611. Preoperative serum CA-125 level as a predictor for the extent of cytoreduction in patients with advanced stage epithelial ovarian cancerSebastjan Merlo, Nikola Bešić, Eva Drmota, Nina Kovačević, 2021, original scientific article Abstract: Background. Ovarian cancer is the seventh most common cancer in women worldwide and the eighth most common cause of cancer death. Due to the lack of effective early detection strategies and the unspecific onset of symptoms, it is diagnosed at an advanced stage in 75% of cases. The cancer antigen (CA) 125 is used as a prognostic marker and its level is elevated in more than 85% of women with advanced stages of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). The standard treatment is primary debulking surgery (PDS) followed by adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT), but the later approach is neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) followed by interval debulking surgery (IDS). Several studies have been conducted to find out whether preoperative CA-125 serum levels influence treatment choice, surgical resection and survival outcome. The aim of our study was to analyse experience of single institution as Cancer comprehensive center with preoperative usefulness of CA-125. Patients and methods. At the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana a retrospective analysis of 253 women with stage FIGO IIIC and IV ovarian cancer was conducted. Women were divided into two groups based on their primary treatment. The first group was the NACT group (215 women) and the second the PDS group (38 women). The differences in patient characteristics were compared using the Chi-square test and ANOVA and the Kaplan-Meier method was used for calculating progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Results. The median serum CA-125 level was higher in the NACT group than in the PDS group, 972 IU/ml and 499 IU/ ml, respectively. The PFS in the NACT group was 8 months (95% CI 6.4%9.5) and 18 months (95% CI 12.5%23.4) in the PDS group. The median OS was lower in the NACT group than in the PDS group, 25 months (95% CI 20.6%29.5) and 46 months (95% CI 32.9%62.1), respectively. Conclusions. Preoperative CA-125 cut off value of 500 IU/ml is a promising threshold to predict a successful PDS. Keywords: ovarian cancer, tumour marker, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, CA-125 Published in DiRROS: 22.07.2024; Views: 145; Downloads: 39
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612. Surgical treatment and fertility perservation in endometrial cancerNina Kovačević, 2021, review article Abstract: Endometrial cancer (EC) represents a high health burden in Slovenia and worldwide. The incidence is increasing due to lifestyle and behavioural risk factors such as obesity, smoking, oestrogen exposure and aging of the population. In many cases, endometrial cancer is diagnosed at an early stage due to obvious signs and symptoms. The standard treatment is surgery with or without adjuvant therapy, depending on the stage of the disease and the risk of recurrence. However, treatment modalities have changed in the last decades, considerably in the extent of lymphadenectomy. Conclusions. The gold standard of treatment for is surgery, which may be the only treatment modality in the early stages of low-grade tumours. In recent years, a minimally invasive approach with sentinel node biopsy (SNB) has been proposed. A conservative approach with hormonal treatment is used if fertility preservation is desired. If EC is in advance stage, high-risk histology, or high grade, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of both is recommended. Keywords: endometrial cancer, uterus, treatment, minimally invasive surgery Published in DiRROS: 22.07.2024; Views: 156; Downloads: 38
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613. Non-indigenous species in the Mediterranean Sea : turning from pest to source by developing the 8Rs model, a new paradigm in pollution mitigationAna Rotter, Katja Klun, Janja Francé, Patricija Mozetič, Martina Orlando-Bonaca, 2020, original scientific article Abstract: For mitigation of the effects of pollution, the media, policy makers and, in turn, the scientific community and industry each provide contributions through development of a sense of urgency, and with guidelines and solutions. For non-indigenous species (NIS) that can frequently have negative impacts on the native biota, this is often conveyed in an emotive way to the general public, who are typically keen to help and to get personally involved. This might be through organization of cleaning campaigns, influence on the media, or collaboration with scientists, to inform them of the local presence and abundance of NIS. Alternatively, they might proactively develop technological solutions themselves. To assess the current state of affairs, we reviewed the presence and effects of NIS in the Mediterranean Sea. As so often, any well-planned and successful activity is directly linked to financing, or a lack thereof, and this leads to sometimes untargeted and sporadic measures that are developed within a project or over a limited timeframe, without any sustainability measures. Therefore, we also assessed the activities and strategies that have been financed in this area of NIS mitigation. Based on this review of the presence and impact of NIS, and previous and ongoing activities, we propose a new paradigm to mitigate such pollution: the 8Rs model (i.e., Recognize, Reduce, Replace, Reuse, Recycle, Recover/Restore, Remove, and Regulate). This model extends from the more traditional 3Rs model (i.e., Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) that is often used and promoted for innovative waste management strategies. Importantly, the 8Rs model can be applied sequentially, for either prevention of NIS introduction, or preparation of mitigation measures. The 8Rs model was constructed based on Mediterranean NIS, although we believe it can be applied to other sources of pollution and other geographic areas. Importantly, the 8Rs model represents a general framework to organize and categorize future pollution mitigation strategies. This approach is essential for development of any action plan to influence the administrative and financial decision makers who essentially enable these activities, and therefore who have important roles in the guarantee of sustainability of these actions, and the creation of innovative societies. Keywords: non-indigenous species, pollution mitigation, pollution mitigation, 8Rs model, quadruple helix, Mediterranean Sea, citizen science, communication, sustainability Published in DiRROS: 22.07.2024; Views: 180; Downloads: 167
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614. Enabling reusability of plant phenomic datasets with MIAPPE 1.1Evangelia A. Papoutsoglou, Daniel Faria, Daniel Arend, Elizabeth Arnaud, Ioannis N. Athanasiadis, Inês Chaves, Frederik Coppens, Guillaume Cornut, Bruno V. Costa, Hanna Ćwiek-Kupczyńska, Kristina Gruden, Živa Ramšak, 2020, original scientific article Abstract: Enabling data reuse and knowledge discovery is increasingly critical in modern science, and requires an effort towards standardising data publication practices. This is particularly challenging in the plant phenotyping domain, due to its complexity and heterogeneity.
