Modelling Impact of Adjusted Agricultural Practices on Nitrogen Leaching to Groundwater

The aim of the research was to determine how changes in the management of agricultural land (cultivation techniques, fertilisation, type of crop and crop rotation) influence on the leaching of nitrogen from the soil profile. Research was conducted in the Drava River plain in Slovenia. The impact of 31 different scenarios of potential change in agricultural land management was evaluated using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. The research was located on the shallow aquifer with alluvial bedrock composite from carbonate and silicate layers, which is the main source of drinking water in the area. The results of the SWAT model version 2009 showed that with the constant climate and land management technology, the magnitude of nitrogen leaching from the soil profile is mainly influenced by soil properties. The most drastic effect on the increase of nitrogen leaching showed vegetable production technology, followed by cereals (corn, wheat and barley). Vegetable production even in ecological production by Slovenian standards can result in similar leaching potential as conventional farming, due to unfavourable conditions originating from soil properties (shallow soil profile). Effects of grassland production may lead to 76–98% reduction in nitrogen loss from soil profile in comparison to current practices

Late Quaternary evolution of the sedimentary environment in Modrejce near Most na Soči (Soča Valley, Julian Alps)

Geomorphological and geological mapping have long been used to study the glacial history of the Slovenian Alps, but many uncertainties remain regarding the time and extent of Pleistocene glaciations there. Glacial landforms and undisturbed glacial deposits are rare in the areas of the former glacier terminus, especially in the Soča Valley, where large discrepancies in the interpretation of the extent of the former Soča Glacier have been reported. Early studies proved inconclusive as to whether one or two glaciations extended into the Soča Valley as far as Most na Soči. In order to answer this question, the Quaternary sedimentary succession and landforms in the Modrejce Valley near Most na Soči were investigated. New geological and geomorphological field data allow the interpretation of the sedimentary environment and the stratigraphic relationships between different units. In response to glacial dynamics, the sedimentation developed from glaciofluvial and glaciolacustrine to fully glacial environments, followed by slope deposition. At higher altitudes lateral moraines are preserved, while the staircase-like slope below has been carved into older glacial, glaciofluvial and glaciolacustrine deposits by glacial and post-glacial processes, including fluvial erosion and slope dynamics. We conclude that the succession studied here was deposited over the course of two different glacial advances – LGM and pre-LGM. Our study thus suggests that the Soča Glacier extended as far as the area of Most na Soči twice over the course of the late Quaternary

Long term response of electrochemotherapy with reduced dose of bleomycin in elderly patients with head and neck non-melanoma skin cancer

. Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a local cancer treatment based on electroporation where the electric field is used to enhance cell membrane permeability and thereby facilitating the transition of chemotherapeutic agents into the cell. For the treatment of non-melanoma skin cancer, a standard dosage of 15,000 IU/m2 bleomycin (BLM) is used. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the long-term ECT response in the group of elderly patients with non-melanoma skin cancer treated with a reduced dose of BLM in comparison to the outcome in the patients treated with the standard dose of BLM. Patients and methods. Twenty-eight patients older than 65 years, with a total of 52 non-melanoma skin lesions were included in the study. Twelve patients (24 lesions) in the experimental group received a reduced dose of BLM (10,000 IU/m2), 16 patients (28 lesions) were treated with a standard dose of BLM (15,000 IU/m2). Results. No statistically significant difference in tumor control was observed between both groups. In the experimental group, tumors recurred in 39.0% of treated lesions in a median follow-up time of 28 months. In the control group, the recurrence rate of treated lesions was 15.4% in a median follow-up time of 40 months. Conclusions. ECT with a reduced dose of BLM is a feasible treatment option for elderly patients with equal efficacy to standard dose treatment and should be considered as a treatment modality in advanced aged patients with comorbidities, where overall life expectancy is poo

Geomorphological evidence of active tectonics in the Ljubljana basin

Ljubljana Basin is the most densely populated, highly urbanised and economically the highest developed part of Slovenia, experiencing moderate seismic activity with the strongest historical earthquake in 1895, M 6.1, Imax VIII-IX EMS-98, that devastated Ljubljana. Despite the recognised seismic risk faults capable of producing strong magnitude earthquakes are poorly known. This doctoral dissertation presents an investigation of active faults in the Ljubljana Basin using the approach of tectonic geomorphology. Active faults were identified with regional-scale geomorphologic mapping using remote sensing data. The right-lateral strike-slip Sava fault and reverse Vodice fault were investigated in detail with geomorphologic analysis of spatial topographic data and field survey. Study of these faults was focused on describing geomorphic indicators of activity, determining the fault kinematics, geometry and segmentation and on estimating offsets and ages of geomorphic markers. The obtained data alowed us to quantitatively constrain the Quaternary activity of Sava and Vodice faults. Furthermore, their seismogenic potential was estimated based on geometric type of segmentation using scaling laws. The results of this work and an extensive review of all available data enabled us to propose a structural and seismotectonic model of the Ljubljana Basin,\ud explaining the kinematics of active faults, structural evolution of the basin and to give new insights on seismic hazard of this region

Paraglacial adjustment of alluvial fans to the last deglaciation in the Snežnik Mountain, Dinaric karst (Slovenia)

