Using ground motion prediction equations to monitor variations in quality factor due to induced seismicity: a feasibility study

Sub-surface operations for energy production such as gas storage, fluid reinjection or hydraulic fracking may modify the physical properties of the rocks, in particular the seismic velocity and the anelastic attenuation. The aim of the present study is to investigate, through a synthetic test, the possibility of using empirical ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) to observe the variations in the reservoir. In the synthetic test, we reproduce the expected seismic activity (in terms of rate, focal mechanisms, stress drop and the b value of the Gutenberg-Richter) and the variation of medium properties in terms of the quality factor Q induced by a fluid injection experiment. In practice, peak-ground velocity data of the simulated earthquakes during the field operations are used to update the coefficients of a reference GMPE in order to test whether the coefficients are able to capture the medium properties variation. The results of the test show that the coefficients of the GMPE vary during the simulated field operations revealing their sensitivity to the variation of the anelastic attenuation. The proposed approach is suggested as a promising tool that, if confirmed by real data analysis, could be used for monitoring and interpreting induced seismicity in addition to more conventional techniques

Effects of Two Concentrations of a Clinical Propofol Formulation on Canine Mammary Tumor Cells NET1 Gene Expression: A Preliminary Evaluation of Possible Anti-Metastatic Properties

Background: Several studies show that anesthesia for primary cancer surgery might influence cancer recurrence regulating specific gene expression like the Neuroepithelial transforming (NET) 1 protein. This gene has been associated with malignant behaviors and represents a novel prognostic marker in human epithelial cancers. The present study investigates the in vitro effects of a clinically available propofol formulation on NET1 expression in canine mammary tumor cells, as a potential translational model. Methods: Two canine mammary tumor cell lines, primary (CIPp) and metastatic (CIPm), were incubated with propofol (1-10 μg ml-1). Cells were lysate and RNA isolated at pre-established time points. A quantitative PCR was performed to evaluate NET1 gene expression and resulting delta cycle thresholds compared. Results: Baseline NET1 gene expression was lower in CIPm compared with CIPp. Both propofol concentrations increased NET1 mRNA levels in CIPp after 6 hours. In CIPm the higher propofol concentration caused a reduction in gene expression after 6 hours. Propofol decreased gene expression in both cell lines and only in CIPp after 12 and 24 hours, respectively. No differences were found in CIPm after 48 hours. The higher concentration of propofol increased gene expression in CIPp after 48 hours. Conclusions: Metastatic cells showed a lower basal NET1 expression and were less responsive to treatments compared to primary tumor cells. Propofol effectively influenced NET1 gene expression without a clear dose dependency. Most treatment time-points showed a decreased NET1 gene expression, although increases were also observed. Keywords: Anesthesia cancer; canine mammary tumor; NET1 gene; propofol.Peer reviewe

Canine mammary tumour cells exposure to sevoflurane : effects on cell proliferation and neuroepithelial transforming gene 1 expression

Objective The influence of perioperative factors, such as anaesthetic and analgesic techniques, on metastatic spread following surgery for primary cancer removal is of growing interest. The present study investigated the effects of sevoflurane on canine mammary tumour cell proliferation (MTT colorimetric assay) and on the expression of neuroepithelial transforming gene 1 (NET1). Study design Prospective controlled in vitro trial. Study material Primary (CIPp) and metastatic canine tubular adenocarcinoma (CIPm) cells. Methods To perform MTT tests, cell lines were seeded at a density of 3000 cells per well and incubated with sevoflurane (1, 2.5 or 4 mM) or only with the culture medium (control). Sevoflurane was added to the cell cultures every hour to avoid changes in drug concentration. MTT assays were performed after 6 hours of exposure obtaining absolute values of absorbance. The RNA isolated from the lysates of the same cell lines underwent quantitative polymerase chain reaction to evaluate NET1 gene expression changes compared with controls. One-or two-way analysis of variance was used as appropriate (p <0.05). Results A significant increase in cell proliferation compared with controls was observed in CIPp treated with lower sevoflurane concentrations, whereas a significant decrease in cell proliferation was found in CIPm treated with all the sevoflurane concentrations. All CIPp treatments did not induce changes in gene expression compared with controls, whereas a significant increase in gene expression was observed in CIPm between controls and the higher sevoflurane concentration. Conclusions and clinical relevance Sevoflurane treatments modified the cell proliferation rate in both cell lines showing an increase or decrease when applied to CIPp or CIPm, respectively. Expression of the NET1 gene increased after treatment with sevoflurane 4 mM in metastatic cells. The role of sevoflurane on cancer recurrence should be further investigated.Peer reviewe

