The Epidemic Spread of Seiridium cardinale on Leyland Cypress Severely Limits Its Use in the Mediterranean

Leyland cypress (× Hesperotropsis leylandii) is a fast-growing conifer used in most temperate regions as an ornamental tree for hedges and screens, and is one of the most commercially important trees in Europe. In recent years, severe diebacks and mortality due to cypress canker have been observed on Leyland cypress plantations in Southern Europe. This study was conducted to evaluate (i) the spread and impact of cypress canker caused by Seiridium cardinale in plantations of a sample area of 1,250 km2 in central Italy, (ii) the response of the most commonly grown Leyland cypress varieties to artificial inoculation with to S. cardinal, and (iii) the pathogenicity of S. cardinale isolates obtained from Leyland cypress. Of the 1,411 surveyed trees, 11.4% had been killed by cypress canker and 43.9% of the living trees were affected by the disease. The number of diseased or dead trees and the percentage of cankered trunks was significantly correlated with the mean trunk diameter of the plantations. Six months after inoculation, the size of developed cankers was significantly different among the inoculated Leyland cypress cultivars but all of them showed markedly larger cankers than the C. sempervirens canker-resistant control clone. All of the tested S. cardinale isolates obtained from Leyland cypress also caused cankers on Cupressus sempervirens when inoculated as conidial suspensions or mycelia. Leyland cypress is highly prone to contract cypress canker in the Mediterranean due to its high susceptibility to S. cardinale infections, low genetic variability among the grown cultivars, and cracks which form on fast-growing trunks, favoring entry of the fungus into the inner bark and the occurrence of infections

The effects of biochar and its combination with compost on lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) growth, soil properties, and soil microbial activity and abundance

Impacts of biochar application in combination with organic fertilizer, such as compost, are not fully understood. In this study, we tested the effects of biochar amendment, compost addition, and their combination on lettuce plants grown in a soil poor in nutrients; soil microbiological, chemical, and physical characteristics were analyzed, together with plant growth and physiology. An initial screening was also done to evaluate the effect of biochar and compost toxicity, using cress plants and earthworms. Results showed that compost amendment had clear and positive effects on plant growth and yield and on soil chemical characteristics. However, we demonstrated that also the biochar alone stimulated lettuce leaves number and total biomass, improving soil total nitrogen and phosphorus contents, as well as total carbon, and enhancing related microbial communities. Nevertheless, combining biochar and compost, no positive synergic and summative effects were observed. Our results thus demonstrate that in a soil poor in nutrients the biochar alone could be effectively used to enhance soil fertility and plant growth and biomass yield. However, we can speculate that the combination of compost and biochar may enhance and sustain soil biophysical and chemical characteristics and improve crop productivity over time

Riparian zones - from policy neglected to policy integrated

[EN] 1. Riparian zones are vital areas of interaction between land and rivers and are often degraded by several pressures such as urbanisation, intensive agriculture and river engineering works. 2. This policy brief provides five key policy messages and recommendations to be considered by policy-makers, scientists, managers, and stakeholders to enhance riparian zone management. 3. Adopting an integrated socio-economic and environmentally dynamic view will ensure the sustainable management of riparian zones. 4. In light of climate change, it is critically important to conserve and/or restore the ecological integrity of riparian zones. 5. European Union Directives and national-scale legislation and regulations need updating to ensure coordinated implementation of riparian zone-related policies. 6. Stakeholder knowledge exchange, policy co-creation and adaptive management are key to enhancing riparian zone functions.Funding was provided by COST Action CONVERGES (CA16208) and by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union. GU was partially supported by the Slovenian Research Agency. PR-G was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the CEEC Individual Programme (2020.03356. CEECIND), and Forest Research Centre was supported through the FCT UIDB/00239/2020. Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) funded Inês Gomes Marques through a PhD scholarship (SFRH/BD/133162/2017). AA was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (Grant No. 451-03-68/2022-14/200010).Urbanic, G.; Politti, E.; Rodríguez-González, PM.; Payne, R.; Schook, D.; Alves, MH.; Andelkovic, A.... (2022). Riparian zones - from policy neglected to policy integrated. Frontiers in Environmental Science. 9(5):1-8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.868527189

Closing Water Cycles in the Built Environment through Nature-Based Solutions: The Contribution of Vertical Greening Systems and Green Roofs

