Red mark syndrome (RMS) and US strawberry disease (US SD) are skin disorders affecting rainbow trout farmed in Europe and USA. The disease etiology has not yet been established. In spite of specific ...investigations, identifying Rickettsia‐like organism (RLO)‐ and Midichloria‐like organism (MLO)‐related DNA in affected individuals, these pathogens have never been observed. We performed histological, ultrastructural and biomolecular analysis on skin and spleen samples of trout with RMS. Examination by TEM revealed the presence of intracytoplasmic microorganisms resembling Rickettsiales within macrophages, fibroblasts and erythrocytes. The microorganisms were oval or short rod shaped (400–800 nm in length and 100–200 nm in width) and often showed a cell wall similar to Gram‐negative bacteria. PCR analysis for Rickettsiales supported these findings: 53% of affected trout were positive by both PCR and TEM The primers RiFCfw‐RiFCrev were used to anneal both the RLO 16S DNA sequence and the MLO 16S DNA sequence. For this reason, and in agreement with previous studies confirming the presence of Rickettsiales‐related DNA in trout with RMS, we assume that TEM detected microorganisms morphologically consistent with bacteria belonging to Rickettsiales order and could be considered as possible causative agents of RMS.
Fish consumption is the principal source of intake of organochlorinated compounds in humans. Compared with other types of foods of animal origin, fish contain the highest levels of polychlorinated ...biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated dibenzo- p-dioxins, and polychlorinated dibenzofurans, all of which are classified as highly toxic organochlorine compounds. Currently, lakes and fish farms in northern Italy are not regularly monitored for PCBs and dioxins in areas contaminated by industrial sources, partially because of the high costs of traditional analytical methods that limit the number of samples to be analyzed. The DR-CALUX cell bioassay is based on the uptake of the cellular aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) for dioxins and dioxin-like compounds. The aim of this study was to assess the levels of dioxins and dioxin-like PCB contamination in Lake Maggiore and Lake Como, two lakes in northwestern Italy, and in nearby areas. The levels were quantified using the cell bioassay DR-CALUX and reference controls in two wild fish species, perch ( Perca fluviatilis) and roach ( Rutilus rutilus), and in a farmed species, rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss). Tissue samples collected from the farmed rainbow trout were also submitted to immunohistochemical analysis of CYP1A expression as a marker for environmental pollutant-induced liver damage. The levels of dioxins, furans, and dioxin-like PCBs were all below the maximum levels and action limits set by European Union Regulation, suggesting no risk for human health associated with the consumption of the fish species caught or farmed in these areas.
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of replacing graded levels of dietary fish meal by a blend of two marine microalgae Tisochrysis lutea and Tetraselmis suecica on intestinal ...morpho-physiology and innate immune response in European sea bass. Two complete diets were formulated to be iso-nitrogenous and isolipidic and prepared by including a blend of the two microalgae, to replace approximately 15 and 45% fish meal protein of the control diet. A fourth diet, where the microalgae mix was substituted by soybean meal, was also prepared. Each diet was offered until visual satiety over 105 days to triplicated groups of European sea bass (204 ± 12.7 g), kept in a recirculating marine water system.
The humoral and cellular innate immune parameters of E. sea bass were affected by the dietary treatment. Fish fed the microalgae-containing or the soybean rich diets, showed a significantly greater villi height, while the thickness of intestinal epithelium was significantly reduced in fish fed the soybean meal-rich diet. The activity of the brush border membrane enzymes, maltase, sucrase-isomaltase, γ-glutamil transferase and alkaline phosphatase was not affected by dietary treatment but changed in different intestinal tracts. The genes sucrase-isomaltase, peptide transporter 1, sodium/potassium-transporting ATPase and aminopeptidase N were overexpressed in the pyloric and proximal region of the intestine of fish fed the microalgae-including diets. In conclusion, a blend of dried marine microalgae Tisochrysis lutea and Tetraselmis suecica as alternative ingredients to dietary fish meal did not hamper gut digestive-absorptive functions of E. sea bass. Moreover, it resulted in enhanced non-specific immune response, suggesting an effective role as an immunostimulant ingredient.
•A blend of T. lutea and T. suecica dried biomass was tested in E. sea bass diets low in fish meal and oil.•The proximal intestine of fish fed microalgae diets showed a greater villi height and thickness.•Including microalgae in the diet increased the gene expression of certain brush border membrane enzymes.•The activity of certain intestinal brush border membrane enzymes was not affected by microalgae containing diets.•Certain innate immune response parameters improved in fish fed diets with moderate levels of dietary microalgae mixture.
