Variations in soil chemical and physical properties explain basin-wide Amazon forest soil carbon concentrations

We investigate the edaphic, mineralogical and climatic controls of soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration utilising data from 147 primary forest soils (0–30 cm depth) sampled in eight different countries across the Amazon Basin. Sampled across 14 different World Reference Base soil groups, our data suggest that stabilisation mechanism varies with pedogenetic level. Specifically, although SOC concentrations in Ferralsols and Acrisols were best explained by simple variations in clay content – this presumably being due to their relatively uniform kaolinitic mineralogy – this was not the case for less weathered soils such as Alisols, Cambisols and Plinthosols for which interactions between Al species, soil pH and litter quality are argued to be much more important. Although for more strongly weathered soils the majority of SOC is located within the aggregate fraction, for the less weathered soils most of the SOC is located within the silt and clay fractions. It thus seems that for highly weathered soils SOC storage is mostly influenced by surface area variations arising from clay content, with physical protection inside aggregates rendering an additional level of protection against decomposition. On the other hand, most of the SOC in less weathered soils is associated with the precipitation of aluminium–carbon complexes within the fine soil fraction, with this mechanism enhanced by the presence of high levels of aromatic, carboxyl-rich organic matter compounds. Also examined as part of this study were a relatively small number of arenic soils (viz. Arenosols and Podzols) for which there was a small but significant influence of clay and silt content variations on SOM storage, with fractionation studies showing that particulate organic matter may account for up to 0.60 of arenic soil SOC. In contrast to what were in all cases strong influences of soil and/or litter quality properties, after accounting for these effects neither wood productivity, above-ground biomass nor precipitation/temperature variations were found to exert any significant influence on SOC stocks. These results have important implications for our understanding of how Amazon forest soils are likely to respond to ongoing and future climate changes

Pneumocystis primary infection in non-immunosuppressed infants in Lima, Peru

Objectives: To provide original data on Pneumocystis primary infection in non-immunosuppressed infants from Peru. / Methods: A cross sectional study was performed. Infants less than seven months old, without any underlying medical conditions attending the “well baby” outpatient clinic at one hospital in Lima, Peru were prospectively enrolled during a 15-month period from November 2016 to February 2018. All had a nasopharyngeal aspirate (NPA) for detection of P. jirovecii DNA using a PCR assay, regardless of respiratory symptoms. P. jirovecii DNA detection was considered to represent pulmonary colonization contemporaneous with Pneumocystis primary infection. Associations between infants’ clinical and demographic characteristics and results of P. jirovecii DNA detection were analyzed. / Results: P. jirovecii DNA was detected in 45 of 146 infants (30.8%) and detection was not associated with concurrent respiratory symptoms in 40 of 45 infants. Infants with P. jirovecii had a lower mean age when compared to infants not colonized (p <0.05). The highest frequency of P. jirovecii was observed in 2-3-month-old infants (p < 0.01) and in the cooler winter and spring seasons (p <0.01). Multivariable analysis showed that infants living in a home with ≤ 1 bedroom were more likely to be colonized; Odds Ratio =3.03 (95%CI 1.31-7.00; p =0.01). / Conclusion: Pneumocystis primary infection in this single site in Lima, Peru, was most frequently observed in 2-3-month-old infants, in winter and spring seasons, and with higher detection rates being associated with household conditions favoring close inter-individual contacts and potential transmission of P. jirovecii

Scoping review of measures of treatment burden in patients with multimorbidity: advancements and current gaps

Objectives: To identify, assess, and summarize the measures to assess burden of treatment in patients with multimorbidity (BoT-MMs) and their measurement properties. Study Design and Setting: MEDLINE via PubMed was searched from inception until May 2021. Independent reviewers extracted data from studies in which BoT-MMs were developed, validated, or reported as used, including an assessment of their measurement properties (e.g., validity and reliability) using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments. Results: Eight BoT-MMs were identified across 72 studies. Most studies were performed in English (68%), in high-income countries (90%), without noting urban-rural settings (90%). No BoT-MMs had both sufficient content validity and internal consistency; some measurement properties were either insufficient or uncertain (e.g., responsiveness). Other frequent limitations of BoT-MMs included absent recall time, presence of floor effects, and unclear rationale for categorizing and interpreting raw scores. Conclusion: The evidence needed for use of extant BoT-MMs in patients with multimorbidity remains insufficiently developed, including that of suitability for their development, measurement properties, interpretability of scores, and use in low-resource settings. This review summarizes this evidence and identifies issues needing attention for using BoT-MMs in research and clinical practice

