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Background There is a paucity of data concerning the optimal ventilator management in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia; particularly, the optimal levels of positive-end expiratory pressure (PEEP) are unknown. We aimed to investigate the effects of two levels of PEEP on alveolar recruitment in critically ill patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Methods A single-center cohort study was conducted in a 39-bed intensive care unit at a university-affiliated hospital in Genoa, Italy. Chest computed tomography (CT) was performed to quantify aeration at 8 and 16 cmH2O PEEP. The primary endpoint was the amount of alveolar recruitment, defined as the change in the non-aerated compartment at the two PEEP levels on CT scan. Results Forty-two patients were included in this analysis. Alveolar recruitment was median [interquartile range] 2.7 [0.7–4.5] % of lung weight and was not associated with excess lung weight, PaO2/FiO2 ratio, respiratory system compliance, inflammatory and thrombophilia markers. Patients in the upper quartile of recruitment (recruiters), compared to non-recruiters, had comparable clinical characteristics, lung weight and gas volume. Alveolar recruitment was not different in patients with lower versus higher respiratory system compliance. In a subgroup of 20 patients with available gas exchange data, increasing PEEP decreased respiratory system compliance (median difference, MD − 9 ml/cmH2O, 95% CI from − 12 to − 6 ml/cmH2O, p p = 0.003), increased PaO2 with FiO2 = 0.5 (MD 24 mmHg, 95% CI from 12 to 51 mmHg, p 2 with FiO2 = 1.0 (MD 7 mmHg, 95% CI from − 12 to 49 mmHg, p = 0.313). Moreover, alveolar recruitment was not correlated with improvement of oxygenation or venous admixture. Conclusions In patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia, higher PEEP resulted in limited alveolar recruitment. These findings suggest limiting PEEP strictly to the values necessary to maintain oxygenation, thus avoiding the use of higher PEEP levels.

Introduction: Cerebral autoregulation (CA) plays a fundamental role in the maintenance of adequate cerebral blood flow (CBF). CA monitoring, through direct and indirect techniques, may guide an appropriate therapeutic approach aimed at improving CBF and reducing neurological complications; so far, the role of CA has been investigated mainly in brain-injured patients. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of CA in non-brain injured patients.Methods: A systematic consultation of literature was carried out. Search terms included: "CA and sepsis," "CA and surgery," and "CA and non-brain injury."Results: Our research individualized 294 studies and after screening, 22 studies were analyzed in this study. Studies were divided in three groups: CA in sepsis and septic shock, CA during surgery, and CA in the pediatric population. Studies in sepsis and intraoperative setting highlighted a relationship between the incidence of sepsis-associated delirium and impaired CA. The most investigated setting in the pediatric population is cardiac surgery, but the role and measurement of CA need to be further elucidated.Conclusion: In non-brain injured patients, impaired CA may result in cognitive dysfunction, neurological damage, worst outcome, and increased mortality. Monitoring CA might be a useful tool for the bedside optimization and individualization of the clinical management in this group of patients.

AMINO ACID, SUGAR, POLIPHENOL, VITAMIN C AND VITAMIN E CONTENTS IN FRESHLY HARVESTED FRUITS OF PLUM LANDRACES OF CAMPANIA REGION (ITALY) IANNUZZI F., MIRTO A., WOODROW P., CARILLO P., FUGGI A. Department of Environmental Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, II University of Naples, Via A. Vivaldi 43, 81100 Caserta (Italy) plum biodiversity, sugars, poliphenols, vitamins, free amino acids The characterization of traditional cultivars (landraces), selected by farmers and particularly adapted to the environment in which they evolved is fundamental in the conservation and enhancement of the Agro-biodiversity. Morphological, phenological and genetic methods, actually are integrated by proteomics and metabolomics ones. Such methods evaluate phenotypic traits modulated by the environmental conditions (abiotic and biotic stress). In food products they allow the quality assessment at harvest, during postharvest storage and/or treatments. Metabolic profiling can proved fingerprints of typical products useful to define, protect and track them along their lifestory. In this work sugars, organic acids, polyphenols, anthocyanins, Vitamin C (ascorbic acid and dehidroascorbic acid) and vitamin E (α-tocopherol and γ-tocopherol), free amino acids, were determined in fruits from plum landraces of Campania (Italy). Fruits from sixteen plum landraces cultivated at "CRAA-Azienda Agricola Sperimentale Improsta" of Campania Region were analysed. The edible part of freshly harvested fruits were cutted in small pieces, frozen in liquid nitrogenand saved at -80°C. Three samples of cutted materials were powedered in liquid nitrogen and used to prepare extracts for the analyses. The results were expressed on a fresh weight basis as means and standard error. The plum fruits showed a huge variability in the distribution of soluble sugars: they were about 4% of fresh weight (FW) In the landrace "Sila", while in "Del Carmine" and "Pezza Rossa" it was less than 1% of FW. Sorbitol content, on average, was about 18% of the soluble sugars. The polyphenol contents were at least 100% higher than the USDA one. Higher levels of poliphenols occurred in "Santa Paola", "Coglie e Astad Bianca” and “Santangiolese”, while the lower one was found in "San Rafele" and "Pappacona". Among the analysed landraces the anthocyanins occurred mainly in the skin, and, therefore, the amounts were, generally, lower than 1% of total polyphenols. The Vitamin E (α, γ tocopherols) was similar to USDA average data in most of the landraces, while they were more than 100% higher in "Santa Paola" and "Santangiolese". Only in some landraces γ tocopherol content was higher than the α one. However Vitamin E was highly correlated to polyphenol content. Among the free amino acids asparagine occurred at the highest concentration followed by GABA, aspartate and glutamate. Proline was at the highest level in “Sila” and “Del Carmine”. Organic acids and Vitamine C were also analysed. PCA analysis of all data evidenced a main cluster with 12 landraces of the 16 analysed ones. Such data can integrate the genetic and agronomic ones for a better characterization of plum landraces. The work was funded by "Regione Campania, PSR 2007/2013, Measure 214, Action f2, project Agrigenet".

