Nutrition by Design: Boosting Selenium Content and Fresh Matter Yields of Salad Greens With Preharvest Light Intensity and Selenium Applications

Selenium (Se) is an essential mineral in multiple human metabolic pathways with immune modulatory effects on viral diseases including the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and HIV. Plant-based foods contain Se metabolites with unique functionalities for the human metabolism. In order to assess the value of common salad greens as Se source, we conducted a survey of lettuce commercially grown in 15 locations across the USA and Canada and found a tendency for Se to accumulate higher (up to 10 times) in lettuce grown along the Colorado river basin region, where the highest amount of annual solar radiation of the country is recorded. In the same area, we evaluated the effect of sunlight reduction on the Se content of two species of arugula [Eruca sativa (E. sativa) cv. “Astro” and Diplotaxis tenuifolia (D. tenuifolia) cv. “Sylvetta”]. A 90% light reduction during the 7 days before harvest resulted in over one-third Se decline in D. tenuifolia. The effect of light intensity on yield and Se uptake of arugula microgreens was also examined under indoor controlled conditions. This included high intensity (HI) (160 μ mol−2 s−1 for 12 h/12 h light/dark); low intensity (LI) (70 μ mol m−2 s−1 for 12 h/12 h light/dark); and HI-UVA (12 h light of 160 μ mol m−2 s−1, 2 h UVA of 40 μ mol m−2 s−1, and 10 h dark) treatments in a factorial design with 0, 1, 5, and 10 ppm Se in the growing medium. HI and HI-UVA produced D. tenuifolia plants with 25–100% higher Se content than LI, particularly with the two higher Se doses. The addition of Se produced a marked increase in fresh matter (>35% in E. sativa and >45% in D. tenuifolia). This study (i) identifies evidence to suggest the revision of food composition databases to account for large Se variability, (ii) demonstrates the potential of introducing preharvest Se to optimize microgreen yields, and (iii) provides the controlled environment industry with key information to deliver salad greens with targeted Se contents.

Dynamics of exposure to mercury in a population of the upper Madeira River, Rondônia – Brazil

This work evaluates the influence of cognitive and sociodemographic functions on the dynamics of human exposure to mercury in communities on the upper Madeira River in the state of Rondônia, Brazil. In this longitudinal epidemiological study of convenience sampling (2009 to 2019), semi-structured questionnaires on cognitive and sociodemographic aspects were applied to 1,089 participants (646 men and 443 women) divided into 6 groups with distinct geographic characteristics and lifestyles. Total mercury concentrations in hair samples were determined by direct analysis using atomic spectroscopy. In this population, cognitive (memory, attention span, concentration and difficulties in reading, writing and mathematical calculations) and sociodemographic (location, gender, age, education, alcohol consumption, smoking habits, time of residence in the region, occupation) grouping showed the differentiation between the groups with lifestyle directly related and dependent on extractivism/gold mining dispersed along the Madeira River (G1 and G2), and the groups that have urban dynamics on the margins of the federal highway BR-364 (G3, G4, G5 and G6). Sex, age and lifestyle (groups) were significant indicators of total mercury concentrations in hair. The organization of participants according to cognitive and sociodemographic profiles, regardless of geographic location, highlights the contribution of individualized social dynamics to mercury exposure in the Madeira River basin region. Despite socio-historical and socio-economic similarities, cognitive and sociodemographic functions show individualized social behaviors within communities, which may influence the process of exposure to THg.

Handling uncertainty through Bayesian inference for Species Distribution Modelling in the Amazon Basin region

Uma das ferramentas mais utilizadas para o monitoramento da biodiversidade é a modelagem de distribuição de espécies. Para a sua aplicação, é necessário possuir uma grande base de dados confiáveis a respeito da ocorrência de espécies. Entretanto, essa condição não é satisfeita quando existem poucos registros de ocorrência. Nesse contexto, podem ser aplicadas técnicas de tratamento de incertezas. Assim, este trabalho buscou utilizar a abordagem Bayesiana para permitir a modelagem de distribuição de espécies na região da Bacia Amazônica próxima a Manaus (AM), com base em dados coletados pelo projeto GoAmazon 2014/15. Os resultados foram comparados com os resultantes de técnicas clássicas, obtendo desempenhos semelhantes.

