The magnetic properties of two similar Er(3+) complexes have been investigated. Er(tpm)3(bipy) (Htpm = 1,1,1-trifluoro-5,5-dimethyl-2,4-hexanedione and bipy = 2,2'-bipyridine) displays thermally ...activated slow relaxation of magnetisation under a zero direct-current (DC) field. Under an applied HDC field of 1000 G, Er(tpm)3(bipy) exhibits two thermally activated processes with energy barriers of 9 and 40 K, while Er(tfa)3(bipy) (Htfa = 4,4,4-trifluoro-1-(2-furyl)-1,3-butanedione) shows only one activated process with a barrier of 15 K. Both compounds are luminescent in the solid state, emitting in the near IR region.
Woody plant subregions of the Amazon forest Silva‐Souza, Karla J. P.; Souza, Alexandre F.; de Lafontaine, Guillaume
Journal of ecology,
November 2020, 2020-11-00, 20201101, Letnik:
108, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The Amazon forest covers 7.5 million km2 in nine countries, hosts 25% of the global biodiversity and is a major contributor to the biogeochemical and climatic functioning of the Earth system. Despite ...its global importance, a regionalization of the Amazon tree flora is still lacking. Clear and data‐driven delimitation of subregions is important for macroecological studies, to the identification of metacommunities and is a requisite for conservation planning.
We aimed at identifying and mapping plant species subregions and investigated their relationships with environmental, historical and human correlates. We provide the first woody plant regionalization of the entire Amazon forest using a data‐driven approach based on assemblage composition patterns.
We compiled data on woody species composition from 301 assemblages based on species occurrences. We then used unconstrained ordination, interpolation and clustering techniques to identify and map discrete woody subregions. Hierarchical clustering analysis was conducted in order to investigate the relationships between the identified subregions. We used multinomial logistic regression model and deviance partitioning to investigate the influence of environmental, historical and human factors on subregions distribution.
We identified 13 woody subregions in the entire Amazon forest. The hierarchical subregion classification showed a broad Andean‐Cratonic east–west division. Variation in subregions was explained jointly by human factors and spatial structure followed by environmental factors and spatial structure combined.
Synthesis. Our woody plant subregions differed from World Wildlife Fund ecoregions and physiognomic‐based maps, highlighting the importance of basing regionalizations on taxon‐specific groups and confirming that vegetation maps should not be used as proxies to plant diversity subregions. Our findings also confirm the need for multiple and extensive protected areas in the Amazon forest. The relevance of current climate factors in our study alerts to a profound impact that climate change could have on the spatial organization of the Amazon flora.
Resumo
A Floresta Amazônica cobre 7.5 milhões de Km2 em nove países, abriga 25% da biodiversidade global e é um dos principais contribuintes para o funcionamento biogeoquímico e climático da Terra. Apesar da sua importância global, uma regionalização da flora lenhosa da Amazônia ainda não foi feita. A delimitação de sub‐regiões baseadas em dados de composição de espécies é importante para estudos macroecológicos, para a identificação de metacomunidades, e é um requisito para o planejamento de conservação.
Mapeamos e identificamos sub‐regiões de espécies de plantas e investigamos suas relações com fatores ambientais, históricos e humanos. Nós fornecemos a primeira regionalização de toda a Amazônia usando uma abordagem baseada em dados de composição de comunidades.
Compilamos dados de composição de espécies lenhosas de 301 comunidades locais com base na ocorrência das espécies. Usamos técnicas de ordenação irrestrita, interpolação e agrupamento para identificar e mapear sub‐regiões lenhosas distintas para o conjunto de dados. Uma análise de agrupamento hierárquico foi realizada para investigar as relações entre as sub‐regiões identificadas. Utilizamos modelo de regressão logística multinomial e partição de desvio estatístico para investigar a influência de fatores ambientais, históricos e humanos na distribuição das sub‐regiões.
Identificamos 13 sub‐regiões de plantas lenhosas em toda a Amazônia. A classificação hierárquica das sub‐regiões mostrou uma ampla divisão leste‐oeste Andino‐Cratônica. A variação nas sub‐regiões foi explicada de forma combinada por fatores humanos e pela estrutura espacial, seguido por fatores ambientais e estrutura espacial de forma combinada.
Síntese. Nossas sub‐regiões de plantas diferiram das sub‐regiões do World Wildlife Fund (WWF) e dos mapas fisionômicos, destacando a importância de regionalizações baseadas em grupos específicos de táxons e confirmando que mapas fisionômicos não devem ser usados como indicativo de sub‐regiões de plantas. Nossas descobertas também confirmam a necessidade de múltiplas áreas protegidas na Amazônia. A relevância dos fatores climáticos atuais em nosso estudo alerta para o profundo impacto que as mudanças climáticas podem causar na organização espacial da flora amazônica.
