Concentrations of manganese and iron in some woody and herbs plants

Heavy metals are the substances that indicate environmental pollution. The plants polluted with heavy metals may endanger natural environment and cause health problems in humans. In our multidisciplinary research of the concentrations of pollutants in forest ecosystems and natural environment in Belgrade, we examined the contents of heavy metals essential for plants but harmful in greater concentrations on a long-term basis. The fact that heavy metals manganese and iron are accumulated in plants to the greatest extent focused our work on determination of the level of concentrations of Mn and Fe in the vegetative parts of 8 plant types on three locations on the Avala Mountain and one location in the centre of the city of Belgrade. The analyses of heavy metals contents in plants were performed by the method of flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The examination of the existence of important differences between the average values was performed by implementation of Duncan’s test for the level of significance of 95%. The current contents of heavy metals in plants in the area of the protected natural resource Avala do not represent danger that would presently cause notable damage to forests but show the tendency of the increase of concentrations. Therefore, this issue should be constantly monitored

Polyaniline stabilization of magnetic particles and immobilization of alpha-amylase

Magnetic particles (MAG), obtained by standard procedure of coprecipitation of Fe2+ and Fe3+ in an excess of ammonia, and polyaniline modified magnetic particles MAG-PANI were used as carriers for immobilization of a-amylase from Bacillus licheniformis. The formation of a polyaniline layer (PANI) on MAG particles was achieved by chemical polymerization of aniline. Immobilization was carried out by adsorption, as a simple, inexpensive and fast method that allows retention of a large portion of the initial activity of the immobilized enzyme. FTIR spectroscopy was used to characterize the obtained particles and to confirm changes dueto formation of a PANI layer and conjugation of a-amylase on the particle surfaces. Particle size distribution was bimodal and three-modal for MAG and MAG-PANI, respectively. Appearance of a fraction of smaller MAG-PANI particles than MAG particles could be attributed to the formation of PANI particles without the MAG core. Measured values of Zeta potential for MAG-PANI were higher as compared to MAG indicating stabilization of particles in the presence of PANI. Relevant kinetic parameters for immobilized enzyme were determined from the Hanes plot. The apparent K-m constant was 1.91 and 1.48 g L-1 for MAG-A and MAG-PANI-A, respectively, while V-m was 0.19 g L-1 min(-1) for MAG and 0.32 g L-1 min(-1) for MAG-PANI. The obtained values of K-m indicated that modification of MAG by PANI enhanced kinetic properties of the immobilized enzyme. Moreover, the modification of MAG by PANI showed the increase in both pH and thermal stabilities of the immobilized enzyme. Studies of the operational activity of the immobilized enzyme on MAG-PANI have shown that 98.8% of starch was hydrolyzed over 20.0 min. In the first cycle in the packed bed reactor operated in a recycling mode, but approximately five times longer period was required to hydrolyze 93.5 of starch in the fifth cycle. In the continuous packed bed reactor without recycling, the degree of starch hydrolysis was not changed significantly during 4 h and was 88.8 +/- 1.6%, whereas the half-life of the biocatalyst was 6.2 h. Although coating MAG particles with a polyaniline offers many advantages, the main disadvantage is possible appearance of residues of aniline monomers and dimmers. The potential toxicity of these residues requires precise composition analysis of the product of starch hydrolysis catalyzed by a-amylase adsorbed onto MAG-PANI

Edaphic characteristics of Austrian pine (Pinus nigra Arn.) forests in the Višegrad area

This paper presents the results of soil research in Austrian pine (Pinus nigra Arn.) forest communities in the Višegrad area, carried out to determine the basic soil characteristics and eco-production potential of forest habitats as an important basis and framework for the successful management of these forests on the principles of sustainable development. Austrian pine forests in this region are an important and ecologically valuable community. The complexity of the geological structure and relief dynamics are dominant environmental factors that condition the expressed variability of soils in the study area. Forest communities of Austrian pine are formed on the peridotites and serpentinites, eutric ranker (haplic leptosol), eutric cambisol (haplic cambisols) and pseudogley (haplic planosol), dense granular and marl limestones calcomelanosol (mollic leptosol), rendzina (rendzic leptosol) and calcocambisol (leptic cambisol). The productivity of these soils is highly correlated with depth and texture composition, and the impact of these factors is linked with soil type, climate and other site conditions. In the research area, soil types with low production potential such as rankers, rendzinas, limestone and dolomite calcomelanosol are dominant. Deeper variants of eutric cambisol, pseudogley and calcocambisol can be classified as soils with moderate to high production potential

Triassic metasediments in the internal Dinarides (Kopaonik area, southern Serbia) : stratigraphy, paleogeographic and tectonic significance

