Local occurrence and fast spread of B.1.1.7 lineage: A glimpse into Friuli Venezia Giulia

In-depth study of the entire SARS-CoV-2 genome has uncovered many mutations, which have replaced the lineage that characterized the first wave of infections all around the world. In December 2020, the outbreak of variant of concern (VOC) 202012/01 (lineage B.1.1.7) in the United Kingdom defined a turning point during the pandemic, immediately posing a worldwide threat on the Covid-19 vaccination campaign. Here, we reported the evolution of B.1.1.7 lineage-related infections, analyzing samples collected from January 1st 2021, until April 15th 2021, in Friuli Venezia Giulia, a northeastern region of Italy. A cohort of 1508 nasopharyngeal swabs was analyzed by High Resolution Melting (HRM) and 479 randomly selected samples underwent Next Generation Sequencing analysis (NGS), uncovering a steady and continuous accumulation of B.1.1.7 lineage-related specimens, joined by sporadic cases of other known lineages (i.e. harboring the Spike glycoprotein p.E484K mutation). All the SARS-CoV-2 genome has been analyzed in order to highlight all the rare mutations that may eventually result in a new variant of interest. This work suggests that a thorough monitoring of the SARS-CoV-2 genome by NGS is essential to contain any new variant that could jeopardize all the efforts that have been made so far to resolve the emergence of the pandemic.

Mercury accumulation in leaves of different plant types – the significance of tissue age and specific leaf area

Mercury, Hg, is one of the most problematic metals from an environmental perspective. To assess the problems caused by Hg in the environment, it is crucial to understand the processes of Hg biogeochemistry, but the exchange of Hg between the atmosphere and vegetation is not sufficiently well characterized. We explored the mercury concentration, [Hg], in foliage from a diverse set of plant types, locations and sampling periods to study whether there is a continuous accumulation of Hg in leaves and needles over time. Measurements of [Hg] were made for deciduous and conifer trees in Gothenburg, Sweden (botanical garden and city area), as well as for evergreen trees in Rwanda. In addition, data for wheat from an ozone experiment conducted at Östad, Sweden, were included. Conifer data were quantitatively compared with literature data. In every case where older foliage was directly compared with younger, [Hg] was higher in older tissue. Covering the range from the current year up to 4-year-old needles in the literature data, there was no sign of Hg saturation in conifer needles with age. Thus, over timescales of approximately 1 month to several years, the Hg uptake in foliage from the atmosphere always dominated over Hg evasion. Rwandan broadleaved trees had generally older leaves due to lack of seasonal abscission and higher [Hg] than Swedish broadleaved trees. The significance of atmospheric Hg uptake in plants was shown in a wheat experiment where charcoal-filtrated air led to significantly lower leaf [Hg]. To search for general patterns, the accumulation rates of Hg in the diverse set of tree species in the Gothenburg area were related to the specific leaf area (SLA). Leaf-area-based [Hg] was negatively and non-linearly correlated with SLA, while mass-based [Hg] had a somewhat weaker positive relationship with SLA. An elaborated understanding of the relationship behind [Hg] and SLA may have the potential to support large-scale modelling of Hg uptake by vegetation and Hg circulation.

New Formula for the Identification of Liquefaction Based on the Investigation of the Songyuan Site

Based on the 5.7-magnitude earthquake that stroke Songyuan (China) and 172 groups of liquefaction data collected in mainland China, the hyperbolic liquefaction discriminant formula originally proposed by Sun Rui was revised, and a new formula for the liquefaction of sand was put forward. Groups of data derived from the Bachu earthquake in Xinjiang and an earthquake that occurred in New Zealand (47 and 195 groups, respectively) were used to carry out a back-judgment test, then, the results were compared with those of the existing standard method. Overall, the results showed that the new formula for hyperbolic liquefaction discrimination compensates for the conservative liquefaction discrimination of the older formula; moreover, it has a good applicability to different intensities, groundwater levels, and the deep sand layer of the Songyuan site, reflected by a more balanced success rate. Therefore, combining the existing liquefaction discrimination methods and the research results of discrimination, it is necessary to establish a suitable regional identification method through the continuous accumulation of liquefaction data and expanding database.