Arrival or Return? Temporality and Materiality of Transit Sites in Overlapping Displacement Context in Border Cities of the Lake Chad Basin Region

Since over a decade of conflicts in the Lake Chad Basin region, different measures have been adopted to regulate the mobility of displaced persons in border cities. Mubi—like other transit sites—is both a place of care and control, of incentivization and eviction and of inclusion and exclusion. To nuance these contradictions, I argue that we might have to pay attention to arrival practices in transit sites, particularly the encounter with infrastructures, which are intertwined and profoundly co-constitutive of the displaced persons’ realities. In transit sites, arrival is practised and lived temporally and relationally among the displaced persons, despite the conditions of exile and immobility. Urban infrastructures (such as marketplaces, transit camps and living rooms) transform and enact the strategy adopted by the displaced persons to navigate daily life and to ‘move on’ from conditions of exile and confinement. Moving on, in this sense, is a strategy to overcome the disruption of the temporality of arrival practices from the Nigerian state regulation of mobility through incentivization and encampment policies. I demonstrate that both incentivization and encampment aim towards a common goal, which is to render displaced persons invisible in urban centres while becoming a raw material for capital production. The regulation enables a new form of unplanned spaces to emerge that are hyper-visible and super-precarious at the urban margins. This paper calls for a critical perspective on humanitarian urbanism in the Global South.

Sandy soils of forest landscapes of the Amur-Zeya Plain

Historically, soils of the Cambisol group have been recognized as zonal soils of the Upper Amur Basin Region. However, the wide distribution in the territory of the Amur-Zeya Plain of forest soils of light granulometric composition that were formed on loose sedimentary deposits makes it possible to identify an area of Arenosols and Podzols, for the first time described within the study area. The common features in the researched soils are a well-structured thin humus horizon and quartzfeldsparic mineralogical composition causing low intensity of the processes of weathering and metamorphism of mineral substance. The initial stages of biochemical weathering of mineral matter are diagnosed in soils of the Humic Arenosol subgroup. The most intensive processes of weathering and metamorphism of mineral matter are diagnosed in the middle horizons of the Rubic Arenosol group, which is associated with the formation of seasonal frost and the associated cycles of freezing-thawing of the soil profile. In the soils of the Entic Podzol subgroup, the process of iron illuviation is diagnosed, with formation of the maximum accumulation in the lower part of the soil profile at the boundary with the soil-forming rock. Keywords: FOREST SOILS, NEOGENIC SANDS, SOIL MORPHOLOGY, THE UPPER AMUR BASIN REGION

New genera and species of ostracods from the El Ma El Abiod Miocene Basin (Tébessa, NE Algeria)

Two new ostracod genera of the family Trachyleberididae Sylvester-Bradley, 1948, each based on a new species, are described and commented here. The specimens were collected in Tortonian sediments cropping out at El Hadjra Safra in the El Ma El Abiod basin (region of Tébessa, north-eastern Algeria).

Water Erosion and Sediment Transport in an Ungauged Semiarid Area: The Case of Hodna Basin in Algeria

This study aims to estimate the eroded and transported sediment yields from the The Hodna basin (26,000 km2) situated in central Algeria by two approaches. In the first model, the data of the gauged subbasins are extrapolated to the ungauged areas based on the homogeneity of factors that influence the water erosion-sediment transport process. In this approach, the specific eroded and transported sediment yield in the Hodna basin is estimated to be 425 t/km2/yr. In an alternative approach, the eroded yield is estimated by mapping erosion using the (RUSLE) in a GIS environment. The obtained results show a high eroded sediment yield of approximately 610 t/km2/yr.The observed difference between the results of the two approaches can be explained by the amount of sediment that is eroded but is not transported by runoff.These two methods show high eroded and transported sediment yield values in the Hodna basin region; these high yields may seriously threaten the central flat zone with progressive deposition.