Circulating Proneurotensin Levels Predict Impaired Bone Mineralisation in Postmenopausal Women With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Context: The mechanisms underlying bone fragility and increased fracture risk observed in individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) are not yet fully elucidated. Previous research has suggested a role for neuropeptides in regulating bone metabolism; however, the contribution of the neuropeptide Neurotensin (NT), which is thoroughly implicated in T2D and cardiovascular disease, has not been investigated in this context.

Objective: To study the relationship between circulating levels of the NT precursor proneurotensin (proNT) and bone mineralisation in T2D women.

Time to Next Treatment Following Sub-Ablative Progression Directed Radiation Therapy for Oligoprogressive Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.

We aimed to evaluate whether progression-directed radiation therapy (PDRT) can prolong the initiation of a subsequent systemic therapy regimen in a cohort of patients with oligoprogressive NSCLC. A retrospective analysis was conducted on NSCLC patients who underwent PDRT for extracranial oligoprogressive NSCLC, defined as limited (up to five) progressing lesions following initial complete, partial, or stable response to systemic therapy according to REC1ST 1.1 and/or PERCIST 1.

Isotopic study for evaluating complex groundwater circulation patterns, hydrogeological zoning, and water-rock interaction in a Mediterranean coastal karst environment.

In this study groundwater provenance, circulation, and rock interaction processes have been assessed by cross processing the spatial distribution of chemical and isotopic signatures in freshwater with the hydrogeological features of the coastal karst carbonate aquifer of Murgia, located in the southeastern end of Italy, along the Adriatic Sea. Thanks to widespread groundwater quality monitoring (major, minor, and trace-element analyses) and multi-isotopic measures of O, H, Sr, and B, some assumptions about complex groundwater circulation patterns, hydrogeological zoning, and water-rock interaction have been drawn. Three sectors have been distinguished into the Adriatic side of the Murgia aquifer all fed by two main recharge areas located on the most elevated, inner side of the aquifer.

Emerging Treatment Options for Neuroendocrine Neoplasms of Unknown Primary Origin: Current Evidence and Future Perspectives.

Among neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs), a non-negligible proportion (9-22%) is represented by sufferers of NENs of unknown primary origin (UPO), a poor prognostic group with largely unmet clinical needs. In the absence of standard therapeutic algorithms, current guidelines suggest that the treatment of UPO-NENs should be based on tumor clinical-pathological characteristics, disease burden, and patient conditions. Chemotherapy represents the backbone for the treatment of high-grade poorly differentiated UPO-NENs, usually providing deep but short-lasting responses.

Reduced High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Is an Independent Determinant of Altered Bone Quality in Women with Type 2 Diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is associated with an increased fracture risk. Our study aimed to explore differences in bone alterations between T2DM women and controls and to assess clinical predictors of bone impairment in T2DM. For this observational case control study, we recruited 126 T2DM female patients and 117 non-diabetic, age- and BMI-comparable women, who underwent clinical examination, routine biochemistry and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans for bone mineral density (BMD) and trabecular bone score (TBS) assessment-derived indexes.

A double pre-selection method for natural background levels assessment in coastal groundwater bodies.

To evaluate the chemical status of groundwater bodies (GWB) according to the European Groundwater Directive, EU Member States are required to take into account natural background levels (NBLs) where needed. Assessing the NBLs in coastal GWBs is complicated by seawater intrusion which can be amplified by groundwater withdrawals increasing the salinization of such groundwater systems. This paper proposes a new method for the NBLs assessment in coastal areas based on a double pre-selection (PS) with fixed/dynamic limits.

An Affordable Streamflow Measurement Technique Based on Delay and Sum Beamforming.

At the local scale, environmental parameters often require monitoring by means of affordable measuring techniques and technologies given they need to be frequently surveyed. Streamflow in riverbeds or in channels is a hydrological variable that needs to be monitored in order to keep the runoff regimes under control and somehow forecast floods, allowing prevention of damage for people and infrastructure. Moreover, measuring such a variable is always extremely important for the knowledge of the environmental status of connected aquatic ecosystems.

Video-Sensing Characterization for Hydrodynamic Features: Particle Tracking-Based Algorithm Supported by a Machine Learning Approach.

The efficient and reliable monitoring of the flow of water in open channels provides useful information for preventing water slow-downs due to the deposition of materials within the bed of the channel, which might lead to critical floods. A reliable monitoring system can thus help to protect properties and, in the most critical cases, save lives. A sensing system capable of monitoring the flow conditions and the possible geo-environmental constraints within a channel can operate using still images or video imaging.

Spatial and temporal classification of coastal regions using bioclimatic indices in a Mediterranean environment.

Bioclimatic indices combine atmospheric parameters to provide analytical indication of climatic features and their evolution in space and time that can directly relate with natural resource availability, distribution, and related bio-physical processes. The availability of bioclimatic information can provide natural resource managers with analytical means to assess the magnitude and temporal evolution of drought and climate change parameters that could affect the availability, demand and use of natural resources for various sectors. This paper presents a methodology to process bioclimatic data in the space and time domains for assessing the moisture/dryness level and water requirements of a region, and inform water resource planning and management decisions related to drought, climate variability and change.

Mass-transfer impact on solute mobility in porous media: A new mobile-immobile model.

The theory for modeling non-equilibrium solute transport in porous media is still based on approximations to a model proposed by Lapidus and Amundson in 1952 that has not been updated. This Mobile-Immobile Model (MIM) is based on the definition of a mass-transfer coefficient (α), which has been proven subject to some severe limitations. Measurements at both laboratory and field scales have demonstrated the scale-dependency of α values.

Similarity indices of meteo-climatic gauging stations: definition and comparison.

