LCA of Different Construction Choices for a Double-Track Railway Line for Sustainability Evaluations

The international commitment to achieve carbon neutrality in the next few decades has oriented human activities towards the preservation of natural and non-renewable resources. In this context, a great research effort has been devoted to the search for sustainable solutions for the infrastructure construction sector, based on a thorough assessment of the environmental impact (EI). In this regards, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is considered one of the main components of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and, for a comprehensive analysis, all the costs incurred by stakeholders during the useful life of the infrastructure should also be taken into account, applying the Life Cycle Cost (LCC) methodology. So far, there is a lack of combined LCA and LCC analyses of railway projects to support a proper sustainable decision-making process at a project level. Therefore, this study aimed to contributed to this topic by determining the environmental effect and related costs of different planning and construction choices in terms of material and maintenance strategies. For this purpose, first, an LCA of typical railway infrastructures with a ballasted track was developed. The case study considered two different functional units of a double-track railway line: 1 km of embankment section and 1 km of a cut section, in straight alignment. After defining five alternative railway infrastructure scenarios with different materials (virgin or recycled material) and construction methods (e.g., lime stabilization), two different railway track maintenance approaches were analysed. SimaPro was used to analyse the case study, and the results were compared with those obtained using the PaLATE software, suitably adapted for use in the railway sector. Finally, a cost analysis was carried out using Life Cycle Cost (LCC) methodology for all the scenarios analysed. The results obtained in terms of EI and related costs of each scenario provide useful information, allowing a sustainable planning approach: as a general result, the initial construction phase always involves the larger part of the total environmental impact while the material production is the most polluting phase, reaching percentages always higher than 50% of the total

Targeting a phospho-STAT3-miRNAs pathway improves vesicular hepatic steatosis in an in vitro and in vivo model

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a leading cause of chronic liver disease. Although genetic predisposition and epigenetic factors contribute to the development of NAFLD, our understanding of the molecular mechanism involved in the pathogenesis of the disease is still emerging. Here we investigated a possible role of a microRNAs-STAT3 pathway in the induction of hepatic steatosis. Differentiated HepaRG cells treated with the fatty acid sodium oleate (fatty dHepaRG) recapitulated features of liver vesicular steatosis and activated a cell-autonomous inflammatory response, inducing STAT3-Tyrosine-phosphorylation. With a genome-wide approach (Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Sequencing), many phospho-STAT3 binding sites were identified in fatty dHepaRG cells and several STAT3 and/or NAFLD-regulated microRNAs showed increased expression levels, including miR-21. Innovative CARS (Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering) microscopy revealed that chemical inhibition of STAT3 activity decreased lipid accumulation and deregulated STAT3-responsive microRNAs, including miR-21, in lipid overloaded dHepaRG cells. We were able to show in vivo that reducing phospho-STAT3-miR-21 levels in C57/BL6 mice liver, by long-term treatment with metformin, protected mice from aging-dependent hepatic vesicular steatosis. Our results identified a microRNAs-phosphoSTAT3 pathway involved in the development of hepatic steatosis, which may represent a molecular marker for both diagnosis and therapeutic targeting

Efficacy of Conventional and Organic Insecticides against Scaphoideus titanus: Field and Semi-Field Trials

Scaphoideus titanus is the main vector of phytoplasmas associated with Flavescence dorée (FD), one of the most serious threats to viticulture in many European countries. To minimize the spread of this disease, mandatory control measures against S. titanus were decided in Europe. In the 1990s, the repeated application of insecticides (mainly organophosphates) proved to be an effective measure to control the vector and the related disease in north-eastern Italy. These insecticides and most of the neonicotinoids were recently banned from European viticulture. Serious FD issues detected in the recent years in northern Italy could be related to the use of less effective insecticides. Trials aimed at evaluating the efficacy of the most used conventional and organic insecticides in the control of S. titanus have been performed in semi-field and field conditions to test this hypothesis. In efficacy trials, carried out in four vineyards, etofenprox and deltamethrin proved to be the best conventional insecticides, while pyrethrins were the most impactful among organic insecticides. Insecticide residual activity was evaluated in semi-field and field conditions. Acrinathrin showed the most significant residual effects in both conditions. In semi-field trials, most of the pyrethroids were associated with good results in terms of residual activity. However, these effects declined in field conditions, probably due to high temperatures. Organic insecticides showed poor results in terms of residual efficacy. Implications of these results in the context of Integrated Pest Management in conventional and organic viticulture are discussed

