EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens (NDA), Dominique Turck, Torsten Bohn
et al.
Abstract Following an application from Givaudan, submitted for authorisation of a health claim pursuant to Article 13(5) of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 via the Competent Authority of Italy, the EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens (NDA) was asked to deliver an opinion on the scientific substantiation of a health claim related to Pacran® and defence against bacterial pathogens in the lower urinary tract. The Panel considers that the food Pacran®, a powder obtained from cranberries, is sufficiently characterised. Defence against bacterial pathogens in the lower urinary tract is a beneficial physiological effect. The applicant identified two human intervention studies which investigated the effect of Pacran® on the incidence of urinary tract infections (UTI) as being pertinent to the claim. In weighing the evidence, the Panel took into account that one human intervention study showed a beneficial effect of Pacran® consumed daily at doses of 500 mg for 6 months on the incidence of symptomatic, culture‐confirmed UTI in women with a history of recurrent UTI, whereas such an effect was not consistently observed in another study under similar conditions. The Panel also took into account that limited evidence has been provided for a mechanism by which Pacran® could exert the claimed effect. The Panel concludes that the evidence provided is insufficient to establish a cause and effect relationship between the consumption of Pacran® and the defence against bacterial pathogens in the lower urinary tract.
Nutrition. Foods and food supply, Chemical technology
The importance of temperature for the biology and ecology of reptiles is well known. In temperate regions where temperatures fluctuate on a daily and seasonal basis, reptiles must respond appropriately to maintain body temperatures that enable activity. In this study, we describe temporal changes in the thermal environment from January to December in Montenegro and the impact on two species of reptile, Hermann’s tortoise, <i>Testudo hermanni</i>, and the large, legless lizard <i>Pseudopus apodus</i>. These reptiles differ in morphology and diet and have a long phylogenetic separation but experience the same thermal environment. To give insight into any impact of these factors on their thermal ecology we calculated monthly thermoregulatory efficiency indexes derived from field body temperatures, set point temperatures—defined as the preferred body temperatures, and temperatures of null models. The results indicated that both species exhibited high thermoregulatory efficiency, with <i>T. hermanni</i> showing the highest levels across the active year and also maintaining higher body temperatures than <i>P. apodus</i> potentially reflecting the dietary and lifestyle differences. During the hottest months, body temperatures of <i>T. hermanni</i> frequently exceeded the set point range but were not exceeded by <i>P. apodus</i> at any time. Microhabitat patches of closely situated sunlight and shaded areas were the most frequently selected patches in both species, with <i>T. hermanni</i> spending greater amounts of time in shaded patches compared to <i>P. apodus</i>. The efficiency indexes, together with data on microhabitat selection, indicated both species moved non-randomly through the environment, selecting appropriate habitat patches and maintaining body temperatures close to the set point range whilst avoiding the dangerously high body temperatures that occur during the hotter months. During the winter months from November to February, the second and third quartiles of the model temperatures fell below the set point range temperatures of both species. This corresponded with their dormant period. In general, the results emphasise the importance of habitat diversity and integrity in reptile ecology and for their conservation.
The project of Villa Eugenia by Michele Giuliani concerned in a ‘city’ or rather in a newly founded rural village destined to rise around the Tagliamento column. Its discovery contributes to reconstructing the complex history of the celebrative monuments dedicated to the Napoleonic victories in the Kingdom of Italy. Villa Eugenia is an unusual urban settlement linked with a broader infrastructure project and represents a commendatory act that becomes an opportunity to develop the agricultural vocation of the territory and to start a reflection on the theme of rural housing.
A search for the decay of the Higgs boson to a Z boson and a light, pseudoscalar particle, a, decaying respectively to two leptons and to two photons is reported. The search uses the full LHC Run 2 proton–proton collision data at s=13 TeV, corresponding to 139 fb−1 collected by the ATLAS detector. This is one of the first searches for this specific decay mode of the Higgs boson, and it probes unexplored parameter space in models with axion-like particles (ALPs) and extended scalar sectors. The mass of the a particle is assumed to be in the range 0.1–33 GeV. The data are analysed in two categories: a merged category where the photons from the a decay are reconstructed in the ATLAS calorimeter as a single cluster, and a resolved category in which two separate photons are detected. The main background processes are from Standard Model Z boson production in association with photons or jets. The data are in agreement with the background predictions, and upper limits on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson decay to Za times the branching ratio a→γγ are derived at the 95% confidence level and they range from 0.08% to 2% depending on the mass of the a particle. The results are also interpreted in the context of ALP models.
