Systematic sequencing of mRNA from the Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) and first tissue specific transcriptional signature

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the genome sequences of Euphausiacea (krill) although these crustaceans are abundant components of the pelagic ecosystems in all oceans and used for aquaculture and pharmaceutical industry. This study reports the results of an expressed sequence tag (EST) sequencing project from different tissues of Euphausia superba (the Antarctic krill). RESULTS: We have constructed and sequenced five cDNA libraries from different Antarctic krill tissues: head, abdomen, thoracopods and photophores. We have identified 1.770 high-quality ESTs which were assembled into 216 overlapping clusters and 801 singletons resulting in a total of 1.017 non-redundant sequences. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis was performed to quantify and validate the expression levels of ten genes presenting different EST countings in krill tissues. In addition, bioinformatic screening of the non-redundant E. superba sequences identified 69 microsatellite containing ESTs. Clusters, consensuses and related similarity and gene ontology searches were organized in a dedicated E. superba database http://krill.cribi.unipd.it. CONCLUSION: We defined the first tissue transcriptional signatures of E. superba based on functional categorization among the examined tissues. The analyses of annotated transcripts showed a higher similarity with genes from insects with respect to Malacostraca possibly as an effect of the limited number of Malacostraca sequences in the public databases. Our catalogue provides for the first time a genomic tool to investigate the biology of the Antarctic krill

Trattamento della contrattura capsulare da impianto protesico mammario. Nostra esperienza

La più comune complicanza in pazienti sottoposte ad intervento chirurgico di impianto protesico mammario è la contrattura capsulare. Non esiste, attualmente, un trattamento standard efficace per questa complicanza. Lo scopo del presente articolo è illustrare la nostra esperienza sull’uso degli antagosisti dei recettori per i leucotrieni nel trattamento della contrattura capsulare. I risultati mostrano che l’utilizzo di questi farmaci è in grado di ridurre il dolore e la distorsione della mammella in pazienti con un lungo decorso di contrattura capsulare

Tecnica “a scaletta” nel trattamento delle perdite di sostanza del labbro inferiore

La patologia che con maggior frequenza colpisce il labbro inferiore è la patologia neoplastica, in particolar modo il carcinoma spinocellulare. L’approccio terapeutico di elezione è l’exeresi chirurgica ampia dalla quale possono derivare importanti alterazioni morfo-funzionali ed estetiche. Presso il Dipartimento di Chirurgia Plastica e Ricostruttiva del Policlinico Umberto I, “Sapienza” Università di Roma, dal 2005 al 2008 sono stati trattati 36 pazienti: 19 mediante escissione semplice (gruppo I) e 17 mediante la tecnica di Johanson (gruppo II), tutti sottoposti a follow-up a 6 e 12 mesi per valutate le alterazioni della funzionalità, la presenza/assenza di asimmetrie e la cicatrizzazione. Inoltre, ai pazienti è stata proposta una scheda di valutazione a punteggio costituita da 9 domande che indagano sia aspetti funzionali che estetici. Dai dati ottenuti è risultato che l’utilizzo del lembo di Johanson consente una radicalità oncologica non inferiore all’escissione semplice ma con migliori risultati funzionali ed estetici, una maggior soddisfazione da parte del paziente e tempi di degenza sovrapponibili

Insegnamento dello strumento musicale e inclusione scolastica: una ricerca nazionale

In the perspective of a gradual improvement of school inclusion, music is considered a strategicexeprience to effectively respond to the needs of pupils with disabilities and specific learningdisorders (SLD). In Italian schools, music is present in the nursery school and in the first cycle ofeducation. It allows to positively face the challenge of inclusion by promoting a developmentthat integrates linguistic, cognitive, motor, and socio-affective aspects, by motivating participationto collective activities and by helping to build respect for differences. Currently, in the firstcycle school, the access of students with disabilities and SLD to musical instrument courses inmusic secondary schools (SMIM) is a particularly controversial issue since an elitist vision of musicteaching is still working and, in fact, it excludes these students. In this framework, this paperpresented a national research aimed, in one hand, to explore the practices of assessment andteaching for students with disabilities and with SLD widespread in SMIM and, in the other hand,to identify "essential guidelines" for the construction of a inclusive models of instrumentalteaching

Cosmological parameters from the likelihood analysis of the galaxy power spectrum and bispectrum in real space

We present a joint likelihood analysis of the halo power spectrum and bispectrum in real space. We take advantage of a large set of numerical simulations and of an even larger set of halo mock catalogs to provide a robust estimate of the covariance properties. We derive constraints on bias and cosmological parameters assuming a theoretical model from perturbation theory at one-loop for the power spectrum and tree-level for the bispectrum. By means of the Deviance Information Criterion, we select a reference bias model dependent on seven parameters that can describe the data up to k max,P = 0.3 h Mpc-1 for the power spectrum and k max,B = 0.09 h Mpc-1 for the bispectrum at redshift z = 1. This model is able to accurately recover three selected cosmological parameters even for the rather extreme total simulation volume of 1000h -3 Gpc3. With the same tools, we study how relations among bias parameters can improve the fit while reducing the parameter space. In addition, we compare common approximations to the covariance matrix against the full covariance estimated from the mocks, and quantify the (non-negligible) effect of ignoring the cross-covariance between the two statistics. Finally, we explore different selection criteria for the triangular configurations to include in the analysis, showing that excluding nearly equilateral triangles rather than simply imposing a fixed maximum k max,B on all triangle sides can lead to a better exploitation of the information contained in the bispectrum

