Comprehensive analysis of the membrane phosphoproteome regulated by oligogalacturonides in Arabidopsis thaliana

Early changes in the Arabidopsis thaliana membrane phosphoproteome in response to oligogalacturonides (OGs), a class of plant damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), were analyzed by two complementary proteomic approaches. Differentially phosphorylated sites were determined through phosphopeptide enrichment followed by LC-MS/MS using label-free quantification; differentially phosphorylated proteins were identified by 2D-DIGE combined with phospho-specific fluorescent staining (phospho-DIGE). This large-scale phosphoproteome analysis of early OG-signaling enabled us to determine 100 regulated phosphosites using LC-MS/MS and 46 differential spots corresponding to 34 pdhosphoproteins using phospho-DIGE. Functional classification showed that the OG-responsive phosphoproteins include kinases, phosphatases and receptor-like kinases, heat shock proteins (HSPs), reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging enzymes, proteins related to cellular trafficking, transport, defense and signaling as well as novel candidates for a role in immunity, for which elicitor-induced phosphorylation changes have not been shown before. A comparison with previously identified elicitor-regulated phosphosites shows only a very limited overlap, uncovering the immune-related regulation of 70 phosphorylation sites and revealing novel potential players in the regulation of elicitor-dependent immunity

Etsi Deus non daretur. Quale uso nel discorso pedagogico?

The Grozio’s sentence “etsi Deus non daretur” has many interpretations: studying the relationship between faith and reason, between religiosity and laicism, etc., is necessary to question why the occidental culture excludes God from public consciousness. Beyond the indoctrination, the text hopes epistemological analysis – able to master the rules of speech and the logic of language – about the presence of God in the pedagogical discourse

Changes in the microsomal proteome of tomato fruit during ripening

The variations in the membrane proteome of tomato fruit pericarp during ripening have been investigated by mass spectrometry-based label-free proteomics. Mature green (MG30) and red ripe (R45) stages were chosen because they are pivotal in the ripening process: MG30 corresponds to the end of cellular expansion, when fruit growth has stopped and fruit starts ripening, whereas R45 corresponds to the mature fruit. Protein patterns were markedly different: among the 1315 proteins identified with at least two unique peptides, 145 significantly varied in abundance in the process of fruit ripening. The subcellular and biochemical fractionation resulted in GO term enrichment for organelle proteins in our dataset, and allowed the detection of low-abundance proteins that were not detected in previous proteomic studies on tomato fruits. Functional annotation showed that the largest proportion of identified proteins were involved in cell wall metabolism, vesicle-mediated transport, hormone biosynthesis, secondary metabolism, lipid metabolism, protein synthesis and degradation, carbohydrate metabolic processes, signalling and response to stress

A che punto è la notte? Il ritorno della rendita e l’avventura delle università italiane

In the last few decades, many tensions have developed around university as an institution. Once a flywheel for climbing the social ladder, the academic enterprise seems to have lost its relevance as a vehicle for social and economic mobility. No reform has succeeded over time in solving those fundamental problems which impede the university to function as a “transmission belt”, as Louis Althusser would say. Tensions have grown around every aspect of the functions, operations and “structure” of the university: the organization, the recruitment of administrative and scholarly personnel, governance, curriculum, teaching practices, and institutional goals and priorities. Everyone calls for a meritocratic higher ed-ucation system while claiming indignation about the current state of affairs. This article tries to re-construct – etsi Marx non daretur – the plot between the current form of the capital and its superstructural reflexes, particularly in Italy. And it wonders whether the recent rise in the return on capital in today’s economy is connected, if at all, with the concomitant social erosion of the university’s place in society

A constrained depth-resolved artificial neural network model of marine phytoplankton primary production

Marine phytoplankton primary production is a process of paramount importance not only in biological oceanography, but also in a wider perspective, due to its relationship with oceanic food webs, energy fluxes, carbon cycle and Earth’s climate. As field measurements of this process are both expensive and time consuming, indirect approaches, which can estimate primary production from remotely sensed imagery are the only viable solution. We developed a depth-resolved model of marine phytoplankton primary production using an Artificial Neural Network, namely a three-layer perceptron trained with the Error Back-Propagation algorithm. Despite numerous variables could be useful to estimate primary production, we chose to use predictive variables that can be acquired by remote sensing in order to enhance the practical value of the model. Indeed, using exclusively this type of predictors in combination with a depth-resolved approach allows to expand the two-dimensional view from satellite images to the estimated three-dimensional distribution of phytoplankton primary production. Since the vertically integrated values of this process are the basis for any connection to other levels of the pelagic food web, it is worth noting that, once integrated, the primary production estimates of this depth-resolved model are more accurate than those obtained from a similar vertically integrated approach. We also tried to improve the accuracy of the primary production estimates using constraints during the training procedure. Those constraints were based on theoretical knowledge of the marine photosynthesis process. Accordingly, the training phase has been modified in order to add penalty terms to the solutions which were not compliant with the constraints. For instance, one of the constraints acts as a selection tool for the shape of the modelled production profile. The above-mentioned approach not only enhanced the ecological soundness of the artificial neural network predictions. In fact, the constrained version of the model also explained a larger share of variance than the original one

