50 research outputs found
Factors Influencing Soil Organic Carbon Stock Variations in Italy During the Last Three Decades
Soils contain about three times the amount of carbon globally available
in vegetation, and about twice the amount in the atmosphere. However, soil organic
carbon (SOC) has been reduced in many areas, while an increase in atmospheric
CO2 has been detected. Recent research works have shown that it is likely that past
changes in land use history and land management were the main reasons for the
loss of carbon rather than higher temperatures and changes of precipitation resulting
from climate change. The primary scope of this work was to estimate soil organic
carbon stock (CS) variations in Italy during the last three decades and to relate them
to land use changes. The study was also aimed at finding relationships between
SOC and factors of pedogenesis, namely pedoclimate, morphology, lithology, and
land use, but also at verifying the possible bias on SOC estimation caused by the
use of data coming from different sources and laboratories. The soil database of
Italy was the main source of information in this study. In the national soil database
is stored information for 20,702 georeferentiated and dated observations (soil pro-
files and minipits) analysed for routine soil parameters. Although the observations
were collected from different sources, soil description and analysis were similar,
because all the sources made reference to the Soil Taxonomy and WRB classification
systems, and soil analyses followed the Italian official methods. Besides horizon
description and analysis, soil observations had a set of site information including
topography, lithology, and land use. The SOC and bulk density referred to the first
50 cm, thus CS was calculated on the basis of the weighted percentage of SOC, rock
fragments volume, and bulk density. A set of geographic attributes were considered
to spatialize point information, in particular, DEM (100 m) and derived SOTER
morphological classification, soil regions (reference scale 1:5,000,000) and soil systems
lithological groups (reference scale 1:500,000), soil moisture and temperature
regimes (raster maps of 1 km pixel size), land cover (CORINE project, reference
scale 1:100,000) at three reference dates: years 1990 and 2000, and an originalupdate to 2008, obtained with field point observations. The interpolation methodology
used a multiple linear regression (MLR). CS was the target variable, while
predictive variables were the geographic attributes. Basic statistical analysis was
performed first, to find the predictive variables statistically related to CS and to verify
the bias caused by different laboratories and surveys. After excluding the biased
datasets, the best predictors were selected using a step-wise regression method with
Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) as selection and stop criterion. The obtained
MLR model made use of the following categorical attributes: (i) decade, (ii) land
use, (iii) SOTER morphological class, (iv) soil region, (v) soil temperature regime,
(vi) soil moisture regime, (vii) soil system lithology, (viii) soil temperature, (ix) soil
aridity index (dry days per year), and, (x) elevation. The interaction between decade
and land use variables was also considered in the model. Results indicated that CS
was highly correlated with the kind of main type of land use (forest, meadow, arable
land), soil moisture and temperature regimes, lithology, as well as morphological
classes, and decreased notably in the second decade but slightly increased in the
third one, passing form 3.32 Pg, to 2.74 Pg and 2.93 Pg respectively. The bias caused
by the variables like “laboratory” and “survey source” could be as large as the 190%
USING WRB TO MAP THE SOIL SYSTEMS OF ITALY
Aim of this work was to test the 2010 version of the WRB soil classification for compilating a map
of the soil systems of Italy at 1:500,000 scale. The source of data was the national geodatabase
storing information on 1,414 Soil Typological Units (STUs). Though, basically, we followed WRB
criteria to prioritize soil qualifiers, however, it was necessary to work out an original methodology in
the map legend representation to reproduce the high variability inside each delineation meanwhile
avoiding any loss of information. Each map unit may represent a combination of three codominant
STUs at the most. Dominant STUs were assessed summing up the occurrence of STUs
in the Land Components (LCs) of every soil system, where each LC is a specific combination of
morphology, lithology and land cover. STUs were classified according to the WRB soil
classification system, at the third level, that is, reference soil group and first two qualifiers, when
possible. Since the large number of delineations, map units grouping was needed to make the map
more legible. Legend colours were organized according to soil regions groups firstly, then by
considering the highest level of soil classification, so resulting a nidificated legend. The map
showed 3,357 polygons and 704 map units. The most common STU were Calcaric Cambisols, by
far followed by Calcaric Regosols, Eutric Cambisols, Haplic Calcisols, Vertic Cambisols, Cutanic
Luvisols, Leptic Pheozems, Chromic Luvisols, Dystric Cambisols, Fluvic Cambisols, and others
STUs belonging to almost all the WRB soil references. Keywords: geodatabase, soil system
USING A.R.P. PROXIMAL SURVEY TO MAP CALCIC HORIZON DEPTH IN VINEYARDS
The investigation of spatial variability of soil water retention capacity and depth is essential for a
