Expression profiles of circulating miRNAs in an endangered Piedmontese sheep breed during the estrus cycle.

Introduction: The preservation of locally endangered breeds is essential for maintaining ecosystem services that benefit both society and the environment. Reproductive fitness becomes a crucial consideration in this context. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules that play a key role in post-transcriptional regulation.

mTOR is an essential gate in adapting the functional response of ovine trophoblast cells under stress-inducing environments.

Introduction: During the early stage of pregnancy trophoblast cells adapt to adverse uterine environments characterized by oxygen and nutrient deprivation. Autophagy is an intracellular degradation process that aims to promote cell survival in response to stressful conditions. Autophagy activation passes through the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), also known as a placental nutrient sensor.

Exogenous melatonin ameliorates embryo-maternal cross-talk in early pregnancy in sheep.

In Brief: Melatonin plays a crucial role in enhancing reproductive performance in small ruminants. This paper reveals the effects of exogenous melatonin on the placental and endometrial rearrangement in early pregnancy in sheep.

Abstract: Early pregnancy losses cause 25% of pregnancy failures in small ruminants because of asynchrony between conceptus and uterine signals.

Infantile and Very Early Onset Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Multicenter Study.

Objectives: This study described disease characteristics and long-term outcomes in patients diagnosed with very early onset inflammatory bowel disease (VEOIBD) (diagnosed before 6 years of age) and infantile-IBD (before 2 years).

Methods: Cases from 21 centers worldwide diagnosed with VEOIBD (2008-2018), with minimum 2 years of follow-up, were retrospectively reviewed.

Results: The cohort included 243 patients (52% males, median follow-up of 5.

A Deep Learning Approach for Accurate Path Loss Prediction in LoRaWAN Livestock Monitoring.

The agricultural sector is amidst an industrial revolution driven by the integration of sensing, communication, and artificial intelligence (AI). Within this context, the internet of things (IoT) takes center stage, particularly in facilitating remote livestock monitoring. Challenges persist, particularly in effective field communication, adequate coverage, and long-range data transmission.

Designing and Evaluating a VR Lobby for a Socially Enriching Remote Opera Watching Experience.

The latest social VR technologies have enabled users to attend traditional media and arts performances together while being geographically removed, making such experiences accessible despite budget, distance, and other restrictions. In this work, we aim at improving the way remote performances are shared by designing and evaluating a VR theatre lobby which serves as a space for users to gather, interact, and relive the common experience of watching a virtual opera. We conducted an initial test with experts ($\mathrm{N}=10$, i.

Ovine Trophoblast Cells: Cell Isolation and Culturing from the Placenta at the Early Stage of Pregnancy.

Embryo development is dependent upon the exchange of oxygen and nutrients through the placenta, mainly composed of peculiar epithelioid cells, known as trophoblast cells. Normal trophoblast functionality plays a key role during the whole pregnancy, especially in the first stage of placentation. This chapter explains the techniques to obtain sheep primary trophoblast cells from the early placenta.

Adaptation Response in Sheep: Ewes in Different Cortisol Clusters Reveal Changes in the Expression of Salivary miRNAs.

Farm procedures have an impact on animal welfare by activating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis that induces a wide array of physiological responses. This adaptive system guarantees that the animal copes with environmental variations and it induces metabolic and molecular changes that can be quantified. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a key role in the regulation of homeostasis and emerging evidence has identified circulating miRNAs as promising biomarkers of stress-related disorders in animals.

Hazelnut Skin in Ewes' Diet: Effects on Colostrum Immunoglobulin G and Passive Transfer of Immunity to the Lambs.

Passive immunity transfer has a pivotal role in newborn lambs, where the colostrum represents the primary source of immunoglobulins. This study hypothesized that the high content in polyphenolic compounds, mono- and poly-unsaturated fatty acids, and vitamin E of hazelnut skin affects blood and colostrum immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentration and related gamma-glutamyl-transferase (GGT) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels in sheep and their lambs. In the last 45 days of pregnancy, ewes were divided into a control (CTR) and a hazelnut skin supplemented group (HZN).

Practical Experiences of a Smart Livestock Location Monitoring System Leveraging GNSS, LoRaWAN and Cloud Services.

Livestock farming is, in most cases in Europe, unsupervised, thus making it difficult to ensure adequate control of the position of the animals for the improvement of animal welfare. In addition, the geographical areas involved in livestock grazing usually have difficult access with harsh orography and lack of communications infrastructure, thus the need to provide a low-power livestock localization and monitoring system is of paramount importance, which is crucial not for a sustainable agriculture, but also for the protection of native breeds and meats thanks to their controlled supervision. In this context, this work presents an Internet of things (IoT)-based system integrating low-power wide area (LPWA) technology, cloud, and virtualization services to provide real-time livestock location monitoring.

A New Approach to LCA Evaluation of Lamb Meat Production in Two Different Breeding Systems in Northern Italy.

Lamb meat production provides vital landscape-management and ecosystem services; however, ruminant farming produces a considerable share of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. To measure and compare the advantages and disadvantages of the intensification of livestock farming, an integrative analysis was conducted in this study by combining environmental impact analysis and animal welfare assessment. This approach is the first of its kind and is the innovative aspect of this paper.

Correction to: Probiotics' efficacy in paediatric diseases: which is the evidence? A critical review on behalf of the Italian Society of Pediatrics.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Probiotics' efficacy in paediatric diseases: which is the evidence? A critical review on behalf of the Italian Society of Pediatrics.

During the last decade several paediatric studies have been published with different possible indications for probiotics, leading to a global increase of probiotics' market. Nevertheless, different study designs, multiple single/combined strains and small sample size still leave many uncertainties regarding their efficacy. In addition, different regulatory and quality control issues make still very difficult the interpretation of the clinical data.