Where does the methane entrapped in Antarctic sea ice come from?

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

ELSA Italy

In the last 50 years, Italy has experienced a relevant transformation, starting from an emigrant nation (according to the last statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, there are more than 4.636.647 Italians still living abroad) to become an immigrant destination. From 1970 until now, migrant citizens with regular residence permits in Italy have increased, with a rate of growth that looks almost unstoppable: at the beginning of 2017, there were more than 5,047,028 foreign nationals resident in Italy. This numbers, added to the illegal immigrants whose numbers are difficult to define, outline a complex situation, characterized by immigrant flows from almost 200 different countries, especially Central Eastern Europe (Albania, Romania and Ukraine), Northern Africa (Morocco), China and the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka). This historically important phenomenon requires in-depth analysis in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the Italian legislation and intervention policies, and to find concrete solutions to help immigrants settling in our country

Antarctic sea ice trophic status

This study focuses on analyses and validation of 1 month forecasts (OMFs) of weak Indian monsoons based on 10 member ensemble hindcasts (retrospective forecasts) of the NCEP Climate Forecast System (CFS) model for the period 1981–2008. The weak monsoon episodes chosen for the analysis correspond to summer monsoon months which were characterized by significant deficits in the All-India monthly rainfall of − 20% of the climatological normal. Examination of the CFS-OMFs shows poor skill of the model in capturing the observed rainfall and circulation anomalies during weak monsoons. The present analysis suggests that deficiencies in realistically capturing the ocean-atmosphere coupling in the tropical Indian Ocean (IO) introduces biases in simulating sea surface temperature and rainfall anomalies in the equatorial region, which in turn affects the monsoon precipitation forecasts over the sub-continent. In particular, the mean thermocline in the near-equatorial IO is found to be practically flat in the CFS model, so that the near-equatorial anomalies in the model are not strong enough to weaken the summer monsoon circulation and reduce the monsoon precipitation over India. By examining a 100 year free run of the CFS model, it is seen that moderate monsoon-droughts simulated by the model have weak teleconnections with the equatorial IO dynamics. On the other hand, intense monsoon-droughts in the CFS-model are found be remarkably linked with the equatorial IO anomalies. It is suggested that improving the slope of the equatorial IO thermocline and allowing for more realistic IO-monsoon coupling in the CFS-model would be an important step for improving the skill of extended-range monsoon forecasts

Evaluation of the genotoxic and antigenotoxic potential of Melissa officinalis in mice

Melissa officinalis (L.) (Lamiaceae), a plant known as the lemon balm, is native to the east Mediterranean region and west Asia. Also found in tropical countries, such as Brazil, where it is popularly known as “erva-cidreira” or “melissa”, it is widely used in aqueous- or alcoholic-extract form in the treatment of various disorders. The aim was to investigate in vivo its antigenotoxicity and antimutagenicity, as well as its genotoxic/mutagenic potential through comet and micronucleus assaying. CF-1 male mice were treated with ethanolic (Mo-EE) (250 or 500 mg/kg) or aqueous (Mo-AE) (100 mg/kg) solutions of an M. officinalis extract for 2 weeks, prior to treatment with saline or Methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) doses by intraperitoneal injection. Irrespective of the doses, no genotoxic or mutagenic effects were observed in blood and bone-marrow samples. Although Mo-EE exerted an antigenotoxic effect on the blood cells of mice treated with the alkylating agent (MMS) in all the doses, this was not so with Mo-AE. Micronucleus testing revealed the protector effect of Mo-EE, but only when administered at the highest dose. The implication that an ethanolic extract of M. officinalis has antigenotoxic/antimutagenic properties is an indication of its medicinal relevance

Analyzing factors that influence the folk use and phytonomy of 18 medicinal plants in Navarra

BACKGROUND: This article analyzes whether the distribution or area of use of 18 medicinal plants is influenced by ecological and cultural factors which might account for their traditional use and/or phytonymy in Navarra. This discussion may be helpful for comparative studies, touching as it does on other ethnopharmacological issues: a) which cultural and ecological factors affect the selection of medicinal plants; b) substitutions of medicinal plants in popular medicine; c) the relation between local nomenclature and uses. To analyze these questions, this paper presents an example of a species used for digestive disorders (tea and camomile: Jasonia glutinosa, J. tuberosa, Sideritis hyssopifolia, Bidens aurea, Chamaemelum nobile, Santolina chamaecyparissus...), high blood pressure (Rhamnus alaternus, Olea europaea...) or skin diseases (Hylotelephium maximum, H. telephium, Anagallis arvensis, A. foemina). METHODS: Fieldwork began on January 2004 and continued until December 2006. During that time we interviewed 505 informants in 218 locations in Navarra. Information was collected using semi-structured ethnobotanical interviews, and we subsequently made maps using Arc-View 8.0 program to determine the area of use of each taxon. Each map was then compared with the bioclimatic and linguistic map of Navarra, using the soil and ethnographic data for the region, and with other ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological studies carried out in Europe. RESULTS: The results clearly show that ecological and cultural factors influence the selection of medicinal plants in this region. Climate and substrate are the most important ecological factors that influence the distribution and abundance of plants, which are the biological factors that affect medicinal plant selection. CONCLUSION: The study of edaphological and climatological factors, on the one hand, and culture, on the other, can help us to understand why a plant is replaced by another one for the same purposes, either in the same or in a different area. In many cases, the cultural factor means that the use of a species is more widespread than its ecological distribution. This may also explain the presence of synonyms and polysemies which are useful for discussing ethnopharmacological data