The STrengthening the REporting of Genetic Association studies (STREGA) statement was based on the STrengthening the REporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement, and it was ...published in 2009 in order to improve the reporting of genetic association (GA) studies. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of STREGA endorsement on the quality of reporting of GA studies published in journals in the field of genetics and heredity (GH). Quality of reporting was evaluated by assessing the adherence of papers to the STREGA checklist. After identifying the GH journals that endorsed STREGA in their instructions for authors, we randomly appraised papers published in 2013 from journals endorsing STREGA that published GA studies (Group A); in GH journals that never endorsed STREGA (Group B); in GH journals endorsing STREGA, but in the year preceding its endorsement (Group C); and in the same time period as Group C from GH journals that never endorsed STREGA (Group D). The STREGA statement was referenced in 29 (18.1%) of 160 GH journals, of which 18 (62.1%) journals published GA studies. Among the 18 journals endorsing STREGA, we found a significant increase in the overall adherence to the STREGA checklist over time (A vs C; P < 0.0001). Adherence to the STREGA checklist was significantly higher in journals endorsing STREGA compared to those that did not endorse the statement (A vs B; P = 0.04). No significant improvement was detected in the adherence to STREGA items in journals not endorsing STREGA over time (B vs D; P > 0.05). The endorsement of STREGA resulted in an increase in quality of reporting of GA studies over time, while no similar improvement was reported for journals that never endorsed STREGA.
Roughly 85% of healthcare research funding may be wasted due to several avoidable reasons, including poor research question selection, poor study design, selective non-publication, and poor ...reporting.1 The cost of waste worldwide was estimated at 200 billion United States dollars in 2010.1All actors in the research eldresearchers, institutions, regulators, funders, publishers, and policy makershave important roles in waste reduction.1 To reduce waste from poor reporting, many high-impact medical journals endorse and actively implement reporting guidelines that specify a minimum set of items required for a clear and transparent account of what was done and what was found in study.2Over 300 reporting guidelines have so far been published for specic types of research.3 Key reporting guidelines include the CONSORT statement for randomized controlled trials, the STROBE statement for observational studies, the STARD statement for diagnostic accuracy studies, and the PRISMA statement for systematic reviews.
Making sense of rapidly evolving evidence on genetic associations is crucial to making genuine advances in human genomics and the eventual integration of this information in the practice of medicine ...and public health. Assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of this evidence, and hence the ability to synthesize it, has been limited by inadequate reporting of results. The STrengthening the REporting of Genetic Association studies (STREGA) initiative builds on the STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) Statement and provides additions to 12 of the 22 items on the STROBE checklist. The additions concern population stratification, genotyping errors, modelling haplotype variation, Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium, replication, selection of participants, rationale for choice of genes and variants, treatment effects in studying quantitative traits, statistical methods, relatedness, reporting of descriptive and outcome data and the volume of data issues that are important to consider in genetic association studies. The STREGA recommendations do not prescribe or dictate how a genetic association study should be designed, but seek to enhance the transparency of its reporting, regardless of choices made during design, conduct or analysis.
The olive is a long-lived evergreen tree, capable of regenerating itself from any part of the plant (pollard tree). This characteristic has allowed the olive trees to survive across the centuries ...until they become real natural monuments. The aim of this work has been to study the monumental “Olivo della Strega” (“Witch’s Olive tree”) olive tree, located in the olive orchard of Santissima Annunziata church, in Magliano (Grosseto, Italy), a tree with a special place in local history and folklore and with estimated age over 700 years. The morphometric data of leaf, fruit, stone and pollen were used to characterize the phenotype, while genetic diversity was assessed on the basis of microsatellite markers. The morphological and genetic analysis pointed to two clearly distinguishable parts in the “Olivo della Strega” tree, called sample left (SL) and sample right (SR). This ancient plant consists of two different genotypes: one part (SL) was identified as cv Frantoio and the other (SR) as an unknown genotype. Moreover, traditional (in vivo conservation) and advanced techniques (cryopreservation) have made conservation achievable to preserve its genetic heritage. In particular “Olivo della Strega” pollen was stored for 1 year in liquid nitrogen. The morphology of pollen grains, viability and germinability of fresh and long term cryopreserved pollen were observed at different times during preservation, without revealing significant differences.
“Witch” and “Shaman” Puca, Angela
International journal for the study of new religions,
01/2018, Letnik:
9, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
From the very birth of the term, Strega (“Witch”) has been used with a negative connotation to describe women with powers aimed at harming people. Strega has its etymological origin in the Latin ...Strix, the owl believed to feed on human blood. Pop culture, books and media alike, also portrayed the witch as an evil character to the point where it became common parlance to address a person deemed evil as a witch. In the last three decades, with the popularization of paganism and Wicca, the term has been reclaimed and somehow sanitized by Pagans who neutrally describe this figure as someone who has the ability to change reality in accordance with the will. In more recent years, with the spread of shamanism, more practitioners start to either renounce the term “witch” in favour of Sciamano/sciamana (“Shaman”) or use them both to define themselves. By analysing the discourses that practitioners create around the terms “witch” and “shaman”by means of Paul Johnson’s categories, I will illustrate how both terms manifest a form of indigenization and extending. In conclusion, I will argue that indigenizing and extending may be seen as two aspects of the same phenomenon entailing the opening of cultural borders to the outside, reshaping both the imported and exported cultural elements.