Charalabos Ioannidis, Styliani Verykokou, Sofia Soile
et al.
Cultural heritage (CH) sites are frequently exposed to natural elements, and their exposure becomes particularly precarious with the onset of climate change. This increased vulnerability places these sites at risk of deterioration or complete destruction. Risks such as land deformation, floods, acid rain, and erosion significantly threaten historic monuments, while water-related hazards, significantly influenced by both climate change and human activities, present a particularly grave risk to these invaluable sites. Considerable research efforts have focused on safeguarding CH sites. However, there remains a deficiency in systemic approaches towards identifying and mitigating risks for CH sites. The TRIQUETRA project proposes a technological toolbox and a methodological framework for tackling climate change risks and natural hazards threatening CH in the most efficient way possible. It aims at creating an evidence-based assessment platform allowing precise risk stratification as well as a database of available mitigation measures and strategies, acting as a Decision Support System (DSS) towards efficient risk mitigation and site remediation. TRIQUETRA is a European project that brings together a diverse group of researchers with varied expertise, encompassing university research groups, research institutes, public entities, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises. In this article, TRIQUETRAs overall methodology is presented, and preliminary results concerning risk identification, TRIQUETRAs knowledge base, as well as novel sensors and coatings, are discussed.
Chiara Guarnieri, Luca Bertola, Luca Ferrari
et al.
An 8-month-old intact male domestic shorthair cat was referred to the Emergency Service of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) of the Department of Veterinary Science of the University of Parma (Italy) from the Parma municipal multi-cat shelter, during the winter season (January 2023), for lethargy, anorexia, hypothermia, and hypoglycemia. At the VTH, upon cardiologic examination, an increase in heart rate, under normal blood pressure conditions, was detected. Signalment, clinical history, basal metabolic panel (BMP), ultrasound investigations, and cytological findings were all consistent with a diagnosis of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP). FIP was confirmed in the effusive abdominal fluid by a molecular genetic test (real-time PCR for feline coronavirus RNA). The molecular genetic investigation also detected an FCoV <i>S</i> gene single-nucleotide mutation: biotype M1058L. At necropsy, an effusive collection was recorded in the abdomen, thoracic cavity, and pericardium sac. White parenchymal nodules, of about 1 mm diameter, were found on the surface and deep in the lungs, liver, kidneys, and heart. Histopathology revealed the typical FIP pyogranulomatous vasculitis and IHC confirmed the presence of the FIP virus (FIPV) antigen. The most relevant histopathological finding was the myocarditis/myocardial necrosis associated with the presence of the <i>S</i> gene-mutated FCoV (M1058L biotype). This is the first case of myocarditis in a cat positive for the FCoV/FIP M1058L biotype. Further studies are necessary to support the mutated FCoV M1058L biotype, as an uncommon, but possible, causative pathogen of myocarditis in FCoV/FIP-positive cats. Studies including several FCoV/FIP M1058L-positive cases could allow us to make a correlation with heart gross pathology, histopathology, and immunolocalization of the FCoV/FIP M1058L biotype in the myocardium. The investigation will potentially allow us to determine the effective tropism of the FCoV/FIP M1058L biotype for myocardiocytes or whether myocardiocyte lesions are evident in the presence of concomitant causes related to the patient, its poor condition, or external environmental distress such as cold season, and whether the aforementioned concomitant events are correlated.
The present book review explores the limits of "Écriture féminine" through the prism of language and memory, with a focus on its dimensions in Italy, which are little known in our country. Historical, economic, political, social and cultural specificities are also taken into account. The importance and relevance of the topic is determined by the lack of a comprehensive study that explores Italian women’s writing, covering the period from the Unification of Italy (1861) to the end of the 20th century and outlining possible horizons for future observations and analyzes in this area. The monograph offers an analysis thanks to the theory of use, according to the views of the philosopher Giorgio Agamben, and the theory of presence, presented by the anthropologist Ernesto de Martino. This gives reason to perceive it as interdisciplinary - on the borders between literature and philosophy, literature and sociology, literature and anthropology, literature and pedagogy. The book points out the similarities between theory and research pedagogy to question literary history and theory as a prime means to conceive new pedagogical practices.
