Segnalazioni floristiche e vegetazionali per le zone umide costiere del territorio di Petrosino (Sicilia occidentale)

Si riportano popolazioni inedite di alcune specie di angiosperme rare per il territorio siciliano, localizzate nelle aree umide costiere del territorio di Petrosino (provincia di Trapani), attualmente tutelate come sito della rete europea “Natura 2000” (codice ITA010006), e come zona “Ramsar”: si tratta nel dettaglio di Apium graveolens, Briza minor, Carex extensa, Cladium mariscus, Euphorbia hirsuta, Ipomoea sagittata, Ruppia drepanensis, Sonchus maritimus. Per ogni specie viene brevemente illustrata l’importanza dei nuovi reperti nel contesto regionale. Viene inoltre segnalata la presenza di un habitat prioritario non censito nel piano di gestione del sito Natura 2000, ossia “7210*: Paludi calcaree con Cladium mariscus e specie del Caricion davallianae”, nei margi Milo, e di nuove stazioni dell’habitat prioritario “1150*: Lagune costiere” (già segnalato per margi Milo e per Capo Feto) nei margi Nespolilla.Floristic and vegetation records for the coastal wetlands in the territory of Petrosino (Western Sicily). - New populations of some regionally rare angiosperm species, found in the coastal wetlands of the territory of Petrosino (Province of Trapani) currently protected as a site of the European network “Natura 2000” (code ITA010006) and as a “Ramsar” area, are reported: in detail, the species are Apium graveolens, Briza minor, Carex extensa, Cladium mariscus, Euphorbia hirsuta, Ipomoea sagittata, Ruppia drepanensis, Sonchus maritimus. For each species, the importance of the new findings in the regional context is briefly illustrated. A priority habitat not mentioned in the Natura 2000 site management plan, i.e. “7210*: Calcareous fens with Cladium mariscus and species of the Caricion davallianae”, in the Milo marshes, and new stations of the priority habitat “1150*: Coastal lagoons” (already reported for Milo marshes and Capo Feto) in the Nespolilla marshes, are also reported

DIAGNOSTIC MONITORING FOR HISTORIC URBAN LANDSCAPE CASE STUDY: BUILDING IN VIA CARACCIOLO NAPOLI

Anticipating the rise and degenerate of the degradation processes for urban landscape, is an area of research that requires the deployment of analysis and forecasting, informed to the impacts induced by climatic and environmental pressures on settlements. Taking into account historic areas, the study focuses upon the need to set up a practice-based research, rethinking the processes of condition's relief, by integrating deterioration data with the prediction of the impact-induced by microclimate processes. The paper introduces as a case study, a nineteenth-century neighborhood in Naples, completed in 1869-80, with the reorganisation of the waterfront, filling the beach and constructing new buildings. The degradation reliefs, on sight and instrumental, carried out with the support of the infrared camera in three different moments of the building life cycle (2002, 2011, 2013), constitutes the knowledge base to relate degenerative phenomena with the constructive, morphological and dimensional characteristics and contextual conditions. The infrared remote sensing, long used through the two-dimensional display of the measurement of irradiation in order to evaluate the performance of the building (to detect insulation defects, thermal bridges, the heat loss through the windows, the humidity) is adopted to bind information about the phenomena taking place in location factors, climatic and environmental conditions. The observation of the related iterated and superimposed effects of decay allows the scheduling of control actions, with the intent to prevent an overrun of critical performance thresholds. A recursive approach characterizes the investigation procedure, based on forecast and verifiability

DIAGNOSTIC MONITORING FOR HISTORIC URBAN LANDSCAPE CASE STUDY: BUILDING IN VIA CARACCIOLO NAPOLI

Anticipating the rise and degenerate of the degradation processes for urban landscape, is an area of research that requires the deployment of analysis and forecasting, informed to the impacts induced by climatic and environmental pressures on settlements. Taking into account historic areas, the study focuses upon the need to set up a practice-based research, rethinking the processes of condition's relief, by integrating deterioration data with the prediction of the impact-induced by microclimate processes. The paper introduces as a case study, a nineteenth-century neighborhood in Naples, completed in 1869-80, with the reorganisation of the waterfront, filling the beach and constructing new buildings. The degradation reliefs, on sight and instrumental, carried out with the support of the infrared camera in three different moments of the building life cycle (2002, 2011, 2013), constitutes the knowledge base to relate degenerative phenomena with the constructive, morphological and dimensional characteristics and contextual conditions. The infrared remote sensing, long used through the two-dimensional display of the measurement of irradiation in order to evaluate the performance of the building (to detect insulation defects, thermal bridges, the heat loss through the windows, the humidity) is adopted to bind information about the phenomena taking place in location factors, climatic and environmental conditions. The observation of the related iterated and superimposed effects of decay allows the scheduling of control actions, with the intent to prevent an overrun of critical performance thresholds. A recursive approach characterizes the investigation procedure, based on forecast and verifiability

Changes in the Mitochondria in the Aging Process-Can α-Tocopherol Affect Them?