Strongly deformed and metamorphosed sediments in the Studenica Valley and Kopaonik area in southern Serbia expose the easternmost occurrences of Triassic sediments in the Dinarides. In these areas, Upper Paleozoic terrigenous sediments are overlain by Lower Triassic siliciclastics and limestones and by Anisian shallow-water carbonates. A pronounced facies change to hemipelagic and distal turbiditic, cherty metalimestones (Kopaonik Formation) testifies a Late Anisian drowning of the former shallow-water carbonate shelf. Sedimentation of the Kopaonik Formation was contemporaneous with shallow-water carbonate production on nearby carbonate platforms that were the source areas of diluted turbidity currents reaching the depositional area of this formation. The Kopaonik Formation was dated by conodont faunas as Late Anisian to Norian and possibly extends into the Early Jurassic. It is therefore considered an equivalent of the grey Hallstatt facies of the Eastern Alps, the Western Carpathians, and the Albanides—Hellenides. The coeval carbonate platforms were generally situated in more proximal areas of the Adriatic margin, whereas the distal margin was dominated by hemipelagic/pelagic and distal turbiditic sedimentation, facing the evolving Neotethys Ocean to the east. A similar arrangement of Triassic facies belts can be recognized all along the evolving Meliata-Maliac- Vardar branch of Neotethys, which is in line with a ‘one-ocean-hypothesis’ for the Dinarides: all the ophiolites presently located southwest of the Drina-Ivanjica and Kopaonik thrust sheets are derived from an area to the east, and the Drina-Ivanjica and Kopaonik units emerge in tectonic windows from below this ophiolite nappe. On the base of the Triassic facies distribution we see neither argument for an independent Dinaridic Ocean nor evidence for isolated terranes or blocks

Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on surgery for indeterminate thyroid nodules (THYCOVID): a retrospective, international, multicentre, cross-sectional study

Background: Since its outbreak in early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has diverted resources from non-urgent and elective procedures, leading to diagnosis and treatment delays, with an increased number of neoplasms at advanced stages worldwide. The aims of this study were to quantify the reduction in surgical activity for indeterminate thyroid nodules during the COVID-19 pandemic; and to evaluate whether delays in surgery led to an increased occurrence of aggressive tumours. Methods: In this retrospective, international, cross-sectional study, centres were invited to participate in June 22, 2022; each centre joining the study was asked to provide data from medical records on all surgical thyroidectomies consecutively performed from Jan 1, 2019, to Dec 31, 2021. Patients with indeterminate thyroid nodules were divided into three groups according to when they underwent surgery: from Jan 1, 2019, to Feb 29, 2020 (global prepandemic phase), from March 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021 (pandemic escalation phase), and from June 1 to Dec 31, 2021 (pandemic decrease phase). The main outcomes were, for each phase, the number of surgeries for indeterminate thyroid nodules, and in patients with a postoperative diagnosis of thyroid cancers, the occurrence of tumours larger than 10 mm, extrathyroidal extension, lymph node metastases, vascular invasion, distant metastases, and tumours at high risk of structural disease recurrence. Univariate analysis was used to compare the probability of aggressive thyroid features between the first and third study phases. The study was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05178186. Findings: Data from 157 centres (n=49 countries) on 87 467 patients who underwent surgery for benign and malignant thyroid disease were collected, of whom 22 974 patients (18 052 [78·6%] female patients and 4922 [21·4%] male patients) received surgery for indeterminate thyroid nodules. We observed a significant reduction in surgery for indeterminate thyroid nodules during the pandemic escalation phase (median monthly surgeries per centre, 1·4 [IQR 0·6-3·4]) compared with the prepandemic phase (2·0 [0·9-3·7]; p<0·0001) and pandemic decrease phase (2·3 [1·0-5·0]; p<0·0001). Compared with the prepandemic phase, in the pandemic decrease phase we observed an increased occurrence of thyroid tumours larger than 10 mm (2554 [69·0%] of 3704 vs 1515 [71·5%] of 2119; OR 1·1 [95% CI 1·0-1·3]; p=0·042), lymph node metastases (343 [9·3%] vs 264 [12·5%]; OR 1·4 [1·2-1·7]; p=0·0001), and tumours at high risk of structural disease recurrence (203 [5·7%] of 3584 vs 155 [7·7%] of 2006; OR 1·4 [1·1-1·7]; p=0·0039). Interpretation: Our study suggests that the reduction in surgical activity for indeterminate thyroid nodules during the COVID-19 pandemic period could have led to an increased occurrence of aggressive thyroid tumours. However, other compelling hypotheses, including increased selection of patients with aggressive malignancies during this period, should be considered. We suggest that surgery for indeterminate thyroid nodules should no longer be postponed even in future instances of pandemic escalation. Funding: None

Data from: Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science

This record contains the underlying research data for the publication "Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science" and the full-text is available from: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/5257Reproducibility is a defining feature of science, but the extent to which it characterizes current research is unknown. We conducted replications of 100 experimental and correlational studies published in three psychology journals using high-powered designs and original materials when available. Replication effects were half the magnitude of original effects, representing a substantial decline. Ninety-seven percent of original studies had statistically significant results. Thirty-six percent of replications had statistically significant results; 47% of original effect sizes were in the 95% confidence interval of the replication effect size; 39% of effects were subjectively rated to have replicated the original result; and if no bias in original results is assumed, combining original and replication results left 68% with statistically significant effects. Correlational tests suggest that replication success was better predicted by the strength of original evidence than by characteristics of the original and replication teams