Water in the city is typically exploited in a linear process, in which most of it is polluted, treated, and discharged; during this process, valuable nutrients are lost in the treatment process instead of being cycled back and used in urban agriculture or green space. The purpose of this paper is to advance a new paradigm to close water cycles in cities via the implementation of naturebased solutions units (NBS_u), with a particular focus on building greening elements, such as green roofs (GRs) and vertical greening systems (VGS). The hypothesis is that such “circular systems” can provide substantial ecosystem services and minimize environmental degradation. Our method is twofold: we first examine these systems from a life-cycle point of view, assessing not only the inputs of conventional and alternative materials, but the ongoing input of water that is required for irrigation. Secondly, the evapotranspiration performance of VGS in Copenhagen, Berlin, Lisbon, Rome, Istanbul, and Tel Aviv, cities with different climatic, architectural, and sociocultural contexts have been simulated using a verticalized ET0 approach, assessing rainwater runoff and greywater as irrigation resources. The water cycling performance of VGS in the mentioned cities would be sufficient at recycling 44% (Lisbon) to 100% (Berlin, Istanbul) of all accruing rainwater roof–runoff, if water shortages in dry months are bridged by greywater. Then, 27–53% of the greywater accruing in a building could be managed on its greened surface. In conclusion, we address the gaps in the current knowledge and policies identified in the different stages of analyses, such as the lack of comprehensive life cycle assessment studies that quantify the complete “water footprint” of building greening systems.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Impacts of biomedical hashtag-based Twitter campaign: #DHPSP utilization for promotion of open innovation in digital health, patient safety, and personalized medicine

The open innovation hub Digital Health and Patient Safety Platform (DHPSP) was recently established with the purpose to invigorate collaborative scientific research and the development of new digital products and personalized solutions aiming to improve human health and patient safety. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a Twitter-based campaign centered on using the hashtag #DHPSP to promote the visibility of the DHPSP initiative. Thus, tweets containing #DHPSP were monitored for five weeks for the period 20.10.2020–24.11.2020 and were analyzed with Symplur Signals (social media analytics tool). In the study period, a total of 11,005 tweets containing #DHPSP were posted by 3020 Twitter users, generating 151,984,378 impressions. Analysis of the healthcare stakeholder-identity of the Twitter users who used #DHPSP revealed that the most of participating user accounts belonged to individuals or doctors, with the top three user locations being the United States (501 users), the United Kingdom (155 users), and India (121 users). Analysis of co-occurring hashtags and the full text of the posted tweets further revealed that the major themes of attention in the #DHPSP Twitter-community were related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), medicine and health, digital health technologies, and science communication in general. Overall, these results indicate that the #DHPSP initiative achieved high visibility and engaged a large body of Twitter users interested in the DHPSP focus area. Moreover, the conducted campaign resulted in an increase of DHPSP member enrollments and website visitors, and new scientific collaborations were formed. Thus, Twitter campaigns centered on a dedicated hashtag prove to be a highly efficient tool for visibility-promotion, which could be successfully utilized by healthcare-related open innovation platforms or initiatives

Biochar successfully replaces activated charcoal for in vitro culture of two white poplar clones reducing ethylene concentration

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Riparian Zones—From Policy Neglected to Policy Integrated

1. Riparian zones are vital areas of interaction between land and rivers and are often degraded by several pressures such as urbanisation, intensive agriculture and river engineering works. 2. This policy brief provides five key policy messages and recommendations to be considered by policy-makers, scientists, managers, and stakeholders to enhance riparian zone management. 3. Adopting an integrated socioeconomic and environmentally dynamic view will ensure the sustainable management of riparian zones. 4. In light of climate change, it is critically important to conserve and/or restore the ecological integrity of riparian zones. 5. European Union Directives and national-scale legislation and regulations need updating to ensure coordinated implementation of riparian zone-related policies. 6. Stakeholder knowledge exchange, policy co-creation and adaptive management are key to enhancing riparian zone functions

Clinical patterns of hepatocellular carcinoma in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A multicenter prospective study

107noNonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) represents the hepatic manifestation of metabolic syndrome and may evolve into hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Only scanty clinical information is available on HCC in NAFLD. The aim of this multicenter observational prospective study was to assess the clinical features of patients with NAFLD-related HCC (NAFLD-HCC) and to compare them to those of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related HCC. A total of 756 patients with either NAFLD (145) or HCV-related chronic liver disease (611) were enrolled in secondary care Italian centers. Survival was modeled according to clinical parameters, lead-time bias, and propensity analysis. Compared to HCV, HCC in NAFLD patients had a larger volume, showed more often an infiltrative pattern, and was detected outside specific surveillance. Cirrhosis was present in only about 50% of NAFLD-HCC patients, in contrast to the near totality of HCV-HCC. Regardless of tumor stage, survival was significantly shorter (P = 0.017) in patients with NAFLD-HCC, 25.5 months (95% confidence interval 21.9-29.1), than in those with HCV-HCC, 33.7 months (95% confidence interval 31.9-35.4). To eliminate possible confounders, a propensity score analysis was performed, which showed no more significant difference between the two groups. Additionally, analysis of patients within Milan criteria submitted to curative treatments did not show any difference in survival between NAFLD-HCC and HCV-HCC (respectively, 38.6 versus 41.0 months, P = nonsignificant) Conclusions: NAFLD-HCC is more often detected at a later tumor stage and could arise also in the absence of cirrhosis, but after patient matching, it has a similar survival rate compared to HCV infection; a future challenge will be to identify patients with NAFLD who require more stringent surveillance in order to offer the most timely and effective treatment. (Hepatology 2016;63:827-838)openopenPiscaglia F.; Svegliati-Baroni G.; Barchetti A.; Pecorelli A.; Marinelli S.; Tiribelli C.; Bellentani S.; Bernardi M.; Biselli M.; Caraceni P.; Domenicali M.; Garuti F.; Gramenzi A.; Lenzi B.; Magalotti D.; Cescon M.; Ravaioli M.; Del Poggio P.; Olmi S.; Rapaccini G.L.; Balsamo C.; Di Nolfo M.A.; Vavassori E.; Alberti A.; Benvegnau L.; Gatta A.; Giacomin A.; Vanin V.; Pozzan C.; Maddalo G.; Giampalma E.; Cappelli A.; Golfieri R.; Mosconi C.; Renzulli M.; Roselli P.; Dell'isola S.; Ialungo A.M.; Risso D.; Marenco S.; Sammito G.; Bruzzone L.; Bosco G.; Grieco A.; Pompili M.; Rinninella E.; Siciliano M.; Chiaramonte M.; Guarino M.; Camma C.; Maida M.; Costantino A.; Barcellona M.R.; Schiada L.; Gemini S.; Lanzi A.; Stefanini G.F.; Dall'aglio A.C.; Cappa F.M.; Suzzi A.; Mussetto A.; Treossi O.; Missale G.; Porro E.; Mismas V.; Vivaldi C.; Bolondi L.; Zoli M.; Granito A.; Malagotti D.; Tovoli F.; Trevisani F.; Venerandi L.; Brandi G.; Cucchetti A.; Bugianesi E.; Vanni E.; Mezzabotta L.; Cabibbo G.; Petta S.; Fracanzani A.; Fargion S.; Marra F.; Fani B.; Biasini E.; Sacco R.; Morisco F.; Caporaso N.; Colombo M.; D'ambrosio R.; Croce L.S.; Patti R.; Giannini E.G.; Loria P.; Lonardo A.; Baldelli E.; Miele L.; Farinati F.; Borzio M.; Dionigi E.; Soardo G.; Caturelli E.; Ciccarese F.; Virdone R.; Affronti A.; Foschi F.G.; Borzio F.Piscaglia, F.; Svegliati-Baroni, G.; Barchetti, A.; Pecorelli, A.; Marinelli, S.; Tiribelli, C.; Bellentani, S.; Bernardi, M.; Biselli, M.; Caraceni, P.; Domenicali, M.; Garuti, F.; Gramenzi, A.; Lenzi, B.; Magalotti, D.; Cescon, M.; Ravaioli, M.; Del Poggio, P.; Olmi, S.; Rapaccini, G. L.; Balsamo, C.; Di Nolfo, M. A.; Vavassori, E.; Alberti, A.; Benvegnau, L.; Gatta, A.; Giacomin, A.; Vanin, V.; Pozzan, C.; Maddalo, G.; Giampalma, E.; Cappelli, A.; Golfieri, R.; Mosconi, C.; Renzulli, M.; Roselli, P.; Dell'Isola, S.; Ialungo, A. M.; Risso, D.; Marenco, S.; Sammito, G.; Bruzzone, L.; Bosco, G.; Grieco, A.; Pompili, M.; Rinninella, E.; Siciliano, M.; Chiaramonte, M.; Guarino, M.; Camma, C.; Maida, M.; Costantino, A.; Barcellona, M. R.; Schiada, L.; Gemini, S.; Lanzi, A.; Stefanini, G. F.; Dall'Aglio, A. C.; Cappa, F. M.; Suzzi, A.; Mussetto, A.; Treossi, O.; Missale, G.; Porro, E.; Mismas, V.; Vivaldi, C.; Bolondi, L.; Zoli, M.; Granito, A.; Malagotti, D.; Tovoli, F.; Trevisani, F.; Venerandi, L.; Brandi, G.; Cucchetti, A.; Bugianesi, E.; Vanni, E.; Mezzabotta, L.; Cabibbo, G.; Petta, S.; Fracanzani, A.; Fargion, S.; Marra, F.; Fani, B.; Biasini, E.; Sacco, R.; Morisco, F.; Caporaso, N.; Colombo, M.; D'Ambrosio, R.; Croce, L. S.; Patti, R.; Giannini, E. G.; Loria, P.; Lonardo, A.; Baldelli, E.; Miele, L.; Farinati, F.; Borzio, M.; Dionigi, E.; Soardo, G.; Caturelli, E.; Ciccarese, F.; Virdone, R.; Affronti, A.; Foschi, F. G.; Borzio, F