The Impact of Long-Term Exposure to Space Environment on Adult Mammalian Organisms: A Study on Mouse Thyroid and Testis

Hormonal changes in humans during spaceflight have been demonstrated but the underlying mechanisms are still unknown. To clarify this point thyroid and testis/epididymis, both regulated by anterior pituitary gland, have been analyzed on long-term space-exposed male C57BL/10 mice, either wild type or pleiotrophin transgenic, overexpressing osteoblast stimulating factor-1. Glands were submitted to morphological and functional analysis

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Proceedings of the Fifth Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics CLiC-it 2018

On behalf of the Program Committee, a very warm welcome to the Fifth Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics (CLiC-­‐it 2018). This edition of the conference is held in Torino. The conference is locally organised by the University of Torino and hosted into its prestigious main lecture hall “Cavallerizza Reale”. The CLiC-­‐it conference series is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC) which, after five years of activity, has clearly established itself as the premier national forum for research and development in the fields of Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing, where leading researchers and practitioners from academia and industry meet to share their research results, experiences, and challenges

Nutritional and medicinal properties of underexploited legume trees from West Africa

This review concerns three legume trees (family Fabaceae, subfamily Caesalpinioideae) from West Africa, namely Detarium microcarpum, Parkia biglobosa and Dialium guineense, and illustrates their nutritional value and therapeutic properties. These species are an important source of nutrition for West African populations, but their agricultural exploitation is still incomplete. The survey was conducted on Scopus, Web of Science, and Medline, using scientific and common English names of the species as keywords and then selecting papers related to nutritional and medicinal properties. Main food products are fruit pulp and seeds, though leaves can also be used. Most relevant dietary features are high protein, vitamin, and micronutrient contents. Various therapeutic and nutritional benefits of these plants have been documented by ethnobotanical and experimental studies, stimulating an interest for their possible use as functional food or drug sources. Most studied medicinal properties include antidiabetic and antimicrobial activities of D. microcarpum, cardiovascular protective and antidiabetic activities of P. biglobosa, and bilharzia-preventing molluscicidal activity of D. guineense. Phytochemical characterizations have revealed potential sources of active drugs, such as D. guineense saponins and D. microcarpum diterpenes. Scientific results support popular uses of these legume trees, indicating a prominent nutritional and health value

Fisiologia

Il volume di Linda Costanzo si rivolge principalmente alle lauree triennali. L'impostazione non è di fisiologia medica ma di fisiologia di base. Il testo descrive i principali concetti di fisiologia sia a livello cellulare (capp. 1 e 2) sia a livello di organo (capp. da 3 a 10). L'autrice ha voluto sempre enfatizzare le relazioni tra i diversi sistemi per sottolineare i meccanismi integrativi per l'omeostasi. Infatti anche le poche correlazioni cliniche relegate all'interno di box sono presentate sempre enfatizzando l’aspetto fisiologico di correlazione tra i diversi sistemi. Ad esempio il diabete mellito di Tipo I ha implicazioni non solo sul sistema endocrino, ma anche cardiovascolare, respiratorio, renale e dell’equilibrio acido-base. Il testo è sintetico e schematico e prevede una relazione molto stretta con l'iconografia. Al termine di ogni capitolo sono riassunti i punti chiave e sono presenti domande di autovalutazione. In realtà la fisiologia è anche una materia “di calcolo” e il vero modo di verificare di aver realmente compreso i principi che la regolano è affrontare problemi/esercizi pratici. Per questo all'interno del testo, viene data una definizione di tutti gli elementi delle equazioni presentate e, più volte all'interno del singolo capitolo, vengono presentati esercizi svolti

Estudio del rendimiento académico de los alumnos en la asignatura "Biología Celular y molecular" Perteneciente a la carrera licenciatura en ciencias biologicas

La Asignatura “Biología Celular y Molecular ” pertenece a la carrera: Licenciatura en Ciencias Biológicas de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, UNCa, posee un régimen promocional teórico- práctico. La misma durante el ciclo lectivo 2010, contó con 11 alumnos, de los cuales el 54,5% promocionó la materia, el 27,2% la regularizó y el 18,2% quedaron en condición de alumnos libres. Cabe destacar que los alumnos libres la principal causa fue la deserción por diversos motivos: falta de contenidos previos, falta de correlativas y en menor proporción razones personales. El objetivo de este trabajo fue determinar las posibles causas que imposibilitaron a los alumnos alcanzar la promoción de la misma. Para ello Se evaluaron los exámenes parciales, trabajos prácticos, asistencia y rendimiento áulico de los estudiantes. También se analizo las entrevistas personalizadas a los alumnos y opiniones objetivas sobre cada caso en particular. A partir de estos datos, se pudo determinar que el principal inconveniente fue la carencia o falencia de contenidos de bioquímica necesarios para la comprensión y asimilación de la biología molecular. La Ciencias Biológicas en particular la biología molecular debido al gran desarrollo de la Biotecnología requiere un mayor desarrollo de parte experimental como es una ciencia aplicada y al no contar con un laboratorio adecuado y con el equipamiento necesario dificulta la comprensión de procesos y la aplicación de técnicas propias de la disciplina. Este trabajo surge como una de las iniciativas de la cátedra de una autoevaluación para contribuir al programa de mejoramiento de la calidad educativa que lleva a cabo la FACEN.Fil: Palmero, Cinthia Ariadna. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán; ArgentinaFil: Vergara, René. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Delgado, Osvaldo Daniel. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; ArgentinaFil: Hilal, Mirna Beatriz. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Casimiro, Silvio Antonio. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán; ArgentinaII Congreso Internacional de las Ciencias de la Educación y la TecnologíaArgentinaUniversidad Nacional de Catamarca. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturale