Search results for "ISM [Radio continuum]"
showing 10 items of 703 documents
Italy's Island Systems: Competitiveness in the Mediterranean Context
2021
From ancient times, the Mediterranean basin has connected peoples from different countries, facilitating both commercial and cultural exchanges. Within the Mediterranean basin, both large and small islands have always been transit and temporary stopping places, thereby promoting trade and acting as sorting centers for goods and knowledge. Today, these territories, which differ in size, population and economic and cultural activities, are the core of new exchanges and activities, among which tourism stands out. The Mediterranean basin has more than 100 islands belonging to six states that are members of the European Union (EU). However, despite the diversity and uniqueness of each island, th…
Successive Invasion-Mediated Interspecific Hybridizations and Population Structure in the Endangered Cichlid Oreochromis mossambicus.
2013
Hybridization between invasive and native species accounts among the major and pernicious threats to biodiversity. The Mozambique tilapia Oreochromis mossambicus, a widely used freshwater aquaculture species, is especially imperiled by this phenomenon since it is recognized by the IUCN as an endangered taxon due to genetic admixture with O. niloticus an invasive congeneric species. The Lower Limpopo and the intermittent Changane River (Mozambique) drain large wetlands of potentially great importance for conservation of O. mossambicus, but their populations have remained unstudied until today. Therefore we aimed (1) to estimate the autochthonous diversity and population structure among genet…
Imbalance between genomic gain and loss identifies high-risk neuroblastoma patients with worse outcomes
2021
Survival in high-risk neuroblastoma (HR-NB) patients remains poor despite multimodal treatment. We aimed to identify HR-NB patients with worse outcomes by analyzing the genomic instability derived from segmental chromosomal aberrations. We calculated 3 genomic instability indexes for primary tumor SNP array profiles from 127 HR-NB patients: (1) Copy number aberration burden (%gainslength+%losseslength), (2) copy number load (CNL) (%gainslength-%losseslength) and (3) net genomic load (NGL) (%gainsamount-%lossesamount). Tumors were classified according to positive or negative CNL and NGL genomic subtypes. The impact of the genomic instability indexes on overall survival (OS) was assessed with…
Interference with purinergic signalling
2016
Objective: The association of abacavir (ABC), a guanosine analogue, with cardiovascular toxicity is a long-lasting matter of controversy engendered by the lack of a mechanism of action. Clinical data point to an acute mechanism of vascular inflammation. Previous studies have shown that ABC induces leukocyte-endothelial cell interactions, an indicator of vascular inflammation. These effects are reproduced by another purine analogue, didanosine, but not by pyrimidine or acyclic nucleotide analogues, hinting at an interference with the purinergic system. The aim of the present study was to assess the role of ATP-receptors in leukocyte accumulation induced by ABC. Design and methods: Clinical c…
Friend or foe? The apparent benefits of gregarine (Apicomplexa: Sporozoa) infection in the European earwig
2020
International audience; Studying the costs and benefits of host-parasite interactions is of central importance to shed light on the evolutionary drivers of host life history traits. Although gregarines (Apicomplexa: Sporozoa) are one of the most frequent parasites in the gut of invertebrates, the diversity of its potential impacts on a host remains poorly explored. In this study, we addressed this gap in knowledge by investigating the prevalence of natural infections by the gregarine Gregarina ovata and testing how these infections shape a large set of morphological, behavioural and physiological traits in the European earwig Forficula auricularia. Our results first show that G. ovata was p…
Glucagon-like peptide-2 treatment improves glucose dysmetabolism in mice fed a high fat diet
2016
Previous studies suggested that endogenous glucagon-like peptide 2 (GLP-2) is dispensable for the regulation of glucose homeostasis under normal conditions, while it can play a beneficial role in obesity conditions. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether chronic treatment with Gly2-GLP-2, a stable analogue of GLP-2, can have an impact on glycaemic and lipid control in mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD), an animal model of human obesity and insulin resistance. HFD mice were treated once a day with Gly2-GLP-2 for 4 weeks. Body weight, food intake, fasting glucose, intraperitoneal glucose tolerance, insulin-induced glucose clearance, glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, β-cel…
Pancreatic polypeptide stimulates mouse gastric motor activity through peripheral neural mechanisms
2016
Background Pancreatic polypeptide (PP) is supposed to be one of the major endogenous agonists of the neuropeptide Y4 receptor. Pancreatic polypeptide can influence gastrointestinal motility, acting mainly through vagal mechanisms, but whether PP acts directly on the stomach has not been explored yet. The aims of this study were to investigate the effects of PP on mouse gastric emptying, on spontaneous tone of whole stomach in vitro and to examine the mechanism of action. Methods Gastric emptying was measured by red phenol method after i.p. PP administration (1–3 nmol per mouse). Responses induced by PP (1–300 mmol L−1) on gastric endoluminal pressure were analyzed in vitro in the presence o…
Modulation of the gut microbiota impacts nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A potential role for bile acids
2017
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease worldwide, yet the pathogenesis of NAFLD is only partially understood. Here, we investigated the role of the gut bacteria in NAFLD by stimulating the gut bacteria via feeding mice the fermentable dietary fiber, guar gum (GG), and suppressing the gut bacteria via chronic oral administration of antibiotics. GG feeding profoundly altered the gut microbiota composition, in parallel with reduced diet-induced obesity and improved glucose tolerance. Strikingly, despite reducing adipose tissue mass and inflammation, GG enhanced hepatic inflammation and fibrosis, concurrent with markedly elevated plasma and hepatic bile acid l…
“Better explanations” in multiple sclerosis diagnostic workup
2019
BackgroundThe exclusion of other diseases that can mimic multiple sclerosis (MS) is the cornerstone of current diagnostic criteria. However, data on the frequency of MS mimics in real life are incomplete.MethodsA total of 695 patients presenting with symptoms suggestive of MS in any of the 22 RIREMS centers underwent a detailed diagnostic workup, including a brain and spinal cord MRI scan, CSF and blood examinations, and a 3-year clinical and radiologic follow-up.FindingsA total of 667 patients completed the study. Alternative diagnoses were formulated in 163 (24.4%) cases, the most frequent being nonspecific neurologic symptoms in association with atypical MRI lesions of suspected vascular…
Apremilast, a novel phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) inhibitor, regulates inflammation through multiple cAMP downstream effectors
2015
Introduction This work was undertaken to delineate intracellular signaling pathways for the PDE4 inhibitor apremilast and to examine interactions between apremilast, methotrexate and adenosine A2A receptors (A2AR). Methods After apremilast and LPS incubation, intracellular cAMP, TNF-α, IL-10, IL-6 and IL-1α were measured in the Raw264.7 monocytic murine cell line. PKA, Epac1/2 (signaling intermediates for cAMP) and A2AR knockdowns were performed by shRNA transfection and interactions with A2AR and A2BR, as well as with methotrexate were tested in vitro and in the murine air pouch model. Statistical differences were determined using one or two-way ANOVA or Student’s t test. The alpha nominal…