Squamous cell carcinoma with presence of poxvirus-like inclusions in the foot of a pink-backed pelican (Pelecanus rufescens).

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) or avian keratoacanthoma is a neoplastic skin lesion of unknown aetiology that has been well described in birds. Some studies have reported that poxviruses may contribute to the onset of SCC. Here we describe a case of SCC on the underside of a pelican's foot. Histologically, the tumour consisted of irregular cords of pleomorphic epithelial cells that invaded the adjacent tissues. Additionally, keratinized epithelial cells and moderate numbers of keratin pearls were observed. Intracytoplasmic inclusions, a characteristic of this virus, were observed in some of these cells, and viral particles were characterized by electron microscopy. Although the aetiology of the carcinoma in this case may have been secondary to chronic focal trauma, the possibility of a latent or chronic form of fowlpox should be considered in the pathogenesis of the lesion

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

Prime osservazioni italiane di attivit\ue0 predatoria da parte dello sciacallo dorato (Canis aureus) su ovini domestici nel Carso goriziano

La presenza della specie sciacallo dorato Canis aureus moreoticus (I. Geoffrey, 1835) documentata per il Friuli Venezia-Giulia a partire dagli anni 80 \ue8 in continua espansione ed incremento con un particolare riferimento all\u2019area carsica. Nel territorio preso in esame, una porzione di landa e boscaglia carsica in cui \ue8 ubicato un parco rurale di circa 100 ha con annesso allevamento ovino, la presenza di sciacallo dorato, documentata anche con l\u2019uso di foto trappole, \ue8 passata da casi sporadici ad un numero certo di 7 esemplari che frequentano l\u2019area. Congiuntamente all\u2019aumento di presenza si sono avuti casi di predazione su ovini adulti mantenuti allo stato semibrado senza ricovero notturno. Sono state esaminate tre carcasse di ovini trovati morti in giornate successive. Le pecore appartenevano tutte alla classe adulta ed in particolare superavano gli 8 anni di et\ue0. Le valutazioni anatomopatologiche delle carcasse, a diversi stadi di decomposizione, hanno messo in evidenza lesioni di carattere lacero contuso dei diversi piani tissutali nella regione del collo e nei garretti causate da morsi, con un consumo, costituito prevalentemente dai tessuti molli delle cavit\ue0 toraciche ed addominali, variabile in base al tempo intercorso tra il ritrovamento ed il decesso. Dall\u2019esame dei morsi ed in particolare dalla misurazione della distanza tra i canini, unite alle caratteristiche della predazione hanno permesso di riferirla a sciacallo dorato. Tale ipotesi \ue8 stata successivamente confermata con il fototrappolaggio. Dopo tali episodi, gli ovini sono stati ricoverati ogni notte in ovile chiuso e protetto. Tale metodologia gestionale \ue8 stata sufficiente a ridurre notevolmente l\u2019impatto della predazione da sciacallo dorato sugli animali allevati

Fast Photon Detection for Particle Identification with COMPASS RICH-1

Particle identification at high rates is an important challenge for many current and future high-energy physics experiments. The upgrade of the COMPASS RICH-1 detector requires a new technique for Cherenkov photon detection at count rates of several $10^6$ per channel in the central detector region, and a read-out system allowing for trigger rates of up to 100 kHz. To cope with these requirements, the photon detectors in the central region have been replaced with the detection system described in this paper. In the peripheral regions, the existing multi-wire proportional chambers with CsI photocathode are now read out via a new system employing APV pre-amplifiers and flash ADC chips. The new detection system consists of multi-anode photomultiplier tubes (MAPMT) and fast read-out electronics based on the MAD4 discriminator and the F1-TDC chip. The RICH-1 is in operation in its upgraded version for the 2006 CERN SPS run. We present the photon detection design, constructive aspects and the first Cherenkov light in the detector.Comment: Proceedings of the Imaging 2006 conference, Stockholm, Sweden, 27-30 June 2006, 5 pages, 6 figures, to appear in NIM A; corrected typo in caption of Fig.

