Hepatitis A Virus: State of the Art

Hepatitis A is the most common among all hepatitis worldwide in spite of an efficient vaccine and improved hygiene. Shellfish-borne outbreaks are still of major concern causing hundreds of cases and huge economical losses in the present context of global food trade. Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is a unique picornavirus with many differences in its molecular biology including both its incapacity to induce the inhibition of the cellular protein synthesis and a highly biased and deoptimized codon usage with respect the cell. The final goal of this intriguing strategy seems to be the need for a fine-tuning control of the translation kinetics, particularly at the capsid coding region, and the underlying mechanism is the use of a right combination of common and rare codons to allow a regulated ribosome traffic rate thus ensuring the proper protein folding. Capsid folding is critical to warrant a high environmental stability for a virus transmitted through the fecal–oral route with long extracorporeal periods.     

中国的第十二个五年规划

<正>两个五年规划的过渡期是中国的关键时刻,受到中外分析家的密切关注。但30年的极速增长之后,这种发展模式的所有困境和后果也随之而来,而第十二个五年规划(以下简称"十二五"规划)展现了中国政府承诺将继续胸怀壮志地走向更可持续发展的道路模式。若"十二五"规划取得成功,"十二五"或将成为中国发展的关键时期,甚至将成为具有国     

Effects of paternal phenotype and environmental variability on age and size at maturity in a male dimorphic mite

Investigating how the environment affects age and size at maturity of individuals is crucial to understanding how changes in the environment affect population dynamics through the biology of a species. Paternal phenotype, maternal, and offspring environment may crucially influence these traits, but to my knowledge, their combined effects have not yet been tested. Here, I found that in bulb mites (Rhizoglyphus robini), maternal nutrition, offspring nutrition, and paternal phenotype (males are fighters, able to kill other mites, or benign scramblers) interactively affected offspring age and size at maturity. The largest effect occurred when both maternal and offspring nutrition was poor: in that case offspring from fighter sires required a significantly longer development time than offspring from scrambler sires. Investigating parental effects on the relationship between age and size at maturity revealed no paternal effects, and only for females was its shape influenced by maternal nutrition. Overall, this reaction norm was nonlinear. These non-genetic intergenerational effects may play a complex, yet unexplored role in influencing population fluctuations—possibly explaining why results from field studies often do not match theoretical predictions on maternal effects on population dynamics.     

Thresholds of species loss in Amazonian deforestation frontier landscapes

In the Brazilian Amazon, private land accounts for the majority of remaining native vegetation. Understanding how land‐use change affects the composition and distribution of biodiversity in farmlands is critical for improving conservation strategies in the face of rapid agricultural expansion. Working across an area exceeding 3 million ha in the southwestern state of Rondônia, we assessed how the extent and configuration of remnant forest in replicate 10,000‐ha landscapes has affected the occurrence of a suite of Amazonian mammals and birds. In each of 31 landscapes, we used field sampling and semistructured interviews with landowners to determine the presence of 28 large and medium sized mammals and birds, as well as a further 7 understory birds. We then combined results of field surveys and interviews with a probabilistic model of deforestation. We found strong evidence for a threshold response of sampled biodiversity to landscape level forest cover; landscapes with <30–40% forest cover hosted markedly fewer species. Results from field surveys and interviews yielded similar thresholds. These results imply that in partially deforested landscapes many species are susceptible to extirpation following relatively small additional reductions in forest area. In the model of deforestation by 2030 the number of 10,000‐ha landscapes under a conservative threshold of 43% forest cover almost doubled, such that only 22% of landscapes would likely to be able to sustain at least 75% of the 35 focal species we sampled. Brazilian law requires rural property owners in the Amazon to retain 80% forest cover, although this is rarely achieved. Prioritizing efforts to ensure that entire landscapes, rather than individual farms, retain at least 50% forest cover may help safeguard native biodiversity in private forest reserves in the Amazon. Umbrales de Pérdida de Especies en los Paisajes Fronterizos de Deforestación en el Amazonas Ochoa‐Quintero     

Chemical,physical and biological methods to convert lignocellulosic waste into value-added products. A review

Environmental Chemistry Letters - Actual agricultural practices produce about 998 million tonnes of agricultural waste per year. Therefore, converting lignocellulosic wastes into energy, chemicals,...     

Reliable analysis of chlorophenoxy herbicides in soil and water by magnetic solid phase extraction and liquid chromatography

Environmental Chemistry Letters - There is no previous work on the determination of chlorophenoxy acid herbicides in soils. Here we analysed six chlorophenoxy acid herbicides using magnetic solid...     

Biodegradable chelating agents for industrial,domestic, and agricultural applications—a review

Aminopolycarboxylates, like ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA), are chelating agents widely used in several industrial, agricultural, and domestic applications. However, the fact that they are not biodegradable leads to the presence of considerable amounts in aquatic systems, with serious environmental consequences. The replacement of these compounds by biodegradable alternatives has been the object of study in the last three decades. This paper reviews the most relevant studies towards the use of environmentally friendly chelating agents in a large number of applications: oxidative bleaching, detergents and cleaning compositions, scale prevention and reduction, remediation of soils, agriculture, electroplating, waste treatment, and biocides. Nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA), ethylenediaminedisuccinic acid (EDDS), and iminodisuccinic acid (IDS) are the most commonly suggested to replace the nonbiodegradable chelating agents. Depending on the application, the requirements for metal complexation might differ. Metal chelation ability of the most promising compounds [NTA, EDDS, IDS, methylglycinediacetic acid (MGDA), l-glutamic acid N,N-diacetic acid (GLDA), ethylenediamine-N,N′-diglutaric acid (EDDG), ethylenediamine-N,N′-dimalonic acid (EDDM), 3-hydroxy-2,2-iminodisuccinic acid (HIDS), 2-hydroxyethyliminodiacetic acid (HEIDA), pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid (PDA)] with Fe, Mn, Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn, Ca, and Mg was simulated by computer calculations. The advantages or disadvantages of each compound for the most important applications were discussed.     

Correction to: The time of concentration application in studies around the world: a review

Environmental Science and Pollution Research -     

Conserving alpha and beta diversity in wood-production landscapes

International demand for wood and other forest products continues to grow rapidly, and uncertainties remain about how animal communities will respond to intensifying resource extraction associated with woody bioenergy production. We examined changes in alpha and beta diversity of bats, bees, birds, and reptiles across wood production landscapes in the southeastern United States, a biodiversity hotspot that is one of the principal sources of woody biomass globally. We sampled across a spatial gradient of paired forest land-uses (representing pre and postharvest) that allowed us to evaluate biological community changes resulting from several types of biomass harvest. Short-rotation practices and residue removal following clearcuts were associated with reduced alpha diversity (−14.1 and −13.9 species, respectively) and lower beta diversity (i.e., Jaccard dissimilarity) between land-use pairs (0.46 and 0.50, respectively), whereas midrotation thinning increased alpha (+3.5 species) and beta diversity (0.59). Over the course of a stand rotation in a single location, biomass harvesting generally led to less biodiversity. Cross-taxa responses to resource extraction were poorly predicted by alpha diversity: correlations in responses between taxonomic groups were highly variable (−0.2 to 0.4) with large uncertainties. In contrast, beta diversity patterns were highly consistent and predictable across taxa, where correlations in responses between taxonomic groups were all positive (0.05–0.4) with more narrow uncertainties. Beta diversity may, therefore, be a more reliable and information-rich indicator than alpha diversity in understanding animal community response to landscape change. Patterns in beta diversity were primarily driven by turnover instead of species loss or gain, indicating that wood extraction generates habitats that support different biological communities.