Plant adaptation to extreme environments: The example of Cistus salviifolius of an active geothermal alteration field

Cistus salviifolius is able to colonise one of the most extreme active geothermal alteration fields in terms of both soil acidity and hot temperatures. The analyses of morphofunctional and physiological characters, investigated in leaves of plants growing around fumaroles (G leaves) and in leaves developed by the same plants after transfer into growth chamber under controlled conditions (C leaves) evidenced the main adaptive traits developed by this pioneer plant in a stressful environment. These traits involved leaf shape and thickness, mesophyll compactness, stomatal and trichome densities, chloroplast size. Changes of functional and physiological traits concerned dry matter content, peroxide and lipid peroxidation, leaf area, relative water and pigment contents. A higher reducing power and antioxidant enzymatic activity were typical of G leaves. Though the high levels of stress parameters, G leaves showed stress-induced specific morphogenic and physiological responses putatively involved in their surviving in active geothermal habitats

Ozone damage and tolerance in leaves of two poplar genotypes.

The effects induced by an acute ozone exposure were investigated in two poplar hybrids differen- tially O3 susceptible in terms of leaf injuries: Populus deltoides x maximowiczii, Eridano clone and..

Comparing native versus immigrants’ occupational choices of the Italian labour force : a generalized linear mixed model approach

In this paper a short-term analysis of the occupational behaviour of the Italian labour force is proposed by analysing official Istat micro-data of 2006 through a logit model with subjectspecific intercept. The aim is to compare the labour choices of autochthon workers to those of immigrants also considering the native country. Many national and international authors have been dealing with this interesting topic mainly in an economic key, treating the problem of defining the phenomenon of labour migration as a cost or as a benefit for the destination Country. Moving from the assumption that the complexity of the phenomenon and the lack of qualitatively acceptable data create such big limitations and delays in the formulation and the elaboration process of meaningful solutions, our proposal is an “a posteriori” analysis of labour choices taking into consideration the intrinsic demographic characteristics of native and non native individuals. The idea is to clarify if native and non-native workers share the same labour choices and expectations in terms of qualification grade as a proxy of their satisfaction. To this extent, in this paper firstly the hypothesis that native and non native workers show the same expectation will be tested, secondly the occupational behaviour of immigrants and autochthons will be compared on the basis of derivation country

Central Precocious Puberty and Response to GnRHa Therapy in Children with Cerebral Palsy and Moderate to Severe Motor Impairment: Data from a Longitudinal, Case-Control, Multicentre, Italian Study

Children affected by neurodevelopmental disability could experience early pubertal changes at least 20 times more than the general population. Limited data about central precocious puberty (CPP) among children affected by cerebral palsy (CP) are available. Methods. This is a longitudinal, observational, retrospective, case-control study involving 22 children affected by CPP and CP (group A), 22 paired with CP but without CPP (group B), and 22 children with CPP without CP. Auxological, biochemical, and instrumental data were collected at diagnosis of CPP and at 2 follow-up visits. Results. No differences were detected between groups A (at baseline) and B. At diagnosis of CPP, height SDS adjusted for target height (H-TH SDS) was significantly reduced in A than in C ( 120.63 \ub1 1.94 versus 1.56 \ub1 1.38), while basal LH and oestradiol levels were significantly elevated in A than in C. During follow-up, despite an effective treatment, growth impairment deteriorated in A than in C (\u394 H-SDS from diagnosis of CPP to last follow-up: 120.49 \ub1 0.91 versus 0.21 \ub1 0.33, p = 0 023). Conclusions. Diagnosis of CPP could be partially mislead in CP due to growth failure that got worse during follow-up despite therapy. CPP in CP seems to progress rapidly along time supporting the hypothesis of a more intense activation of hypothalamic-pituitarygonadal- axis in these patients

Induced sputum is a reproducible method to assess airway inflammation in asthma.

