Long term effects of cover crops on weeds in Mediterranean low input arable management systems

The introduction of cover crops (CC) in crop rotations is a key tool to control weed and ameliorate soil conditions in low input arable systems. In 1992 a long term experiment (LTE) was set up at Centre for Agri-environmental Research “E. Avanzi (CIRAA), University of Pisa to determine the combined effect of tillage intensity, nitrogen fertilization levels and CC types on soil quality, crop yield and weed communities. The LTE is based on 4-year crop rotation (maize, durum wheat, sunflower, durum wheat) with cover crops grown twice, in between wheat and summer crops. Two tillage systems were compared: i) a conventional system (CS), with annual ploughing (30 cm depth); ii) a low input system (LIS), with chiseling (30 cm depth) for summer crops and no till for wheat. In both systems cover types were: control; Brassica juncea L.;Trifolium squarrosum L.; and Vicia villosa Roth.). Four Nitrogen levels (from 0 to a maximum rate, varying across crop type) were applied. The experiment was replicated in 4 blocks for a total of 128 plots (21 x 11 m). Weed and CC above-ground biomass were assessed at CC termination, while weed species cover and total biomass were assessed at harvest. Data collected in CC (2011, 2014), sunflower (2012), durum wheat (2012) were used to calculate species richness, weed community diversity indices (Shannon’s H’ and inverse Simpson index) and Pielou equitability. Weed biomass and cover were analyzed by split-split plot ANOVA. Weed community composition was analyzed by a permutational multivariate analysis of variance based on Bray Curtis dissimilarity and Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling

Can patients with epilepsy become bone marrow donors? A case report of allogeneic hematopoietic stem transplantation from child with seizures

Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation is an important treatment option for malignant and non-malignant hematopoietic disorder in adults and children. For long time epilepsy was temporary exclusion condition to voluntary donation, and donors had to be medication or seizure free. It is still unclear if people with history of epilepsy are indeed potential eligible donors, even if a significant increased risk of adverse events in these donors has not been demonstrated. We studied a 10-year-old boy with symptomatic focal epilepsy who was the only available donor for his monozycote twin, suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A total of 3.39 x 108/kg HSCs were collected and reinfused to the leukemic brother after conditioning treatment. At the end of follow-up, our epilepsy patient had no consequences and his brother is in complete remission of the disease at 3 years from the transplant procedure. Our observation confirms that a patient with epilepsy can be a donor, without consequences for himself and for the recipient

Photo-biomodulation as a prevention modality of oral mucositis in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

The aim of the study was to observe the eectiveness of a photo-biomodulation (PBM) protocol for the prevention of oral mucositis (OM) in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (aHSCT). A case-control study was conducted on 40 patients undergoing aHSCT. The patients were divided into two groups; the preventive group (PG) included 20 patients (7 females and 13 males) who were subjected to intra-oral PBM for five sessions a week, starting one day before the conditioning regimen and continuing until the 10th day after transplantation (D+10). In each session, ten points on the at-risk mucosal surfaces were irradiated using a double diode laser that emits two wavelengths simultaneously at 650 nm and at 904–910 nm with the following parameters at each point: energy of 4 J, and power of 88.9 mW. The control group (CG) included 20 patients (10 females and 10 males) who were not subjected to laser therapy and were selected retrospectively to compare the obtained results. For all patients, OM was assessed by the World Health Organization (WHO) grading scale. Eight patients in the PG did not experience OM during their hospitalization period (with grade 0). Severe OM was observed in 40% of the patients in the PG, while in the CG, severe OM was shown in 85% of the patients. The mean duration of OM in the PG was significantly lower than that of CG (4.7 days in the PG and 15 days in the CG) (p < 0.001). The study demonstrated that the preventive PBM protocol reduced the severity and duration of OM in patients undergoing aHSCT

Paper like cholesteric interferential mirror

A new type of flexible cholesteric liquid crystal mirror is presented. The simple and effective method for the deposition of a cholesteric mixture on a paper substrate and the particular design of the device give a homogeneous alignment of the cholesteric texture providing mirrors with an intense and uniform light reflectance. A desired polarization state for the reflected light, linear or circular, can be easily obtained varying the thickness and optical anisotropy of the polymer cover film. By using non-azobenzene based photosensitive materials a permanent array of RGB mirrors with high reflectivity can be obtained on the same device. Paper like reflective mirrors are versatile and they can find applications in reflective displays, adaptive optics, UV detectors and dosimeters, information recording, medicine and IR converters

REDUCED TILLAGE AND COVER CROPS IN ORGANIC ARABLE SYSTEMS PRESERVES WEED DIVERSITY WITHOUT JEOPARDISING CROP YIELD

One of the objectives of the TILMAN-ORG Project is to improve weed management under conservation agriculture (reduced tillage and/or cover crops) in organic arable systems. The shift from ploughing to conservation agriculture should not only maintain crop yield but possibly improve weed community diversity. This paper summarises the results on (1) weed abundance, (2) weed diversity and (3) crop yield obtained in the first year of the project (2012) in 13 trials scattered across Europe

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

L’integrazione del sovescio di veccia vellutata con compost arricchiti in fosforo aumenta la sostenibilità di un sistema colturale biologico senza produzione animale? Effetti sul mais e sulla vegetazione infestante

In un sistema colturale biologico senza produzione animale non irriguo, per poter incrementare la fertilità chimica, fisica e biologica dei terreni è opportuno poter disporre di strategie agronomiche integrate di gestione del suolo. Nel sistema colturale biologico oggetto di una ricerca di lungo periodo di confronto biologico-convenzionale (MASCOT) è stata rilevato un bilancio negativo del fosforo. Pertanto, al fine di preservare la fertilità del suolo nel lungo periodo, sono state individuate delle soluzioni tecniche per reintegrare le quantità di fosforo asportate e contemporaneamente incrementare la dotazione di azoto disponibile e di sostanza organica nel suolo. Lo scopo del presente lavoro è quello di valutare le possibili interazioni tra le tecniche agronomiche usualmente impiegate per migliorare la fertilità chimica, fisica e biologica dei sistemi colturali biologici, come il sovescio di leguminose, e soluzioni innovative come l’uso di compost arricchiti in fosforo