Explore the vast range of titles available.

Macrozoobenthos are invertebrates playing a fundamental role in the ecosystem processes of several environments, such as lagoons. They contribute to nutrient cycles, metabolization of pollutants, sediment oxygenation, as well as filtering phytoplankton, and are a food source for other organisms at higher level of the food web. The distribution of macrozoobenthos depends on both abiotic and biotic factors, such as salinity, depth, hydrodynamics, sediment size and composition, as well as inter- and intraspecific competition and predation. Macrozoobenthos communities are commonly used as bioindicators to assess the quality of coastal and transitional marine ecosystems. In fact, they represent one of the biological quality elements for evaluating the ecological quality status of transitional and coastal waters under the Water Framework Directive. The aim of this study is to investigate changes in the macrozoobenthos community and their relationship with environmental parameters in the Venice Lagoon, one of the largest and most important transitional water bodies in the Mediterranean Sea. To this end, ecological indices were applied to 268 samples and 252 taxa , collected from 2011 to 2022, with macrozoobenthos sampled once every three years during the spring-summer period. Trends in environmental conditions of the water coloumn (sampled seasonally each year) and sediments (sampled concurrently with macrozoobenthos) were also analyzed, highlighting a significant increase/decrease in some parameters, which were then related to dissimilarities in macrozoobenthos abundances. The results show that the macrozoobenthos community in the Venice lagoon has changed over time, with evidence of biodiversity loss and differences between polyhaline and euhaline areas, and between different hydrodynamic zones. The changes in macrozoobenthos are also significantly related to environmental parameters such as salinity, temperature, nutrients, organic carbon, silicate, and grain size.

The glass-gem collection at the National Archeological Museum of Aquileia (Italy) was recently studied by in-depth archaeometric investigation campaigns, which are still running. Some objects in this very rich collection were characterized by performing a completely non-destructive analysis. In order to enhance our knowledge of Heritage Science, specific educational paths were designed, which, in one case, were already tested in a summer school involving Italian middle-school students. This article will characterize a single glass-gem (as a case study), highlighting how ancient craftsmen combined technical skill and product beauty expertly. A multidisciplinary approach yielded valuable details about morphology, composition, and production technique, demonstrating additional information beyond that gleaned from typological and iconographic studies. At the same time, educational pathways based on this research study are valuable, inclusive, and high-quality examples in the so-called STEM field that develop better knowledge, conservation methods, and techniques for the enhancement of cultural heritage collections.

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires Member States to assess the ecological status of water bodies and provide an estimation of the classification confidence and precision. This study tackles the issue of the uncertainty in the classification, due to the spatial variability within each water body, proposing an analysis of the reliability of classification, using the results of macrophyte WFD monitoring in the Venice Lagoon as case study. The level of classification confidence, assessed for each water body, was also used as reference to optimize the sampling effort for the subsequent monitorings. The ecological status of macrophytes was calculated by the Macrophyte Quality Index at 114 stations located in 11 water bodies. At water body scale, the level of classification confidence ranges from 54% to 100%. After application of the multi-approach (inferential statistics, spatial analyses, and expert judgment), the optimization of the sampling effort resulted in a reduction of the number of stations from 114 to 84. The decrease of sampling effort was validated by assessing the reliability of classification after the optimization process (54–99%) and by spatial interpolation of data (Kernel standard error of 22.75%). The multi-approach proposed in this study could be easily applied to any other water body and biological quality element.

The Transitional Water Eutrophication Assessment Method (TWEAM) is a multi-index set up for assessing the eutrophication risk and trend in transitional waters. It includes a selection of environmental variables, an ecological status indicator (i.e., Macrophyte Quality Index, MaQI) and the Transitional Water Quality Index (TWQI). Possible outcomes of the TWEAM include three trophic classes in terms of eutrophication risk: (i) eutrophic; (ii) non-eutrophic; (iii) mesotrophic. The method was applied on data collected at 28 stations in the Venice Lagoon over four triennial monitoring cycles (MC I-IV) in the period 2011–2022. The spatial variability and medium-term trend of eutrophication risk were investigated, highlighting a general improvement in trophic conditions over time, with a decrease in mesotrophic stations (representing 46% of total in MC-I and 25% in MC-IV) in favor of non-eutrophic stations (46% of total in MC-I and 73% in MC-IV). The main driver of observed positive changes is related to the colonization of sensitive macroalgae and aquatic angiosperms, resulting in an increase in the percentage of stations with MaQI in good/high ecological status from 25% in MC-I to 54% in MC-IV. Eutrophic sites showed a non-linear trend, particularly in choked areas of the central lagoon, with anthropogenic disturbances and low water renewal.

The trophic, chemical and ecological state of a lagoon is strongly influenced by numerous aspects, among which the quantity and quality of the water coming from its drainage basin are a priority. The Source-to-Sea approach directly addresses the linkages between land, water, delta, estuary, coast, nearshore and ocean ecosystems to identify appropriate courses of action to address alterations of key flows, resulting in economic, social and environmental benefits. Hydrodynamic modeling has become a fundamental tool for describing the dynamics of marine environments, and a specific field of development of ongoing research is a detailed representation of the land–coastal–sea fluxes. In the present study, a numerical modeling tool was used in the Venice Lagoon to assess and quantify dominant contributions from the river basin within specific areas of the lagoon. An advective–diffusive model was used to reproduce the transport of passive tracers. The results were analyzed using an automated computational tool, obtaining the average percentage contribution of each input from the drainage basin and mean concentrations of tracer in the different water bodies. Through the proposed methodology, it is possible to support the planning of specific measures, identifying priorities of management intervention and preliminarily exploring different scenarios.

