Historical roots and the evolving science of forest management under a systemic perspective

In recent history, both a growing awareness of how scientific and societal uncertainty impacts management decisions and of the intrinsic value of nature have suggested new approaches to forest management, with a growing debate in forest science over the need for a paradigmatic shift from the classic conventional world view, based on determinism, predictability, and output-oriented management, towards a world view that has roots in complex adaptive systems theory and is consistent with a nature-based ethic. A conceptual framework under this context is provided by systemic silviculture. In this discussion, we analyze how this approach can be linked to three fundamental moments of the history of forestry and forest science: the Dauerwald theory, Gurnaud's control method, and the origins of environmental ethics. Relationships with the recent history of forest management science and current research perspectives are also highlighted.4n

Immune checkpoint inhibitors in pre-treated gastric cancer patients: Results from a literature-based meta-analysis

Immunotherapy has recently changed the treatment of several cancers. We performed a literature-based meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials to assess the efficacy of the novel immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in metastatic gastric cancer. The main outcome was overall survival. Based on age (cut-off agreed at 65 years), tumour location (gastric vs. gastro-oesophageal junction), programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) status, sex and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) status (1 vs. 0), we scheduled a subgroup analysis for the overall survival. Three studies were included in the analysis for a total of 1456 cases (811 cases were in the experimental group and 645 cases in the control group). The pooled analysis showed improved overall survival in the experimental arm in the absence of statistical significance (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.64\u20131.18; p = 0.37). The subgroup of patients with PD-L1-positive tumours (HR = 0.82 vs. 1.04) and gastro-oesophageal junction cancer (HR = 0.82 vs. 1.04) showed a statistically significant advantage of overall survival. This study supports the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in the subgroup of patients with metastatic gastric cancer with PD-L1-positive and gastro-oesophageal junction tumour location. Future studies are needed with the aim of identifying reliable predictive biomarkers of ICI efficacy

Poor outcome for patients with gastric cancer and lung metastases treated with ramucirumab and paclitaxel

The aim of this report is to investigate the activity of ramucirumab in combination with paclitaxel in patients with metastatic gastric cancer (GC) and lung metastases. We retrospectively reviewed clinical data from patients with GC treated in second line with ramucirumab and paclitaxel according to the presence or not of lung metastases. Thirty-one patients were eligible. Five (16.1%) patients had lung metastases. The median progression-free survival was 156 days in patients without lung metastases compared with 54 days in patients with lung metastases. The median survival also showed a trend in favour of patients without lung metastases. Despite the small number of patients and the retrospective nature of the data, our analysis showed relatively poor efficacy of ramucirumab plus paclitaxel as a second-line treatment in patients with lung metastases from GC. Further studies are required to evaluate novel treatments in this subset of patients

Impact of lignans in oilseed mix on gut microbiome composition and enterolignan production in younger healthy and premenopausal women: An in vitro pilot study

Background: Dietary lignans belong to the group of phytoestrogens together with coumestans, stilbenes and isoflavones, and themselves do not exhibit oestrogen-like properties. Nonetheless, the gut microbiota converts them into enterolignans, which show chemical similarity to the human oestrogen molecule. One of the richest dietary sources of lignans are oilseeds, including flaxseed. The aim of this pilot study was to determine the concentration of the main dietary lignans in an oilseed mix, and explore the gut microbiota-dependent production of enterolignans for oestrogen substitution in young and premenopausal women. The oilseed mix was fermented in a pH-controlled batch culture system inoculated with women's faecal samples. The lignan content and enterolignan production were measured by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS), and the faecal-derived microbial communities were profiled by 16S rRNA gene-based next-generation sequencing. Results: In vitro batch culture fermentation of faecal samples inoculated with oilseed mix for 24 h resulted in a substantial increase in enterolactone production in younger women and an increase in enterodiol in the premenopausal group. As for the gut microbiota, different baseline profiles were observed as well as different temporal dynamics, mainly related to Clostridiaceae, and Klebsiella and Collinsella spp. Conclusions: Despite the small sample size, our pilot study revealed that lignan-rich oilseeds could strongly influence the faecal microbiota of both younger and premenopausal females, leading to a different enterolignan profile being produced. Further studies in larger cohorts are needed to evaluate the long-term effects of lignan-rich diets on the gut microbiota and find out how enterolactone-producing bacterial species could be increased. Diets rich in lignans could potentially serve as a safe supplement of oestrogen analogues to meet the cellular needs of endogenous oestrogen and deliver numerous health benefits, provided that the premenopausal woman microbiota is capable of converting dietary precursors into enterolignans.[Figure not available: See fulltext.

