ASYNAPSIS 1 ensures crossover fidelity in polyploid wheat by promoting homologous recombination and suppressing non-homologous recombination

During meiosis, the chromosome axes and synaptonemal complex mediate chromosome pairing and homologous recombination to maintain genomic stability and accurate chromosome segregation. In plants, ASYNAPSIS 1 (ASY1) is a key component of the chromosome axis that promotes inter-homolog recombination, synapsis and crossover formation. Here, the function of ASY1 has been cytologically characterized in a series of hypomorphic wheat mutants. In tetraploid wheat, asy1 hypomorphic mutants experience a reduction in chiasmata (crossovers) in a dosage-specific manner, resulting in failure to maintain crossover (CO) assurance. In mutants with only one functional copy of ASY1, distal chiasmata are maintained at the expense of proximal and interstitial chiasmata, indicating that ASY1 is required to promote chiasma formation away from the chromosome ends. Meiotic prophase I progression is delayed in asy1 hypomorphic mutants and is arrested in asy1 null mutants. In both tetraploid and hexaploid wheat, single asy1 mutants exhibit a high degree of ectopic recombination between multiple chromosomes at metaphase I. To explore the nature of the ectopic recombination, Triticum turgidum asy1b-2 was crossed with wheat-wild relative Aegilops variabilis. Homoeologous chiasmata increased 3.75-fold in Ttasy1b-2/Ae. variabilis compared to wild type/Ae. variabilis, indicating that ASY1 suppresses chiasma formation between divergent, but related chromosomes. These data suggest that ASY1 promotes recombination along the chromosome arms of homologous chromosomes whilst suppressing recombination between non-homologous chromosomes. Therefore, asy1 mutants could be utilized to increase recombination between wheat wild relatives and elite varieties for expediting introgression of important agronomic traits

Cytomegalovirus colitis and cow's milk allergy in an immunocompetent infant: Is a causal or casual relationship?

The association between cytomegalovirus (CMV) colitis and cow's milk allergy (CMPA) is rare and still unclear. The authors describe the case of an 8-week old female infant who presented with bloody diarrhea, lack of appetite, weight loss and fever due to CMV colitis. After some months she developed a CMPA. This case report describes the third case of CMV colitis associated with CMPA. This case strongly suggests a causal relationship between the two conditions

Discrepancies between explicit and implicit evaluation of aesthetic perception ability in individuals with autism: a potential way to improve social functioning

Background: The capacity to evaluate beauty plays a crucial role in social behaviour and social relationships. It is known that some characteristics of beauty are important social cues that can induce stereotypes or promote different behavioural expectations. Another crucial capacity for success in social interactions is empathy, i.e. the ability to understand and share others\u2019 mental and emotional states. Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have an impairment of empathic ability. We showed in a previous study that empathy and aesthetic perception abilities closely related. Indeed, beauty can affect different aspects of empathic behaviour, and empathy can mediate the aesthetic perception in typically developing (TD) individuals. Thus, this study evaluates the ability of aesthetic perception in ASD individuals compared to TD individuals, using the Golden Beauty behavioural task adapted for eye-tracking in order to acquire both explicit and implicit evidences. In both groups, the relationship between empathic and aesthetic perception abilities was also evaluated. Methods: Ten ASD individuals (age \ub1 SD:20.7 \ub1 4.64) and ten TD individuals (age \ub1 SD:20.17 \ub1 0.98) participated in the study. Participants underwent empathy tasks and then the Golden Beauty task. To assess differences in the participants\u2019 performance, we carried out a repeated measures general linear model. Results: At the explicit level, our behavioural results show an impairment in aesthetic perception ability in ASD individuals. This inability could have relevance for their ability to experience pleasure during social interactions. However, at the implicit level (eye-tracking results), ASD individuals conserved a good ability to feel aesthetic pleasure during the Golden Beauty task, thus indicating a discrepancy between the explicit and implicit evaluation of the beauty task. Finally, beauty perception appears to be linked to empathy when neither of these capacities is compromised, as demonstrated in the TD group. In contrast, this link lacks in ASD individuals

