SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES RECONSTRUCTION OF THE LAST 16,000 YEARS IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA

A detailed study has been performed on two eastern Mediterranean box cores (BC02 and BC06) and on a southern Adriatic piston core (AD91-17) on the alkenone unsaturation ratio, a molecular proxy for past sea surface temperatures. The aim was to identify climatic events of the last 16 Ky, with particular attention on the conditions during formation of sapropel S1. All three temperature curves lack evidence for cooling in the Younger Dryas stadial and warming in the Boelling/Alleroed interstadial events. Just prior to the sapropel S1 base, SST cooled and increased by about 5°C during the sapropel deposition interval. Within sapropel S1, SST show a marked warming followed by a clear cooling. In the topmost intervals of the cores SST are mostly constant, but a warming event is always observed. This warming phase may correspond to the Medieval climatic Optimum (in the AD91-17 core) and to the Roman Optimum (in the box cores)

Long-term dynamics of hypoxia and anoxia in the Emilia Romagna coastal zone (Northern Adriatic Sea)

The Northern Adriatic is a continental shelf area characterised by highly variable freshwater discharges and production events. Here, hypoxia and anoxia have occurred both in offshore areas and in coastal waters, at least since the beginning of 1900. Despite several biogeochemical studies are available, longterm analysis of their recurrence, triggering mechanisms and impact on marine environment may provide a tool for a better understanding of present evolution of this ecosystem. For this reason, a compilation of the information contained in the scientific literature on the occurrence on decadal scales of hypoxia and anoxia in the North Adriatic has been done, focusing in particular on the Emilia Romagna coastal zone. Time series of Po River discharges and meteorological data (air temperature, precipitation, wind intensity and direction) were analysed, together with oceanographic conditions, as triggering factors for this phenomenon in the area of interest. The occurrence of plankton blooms was also reported and evaluated. The characteristics of hypo-anoxic events in terms of extension, duration and diffusion were collected in order to distinguish local vs. regional events, shortlived vs. long-lasting events, and to evaluate space and temporal evolutionary trends. This analysis was carried out through the reconstruction of time series of bottom dissolved O2 distribution for the period 1982-2005 and by comparison with reported observations on the field. On this base, latitudinal diffusion of events was studied, as well as possible exchanges between coastal and offshore waters. Finally, the analysis of this historical dataset suggests an increase in short-lived events, located in shallow waters, but often repeated during the year, which cause a continuous stress on the pelagic and benthic habitats. This temporal trends may be related to regional changes of the climatic conditions, which include an higher frequency of irregular seasonal cycles

Phanerozoic organic-carbon-rich marine sediments: Overview and future research challenges

\u201cOne of the major obsessions of many early workers, to the mid-1900s, was the application of uniformitarian principles to depositional models for black shales\u201c (Arthur and Sageman, 1994).The purpose of this overview of organic-carbon(OC)-rich marine sediments is to provide a brief but current summary of the historical developments, principle concepts, and remaining challenges in integrated sapropel and black shale research. As such, it provides a substantive introduction to the Special Issue of Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology on \u201cOrganic Carbon Rich Sediments through the Phanerozoic: Processes, Progress, and Perspectives\u201d. Given this focused scope, the overview does not aim to be comprehensive or complete but to provide a solid setting for the fourteen individual research papers that constitute this Special Issue and two previous special issues (Meyers and Negri, 2003; Negri et al., 2006) that cover research aspects complementary to this one. Like the individual contributions, this introduction and overview is organized into Cenozoic, Mesozoic, and Palaeozoic units. The Cenozoic and Palaeozoic units are deliberately larger than theMesozoic unit, acknowledging that much ground on Mesozoic black shale is already covered in the two previous special issues. Because the Late Cenozoic sapropels of the Mediterranean Basin have been extensively studied, understanding how these near-modern analogs of ancient black shales were deposited provides a good foundation for understanding how the older sequences may have evolved. In contrast, because far less is generally known about the black shales of the Palaeozoic than comparable OC-rich sequences of either the Cenozoic or the Mesozoic, a more comprehensive summary and comparison of the more ancient sequences is particularly appropriate to the theme of this Special Issue

Organic-carbon-rich sediments through the Phanerozoic: Processes, progress, and perspectives

