Search

International audience

BACKGROUND Although blood eosinophils are currently recognized as the main clinical marker of TH2-type inflammation, their relevance in identifying asthma severity remains a matter of debate. METHODS Our retrospective real-life study on severe asthmatics included in the NEONet Italian database aimed to investigate the relevance of blood eosinophil count and fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) in the clinical assessment of severe asthma and their role as potential predictors of responsiveness to anti-IgE therapy. The cut-off values chosen were 300 eosinophils/mm3 and FeNO of 30 ppm. RESULTS We evaluated 132 adult patients. No significant differences were observed between the groups (high and low baseline eosinophil counts) in terms of demographic data, total IgE, lung function, patient-reported outcomes, or nasal comorbidities. The Asthma Control Test score and Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire scores were poorer in patients with FeNO ≥30 ppb than in patients with FeNO

The use of biostimulants (amino acid containing protein hydrolysate) in forestry field has received much less attention so far than in agriculture. Promising evidences were reported in literature with useful application for nursery activities, stimulating early growth and reducing transplanting stress. This study investigates the potential benefits induced by an amino acid-based animal-derived protein hydro-lysate biostimulant (Siapton® by Isagro) in containerized Eucalyptus globulus seedlings following transplanting. Foliar and soil drench applications were applied using two different concentrations each (2.5 ml.l -1 and 5.0 ml.l -1 for foliar, 10 ml.l -1 and 20 ml.l -1 for soil). Measures on seedling height, apical shot formation, total aboveground (dry weight of leaves and stem) and belowground biomass (dry weight of roots) 120 days after transplanting were made to quantify the effect on growth. The contrasts analysis on results revealed a positive effect of the biostimulant on many of the measured parameters, especially with foliar application using the lowest concentration (2.5 ml.l -1). The foliar application was overall suggested as more efficient than soil drench also allowing lower inputs (i.e. biostimulant quantity). The main consequence of the treatment was an increased biomass allocation in the stem (above ground biomass) due to a stimulated leaves production which might suggest an increased photosynthetic activity and growth. Conversely no influence was detectable on total height of seedlings neither on the collar diameter. The biostimulant treatment on containerized Eucalyptus globulus positively influenced some features of seedlings' growth after transplanting and the use of biostimulant with foliar application during the hardening phase in the nursery, appears to be a promising technique to potentially improve seedling growth after transplanting. An interesting impact from application of biostimulant on biomass accumulation following transplanting was here demonstrated. Anyway, further research to verify the results on different tree species as well as under open field conditions is envisioned.

Made available in DSpace on 2019-12-04T18:17:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3RecursosGenticoseaconservaoinsitudeecossistemasdebutiazaisnoSul.pdf: 946245 bytes, checksum: 04029b49eff82ab820d786316b0a61b0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019

Milk protein fractions and free amino acids (FAA) are important traits for the dairy industry specialized in cheese and milk powder production. Despite this, they are not included in any breeding objective due to the lack of quick and cost-effective routine determination of these compounds. In the present study, mid-infrared spectroscopy prediction models previously developed on bovine milk samples in Ireland were applied to stored spectral data to predict both protein fractions and FAA concentrations. After edits, 134,546 test-day records from 16,166 lactations and 9,572 cows were available. Variance components were estimated using repeatability animal models including the fixed effects of contemporary group, milking time, cow breed proportion, general heterosis, recombination loss, and parity-by-stage of lactation. Random terms were additive genetic effect of the animal, and within- and across lactation permanent environmental effects. Means of αs1-casein, αs2-casein, β-casein, and κ-casein were 13.70 g/l, 3.66 g/l, 12.96 g/l, and 6.03 g/l, respectively. About 83% of total whey proteins (6.13 g/l) were represented by β-lactoglobulin. Concentrations of FAA exhibited average values that ranged from 8.09 μg/ml (glycine) to 1.52 μg/ ml (valine), except for glutamic acid (30.93 μg/ml). Heritability estimates for protein fractions ranged from 0.36 (αs2-casein and κ-casein) to 0.46 (β-lactoglobulin A), except for α-lactalbumin (0.19). The range of heritability estimates for FAA was smaller (0.15 for glycine to 0.36 for aspartic acid). Genetic correlations between casein fractions and whey proteins were all positive. Genetic correlations between FAA ranged from -0.44 (aspartic acid and lysine) to 0.97 (glutamic acid and total free amino acids). Breeding strategies for genetically improving protein fractions and FAA may represent a viable solution to meet the requirements of specialized dairy industry.

The paper introduces the concept of design for resilience in the context of space systems engineering and proposes a method to account for imprecision and epistemic uncertainty. Resilience can be seen as the ability of a system to adjust its functioning prior to, during, or following changes and disturbances, so that it can sustain required operations under both expected and unexpected conditions. Mathematically speaking this translates into the attribute of a dynamical system (or time dependent system) to be simultaneously robust and reliable. However, the quantification of robustness and reliability in the early stage of the design of a space systems is generally affected by uncertainty that is epistemic in nature. As the design evolves from Phase A down to phase E, the level of epistemic uncertainty is expected to decrease but still a level of variability can exist in the expected operational conditions and system requirements. The paper proposes a representation of a complex space system using the so called Evidence Network Models (ENM): a non-directed (unlike Bayesian network models) network of interconnected nodes where each node represents a subsystem with associated epistemic uncertainty on system performance and failure probability. Once the reliability and uncertainty on the performance of the spacecraft are quantified, a design optimisation process is applied to improve resilience and performance. The method is finally applied to an example of preliminary design of a small satellite in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The spacecraft is divided in 5 subsystems, AOCS, TTC, OBDH, Power and Payload. The payload is a simple camera acquiring images at scheduled times. The assumption is that each component has multiple functionalities and both the performance of the component and the reliability associated to each functionality are affected by a level of imprecision. The overall performance indicator is the sum of the performance indicators of all the components.