Ocean acidification is predicted to impact ecosystems reliant on calcifying organisms, potentially reducing the socioeconomic benefits these habitats provide. Here we investigate the acclimation potential of stony corals living along a pH gradient caused by a Mediterranean CO2 vent that serves as a natural long-term experimental setting. We show that in response to reduced skeletal mineralization at lower pH, corals increase their skeletal macroporosity (features >10 μm) in order to maintain constant linear extension rate, an important criterion for reproductive output. At the nanoscale, the coral skeleton's structural features are not altered. However, higher skeletal porosity, and reduced bulk density and stiffness may contribute to reduce population density and increase damage susceptibility under low pH conditions. Based on these observations, the almost universally employed measure of coral biomineralization, the rate of linear extension, might not be a reliable metric for assessing coral health and resilience in a warming and acidifying ocean.

We reconsider the general question of how to characterize most efficiently the low-energy effective theory obtained by integrating out heavy modes in globally and locally supersymmetric theories. We consider theories with chiral and vector multiplets and identify the conditions under which an approximately supersymmetric low-energy effective theory can exist. These conditions translate into the requirements that all the derivatives, fermions and auxiliary fields should be small in units of the heavy mass scale. They apply not only to the matter sector, but also to the gravitational one if present, and imply in that case that the gravitino mass should be small. We then show how to determine the unique exactly supersymmetric theory that approximates this effective theory at the lowest order in the counting of derivatives, fermions and auxiliary fields, by working both at the superfield level and with component fields. As a result we give a simple prescription for integrating out heavy superfields in an algebraic and manifestly supersymmetric way, which turns out to hold in the same form both for globally and locally supersymmetric theories, meaning that the process of integrating out heavy modes commutes with the process of switching on gravity. More precisely, for heavy chiral and vector multiplets one has to impose respectively stationarity of the superpotential and the Kähler potential.

Organisms that accumulate calcium carbonate structures are particularly vulnerable to ocean warming (OW) and ocean acidification (OA), potentially reducing the socioeconomic benefits of ecosystems reliant on these taxa. Since rising atmospheric CO2 is responsible for global warming and increasing ocean acidity, to correctly predict how OW and OA will affect marine organisms, their possible interactive effects must be assessed. Here we investigate, in the field, the combined temperature (range: 16–26 °C) and acidification (range: pHTS 8.1–7.4) effects on mortality and growth of Mediterranean coral species transplanted, in different seasonal periods, along a natural pH gradient generated by a CO2 vent. We show a synergistic adverse effect on mortality rates (up to 60%), for solitary and colonial, symbiotic and asymbiotic corals, suggesting that high seawater temperatures may have increased their metabolic rates which, in conjunction with decreasing pH, could have led to rapid deterioration of cellular processes and performance. The net calcification rate of the symbiotic species was not affected by decreasing pH, regardless of temperature, while in the two asymbiotic species it was negatively affected by increasing acidification and temperature, suggesting that symbiotic corals may be more tolerant to increasing warming and acidifying conditions compared to asymbiotic ones.

Phenotype can express different morphologies in response to biotic or abiotic environmental influences. Mollusks are particularly sensitive to different environmental parameters, showing macroscale shell morphology variations in response to environmental parameters. Few studies concern shell variations at the different scale levels along environmental gradients. Here, we investigate shell features at the macro, micro and nanoscale, in populations of the commercially important clam Chamelea gallina along a latitudinal gradient (~400 km) of temperature and solar radiation in the Adriatic Sea (Italian cost). Six populations of clams with shells of the same length were analyzed. Shells from the warmest and the most irradiated population were thinner, with more oval shape, more porous and lighter, showing lower load fracture. However, no variation was observed in shell CaCO3 polymorphism (100% aragonite) or in compositional and textural shell parameters, indicating no effect of the environmental parameters on the basic processes of biomineralization. Because of the importance of this species as commercial resource in the Adriatic Sea, the experimentally quantified and significant variations of mass and fracture load in C. gallina shells along the latitudinal gradient may have economic implications for fisheries producing different economical yield for fishermen and consumers along the Adriatic coastline.

Purpose: Reduced bone strength is associated with a loss of bone mass, usually evaluated by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, although it is known that the bone microstructure also affects the bone strength. Here, a method is proposed to measure (in laboratory) the bone volume-to-total volume ratio by single-sided NMR scanners, which is related to the microstructure of the trabecular bone. Methods: Three single-sided scanners were used on animal bone samples. These low-field, mobile, low-cost devices are able to detect the NMR signal, regardless of the sample sizes, without the use of ionizing radiations, with the further advantage of signal localization offered by their intrinsic magnetic field gradients. Results: The performance of the different single-sided scanners have been discussed. The results have been compared with bone volume-to-total volume ratio by micro CT and MRI, obtaining consistent values.Conclusions: Our results demonstrate the feasibility of the method for laboratory analyses, which are useful for measurements like porosity on bone specimens. This can be considered as the first step to develop an NMR method based on the use of a mobile single-sided device, for the diagnosis of osteoporosis, through the acquisition of the signal from the appendicular skeleton, allowing for low-cost, wide screening campaigns. Magn Reson Med 79:501-510,

