ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING USING LINDEN TREE LEAVES AS NATURAL TRAPS OF ATMOSPHERIC DEPOSITION: A PILOT STUDY IN TRANSILVANIA, ROMANIA

Atmospheric pollution caused by toxic elements is an emerging problem of concern. Tree leaves have been widely used as indicator of atmospheric pollutions and they are effective alternatives to the moreusual biomonitoring methods. Tree leaves can be used as natural traps of atmospheric deposition. Elemental composition of dust deposited onto leaf surfaces can be used to characterize the urban environment. A pilot survey including 16 Romanian settlements was carried out in order to evaluate the characteristics and sources of air pollutants. Tree leaves (Tilia tomentosa, Tilia cordata, Tilia platyphyllos) were collected and used for the measurements. Elemental analyses were carried out by ICP-OES and ICP-MS. Principal component and discriminant analyses were used to characterizing and estimating the level of pollution. Settlements were grouped on the basis of discriminant function values. Multivariate comparison of chemical data ordered the settlements into 3 main groups, which showed a systematic geographic distribution

Halitosis in cystinosis patients after administration of immediate-release cysteamine bitartrate compared to delayed-release cysteamine bitartrate

Halitosis due to dimethylsulfide (DMS) generation is a major side effect of cysteamine in the treatment of cystinosis. Recently, an enteric coated formulation of cysteamine bitartrate (RP103) administered twice daily was demonstrated to be non-inferior for lowering WBC cystine levels compared to the non-enteric coated formulation (Cystagon(R)), administered 4 times per day. Since both formulations had different pharmacokinetic profiles, we compared DMS breath levels after administration of either RP103 or Cystagon(R) in four cystinosis patients. Although cysteamine areas under the curve (AUCs) were comparable, AUC of DMS was lower after the administration of RP103 compared to Cystagon(R). This observation is of importance in cystinosis patients, since halitosis hampers compliance with cysteamine therapy. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Cues to gemination in word-initial position in Maltese

In this study we investigated word-initial geminates in Maltese, focusing on sub-segmental acoustic durations: constriction duration and, where appropriate, VOT; and the duration of adjacent segments: the tonic vowel duration and the duration of the inter-consonantal interval spanning the word boundary. This latter interval, between the consonant in the previous word and the singleton/geminate consonant, is measured so as to capture the presence and duration of a vocalic element, which has been referred to as epenthetic, and reportedly precedes word-initial geminates in the language. Whilst constriction duration plays an important role in distinguishing geminates from singletons (a ratio of 1.7:1), VOT does not. Moreover, although the duration of the following tonic vowel plays no role, the duration of the preceding context – the inter-consonantal interval – is a strong cue to gemination word-initially.peer-reviewe

Anthropologie du christianisme

Jean-Pierre Albert, directeur d’études Les théories anthropologiques du religieux Le séminaire était consacré cette année à l’examen critique des théorisations du lien entre religion et société. Ont été présentées successivement les perspectives de Marx et de Durkheim. À côté de la remise en contexte de ces œuvres, l’étude a visé plus particulièrement la manière dont, au-delà d’un langage du « reflet », de l’« expression », était posée la question de l’efficacité propre des représentations r..

Characterization of the porous structure of biodegradable scaffolds obtained with supercritical CO2 as foaming agent

Poly(ε-caprolactone) foams were prepared, via a batch process, by using supercritical CO2 as foaming agent. Their porous structure was characterized through mercury porosimetry, helium and mercury pycnometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray microtomography observations coupled with image analysis. The pore size distributions obtained by these two latter techniques show that the pore structure is more homogeneous when the foaming process is performed under a high CO2 saturation pressure (higher than 250 bars)

Tolerance of Bearded Vultures to Human Activities: Response to Comor et al. (2019)

The bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) is listed as vulnerable in Europe on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List because of population declines over multiple generations. Vulture population declines have been attributed to shooting, use of toxicants, and changes in land use, which have resulted in habitat degradation and increased anthropogenic disturbances. Concomitantly, conservation authorities have restricted practices deemed harmful to the species and have established protection buffers around occupied vulture breeding sites to mitigate the impacts of anthropogenic disturbances on breeding success. Comor et al. (2019) compared bearded vulture breeding success over 6 years within and outside areas with restricted activities in the western French Pyrenees and assessed distances between vultures and hunting parties. They concluded that hunting was not a threat to species conservation and may even benefit vultures by providing alternative food resource. We dispute the conclusions of Comor et al. (2019) and present concerns about the data used, the study design, and the inferences taken from some of the data presented. Herein we provide arguments and rationale to support our opinion

Environmental monitoring using linden tree leaves as natural traps of atmospheric deposition: a pilot study in Transilvania, Romania

Atmospheric pollution caused by toxic elements is an emerging problem of concern. Tree leaves havebeen widely used as indicator of atmospheric pollutions and they are effective alternatives to the moreusual biomonitoring methods. Tree leaves can be used as natural traps of atmospheric deposition.Elemental composition of dust deposited onto leaf surfaces can be used to characterize the urbanenvironment. A pilot survey including 16 Romanian settlements was carried out in order to evaluatethe characteristics and sources of air pollutants. Tree leaves (Tilia tomentosa, Tilia cordata, Tiliaplatyphyllos) were collected and used for the measurements. Elemental analyses were carried out byICP-OES and ICP-MS. Principal component and discriminant analyses were used to characterizingand estimating the level of pollution. Settlements were grouped on the basis of discriminant functionvalues. Multivariate comparison of chemical data ordered the settlements into 3 main groups, whichshowed a systematic geographic distribution