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Cystic Echinococcosis (CE) caused by Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato (s.l.) is one of the most important parasitic zoonotic diseases in the world and it represents an important public health and socio-economic concern. In the Mediterranean basin, CE is widespread and it is endemic in Italy, with major prevalence in southern areas. Several studies have investigated CE in domestic pigs, however, such data in wild boars are scant. In the last decades the wild boar population in Italy has increased and this ungulate could play an important role in the spreading of CE in the wild. Here we report on the prevalence and fertility rate of hydatid cysts in wild boars that were shot during two hunting seasons (2016–2017) in the Campania region of southern Italy. For each animal, a detailed inspection of the carcass and organs (lungs, liver and spleen) was performed and when cysts were found, their number, morphology and fertility were determined by visual and microscopic examination. Cysts were classified morphologically as fertile, sterile, caseous and calcified. Protoscoleces and germinal layers were collected from individual cysts and DNA was extracted to identify different strains/genotypes of E. granulosus s.l. Out of a total of 2108 wild boars 93 (4.4%) were found positive for CE. Infected animals were 45 males and 48 females, aged between 1 and 8 years. The average number of cysts per wild boar was 1.3 (min 1 - max 13). The total number of cysts collected was 123, of which 118 (95.9%) in the liver, 4 (3.3%) in the lungs and 1 (0.8%) in the spleen. Of all analyzed cysts, 70 (56.9%) were fertile and 53 (43.1%) sterile/acephalous. The presence of fertile cysts in 19.4% of CE-positive animals is noteworthy. Overall, molecular diagnosis showed 19 wild boars infected with the pig strain (G7). Image 1 • A survey on CE on 2.108 wild boars from southern Italy was performed. • The prevalence of CE was 4.4% with fertility rate of 1.0%. • Echinococcus granulosus G7 genotype was isolated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this manuscript, we investigate the abrupt breakdown behavior of coupled distribution grids under load growth. This scenario mimics the ever-increasing customer demand and the foreseen introduction of energy hubs interconnecting the different energy vectors. We extend an analytical model of cascading behavior due to line overloads to the case of interdependent networks and find evidence of first order transitions due to the long-range nature of the flows. Our results indicate that the foreseen increase in the couplings between the grids has two competing effects: on the one hand, it increases the safety region where grids can operate without withstanding systemic failures; on the other hand, it increases the possibility of a joint systems’ failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oestrus ovis is a dipteran parasite responsible of myiasis in small ruminants and reported as the causative agent of myiasis in humans particularly in sheep farming areas. In recent years, several human cases had been reported without any previous history of exposure to livestock or visit to rural areas. We describe three clustered cases of ophthalmomyiasis externa in tourists in Sardinia and Sicily and discuss them in the light of the published literature. The patients presented ocular irritation, foreign body sensation, pain, redness, and lacrimation of the eyelids. After extraction, all the larvae were morphologically and molecularly confirmed as L1 instar of O. ovis larvae. The present study points out the need to draw attention and awareness among the physicians, and to consider ophthalmomyiasis when consulted for conjunctivitis in the summer and spring seasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A study was carried out to assess the efficacy and the economic profit of prophylactic treatment against Isopsora suis with toltrazuril or with a sulfamethazine/trimethoprim combination in piglets from an intensive pig farm. Thirty-one litters were included in study. Eight litters were treated once with toltrazuril (20mg/kg b.w.) at 3 days of age (Toltra group); 8 litters were treated with the sulphonamide combination (sodium sulfamethazine 35mg and trimethoprim 7mg/kg b.w.) for 3 consecutive days starting at 3 days of age (Sulfa group), and 15 litters were untreated (control group). Counts of oocyst per gram on pooled feces sampled from each litter were carried out on Days 7, 14, 21 and 28 and diarrhea was registered daily from pooled samples. Piglets were weighed on Days 1, 7 and 28 and mean weight gain (WG) and daily weight gain (DWG) were evaluated. The economic profit of treatment was evaluated comparing the WG of piglets of each treatment group from the day of birth to Day 28. On Days 14, 21 and 28, toltrazuril showed a better efficacy in controlling fecal oocyst output, diarrhea and weight gain compared with sulphamidic treatment (P <0.001). The budgeting analysis showed a return of economic benefit of € 0.915 per toltrazuril-treated piglets and an additional cost of € 1.155 per