The changes in the surface wettability of many materials are receiving increased attention in recent years. It is not too hard to fabricate resistant hydrophobic surfaces through products bearing both hydrophobic and reactive hydrophilic end groups. More challenging is obtaining resistant nonwetting surfaces through noncovalent reversible bonds. In this work, a fluorinated oligo(ethylenesuccinamide), soluble in solvent benign for operators and environment, has been synthesized. It contains two opposite functional groups (perfluoropolyether segments and amidic groups) (SC2-PFPE) that provide water repellency while hydrophilicity is retained. Its performance has been tested on porous calcarenite and investigated by magnetic resonance imaging, water capillary absorption, and vapor diffusivity tests. The results demonstrate that SC2-PFPE modifies the wettability of porous substrates in a drastic and durable way and reduces the vapor condensation inside the pore space due to the perfluoropolyether segments that act at the air/surface interface.

Mediterranean corals are a natural model for studying global warming, as the Mediterranean basin is expected to be one of the most affected regions and the increase in temperature is one of the greatest threats for coral survival. We have analyzed for the first time with time-domain nuclear magnetic resonance (TD-NMR) the porosity and pore-space structure, important aspects of coral skeletons, of two scleractinian corals, Balanophyllia europaea (zooxanthellate) and Leptopsammia pruvoti (nonzooxanthellate), taken from three different sites on the western Italian coast along a temperature gradient. Comparisons have been made with mercury intrusion porosimetry and scanning electron microscopy images. TD-NMR parameters are sensitive to changes in the pore structure of the two coral species. A parameter, related to the porosity, is larger for L. pruvoti than for B. europaea, confirming previous non-NMR results. Another parameter representing the fraction of the pore volume with pore sizes of less than 10-20 μm is inversely related, with a high degree of statistical significance, to the mass of the specimen and, for B. europaea, to the temperature of the growing site. This effect in the zooxanthellate species, which could reduce its resistance to mechanical stresses, may depend on an inhibition of the photosynthetic process at elevated temperatures and could have particular consequences in determining the effects of global warming on these species.

Single-sided 1 H-NMR is proposed for the estimation of morphological parameters of trabecular bone, and potentially the detection of pathophysiological alterations of bone structure. In this study, a new methodology was used to estimate such parameters without using an external reference signal, and to study intratrabecular and intertrabecular porosities, with a view to eventually scanning patients. Methods: Animal trabecular bone samples were analyzed by a single-sided device. The Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill sequence of 1 H nuclei of fluids, including marrow, confined inside the bone, was analyzed by quasi-continuous T 2 distributions and separated into two 1 H pools: short and long T 2 components. The NMR parameters were estimated using models of trabecular bone structure, and compared with the corresponding micro-CT. Results: Without any further assumptions, the internal reference parameter (short T 2 signal intensity fraction) enabled prediction of the micro-CT parameters BV/TV (volume of the trabeculae/total sample volume) and BS/TV (external surface of the trabeculae/ total sample volume) with linear correlation coefficient >0.80. The assignment of the two pools to intratrabecular and intertrabecular components yielded an estimate of average intratrabecular porosity (33 ± 5)%. Using the proposed models, the NMR-estimated BV/TV and BS/TV were found to be linearly related to the corresponding micro-CT values with high correlation (>0.90 for BV/TV; >0.80 for BS/TV) and agreement coefficients. Conclusion: Low-field, low-cost portable devices that rely on intrinsic magnetic field gradients and do not use ionizing radiation are viable tools for in vitro preclinical studies of pathophysiological structural alterations of trabecular bone. K E Y W O R D S bone quality, intratrabecular porosity, morphological parameters, single-sided portable NMR, trabecular bone 3354 | BARBIERI Et Al. 1 | INTRODUCTION High-field whole-body MRI is an essential tool for medical diagnosis. It is noninvasive and does not use ionizing radiation. However, low-field single-sided NMR 1,2 may also provide an appealing approach for the assessment of biological tissue properties. Single-sided devices have demonstrated their potential in human and animal models like human skin, 3,4 silicone breast implants, 5 breast tissue, 6,7 intestine, 8,9 tendon, 10 articular cartilage, 11 bone, 12,13 fluid components of trabecular bone, 13 and human mummies. 14 Single-sided devices allow the detection of signal from a sensitive volume (a slab), suitably selected inside an object, regardless of its extension, and placed on the magnet surface. They have the additional advantages of low acquisition, running and maintenance costs, as they consist of small permanent magnets, and are portable. Recently, 12,13 we proposed a method for applying singlesided NMR devices to animal trabecular samples, for the evaluation of a parameter commonly used to assess trabecular bone structure, the ratio (BV/TV) of the volume occupied by the trabeculae (BV) in a sample to the tot...