The Influence of Plant Litter on Soil Water Repellency: Insight from 13C NMR Spectroscopy

Soil water repellency (SWR, i.e. reduced affinity for water owing to the presence of organic hydrophobic coatings on soil particles) has relevant hydrological implications because low rates of infiltration enhance water runoff, and untargeted diffusion of fertilizers and pesticides. Previous studies investigated the occurrence of SWR in ecosystems with different vegetation cover but did not clarify its relationships with litter biochemical quality. Here, we investigated the capability of different plant litter types to induce SWR by using fresh and decomposed leaf materials from 12 species, to amend a model sandy soil over a year-long microcosm experiment. Water repellency, measured by the Molarity of an Ethanol Droplet (MED) test, was tested for the effects of litter species and age, and compared with litter quality assessed by ¹³C-CPMAS NMR in solid state and elemental chemical parameters. All litter types were highly water repellent, with MED values of 18% or higher. In contrast, when litter was incorporated into the soil, only undecomposed materials induced SWR, but with a large variability of onset and peak dynamics among litter types. Surprisingly, SWR induced by litter addition was unrelated to the aliphatic fraction of litter. In contrast, lignin-poor but labile C-rich litter, as defined by O-alkyl C and N-alkyl and methoxyl C of ¹³C-CPMAS NMR spectral regions, respectively, induced a stronger SWR. This study suggests that biochemical quality of plant litter is a major controlling factor of SWR and, by defining litter quality with ¹³C-CPMAS NMR, our results provide a significant novel contribution towards a full understanding of the relationships between plant litter biochemistry and SWR.     

Cigarette Butt Decomposition and Associated Chemical Changes Assessed by 13C CPMAS NMR

Cigarette butts (CBs) are the most common type of litter on earth, with an estimated 4.5 trillion discarded annually. Apart from being unsightly, CBs pose a serious threat to living organisms and ecosystem health when discarded in the environment because they are toxic to microbes, insects, fish and mammals. In spite of the CB toxic hazard, no studies have addressed the effects of environmental conditions on CB decomposition rate. In this study we investigate the interactive effects of substrate fertility and N transfer dynamics on CB decomposition rate and carbon quality changes. We carried out an experiment using smoked CBs and wood sticks, used as a slow decomposing standard organic substrate, incubated in both laboratory and field conditions for two years. CB carbon quality changes during decomposition was assessed by ¹³C CPMAS NMR. Our experiment confirmed the low degradation rate of CBs which, on average, lost only 37.8% of their initial mass after two years of decomposition. Although a net N transfer occurred from soil to CBs, contrary to our hypothesis, mass loss in the medium-term (two years) was unaffected by N availability in the surrounding substrate. The opposite held for wood sticks, in agreement with the model that N-rich substrates promote the decomposition of other N-poor natural organic materials with a high C/N ratio. As regards CB chemical quality, after two years of decomposition ¹³C NMR spectroscopy highlighted very small changes in C quality that are likely to reflect a limited microbial attack.     

Aspiration biopsy smear pattern as a predictor of biologic behavior in adenocarcinoma of the breast.

Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is increasingly used for the initial diagnosis of breast carcinoma, yet few studies have investigated the prognostic importance of cytologic features seen in breast FNAC. We studied the relationship between prognosis and smear morphology in 26 patients with breast carcinoma for whom information from long-term follow-up was available. Specifically, we attempted to correlate nuclear grade and smear pattern with hormonal receptor status, lymph node status, breast recurrence and distant metastasis. In an additional five patients (on whom insufficient follow-up information was available), smear pattern and nuclear grade were correlated with hormonal status. Smears were classified into three patterns: typical (sheets and clusters), individual cell predominant and cluster predominant. The individual cell predominant pattern was associated with an increased incidence of distant metastasis when compared with the other two smear patterns (P less than .05). No statistically significant association was observed between smear pattern and the other factors studied. Nuclear grade 2 (of 3) was also associated with an increased incidence of distant metastasis. However, most grade 2 tumors (10/12) were of the individual cell predominant pattern. Smear pattern classification, along with DNA ploidy analysis and hormone receptor analysis of FNAC-derived material, may yield valuable prognostic information.     

Folk Phytotherapy in Paediatric Health Care in Central and Southern Italy: a Review

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) consists of systems and practices used to prevent or treat illness, and/or promote health and wellbeing, generally with herbal remedies. In recent decades, ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological surveys have received increased attention among populations in central and southern Italy traditionally highly conservative regarding knowledge of folk medicine. This review highlights the use of wild and cultivated plants in paediatric health care. From a search of articles published between 1978 and 2017 we found a total of 34 containing reports of medicinal plants specifically used for treating children’s diseases, listing 83 taxa belonging to 37 families in 116 recorded cases of medicinal plant use. Tuscany has the highest number of plant use reports and the highest number of species used in a single region, followed by Campania and Sicily. Allium sativum is the most widely reported species, cited in eight regions. We identified eight ailment categories. Plants used as anthelmintics and for gastro-intestinal and skin diseases are widely used.     

