InfoFaunaFVG: a novel progressive web application for wildlife surveillance

The Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences (DI4A) at the University of Udine, in collaboration with Friuli Venezia Giulia regional authorities, within northeastern Italy, set up a wildlife monitoring and surveillance regional network, named InfoFaunaFVG. Here we describe the development and application of this data repository system based on a novel progressive web application, and report the data gathered in the first two and a half years of its use. InfoFaunaFVG is made of a Web Database and an integrated WebGIS system. In particular, the following open source softwares are used: Apache HTTP Server, Oracle MySQL, Symfony, Apache Tomcat, GeoServer, OpenLayers. The web app can be accessed from any web browser or by installing the progressive web application in the desktop or mobile devices. In short, operating from November 2019, InfoFaunaFVG currently (April 2022) contains a total of 40,175 records, from 300 different users, from 16 institutions. Among all species recorded, mammals were 40% (16,018) of the total, whereas avian species represented 59% (23,741), and others (reptiles and amphibians) 1% (416), respectively. Two hundred twenty-six different species (175 avian and 51 mammals) were recorded. Details about causes of death and live animal rescue were reported. To date, InfoFaunaFVG has proven to be a successful wildlife data repository system providing high quality consistent, accurate and traceable data. These had a considerable impact on regional wildlife governance. In the authors’ knowledge, InfoFaunaFVG is the first example described in literature of such a progressive web application, coordinated on an institutional level, and not based on voluntary-citizen observations. InfoFaunaFVG has the potential to become the largest wildlife monitoring and surveillance data repository system on a national level

Understanding the Pathogenesis of Red Mark Syndrome in Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) through an Integrated Morphological and Molecular Approach

Red mark syndrome (RMS) is a widespread skin disorder of rainbow trout in freshwater aquaculture, believed to be caused by a Midichloria-like organism (MLO). Here, we aimed to study the pathologic mechanisms at the origin of RMS by analyzing field samples from a recent outbreak through gene expression, MLO PCR, quantitative PCR, and a histopathological scoring system proposed for RMS lesions. Statistical analyses included a One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with a Dunnett’s multiple comparisons test to assess differences among gene expression groups and a nonparametric Spearman correlation between various categories of skin lesions and PCR results. In short, the results confirmed the presence of a high quantity of 16S gene copy numbers of Midichloria-like organisms in diseased skin tissues. However, the number of Midichloria-like organisms detected was not correlated to the degree of severity of skin disease. Midichloria-like organism DNA was found in the spleen and head kidney. The spleen showed pathologic changes mainly of hyperplastic type, reflecting its direct involvement during infection. The most severe skin lesions were characterized by a high level of inflammatory cytokines sustaining and modulating the severe inflammatory process. IL-1 β, IL-6, IL-10, MHC-II, and TCR were upregulated in severe skin lesions, while IL-10 was highly expressed in moderate to severe ones. In the moderate form, the response was driven to produce immunoglobulins, which appeared crucial in controlling the skin disease’s severity. Altogether our results illustrated a complex immune interaction between the host and Midichloria-like organism

Discovery of an unrecognized nidovirus associated with granulomatous hepatitis in rainbow trout

Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is the principal species of inland-farmed fish in the Western hemisphere. Recently, we diagnosed in farmed rainbow trout a disease in which the hallmark is granulomatous-like hepatitis. No biotic agents could be isolated from lesions. Still, unbiased high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analyses revealed the presence of a novel piscine nidovirus that we named “Trout Granulomatous Virus” (TGV). TGV genome (28,767 nucleotides long) is predicted to encode non-structural (1a and 1 ab) and structural (S, M, and N) proteins that resemble proteins of other known piscine nidoviruses. High loads of TGV transcripts were detected by quantitative RT-PCR in diseased fish and visualized in hepatic granulomatous sites by fluorescence in situ hybridization. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed coronavirus-like particles in these lesions. Together, these analyses corroborated the association of TGV with the lesions. The identification and detection of TGV provide means to control TGV spread in trout populations

State recognition for ‘contested languages’: a comparative study of Sardinian and Asturian, 1992–2010

While the idea of a named language as a separate and discrete identity is a political and social construct, in the cases of Sardinian and Asturian doubts over their respective ‘languageness’ have real material consequences, particularly in relation to language policy decisions at the state level. The Asturian example highlights how its lack of official status means that it is either ignored or subjected to repeated challenges to its status as a language variety deserving of recognition and support, reflecting how ‘official language’ in the Spanish context is often understood in practice as synonymous with the theoretically broader category of ‘language’. In contrast, the recent state recognition of Sardinian speakers as a linguistic minority in Italy (Law 482/1999) illustrates how legal recognition served to overcome existing obstacles to the implementation of regional language policy measures. At the same time, the limited subsequent effects of this Law, particularly in the sphere of education, are a reminder of the shortcomings of top-down policies which fail to engage with the local language practices and attitudes of the communities of speakers recognized. The contrastive focus of this article thus acknowledges the continued material consequences of top-down language classification, while highlighting its inadequacies as a language policy mechanism which reinforces artificial distinctions between speech varieties and speakers deserving of recognition

