317 research outputs found
THE TRIASSIC INSECTS FROM MONTE SAN GIORGIO: SYSTEMATICS AND PALEOENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS
A collection of 16 specimens of insects (both adult and larval forms) collected between 1997 and 2003 in the Lower Kalkschieferzone (KSZ) at the Val Mara site D near Meride (Canton Ticino, Svizzera), Monte San Giorgio by the UNIMI team lead by Prof. A. Tintori and Dr. C. Lombardo and with the support by Dr. Markus Felber, then curator at the Museo Cantonale di S.N. in Lugano (MCSN) are here described and the paleoenvironmental implications of this entomofauna is discussed. Monte San Giorgio is a Triassic fossil lagerst\ue4tte inscribed since 2003 in the UNESCO World Heritage for its vertebrate fossils, but the importance of its fossil insects is coming into light. The insect assemblage has proved to be exceptional under two aspects: it includes the most ancient fossil record for four groups and it provides the most ancient record of nervous structures (cerebrum and nerve cord) in insects, thanks to preservation through phosphatization. The Kalkschieferzone entomofauna is also quite diverse, including representatives of seven orders, both terrestrial and aquatic, suggesting the existence of a much more complex and stable terrestrial habitat than a carbonatic platform could support
Basic Course Leadership: Operational Transparency as a Best Practice for Adjunct Faculty Management
Research suggests adjunct faculty receive little institutional support and feel a sense of disconnection from their campuses. Nearly half of all faculty at American colleges and universities are classified as adjunct faculty in recent National Center for Educational Statistics reporting. Thus, academic departments should consider strategies to better include and engage adjunct faculty on their campuses. This article explores transparency as a best practice for the administration of communication basic courses at a mid-sized, regional university. Further, adjunct faculty members’ perceptions of the basic course administrators’ transparency will be discussed
Undetected patricide: Inaccuracy of cause of death determination without an autopsy
Patricide (killing the father) is uncommon form of homicide. Usually the assaults occur at home in the
absence of witnesses and adult sons are frequently involved. Homicides in a domestic context usually do
not tend to recurrence, because the motivation for the crime ends with the death of the parent. However,
this is not what was observed in the present case study dealing with the death of a 70 years old white
man originally misclassified as accident and discovered three years later only after an additional
homicide in a family context of a 60 years old white lady. Multiple stab wounds to the neck and thorax
were misinterpreted at the external male body examination as blunt trauma falling down stairs. No
forensic autopsy was requested and no comparison of medical findings with the results from the death
scene, such as a bloodstain analysis was performed by the police officers nor required by the judicial
authority. This was quite surprising because an additional but preliminary post-mortem external examination
performed by a general practitioner on the male body already raised the suspicion that the
external lesions were stab wounds thus requiring a forensic autopsy. Only the exhumation of the elderly
body, performed years later, confirmed the diagnostic hypothesis raised by the first physician. The
present case is quite representative of a death investigation not run professionally and performed by
individuals with no specific training where most of the medico-legal investigations (especially for
traumatic and violent deaths) are restricted to an external body examination without subsequent autopsy.
Although misinterpretation of external lesions is inevitable and significant discrepancies between
external body examination and forensic autopsy are not rare, in the case of contradictory results of postmortem
external examination or unclear/suspicious cause and manner of death, investigation should
proceed necessarily with a forensic autopsy
Platelet lysate maintains chondrogenic potential and promotes cartilage regeneration
cartilage.
We
report
the
biological
effect
of
the
platelet
lysate
(PL),
a
PRP
derivative,
on
primary
human
articular
chondrocytes
(HAC)
cultured
under
both
physiological
and
inflammatory
condition.
Added
to
the
culture
medium,
PL
induced
a
strong
mitogenic
response
in
the
chondrocytes.
The
in
vitro
expanded
cell
population
maintained
a
chondrogenic
re-‐differentiation
potential
as
revealed
by
micromass
culture
in
vitro
as
well
as
in
vivo
as
demonstrated
by
ectopic
cartilage
formation
in
nude
mice.
Furthermore,
in
chondrocytes
cultured
in
the
presence
of
the
pro-‐inflammatory
cytokine
IL-‐1α,
the
PL
induced
a
drastic
enhancement
of
the
synthesis
of
the
cytokines
IL-‐6
and
IL-‐8
and
of
NGAL,
a
lipocalin
expressed
in
cells
of
the
chondrogenic
lineage.
These
events
were
controlled
by
the
p38
MAP
kinase
and
NF-‐κΒ
pathways.
The
pro-‐inflammatory
effect
of
the
PL
was
a
transient
phenomenon.
In
fact,
after
an
initial
up
regulation,
we
observed
a
significant
reduction
of
the
NF-‐κΒ
activity
together
with
the
repression
of
the
inflammatory
enzyme
ciclooxygenase-‐2
(COX-‐2).
Moreover,
the
medium
of
chondrocytes
cultured
in
the
contemporary
presence
of
PL
and
IL-‐1α,
showed
a
significant
enhancement
of
the
chemoattractant
activity
versus
untreated
chondrocytes.
On
the
whole,
our
findings
support
the
concept
that
the
platelet
products
have
a
direct
beneficial
effect
on
articular
chondrocytes
and
at
the
same
time
could
drive
in
sequence
a
trans
The Middle Triassic lagerstätt e of Monte San Giorgio reveals the oldest lace bugs (Hemiptera: Tingidae): Archetingis ladinica gen. n. sp. n.
