Prenatal diagnosis and obstetrical management of multicystic dysplastic kidney disease

Multicystic dysplastic kidney disease (MDKD) is one of the most common congenital renal anomalies. We report 16 consecutive cases of MDKD recognized in the antenatal period by sonography. Diagnosis is usually easy as MDKD has in the vast majority of cases a striking ultrasound appearance including enlargement of the kidney and multiple renal cysts. However, differentiation from obstructive uropathy may be difficult, and we made a total of five erroneous diagnoses. Unilateral MDKD has almost invariably a good prognosis. However, severe life-threatening associated anomalies were found in six cases. Therefore, a detailed survey of fetal anatomy and determination of karyotype are strongly recommended.     

Poliovirus and Other Enteroviruses from Environmental Surveillance in Italy, 2009–2015

Within the initiatives for poliomyelitis eradication by WHO, Italy activated an environmental surveillance (ES) in 2005. ES complements clinical Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) surveillance for possible polio cases, detects poliovirus circulation in environmental sewage, and is used to monitor transmission in communities. In addition to polioviruses, the analyses comprised: (i) the monitoring of the presence of non-polio enteroviruses in sewage samples and (ii) the temporal and geographical distribution of the detected viruses. From 2009 to 2015, 2880 sewage samples were collected from eight cities participating in the surveillance. Overall, 1479 samples resulted positive for enteroviruses. No wild-type polioviruses were found, although four Sabin-like polioviruses were detected. The low degree of mutation found in the genomes of these four isolates suggests that these viruses have had a limited circulation in the population. All non-polio enteroviruses belonged to species B and the most frequent serotype was CV-B5, followed by CV-B4, E-11, E-6, E-7, CV-B3, and CV-B2. Variations in the frequency of different serotypes were also observed in different seasons and/or Italian areas. Environmental surveillance in Italy, as part of the ‘WHO global polio eradication program’, is a powerful tool to augment the polio surveillance and to investigate the silent circulation or the re-emergence of enteroviruses in the population.     

Males are faster foragers than females: intersexual differences of foraging behaviour in the Apennine chamois

Availability of food resources and individual characteristics can influence foraging behaviour, which can differ between males and females, leading to different patterns of food/habitat selection. In dimorphic species, females are usually more selective in food choice, show greater bite rates and spend more time foraging than males. We evaluated sexual differences in foraging behaviour in Apennine chamois Rupicapra pyrenaica ornata, during the warm season, before the rut. Both sexes selected nutritious vegetation patches and spent a comparable amount of time feeding. However, males had a significantly greater feeding intensity (bite rate) and a lower search effort for feeding (step rate), as well as they spent more time lying down than females. Females selected foraging sites closer to refuge areas than males. In chamois, sexual size dimorphism is seasonal, being negligible in winter–spring, but increasing to 30–40 % in autumn. Our results suggest that males enhance their energy and mass gain by increasing their food intake rate during the warm season, to face the costs of the mating season (November). Conversely, females seem to prioritize a fine-scale selection of vegetation and the protection of offspring. A great food intake rate of males in the warm season could have developed as a behavioural adaptation leading herbivores to the evolutionary transition from year-round monomorphism to permanent dimorphism, through seasonal dimorphism.     

Sensitivity of a coupled physical–biological model to turbulence: high-frequency simulations in a northern Adriatic station

This paper investigates the impacts of different turbulence models on the biological state at an ocean station in the northern Adriatic sea, named S3, comparing them with other uncertainties inherent to coupled physical–biological simulations. The numerical tool is a 1-D model resulting from the coupling of two advanced numerical models. The hydrodynamic part is modelled using the General Ocean Turbulence Model (www.gotm.net), in a version adopting state-of-the-art second-moment Turbulence Closure Models (TCMs). Marine biogeochemistry is parameterized with the Biogeochemical Flux Model (http://www.bo.ingv.it/bfm), which is a direct descendant of ERSEM (European Regional Sea Ecosystem Model). Results, obtained by forcing the model with hourly wind and solar radiation data and assimilating salinity casts, are compared against monthly observations made at the station during 2000–2001. Provided that modern second-moment TCMs are employed, the comparisons indicate that both the physical and the biological dynamics are relatively insensitive to the choice of the particular scheme adopted, suggesting that TCMs have finally ‘converged’ in recent years. As a further example, the choice of the nutrient boundary conditions has an impact on the system evolution that is more significant than the choice of the specific TCM, therefore representing a possible limitation of the 1-D model applied to stations located in a Region of Freshwater Influence. The 1-D model simulates the onset and intensity of the spring–summer bloom quite well, although the duration of the bloom is not as prolonged as in the data. Since local dynamics appears unable to sustain the bloom conditions well into summer, phytoplankton at the station was most likely influenced by river input or advection processes, an aspect that was not found when the S3 behaviour was adequately modelled using climatological forcings. When the focus is in predicting high-frequency dynamics, it is more likely that lateral advection cannot be neglected. While the physical state can be satisfactorily estimated at these short time scales, the accurate estimation of the biological state in coastal regions still appears as rather elusive.