This Special Issue is comprised of two related components. First, we present a summary of the occurrences of organic-carbon-rich sedimentary sequences in the Phanerozoic geological record and our overview of the evolution and current status of understanding of how they accumulated. We note especially some of the new advances in the kinds of palaeoceanographic proxies that can be used and in the more refined explanations that have emerged from these advances. The second and greater part of the Special Issue consists of fourteen research papers that provide examples of the more detailed analyses of organic-carbon-rich sedimentary sequences that can be achieved with modern techniques and that can be elegantly interpreted by specialists in these techniques

A selective alpha1D-adrenoreceptor antagonist inhibits human prostate cancer cell proliferation and motility "in vitro"

The progression of prostate cancer (PC) to a metastatic hormone refractory disease is the major contributor to the overall cancer mortality in men, mainly because the conventional therapies are generally ineffective at this stage. Thus, other therapeutic options are needed as alternatives or in addition to the classic approaches to prevent or delay tumor progression. Catecholamines participate to the control of prostate cell functions by the activation of alpha1-adrenoreceptors (alpha1-AR) and increased sympathetic activity has been linked to PC development and evolution. Molecular and pharmacological studies identified three alpha1-AR subtypes (A, B and D), which differ in tissue distribution, cell signaling, pharmacology and physiological role. Within the prostate, alpha1A-ARs mainly control stromal cell functions, while alpha1B- and alpha1D- subtypes seem to modulate glandular epithelial cell growth. The possible direct contribution of alpha1D-ARs in tumor biology is supported by their overexpression in PC. The studies here presented investigate the "in vitro" antitumor action of A175, a selective alpha1D-AR antagonist we have recently obtained by modifying the potent, but not subtype-selective alpha1-AR antagonist (S)-WB4101, in the hormone-refractory PC3 and DU145 PC cell lines. The results indicate that A175 has an alpha1D-AR-mediated significant and dose-dependent antiproliferative action that possibly involves the induction of G0/G1 cell cycle arrest, but not apoptosis. In addition, A175 reduces cell migration and adhesiveness to culture plates. In conclusion, our work clarified some cellular aspects promoted by alpha1D-AR activity modulation and supports a further pharmacological approach in the cure of hormone-refractory PC, by targeting specifically this AR subtype

Internal radiation dose assessment of radiopharmaceuticals prepared with cyclotron-produced 99m Tc

Technetium-99m (99m Tc) is the radioisotope most widely used in diagnostic nuclear medicine. It is readily available from 99 Mo/99m Tc generators as the \u3b2- decay product of the 99 Mo (T\ubd =66 h) parent nuclide. This latter is obtained as a fission product in nuclear reactors by neutron-induced reactions on highly enriched uranium. Alternative production routes, such as direct reactions using proton beams on specific target materials [100 Mo(p,2n)99m Tc], have the potential to be both reliable and relatively cost-effective. However, results showed that the 99m Tc extracted from proton-bombarded 100 Mo-enriched targets contains small quantities of several Tc radioisotopes (93m Tc, 93 Tc, 94 Tc, 94m Tc, 95 Tc, 95m Tc 96 Tc and 97m Tc). The aim of this work was to estimate the dose increase (DI) due to the contribution of Tc radioisotopes generated as impurities, after the intravenous injection of four radiopharmaceuticals prepared with cyclotron-produced 99m Tc (CP-99m Tc) using 99.05% 100 Mo-enriched metallic targets

Experimental Chronic Exposure of the Foraminifer Pseudotriloculina rotunda to Zinc

Miliolid (calcareous imperforated test) foraminifera have large diffusion all over the world in a wide range of marine environments, but their distributional pattern in relation to heavy metal pollution is not clearly understood yet. The aim of this study was to better understand the biological response of the miliolid species Pseudotriloculina rotunda to experimental chronic exposure at several zinc concentrations. The duration of the experiment was 10 weeks, and six different concentrations of zinc were tested between 0 and 100 mg/L. Increasing zinc concentrations led to increasing delay or to complete cease of the new chambers’ construction, with consequences on growth rates and affected vitality and biomass variations at medium to high concentrations. Moreover, our results showed that, even at high concentrations, zinc did not cause macroscopic test deformities due to anomalous arrangements of chambers