653 research outputs found
Evaluation of selected characteristics in industrial hemp after phytohormonal treatment
Plant growth and development is significantly influenced by phytohormones \u2013 endogenous molecules present naturally in plants. The best known plant hormones are auxins and cytokinins. This study examined the possible effect of externally applied plant hormone analogues (growth regulators): 1-naphthyl acetic acid (NAA) and 6-benzyl aminopurine (BAP) on industrial fibre hemp (Cannabis sativa L., variety Bialobrzeskie). Plants were treated with three different concentrations of NAA (5, 10 and 20 mg/l) and three different concentrations of BAP (10, 25 and 50 mg/l). Morphological and physiological characteristics, such as apical dominance, shoot branching, fibre properties, and flavonoid content were evaluated. The chosen variety of hemp
had a significant response to exogenous application of growth regulators, as has been observed with other plant species. Most notably completely understood and controlled synthetic auxin treatment has a potential to increase the bark fibre yield of hemp
The International Trade Network: weighted network analysis and modelling
Tools of the theory of critical phenomena, namely the scaling analysis and
universality, are argued to be applicable to large complex web-like network
structures. Using a detailed analysis of the real data of the International
Trade Network we argue that the scaled link weight distribution has an
approximate log-normal distribution which remains robust over a period of 53
years. Another universal feature is observed in the power-law growth of the
trade strength with gross domestic product, the exponent being similar for all
countries. Using the 'rich-club' coefficient measure of the weighted networks
it has been shown that the size of the rich-club controlling half of the
world's trade is actually shrinking. While the gravity law is known to describe
well the social interactions in the static networks of population migration,
international trade, etc, here for the first time we studied a non-conservative
dynamical model based on the gravity law which excellently reproduced many
empirical features of the ITN.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
HIDRAdisk: validation of an innovative visual tool to assess the burden of hidradenitis suppurativa
Background
Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic, relapsing, inflammatory skin disease characterized by painful inflamed nodules, recurrent abscesses and fistulas located in apocrine glandâbearing body sites. The negative impact of HS on patient's quality of life (QoL) has been reported to be greater than other dermatologic conditions as psoriasis and atopic eczema, and its improvement is an important goal in disease management. Nowadays, there are no specific validated QoL instruments available for HS and generic dermatologic questionnaires are used.
Objective
The objective of this study was to demonstrate the validity, reliability and responsiveness of HIDRAdisk, a new innovative tool designed for rapid assessment of HS burden and, at the same time, an intuitive graphic visualization of the measurement outcome.
Methods
A multicentre, longitudinal, observational study was conducted to validate the HIDRAdisk compared with other validated questionnaires [Skindexâ16, Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), Work Productivity and Activity ImpairmentâGeneral Health (WPAI:GH)] and to evaluate its correlation with disease severity in Italian patients with any degree of HS severity, as measured by Hurley stage and HS Physician Global Assessment (HSâPGA).
Results
A total of 140 patients (59% women; mean age 34.9 ± 11.0 years) were enrolled in 27 dermatologic centres. HIDRAdisk showed a strong correlation with Skindexâ16 and DLQI, and a good one with WPAI:GH (correlation coefficient: 0.7568, 0.6651 and 0.5947, respectively) and a statistically significant correlation with both Hurley stage and HSâPGA. Very good internal consistency (Cronbach coefficient >0.80; intraclass correlation coefficient >0.6), with correlation between the 10 items, good testâretest reliability (Spearman correlation coefficient, 0.8331; P < 0.0001) and responsiveness to changes were demonstrated.
