Assessment of climate change effects on mountain ecosystems through a cross-site analysis in the Alps and Apennines

Mountain ecosystems are sensitive and reliable indicators of climate change. Long-term studies may be extremely useful in assessing the responses of high-elevation ecosystems to climate change and other anthropogenic drivers from a broad ecological perspective. Mountain research sites within the LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) network are representative of various types of ecosystems and span a wide bioclimatic and elevational range. Here, we present a synthesis and a review of the main results from ecological studies in mountain ecosystems at 20 LTER sites in Italy, Switzerland and Austria covering in most cases more than two decades of observations. We analyzed a set of key climate parameters, such as temperature and snow cover duration, in relation to vascular plant species composition, plant traits, abundance patterns, pedoclimate, nutrient dynamics in soils and water, phenology and composition of freshwater biota. The overall results highlight the rapid response of mountain ecosystems to climate change, with site-specific characteristics and rates. As temperatures increased, vegetation cover in alpine and subalpine summits increased as well. Years with limited snow cover duration caused an increase in soil temperature and microbial biomass during the growing season. Effects on freshwater ecosystems were also observed, in terms of increases in solutes, decreases in nitrates and changes in plankton phenology and benthos communities. This work highlights the importance of comparing and integrating long-term ecological data collected in different ecosystems for a more comprehensive overview of the ecological effects of climate change. Nevertheless, there is a need for (i) adopting co-located monitoring site networks to improve our ability to obtain sound results from cross-site analysis, (ii) carrying out further studies, in particular short-term analyses with fine spatial and temporal resolutions to improve our understanding of responses to extreme events, and (iii) increasing comparability and standardizing protocols across networks to distinguish local patterns from global patterns.

Non-invasive detection of severe neutropenia in chemotherapy patients by optical imaging of nailfold microcirculation

White-blood-cell (WBC) assessment is employed for innumerable clinical procedures as one indicator of immune status. Currently, WBC determinations are obtained by clinical laboratory analysis of whole blood samples. Both the extraction of blood and its analysis limit the accessibility and frequency of the measurement. In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility of a non-invasive device to perform point-of-care WBC analysis without the need for blood draws, focusing on a chemotherapy setting where patients’ neutrophils—the most common type of WBC—become very low. In particular, we built a portable optical prototype, and used it to collect 22 microcirculatory-video datasets from 11 chemotherapy patients. Based on these videos, we identified moving optical absorption gaps in the flow of red cells, using them as proxies to WBC movement through nailfold capillaries. We then showed that counting these gaps allows discriminating cases of severe neutropenia (<500 neutrophils per µL), associated with increased risks of life-threatening infections, from non-neutropenic cases (>1,500 neutrophils per µL). This result suggests that the integration of optical imaging, consumer electronics, and data analysis can make non-invasive screening for severe neutropenia accessible to patients. More generally, this work provides a first step towards a long-term objective of non-invasive WBC counting.

Analysis of white blood cell dynamics in nailfold capillaries

Based on video data acquired with low-cost, portable microscopy equipment, we introduce a semi-automatic method to count visual gaps in the blood flow as a proxy for white blood cells (WBC) passing through nailfold capillaries. Following minimal user interaction and a pre-processing stage, our method consists in the spatio-temporal segmentation and analysis of capillary profiles. Besides the mere count information, it also estimates the speed associated with every WBC event. The accuracy of our algorithm is validated through the analysis of two capillaries acquired from one healthy subject. Results are compared with manual counts from four human raters and confronted with related physiological data reported in literature.

Overwintering of the boreal butterfly Colias palaeno in central Europe

BACKGROUND

Colias palaeno (Linnaeus, 1761) (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) is a butterfly with boreal distribution with declining populations in peat bogs and subalpine habitats in Central Europe.

OBJECTIVE

We investigated the cold tolerance of overwintering caterpillars from one mountain population from Czech Republic (960m a.s.l.) and one alpine population from Italy (2000m a.s.l.).

METHODS

We measured supercooling point (SCP), lower lethal temperature (LLT) and content of cryoprotectants.

RESULTS

The caterpillars were freeze-avoiding, with lower LLT close to their very low SCP (-25 to -27 degree C). The mountain population accumulated high concentrations of glycerol (5% fresh mass) and sugars (trehalose 0.8%, glucose 0.2%), while the Italian alpine population only moderate amounts of glycerol (0.3%) and sugars (trehalose 0.5%, glucose 0.3%) without effect on their cold hardiness. Larvae that overwintered at +5 degree C had a lower body mass than those overwintering in natural conditions, indicating a metabolic weight loss, but both groups survived equally well.

CONCLUSION

We hypothesize that the high concentration of glycerol contributes to the high desiccation tolerance.

Increased prevalence of migraine in patients with uninvestigated dyspepsia referred for open-access upper gastrointestinal endoscopy

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS

The association between gastrointestinal symptoms and headache is frequently unrecognized. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of migraine in dyspeptic outpatients referred for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Patients aged 18 - 55 years undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopy for dyspeptic symptoms in three endoscopic units were recruited consecutively. All of the patients were given a validated questionnaire on headache symptoms in order to determine the prevalence of migraine. Patients were divided into four groups (ulcer-like dyspepsia, reflux-like dyspepsia, dysmotility-like dyspepsia, only nausea and/or vomiting). Age-matched blood donors were given the same questionnaires and served as controls.

