Transcriptomic resources for environmental risk assessment: a case study in the Venice lagoon.

The development of new resources to evaluate the environmental status is becoming increasingly important representing a key challenge for ocean and coastal management. Recently, the employment of transcriptomics in aquatic toxicology has led to increasing initiatives proposing to integrate eco-toxicogenomics in the evaluation of marine ecosystem health. However, several technical issues need to be addressed before introducing genomics as a reliable tool in regulatory ecotoxicology. The Venice lagoon constitutes an excellent case, in which the assessment of environmental risks derived from the nearby industrial activities represents a crucial task. In this context, the potential role of genomics to assist environmental monitoring was investigated through the definition of reliable gene expression markers associated to chemical contamination in Manila clams, and their subsequent employment for the classification of Venice lagoon areas. Overall, the present study addresses key issues to evaluate the future outlooks of genomics in the environmental monitoring and risk assessment.

Influência da diferença cátion-aniônica da dieta sobre o balanço de cálcio, fósforo e magnésio em ovinos / Influence of the dietary cation-anion difference on calcium, phosphorus and magnesium balance in sheep

O efeito do balanço cátion-aniônico da dieta (BCAD) no balanço macromineral (cálcio, fósforo e magnésio), no pH urinário e fecal, na concentração sérica de cálcio, fósforo e magnésio foi estudado utilizando-se 16 carneiros machos, da raça Santa Inês, por um período de 26 dias, sendo sete de adaptação. O delineamento experimental foi em blocos ao acaso, com quatro tratamentos. Para a manipulação do BCAD foram adicionados cloreto de cálcio e bicarbonato de sódio, obtendo-se os seguintes tratamentos: -12; +30; +76 e +133mEq/kg MS da ração. Não foram encontradas diferenças (P>0,10) no pH fecal, pH urinário, balanço de fósforo e magnésio. Com o aumento do BCAD houve decréscimo da absorção e retenção de cálcio, e aumento da excreção fecal. A manipulação do BCAD interferiu no metabolismo de macrominerais, principalmente no de cálcio.

Laparoscopic surgery in pregnancy. A case report with a brief review of the topic.

A 32-year-old white lady suffering from tubal infertility was referred to our institution in November 1992 because of low abdominal pain due to a heterotopic pregnancy (one intrauterine sac and the other in the right tube). The patient had undergone, 8 weeks before, her second successful attempt at in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer. We decided to perform a laparoscopic salpingectomy. At inspection, the presence of tubo-ovarian adhesions was noted, secondary to the previous tubal microsurgical procedure, that were lysed by means of monopolar electrocoagulation. Salpingectomy was performed by combined bipolar cauterization and blunt-scissor dissection of the mesosalpinx. No uterine contractions were noted after surgery and the patients were discharged the next day. The rest of the pregnancy was uneventful and the patient spontaneously delivered vaginally a healthy female newborn weighing 3,060 g (Apgar score = 9) on June 20, 1993, at 39 weeks of gestation. A review of the published literature on laparoscopic surgery in pregnancy is given.