Conclusion
Our study shows that HIDRAdisk, a short and innovative visual HS QoL instrument, has been psychometrically validated in Italian language and it may help improve the management of HS once implemented in routine clinical practice
HIDRAdisk: validation of an innovative visual tool to assess the burden of hidradenitis suppurativa
Background
Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic, relapsing, inflammatory skin disease characterized by painful inflamed nodules, recurrent abscesses and fistulas located in apocrine glandâbearing body sites. The negative impact of HS on patient's quality of life (QoL) has been reported to be greater than other dermatologic conditions as psoriasis and atopic eczema, and its improvement is an important goal in disease management. Nowadays, there are no specific validated QoL instruments available for HS and generic dermatologic questionnaires are used.
Objective
The objective of this study was to demonstrate the validity, reliability and responsiveness of HIDRAdisk, a new innovative tool designed for rapid assessment of HS burden and, at the same time, an intuitive graphic visualization of the measurement outcome.
Methods
A multicentre, longitudinal, observational study was conducted to validate the HIDRAdisk compared with other validated questionnaires [Skindexâ16, Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), Work Productivity and Activity ImpairmentâGeneral Health (WPAI:GH)] and to evaluate its correlation with disease severity in Italian patients with any degree of HS severity, as measured by Hurley stage and HS Physician Global Assessment (HSâPGA).
Results
A total of 140 patients (59% women; mean age 34.9 ± 11.0 years) were enrolled in 27 dermatologic centres. HIDRAdisk showed a strong correlation with Skindexâ16 and DLQI, and a good one with WPAI:GH (correlation coefficient: 0.7568, 0.6651 and 0.5947, respectively) and a statistically significant correlation with both Hurley stage and HSâPGA. Very good internal consistency (Cronbach coefficient >0.80; intraclass correlation coefficient >0.6), with correlation between the 10 items, good testâretest reliability (Spearman correlation coefficient, 0.8331; P < 0.0001) and responsiveness to changes were demonstrated.
Conclusion
Our study shows that HIDRAdisk, a short and innovative visual HS QoL instrument, has been psychometrically validated in Italian language and it may help improve the management of HS once implemented in routine clinical practice
Modelling opinion formation by means of kinetic equations
In this chapter, we review some mechanisms of opinion dynamics that can be modelled by kinetic equations. Beside the sociological phenomenon of compromise, naturally linked to collisional operators of Boltzmann kind, many other aspects, already mentioned in the sociophysical literature or no, can enter in this framework. While describing some contributions appeared in the literature, we enlighten some mathematical tools of kinetic theory that can be useful in the context of sociophysics
Global Networks of Trade and Bits
Considerable efforts have been made in recent years to produce detailed
topologies of the Internet. Although Internet topology data have been brought
to the attention of a wide and somewhat diverse audience of scholars, so far
they have been overlooked by economists. In this paper, we suggest that such
data could be effectively treated as a proxy to characterize the size of the
"digital economy" at country level and outsourcing: thus, we analyse the
topological structure of the network of trade in digital services (trade in
bits) and compare it with that of the more traditional flow of manufactured
goods across countries. To perform meaningful comparisons across networks with
different characteristics, we define a stochastic benchmark for the number of
connections among each country-pair, based on hypergeometric distribution.
Original data are thus filtered by means of different thresholds, so that we
only focus on the strongest links, i.e., statistically significant links. We
find that trade in bits displays a sparser and less hierarchical network
structure, which is more similar to trade in high-skill manufactured goods than
total trade. Lastly, distance plays a more prominent role in shaping the
network of international trade in physical goods than trade in digital
services.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure
Whole-genome sequencing of European autochthonous and commercial pig breeds allows the detection of signatures of selection for adaptation of genetic resources to different breeding and production systems
Background: Natural and artificial directional selection in cosmopolitan and autochthonous pig breeds and wild boars have shaped their genomes and resulted in a reservoir of animal genetic diversity. Signatures of selection are the result of these selection events that have contributed to the adaptation of breeds to different environments and production systems. In this study, we analysed the genome variability of 19 European autochthonous pig breeds (Alentejana, BĂsara, Majorcan Black, Basque, Gascon, Apulo-Calabrese, Casertana, Cinta Senese, Mora Romagnola, Nero Siciliano, Sarda, KrĆĄkopolje pig, Black Slavonian, Turopolje, Moravka, Swallow-Bellied Mangalitsa, SchwĂ€bisch-HĂ€llisches Schwein, Lithuanian indigenous wattle and Lithuanian White old type) from nine countries, three European commercial breeds (Italian Large White, Italian Landrace and Italian Duroc), and European wild boars, by mining wholegenome sequencing data obtained by using a DNA-pool sequencing approach. Signatures of selection were identified by using a single-breed approach with two statistics [within-breed pooled heterozygosity (HP) and fixation index (FST)] and group-based FST approaches, which compare groups of breeds defined according to external traits and use/specialization/type.
