Posterior corneal surface stability after femtosecond laser-assisted keratomileusis

The purpose of this study was to evaluate posterior corneal surface variation after femtosecond laser-assisted keratomileusis in patients with myopia and myopic astigmatism. Patients were evaluated by corneal tomography preoperatively and at 1, 6, and 12 months. We analyzed changes in the posterior corneal curvature, posterior corneal elevation, and anterior chamber depth. Moreover, we explored correlation between corneal ablation depth, residual corneal thickness, percentage of ablated corneal tissue, and preoperative corneal thickness. During follow-up, the posterior corneal surface did not have a significant forward corneal shift: no significant linear relationships emerged between the anterior displacement of the posterior corneal surface and corneal ablation depth, residual corneal thickness, or percentage of ablated corneal tissue

Lacustrine trace fossils and environmental conditions in the Early Miocene Ermenek Basin, southern Turkey

The Early Miocene lacustrine succession of the Ermenek Basin, an intramontane graben in southern Anatolia, consists of hemipelagic, variably calcareous mudstones and pelagic marlstones densely interspersed with tempestite sandstone sheets, subordinate turbidite sandstone sheets and sporadic layers of evaporitic limestone. The marly lake was hydrologically closed and mainly no deeper than 10 m, with the mean fairweather wave base at 1.5 m and storm wave base around 5 m. The deposits abound in trace fossils, including Vagorichnus cf. anyao (its second recognized occurrence), endichnial ferruginous ribbons, large tubular structures, oblique cylinders, small discontinuous ridges, undulating ridges, planar wall structures and a range of other bioturbational features. The tempestites and turbidites show both pre-and post-event trace fossils, with recognizable mixed and transitional layers similar as reported from marine tempestites and turbidites. The trace fossils constitute an impoverished Mermia ichnofacies indicating a considerable environmental stress. The lake salinity fluctuated, and the stress factor is attributed to the extreme environmental conditions (increased salinity and unusual water chemistry) caused by episodes of brackishness due to decreases in rainfall and increases in evaporation. Freshwater conditions are indicated by benthic ostracods and mollusc shells in offshore mudstones and by gastropod shells in coastal coal deposits, whereas marly layers contain only the ostracod species Miocyprideis glabra asulcata, implying mesohaline to polyhaline conditions

BRCA Mutations in Prostate Cancer: Prognostic and Predictive Implications

Despite chemotherapy and novel androgen-receptor signalling inhibitors (ARSi) have been approved during the last decades, metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) remains a lethal disease with poor clinical outcomes. Several studies found that germline or acquired DNA damage repair (DDR) defects affect a high percentage of mCRPC patients. Among DDR defects, BRCA mutations show relevant clinical implications. BRCA mutations are associated with adverse clinical features in primary tumors and with poor outcomes in patients with mCRPC. In addition, BRCA mutations predict good response to poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, such as olaparib, rucaparib, and niraparib. However, concerns still remain on the role of extensive mutational testing in prostate cancer patients, given the implications for patients and for their progeny. The present comprehensive review attempts to provide an overview of BRCA mutations in prostate cancer, focusing on their prognostic and predictive roles

An overview of the Italian contribution to the international multisite SPRISTAD study on psychotherapy training

open5openMessina I.; Gullo S.; Gelo O.C.G.; Giordano C.; Salcuni S.Messina, I.; Gullo, S.; Gelo, O. C. G.; Giordano, C.; Salcuni, S

Tidal signatures in Neogene to Quaternary mixed deposits of southern Italy straits and bays

Some of the Neogene to Quaternary sedimentary successions cropping out in the southern Italy orogenic belt exhibit distinct stratigraphic intervals of mixed, silici-bioclastic arenites. These deposits represent bay- and strait-fill successions that accumulated during tectonically-driven, rapid transgressions in peripheral marine basins of the central Mediterranean, experiencing microtidal conditions similar to those presently existing in the Mediterranean Sea. The Upper Miocene to Middle Pleistocene successions of Basilicata, Calabria and NE Sicily, show laterallyaccreted, cross-strata of mixed composition, with the siliciclastic fraction derived from either sedimentary or metamorphic rocks and the bioclastic fraction produced by an in situ or near situ heterozoan factory. Tidal cyclicity of semi-diurnal and diurnal to monthly and yearly periodicities has been detected in the studied deposits, where tidal bundling is revealed by the rhythmic alternation of siliciclastic and bioclastic set of laminae, repeated according to different cycles. This rhythmic signature appears to be more evident where randomly-occurring processes, such as waves, storms and currents, were mitigated by engulfed or strait palaeo-settings. Palaeo-bays preserved short-term tidal cycles in shoreface to offshore-transition mixed deposits because hydrodynamically isolated from open marine conditions and therefore subjected to tidal influence only during fair-weather periods. On the contrary, palaeo-straits recorded tidal cyclicities of longer duration in deeper mixed deposits subjected to steady tidal currents