Spongillidi (Porifera, Demospongiae) del Fiume Temo (Sardegna nord-occidentale)

This work concerns a) presence, distribution and life cycle of spongillids from River Temo catchment basin and b) possible morpho-functional and life cycle adaptations in relation to environmental conditions. Samplings were carried out from 1984 to 1993 in seven sites located on the principal water-course and tributaries. Results showed the presence of sponges, in all stations but the river mouth, belonging to Ephydatia fluviatilis. The presence of only this species seems to be related to its great plasticity allowing to adapt populations to a large range of water and climatic regimes. The steady presence of gemmules in all seasons may be seen as a strategy to face springer-autumnal floods and summer drought. These sponges show a high morphological uniformity, such as crusty shape and small size, whereas gemmuloscleres morphometry is very variable

Struttura delle comunità zoobentoniche del Rio Bunnari (Sardegna settentrionale)

Temporal and spatial variation of macrozoobenthic communities along the Rio Bunnari was studied. Three areas were sampled according to E.B.I. index method in autumn and spring. In the high and down stream a notable number of taxa was present, whereas in the medium zone, down of the artificial lake, most stenoecious taxa desappeared. This fact could be related to the high eutrophication level of the lake that represents a local limited environmental disturbance. Down stream of this zone the presence of a rich macrozoobenthic community showed its notable potentialities of homeostasis evidenced also by the biotic index

Macrozoobenthos del Fiume Silis (Sardegna settentrionale)

This research deals with the composition and structure of macrozoobenthic community of River Silis, Northern Sardinia. Samplings, carried out in different periods of the year, allowed to display the seasonal evolution of communities. Results showed a scarce diversification of taxa but a well structured community. The recolonization, after summer drought, was also observed. At the starting of this process the most resistent organisms were present, and increasing the flow, new taxa appeared raising notable values of density. Data, utilized to determine the water quality by means of E.B.I. method, show that class of River Silis varies from II-I in the upperstream to III-II in the downstream. These results point-out a situation of environmental disturbance due to urban wastes and summer drought

Cardiovascular Risk Prediction in Ankylosing Spondylitis: From Traditional Scores to Machine Learning Assessment

Abstract Introduction The performance of seven cardiovascular (CV) risk algorithms is evaluated in a multicentric cohort of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients. Performance and calibration of traditional CV predictors have been compared with the novel paradigm of machine learning (ML). Methods A retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from an AS cohort has been performed. The primary outcome was the first CV event. The discriminatory ability of the algorithms was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC), which is like the concordance-statistic (c-statistic). Three ML techniques were considered to calculate the CV risk: support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and k-nearest neighbor (KNN). Results Of 133 AS patients enrolled, 18 had a CV event. c-statistic scores of 0.71, 0.61, 0.66, 0.68, 0.66, 0.72, and 0.67 were found, respectively, for SCORE, CUORE, FRS, QRISK2, QRISK3, RRS, and ASSIGN. AUC values for the ML algorithms were: 0.70 for SVM, 0.73 for RF, and 0.64 for KNN. Feature analysis showed that C-reactive protein (CRP) has the highest importance, while SBP and hypertension treatment have lower importance. Conclusions All of the evaluated CV risk algorithms exhibit a poor discriminative ability, except for RRS and SCORE, which showed a fair performance. For the first time, we demonstrated that AS patients do not show the traditional ones used by CV scores and that the most important variable is CRP. The present study contributes to a deeper understanding of CV risk in AS, allowing the development of innovative CV risk patient-specific models

Evaluation of Legionella Air Contamination in Healthcare Facilities by Different Sampling Methods: An Italian Multicenter Study

Healthcare facilities (HF) represent an at-risk environment for legionellosis transmission occurring after inhalation of contaminated aerosols. In general, the control of water is preferred to that of air because, to date, there are no standardized sampling protocols. Legionella air contamination was investigated in the bathrooms of 11 HF by active sampling (Surface Air System and Coriolis®μ) and passive sampling using settling plates. During the 8-hour sampling, hot tap water was sampled three times. All air samples were evaluated using culture-based methods, whereas liquid samples collected using the Coriolis®μ were also analyzed by real-time PCR. Legionella presence in the air and water was then compared by sequence-based typing (SBT) methods. Air contamination was found in four HF (36.4%) by at least one of the culturable methods. The culturable investigation by Coriolis®μ did not yield Legionella in any enrolled HF. However, molecular investigation using Coriolis®μ resulted in eight HF testing positive for Legionella in the air. Comparison of Legionella air and water contamination indicated that Legionella water concentration could be predictive of its presence in the air. Furthermore, a molecular study of 12 L. pneumophila strains confirmed a match between the Legionella strains from air and water samples by SBT for three out of four HF that tested positive for Legionella by at least one of the culturable methods. Overall, our study shows that Legionella air detection cannot replace water sampling because the absence of microorganisms from the air does not necessarily represent their absence from water; nevertheless, air sampling may provide useful information for risk assessment. The liquid impingement technique appears to have the greatest capacity for collecting airborne Legionella if combined with molecular investigation

Variants within the immunoregulatory CBLB gene are associated with multiple sclerosis

A genome wide association scan of ~6.6 million genotyped or imputed variants in 882 Sardinian Multiple Sclerosis (MS) cases and 872 controls suggested association of CBLB gene variants with disease, which was confirmed in 1,775 cases and 2,005 controls (overall P =1.60 × 10-10). CBLB encodes a negative regulator of adaptive immune responses and mice lacking the orthologue are prone to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, the animal model of MS

Microbiological study of the waters from the Calich Lagoon in Northwest Sardinia

The aim of the study was to evaluate the microbial quality of waters and sediments of Calich Lagoon (north-western Sardinia). In addition to the data required by current norms, tests to identify bacteria belonging to Vibrionaceae and Aeromonadaceae families were performed. Microbial quality of the Calich Lagoon waters is dependent upon affluent water quality. It is necessary to act the directly on the discharge that impacts on hydrographic basin

Presence of <i>Chlamydia trachomatis</i> in young women in Northern Sardinia

Chlamydia trachomatis infection is the most common sexually transmitted disease among women. The aim of this study was to determine by PCR the incidence of C. trachomatis among young women in Northern Sardinia since no studies are present in this area. The results obtained showed a moderate increase of chlamydial infection since 1997