Effects of clayish and sandy soils on the growth of Prosopis argentina and P. alpataco seedlings

Prosopis alpataco Burk. y P. argentina Phil. ocupan áreas con características edáficas diferentes dentro de la zona árida Argentina. Prosopis alpataco se encuentra en suelos arcillosos y salinos, sometidos a inundaciones esporádicas, mientras que P. argentina se encuentra en los suelos arenosos, no salinos, de los médanos. La capacidad de ocupar estos ambientes estaría relacionada con la presencia de diferentes adaptaciones en estas dos especies. En este trabajo, analizamos comparativamente el crecimiento de plántulas de ambas especies en suelos arenosos y arcillosos. El porcentaje de emergencia, la altura, la biomasa y el área foliar de las plántulas fueron medidos en un experimento factorial (especies x suelos) llevado a cabo en condiciones de invernáculo. Las dos especies muestran una mayor velocidad de crecimiento en (altura, biomasa, área foliar, número de hojas y relación vástago-raíz) en suelos arcillosos. En suelos arenosos, la tasa de crecimiento de P. alpataco fue menor que el de P. argentina, indicando que el efecto perjudicial de los suelos arenosos fue mayor en P. alpataco. Sugerimos que los efectos del suelo sobre el crecimiento podrían deberse a las diferencias en la disponibilidad de nutrientes, especialmente nitrógeno, y que P. argentina tiene adaptaciones a los suelos arenosos que están ausentes en P. alpataco. Estos resultados podrían explicar la exclusión de P. alpataco de los suelos arenosos pero no la exclusión de P. argentina de los suelos arcillosos. En este caso la exclusión debe relacionarse con otros factores como el anegamiento, la salinidad o con el efecto de interacciones biológicas como la competencia.Prosopis alpataco Burk. and P. argentina Phil. occupy areas with different soil characteristics within the arid zone of Argentina. Prosopis alpataco occurs in periodically flooded, clayish and saline soils, whereas P. argentina occurs in non-saline sand dunes. The capability to occupy these different habitats might be related to the presence of different adaptive features in these two species. We analyzed seedling growth of both species on clayish and sandy soils. Their emergence percentages, seedling height, biomass, and leaf area were measured in a factorial experiment (species x soils) carried out in a greenhouse. Both species showed a higher growth rate (height, biomass, leaf area and number of leaves and shoot-root ratios) in clayish soils. In sandy soils, the growth rate of P. alpataco was lower than that of P. argentina, indicating that the detrimental effects of sandy soils were greater for P. alpataco. We suggest that soil effects on growth could be due to the differences in nutrient (especially nitrogen) availability, and that P. argentina shows adaptations to sandy soils which are absent in P. alpataco. These results could explain the exclusion of P. alpataco from sandy soils but not that of P. argentina from clayish soils. Exclusion of this last species should be associated with other environmental factors like flooding or salinity, or with biological factors such as competition

What is not known is not aimed for — Understanding staff knowledge and readiness to embrace sustainable and healthy food.

To mitigate the adverse effects of excessive consumption of animal proteins on both the environment and human well-being, a transition is needed toward plant-based proteins. Such a shift requires a change in eating behaviours, both at home and elsewhere. Focusing on hospitality and leisure settings, the aim of this study is threefold: firstly, to evaluate the alignment between the organisational policies and support mechanisms on one side and employees’ beliefs and daily experiences towards healthy and sustainable food on the other; secondly, to explore the staff’s readiness to embrace the protein transition using the stages of change model; and thirdly, to outline the prerequisites needed to ensure that employees show healthy and sustainable food behaviour drawing upon the COM-B model (motivation, opportunity, and capability for behavioural interventions) and the behaviour change wheel. Findings from a multi-case-study approach, which utilises a combination of research methods, suggest that employees across all cases exhibit a limited degree of readiness. Moreover, while the motivation to shift toward more healthy and sustainable food is high, capability and opportunity are rated low. To address this, various intervention strategies tailored to the context of hospitality and leisure are proposed that are pertinent to the cases under investigation

Reflecting on Responsible Leadership in the Context of Higher Education

In the last decades, the notion that leadership comprises responsible leadership has gained support and the academic debate has shed some light on the antecedents, processes, and multi-level outcomes of responsible leadership. Being at the intersection of the leadership and sustainability discourses, responsible leadership has benefitted from the increasing interests that both fields of study have received. Nevertheless, the debate has left several questions around the nature and development of responsible leadership unanswered. Among these questions we reckon an understanding of "responsible" in the definition of "responsible leadership," the width of leaders' responsibility and the depth of their impact including the role of personal alongside formal leadership, and the distinction between "responsible" and "non responsible" leaders. The aim of this theoretical paper is to further the academic discussion on leadership in the context of sustainability and its integration in higher education settings. We review the literature and explore the academic debate while step-by-step building a description of responsible leadership that could form the basis for leadership programmes in higher education. Then, borrowing insights from pro-environmental psychology, we share a tripartite description of responsible leadership, which centres around identity, behaviour and responsiveness. As a final step, we share our experience in building an undergraduate programme based on this tripartite description of responsible leadership. Here, we illustrate how the leadership description can be visualised in a figure and used to develop an undergraduate Liberal Arts and Sciences curriculum centred on the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Accidents with caterpillar Lonomia obliqua (Walker, 1855). An emerging problem

