Integrated chemical status of the Italian marine waters sensu Descriptor 8 of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive

The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) required Member States to define the concept of Good Environmental Status (GES) of their marine waters in quantitative terms and to achieve it through the assessment of 11 descriptors by 2020. ISPRA (Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research), on behalf of the Ministry of the Environment, carried out the Initial Assessment (2012) and the evaluation of the first cycle of the MSFD (2012–2018) to understand the achievement of GES Descriptor 8 (“Contaminant concentrations are at levels that do not give rise to pollution effects”) and, now, in this second cycle of the MSFD (2018–2024), is conducting monitoring of D8C1 criterion elements (“Contaminant concentrations”). In this paper, the approach, integrating data on chemical contaminants (metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and organochlorine compounds) in different matrices (water, sediment and biota), adopted by Italy since 2012 to study GES for the MSFD-D8C1 criterion in national marine water is described. This approach, based on the use of a dimensionless, zero-centered index, allows one to assess all regulatory contaminants as a whole. The improvements in the monitoring strategy and the GES evaluation between the Initial Assessment, the first cycle, and the beginning of the second cycle of the MSFD for the Adriatic Sea subregion are presented

Who cares when Value (Mis)reporting May Be Found Out? An Acquiring-a-Company Experiment with Value Messages and Information Leaks

We modify the Acquiring-a-Company game to study how information leaks affect lying and market outcomes in an ultimatum bargaining setting with asymmetric information. Privately informed sellers send messages about the alleged value of their company to potential buyers. Via random leaks buyers, however, can learn the true value before proposing a price which the seller finally accepts or not. Only 14.5% of the messages are truthful, whereas two-thirds of all sellers exaggerate the company’s value to persuade buyers to offer more, especially when the true value is small. Although a higher leak probability does not reduce the frequency of misreporting, it weakens overreporting and strengthens underreporting. Buyers who found out value misreporting anchor their price proposals on the true value but do not explicitly discriminate against liars. Sellers are mainly opportunistic and make their acceptances dependent on the resulting positive payoff. Even if ethical concerns do not seem to matter much, probabilistic leaks are welfare enhancing

IGHV mutational status of nodal marginal zone lymphoma by NGS reveals distinct pathogenic pathways with different prognostic implications

The precise B cell of origin and molecular pathogenesis of nodal marginal zone lymphoma (NMZL) remain poorly defined. To date, due to the rarity of NMZL, the vast majority of already-published studies have been conducted on a limited number of samples and the technical approach to analyze the immunoglobulin genes was of amplifying rearranged variable region genes with the classical direct sequencing of the PCR products followed by cloning. Here, we studied the B cell Ig heavy-chain repertoires by next-generation sequencing (NGS) in 30 NMZL cases. Most of the cases were mutated (20/28; 71.5%) with homologies to the respective germ line genes ranging from 85 to 97, 83%, whereas 8/28 (28.5%) were unmutated. In addition, our results show that NMZL cases have a biased usage of specific immunoglobulin heavy-chain variable (IGHV) region genes. Moreover, we documented intraclonal diversity in all (100%) of the mutated cases and ongoing somatic hypermutations (SHM) have been confirmed by hundreds of reads. We analyzed the mutational pattern to detect and quantify antigen selection pressure and we found a positive selection in 4 cases, whereas in the remaining cases there was an unspecific stimulation. Finally, the disease-specific survival and the progression-free survival were significantly different between cases with mutated and unmutated IGHV genes, pointing out mutational status as a possible new biomarker in NMZL

The Simplest Explanation is Usually the Correct One (A Medical Case in Which the "Ockham's Razor" was Fulfilled)

A 77-year-old female patient was admitted at the Internal Medicine Unit for symptoms of fever lasting for about a week despite of an antibiotic treatment with levofloxacin (maximum body temperature of about 38 °C

The role of echocardiography in SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: a compromise among appropriateness, safety and clinical impact

SARS-CoV-2 infection, responsible for COVID-19, can determine cardiac events, which require a quick diagnosis and management, and should not be overlooked due to the presence of COVID-19 infection. In some cases, cardiovascular symptoms can also be the first and only manifestation of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In patients with COVID-19, the full cardiovascular disease diagnostic algorithm can be hindered by logistic restrain mainly derived from the difficulty of transporting patients in critical conditions to Radiology or Hemodynamics wards. The echocardiography in SARS-CoV-2 pandemic can help for differential diagnosis of cardiac events, which can be related or unrelated by the infection and can likely impact on short-term prognosis. Indeed, transthoracic echocardiography plays a key role in the screen for CV complications of COVID-19 infection: it must be focused cardiac ultrasound study (FoCUS) performed at bedside. All transthoracic, transesophageal and stress echocardiograms in patients in which test results are unlikely to change the management strategy should be postponed

Exploring mobile network data for tourism statistics: the collaboration between Istat and Vodafone Business Italia

