Bioenergy productivity of sugar beet irrigated with reclaimed wastewaters

The use of treated wastewater to irrigate the sugar beet (Beta Vulgaris L. var. saccharifera) for bioethanol could play a strategic role to contrast the use of natural water resources and increase the productivity of the crop. The 2-year experiment (2013-2014) was performed on sugar beet irrigated with fresh water and wastewater at different steps of the reclamation process (secondary and tertiary treatments). The data obtained showed that the root sugar beet yield and ethanol production under fresh water treatment (52.2 Mg ha–1 and 5446 L ha–1) were lower respect to that obtained from the secondary and tertiary wastewater treatments (66.7 Mg ha–1 and 6785 L ha–1, and 58.7 Mg h–1 and 6164 L ha–1, respectively), with the same irrigation volumes. These results can depend on the higher quantity of nutrient uptake when wastewater is used for irrigation. In particular, the average N applied (as nitrate and ammonium) with irrigation during the growing seasons (2013 and 2014) was corresponding to the supply of 4, 28 and 20 kg ha–1, for the fresh water, secondary, and tertiary wastewater treatments, respectively

Conservation status and historical relatedness of Italian cattle breeds

Abstract Background: In the last 50 years, the diversity of cattle breeds has experienced a severe contraction. However, in spite of the growing diffusion of cosmopolite specialized breeds, several local cattle breeds are still farmed in Italy. Genetic characterization of breeds represents an essential step to guide decisions in the management of farm animal genetic resources. The aim of this work was to provide a high-resolution representation of the genome-wide diversity and population structure of Italian local cattle breeds using a medium-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. Results: After quality control filtering, the dataset included 31,013 SNPs for 800 samples from 32 breeds. Our results on the genetic diversity of these breeds agree largely with their recorded history. We observed a low level of genetic diversity, which together with the small size of the effective populations, confirmed that several breeds are threatened with extinction. According to the analysis of runs of homozygosity, evidence of recent inbreeding was strong in some local breeds, such as Garfagnina, Mucca Pisana and Pontremolese. Patterns of genetic differentiation, shared ancestry, admixture events, and the phylogenetic tree, all suggest the presence of gene flow, in particular among breeds that originate from the same geographical area, such as the Sicilian breeds. In spite of the complex admixture events that most Italian cattle breeds have experienced, they have preserved distinctive characteristics and can be clearly discriminated, which is probably due to differences in genetic origin, environment, genetic isolation and inbreeding. Conclusions: This study is the first exhaustive genome-wide analysis of the diversity of Italian cattle breeds. The results are of significant importance because they will help design and implement conservation strategies. Indeed, efforts to maintain genetic diversity in these breeds are needed. Improvement of systems to record and monitor inbreeding in these breeds may contribute to their in situ conservation and, in view of this, the availability of genomic data is a fundamental resource

Novel ATP-Independent RNA Annealing Activity of the Dengue Virus NS3 Helicase

The flavivirus nonstructural protein 3 (NS3) bears multiple enzymatic activities and represents an attractive target for antiviral intervention. NS3 contains the viral serine protease at the N-terminus and ATPase, RTPase, and helicase activities at the C-terminus. These activities are essential for viral replication; however, the biological role of RNA remodeling by NS3 helicase during the viral life cycle is still unclear. Secondary and tertiary RNA structures present in the viral genome are crucial for viral replication. Here, we used the NS3 protein from dengue virus to investigate functions of NS3 associated to changes in RNA structures. Using different NS3 variants, we characterized a domain spanning residues 171 to 618 that displays ATPase and RNA unwinding activities similar to those observed for the full-length protein. Interestingly, we found that, besides the RNA unwinding activity, dengue virus NS3 greatly accelerates annealing of complementary RNA strands with viral or non-viral sequences. This new activity was found to be ATP-independent. It was determined that a mutated NS3 lacking ATPase activity retained full-RNA annealing activity. Using an ATP regeneration system and different ATP concentrations, we observed that NS3 establishes an ATP-dependent steady state between RNA unwinding and annealing, allowing modulation of the two opposing activities of this enzyme through ATP concentration. In addition, we observed that NS3 enhanced RNA-RNA interactions between molecules representing the ends of the viral genome that are known to be necessary for viral RNA synthesis. We propose that, according to the ATP availability, NS3 could function regulating the folding or unfolding of viral RNA structures

Infected pancreatic necrosis: outcomes and clinical predictors of mortality. A post hoc analysis of the MANCTRA-1 international study

