Barcoding Eophila crodabepis sp. nov. (Annelida,Oligochaeta, Lumbricidae), a Large Stripy Earthworm from Alpine Foothills of Northeastern Italy Similar to Eophila tellinii (Rosa, 1888)

A new Italian earthworm morphologically close to the similarly large and anecic Eophila tellinii (Rosa, 1888) is described. Distribution of Eophila crodabepis sp. nov. extends over 750 km² from East to West on the Asiago Plateau and Vittorio Veneto Hills, from North to South on mounts Belluno Prealps (Praderadego and Cesen), Asiago, Grappa and onto the Montello foothills. This range abuts that of Eophila tellinii in northern Friuli Venezia Giulia region. Known localities of both E. tellinii and E.crodabepis sp. nov. are mapped. mtDNA barcoding definitively separates the new western species from classical Eophila tellinii (Rosa, 1888).     

Hypothermia during Carotid Endarterectomy: A Safety Study

BackgroundCEA is associated with peri-operative risk of brain ischemia, due both to emboli production caused by manipulation of the plaque and to potentially noxious reduction of cerebral blood flow by carotid clamping. Mild hypothermia (34–35°C) is probably the most effective approach to protect brain from ischemic insult. It is therefore a substantial hypothesis that hypothermia lowers the risk of ischemic brain damage potentially associated with CEA. Purpose of the study is to test whether systemic endovascular cooling to a target of 34.5–35°C, initiated before and maintained during CEA, is feasible and safe.MethodsThe study was carried out in 7 consecutive patients referred to the Vascular Surgery Unit and judged eligible for CEA. Cooling was initiated 60–90 min before CEA, by endovascular approach (Zoll system). The target temperature was maintained during CEA, followed by passive, controlled rewarming (0.4°C/h). The whole procedure was carried out under anesthesia.ResultsAll the patients enrolled had no adverse events. Two patients exhibited a transient bradycardia (heart rate 30 beats/min). There were no significant differences in the clinical status, laboratory and physiological data measured before and after CEA.ConclusionsSystemic cooling to 34.5–35.0°C, initiated before and maintained during carotid clamping, is feasible and safe.

Trial Registration

ClinicalTrials.gov {"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT02629653","term_id":"NCT02629653"}}NCT02629653     

Reference Charts for Fetal Cerebellar Vermis Height: A Prospective Cross-Sectional Study of 10605 Fetuses

Objective

To establish reference charts for fetal cerebellar vermis height in an unselected population.

Methods

A prospective cross-sectional study between September 2009 and December 2014 was carried out at ALTAMEDICA Fetal–Maternal Medical Centre, Rome, Italy. Of 25203 fetal biometric measurements, 12167 (48%) measurements of the cerebellar vermis were available. After excluding 1562 (12.8%) measurements, a total of 10605 (87.2%) fetuses were considered and analyzed once only. Parametric and nonparametric quantile regression models were used for the statistical analysis. In order to evaluate the robustness of the proposed reference charts regarding various distributional assumptions on the ultrasound measurements at hand, we compared the gestational age-specific reference curves we produced through the statistical methods used. Normal mean height based on parametric and nonparametric methods were defined for each week of gestation and the regression equation expressing the height of the cerebellar vermis as a function of gestational age was calculated. Finally the correlation between dimension/gestation was measured.

Results

The mean height of the cerebellar vermis was 12.7mm (SD, 1.6mm; 95% confidence interval, 12.7–12.8mm). The regression equation expressing the height of the CV as a function of the gestational age was: height (mm) = -4.85+0.78 x gestational age. The correlation between dimension/gestation was expressed by the coefficient r = 0.87.

Conclusion

This is the first prospective cross-sectional study on fetal cerebellar vermis biometry with such a large sample size reported in literature. It is a detailed statistical survey and contains new centile-based reference charts for fetal height of cerebellar vermis measurements.     

Regulation of α-Transducin and α-Gustducin Expression by a High Protein Diet in the Pig Gastrointestinal Tract

