University of Florence

About: University of Florence is a education organization based out in Florence, Toscana, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Carbonic anhydrase. The organization has 27292 authors who have published 79599 publications receiving 2341684 citations. The organization is also known as: Università degli studi di Firenze & Universita degli studi di Firenze.

Disentangling the role of environmental and human pressures on biological invasions across Europe

Abstract: The accelerating rates of international trade, travel, and transport in the latter half of the twentieth century have led to the progressive mixing of biota from across the world and the number of species introduced to new regions continues to increase. The importance of biogeographic, climatic, economic, and demographic factors as drivers of this trend is increasingly being realized but as yet there is no consensus regarding their relative importance. Whereas little may be done to mitigate the effects of geography and climate on invasions, a wider range of options may exist to moderate the impacts of economic and demographic drivers. Here we use the most recent data available from Europe to partition between macroecological, economic, and demographic variables the variation in alien species richness of bryophytes, fungi, vascular plants, terrestrial insects, aquatic invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Only national wealth and human population density were statistically significant predictors in the majority of models when analyzed jointly with climate, geography, and land cover. The economic and demographic variables reflect the intensity of human activities and integrate the effect of factors that directly determine the outcome of invasion such as propagule pressure, pathways of introduction, eutrophication, and the intensity of anthropogenic disturbance. The strong influence of economic and demographic variables on the levels of invasion by alien species demonstrates that future solutions to the problem of biological invasions at a national scale lie in mitigating the negative environmental consequences of human activities that generate wealth and by promoting more sustainable population growth.

Genome-wide association study identifies eight risk loci and implicates metabo-psychiatric origins for anorexia nervosa

Abstract: Characterized primarily by a low body-mass index, anorexia nervosa is a complex and serious illness1, affecting 0.9-4% of women and 0.3% of men2-4, with twin-based heritability estimates of 50-60%5. Mortality rates are higher than those in other psychiatric disorders6, and outcomes are unacceptably poor7. Here we combine data from the Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative (ANGI)8,9 and the Eating Disorders Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC-ED) and conduct a genome-wide association study of 16,992 cases of anorexia nervosa and 55,525 controls, identifying eight significant loci. The genetic architecture of anorexia nervosa mirrors its clinical presentation, showing significant genetic correlations with psychiatric disorders, physical activity, and metabolic (including glycemic), lipid and anthropometric traits, independent of the effects of common variants associated with body-mass index. These results further encourage a reconceptualization of anorexia nervosa as a metabo-psychiatric disorder. Elucidating the metabolic component is a critical direction for future research, and paying attention to both psychiatric and metabolic components may be key to improving outcomes.

Southern Ocean sea-ice extent, productivity and iron flux over the past eight glacial cycles

Abstract: Sea ice and dust flux increased greatly in the Southern Ocean during the last glacial period. Palaeorecords provide contradictory evidence about marine productivity in this region, but beyond one glacial cycle, data were sparse. Here we present continuous chemical proxy data spanning the last eight glacial cycles (740,000 years) from the Dome C Antarctic ice core. These data constrain winter sea-ice extent in the Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean biogenic productivity and Patagonian climatic conditions. We found that maximum sea-ice extent is closely tied to Antarctic temperature on multi-millennial timescales, but less so on shorter timescales. Biological dimethylsulphide emissions south of the polar front seem to have changed little with climate, suggesting that sulphur compounds were not active in climate regulation. We observe large glacial-interglacial contrasts in iron deposition, which we infer reflects strongly changing Patagonian conditions. During glacial terminations, changes in Patagonia apparently preceded sea-ice reduction, indicating that multiple mechanisms may be responsible for different phases of CO2 increase during glacial terminations. We observe no changes in internal climatic feedbacks that could have caused the change in amplitude of Antarctic temperature variations observed 440,000 years ago.

Management of Suspected Acute Pulmonary Embolism in the Era of CT Angiography: A Statement from the Fleischner Society

Abstract: Martine Remy-Jardin, MD, PhD Massimo Pistolesi, MD Lawrence R. Goodman, MD Warren B. Gefter, MD Alexander Gottschalk, MD John R. Mayo, MD H. Dirk Sostman, MD During the past decade, the contribution of computed tomographic (CT) angiography in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE) has dramatically increased as a consequence of major advances in CT technology. The question now no longer concerns demonstrating its clinical value but optimizing its use in various categories of patients. Since the introduction of multidetector CT with high spatial and temporal resolution, CT angiography has become the method of choice for imaging the pulmonary vasculature when PE is suspected in routine clinical practice. This change in the imaging algorithm has had numerous practical consequences. The widespread availability of a noninvasive and accurate means of evaluating the pulmonary circulation has led to the recognition that acute PE has a lower prevalence than it was thought to have in the past among patients clinically suspected of having the disease. Because CT images contain additional diagnostic information in the majority of patients who are suspected of having acute PE and may therefore lead to diagnosis of alternative causes for the patient’s symptoms, the increased use of CT has improved patient care by minimizing diagnostic delays that may be incurred when alternative imaging tests are used. The current possibility of performing electrocardiographically (ECG)-gated examinations of the entire thorax has further reinforced the role of CT angiography in this clinical setting, adding coronary artery disease to the list of alternative diagnoses detectable with the aid of this tool and enabling the use of CT angiography to provide prognostic information from the same data set as that used to help diagnose acute PE. However, the increasingly frequent use of CT has raised concerns about the overall radiation exposure to the population scanned and has imposed on the radiology community a need to optimize scanning protocols. This, in turn, makes it necessary to stratify more precisely the population being scanned according to the likelihood of PE being present (pretest probability), with the aim of reducing the number of unnecessary CT pulmonary angiograms being obtained in patients who are unlikely to have PE. Furthermore, although the number of indeterminate studies has dramatically decreased over time because of improved CT technology, clinicians may still face diagnostic dilemmas when the CT angiographic results are either inconclusive or discordant with the pretest probability. Because of changes in strategy over the past few years and the numerous issues still being debated, the Fleischner Society has deemed it useful to propose a consensus update on the role of CT angiography in the diagnostic approach to PE in 2007.