BUFFER CAPACITY OF SOIL AS INDICATOR OF URBAN FOREST SOIL RESISTANCE TO DEGRADATION

The aim of the study was to evaluate urban forest soil resistance to degradation caused by intensive anthropopressure by determination of buffer capacity. The study covered six soil profiles located in two forest complexes situated within the boundaries of the City of Lublin with reference to benchmark profiles. The material compiled for the study represented loessive soils and rusty sandy soils. The basic properties were determined for soil samples. Buffer capacity was determined by the Arrhenius method. The loessive soils were found to have higher buffer capacity (resistance to acidification and alkalinisation) as compared to the rusty soils. The decisive factor for buffer capacity of soils is the nature of their mineral part. Since the reference of the deliverables of the study regarding urban forest soils to benchmark profiles shows, degradation of soil is taking place within the agglomeration

Psychosocial Outcomes in Autistic Children Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Studies on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on autistic children’s psychosocial outcomes have shown mixed results. In the current study we aimed to gain a better insight into the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing psychosocial outcomes collected pre-pandemic with data collected during the pandemic. We used the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to examine change over time in psychosocial outcomes of autistic children from pre-pandemic (T0) to lockdown I (T1) and lockdown II (T2) in the Netherlands. We expected a deterioration in psychosocial outcomes. There were 224 participants in T0 and T1, of which 141 also participated in T2. The results showed a surprising improvement in psychosocial outcomes from T0 to T1. Special education and female gender were associated with increased difficulties over time, while higher age was associated with decreased difficulties. At the subdomain level we found that emotional problems remained stable, while hyperactivity, conduct problems, and peer problems decreased, and prosocial behavior increased. Attending special education predicted increased peer problems over time, while higher age predicted both decreased conduct problems and increased prosocial behavior over time. The COVID-19 pandemic may have temporarily improved the fit between the psychosocial needs and the environment for children with autism in the Netherlands.</p

The Dictyostelium discoideum Rap1 signalling cascade and its functions during growth and development

Elk levend organisme, of het nu een enkele cel is of een verzameling van miljoenen cellen, kan per definitie basale processen uitvoeren; deze processen moeten nauwkeurig gecoördineerd worden in tijd en ruimte. Coördinatie wordt gereguleerd door signaleringsroutes in de cel die snel aan- of uitgeschakeld worden als reactie op interne of externe stimuli. Ras is een verzamelnaam voor een familie van signaleringseiwitten die in vrijwel alle eukaryoten voorkomt en evolutionair sterk geconserveerd is. Een Ras eiwit is gebonden aan óf een GTP- óf een GDP-molecuul, wat de actieve, respectievelijk inactieve toestand weerspiegelt. Alleen in de actieve vorm bindt Ras aan zijn effectoren en zet daarmee de onderliggende signaleringscascades aan. Het doel van dit proefschrift was om de functie van één van deze Ras eiwitten, Rap1, in meer detail te onderzoeken. Wij hebben Dictyostelium gebruikt als modelsysteem voor ons onderzoek omdat in dit organisme het Rap1 eiwit en de onderliggende signaleringroutes grotendeels evolutionair geconserveerd zijn met de menselijke variant, terwijl het technisch veel makkelijker is om experimenten te doen met Dictyostelium dan met humane cellen. De data in dit proefschrift laten zien dat Rap1 een belangrijke regulerende functie heeft bij een veelheid van cellulaire processen. Tijdens vegetatieve groei reguleert het cel-beweging, voedselopname, substraatadhesie en celdeling, terwijl in gehongerde cellen het Rap1 betrokken is bij het dirigeren van processen als chemotaxis en ontwikkeling naar meercellig organisme. Onze conclusie is dat Rap1 beschouwd kan worden als centrale component in verscheidene essentiële signaleringscascades in Dictyostelium

ACCUMULATION OF HEAVY METALS (Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn) IN SOILS AND GRASS SWARDS IN ROADS OF LUBLIN CITY

The aim of this study has been to determine the level of contamination of the soils and grass swards abutting the selected busiest traffic routes of Lublin City with heavy metals: Cu, Cd, Cr, Pb, Zn. 36 surface soil samples (0–20 cm) and grass swards (roots and above ground parts) were collected. The goal of the research has been to assess the impact of road traffic on the content of heavy metals and to determine indicators of migration between the soil and the plant based on the enrichment factor. The examined soils were characterized by a high content of heavy metals, on average: Cu 80.14 mg kg-1, Cd 0.97 mg kg-1, Cr 12.80 mg kg-1, Pb 56.89 mg kg-1, Zn 87.31 mg kg-1. Grass swards in the immediate vicinity of the examined roads had the following average content of heavy metals: Cu 46.91 mg kg-1, Cd 1.41 mg kg-1, Cr 16.36 mg kg-1, Pb 15.05 mg kg-1, Zn 129.01 mg kg-1. The accumulation of heavy metals in the experimental soils and plants was varied. The impact of the content of heavy metals designated in the soils on their concentration in the grass swards collected from the busiest traffic routes in Lublin were considered to be significant

SELECTED GEOCHEMICAL CRITERIA IN MIRE PROFILES OF PORĘBY WOJSŁAWSKIE (SANDOMIERZ BASIN, POLAND SE)

