454 research outputs found
Assessment of coastal fish assemblages before the establishment of a new marine protected area in central Mediterranean: its role in formulating zoning proposal
The fish assemblages of the coastal area of the promontory of Cape Milazzo (Italy, Central Mediterranean), which has been recently designated by the Italian Law to become a national marine protected area (MPA), were characterized by visual censuses carried out over different habitats (rocky algal reef, Posidonia oceanica meadow and soft bottom) and depth ranges (0-3, 4-7, 12-16 and 24-30 m) to identify areas of major concern for the MPA zoning. The study area was divided into 6 sectors to assess spatial-related differences in the assemblage parameters, such as species composition and richness, and the size structure of species of recreational (e.g. SCUBA diving) interest. Fifty-eight taxa (56 species and 2 genera) and 20 families of fishes were totally recorded. Species composition was significantly affected by habitat and depth, whereas no significant changes were detected among sectors. Conversely, species richness and total density of fish showed no significant differences among sectors, habitat types and depth ranges. The majority of species of recreational value was recorded only off the northwestern part of the promontory. The implementation of fishing ban in such an area, characterized by the presence of a rocky bank, would contribute to the recovery of populations of some emblematic species (e.g. groupers and other large predator) and to the enhancement of environmentally sustainable activities such as scuba diving. Throughout the investigated area and, especially, in the eastern and southwestern coasts of the promontory, several species were almost exclusively represented by small and medium sized individuals, a likely consequence of an intense fishing pressure
Clinical and Molecular Features of Ewing Sarcoma in a Patient with Triple-X Syndrome
A case of Ewing sarcoma in a 16-year-old girl with 47 XXXc karyotype is reporte
Implementation of binary stochastic STDP learning using chalcogenide-based memristive devices
The emergence of nano-scale memristive devices encouraged many different
research areas to exploit their use in multiple applications. One of the
proposed applications was to implement synaptic connections in bio-inspired
neuromorphic systems. Large-scale neuromorphic hardware platforms are being
developed with increasing number of neurons and synapses, having a critical
bottleneck in the online learning capabilities. Spike-timing-dependent
plasticity (STDP) is a widely used learning mechanism inspired by biology which
updates the synaptic weight as a function of the temporal correlation between
pre- and post-synaptic spikes. In this work, we demonstrate experimentally that
binary stochastic STDP learning can be obtained from a memristor when the
appropriate pulses are applied at both sides of the device
Transient Posterior Encephalopathy Induced by Chemotherapy in Children
The cases of three children, 16, 12, and 12 years of age, who suffered sudden confusional state and cortical blindness lasting 12 to 30 minutes while under treatment with high-dose methotrexate, cyclophosphamide, and dactinomycin for a lower limb osteosarcoma are reported. Transient neuropsychologic deficits arose after the acute phase of treatment: left hemispatial neglect and constructive apraxia (Patient 1); constructive apraxia (Patient 2); and constructive apraxia and alexia without aphasia (Patient 3). The three patients recovered completely from all their deficits within the time frame of 3 hours to 2 weeks. Arterial hypertension and hypomagnesemia were found during the acute phase in all patients. In Patients 2 and 3, magnetic resonance imaging revealed increased parieto-occipital T(2) signal involving gray and white matter. In Patients 1 and 2, HmPAO-SPECT revealed parieto-occipital hypoperfusion that resolved a few days later. The alterations detected by neuroimaging were concurrent with the appearance and disappearance of the clinical symptoms. Such transient acute episodes have been named occipital-parietal encephalopathy. On the basis of our clinical, laboratory, and neuroimaging findings, an explanation for the origin of this syndrome, a migrainelike mechanism, triggered by chemotherapy-induced hypomagnesemia, is proposed
Pediatric Meningosarcoma: Clinical Evolution and Genetic Instability
This report presents a female diagnosed with a frontoparietal interhemispheric
meningosarcoma who, parallel to the clinical worsening, revealed an increase in
the genetic instability (in bleomycin cultures) and the complexity of the
karyotypes, with the acquisition of a clonal deletion of 17p13 (the locus for the
TP53 tumor suppressor gene). The genetic findings of this patient suggest that
the increased genetic instability could contribute to tumor progression as well
as to treatment resistance, possibly in the background of the clonal deletion of
TP53
Biomagnifcation and body distribution of ivermectin in dung beetles
We thank the staf of Doñana Biological Reserve (DBR-ICTS), Doñana National Park, and Los Alcornocales
Natural Park, especially D. Paz, F. Ibáñez, P. Bayón, M. Malla and D. Ruiz for logistic facilities for the field
work and permissions (2019107300000904/IRM/MDCG/mes) to collect cattle dung and dung beetles. We
are grateful to J. Castro and A. Rascón for technical assistance. We also thank A. V. Giménez-Gómez for her
technical assistance in the laboratory work. We thank also F.-T Krell and the two anonymous reviewers for their
constructive comments. Financial support was provided by the project CGL2015-68207-R of the Secretaría de
Estado de Investigación–Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad.A terrestrial test system to investigate the biomagnifcation potential and tissue-specifc distribution
of ivermectin, a widely used parasiticide, in the non-target dung beetle Thorectes lusitanicus (Jekel)
was developed and validated. Biomagnifcation kinetics of ivermectin in T. lusitanicus was investigated
by following uptake, elimination, and distribution of the compound in dung beetles feeding on
contaminated faeces. Results showed that ivermectin was biomagnifed in adults of T. lusitanicus
when exposed to non-lethal doses via food uptake. Ivermectin was quickly transferred from the gut to
the haemolymph, generating a biomagnifcation factor (BMFk) three times higher in the haemolymph
than in the gut after an uptake period of 12 days. The fat body appeared to exert a major role on
the biomagnifcation of ivermectin in the insect body, showing a BMFk 1.6 times higher than in the
haemolymph. The results of this study highlight that the biomagnifcation of ivermectin should be
investigated from a global dung-based food web perspective and that the use of these antiparasitic
substances should be monitored and controlled on a precautionary basis. Thus, we suggest that an
additional efort be made in the development of standardised regulatory recommendations to guide
biomagnifcation studies in terrestrial organisms, but also that it is necessary to adapt existing methods
to assess the efects of such veterinary medical products
Mapa de series, geoseries y geopermaseries de vegetación de España (Memoria del mapa de vegetación potencial de España). Parte II
Peer Reviewe
Brazilian distribution of Amblyomma varium Koch, 1844 (Acari: Ixodidae), a common parasite of sloths (Mammalia: Xenarthra)
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