Artificial Neural Networks for Predicting the Water Retention Curve of Sicilian Agricultural Soils

Modeling soil-water regime and solute transport in the vadose zone is strategic for estimating agricultural productivity and optimizing irrigation water management. Direct measurements of soil hydraulic properties, i.e., the water retention curve and the hydraulic conductivity function, are often expensive and time-consuming, and represent a major obstacle to the application of simulation models. As a result, there is a great interest in developing pedotransfer functions (PTFs) that predict the soil hydraulic properties from more easily measured and/or routinely surveyed soil data, such as particle size distribution, bulk density (ρb), and soil organic carbon content (OC). In this study, application of PTFs was carried out for 359 Sicilian soils by implementing five different artificial neural networks (ANNs) to estimate the parameter of the van Genuchten (vG) model for water retention curves. The raw data used to train the ANNs were soil texture, ρb, OC, and porosity. The ANNs were evaluated in their ability to predict both the vG parameters, on the basis of the normalized root-mean-square errors (NRMSE) and normalized mean absolute errors (NMAE), and the water retention data. The Akaike's information criterion (AIC) test was also used to assess the most efficient network. Results confirmed the high predictive performance of ANNs with four input parameters (clay, sand, and silt fractions, and OC) in simulating soil water retention data, with a prediction accuracy characterized by MAE = 0.026 and RMSE = 0.069. The AIC efficiency criterion indicated that the most efficient ANN model was trained with a relatively low number of input nodes

Tertiary stent-in-stent for obstructing colorectal cancer. A case report and literature review

BACKGROUNDSelf-expandable metal stents (SEMSs) are frequently used in the setting of palliation for occluding, inoperable colorectal cancer (CRC). Among possible complications of SEMS positioning, re-obstruction is the most frequent. Its management is controversial, potentially involving secondary stent-in-stent placement, which has been poorly investigated. Moreover, the issue of secondary stent-in-stent re-obstruction and of more-than-two colonic stenting has never been assessed. We describe a case of tertiary SEMS-in-SEMS placement, and also discuss our practice based on available literature.CASE SUMMARYA 66-year-old male with occluding and metastatic CRC was initially treated by positioning of a SEMS, which had to be revised 6 mo later when a symptomatic intra-stent tumor ingrowth was treated by a SEMS-in-SEMS. We hereby describe an additional episode of intestinal occlusion due to recurrence of intra-stent tumor ingrowth. This patient, despite several negative prognostic factors (splenic flexure location of the tumor, carcinomatosis with ascites, subsequent chemotherapy that included bevacizumab and two previously positioned stents (1 SEMS and 1 SEMS-in-SEMS)) underwent successful management through the placement of a tertiary SEMS-in-SEMS, with immediate clinical benefit and no procedure-related adverse events after 150 d of post-procedural follow-up. This endoscopic management has permitted 27 mo of partial control of a metastatic disease without the need for chemotherapy discontinuation and, ultimately, a good quality of life until death.CONCLUSIONTertiary SEMS-in-SEMS is technically feasible, and appears to be a safe and effective option in the case of recurrent SEMS obstruction

Use of small scale electrical resistivity tomography to identify soil-root interactions during deficit irrigation

Plant roots activity affect the exchanges of mass and energy between the soil and atmosphere. However, it is challenging to monitor the activity of the root-zone because roots are not visible from the soil surface, and root systems undergo spatial and temporal variations in response to internal and external conditions. Therefore, measurements of the activity of root systems are interesting to ecohydrologists in general, and are especially important for specific applications, such as irrigation water management. This study demonstrates the use of small scale three-dimensional (3-D) electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) to monitor the root-zone of orange trees irrigated by two different regimes: (i) full rate, in which 100% of the crop evapotranspiration (ETc) is provided; and (ii) partial root-zone drying (PRD), in which 50% of ETc is supplied to alternate sides of the tree. We performed time-lapse 3-D ERT measurements on these trees from 5 June to 24 September 2015, and compared the long-term and short-term changes before, during, and after irrigation events. Given the small changes in soil temperature and pore water electrical conductivity, we interpreted changes of soil electrical resistivity from 3-D ERT data as proxies for changes in soil water content. The ERT results are consistent with measurements of transpiration flux and soil temperature. The changes in electrical resistivity obtained from ERT measurements in this case study indicate that root water uptake (RWU) processes occur at the 0.1 m scale, and highlight the impact of different irrigation schemes. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Tumor Suppressor Role of Wild-Type P53-Dependent Secretome and Its Proteomic Identification in PDAC

