Microsatellite diversity of the Nordic type of goats in relation to breed conservation: how relevant is pure ancestry?

In the last decades, several endangered breeds of livestock species have been re-established effectively. However, the successful revival of the Dutch and Danish Landrace goats involved crossing with exotic breeds and the ancestry of the current populations is therefore not clear. We have generated genotypes for 27 FAO-recommended microsatellites of these landraces and three phenotypically similar Nordic-type landraces and compared these breeds with central European, Mediterranean and south-west Asian goats. We found decreasing levels of genetic diversity with increasing distance from the south-west Asian domestication site with a south-east-to-north-west cline that is clearly steeper than the Mediterranean east-to-west cline. In terms of genetic diversity, the Dutch Landrace comes next to the isolated Icelandic breed, which has an extremely low diversity. The Norwegian coastal goat and the Finnish and Icelandic landraces are clearly related. It appears that by a combination of mixed origin and a population bottleneck, the Dutch and Danish Land-races are separated from the other breeds. However, the current Dutch and Danish populations with the multicoloured and long-horned appearance effectively substitute for the original breed, illustrating that for conservation of cultural heritage, the phenotype of a breed is more relevant than pure ancestry and the genetic diversity of the original breed. More in general, we propose that for conservation, the retention of genetic diversity of an original breed and of the visual phenotype by which the breed is recognized and defined needs to be considered separately

Experimental analysis of the effects of extreme events of mechanical disturbance on rocky shore algal and invertebrate assemblages in the Bagnoli-Coroglio post-industrial area and in reference sites in the Gulf of Naples.

Among the various natural and anthropogenic threats to coastal systems, industrial activities and their heritage of local contamination play a key role, especially where new disturbances are superimposed to extant degraded conditions. This may affect the functioning of assemblages, including their ability to recover, in unpredictable ways. Organisms subject to chronic contamination may respond better to a present discrete disturbance compared to organisms from reference areas not affected by the same contamination due to their adaptation to harsh conditions. By contrast, the same organisms may be more sensitive to the new disturbance if chronic contamination kept them close to their tolerance limit. This study tested such alternatives by comparing the patterns of recovery from the experimental removal of all erect organisms of lowshore benthic assemblages between the post-industrial site of Bagnoli-Coroglio (Gulf of Naples) and reference sites located outside it. Recovery was assessed over six months. Response variables included mean values and temporal trajectories of assemblage structure, richness of taxa and abundance of conspicuous taxa. The examined assemblages showed great recovery ability that was comparable between the post-industrial site and reference sites. Discussed potential explanations include: (i) intertidal organisms would quickly recover irrespective of background contamination as an adaptation to the naturally harsh and variable environmental conditions of their living habitat; (ii) reference sites would be subject to environmental stress comparable to that of Bagnoli-Coroglio being located in the highly urbanized Gulf of Naples; (iii) large variability between- and withinsites may have masked any impacts of experimental disturbance and their differences between the post-industrial site and the reference sites; (iv) historical contamination would be limited to subtidal sediments, without propagating to adjacent rocky habitats

Recovery ability of lowshore sessile assemblages in a highly contaminated post-industrial area

The inheritance of environmental contamination left by abandoned industrial plants is widespread globally. Here we compared the patterns of recovery of lowshore algal and invertebrate assemblages between the postindustrial site of Bagnoli-Coroglio and four reference sites distributed along the coast in the Gulf of Naples, southern Tyrrhenian Sea. The structure of whole assemblages, richness of taxa and abundance of individual taxa were followed during one year since an event of experimental disturbance consisting in the removal of all erect organisms from the rocky substrate. Our main findings suggest that the examined benthic assemblages recovered effectively and quickly after a pulse disturbance and, contrarily to initial expectations, that this ability was comparable between the post-industrial site and the reference sites. This result is discussed in terms of several plausible processes and mechanisms, including the general capability of intertidal organisms to recover from physical disturbance, the potential high level of environmental stress affecting the reference sites too, the chance that the most intense impacts of contamination remained restricted to the sediments of the post-industrial site without propagating to adjacent rocky habitats, and the large natural variability of reference sites that may have masked weak effects of the historical contamination. Irrespective of the actual causes, we emphasize the need for including natural variability of the examined system in any future restoration interventions, to guarantee representation of the range of variation of target organisms and of their underlying processes, and to avoid confounding the intended post-industrial impact with the effects of other natural and anthropogenic processes

A Design-Based Approach to Support Hospital Wards in the Digital Turn.

