Polychlorinated dioxins, furans (PCDD/Fs) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs) in food from Italy: Estimates of dietaryintake and assessment

Dietary intake of polychlorinated dioxins and furans (PCDD/Fs) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs) from various foods (fish and seafood, meat and meat-based products, milk and dairy products, hen eggs, olive oil and fats) was investigated for various sex/age groups of the Italian population. The concentrations of PCDD/Fs and dl-PCBs and their contribution to total TEQ values varied depending on food matrix. Fish (0.50 pg WHO-TEQ/g wet weight) and seafood (0.16 pg WHO-TEQ/g wet weight) showed the highest mean concentrations of PCDD/Fs plus dl-PCBs, followed by meat (1.70 pg WHO-TEQ/g lipid weight), meat based products (1.03 pg WHO-TEQ/g lipid weight), milk and dairy products (0.78 pg WHO-TEQ/g lipid weight), hen eggs (0.71 pg WHO-TEQ/g lipid weight), fats (0.27 pg WHO-TEQ/g lipid weight) and olive oil (0.09 pg WHO-TEQ/g lipid weight). In all samples WHO-TEQ PCDD/F plus dl-PCB concentrations fulfilled the European Union food law, except in pork loin samples (1.39 pg WHO-TEQ/g lipid weight). Differences in exposure depending on the sex/age groups (children > teenagers > adults > elders) and hypotheses considered (lower bound and upper bound) were encountered. Non-cancer risk values showed a low exposure. Carcinogenicity risk results revealed that highly exposed individuals were distributed over all sex/age groups, even though the proportion of individuals exceeding the safe limit was higher in children. These data once again underline the importance of trying to control the levels of these contaminants in fishery products, particularly in fish, who represents one of the main exposure sources for consumers. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This paper may help the consumer in making food choices to minimize the exposure risk to dioxins, furans and PCBs

FoxG1 antagonizes neocortical stem cell progression to astrogenesis

Neocortical astrogenesis follows neuronogenesis and precedes oligogenesis. Among key factors dictating its temporal articulation, there are progression rates of pallial stem cells (SCs) towards astroglial lineages as well as activation rates of astrocyte differentiation programs in response to extrinsic gliogenic cues. In this study, we showed that high Foxg1 SC expression antagonizes astrocyte generation, while stimulating SC self-renewal and committing SCs to neuronogenesis. We found that mechanisms underlying this activity are mainly cell autonomous and highly pleiotropic. They include a concerted downregulation of 4 key effectors channeling neural SCs to astroglial fates, as well as defective activation of core molecular machineries implementing astroglial differentiation programs. Next, we found that SC Foxg1 levels specifically decline during the neuronogenic-to-gliogenic transition, pointing to a pivotal Foxg1 role in temporal modulation of astrogenesis. Finally, we showed that Foxg1 inhibits astrogenesis from human neocortical precursors, suggesting that this is an evolutionarily ancient trait

Effect of Vitamin D Receptor Activation on the AGE/RAGE System and Myeloperoxidase in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients

Vitamin D receptor (VDR) activation has been reported to increase circulating levels of the advanced glycation end products (AGE) and their decoy receptor (RAGE). However, until now, the effect of VDR activation on AGE and RAGE has not been tested in the setting of a randomized, double-blind clinical trial. We have therefore analyzed the effect of VDR activation by paricalcitol on pentosidine, S100A12/ENRAGE, and RAGE and on established biomarkers of oxidative stress like myeloperoxidase in CKD patients in the PENNY trial. At baseline, human S100A12/ENRAGE, RAGE, and myeloperoxidase, but not pentosidine, were intercorrelated, and the association between S100A12/ENRAGE and myeloperoxidase (r=0.71, P<0.001) was the strongest among these correlations. Paricalcitol failed to modify biomarkers of the AGE/RAGE system and myeloperoxidase in unadjusted and adjusted analyses by the generalized linear model (GLM). No effect modification by other risk factors was registered. Paricalcitol does not modify biomarkers of the AGE/RAGE system and myeloperoxidase in CKD patients. The apparent increase in RAGE levels by VDR activation reported in previous uncontrolled studies is most likely due to confounding factors rather than to VDR activation per se. This trial is registered with NCT01680198

The ENPP1 Q121 Variant Predicts Major Cardiovascular Events in High-Risk Individuals: Evidence for Interaction With Obesity in Diabetic Patients

Insulin resistance (IR) and cardiovascular disease may share a common genetic background. We investigated the role of IR-associated ENPP1 K121Q polymorphism (rs1044498) on cardiovascular disease in high-risk individuals

The 2020 Italian Society of Arterial Hypertension (SIIA) practical guidelines for the management of primary aldosteronism

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Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above 4×10184{\times}10^{18} eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory

A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding $4{\times}10^{18}$ eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers with zenith angles greater than $60^{\circ}$ detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above $5.3{\times}10^{18}$ eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law $E^{-\gamma}$ with index $\gamma=2.70 \pm 0.02 \,\text{(stat)} \pm 0.1\,\text{(sys)}$ followed by a smooth suppression region. For the energy ($E_\text{s}$) at which the spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence of suppression, we find $E_\text{s}=(5.12\pm0.25\,\text{(stat)}^{+1.0}_{-1.2}\,\text{(sys)}){\times}10^{19}$ eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Energy Estimation of Cosmic Rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is part of the Pierre Auger Observatory and is used to detect the radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers. These observations are compared to the data of the surface detector stations of the Observatory, which provide well-calibrated information on the cosmic-ray energies and arrival directions. The response of the radio stations in the 30 to 80 MHz regime has been thoroughly calibrated to enable the reconstruction of the incoming electric field. For the latter, the energy deposit per area is determined from the radio pulses at each observer position and is interpolated using a two-dimensional function that takes into account signal asymmetries due to interference between the geomagnetic and charge-excess emission components. The spatial integral over the signal distribution gives a direct measurement of the energy transferred from the primary cosmic ray into radio emission in the AERA frequency range. We measure 15.8 MeV of radiation energy for a 1 EeV air shower arriving perpendicularly to the geomagnetic field. This radiation energy -- corrected for geometrical effects -- is used as a cosmic-ray energy estimator. Performing an absolute energy calibration against the surface-detector information, we observe that this radio-energy estimator scales quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy as expected for coherent emission. We find an energy resolution of the radio reconstruction of 22% for the data set and 17% for a high-quality subset containing only events with at least five radio stations with signal.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Measurement of the Radiation Energy in the Radio Signal of Extensive Air Showers as a Universal Estimator of Cosmic-Ray Energy

We measure the energy emitted by extensive air showers in the form of radio emission in the frequency range from 30 to 80 MHz. Exploiting the accurate energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory, we obtain a radiation energy of 15.8 \pm 0.7 (stat) \pm 6.7 (sys) MeV for cosmic rays with an energy of 1 EeV arriving perpendicularly to a geomagnetic field of 0.24 G, scaling quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy. A comparison with predictions from state-of-the-art first-principle calculations shows agreement with our measurement. The radiation energy provides direct access to the calorimetric energy in the electromagnetic cascade of extensive air showers. Comparison with our result thus allows the direct calibration of any cosmic-ray radio detector against the well-established energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Supplemental material in the ancillary file