Results: We detected more than 22 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across the 23 compared populations and identified 359 chromosome regions showing signatures of selection. These regions harbour genes that are already known or new genes that are under selection and relevant for the domestication process in this species, and that affect several morphological and physiological traits (e.g. coat colours and patterns, body size, number of vertebrae and teats, ear size and conformation, reproductive traits, growth and fat deposition traits). Wild boar related signatures of selection were detected across all the genome of several autochthonous breeds, which suggests that crossbreeding (accidental or deliberate) occurred with wild boars.
Conclusions: Our findings provide a catalogue of genetic variants of many European pig populations and identify genome regions that can explain, at least in part, the phenotypic diversity of these genetic resources
Runs of homozygosity provide a genome landscape picture of inbreeding and genetic history of European autochthonous and commercial pig breeds
ROHs are long stretches of DNA homozygous at each polymorphic position. The proportion of genome covered by ROHs and their length are indicators of the level and origin of inbreeding. Frequent common ROHs within the same population define ROH islands and indicate hotspots of selection. In this work, we investigated ROHs in a total of 1131 pigs from 20 European local pig breeds and in three cosmopolitan breeds, genotyped with the GGP Porcine HD Genomic Profiler. plink software was used to identify ROHs. Size classes and genomic inbreeding parameters were evaluated. ROH islands were defined by evaluating different thresholds of homozygous SNP frequency. A functional overview of breed-specific ROH islands was obtained via over-representation analyses of GO biological processes. Mora Romagnola and Turopolje breeds had the largest proportions of genome covered with ROH (~1003 and ~955 Mb respectively), whereas Nero Siciliano and Sarda breeds had the lowest proportions (~207 and 247 Mb respectively). The highest proportion of long ROH (>16 Mb) was in Apulo-Calabrese, Mora Romagnola and Casertana. The largest number of ROH islands was identified in the Italian Landrace (n = 32), Cinta Senese (n = 26) and Lithuanian White Old Type (n = 22) breeds. Several ROH islands were in regions encompassing genes known to affect morphological traits. Comparative ROH structure analysis among breeds indicated the similar genetic structure of local breeds across Europe. This study contributed to understanding of the genetic history of the investigated pig breeds and provided information to manage these pig genetic resources
Docking of Secretory Vesicles Is Syntaxin Dependent
Secretory vesicles dock at the plasma membrane before they undergo fusion. Molecular docking mechanisms are poorly defined but believed to be independent of SNARE proteins. Here, we challenged this hypothesis by acute deletion of the target SNARE, syntaxin, in vertebrate neurons and neuroendocrine cells. Deletion resulted in fusion arrest in both systems. No docking defects were observed in synapses, in line with previous observations. However, a drastic reduction in morphologically docked secretory vesicles was observed in chromaffin cells. Syntaxin-deficient chromaffin cells showed a small reduction in total and plasma membrane staining for the docking factor Munc18-1, which appears insufficient to explain the drastic reduction in docking. The sub-membrane cortical actin network was unaffected by syntaxin deletion. These observations expose a docking role for syntaxin in the neuroendocrine system. Additional layers of regulation may have evolved to make syntaxin redundant for docking in highly specialized systems like synaptic active zones
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