Hepatic respiratory compensation and haematological changes in the cave cyprinid, Phreatichthys andruzzii

In several ectotherms, including all members of the Osteichthyes studied so far, the spleen is capable of storing and releasing erythrocytes according to the animal's respiratory needs. The tropical cave cyprinid Phreatichthys andruzzii uses its liver rather than the spleen as the site of accumulation in the respiratory compensation process, like the amphibian Rana esculenta. The reversible process of erythrocyte accumulation in the liver is very evident in animals anaesthetized with chlorobutanol; MS-222, an anaesthetic widely used in lower vertebrates alters all the haematological parameters and is not suitable for studies on blood and respiration. The hepatic respiratory compensation mechanism is as efficient as the splenic one: in animals kept at 18 °C for 24 h the mean liver weight percentage was 70% higher than in specimens kept at 28 °C (2.43% of the body weight compared to 1.39%, in groups of six specimens) while mean red blood cell counts fell from 2.49 to 1.60 · 10¹² per l, in agreement with the haematocrit value and haemoglobin concentration; mean corpuscular volume remained constant (at about 177 fl). Accepted: 15 April 1997     

Synthesis and characterization of technetium(V) complexes with tridentate schiff base ligands. X-ray crystal structure of chloro[N-(2-hydroxyphenyl)salicylideneiminato]oxotechnetium(V)

Five-coordinate technetium(V) complexes of the form TcO(L)Cl where L is one of the two tridentate Schiff base ligands N-(2-oxidophenyl)salicylideneiminate or N-(2-mercaptophenyl)salicylideneiminate have been synthesized and characterized. These neutral complexes precipitate from methanol upon reaction of the Schiff base ligand with TcOCl₄^?. A single crystal X-ray structure determination shows that the chloro [[N-(2-oxidophenyl)salicylideneiminato](2?)-N,O,O′]oxotechnetium(V) complex, [TcO(C₁₃H₉NO₂)Cl], formula weight 362, has a distorted square pyramidal coordination geometry with the oxo ligand in the axial position. The steric requirements of the oxo group cause the Tc atom to be displayed 0.67 Å out of the mean equatorial plane of the other four donor atoms. This complex crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2₁/a with a = 13.423(6) Å, b = 12.570(5) Å, c = 7.769(3) Å, β = 106.53(5)°, V = 1256.7(9) ų, and Z = 4. The structure has been refined to R = 0.047 for 1775 observed reflections.     

Jaguar (Panthera onca) feeding ecology: distribution of predator and prey through time and space

Jaguars Panthera onca inhabiting tropical or subtropical evergreen moist forest have often been classified as opportunistic predators because they consume prey relative to its availability. However, these studies failed to address simultaneously the distribution of predator and prey through time and space, which may lead to an incomplete or erroneous understanding of jaguar foraging strategies. In this study, we reconstructed jaguar diet from scat, and used camera traps to investigate jaguar prey availability and the distribution of jaguar and its prey through space and time. We focused our examination of predator–prey temporal and spatial relations on forest infrastructure comprising man-made paths, small mammal trails, tapir Tapirus bairdi trail and trail-less, forested areas as they represent distinct habitats for prey selection. Overall, we observed high overlap between the prey used and available, suggestive of opportunistic foraging. However, jaguars exhibited selective tendencies in discriminating between larger prey. Jaguars used collared peccary Tayassu tajacu greater than its availability, while preying upon the equally abundant and similarly distributed white-lipped peccary Tayassu pecari and tapir less than predicted based upon availability. Armadillo Dasypus novemcinctus and paca Agouti paca , 56.6% of total consumption, were consumed relative to availability but exhibited low spatial overlap with jaguar. Armadillo and paca used trail-less, forested areas and small mammal trails not used by jaguar and were photographed more frequently at greater distances from man-made paths, major thoroughfares for jaguars. This study suggests that although forest jaguars use prey relative to its abundance, jaguars may rely on foraging strategies other than chance encounters for exploiting prey.     

Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type 2 (HTLV-2) Provirus in Circulating Cells of the Monocyte/Macrophage Lineage in Patients Dually Infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 and HTLV-2 and Having Predominantly Sensory Polyneuropathy

We investigated the presence of human T-lymphotropic virus type 2 (HTLV-2) DNA in the peripheral blood mononuclear cell subsets obtained from 18 patients coinfected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and HTLV-2, 6 of whom also had predominantly sensory polyneuropathy (PSP). HTLV-2 DNA and RNA were found in CD8- and CD19-positive cells, and, for patients with PSP, in CD14-positive cells as well. Furthermore, the patients with PSP had higher proviral loads than those without PSP.