Outlining multi-purpose forest inventories to assess the ecosystem approach in forestry

A summary and discussion of selected published results on the current and potential role of forest inventories (with particular reference to the national ones) are presented in the light of the challenges posed by society and policy decisions in the environmental sector. The analysis concentrates mainly on the ecological and socio-economic aspects of the question and on forest inventories’ potential contribution to achieving sustainable forest management.L'articolo è diponibile sul sito dell'editore wwww.tandf.co.uk/journals

A forest typology for monitoring sustainable forest management: The case of European Forest Types

Sustainable forest management (SFM) is presently widely accepted as the overriding objective for forest policy and practice. Regional processes are in progress all over the world to develop and implement criteria and indicators of SFM. In continental Europe, a set of 35 Pan-European indicators has been endorsed under the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE) to measure progress towards SFM in the 44 countries of the region. The formulation of seven indicators (forest area, growing stock, age structure/diameter distribution, deadwood, tree species composition, damaging agents, naturalness) requires national data to be reported by forest types. Within the vast European forest area the values taken by these indicators show a considerable range of variation, due to variable natural conditions and anthropogenic influences. Given this variability, it is very difficult to grasp the meaning of these indicators when taken out of their ecological background. The paper discusses the concepts behind, and the requirements of, a classification more soundly ecologically framed and suitable for MCPFE reporting than the three (un-informative) classes adopted so far: broadleaved forest, coniferous forest, mixed broadleaved and coniferous forest. We propose a European Forest Types scheme structured into a reasonably higher number of classes, that would improve the specificity of the indicators reported under the MCPFE process and its understanding.L'articolo è disponibile sul sito dell'editore www.tandf.co.uk/journals

Chronic vascular effects of oat phenolic acids and avenanthramides in pre- or stage 1 hypertensive adults

Wholegrain consumption is linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Evidence from randomized controlled trials have established that the consumption of wholegrain oats lowers blood cholesterol, via a mechanism partly mediated by β-glucan soluble fiber. However, oats contain an arrayof phenolic acids, including ferulic acid and also structurally related avenanthramides, which mayalso contribute to the cardiovascular health benefits of oat intake. We investigated whether 4 weeks, daily consumption of oat phenolics leads to improvement in markers of CVD risk men and women.In a 3 arm crossover single-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 28 volunteers consumed either: 1) oatmeal/oatcake intervention (-containing 48.9mg of phenolic acids and 19.2mg of avenanthramides); 2) oatbran concentrate+rice porridge/wheat cracker intervention (-containing 38.4mg of phenolic acidsand 0.5mg of avenanthramides) or 3) rice porridge/wheat cracker intervention (containing 13.8mg of phenolic acids). All treatments were matched in soluble fiber (4.8g) and energy (500kcal). The primary endpoint was FMD and other cardiovascular endpoints were blood pressure, LDI, LDL/HDL cholesterol, platelets and endothelial cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs). All measures were taken at baseline and after three, 4 week long intervention periods and two washout periods.Our data indicates an increase by 1.09 %±0.41 %(Mean± SEM) in FMD response following high phenolic oat intake with a significant difference (P=0.007) between baseline and postintervention. Consumption of high phenolic oats also led to a significant improvement in 24-hour SBP, day time SBP and night time SBP (P<0.01, P<0.01 and P<0.05) and day time and night time DBP (p<0.05). There was also a significant decrease with total and LDL cholesterol after the consumption of moderate and high phenolic oat interventions (P<0.05) and a small improvement in LDI (both Ach and SNP) but not significant. The number of resting endothelial EVs were also found to be increasing after the consumption of high phenolic oats.The findings of this study may provide evidence about the role of oat phenolic acids and avenanthramides in cardiovascular health and contribute to more effective public health advice about the consumption of oats and healthy cardiovascular aging

Antiviral activity of benzotriazole based derivatives

Background: For the last thirty years, the benzotriazole scaffold has been the object of our group interest and we have already presented some results on the antiviral activity of our compounds. Objective: In this article, we conclude the exploration of N-(4-(R-2H-benzo[d][1,2,3]triazol-2-yl)phenyl)-4-R’-benzamides and 1-(4-(R-2H-benzo[d][1,2,3]triazol-2-yl)phenyl)-3-R’-ureas by synthesizing further modified derivatives, in order to have more elements for SARs evaluation. Methods: Here, we reported the synthesis and the antiviral screening results of 38 newly synthesized benzotriazole derivatives against a panel of DNA and RNA viruses. We also analyse SARs in comparing these compounds with previously published benzotriazole analogues, taking stock of the situation. Results: Among the newly presented derivatives, compounds 17 and 18 were the most active with EC50 6.9 and 5.5 µM, respectively against Coxsackievirus B5 (CV-B5) and 20.5 and 17.5 µM against Poliovirus (Sb-1). Conclusion: we can conclude that N-(4-(2H-benzo[d] [1-3] triazol-2-yl)phenyl-R-amide is a good chemical scaffold for the development of new antiviral molecules