Innovative Rural Development Initiatives

This Interim Report provides first results from case studies of innovative rural development initiatives in Europe. They were conducted by IIASA's European Rural Development (ERD) project during 2001 -- primarily to test the feasibility of the research concept and to get a first realistic impression of rural development problems and possibilities at the IDeal level. These reports are only the first round of a much larger sample of some 40 to 50 case studies, which are planned for the next two years. The results from these initial investigations will be used to streamline the research procedure for the larger sample of case studies. The rural development initiatives in this report include the following projects: a project to promote direct marketing of organic farming products in Eastern Germany ("Scheunenhof"); an eco-tourism project in Estonia ("Viljandimaa"); a Hungarian project to promote environmental protection and tourism ("SPANC"); an EU-network project to promote integrated participatory planning in Finland, Sweden and Norway ("CROSSPLAN"); a private imitative to establish a rural high-tech company in Carinthia, Austria ("me.chanic"); a project in Finland to improve the social competence and labor qualifications of rural delinquents ("KEHYPAJA"); the project of a Swedish farmer to build a small-scale wind power plant ("PITCH WIND"); and the initiatives of a mother and son in a small Polish village to start a farm-tourism agency and an eco-technology center ("Sunflower Farm")

Psychiatric profile of motor subtypes of de novo drug-naïve Parkinson's disease patients

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorder. It is well established that different motor subtypes of PD evolve with different clinical courses and prognoses. The complete psychiatric profile underlying these different phenotypes since the very early stage of the disease is debated. Aims of the study: We aimed at investigating the psychiatric profile of the three motor subtypes of PD (akinetic-rigid, tremor-dominant, and mixed) in de novo drug-naïve patients with PD. Methods: Sixty-eight patients with PD, divided into 39 akinetic-rigid (AR), seven mixed (MIX), and 22 tremor-dominant (TD) patients underwent a complete assessment of psychiatric, cognitive, and motor symptoms. Results: No significant differences were found among groups. Conclusions: Our results suggest that a differentiation of the psychiatric symptoms associated with specific motor subtypes of PD is not detectable in de novo drug-naïve patients. Previous evidence that emerges later along the disease progression may be a consequence of the dopaminergic and nondopaminergic damage increase

Effects of intra-VTA injection of neurotensin on local cerebral glucose utilization in the rat.

The [14C]2-deoxyglucose method was applied to measure the effects of the injection of neurotensin (7 microg) in the ventral tegmental area on local cerebral glucose utilization in the rat. Injection of neurotensin produced significant increases of glucose utilization in the shell of the nucleus accumbens and in the olfactory tubercle. These results indicate that stimulation of neurotensin receptors in the ventral tegmental area produces functional changes that are confined to the regions receiving mesolimbic projections within the rostral extended amygdaloid complex. These findings extend our understanding on the effects of neurotensin in the limbic system, with particular regard to reward pathways

Active Moderate-to-Severe Graves' Orbitopathy in a Patient With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Vascular Complications

Background: Graves’ orbitopathy (GO) is the main extrathyroidal manifestation of Graves’ disease (GD). Diabetes mellitus (DM) has been reported to be a risk factor in patients with GO. Moreover, GO can be more frequent and severe in type 2 diabetes patients. High doses of intravenous glucocorticoids represent the first line treatment of moderate-to-severe and active GO according to the international guidelines. However, this therapy is contraindicated in uncontrolled diabetes and in patients with increased cardiovascular risk. Some anti-diabetic drugs can exacerbate GO. We reported the clinical case of an active and moderate-to-severe GO in a patient with uncontrolled type 2 DM and vascular complications. Case Report: A 61-years-old patient came to our ambulatory for a recurrence of GD and a moderate-to-severe bilateral GO. The patient had uncontrolled type 2 DM during insulin therapy and a history of micro and macrovascular complications. At the physical examination, the clinical activity score was 5 and the severity of GO was moderate-to-severe. A blood sample showed overt hyperthyroidism and the persistence of anti-TSH receptor antibodies (TRAb) during treatment with methimazole. A computed tomography scan showed a moderate-to-severe bilateral exophthalmos. We discuss the benefit/risk of treatment of GO in our patient. Conclusion: The available guidelines do not focus on the treatment of diabetic patients with uncontrolled diabetes and severe vascular complications, therefore our patient represents a difficult therapeutic challenge. The screening of thyroid function and the evaluation of GO could be useful in diabetic patients with autoimmune thyroid disease to perform a correct treatment of these disorders