Space-time dependencies among monitoring network stations have been investigated to detect and quantify similarity relationships among gauging stations. In this work, besides the well-known rank correlation index, two new similarity indices have been defined and applied to compute the similarity matrix related to the Apulian meteo-climatic monitoring network. The similarity matrices can be applied to address reliably the issue of missing data in space-time series.

GTest: a software tool for graphical assessment of empirical distributions' Gaussianity.

In the present paper, the novel software GTest is introduced, designed for testing the normality of a user-specified empirical distribution. It has been implemented with two unusual characteristics; the first is the user option of selecting four different versions of the normality test, each of them suited to be applied to a specific dataset or goal, and the second is the inferential paradigm that informs the output of such tests: it is basically graphical and intrinsically self-explanatory. The concept of inference-by-eye is an emerging inferential approach which will find a successful application in the near future due to the growing need of widening the audience of users of statistical methods to people with informal statistical skills.

Integration of electromagnetic induction sensor data in soil sampling scheme optimization using simulated annealing.

Soil survey is generally time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly. Optimization of sampling scheme allows one to reduce the number of sampling points without decreasing or even increasing the accuracy of investigated attribute. Maps of bulk soil electrical conductivity (EC a ) recorded with electromagnetic induction (EMI) sensors could be effectively used to direct soil sampling design for assessing spatial variability of soil moisture.

Disorders in glucidic metabolism and congenital heart diseases: detection and prevention.

The identification of gestational diabetes (GDM) through appropriate screening and its subsequent treatment have not been demonstrated to limit neonatal malformations to date. This study aimed to detect congenital heart diseases in newborns of mothers with GDM by evaluating the existence of a correlation with maternal glycemic control. This observational prospective study investigated newborns of mothers with GDM enrolled during a period of 9 months.

A methodology for rapid assessment of the environmental status of the shallow aquifer of "Tavoliere di Puglia" (Southern Italy).

Anticipating the European Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC), the Italian Government issued Legislative Decree n.152/99 which sets out rules for classifying the environmental status of national water bodies in order to achieve specific qualitative objectives by 2016. The most recent European Groundwater Directive (2006/118/EC), which was only recognized by Italy in early 2009 (Legislative Decree 30/09), requires such resources to be characterized from a qualitative standpoint and the risk of their being polluted by individual pollutants or groups of pollutants to be evaluated.

Basin characteristics and nutrient losses: the EUROHARP catchment network perspective.

The EC-funded EUROHARP project studies the harmonisation of modelling tools to quantify nutrient losses from diffuse sources. This paper describes a set of study areas used in the project from geographical conditions, to land use and land management, geological and hydro-geological perspectives. The status of data availability throughout Europe in relation to the modelling requirements is presented.

A methodology for treating missing data applied to daily rainfall data in the Candelaro River Basin (Italy).

Environmental time series are often affected by the "presence" of missing data, but when dealing statistically with data, the need to fill in the gaps estimating the missing values must be considered. At present, a large number of statistical techniques are available to achieve this objective; they range from very simple methods, such as using the sample mean, to very sophisticated ones, such as multiple imputation. A brand new methodology for missing data estimation is proposed, which tries to merge the obvious advantages of the simplest techniques (e.

Optimal extension of the rain gauge monitoring network of the Apulian Regional Consortium for Crop Protection.

The goal of this paper is to provide a methodology for assessing the optimal localization of new monitoring stations within an existing rain gauge monitoring network. The methodology presented, which uses geostatistics and probabilistic techniques (simulated annealing) combined with GIS instruments, could be extremely useful in any area where an extension of whatever existing environmental monitoring network is planned. The methodology has been applied to the design of an extension to a rainfall monitoring network in the Apulia region (South Italy).

Spatial evaluation of the risk of groundwater quality degradation. A comparison between disjunctive kriging and geostatistical simulation.

In some previous papers a probabilistic methodology was introduced to estimate a spatial index of risk of groundwater quality degradation, defined as the conditional probability of exceeding assigned thresholds of concentration of a generic chemical sampled in the studied water system. A crucial stage of this methodology was the use of geostatistical techniques to provide an estimation of the above-mentioned probability in a number of selected points by crossing spatial and temporal information. In this work, spatial risk values were obtained using alternatively stochastic conditional simulation and disjunctive kriging.

Integrating conflict analysis and consensus reaching in a decision support system for water resource management.

The importance of shared decision processes in water management derives from the awareness of the inadequacy of traditional--i.e. engineering--approaches in dealing with complex and ill-structured problems.

A methodology for space-time classification of groundwater quality.

Safeguarding groundwater from civil, agricultural and industrial contamination is matter of great interest in water resource management. During recent years, much legislation has been produced stating the importance of groundwater as a source for drinking water supplies, underlining its vulnerability and defining the required quality standards. Thus, schematic tools, able to characterise the quality and quantity of groundwater systems, are of very great interest in any territorial planning and/or water resource management activity.

Cokriging optimization of monitoring network configuration based on fuzzy and non-fuzzy variogram evaluation.

A number of optimization approaches regarding monitoring network design and sampling optimization procedures have been reported in the literature. Cokriging Estimation Variance (CEV) is a useful optimization tool to determine the influence of the spatial configuration of monitoring networks on parameter estimations. It was used in order to derive a reduced configuration of a nitrate concentration monitoring well network.

A probabilistic methodology to assess the risk of groundwater quality degradation.

An approach to assess the risk of groundwater quality degradation with regard to fixed standards. based on Disjunctive Kriging (DK) is presented. The DK allows one to evaluate the Conditional Probability (CP) of overriding a given threshold of concentration of a pollutant at a given time, and at a generic point in a considered groundwater system.