Baseline Distribution of Invasive Alien Species of Union concern

A current EU geographical distribution of spatial information for the 37 Invasive Alien Species (IAS) of Union concern (IAS Regulation 1143/2014) is set, based on the best available knowledge, resulting from an assessment of data aggregated through the European Alien Species Information Network (EASIN) in collaboration with the Member States (MS) Competent Authorities of 18 EU countries. This baseline is an important tool supporting the implementation of the IAS Regulation and also provides a factual basis for the review of the application of the IAS Regulation. Ultimately, the information included can be used for monitoring the achievement of Target 5 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 for combatting IAS, but also to the implementation of other EU policies with requirements on alien species, such as the Birds and Habitats Directives, and the Marine Strategy and Water Framework Directives.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource

Competing risks and prognostic stages of cirrhosis: A 25-year inception cohort study of 494 patients

Background Morphological, haemodynamic and clinical stages of cirrhosis have been proposed, although no definite staging system is yet accepted for clinical practice. Aim To investigate whether clinical complications of cirrhosis may define different prognostic disease stages. Methods Analysis of the database from a prospective inception cohort of 494 patients. Decompensation was defined by ascites, bleeding, jaundice or encephalopathy. Explored potential prognostic stages: 1, compensated cirrhosis without oesophago-gastric varices; 2, compensated cirrhosis with varices; 3, bleeding without other complications; 4, first nonbleeding decompensation; 5, any second decompensating event. Patient flow across stages was assessed by a competing risks analysis. Results Major patient characteristics were: 199 females, 295 males, 404 HCV+, 377 compensated, 117 decompensated cirrhosis. The mean follow-up was 145 ± 109 months without dropouts. Major events: 380 deaths, 326 oesophago-gastric varices, 283 ascites, 158 bleeding, 146 encephalopathy, 113 jaundice, 126 hepatocellular carcinoma and 19 liver transplantation. Patients entering each prognostic stage along the disease course were: 202, stage 1; 216, stage 2; 75 stage 3; 206 stage 4; 213 stage 5. Five-year transition rate towards a different stage, for stages 1-4 was 34.5%, 42%, 65% and 78%, respectively (P < 0.0001); 5-year mortality for stages 1-5 was 1.5%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 88% respectively (P < 0.0001). An exploratory analysis showed that this patient stratification may configure a prognostic system independent of the Child-Pugh score, Model for End Stage Liver Disease and comorbidity. Conclusion The development of oesophago-gastric varices and decompensating events in cirrhosis identify five prognostic stages with significantly increasing mortality risks

Prognostic indicators of successful endoscopic sclerotherapy for prevention of rebleeding from oesophageal varices in cirrhosis: a long-term cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Although band ligation is now recommended for prevention of rebleeding from oesophageal varices in cirrhosis, sclerotherapy is still widely used. Patients submitted to chronic sclerotherapy undergo several endoscopies and experience a large number of serious complications. However, long-term outcome is poorly defined. AIMS: To assess the clinical course and prognostic indicators of patients undergoing chronic sclerotherapy for prevention of variceal rebleeding as a basis for future evaluation of long-term band ligation outcome. METHODS: Prospective cohort study; prognostic analysis by the Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: A total of 218 consecutive cirrhotic patients (37 Child class A, 154 B, 27 C) were enrolled in the study Varices were obliterated in 139 (64%) patients in a mean of 5 (+/-2.6) sessions and recurred in 58/139 (41.7%) within one year. A total of 132 (60%) patients experienced 283 rebleeding episodes and 73 (33%) died. Bleeding from oesophageal ulcers was the most serious complication causing 14% of all rebleeding episodes. Significant prognostic indicators of sclerotherapy outcome were: Child-Pugh class for variceal obliteration; gastric varices and platelet count for recurrence of varices; failure to obliterate varices, variceal size and gastric varices for rebleeding; blood urea nitrogen and failure to obliterate varices for death. Presence of gastric varices was the only prognostic indicator for death in the 79 patients not achieving variceal obliteration. A mean of 10 endoscopies and of 6 hospital admissions were needed per each patient with an estimated cost of US dollars 7154 per patient during the first two years of therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Sclerotherapy is a very demanding and costly treatment, and is associated with frequent and serious side-effects. The probability of treatment failure is significantly higher in Child C patients with gastric varices. Alternative treatments should be considered for these patients

