Effetti dell’insetticida diofenolan su Musca domestica Linnaeus, 1758

Musca domestica Linnaeus, 1758, a relevant synanthropous pest, is the most frequent dipteran species in animal farms and waste landfills. Fly infestations cause heavy economic losses and often lawsuits against cattle or poultry farms near residential areas. For control of pest arthropods, including M. domestica, since 1940 neurotoxic adulticides with very low selectivity and high environmental impact were employed regardless of their toxicity to vertebrates, bioaccumulation and development of resistance. A more recent insecticide class, the Insect Growth Regulators (IGR), has species-specific toxicity and low health and environmental impact. The IGR activity is mostly exerted on larval stages but some of them also induce sterility in adults. The aim of this doctoral thesis is to investigate on a sensitive strain of M. domestica the effects of diofenolan, an IGR analogue of juvenile hormone, unregistered for control of this species in Italy. The toxicity of diofenolan on immature stages was evaluated by topical treatments on 3rd instar larvae at different concentrations, verifying the main toxicological parameters and monitoring morphological effects of the active ingredient by optical and scanning electron (SEM) microscopy. The effects of diofenolan were also investigated on female reproductive ability (egg laying and hatching) by suitable tests along the gonotrophic cycles, monitoring ovarian and ovariole alterations by optical and transmission electron (TEM) microscopy. The interactions between diofenolan and ecdysteroids, produced by ovariole follicle cells in adult females and involved in the ovarian cycle, were also investigated by enzymatic immunoassay (EIA). The interactions between diofenolan and the activity of corpora allata, endocrine gland producing juvenile hormone required for ovarian development, were also tested by morphological and ultrastructural investigations. The results showed a dose-dependent toxicity of diofenolan against M. domestica, mainly affecting pupae by inducing larviform puparia and apparently normal ones with altered respiratory plates, together with puparium-trapped adults. Tests on reproductive ability according to the gonotrophic cycle showed that treated females were able to lay eggs only in the first cycle and that hatching ability reduced to 24% along the gonotrophic cycles. In the second gonotrophic cycle the reproductive ability was 1/6 of the initial one and in the third cycle lowered to 1/16 of the initial one. The results show that diofenolan is very efficient in affecting the reproductive ability (egg laying and hatching) in M. domestica. The morphological investigations on ovarioles at different time intervals since emerging from puparium showed nine morphotypes which could be arranged into three “transformation paths”: a “precocious degenerative” path involving the primary follicle and associated to secondary follicle hypertrophy, an “intermediate degenerative” path involving the secondary follicle, and a “degenerative/hypertrophic” path in which the secondary follicle may degenerate or increase its size by hypertrophy. The most frequent path is the “intermediate degenerative” one and these data agree with the previous ones obtained on M. domestica reproductive ability. The ecdysteroid content measured by EIA in M. domestica females treated at different time intervals shows a modified profile in comparison to controls, closely related to the degenerative events detected in ovariole follicles. In adult insects corpora allata are known to exhibit periodical activation/inactivation phases related to the ovarian cycle. The effects of diofenolan on corpora allata, investigated and confirmed for the first time at the ultrastructural level in M. domestica adults, together with original data on cell number and volume of the gland, show in treated females widespread alterations of nucleus, cytoplasm and mitochondria which strongly suggest that the gland undergoes a rapid transition from an inactive stage to a degenerative one. This study also shows the presence within the gland of light and dark cells, never previously identified in morphological and ultrastructural investigations of corpora allata in M. domestica. In conclusion, the main effects of the juvenile hormone analogue diofenolan in this species include inhibition of emerging from puparium and abatement of the reproductive ability in terms of egg laying and hatching, probably related to anomalous ecdysteroid profiles and marked alterations in corpora allata. Further investigations may involve the effects of diofenolan on other stages of the biological cycle and on male reproductive ability. The biocide and sterilizing effects of diofenolan in M. domestica are very interesting for integrated pest management programs since the multiple activity of this active ingredient may significantly reduce the need for adulticides with higher environmental and health impact. It is therefore recommended to extend studies on this IGR in M. domestica by appropriate field trials

