Combined in situ experimentation and modelling approaches to disentangle processes involved in the earliest stage of community assembly

The ecological process of community assembly is described as the succession of three phases: colonization, regulation and segregation. Early colonization remains the least studied and quantified phase of assembly. In order to fill this gap, an approach combining in situ experiments and modelling was proposed to study colonization by a benthic macrofauna community in open microcosms containing a single, non-limiting resource. The experiment was three months long. A total of 51 taxa were observed in the microcosms, but data analyses of the species composition and abundances revealed that five species, Capitella spp., Gammaropsis maculata, Erichtionus punctatus, Nereiphylla paretti and Harmothoe mariannae, explained most of the observed variation in the assembly process. The population dynamics of these species were simulated taking into account functional traits that govern individual interactions. The dynamic model simulated a demographic stochasticity due to low population densities that result from the small size of the experimental microcosms. Using this combined approach of experiments and modelling, we showed that predation interactions alone can account for the abundances and species composition of primary consumers during the transient phase of early colonization

Hodgkin lymphoma: A special microenvironment

Classical Hodgkn’s lymphoma (cHL) is one of the most particular lymphomas for the few tumor cells surrounded by an inflammatory microenvironment. Reed-Sternberg (RS) and Hodgkin (H) cells reprogram and evade antitumor mechanisms of the normal cells present in the microenvi-ronment. The cells of microenvironment are essential for growth and survival of the RS/H cells and are recruited through the effect of cytokines/chemokines. We summarize recent advances in gene expression profiling (GEP) analysis applied to study microenvironment component in cHL. We also describe the main therapies that target not only the neoplastic cells but also the cellular components of the background

Clinical relevance of silent red blood cell autoantibodies.

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Deposits, composition and technological behavior of fluxes for ceramic tiles

The ceramic tile industry is a big consumer of feldspathic rocks and further raw materials able to act as flux during firing. This demand is currently fed with the recourse to a wide range of sources of igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic and metasomatic origin. The main geological features of flux deposits actually exploited by the ceramic industry are reviewed. The chemical and mineralogical composition is described to have a general picture of raw fluxes as well as average data and compositional perimeter for deposits of different origin. Overall beneficiation routes are drawn to trace the compositional path from deposit to commercial flux. The technological behavior in tile-making is shortly overviewed and new experimental data are provided on flux fusibility (by hot-stage microscopy). A chart is proposed to discriminate fluxes according to different fusibility

Recycling of bottom ash from biomass combustion in porcelain stoneware tiles: Effects on technological properties, phase evolution and microstructure

This work aims to evaluate the use of bottom biomass ash as an alternative raw material in porcelain stoneware bodies. For this purpose, ash coming from a biomass thermoelectric power plant in Emilia-Romagna (Italy) was selected and its chemical, mineralogical and thermal properties determined. Data indicated its technological role as a flux, so it was introduced in a porcelain stoneware batch in partial replacement of feldspars and experimented at laboratory scale. A bottleneck, relative to the rheological behavior of the slips, was overcome by a slight deflocculant increase. The powder compacts were fired from 1000° to 1220 °C in order to follow the evolution of the technological properties, phase composition (XRPD-Rietveld) and microstructure (SEM). The introduction of ash allowed to lower the firing temperature by 20 °C, while keeping the technological properties comparable with those of the benchmark. Moreover, the mineralogical and microstructural data revealed different sintering kinetics

Tailoring CD19xCD3-DART exposure enhances T-cells to eradication of B-cell neoplasms.