Discordant identification of pediatric severe sepsis by research and clinical definitions in the SPROUT international point prevalence study

Introduction: Consensus criteria for pediatric severe sepsis have standardized enrollment for research studies. However, the extent to which critically ill children identified by consensus criteria reflect physician diagnosis of severe sepsis, which underlies external validity for pediatric sepsis research, is not known. We sought to determine the agreement between physician diagnosis and consensus criteria to identify pediatric patients with severe sepsis across a network of international pediatric intensive care units (PICUs). Methods: We conducted a point prevalence study involving 128 PICUs in 26 countries across 6 continents. Over the course of 5 study days, 6925 PICU patients <18 years of age were screened, and 706 with severe sepsis defined either by physician diagnosis or on the basis of 2005 International Pediatric Sepsis Consensus Conference consensus criteria were enrolled. The primary endpoint was agreement of pediatric severe sepsis between physician diagnosis and consensus criteria as measured using Cohen's ?. Secondary endpoints included characteristics and clinical outcomes for patients identified using physician diagnosis versus consensus criteria. Results: Of the 706 patients, 301 (42.6 %) met both definitions. The inter-rater agreement (? ± SE) between physician diagnosis and consensus criteria was 0.57 ± 0.02. Of the 438 patients with a physician's diagnosis of severe sepsis, only 69 % (301 of 438) would have been eligible to participate in a clinical trial of pediatric severe sepsis that enrolled patients based on consensus criteria. Patients with physician-diagnosed severe sepsis who did not meet consensus criteria were younger and had lower severity of illness and lower PICU mortality than those meeting consensus criteria or both definitions. After controlling for age, severity of illness, number of comorbid conditions, and treatment in developed versus resource-limited regions, patients identified with severe sepsis by physician diagnosis alone or by consensus criteria alone did not have PICU mortality significantly different from that of patients identified by both physician diagnosis and consensus criteria. Conclusions: Physician diagnosis of pediatric severe sepsis achieved only moderate agreement with consensus criteria, with physicians diagnosing severe sepsis more broadly. Consequently, the results of a research study based on consensus criteria may have limited generalizability to nearly one-third of PICU patients diagnosed with severe sepsis

Epileptic Seizures Versus Syncope: Pathophysiology and Clinical Approach

Generalised epileptic seizures and syncope are two syndromes with similar clinical manifestation and their differentiation can be quite challenging. The aim of this review is to use an evidence-based approach in differentiating these two syndromes through the comprehension of the pathophysiological mechanisms involved and their clinical signs. Both syndromes affect regions of the forebrain and consciousness level, although, different mechanisms are involved. Syncope is a paroxysmal event secondary to a short-term decrease in cerebral perfusion, oxygenation or essential nutrients delivery. Generalised epileptic seizure activity is defined as the clinical manifestation of transient paroxysmal disturbances in brain function secondary to an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters. Clinical criteria, including precipitating events, clinical signs preceding, during and following the episodes and event duration, can be used to differentiate the two syndromes. Although these criteria might be useful for the practitioner, definite conclusions should be precluded due to the lack of original research articles and weak evidence on this specific field.Application: The review might be a useful tool for the general practitioner and clinical scientist as it will aid towards the differentiation of two syndromes, i.e. generalised epileptic seizures and syncope, with similar clinical presentation. <img src="https://www.veterinaryevidence.org/rcvskmod/icons/pr-icon.jpg" alt="Peer Reviewed" /

QUANDO DEFINIRE È FAR FINIRE IL MONDO IN UNA SCATOLA. PER UNA POSSIBILE ORIGINE DEL COSIDDETTO MASCHILE NON MARCATO

Scopo di questo contributo è la misurazione degli effetti della formalizzazione metalinguistica sulla percezione dei generi – a cascata linguistico e culturalmente costruito, nel senso di gender – nella società parlante italiana. Più precisamente, ciò che si ambisce a fare, nel piccolo di questa riflessione, è ipotizzare che alla base del cosiddetto maschile inclusivo e della sua successiva normatizzazione e normalizzazione possa aver agito quell’operazione di codifica metalinguistica resasi necessaria per preservare il latino in una società per la quale la latinitas era sentita come necessaria a preservare il senso di appartenenza a un mondo ambito