Assessing the citizen science approach as tool to increase awareness on the marine litter problem.

This paper provides a quantitative assessment of students' attitude and behaviors towards marine litter before and after their participation to SEACleaner, an educational and citizen science project devoted to monitor macro- and micro-litter in an Area belonging to "Pelagos Sanctuary" (Mediterranean Sea). This approach produced interesting outcomes both for the research sector of marine pollution and environmental monitoring, as well for the scientific and environmental education. Here we focus on citizen science as an effective vector for raising young people awareness of marine litter and fostering sound behaviors. A specially designed questionnaire was administered to 87 High School students, to test the validity of such approach. The results state that the students change quantitatively their perception of beach-litter causes and derived problems, and they improved their knowledge about the main marine litter sources and the role of the sea in the waste transport and deposition along the coast.

Validation of mid-infrared spectroscopy for macronutrient analysis of human milk.

OBJECTIVE: Human milk has considerable variation in its composition. Hence, the nutrient profile is only an estimate and can result in under- or over-estimation of the intake of preterm infants. Mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy is an evolving technique for analyzing human milk but needs validation before use in clinical practice. STUDY DESIGN: Human milk samples from 35 mothers delivering at 35 weeks to term gestation were analyzed for macronutrients by MIR spectroscopy and by standard laboratory methods using Kjeldahl assay for protein, Mojonnier assay for fat and high-pressure liquid chromatography assay for lactose. RESULTS: MIR analysis of the macronutrients in human milk correlated well with standard laboratory tests with intraclass correlation coefficients of 0.997 for fat, 0.839 for protein and 0.776 for lactose. Agreement between the two methods was excellent for fat, and moderate for protein and lactose (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This methodological paper provides evidence that MIR spectroscopy can be used to analyze macronutrient composition of human milk. Agreement between the methodologies varies by macronutrient.

1,2,3-Triazole[4,5-d]pyridazines--II. New derivatives tested on adenosine receptors.

This paper reports the synthesis and biological evaluation towards A1 and A2 adenosine receptors of new 1,2,3-triazole[4,5-d]pyridazines bearing lipophilic substituents in the 1 position. Some 1-benzyl-4-substituted amino derivatives were prepared and the cyclohexylamino-, anilino- and p-toluidino- derivatives showed an interesting moderately selective activity on the A1 receptor.

Ammonioborite: new borate polyion and its structure.

The mineral ammonioborite is monoclinic with unit cell dimensions (in angstroms): a = 25.27, b = 9.65, and c = 11.56; beta = 94 degrees 17', and the space group is C 2/c. Analysis of the crystal structure revealed the crystallo-chemical formula (NH(4))(3)B(15)O(20)(OH)(8).4H(2)O, with four such formula units in the unit cell. The basic structural unit is the double ring consisting of one BO(4) tetrahedron and four BO(3) triangles: in ammonioborite three of these units are connected to give trimeric ions [B(15)O(20)(OH)(8)](3-).

Tuhualite crystal structure.

As judged by crystal structure analysis, the crystallochemical formula of tuhualite is (Na,K)(2)(VI) (Fe(+3))(2)(VI) (Fe(+2))(2)(VI) Si(12)O(30) . H(2)O, with four such formulas in the unit cell. The structure is characterized by six-repeat double chains of silicon tetrahedrons and chains of edge-sharing, alternating iron tetrahedrons and octahedrons. Chains of each kind are connected by corner sharing to four chains of the other type. The iron cations appear to be anomalously ordered with Fe(+2) in tetrahedral and Fe(+3) in octahedral sites.