To evaluate the reproducibility of induced sputum analysis, and to estimate the sample size required to obtained reliable results, sputum was induced by hypertonic saline inhalation in 29 asthmatic subjects on two different days. The whole sample method was used for analysis, and inflammatory cells were counted on cytospin slides. Reproducibility, expressed by intra-class correlation coefficients, was good for macrophages (+0.80), neutrophils (+0.85), and eosinophils (+0.87), but not for lymphocytes (+0.15). Detectable differences were 5.5% for macrophages, 0.6% for lymphocytes, 5.2% for neutrophils, and 3.0% for eosinophils. We conclude that analysis of induced sputum is a reproducible method to study airway inflammation in asthma. Sample sizes greater than ours give little improvement in the detectable difference of eosinophil percentages

Induced sputum is a reproducible method to assess airway inflammation in asthma

TO evaluate the reproducibility of induced sputum analysis, and to estimate the sample size required to obtained reliable results, sputum was induced by hypertonic saline inhalation in 29 asthmatic subjects on two different days. The whole sample method was used for analysis, and inflammatory cells were counted on cytospin slides. Reproducibility, expressed by intra-class correlation coefficients, was good for macrophages (+0.80), neutrophils (+0.85), and eosinophils (+0.87), but not for lymphocytes (+0.15). Detectable differences were 5.5% for macrophages, 0.6% for lymphocytes, 5.2% for neutrophils, and 3.0% for eosinophils. We conclude that analysis of induced sputum is a reproducible method to study airway inflammation in asthma. Sample sizes greater than ours give little improvement in the detectable difference of eosinophil percentages

Tolerability and efficacy of vortioxetine versus SSRIs in elderly with major depression. Study protocol of the VESPA study: a pragmatic, multicentre, open-label, parallel-group, superiority, randomized trial

Depression is a highly prevalent condition in the elderly, with a vast impact on quality of life, life expectancy, and medical outcomes. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the most commonly prescribed agents in this condition and, although generally safe, tolerability issues cannot be overlooked. Vortioxetine is an antidepressant with a novel mechanism of action. Based on studies to date, it may have a promising tolerability profile in the elderly, as it does not adversely affect psychomotor or cognitive performance and does not alter cardiovascular and endocrine parameters. The present study aims to assess the tolerability profile of vortioxetine in comparison with the SSRIs considered as a single group in elderly participants with depression. The rate of participants withdrawing from treatment due to adverse events after 6 months of follow up will be the primary outcome

Off-label long acting injectable antipsychotics in real-world clinical practice: a cross-sectional analysis of prescriptive patterns from the STAR Network DEPOT study

Introduction Information on the off-label use of Long-Acting Injectable (LAI) antipsychotics in the real world is lacking. In this study, we aimed to identify the sociodemographic and clinical features of patients treated with on- vs off-label LAIs and predictors of off-label First- or Second-Generation Antipsychotic (FGA vs. SGA) LAI choice in everyday clinical practice. Method In a naturalistic national cohort of 449 patients who initiated LAI treatment in the STAR Network Depot Study, two groups were identified based on off- or on-label prescriptions. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to test several clinically relevant variables and identify those associated with the choice of FGA vs SGA prescription in the off-label group. Results SGA LAIs were more commonly prescribed in everyday practice, without significant differences in their on- and off-label use. Approximately 1 in 4 patients received an off-label prescription. In the off-label group, the most frequent diagnoses were bipolar disorder (67.5%) or any personality disorder (23.7%). FGA vs SGA LAI choice was significantly associated with BPRS thought disorder (OR = 1.22, CI95% 1.04 to 1.43, p = 0.015) and hostility/suspiciousness (OR = 0.83, CI95% 0.71 to 0.97, p = 0.017) dimensions. The likelihood of receiving an SGA LAI grew steadily with the increase of the BPRS thought disturbance score. Conversely, a preference towards prescribing an FGA was observed with higher scores at the BPRS hostility/suspiciousness subscale. Conclusion Our study is the first to identify predictors of FGA vs SGA choice in patients treated with off-label LAI antipsychotics. Demographic characteristics, i.e. age, sex, and substance/alcohol use co-morbidities did not appear to influence the choice towards FGAs or SGAs. Despite a lack of evidence, clinicians tend to favour FGA over SGA LAIs in bipolar or personality disorder patients with relevant hostility. Further research is needed to evaluate treatment adherence and clinical effectiveness of these prescriptive patterns