Hybrid Hosts Based on Sodium Alginate and Porous Clay Heterostructures for Drug Encapsulation.

In this study, some hybrid materials based on sodium alginate (NaAlg) and porous clay heterostructures (PCHs) were investigated as new hosts for 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) encapsulation. The hybrid hosts were prepared by ionotropic gelation technique using different concentrations of PCHs (1, 3, and 10 wt%) in order to identify the optimal parameters for encapsulation and drug release. The obtained hybrid materials were characterized using FTIR Spectrometry, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and UV-Vis spectrometry to investigate the interactions of the raw materials involved in the preparation of hybrid hosts, the influence of PCHs concentrations on drug encapsulation efficiency and drug release profile. All the results show that the synthesized hybrid materials were able to load a high amount of 5-FU, the encapsulation efficiency and the release profile being influenced by the concentrations of PCHs.

Natural climate solutions for Canada.

Alongside the steep reductions needed in fossil fuel emissions, natural climate solutions (NCS) represent readily deployable options that can contribute to Canada's goals for emission reductions. We estimate the mitigation potential of 24 NCS related to the protection, management, and restoration of natural systems that can also deliver numerous co-benefits, such as enhanced soil productivity, clean air and water, and biodiversity conservation. NCS can provide up to 78.2 (41.0 to 115.1) Tg CO2e/year (95% CI) of mitigation annually in 2030 and 394.4 (173.2 to 612.4) Tg CO2e cumulatively between 2021 and 2030, with 34% available at ≤CAD 50/Mg CO2e. Avoided conversion of grassland, avoided peatland disturbance, cover crops, and improved forest management offer the largest mitigation opportunities. The mitigation identified here represents an important potential contribution to the Paris Agreement, such that NCS combined with existing mitigation plans could help Canada to meet or exceed its climate goals.

Carbon dynamics on agricultural land reverting to woody land in Ontario, Canada.

The 2015 Paris Agreement reinforces the importance of the land sector and its contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. Thus, there is growing interest in improving estimates of the GHG balance in response to land-use changes (LUCs) involving agriculture and forestry, for national-scale reporting, and for carbon (C) offsets. Large agricultural areas in Europe, Russia and North America are reverting to forest, either naturally or through planting, after abandonment of agricultural land, and this trend may have a substantial impact on carbon budgets. We report results of a pilot project in the Mixedwood Plains ecozone of eastern Canada to analyze the change in the C budget on a landscape over 15 years on abandoned cropland where woody vegetation is regenerating. Thirty-six plots (2 km × 2 km) with paired aerial photographs taken circa 1994 and circa 2008 at a scale of 1:10,000 or larger were randomly selected from the 20 km × 20 km National Forest Inventory (NFI) grid. A spatially-explicit version of the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3) was used to estimate impacts of LUC on C stocks and fluxes. Polygons identifying areas of LUC within each photo plot were delineated, classified, and evaluated to provide input data for the model. The rate of C accumulation in our study area was found to be relatively constant over the entire simulation period, at 1.07 Mg C/ha/yr. Abandoned agricultural land reverting to woody lands could play an important role in regional and national C sequestration in Canada, but more research is required to quantify the areal extent of this LUC.