Glaciokarst depressions are major glacigenic depocenters in the Dinaric mountain karst areas and often store important information about the timing and nature of glacial processes and paraglacial sediment reworking. This study focuses on Praprotna draga, which is one of the largest glaciokarst depressions in the Sneznik Mountain (Dinaric karst), with an area of similar to 3.4 km(2) and a maximum depth of 140 m. The western slopes of the depression are characterized by undulated moraine morphology and alluvial fans are filling its entire floor. We present the results on the thickness, origin and age of the sediment infill using a complementary geomorphological, sedimentological, geophysical and dating approach. Distribution of moraines point to two glacial advances that were associated with two main alluvial fan aggradation phases recognized using the electrical resistivity tomography measurements. The youngest alluvial deposits were sampled for cosmogenic Cl-36 analysis using amalgamated carbonate pebbles. The depth profile of Cl-36 concentrations suggests an age of 123 +/- 1.7 ka when assuming a likely denudation rate of 20 mm ka(-1). Since the existence of the Younger Dryas glaciers in the study area is climatically difficult to explain, we tentatively propose that the youngest alluvial deposition in Praprotna draga took place after the glacier retreat during the paraglacial period. Our findings suggest that the time window of paraglacial adjustment in the Sneznik Mountain was brief and likely conditioned by quick recolonization with vegetation and inefficient surface runoff on deglaciated karst terrain. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Geomorphology and wine: the case of Malvasia in the Vipava valley, Slovenia

The concept of terroir incorporates interaction between geogenic and anthropogenic parameters and defines the typicity and quality of wine in a particular geographic area. Geomorphology represents one of the most important geogenic parameters of terroir. In 2008 we produced two wines from two different sites located within the same vineyard in the Vipava valley (Slovenia). Despite identical vine-growing and winemaking techniques, the two sites yielded grapes and wines of different quality. Both sites are identical in terms of macroclimate and bedrock, thus the differences are related to soil composition, drainage and microclimate, all directly linked to different geomorphic positions

Active Tectonics of the Alps-Dinarides junction

The northward motion and rotation of the Adriatic Plate leads to crustal deformation in the Southern Alps and in the Dinarides. Many aspects of the active tectonics in that area have not been properly understood, for example the distribution and localization of strain, the paleoseismic history of the largest faults, the seismic sources for large historical earthquakes, and the landscape record of active faulting. In the framework of SPP2017, we worked in the Southern Alps-Dinarides transition area, encompassing W Slovenia, NE Italy, and S Austria (Fig. 1). We used tectonic geomorphology studies on high-resolution digital elevation models, satellite imagery, field mapping, near-surface geophysics, paleoseismology, and Quaternary dating techniques to understand the pattern of Late Quaternary tectonics. Our results how that in Slovenia, deformation is distributed across a system of major NW-SE striking right-lateral strike slip faults in a more than 60 km-wide zone (Grützner et al., 2021). Many smaller, <15 km long faults show postglacial activity, too. In general, the deformation is widely distributed. In Italy, most of the deformation is accommodated by thrusting at the South Alpine orogenic front. Several thrust faults have stepped out into the Friulian Plain, where they are often blind (Viscolani et al., 2020). Although historical earthquakes with magnitudes larger than M6 occurred in the interior of the mountain chain, instrumental seismicity here is low. There is only very poor geological evidence of fault activity because sedimentation, high erosion rates, and anthropogenic modification dominate the present-day landscape and outpace almost any tectonic signal. In addition, glacial processes have erased most potential evidence for Late Quaternary active tectonics (Diercks et al., 2021, 2022, in press). The situation is similar in Austria, where geological evidence of active faulting is sparse, despite a record of strong historical earthquakes. New dating results from both deformed and undisturbed geomorphic markers allow us to place constraints on the maximum amount of deformation that is accommodated in southern Austria and on fault activity in Slovenia. Our latest results on seismically-triggered mass movements show that the 1348 Earthquake, one of the strongest historical events in the entire Alps, has likely occurred on the Fella-Sava Fault

Detection and localization of hyperfunctioning parathyroid glands on [18F]fluorocholine PET/CT using deep learning – model performance and comparison to human experts

In the setting of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT), [18F]fluorocholine PET/CT (FCH-PET) has excellent diagnostic performance, with experienced practitioners achieving 97.7% accuracy in localising hyperfunctioning parathyroid tissue (HPTT). Due to the relative triviality of the task for human readers, we explored the performance of deep learning (DL) methods for HPTT detection and localisation on FCH-PET images in the setting of PHPT. Patients and methods. We used a dataset of 93 subjects with PHPT imaged using FCH-PET, of which 74 subjects had visible HPTT while 19 controls had no visible HPTT on FCH-PET. A conventional Resnet10 as well as a novel mPETResnet10 DL model were trained and tested to detect (present, not present) and localise (upper left, lower left, upper right or lower right) HPTT. Our mPETResnet10 architecture also contained a region-of-interest masking algorithm that we evaluated qualitatively in order to try to explain the model’s decision process. Results. The models detected the presence of HPTT with an accuracy of 83% and determined the quadrant of HPTT with an accuracy of 74%. The DL methods performed statistically worse (p < 0.001) in both tasks compared to human readers, who localise HPTT with the accuracy of 97.7%. The produced region-of-interest mask, while not showing a consistent added value in the qualitative evaluation of model’s decision process, had correctly identified the foreground PET signal. Conclusions. Our experiment is the first reported use of DL analysis of FCH-PET in PHPT. We have shown that it is possible to utilize DL methods with FCH-PET to detect and localize HPTT. Given our small dataset of 93 subjects, results are nevertheless promising for further researc