The importance of the fresh water outflow on a station situated in front of the Po river (Po di Goro)

The fractions of dissolved organic and inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus in sea water samples were monitored at the station S1, placed in front of the Po River mouth (44?44\u2770"N, 12?27\u2741"E). The aim was to extent our knowledge about the biochemical situation in an area that is highly influenced by fresh water loads by the .. 288 largest Italian river, and to estimate the portions of organic and inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus that were lost from the System due to physical and biochemical interactions. For this purpose, we chose to examine a sampling period with scarce river outflow (April 1995) and one with greater outflow (July 1995). Despite great nutrient loads in both sampling periods, our estimates revealed that almost the whole fraction of inorganic phosphorus (up to 92 % at April) and a part of the inorganic nitrogen (30 % at April and 42 % at July) was readily consumed at the station. Surprisingly the dissolved organic fraction of nitrogen (DON) was much greater at the station (up to 3120 % in April) than in the river water, and it constituted a conspicuous part of the total dissolved nitrogen in the study area. On the contrary, the dissolved organic fraction of phosphorus (DOP) did not accumulate in the coastal area, compared to the river water

The rat glucocorticoid receptor integration in Nicotiana langsdorffii genome affects plant responses to abiotic stresses and to arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis

The present study reports evidence of the pleiotropic effects caused by the insertion of the rat glucocorticoid receptor (GR) into the genome of Nicotiana langsdorffii. Transgenic N. langsdorffii-GR plants and the wild-type genotypes were analysed for their phenotypic and physiological characteristics. The integration of the GR gene affected flowering, growth habit, leaf morphology and stomatal pattern. Furthermore, GR plants showed an increased tolerance to heavy metal, drought and heat stress as evidenced by electrolyte leakage and by cell dedifferentiation and differentiation capability after recovery from stress treatments. We also monitored the establishment of the beneficial symbiosis between transgenic plants and the mycorrhizal fungus Funneliformis mosseae whose presymbiotic growth was significantly reduced by root exudates of N. langsdorffii-GR plants. The observed pleiotropic responses of transgenic plants may be a consequence of the hormonal imbalance, putatively due to the interaction of the GR receptor with the host genetic background. Our findings suggest that N. langsdorffii-GR plants can be used as a functional model system for the study of plant responses to a series of environmental stimuli

Diagnostic and Therapeutic Challenges of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare cancer characterized by a very poor prognosis. Exposure to asbestos is the leading cause of malignant pleural mesothelioma. The preinvasive lesions, the mesothelial hyperplasia and its possible evolution are the focus of the majority of the studies aiming to identify the treatable phase of the disease. The role of BAP-1 and MTAP in the diagnosis of mesothelioma in situ and in the prognosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma is the main topic of recent studies. The management of preinvasive lesions in mesothelioma is still unclear and many aspects are the subject of debate. The diagnosis, the disease staging and the accurate, comprehensive assessment of patients are three key instants for an appropriate management of patients/the disease

Noncommutative geometry inspired charged black holes

We find a new, non-commutative geometry inspired, solution of the coupled Einstein-Maxwell field equations describing a variety of charged, self-gravitating objects, including extremal and non-extremal black holes. The metric smoothly interpolates between deSitter geometry, at short distance, and Reissner-Nordstroem geometry far away from the origin. Contrary to the ordinary Reissner-Nordstroem spacetime there is no curvature singularity in the origin neither "naked" nor shielded by horizons. We investigate both the Hawking process and pair creation in this new scenario.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure, LaTe

SDN enabled dynamically reconfigurable high capacity optical access architecture for converged services

Dynamically reconfigurable time-division multiplexing (TDM) dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) long-reach passive optical networks (PONs) can support the reduction of nodes and network interfaces by enabling a fully meshed flat optical core. In this paper we demonstrate the flexibility of the TDM-DWDM PON architecture, which can enable the convergence of multiple service types on a single physical layer. Heterogeneous services and modulation formats, i.e. residential 10G PON channels, business 100G dedicated channel and wireless fronthaul, are demonstrated co-existing on the same long reach TDM-DWDM PON system, with up to 100km reach, 512 users and emulated system load of 40 channels, employing amplifier nodes with either erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) or semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). For the first time end-to-end software defined networking (SDN) management of the access and core network elements is also implemented and integrated with the PON physical layer in order to demonstrate two service use cases: a fast protection mechanism with end-to-end service restoration in the case of a primary link failure; and dynamic wavelength allocation (DWA) in response to an increased traffic demand

The Epidemiologic Study in San Valentino

The efficacy of a 2-month treatment with oral colostrum in the prevention of flu episodes compared with antiinfluenza vaccination was evaluated. Groups included healthy subjects without prophylaxis and those receiving both vaccination and colostrum. After 3 months of follow-up, the number of days with flu was 3 times higher in the non-colostrum subjects. The colostrum group had 13 episodes versus 14 in the colostrum + vaccination group, 41 in the group without prophylaxis, and 57 in nontreated subjects. Part 2 of the study had a similar protocol with 65 very high-risk cardiovascular subjects, all of whom had prophylaxis. The incidence of complications and hospital admission was higher in the group that received only a vaccination compared with the colostrum groups. Colostrum, both in healthy subjects and high-risk cardiovascular patients, is at least 3 times more effective than vaccination to prevent flu and is very cost-effective

