Biology subjects

Paolini, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Paolini, A..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Overflooding Ratios in the Sterile Insect Technique: Toward Sustainable Management of Bagrada hilaris

The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is an eco-friendly control method that may prove effective against Bagrada hilaris, a pest native to India, Southeast Asia, and Middle and central Africa and reported as invasive in the southwestern USA, Hawaii, Mexico, South America, and two Mediterranean islands. This insect causes significant crop damage due to its intense feeding behavior and is currently managed almost exclusively with synthetic insecticides. In this context, SIT offers a promising alternative for controlling B. hilaris populations, provided that sufficient numbers of sterile males are continuously released. Based on this premise, we conducted a preliminary laboratory study to evaluate the overflooding ratio (OFR)--the proportion of non-irradiated to irradiated males required to suppress the populations fertility. We tested various OFRs (1:1, 1:2, 1:5, and 1:10), monitoring both the number of eggs laid and hatching rates. Our results show a significant decrease in fertility as the percentage of irradiated males increases. Among the ratios examined, 1:5 emerged as the most advantageous in terms of both reducing fertility and ease of application. Although further validation under field conditions is needed, our findings suggest that SIT could effectively contribute to an integrated management strategy for B. hilaris, reducing the reliance on chemical pesticides and supporting a more sustainable approach.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2021

MR relaxometry-based analysis of brain hemorrhages: an experimental study on a rabbit model

Magnetic Resonance Relaxometry is a quantitative MRI-based technique able to estimate tissue relaxation times T1 and T2. This approach allows increasing the MRI diagnostic accuracy mostly in case of brain neoplasia or neurodegenerative disorders in human medicine. However, few reports are available on the application of this technique in the clinical field of veterinary medicine. For this reason, in this work, we developed a relaxometry based approach on experimentally induced brain hemorrhages on rabbits. Specifically, the methodology is based on a hierarchical clustering procedure driven by the T1 relaxometry signals from a set of regions of interest selected on the T2 map. The approach is multivariate since it combines both T1 and T2 information and allows the diagnosis at the subject level by comparing "suspected" pathological regions with healthy homologous ones within the same brain. To validate the proposed technique, the scanned brains underwent histopathological analyses to estimate the performance of the proposed classifier in terms of Receiver Operator Curve analyses. The results showed that, in terms of identification of the lesion and its contours, the proposed approach resulted accurate and outperformed the standard techniques based on T1w and T2w images. Finally, since the proposed protocol in terms of the adopted scanner, sequences, and analysis tools, is suitable for the clinical practice, it can be potentially validated through large-scale multi-center clinical studies.

neuroscience↗