Abstract Genetic association studies, in particular candidate gene studies, have a long history of initially promising findings which subsequently produce a confusing mixture of replications, partial ...replications and non-replications. Drug and Alcohol Dependence is receiving an increasing number of submissions of genetic association studies. Here we discuss the journal's approach to considering such papers, in order to encourage credible and balanced reports which will contribute positively to the field. Recently, the STrengthening the REporting of Genetic Association studies (STREGA) initiative has provided guidelines which serve to enhance transparency. We strongly encourage authors considering submitting a genetic association study to the journal to follow these guidelines.
Two distinct ophiolitic units, which represent remnants of the Jurassic Ligurian-Piedmont Ocean, crop out in the Elba Island. They are the Monte Strega unit in central-eastern Elba and the Punta ...Polveraia-Fetovaia unit in western Elba. Ophiolitic rocks from the Monte Strega unit are commonly affected by ocean floor metamorphism, whereas those from the Punta Polveraia-Fetovaia unit are affected to various extent by thermal metamorphism associated with the Late Miocene Monte Capanne monzogranitic intrusion. Both ophiolitic units include pillow lavas and dykes with compositions ranging from basalt to basaltic andesite, Fe-basalt, and Fe-basaltic andesite. Basaltic rocks from these distinct ophiolitic units show no chemical differences, apart those due to fractional crystallization processes. They display a clear tholeiitic nature with low Nb/Y ratios and relatively high TiO
2
, P
2
O
5
, Zr, and Y contents. They generally display flat N-MORB normalized high field strength element patterns, which are similar to those of N-MORB. Chondrite-normalized rare earth element patterns show light REE / middle REE (LREE/MREE) depletion and marked heavy (H-) REE fractionation with respect to MREE. This HREE/MREE depletion indicates a garnet signature of their mantle sources. Accordingly, they can be classified as garnet-influenced MORB (G-MORB), based on Th, Nb, Ce, Dy, and Yb systematics. We suggest that the Elba Island ophiolitic basalts were generated at a magma starved, slow-spreading mid-ocean ridge. REE, Th, and Nb partial melting modelling shows that the compositions of the relatively primitive Elba Island ophiolitic basalts are compatible with partial melting of a depleted MORB mantle (DMM) source bearing garnet-pyroxenite relics. Hygromagmatophile element ratios suggest that basalts from both ophiolitic units were originated from chemically very similar mantle sources. A comparison with basalts and metabasalts from Alpine Corsica and northern Apennine ophiolitic units shows that the composition of the inferred mantle source for the Elba Island basalts is similar to that of some Lower
Schistes Lustrés
metabasalts of Alpine Corsica ophiolites, and some basalts from the Internal Ligurian units of northern Apennine. In contrast, it slightly differs from those of other ophiolitic units of Alpine Corsica and northern Apennine. The chemical differences observed between basalts and metabasalts from different Ligurian-Piedmont ophiolitic units were likely associated with different partial melting degrees of either DMM source or garnet-pyroxenite relics and/or different mixing proportions of melts derived from them, as well as to different compositions of garnet-pyroxenite relics.
This study is a linguistic approach to “gender oriented” insulting. After touching on some generic features of linguistic aggression (already censored by Medieval treaty texts on the sins of the ...language) and of identity and diversity expressed via words, the work points out the aspect of linguistic sexism which seem to set up a “negativity” of the “feminine” in itself. The central part of the work focuses on the Italian words which, as an act of detracting or direct insult, more often deal with women: “strega” and, above all, “puttana”. Of the latter it is remembered the wide range of synonyms (euphemistic or dysphemistic, denotative or connotative, cultivated or dialectal) one finds in the history of Italian up to the most recent foreignism (“escort”); some of them are analyzed as useful to semantic and socio-cultural considerations.
This study is a linguistic approach to "gender oriented" insulting. After touching on some generic features of linguistic aggression (already censored by Medieval treaty texts on the sins of the ...language) and of identity and diversity expressed via words, the work points out the aspect of linguistic sexism which seem to set up a "negativity" of the "feminine" in itself. The central part of the work focuses on the Italian words which, as an act of detracting or direct insult, more often deal with women: "strega" and, above all, "puttana". Of the latter it is remembered the wide range of synonyms (euphemistic or dysphemistic, denotative or connotative, cultivated or dialectal) one finds in the history of Italian up to the most recent foreignism ("escort"); some of them are analyzed as useful to semantic and socio-cultural considerations.
Both as character and as text, "Strega Nona/Strega Nona" has much to offer the field of Italian American studies as a clear exponent of what Fred Gardaphe calls the mythic or hybrid age of Italian ...American literature. The title's character's twin attributes of strega and non(n)a grant the title character a unique alchemic power in dynamics of Italian American identity creation by tapping into both the comfortable distance afforded by the grandparent figure and the specificity of "Strega Nona"'s Southern Italian folk magic. The three areas in which the series carries particular interest in the realm of Italian America identity, namely, taxonomies of Italian American literature and ethnic hybridity, the iconic figure of the grandmother and its function in ethnic identity creation, and stregheria's emerging role as a touchstone of the uniqueness of italianita, are explored.
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