sulphonamide-treated piglets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a de-facto standard technique in centralized decision making. Consider a situation where there is a need to rank a set of elements or alternatives, based on their value or utility, of which we just know pairwise relative information, i.e., the ratio of their values. AHP proved an effective tool to retrieve the value of each element, being able to handle also relative information affected by distortions, subjective biases and intransitivity. A downside of AHP, however, is that it requires complete information, i.e., knowledge on all pairs. In this paper, we extend the applicability of the AHP technique to the case of sparse information, i.e., when only a limited amount of information is available, and such an information corresponds to an undirected connected graph. We complement our sparse framework by developing novel criteria and metrics to evaluate the degree of consistency of the data at hand. Moreover, exploiting the proposed framework, we also provide a distributed formulation of AHP in which a set of agents, interacting through an undirected graph, are able to compute their own values (e.g., for ranking or leader election purposes), by only knowing the ratio of their values with respect to their neighbors. To this end, we develop a novel algorithm to let each agent i compute, the dominant eigenvalue and the i th component of the corresponding eigenvector of the sparse AHP matrix. We conclude the paper with a simulation campaign that numerically demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We give an overview of the group's structure of conics seen as the irreducible component of a projective reducible cubic. • We explicit group's operations and parametrizations for conics. • We focus on conics over finite fields for providing a public-key cryptosystem. • We perform exponentiation over the Pell's hyperbola by means of the Réc dei rational functions. • We improve the More's algorithm for a fast evaluation of the Réc dei rational functions. In this paper, we highlight that the point group structure of elliptic curves, over finite or infinite fields, may be also observed on reducible cubics with an irreducible quadratic component. Starting from this, we introduce in a very general way a group's structure over any kind of conic. In the case of conics over finite fields, we see that the point group is cyclic and lies on the quadratic component. Thanks to this, some applications to cryptography are described, considering convenient parametrizations of the conics. We perform an evaluation of the complexity of the operations involved in the parametric groups and consequently in the cryptographic applications. In the case of the hyperbolas, the Rédei rational functions can be used for performing the operations of encryption and decryption, and the More's algorithm can be exploited for improving the time costs of computation. Finally, we provide also an improvement of the More's algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glycoglycerolipid analogues lacking the glycerol backbone were prepared through a lipase catalyzed transesterification of β-d-galactosylethylene glycol. The inhibitory effect of the resultant isomeric hexanoates at the primary alcoholic positions, β-d-galactosylethylene glycol itself and nonyl β-d-galactopyranoside, was tested on Epstein–Barr virus early antigen (EBV-EA) activation in Raji cells promoted by the tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), as a primary screening test for inhibitors of tumor promotion. All the compounds assayed were found to be less active than the reference 2-O-β-d-galactopyranosylglycerol derivatives, of which they are simplified models, indicating that the anti-tumor-promoting activity is very closely related to the presence of a free hydroxymethylene group on the glycerol-like aglycone moiety. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic variability and population structure of Taenia multiceps , and to correlate morphological features of individual coenuri with haplotypes. A total of 92 animals (86 sheep; 4 goats; 1 cattle; 1 mouflon, Ovis musimon ) aged between 6–36 months showing clinical symptoms of cerebral coenurosis were included in this study. T. multiceps coenuri (n = 118) sampled from live animals during routine surgery procedures or at post-mortem inspections were examined morphologically and molecularly identified. Morphological features of the 52 coenuri selected for this study (number and size of large and small hooks) were within the range reported in the literature. Fifty-two of the molecularly confirmed T. multiceps coenuri harboured by 47 animals (sheep = 41; cattle = 1; goats = 4; mouflon = 1) were used to determine gene genealogies and population genetic indices and were compared to the 3 T. multiceps genetic variants, Tm1–Tm3 previously described from Sardinia, Italy. For the 379 bp cox1 dataset we identified 11 polymorphic sites of which 8 were parsimony informative. A high haplotype diversity (0.664 ± 0.067) was recorded for the cox1 sequences defining 10 haplotypes (TM01–TM10). The comparison of