Lonomia obliqua (Walker, 1855) es una mariposa nocturna de la familia Saturniidae, ampliamente distribuida en selvas tropicales de Sudamérica. Su larva (oruga) se caracteriza por poseer espículas ramificadas puntiagudas a lo largo de su cuerpo, que contienen una mezcla compleja de moléculas tóxicas en su interior. Cuando las espículas contactan con la piel de las personas, las toxinas ingresan pasivamente a través de la lesión, generando un envenenamiento caracterizado por manifestaciones no solo locales sino también sistémicas (fundamentalmente manifestaciones hemorrágicas). Debido al elevado número de casos que se produjeron en Brasil en las últimas décadas, el Instituto Butantan ha producido un antiveneno capaz de neutralizar los efectos deletéreos de los accidentes por contacto con L. obliqua. En Argentina, los accidentes por Lonomia son poco frecuentes y se limitan a la provincia de Misiones. Teniendo en cuenta que a la fecha no hay en la literatura descripciones de casos clínicos ocurridos en el país con tratamiento específico (antiveneno), el propósito del presente trabajo es comunicar seis casos de accidentes por contacto con orugas Lonomia que fueron atendidos en el Hospital SAMIC de Puerto Iguazú (Misiones, Argentina) durante el año 2014, y que fueron tratados con el suero antilonómico producido en Brasil. Se destaca la evolución rápida y favorable de todos los pacientes por lo que se recomienda el uso de este antiveneno para tratar los casos de erucismo por Lonomia en la Argentina.Lonomia obliqua (Walker, 1855) is a moth from the family Saturniidae, widely distributed in tropical rainforests of South America. In its larval stage (caterpillar) it is characterized by bristles that cover the animal's body. These structures are hard and branched spiny evaginations of the cuticle, underneath which a complex mixture of toxic molecules is stored. When spicules are brought into contact with the skin of people, toxins enter passively through the injury, causing not only local but also systemic poisoning (primarily hemorrhagic manifestations). When the whole animal is accidentally crushed, the insect's chitinous bristles are broken and the venomous secretions penetrate the human skin, reaching the blood circulation. Due to the numerous registered cases of erucism in Southern Brazil, the Butantan Institute has produced an antivenom able to neutralize the deleterious effects produced by contact with L. obliqua caterpillar bristles. In Argentina, these kinds of accidents are rare and restricted to the province of Misiones. Taking into account that to date there is no report in this country about clinical cases submitted to a specific treatment (antivenom), our aim is to communicate here six cases of Lonomia caterpillar-induced bleeding syndrome that were treated in the Hospital SAMIC of Puerto Iguazú (Misiones, Argentina) during 2014 with the antilonomic serum produced in Brazil. It is worthy to note that all patients evolved favorably within the first few hours, and for this reason, the use of this antivenom is recommended to treat the cases of Lonomia erucism in Argentina.Fil: Sanchez, Matias Nicolas. Ministerio de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Medicina Tropical; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Mignone Chagas, Mariana. Hospital SAMIC Marta T. Schwarz; ArgentinaFil: Casertano, Sergio A.. Ministerio de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Medicina Tropical; ArgentinaFil: Cavagnaro, Luis E.. Hospital SAMIC Marta T. Schwarz; ArgentinaFil: Peichoto, María Elisa. Ministerio de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Medicina Tropical; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Effects of arbuscular mycorrhizae on tomato yield, nutrient uptake, water relations, and soil carbon dynamics under deficit irrigation in field conditions

Abstract not availableTimothy M. Bowles, Felipe H. Barrios-Masias, Eli A. Carlisle, Timothy R. Cavagnaro, Louise E. Jackso

Robust Online Hamiltonian Learning

In this work we combine two distinct machine learning methodologies, sequential Monte Carlo and Bayesian experimental design, and apply them to the problem of inferring the dynamical parameters of a quantum system. We design the algorithm with practicality in mind by including parameters that control trade-offs between the requirements on computational and experimental resources. The algorithm can be implemented online (during experimental data collection), avoiding the need for storage and post-processing. Most importantly, our algorithm is capable of learning Hamiltonian parameters even when the parameters change from experiment-to-experiment, and also when additional noise processes are present and unknown. The algorithm also numerically estimates the Cramer-Rao lower bound, certifying its own performance.Comment: 24 pages, 12 figures; to appear in New Journal of Physic

Do organic inputs alter resistance and resilience of soil microbial community to drying?

Abstract not availableE.-L. Ng, A.F. Patti, M.T. Rose, C.R. Schefe, R.J. Smernik, T.R. Cavagnar

Functional stoichiometry of soil microbial communities after amendment with stabilised organic matter

Abstract not availableEe Ling Ng, Antonio Frank Patti, Michael Timothy Rose, Cassandra Rae Schefe, Kevin Wilkinson, Timothy Richard Cavagnar