We have produced the MIAPPE 1.1 release, which enhances the existing MIAPPE standard in coverage, to support perennial plants, in structure, through an explicit data model, and in clarity, through definitions and examples.
We evaluated MIAPPE 1.1 by using it to express several heterogeneous phenotyping experiments in a range of different formats, to demonstrate its applicability and the interoperability between the various implementations. Furthermore, the extended coverage is demonstrated by the fact that one of the datasets could not have been described under MIAPPE 1.0.
MIAPPE 1.1 marks a major step towards enabling plant phenotyping data reusability, thanks to its extended coverage, and especially the formalisation of its data model, which facilitates its implementation in different formats. Community feedback has been critical to this development, and will be a key part of ensuring adoption of the standard. Published in DiRROS: 22.07.2024; Views: 164; Downloads: 190
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615. A critical analysis of the potential for EU Common Agricultural Policy measures to support wild pollinators on farmlandLorna J. Cole, David Kleijn, Lynn Dicks, Jane C. Stout, Simon G. Potts, Matthias Albrecht, Mario V. Balzan, Ignasi Bartomeus, Penelope J. Bebeli, Danilo Bevk, Jacobus C. Biesmeijer, Robert Chlebo, Anželika Dautarte, Nikolaos Emmanouil, Chris Hartfield, John M. Holland, Andrea Holzschuh, Nieke T. J. Knoben, Anikó Kovács-Hostyánszki, Yael Mandelik, Heleni Panou, Robert J. Paxton, Theodora Petanidou, Miguel A.A. Pinheiro de Carvalho, Maj Rundlöf, Jean-Pierre Sarthou, Menelaos C. Stavrinides, Maria Jose Suso, Hajnalka Szentgyörgyi, Bernard E. Vaissière, Androulla Varnava, Vilà Montserrat, Romualdas Zemeckis, Jeroen Scheper, 2020, original scientific article Abstract: Agricultural intensification and associated loss of high-quality habitats are key drivers of insect pollinator declines. With the aim of decreasing the environmental impact of agriculture, the 2014 EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) defined a set of habitat and landscape features (Ecological Focus Areas: EFAs) farmers could select from as a requirement to receive basic farm payments. To inform the post-2020 CAP, we performed a European-scale evaluation to determine how different EFA options vary in their potential to support insect pollinators under standard and pollinator-friendly management, as well as the extent of farmer uptake.
A structured Delphi elicitation process engaged 22 experts from 18 European countries to evaluate EFAs options. By considering life cycle requirements of key pollinating taxa (i.e. bumble bees, solitary bees and hoverflies), each option was evaluated for its potential to provide forage, bee nesting sites and hoverfly larval resources.
EFA options varied substantially in the resources they were perceived to provide and their effectiveness varied geographically and temporally. For example, field margins provide relatively good forage throughout the season in Southern and Eastern Europe but lacked early-season forage in Northern and Western Europe. Under standard management, no single EFA option achieved high scores across resource categories and a scarcity of late season forage was perceived.
Experts identified substantial opportunities to improve habitat quality by adopting pollinator-friendly management. Improving management alone was, however, unlikely to ensure that all pollinator resource requirements were met. Our analyses suggest that a combination of poor management, differences in the inherent pollinator habitat quality and uptake bias towards catch crops and nitrogen-fixing crops severely limit the potential of EFAs to support pollinators in European agricultural landscapes.