The error in pharmacological therapy is a significant issue in the context of hospital care practices. This contribution does not consider the error as a mere casual event, nor as the result of deviations from defined procedures, but inscribes it within the framework of the activities (and relations between activities) that define care. As a privileged point of view, the analysis circumscribes the communication system, highlighting as a critical point the passage of information between medical and nursing staff. The article takes its cue from a real case study, in which we analysed the networks of information and communication, starting from the medical and nursing documents that accompany the care activities. The interpretation of the processes investigated stems from the design culture, particularly from a human-centred perspective. The first design elaboration follows the analysis phase; in this context, the artefact acts as a transitional prototype, a bridge-object between the established routines and practices of the current reality and their role as a gateway to a digital future

Serum CXCL4 increase in primary Sjögren’s syndrome characterizes patients with microvascular involvement and reduced salivary gland infiltration and lymph node involvement

CXCL4 is an antiangiogenic and immunomodulatory chemokine. We aimed to investigate serum levels of CXCL4 in primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS), looking for associations with disease features. Thirty-nine consecutive pSS patients underwent clinical-serological assessment and nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC). Thirty-six patients and 30 controls affected by osteoarthritis were also investigated for serum levels of CXCL4 and soluble E-selectin (sE-selectin). CXCL4 was higher in pSS patients than in controls (1.79 [0.2–11.18] vs 1.023 ng/ml [0.02–14.45], p < 0.05), particularly in those without anti-La/SSB antibodies (2.89 [1.01–11.18] vs 1.69 ng/ml [0.2–2.72], p < 0.05), while it was lower in pSS patients with a focus score ≥1 at lip biopsy (1.44 [0.86–2.1] vs 2.24 ng/ml [1.64–3.25], p < 0.05) and clinically evident lymphadenopathy (1.53 [0.38–1.7] vs 2.08 ng/ml [1.45–3.03], p < 0.05). CXCL4 correlated with disease duration (r = 0.35, p < 0.05) and sE-selectin (r = 0.45, p < 0.01). Patients with Raynaud’s phenomenon (RP) had more frequently abnormal CXCL4 levels than patients without RP (11/15 vs 3/21, p < 0.001), enlarged capillaries (14/16 vs 7/23, p < 0.001) and capillary loss at NVC (14/16 vs 6/23, p < 0.001). The hitherto unknown association of increased serum CXCL4 with features of microvascular impairment in pSS, along with the negative association with features of lymphocytic response (i.e., the absence of subset disease-specific autoantibodies, a low focus score, and the absence of lymphadenopathy) suggest clarifying the possible implication of this chemokine in pSS pathogenesis in larger studies

Restoration of CBX7 expression increases the susceptibility of human lung carcinoma cells to irinotecan treatment

Lung cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer-related death worldwide in men and women, and, despite the recent remarkable scientific advances, drug treatment is still unsatisfactory. Polycomb protein chromobox homolog 7 (CBX7) is involved in several biological processes, including development and cancer progression, indeed the lack of CBX7 protein correlates with a highly malignant phenotype and a poor prognosis. However, its role in lung cancer still remains unknown. Since CBX7 is drastically downregulated in human lung carcinomas, we investigated whether restoration of CBX7 expression could affect growth property of lung cancer cells and modulate their sensitivity to treatment with irinotecan and etoposide, two chemoterapy drugs most commonly used in lung cancer therapy. Here, we demonstrate that restoration of CBX7 in two human lung carcinoma cell lines (A549 and H1299), in which this protein is not detectable, leads to a decreased proliferation (at least in part through a downregulation of phosphorylated ERK and phosphorylated p38) and an increased apoptotic cell death after drug exposure (at least in part through the downregulation of Bcl-2, phosphorylated Akt, and phosphorylated JNK). Taken together, these results suggest that the retention of CBX7 expression may play a role in the modulation of chemosensitivity of lung cancer patients to the treatment with irinotecan and etoposide

The Long Non-Coding RNA RP5-1024C24.1 and Its Associated-Gene MPPED2 Are Down-Regulated in Human Thyroid Neoplasias and Act as Tumour Suppressors

Background: Well-differentiated papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) represents the thyroid neoplasia with the highest incidence. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been found deregulated in several human carcinomas, and hence, proposed as potential diagnostic and prognostic markers. Therefore, the aim of our study was to investigate their role in thyroid carcinogenesis. Methods: We analysed the lncRNA expression profile of 12 PTC and four normal thyroid tissues through a lncRNA microarray. Results: We identified 669 up- and 2470 down-regulated lncRNAs with a fold change &gt;2. Among them, we focused on the down-regulated RP5-1024C24.1 located in an antisense position with respect to the MPPED2 gene which codes for a metallophosphoesterase with tumour suppressor activity. Both these genes are down-regulated in benign and malignant thyroid neoplasias. The restoration of RP5-1024C24.1 expression in thyroid carcinoma cell lines reduced cell proliferation and migration by modulating the PTEN/Akt pathway. Inhibition of thyroid carcinoma cell growth and cell migration ability was also achieved by the MPPED2 restoration. Interestingly, RP5-1024C24.1 over-expression is able to increase MPPED2 expression. Conclusions: Taken together, these results demonstrate that RP5-1024C24.1 and MPPED2 might be considered as novel tumour suppressor genes whose loss of expression contributes to thyroid carcinogenesis