Fast photon detection for the COMPASS RICH detector

The COMPASS experiment at the SPS accelerator at CERN uses a large scale Ring Imaging CHerenkov detector (RICH) to identify pions, kaons and protons in a wide momentum range. For the data taking in 2006, the COMPASS RICH has been upgraded in the central photon detection area (25% of the surface) with a new technology to detect Cherenkov photons at very high count rates of several 10^6 per second and channel and a new dead-time free read-out system, which allows trigger rates up to 100 kHz. The Cherenkov photons are detected by an array of 576 visible and ultra-violet sensitive multi-anode photomultipliers with 16 channels each. The upgraded detector showed an excellent performance during the 2006 data taking.Comment: Proceeding of the IPRD06 conference (Siena, Okt. 06

The Fast Read-out System for the MAPMTs of COMPASS RICH-1

A fast readout system for the upgrade of the COMPASS RICH detector has been developed and successfully used for data taking in 2006 and 2007. The new readout system for the multi-anode PMTs in the central part of the photon detector of the RICH is based on the high-sensitivity MAD4 preamplifier-discriminator and the dead-time free F1-TDC chip characterized by high-resolution. The readout electronics has been designed taking into account the high photon flux in the central part of the detector and the requirement to run at high trigger rates of up to 100 kHz with negligible dead-time. The system is designed as a very compact setup and is mounted directly behind the multi-anode photomultipliers. The data are digitized on the frontend boards and transferred via optical links to the readout system. The read-out electronics system is described in detail together with its measured performances.Comment: Proceeding of RICH2007 Conference, Trieste, Oct. 2007. v2: minor change

First Measurement of Chiral Dynamics in \pi^- \gamma -> \pi^- \pi^- \pi^+

The COMPASS collaboration at CERN has investigated the \pi^- \gamma -> \pi^- \pi^- \pi^+ reaction at center-of-momentum energy below five pion masses, sqrt(s) < 5 m(\pi), embedded in the Primakoff reaction of 190 GeV pions impinging on a lead target. Exchange of quasi-real photons is selected by isolating the sharp Coulomb peak observed at smallest momentum transfers, t' < 0.001 (GeV/c)^2. Using partial-wave analysis techniques, the scattering intensity of Coulomb production described in terms of chiral dynamics and its dependence on the 3\pi-invariant mass m(3\pi) = sqrt(s) were extracted. The absolute cross section was determined in seven bins of $\sqrt{s}$ with an overall precision of 20%. At leading order, the result is found to be in good agreement with the prediction of chiral perturbation theory over the whole energy range investigated.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Interplay among transversity induced asymmetries in hadron leptoproduction

In the fragmentation of a transversely polarized quark several left-right asymmetries are possible for the hadrons in the jet. When only one unpolarized hadron is selected, it exhibits an azimuthal modulation known as Collins effect. When a pair of oppositely charged hadrons is observed, three asymmetries can be considered, a di-hadron asymmetry and two single hadron asymmetries. In lepton deep inelastic scattering on transversely polarized nucleons all these asymmetries are coupled with the transversity distribution. From the high statistics COMPASS data on oppositely charged hadron-pair production we have investigated for the first time the dependence of these three asymmetries on the difference of the azimuthal angles of the two hadrons. The similarity of transversity induced single and di-hadron asymmetries is discussed. A new analysis of the data allows to establish quantitative relationships among them, providing for the first time strong experimental indication that the underlying fragmentation mechanisms are all driven by a common physical process.Comment: 6 figure

Interplay among transversity induced asymmetries in hadron leptoproduction

In the fragmentation of a transversely polarized quark several left-right asymmetries are possible for the hadrons in the jet. When only one unpolarized hadron is selected, it exhibits an azimuthal modulation known as Collins effect. When a pair of oppositely charged hadrons is observed, three asymmetries can be considered, a di-hadron asymmetry and two single hadron asymmetries. In lepton deep inelastic scattering on transversely polarized nucleons all these asymmetries are coupled with the transversity distribution. From the high statistics COMPASS data on oppositely charged hadron-pair production we have investigated for the first time the dependence of these three asymmetries on the difference of the azimuthal angles of the two hadrons. The similarity of transversity induced single and di-hadron asymmetries is discussed. A new analysis of the data allows to establish quantitative relationships among them, providing for the first time strong experimental indication that the underlying fragmentation mechanisms are all driven by a common physical process.Comment: 6 figure