Physiological pregnancy in a tiger affected by endometritis and benign mesenchymal neoplasm.

In large felids, uncomplicated endometritis and benign mesenchymal uterine tumours usually represent post-mortem findings. These pathologies generally remain clinically asymptomatic, and their impact on reproductive outcome and maternal care is unknown. A 13-year-old female tiger (Panthera tigris) was evaluated by a team of veterinarians from the University of Padova for abnormal behaviour after parturition. The animal spontaneously gave birth to a healthy male cub of 1.460 kg, but after three hours of normal parental care, she showed careless about the cub, occasional abdominal contractions, excessive self-licking and restlessness. After 10 hours of continuous observation, the tiger was anaesthetised for a complete clinical evaluation. The physical examination was unremarkable, but a vaginal bloody/mucous discharge with no obstruction of the birth canal was noted. Abdominal ultrasound revealed an enlarged left uterine horn with heterogeneous echogenicity. Blood analysis showed moderate neutrophilia and leucocytosis. Differential diagnoses included placental retention, uterine inflammation/infection, neoplasia. The tiger was transferred to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital where the explorative laparotomy and the ovario-hysterectomy were performed. The uterine horns appeared asymmetric and two nodular lesions of 1.5-cm-diameter were observed on the left horn. Histological assessment indicated the presence of a multifocal, subacute, moderate neutrophilic endometritis in both horns associated with diffuse, severe oedema. The nodules were consistent with a mesenchymal benign neoplasia. No relevant complication was observed in the following postoperative period and the cub was successfully hand raised. To the best of our knowledge, no report describes the birth of a healthy cub from a tiger affected by endometritis and neoplasia. Considering the normal maternal care observed in the previous twin-pregnancies in this animal, we cannot exclude that the uterine affection caused her abnormal behaviour in this case. Therefore, careful observation of the mother in the post-partum period is always strongly recommended

Ruthenium complexes bearing glucosyl ligands are able to inhibit the amyloid aggregation of short Histidine-peptides

Neurodegenerative diseases are often characterized by the formation of aggregates of amyloidogenic peptides and proteins, facilitating the formation of neurofibrillary plaques. In this study, we investigate a series of Ru-complexes sharing three-legged piano-stool structures based on the arene ring and glucosylated carbene ligands. The ability of these complexes to bind amyloid His-peptides was evaluated by ESI-MS, and their effects on the aggregation process were investigated through ThT and Tyr fluorescence emission. The complexes were demonstrated to bind the amyloidogenic peptides even with different mechanisms and kinetics depending on the chemical nature of the ligands around the Ru(II) ion. TEM analysis detected the disaggregation of typical fibers caused by the presence of Ru-compounds. Overall, our results show that the Ru-complexes can modulate the aggregation of His-amyloids and can be conceived as good lead compounds in the field of novel anti-aggregating agents in neurodegeneration

An Alkaloid from a Highly Invasive Seaweed Increases the Voracity and Reproductive Output of a Model Fish Species

The invasive macroalga Caulerpa cylindracea has spread widely in the Mediterranean Sea, becoming a favorite food item for native fish for reasons yet unknown. By using a combination of behavioral, morphological, and molecular approaches, herein we provide evidence that the bisindole alkaloid caulerpin, a major secondary metabolite of C. cylindracea, significantly increases food intake in the model fish Danio rerio, influencing the regulation of genes involved in the orexigenic pathway. In addition, we found that the compound improves fish reproductive performance by affecting the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis. The obtained results pave the way for the possible valorization of C. cylindracea as a sustainable source of a functional feed additive of interest to face critical challenges both in aquaculture and in human nutrition

Circulating Cell-Free DNA in Dogs with Mammary Tumors: Short and Long Fragments and Integrity Index

Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) has been considered an interesting diagnostic/prognostic plasma biomarker in tumor-bearing subjects. In cancer patients, cfDNA can hypothetically derive from tumor necrosis/apoptosis, lysed circulating cells, and some yet unrevealed mechanisms of active release. This study aimed to preliminarily analyze cfDNA in dogs with canine mammary tumors (CMTs). Forty-four neoplastic, 17 non-neoplastic disease-bearing, and 15 healthy dogs were recruited. Necrosis and apoptosis were also assessed as potential source of cfDNA on 78 CMTs diagnosed from the 44 dogs. The cfDNA fragments and integrity index significantly differentiated neoplastic versus non-neoplastic dogs (P<0.05), and allowed the distinction between benign and malignant lesions (P<0.05). Even if without statistical significance, the amount of cfDNA was also affected by tumor necrosis and correlated with tumor size and apoptotic markers expression. A significant (P<0.01) increase of Bcl-2 in malignant tumors was observed, and in metastatic CMTs the evasion of apoptosis was also suggested. This study, therefore, provides evidence that cfDNA could be a diagnostic marker in dogs carrying mammary nodules suggesting that its potential application in early diagnostic procedures should be further investigated

Cardiac rehabilitation outcome after transcatheter aortic valve implantation.