A new genus and species of fossil lace bugs (Hemiptera; Tingidae), Archetingis ladinica gen. n. et sp. n. is described from the lower Kalkschieferzone (Meride Limestone, Upper Ladinian) of the Swiss side of Monte San Giorgio. The new taxon clearly resembles modern Tingidae in its hemelytra and pronotum, with two rows of areole, in the presence of bucculae closed at the anterior end, not extending beyond the apex of the head, and in the presence of a labial groove on the meso-/metathoracic sternum. Distinctive features are the thick femurs of the first and second pair of legs, the exceptional size (total length of ~12 mm) if compared with both fossil and extant species. Archetingis ladinica gen. n. et sp. n. represents by far the oldest known species of this family and brings back the origin of Tingidae of approximately 140 My, well into the Middle Triassic. The discovery of A. ladinica, beside its evolutionary consequences on the origin of extant Tingidae, provides evidences for the presence of terrestrial ecosystems nearby to the depositional environment. According to the living and trophic behavior of extant Tingidae, those emerged lands had to be covered by vegetation
Radioisotopic purity and imaging properties of cyclotron-produced 99mTc using direct 100Mo(p,2n) reaction
Evaluation of the radioisotopic purity of technetium-99m (99mTc) produced in GBq amounts by proton bombardment of enriched molibdenum-100 (100Mo) metallic targets at low proton energies (i.e. within 15\u201320 MeV) is conducted. This energy range was chosen since it is easily achievable by many conventional medical cyclotrons already available in the nuclear medicine departments of hospitals. The main motivation for such a study is in the framework of the research activities at the international level that have been conducted over the last few years to develop alternative production routes for the most widespread radioisotope used in medical imaging. The analysis of technetium isotopes and isomeric states (9xTc) present in the pertechnetate saline Na99mTcO4 solutions, obtained after the extraction/purification procedure, reveals radionuclidic purity levels basically in compliance with the limits recently issued by European Pharmacopoeia 9.3 (2018 Sodium pertechnetate (99mTc) injection 4801\u20133). Moreover, the impact of 9xTc contaminant nuclides on the final image quality is thoroughly evaluated, analyzing the emitted high-energy gamma rays and their influence on the image quality. The spatial resolution of images from cyclotron-produced 99mTc acquired with a mini-gamma camera was determined and compared with that obtained using technetium-99m solutions eluted from standard 99Mo/99mTc generators. The effect of the increased image background contribution due to Compton-scattered higher-energy gamma rays (E \u3b3 \u2009\u2009>\u2009\u2009200\u2009keV), which could cause image-contrast deterioration, was also studied. It is concluded that, due to the high radionuclidic purity of cyclotron-produced 99mTc using 100Mo(p,2n)99mTc reaction at a proton beam energy in the range 15.7\u201319.4 MeV, the resulting image properties are well comparable with those from the generator-eluted 99mTc
Clickable cellulosic surfaces for peptide-based bioassays
The use of peptides in paper-based analytics is a highly appealing field, yet it suffers from severe limitations. This is mostly due to the loss of effective target recognition properties of this relatively small probes upon nonspecific adsorption onto cellulose substrates. Here we address this issue by introducing a simple polymer-based strategy to obtain clickable cellulose surfaces, that we exploited for the chemoselective bioconjugation of peptide bioprobes. Our method largely outperformed standard adsorption-based immobilization strategy in a challenging, real case immunoassay, namely the diagnostic discrimination of Zika + individuals from healthy controls. Of note, the clickable polymeric coating not only allows efficient peptides bioconjugation, but it provides favorable anti-fouling properties to the cellulosic support. We envisage our strategy to broaden the repertoire of cellulosic materials manipulation and promote a renewed interest in peptide-based paper bioassays
Utilização de chuveiros na sala pré-ordenha e sua influência na produtividade de búfalas da raça Murrah (Bubalus bubalis).
O estudo foi realizado com 64 búfalas, em dois tratamentos (1 e 2), durante seis dias. No primeiro, antes da ordenha, os animais permaneceram 1h em sala de espera com acesso ao chuveiro No segundo, os animais não tiveram acesso ao chuveiro. Foram registrados Índice de Temperatura de Globo e Umidade (ITGU) e a Umidade Relativa (UR) das salas de ordenha e de espera, Temperatura de Corpo (TC), Frequência Respiratória (FR), Reatividade (REAT), Nível de Estresse (NEST) e a Produção Diária de Leite (PL). Os dados foram analisados com o auxílio do programa SAS. O efeito da FR não foi significativo (P>0,57) sobre a PL. Não houve diferença significativa na PL para a REAT. O NEST foi o mesmo nos dois tratamentos. As regressões da característica (PL_AJ) sobre ITGU Interno (ITGU_I), ITGU Externo (ITGU_E), TC e UR não foram significativas (P>0,12). No tratamento 2 foram observados maior número de animais em classes de estresse, verificou-se que o tratamento 1 possibilitou a mudança ( alguns animais) da zona de alerta ou estresse para a zona de conforto térmico em relação ao ITGU_I. No tratamento 2, todos os animais estavam em estresse térmico. Os animais submetidos ao estresse calórico em ambas as situações utilizaram com eficiência o seu sistema termorregulador, sem interferir na produção de leite
Características químicas de um latossolo sob diferentes sistemas de produção no noroeste paulista.
Sistemas de manejo conservacionistas que têm o intuito de evitar o desgaste ou a degradação do solo vêm sendo difundidos na agricultura. Este trabalho teve por objetivo avaliar as características químicas de um Latossolo sob sistema plantio direto, integração lavoura-pecuária e integração lavourapecuária- silvicultura, comparados a uma área de cerrado nativo, em Votuporanga, SP. Conclui-se que os sistemas de produção avaliados apresentaram, na fase inicial de implantação, características químicas desfavoráveis ao desenvolvimento das culturas, com baixos teores de fósforo e acidez elevada, semelhante a área de cerrado nativo, sendo necessário a continuidade dos estudos por um período maior
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