Assessment of the Antimicrobial Activity of Algae Extracts on Bacteria Responsible of External Otitis

External otitis is a diffuse inflammation around the external auditory canal and auricle, which is often occurred by microbial infection. This disease is generally treated using antibiotics, but the frequent occurrence of antibiotic resistance requires the development of new antibiotic agents. In this context, unexplored bioactive natural candidates could be a chance for the production of targeted drugs provided with antimicrobial activity. In this paper, microbial pathogens were isolated from patients with external otitis using ear swabs for over one year, and the antimicrobial activity of the two methanol extracts from selected marine (Dunaliella salina) and freshwater (Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata) microalgae was tested on the isolated pathogens. Totally, 114 bacterial and 11 fungal strains were isolated, of which Staphylococcus spp. (28.8%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) (24.8%) were the major pathogens. Only three Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) strains and 11 coagulase-negative Staphylococci showed resistance to methicillin. The two algal extracts showed interesting antimicrobial properties, which mostly inhibited the growth of isolated S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, and Klebsiella spp. with MICs range of 1.4 × 10⁹ to 2.2 × 10¹⁰ cells/mL. These results suggest that the two algae have potential as resources for the development of antimicrobial agents.     

Residues of a Triazole Fungicide in Soil After 4 Years of Application to Sugar Beet

An experimental study to investigate the potential soil accumulation of the triazole fungicide difenoconazole in soil was carried out in northwestern Italy. The fungicide was applied to sugar beet for 4 years with three applications per year at a rate of 75 g ha^?1 each, according to formulated product recommended use. Soil cores were collected each year before the first application, after each application and at harvest of the crop. The soil samples were then split into 0–10 and 10–40 cm depth layers, extracted and quantitatively analysed by gas chromatography for difenoconazole residues. The study evidenced that difenoconazole residues could be detected in the upper soil layer only, in quantities detectable after several applications (0.14 to 0.32 mg kg^?1 after the third application) which then become undetectable the following year. It can be concluded, therefore, that difenoconazole does not accumulate in soil.     

Soil chemical and biochemical properties of a salt-marsh alluvial Spanish area after long-term reclamation

Marisma, one of the largest salt-marsh alluvial areas in SW Spain, has been reclaimed since 1970 by artificial drainage and amendment with phosphogypsum (PG) so as to reduce Na⁺ saturation. Within the reclaimed area, two 250- × 20-m plots were treated as follows: (1) amendment with 25 Mg/ha of PG every 2 to 3 years between 1979 and 2003 (plot PY); (2) like PY but PG treatment stopped after 1997 (plot DR). A contiguous virgin Marisma salt-marsh plot (MV), neither drained nor amended, was the control. In MV, soil microbial biomass C, most enzyme activities and total organic C content were much greater than in PY and DR soils, despite the salinity stress. The decrease in soil organic matter content in PY and DR soils was likely due to cotton-cropping practices, which favoured the organic C mineralisation and nutrients removal by crops. Microbial activity of MV soil, probably stimulated by the rhizodepositions of the natural vegetation, did not suffer from the osmotic effect due to the raising of soil solution ionic strength. Microbial quotient could be ranked as MV > PY > DR, whereas the metabolic quotient had an opposite trend. Thus, both quotients suggested that the interruption of PG amendment was not favouring microbial activity. Principal component analysis clearly identified the chemical and biochemical soil properties mostly affected by the reclamation and also indicated the longer PG amendment in PY plot. Stepwise discriminant analysis identified two physiologically different types of soil microflora, one less active present in the MV virgin soil and another more active present in the reclaimed PY and DR soils.     

Outflow tract segmental arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy in an English Bulldog

A 5-year-old English Bulldog was presented for acute onset of syncope and fatigue caused by sustained ventricular tachycardia with left bundle block morphology and inferior axis. This arrhythmia had the electrocardiographic features of a ventricular tachycardia arising from the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT), as described in an experimental canine model and in people. Since a RVOT aneurysm was identified by echocardiography, a segmental form of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) was suspected. Gross examination of the heart confirmed the bulging of the RVOT and histological examination of the ventricular myocardium revealed segmental involvement of the RVOT with transmural fibro-fatty degeneration. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first reported case of AVRC in an English Bulldog and the first example of segmental AVRC described in the dog.     