Evaluation of larvicidal activity of esters of 4-mercapto-2-butenoic acid against Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae)

Abstract Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae), an aggressive and annoying vector of several arbovirus including Chikungunya and Zika, is a serious health problem worldwide. Control of this mosquito is difficult because of high adaptability, egg resistance to dehydration and ability to exploit many man-made microhabitats. The most effective strategy appears the control of larval population. Based on previous data showing a larvicidal effect of plant extracts containing sulfhydryl and isothiocyanate compounds, we evaluated by bioassays the toxicity of three synthetic esters of 4-mercapto-2-butenoic acid on larvae of A. albopictus in comparison to cypermethrin. Among the compounds tested, the most effective was n-octyl 4-mercapto-2-butenoate, about 5 times more effective than ethyl 4-mercaptobut-2-enoate and about 20 times more effective than menthyl 4-mercaptobut-2-enoate. We advance the hypothesis that the larvicidal properties of n-octyl 4-mercapto-2-butenoate are due to its hydrophobic alkyl chain, longer than that of the other two compounds. This chain confers to the molecule the ability to spread on water surface and interfere with larval respiration. The larvicidal activity of n-octyl 4-mercapto-2-butenoate against A. albopictus appears interesting and may be developed after toxicological evaluation on vertebrates and humans, and environmental toxicity tests in compliance with {WHO} and {ECDC} rules

Wohlfahrtiosis in Italy: a case in a puppy and overview of geographical distribution

The report describes a case of urogenital myiasis in a puppy,Canis lupus familiaris(Carnivora: Canidae) caused byWohlfahrtia magnifica(Diptera: Sarcophagidae) in Calabria, southern Italy. This species is an obligatory agent of myiasis in human and other warm-blooded vertebrates. The puppy was healthy and was not living near farm animals, usual hosts of this flesh fly. An overview of cases of human and animal myiasis caused byW. magnificain Italy and of data and specimens documented in entomology museum collections is also reported

Climate Change and Building Renovation: Effects on Energy Consumption and Internal Comfort in a Social Housing Building in Northern Italy

Climate change is becoming a crucial factor to consider within human activities and the building sector is particularly influenced by aspects of internal comfort and energy. In Italy, great attention has been paid to the energy refurbishment of buildings. However, such interventions are mostly focused on reducing heating energy consumption, thus neglecting summer season performance. Moreover, climate change is barely considered during the design phase. This issue is addressed in this work which analyzes some of the most common refurbishment interventions applied to a social housing building in Trieste, while also considering internal comfort during the summer season. A dynamic analysis of the building-plant system is carried out using EnergyPlus. Fanger, UTCI and the adaptive comfort models were used to represent internal health, while three TRY data sets were generated using two GCM–RCM projections to evaluate the influence of climate change. The results show that both building insulation and climatic change affect heating consumption reaching a 70% reduction. However, building insulation does not greatly affect internal comfort, although different models show different behavior to protect against external temperatures. On the contrary, climatic change influences the percentage of hours of discomfort, with a 20% increase for all of the models. The final consideration is that people’s internal health should always be considered when carrying out refurbishment activities

Memory-Optimised Parallel Processing of Hi-C Data

Abstract—This paper presents the optimisation efforts on the creation of a graph-based mapping representation of gene adjacency. The method is based on the Hi-C process, starting from Next Generation Sequencing data, and it analyses a huge amount of static data in order to produce maps for one or more genes. Straightforward parallelisation of this scheme does not yield acceptable performance on multicore architectures since the scalability is rather limited due to the memory bound nature of the problem. This work focuses on the memory optimisations that can be applied to the graph construction algorithm and its (complex) data structures to derive a cache-oblivious algorithm and eventually to improve the memory bandwidth utilisation. We used as running example NuChart-II, a tool for annotation and statistic analysis of Hi-C data that creates a gene-centric neigh-borhood graph. The proposed approach, which is exemplified for Hi-C, addresses several common issue in the parallelisation of memory bound algorithms for multicore. Results show that the proposed approach is able to increase the parallel speedup from 7x to 22x (on a 32-core platform). Finally, the proposed C++ implementation outperforms the first R NuChart prototype, by which it was not possible to complete the graph generation because of strong memory-saturation problems. I