Arnaud Carrier, Cécile Desjobert, Loic Ponger
et al.
Aberrant DNA methylation is a well-known feature of tumours and has been associated with metastatic melanoma. However, since melanoma cells are highly heterogeneous, it has been challenging to use affected genes to predict tumour aggressiveness, metastatic evolution, and patients’ outcomes. We hypothesized that common aggressive hypermethylation signatures should emerge early in tumorigenesis and should be shared in aggressive cells, independent of the physiological context under which this trait arises. We compared paired melanoma cell lines with the following properties: (i) each pair comprises one aggressive counterpart and its parental cell line and (ii) the aggressive cell lines were each obtained from different host and their environment (human, rat, and mouse), though starting from the same parent cell line. Next, we developed a multi-step genomic pipeline that combines the DNA methylome profile with a chromosome cluster-oriented analysis. A total of 229 differentially hypermethylated genes was commonly found in the aggressive cell lines. Genome localization analysis revealed hypermethylation peaks and clusters, identifying eight hypermethylated gene promoters for validation in tissues from melanoma patients. Five Cytosine-phosphate-Guanine (CpGs) identified in primary melanoma tissues were transformed into a DNA methylation score that can predict survival (log-rank test, p=0.0008). This strategy is potentially universally applicable to other diseases involving DNA methylation alterations.
Gaia Pignocchi, Marcello Cabibbo, Mauro Fiorentini
et al.
A recent revision of the stratigraphic sequence and the finds from the excavations by Anton Mario Radmilli in 1952 and 1954 in the Grotta dei Baffoni Cave near Genga, included also a particular object consisting of a ceramic block with a sub-trapezoidal concave gouge readily identified by Radmilli as a clay mould used for metal melting, which, in fact, contained metallic droplets attached to its surface. It represents an unicum for both its typology and the results of our preliminary archeometric analyses, which sheds some light on the early copper metallurgy in Italy. The terracotta mould was found during the excavation campaign of 1954, in which Radmilli enlarged Trench B already excavated in 1952, in a not-better specified lower anthropic level, from 2.30 to 2.80 m depth (cultural level E), which, according to Radmilli’s stratigraphy, includes horizontal cuts n. XV, XVI, and XVII. Osteological finds from this level were recently radiocarbon-AMS dated to 3,640-3,430 yr cal BCE. Here we present the results we obtained from the analysis of replicas of the clay mould, which allowed us to identify the function of it as a cast for manufacturing small metal ingots. Geochemical SEM-EDS analyses on one metallic droplet detached from the surface of the mould, yielded a maximum composition of 92 wt.% copper (Cu), and 8-12 wt.% zinc (Zn), along with traces of silver (Ag). Thus, the metal appears to be a compound of copper and zinc but not an intentional alloy of the two metals, which can be obtained by smelting sulfide minerals (i.e., Fahlerz) such as tetraedrite-(Zn) or tennantite-(Zn). We interpret this Cu-Zn compound as the result of the work by a metallurgist who utilized the Grotta dei Baffoni Cave as his workshop during a period between the latest Cupper Age (Eneolithic), and the earliest Bronze Age. The interpretation of the results from our metallurgic analyses in the light of what it is known about the early copper metallurgy in Italy, are consistent with this chronological assessment. The experimentation also concerned the bronze dagger to verify a possible relationship with the clay mould, although coming from very different depth.
Tommaso Piacentini, Maria Carla Somma, Sonia Antonelli
et al.