L'interazione millenaria dell'uomo con l'ambiente ha reso la collina di Posillipo un sito unico per archeologia, natura ed architettura. Lo scopo di questo lavoro è descrivere l'evoluzione del territorio attraverso tre ville (Rosebery, Lauro e Palazzo Donn'Anna), le loro architetture e rapporto con lo spazio. Il promontorio di Posillipo, separazione dei golfi di Napoli e Pozzuoli, è la sopravvivenza meridionale di un cratere del complesso vulcanico dei Campi Flegrei, in cui si presentano successioni comprese tra 39?000 e 15?000 anni fa. Il materiale affiorante è il Tufo Giallo Napoletano, che, molto sensibile all'erosione marina, rende la costa fortemente frastagliata e suggestiva. Questo materiale è stato sfruttato da sempre nelle costruzioni come pure le cavità da cui veniva prelevato. È documentata la presenza dei Greci, Romani. Nuovo impulso ricevette nel periodo vicereale spagnolo quando venne costruito Palazzo Donn'Anna, a cui seguirono altre ville monumentali tra cui Villa Rocca Matilde (anche nota come Villa Lauro) e Villa Rosebery, divenuta dopo la guerra residenza ufficiale del Presidente della Repubblica Italiana. La collina, bombardata durante la guerra, fu soggetta ad intensificazione urbanistica nel dopoguerra. E' tuttora una delle zone residenziali più ambite della città di Napoli.

ASCORBIC ACID, ASCORBATE PEROXIDASE, AND H2O2 IN FRESHLY HARVESTED FRUITS OF SWEET CHERRY LANDRACES OF CAMPANIA (ITALY) MIRTO A., IANNUZZI F., VACCA F., WOODROW P., CARILLO P., FUGGI A. Department of Environmental Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, Second University of Naples, Via A.Vivaldi 43, 81100 Caserta (Italy) sweet cherry,vitamin C, ascorbate peroxidase, hydrogen peroxide,redox potential Ascorbate (AsA) has a key role in many metabolic processes, regenerating other metabolites like tocopherols from oxidative damages and protect many enzymes from irreversible inactivation by oxidation mainly caused by the oxidative stress. It is among the main component of the redox homeostasis buffering mechanism (ascorbate - glutathione cycle and is involved in many redox signalling processes. Ascorbate peroxidase (APX) as enzyme of the ascorbate-glutathione cycle uses ascorbate as electron donor to scavenge hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) produced in normal and stress enhanced aerobic metabolism. (Ascorbate (vitamin C) is essential for human health and its main dietary source are plant-derived foods. In addition high level of ascorbate in fruits and vegetables improve their post-harvesting storage properties. In the aim of conservation and valorization of agro-biodiversity of sweet cherry germoplasm of Campania (Italy) a study has been conducted to measure AsA, dehydroascorbate (DHA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) contents, as well as APX activities in the harvested fruits. The redox state of the fruits was also evaluated. Freshly harvested fruits from 23 landraces cultivated at the Regione Campania – Improsta farm were used for the analyses. The sweet cherry fruit extracts of the landraces varied significantly in contents of AsA and DHA as well as in the DHA/AsA ratio. The redox potential showed the lowest value in the extracts from the “Patanara” and “Lauretana” ones that did not show particularly high contents of AsA. The highest potential was found in those from “Melella” and “Tamburella” that had relatively low AsA content. Extracts from “Melella” were among those with the highest APX activity, while those from “Tamburella” were from those with the lowest APX activity, as were also the extract from Lauretana. The H2O2 contents also were not simply related to AsA content, APX activity and redox potential, in agreement with the view that ascorbate concentration is dependent on biosynthesis, catabolism and recycling. Anyway as considering that the oxidative stress in postharvest increase it can be suggested that fruits with the lowest redox potential closer to the physiological one, at the harvest,contains the overall most efficient antioxidant system and may be more suitable for postharvest storage. The work was funded by "Regione Campania, PSR 2007/2013, Measure 214, Action f2, project “Agrigenet".

