227 research outputs found
Agronomical evaluation and chemical characterization of Linum usitatissimum L. as oilseed crop for bio-based products in two environments of Central and Northern Italy
In the recent years, new perspectives for linseed (Linum usitatissimum
L.) are open as renewable raw material for bio-based products
(Bb), due to its oil composition, and the interesting amounts of coproducts
(lignocellulosic biomass). Therefore, the possibility to introduce
linseed crop in two environments of central and northern Italy,
traditionally devoted to cereal cultivation, has been evaluated. Twoyears
field trials were carried out in the coastal plain of Pisa (Tuscany
region) and in the Po valley (Bologna, Emilia Romagna region), comparing
two linseed varieties (Sideral and Buenos Aires). Agronomical
evaluation (yield and yield components), seed and oil characterization
(oil, protein content, and fatty acid composition), together with carbon
(C) and nitrogen (N) content of the residual lignocellulosic biomass
were investigated. The two varieties, grown as autumn crop, showed a
different percentage of plant survival at the end of winter, with Sideral
most resistant to cold. The achieved results showed significant influence
of cultivar, location and growing season on yield and yield components,
as well as on chemical biomass composition. In particular,
Sideral appeared to be the most suitable variety for tested environments,
since higher seed yield (3.05 t ha–1 as mean value over years
and locations) and above-ground biomass (6.98 t ha–1 as mean value
over years and locations) were recorded in comparison with those
detected for Buenos Aires (1.93 and 4.48 t ha–1 of seed production and
lignocellulosic biomass, respectively). Interestingly, in the northern
area, during the 1st year, Buenos Aires was the most productive,
despite its low plant survival at the end of winter, which determined a
strong reduction in plant density and size. In such conditions, the
plants produced a larger number of capsules and, consequently, high
seed yield (3.18 t ha–1). Relevant differences were also observed
between the two years, due to the variability of climatic characteristics
(temperature levels, and moisture regimes). All these findings confirmed
as, in linseed, yield and yield components are quantitatively
inherited and influenced by both genotype and environment (location
and climate). Varietal and environmental effects were also recorded
for oil content and yield, and, generally, good oil percentages, for both
genotypes, were found (ranging from 44 to 49% on dry matter basis).
Oil from the two varieties was characterized by a stable proportion of
polyunsaturated fatty acids with a high content of alpha-linolenic acid
(more than 57%), that makes this oil suitable to be used in paints,
resins, varnishes, linoleum, polymers and oleochemicals. Finally, our
results pointed out as above- and below-ground biomasses, were different
in terms of quantity, and chemical characteristics (N, C and C/N
ratio). Interesting amounts of N and C could return into the soil by
crop residues (stem portions and roots), thus underling the possibility
to maintain and/or increase the soil organic matter pool
SockMi: a solution for migrating TCP/IP connections
SockMi is a solution for the migration of TCP/IP con-nections between Linux systems. Only the migrating peer of the connection needs to reside on a Linux system. The mi-gration is completely transparent to the other peer that can reside on a system running any operating system. Our solution does not require changes to existing Linux ker-nel data structures and algorithms and can be activated in any phase of the connection. Both 2.4 and 2.6 versions of the Linux kernel are supported. 1
Sodium butyrate improves growth performance of weaned piglets during the first period after weaning
The purpose of the present work was to evaluate whether the addition of sodium butyrate to feed could facilitate wean- ing and growth response in piglets. For 56 days two groups of 20 piglets (9.2±1.4 kg LW) were fed an acidified basal diet (containing formic and lactic acid at 0.5 and 1.5 g/kg of feed, respectively) without (control group) or with sodium butyrate (SB) at 0.8 g/kg. Average daily gain (ADG), daily feed intake (DFI), feed efficiency (FE) and live weight (LW) were recorded. In the first two weeks, butyrate supplementation increased ADG (+20%; P<0.05) and DFI (+16%; P<0.05). During the subsequent period (15 to 35 days) animals fed SB had a higher DFI but lower feed efficiency (+10% and -14%, respectively; P<0.05) than animals fed the control diet. No other benefits were observed thereafter. The data presented showed that the use of sodium butyrate facilitated only the initial phase of adaptation to a solid diet in piglets
Systematic analysis of mRNA 5' coding sequence incompleteness in Danio rerio: an automated EST-based approach
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>All standard methods for cDNA cloning are affected by a potential inability to effectively clone the 5' region of mRNA. The aim of this work was to estimate mRNA open reading frame (ORF) 5' region sequence completeness in the model organism <it>Danio rerio </it>(zebrafish).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We implemented a novel automated approach (<it>5'_ORF_Extender</it>) that systematically compares available expressed sequence tags (ESTs) with all the zebrafish experimentally determined mRNA sequences, identifies additional sequence stretches at 5' region and scans for the presence of all conditions needed to define a new, extended putative ORF. Our software was able to identify 285 (3.3%) mRNAs with putatively incomplete ORFs at 5' region and, in three example cases selected (<it>selt1a</it>, <it>unc119.2</it>, <it>nppa</it>), the extended coding region at 5' end was cloned by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The implemented method, which could also be useful for the analysis of other genomes, allowed us to describe the relevance of the "5' end mRNA artifact" problem for genomic annotation and functional genomic experiment design in zebrafish.</p> <p>Open peer review</p> <p>This article was reviewed by Alexey V. Kochetov (nominated by Mikhail Gelfand), Shamil Sunyaev, and Gáspár Jékely. For the full reviews, please go to the Reviewers' Comments section.</p
Uncertainty principle of genetic information in a living cell