Patients with severe aortic stenosis are increasingly treated with transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) as a safer option to surgical aortic valve replacement (sAVR). Similar to many other heart diseases, after the specific therapeutic intervention patients are eligible for cardiac rehabilitation (CR) for the purpose of functional recovery. Thus far, CR after both sAVR and TAVI has been used to a limited extent, as shown by the availability of only two meta-analyses including 5 studies and 6 studies, respectively. Recent observational studies reported a significant improvement in functional indexes such as the Barthel scale and the 6-minute walk test (6MWT). We evaluated the outcome of CR in patients after TAVI treatment by measuring changes in the commonly used Barthel scale and 6MWT and adding the short physical performance battery (SPPB) scale as an index to assess lower extremity function. All indexes demonstrated a significant improvement, namely p<0.001 with the Barthel scale, p=0.043 for the 6MWT, and p=0.002 for SPPB. These results confirm the significant improvement of the Barthel scale and 6MWT reported in the previous meta-analysis and suggest the utility of SPPB as a further index of efficacy of CR in patients with severe aortic stenosis treated with TAVI

Risk factors associated with adverse fetal outcomes in pregnancies affected by Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a secondary analysis of the WAPM study on COVID-19.

Objectives To evaluate the strength of association between maternal and pregnancy characteristics and the risk of adverse perinatal outcomes in pregnancies with laboratory confirmed COVID-19. Methods Secondary analysis of a multinational, cohort study on all consecutive pregnant women with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 from February 1, 2020 to April 30, 2020 from 73 centers from 22 different countries. A confirmed case of COVID-19 was defined as a positive result on real-time reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) assay of nasal and pharyngeal swab specimens. The primary outcome was a composite adverse fetal outcome, defined as the presence of either abortion (pregnancy loss before 22 weeks of gestations), stillbirth (intrauterine fetal death after 22 weeks of gestation), neonatal death (death of a live-born infant within the first 28 days of life), and perinatal death (either stillbirth or neonatal death). Logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate parameters independently associated with the primary outcome. Logistic regression was reported as odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI). Results Mean gestational age at diagnosis was 30.6+/-9.5 weeks, with 8.0% of women being diagnosed in the first, 22.2% in the second and 69.8% in the third trimester of pregnancy. There were six miscarriage (2.3%), six intrauterine device (IUD) (2.3) and 5 (2.0%) neonatal deaths, with an overall rate of perinatal death of 4.2% (11/265), thus resulting into 17 cases experiencing and 226 not experiencing composite adverse fetal outcome. Neither stillbirths nor neonatal deaths had congenital anomalies found at antenatal or postnatal evaluation. Furthermore, none of the cases experiencing IUD had signs of impending demise at arterial or venous Doppler. Neonatal deaths were all considered as prematurity-related adverse events. Of the 250 live-born neonates, one (0.4%) was found positive at RT-PCR pharyngeal swabs performed after delivery. The mother was tested positive during the third trimester of pregnancy. The newborn was asymptomatic and had negative RT-PCR test after 14 days of life. At logistic regression analysis, gestational age at diagnosis (OR: 0.85, 95% CI 0.8-0.9 per week increase; pPeer reviewe

Proceedings of the Fifth Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics CLiC-it 2018

On behalf of the Program Committee, a very warm welcome to the Fifth Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics (CLiC-­‐it 2018). This edition of the conference is held in Torino. The conference is locally organised by the University of Torino and hosted into its prestigious main lecture hall “Cavallerizza Reale”. The CLiC-­‐it conference series is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC) which, after five years of activity, has clearly established itself as the premier national forum for research and development in the fields of Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing, where leading researchers and practitioners from academia and industry meet to share their research results, experiences, and challenges

BIOLOGIA E BIOETICA DELLA CRIOPRESERVAZIONE DI OVOCITI E TESSUTO OVARICO NELL'UOMO

Nel nostro Paese le tecniche di Procreazione medicalmente assistita (PMA) sono disciplinate dalla legge 40 del2004. Tale legge tra le varie limitazioni, vieta il congelamento embrionario e riduce a 3 il n° di ovociti da inseminare. Ciò determina una diminuzione delle rese % delle tecniche di PMA. Inoltre, grazie agli innumerevoli passi avanti fatti nell’ambito delle cure antitumorali, riuscire a preservare la fertilità delle giovani pazienti è di fondamentale importanza. Pertanto il congelamento di ovociti e tessuto ovarico trova terreno fertile, in quanto sfugge da qualsiasi problema di natura etica. Purtroppo però poco si sa a riguardo della tecnica, di quali siano i protocolli da preferire: infatti manca una specifica e dettagliata ricerca di base. Lo scopo del presente lavoro è quello di studiare gli effetti dei vari protocolli di congelamento già in uso nella clinica medica sugli ovociti, sul tessuto ovarico e sui follicoli, in modo da evidenziare i danni indotti dal congelamento e individuare eventuali modifiche alle biotecnologie applicate. Tali metodiche saranno altresì valutate ed inquadrate da un punto di vista etico-morale