: The study of the cancer secretome is gaining even more importance in cancers such as pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), whose lack of recognizable symptoms and early detection assays make this type of cancer highly lethal. The wild-type p53 protein, frequently mutated in PDAC, prevents tumorigenesis by regulating a plethora of signaling pathways. The importance of the p53 tumor suppressive activity is not only primarily involved within cells to limit tumor cell proliferation but also in the extracellular space. Thus, loss of p53 has a profound impact on the secretome composition of cancer cells and marks the transition to invasiveness. Here, we demonstrate the tumor suppressive role of wild-type p53 on cancer cell secretome, showing the anti-proliferative, apoptotic and chemosensitivity effects of wild-type p53 driven conditioned medium. By using high-resolution SWATH-MS technology, we characterized the secretomes of p53-deficient and p53-expressing PDAC cells. We found a great number of secreted proteins that have known roles in cancer-related processes, 30 of which showed enhanced and 17 reduced secretion in response to p53 silencing. These results are important to advance our understanding on the link between wt-p53 and cancer microenvironment. In conclusion, this approach may detect a secreted signature specifically driven by wild-type p53 in PDAC

Environmental and Agro-Economic Sustainability of Olive Orchards Irrigated with Reclaimed Water under Deficit Irrigation

This study explores the effects of the adoption of reclaimed water (RW) as source of irrigation in conjunction with the application of deficit irrigation strategies in an olive orchard (different genotypes) located within the “Valle dei Margi” farmhouse (Eastern Sicily). Specifically, the RW was obtained in situ by treating the wastewater coming from the farmhouse throughout a treatment wetland system (TW). The effects of RW on crop water status (CWS) was assessed by conducting plant-based measurements (i.e., leaf water potential, Ψ, and leaves relative water content, RWC) and determining satellite-based biophysical indicators. An economical and environmental evaluation of the proposed sustainable irrigation practices was carried out by using the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach.The RW quality showed high variability due to fluctuations in the number of customers at the farmhouse during the Covid-19 pandemic period. However, high removal efficiency of the overall TW was reached even if the RW quality did not always accomplish with the limits of the Italian regulations. A strong impact in the variation of Ψ was observed among the olive orchard under the different water regimes, evidencing how CWS performances are greatly conditioned by the genotype. However, no differences in leaves RWC and in satellite-based biophysical indicators were detected, despite the severe water deficit imposed (i.e., 50% of irrigation water reduction). Finally, the results of the LCA analysis underlined that the use of RW may permit to obtain important gains both in economic and environmental terms, thus representing a valid strategy for the olive cultivation

Comparing the use of ERA5 reanalysis dataset and ground-based agrometeorological data under different climates and topography in Italy

Study region: The study region is represented by seven irrigation districts distributed under different climate and topography conditions in Italy. Study focus: This study explores the reliability and consistency of the global ERA5 single levels and ERA5-Land reanalysis datasets in predicting the main agrometeorological estimates commonly used for crop water requirements calculation. In particular, the reanalysis data was compared, variable-by-variable (e.g., solar radiation, R-s; air temperature, T-air; relative humidity, RH; wind speed, u(10); reference evapotranspiration, ET0), with in situ agrometeorological obser-vations obtained from 66 automatic weather stations (2008-2020). In addition, the presence of a climate-dependency on their accuracy was assessed at the different irrigation districts. New hydrological insights for the region: A general good agreement was obtained between observed and reanalysis agrometeorological variables at both daily and seasonal scales. The best perfor-mance was obtained for T-air, followed by RH, R-s, and u(10) for both reanalysis datasets, especially under temperate climate conditions. These performances were translated into slightly higher accuracy of ET0 estimates by ERA5-Land product, confirming the potential of using reanalysis datasets as an alternative data source for retrieving the ET0 and overcoming the unavailability of observed agrometeorological data

Common variability in oestrogen-related genes and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma risk in women

The incidence of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is different among males and females. This disparity cannot be fully explained by the difference in terms of exposure to known risk factors; therefore, the lower incidence in women could be attributed to sex-specific hormones. A two-phase association study was conducted in 12,387 female subjects (5436 PDAC cases and 6951 controls) to assess the effect on risk of developing PDAC of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 208 genes involved in oestrogen and pregnenolone biosynthesis and oestrogen-mediated signalling. In the discovery phase 14 polymorphisms showed a statistically significant association (P < 0.05). In the replication none of the findings were validated. In addition, a gene-based analysis was performed on the 208 selected genes. Four genes (NR5A2, MED1, NCOA2 and RUNX1) were associated with PDAC risk, but only NR5A2 showed an association (P = 4.08 × 10−5) below the Bonferroni-corrected threshold of statistical significance. In conclusion, despite differences in incidence between males and females, our study did not identify an effect of common polymorphisms in the oestrogen and pregnenolone pathways in relation to PDAC susceptibility. However, we validated the previously reported association between NR5A2 gene variants and PDAC risk

Polygenic and multifactorial scores for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma risk prediction

Most cases of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) are asymptomatic in early stages, and the disease is typically diagnosed in advanced phases, resulting in very high mortality. Tools to identify individuals at high risk of developing PDAC would be useful to improve chances of early detection