The Amazon forest hosts 25% of global biodiversity. The delimitation of subregions is important for macroecological studies, to the identification of metacommunities, and is requisite for conservation planning. The Amazon forest was subdivided into 13 woody subregions based on assemblage composition patterns. The subregions differed from World Wildlife Fund (WWF) ecoregions and physiognomic‐based maps, highlighting the importance of basing regionalizations on taxon‐specific groups and confirming that vegetation maps should not be used as proxies to plant diversity subregions.
The electrocatalysts are widely applied in lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries to selectively accelerate the redox kinetics behavior of Li2S, in which bifunctional active sites are established, thereby ...improving the electrochemical performance of the battery. Considering that the Li–S battery is a complex closed “black box” system, the internal redox reaction routes and active sites cannot be directly observed and monitored especially due to the distribution of potential active‐site structures and their dynamic reconstruction. Empirical evidence demonstrates that traditional electrochemical test methods and theoretical calculations only probe the net result of multi‐factors on an average and whole scale. Herein, based on the amorphous TiO2‐x@Ni selective bifunctional model catalyst, these limitations are overcome by developing a system that couples the light field and in situ irradiated X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy to synergistically convert the “black box” battery into a “see‐through” battery for direct observation of the charge transportation, thus revealing that amorphous TiO2‐x and Ni nanoparticle as the oxidation and reduction sites selectively promote the decomposition and nucleation of Li2S, respectively. This work provides a universal method to achieve a deeper mechanistic understanding of bidirectional sulfur electrochemistry.
In situ irradiated X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy coupled with the light field is hired to synergistically convert the “black box” battery into a “see‐through” battery for direct observation of the charge transportation, thus revealing that amorphous TiO2‐x and Ni nanoparticle as the oxidation and reduction sites selectively promote the decomposition and nucleation of Li2S, respectively.
Halide perovskite materials have been extensively explored for their unique electrical, optical, magnetic, and catalytic properties. Most notably, solar cells based on perovskite thin films have ...improved their power conversion efficiency from 3.8% to over 25% during the last 12 years. However, it is still a challenge to develop a perovskite-based ink, suitable for upscaling the fabrication process of high-quality perovskite films with extreme purity, good crystallinity, and complete coverage over the deposition area. This is particularly important if the perovskite films are to be used for the scaled production of optoelectronic devices. Therefore, to make halide perovskites commercially available for various applications, it is vital to develop a reliable and highly robust deposition method, which can then be transferred to industry. Herein, the development of perovskite precursor inks suitable for use at low-temperature and vacuum-free solution-based deposition processes is reported. These inks can be further tailored according to the requirements of the deposition method, i.e., we propose their use with the industrially viable deposition technique called "slot-die coating". Furthermore, a route for the preparation of low-cost and high-volume manufacturing of perovskite films on both rigid and flexible substrates is suggested in this paper. The presented approach is suitable for the fabrication of any functional layers of perovskites, that can be employed in various scaled applications, and it seeks the potential and the methodology for perovskite film deposition that is scalable to industrial standards.
Objective
To investigate the ex vivo pro-inflammatory properties of classical and non-classical monocytes as well as myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) in systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients.
Methods
...Spontaneous production of CXCL10, CCL4, CXCL8 and IL-6 was intracellularly evaluated in classical, non-classical monocytes and Siglec-3-expressing mDCs from peripheral blood of SSc patients and healthy controls (HC) through flow cytometry. In addition, production of these cytokines was determined upon toll-like receptor (TLR) 4 plus Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) stimulation.
Results
The frequency of non-classical monocytes spontaneously producing CXCL10 was increased in both limited (lcSSc) and diffuse cutaneous (dcSSC) subsets of SSc patients and CCL4 was augmented in dcSSc patients. The proportion of CCL4-producing mDCs was also elevated in dcSSc patients and the percentage of mDCS producing CXCL10 only in lcSSc patients. Upon stimulation, the frequency of non-classical monocytes expressing CXCL8 was increased in both patient groups and mDCs expressing CXCL8 only in lcSSc. Moreover, these parameters in unsupervised clustering analysis identify a subset of patients which are characterized by lung fibrosis and reduced pulmonary function.
Conclusions
These data point towards a role of activated non-classical monocytes and mDCs producing enhanced levels of proinflammatory cytokines in SSc, potentially contributing to lung fibrosis.
A simple reduction method without the need for high-temperature annealing is proposed for highly conductive and dispersible graphene sheets. This method consists of the grafting of graphene oxide ...(GO) with 1-pyrenecarboxylic acid (PCA) and the exothermic reduction of the PCA-grafted GO, followed by an endothermic decarboxylation with refluxing hot water. The PCA-grafted reduced graphene oxide (PCA-rGO) has a high conductivity of ~1.52 × 10(5) S m(-1). Upon incorporating the rGO-PCA in active and electron transport layers of organic solar cells, compared to P3HT-only devices (0.18%) a 16-fold increase in the power conversion efficiency (2.85%) is obtained, attributed to a substantial increase in the short-circuit current density from 0.017 to 12.09 mA cm(-2).
