Investigating how reproductive traits in rice respond to abiotic stress.

Oryza sativa is one of the most important crops and a food source for billions of people. Anthropic global warming, soil erosion, and unstable environmental conditions affect both its vegetative and reproductive growth, and consequently the final yield of its cultivation. The reproductive phase starts with the transition of apical meristem from vegetative to reproductive, which develops into a panicle, proceeds through the differentiation of the floret, and, after fertilization, the filling of the grain.

Behavioral Cetology in the 19th Century: Thomas Beale, Henry Cheever, Thomas Southwell and Their Role in Awakening a Cetacean Protection Consciousness.

Although naturalists have devoted attention to cetaceans since Antiquity, it was only in the 19th century that cetology underwent a true explosion. Three key cetological works of this period are The Natural History of the Sperm Whale (1839) by Thomas Beale, The Whaleman's Adventures in the Southern Ocean (1850) by Henry Cheever and The Seals and Whales of the British Seas (1881) by Thomas Southwell. Importantly, these three works did not only represent fundamental compendia of scientific knowledge of cetaceans, but also had a crucial role in awakening a cetacean protection consciousness.

Avascular necrosis in pediatric rheumatic diseases: an Italian retrospective multicentre study.

Background: Atraumatic avascular necrosis (AVN) is a severe condition that may complicate the course of rheumatic diseases and contribute to long-term damage. However, there is a lack of evidence on this rare event in pediatric rheumatology. The aim of our study was to evaluate the occurrence of avascular necrosis in the context of rheumatologic diseases in Italy and to describe the main demographic and clinical features of AVN patients, with a particular focus on treatment background.

NPT100-18A rescues mitochondrial oxidative stress and neuronal degeneration in human iPSC-based Parkinson's model.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by protein aggregates mostly consisting of misfolded alpha-synuclein (αSyn). Progressive degeneration of midbrain dopaminergic neurons (mDANs) and nigrostriatal projections results in severe motor symptoms. While the preferential loss of mDANs has not been fully understood yet, the cell type-specific vulnerability has been linked to a unique intracellular milieu, influenced by dopamine metabolism, high demand for mitochondrial activity, and increased level of oxidative stress (OS).

Refining MR-guided thermal ablation for HCC within the Milan criteria: a decade of clinical outcomes and predictive modeling at a single institution.

Background: The appropriateness of ablation for liver cancer patients meeting the Milan criteria remains controversial.

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the long-term outcomes of MR-guided thermal ablation for HCC patients meeting the Milan criteria and develop a nomogram for predicting survival rates.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted from January 2009 to December 2021 at a single institution.

Oxygenation improvement and duration of prone positioning are associated with ICU mortality in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients.

Background: Prone position has been diffusely applied in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients. Our aim is ascertaining the association between the physiologic response and the length of the first cycle of prone position and intensive care unit (ICU) mortality.

Methods: International registry including COVID-19 adult patients who underwent prone positioning.

Childhood BMI trajectories and sociodemographic factors in an Italian pediatric population.

Childhood obesity is a growing global concern due to its long-term health consequences. Yet, more research relying on multiple time-point BMI measurements is warranted to gain further insight into obesity's temporal trends. We aimed to identify BMI trajectories in children aged 2-10 years and evaluate their association with sociodemographic factors.

Biomarkers associated with anastomotic leakage after esophagectomy: a systematic review.

Purpose: Anastomotic leakage (AL) is one of the most important complications that occurs after upper gastrointestinal surgery, registering rates of 20-30% after esophagectomy. The role of systemic inflammatory biomarkers to predict anastomotic leaks is controversial and needs systematization.

Methods: A systematic review based on the PRISMA guidelines criteria was performed.

Deepening water scarcity in breadbasket nations.

Water is crucial for meeting sustainability targets, but its unsustainable use threatens human wellbeing and the environment. Past assessments of water scarcity (i.e.

