The sight is one of the five senses allowing an autonomous and high-quality life, so that alterations of any ocular component may result in several clinical phenotypes (from conjunctivitis to severe vision loss and irreversible blindness). Most parts of clinical phenotypes have been significantly associated with mutations in genes regulating the normal formation and maturation of the anterior segments of the eye. Among the eye anterior segment disorders, special attention is given to Glaucoma as it represents one of the major causes of bilateral blindness in the world, with an onset due to Mendelian or multifactorial genetic-causative traits. This review will point out the attention on the Primary Congenital Glaucoma (PCG), which is usually transmitted according to an autosomal-recessive inheritance pattern. Taking into consideration the genetic component of the PCG, it is possible to observe a strong heterogeneity concerning the disease-associated loci (GLC3), penetrance defects, and expressivity of the disease. Given the strong PGC heterogeneity, pre- and posttest genetic counseling plays an essential role in the achievement of an appropriate management of PCG, in terms of medical, social, and psychological impact of the disease.

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BackgroundThe knowledge of the individual genetic “status” in the prenatal era is particularly relevant in the case of positive family history for genetic diseases, in advanced maternal age and in the general screening for foetal abnormalities. In this context, here, we report an innovative molecular assay which utilizes the cell-free foetal DNA (cffDNA) as a source for the early and fast detection of the foetal sex. The study involved 132 pregnant women in their first 3 months of pregnancy, who agreed to give a blood sample. All the collected samples were immediately subjected to the separation of the plasma, which was utilized for the extraction of the cffDNA. Successively, the extracted cffDNA was analysed by a quantitative PCR (qPCR) method based on Plexor-HY chemistry, which is able to simultaneously identify, quantify and discriminate the autosomal DNA from the sex-linked DNA.ResultsOverall, the Plexor-HY assay demonstrated to be sensitive and specific for the determination of low-template DNA, such as the cffDNA. In fact, the Plexor-HY assay has been successfully performed in all the samples, identifying 70 males and 62 females. As the foetal sex can be provided in 120 min just by utilizing a maternal blood sample as cffDNA source, the assay represents a very fast, safe and non-invasive prenatal method.ConclusionsThe possibility of determining the foetal sex in the early prenatal life consents the application of our assay as a helpful screening test for subjects and families at risk of sex-linked disorders. Moreover, the early knowledge of the foetal sex may be of great help even for the specialist, who might promptly advise the patients concerning the foetal risk of inheriting sex-linked disorders and the clinical utility of performing an invasive prenatal diagnosis.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40246-016-0066-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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A swarm of N Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors in a geostationary orbit would provide all-day-all-weather imaging within a continental region, using direct downloading for real time data exploitation. The coherent combinations of the echoes would improve the signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of N², leading to metric resolution, 20-40 minutes minimum observation time, multipolarimetric and interferometric imaging. Fast evolving events like landslides, floods, soil moisture changes, volcanic activity, co-seismic motions, infrastructure deformations and columnar water-vapor maps would be monitored continuously from space for the first time. The observed area would have a footprint up to a thousand kilometers wide, set using electronic steering, anytime, and anywhere within a continent. In this paper, we take advantage of the preliminary concept definition of the "Advanced Radar Geosynchronous Observation System" ARGOS, to provide applications, scalable extension from a single monostatic SAR to a constellation of active and passive sensors, discussion of launch strategies and Radar payload and comparison with concepts proposed in the literature.

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