In this work we present the architectural and performance studies concerning a prototype of a distributed Tier2 infrastructure for HEP, instantiated between the two Italian sites of INFN-Romal and ...INFN-Napoli. The network infrastructure is based on a Layer-2 geographical link, provided by the Italian NREN (GARR), directly connecting the two remote LANs of the named sites. By exploiting the possibilities offered by the new distributed file systems, a shared storage area with synchronous copy has been set up. The computing infrastructure, based on an OpenStack facility, is using a set of distributed Hypervisors installed in both sites. The main parameter to be taken into account when managing two remote sites with a single framework is the effect of the latency, due to the distance and the end-to-end service overhead. In order to understand the capabilities and limits of our setup, the impact of latency has been investigated by means of a set of stress tests, including data I/O throughput, metadata access performance evaluation and network occupancy, during the life cycle of a Virtual Machine. A set of resilience tests has also been performed, in order to verify the stability of the system on the event of hardware or software faults. The results of this work show that the reliability and robustness of the chosen architecture are effective enough to build a production system and to provide common services. This prototype can also be extended to multiple sites with small changes of the network topology, thus creating a National Network of Cloud-based distributed services, in HA over WAN.
Single crystals of congruent melting hexagonal VB2were grown using a triarc furnace applying the Czochralski technique. Orientation dependent microhardness measurements on a single crystal reveal ...quasi similar hardness in the crystallographic directions 〈00.1〉 and 〈10.0〉, whereas the 〈10.1〉 shows slightly lower values.
Geographic layer-two links, joint with Cloud technologies and new generation network file systems allow to design a new class of services for distributed infrastructures. In this work, we present the ...architecture of the prototypal distributed Tier2 created between the two sites INFN-Roma1 and INFN-Napoli. The designed architecture takes advantage of a geographic L2 link used to propagate a GlusterFS file system to create a single storage area. On top of this layer, we created a complete Infrastructure as a Service to manage virtual machine in the two sites. The performed analysis demonstrates that the latency does not affect the stability of the global system. Finally, with a set of use-cases we show the effectiveness of our approach.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 132501 (2018) The CUORE experiment, a ton-scale cryogenic bolometer array, recently began
operation at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. The array
represents a ...significant advancement in this technology, and in this work we
apply it for the first time to a high-sensitivity search for a
lepton-number--violating process: $^{130}$Te neutrinoless double-beta decay.
Examining a total TeO$_2$ exposure of 86.3 kg$\cdot$yr, characterized by an
effective energy resolution of (7.7 $\pm$ 0.5) keV FWHM and a background in the
region of interest of (0.014 $\pm$ 0.002) counts/(keV$\cdot$kg$\cdot$yr), we
find no evidence for neutrinoless double-beta decay. The median statistical
sensitivity of this search is $7.0\times10^{24}$ yr. Including systematic
uncertainties, we place a lower limit on the decay half-life of
$T^{0\nu}_{1/2}$($^{130}$Te) > $1.3\times 10^{25}$ yr (90% C.L.). Combining
this result with those of two earlier experiments, Cuoricino and CUORE-0, we
find $T^{0\nu}_{1/2}$($^{130}$Te) > $1.5\times 10^{25}$ yr (90% C.L.), which is
the most stringent limit to date on this decay. Interpreting this result as a
limit on the effective Majorana neutrino mass, we find $m_{\beta\beta}<(110 -
520)$ meV, where the range reflects the nuclear matrix element estimates
employed.
The CUORE experiment will search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of \(^{130}\)Te with an array of 988 TeO\(_2\) bolometers arranged in 19 towers. CUORE-0, the first tower assembled according to ...the CUORE procedures, was built and commissioned at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, and took data from March 2013 to March 2015. In this paper we describe the design, construction and operation of the CUORE-0 experiment, with an emphasis on the improvements made over a predecessor experiment, Cuoricino. In particular, we demonstrate with CUORE-0 data that the design goals of CUORE are within reach.
The CUORE experiment, a ton-scale cryogenic bolometer array, recently began operation at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. The array represents a significant advancement in this ...technology, and in this work we apply it for the first time to a high-sensitivity search for a lepton-number--violating process: \(^{130}\)Te neutrinoless double-beta decay. Examining a total TeO\(_2\) exposure of 86.3 kg\(\cdot\)yr, characterized by an effective energy resolution of (7.7 \(\pm\) 0.5) keV FWHM and a background in the region of interest of (0.014 \(\pm\) 0.002) counts/(keV\(\cdot\)kg\(\cdot\)yr), we find no evidence for neutrinoless double-beta decay. The median statistical sensitivity of this search is \(7.0\times10^{24}\) yr. Including systematic uncertainties, we place a lower limit on the decay half-life of \(T^{0\nu}_{1/2}\)(\(^{130}\)Te) > \(1.3\times 10^{25}\) yr (90% C.L.). Combining this result with those of two earlier experiments, Cuoricino and CUORE-0, we find \(T^{0\nu}_{1/2}\)(\(^{130}\)Te) > \(1.5\times 10^{25}\) yr (90% C.L.), which is the most stringent limit to date on this decay. Interpreting this result as a limit on the effective Majorana neutrino mass, we find \(m_{\beta\beta}<(110 - 520)\) meV, where the range reflects the nuclear matrix element estimates employed.
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