Impact of land use changes on soil resources degradation in southern Rif Central, Morocco

Dans le Rif central au nord du Maroc, les écosystèmes forestiers ont subi une régression très forte au profit des zones agricoles. L’installation de la culture du cannabis au détriment de la forêt illustre les rôles importants des forêts sur le plan environnemental, économique et social. L’objectif de ce travail consiste à évaluer et à quantifier l’impact de l’évolution de l’utilisation des terres sur la dégradation des sols dans le Rif Central méridional. La perte de fertilité des sols défrichés a été évaluée à l'aide d'analyses physico-chimiques après 2, 6, 10 et 22 ans de mise en culture. Une simulation manuelle de précipitation a été utilisée pour évaluer l'impact du défrichement suivi de la mise en culture sur le comportement hydrodynamique du sol. Les résultats obtenus montent que la conversion des forêts en zones agricoles ont des conséquences multiples sur le milieu naturel. Le sol devient instable sous les effets des labours successifs qui conduisent à une réduction importante des réserves du sol ; au bout de 22 ans de mise en culture, la matière organique a diminué de 73% de sa teneur initiale et le taux de l’azote s’est réduit de -60%, l’acidité a augmenté d’une unité. Les pertes en sols par l'érosion hydrique ont été évaluées à 3,2 t/ha pour une séquence de précipitation de 80 mm h-1 pendant 45 minutes. Cette dégradation entrave la productivité agricole, ce qui amène les agriculteurs à abandonner ces terres et à chercher de nouvelles parcelles au détriment des forêts pour satisfaire leurs besoins en terres agricoles. Mots clés: Utilisation des terres, Réserves de sol, Érosion hydrique, Rif central, MarocIn the Central Rif in the north of Morocco, forest ecosystems have suffered a very sharp decline in favor of crops. The installation of agriculture at the expense of forests illustrates the important roles of forests on the environmental, economic and social levels. The objective of this work is to assess and quantify the impact of land-use change on land degradation in the southern Central Rif. The loss of fertility of cleared soils was assessed using physico-chemical analyses after 2, 6, 10 and 22 years of cultivation. A manual rainfall simulation was used to assess the impact of clearing followed by cultivation on the hydrodynamic behavior of the soil. The results show that the conversion of forests into agricultural areas has multiple consequences on the natural system. The soil becomes unstable under the effects of successive ploughing which leads to a significant reduction in soil reserves; organic matter decreased by 73% of its initial content and the nitrogen rate decreased by -62.5%, acidity increased by one unit after 22 years of cultivation. Soil losses were estimated at 1126,8 g m-2 h-1 for a precipitation sequence of 80 mm h-1 for 45 minutes. This degradation hinders agricultural productivity, leading farmers to abandon the land and seek new plots at the expense of forests to meet their agricultural land needs. Keywords: Land use, Soil reserves, Water erosion, Central Rif, Morocc

Whipple's disease diagnosed during biological treatment for joint disease

Objectives Increased susceptibility to infections is among the main safety concerns raised by biological agents. We describe five cases of Whipple\u27s disease diagnosed during treatment with biological agents. Methods We retrospectively identified five cases of Whipple\u27s disease diagnosed between 2003 and 2009 in patients treated with TNFα antagonists in five French hospitals. Results Five patients (four male; mean age: 50.4 years; range: 38–67) underwent biological therapy according to prior diagnoses of rheumatoid arthritis (n = 2), ankylosing spondylitis (n = 2), or spondyloarthropathy (n = 1). Biological therapy failed to control the disease, which responded to appropriate antibiotics for Whipple\u27s disease. Retrospectively, clinical symptoms before biological therapy were consistent with Whipple\u27s disease. All five patients had favorable outcomes (mean follow-up, 29 months [13–71]). Conclusions Biological therapy probably worsened preexisting Whipple\u27s disease, triggering the visceral disorders. Whipple\u27s disease must be ruled out in patients with joint disease, as patients with this spontaneously fatal condition should not receive immunosuppressive agents

Determinants of health-related quality of life in spondyloarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis: data from the COMOSPA and COMORA studies

