This work provides an overview of the ecology of all bipartite cyanolichens of Italy, exploring the relationships between ecological factors and species traits. A matrix of 205 species and several ...ecological descriptors was subjected to multivariate analyses (classification and ordination). Six groups of species with similar ecology were delimited, arranged along a gradient of decreasing aridity and light intensity, from extreme dry habitats on sunny calcareous rocks to very humid and shaded habitats on tree bark. The relationships between ecological species groups and traits were assessed by Principal Component Analysis, carried out on a matrix of ecological species groups and percent occurrences of 11 morpho-biological traits in each group. Along the gradient from arid to humid environments, and from more primeval substrata (rocks, mineral soils) to more recent ones (organic soils, tree bark), morphologically simpler, sexually reproducing cyanolichens are gradually replaced by more complex, often asexual species, which suggests that the current ecology of cyanolichens may retain a phylogenetic signal, indicative of the evolutionary footprint in species adaptation processes.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
In this contribution, new data concerning Algae, bryophytes, fungi and lichens of the Italian flora are presented. It includes new records and confirmations for the algal genus Nitella, for the ...bryophyte genera Anthoceros, Dicranodontium, Fontinalis, and Riccia, the fungal genera Inocybe and Xerophorus, and the lichen genera Bagliettoa, Biatora, Calicium, Cladonia, Coniocarpon, Lecanora, Opegrapha, Placynthium, Rhizocarpon, Scytinium, Solenopsora, Stereocaulon, and Verrucaria.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In this contribution, new data concerning bryophytes, fungi, and lichens of the Italian flora are presented. It includes new records and confirmations for the bryophyte genera
Diplophyllum
and
...Ptychostomum
, the fungal genera
Arrhenia
,
Gymnosporangium
, and
Sporidesmium
and the lichen genera
Arthonia
,
Coenogonium
,
Flavoplaca
,
Gyalolechia
,
Parmotrema
,
Peltigera
,
Pterygiopsis
,
Squamarina
,
Tornabea
, and
Waynea
.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In this contribution, new data concerning bryophytes, fungi, and lichens of the Italian flora are presented. It includes new records and confirmations for the bryophyte genera
Diplophyllum
and
...Ptychostomum
, the fungal genera
Arrhenia
,
Gymnosporangium
, and
Sporidesmium
and the lichen genera
Arthonia
,
Coenogonium
,
Flavoplaca
,
Gyalolechia
,
Parmotrema
,
Peltigera
,
Pterygiopsis
,
Squamarina
,
Tornabea
, and
Waynea
.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
We focus on the process of leaving home among young Italians and aim to discern: (a) the extent to which the potential economic vulnerability associated with certain individual labour market ...conditions affects the pathway of leaving the parental home; (b) whether the impact of such conditions has changed over generations of young adults. Data come from the pooling of two cross-sectional rounds of the ‘Families and Social Subjects’ survey conducted by the Italian National Institute of Statistics in 2009 and 2016. Specifically, we consider young adults who at the time of interview were between the ages of 20 and 44, for a total of 22,218 respondents. We employ discrete-time event history models, including a competing risks approach. Our findings suggest that labour market status differs in its influence according to reason for exit and gender. While we observe a clearly negative impact of being out of the labour market for both union and non-union related reasons for men, this negative impact is observed only for non-union-related motives for women. Meanwhile, economic uncertainty connected with precarious jobs does not necessarily have a negative impact on the risk of leaving parental home, both for union and non-union related reasons. Furthermore, we see signs of differences across cohorts relative to this latter set of motives for men. The results highlight the importance of considering reasons for exit in analyses of departure from the parental home.
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NUK, ODKLJ, PRFLJ, UL, UM, UPUK
Over the last few decades, increasing attention has been paid to the issue of wellbeing among older people, and life satisfaction has been used as an indicator to evaluate older people's life ...conditions. This paper sheds some light on this topic with reference to Italy, a country characterised by an increasing ageing population. The aim is to examine life satisfaction among people aged 65 and older and its predictors. We adopt a gender approach to examine whether – as suggested by the literature – older men and women have different sources of satisfaction. We test this hypothesis in Italy, a country still characterised by an unbalanced public and private gender system. In doing this, we also control whether living arrangements – specifically living alone – influence the determinants of life satisfaction of older men and women. The data used are from the cross-sectional surveys ‘Aspects of Daily Life’, undertaken in Italy by the National Statistical Institute. The results do not show clear gender differences in the determinants of life satisfaction, with only some slight gender differences among those living alone. This suggests that the social and cultural environment may play a relevant role for older people's life satisfaction.
