SDHx mutation and the hereditary Head- and Neck paraganglioma: what the radiologist should know

SDHx mutation is a recent discovery in Head- and Neck-paraganglioma (HNPGLs, once known as "glomus tumors") and genetic fields, showing its influence on imaging workup and therapeutic approach. These pieces of knowledge are increasing over the years along with the emerging clinical value of techniques for genetic analyses

First report on proliferative kidney disease (PKD) in marble trout (Salmo trutta marmoratus, Cuvier 1817)

Proliferative kidney disease is a hyperplastic response of the principal lymphoid tissue of salmonid fish infected by Tetracapsidoides bryosalmonae, a myxozoan parasite. This parasite affects many rainbow trout farms in Europe and North America. The disease has also been reported in other salmonids as well as in pike (Esox lucius) and grayling (Thymallus thymallus). In autumn 2000, an outbreak of PKD induced mortality in a group of marble trout (Salmo trutta marmoratus) juveniles reared in a farm in north-east Italy. The fish were intended to restock public waters. Diseased fish showed a lethargic behaviour, skin darkening, abdominal dilatation, gill anaemia and, after necroscopy, increase in volume and a pale colour of the kidney. All fishes subjected to histological examination showed a marked granulomatous interstitial nephritis, as well as foci of pancreatic and hepatic necrosis. The immunohistochemistry and PAS stain allowed visualisation of the extrasporogonic phase of the parasite Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae in several tissues of the host. This is the first reported outbreak of PKD in marble trout, and should receive full attention since this species is potentially under risk of extinction

Risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome after 2010–2011 influenza vaccination

Influenza vaccination has been implicated in Guillain Barré Syndrome (GBS) although the evidence for this link is controversial. A case–control study was conducted between October 2010 and May 2011 in seven Italian Regions to explore the relation between influenza vaccination and GBS. The study included 176 GBS incident cases aged ≥18 years from 86 neurological centers. Controls were selected among patients admitted for acute conditions to the Emergency Department of the same hospital as cases. Each control was matched to a case by sex, age, Region and admission date. Two different analyses were conducted: a matched case–control analysis and a self-controlled case series analysis (SCCS). Case–control analysis included 140 cases matched to 308 controls. The adjusted matched odds ratio (OR) for GBS occurrence within 6 weeks after influenza vaccination was 3.8 (95 % CI: 1.3, 10.5). A much stronger association with gastrointestinal infections (OR = 23.8; 95 % CI 7.3, 77.6) and influenza-like illness or upper respiratory tract infections (OR = 11.5; 95 % CI 5.6, 23.5) was highlighted. The SCCS analysis included all 176 GBS cases. Influenza vaccination was associated with GBS, with a relative risk of 2.1 (95 % CI 1.1, 3.9). According to these results the attributable risk in adults ranges from two to five GBS cases per 1,000,000 vaccinations

Economic Impacts of Climate Change in Italy and the Mediterranean: Updating the Evidence

This study presents new estimates of economic impacts of climate change for Italy and other countries, obtained with a full-fledged Integrated Assessment Model (ENVISAGE), developed at the World Bank. This model is qualitatively superior to other models used in the past for the same purpose. It is found out that climate change is expected to reduce the Italian GDP in 2050, with respect to a reference baseline, by -0.31%. This figure is about two times higher than previous estimates. Declining tourism demand is the main driver of negative effects on GDP, as Italy would become less attractive as a tourist destination. By the end of the century, however, Italy would also experience severe losses in agricultural production, due to increased temperature and reduced water availability. Even if Italy will notably be affected by climate change, in the absence of any mitigation or adaptation effort, other countries in the Mediterranean will experience larger economic impacts. This is the case of Spain and Middle East – North Africa

Public goods and decay in networks

We propose a simple behavioral model to analyze situations where (1) a group of agents repeatedly plays a public goods game within a network structure and (2) each agent only observes the past behavior of her neighbors, but is affected by the decisions of the whole group. The model assumes that agents are imperfect conditional cooperators, that they infer unobserved contributions assuming imperfect conditional cooperation by others, and that they have some degree of bounded rationality. We show that our model approximates quite accurately regularities derived from public goods game experiments

Transcriptome analysis of amyloodinium ocellatum tomonts revealed basic information on the major potential virulence factors

The ectoparasite protozoan Amyloodinium ocellatum (AO) is the etiological agent of amyloodiniosis in European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) (ESB). There is a lack of information about basic molecular data on AO biology and its interaction with the host. Therefore, de novo transcriptome sequencing of AO tomonts was performed. AO trophonts were detached from infested ESB gills, and quickly becoming early tomonts were purified by Percoll\uae density gradient. Tomont total RNA was processed and quality was assessed immediately. cDNA libraries were constructed using TruSeq\uae Stranded mRNA kit and sequenced using Illumina sequencer. CLC assembly was used to generate the Transcriptome assembly of AO tomonts. Out of 48,188 contigs, 56.12% belong to dinophyceae wherein Symbiodinium microadriaticum had 94.61% similarity among dinophyceae. Functional annotations of contigs indicated that 12,677 had associated GO term, 9005 with KEGG term. The contigs belonging to dinophyceae resulted in the detection of several peptidases. A BLAST search for known virulent factors from the virulence database resulted in hits to Rab proteins, AP120, Ribosomal phosphoprotein, Heat-shock protein70, Casein kinases, Plasmepsin IV, and Brucipain. Hsp70 and casein kinase II alpha were characterized in-silico. Altogether, these results provide a reference database in understanding AO molecular biology, aiding to the development of novel diagnostics and future vaccines

Instability and network effects in innovative markets

We consider a network of interacting agents and we model the process of choice on the adoption of a given innovative product by means of statistical-mechanics tools. The modelization allows us to focus on the effects of direct interactions among agents in establishing the success or failure of the product itself. Mimicking real systems, the whole population is divided into two sub-communities called, respectively, Innovators and Followers, where the former are assumed to display more influence power. We study in detail and via numerical simulations on a random graph two different scenarios: no-feedback interaction, where innovators are cohesive and not sensitively affected by the remaining population, and feedback interaction, where the influence of followers on innovators is non negligible. The outcomes are markedly different: in the former case, which corresponds to the creation of a niche in the market, Innovators are able to drive and polarize the whole market. In the latter case the behavior of the market cannot be definitely predicted and become unstable. In both cases we highlight the emergence of collective phenomena and we show how the final outcome, in terms of the number of buyers, is affected by the concentration of innovators and by the interaction strengths among agents.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures. 7th workshop on "Dynamic Models in Economics and Finance" - MDEF2012 (COST Action IS1104), Urbino (2012