842 research outputs found
Assessment of goods and services, vulnerability, and conservation status of European seabed biotopes: a stepping stone towards ecosystem-based marine spatial management
The goal of ecosystem-based marine spatial management is to maintain marine ecosystems in a healthy, productive and resilient condition; hence, they can sustainably provide the needed goods and services for human welfare. However, the increasing pressures upon the marine realm threaten marine ecosystems, especially seabed biotopes, and thus a well-planned approach of managing use of marine space is essential to achieve sustainability. The relative value of seabed biotopes, evaluated on the basis of goods and services, is an important starting point for the spatial management of marine areas. Herein, 56 types of European seabed biotopes and their related goods, services, sensitivity issues, and conservation status were compiled, the latter referring to management and protection tools which currently apply for these biotopes at European or international level. Fishing activities, especially by benthic trawls, and marine pollution are the main threats to European seabed biotopes. Increased seawater turbidity, dredged sediment disposal, coastal constructions, biological invasions, mining, extraction of raw materials, shipping-related activities, tourism, hydrocarbon exploration, and even some practices of scientific research, also exert substantial pressure. Although some first steps have been taken to protect the European sea beds through international agreements and European and national legislation, a finer scale of classification and assessment of marine biotopes is considered crucial in shaping sound priorities and management guidelines towards the effective conservation and sustainability of European marine resources
Fenomeno Caulerpa 2010-2013. Rapporto sull'evoluzione delle specie aliene nel Canale di Sicilia
Gli studi effettuati da ARPA-Sicilia, ISPRA e CNR-IAMC hanno perseguito l’obiettivo principale
di monitorare e valutare l’impatto della diffusione delle alghe indagate, attraverso
l’analisi dell’evoluzione spazio-temporale del fenomeno e la caratterizzazione eco-tossicologica
delle aree di pesca maggiormente interessate dalla presenza delle caulerpe.
In particolare
Le ricerche di ARPA-Sicilia sono state mirate a:
- Definire le aree di studio principalmente interessate dal fenomeno di diffusione delle
due alghe aliene;
- Caratterizzare da un punto di vista ambientale le aree oggetto d’indagine;
- Valutare le pressioni antropiche che insistono lungo le coste delle aree indagate;
- Stimare l’influenza che le pressioni antropiche possono esercitare sulla diffusione della
Caulerpa;
- Indagare l’andamento spazio-temporale della distribuzione di Caulerpa in specifiche
aree di indagine.
Gli studi condotti da ISPRA hanno puntato a:
- Valutare possibili interferenze dell’alga con le attività di pesca, l’intasamento delle reti
e la riduzione della pescabilità dell’attrezzo;
- Rilevare l’eventuale diversità tra aree con insediamento e prive di insediamento;
- Avviare l’introduzione di buone pratiche per evitare che la pesca possa rappresentare
un ulteriore vettore di invasioni secondarie attraverso disseminazione dei frammenti e
propaguli dell’alga;
- Definire comportamenti alieutici nel tempo utili alla mitigazione del potenziale impatto
della pesca sulle risorse nelle aree colpite;
- Istituire in tutta l’area di studio e, in particolare, nell’arcipelago delle Pelagie, un “Osservatorio
delle Specie Aliene” per svolgere attività di monitoraggio sulla diffusione delle
specie aliene, al fine di formulare proposte gestionali mirate alla salvaguardia degli ecosistemi
e delle attività economiche di pesca.
Le indagini realizzate dal CNR-IAMC hanno avuto come obiettivi principali:
- Confrontare le caratteristiche dei popolamenti bentonici associati a praterie di Posidonia
oceanica della Sicilia meridionale interessate dall’invasione di Caulerpa taxifolia var.
distichophylla con quelle di popolamenti associati a posidonieti di località limitrofe non
colpite dal fenomeno;
- Confrontare la struttura trofica della comunità bentonica associata a matte di Posidonia
oceanica in località invase e non invase da alghe aliene del genere Caulerpa della Sicilia
meridionale;
- Valutare gli effetti dell’invasione di Caulerpa racemosa var. cylindracea sulla struttura
e sulla funzione di popolamenti macrobentonici sessili di fondo duro dell’infralitorale
Moving Toward a Strategy for Addressing Climate Displacement of Marine Resources: A Proof-of-Concept
Realistic predictions of climate change effects on natural resources are central to adaptation policies that try to reduce these impacts. However, most current forecasting approaches do not incorporate species-specific, process-based biological information, which limits their ability to inform actionable strategies. Mechanistic approaches, incorporating quantitative information on functional traits, can potentially predict species- and population-specific responses that result from the cumulative impacts of small-scale processes acting at the organismal level, and can be used to infer population-level dynamics and inform natural resources management. Here we present a proof-of-concept study using the European anchovy as a model species that shows how a trait-based, mechanistic species distribution model can be used to explore the vulnerability of marine species to environmental changes, producing quantitative outputs useful for informing fisheries management. We crossed scenarios of temperature and food to generate quantitative maps of selected mechanistic model outcomes (e.g., Maximum Length and Total Reproductive Output). These results highlight changing patterns of source and sink spawning areas as well as the incidence of reproductive failure. This study demonstrates that model predictions based on functional traits can reduce the degree of uncertainty when forecasting future trends of fish stocks. However, to be effective they must be based on high spatial- and temporal resolution environmental data. Such a sensitive and spatially explicit predictive approach may be used to inform more effective adaptive management strategies of resources in novel climatic conditions
Moving Toward a Strategy for Addressing Climate Displacement of Marine Resources: A Proof-of-Concept
