to become a flagship species for advertising the risk of losing unique fractions of genetic diversity for mountain species

L'Italia come modello per l'Europa e per il mondo nelle politiche sanitarie per il trattamento dell'epatite cronica da HCV

The World Health Organization foresees the elimination of HCV infection by 2030. In light of this and the curre nt, nearly worldwide, restriction in direct-acting agents (DAA) accessibility due to their high price, we aimed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of two alternative DAA treatment policies: Policy 1 (universal): treat all patients, regardless of the fibrosis stage; Policy 2 (prioritized): treat only priori tized patients and delay treatment of the remaining patients until reaching stage F3. T he model was based on patient’s data from the PITER cohort. We demonstrated that extending HC V treatment of patients in any fibrosis stage improves health outcomes and is cost-effective