Soil-induced impacts on forest structure drive coarse woody debris stocks across central Amazonia

PublishedJournal Article© 2014, © 2014 Botanical Society of Scotland and Taylor & Francis. Background: Coarse woody debris (CWD) is an essential component in tropical forest ecosystems and its quantity varies widely with forest types. Aims: Relationships among CWD, soil, forest structure and other environmental factors were analysed to understand the drivers of variation in CWD in forests on different soil types across central Amazonia. Methods: To estimate CWD stocks and density of dead wood debris, 75 permanent forest plots of 0.5 ha in size were assessed along a transect that spanned ca. 700 km in undisturbed forests from north of the Rio Negro to south of the Rio Amazonas. Soil physical properties were evaluated by digging 2-m-deep pits and by taking auger samples. Results: Soil physical properties were the best predictors of CWD stocks; 37% of its variation was explained by effective soil depth. CWD stocks had a two-fold variation across a gradient of physical soil constraints (i.e. effective soil depth, anoxia and soil structure). Average biomass per tree was related to physical soil constraints, which, in turn, had a strong relationship with local CWD stocks. Conclusions: Soil physical properties appear to control average biomass per tree (and through this affect forest structure and dynamics), which, in turn, is correlated with CWD production and stocks

Randomized clinical trial to evaluate the effect of fecal microbiota transplant for initial Clostridium difficile infection in intestinal microbiome

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of fecal donor-unrelated donor mix (FMT-FURM) transplantation as first-line therapy for C. difficile infection (CDI) in intestinal microbiome. Methods We designed an open, two-arm pilot study with oral vancomycin (250mg every 6 h for 10–14 days) or FMT-FURM as treatments for the first CDI episode in hospitalized adult patients in Hospital Universitario “Dr. Jose Eleuterio Gonzalez”. Patients were randomized by a closed envelope method in a 1: 1 ratio to either oral vancomycin or FMT-FURM. CDI resolution was considered when there was a reduction on the Bristol scale of at least 2 points, a reduction of at least 50% in the number of bowel movements, absence of fever, and resolution of abdominal pain (at least two criteria). From each patient, a fecal sample was obtained at days 0, 3, and 7 after treatment. Specimens were cultured to isolate C. difficile, and isolates were characterized by PCR. Susceptibility testing of isolates was performed using the agar dilution method. Fecal samples and FMT-FURM were analyzed by 16S rRNA sequencing. Results We included 19 patients; 10 in the vancomycin arm and 9 in the FMT-FURM arm. However, one of the patients in the vancomycin arm and two patients in the FMT-FURM arm were eliminated. Symptoms resolved in 8/9 patients (88.9%) in the vancomycin group, while symptoms resolved in 4/7 patients (57.1%) after the first FMT-FURM dose (P = 0.26) and in 5/7 patients (71.4%) after the second dose (P = 0.55). During the study, no adverse effects attributable to FMT-FURM were observed in patients. Twelve isolates were recovered, most isolates carried tcdB, tcdA, cdtA, and cdtB, with an 18-bp deletion in tcdC. All isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin and moxifloxacin but susceptible to metronidazole, linezolid, fidaxomicin, and tetracycline. In the FMT-FURM group, the bacterial composition was dominated by Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria at all-time points and the microbiota were remarkably stable over time. The vancomycin group showed a very different pattern of the microbial composition when comparing to the FMT-FURM group over time. Conclusion The results of this preliminary study showed that FMT-FURM for initial CDI is associated with specific bacterial communities that do not resemble the donors’ sample.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Examen y practica de confessores y penitentes : en todas las materias de la teologia moral

