Diagnosis and management of common non-viral oral ulcerations

Oral ulcerations are common lesions encountered in private practice. Oral ulcers can have a localised aetiology or be a manifestation of a variety of systemic conditions or disorders. Appropriate management depends on the correct diagnosis which can at times be difficult due to similar clinical features. The aetiology, diagnosis and management of the most common non-viral ulcerative disorders of the oral mucosa are discussed. These include traumatic ulcers, recurrent aphthous stomatitis, malignancy as well as oral ulceration associated with cutaneous pathology. South African Family Practice Vol. 49 (8) 2007: pp. 20-2

Base metal budgets of a small catchment in a tropical montane forest in South Ecuador

In a tropical montane rain forest in south Ecuador, the alkali and earth alkali metals Ca, Mg, K, and Na are supplied by weathering of the parent substrate consisting of phyllites and metasandstones and by atmospheric inputs. Phases of acid deposition are interrupted by alkalinization through episodic basic dust deposition. Although the biological productivity of most terrestrial ecosystems is thought to be N- and/or P-limited, there is increasing evidence that the essential plant nutrients K, Na, Mg and Ca can also limit biological functioning. We quantified biological and geochemical contributions to base metal fluxes and set up a metal budget of a ca. 9.1-ha large catchment from 1998 to 2013. The catchment is characterized by a high annual interception loss (28–50 %) and a low contribution of stem flow to throughfall. Mean total annual soil input (throughfall + stemflow + litterfall) was 13800 ± 1500 mg m-2 (Ca, mean ± SD), 19000 ± 1510 (K), 4690 ± 619 (Mg) and 846 ± 592 (Na) of which 22 ± 6 % (Ca), 45 ± 16 (K), 39 ± 10 (Mg) and 84 ± 33 (Na) were leached to soil horizons below the organic layer. The three nutrient metals Ca, K and Mg were thus to a large part retained in the biotic part of the catchment. The canopy budget of K was consistently and most pronouncedly negative. The canopy budgets of Ca and Mg were closely correlated and in most years negative, while the budget of Na was consistently positive, indicating net retention of this element in the canopy. The mineral soil retained 79–94 % of Ca, K and Mg, while Na was net released from the mineral soil. The size of mainly biologically controlled aboveground fluxes of Ca, K and Mg was 1-2 orders of magnitude larger than that of mainly geochemically controlled fluxes which are driven by sorption to soil and weathering. Annual net hydrological fluxes (bulk deposition – stream flow) were –66 ± 278 mg m-2 (Ca), 361 ± 421 (K), –188 ± 159 (Mg) and –1700 ± 587 (Na). If estimated dry deposition was included, the system accumulated 86 kg Ca ha-1 and 199 kg K ha-1, had a nearly balanced budget of Mg (+0.3 kg ha-1) and lost 56 kg of Na ha-1 in the last 15 years. The strongest driver of all budgets was the input flux into the various compartments

Leptospirosis followed by Kawasaki-like disease: case report from an adult Swiss patient and review of the literature

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a vasculitis that mostly occurs in children, but rare cases in adults have been reported. We describe the case of a 43-year-old Swiss male who developed symptoms compatible with KD 7 weeks after leptospirosis, which was presumably acquired after swimming in a creek in the Swiss Alps. We performed a literature review and identified 10 other cases (all in children), in which Kawasaki-like disease was diagnosed in the context of leptospirosis. Outcome was favourable in most cases, including our patient. This exceptional case demonstrates both the possibility of autochthonous cases of leptospirosis in Switzerland as well as a possible association of leptospirosis with Kawasaki-like disease

Biogenic weathering bridges the nutrient gap in pristine ecosystems - a global comparison

In many pristine ecosystems there seems to be negative nutrient budget existent, meaning that export exceeds the input received by aeolian deposition and physico-chemical weathering. Such ecosystems should degrade rather quickly, but are often found surprisingly stable on the long run. Our hypothesis was that this nutrient gap is an artefact caused by not considering the contribution of photoassimilatory-mediated biogenic weathering to the overall nutrient input, which might constitute an additional, energetically directed and demand driven pathway. Here, we firstly evaluated the evolution of mutualistic biogenic weathering along an Antarctic chronosequence and secondly compared the biogenic weathering rates under mycorrhized ecosystems over a global gradient of contrasting states of soil development. We found the ability to perform biogenic weathering increasing along its evolutionary development in photoautotroph-symbiont interaction and furthermore a close relation between fungal biogenic weathering and available potassium across all 16 forested sites in the study, regardless of the dominant mycorrhiza type (AM or EM), climate, and plant-species composition. Our results point towards a general alleviation of nutrient limitation at ecosystem scale via directional, energy driven and on-demand biogenic weathering

Super-heavy electron material as metallic refrigerant for adiabatic demagnetization cooling

Low-temperature refrigeration is of crucial importance in fundamental research of condensed matter physics, because the investigations of fascinating quantum phenomena, such as superconductivity, superfluidity, and quantum criticality, often require refrigeration down to very low temperatures. Currently, cryogenic refrigerators with 3He gas are widely used for cooling below 1 K. However, usage of the gas has been increasingly difficult because of the current worldwide shortage. Therefore, it is important to consider alternative methods of refrigeration. We show that a new type of refrigerant, the super-heavy electron metal YbCo2Zn20, can be used for adiabatic demagnetization refrigeration, which does not require 3He gas. This method has a number of advantages, including much better metallic thermal conductivity compared to the conventional insulating refrigerants. We also demonstrate that the cooling performance is optimized in Yb1−xScxCo2Zn20 by partial Sc substitution, with x ~ 0.19. The substitution induces chemical pressure that drives the materials to a zero-field quantum critical point. This leads to an additional enhancement of the magnetocaloric effect in low fields and low temperatures, enabling final temperatures well below 100 mK. This performance has, up to now, been restricted to insulators. For nearly a century, the same principle of using local magnetic moments has been applied for adiabatic demagnetization cooling. This study opens new possibilities of using itinerant magnetic moments for cryogen-free refrigeration

