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The work aims to estimate natural greenhouse gas emissions from soils in the Sibari Coastal Plain (Southern Italy), to understand (i) the contribution in terms of the total amount of CO 2 and CH 4 emitted in non-volcanic areas, (ii) the relationship among emitted gas, land use, organic matter and tectonic structures, and (iii) their potential environmental implications. Data were elaborated with statistical and geostatistical methods to separate the different populations and obtain prediction and probability maps. Methane fluxes had values consistently below the detection limit (0.032 g ∙ m -2 ∙ d -1 ) except for three measurement points randomly distributed along the plain. Statistical and geostatistical methods allowed to discriminate three main CO 2 flux populations: (i) high-flux population (Pop. B - mean value of 63.65 g ∙ m -2 ∙ d -1 ), located near the mouth of the Crati River and related to the massive presence of buried organic matter in the form of peat; (ii) medium-flux population (Pop. A2 - mean value of 8.37 g ∙ m -2 ∙ d -1 ) which is the result of soil respiration, and (iii) low-flux population (Pop. A1 - mean value of 1.85 g ∙ m -2 ∙ d -1 ) due to areas where low permeability or increases in saturated aquifer thickness may control the overall flux. In the study area, a total CO 2 emission of about 2671 t ∙ d -1 was calculated, which, if compared to the average total flux expected for simple soil respiration (1284 t ∙ d -1 ), represents a non-negligible value in the total Carbon balance. Finally, the comparison with representative normalized fluxes from volcanic and non-volcanic areas confirms the critical role of coastal plains in total atmospheric CO 2 emissions. The proposed approach can be applied to areas with comparable or different geological and climatic settings to trace their contribution in terms of greenhouse gas release to the atmosphere., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Palliative care is an important aspect of gynaecological oncology practice. In order to successfully integrate end-of-life (EOL) care in the disease trajectory, it is crucial to incorporate systematic training in subspecialty programmes in gynaecological oncology. We aimed to evaluate the quality of training in palliative care across gynaecological oncology fellows in Europe and to provide a framework to facilitate learning opportunities., Methods: A web-based questionnaire was sent to members of the European Network of Young Gynae-Oncologists (ENYGO). The survey consisted of 36 items covering six domains: respondents' characteristics, quality and quantity of teaching, curriculum achievements, observation and feedback, EOL clinical practice and attitudes about palliative care., Results: Of the 703 clinicians enrolled in the study, 142 responded (20.2%). Although the majority worked in university hospitals, only half of them (47%) were in a formal subspecialty programme. The majority of respondents (60%) were trained without a mandatory rotation in palliative care units and considered the quality of EOL care teaching as 'very poor' or 'poor' (57.7%). The majority of respondents (71.6%) did not receive any supervision or feedback at the time of their first consultation on changing the goals of care., Conclusion: Our study underlines lack of structured teaching and supervision in palliative care contents among European fellows in gynaecological oncology. Broad education of healthcare providers is a key factor to achieve the integration of palliative care in gynaecological oncology practice. Stakeholders like European Society of Gynaecological Oncology/ENYGO play an important role to facilitate educational activities and training programmes targeting to EOL care., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ Group.)

This article provides a review of published literature on the concentration levels of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in asbestos minerals like chrysotile, actinolite, amosite (asbestiform grunerite), anthophyllite, crocidolite (asbestiform riebeckite) and tremolite and their potential to release PTEs into groundwaters worldwide. A large number of PTEs, such as Fe, Cr, Ni, Mn, Co and Zn, may be hosted by asbestos minerals, and their release in the lung environment can cause different health problems as well as their intake via drinking water. The review highlights that amosite is the phase with the highest PTEs content, followed by crocidolite, actinolite, anthophyllite, tremolite and chrysotile. Chrysotile, tremolite, and anthophyllite contain higher levels of Cr, Ni, and Co, while Fe and Mn are more enriched in amosite and crocidolite. Actinolite contains a high concentration of all considered PTEs. High levels of Cr, Fe, Zn, Mn, and Ni were also detected in groundwater interacting with ophiolite rocks containing asbestos minerals. The three main recognized hydro-geochemical facies (Mg-HCO 3 , Ca-HCO 3 and Ca-OH), characterizing the ophiolite aquifers, show high levels of Cr and Ni, with values sometimes above the World health Organization (WHO) thresholds for drinking waters, which can cause adverse health effects in short and long term. The knowledge emerging from this work is a significant contribution to the already wide frame of understanding asbestos-related diseases and provide a strong scientific basis for further mineralogical and geochemical studies., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the implementation of the elements of enhanced recovery (ERAS) protocols in patients undergoing cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for metastatic ovarian cancer. ERAS protocols have shown improvement in the perioperative outcomes of patients who underwent cytoreductive surgery for metastatic ovarian cancer by