haplotypes generated in this study with published T . multiceps Tm1 variant pointed to the possible existence of a common lineage for T. multiceps . No correlation was detected between the size of the small and large hooks and the cox 1 haplotypes. Polycystic infestation (2–9 coenuri) was recorded in 27.7% of animals (13/47). No statistical correlation between polycystic T. multiceps infection and haplotypes was detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: To assess the possible role of the “brain isoenzyme” of creatine kinase (CK-BB) as an early diagnostic tools for cerebral coenurosis we examined sera from 68 sheep (10–13 months old) from a flock on which cerebral coenurosis was endemical. After sampling, sheep were slaughtered, and neurological lesions were classified as purulent-necrotic migratory lesions or cystic lesions. The discriminating power of CK-BB to diagnose cerebral coenurosis was assessed using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The prevalence of cerebral coenurosis was 39.7% (27/68). Migratory lesions were found in 23 sheep (85.1%), cystic lesions in 3 sheep (11.2%) and both lesions were found in 1 sheep (3.7%). The most abundant isoenzymes detected both in controls and in sheep with cerebral coenurosis were CK-MM, Macro-CK2 and CK-BB. No significant differences regarding absolute values of CK-BB were found suggesting that CK-BB is not released in serum during cerebral coenurosis. Conversely, CK-MM was significantly lower (P <0.05) in sheep with cerebral coenurosis compared with controls, inducing a relative increase of the percentage of CK-BB (P <0.05). This latter increase had a good discriminating power (area under the ROC curve: 0.71; P <0.000). Although at its best diagnostic performance (CK-BB higher than 24,4%) sensitivity and specificity were moderate (66.7% and 68.3%, respectively), the likelihood ratio of increased CK-BB was 2.10. The increased percentage of CK-BB can thus be useful in the diagnostic approach to suspected cases of cerebral coenurosis, when the pre-test probability of disease is high. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Gestodene acidic treatment afforded a single rearrangement product, namely 13-β-ethyl-18,19-dinorpregna-4,14,16-trien-3,20-dione 3, which was originated through HCl-catalyzed Rupe rearrangement. Drospirenone acidic treatment yielded two epimeric lactones by addition of HCl to the 6β,7β-cyclopropane ring, namely 7β-(chloromethyl)-15β,16β-methylene-3-oxo-17β-pregn-4-ene-21,17-carbolactone 4 and 7β-(chloromethyl)-15β,16β-methylene-3-oxo-17α-pregn-4-ene-21,17-carbolactone 5. The structure of the compounds was assessed by spectroscopic and crystallographic methods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: X-ray crystallographic studies performed on the product of the ketalization reaction of 13β-ethyl-11α-hydroxy-gon-5-ene-3,17-dione have lead to the unequivocal assignment of the 10α stereochemistry to C10, showing that an inversion of configuration occurred during formation of the 3,17-diketal. From the Swern oxidation of this compound, 11α-(methylthio)methoxy-10α-gonene was obtained as the major product instead of the desired 11-ketone. Modeling studies showed that the configurational instability at C10 is determined by the presence of the 11α-hydroxyl group. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Risk factors associated with Neospora caninum seroprevalence in north-eastern Italy in healthy dogs were assessed. Antibodies to N. caninum were found in 10.9% of 707 kennel and owned dogs by a commercial competitive ELISA (VMRD® Inc.). All dogs were negative for Leishmania infantum by indirect fluorescent antibody test indicating no cross reactivity or association between the two protozoa in this area. Seroprevalence association with breed and age of dogs and other factors are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The crystal structures of 13-ethyl-gona-1(10)-ene-11α,17β-diacetate (3b) and 13-ethyl-10α-gona-4-ene-11α,17β-diacetate (5b), two steroidal monoenes obtained as minor products from the reduction, then acetylation, of the aromatic A ring of 13-ethyl-3-ethoxy-gona-1,3,5(10)-triene-11α,17β-diol (1), were determined by X-ray diffraction. The conformations of the rings A, B, C, and D and the unusual stereochemistry at C-10 of the 10α-gona-4-ene (5b) are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Nine new synthetic compounds, structurally related to the most active glycoglycerolipid analogues carrying a hexanoyl chain, were tested for their anti-tumor-promoting activity using a short-term in vitro assay for Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) activation. All these compounds, in which the ester function is replaced by different metabolically more stable groups, were almost as active as their ester reference compounds in inhibiting the EBV activation promoted by the tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). Two of these, devoid of any functionality on the lipophilic chain, when tested in an in vivo two-stage carcinogenesis test, exhibited marked inhibitory effects on mouse skin tumor promotion. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The reduction of 3-methoxy-estra-1,3,5(10)-trien-17β-ol (6) and 13-ethyl-3-ethoxy-gona-1,3,5(10)-triene-11α,17β-diol (2) by lithium in ethyl amine in the absence of a proton source is described. Both reductions, contrary to the reports of previous investigators, which indicated the 4-ene to be the main reaction product, gave a complex mixture of products. In the case of the reduction of 2, which is an intermediate in the synthesis of the progestagen desogestrel (1), we obtained the expected known 13-ethyl-gona-4-ene-11α,17β-diol (4) in small amounts and three new steroidal monoenes, 13-ethyl-gona-5(10)-ene-11α,17β-diol (11), 13-ethyl-gona-5(6)-ene-11α,17β-diol (12), and 13-ethyl-gona-1(10)-ene-11α,17β-diol (13). These compounds were characterized as the 11,17-diacetates with the 5(10)-ene 11 being the major compound. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Near real-time monitoring and control of critical infrastructure is essential for the operation and management of cities in a world that is, today, more complex and interconnected than ever. Such an infrastructure can be represented as complex networks an some of their related indices and statistics, many of them based on the shortest paths, play a pivotal role in the decision making for public services such as internet, energy or water. Particularly, the literature has shown that shortest paths are key for resilience and criticality assessment in a water distribution systems (WDS). This paper proposes a procedure to speed-up the computation of shortest paths in a WDS, as it can straightforwardly benefit any critical infrastructure. The proposal is based on a reduced dimension of a complex network representing any critical infrastructure. Despite the consequent decrease in the number of all possible paths in the network, the main advantage and novelty of this proposal is to continue finding the exact solution for the shortest paths. Experimental results show that the procedure brings a computational-time reduction consistently over 50% and up to 90% in some cases. In addition, the paper reveals how the use of shortest paths benefits WDS operation and management, as well as playing a key role in near real-time contamination detection and leakage control. • Novel dimensionality-reduction process to compute shortest paths in networked systems. • Innovative use of shortest paths supporting near real-time decision making of water utilities. • Relationship between shortest paths and contamination spread on water distribution systems. • Shortest-paths based approach for dynamically management of district areas of water supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The honey bee (Apis mellifera L., 1758) is a peculiar production animal following a caste system. • Worker honey bee tasks are linked to age and season. • Winter bee transition is based in the regulatory mechanisms controlling JH metabolism and the age based division of labour of worker bees. • Various in- and out-hive factors contribute to the regulation of honey bee seasonal transitions. • Functionality of colony seasonality was reviewed in the light of the latest knowledge. Beekeeping plays a key role within animal productions since millennia. Honey bee colonies consist mainly out of worker bees which, besides based on their behavioural roles, are divided according to seasonal appearance. In this manner, a distinction is made between classical summer bees and long lived winter or " diutinus " bees. Seasonal transition into their winter form allows honey bee colonies to survive harsh winter conditions through in-hive thermoregulation and by initiating brood rearing for the new cycle. Vitellogenin, the main bee nutritional storage molecule, is central in winter bee physiology and accounts for the typical features associated with diutinus bees (high hemolymph and fat body lipid and protein contents, hypertrophied hypopharyngeal glands and longevity). Overall, transition into the winter bee state can be explained by extension of the mechanisms regulating juvenile hormone metabolism and worker bee age based division of labour, namely; changes in bee nutrient stores, brood microclimate and colony age demography. Furthermore, substantial evidence has been produced indicating the arrival of winter bees to be strongly correlated to decreasing brood rearing activity in fall. Subsequently, factors regulating the brood rearing pattern of honey bees can be considered key triggers in the appearance of winter bees. In this way, the arrival of winter bees is mainly linked to plummeting pollen supplies in fall. The effect of other triggers have either been categorised as lesser, indirect or their involvement remains unclear. The current knowledge regarding the functionality of the seasonal transition of honey bee colonies has led to the description of an elegant system controlled by a multitude of internal and external factors. Regardless, certain aspects of this phenomenon still remain unknown and especially the transition back from winter to summer bees still represents an open question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]