Eutrophication represents one of the most impacting threats for the ecological status and related ecosystem services of transitional waters; hence, its assessment plays a key role in the management of these ecosystems. A new multi-index method for eutrophication assessment, based on the ecological index MaQI (Macrophyte Quality Index), the trophic index TWQI (Transitional Water Quality Index), and physicochemical quality elements (sensu Dir. 2000/60/EC), was developed including both driver and impact indicators. The study presents a large-scale implementation of the method, which included more than 100 Italian lagoon sites, covering a wide variability of lagoon typologies and conditions. Overall, 35% of sites resulted in eutrophic status, 45% in mesotrophic, and 25% in oligotrophic status.

No standard treatment exists for patients with platinum-refractory advanced type B3 thymoma and thymic carcinoma. In the PECATI trial, we sought to assess the antitumour activity and safety of lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab in this population. In this single-arm phase 2 trial, we recruited participants from 11 hospitals in France, Italy, and Spain. Eligible participants were adults (aged ≥18 years), with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0–1, and with relapsed or recurrent histologically confirmed type B3 thymoma or thymic carcinoma, at a metastatic stage of disease, who had received at least one line of platinum-based chemotherapy and had progressed during or after the previous line of chemotherapy, and did not have an autoimmune disorder. Participants received lenvatinib (20 mg orally once a day) combined with pembrolizumab (200 mg intravenously, infused over 30 min on day one of each cycle) in 3-week cycles for a maximum of 35 cycles (2 years), with treatment discontinued for reasons including confirmed clinical or radiological disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. The primary endpoint was 5-month progression-free survival (null hypothesis: 5-month progression-free survival of ≤50%; alternative hypothesis: 5-month progression-free survival of ≥68·6%) assessed by the investigators in the full analysis set. Safety was assessed in all participants who received at least one dose of study treatment. The data cutoff date for the current analyses was July 1, 2024. The trial was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04710628, and is ongoing. From May 13, 2022, to Feb 1, 2024, 43 participants were enrolled and started study treatment (18 [42%] female and 25 [58%] male; 27 [63%] White, four [9%] Arabic or North African, one [2%] Albanian, one [2%] Black, and ten [23%] ethnicity missing). Median age was 57 years (IQR 45–66). 36 (84%) participants had thymic carcinoma and seven (16%) had B3 thymoma. Masaoka–Koga stage IVA disease was recorded in 15 (35%) participants and stage IVB in 28 (65%), including 16 (37%) participants with liver metastases. 23 (53%) participants had three or more metastatic sites. 20 (47%) participants had received two or more previous lines of therapy. After a median follow-up of 10·6 months (IQR 7·8–14·7), the study met its primary endpoint, with 5-month progression-free survival of 88·4% (90% CI 79·8–96·7). Treatment-emergent adverse events were reported in 42 (98%) of 43 participants, the most common being hypothyroidism (27 [63%] participants) and fatigue (25 [58%]). Grade 3 or worse treatment-related adverse events were reported in 16 (37%) participants. Serious treatment-emergent adverse events occurred in 17 (40%) participants. Grade 3 or worse immune-related adverse events occurred in six (14%) participants, namely hepatic cytolysis (two [5%] participants), colitis, pneumonitis, and cardiac dysfunction (one [2%] participant each), and myocarditis and encephalitis (one [2%] participant). No treatment-related deaths were reported. Lenvatinib combined with pembrolizumab showed potential as a standard treatment for pretreated advanced B3 thymoma and thymic carcinoma. Although the toxicity profile appeared manageable, close monitoring for toxicity is advised. Investigator-Initiated Studies Program of Merck Sharp & Dohme.

Osimertinib was compared with standard EGFR blockers among patients with non–small-cell lung cancer with activating mutations in EGFR . The median overall survival was 38.6 months with osimertinib and 31.8 months with erlotinib or gefitinib. This 20% lower risk of death was noted despite the crossover of patients from standard therapy to osimertinib during subsequent therapy.

In 556 patients with previously untreated lung cancer bearing EGFR mutations, osimertinib and the first-generation EGFR inhibitors erlotinib and gefitinib had similar response rates, but osimertinib resulted in longer progression-free survival and had somewhat less toxicity.

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is overexpressed/amplified in one third of breast cancers (BCs), and is associated with the poorer prognosis and the higher metastatic potential in BC. Emerging evidences highlight the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the regulation of several cellular processes, including BC. Here we identified, by approach, a group of three miRNAs with central biological role (high degree centrality) in HER2+ BC. We validated their dysregulation in HER2+ BC and we analysed their functional role by approaches on selected cell lines and by experiments in an animal model. We found that their expression is dysregulated in both HER2+ BC cell lines and human samples. Focusing our study on the only upregulated miRNA, , we discovered that it acts as an oncogene and its upregulation is required for HER2+ cell proliferation. It controls the metastatic potential of HER2+ BC subtype by regulating migration and invasion of the cell. In HER2+ BC oncogenic is able to regulate HIF1α pathway by directly targeting VHL mRNA, a molecule important for the degradation of HIF1α. The overexpression of , observed in HER2+ BC, causes increased proliferation and migration of the BC cells. More important, silencing succeeds in delaying tumor growth, thus could be proposed as a therapeutic probe in HER2+ BC tumors.