Cytogenetic characterization of the genome of mealybug Planococcus citri (Homoptera, Coccoidea)

Summary Mealybugs although being agriculturally harmful insects have been very poorly studied by modern cytogenetics techniques, and no cytotaxonomic criteria to distinguish between closely related species is available yet. In the mealybug Planococcus citri (2n=10) male and female individuals are both diploid, however in males, at the stage of blastula, the haploid chromosome set of paternal origin becomes heterochromatic, even though its complete inertia has been considered questionable. Here we present data on the cytogenetic characterization of the chromosomes of Planococcus citri. We report on (i) the fluorescence karyotype (D287/170), which to our knowledge is the first banded karyotype of a mealybug to be described; (ii) the chromosome localization of constitutive heterochromatin; (iii) the chromosome localization of rDNA sites; (iv) NORs activity. Our data also show, for the first time, that in the heterochromatic chromosome set ribosomal genes are still active

Tools and Perspectives for a Digital Critical Edition of Fourteenth-Century Polyphonic Music

The ERC funded project European Ars Nova aims to study the corpus of poetry in Latin, Italian and French set to music by the polyphonists of the so-called Ars Nova. Since one of the main research goals of the project is the comparative study of musical and poetic texts, we are currently developing a web application that will allow readers to visualize and interact with the TEI- and MEI-encoded editions of our corpus together. The adoption of MEI as the underlying format for the digital editions of the musical texts presented us with the challenge of designing an editing workflow that allowed us to critically edit the texts in a user-friendly software like Finale. In this article, we illustrate how the critical editions are transposed to MEI documents using an ad hoc tool developed within the project, and how they are visualized in the web application. Finally, we discuss the critical aspects of the workflow and possible next steps for our digital critical edition in relation to the state of the art of music encoding

Detection Analysis and Study of Genomic Region Variability of JCPyV, BKPyV, MCPyV, HPyV6, HPyV7 and QPyV in the Urine and Plasma of HIV-1-Infected Patients

Since it was clearly established that HIV/AIDS predisposes to the infection, persistence or reactivation of latent viruses, the prevalence of human polyomaviruses (HPyVs) among HIV-1-infected patients and a possible correlation between HPyVs and HIV sero-status were investigated. PCR was performed to detect and quantify JCPyV, BKPyV, MCPyV, HPyV6, HPyV7 and QPyV DNA in the urine and plasma samples of 103 HIV-1-infected patients. Subsequently, NCCR, VP1 and MCPyV LT sequences were examined. In addition, for MCPyV, the expression of transcripts for the LT gene was investigated. JCPyV, BKPyV and MCPyV’s presence was reported, whereas HPyV6, HPyV7 and QPyV were not detected in any sample. Co-infection patterns of JCPyV, BKPyV and MCPyV were found. Archetype-like NCCRs were observed with some point mutations in plasma samples positive for JCPyV and BKPyV. The VP1 region was found to be highly conserved among these subjects. LT did not show mutations causing stop codons, and LT transcripts were expressed in MCPyV positive samples. A significant correlation between HPyVs’ detection and a low level of CD4+ was reported. In conclusion, HPyV6, HPyV7 and QPyV seem to not have a clinical relevance in HIV-1 patients, whereas further studies are warranted to define the clinical importance of JCPyV, BKPyV and MCPyV DNA detection in these subjects

Causes of death in women with breast cancer: a risks and rates study on a population-based cohort

IntroductionThe increasing survival of patients with breast cancer has prompted the assessment of mortality due to all causes of death in these patients. We estimated the absolute risks of death from different causes, useful for health-care planning and clinical prediction, as well as cause-specific hazards, useful for hypothesis generation on etiology and risk factors.Materials and methodsUsing data from population-based cancer registries we performed a retrospective study on a cohort of women diagnosed with primary breast cancer. We carried out a competing-cause analysis computing cumulative incidence functions (CIFs) and cause-specific hazards (CSHs) in the whole cohort, separately by age, stage and registry area.ResultsThe study cohort comprised 12,742 women followed up for six years. Breast cancer showed the highest CIF, 13.71%, and cardiovascular disease was the second leading cause of death with a CIF of 3.60%. The contribution of breast cancer deaths to the CIF for all causes varied widely by age class: 89.25% in women diagnosed at age <50 years, 72.94% in women diagnosed at age 50–69 and 48.25% in women diagnosed at age ≥70. Greater CIF variations were observed according to stage: the contribution of causes other than breast cancer to CIF for all causes was 73.4% in women with stage I disease, 42.9% in stage II–III and only 13.2% in stage IV. CSH computation revealed temporal variations: in women diagnosed at age ≥70 the CSH for breast cancer was equaled by that for cardiovascular disease and “other diseases” in the sixth year following diagnosis, and an early peak for breast cancer was identified in the first year following diagnosis. Among women aged 50–69 we identified an early peak for breast cancer followed by a further peak near the second year of follow-up. Comparison by geographic area highlighted conspicuous variations: the highest CIF for cardiovascular disease was more than 70% higher than the lowest, while for breast cancer the highest CIF doubled the lowest.ConclusionThe integrated interpretation of absolute risks and hazards suggests the need for multidisciplinary surveillance and prevention using community-based, holistic and well-coordinated survivorship care models