BACKGROUND: Formal description of a cell's genetic information should provide the number of DNA molecules in that cell and their complete nucleotide sequences. We pose the formal problem: can the genome sequence forming the genotype of a given living cell be known with absolute certainty so that the cell's behaviour (phenotype) can be correlated to that genetic information? To answer this question, we propose a series of thought experiments. RESULTS: We show that the genome sequence of any actual living cell cannot physically be known with absolute certainty, independently of the method used. There is an associated uncertainty, in terms of base pairs, equal to or greater than ÎĽs (where ÎĽ is the mutation rate of the cell type and s is the cell's genome size). CONCLUSION: This finding establishes an "uncertainty principle" in genetics for the first time, and its analogy with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in physics is discussed. The genetic information that makes living cells work is thus better represented by a probabilistic model rather than as a completely defined object
Sequence, "subtle" alternative splicing and expression of the CYYR1 (cysteine/tyrosine-rich 1) mRNA in human neuroendocrine tumors
BACKGROUND: CYYR1 is a recently identified gene located on human chromosome 21 whose product has no similarity to any known protein and is of unknown function. Analysis of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) have revealed high human CYYR1 expression in cells belonging to the diffuse neuroendocrine system (DNES). These cells may be the origin of neuroendocrine (NE) tumors. The aim of this study was to conduct an initial analysis of sequence, splicing and expression of the CYYR1 mRNA in human NE tumors. METHODS: The CYYR1 mRNA coding sequence (CDS) was studied in 32 NE tumors by RT-PCR and sequence analysis. A subtle alternative splicing was identified generating two isoforms of CYYR1 mRNA differing in terms of the absence (CAG(- )isoform, the first described mRNA for CYYR1 locus) or the presence (CAG(+ )isoform) of a CAG codon. When present, this specific codon determines the presence of an alanine residue, at the exon 3/exon 4 junction of the CYYR1 mRNA. The two mRNA isoform amounts were determined by quantitative relative RT-PCR in 29 NE tumors, 2 non-neuroendocrine tumors and 10 normal tissues. A bioinformatic analysis was performed to search for the existence of the two CYYR1 isoforms in other species. RESULTS: The CYYR1 CDS did not show differences compared to the reference sequence in any of the samples, with the exception of an NE tumor arising in the neck region. Sequence analysis of this tumor identified a change in the CDS 333 position (T instead of C), leading to the amino acid mutation P111S. NE tumor samples showed no significant difference in either CYYR1 CAG(- )or CAG(+ )isoform expression compared to control tissues. CYYR1 CAG(- )isoform was significantly more expressed than CAG(+ )isoform in NE tumors as well as in control samples investigated. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that only the genomic sequence of Pan troglodytes CYYR1 is consistent with the possible existence of the two described mRNA isoforms. CONCLUSION: A new "subtle" splicing isoform (CAG(+)) of CYYR1 mRNA, the sequence and the expression of this gene were defined in a large series of NE tumors
Single-agent rituximab is an effective salvage therapy in pretreated patients with hairy cell leukemia
No abstract availabl
West Nile virus surveillance using sentinel birds: results of eleven years of testing in corvids in a region of northern Italy
The natural transmission cycle of West Nile virus (WNV) involves birds as primary hosts and mosquitoes as vectors, but this virus can spread to mammals, human beings included. Asymptomatic infected donors pose a risk to the safety of blood transfusions and organ transplants, as WNV can be transmitted through these medical procedures. Since 2009, the region of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy has been implementing an integrated surveillance system in order to detect WNV circulation in the environment at an early stage. Here we report the results of the two components of the surveillance system, the active testing of corvids and humans, and demonstrate that bird surveillance alone improves a surveillance system based solely on human case detection. As WNV risk reduction measures are applied on a provincial basis, we assessed the ability of this surveillance system component to detect virus circulation prior to the notification of the first human case for each province. Overall, 99 epidemic seasons were evaluated as a result of 11 years (2013–2023) of surveillance in the nine provinces of the region. In this period, 22,314 corvids were tested for WNV and 642 (2.9%) were found to be infected. WNV was generally first detected in birds in July, with sample prevalence peaks occurring between August and September. During the same period, 469 autochthonous human cases were notified, about 60% of which were reported in August. WNV was detected 79 times out of the 99 seasons considered. The virus was notified in birds 73 times (92.4%) and 60 times (75.9%) in humans. WNV was first or only notified in birds in 57 seasons (72.1%), while it was first or only notified in humans in 22 seasons (27.8%). Active surveillance in corvids generally allows the detection of WNV before the onset of human cases. Failure of virus detection occurred mainly in seasons where the number of birds tested was low. Our results show that active testing of a minimum of 3.8 corvids per 100 km2 provides a satisfactory timeliness in the virus detection, but for early detection of WNV it is crucial to test birds between mid-June and mid-August
Prognostic role of serum concentrations of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer: Results from the ITACa trial
Serum levels of C-reactive protein are (CRP) higher in patients with neoplastic conditions and numerous studies have been performed to clarify the etiologic and prognostic role of the high-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) in cancer. Our study was conducted on patients enrolled in the prospective randomized "Italian Trial in Advanced Colorectal Cancer (ITACa)" to assess hs-CRP levels and their impact on overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Serum samples from 132 ITACa patients were collected at baseline and 2 months after starting first-line chemotherapy. The supernatant was immediately transferred to cryovials and stored at -80°C. After thawing, hs-CRP was measured with the Cobas c501 analyzer. High levels of hs-CRP (≥ 13.1 mg/L) were associated with poorer median PFS (p < 0.0001) and OS (p < 0.0001) than low hs-CRP levels (< 13.1 mg/L). hs-CRP values in 107 patients were evaluated again after 2 months of therapy, revealing that patients with low hs-CRP levels in both baseline and second serum samples had the best median PFS and OS. Our study confirms the prognostic value of hs-CRP in patients with metastatic colorectal carcinoma
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