Neural precursor cells tune striatal connectivity through the release of IGFBPL1

The adult brain retains over life endogenous neural stem/precursor cells (eNPCs) within the subventricular zone (SVZ). Whether or not these cells exert physiological functions is still unclear. In the present work, we provide evidence that SVZ-eNPCs tune structural, electrophysiological, and behavioural aspects of striatal function via secretion of insulin-like growth factor binding protein-like 1 (IGFBPL1). In mice, selective ablation of SVZ-eNPCs or selective abrogation of IGFBPL1 determined an impairment of striatal medium spiny neuron morphology, a higher failure rate in GABAergic transmission mediated by fast-spiking interneurons, and striatum-related behavioural dysfunctions. We also found IGFBPL1 expression in the human SVZ, foetal and induced-pluripotent stem cell-derived NPCs. Finally, we found a significant correlation between SVZ damage, reduction of striatum volume, and impairment of information processing speed in neurological patients. Our results highlight the physiological role of adult SVZ-eNPCs in supporting cognitive functions by regulating striatal neuronal activity

Degenerative Jargon Aphasia: Unusual Progression of Logopenic/Phonological Progressive Aphasia?

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) corresponds to the gradual degeneration of language which can occur as nonfluent/agrammatic PPA, semantic variant PPA or logopenic variant PPA. We describe the clinical evolution of a patient with PPA presenting jargon aphasia as a late feature. At the onset of the disease (ten years ago) the patient showed anomia and executive deficits, followed later on by phonemic paraphasias and neologisms, deficits in verbal short-term memory, naming, verbal and semantic fluency. At recent follow-up the patient developed an unintelligible jargon with both semantic and neologistic errors, as well as with severe deficit of comprehension which precluded any further neuropsychological assessment. Compared to healthy controls, FDG-PET showed a hypometabolism in the left angular and middle temporal gyri, precuneus, caudate, posterior cingulate, middle frontal gyrus, and bilaterally in the superior temporal and inferior frontal gyri. The clinical and neuroimaging profile seems to support the hypothesis that the patient developed a late feature of logopenic variant PPA characterized by jargonaphasia and associated with superior temporal and parietal dysfunction

Pathological and clinical features of multiple cancers and lung adenocarcinoma: a multicentre study

OBJECTIVES: Lung cancer is increasingly diagnosed as a second cancer. Our goal was to analyse the characteristics and outcomes of early-stage resected lung adenocarcinomas in patients with previous cancers (PC) and correlations with adenocarcinoma subtypes.METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed data of patients radically operated on for stage I-II lung adenocarcinoma in 9 thoracic surgery departments between 2014 and 2017. Overall survival (OS) and time to disease relapse were evaluated between subgroups.RESULTS: We included 700 consecutive patients. PC were present in 260 (37.1%). Breast adenocarcinoma, lung cancer and prostate cancer were the most frequent (21.5%, 11.5% and 11.2%, respectively). No significant differences in OS were observed between the PC and non-PC groups (P = 0.378), with 31 and 75 deaths, respectively. Patients with PC had smaller tumours and were more likely to receive sublobar resection and to be operated on with a minimally invasive approach. Previous gastric cancer (P = 0.042) and synchronous PC (when diagnosed up to 6 months before lung adenocarcinoma; P = 0.044) were related, with a worse OS. Colon and breast adenocarcinomas and melanomas were significantly related to a lower incidence of high grade (solid or micropapillary, P = 0.0039, P = 0.005 and P = 0.028 respectively), whereas patients affected by a previous lymphoma had a higher incidence of a micropapillary pattern (P = 0.008).CONCLUSIONS: In patients with PC, we found smaller tumours more frequently treated with minimally invasive techniques and sublobar resection, probably due to a more careful follow-up. The impact on survival is not uniform and predictable; however, breast and colon cancers and melanoma showed a lower incidence of solid or micropapillary patterns whereas patients with lymphomas had a higher incidence of a micropapillary pattern

Impact of High‑Grade Patterns in Early‑Stage Lung Adenocarcinoma: A Multicentric Analysis

Objective The presence of micropapillary and solid adenocarcinoma patterns leads to a worse survival and a signifcantly higher tendency to recur. This study aims to assess the impact of pT descriptor combined with the presence of high-grade components on long-term outcomes in early-stage lung adenocarcinomas. Methods We retrospectively collected data of consecutive resected pT1-T3N0 lung adenocarcinoma from nine European Thoracic Centers. All patients who underwent a radical resection with lymph-node dissection between 2014 and 2017 were included. Diferences in Overall Survival (OS) and Disease-Free Survival (DFS) and possible prognostic factors associated with outcomes were evaluated also after performing a propensity score matching to compare tumors containing non-highgrade and high-grade patterns. Results Among 607 patients, the majority were male and received a lobectomy. At least one high-grade histological pattern was seen in 230 cases (37.9%), of which 169 solid and 75 micropapillary. T1a-b-c without high-grade pattern had a signifcant better prognosis compared to T1a-b-c with high-grade pattern (p=0.020), but the latter had similar OS compared to T2a (p=0.277). Concurrently, T1a-b-c without micropapillary or solid patterns had a signifcantly better DFS compared to those with high-grade patterns (p=0.034), and it was similar to T2a (p=0.839). Multivariable analysis confrms the role of T descriptor according to high-grade pattern both for OS (p=0.024; HR 1.285 95% CI 1.033–1.599) and DFS (p=0.003; HR 1.196, 95% CI 1.054–1.344, respectively). These results were confrmed after the propensity score matching analysis. Conclusions pT1 lung adenocarcinomas with a high-grade component have similar prognosis of pT2a tumors