The role of nutritional vitamin D in CKD-MBD in children and adults with CKD, on dialysis and after kidney transplantation - a European consensus statement.

Vitamin D deficiency is common in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and associates with poor outcomes. Current clinical practice guidelines recommend supplementation with nutritional vitamin D as for the general population. However, recent large-scale, clinical trials in the general population failed to demonstrate a benefit of vitamin D supplementation on skeletal or non-skeletal outcomes, fueling a debate on the rationale for screening for and correcting vitamin D deficiency, both in non-CKD and CKD populations.

Enhancing patient safety and risk management through clinical pathways in oncology.

The increasing emphasis on risk management and quality assessment in hospital management necessitates strict adherence to government and international standards. Those standards are particularly important, and certification requirements further underscore this need. The objective of this paper is to outline the application of the INTegrated Audit Model in a Comprehensive Cancer Center.

VAE-Surv: A novel approach for genetic-based clustering and prognosis prediction in myelodysplastic syndromes.

Background And Objectives: Several computational pipelines for biomedical data have been proposed to stratify patients and to predict their prognosis through survival analysis. However, these analyses are usually performed independently, without integrating the information derived from each of them. Clustering of survival data is an underexplored problem, and current approaches are limited for biomedical applications, whose data are usually heterogeneous and multimodal, with poor scalability for high-dimensionality.

Atezolizumab plus bevacizumab as first-line treatment of unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma: interim analysis results from the phase IIIb AMETHISTA trial.

Background: The treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with atezolizumab and bevacizumab led to significant improvements in overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and response rate compared with sorafenib in the phase III IMbrave150 trial. The etiology of background liver disease can differ between Eastern and Western populations, leading to a potentially different impact of systemic therapies; therefore the unequal representation must be considered in the IMbrave150 trial. To provide further data on the safety and effectiveness of atezolizumab and bevacizumab, the phase IIIb AMETHISTA (Atezolizumab plus bevacizumab in METastatic HCC Italian Safety TriAl) ran in a Western (Italian) population of patients with advanced HCC.

Health networking on cancer in the European Union: a 'green paper' by the EU Joint Action on Networks of Expertise (JANE).

Health networking is in principle a formidable instrument to address many challenges posed by cancer, one of the two most common and most lethal non-communicable chronic diseases. The European Union (EU)'s Beating Cancer Plan foresaw the addition of new health networks to the four already existing European Reference Networks on rare cancers: the Network of Comprehensive Cancer Centres and several networks of expertise (NoEs), which will be shortly deployed on items as complex and poor-prognosis cancers, palliative care, survivorship, personalised primary and secondary prevention, omic technologies, hi-tech medical resources, and cancers in adolescents and young adults. The community of experts of the EU Joint Action, due to build such NoEs, has drafted this 'green paper', incorporating 13 open questions, in an effort to foster discussion on some open questions about health networking on cancer in the EU.

A case-control genome-wide association study of estimated breeding values for resistance to gastrointestinal nematodes in two local dairy sheep breeds.

In sheep, gastrointestinal nematodes (GINs) can cause disease, reduced feed intake, and nutritional deficiencies. To counteract GINs, anthelmintics are widely used although it is well known they may enter the environment impacting ecosystems. In addition, anthelmintics resistance has rapidly developed and consequently, alternative approaches are crucial for profitable and sustainable sheep production.

New insights into persistent corneal subepithelial infiltrates following epidemic keratoconjunctivitis: The first case report with ultrastructural and immunohistochemical investigations.

Epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC) is one of the most severe clinical manifestations of human adenovirus ocular surface infection, which may lead to the formation of subepithelial infiltrates (SEIs) in the anterior corneal stroma in 20-50 % of cases. SEIs may be asymptomatic or give rise to corneal aberrations and visual impairment for months or years after acute infection, despite treatments. Here, we describe the ultrastructural and immunophenotypic features of the anterior corneal stroma of a patient who underwent superficial anterior lamellar keratoplasty (SALK) surgery to remove corneal opacities related to clinically significant and steroid-unresponsive, long-lasting SEIs after adenoviral EKC.