reducing the length of stay as well as the postoperative complications and by improving patients' postoperative experience ., Methods: This is a feasibility study involving retrospective analysis from (31) patients who underwent cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC versus (35) a control group that underwent cytoreductive surgery only, prior to the introduction of the HIPEC programme for metastatic ovarian cancer. All patients had undergone neoadjuvant chemotherapy prior to surgery. We compared the compliance for each element of the ERAS protocol between the two study groups., Results: We analyzed data from 66 patients, 31 in HIPEC group and 35 in the control goup. We found no significant difference in the patients' characteristics between the two groups and there were no differences in the implementation of 8 elements of the ERAS protocols (100 % for both groups). The use of nasogastric tube was more frequently observed in patients undergoing surgery and HIPEC compared to those undergoing surgery alone (42 % vs 0 %, respectively; p < 0.001). The number of patients who were mobilized on the first postoperative day was higher in the group undergoing surgery and HIPEC (87.1 % vs 57.1 %, respectively; p = 0.007), however there was no significant difference in the percentage of patients that had early removal of the urinary catheter (p = 0.12), nor in the percentage of patients that received early feeding (p = 0.18). Finally, there were no statistically significant differences in the complication rates, the length of hospital stay and the re-admission rates between the two groups., Conclusion: Enhanced recovery protocols can be implemented safely in patients undergoing cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC for ovarian cancer., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Equitable and accessible education in life sciences, bioengineering, and synthetic biology is crucial for training the next generation of scientists, fostering transparency in public decision-making, and ensuring biotechnology can benefit a wide-ranging population. As a groundbreaking technology for genome engineering, CRISPR has transformed research and therapeutics. However, hands-on exposure to this technology in educational settings remains limited due to the extensive resources required for CRISPR experiments. Here, we develop CRISPRkit, an affordable kit designed for gene editing and regulation in high school education. CRISPRkit eliminates the need for specialized equipment, prioritizes biosafety, and utilizes cost-effective reagents. By integrating CRISPRi gene regulation, colorful chromoproteins, cell-free transcription-translation systems, smartphone-based quantification, and an in-house automated algorithm (CRISPectra), our kit offers an inexpensive (~$2) and user-friendly approach to performing and analyzing CRISPR experiments, without the need for a traditional laboratory setup. Experiments conducted by high school students in classroom settings highlight the kit's utility for reliable CRISPRkit experiments. Furthermore, CRISPRkit provides a modular and expandable platform for genome engineering, and we demonstrate its applications for controlling fluorescent proteins and metabolic pathways such as melanin production. We envision CRISPRkit will facilitate biotechnology education for communities of diverse socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Microglia diversity emerges from interactions between intrinsic genetic programs and environment-derived signals, but how these processes unfold and interact in the developing brain remains unclear. Here, we show that radial glia-expressed integrin beta 8 (ITGB8) expressed in radial glia progenitors activates microglia-expressed TGFβ1, permitting microglial development. Domain-restricted deletion of Itgb8 in these progenitors establishes complementary regions with developmentally arrested "dysmature" microglia that persist into adulthood. In the absence of autocrine TGFβ1 signaling, we find that microglia adopt a similar dysmature phenotype, leading to neuromotor symptoms almost identical to Itgb8 mutant mice. In contrast, microglia lacking the TGFβ signal transducers Smad2 and Smad3 have a less polarized dysmature phenotype and correspondingly less severe neuromotor dysfunction. Finally, we show that non-canonical (Smad-independent) signaling partially suppresses disease and development associated gene expression, providing compelling evidence for the adoption of microglial developmental signaling pathways in the context of injury or disease., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests D.S. and UCSF hold patents on the uses of antibodies that block the alphavbeta8 integrin. D.S. is a founder and owns stock in Pliant Therapeutics, is on the Scientific Review Board for Genentech and is on the Inflammation Scientific Review Board for Amgen.

Mammalian genomes have multiple enhancers spanning an ultralong distance (>megabases) to modulate important genes, but it is unclear how these enhancers coordinate to achieve this task. We combine multiplexed CRISPRi screening with machine learning to define quantitative enhancer-enhancer interactions. We find that the ultralong distance enhancer network has a nested multilayer architecture that confers functional robustness of gene expression. Experimental characterization reveals that enhancer epistasis is maintained by three-dimensional chromosomal interactions and BRD4 condensation. Machine learning prediction of synergistic enhancers provides an effective strategy to identify noncoding variant pairs associated with pathogenic genes in diseases beyond genome-wide association studies analysis. Our work unveils nested epistasis enhancer networks, which can better explain enhancer functions within cells and in diseases.