Glioblastoma signature in the DNA of blood-derived cells

Current approach for the detection of cancer is based on identifying genetic mutations typical to tumor cells. This approach is effective only when cancer has already emerged, however, it might be in a stage too advanced for effective treatment. Cancer is caused by the continuous accumulation of mutations; is it possible to measure the time-dependent information of mutation accumulation and predict the emergence of cancer? We hypothesize that the mutation history derived from the tandem repeat regions in blood-derived DNA carries information about the accumulation of the cancer driver mutations in other tissues. To validate our hypothesis, we computed the mutation histories from the tandem repeat regions in blood-derived exomic DNA of 3874 TCGA patients with different cancer types and found a statistically significant signal with specificity ranging from 66% to 93% differentiating Glioblastoma patients from other cancer patients. Our approach and findings offer a new direction for future cancer prediction and early cancer detection based on information derived from blood-derived DNA.

Pharmaceuticals Removal by Adsorption with Montmorillonite Nanoclay

The problem of purifying domestic and hospital wastewater from pharmaceutical compounds is becoming more and more urgent every year, because of the continuous accumulation of chemical pollutants in the environment and the limited availability of freshwater resources. Clay adsorbents have been repeatedly proposed as adsorbents for treatment purposes, but natural clays are hydrophilic and can be inefficient for catching hydrophobic pharmaceuticals. In this paper, a comparison of adsorption properties of pristine montmorillonite (MMT) and montmorillonite modified with stearyl trimethyl ammonium (hydrophobic MMT-STA) towards carbamazepine, ibuprofen, and paracetamol pharmaceuticals was performed. The efficiency of adsorption was investigated under varying solution pH, temperature, contact time, initial concentration of pharmaceuticals, and adsorbate/adsorbent mass ratio. MMT-STA was better than pristine MMT at removing all the pharmaceuticals studied. The adsorption capacity of hydrophobic montmorillonite to pharmaceuticals decreased in the following order: carbamazepine (97%) > ibuprofen (95%) > paracetamol (63–67%). Adsorption isotherms were best described by Freundlich model. Within the pharmaceutical concentration range of 10–50 µg/mL, the most optimal mass ratio of adsorbates to adsorbents was 1:300, pH 6, and a temperature of 25 °C. Thus, MMT-STA could be used as an efficient adsorbent for deconta×ating water of carbamazepine, ibuprofen, and paracetamol.

Metabolomics and microbiome reveal impacts of rhizosphere metabolites on alfalfa continuous cropping

Alfalfa long-term continuous cropping (CC) can pose a serious threat to alfalfa production. However, the mechanism of alfalfa CC obstacle is unclear as of today. In this study, we determined physic-chemical property, microbial population structure, and metabolite differences of alfalfa rhizosphere soils with CC for 1, 7, and 14-years based on analysis of metabolomics and microbiomics. Shifts of functional microorganisms in rhizosphere soil were analyzed, key metabolites and their effects on alfalfa seeds, seedlings and root rot pathogens were assessed. Based on anlysis, p-coumaric acid and ferulic acid on alfalfa seed and seedling growth and root rot pathogens were basically consistent with the influence of CC obstacles in the field. With the increase of CC years, the microbial community in soils changed from fungal to bacterial, and beneficial microorganisms decreased with the increase of CC years, which echoed the performance of alfalfa CC obstacles. The autotoxicity of p-coumaric acid was the strongest.This study fully proved that the continuous accumulation of autotoxic substances in alfalfa rhizosphere was the key factor causing alfalfa CC obstacles.