Sign.: [calderón]6, A-Y12.Port. con viñeta xil. de la Compañía de Jesús

Comedia famosa Los empeños de un engaño

Pie de imp. tomado de colofónPor tipografía debió ser impresa entre 1701 y 1800Sign.: A-D4, E2H HAZ/2772(4

El caballero de Griñón :comedia en dos actos

Representada por primera vez en el Teatro del Instituto, en el mes de junio de 1847Copia digital. Madrid : Ministerio de Cultura. Dirección General del Libro, Archivos y Bibliotecas, 2010Pie de imprenta tomado del colofónSign.:1-3(4º)Texto a dos col.Colección de comedias representadas con éxito en los Teatros de La Cort

Validity of instruments to assess students' travel and pedestrian safety

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs are designed to make walking and bicycling to school safe and accessible for children. Despite their growing popularity, few validated measures exist for assessing important outcomes such as type of student transport or pedestrian safety behaviors. This research validated the SRTS school travel survey and a pedestrian safety behavior checklist.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fourth grade students completed a brief written survey on how they got to school that day with set responses. Test-retest reliability was obtained 3-4 hours apart. Convergent validity of the SRTS travel survey was assessed by comparison to parents' report. For the measure of pedestrian safety behavior, 10 research assistants observed 29 students at a school intersection for completion of 8 selected pedestrian safety behaviors. Reliability was determined in two ways: correlations between the research assistants' ratings to that of the Principal Investigator (PI) and intraclass correlations (ICC) across research assistant ratings.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The SRTS travel survey had high test-retest reliability (κ = 0.97, n = 96, p < 0.001) and convergent validity (κ = 0.87, n = 81, p < 0.001). The pedestrian safety behavior checklist had moderate reliability across research assistants' ratings (ICC = 0.48) and moderate correlation with the PI (r = 0.55, p =< 0.01). When two raters simultaneously used the instrument, the ICC increased to 0.65. Overall percent agreement (91%), sensitivity (85%) and specificity (83%) were acceptable.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These validated instruments can be used to assess SRTS programs. The pedestrian safety behavior checklist may benefit from further formative work.</p

Methods to estimate aboveground wood productivity from long-term forest inventory plots

Forest inventory plots are widely used to estimate biomass carbon storage and its change over time. While there has been much debate and exploration of the analytical methods for calculating biomass, the methods used to determine rates of wood production have not been evaluated to the same degree. This affects assessment of ecosystem fluxes and may have wider implications if inventory data are used to parameterise biospheric models, or scaled to large areas in assessments of carbon sequestration. Here we use a dataset of 35 long-term Amazonian forest inventory plots to test different methods of calculating wood production rates. These address potential biases associated with three issues that routinely impact the interpretation of tree measurement data: (1) changes in the point of measurement (POM) of stem diameter as trees grow over time; (2) unequal length of time between censuses; and (3) the treatment of trees that pass the minimum diameter threshold (“recruits”). We derive corrections that control for changing POM height, that account for the unobserved growth of trees that die within census intervals, and that explore different assumptions regarding the growth of recruits during the previous census interval. For our dataset we find that annual aboveground coarse wood production (AGWP; in Mg ha−1 year−1 of dry matter) is underestimated on average by 9.2% if corrections are not made to control for changes in POM height. Failure to control for the length of sampling intervals results in a mean underestimation of 2.7% in annual AGWP in our plots for a mean interval length of 3.6 years. Different methods for treating recruits result in mean differences of up to 8.1% in AGWP. In general, the greater the length of time a plot is sampled for and the greater the time elapsed between censuses, the greater the tendency to underestimate wood production. We recommend that POM changes, census interval length, and the contribution of recruits should all be accounted for when estimating productivity rates, and suggest methods for doing this.European UnionUK Natural Environment Research CouncilGordon and Betty Moore FoundationCASE sponsorship from UNEP-WCMCRoyal Society University Research FellowshipERC Advanced Grant “Tropical Forests in the Changing Earth System”Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Awar