A che punto è la notte? Il ritorno della rendita e l’avventura delle università italiane

In the last few decades, many tensions have developed around university as an institution. Once a flywheel for climbing the social ladder, the academic enterprise seems to have lost its relevance as a vehicle for social and economic mobility. No reform has succeeded over time in solving those fundamental problems which impede the university to function as a “transmission belt”, as Louis Althusser would say.Tensions have grown around every aspect of the functions, operations and “structure” of the university: the organization, the recruitment of administrative and scholarly personnel, governance, curriculum, teaching practices, and institutional goals and priorities. Everyone calls for a meritocratic higher ed-ucation system while claiming indignation about the current state of affairs.This article tries to re-construct – etsi Marx non daretur – the plot between the current form of the capital and its superstructural reflexes, particularly in Italy. And it wonders whether the recent rise in the return on capital in today’s economy is connected, if at all, with the concomitant social erosion of the university’s place in society

Enhancement of radiosensitivity by the novel anticancer quinolone derivative vosaroxin in preclinical glioblastoma models

Purpose: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive brain tumor. The activity of vosaroxin, a first-in-class anticancer quinolone derivative that intercalates DNA and inhibits topoisomerase II, was investigated in GBM preclinical models as a single agent and combined with radiotherapy (RT). Results: Vosaroxin showed antitumor activity in clonogenic survival assays, with IC50 of 10-100 nM, and demonstrated radiosensitization. Combined treatments exhibited significantly higher γH2Ax levels compared with controls. In xenograft models, vosaroxin reduced tumor growth and showed enhanced activity with RT; vosaroxin/RT combined was more effective than temozolomide/RT. Vosaroxin/ RT triggered rapid and massive cell death with characteristics of necrosis. A minor proportion of treated cells underwent caspase-dependent apoptosis, in agreement with in vitro results. Vosaroxin/RT inhibited RT-induced autophagy, increasing necrosis. This was associated with increased recruitment of granulocytes, monocytes, and undifferentiated bone marrow-derived lymphoid cells. Pharmacokinetic analyses revealed adequate blood-brain penetration of vosaroxin. Vosaroxin/RT increased disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) significantly compared with RT, vosaroxin alone, temozolomide, and temozolomide/RT in the U251-luciferase orthotopic model. Materials and Methods: Cellular, molecular, and antiproliferative effects of vosaroxin alone or combined with RT were evaluated in 13 GBM cell lines. Tumor growth delay was determined in U87MG, U251, and T98G xenograft mouse models. (DFS) and (OS) were assessed in orthotopic intrabrain models using luciferasetransfected U251 cells by bioluminescence and magnetic resonance imaging. Conclusions: Vosaroxin demonstrated significant activity in vitro and in vivo in GBM models, and showed additive/synergistic activity when combined with RT in O6- methylguanine methyltransferase-negative and -positive cell lines

Predictive factors of hospitalization related to the caregiver burden in older adults presenting to the emergency department

Background Long-term care for the elderly by their family members represents a serious burden in Italy. The physical and psychological health of informal caregivers is a growing public health issue. Old patients often seek urgent medical attention in the Emergency Department (ED) and hospitalisation is frequent event among the elderly. Aim Aim of the study was (1) to investigate the burden of care among the caregivers of old patients; (2) to examine the influence of the burden experienced by the caregivers on ED and hospital admissions of the elderly. Methods We conducted a descriptive study of patients aged 75 years or older and their caregiver admitted to the ED from 10/1/15 to 6/10/15 (77 patient-caregiver pairs). The caregivers were evaluated using the Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI). A case manager collected the patient's data. Results CBI score is the highest among patients seeking ED evaluation due to caregiver's concern. The majority of the elderly admitted to the ED whose caregiver shows elevated emotional burden at the CBI do not present with serious or urgent medical condition and are not hospitalised. Emotional burden is the highest among the caregivers of demented subjects who share the same house. Conclusion Our findings indicate that the burden experienced by caregiving family members plays a role in elderly people avoidable ED visits