Three discipline collaborative radiation therapy special debate: All head and neck cancer patients with intact tumors/nodes should have scheduled adaptive replanning performed at least once during the course of radiotherapy

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149241/1/acm212587_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149241/2/acm212587.pd

Natural enemies of armored scales (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) and soft scales (Hemiptera: Coccoidae) in Chile: molecular and morphological identification.

Scale insects (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Coccomorpha) are key pests of agricultural crops and ornamental plants worldwide. Their populations are difficult to control, even with insecticides, due to their cryptic habits. Moreover, there is growing concern over the use of synthetic pesticides for their control, due to deleterious environmental effects and the emergence of resistant populations of target pests. In this context, biological control may be an effective and sustainable approach. Hymenoptera Chalcidoidea includes natural enemies of scale insects that have been successfully used in many biological control programs. However, the correct identification of pest scale species and their natural enemies is particularly challenging because these insects are very small and highly specialized. Integrative taxonomy, coupling DNA barcoding and morphological analysis, has been successfully used to characterize pests and natural enemy species. In this study, we performed a survey of parasitoids and predators of armored and soft scales in Chile, based on 28S and COI barcodes. Fifty-three populations of Diaspididae and 79 populations of Coccidae were sampled over the entire length of the country, from Arica (18˚S) to Frutillar (41˚S), between January 2015 and February 2016. The phylogenetic relationships obtained by Bayesian inference from multilocus haplotypes revealed 41 putative species of Chalcidoidea, five Coccinellidae and three Neuroptera. Species delimitation was confirmed using ABGD, GMYC and PTP model. In Chalcidoidea, 23 species were identified morphologically, resulting in new COI barcodes for 12 species and new 28S barcodes for 14 species. Two predator species (Rhyzobius lophantae and Coccidophilus transandinus) were identified morphologically, and two parasitoid species, Chartocerus niger and Signiphora bifasciata, were recorded for the first time in Chile

Cancer stem cell gene profile as predictor of relapse in high risk stage II and stage III, radically resected colon cancer patients.

Clinical data indicate that prognostic stratification of radically resected colorectal cancer based on disease stage only may not be always be adequate. Preclinical findings suggest that cancer stem cells may influence the biological behaviour of colorectal cancer independently from stage: objective of the study was to assess whether a panel of stemness markers were correlated with clinical outcome in resected stage II and III colon cancer patients. A panel of 66 markers of stemness were analysed and thus patients were divided into two groups (A and B) with most patients clustering in a manner consistent with different time to relapse by using a statistical algorithm. A total of 62 patients were analysed. Thirty-six (58%) relapsed during the follow-up period (range 1.63-86.5 months). Twelve (19%) and 50 (81%) patients were allocated into group A and B, respectively. A significantly different median relapse-free survival was observed between the 2 groups (22.18 vs 42.85 months, p=0.0296). Among of all genes tested, those with the higher "weight" in determining different prognosis were CD44, ALCAM, DTX2, HSPA9, CCNA2, PDX1, MYST1, COL1A1 and ABCG2. This analysis supports the idea that, other than stage, biological variables, such as expression levels of colon cancer stem cell genes, may be relevant in determining an increased risk of relapse in resected colorectal cancer patient