Aerobic organisms use molecular oxygen in several reactions, including those in which the oxidation of substrate molecules is coupled to oxygen reduction to produce large amounts of metabolic energy. The utilization of oxygen is associated with the production of ROS, which can damage biological macromolecules but also act as signaling molecules, regulating numerous cellular processes. Mitochondria are the cellular sites where most of the metabolic energy is produced and perform numerous physiological functions by acting as regulatory hubs of cellular metabolism. They retain the remnants of their bacterial ancestors, including an independent genome that encodes part of their protein equipment; they have an accurate quality control system; and control of cellular functions also depends on communication with the nucleus. During aging, mitochondria can undergo dysfunctions, some of which are mediated by ROS. In this review, after a description of how aging affects the mitochondrial quality and quality control system and the involvement of mitochondria in inflammation, we report information on how vitamin E, the main fat-soluble antioxidant, can protect mitochondria from age-related changes. The information in this regard is scarce and limited to some tissues and some aspects of mitochondrial alterations in aging. Improving knowledge of the effects of vitamin E on aging is essential to defining an optimal strategy for healthy aging

Feed production for sustainable aquaculture: A Bibliometric Network Analysis

In recent years, aquaculture has played a fundamental role in human nutrition and livestock for the ability to produce different animal and vegetable protein and lipid sources essential for human and animal health. However, the growing increase in aquaculture has led to a greater demand for ingredients composing feed for aquatic organisms, many of which are derived from wild fish making the aquatic feed production an unsustainable process. For this reason, the aquaculture sector has expanded experimentation to search for alternative ingredients to reduce environmental impact. This study explored the global scientific literature on sustainable aquaculture with particular reference to feeding using VOSviewer software, which allows for generating, visualizing, and exploring maps based on bibliometric network data. The results allowed a comprehensive overview of the scientific literature on sustainable aquaculture through network maps displaying the relationships among keywords, authors, countries, and journals. In detail, this paper highlighted that in the last years, particularly in recent decades, the research widely focused attention on different aspects of the sustainable aquaculture field. The first journal that researched sustainable aquaculture was the Aquaculture Journal, and the leading countries that pursued this type of research were the USA, UK, and China. Concerning the co-occurrence, the top keywords were aquaculture, sustainability, animals, nonhuman, and sustainable development, highlighting a growing interest in research on microalgae, diet, fishmeal, and climate change. The description of the current state of the art in sustainable aquaculture reported in this article highlighted that the combined use of social network analysis and bibliometrics allows exploring the development of research in specific fields of science and lays the foundations for delving into questions that have not yet been sufficiently investigated

Multiple Acquired Mutations Captured by Liquid Biopsy in the EGFR Addicted Metastatic Colorectal Cancer.

Clinical Practice Points • Metastatic colorectal cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer death worldwide. • Primary and acquired resistance mechanisms to anti-EGFR treatment are a challenging topic with several clinical implications. • Primary resistance is defined by the presence of activating mutations in BRAF and RAS genes before treatment initiation, while acquired resistance refers to the selection of pre-existing mutant clones or de novo acquisition of mutations under the pressure of anti EGFR treatment. • Testing mutations in RAS and BRAF genes as predictive biomarkers is mandatory. • Liquid biopsy has acquired growing importance and showed to be reliable when compared to tissue NGS. • Liquid biopsy offers a full overview of the genetic landscape of the disease, overcoming spatial and temporal heterogeneity, when compared to tissue biopsy. • Liquid biopsy can be used to capture the changes in biology of cancer cells under the selective pressure of targeted agents over time. • Using complementary techniques allows to increase the diagnostic power and the biological significance of the results

Towards sustainable aquaculture systems: Biological and environmental impact of replacing fishmeal with Arthrospira platensis (Nordstedt) (spirulina)