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Objectives: To assess the hierarchy of outcomes contributing to health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in spondyloarthritis (SpA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: Data from the international cross-sectional COMOSPA and COMORA studies were used. HRQoL was assessed using the EuroQOL 5-dimension 3-level (EQ-5D-3 L). First, multivariable linear regression models were used to identify associations between EQ-5D-3 L (dependent variable) and several demographic and clinical variables (independent variables). Second, a decision tree was built using Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detector, a method of unbiased hierarchical multivariable analysis (dependent variable: EQ-5D-3 L). Results: In total, 3984 patients with SpA and 3920 patients with RA were included. In SpA, HRQoL was associated with BASFI (adjusted B=-0.006; 95%CI=-0.007 to -0.005), ASDAS (-0.052; -0.071 to -0.033), work productivity loss score (-0.002; -0.003 to -0.002), NSAID treatment (-0.052; -0.083 to -0.020), bDMARD treatment (-0.051; -0.082 to -0.021), university education (-0.051; -0.075 to -0.027) and radiographic sacroiliitis (0.035; 0.004 to 0.030). In RA, HRQoL was associated with modified Health Assessment Questionnaire (MHAQ) (-0.220, -0.253 to -0.188), DAS28-CRP-3v (-0.027, -0.036 to -0.018), work productivity loss score (-0.003, -0.003 to -0.002), presence of erosions (-0.042, -0.065 to -0.020), alcohol consumption ≥3 units/day (0.012, 0.001 to 0.024)) and csDMARD treatment (0.034, 0.001 to 0.066). The decision tree revealed BASFI and MHAQ as first variables with the most discriminative power on EQ-5D-3 L, followed by work productivity loss and disease activity, in both SpA and RA cohorts. Conclusion: In SpA and RA, physical function is the main contributor to HRQoL measured by EQ-5D-3 L, followed by disease activity and work productivity loss.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Antifungal Activity of Essential Oils from Several Medicinal Plants against Four Postharvest Citrus Pathogens

Antifungal activity of 25 essential oils, distilled from Moroccan medicinal plants, against Penicillium digitatum, Phytophthora citrophthora, Geotrichum citri-aurantii and Botrytis cinerea is reported. Essential oil from Chrysanthemum viscidehirtum at a concentration of 150 ppm (v:v) strongly inhibited in vitro growth of all four fungi. The other 24 oils reduced fungal development less than 69% at a concentration of 250 ppm. C. viscidehirtum essential oil was further tested on citrus fruits (Citrus reticulata cv. Nules) inoculated with P. digitatum, G. citri-aurantii and P. citrophthora (105 conidia ml-1). The antifungal activity of this oil was weak at 250 ppm, but at 2000 ppm the percentage of decayed fruits was very low. The inhibition data were compared to treatments with the synthetic fungicides procymidone, thiabendazole (TBZ), guazatine and propamocarbe HCL at 1000 ppm. GC-Mass spectrum analysis indicated that C. viscidehirtum essential oil contains ß-farnesene, limonene and many oxygenated sesquiterpenes

Age- and season-dependent pattern of flavonol glycosides in Cabernet Sauvignon grapevine leaves

Flavonols play key roles in many plant defense mechanisms, consequently they are frequently investigated as stress sensitive factors in relation to several oxidative processes. It is well known that grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) can synthesize various flavonol glycosides in the leaves, however, very little information is available regarding their distribution along the cane at different leaf levels. In this work, taking into consideration of leaf position, the main flavonol glycosides of a red grapevine cultivar (Cabernet Sauvignon) were profiled and quantified by HPLC–DAD analysis. It was found that amount of four flavonol glycosides, namely, quercetin-3-O-galactoside, quercetin-3-O-glucoside, kaempferol-3-O-glucoside and kaempferol-3-O-glucuronide decreased towards the shoot tip. Since leaf age also decreases towards the shoot tip, the obtained results suggest that these compounds continuously formed by leaf aging, resulting in their accumulation in the older leaves. In contrast, quercetin-3-O-glucuronide (predominant form) and quercetin-3-O-rutinoside were not accumulated significantly by aging. We also pointed out that grapevine boosted the flavonol biosynthesis in September, and flavonol profile differed significantly in the two seasons. Our results contribute to the better understanding of the role of flavonols in the antioxidant defense system of grapevine