Omicidi mirati a mezzo drone: brevi riflessioni a margine del caso "Lo Porto" tra diritto penale e diritto internazionale

Quale diritto penale in ipotesi di "vittime collaterali" di drone strike? La sempre maggiore rilevanza che il fenomeno degli omicidi mirati a mezzo drone assume nel contesto internazionale pone la necessità di interrogarsi su come, nell'ordinamento interno, le categorie classiche del diritto penale debbano operare rispetto a fattispecie "peculiari", caratterizzate da una distanza fisica e psichica dal target e dall’esistenza di una “catena di comando” coinvolta, a più livelli, nella singola operazione di omicidio mirato. Si cercherà pertanto di capire, partendo dal caso dell'omicidio di un cittadino italiano per mezzo di droni statunitensi in Pakistan, ma fornendo un contributo di portata più generale, quali soggetti della c.d. "catena di comando" sono coinvolti nelle operazioni; successivamente si concentrerà l'attenzione su come gli sviluppi dogmatici e le elaborazioni giurisprudenziali sul tema dell'elemento soggettivo del reato debbano modellarsi rispetto ad omicidi di vittime collaterali commessi tramite drone, negli ultimi anni oggetto di un uso sempre più frequente alla luce della Global War on Terror, di cui gli Stati Uniti d'America si sono resi promotori

Is the Salmonella contamination of swine carcasses at slaughter related to the Salmonella load in caecum?

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the load of Salmonella spp. in caeca and the carcass contamination in an Italian slaughterhouse. The sampling scheme was designed to be representative of the pigs slaughtered in a day and to estimate a 12% prevalence of pigs highly contaminated by Salmonella spp. (HCP, cecal load ≥3log). Environmental swabs were taken before slaughter. Cecal contents and carcass swabs were collected from the same pig. Salmonella MPN were estimated according to ISO6579- 2:2012/A1 and ISO7218:2007/E. The overall Salmonella prevalence were 34.64% and 7.19% for ceca and carcasses respectively, with S. Derby and S. 4,[5],12:i:- being the prevalent serotypes. The HCP prevalence was 11.44%. 7/59 environmental swabs tested positive; when the same serotype was isolated from the environment and from carcasses, the samples were excluded from further analysis. Statistical analysis was performed to investigate the relationship between Salmonella spp. loads in the cecum and contamination of the carcass of the same pig and the prevalence of HCP and the contamination of carcasses on the same day. For this purpose, the days were classified as “high prevalence days” depending on the proportion of caeca resulted positive (≥36%) and as “high load” days depending on the prevalence of HCP (≥10%). A correlation between the contamination of carcasses and the cecal Salmonella loads of the same animal was found (Spearman’s correlation coefficient: 0.2254; p-value=0.0001). No correlation was found between the contamination of carcasses and the categorization of the day of sampling as “high prevalence day”. Conversely, a correlation was found between the contamination of carcasses and the “high load” category of the sampling day (Wilcoxon test, p=0.0011). Notably, not the prevalence of pigs carrying Salmonella spp. but the prevalence of highly contaminated pigs was shown to be related to the contamination of carcasses

Efeito médio de substituição alélica para os polimorfismos CAPN4753 e UOGCAST no gene da calpaína e calpastatina.

Os objetivos deste trabalho foram avaliar possíveis interações alélicas para os polimorfismos nos genes da µ-calpaína (CAPN4753) e da calpastatina (UOGCAST1), ligados a característica de maciez da carne. Nesse trabalho, foram utilizados 590 animais da raça Nelore. Após a extração do DNA de amostras de sangue por precipitação em NaCl. A identificação e determinação dos polimorfismos para os marcadores foram realizadas pelo sistema de detecção TaqManTM utilizando-se PCR em Tempo Real. A análise de maciez da carne, aos 7, 14 e 21 dias de maturação, foi realizada com amostras de carne do Longissimus dorsi, retiradas entre a 12ª e 13ª costela e cisalhadas utilizando-se um Warner Bratzler Shear Force. Foram observados resultados significativos para o efeito médio de substituição aos 14 dias de maturação da carne, apenas para o polimorfismo no gene da calpastatina, e aos 21 dias para ambos os polimorfismos (CAPN4753 e UOGCAST1)

Pathogenic variants in EP300 and ANKRD11 in patients with phenotypes overlapping Cornelia de Lange syndrome

Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS), Rubinstein–Taybi syndrome (RSTS), and KBG syndrome are three distinct developmental human disorders. Variants in seven genes belonging to the cohesin pathway, NIPBL, SMC1A, SMC3, HDAC8, RAD21, ANKRD11, and BRD4, were identified in about 80% of patients with CdLS, suggesting that additional causative genes remain to be discovered. Two genes, CREBBP and EP300, have been associated with RSTS, whereas KBG results from variants in ANKRD11. By exome sequencing, a genetic cause was elucidated in two patients with clinical diagnosis of CdLS but without variants in known CdLS genes. In particular, genetic variants in EP300 and ANKRD11 were identified in the two patients with CdLS. EP300 and ANKRD11 pathogenic variants caused the reduction of the respective proteins suggesting that their low levels contribute to CdLS-like phenotype. These findings highlight the clinical overlap between CdLS, RSTS, and KBG and support the notion that these rare disorders are linked to abnormal chromatin remodeling, which in turn affects the transcriptional machinery

Reproductive cycle, number of parities and faecal Salmonella spp. excretion in sows: a longitudinal study

The aim of the study was to evaluate the fecal excretion of Salmonella spp in sows with different number of parties, in distinct periods of the reproductive cycle. Two integrated farms in central Italy have been included in the study. The target populations were primaparous and multiparous (1-5 and more than 5 parities) sows, tested in different periods of the reprouductive cycle: 14 days before parturition (pre-partum), 2-5 days (post-partum), 20 days after parturition (post-partum 2) and gestation (24-31 days post-partum)