Genome-wide identification of direct HBx genomic targets

Background: The Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) HBx regulatory protein is required for HBV replication and involved in HBV-related carcinogenesis. HBx interacts with chromatin modifying enzymes and transcription factors to modulate histone post-translational modifications and to regulate viral cccDNA transcription and cellular gene expression. Aiming to identify genes and non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) directly targeted by HBx, we performed a chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-Seq) to analyse HBV recruitment on host cell chromatin in cells replicating HBV. Results: ChIP-Seq high throughput sequencing of HBx-bound fragments was used to obtain a high-resolution, unbiased, mapping of HBx binding sites across the genome in HBV replicating cells. Protein-coding genes and ncRNAs involved in cell metabolism, chromatin dynamics and cancer were enriched among HBx targets together with genes/ncRNAs known to modulate HBV replication. The direct transcriptional activation of genes/miRNAs that potentiate endocytosis (Ras-related in brain (RAB) GTPase family) and autophagy (autophagy related (ATG) genes, beclin-1, miR-33a) and the transcriptional repression of microRNAs (miR-138, miR-224, miR-576, miR-596) that directly target the HBV pgRNA and would inhibit HBV replication, contribute to HBx-mediated increase of HBV replication. Conclusions: Our ChIP-Seq analysis of HBx genome wide chromatin recruitment defined the repertoire of genes and ncRNAs directly targeted by HBx and led to the identification of new mechanisms by which HBx positively regulates cccDNA transcription and HBV replication

Development and Validation of a Reversed-Phase HPLC Method with UV Detection for the Determination of L-Dopa in Vicia faba L. Broad Beans

L-Dopa (LD), a substance used medically in the treatment of Parkinson's disease, is found in several natural products, such as Vicia faba L., also known as broad beans. Due to its low chemical stability, LD analysis in plant matrices requires an appropriate optimization of the chosen analytical method to obtain reliable results. This work proposes an HPLC-UV method, validated according to EURACHEM guidelines as regards linearity, limits of detection and quantification, precision, accuracy, and matrix effect. The LD extraction was studied by evaluating its aqueous stability over 3 months. The best chromatographic conditions were found by systematically testing several C-18 stationary phases and acidic mobile phases. In addition, the assessment of the best storage treatment of Vicia faba L. broad beans able to preserve a high LD content was performed. The best LD determination conditions include sun-drying storage, extraction in HCl 0.1 M, chromatographic separation with a Discovery C-18 column, 250 x 4.6 mm, 5 mu m particle size, and 99% formic acid 0.2% v/v and 1% methanol as the mobile phase. The optimized method proposed here overcomes the problems linked to LD stability and separation, thus contributing to the improvement of its analytical determination

Age is not the only risk factor in COVID-19: the role of comorbidities and of long staying in residential care homes

Background: The actual SARS-CoV-2 outbreak caused a highly transmissible disease with a tremendous impact on elderly people. So far, few studies focused on very elderly patients (over 80 years old). In this study we examined the clinical presentation and the outcome of the disease in this group of patients, admitted to our Hospital in Rome. Methods: This is a single-center, retrospective study performed in the Sant’Andrea University Hospital of Rome. We included patients older than 65 years of age with a diagnosis of COVID-19, from March 2020 to May 2020, divided in two groups according to their age (Elderly: 65–80 years old; Very Elderly > 80 years old). Data extracted from the each patient record included age, sex, comorbidities, symptoms at onset, the Pneumonia Severity Index (PSI), the ratio of the partial pressure of oxygen in arterial blood (PaO2) to the inspired oxygen fraction (FiO2) (P/F) on admission, laboratory tests, radiological findings on computer tomography (CT), length of hospital stay (LOS), mortality rate and the viral shedding. The differences between the two groups were analyzed by the Fisher’s exact test or the Wilcoxon signed-rank test for categorical variables and the Mann-Whitney U test for continuous variables. To assess significance among multiple groups of factors, we used the Bonferroni correction. The survival time was estimated by Kaplan-Meier method and Log Rank Test. Univariate and Multivariate logistic regression were performed to estimate associations between age, comorbidities, provenance from long-stay residential care homes (LSRCH) s and clinical outcomes. Results: We found that Very Elderly patients had an increased mortality rate, also due to the frequent occurrence of multiple comorbidities. Moreover, we found that patients coming from LSRCHs appeared to be highly susceptible and vulnerable to develop severe manifestations of the disease. Conclusion: We demonstrate that there were considerable differences between Elderly and Very Elderly patients in terms of inflammatory activity, severity of disease, adverse clinical outcomes. To establish a correct risk stratification, comorbidities and information about provenience from LSRCHs should be considered