•L. sidoides EO fully halted pathogen (in vitro) through direct contact.•Thymol-rich L. sidoides EO morphologically altered pathogen hyphae.•The OE-based coating preserved total phenols and ...anthocyanins in the fruits.•CMC combined with L. sidoides EO enhances strawberry quality.
The highly perishable strawberry is susceptible to postharvest fungal infections, such as gray mold caused by Botrytis cinerea. Current control methods involve synthetic fungicides, which can leave residues, harm the environment, and lead to resistance. There is a rising interest in safe and eco-friendly pesticide alternatives like essential oils (EOs). In the present study, the antifungal activity of the EOs from Eucalyptus staigeriana, Lippia sidoides, and Pimenta pseudocaryophyllus was evaluated against B. cinerea. An in vitro experiment assessed the direct contact between the fungus and various EOs, identifying the most potent antifungal EO. This EO underwent chemical composition analysis, along with investigations into its impact on pathogen morphology, in vivo activity with carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), and effects on postharvest and sensory quality of strawberries. In vitro, L. sidoides EO exhibited the most significant antifungal activity, characterized by its major compound thymol, which induced dehydration and rupture of pathogen hyphae. In the in vivo experiment, strawberries treated with CMC and L. sidoides EO showed reduced disease severity. During the 18-day storage period, the postharvest quality of strawberries demonstrated enhancement, characterized by increased antioxidant activity and decreased mass loss, while exhibiting minimal changes in sensory attributes.
Urban parks are not only important for the wellbeing of the human population, but are also widely considered to be potentially important sites for the conservation of biodiversity. However, they may ...offer risk parasitic infections, such as schistosomiasis and fascioliasis, which are both transmitted by freshwater snails. The present study investigated the occurrence of freshwater gastropods in urban parks of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, and their possible infection by helminths of medical-veterinary importance. Gastropods were collected from six parks (2021 - 2022) and examined for the presence of larval helminths. In all, 12 gastropod species from different families were collected: Ampullariidae, Assimineidae, Burnupidae, Lymnaeidae, Physidae, Planorbidae, Succineidae, and Thiaridae. The parasitological examination revealed cercaria of three types in five snail species, with the Pleurolophocerca cercariae type in Melanoides tuberculata (the most abundant species), Echinostoma cercariae in Physella acuta and Pomacea maculata, and Virgulate cercariae, in Pomacea sp. and Pomacea maculata. None of the Biomphalaria tenagophila and Pseudosuccinea columella (the most frequent species) specimens were parasitized by Schistosoma mansoni or Fasciola hepatica, respectively. Even so, some parks may represent a considerable potential risk for transmission of both Schistosoma mansoni and Fasciola hepatica, given the presence of these gastropod vectors and the frequent contact of visitors with the waterbodies.
Dengue is an important vector-borne disease transmitted by the mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus. In the absence of an effective vaccine, vector control has become the key intervention tool ...in controlling the disease. Vector densities are significantly affected by the changing weather patterns of a region. The present study was conducted in three selected localities, i.e., urban Bandaranayakapura, semiurban Galgamuwa, and rural Buluwala in the Kurunegala district of Sri Lanka to assess spatial and temporal distribution of dengue vector mosquitoes and to predict vector prevalence with respect to changing weather parameters. Monthly ovitrap surveys and larval surveys were conducted from January to December 2019 and continued further in the urban area up to December 2021. Aedes aegypti was found moderately in the urban area and to a lesser extent in semiurban but not in the rural area. Aedes albopictus had the preference for rural over urban areas. Aedes aegypti preferred indoor breeding, while Ae. albopictus preferred both indoor and outdoor. For Ae. albopictus, ovitrap index (OVI), premise index (PI), container index (CI), and Breteau index (BI) correlated with both the rainfall (RF) and relative humidity (RH) of the urban site. Correlations were stronger between OVI and RH and also between BI and RF. Linear regression analysis was fitted, and a prediction model was developed using BI and RF with no lag period (R2 (sq) = 86.3%; F = 53.12; R2 (pred) = 63.12%; model: Log10 (BI) = 0.153 + 0.286∗ Log10 (RF); RMSE = 1.49). Another prediction model was developed using OVI and RH with one month lag period (R2 (sq) = 70.21%; F = 57.23; model: OVI predicted = 15.1 + 0.528∗ Lag 1 month RH; RMSE = 2.01). These two models can be used to monitor the population dynamics of Ae. albopictus in urban settings to predict possible dengue outbreaks.
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