Homozygous or heterozygous mutations in the PTEN-induced kinase 1 (PINK1) gene have been linked to early-onset Parkinson's disease (PD). Several neurophysiological studies have demonstrated alterations in striatal synaptic plasticity along with impaired dopamine release in PINK1-deficient mice. Using electrophysiological methods, here we show that PINK1 loss of function causes a progressive increase of spontaneous glutamate-mediated synaptic events in the hippocampus, without influencing long-term potentiation. Moreover, fluorescence analysis reveals increased neurotrasmitter release although our biochemical results failed to detect which presynaptic proteins might be engaged. This study provides a novel role for PINK1 beyond the physiology of nigrostriatal dopaminergic circuit. Specifically, PINK1 might contribute to preserve synaptic function and glutamatergic homeostasis in the hippocampus, a brain region underlying cognition. The subtle changes in excitatory transmission here observed might be a pathogenic precursor to excitotoxic neurodegeneration and cognitive decline often observed in PD. Using electrophysiological and fluorescence techniques, we demonstrate that lack of PINK1 causes increased excitatory transmission and neurotransmitter release in the hippocampus, which might lead to the cognitive decline often observed in Parkinson's disease.

We present a detailed comparison of fundamental dark matter halo properties retrieved by a substantial number of different halo finders. These codes span a wide range of techniques including friends of friends (FOF) spherical overdensity (SO) and phase space based algorithms. We further introduce a robust (and publicly available) suite of test scenarios that allows halo finder developers to compare the performance of their codes against those presented here. This set includes mock haloes containing various levels and distributions of substructure at a range of resolutions as well as a cosmological simulation of the large scale structure of the universe. All the halo finding codes tested could successfully recover the spatial location of our mock haloes. They further returned lists of particles (potentially) belonging to the object that led to coinciding values for the maximum of the circular velocity profile and the radius where it is reached. All the finders based in configuration space struggled to recover substructure that was located close to the centre of the host halo and the radial dependence of the mass recovered varies from finder to finder. Those finders based in phase space could resolve central substructure although they found difficulties in accurately recovering its properties. Via a resolution study we found that most of the finders could not reliably recover substructure containing fewer than 30 40 particles. However also here the phase space finders excelled by resolving substructure down to 10 20 particles. By comparing the halo finders using a high resolution cosmological volume we found that they agree remarkably well on fundamental properties of astrophysical significance (e.g. mass position velocity and peak of the rotation curve).

CDNA-NBS PROFILING OF HORTENSIA RGA-LIKE GENES RESPONSIVE TO LEAF SPOT FUNGAL INFECTION. WOODROW P., KAFANTARIS I., IANNUZZI F., MIRTO A., FUGGI A. AND CARILLO P. Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Ambientali Biologiche e Farmaceutiche, Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli, via Vivaldi 43, 81100 Caserta, Italy. Keywords: biotic stress, resistance genes, nbs profiling, leaf spot, hortensia. Hydrangeas are susceptible to leaf spot fungus Cercospora hydrangeae. Fungal spores germinate quickly and spread over the plant leaves under warm and rainy weather forming small purple or brown spots. Although Hydrangea plants are not killed by leaf spot, it reduces the flowering and plant vigor decreasing the market value of the plants. The aim of our study was to isolate and characterize Hortensia resistance (R) gene transcripts under C. hydrangeae fungus infection and investigate their expression profile and evolutionary relationships. The majority of disease R-genes in plants encode nucleotide-binding site leucine-rich repeat (NBS-LRR) proteins. A cDNA-NBS strategy was carried out using as template cDNAs isolated from control and infected plant leaves. The cDNA-NBS profiling gave an excellent bands reproducibility. Twenty new transcripts corresponding to NBS-LRR proteins were identified only in infected plants. Their phylogenetic analysis revealed that most of them evolved through concerted evolution probably due to a selective pressure from a certain pathogen and/or genetic evolutionary events such as gene conversion, crossing-over, duplication and diversifying selection.