correct and economical planning of water supply of a vineyard. The advantage of measuring soil
electrical properties by proximal sensors is the ability to operate with mobile and non-destructive
tools, quicker than the traditional soil survey. A.R.P. (Automatic Resistivity Profiling) is a mobile soil
electrical resistivity (ER) mapping system conceived by Geocarta (Paris, France), and it is
comprised by a couple of transmitter sprocket-wheels, which inject current within the soil, and three
couples of receiver sprocket-wheels, which measure the voltage-drop at three different depths,
about 0-50, 0-100 and 0-170 cm. Ten vineyards of “Villa Albius” farm in Sicily region (southern
Italy) were chosen to carry out the A.R.P. survey, for a overall surface of 45 hectares. The
vineyards were located in a wide Plio-Pleistocene marine terrace, characterized by a few meters
level of calcarenite, overlying partially cemented by calcium carbonate yellow sands. During the
A.R.P. survey, 12 boreholes were described and sampled for the laboratory analysis and other 6
boreholes were carried out to validade the map. All soils showed a calcic horizon (Bk, BCk or Ck)
with the upper limit at variable depths. The depth of calcic horizon (Dk) of each boreholes resulted
significantly correlated to ER, especially with the ER0-100 (R2 = 0.83). Dk map was interpolated
using the regression kriging and validated by the boreholes (R2 = 0.71) and with a NDVI map of
the same vintage (R2 = 0.95)
Comparing Different Approaches - Data Mining, Geostatistic, and Deterministic Pedology - to Assess the Frequency of WRB Reference Soil Groups in the Italian Soil Regions
The assessment of class frequency in soil map legends is affected by uncertainty, especially at small scales, where generalization is
larger. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that data mining or geostatistic techniques provide better estimation of class
frequency than traditional deterministic pedology in a national soil map.
In the map of Italian soil regions compiled at 1:5,000,000 reference scale, soil classes were the WRB Reference Soil Groups
(RSGs). Different data mining techniques, namely neural networks, random forests, boosted tree, classification and regression tree,
supported vector machine (SVM), were tested and the last one gave the best RSGs predictions, using selected auxiliary variables
and 22,015 classified soil profiles. Given the categorical target variable, the multi-collocated indicator cokriging was the algorithm
chosen for the geostatistic approach. The first five more frequent RSGs resulting from the three methods were compared. The
outcomes were validated with a Bayesian approach on a subset of 10% of geographically representative profiles, kept out before
the elaborations.
The most frequent classes were uniformly predicted by the three methods, which instead differentiated notably for the classes with
a lower occurrence. The Bayesian validation indicated that the SVM method was as reliable as the multi-collocated indicator
cokriging, and both more than the deterministic pedological approach. An advantage of the SVM was the possibility to use numeric
and categorical variable in the same elaboration, without any previous transformation, which notably reduced the processing time
Comparing different approaches - data mining, geostatistic, and deterministic pedology - to assess the frequency of WRB Reference Soil Groups in the Italian soil regions
Estimating frequency of soil classes in map unit is always affected by some degree of uncertainty, especially at
small scales, with a larger generalization.
The aim of this study was to compare different possible approaches - data mining, geostatistic, deterministic
pedology - to assess the frequency of WRB Reference Soil Groups (RSG) in the major Italian soil regions.
In the soil map of Italy (Costantini et al., 2012), a list of the first five RSG was reported in each major 10 soil
regions. The soil map was produced using the national soil geodatabase, which stored 22,015 analyzed and
classified pedons, 1,413 soil typological unit (STU) and a set of auxiliary variables (lithology, land-use, DEM).
Other variables were added, to better consider the influence of soil forming factors (slope, soil aridity index,
carbon stock, soil inorganic carbon content, clay, sand, geography of soil regions and soil systems) and a grid at 1
km mesh was set up.
The traditional deterministic pedology assessed the STU frequency according to the expert judgment presence in
every elementary landscape which formed the mapping unit.
Different data mining techniques were firstly compared in their ability to predict RSG through auxiliary variables
(neural networks, random forests, boosted tree, supported vector machine (SVM)). We selected SVM according
to the result of a testing set. A SVM model is a representation of the examples as points in space, mapped so that
examples of separate categories are divided by a clear gap that is as wide as possible.
The geostatistic algorithm we used was an indicator collocated cokriging. The class values of the auxiliary
variables, available at all the points of the grid, were transformed in indicator variables (values 0, 1). A principal
component analysis allowed us to select the variables that were able to explain the largest variability, and to
correlate each RSG with the first principal component, which explained the 51% of the total variability. The
principal component was used as collocated variable. The results were as many probability maps as the estimated
WRB classes. They were summed up in a unique map, with the most probable class at each pixel.