A cancer diagnosis can impact patients' and caregivers' lives, posing different challenging situations. In particular, breast cancer and prostate cancer are two types of cancer involving families and ...especially spouses in challenges linked with the diagnosis and treatment process. Caregivers are usually involved in the treatment decision-making (TDM) process concerning patients' clinical pathway, cancer treatment, and ongoing therapies. To date, no contributions provide an exhaustive overview of the role of caregivers in cancer care and their involvement in the TDM process related to the therapies.
We performed a systematic review of caregiver and patients experiences and perceptions of caregiver involvement in cancer TDM. Articles were searched on Public/Publisher MEDLINE (PubMed), Excerpta Medica Database (Embase), Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (Medline), and American Psychological Association APA PsycINFO.
17 studies were included, 10 on prostate cancer and 7 on breast cancer. According to the reviewed studies, patients and caregivers experienced the cancer diagnosis with a sense of unity. Most patients preferred to have an active or collaborative role with caregivers in TDM, feeling it was important to consult or share the decision made with their caregivers. Caregivers preferred to collaborate with patients or let patients decide by themselves after considering their opinions. Caregiver involvement could have a positive influence on the patient's medical decisions, even if cancer diagnosis and treatments overwhelmed patients and caregivers.
These findings highlight the importance of using a perspective that focuses on the relationship between a patient and caregivers when they receive a cancer diagnosis and have to make a treatment decision. Targeting caregiver-patient dyads, rather than individuals, is important since a supported relationship could have a protective effect on psychological distress, quality of life (QOL), and relationship satisfaction. Moreover, dyads may benefit from interventions that focus on the needs of both the patient and caregiver.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK, VSZLJ
Refining the selection of HER2-positive metastatic gastric cancer patient candidates for trastuzumab is a challenge of precision oncology. Preclinical studies have suggested several genomic ...mechanisms of primary resistance, leading to activation of tyrosine kinase receptors other than HER2 or downstream signaling pathways.
We carried out this multicenter, prospective, case-control study to demonstrate the negative predictive impact of a panel of candidate genomic alterations (AMNESIA panel), including
mutations and
amplifications. Hypothesizing a prevalence of candidate alterations of 30% and 0% in resistant and sensitive HER2-positive patients, respectively, 20 patients per group were needed.
AMNESIA panel alterations were significantly more frequent in resistant (11 of 20, 55%) as compared with sensitive (0% of 17) patients (
< 0.001), and in HER2 IHC 2
(7 of 13, 53.8%) than 3
(4 of 24, 16.7%) tumors (
= 0.028). Patients with tumors bearing no candidate alterations had a significantly longer median progression-free 5.2 vs. 2.6 months; HR, 0.34; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.07-0.48;
= 0.001 and overall survival (16.1 vs. 7.6 months; HR, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.09-0.75;
= 0.015). The predictive accuracy of the AMNESIA panel and HER2 IHC was 76% and 65%, respectively. The predictive accuracy of the combined evaluation of the AMNESIA panel and HER2 IHC was 84%.
Our panel of candidate genomic alterations may be clinically useful to predict primary resistance to trastuzumab in patients with HER2-positive metastatic gastric cancer and should be further validated with the aim of molecularly stratifying HER2-addicted cancers for the development of novel treatment strategies.
.
Angiogenesis inhibitors have produced significant advances in the treatment of several tumors including colorectal, lung, ovarian and renal carcinomas. These agents, however, modestly impact on the ...overall cure rate, and their activity is often limited because of the early outbreak of redundant pathways or resistance mechanisms. Moreover, no clear predictive factor has been identified for treatment selection in the clinic. Preclinical evidence suggest that antibodies targeting the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) axis may exert their activity throughout the inhibition of VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR2) phosphorylation, a key factor in the cancer angiogenic process. Among other molecules, ramucirumab, an intravenously administered, fully humanized monoclonal antibody (mAb) targeting the extracellular domain of the receptor, and apatinib, a potent oral inhibitor of the intracellular domain, are emerging as original antiangiogenic opportunities. This up-to-date review focuses on the development of VEGFR2 inhibitors across multiple cancers and presents results of the most recent researches, ranging from early phase I studies to randomized phase III trials, in which those drugs have been tested as a single-agent or in combination with different chemotherapy regimens.
Family resources may play an important role in the wellbeing of older people. In this paper, we examine the association between living arrangement and cognitive decline among people over 65 living in ...different European countries. The underlined hypothesis is that living with others (i.e. spouse or/and children) vis-à-vis living alone may have a positive role in maintaining cognitive functioning, but also that such beneficial influence varies according to the circumstances. To this end, we used data from the first two waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which provides indicators of several cognitive functions: orientation, immediate recall, delayed recall, verbal fluency and numeracy. Net of both the potential biases due to the selective attrition and the re-test effects, the evidence shows that the association between living arrangement and cognitive decline depends on the geographical area and on the starting level of cognitive function.
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