To control and prevent the oxidative stress plants synthesize many antioxidant metabolites among which tocopherols are the most important lipophilic ones, playing a key role in preserving membrane structures. They are synthesized exclusively by photosynthetic organisms and are acquired by animals through the diet. Vegetables, during storage, suffer qualitative and quantitative changes that can affect tocopherols as well as other nutritional, nutraceutic and organoleptic characteristics. In this work tocopherols have been studied in broccoli from Brassica rapa cv. sylvestris kept in different conditions (4°C, 9°C, 20°C) and stored for different time intervals from the harvest. Sample materials (in triplicate) were extracted in methanol and used to determine alpha and gamma tocopherols. Such compounds were separated by reverse phase HPLC, detected fluorimetrically and quantified by comparison with pure standard compounds. The results show that the storage at 4°C better preserves the tocopherol contents. Other results were also discussed. The work was financially supported by "Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli" and "MIUR"•(PRIN2006077008_005;2008S9T3KK_003).

The cauliflower, is a very appreciate vegetable crop for its nutritional and nutraceutic properties. In particular it contains glucosinolates that have been reported to prevent some cancer diseases. The aim of this work was to determined profiles of nitrogen and sulphur metabolites of the corimb of cauliflower (Brassica oleracea subp. botrytis cv Atalaya) in plants grown under different farming methods (traditional versus reduced/no work). The analyses were done on the immature flowers and the corimb stem of plants harvested and stored at -80°C. The samples powdered in liquid nitrogen were used to determine the content of protein, carbohydrates, pigments, ascorbate and glutathione, inorganic and organic acids and glucosinolates. The comparative analyses of data evidenced that different distributions of such metabolites occurred in the immature flowers and the corimb stem, but no significant change seemed dependent on the applied farming methods. The work was financed by Seconda Università di Napoli and MIUR (Progetto PRIN 2006077008).

Le Aree Naturali Protette sia Marine che Terrestri "proteggono" le coste italiane per oltre 700 chilometri, ma nonostante ciò, in molti casi, è stato necessario eseguire interventi di ingegneria ambientale e/o naturalistica; le cause di ciò sono da ricercare nel ridotto trasporto solido fluviale, causato da comportamenti antropici non in linea con l'evoluzione naturale, anche a centinaia di chilometri di distanza dalle foci. Il presente studio ha messo in evidenza la necessità di ampliare i confini delle Aree Naturali Protette, che comprendono zone costiere, verso il mare e fare altrettanto per le Aree Marine Protette, verso l'entroterra. Inoltre è stato eseguito anche uno studio sulla vigente normativa in tema ambientale. Nei dieci anni trascorsi dalla Legge Costituzionale 3/2011, numerose incertezze e questioni interpretative sono emerse con riferimento al riparto di competenze tra Stato e Regioni in materia ambientale. Una di queste riguarda il rapporto e il coordinamento tra diversi strumenti di pianificazione territoriale, in particolare, il rapporto tra il Piano paesistico, previsto dal Codice dei beni culturali e del paesaggio, e il Piano del parco, previsto dalla Legge quadro sulle aree protette. L'analisi della recente giurisprudenza della Corte Costituzionale in materia consente di chiarire quali sono i principi posti alla base della"gerarchia" tra gli strumenti di pianificazione adottati ai diversi livelli territoriali.

This work try to start a stage of consideration about the millenarian presence of olive trees in the Mediterranean landscape. The highly symbolic component of olive trees strongly conditioned the development and has been perceived and exalted over the time by poets, painters and artists from any walks of social, cultural and national.

La ASL NA 2, il CNR - IBAF, Sezione di Napoli - Se.R.S.A.P. e la Cattedra di Igiene ed Epidemiologia dell'Università "Parthenope" hanno avviato uno studio con l'impiego del GIS, correlato a tecniche di indagine tradizionali, per migliorare la conoscenza dell'epidemiologia umana e veterinaria legata ad uno specifico territorio. Il GIS verrà utilizzato per determinare la distribuzione geografica e l'andamento dei focolai epidemici antropozoonotici, con loro progressione nel territorio oggetto di studio (Comuni di Pozzuoli e Quarto) "unicum" di particolare interesse ambientale per la contemporanea presenza di ecosistemi di natura marina e terrestre. L'ADEP e l'Area Veterinaria dispongono di informazioni relative ai casi di malattie infettive e diffusive sul territorio della ASL Napoli 2 e di dati epidemiologici, sia umani che veterinari, relativi all'ambito oggetto di studio. L'IBAF - Se.R.S.A.P. dispone del know how e delle competenze idonee per ampliare il campo di applicazione della tecnologia GIS, tradizionalmente applicata alla pianificazione territoriale, anche al settore di interesse specifico della ricerca. La Cattedra di Igiene ed Epidemiologia fornirà competenze specifiche nel campo della valutazione analitica. L'elaborazione dei dati con il sistema GIS, consentirà di effettuare un'analisi epidemiologica descrittiva sulla distribuzione dei casi di malattia infettiva e dei fattori di rischio antropozoonotici al fine di implementare azioni sinergiche preventive ai vari livelli per ridurre l'incidenza delle malattie oggetto di studio sul territorio in esame.