BackgroundThe expression of taste receptors (TASRs) and their signalling molecules in the gastrointestinal (GI) epithelial cells, including enteroendocrine cells (EECs), suggests they participate in chemosensing mechanisms influencing GI physiology via the release of endocrine messengers. TASRs mediate gustatory signalling by interacting with different transducers, including α-gustducin (G_αgust) and α-transducin (G_αtran) G protein subunits. This study tested whether G_αtran and G_αgust immunoreactive (-IR) cells are affected by a short-term (3 days) and long-term (30 days) high protein (Hp) diet in the pig GI tract.ResultIn the stomach, G_αgust and G_αtran-IR cells contained serotonin (5-HT) and ghrelin (GHR), while in the small and large intestine, G_αgust and G_αtran-IR colocalized with 5-HT-, cholecystokinin (CCK)- and peptide YY (PYY)-IR. There was a significant increase in the density of G_αtran-IR cells in the pyloric mucosa in both short- and long-term Hp diet groups (Hp3 and Hp30) vs. the control group (Ctr) (P<0.05), while the increase of G_αgust-IR cells in the pyloric mucosa was significant in Hp30 group vs. Ctr and vs. Hp3 (P<0.05); these cells included G_αtran / 5HT-IR and G_αtran / GHR-IR cells (P<0.05 and P<0.001 vs. Ctr, respectively) as well as G_αgust /5-HT-IR or G_αgust / GHR-IR cells (P<0.05 and P<0.01 vs. Ctr, respectively). In the small intestine, we recorded a significant increase in G_αtran-IR cells in the duodenal crypts and a significant increase of G_αgust-IR cells in the jejunal crypts in Hp3 group compared to HP30 (P<0.05). With regard to the number of G_αtran-G_αgust IR cells colocalized with CCK or 5-HT, there was only a significant increase of G_αtran / CCK-IR cells in Hp3 group compared to Ctr (P = 0.01).ConclusionThis study showed an upregulation of selected subpopulations of G_αgust / G_αtran-IR cells in distinct regions of the pig GI tract by short- and long-term Hp diet lending support to TASR-mediated effects in metabolic homeostasis and satiety mechanisms.     

Separating water‐potential induced swelling and shrinking from measured radial stem variations reveals a cambial growth and osmotic concentration signal

The quantification of cambial growth over short time periods has been hampered by problems to discern between growth and the swelling and shrinking of a tree stem. This paper presents a model, which separates cambial growth and reversible water‐potential induced diurnal changes from simultaneously measured whole stem and xylem radial variations, from field‐measured Scots pine trees in Finland. The modelled growth, which includes osmotic concentration changes, was compared with (direct) dendrometer measurements and microcore samples. In addition, the relationship of modelled growth and dendrometer measurements to environmental factors was analysed. The results showed that the water‐potential induced changes of tree radius were successfully separated from stem growth. Daily growth predicted by the model exhibited a high correlation with the modelled daily changes of osmotic concentration in phloem, and a temperature dependency in early summer. Late‐summer growth saw higher dependency on water availability and temperature. Evaluation of the model against dendrometer measurements showed that the latter masked a true environmental signal in stem growth due to water‐potential induced changes. The model provides better understanding of radial growth physiology and offers potential to examine growth dynamics and changes due to osmotic concentration, and how the environment affects growth.     

Direct observation and modelling of embolism spread between xylem conduits: a case study in Scots pine

Xylem embolism is one of the main processes involved in drought‐related plant mortality. Although its consequences for plant physiology are already well described, embolism formation and spread are poorly evaluated and modelled, especially for tracheid‐based species. The aim of this study was to assess the embolism formation and spread in Pinus sylvestris as a case study using X‐ray microtomography and hydraulics methods. We also evaluated the potential effects of cavitation fatigue on vulnerability to embolism and the micro‐morphology of the bordered pits using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to test for possible links between xylem anatomy and embolism spread. Finally, a novel model was developed to simulate the spread of embolism in a 2D anisotropic cellular structure. Results showed a large variability in the formation and spread of embolism within a ring despite no differences being observed in intertracheid pit membrane anatomical traits. Simulations from the model showed a highly anisotropic tracheid‐to‐tracheid embolism spreading pattern, which confirms the major role of tracheid‐to‐tracheid air seeding to explain how embolism spreads in Scots pine. The results also showed that prior embolism removal from the samples reduced the resistance to embolism of the xylem and could result in overestimates of vulnerability to embolism.     

Approximate parameter inference in systems biology using gradient matching: a comparative evaluation

Background

A challenging problem in current systems biology is that of parameter inference in biological pathways expressed as coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Conventional methods that repeatedly numerically solve the ODEs have large associated computational costs. Aimed at reducing this cost, new concepts using gradient matching have been proposed, which bypass the need for numerical integration. This paper presents a recently established adaptive gradient matching approach, using Gaussian processes (GPs), combined with a parallel tempering scheme, and conducts a comparative evaluation with current state-of-the-art methods used for parameter inference in ODEs. Among these contemporary methods is a technique based on reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHS). This has previously shown promising results for parameter estimation, but under lax experimental settings. We look at a range of scenarios to test the robustness of this method. We also change the approach of inferring the penalty parameter from AIC to cross validation to improve the stability of the method.

Methods

Methodology for the recently proposed adaptive gradient matching method using GPs, upon which we build our new method, is provided. Details of a competing method using RKHS are also described here.

Results

We conduct a comparative analysis for the methods described in this paper, using two benchmark ODE systems. The analyses are repeated under different experimental settings, to observe the sensitivity of the techniques.

Conclusions

Our study reveals that for known noise variance, our proposed method based on GPs and parallel tempering achieves overall the best performance. When the noise variance is unknown, the RKHS method proves to be more robust.