Pepper Mild Mottle Virus as Indicator of Pollution: Assessment of Prevalence and Concentration in Different Water Environments in Italy

Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV), a plant pathogenic virus belonging to the family Virgoviridae, has been proposed as a potential viral indicator for human faecal pollution in aquatic environments. The present study investigated the occurrence, amount and diversity of PMMoV in water environments in Italy. A total of 254 water samples, collected between 2017 and 2019 from different types of water, were analysed. In detail, 92 raw sewage, 32 treated sewage, 16 river samples, 9 estuarine waters, 20 bathing waters, 67 groundwater samples and 18 drinking waters were tested. PMMoV was detected in 79% and 75% of untreated and treated sewage samples, respectively, 75% of river samples, 67% and 25% of estuarine and bathing waters and 13% of groundwater samples. No positive was detected in drinking water. The geometric mean of viral concentrations (genome copies/L) was ranked as follows: raw sewage (2.2 × 10⁶) > treated sewage (2.9 × 10⁵) > river waters (6.1 × 10²) > estuarine waters (4.8 × 10²) > bathing waters (8.5 × 10¹) > groundwater (5.9 × 10¹). A statistically significant variation of viral loads could be observed between raw and treated sewage and between these and all the other water matrices. PMMoV occurrence and viral loads did not display seasonal variation in raw sewage nor correlation with faecal indicator bacteria in marine waters and groundwater. This study represents the first report on the occurrence and quantification PMMoV in different water environments in Italy. Further studies are required to evaluate the suitability of PMMoV as a viral indicator for human faecal pollution and for viral pathogens in waters.

     

The role of percutaneous umbilical blood sampling in the management of immune thrombocytopenic purpura

On consultation, percutaneous umbilical blood sampling (PUBS) was offered to women with immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) to determine the mode and site of delivery prior to labour. Between January 1989 and December 1993, 41 pregnant women underwent PUBS. All women had a history of ITP, a platelet count less than 90 K, (+) antiplatelet antibody, and/or thrombocytopenia diagnosed early in pregnancy. PUBS was performed at term except in one patient with preterm labour, who underwent PUBS at 31 weeks' gestation. Patients with fetal platelet counts greater than 50 K returned to their referring physician for delivery. Records were complete in 39 pregnancies. Fetal blood was successfully obtained in 37 of 39 cases (95 per cent). Fetal platelet counts correlated with neonatal platelet counts in 36 of 37 cases (97 per cent). The interval between PUBS and delivery ranged from 0 to 31 days. Six of 37 fetuses (16 per cent) had significant fetal thrombocytopenia (<50 K). These six patients underwent Caesarean section. Vaginal delivery was recommended in all others. There were two procedure-related complications. There were no cases of intraventricular haemorrhage in any of the neonates. In conclusion, there is a high incidence of fetal thrombocytopenia in women with ITP. PUBS reliably detects fetal thrombocytopenia and is therefore useful in the perinatal planning of the mode and site of delivery.     

Transport and modification of humic substances present in Antarctic snow and ancient ice

We performed a study of fulvic acids extracted from fresh and aged snow, and from recent and ancient ice in Antarctica. The fresh snow samples were collected in coastal and inland sites to evaluate the influence of the distance from the sea on organic matter transport. Moreover, in a site (Melbourne Mountain) samples were collected at different heights to study the influence of altitude on transport. The obtained results showed that dissolved fulvic acid concentrations are influenced neither by distance nor by height while particulate fulvic acid concentrations are influenced by both parameters. Moreover, the results showed that fulvic acids transported for a long distance can undergo chemical modifications. Chemical modifications are better evidenced by the analysis of samples taken in trenches at different depth, which showed structural changes attributable to the loss of nitrogen-containing compounds and to an increase in aromatic character of the structures due to reduction and/or condensation processes. With ageing, the humification process proceeds with heavy carbon losses as demonstrated by results obtained from fulvic acids isolated from ice aged between twenty-five thousand and seventy thousand years.     

Metabolism and water loss are not related to environmental heterogeneity in two mygalomorph spiders

Laboratory water flumes are artificial troughs of moving water widely used in hydraulic studies of fluvial systems to investigate real-world problems at smaller, more manageable scales. Water flumes have also been used to understand bone transportation sorting and bone orientation found in the fossil record using actual bones. To date, these studies have not involved scaled bones. A 1/12 scale model of a 21.8-m long skeleton of Apatosaurus, a long-necked sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, was used to explore three problems at Dinosaur National Monument (USA) that cannot be explained by tradition bone flume studies: (1) why there is an abrupt bend in articulated vertebrae, (2) why articulated dorsals are inverted relative to the pelvis, and (3) how bone jams form. The flume experiments established that (1) bed friction with the wing-like transverse processes of vertebrae resists the force of the water flow, whereas those vertebrae lacking the processes are free to pivot in the flow; (2) elevation of the dorsal vertebrae by the transverse processes subjects the vertebrae to the energy of the flow stream, which causes the vertebrae to flip. Computation fluid dynamics (CFD) software shows this flip was due to differential pressure on the upstream and downstream sides. (3) The formation and growth of bone clusters or jams (analogous to log jams in rivers) occur as transported bones pile against an initial obstruction and jammed bones themselves become obstacles. These preliminary studies show that scale models can provide valuable insights into certain taphonomic problems that cannot be obtained by traditional bone flume studies.