Ant colonies prefer infected over uninfected nest sites

During colony relocation, the selection of a new nest involves exploration and assessment of potential sites followed by colony movement on the basis of a collective decision making process. Hygiene and pathogen load of the potential nest sites are factors worker scouts might evaluate, given the high risk of epidemics in group-living animals. Choosing nest sites free of pathogens is hypothesized to be highly efficient in invasive ants as each of their introduced populations is often an open network of nests exchanging individuals (unicolonial) with frequent relocation into new nest sites and low genetic diversity, likely making these species particularly vulnerable to parasites and diseases. We investigated the nest site preference of the invasive pharaoh ant, Monomorium pharaonis, through binary choice tests between three nest types: nests containing dead nestmates overgrown with sporulating mycelium of the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium brunneum (infected nests), nests containing nestmates killed by freezing (uninfected nests), and empty nests. In contrast to the expectation pharaoh ant colonies preferentially (84%) moved into the infected nest when presented with the choice of an infected and an uninfected nest. The ants had an intermediate preference for empty nests. Pharaoh ants display an overall preference for infected nests during colony relocation. While we cannot rule out that the ants are actually manipulated by the pathogen, we propose that this preference might be an adaptive strategy by the host to "immunize" the colony against future exposure to the same pathogenic fungus

Genetic variability among Blastoschizomyces capitatus isolates from different clinical sources.

Sixteen clinical isolates and nine ATCC reference strains of Blastoschizomyces capitatus were analysed genetically, examined for the cellobiose, arbutin and salicin assimilation and tested for the aspartyl-proteinase secretion. The restriction endonuclease analysis (REA) with HpaII and HinfI enzymes and the electrophoretic karyotype (EK) were investigated. Both the restriction enzymes revealed two groups (I, II) constituted by the same isolates: 17 isolates (68%) in group I and 8 (32%) in group II. The EK analysis revealed sixteen groups. These data prompts for a genetic variability of the isolates of Blastoschizomyces capitatus and their account in two distinct genetic groups as suggested by REA. This grouping was confirmed by examing the utilisation of cellobiose, arbutin and salicin. The tests for secretory aspartyl proteinase (Sap) were positive only for three isolates, suggesting a marginal role of this specific enzyme in pathogenesis for these isolates

Action observation with dual task for improving cognitive abilities in Parkinson’s disease. a pilot study

Action observation therapy (AOT) has been recently proposed as a new rehabilitation approach for treatment of motor deficits in Parkinson's disease. To date, this approach has never been used to deal with cognitive deficits (e.g., deficits in working memory, attention), which are impairments that are increasingly recognized in Parkinsonian patients. Typically, patients affected by these dysfunctions have difficulty filtering out irrelevant information and tend to lose track of the task goal. In this paper, we propose that AOT may also be used to improve cognitive abilities of Parkinsonian patients if it is used within a dual task framework. We articulate our hypothesis by pivoting on recent findings and on preliminary results that were obtained through a pilot study that was designed to test the efficacy of a long-term rehabilitation program that, for the first time, uses AOT within a dual task framework for treating cognitive deficits in patients with Parkinson's disease. Ten Parkinson's disease patients underwent a 45-min treatment that consisted in watching a video of an actor performing a daily-life activity and then executing it while performing distractive tasks (AOT with dual task). The treatment was repeated three times per week for a total of 4 weeks. Patients' cognitive/motor features were evaluated through standard tests four times: 1 month before treatment, the first and the last day of treatment and 1 month after treatment. The results show that this approach may provide relevant improvements in cognitive aspects related to working memory (verbal and visuospatial memory) and attention. We discuss these results by pivoting on literature on action observation and recent literature demonstrating that the dual task method can be used to stimulate cognition and concentration. In particular, we propose that using AOT together with a dual task may train the brain systems supporting executive functions through two mechanisms: (i) stimulation of goal setting within the mirror neuron system through action observation and (ii) working memory and persistent goal maintenance through dual task stimuli

Gender specific decrease of a set of circulating Nacylphosphatidyl ethanolamines (NAPEs) in the plasma of Parkinson’s disease patients

Introduction: Current markers of Parkinson's disease (PD) fail to detect the early progression of disease state. Conversely, current omics techniques allow the investigation of hundreds of molecules potentially altered by disease conditions. Based on evidence previously collected by our group in a mouse model of PD, we speculated that a particular set of circulating lipids might be significantly altered by the pathology. Objectives: The aim of current study was to evaluate the potential of a particular set of N-acyl-phosphatidylethanolamines (NAPEs) as potential non-invasive plasma markers of ongoing neurodegeneration from Parkinson's disease in human subjects. Methods: A panel of seven NAPEs were quantified by LC-MS/MS in the plasma of 587 individuals (healthy controls, n = 319; Parkinson's disease, n = 268); Random Forest classification and statistical modeling was applied to compare Parkinson's disease versus controls. All p-values obtained in different tests were corrected for multiplicity by controlling the false discovery rate (FDR). Results: The results indicate that this panel of NAPEs is able to distinguish female PD patients from the corresponding healthy controls. Further to this, the observed downregulation of these NAPEs is in line with the results in plasma of a mouse model of Parkinson's (6-OHDA). Conclusions: In the current study we have shown the downregulation of NAPEs in plasma of PD patients and we thus speculate that these lipids might serve as candidate biomarkers for PD. We also suggest a molecular mechanism, explaining our findings, which involves gut microbiota