Imaging-based prediction of early recurrence and neoadjuvant therapy outcomes for resectable beyond Milan HCC.

Purpose: To develop and validate an MRI-based model for predicting postoperative early (≤2 years) recurrence-free survival (RFS) in patients receiving upfront surgical resection (SR) for beyond Milan hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to assess the model's performance in separate patients receiving neoadjuvant therapy for similar-stage tumors.

Method: This single-center retrospective study included consecutive patients with resectable BCLC A/B beyond Milan HCC undergoing upfront SR or neoadjuvant therapy. All images were independently evaluated by three blinded radiologists.

Training Load, Official Match Locomotor Demand, and Their Association in Top-Class Soccer Players During a Full Competitive Season.

Riboli, A, Nardi, F, Osti, M, Cefis, M, Tesoro, G, and Mazzoni, S. Training load, official match locomotor demand, and their association in top-class soccer players during a full competitive season. J Strength Cond Res 39(2): 249-259, 2025-To examine training load and official match locomotor demands of top-class soccer players during a full competitive season and to evaluate their association.

A Novel Staging System of Cardiac Damage in Aortic Stenosis based on Multi-Chamber Myocardial Deformation.

Aims: This study evaluates whether multi-chamber myocardial deformation analysis using speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) can enhance validated current staging systems and improve risk stratification for patients with moderate-to-severe aortic stenosis (AS).

Methods And Results: We reanalyzed 2D, Doppler, and STE data obtained from two cohorts: derivation (654 patients, median age: 82 years; 51% men) and validation (237 patients, median age: 77 years; 55% men) with at least moderate AS (aortic valve area<1.5 cm2).

EULAR recommendations for the treatment of systemic sclerosis: 2023 update.

Objectives: To update the 2017 European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) recommendations for treatment of systemic sclerosis (SSc), incorporating new evidence and therapies.

Methods: An international task force was convened in line with EULAR standard operating procedures. A nominal group technique exercise was performed in two rounds to define questions underpinning a subsequent systematic literature review.

The effect of single versus group culture on cumulus-oocyte complexes from early antral follicles.

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of single versus group culture strategies for cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) derived from early antral follicles (EAFs), with the goal of optimizing culture conditions to increase oocyte availability for assisted reproductive technologies.

Methods: COCs isolated from EAFs (350-450 µm) from sheep ovaries were cultured in TCM199 medium supplemented with 0.15 µg/mL Zn as zinc sulfate, 10 IU/mL FSH, 10 ng/mL estradiol, 50 ng/mL testosterone, 50 ng/mL progesterone, and 5 µM Cilostamide.

Measurement of multidifferential cross sections for dijet production in proton-proton collisions at .

A measurement of the dijet production cross section is reported based on proton-proton collision data collected in 2016 at by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 36.3 . Jets are reconstructed with the anti- algorithm for distance parameters of and 0.

Family Connections: The Impact of an Education Program for Carers of Individuals With Borderline Personality Disorder in Italian Mental Health Services.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) has a strong impact not only on patients' lives but also on their families. The presence of an invalidating environment is one of the key factors in the etiology of BPD. This study evaluated the impact of the Family connections (FC) program on burden, grief, and other clinical variables in 202 caregivers and identified the profiles of participants who improved/deteriorated their levels of burden and grief.

Trans-jugular intrahepatic portosystemic stent shunting benefits and limits.

Trans-jugular intrahepatic portosystemic stent shunting (TIPSS) has been in use for many years with great results and many evolutions. The procedure essentially involves the insertion of a metal covert stent to create an Hepato-Hepatic portosystemic shunt. Over time, TIPSS has become the subject of many studies aimed at examining its clinical utility and evaluating the results of using TIPSS to manage complications related to portal hypertension.