The structure of the land covering of Zutica Forest, Croatia

This paper presents pedological research in Žutica forest in northern Croatia. The most common soil types found in this area belong to the hydromorphic class (Pseudogley, pseudo- gley-gley, eugley, fluvisol) except technogenic soils formed as a result of intensive oil exploitation. Some main chemical and physical characteristics of soils are given. For forest productivity the most productive combination of soils are hypogley and pseudogley-gleysol and minimal productivity is in heavy amphygleic soils. An increase of heavy metals occurs in flooded soils in Žutica from nearby agricultural land. A high concentration of active phosphorus,and nitrogen can verify the influence of field fertilisers on the forest. Levels of cadmium found in technogenic soils exceed the permitted concentration. A large amount of CaCO3 in relation to natural forest soils can be found in technogenic soils because of quick lime disposal after oil spills and also pH increase and a nutrition and humus decrease

Electron paramagnetic resonance spectrometry and imaging in melanomas: comparison between pigmented and nonpigmented human malignant melanomas.

It has been known for a long time that the melanin pigments present in normal skin, hair, and most of malignant melanomas can be detected by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometry. In this study, we used EPR imaging as a tool to map the concentration of melanin inside ex vivo human pigmented and nonpigmented melanomas and correlated this cartography with anatomopathology. We obtained accurate mappings of the melanin inside pigmented human melanoma samples. The signal intensity observed on the EPR images correlated with the concentration of melanin within the tumors, visible on the histologic sections. In contrast, no EPR signal coming from melanin was observed from nonpigmented melanomas, therefore demonstrating the absence of EPR-detectable pigments inside these particular cases of skin cancer and the importance of pigmentation for further EPR imaging studies on melanoma.Journal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tSCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe