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Plant physiological status is the interaction between the plant genome and the prevailing growth conditions. Accurate characterization of plant physiology is, therefore, fundamental to effective plant phenotyping studies; particularly those focused on identifying traits associated with improved yield, lower input requirements, and climate resilience. Here, we outline the approaches used to assess plant physiology and how these techniques of direct empirical observations of processes such as photosynthetic CO2 assimilation, stomatal conductance, photosystem II electron transport, or the effectiveness of protective energy dissipation mechanisms are unsuited to high-throughput phenotyping applications. Novel optical sensors, remote/proximal sensing (multi- and hyperspectral reflectance, infrared thermography, sun-induced fluorescence), LiDAR, and automated analyses of below-ground development offer the possibility to infer plant physiological status and growth. However, there are limitations to such indirect approaches to gauging plant physiology. These methodologies that are appropriate for the rapid high temporal screening of a number of crop varieties over a wide spatial scale do still require calibration or validation with direct empirical measurement of plant physiological status. The use of deep-learning and artificial intelligence approaches may enable the effective synthesis of large multivariate datasets to more accurately quantify physiological characters rapidly in high numbers of replicate plants. Advances in automated data collection and subsequent data processing represent an opportunity for plant phenotyping efforts to fully integrate fundamental physiological data into vital efforts to ensure food and agro-economic sustainability.

Understanding the individual qualities sustaining students with and without specific learning disabilities (SLDs) is key to supporting their academic achievement and well-being. In this study, we investigated the differences between students with and without SLDs in terms of intraindividual factors (soft skills and study-related factors), academic and nonacademic outcomes (achievement, academic and life satisfaction), and the relationships between such intraindividual factors and the three outcomes. A total of 318 students (79 males; M[subscript age] = 22.7; SD = 3.56; age range = 19-45 years; 147 with SLDs) completed self-reported questionnaires and a measure of fluid intelligence. The results showed that students with SLDs reported higher creativity but lower academic self-efficacy, study resilience, and academic achievement, with small-to-medium effect sizes. In both groups, achievement significantly positively related to academic self-efficacy and negatively to creativity. Life satisfaction was positively related to study resilience; and academic satisfaction was related to critical thinking, curiosity, and academic self-efficacy. Nurturing such intraindividual factors can benefit students with and without SLDs.

In recent years, an increasing number of students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) have enrolled in universities. The present exploratory study examined the frequency of use and appreciation of universal (open to every student) and specific services (offered to students with SLDs) and their relation to age, academic achievement, satisfaction, self-efficacy, and use of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies. Participants were 147 Italian university students with SLD diagnoses (42 males; mean age: 22.49, SD = 3.29). Results showed that, overall, the frequency of use and appreciation of specific services were positively related to academic satisfaction, self-efficacy, and SRL strategies. Furthermore, frequency of use of compensatory tools and dispensatory measures was positively associated with academic achievement. These findings suggest that universities play an important role in supporting students with SLDs during their academic years by providing them with useful services and accommodations.

Abstract High northern latitude changes with Arctic amplification across a latitudinal forest gradient suggest a shift towards an increased presence of trees and shrubs. The persistence of change may depend on the future scenarios of climate and on the current state, and site history, of forest structure. Here, we explore the persistence of a gradient-based shift in the boreal by connecting current forest patterns to recent tree cover trends and future modeled estimates of canopy height through 2100. Results show variation in the predicted potential height changes across the structural gradient from the boreal forest through the taiga-tundra ecotone. Positive potential changes in height are concentrated in transitional forests, where recent positive changes in cover prevail, while potential change in boreal forest is highly variable. Results are consistent across climate scenarios, revealing a persistent biome shift through 2100 in North America concentrated in transitional landscapes regardless of climate scenario.