Mercury accumulation in leaves of different plant types – the significance of tissue age and specific leaf area

Mercury, Hg, is one of the most problematic metals from an environmental perspective. To assess the problems caused by Hg in the environment it is crucial to understand the processes of Hg biogeochemistry, but the exchange of Hg between the atmosphere and vegetation is not sufficiently well characterised. We explored the mercury concentration, [Hg], in foliage from a diverse set of plant types, locations and sampling periods to study whether there is a continuous accumulation of Hg in leaves/needles over time. Measurements of [Hg] were made in deciduous and conifer trees in Gothenburg, Sweden (Botanical Garden and city area) as well as of evergreen trees in Rwanda. In addition, data for wheat from an ozone experiment conducted at Östad, Sweden, were included. Conifer data were quantitatively compared with literature data. In every case where older foliage was directly compared with younger, [Hg] was higher in older tissue. Covering the range of current year up to four-year old needles, there was no sign of Hg saturation in conifer needles with age. Thus, over time scales of approximately one month to several years, the Hg uptake in foliage from the atmosphere always dominated over Hg evasion. Rwandan broadleaved trees had generally older leaves due to lack of seasonal abscission and higher [Hg] than Swedish broadleaved trees. The significance of atmospheric Hg uptake in plants was shown in a wheat experiment where charcoal filtrated air lead to significantly lower leaf [Hg]. To search for general patterns, the accumulation rates of Hg in the diverse set of tree species in the Gothenburg area were related to the specific leaf area (SLA). Leaf area based [Hg] was strongly negatively and non-linearly correlated with SLA, while mass-based [Hg] had a somewhat weaker positive relationship with SLA (both relationships with p < 0.001). An elaborated understanding of the relationship behind [Hg] and SLA would support large-scale modelling of Hg uptake by vegetation and Hg circulation in general.

Towards Interactive Analytics over RDF Graphs

The continuous accumulation of multi-dimensional data and the development of Semantic Web and Linked Data published in the Resource Description Framework (RDF) bring new requirements for data analytics tools. Such tools should take into account the special features of RDF graphs, exploit the semantics of RDF and support flexible aggregate queries. In this paper, we present an approach for applying analytics to RDF data based on a high-level functional query language, called HIFUN. According to that language, each analytical query is considered to be a well-formed expression of a functional algebra and its definition is independent of the nature and structure of the data. In this paper, we investigate how HIFUN can be used for easing the formulation of analytic queries over RDF data. We detail the applicability of HIFUN over RDF, as well as the transformations of data that may be required, we introduce the translation rules of HIFUN queries to SPARQL and we describe a first implementation of the proposed model.

Oil Sludge Deposition in Storage Tanks: A Case Study for Russian Crude Oil in Mo-he Station

The oil tank can form a considerable amount of sludge deposition after continuous accumulation, which cause a seriously negative impact on both the storage capacity and the safe operation of the oil tank. Therefore, it is important to anticipate the rate of sludge deposition in advance so that proper measures can be planned to remove this heavy layer on the bottom. This paper proposes a method using a relatively simple formula for predicting the sludge deposits. The sedimentation mechanism of wax and asphaltene is introduced and summarized from both the micro and macro aspects, the factors causing the interaction between particles and the influence on coalescence were analyzed. We applied our prediction methods to calculate the sludge deposition of four oil tanks in Mo-he Station and compared our results with the data measured by experiments. The results show that our method had a good general accuracy to experimental data and can be used directly for on-site engineers to anticipate real sludge height before measuring the oil level inside the tank.

Ukraine’s loss of human capital due to demographic, socio-economic and socio-political crises, 1990-2019

The prosperity of the country's economy is possible only with the continuous accumulation of human capital. The article analyzes the factors influencing the accumulation of human capital in Ukraine during its independence. The article describes initial conditions that characterized the demographic and socio-economic development of Ukraine at the time of her independence. There were determined the criteria of influence on a person’s decision-making on creating a family and getting a job, which in the long run determine the trends in the accumulation of human capital in the country. The most threatening trends of the influence of the demographic, socio-economic, and sociopolitical crisis on the processes of human capital accumulation in Ukraine are revealed. The article analyzes changes in Ukraine's rating among the world’s countries by demographic and socio-economic indicators during 1990-2019.