Growing Up Thinking of God\u2019s Beliefs: Theory of Mind and Ontological Knowledge

The study of social cognition involves the attribution of states of mind to humans, as well as, quite recently, to nonhuman creatures, like God. Some studies support the role of social cognition in religious beliefs, whereas others ascribe religious beliefs to an ontological knowledge bias. The present study compares these distinct approaches in 37 catholic children aged 4 to 10 years, who were administered an adapted version of the unexpected content task assessing false beliefs of different agents: a human, a dog, a robot, and God. The children were also administered an intentionality understanding task, a component of mentalization abilities, and an interview on ontological knowledge assessing emotions, intentions, imagination, and epistemic knowledge. In line with previous research, the results showed that children did not attribute false beliefs to God as they did to the human and to other nonhuman agents. Importantly, while false-belief attribution to the human was associated with the children\u2019s ability to attribute mental states (intentionality understanding), false-belief attribution to God was related to children\u2019s ontological knowledge. We conclude that, contrary to false-belief attribution to the human and to other nonhuman agents, children\u2019s understanding of God\u2019s mind is largely a function of ontological knowledge about God, rather than of children\u2019s social cognitive functions

Lung ultrasound in internal medicine efficiently drives the management of patients with heart failure and speeds up the discharge time

Lung ultrasound (LUS) is a valid tool for the assessment of heart failure (HF) through the quantification of the B-lines. This study in HF patients aims to evaluate if LUS: (1) can accelerate the discharge time; (2) can efficiently drive diuretic therapy dosage; and (3) may have better performance compared to the amino-terminal portion of B type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels in monitoring HF recovery. A consecutive sample of 120 HF patients was admitted from the Emergency Department (ED) to the Internal Medicine Department (Verona University Hospital). The Chest X-ray (CXR) group underwent standard CXR examination on admission and discharge. The LUS group underwent LUS on admission, 24, 48 and 72\ua0h later, and on discharge. The Inferior Cava Vein Collapsibility Index, ICVCI, and the NT-proBNP were assessed. LUS discharge time was significantly shorter if compared to CXR group (p\ua0<\ua00.01). During hospitalization, the LUS group underwent an increased number of diuretic dosage modulations compared to the CXR group (p\ua0<\ua00.001). There was a stronger association between partial pressure of oxygen in arterial blood (PaO2) and B-lines compared to the association between PaO2 and NT-proBNP both on admission and on discharge (p\ua0<\ua00.001). The B-lines numbers were significantly higher on admission in patients with more severe HF, and the ICVCI was inversely associated with B-lines number (p\ua0<\ua00.001). The potential of LUS in tailoring diuretic therapy and accelerating the discharge time in HF patients is confirmed. Until the technique comes into common use in different departments, it is plausible that LUS will evolve with different facets

Practice patterns and 90-day treatment-related morbidity in early-stage cervical cancer

To evaluate the impact of the Laparoscopic Approach to Cervical Cancer (LACC) Trial on patterns of care and surgery-related morbidity in early-stage cervical cancer