How future surgery will benefit from SARS-COV-2-related measures: a SPIGC survey conveying the perspective of Italian surgeons

COVID-19 negatively affected surgical activity, but the potential benefits resulting from adopted measures remain unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the change in surgical activity and potential benefit from COVID-19 measures in perspective of Italian surgeons on behalf of SPIGC. A nationwide online survey on surgical practice before, during, and after COVID-19 pandemic was conducted in March-April 2022 (NCT:05323851). Effects of COVID-19 hospital-related measures on surgical patients' management and personal professional development across surgical specialties were explored. Data on demographics, pre-operative/peri-operative/post-operative management, and professional development were collected. Outcomes were matched with the corresponding volume. Four hundred and seventy-three respondents were included in final analysis across 14 surgical specialties. Since SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, application of telematic consultations (4.1% vs. 21.6%; p < 0.0001) and diagnostic evaluations (16.4% vs. 42.2%; p < 0.0001) increased. Elective surgical activities significantly reduced and surgeons opted more frequently for conservative management with a possible indication for elective (26.3% vs. 35.7%; p < 0.0001) or urgent (20.4% vs. 38.5%; p < 0.0001) surgery. All new COVID-related measures are perceived to be maintained in the future. Surgeons' personal education online increased from 12.6% (pre-COVID) to 86.6% (post-COVID; p < 0.0001). Online educational activities are considered a beneficial effect from COVID pandemic (56.4%). COVID-19 had a great impact on surgical specialties, with significant reduction of operation volume. However, some forced changes turned out to be benefits. Isolation measures pushed the use of telemedicine and telemetric devices for outpatient practice and favored communication for educational purposes and surgeon-patient/family communication. From the Italian surgeons' perspective, COVID-related measures will continue to influence future surgical clinical practice

Population distribution over time: modelling local spatial dependence with a CAR process

The effectiveness of local spatial dependence in shaping the population density distribution is investigated. Individual location preferences are modelled by considering the status-related features of a given spatial unit and its neighbours as well as local random spatial dependence. The novelty is framing such a dependence through conditionally autoregressive (CAR) census random effects that are added to a spatially lagged explanatory variable X (SLX) setting. The results not only confirm that controlling for the spatial dimension is relevant but also indicate that local spatial dependence warrants consideration when determining the population distribution of recent decades. In this respect, the framework turns out to be useful for the analysis of microdata in which individual relationships (in a same spatial unit) enforce local spatial dependence

Tools and Perspectives for a Digital Critical Edition of Fourteenth-Century Polyphonic Music

The ERC funded project European Ars Nova aims to study the corpus of poetry in Latin, Italian and French set to music by the polyphonists of the so-called Ars Nova. Since one of the main research goals of the project is the comparative study of musical and poetic texts, we are currently developing a web application that will allow readers to visualize and interact with the TEI- and MEI-encoded editions of our corpus together. The adoption of MEI as the underlying format for the digital editions of the musical texts presented us with the challenge of designing an editing workflow that allowed us to critically edit the texts in a user-friendly software like Finale. In this article, we illustrate how the critical editions are transposed to MEI documents using an ad hoc tool developed within the project, and how they are visualized in the web application. Finally, we discuss the critical aspects of the workflow and possible next steps for our digital critical edition in relation to the state of the art of music encoding

Tools and Perspectives for a Digital Critical Edition of Fourteenth-Century Polyphonic Music

The ERC funded project European Ars Nova aims to study the corpus of poetry in Latin, Italian and French set to music by the polyphonists of the so-called Ars Nova. Since one of the main research goals of the project is the comparative study of musical and poetic texts, we are currently developing a web application that will allow readers to visualize and interact with the TEI- and MEI-encoded editions of our corpus together. The adoption of MEI as the underlying format for the digital editions of the musical texts presented us with the challenge of designing an editing workflow that allowed us to critically edit the texts in a user-friendly software like Finale. In this article, we illustrate how the critical editions are transposed to MEI documents using an ad hoc tool developed within the project, and how they are visualized in the web application. Finally, we discuss the critical aspects of the workflow and possible next steps for our digital critical edition in relation to the state of the art of music encoding