Effects of Risperidone on Cytokine Profile in Drug-Naive First-Episode Psychosis

Background: There is robust evidence that schizophrenia is characterized by immune-inflammatory abnormalities, including variations on cytokine levels. the results of previous studies, however, are heterogeneous due to several confounding factors, such as the effects of antipsychotic drugs. Therefore, research on drug-naive first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients is essential to elucidate the role of immune processes in that disorder.Methods: the aim of this study is to compare cytokine levels (IL-2, IL-10, IL-4, IL-6, IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha, and IL-17) in drug-naive FEP patients both before and after treatment with risperidone for 10 weeks, and to investigate possible associations between cytokine levels and clinical responses to treatment and presence of depressive symptoms. It this study, we included 55 drug-naive FEP patients who had repeated measurements of cytokine levels and 57 healthy controls.Results: We found that FEP patients had significantly higher IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-alpha levels than healthy controls. After risperidone treatment, these three cytokines and additionally IL-4 decreased significantly. No significant difference was found between the post-treatment cytokine levels in FEP patients and in healthy controls, suggesting that these alterations in cytokine profiles are a state marker of FEP. No significant association was found between risperidone-induced changes in cytokines and the clinical response to treatment or the presence of depression. There was a significant inverse association between the risperidone-induced changes in IL-10 and the negative symptoms.Conclusions: in conclusion, our results show a specific cytokine profile in FEP patients (monocytic and regulatory T-cell activation) and suggest immunoregulatory effects of risperidone treatment, characterized by suppressant effects on monocytic, Th2, and T-regulatory functions.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Fundacao SafraFundacao ABADSJanssenEli LillyLundbeckNovartisRocheUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Psychiat, São Paulo, BrazilFac Ciencias Med Santa Casa São Paulo, Episode Psychosis Program 1, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Morphol & Genet, Div Genet, São Paulo, BrazilDeakin Univ, Dept Psychiat, Geelong, Vic 3217, AustraliaChulalongkorn Univ, Dept Psychiat, Bangkok, ThailandUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Psychiat, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Morphol & Genet, Div Genet, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Role of radiomics in predicting lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer: a systematic review

IntroductionGastric cancer (GC) is an aggressive and clinically heterogeneous tumor, and better risk stratification of lymph node metastasis (LNM) could lead to personalized treatments. The role of radiomics in the prediction of nodal involvement in GC has not yet been systematically assessed. This study aims to assess the role of radiomics in the prediction of LNM in GC.MethodsA PubMed/MEDLINE systematic review was conducted to assess the role of radiomics in LNM. The inclusion criteria were as follows: i. original articles, ii. articles on radiomics, and iii. articles on LNM prediction in GC. All articles were selected and analyzed by a multidisciplinary board of two radiation oncologists and one surgeon, under the supervision of one radiation oncologist, one surgeon, and one medical oncologist.ResultsA total of 171 studies were obtained using the search strategy mentioned on PubMed. After the complete selection process, a total of 20 papers were considered eligible for the analysis of the results. Radiomics methods were applied in GC to assess the LNM risk. The number of patients, imaging modalities, type of predictive models, number of radiomics features, TRIPOD classification, and performances of the models were reported.ConclusionsRadiomics seems to be a promising approach for evaluating the risk of LNM in GC. Further and larger studies are required to evaluate the clinical impact of the inclusion of radiomics in a comprehensive decision support system (DSS) for GC

West Nile virus transmission. results from the integrated surveillance system in Italy, 2008 to 2015

IIn Italy a national Plan for the surveillance of imported and autochthonous human vector-borne diseases (chikungunya, dengue, Zika virus disease and West Nile virus (WNV) disease) that integrates human and veterinary (animals and vectors) surveillance, is issued and revised annually according with the observed epidemiological changes. Here we describe results of the WNV integrated veterinary and human surveillance systems in Italy from 2008 to 2015. A real time data exchange protocol is in place between the surveillance systems to rapidly identify occurrence of human and animal cases and to define and update the map of affected areas i.e. provinces during the vector activity period from June to October. WNV continues to cause severe illnesses in Italy during every transmission season, albeit cases are sporadic and the epidemiology varies by virus lineage and geographic area. The integration of surveillance activities and a multidisciplinary approach made it possible and have been fundamental in supporting implementation of and/or strengthening preventive measures aimed at reducing the risk of transmission of WNV trough blood, tissues and organ donation and to implementing further measures for vector control