The fingerprint of the 2018 drought in Europe on ground-based atmospheric CO2 measurements.

During the summer of 2018, a widespread drought developed over Northern and Central Europe. The increase in temperature and the reduction of soil moisture have influenced carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems in various ways, such as a reduction of photosynthesis, changes in ecosystem respiration, or allowing more frequent fires. In this study, we characterize the resulting perturbation of the atmospheric CO2 seasonal cycles. 2018 has a good coverage of European regions affected by drought, allowing the investigation of how ecosystem flux anomalies impacted spatial CO2 gradients between stations. This density of stations is unprecedented compared to previous drought events in 2003 and 2015, particularly thanks to the deployment of the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) network of atmospheric greenhouse gas monitoring stations in recent years. Seasonal CO2 cycles from 48 European stations were available for 2017 and 2018. Earlier data were retrieved for comparison from international databases or national networks. Here, we show that the usual summer minimum in CO2 due to the surface carbon uptake was reduced by 1.4 ppm in 2018 for the 10 stations located in the area most affected by the temperature anomaly, mostly in Northern Europe. Notwithstanding, the CO2 transition phases before and after July were slower in 2018 compared to 2017, suggesting an extension of the growing season, with either continued CO2 uptake by photosynthesis and/or a reduction in respiration driven by the depletion of substrate for respiration inherited from the previous months due to the drought. For stations with sufficiently long time series, the CO2 anomaly observed in 2018 was compared to previous European droughts in 2003 and 2015. Considering the areas most affected by the temperature anomalies, we found a higher CO2 anomaly in 2003 (+3 ppm averaged over 4 sites), and a smaller anomaly in 2015 (+1 ppm averaged over 11 sites) compared to 2018. This article is part of the theme issue 'Impacts of the 2018 severe drought and heatwave in Europe: from site to continental scale'.

Diagnosis of ovarian tumour tissues by SR-FTIR spectroscopy: A pilot study.

Ovarian cancer is the seventh most common cancer among women across the world with very high mortality rates. Histology is considered the gold standard for tumour diagnosis. FTIR spectroscopy is relies on registering biochemical differences in the samples analysed, including biological specimens. Therefore, the Synchrotron radiation based-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (SR-FTIR) was used for the preliminary investigation of the molecular composition of the human, non-fixed ovarian neoplastic tissues with different type of biological potential. The study that was carried out on thin tissue sections, placed on barium fluoride infrared windows, was focused on investigating spatial distribution of the biochemical markers in various ovarian tumours. Since the structural constituents of tissues accumulate different molecules which may correspond to the specific type of ovarian tumours, the main goal of this study was to check if the mean intensities of the spectral lines of some bio-molecules can be treated as ovarian cancer bio-indicators. Moreover, an attempt to identify and understand the underlying biochemical changes associated with the disease was carried out. The major spectral differences in the frequency and intensities were identified as bonds of lipids, protein massif and nucleic acids. The results obtained suggest that Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy can be used as a supporting tool in the analysis of neoplastic ovarian tissue.

Intraepidermal nerve fiber density in vulvar lichen sclerosus and normal vulvar tissues.

Lichen sclerosus (LS) is a chronic and inflammatory disease causing sensory symptoms such as itch and pain and affecting most frequently genital skin of women. Intraepidermal nerve fiber density (IENFD) was examined immunohistologically in 20 vulvar skin biopsies of patients affected by LS and in 20 control vulvar skin biopsies, in order to determine if these sensory sensations originate in changes in the epidermal innervation. Obtained results show fewer protein gene product 9.5 (PGP 9.5) positive intraepidermal nerve fibers (IENF) in LS tissues compared to controls (P = 0.004), while the number of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) positive IENF in LS was increased compared to normal vulvar tissue (P = 0.03). No differences in the number of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) expressing IENF could be observed. To our best knowledge, this is the first study to describe intraepidermal nerve fiber density in vulvar LS. Significant differences in IENFD between LS and control skin samples, which have been found, point to the damage to the small nerve fibers in the disease process of LS, which may contribute to pathogenesis of LS sensory symptoms.

Quantification of selected elements in ovarian tumours and their potentials as a tissue classifier.

Neoplastic and healthy ovarian tissues were analysed to identify the changes in the spatial distribution and concentration of elements using synchrotron induced micro X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. High-resolution distribution maps of minor and trace elements were drawn. Significant amounts of elements such as P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Fe, Cu, Zn, Br and Rb were present in all neoplastic tissues analysed. The study showed significant diversifications in elemental distributions depending on the structure of tissue. The efficacy of micro X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to distinguish between various types of ovarian tumours based on the concentrations of studied elements was confirmed by multivariate discriminant analysis. Our analysis showed that the most important elements for tissue classification are S, Cl, K, Fe, Zn, Br and Rb.

Helicobacter mustelae isolation from feces of ferrets: evidence to support fecal-oral transmission of a gastric Helicobacter.

Helicobacter mustelae has been isolated from stomachs of ferrets with chronic gastritis and ulcers. When H. mustelae is inoculated orally into H. mustelae-negative ferrets, the animals become colonized and develop gastritis, a significant immune response, and a transient hypochlorhydria. All of these features mimic Helicobacter pylori-induced gastric disease in humans. Because the epidemiology of H. pylori infection is poorly understood and its route of transmission is unknown, the feces of weanling and adult ferrets were cultured for the presence of H. mustelae. H. mustelae was isolated from the feces of 11 of 36 ferrets by using standard helicobacter isolation techniques. H. mustelae was identified by biochemical tests, ultrastructural morphology, reactivity with specific DNA probes, and 16S rRNA sequencing. H. mustelae was not recovered from 20-week-old ferrets which had been H. mustelae positive as weanlings, nor was H. mustelae recovered from 1-year-old ferrets. Isolation of H. mustelae from feces may correspond to periods of transient hypochlorhydria, or H. mustelae may be shed in feces intermittently. The H. mustelae-colonized ferret provides an ideal model for studying the pathogenesis and transmission of H. pylori-induced gastric disease.