The first five more frequent RSG resulting from the three methods were compared.
The outcomes were validated with a subset of the 10% of the pedons, kept out before the elaborations. The error
estimate was produced for each estimated RSG.
The first results, obtained in one of the most widespread soil region (plains and low hills of central and southern
Italy) showed that the first two frequency classes were the same for all the three methods. The deterministic
method differed from the others at the third position, while the statistical methods inverted the third and fourth
position.
An advantage of the SVM was the possibility to use in the same elaboration numeric and categorical variable,
without any previous transformation, which reduced the processing time.
A Bayesian validation indicated that the SVM method was as reliable as the indicator collocated cokriging, and
better than the deterministic pedological approach
Inhibition of histone methyltransferase EZH2 in Schistosoma mansoni in vitro by GSK343 reduces egg laying and decreases the expression of genes implicated in DNA replication and noncoding RNA metabolism
Background:
The possibility of emergence of praziquantel-resistant Schistosoma parasites and the lack of other effective drugs demand the discovery of new schistosomicidal agents. In this context the study of compounds that target histone-modifying enzymes is extremely promising. Our aim was to investigate the effect of inhibition of EZH2, a histone methyltransferase that is involved in chromatin remodeling processes and gene expression control; we tested different developmental forms of Schistosoma mansoni using GKS343, a selective inhibitor of EZH2 in human cells.
Methodology/Principal findings:
Adult male and female worms and schistosomula were treated with different concentrations of GSK343 for up to two days in vitro. Western blotting showed a decrease in the H3K27me3 histone mark in all three developmental forms. Motility, mortality, pairing and egg laying were employed as schistosomicidal parameters for adult worms. Schistosomula viability was evaluated with propidium iodide staining and ATP quantification. Adult worms showed decreased motility when exposed to GSK343. Also, an approximate 40% reduction of egg laying by GSK343-treated females was observed when compared with controls (0.1% DMSO). Scanning electron microscopy showed the formation of bulges and bubbles throughout the dorsal region of GSK343-treated adult worms. In schistosomula the body was extremely contracted with the presence of numerous folds, and growth was markedly slowed. RNA-seq was applied to identify the metabolic pathways affected by GSK343 sublethal doses. GSK343-treated adult worms showed significantly altered expression of genes related to transmembrane transport, cellular homeostasis and egg development. In females, genes related to DNA replication and noncoding RNA metabolism processes were downregulated. Schistosomula showed altered expression of genes related to cell adhesion and membrane synthesis pathways.
Conclusions/Significance:
The results indicated that GSK343 presents in vitro activities against S. mansoni, and the characterization of EZH2 as a new potential molecular target establishes EZH2 inhibitors as part of a promising new group of compounds that could be used for the development of schistosomicidal agents
Can animal manure be used to increase soil organic carbon stocks in the Mediterranean as a mitigation climate change strategy?
Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays an important role on improving soil
conditions and soil functions. Increasing land use changes have induced an
important decline of SOC content at global scale. Increasing SOC in
agricultural soils has been proposed as a strategy to mitigate climate change.
Animal manure has the characteristic of enriching SOC, when applied to crop
fields, while, in parallel, it could constitute a natural fertilizer for the
crops. In this paper, a simulation is performed using the area of Catalonia,
Spain as a case study for the characteristic low SOC in the Mediterranean, to
examine whether animal manure can improve substantially the SOC of agricultural
fields, when applied as organic fertilizers. Our results show that the policy
goals of the 4x1000 strategy can be achieved only partially by using manure
transported to the fields. This implies that the proposed approach needs to be
combined with other strategies.Comment: Proc. of EnviroInfo 2020, Nicosia, Cyprus, September 2020. arXiv
admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2006.0912
The multidrug resistance 1 (MDR1) gene polymorphism G-rs3789243-A is not associated with disease susceptibility in Norwegian patients with colorectal adenoma and colorectal cancer; a case control study