The paper describes the collaboration between Istat and Vodafone Business Italia to innovate and enhance tourism statistics. The common goal is to evaluate the potential uses of mobile phone data in current surveys and to investigate new outputs for official statistics, such as visiting routes and means of transport. The analysis concerned inbound tourism (foreigners in Italy), domestic tourism (Italians in Italy), and outbound tourism (Italians abroad). The work presents analyses and results for the Province of Rimini and the Municipality of Roma, referred to August 2019/2020 and April 2020, and a trial of the use of the “Welcome SMS” for the estimate of the residents in Italy who travel to foreign countries. Phone data required specific treatments to meet the definitions of official statistics. Some aspects related to the location and definition of overnight stays will require further investigation

Exploring mobile network data for tourism statistics: the collaboration between Istat and Vodafone Business Italia

The paper describes the collaboration between Istat and Vodafone Business Italia to innovate and enhance tourism statistics. The common goal is to evaluate the potential uses of mobile phone data in current surveys and to investigate new outputs for official statistics, such as visiting routes and means of transport. The analysis concerned inbound tourism (foreigners in Italy), domestic tourism (Italians in Italy), and outbound tourism (Italians abroad). The work presents analyses and results for the Province of Rimini and the Municipality of Roma, referred to August 2019/2020 and April 2020, and a trial of the use of the “Welcome SMS” for the estimate of the residents in Italy who travel to foreign countries. Phone data required specific treatments to meet the definitions of official statistics. Some aspects related to the location and definition of overnight stays will require further investigation

One hour-post-load plasma glucose ≥155 mg/dl in healthy glucose normotolerant subjects is associated with subcortical brain MRI alterations and impaired cognition. A pilot study

Background: Glucose alterations are associated with impaired cognition. The 1-h-post-load plasma glucose ≥155mg/dl in non-diabetic subjects confers an increased risk of cardiovascular events and diabetes. This pilot study aimed to investigate whether the 1-h-post-load plasma glucose ≥155 mg/dl negatively affects the subcortical regions of the brain and the cognitive functions. Methods: We enrolled 32 non-diabetic subjects. Patients were divided into two groups based on 1-h- post-load plasma glucose value > or < 155 mg/dl: normal glucose tolerance (NGT) 1-h-high and NGT 1-h-low subjects. All subjects underwent 3 Tesla MRI and standard neuropsychological tests. Results: NGT 1-h-high subjects showed significantly lower values of both right (4.9 ± 0.9 vs. 5.1 ± 0.9ml) and left (4.8 ± 1.1 vs. 5.1 ± 1.1ml) hippocampal hemisphere volume, while right hemisphere hippocampal diffusivity was lower in the NGT 1-h-high group (10.0 ± 0.6 vs. 10.6 ± 0.5 10−4 mm2s−1). NGT 1-h-high subjects also showed a poorer memory performance. In particular, for both Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Task (RAVLT)—immediate-recall and Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT)—delayed total recall, we found lower cognitive test scores in the NGT-1 h-high group (26.5 ± 6.3 and 10.4 ± 0.3, respectively). Conclusions: One-hour-post-load hyperglycemia is associated with morpho-functional subcortical brain alterations and poor memory performance tests

RETRACE-3D PROJECT, a multidisciplinary approach for the construction of a 3D crustal model: first results and seismotectonic implications

The RETRACE-3D (centRal italy EarThquakes integRAted Crustal modEl) Project has been launched with the ambitious goal to build, as first result, a new, robust, 3D geological model of broad consensus of the area struck by the 2016-2018 Central Italy seismic sequencePublishedBologna3T. Sorgente sismica4T. Sismicità dell'Itali

Correctors of mutant CFTR enhance subcortical cAMP-PKA signaling through modulating ezrin phosphorylation and cytoskeleton organization

The most common mutation of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) gene, F508del, produces a misfolded protein resulting in its defective trafficking to the cell surface and an impaired chloride secretion. Pharmacological treatments partially rescue F508del CFTR activity either directly by interacting with the mutant protein and/or indirectly by altering the cellular protein homeostasis. Here, we show that the phosphorylation of ezrin together with its binding to phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) tethers the F508del CFTR to the actin cytoskeleton, stabilizing it on the apical membrane and rescuing the sub-membrane compartmentalization of cAMP and activated PKA. Both the small molecules trimethylangelicin (TMA) and VX-809, which act as 'correctors' for F508del CFTR by rescuing F508del-CFTR-dependent chloride secretion, also restore the apical expression of phosphorylated ezrin and actin organization and increase cAMP and activated PKA submembrane compartmentalization in both primary and secondary cystic fibrosis airway cells. Latrunculin B treatment or expression of the inactive ezrin mutant T567A reverse the TMA and VX-809-induced effects highlighting the role of corrector-dependent ezrin activation and actin re-organization in creating the conditions to generate a sub-cortical cAMP pool of adequate amplitude to activate the F508del-CFTR-dependent chloride secretion