Cradle-to-farm gate life cycle assessment in perennial energy crops

Life cycle assessment (LCA) can be an objective, strategic and immediate criteria in determining, case-by-case, the most suitable crop for energy. In this study, a cradle-to-farm gate LCA study was performed in 4 perennial energy crops and then compared to the environmental impacts of a conventional wheat–maize rotation. The functional units energy and hectare were used for ranking the crops. The results showed clear and constant environmental benefits, on average 50% lower impacts, by substituting the conventional rotation with perennial crops. Among the latter, little differences were found on hectare basis, while the differences were strictly dependent on biomass yield, on energy basis. Giant reed, the most productive crop, showed at this regard the best performance, while cynara resulted in the lowest ecological benefits. A similar trend was also registered as concern the energy gain and efficiency that ranged from 75 (cynara) to 349 (giant reed) GJ ha⁻¹, and from 7 to 30 (same order), respectively. On hectare basis, switchgrass achieved better results in six categories out of nine, and especially, it was from 27% to 32% less impacting than the other perennials on marine water ecotoxicity, which resulted in the clearly most affected category after normalisation on average European inhabitants. Weighting is not allowed for public comparison (ISO 14042), yet it can be helpful for some overall indications and conclusive comments. Comparing giant reed and switchgrass under different weighting sets, it emerged that resource depletion was the main discriminator for crop choice. Evenly weighting human health (HH), resource depletion (RD) and ecosystem quality (EQ) categories made the preference toward switchgrass or giant reed very uncertain. Taking three different weighting sets with RD, HH and EQ having 50% of relative importance (25% was set for the remaining two categories), switchgrass appeared the best choice in two cases (i.e. HH = 50% and EQ = 50%) out of three. Therefore, the preference toward a specific energy crop will strongly depend on weighting sets that may considerably change in space and time.     

Genetic stability at nuclear and plastid DNA level in regenerated plants of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Solanum</Emphasis> species and hybrids

In this work we detected the extent of variability at nuclear and cytoplasmic DNA level of regenerated plants belonging to Solanum genotypes with a different genetic background and somatic chromosome number. As for the nuclear characterization, a total of 66 (18.5%) polymorphic bands were scored using 13 ISSR primers on 45 randomly selected regenerants. Our results show that the regenerants obtained from clone cmm 1T and, at lower level, those from cph 1C are unstable under in vitro conditions or rather more prone to in vitro-induced stress leading to somaclonal variation than the other genotypes used. Two types of changes were observed: disappearance of parental ISSR fragments, termed “loss”; appearance of novel ISSR fragments, termed “gain”. The most frequent event occurring in the regenerants was the loss of fragments (41 bands). Regenerated plants were analyzed with seven plastid universal primers to determine the cytoplasmic composition at chloroplast level. All cpDNA primer pairs tested produced amplicons of the same size in all genotypes analyzed and no polymorphic fragments were observed with any universal primers used. Our results show that under in vitro culture conditions genotype affects the integrity of the genome. In addition, the absence of polymorphism at plastid level confirms the greater genetic stability of cytoplasmic DNA.     

Progesterone supplementation during multiple ovulation treatment in buffalo species (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Bubalus bubalis</Emphasis>)

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of exogenous progesterone supplementation on superovulatory response in buffaloes that has undergone a multiple ovulation program. Fourteen Mediterranean buffaloes were divided into two groups and received a 4-day decreasing dosage of an equal mixture of 500 IU of FSH and LH starting on day 8 of the cycle. In group A (n = 7) a progesterone-releasing intravaginal device was removed on day 8, whereas in group B (n = 7) it was left till day 10, when PGF_2a {\hbox{PG}}{{\hbox{F}}_{{2}\alpha }} was administered. Eighty hours later, buffaloes were artificially inseminated and after 6 days they undergone uterine flushing. A higher (P < 0.05) number of corpora lutea (8.3 vs. 5.7) and embryo/flushing/buffalo (2.3 vs. 1.3) were recorded in group B vs. group A if responsive buffaloes are considered (n = 12) and the number of corpora lutea was highly correlated with the number of embryos (r = 0.65; P < 0.05). In conclusion, progesterone supplementation during the first 2 days of the superovulation treatment seems to enhance the recovery rate in buffalo species. A high ovulation rate, associated with a high number of corpora lutea, can represent a parameter for estimating embryo recovery.