Realistic predictions of climate change effects on natural resources are central to adaptation policies that try to reduce these impacts. However, most current forecasting approaches do not incorporate species-specific, process-based biological information, which limits their ability to inform actionable strategies. Mechanistic approaches, incorporating quantitative information on functional traits, can potentially predict species- and population-specific responses that result from the cumulative impacts of small-scale processes acting at the organismal level, and can be used to infer population-level dynamics and inform natural resources management. Here we present a proof-of-concept study using the European anchovy as a model species that shows how a trait-based, mechanistic species distribution model can be used to explore the vulnerability of marine species to environmental changes, producing quantitative outputs useful for informing fisheries management. We crossed scenarios of temperature and food to generate quantitative maps of selected mechanistic model outcomes (e.g., Maximum Length and Total Reproductive Output). These results highlight changing patterns of source and sink spawning areas as well as the incidence of reproductive failure. This study demonstrates that model predictions based on functional traits can reduce the degree of uncertainty when forecasting future trends of fish stocks. However, to be effective they must be based on high spatial- and temporal resolution environmental data. Such a sensitive and spatially explicit predictive approach may be used to inform more effective adaptive management strategies of resources in novel climatic conditions
Upregulation of miR-29a and genomic DNA hypermethylation in normal karyotype AML showing DNMT3A mutation
Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) is frequently associated to normal karyotype and DNMT3A
mutations (R882). Since we previously demonstrated distinctive miRNA expression in some
AML groups, we study 384 miRNA in 9 selected DNMT3A-mutated NK-AML patients.
Comparing these data with our previous results obtained in 31 DNMT3A-unmutated AML, we
focused on a significant up-regulation of miR-155, miR-29a, miR-196b and miR-25. We
investigated expression of these miRNAs in additional 24 DNMT3A-mutated AML patients and
we confirm the up-regulation of miR-155, miR-29a and miR-196b; in particular, we judged very
interesting the over expression of miR-29a since is known to directly target DNMT3A, TET1 and
TDG mRNAs. Evaluating the expression levels of these targets in 17 AML DNMT3A-mutated
patients, we revealed a no significant differences in expression of DNMT3A and TDG but a
significant down-regulation of TET1.
These data suggest that miR-29a acts as DNA methylation-regulator: in presence of DNMT3A
activating mutations and TET1 down-regulation it may probably cause a perturbation of DNA
methylation. In fact, analyzing the methylation of the bone marrow genomic DNA from 3
DNMT3A-mutated and 3 DNMT3A-unmutated cases by Methylation Sensitive Arbitrarily
Primed-PCR, we found a genomic hypermethylation of DNMT3A-mutated cells compared to the
unmutated ones.
How DNMT3A mutations contribute to leukemogenesis is not yet well characterized. Uncovering
how DNMT3A mutations affect DNA methylation and epigenetic regulation of gene expression
may have important implications in treatment selection because DNA hypomethylating agents
are increasingly used in AML therapies, and response to these drugs may be affected by
DNMT3A changed function
The Impact of Meat Intake on Bladder Cancer Incidence: Is It Really a Relevant Risk?
Bladder cancer (BC) represents the second most common genitourinary malignancy. The major risk factors for BC include age, gender, smoking, occupational exposure, and infections. The BC etiology and pathogenesis have not been fully defined yet. Since catabolites are excreted through the urinary tract, the diet may play a pivotal role in bladder carcinogenesis. Meat, conventionally classified as "red", "white" or "processed", represents a significant risk factor for chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. In particular, red and processed meat consumption seems to increase the risk of BC onset. The most accepted mechanism proposed for explaining the correlation between meat intake and BC involves the generation of carcinogens, such as heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by high-temperature cooking. This evidence claims the consumption limitation of meat. We reviewed the current literature on potential biological mechanisms underlying the impact of meat (red, white, and processed) intake on the increased risk of BC development and progression. Toward this purpose, we performed an online search on PubMed using the term "bladder cancer" in combination with "meat", "red meat", "white meat" or "processed meat". Although some studies did not report any association between BC and meat intake, several reports highlighted a positive correlation between red or processed meat intake, especially salami, pastrami, corned beef and bacon, and BC risk. We speculate that a reduction or rather a weighting of the consumption of red and processed meat can reduce the risk of developing BC. Obviously, this remark claims future indications regarding food education (type of meat to be preferred, quantity of red meat to be eaten and how to cook it) to reduce the risk of developing BC. Further well-designed prospective studies are needed to corroborate these findings
Search for direct stau production in events with two hadronic tau-leptons in root s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector
A search for the direct production of the supersymmetric partners ofτ-leptons (staus) in final stateswith two hadronically decayingτ-leptons is presented. The analysis uses a dataset of pp collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of139fb−1, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LargeHadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No significant deviation from the expected StandardModel background is observed. Limits are derived in scenarios of direct production of stau pairs with eachstau decaying into the stable lightest neutralino and oneτ-lepton in simplified models where the two staumass eigenstates are degenerate. Stau masses from 120 GeV to 390 GeV are excluded at 95% confidencelevel for a massless lightest neutralino
Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at TeV with the ATLAS detector
This paper presents measurements of the and cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a
function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were
collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with
the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity
of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements
varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the
1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured
with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with
predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various
parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between
them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables,
submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at
https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13
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