Does eating family meals and having the television on during dinner correlate with overweight? A sub-study of the PRO GREENS project, looking at children from nine European countries.

European Commission’s Programme of Community Action in the Field of Public Health 2003–2008 (Original Contract No. 007324) The Research Fund of the University of Iceland, Axson Johnson Foundation in Sweden, JuhoVainio Foundation in FinlandFamily meals have been negatively associated with overweight in children, while television (TV) viewing during meals has been associated with a poorer diet. The aim of the present study was to assess the association of eating family breakfast and dinner, and having a TV on during dinner, with overweight in nine European countries and whether these associations differed between Northern and Southern & Eastern Europe.Cross-sectional data. Schoolchildren reported family meals and TV viewing. BMI was based on parental reports on height and weight of their children. Cut-off points for overweight by the International Obesity Task Force were used. Logistic regressions were performed adjusted by age, gender and parental education.Schools in Northern European (Sweden, the Netherlands, Iceland, Germany and Finland) and Southern & Eastern European (Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria and Slovenia) countries, participating in the PRO GREENS project.Children aged 10-12 years in (n 6316).In the sample, 21 % of the children were overweight, from 35 % in Greece to 10 % in the Netherlands. Only a few associations were found between family meals and TV viewing during dinner with overweight in the nine countries. Northern European children, compared with other regions, were significantly more likely to be overweight if they had fewer family breakfasts and more often viewed TV during dinner.The associations between family meals and TV viewing during dinner with overweight were few and showed significance only in Northern Europe. Differences in foods consumed during family meals and in health-related lifestyles between Northern and Southern & Eastern Europe may explain these discrepancies.1 Folkhälsan Research Center, Paasikivenkatu 4, 00250 Helsinki, Finland. 23 Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. 34 Unit for Nutrition Research, Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland & Landspitali University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland. 45 EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research and the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 56 Institute of Nutritional Sciences, Unit for International Nutrition, Faculty of Agricultural Nutrition, Environmental Sciences and Home Economics, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany. 67Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. 78 Department of Social Medicine, Preventive Medicine & Nutrition Clinic, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece. 810 National Education Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia. 911 National Center for Public Health Protection, Sofia, Bulgaria

Whole-genome analysis of introgressive hybridization and characterization of the bovine legacy of Mongolian yaks

The yak is remarkable for its adaptation to high altitude and occupies a central place in the economies of the mountainous regions of Asia. At lower elevations, it is common to hybridize yaks with cattle to combine the yak’s hardiness with the productivity of cattle. Hybrid males are sterile, however, preventing the establishment of stable hybrid populations, but not a limited introgression after backcrossing several generations of female hybrids to male yaks. Here we inferred bovine haplotypes in the genomes of 76 Mongolian yaks using high-density SNP genotyping and whole-genome sequencing. These yaks inherited ~1.3% of their genome from bovine ancestors after nearly continuous admixture over at least the last 1,500 years. The introgressed regions are enriched in genes involved in nervous system development and function, and particularly in glutamate metabolism and neurotransmission. We also identified a novel mutation associated with a polled (hornless) phenotype originating from Mongolian Turano cattle. Our results suggest that introgressive hybridization contributed to the improvement of yak management and breeding

Geographical contrasts of Y-chromosomal haplogroups from wild and domestic goats reveal ancient migrations and recent introgressions