Constraining Primordial Non-Gaussianity with High-Redshift Probes

We present an analysis of the constraints on the amplitude of primordial non-Gaussianity of local type described by the dimensionless parameter $f_{\rm NL}$. These constraints are set by the auto-correlation functions (ACFs) of two large scale structure probes, the radio sources from NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) and the quasar catalogue of Sloan Digital Sky Survey Release Six (SDSS DR6 QSOs), as well as by their cross-correlation functions (CCFs) with the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature map (Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect). Several systematic effects that may affect the observational estimates of the ACFs and of the CCFs are investigated and conservatively accounted for. Our approach exploits the large-scale scale-dependence of the non-Gaussian halo bias. The derived constraints on {$f_{\rm NL}$} coming from the NVSS CCF and from the QSO ACF and CCF are weaker than those previously obtained from the NVSS ACF, but still consistent with them. Finally, we obtain the constraints on $f_{\rm NL}=53\pm25$ ($1\,\sigma$) and $f_{\rm NL}=58\pm24$ ($1\,\sigma$) from NVSS data and SDSS DR6 QSO data, respectively.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication on JCA

Impact of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations on sustained virologic response in HCV-infected patients: Results from the GUARD-C Cohort

BACKGROUND: Despite the introduction of direct-acting antiviral agents for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, peginterferon alfa/ribavirin remains relevant in many resource-constrained settings. The non-randomized GUARD-C cohort investigated baseline predictors of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations (sr-RD) and their impact on sustained virologic response (SVR) in patients receiving peginterferon alfa/ribavirin in routine practice. METHODS: A total of 3181 HCV-mono-infected treatment-naive patients were assigned to 24 or 48 weeks of peginterferon alfa/ribavirin by their physician. Patients were categorized by time-to-first sr-RD (Week 4/12). Detailed analyses of the impact of sr-RD on SVR24 (HCV RNA <50 IU/mL) were conducted in 951 Caucasian, noncirrhotic genotype (G)1 patients assigned to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin for 48 weeks. The probability of SVR24 was identified by a baseline scoring system (range: 0-9 points) on which scores of 5 to 9 and <5 represent high and low probability of SVR24, respectively. RESULTS: SVR24 rates were 46.1% (754/1634), 77.1% (279/362), 68.0% (514/756), and 51.3% (203/396), respectively, in G1, 2, 3, and 4 patients. Overall, 16.9% and 21.8% patients experienced 651 sr-RD for peginterferon alfa and ribavirin, respectively. Among Caucasian noncirrhotic G1 patients: female sex, lower body mass index, pre-existing cardiovascular/pulmonary disease, and low hematological indices were prognostic factors of sr-RD; SVR24 was lower in patients with 651 vs. no sr-RD by Week 4 (37.9% vs. 54.4%; P = 0.0046) and Week 12 (41.7% vs. 55.3%; P = 0.0016); sr-RD by Week 4/12 significantly reduced SVR24 in patients with scores <5 but not 655. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, sr-RD to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin significantly impacts on SVR24 rates in treatment-naive G1 noncirrhotic Caucasian patients. Baseline characteristics can help select patients with a high probability of SVR24 and a low probability of sr-RD with peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin

Exploring Pragmatic and Linguistic Development Trends in Early Preschool Children

Purpose: It is proposed that pragmatic skills play an important role during the language development, in particular in social interactions with conversational partners. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between pragmatic and linguistic skills in a longitudinal perspective, assuming that social-conversational abilities at early stages are associated with the child’s linguistic development. Method: In a group of 7Italian children aged from 27 to 36 months, it was measured every three months (i.e., 28, 31 and 34 months) the assertiveness and responsiveness of children during the interactions with the adult via The Social Conversational Skills Rating Scale - Italian version and the vocabulary size, the M3LU and sentence complexity via MacArthur-Bates CDI. Individual profiles and communication development trajectories of the children are investigated. Further correlational analysis was performed to examine the relation between pragmatic aspects and linguistic abilities. Results: Analysis showed significant differences in the developmental trajectories of each subject. Comparisons of social-conversational variables with linguistic skills point out positive correlations across the three observation times. Conclusion: Despite the sample is too small to draw definitive conclusions, these results suggest the importance of pragmatic assessment in language evaluation; however further researches are necessary to confirm these results