: The identification of high-risk patients in the early stages of infected pancreatic necrosis (IPN) is critical, because it could help the clinicians to adopt more effective management strategies. We conducted a post hoc analysis of the MANCTRA-1 international study to assess the association between clinical risk factors and mortality among adult patients with IPN. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression models were used to identify prognostic factors of mortality. We identified 247 consecutive patients with IPN hospitalised between January 2019 and December 2020. History of uncontrolled arterial hypertension (p = 0.032; 95% CI 1.135-15.882; aOR 4.245), qSOFA (p = 0.005; 95% CI 1.359-5.879; aOR 2.828), renal failure (p = 0.022; 95% CI 1.138-5.442; aOR 2.489), and haemodynamic failure (p = 0.018; 95% CI 1.184-5.978; aOR 2.661), were identified as independent predictors of mortality in IPN patients. Cholangitis (p = 0.003; 95% CI 1.598-9.930; aOR 3.983), abdominal compartment syndrome (p = 0.032; 95% CI 1.090-6.967; aOR 2.735), and gastrointestinal/intra-abdominal bleeding (p = 0.009; 95% CI 1.286-5.712; aOR 2.710) were independently associated with the risk of mortality. Upfront open surgical necrosectomy was strongly associated with the risk of mortality (p < 0.001; 95% CI 1.912-7.442; aOR 3.772), whereas endoscopic drainage of pancreatic necrosis (p = 0.018; 95% CI 0.138-0.834; aOR 0.339) and enteral nutrition (p = 0.003; 95% CI 0.143-0.716; aOR 0.320) were found as protective factors. Organ failure, acute cholangitis, and upfront open surgical necrosectomy were the most significant predictors of mortality. Our study confirmed that, even in a subgroup of particularly ill patients such as those with IPN, upfront open surgery should be avoided as much as possible. Study protocol registered in ClinicalTrials.Gov (I.D. Number NCT04747990)

Estimating the Soil Hydraulic Functions of Some Olive Orchards: Soil Management Implications for Water Saving in Soils of Salento Peninsula (Southern Italy)

Saving water resources in agriculture is a topic of current research in Mediterranean environments, and rational soil management can allow such purposes. The Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) procedure was applied in five olive orchards of Salento peninsula (southern Italy) to estimate the soil physical and hydraulic properties under alternative soil management (i.e., no-tillage (NT) and minimum tillage (MT)), and to quantify the impact of soil management on soil water conservation. Results highlighted the soundness of BEST predictions since they provided consistent results in terms of soil functions or capacitive-based soil indicators when (i) the entire data set was grouped by homogeneous classes of texture, bulk density, and capillarity of the soil, (ii) the predictions were compared with the corresponding water retention measures independently obtained in lab, and (iii) some correlations of literature were checked. BEST was applied to establish a comparison at Neviano (NE) and Sternatia (ST) sites. The two neighboring NT soils compared at NE showed substantial discrepancies in soil texture (i.e., sandy loam (NE-SL) or clay (NE-C)). This marked difference in soil texture could determine a worsening of the relative field capacity at the NE-SL site (relative field capacity, RFC < 0.6), as compared to NE-C where RFC was optimal. The current soil management determined a similar effect (RFC < 0.6) at Sternatia (ST-MT vs. ST-NT), but the worsening in soil properties, due to soil tillage, must be considered substantially transient, as progressive improvement is expected with the restoration of the soil structure. The results of this work suggest that strategic MT can be a viable solution to manage the soil of Salento olive orchards

Assessment of organic carbon in soils: A comparison between the Springer-Klee wet digestion and the dry combustion methods in Mediterranean soils (Southern Italy)

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the largest carbon pool in the terrestrial biosphere and it is among the most important factors responsible for conservation of soil quality. Automated dry combustion techniques are gradually replacing traditional quantification methods based on wet digestion chemistry. Critical comparison of different methods is fundamental to reevaluate archives of SOC data and accurately assess and model long-term carbon stock variation and should be performed for different soil types and management conditions. Two analytical methods, the Springer–Klee wet digestion and the dry combustion using an automated analyser,were compared for soils typical of a Mediterranean environment in Southern Italy. Soil sampleswere collected from three sites, at two depths. Soils were fine textured (from clay–loam to clay) with total carbonate ranging from 6.6 to 16.7 g 100 g−1. SOC content varied from 6.92 to 28.86 g kg−1 (as average of the two methods), with values and ranges typical of Southern Europe. On average, Springer–Klee method gave slightly higher values and showed greater data variability. This behaviour, in agreement with other studies, can be attributed to the reaction of K2Cr2O7 with other soil constituents and to analytical constraints. Our results suggest high consistency between Springer– Klee and dry combustion techniques and show recoveries close to one both for the whole dataset and for data grouped per experimental site or soil depth. Linear regression equations between the two methods were slightly affected by different soil types (P= 0.0621). The best fitting of the relationship was a linear regression passing through the origin for the whole dataset (R2adj = 0.965; RPD = 3.41). The strong overall agreement observed between the twomethods would enable the direct comparison of newdata setwith those already existing in Southern Italy for soils with similar characteristics