Dental pathology in a wild serval (Leptailurus serval) population

Members of the family Felidae suffer from a wide range of dental, oral and maxillofacial conditions that can cause significant morbidity and mortality. Although many dental, oral and maxillofacial anomalies of the domestic cat (Felis catus) also occur in wild felines, we could find no investigations of these conditions in servals (Leptailurus serval). The objective of this study was to describe the dental, oral and maxillofacial pathology of a wild serval population in South Africa. Detailed extraoral and intraoral examinations and full-mouth dental radiographs on 30 wild servals revealed 14 different dental conditions but no other oral or maxillofacial pathology.Secunda Synfuels Operationshttp://elsevier.com/locate/jcpahj2021Centre for Veterinary Wildlife StudiesCompanion Animal Clinical Studie

A statistical proxy for sulphuric acid concentration

Gaseous sulphuric acid is a key precursor for new particle formation in the atmosphere. Previous experimental studies have confirmed a strong correlation between the number concentrations of freshly formed particles and the ambient concentrations of sulphuric acid. This study evaluates a body of experimental gas phase sulphuric acid concentrations, as measured by Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometry (CIMS) during six intensive measurement campaigns and one long-term observational period. The campaign datasets were measured in Hyytiälä, Finland, in 2003 and 2007, in San Pietro Capofiume, Italy, in 2009, in Melpitz, Germany, in 2008, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, in 2002, and in Niwot Ridge, Colorado, USA, in 2007. The long term data were obtained in Hohenpeissenberg, Germany, during 1998 to 2000. The measured time series were used to construct proximity measures ("proxies") for sulphuric acid concentration by using statistical analysis methods. The objective of this study is to find a proxy for sulfuric acid that is valid in as many different atmospheric environments as possible. Our most accurate and universal formulation of the sulphuric acid concentration proxy uses global solar radiation, SO2 concentration, condensation sink and relative humidity as predictor variables, yielding a correlation measure (R) of 0.87 between observed concentration and the proxy predictions. Interestingly, the role of the condensation sink in the proxy was only minor, since similarly accurate proxies could be constructed with global solar radiation and SO2 concentration alone. This could be attributed to SO2 being an indicator for anthropogenic pollution, including particulate and gaseous emissions which represent sinks for the OH radical that, in turn, is needed for the formation of sulphuric acid

Klima und Wurzelabstand bestimmen die Enzymaktivitäten und den Umsatz der organischen Bodensubstanz

In der chilenischen Küstenkordillera wurden entlang eines klimatischen Gradienten von 1500 km, von arid bis mäßig humid, natürliche Ökosysteme ausgewählt, um den Abbau der organischen Bodensubstanz (OBS) sowie die Nährstofffreisetzung zu untersuchen. Mikroorganismen können mithilfe extrazellulärer Enzyme organische Verbindungen aufspalten und Nährstoffe für Pflanzen bereitstellen. Es stellt sich die Frage, welchen Einfluss die Bodenfeuchte und der Kohlenstoffeintrag über das Wurzelsystem auf den mikrobiellen Abbau haben. Es wurde die Hypothese geprüft, dass feuchte Bodenbedingungen und Wurzelnähe den enzymatischen OBS-Abbau und die Nährstofffreisetzung fördern. In zwei Klimaregionen, einem humid gemäßigtem und einem semiariden Waldgebiet, wurden entlang vertikaler (Bodentiefe) und horizontaler (Wurzelabstand) Gradienten folgende Parameter bestimmt: Bodenfeuchte, C- und N-Gehalte, d13C- und d15N-Werte sowie die Aktivitäten von sechs extrazellulären Enzymen, beteiligt in den C-, N- und P-Kreisläufen. Höhere C- und N-Gehalte in Böden des humiden Ökosystems spiegeln dessen höhrere Produktivität gegenüber dem semiariden System wieder. Die Regressionen von d13C und –[ln(%C)] zeigen eine starke Isotopenfraktionierung von Ober- zu Unterboden im semiariden Ökosystem und weisen auf einen schnelleren OBS-Umsatz als im humiden Ökosystem hin. Die d15N-Tiefentrends lassen auf eine N-Limitierung in beiden Böden schließen, mit einer stärkeren Ausprägung im humiden Ökosystem. Die Aktivitäten der Enzyme, die für C-, N- und P-Kreisläufe zuständig sind, stiegen mit dem C-Gehalt an und nahmen von Ober- zu Unterboden und mit zunehmender Entfernung von der Wurzel ab. Nur die Tyrosin‑aminopeptidase Aktivitäten stiegen mit dem N-Gehalt und deuten zudem auf eine schnellere Substratumsetzung unter semiariden gegenüber humiden Klimabedingungen hin. Die Aktivitäten von Chitiniase und Phosphatase weisen dagegen auf einen schnelleren Umsatz unter humiden Bedingungen hin. Wir schließen daraus, dass die N-Verfügbarkeit und der OBS-Umsatz im semiariden Ökosystem höher als im humiden System ist. Die Enzymaktivitäten zeigten nur einen indirekten Zusammenhang mit der Bodentiefe und werden vorwiegend von dem C-Gehalt bestimmt, der direkt über den C‑Eintrag der Wurzel beeinflusst wird