Abstract Novel psychoactive substances (NPS) represent a broad class of drugs new to the illicit market that often allow passing drug-screening tests. They are characterized by a variety of structures, rapid transience on the drug scene and mostly unknown metabolic profiles, thus creating an ever-changing scenario with evolving analytical targets. The present study aims at developing an indirect screening strategy for NPS monitoring, and specifically for new synthetic opioids (NSOs), based on assessing changes in endogenous urinary metabolite levels as a consequence of the systemic response following their intake. The experimental design involved in-vivo mice models: 16 animals of both sex received a single administration of morphine or fentanyl. Urine was collected before and after administration at different time points; the samples were then analysed with an untargeted metabolomics LC-HRMS workflow. According to our results, the intake of opioids resulted in an elevated energy demand, that was more pronounced on male animals, as evidenced by the increase in medium and long chain acylcarnitines levels. It was also shown that opioid administration disrupted the pathways related to catecholamines biosynthesis. The observed alterations were common to both morphine and fentanyl: this evidence indicate that they are not related to the chemical structure of the drug, but rather on the drug class. The proposed strategy may reinforce existing NPS screening approaches, by identifying indirect markers of drug assumption.

ABSTRACT Objective To verify the rate of COVID-19 infection among healthcare personnel at high and low risk of COVID-19 infection and identify the underlying risk factors. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted between December 1, 2020 and February 28, 2021. Associations were verified between the levels of risk (high or low) of occupational COVID-19 infection and participant characteristics using the World Health Organization risk assessment questionnaire and adjusted using logistic regression models in single and multiple approaches. Results Of the 486 participants, 57.4% were classified as having a high occupational risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection, with a diagnosis rate of 12.1%. The factors identified in the multivariate analysis for high occupational risk were age up to 29 years (odds ratio [OR] = 2.7, 95% confidence interval [95%CI] = 1.63-4.47), monthly family income greater than eight times the basic salary (OR= 1.8, 95%CI= 1.07-3.16), and healthcare personnel who did not participate in initial training to work in the area of patients with COVID-19 infection (OR= 2.39, 95%CI= 1.53-3.75). Conclusion Encouraging training for occupational infection prevention is very important to reduce the impact of infectious diseases on healthcare personnel, especially young health professionals.

Objectives To evaluate the external validity of the FINDRISC, DESIR and ADA risk scores for the prediction of diabetes in a Spanish population aged >45 years and to test the possible improvement of FINDRISC by adding a new variable of high risk of depression when Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) questionnaire score ≥10 (FINDRISC-MOOD).Design Prospective population-based cohort study.Setting 10 primary healthcare centres in the north of the city of Madrid (Spain).Participants A total of 1242 participants without a history of diabetes and with 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) plasma glucose

Objetivo: Identificar los agentes patógenos aislados en pacientes con catéter de diálisis peritoneal en el Hospital Docente Francisco E. Moscoso Puello in Santo Domingo, junio 2017 – junio 2019. Método: Se realizó un estudio descriptivo, de corte transversal con una proyección retrospectiva, y consta de una muestra de 32 registros de pacientes. Los datos obtenidos fueron analizados con el software Epi-info 7.0. Resultados: Los agentes patógenos más frecuentes aislados fueron el Staphylococcus aureus representando un 50%15 de los cultivos positivos, seguidos por Escherichia Coli y Pseudomona aeruginosa, ambos formando 12.5%4 de los cultivos positivos cada uno. En cuanto a los grupos de edad más afectados observamos que los que presentan una mayor frecuencia de casos son de 60-69 años de edad. Conclusión: La investigación identificó varios agentes patógenos asociados al catéter de diálisis peritoneal, entre los que destacan Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli y Pseudomona aeruginosa. Staphylococcus aureus fue el más común en ambos sexos y el más frecuente en pacientes de 1 a 3 años. Este mismo agente, junto con Escherichia coli y otros, fueron responsables de las recurrencias. Se encontró que todos los pacientes utilizaban diálisis peritoneal continua ambulatoria y todos los agentes patógenos identificados fueron aislados en esta terapia.

Objetivo: Determinar el gen RAS como factor pronóstico y predictivo en cáncer colorrectal metastásico. Método: Es un estudio descriptivo y retrospectivo donde se examinaron 67 expedientes de pacientes con cáncer colorrectal metastásico, centrándose en la determinación del gen RAS como factor pronóstico y predictivo. Resultados: Se halló que el 56.7% de los pacientes tenían tumores Wild-type y el 43.3% mostraba tumores con mutaciones KRAS, sin detectarse mutaciones en el gen NRAS. Tanto en el colon derecho como en el izquierdo, los tumores Wild-type fueron algo más comunes que los tumores con mutaciones KRAS. El codón 12 fue el más afectado en un 75.9% de los casos de tumores KRAS mutados. El adenocarcinoma fue el tipo histológico predominante (82%), seguido del adenocarcinoma mucinoso (16.5%). La mayoría de los pacientes (56.7%) se hallaban en estadio IV al diagnóstico. Los tumores KRAS mutados mostraron una mayor tendencia a la recurrencia y metástasis múltiples en comparación con los tumores Wild-type, siendo el hígado y el pulmón los sitios más comunes de metástasis. También se observaron diferencias en la supervivencia libre de progresión y la supervivencia global según el estado mutacional del gen RAS, con una mayor progresión en pacientes con tumores KRAS mutados. Conclusión: Estos hallazgos sugieren que las mutaciones en el gen KRAS podrían asociarse con peor pronóstico en términos de progresión de la enfermedad y supervivencia. La determinación del estado del gen KRAS podría tener implicaciones clínicas significativas en la estratificación del riesgo y la planificación del tratamiento para pacientes con cáncer colorrectal metastásico.

In veterinary medicine, Cannabis has been used to treat pain conditions, inflammation, and seizures. However, little is known about its effect on dogs’ behavior. This preliminary research aims to address this knowledge gap by evaluating the effectiveness of cannabidiol (CBD) oil in canine behavioral therapy. Twenty dogs, diagnosed with behavioral disorders and housed in a municipal shelter, participated in a double-blind trial. Ten dogs received CBD oil treatment, while the other ten received a control oil without CBD. Before (T0) and after (T1) the treatment, all the dogs underwent a temperament test to assess their behavior in the presence of four different stimuli: a human stranger, a novel object, a child-like doll, and a conspecific (another dog). Each stimulus was presented individually, and the dogs' behaviors were recorded on video and analyzed. Additionally, hair samples were collected using a shave-reshave technique for cortisol determination through Radio-Immuno-Assay. No behavioral differences were found between the two groups at both T0 and T1. There were no significant differences in the behavioral responses of either group when comparing T0 and T1. However, individual responses to the CBD oil treatment appeared to vary among subjects. A significant increase in hair cortisol levels (p-value

Scientific analysis of Earth's land surface change benefits from well-characterized multispectral remotely sensed data for which models estimate and remove the effects of the atmosphere and sun-sensor geometry. Top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance in commercial very high resolution (

Wildfire is the dominant stand-replacing disturbance regime in Canadian boreal forests. An accurate quantification of postfire changes in forest structure and aboveground biomass density (AGBD) provides a means to understand the magnitudes of ecosystem changes through wildfires and related linkages with global climate. While multispectral remote sensing has been extensively utilized for burn severity assessment, its capacity for postfire forest structure and AGBD change monitoring has been more limited to date. This study evaluates the interactions among burn severity, forest structure, and fire-return intervals for two representative sites in the western Canadian boreal forest. We adopted burn severity measurements from Landsat to characterize the heterogeneity of wildfire effects, while vertical forest structure information from Lidar was utilized to inform on realized forest changes and carbon fluxes associated with fire. Dominant trees in biomass-rich stands showed higher tolerance to low- and moderate-severity wildfires, while understory vegetation in these same stands showed a severity-invariant response to wildfires indicated by high vegetation mortality regardless of burn severity levels. Compared to a site without previous burn, canopy height and AGBD experienced lower magnitudes of change after subsequent wildfires, explained by a negative feedback between high frequency wildfires and biomass loss ($\overline {\Delta \mathbf{Canopy}\ \mathbf{Height}} $single wildfire = 3.03 m; $\overline {\Delta \mathbf{Canopy}\ \mathbf{Height}} $successive wildfire = 2.47 m; $\overline {\Delta \mathbf{AGBD}} $single wildfire = 8.40 Mg/ha; $\overline {\Delta \mathbf{AGBD}} $successive wildfire = 6.69 Mg/ha). This study provides new insights into forest recovery dynamics following fire disturbance, which is particularly relevant given increased fire frequency and intensity in boreal ecosystems resulting from climate change.

Abstract Alteration of basaltic glass and in situ mineral growth are fundamental processes that influence the chemical and material properties of Earth’s oceanic crust. These processes have evolved at the basaltic island of Surtsey (SW Iceland) since eruptions terminated in 1967. Here, subaerial and submarine lapilli tuff samples from a 192 m-deep borehole drilled in 2017 (SE-02b) are characterized through petrographic studies, X-ray powder diffraction analyses, and SEM–EDS imaging and chemical analyses. The integrated results reveal (i) multi-stage palagonitization processes in basaltic glass and precipitation of secondary minerals from matrix pore fluids, (ii) multi-stage crystallization of secondary phillipsite, analcime and Al-tobermorite in the vesicles of basaltic pyroclasts and (iii) variations in palagonitization processes as a function of thermal and hydrological domains. Although temperature appears to be an important factor in controlling rates of secondary mineralization, the chemistry of original basaltic components and interstitial fluids also influences reaction pathways in the young pyroclastic deposits. The integration of systematic mineralogical analyses of the 50-year-old tuff from one of the most carefully monitored volcanic sites on Earth, together with temperature monitoring in boreholes since 1980, provide a reference framework for evaluating mineralogical evolution in other Surtseyan-type volcanoes worldwide.

MIGLIORARE LA COMPRENSIONE DEL TESTO E LE CAPACITÀ DI SINTESI NELLA SCUOLA PRIMARIA: UNO STUDIO QUASI-SPERIMENTALE Abstract The paper reports the results of the evaluation of a programme aimed at improving reading comprehension and summarising skills of fourth graders through a quasi-experimental study conducted with 671 students (421 in the experimental group and 250 in the control group) in Italian schools. Students assigned to the experimental group received three months of the intervention while students in the control group continued with regular teacher practice. Results showed a statistically significant difference between the two conditions on reading comprehension and summarising skills. Students included in the experimental group outperformed students in the control group in both the measures used (dppc2 = 0.32 in the Summarising Test and dppc2 = 0.54 in the Summary Qualitative Assessment). No differences were found between students with different proficiency vocabulary levels in the experimental group. The implications for research practice and limitations of the study are discussed.

Abstract Background Breast cancer screening through mammography is crucial for early detection, yet the demand for mammography services surpasses the capacity of radiologists. Artificial intelligence (AI) can assist in evaluating microcalcifications on mammography. We developed and tested an AI model for localizing and characterizing microcalcifications. Methods Three expert radiologists annotated a dataset of mammograms using histology-based ground truth. The dataset was partitioned for training, validation, and testing. Three neural networks (AlexNet, ResNet18, and ResNet34) were trained and evaluated using specific metrics including receiver operating characteristics area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity. The reported metrics were computed on the test set (10% of the whole dataset). Results The dataset included 1,000 patients aged 21–73 years and 1,986 mammograms (180 density A, 220 density B, 380 density C, and 220 density D), with 389 malignant and 611 benign groups of microcalcifications. AlexNet achieved the best performance with 0.98 sensitivity, 0.89 specificity of, and 0.98 AUC for microcalcifications detection and 0.85 sensitivity, 0.89 specificity, and 0.94 AUC of for microcalcifications classification. For microcalcifications detection, ResNet18 and ResNet34 achieved 0.96 and 0.97 sensitivity, 0.91 and 0.90 specificity and 0.98 and 0.98 AUC, retrospectively. For microcalcifications classification, ResNet18 and ResNet34 exhibited 0.75 and 0.84 sensitivity, 0.85 and 0.84 specificity, and 0.88 and 0.92 AUC, respectively. Conclusions The developed AI models accurately detect and characterize microcalcifications on mammography. Relevance statement AI-based systems have the potential to assist radiologists in interpreting microcalcifications on mammograms. The study highlights the importance of developing reliable deep learning models possibly applied to breast cancer screening. Key points • A novel AI tool was developed and tested to aid radiologists in the interpretation of mammography by accurately detecting and characterizing microcalcifications. • Three neural networks (AlexNet, ResNet18, and ResNet34) were trained, validated, and tested using an annotated dataset of 1,000 patients and 1,986 mammograms. • The AI tool demonstrated high accuracy in detecting/localizing and characterizing microcalcifications on mammography, highlighting the potential of AI-based systems to assist radiologists in the interpretation of mammograms. Graphical Abstract

Introduction: Spheroids are spherical aggregates of cells that mimic the three-dimensional (3D) architecture of tissues more closely than traditional two dimensional (2D) cultures. Spheroids of adipose stem cells (SASCs) show special features such as high multilineage differentiation potential and immunomodulatory activity. These properties have been attributed to their secreted factors, such as cytokines and growth factors. Moreover, a key role is played by the extracellular vesicles (EVs), which lead a heterogeneous cargo of proteins, mRNAs, and small RNAs that interfere with the pathways of the recipient cells. Purpose: The aim of this work was to characterize the composition of the secretome and exosome from SASCs and evaluate their regenerative potential. Materials and Methods: SASCs were extracted from adipose samples of healthy individuals after signing informed consent. The exosomes were isolated and characterized by Dinamic Light Scattering (DLS), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Western blotting analyses. The expression of mRNAs and miRNAs were evaluated through real-time PCR. Lastly, a wound-healing assay was performed to investigate their regenerative potential on different cell cultures. Results: The SASCs’ exosomes showed an up-regulation of NANOG and SOX2 mRNAs, typical of stemness maintenance, as well as miR126 and miR146a, related to angiogenic and osteogenic processes. Moreover, the exosomes showed a regenerative effect. Conclusions: The SASCs’ secretome carried paracrine signals involved in stemness maintenance, pro-angiogenic and pro-osteogenic differentiation, immune system regulation, and regeneration.

This article aims to update the analysis of the residential segregation of the foreign population in European cities by considering the most recent 2021 census data for two different Italian metropolitan areas, Milan and Bologna. The diachronic analysis (2001–2021) of several indices of residential segregation (i.e., dissimilarity index, two group and multigroup; location quotient; and kernel density estimation) at the metropolitan scale (i.e., functional urban area) will contribute to the debate on the residential settlement patterns of foreign populations, highlighting the specificities of Southern European cities. Despite the significant differences between the two cities considered, the same desegregation trends (i.e., reduction in segregation indices) are identified in both cases. The results show a decrease in residential segregation over time in both core and commuting areas. Furthermore, phenomena of peripheralisation related to overrepresentation in metropolitan municipalities emerge, although core areas remain where the foreign population is most concentrated. The complexity and ambivalence of residential dynamics in the two cases suggest that residential segregation can also take “unusual forms” in Southern European cities that are not always related to the macro-concentration phenomena. In this sense, the “urban diaspora” hypothesis seems to be a suitable concept for capturing the new distributional trend of the foreign population in the Southern European context.