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Smoking, dietary factors, and alcohol consumption are known life style factors contributing to gastrointestinal carcinogenesis. Genetic variations in carcinogen handling may affect cancer risk. The multidrug resistance 1(<it>MDR1/ABCB1</it>) gene encodes the transport protein P-glycoprotein (a phase III xenobiotic transporter). P-glycoprotein is present in the intestinal mucosal lining and restricts absorption of certain carcinogens, among these polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Moreover, P-glycoprotein transports various endogenous substrates such as cytokines and chemokines involved in inflammation, and may thereby affect the risk of malignity. Hence, genetic variations that modify the function of P-glycoprotein may be associated with the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). We have previously found an association between the <it>MDR1 </it>intron 3 G-rs3789243-A polymorphism and the risk of CRC in a Danish study population. The aim of this study was to investigate if this <it>MDR1 </it>polymorphism was associated with risk of colorectal adenoma (CA) and CRC in the Norwegian population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using a case-control design, the association between the <it>MDR1 </it>intron 3 G-rs3789243-A polymorphism and the risk of colorectal carcinomas and adenomas in the Norwegian population was assessed in 167 carcinomas, 990 adenomas, and 400 controls. Genotypes were determined by allelic discrimination. Odds ratio (OR) and 95 confidence interval (95% CI) were estimated by binary logistic regression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>No association was found between the <it>MDR1 </it>polymorphism (G-rs3789243-A) and colorectal adenomas or cancer. Carriers of the variant allele of MDR1 intron 3 had odds ratios (95% CI) of 0.97 (0.72–1.29) for developing adenomas, and 0.70 (0.41–1.21) for colorectal cancer, respectively, compared to homozygous wild type carriers.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The <it>MDR1 </it>intron 3 (G-rs3789243-A) polymorphism was not associated with a risk of colorectal adenomas or carcinomas in the present Norwegian study group. Thus, this <it>MDR1 </it>polymorphism does not seem to play an important role in colorectal carcinogenesis in this population.</p
Deep Sequencing Whole Transcriptome Exploration of the σE Regulon in Neisseria meningitidis
Bacteria live in an ever-changing environment and must alter protein expression promptly to adapt to these changes and survive. Specific response genes that are regulated by a subset of alternative σ70-like transcription factors have evolved in order to respond to this changing environment. Recently, we have described the existence of a σE regulon including the anti-σ-factor MseR in the obligate human bacterial pathogen Neisseria meningitidis. To unravel the complete σE regulon in N. meningitidis, we sequenced total RNA transcriptional content of wild type meningococci and compared it with that of mseR mutant cells (ΔmseR) in which σE is highly expressed. Eleven coding genes and one non-coding gene were found to be differentially expressed between H44/76 wildtype and H44/76ΔmseR cells. Five of the 6 genes of the σE operon, msrA/msrB, and the gene encoding a pepSY-associated TM helix family protein showed enhanced transcription, whilst aniA encoding a nitrite reductase and nspA encoding the vaccine candidate Neisserial surface protein A showed decreased transcription. Analysis of differential expression in IGRs showed enhanced transcription of a non-coding RNA molecule, identifying a σE dependent small non-coding RNA. Together this constitutes the first complete exploration of an alternative σ-factor regulon in N. meningitidis. The results direct to a relatively small regulon indicative for a strictly defined response consistent with a relatively stable niche, the human throat, where N. meningitidis resides
Transcriptome Analysis of Neisseria meningitidis in Human Whole Blood and Mutagenesis Studies Identify Virulence Factors Involved in Blood Survival
During infection Neisseria meningitidis (Nm) encounters multiple
environments within the host, which makes rapid adaptation a crucial factor for
meningococcal survival. Despite the importance of invasion into the bloodstream
in the meningococcal disease process, little is known about how Nm adapts to
permit survival and growth in blood. To address this, we performed a time-course
transcriptome analysis using an ex vivo model of human whole
blood infection. We observed that Nm alters the expression of ≈30% of
ORFs of the genome and major dynamic changes were observed in the expression of
transcriptional regulators, transport and binding proteins, energy metabolism,
and surface-exposed virulence factors. In particular, we found that the gene
encoding the regulator Fur, as well as all genes encoding iron uptake systems,
were significantly up-regulated. Analysis of regulated genes encoding for
surface-exposed proteins involved in Nm pathogenesis allowed us to better
understand mechanisms used to circumvent host defenses. During blood infection,
Nm activates genes encoding for the factor H binding proteins, fHbp and NspA,
genes encoding for detoxifying enzymes such as SodC, Kat and AniA, as well as
several less characterized surface-exposed proteins that might have a role in
blood survival. Through mutagenesis studies of a subset of up-regulated genes we
were able to identify new proteins important for survival in human blood and
also to identify additional roles of previously known virulence factors in
aiding survival in blood. Nm mutant strains lacking the genes encoding the
hypothetical protein NMB1483 and the surface-exposed proteins NalP, Mip and
NspA, the Fur regulator, the transferrin binding protein TbpB, and the L-lactate
permease LctP were sensitive to killing by human blood. This increased knowledge
of how Nm responds to adaptation in blood could also be helpful to develop
diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to control the devastating disease cause
by this microorganism