By their paternal transmission, Y-chromosomal haplotypes are sensitive markers of population history and male-mediated introgression. Previous studies identified biallelic single-nucleotide variants in the SRY, ZFY and DDX3Y genes, which in domestic goats identified four major Y-chromosomal haplotypes, Y1A, Y1B, Y2A and Y2B, with a marked geographical partitioning. Here, we extracted goat Y-chromosomal variants from whole-genome sequences of 386 domestic goats (75 breeds) and seven wild goat species, which were generated by the VarGoats goat genome project. Phylogenetic analyses indicated domestic haplogroups corresponding to Y1B, Y2A and Y2B, respectively, whereas Y1A is split into Y1AA and Y1AB. All five haplogroups were detected in 26 ancient DNA samples from southeast Europe or Asia. Haplotypes from present-day bezoars are not shared with domestic goats and are attached to deep nodes of the trees and networks. Haplogroup distributions for 186 domestic breeds indicate ancient paternal population bottlenecks and expansions during migrations into northern Europe, eastern and southern Asia, and Africa south of the Sahara. In addition, sharing of haplogroups indicates male-mediated introgressions, most notably an early gene flow from Asian goats into Madagascar and the crossbreeding that in the 19th century resulted in the popular Boer and Anglo-Nubian breeds. More recent introgressions are those from European goats into the native Korean goat population and from Boer goat into Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and Zimbabwe. This study illustrates the power of the Y-chromosomal variants for reconstructing the history of domestic species with a wide geographical range

Analysis of Slovenian historic materials

ABSTRACT Systematic investigations by PIXE are performed on medieval glass, metal objects, inks and papers, and metal pigments on paints and textiles

ELECTROCHEMOTHERAPY: EXPERIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PISA

Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a local treatment for cutaneous and subcutaneous tumours, that uses electric pulses (electroporation), combined with the administration (local or systemic) of non- or poorly-permeable cytotoxic drugs. Electroporation causes a transient permeabilization of cellular membranes in the treated tissue and allows the passage and accumulation of cytotoxic drugs within the neoplastic cells. Once inside the targeted cells the drugs provoke cytotoxicity (Mir et al., Eur J Cancer, Suppl., 2006; Mir et al., Adv Drug Deliv Rev., 1999; Tozon et al., J Vis Exp., 2016). Currently only bleomycin and cisplatin have been proven effective combined with ECT (Čemažar et al., J Vet Intern Med., 2008; Serša et al., Eur J Surg Oncol., 2008). In addition, ECT induces the so called vascular-lock and vascular disrupting mechanism, a rapid and profound abrogation of local blood flow of exposed tissue that leads to ischemic cell death. Finally, ECT studies showed a potential role of the immune system in anti-tumour effectiveness (Jarm et al., Expert Rev Anticancer Ther., 2010; Calvet et al., Oncoimmunology, 2014). Guidelines for ECT in veterinary medicine were published by Tozon and others in 2016. (Tozon et al., J Vis Exp., 2016) The experience at the University of Pisa is mostly based on retrospective studies. The latest study was arranged to evaluate the feasibility of ECT in the treatment of non-tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma (ntSCC). Twelve dogs with ntSCC were treated with ECT combined with systemic bleomycin. The response rate was 92% and the overall recurrence rate was 27.3%. All dogs with tumours smaller than 2 cm obtained complete response. Overall treatment toxicity was very low (Simčič et al., ready for submission to VCO, 2019). The first study was about the use of ECT with systemic bleomycin in canine mast cell tumour (MCT) with or without surgical excision. A group of 51 dogs was divided in 4 groups based on treatment modality (1-ECT only, 2-intra-surgery, 3-neoadjuvant ECT, 4-ECT recur). Complete remission ranging from 64-93% and partial remission from 7-36% were observed. The group where ECT was used intra-surgically obtained the best and longest disease-free interval. In conclusion, ECT could be applied in small size MCTs as an alternative to surgery. However, for larger tumours ECT should be applied intra- or post-surgery without causing high toxicity (Lowe et al., Vet Comp Oncol., 2017). Recently, we published a study on the safety and efficacy of ECT with systemic bleomycin in the treatment on canine soft tissue sarcomas (STSs). Fifty-two dogs included in the study were divided in three groups (1-ECT alone, 2-intra-operative, 3-adjuvant ECT). Recurrence rate ranged 23-25% and disease-free interval ranged 81-243 days. Local treatment toxicity was mild in 66.7% of the patients and higher toxicity was associated with higher pulse voltage. In conclusion, ECT could be considered safe and efficient in treatment of canine STSs (Torrigiani et al., Vet Comp Oncol., 2019). In all three studies the results achieved after ECT treatment are good and, in the future, more prospective studies should be performed to confirm the success of ECT as a treatment modality for solid tumours in veterinary medicine