University of Udine

About: University of Udine is a education organization based out in Udine, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 6745 authors who have published 20530 publications receiving 669088 citations. The organization is also known as: Università degli Studi di Udine & Universita degli Studi di Udine.

Rhizospheric organic compounds in the soil–microorganism–plant system: their role in iron availability

Abstract: Summary Poor iron (Fe) availability in soil represents one of the most important limiting factors of agricultural production and is closely linked to physical, chemical and biological processes within the rhizosphere as a result of soil–microorganism–plant interactions. Iron shortage induces several mechanisms in soil organisms, resulting in an enhanced release of inorganic (such as protons) and organic (organic acids, carbohydrates, amino acids, phytosiderophores, siderophores, phenolics and enzymes) compounds to increase the solubility of poorly available Fe pools. However, rhizospheric organic compounds (ROCs) have short half-lives because of the large microbial activity at the soil–root interface, which might limit their effects on Fe mobility and acquisition. In addition, ROCs also have a selective effect on the microbial community present in the rhizosphere. This review aims therefore to unravel these complex dynamics with the objective of providing an overview of the rhizosphere processes involved in Fe acquisition by soil organisms (plants and microorganisms). In particular, the review provides information on (i) Fe availability in soils, including mineral weathering and Fe mobilization from soil minerals, ligand and element competition and plant-microbe competition; (ii) microbe–plant interactions, focusing on beneficial microbial communities and their association with plants, which in turn influences plant mineral nutrition; (iii) plant–soil interactions involving the metabolic changes triggered by Fe deficiency and the processes involved in exudate release from roots; and (iv) the influence of agrochemicals commonly used in agricultural production systems on rhizosphere processes related to Fe availability and acquisition by crops.

Calpain is required for macroautophagy in mammalian cells

Abstract: Ubiquitously expressed micro- and millicalpain, which both require the calpain small 1 (CAPNS1) regulatory subunit for function, play important roles in numerous biological and pathological phenomena. We have previously shown that the product of GAS2, a gene specifically induced at growth arrest, is an inhibitor of millicalpain and that its overexpression sensitizes cells to apoptosis in a p53-dependent manner (Benetti, R., G. Del Sal, M. Monte, G. Paroni, C. Brancolini, and C. Schneider. 2001. EMBO J. 20:2702-2714). More recently, we have shown that calpain is also involved in nuclear factor kappaB activation and its relative prosurvival function in response to ceramide, in which calpain deficiency strengthens the proapoptotic effect of ceramide (Demarchi, F., C. Bertoli, P.A. Greer, and C. Schneider. 2005. Cell Death Differ. 12:512-522). Here, we further explore the involvement of calpain in the apoptotic switch and find that in calpain-deficient cells, autophagy is impaired with a resulting dramatic increase in apoptotic cell death. Immunostaining of the endogenous autophagosome marker LC3 and electron microscopy experiments demonstrate that autophagy is impaired in CAPNS1-deficient cells. Accordingly, the enhancement of lysosomal activity and long-lived protein degradation, which normally occur upon starvation, is also reduced. In CAPNS1-depleted cells, ectopic LC3 accumulates in early endosome-like vesicles that may represent a salvage pathway for protein degradation when autophagy is defective.

Renal tubular dysfunction in chronic alcohol abuse : effects of abstinence

Abstract: Background Alcohol abuse may be accompanied by a variety of disorders of electrolyte and acid-base metabolism. The role of the kidney in the pathogenesis of these disturbances is obscure. We sought to evaluate the alcohol-induced abnormalities of renal function and improvement during abstinence and to assess the relation between renal dysfunction and electrolyte and acid-base disorders. Methods We measured biochemical constituents of blood and renal function before and after four weeks of abstinence in 61 patients with chronic alcoholism who had little or no liver disease. Results On admission, 18 patients (30 percent) had hypophosphatemia and hypomagnesemia, 13 patients (21 percent) had hypocalcemia, and 8 patients (13 percent) had hypokalemia. Twenty-two patients (36 percent) had a variety of simple and mixed acid-base disorders. Twenty of these patients had metabolic acidosis, and among them, 80 percent had alcoholic acidosis. A wide range of defects in renal tubular function, with normal glomerular filtration rate, were detected in these patients. The defects included decreases in the threshold and maximal reabsorptive ability for glucose (38 percent of patients) and in the renal threshold for phosphate excretion (36 percent); increases in the fractional excretion of beta 2-microglobulin (38 percent), uric acid (12 percent), calcium (23 percent), and magnesium (21 percent); and aminoaciduria (38 percent). Seventeen patients (28 percent) had a defect in tubular acidification, and five an impairment in urinary concentrating ability. Urinary excretion of N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase and alanine aminopeptidase were increased in 41 and 34 percent of patients, respectively. The abnormalities of blood chemistry and renal tubular function disappeared after four weeks of abstinence. Conclusions Transient defects in renal tubular function are common in patients with chronic alcoholism and may contribute to their abnormalities of serum electrolyte and blood acid-base profiles.

Repeatability and reproducibility of fast macular thickness mapping with stratus optical coherence tomography.

Abstract: Objective To determine the repeatability and reproducibility of retinal thickness measurements with the fast macular thickness mapping protocol of Stratus optical coherence tomography. Methods Ten eyes of 10 healthy subjects and 15 eyes of 15 diabetic patients with clinically significant macular edema (CSME) underwent 2 scanning sessions before and after pupil dilation during the same visit by 2 experienced examiners. Healthy subjects also received a third scanning session during a second visit. Repeatability and reproducibility for the foveolar center and for each of 9 Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS)–like regions were calculated by their repeatability and reproducibility coefficients and intraclass correlation coefficients. Results The coefficients of repeatability were less than 8% in healthy subjects and less than 9% in patients with diabetes and CSME. The reproducibility coefficients were less than 10% and 11% in healthy subjects and diabetic patients with CSME, respectively. There was no significant difference between scans acquired by different observers or during different visits. The intraclass correlation coefficients were always greater than 0.80 and 0.98 in healthy subjects and diabetic patients with CSME, respectively. Average ± SD thickness was found to be 223 ± 14 and 404 ± 108 μm for the central ETDRS-like region in healthy subjects and diabetic patients with CSME, respectively. Conclusion With the fast macular thickness mapping protocol of Stratus ocular coherence tomography, our results indicate that retinal thickness measurements in dilated and undilated eyes of healthy subjects and diabetic patients with CSME are repeatable and reproducible.

Combination of the searches for pair-produced vectorlike partners of the third-generation quarks at s =13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract: A combination of the searches for pair-produced vectorlike partners of the top and bottom quarks in various decay channels (T -> Zt/Wb/Ht, B -> Zb/Wt/Hb) is performed using 36.1 fb(-1) of pp ...