The outstanding cultural heritage of Italy is intimately related to the landscape and its long-lasting history. Besides major cities, famous localities, and park areas, several minor places and areas hide important features that allow the enhancing of inner-mountain and hilly areas as well as local natural reserves. This enhancement is supported by combining different types of cultural tourism, such as the archeological and geological ones. In this paper, an integrated geological−archeological itinerary is presented, which aims to valorize both these aspects in the inner-mountain areas of the central Apennines. The itinerary, called the “Fan of the Terre Peligne”, is focused on the Terre Peligne area located in the Sulmona basin, in the central-eastern part of the Apennines chain (Abruzzo region, central Italy). It is composed of five sectors (one for each of the municipalities included) and incorporates traditional physical tools and digital ones. Here, the evidence of the Apennines formation is preserved from the origin of marine carbonate rocks to their deformation and the landscape shaping. The Terre Peligne intermontane basin became—and still is—one of the main transit areas for crossing the Italian peninsula since before Roman times and here many stages of Italian history are preserved. This allows outlining of the presence of man since prehistoric times, and here the name “Italia” was defined for the first time, in Corfinio, and to testify the connection between human and landscape history. A SWOT (strengths−weaknesses−opportunities−threats) analysis highlighted the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Combining geological and archeological elements, which are intimately connected in this area, this itinerary intends to be an instrument for the enhancement and awareness of the natural and cultural heritage of a poorly known area that features outstanding geological, landscape, and human elements of the history of the inner Apennines.
The article focuses on historical aspects and the presentation of selected persons, who have had a key impact on reaching the principle of double-entry from Italy to Poland. It presents the history of the prevalence of the double-entry rule and thus Benedetto Cotrugli’s contribution to science and education in accounting. Cotrugli’s work was a compendium of merchant knowledge necessary to keep accounting books and the same time a basis for science and education in this field. It was Benedetto Cotrugli who made the first theoretical description of the rules of double accounting, exceeding by over 20 years the work of Luca Pacioli, who codified the principles of bookkeeping in his work Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita, published in Venice in 1491. Due to the fact that the article also attempts to present the meaning of Cotrugli’s book (Book on the Art of Trade), already written in 1458, for the history of accountancy in Poland, it also refers to Ambrogio Lerici, as the first Italian who dealt with dissemination of the double-entry rules in Gdańsk.
In this special issue you will find a discussion on southern modernisms stemming from an exploratory research project funded by the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) between 2014 and 2015. As a project, southern modernisms had a theoretical and historiographical focus driven to discuss the resonances of the two words associated in its title, as well as the disquieting effect of their combination in the fields of visual arts and architecture. The first word – modernisms – stood against the standardized canon of modernism, thus bonding the research to the critical revision of that concept occurring in art history since the closing decades of the 20th century; the second word based the project in southern Europe, meaning that Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece would set the ground for selecting case studies.
Recensione di: Sonia Salsi, Storia dell’immigrazione italiana in Belgio. Il caso del Limburgo, Bologna, Pendragon, 2013, 174 p., ISBN: 9788865983240, € 14.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities, History of Italy
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most important pathogen in the etiology of respiratory infections in early life. 50% of children are affected by RSV within the first year of age, and almost all children become infected within two years. Numerous retrospective and prospective studies linking RSV and chronic respiratory morbidity show that RSV bronchiolitis in infancy is followed by recurrent wheezing after the acute episod. According to some authors a greater risk of wheezing in children with a history of RSV bronchiolitis would be limited to childhood, while according to others this risk would be extended into adolescence and adulthood. To explain the relationship between RSV infection and the development of bronchial asthma or the clinical pathogenetic patterns related to a state of bronchial hyperreactivity, it has been suggested that RSV may cause alterations in the response of the immune system (immunogenic hypothesis), activating directly mast cells and basophils and changing the pattern of differentiation of immune cells present in the bronchial tree as receptors and inflammatory cytokines. It was also suggested that RSV infection can cause bronchial hyperreactivity altering nervous airway modulation, acting on nerve fibers present in the airways (neurogenic hypothesis).
The benefits of passive immunoprophylaxis with palivizumab, which seems to represent an effective approach in reducing the sequelae of RSV infection in the short- and long-term period, strengthen the implementation of prevention programs with this drug, as recommended by the national guidelines of the Italian Society of Neonatology.
Proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Neonatology and Satellite Meetings · Cagliari (Italy) · October 26th-31st, 2015 · From the womb to the adult
Guest Editors: Vassilios Fanos (Cagliari, Italy), Michele Mussap (Genoa, Italy), Antonio Del Vecchio (Bari, Italy), Bo Sun (Shanghai, China), Dorret I. Boomsma (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), Gavino Faa (Cagliari, Italy), Antonio Giordano (Philadelphia, USA)