Does time-to-degree matter? The effect of delayed graduation on employment and wages

We use a sample of Italian graduates drawn from the Consorzio AlmaLaurea to study whether the time taken to attain a degree matters for employment and earnings after one, three and five years from graduation. The relevance of this topic arises from the observation that Italian tertiary education sy stem is characterized by an average time to undergraduate degree that is longer than the prescribed period. In addition, this issue is important also because delay in college completion entails a waste of resources both at individual and at collective level, and deprives the economics system of new and up-to-date competencies, as graduates enter the labour market with partially obsolete skills. Our estimates highlight that the probability of finding a job is negatively related to the time taken to graduate only if such delay is greater than three years. Graduates with previous work experiences, then, take on average two months less to be employed and receive higher wages. We also find evidence that students who obtain a degree beyond the minimum period suffer a wage penalty not while entering the labour market, but in the subsequent years (especially 5 years after graduation). This finding suggests that time-to-degree along with work experiences are good proxies for employers to discriminate between the ability of graduates

Variability in disease phenotypes within a single PRNP genotype suggests the existence of multiple natural sheep scarpie strains within Europe

Variability of pathological phenotypes within classical sheep scrapie cases has been reported for some time, but in many instances it has been attributed to differences in the PRNP genotype of the host. To address this issue we have examined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Western blotting (WB) for the disease-associated form of the prion protein (PrPd), the brains of 23 sheep from five European countries, all of which were of the same ARQ/ARQ genotype. As a result of IHC examinations, sheep were distributed into five groups with different phenotypes and the groups were the same regardless of the scoring method used, ‘long’ or ‘short’ PrPd profiling. The groups made did not respond to the geographical origin of the cases and did not correlate with the vacuolar lesion profiles, which showed a high individual variability. Discriminatory IHC and WB methods coincided to detect a ‘CH1641-like’ case but otherwise correlated poorly in the classification of disease phenotypes. No other polymorphisms of the PRNP gene were found that could account for the pathological differences, except perhaps for a sheep from Spain with a mutation at codon 103 and a unique pathological phenotype. Preliminary evidence indicates that those different IHC phenotypes correlate with distinct biological properties on bioassay, suggesting that they are indicative of strain diversity. We therefore conclude that natural scrapie strains exist and that they can be revealed by detailed pathological examinations, which can be harmonized between laboratories to produce comparable results

Bovine PrP expression levels in transgenic mice influence transmission characteristics of atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy

Until recently, transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) disease in cattle was thought to be caused by a single agent strain, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) (classical BSE or BSE-C). However, due to the initiation of a large-scale surveillance programme throughout Europe, two atypical BSE strains, bovine amyloidotic spongiform encephalopathy (BASE, also named BSE-L) and BSE-H have since been discovered. These atypical BSE isolates have been previously transmitted to a range of transgenic mouse models overexpressing PrP from different species at different levels, on a variety of genetic backgrounds. To control for genetic background and expression level in the analysis of these isolates, we performed here a comprehensive comparison of the neuropathological and molecular properties of all three BSE agents (BASE, BSE-C and BSE-H) upon transmission into the same gene-targeted transgenic mouse line expressing the bovine prion protein (Bov6) and a wild-type control of the same genetic background. Significantly, upon challenge with these BSE agents, we found that BASE did not produce shorter survival times in these mice compared with BSE-C, contrary to previous studies using overexpressing bovine transgenic mice. Amyloid plaques were only present in mice challenged with atypical BSE and neuropathological features, including intensity of PrP deposition in the brain and severity of vacuolar degeneration were less pronounced in BASE compared with BSE-C-challenged mice

Dolphin Morbillivirus in a Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), Italy

Dolphin Morbillivirus (DMV) has caused several mortality events in Mediterranean striped (Stenella coeruleoalba) and bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus) dolphins populations since nineties; in the last 5 years, the virus was reported to infect new hosts in this basin, such as fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) and even a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina). Very recently, a calf Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) calf stranded on the Southern Italian coastline with mild pathological findings suggestive of morbilliviral infection, received the first confirmation of DMV infection in this species by biomolecular evidences on lung tissue. This new cross species infection report, along with 19% of the cetaceans specimens examined by the Italian Stranding Network being found positive to DMV, support the hypothesis of an endemic circulation of this virus among Mediterranean cetaceans

Genetic and epigenetic characterization of a discordant kmt2a/aff1-rearranged infant monozygotic twin pair

The KMT2A/AFF1 rearrangement is associated with an unfavorable prognosis in infant acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). Discordant ALL in monozygotic twins is uncommon and represents an attractive resource to evaluate intrauterine environment–genetic interplay in ALL. Mutational and epigenetic profiles were characterized for a discordant KMT2A/AFF1-rearranged infant monozygotic twin pair and their parents, and they were compared to three independent KMT2A/AFF1-positive ALL infants, in which the DNA methylation and gene expression profiles were investigated. A de novo Q61H NRAS mutation was detected in the affected twin at diagnosis and backtracked in both twins at birth. The KMT2A/AFF1 rearrangement was absent at birth in both twins. Genetic analyses conducted at birth gave more insights into the timing of the mutation hit. We identified correlations between DNA methylation and gene expression changes for 32 genes in the three independent affected versus remitted patients. The strongest correlations were observed for the RAB32, PDK4, CXCL3, RANBP17, and MACROD2 genes. This epigenetic signature could be a putative target for the development of novel epigenetic-based therapies and could help in explaining the molecular mechanisms characterizing ALL infants with KMT2A/AFF1 fusions

Dna methylation of fkbp5 as predictor of overall survival in malignant pleural mesothelioma

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive tumor with median survival of 12 months and limited effective treatments. The scope of this study was to study the relationship between blood DNA methylation (DNAm) and overall survival (OS) aiming at a noninvasive prognostic test. We investigated a cohort of 159 incident asbestos exposed MPM cases enrolled in an Italian area with high incidence of mesothelioma. Considering 12 months as a cut-off for OS, epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) revealed statistically significant (p value = 7.7 7 10 129 ) OS-related differential methylation of a single-CpG (cg03546163), located in the 5\u2032 UTR region of the FKBP5 gene. This is an independent marker of prognosis in MPM patients with a better performance than traditional inflammation-based scores such as lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR). Cases with DNAm < 0.45 at the cg03546163 had significantly poor survival compared with those showing DNAm 65 0.45 (mean: 243 versus 534 days; p value< 0.001). Epigenetic changes at the FKBP5 gene were robustly associated with OS in MPM cases. Our results showed that blood DNA methylation levels could be promising and dynamic prognostic biomarkers in MPM