Does time-to-degree matter? The effect of delayed graduation on employment and wages

We use a sample of Italian graduates drawn from the Consorzio AlmaLaurea to study whether the time taken to attain a degree matters for employment and earnings after one, three and five years from graduation. The relevance of this topic arises from the observation that Italian tertiary education sy stem is characterized by an average time to undergraduate degree that is longer than the prescribed period. In addition, this issue is important also because delay in college completion entails a waste of resources both at individual and at collective level, and deprives the economics system of new and up-to-date competencies, as graduates enter the labour market with partially obsolete skills. Our estimates highlight that the probability of finding a job is negatively related to the time taken to graduate only if such delay is greater than three years. Graduates with previous work experiences, then, take on average two months less to be employed and receive higher wages. We also find evidence that students who obtain a degree beyond the minimum period suffer a wage penalty not while entering the labour market, but in the subsequent years (especially 5 years after graduation). This finding suggests that time-to-degree along with work experiences are good proxies for employers to discriminate between the ability of graduates

Impacts of Anthropogenic Pollutants on Benthic Prokaryotic Communities in Mediterranean Touristic Ports

Ports and marinas are central nodes in transport network and play a strategic role in coastal development. They receive pollution from land-based sources, marine traffic and port infrastructures on one side and constitute a potential pollution source for the adjacent coastal areas on the other. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of organic and inorganic co-contamination on the prokaryotic communities in sediments from three Mediterranean ports. The structure and composition of the bacterial and archaeal communities were assessed by targeted metagenomic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene, and the links of prokaryotic communities with environmental and pollution variables were investigated. The harbors presented pronounced site-specificity in the environmental properties and pollution status. Consistently, the structure of archaeal and bacterial communities in surface sediments exhibited a strong spatial variation among the three investigated ports. On the contrary, a wide overlap in composition of prokaryotic assemblages among sites was found, but local variation in the community composition and loss of prokaryotic diversity was highlighted in a heavily impacted port sector near a shipyard. We provided evidences that organic matter, metals and PAHs as well as temperature and salinity play a strong role in structuring benthic bacterial communities significantly contributing to the understanding of their responses to anthropogenic perturbations in marine coastal areas. Among metals, copper was recognized as strongly associated with the observed changes in bacterial assemblages. Overall, this study provides the first assessment of the effects exerted by multiple organic and inorganic contaminations on benthic prokaryotes in ports over a large spatial scale and designates bacterial community as a candidate tool for the monitoring of the sediment quality status in harbors

Genetic and epigenetic characterization of a discordant kmt2a/aff1-rearranged infant monozygotic twin pair

The KMT2A/AFF1 rearrangement is associated with an unfavorable prognosis in infant acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). Discordant ALL in monozygotic twins is uncommon and represents an attractive resource to evaluate intrauterine environment–genetic interplay in ALL. Mutational and epigenetic profiles were characterized for a discordant KMT2A/AFF1-rearranged infant monozygotic twin pair and their parents, and they were compared to three independent KMT2A/AFF1-positive ALL infants, in which the DNA methylation and gene expression profiles were investigated. A de novo Q61H NRAS mutation was detected in the affected twin at diagnosis and backtracked in both twins at birth. The KMT2A/AFF1 rearrangement was absent at birth in both twins. Genetic analyses conducted at birth gave more insights into the timing of the mutation hit. We identified correlations between DNA methylation and gene expression changes for 32 genes in the three independent affected versus remitted patients. The strongest correlations were observed for the RAB32, PDK4, CXCL3, RANBP17, and MACROD2 genes. This epigenetic signature could be a putative target for the development of novel epigenetic-based therapies and could help in explaining the molecular mechanisms characterizing ALL infants with KMT2A/AFF1 fusions

Dolphin Morbillivirus in a Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), Italy

Dolphin Morbillivirus (DMV) has caused several mortality events in Mediterranean striped (Stenella coeruleoalba) and bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus) dolphins populations since nineties; in the last 5 years, the virus was reported to infect new hosts in this basin, such as fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) and even a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina). Very recently, a calf Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) calf stranded on the Southern Italian coastline with mild pathological findings suggestive of morbilliviral infection, received the first confirmation of DMV infection in this species by biomolecular evidences on lung tissue. This new cross species infection report, along with 19% of the cetaceans specimens examined by the Italian Stranding Network being found positive to DMV, support the hypothesis of an endemic circulation of this virus among Mediterranean cetaceans