Policy Implications. To conserve pollinators and help protect pollination services, our expert elicitation highlights the need to create a variety of interconnected, well-managed habitats that complement each other in the resources they offer. To achieve this the Common Agricultural Policy post-2020 should take a holistic view to implementation that integrates the different delivery vehicles aimed at protecting biodiversity (e.g. enhanced conditionality, eco-schemes and agri-environment and climate measures). To improve habitat quality we recommend an effective monitoring framework with target-orientated indicators and to facilitate the spatial targeting of options collaboration between land managers should be incentivised. Keywords: agri-environment schemes, bees, CAP Green Architecture, Common Agricultural Policy, Ecological Focus Areas, habitat complementarity, pollination services, pollinator conservation Published in DiRROS: 22.07.2024; Views: 163; Downloads: 238
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616. A marine biodiversity observation network for genetic monitoring of hard-bottom communities (ARMS-MBON)Matthias Obst, Katrina Exter, A. Louise Allcock, Christos Arvanitidis, Alizz Axberg, Maria Bustamante, Ana Fortič, Borut Mavrič, Andreja Ramšak, 2020, original scientific article Abstract: Marine hard-bottom communities are undergoing severe change under the influence of multiple drivers, notably climate change, extraction of natural resources, pollution and eutrophication, habitat degradation, and invasive species. Monitoring marine biodiversity in such habitats is, however, challenging as it typically involves expensive, non-standardized, and often destructive sampling methods that limit its scalability. Differences in monitoring approaches furthermore hinders inter-comparison among monitoring programs. Here, we announce a Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) consisting of Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) with the aim to assess the status and changes in benthic fauna with genomic-based methods, notably DNA metabarcoding, in combination with image-based identifications. This article presents the results of a 30-month pilot phase in which we established an operational and geographically expansive ARMS-MBON. The network currently consists of 20 observatories distributed across European coastal waters and the polar regions, in which 134 ARMS have been deployed to date. Sampling takes place annually, either as short-term deployments during the summer or as long-term deployments starting in spring. The pilot phase was used to establish a common set of standards for field sampling, genetic analysis, data management, and legal compliance, which are presented here. We also tested the potential of ARMS for combining genetic and image-based identification methods in comparative studies of benthic diversity, as well as for detecting non-indigenous species. Results show that ARMS are suitable for monitoring hard-bottom environments as they provide genetic data that can be continuously enriched, re-analyzed, and integrated with conventional data to document benthic community composition and detect non-indigenous species. Finally, we provide guidelines to expand the network and present a sustainability plan as part of the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (www.embrc.eu). Keywords: benthic invertebrates, Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs), Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs), European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC), non-indigenous species (NIS), genomic observatories, marine biodiversity assessment Published in DiRROS: 22.07.2024; Views: 192; Downloads: 156
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617. Characterization of In vitro 3D cell model developed from human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cell lineMartina Štampar, Barbara Breznik, Metka Filipič, Bojana Žegura, 2020, original scientific article Abstract: In genetic toxicology, there is a trend against the increased use of in vivo models as highlighted by the 3R strategy, thus encouraging the development and implementation of alternative models. Two-dimensional (2D) hepatic cell models, which are generally used for studying the adverse effects of chemicals and consumer products, are prone to giving misleading results. On the other hand, newly developed hepatic three-dimensional (3D) cell models provide an attractive alternative, which, due to improved cell interactions and a higher level of liver-specific functions, including metabolic enzymes, reflect in vivo conditions more accurately. We developed an in vitro 3D cell model from the human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cell line. The spheroids were cultured under static conditions and characterised by monitoring their growth, morphology, and cell viability during the time of cultivation. A time-dependent suppression of cell division was observed. Cell cycle analysis showed time-dependent accumulation of cells in the G0/G1 phase. Moreover, time-dependent downregulation of proliferation markers was shown at the mRNA level. Genes encoding hepatic markers, metabolic phase I/II enzymes, were time-dependently deregulated compared to monolayers. New knowledge on the characteristics of the 3D cell model is of great importance for its further development and application in the safety assessment of chemicals, food products, and complex mixtures. Published in DiRROS: 22.07.2024; Views: 136; Downloads: 136