Many patients with B-cell malignancies can be successfully treated, although tumor eradication is rarely achieved. T-cell-directed killing of tumor cells using engineered T-cells or bispecific antibodies is a promising approach for the treatment of hematologic malignancies. We investigated the efficacy of CD19xCD3 DART bispecific antibody in a broad panel of human primary B-cell malignancies. The CD19xCD3 DART identified 2 distinct subsets of patients, in which the neoplastic lymphocytes were eliminated with rapid or slow kinetics. Delayed responses were always overcome by a prolonged or repeated DART exposure. Both CD4 and CD8 effector cytotoxic cells were generated, and DART-mediated killing of CD4+ cells into cytotoxic effectors required the presence of CD8+ cells. Serial exposures to DART led to the exponential expansion of CD4 + and CD8 + cells and to the sequential ablation of neoplastic cells in absence of a PD-L1-mediated exhaustion. Lastly, patient-derived neoplastic B-cells (B-Acute Lymphoblast Leukemia and Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma) could be proficiently eradicated in a xenograft mouse model by DART-armed cytokine induced killer (CIK) cells. Collectively, patient tailored DART exposures can result in the effective elimination of CD19 positive leukemia and B-cell lymphoma and the association of bispecific antibodies with unmatched CIK cells represents an effective modality for the treatment of CD19 positive leukemia/lymphoma

The Tumor Microenvironment of DLBCL in the Computational Era

Among classical exemplifications of tumor microenvironment (TME) in lymphoma pathogenesis, the \u201ceffacement model\u201d resembled by diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) implies strong cell autonomous survival and paucity of non-malignant elements. Nonetheless, the magnitude of TME exploration is increasing as novel technologies allow the high-resolution discrimination of cellular and extra-cellular determinants at the functional, more than morphological, level. Results from genomic-scale studies and recent clinical trials revitalized the interest in this field, prompting the use of new tools to dissect DLBCL composition and reveal novel prognostic association. Here we revisited major controversies related to TME in DLBCL, focusing on the use of bioinformatics to mine transcriptomic data and provide new insights to be translated into the clinical setting

Clinical characteristics and outcome of patients with autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) uniformly defined as primary by a diagnostic work-up

Primary autoimmune hemolytic anemia (P-AIHA) is a relatively uncommon and hetereogeneous disease characterized by the destruction of red blood cells due to anti-erythrocyte autoantibodies (AeAbs) in the absence of an associated disease [1–3]. Secondary AHIA is frequently associated with lymphoproliferative diseases (LD) in particular, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, aggressive or indolent lymphomas, autoimmune disorders, malignancies other than lymphoid, and infections [1,2,4]. On the hypothetical assumption that in a significant proportion of cases defined as P-AIHA the clinical heterogeneity could be due to an ignored associated disease, we retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics and outcome of patients with a diagnosis of P-AIHA based on a diagnostic work-up aimed at excluding or identifying an associated disease. ..

Rapid identification of BCR/ABL1-like acute lymphoblastic leukaemia patients using a predictive statistical model based on quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction: clinical, prognostic and therapeutic implications.

BCR/ABL1-like acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is a subgroup of B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukaemia that occurs within cases without recurrent molecular rearrangements. Gene expression profiling (GEP) can identify these cases but it is expensive and not widely available. Using GEP, we identified 10 genes specifically overexpressed by BCR/ABL1-like ALL cases and used their expression values - assessed by quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction (Q-RT-PCR) in 26 BCR/ABL1-like and 26 non-BCR/ABL1-like cases to build a statistical "BCR/ABL1-like predictor", for the identification of BCR/ABL1-like cases. By screening 142 B-lineage ALL patients with the "BCR/ABL1-like predictor", we identified 28/142 BCR/ABL1-like patients (19·7%). Overall, BCR/ABL1-like cases were enriched in JAK/STAT mutations (P < 0·001), IKZF1 deletions (P < 0·001) and rearrangements involving cytokine receptors and tyrosine kinases (P = 0·001), thus corroborating the validity of the prediction. Clinically, the BCR/ABL1-like cases identified by the BCR/ABL1-like predictor achieved a lower rate of complete remission (P = 0·014) and a worse event-free survival (P = 0·0009) compared to non-BCR/ABL1-like ALL. Consistently, primary cells from BCR/ABL1-like cases responded in vitro to ponatinib. We propose a simple tool based on Q-RT-PCR and a statistical model that is capable of easily, quickly and reliably identifying BCR/ABL1-like ALL cases at diagnosis