Probing the Multiple Structures of Vaterite through Combined Computational and Experimental Raman Spectroscopy

First-principles Raman spectra have been computed for several new vaterite structural models that have been recently proposed, and compared with spectra recorded on a set of biogenic, geological and synthetic samples. This set includes new measurements collected on Herdamania momus spicules (Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia), which are known to have purity and crystallinity that are higher than for other biogenic samples. Overall, due to the close structural connection between the various models, the computed Raman spectra are found to be broadly similar. However, the spectra obtained for the two most stable models (monoclinic C2 and trigonal P3221, corresponding to two different polytypes of vaterite) exhibit features that are in excellent agreement with the experimental spectra, whereas the other theoretical structures show minor peaks that are not observed experimentally. When comparing the spectra for the two lowest energy structural models (C2 and P3221), the differences are too small to discriminate between these candidates. The Raman spectrum of Herdamania momus is of higher quality with respect to spectra obtained in previous studies on other biogenic samples. However, there is no significant and systematic difference with respect to samples of geological and synthetic origin

Theatre is a valid add-on therapeutic intervention for emotional rehabilitation of parkinson's disease patients

Conventional medical treatments of Parkinson's disease (PD) are effective on motor disturbances but may have little impact on nonmotor symptoms, especially psychiatric ones. Thus, even when motor symptomatology improves, patients might experience deterioration in their quality of life. We have shown that 3 years of active theatre is a valid complementary intervention for PD as it significantly improves the well-being of patients in comparison to patients undergoing conventional physiotherapy. Our aim was to replicate these findings while improving the efficacy of the treatment. We ran a single-blinded pilot study lasting 15 months on 24 subjects with moderate idiopathic PD. 12 were assigned to a theatre program in which patients underwent "emotional" training. The other 12 underwent group physiotherapy. Patients were evaluated at the beginning and at the end of their treatments, using a battery of eight clinical and five neuropsychological scales. We found that the emotional theatre training improved the emotional well-being of patients, whereas physiotherapy did not. Interestingly, neither of the groups showed improvements in either motor symptoms or cognitive abilities tested by the neuropsychological battery. We confirmed that theatre therapy might be helpful in improving emotional well-being in PD

ASPIC: a web resource for alternative splicing prediction and transcript isoforms characterization

Alternative splicing (AS) is now emerging as a major mechanism contributing to the expansion of the transcriptome and proteome complexity of multicellular organisms. The fact that a single gene locus may give rise to multiple mRNAs and protein isoforms, showing both major and subtle structural variations, is an exceptionally versatile tool in the optimization of the coding capacity of the eukaryotic genome. The huge and continuously increasing number of genome and transcript sequences provides an essential information source for the computational detection of genes AS pattern. However, much of this information is not optimally or comprehensively used in gene annotation by current genome annotation pipelines. We present here a web resource implementing the ASPIC algorithm which we developed previously for the investigation of AS of user submitted genes, based on comparative analysis of available transcript and genome data from a variety of species. The ASPIC web resource provides graphical and tabular views of the splicing patterns of all full-length mRNA isoforms compatible with the detected splice sites of genes under investigation as well as relevant structural and functional annotation. The ASPIC web resource—available at —is dynamically interconnected with the Ensembl and Unigene databases and also implements an upload facility

Whole-exome analysis in osteosarcoma to identify a personalized therapy

Osteosarcoma is the most common pediatric primary non-hematopoietic bone tumor. Survival of these young patients is related to the response to chemotherapy and development of metastases. Despite many advances in cancer research, chemotherapy regimens for osteosarcoma are still based on non-selective cytotoxic drugs. It is essential to investigate new specific molecular therapies for osteosarcoma to increase the survival rate of these patients. We performed exomic sequence analyses of 8 diagnostic biopsies of patients with conventional high grade osteosarcoma to advance our understanding of their genetic underpinnings and to correlate the genetic alteration with the clinical and pathological features of each patient to identify a personalized therapy. We identified 18,275 somatic variations in 8,247 genes and we found three mutated genes in 7/8 (87%) samples (KIF1B, NEB and KMT2C). KMT2C showed the highest number of variations; it is an important component of a histone H3 lysine 4 methyltransferase complex and it is one of the histone modifiers previously implicated in carcinogenesis, never studied in osteosarcoma. Moreover, we found a group of 15 genes that showed variations only in patients that did not respond to therapy and developed metastasis and some of these genes are involved in carcinogenesis and tumor progression in other tumors. These data could offer the opportunity to get a key molecular target to identify possible new strategies for early diagnosis and new therapeutic approaches for osteosarcoma and to provide a tailored treatment for each patient based on their genetic profile