RESULTS

A total of 378 patients (mean age 40 +/- 11, 52 % men) and 310 controls (mean age 39 +/- 11, 56 % men) were enrolled. No differences were observed between the two groups in the prevalence of migraine (15 % vs. 11 %; P = 0.12). A higher prevalence of migraine was found among women in both groups (P < 0.006). In patients with reflux-like and ulcer-like dyspepsia, the prevalence of migraine did not differ from that in the control individuals (8 % and 7 %, respectively), whereas a higher prevalence of migraine was noted in patients with dysmotility-like dyspepsia (23 %; P < 0.02 vs. controls, those with ulcer-like dyspepsia and those with reflux-like dyspepsia) and in patients with nausea and/or vomiting alone (53 %; P < 0.002 vs. all other groups). The multivariate analysis confirmed that the symptom pattern and sex were the only variables independently associated with migraine.

CONCLUSIONS

A diagnosis of migraine should be considered in young patients referred for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy due to nausea and/or vomiting or for dysmotility-like dyspepsia.

Intestinal infarction: report of 98 cases

The Authors conducted a retrospective study on 98 patients with intestinal infarction observed from 1987 to 1999 in the Emergency Care Unit of the Loreto Hospital, Naples. In our hospital there are over 20,000 admissions, 3,900 of whom in the Emergency Care Unit. Intestinal infarction accounts for 0.049% of all admissions and 0.45% of emergency surgery admissions. About 500 laparotomies are performed annually, 1% of which for intestinal infarction. All patients in this series were operated on within 10 hours of admission. The following procedures were performed: 31 jejuno-ileal resections; 26 right hemicolectomies associated with small intestine resection; 5 upper mesenteric artery embolectomies plus wide gut resections (3 also underwent second-look operations within 36 hours of the initial surgery with further gut resection); 1 Hartmann's and 5 Volkmann's operations (all of these patients had colonic gangrene); 30 (30.5%) underwent exploratory laparotomy due to massive infarction. The prognosis of intestinal infarction is still ominous. Our mortality rate is 68%. Both clinical and laboratory data are non-specific and delayed diagnosis is the main cause of this mortality rate. Abdominal CT is an accurate and sensitive diagnostic tool. TPN enables us to achieve good nutritional support even for wider resections.

[Ileal adenocarcinoma in Crohn's disease. A report of 2 cases]

The incidence of intestinal adenocarcinoma in Crohn's ileal disease is reported in the literature to be higher than in the normal population. The authors report two cases of adenocarcinoma observed during the course of Crohn's ileitis and, by comparing these findings with earlier published data, highlight their characteristics. Two patients, a 53-year-old woman and a 62-year-old man, are reported as suffering from Crohn's ileitis. The woman underwent resection of the right colon with ileo-transversostomy due to stenosis twenty years earlier, whereas diagnosis in the male patient dates back to an appendicectomy 11 years earlier. Surgery, which was performed in both due to subocclusion which failed to respond to steroid therapy, showed the typical alterations of Crohn's disease. An adenocarcinoma was also found in both patients in the stenotic zone with highly dysplasic foci. The man presented a monoclonal gammopathy of an IgA-type with light lambda chains and Bence-Jones' proteinuria. Both patients are living and enjoy apparently good health respectively 2 and 6 years after surgery. The authors emphasize that the association between Crohn's ileal disease and intestinal adenocarcinoma cannot be considered casual. In the literature the relative risk is reported to be between 6 and 320 times higher, with approximately 1 out of 350 patients suffering from both diseases contemporaneously. In the series reported earlier, 2 cases of carcinoma were diagnosed in 38 Crohn's patients studied over a period of 12 years out of a total population of 114000 inhabitants, with a frequency of carcinoma of 5.13% compared to 0.3% reported in the literature. The incidence of Crohn's disease was 2.84/100000 per year.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Effectiveness of atenolol in the treatment of hypertension during pregnancy

This study assessed the effectiveness of atenolol in the treatment of moderate and severe hypertension during pregnancy. Seventy patients (mean age, 30.3 +/- 6.0 years), 35.7% primiparous, were included. Three groups were formed according to Davey and MacGillivray's classification: 1) chronic hypertension without proteinuria (12 patients), 2) gestational hypertension without proteinuria (52 patients), and 3) preeclampsia (six patients). Treatment with atenolol was started when blood pressure was 150/100 mm Hg or higher after 48 hours' rest. The treatment lasted at least 1 week; follow-up was every 2 weeks up to week 36, and from then on, weekly up to delivery. If blood pressure exceeded 160/110 mm Hg and the fetus was not yet mature, a second drug was added. A significant decrease in blood pressure was observed in the three groups (group 1: 155.8 +/- 15.0/100.8 +/- 7.6 versus 135.0 +/- 12.9/85.0 +/- 6.7 mm Hg; group 2: 154.2 +/- 13.6/104.9 +/- 9.3 versus 129.6 +/- 10.2/83.7 +/- 9.1 mm Hg; group 3: 158.3 +/- 27.1/104.1 +/- 8.0 versus 129.1 +/- 6.6/87.5 +/- 6.1 mm Hg). The doses of atenolol were 62.5 +/- 23.0 mg/day in group 1, 70.0 +/- 30.0 mg/day in group 2, and 100.0 +/- 41.0 mg/day in group 3. There was no fetal mortality. No significant difference occurred in newborn body weights. Four babies from group 2 mothers had an Apgar score of less than 7 at 1 minute, but only one remained abnormal after 5 minutes. In the same group, three cases of respiratory distress were observed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)