     

Capturing change in European food assistance practices: a transformative social innovation perspective

The food system’s decreasing ability to deliver food security has led to the emergence of food assistance initiatives. Food assistance is highly contested; as some argue, it is a “failure of the state”, while others regard food assistance to be an “extension of the welfare state”. Either way, research suggests that actors within food assistance are rethinking their role in the food system. In this paper, we study three food assistance initiatives, in the Netherlands, Italy and Ireland, that perform new food assistance practices while embedded in specific institutional contexts, and analyse their potential to transform the food system, drawing on Transformative Social Innovation theory. Building on transition and social innovation theory, this recently developed theory distinguishes different levels within systems, named “shades of change”, that are associated with societal transformation. By exploring these “shades” of change in the analysis, we describe aspects of the initiatives’ novel practices, and in relation to the initiative and institutional relations their motivations and expectations. We compare the three cases and discuss how food assistance practices relate to and change (or do not change) the food system. In particular, we elaborate on how these three food assistance initiatives contribute in various ways to local food and welfare system innovation. In doing so, we offer a novel perspective on food assistance initiatives. We argue that they show dynamics that have the potential for more substantial transformation towards food security over time, by building momentum through “small wins”.     

Geophagy: soil consumption enhances the bioactivities of plants eaten by chimpanzees

Geophagy, the deliberate ingestion of soil, is a widespread practice among animals, including humans. Although some cases are well documented, motivations and consequences of this practice on the health status of the consumer remain unclear. In this paper, we focused our study on chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) of the Kibale National Park, Uganda, after observing they sometimes ingest soil shortly before or after consuming some plant parts such as leaves of Trichilia rubescens, which have in vitro anti-malarial properties. Chemical and mineralogical analyses of soil eaten by chimpanzees and soil used by the local healer to treat diarrhoea revealed similar composition, the clay mineralogy being dominated by kaolinite. We modelled the interaction between samples of the two types of soil and the leaves of T. rubescens in gastric and intestinal compartments and assayed the anti-malarial properties of these solutions. Results obtained for both soil samples are similar and support the hypothesis that soil enhances the pharmacological properties of the bio-available gastric fraction. The adaptive function of geophagy is likely to be multi-factorial. Nevertheless, the medical literature and most of occidental people usually consider geophagy in humans as an aberrant behaviour, symptomatic of metabolic dysfunction. Our results provide a new evidence to view geophagy as a practice for maintaining health, explaining its persistence through evolution.     

Mandible shape in hybrid mice

Hybridisation between closely related species is frequently seen as retarding evolutionary divergence and can also promote it by creating novel phenotypes due to new genetic combinations and developmental interactions. We therefore investigated how hybridisation affects the shape of the mouse mandible, a well-known feature in evo–devo studies. Parental groups corresponded to two strains of the European mouse sub-species Mus musculus domesticus and Mus musculus musculus. Parents and hybrids were bred in controlled conditions. The mandibles of F₁ hybrids are mostly intermediate between parental phenotypes as expected for a complex multigenic character. Nevertheless, a transgressive effect as well as an increased phenotypic variance characterise the hybrids. This suggests that hybridisation between the two subspecies could lead to a higher phenotypic variance due to complex interactions among the parental genomes including non-additive genetic effects. The major direction of variance is conserved, however, among hybrids and parent groups. Hybridisation may thus play a role in the production of original transgressive phenotypes occurring following pre-existing patterns of variance.     

Evaluation of the e ectiveness of horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands for di erent media

Two media bed (gravel and Filtralite NR) were tested in a mesocosm to evaluate the removal of organic matter (as chemical oxygen demand (COD)), ammonia (NH4-N), nitrite, nitrate and solid matter (as total suspended solids (TSS)) for a synthetic wastewater (acetate-based) and a domestic wastewater. The use of Filtralite allowed average removal rates (6–16.8 g COD/(m2 day), 0.8–1.1 g NH4-N/(m2 day) and 3.1 g TSS/(m2 day)) and removal e ciencies (65%–93%, 57%–85% and 78% for COD, NH4-N and TSS, respectively), higher than that observed in the experiments with gravel. The applied loads of COD, ammonia, nitrate and TSS seem to influence the respective removal rates but only for the treatment of domestic wastewater with higher correlation coe cients for Filtralite. Regardless the type of media bed and the type of wastewater, nitrate was completely removed for nitrogen loading rates up to 1.3 g NO3-N/(m2 day). There was no evidence of the influence of nitrate loads on the removal of organic matter.