The prognostic value of tumor markers doubling times in medullary thyroid carcinoma - preliminary report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Calcitonin (Ct) and carcinoembrional antigen (CEA) are widely used as tumor markers for the post-operative follow-up of patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC).</p> <p>In patients with elevated serum Ct and CEA their dynamics can be described by calculating the doubling time (DT) - the time, they need to double the serum concentration. Previous reports concluded that the Ct and CEA DT have prognostic value in MTC patients.</p> <p>Patients and methods</p> <p>We retrospectively analyzed data of 70 MTC patients with elevated serum Ct or CEA. In total, doubling times were calculated and the DT of the less favorable marker was used to stratify the patients into the low- and high-risk group with the cut-off value of 2 years. The survival analysis was performed using Cox proportional hazard method.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The doubling time < = 2 years of the less-favorable marker had significant prognostic impact for recurrence-free survival, HR = 2.61 (1.43-4.71) and overall survival, HR = 8.99 (3.51-23.04).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The calcitonin and carcinembrional antigen doubling times of less than two years are negative prognostic factors for MTC recurrence-free and total survival in patients with persistent or recurrent disease. They may be used as predictive factors for more intensive search of disease localization in asymptomatic hypercalcitoninemia and for therapy choice in symptomatic disease.</p

Case studies of the marketing of products from newly bred lines and underutilized crops

The overall aim of Task 5.1 of the Diversifood project is to produce recommendations and guidelines for the marketing and valorisation strategies of biodiverse food products, including products from underutilized crops and based on newly-bred lines from participatory plant breeding. The work presented here identifies success and critical factors of existing initiatives, analysing the whole process of value-adding and communication from the genetic resource to the food product. A common case study approach was used by national teams in eight countries, involving around 180 interviews with various actors of each initiative, including producers and a diversity of other supply chain actors and consumers. Results of the comparative analysis are presented into two separate sections, respectively focussing on eight case studies selling products from underutilized vegetables and grains, and on three cases of marketing of products from newly-bred lines from participatory plant breeding. The final chapter presents some common conclusions and recommendations. This study confirms that the systemic approach used here is able to contribute to the development of initiatives for the valorisation of biodiverse food products and supporting agrobiodiversity. This needs to consider both the internal coherence of the initiatives and external support, as well as all the different stages of the valorisation process

The Effect of Different Laboratory-scale Sample Preparation Methods on the Composition of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) and Millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) Milling Fractions

Sorghum and millet are widely used basic food materials in developing countries, but in developed countries their novel food applications were discovered. For their commercial use, no standardized methods are available yet to evaluate their quality as food materials. In this experiment, two different lab-scale procedure (grinding and sieving with or without decortication) were used to obtain flour samples from Hungarian millet and sorghum cultivars and the changes of chemical composition (protein, ash, fat, starch, dietary fiber content) and phytic acid concentration were determined and compared to commercial flours. Both sample processing methods facilitated the separation of the hull, thereby significantly decreased the antinutritive phytic acid concentrations to the same levels as in commercial flours. Decortication increased the flour yield (59-68 %) of millet, however, in case of sorghum cultivars, no difference in yield (29-35 %) was detected after decortication. In case of millet cultivars, sieving without decortication decreased the crude protein, fat, ash and dietary fiber concentrations in flour samples to a higher extent, whilst in case of sorghum, sieving after decortication had greater impact on the chemical composition of the flour. However, both millet and sorghum flours showed advantageous nutritional composition compared to wheat flour. In conclusion, for millet sieving supported by decortication was found to be a more efficient sample processing method, but in case of sorghum the effect of decortication was negligible, and the same results were obtained by simple grinding and sieving