The main conclusions drawn from this research were the following: (1) the mature P. brutia trees and low shrubs facilitate the establishment and especially the survival of P. brutia seedlings,

as all seedlings in bare vegetation ground had died by the end of the growing season, and (2) the importance of facilitation increases as abiotic stress rises.”
“Chemical analyses of soil humic substances were performed at the Chemical Research Laboratory of the LIA. A field experiment selleck screening library (Experiment 1) was established on a glacio-lacustrine clay loam on a silty clay Endocalcari-Endohypogleyic Cambisol. The study investigated two soil tillage systems: conventional (CT) and reduced (RT). The study also encompassed crop rotations with different structures: 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% winter crops in a crop rotation. Experiment 2 compared the influence of long-term legume swards on soil humic substances in an Epicalcari-Endohypogleic Cambisol. The AZD4547 Angiogenesis inhibitor swards were used for five years under ecological management. No fertilisers or pesticides were used. There were 2.6 times more labile humic acids (HA) in the topsoil in RT compared with CT. A significant effect on the increase of

labile HA content was determined in crop rotations with epsilon 50% winter crops. The highest amount of mobile HA accumulated in soil under a four-component sward (Galega+Trifolium repens+Onobrychis+Festulolium). Reduced soil use resulted in qualitative changes in HA determined by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The analytical methods used are appropriate for evaluating sensitivity to changes in soil management and are helpful for the development of reduced soil selleckchem use systems. However, labile and mobile carbon pools are more sensitive than humus.”
“The aim of this study was to demonstrate the performance of nondeletional alpha-thalassemia (alpha-thal) prevention using a reverse dot-blot

method at a Mainland Chinese hospital. A prenatal control program for nondeletional Hb H disease was performed between January 2009 and December 2013. All couples were screened for alpha-thal trait, and for couples in which one partner tested positive for alpha(0)-thal, the other was subjected to screening for Hb Constant Spring (Hb CS, HBA2: c.427T bigger than C) and Hb Quong Sze (Hb QS, HBA2: c.377T bigger than C) mutations by reverse dot-blot assay. Prenatal diagnoses were offered in at-risk pregnancies. During the study period, 51,105 couples were found to be carrying alpha-thal; among these, 35 (0.07%) couples were found to be at-risk of conceiving an offspring with nondeletional Hb H disease, including 25 couples for Hb H-CS and 10 cases for Hb H-QS. Nine fetuses were diagnosed with nondeletional Hb H disease, and eight of the affected pregnancies were terminated.