Parallel visual data restoration on multi-GPGPUs using stencil-reduce pattern

In this paper, a highly effective parallel filter for visual data restoration is presented. The filter is designed following a skeletal approach, using a newly proposed stencil-reduce, and has been implemented by way of the FastFlow parallel programming library. As a result of its high-level design, it is possible to run the filter seamlessly on a multicore machine, on multi-GPGPUs, or on both. The design and implementation of the filter are discussed, and an experimental evaluation is presented

First report of the presence of Necrodes littoralis (L.) (Coleoptera: Silphidae) on a human corpse in Italy

The colonization of a human body by Necrodes littoralis (L.) (Coleoptera: Silphidae) is reported for the first time in Italy. This species is both necrophagous and predator of necrophagous fauna. The body colonized by the coleopteran was found indoors, in an advanced decomposition stage, in a suburban area of Cosenza (Calabria, Southern Italy) in November. Insects (adults, puparia and larvae) were collected on and around the body. Puparia and larvae were raised in the laboratory until the adult stage for morphological identification, which was carried out through taxonomical keys. Besides N. littoralis, also the presence of Calliphora vicina Robineau-Desvoidy, Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), Hydrotaea dentipes (Fabricius) (Diptera: Muscidae), and Creophilus maxillosus (L.) (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) was detected. Necrodes littoralis is a species of forensic interest because it may colonize human and vertebrate corpses and has been reported elsewhere in Europe

Salivary biomarkers for diagnosis of systemic diseases and malignant tumors. A systematic review

Saliva evaluation could be a possible alternative to blood and/or tissue analyses, for researching specific molecules associated to the presence of systemic diseases and malignancies. The present systematic review has been designed in order to answer to the question ?are there significant associations between specific salivary biomarkers and diagnosis of systemic diseases or malignancies??. The Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) statement was used to guide the review. The combinations of ?saliva? and ?systemic diseases? or ?diagnosis? or ?biomarkers? or ?cancers? or ?carcinoma? or ?tumors?, were used to search Medline, Scopus and Web of Science databases. Endpoint of research has been set at May 2019. Studies were classified into 3 groups according to the type of disease investigated for diagnosis: 1) malignant tumors; 2) neurologic diseases and 3) inflammatory/metabolic/cardiovascular diseases. Assessment of quality has been assigned according to a series of questions proposed by the National Institute of Health. Level of evidence was assessed using the categories proposed in the Oxford Center for Evidence-Based medicine (CEMB) levels for diagnosis (2011). Seventy-nine studies met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Fifty-one (64%) investigated malignant tumors, 14 (17.5%) neurologic and 14 (18.5%) inflammatory/cardiovascular/metabolic diseases. Among studies investigating malignant tumors, 12 (23.5%) were scored as ?good? and 11 of these reported statistically significant associations between salivary molecules and pathology. Two and 5 studies were found to have a good quality, among those evaluating the association between salivary biomarkers and neurologic and inflammatory/metabolic/cardiovascular diseases, respectively. The present systematic review confirms the existence of some ?good? quality evidence to support the role of peculiar salivary biomarkers for diagnosis of systemic diseases (e.g. lung cancer and EGFR)

A parallel pattern for iterative stencil + reduce

We advocate the Loop-of-stencil-reduce pattern as a means of simplifying the implementation of data-parallel programs on heterogeneous multi-core platforms. Loop-of-stencil-reduce is general enough to subsume map, reduce, map-reduce, stencil, stencil-reduce, and, crucially, their usage in a loop in both data-parallel and streaming applications, or a combination of both. The pattern makes it possible to deploy a single stencil computation kernel on different GPUs. We discuss the implementation of Loop-of-stencil-reduce in FastFlow, a framework for the implementation of applications based on the parallel patterns. Experiments are presented to illustrate the use of Loop-of-stencil-reduce in developing data-parallel kernels running on heterogeneous systems