Functional and clinical implications of genetic structure in 1686 Italian exomes

To reconstruct the phenotypical and clinical implications of the Italian genetic structure, we thoroughly analyzed a whole-exome sequencing data set comprised of 1686 healthy Italian individuals. We found six previously unreported variants with remarkable frequency differences between Northern and Southern Italy in the HERC2, OR52R1, ADH1B, and THBS4 genes. We reported 36 clinically relevant variants (submitted as pathogenic, risk factors, or drug response in ClinVar) with significant frequency differences between Italy and Europe. We then explored putatively pathogenic variants in the Italian exome. On average, our Italian individuals carried 16.6 protein-truncating variants (PTVs), with 2.5% of the population having a PTV in one of the 59 American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) actionable genes. Lastly, we looked for PTVs that are likely to cause Mendelian diseases. We found four heterozygous PTVs in haploinsufficient genes (KAT6A, PTCH1, and STXBP1) and three homozygous PTVs in genes causing recessive diseases (DPYD, FLG, and PYGM). Comparing frequencies from our data set to other public databases, like gnomAD, we showed the importance of population-specific databases for a more accurate assessment of variant pathogenicity. For this reason, we made aggregated frequencies from our data set publicly available as a tool for both clinicians and researchers (http://nigdb.cineca.it; NIG-ExIT)

New DNA methylation signals for malignant pleural mesothelioma risk assessment

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Our study investigated DNA methylation differences in easily accessible white blood cells (WBCs) between malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) cases and asbestos-exposed cancer-free controls. A multiple regression model highlighted that the methylation level of two single CpGs (cg03546163 in FKBP5 and cg06633438 in MLLT1) are independent MPM markers. The epigenetic changes at the FKBP5 and MLLT1 genes were robustly associated with MPM in asbestos-exposed subjects. Interaction analyses showed that MPM cases and cancer-free controls showed DNAm differences which may be linked to asbestos exposure. ABSTRACT: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare and aggressive neoplasm. Patients are usually diagnosed when current treatments have limited benefits, highlighting the need for noninvasive tests aimed at an MPM risk assessment tool that might improve life expectancy. Three hundred asbestos-exposed subjects (163 MPM cases and 137 cancer-free controls), from the same geographical region in Italy, were recruited. The evaluation of asbestos exposure was conducted considering the frequency, the duration and the intensity of occupational, environmental and domestic exposure. A genome-wide methylation array was performed to identify novel blood DNA methylation (DNAm) markers of MPM. Multiple regression analyses adjusting for potential confounding factors and interaction between asbestos exposure and DNAm on the MPM odds ratio were applied. Epigenome-wide analysis (EWAS) revealed 12 single-CpGs associated with the disease. Two of these showed high statistical power (99%) and effect size (>0.05) after false discovery rate (FDR) multiple comparison corrections: (i) cg03546163 in FKBP5, significantly hypomethylated in cases (Mean Difference in beta values (MD) = −0.09, 95% CI = −0.12|−0.06, p = 1.2 × 10(−7)), and (ii) cg06633438 in MLLT1, statistically hypermethylated in cases (MD = 0.07, 95% CI = 0.04|0.10, p = 1.0 × 10(−6)). Based on the interaction analysis, asbestos exposure and epigenetic profile together may improve MPM risk assessment. Above-median asbestos exposure and hypomethylation of cg03546163 in FKBP5 (OR = 20.84, 95% CI = 8.71|53.96, p = 5.5 × 10(−11)) and hypermethylation of cg06633438 in MLLT1 (OR = 11.71, 95% CI = 4.97|29.64, p = 5.9 × 10(−8)) genes compared to below-median asbestos exposure and hyper/hypomethylation of single-CpG DNAm, respectively. Receiver Operation Characteristics (ROC) for Case-Control Discrimination showed a significant increase in MPM discrimination when DNAm information was added in the model (baseline model, BM: asbestos exposure, age, gender and white blood cells); area under the curve, AUC = 0.75; BM + cg03546163 at FKBP5. AUC = 0.89, 2.1 × 10(−7); BM + cg06633438 at MLLT1. AUC = 0.89, 6.3 × 10(−8). Validation and replication procedures, considering independent sample size and a different DNAm analysis technique, confirmed the observed associations. Our results suggest the potential application of DNAm profiles in blood to develop noninvasive tests for MPM risk assessment in asbestos-exposed subjects