Sustainable fish food production is crucial for aquaculture. Microalgae, such as spirulina (Arthrospira platensis), can supplement diet antioxidants or replace expensive fishmeal with high-quality proteins. In this study, we tested fish growth and wellbeing by feeding fish on a diet in which 5% of fishmeal was replaced by spirulina (SP5 diet). The low level of spirulina in the diet was intended as supplementation and was effective in ameliorating the redox state of a model fish species (juvenile Koi Carp, Cyprinus carpio L.) in a preliminary lab protocol in a six-week trial. When compared with both the control diet (no Spirulina) and a diet containing 30% spirulina replacing fishmeal (SP30 diet), SP5 was able to reduce the muscle levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), oxidative damage, and susceptibility to oxidative stress, while increasing glutathione reductase and peroxidase activity. However, high production costs and impacts still limit the use of spirulina in fish diet. Recent studies focused on growing spirulina on urban or agro-industrial wastewater, with appropriate profiles for the alga growth. Therefore, in a circular economy context, a possibility still to be tested and exploited is feeding farmed fish with spirulina produced on output wastewater recirculated back from the same farming plant. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was applied to estimate the sustainability of such “circular” fish farming. The LCA ReCiPe Midpoint (H) impact assessment method was used. Firstly, the LCA environmental impacts associated with the production of spirulina grown on aquaculture wastewater as well as on the standard culture medium (Zarrouk medium) were assessed and compared by means of a “gate to gate” analysis. Then, the LCA impacts of an SP5 diet for fish, in which spirulina grown on aquaculture wastewater was used to replace 5% fishmeal (SP5ww), were compared to the diet containing spirulina grown on a standard medium (SP5st) and that one without spirulina (control diet). Results indicated that SP5ww was significantly less impacting, by avoiding the treatment and disposal of wastewater and the need for the highly impacting standard culture medium. In conclusion, the proposed approach for using spirulina in aquaculture represents a valid solution for aquaculture circular economy scenario while at the same time improving fish welfare

Biomarker-Guided Anti-Egfr Rechallenge Therapy in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer

Anticossos monoclonals anti-EGFR; Càncer colorectal metastàticAnticuerpos monoclonales anti-EGFR; Cáncer colorrectal metastásicoAnti-EGFR monoclonal antibodies; Metastatic colorectal cancerThe prognosis of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) who progressed to the first and the second lines of treatment is poor. Thus, new therapeutic strategies are needed. During the last years, emerging evidence suggests that retreatment with anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) in the third line of mCRC patients, that have previously obtained clinical benefit by first-line therapy with anti-EGFR MAbs plus chemotherapy, could lead to prolonged survival. The rationale beyond this “rechallenge” strategy is that, after disease progression to first line EGFR-based therapy, a treatment break from anti-EGFR drugs results in RAS mutant cancer cell decay, restoring the sensitivity of cancer cells to cetuximab and panitumumab. In fact, rechallenge treatment with anti-EGFR drugs has shown promising clinical activity, particularly in patients with plasma RAS and BRAF wild type circulating tumor DNA, as defined by liquid biopsy analysis at baseline treatment. The aim of this review is to analyze the current knowledge on rechallenge and to investigate the role of novel biomarkers that can guide the appropriate selection of patients that could benefit from this therapeutic strategy. Finally, we discuss on-going trials and future perspectives.Regione Campania (I-Cure Research Project, Grant number: Cup 21C17000030007), Gruppo Oncologico dell’Italia Meridionale (GOIM)

Digenic mutational inheritance of the integrin alpha 7 and the myosin heavy chain 7B genes causes congenital myopathy with left ventricular non-compact cardiomyopathy

BACKGROUND: We report an Italian family in which the proband showed a severe phenotype characterized by the association of congenital fiber type disproportion (CFTD) with a left ventricular non-compaction cardiomyopathy (LVNC). This study was focused on the identification of the responsible gene/s. METHODS AND RESULTS: Using the whole-exome sequencing approach, we identified the proband homozygous missense mutations in two genes, the myosin heavy chain 7B (MYH7B) and the integrin alpha 7 (ITGA7). Both genes are expressed in heart and muscle tissues, and both mutations were predicted to be deleterious and were not found in the healthy population. The R890C mutation in the MYH7B gene segregated with the LVNC phenotype in the examined family. It was also found in one unrelated patient affected by LVNC, confirming a causative role in cardiomyopathy. The E882K mutation in the ITGA7 gene, a key component of the basal lamina of muscle fibers, was found only in the proband, suggesting a role in CFTD. CONCLUSIONS: This study identifies two novel disease genes. Mutation in MYH7B causes a classical LVNC phenotype, whereas mutation in ITGA7 causes CFTD. Both phenotypes represent alterations of skeletal and cardiac muscle maturation and are usually not severe. The severe phenotype of the proband is most likely due to a synergic effect of these two mutations. This study provides new insights into the genetics underlying Mendelian traits and demonstrates a role for digenic inheritance in complex phenotypes