The geochemical analysis of biogenic sediments was used to reconstruct environmental conditions and the impact of human activity from a small mire geo-system in the Sandomierz Basin (Poland SE). Changes in the nature of selected geochemical indicators show a significant impact on the transformation of the mire during the early stages of human activity. It is reflected in the geochemical record by means of a high proportion of heavy metals – cadmium, lead and copper. Evident variability of main geochemical components concentration is also visible in a vertical record of analysed cores. This is a consequence of the sedimentary basin asymmetric configuration and the ensuing variable biogenic sedimentary succession. Analizy geochemiczne stanową jedną z podstawowych metod badań osadów biogenicznych deponowanych w torfowiskach. W pracy wykorzystano analizę geochemiczną osadów biogenicznych z małego geosystemu torfowiskowego in the Sandomierz Basin (Poland SE) do odtworzenia warunków środowiskowych i wpływu działalności człowieka. Zmiany charakteru wybranych wskaźników geochemicznych zaznaczają znaczący wpływ na transformację torfowiska w najmłodszych fazach działalności człowieka. Rejestrowana jest ona w zapisie geochemicznym poprzez wysoki udział metali ciężkich – kadm, ołów i miedź. Zaznacza się także wyraźna zmienność koncentracji głównych składników geochemicznych w zapisie pionowym analizowanych rdzeni. Jest to konsekwencją asymetrycznej konfiguracji zbiornika sedymentacyjnego i wynikającej z niej zmiennej w czasie biogenicznej sukcesji osadowej

What works for whom? Differential genetic effects of early literacy interventions in kindergarten

A remarkable finding in recent research in psychopathology is that not every child is equally susceptible to interventions. Research showed that genetic differences, and in particular a dopamine-related gene, DRD4, predict who will benefit from interventions, and who will not. In the project "What Works for Whom", this theory was tested, on a large-scale, in the field of early literacy. More than 180 schools spread over the Netherlands were involved in the experiments. We tested the hypothesis that children who were carrier of the DRD4 7-repeat allele, were more receptive to digital educational interventions; one program aimed at understanding the alphabetic principle, and the other program included digital storybooks with animated illustrations. Results for the book reading program were in line with the differential susceptibility theory. The carriers of the DRD4 7-repeat allele, about one-third of the children, benefitted extra from digital storybooks and outperformed their non-carrier peers. For non-carriers the digital books added nothing to the experience children already had with book reading in school and at home. For carriers of the DRD4 7-repeat allele the digital storybooks are a new essential in the curriculum in kindergarten.  This study was supported by a grant from the Dutch organization Kennisnet to Adriana G. Bus.Development Psychopathology in context: clinical setting

The Assessment of Heavy Metals Content in Total and Bioavailable forms in the Soils Surrounding Cementownia Chelm S.A. in Chelm, Poland

The study consisted in assessing the impact of the cement industry on the selected physicochemical properties and total and bioavailable content of heavy metals in soils located in the vicinity of the factory. The sampling points were located in the four transects to the east, west, north and south of the plant, at an increasing distance of 0 - 250 - 500 - 1500 and 2000 m. The soil samples were collected from the depth of 0-20 cm. The analysed soils were characterised by the significant presence of calcium carbonate, distributed evenly in all directions. Concentrations of heavy metals were characterised by high variation, depending on the direction and distance from the cement factory. The percentages of bioavailable forms of heavy metals in the general pool did not exceed 10%

Reflux precipitation polymerization : a new synthetic insight in molecular imprinting at high temperature

Synthesis of uniform molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) microspheres (MSs) using distillation precipitation polymerization (DPP) at high temperature has attracted great interest in the field of molecular imprinting. However,there were still some shortcomings in this method. In this work, to create uniform MIP MSs in a short time and to demonstrate the effects of high temperature on imprinting performance, a new precipitation polymerization method (reflux precipitation polymerization, RPP) was used for the first time to fabricate MIP MSs in this study. The SEM images of the polymeric MSs indicate the presence of template molecules could improve the particle morphology and size uniformity. The specific molecular recognition of the monodispersed MIP MSs was confirmed by fluorescence measurement and HPLC-UV analysis. The binding behavior of the MIP MSs was simulated using the heterogeneous Freundlich isotherm, which shows that the MIP MSs produced by the RPP possess compatible selectivity in comparison with those by traditional PP method. It is noted that, for the first time, we demonstrated that molecular imprinting at high temperature was only successful when electrostatic interactions played important roles in the imprinting process

Rap1-dependent pathways coordinate cytokinesis in Dictyostelium

Cytokinesis is the final step of mitosis when a mother cell is separated into two daughter cells. Major cytoskeletal changes are essential for cytokinesis; it is, however, not well understood how the microtubules and actomyosin cytoskeleton are exactly regulated in time and space. In this paper, we show that during the early stages of cytokinesis, in rounded-up Dictyostelium discoideum cells, the small G-protein Rap1 is activated uniformly at the cell cortex. When cells begin to elongate, active Rap1 becomes restricted from the furrow region, where the myosin contractile ring is subsequently formed. In the final stages of cytokinesis, active Rap1 is only present at the cell poles. Mutant cells with decreased Rap1 activation at the poles showed strongly decreased growth rates. Hyperactivation of Rap1 results in severe growth delays and defective spindle formation in adherent cells and cell death in suspension. Furthermore, Rap mutants show aberrant regulation of the actomyosin cytoskeleton, resulting in extended furrow ingression times and asymmetrical cell division. We propose that Rap1 drives cytokinesis progression by coordinating the three major cytoskeletal components: microtubules, actin, and myosin II. Importantly, mutated forms of Rap also affect cytokinesis in other organisms, suggesting a conserved role for Rap in cell division

Ontluikende geletterdheid stimuleren met digitale prentenboeken: verschillen tussen kleuters

Development Psychopathology in context: clinical setting