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618. New alien Mediterranean biodiversity records (October 2020)Michail Ragkousis, Nardjes Abdelali, Ernesto Azzurro, Ali Badreddine, Michel Bariche, Ghazi Bitar, Fabio Crocetta, Francesco Denitto, Ana Fortič, Borut Mavrič, 2020, original scientific article Abstract: This article includes 23 new records of alien and cryptogenic species in the Mediterranean Sea, belonging to 4 Phyla (Chordata, Echinodermata, Arthropoda and Mollusca), distributed from the Alboran to the Levantine Sea. Records are reported from eight countries listed from West to East as follows: Algeria: new records of the Atlantic blue crab Callinectes sapidus; Spain: further spread and establishment of the sea slug Lamprohaminoea ovalis in continental shores; Tunisia: first record of the Atlantic Blue Crab Callinectes sapidus in the Gulf of Gabes; Italy: a new occurrence of the pufferfish Lagocephalus sceleratus in Northern Ionian waters; first record of Cephalopholis taeniops in the Ionian Sea; first record of the redlip blenny, Ophioblennius atlanticus in the Ionian Sea; Slovenia: first record of the isopod Paranthura japonica in Slovenia; Greece: first record of the molluscs Eunaticina papilla, Plocamopherus ocellatus and the fish Cheilodipterus novemstriatus; first record of the ascidian Ecteinascidia turbinata in Kriti; the long-spined sea urchin Diadema setosum in the Ionian Sea; Turkey: first record of the sea spider Ammothea hilgendorfi; the stomatopod Cloridina cf. ichneumon; the fishes Pempheris rhomboidea from the Sea of Marmara and Paranthias furcifer from the Aegean Sea; Lebanon: new records of the fishes Arothron hispidus, Rachycentron canadum, Heniochus intermedius and Acanthurus monroviae; first record of Acanthostracion polygonius. The records of Cloridina cf. ichneumon from southern Turkey and the fish Acanthostracion polygonius from Lebanon, both being the first Mediterranean records, are noteworthy. Published in DiRROS: 22.07.2024; Views: 295; Downloads: 144
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619. Minimum Information for Reporting on the Comet Assay (MIRCA) : recommendations for describing comet assay procedures and resultsPeter Møller, Amaya Azqueta, Elisa Boutet-Robinet, Gudrun Koppen, Stefano Bonassi, Mirta Milić, Goran Gajski, Solange Costa, Bojana Žegura, Matjaž Novak, 2020, original scientific article Abstract: The comet assay is a widely used test for the detection of DNA damage and repair activity. However, there are interlaboratory differences in reported levels of baseline and induced damage in the same experimental systems. These differences may be attributed to protocol differences, although it is difficult to identify the relevant conditions because detailed comet assay procedures are not always published. Here, we present a Consensus Statement for the Minimum Information for Reporting Comet Assay (MIRCA) providing recommendations for describing comet assay conditions and results. These recommendations differentiate between ‘desirable’ and ‘essential’ information: ‘essential’ information refers to the precise details that are necessary to assess the quality of the experimental work, whereas ‘desirable’ information relates to technical issues that might be encountered when repeating the experiments. Adherence to MIRCA recommendations should ensure that comet assay results can be easily interpreted and independently verified by other researchers. Published in DiRROS: 22.07.2024; Views: 169; Downloads: 118
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620. Heavy metals in the Adriatic-Ionian Seas : a case study to illustrate the challenges in data management when dealing with regional datasetsMaria-Eugenia Molina Jack, Rigers Bakiu, Ana Castelli, Branko Čermelj, Maja Fafanđel, Christina Georgopoulou, Giordano Giorgi, Athanassia Iona, Damir Ivankovic, Martina Kralj, Elena Partescano, Alice Rotini, Melita Velikonja, Marina Lipizer, 2020, original scientific article Abstract: Harmonization of monitoring protocols and analytical methods is a crucial issue for transnational marine environmental status assessment, yet not the only one. Coherent data management and quality control become very relevant when environmental status is assessed at regional or subregional scale (e.g., for the Mediterranean or the Adriatic Sea), thus requiring data from different sources. Heavy metals are among the main targets of monitoring activities. Significant efforts have been dedicated to share best practices for monitoring and assessment of ecosystem status and to strengthen the network of national, regional and European large data infrastructures in order to facilitate the access to data among countries. Data comparability and interoperability depend not only on sampling and analytical protocols but also on how data and metadata are managed, quality controlled and made accessible. Interoperability is guaranteed by using common metadata and data formats, and standard vocabularies to assure homogeneous syntax and semantics. Data management of contaminants is complex and challenging due to the high number of information required on sampling and analytical procedures, high heterogeneity in matrix characteristics, but also to the large and increasing number of pollutants. Procedures for quality control on heterogeneous datasets provided by multiple sources are not yet uniform and consolidated. Additional knowledge and reliable long time-series of data are needed to evaluate typical ranges of contaminant concentration. The analysis of a coherent and harmonized regional dataset can provide the basis for a multi-step quality control procedure, which can be further improved as knowledge increases during data validation process. Keywords: contaminants, data management, harmonization, Adriatic Sea, Ionian Sea, pollution, assessment, heavy metals Published in DiRROS: 22.07.2024; Views: 170; Downloads: 149
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