Investigating Synaptonemal Complex Morphogenesis in Polyploid Wheat

The synaptonemal complex is a tripartite proteinaceous structure consisting of two filamentous lateral elements, joined by zipper-like transverse filaments and central elements that assemble to join homologous chromosomes and ensure recombination by formation of crossovers during meiotic prophase I. In polyploid wheat, components of the synaptonemal complex and its installation process are still elusive. The application of several distinct methodologies, such as Sanger sequencing, cloning and bioinformatics was conducted to analyse gene expression contribution and transcript variants for the Triticum aestivum ASYNAPTIC 1 (ASY1) and ZYPPER-LIKE 1 (ZYP1) genes. Mutant TILLING lines provided a valid strategy to functionally analyse asy1 and zyp1 and to characterize putative meiotic genes in polyploid wheat, identified via a computational screening. Molecular analysis demonstrated a balanced expression level among the ASY1 and ZYP1 sub-genomes of hexaploid wheat, being also expressed in non-meiotic tissues, and uncovered the presence of de-novo transcript isoforms within their 3’ UTRs. Cytological analysis revealed that ASY1 is involved in chromosome homology search, since asy1 hypomorphic mutants showed multivalent associations, and is required for formation of the obligate crossover, mirroring the ph1 phenotype. Preliminary data of zyp1 single knockouts suggested a conserved role of ZYP1 in mantaining obligate crossovers, and in controlling the timing of synaptonemal complex assembly in tetraploid wheat. Furthermore, a wheat SWITCH1 (SWI1) orthologue was identified using co-expression bioinformatics tools. Lastly, a method to implement FISH-based single copy oligo-probes to discriminate individual wheat chromosomes was developed. This work provides advanced directions for studying meiosis in polyploid wheat, expanding the opportunities to manipulate crossovers and introgress agronomically important genes.</p

Feeling connected to nature: Validation of the Connectedness To Nature Scale in the Italian Context

Environmental issues are at the centre of the political and cultural debate, representing one of the greatest challenges of our century. Sustainability and pro-environmental conducts are rec-ognized as increasingly urgent to address the decay of ecosystems. To support the acquisition of attitudes that give greater consideration to environmental issues, feeling connected to nature has been acknowledged in psychology as a particularly relevant individual component. One of the most widely used scales in Anglo-Saxon context to analyse this feeling is the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) measuring human’s affective and experiential connection to nature. To in-vestigate the psychometric properties of this scale in the Italian context, a study including 284 Italian adults (45,9% female; 54.1% males; Mean age = 34.63; SD = 13.422; age-range = 18-65 years) was carried out to provide evidence for the internal consistency of the CNS as well as its con-vergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed that CNS in Italian has a single-factor structure as reported in the original version by [1]. Further-more, as expected, positive correlations were observed between the CNS and pro-environmental attitudes and negative correlations with civic moral disengagement. Finally, as assumed, the CNS positively correlated with mental well-being. A broad vision of this study concerns the idea that if people are more connected to nature, they will be less inclined to harm it

Piezosurgery vs high speed rotary handpiece: a comparison between the two techniques in the impacted third molar surgery

The aim of the Study was to compare the impacted third molar surgical technique by means of the high speed rotary handpiece with the piezoelectric one. 192 patients have been selected among those who had to undergo a third molar surgical extraction. These patients’ surgeries have been performed by means of one of the techniques, randomly chosen. Each patient has undergone the same analgesic therapy (paracetamol 1000 mg tablets). Each surgery has been performed by the same surgeon. The patients were asked to fill in a questionnaire concerning the postoperative pain (“happy face pain” rating scale). The average duration of the surgeries performed by means of the high speed rotary handpiece was 32 minutes, while the duration of the ones performed by means of the piezoelectric handpiece was much longer (54 minutes). The postoperative pain values were almost equal. In conclusion, the osteotomy performed by means of the traditional technique still represents the gold standard in the impacted third molar surgery. The piezoelectric technique may be an effective choice, especially for the less skilled surgeons, in order to guarantee the protection of the delicate locoregional anatomical structures

Second victims in healthcare: the stages of recovery following an adverse event

A second victim has been defined as "a healthcare worker involved in an unanticipated adverse patient event, medical error and/or a patient related-injury who becomes victimized in the sense that the worker is traumatized by the event". The aim of the present research study was to assess the "second victim" phenomenon in Italy. Fifty interviews were conducted with different health care professionals previously involved in medical errors. All study participants clearly remembered the event. Support obtained by second victims was poor and inefficient. Healthcare workers become second victims every day and, considering that human resources are the most important resource of healthcare organizations, it is fundamental to implement valid programs to support and train these workers about the phenomenon