In situ single particle analysis of ice particle residuals (IPRs) and out-of-cloud aerosol particles was conducted by means of laser ablation mass spectrometry during the intensive INUIT-JFJ/CLACE campaign at the high alpine research station Jungfraujoch (3580 m a.s.l.) in January–February 2013. During the 4-week campaign more than 70 000 out-of-cloud aerosol particles and 595 IPRs were analyzed covering a particle size diameter range from 100 nm to 3 µm. The IPRs were sampled during 273 h while the station was covered by mixed-phase clouds at ambient temperatures between −27 and −6 °C. The identification of particle types is based on laboratory studies of different types of biological, mineral and anthropogenic aerosol particles. The outcome of these laboratory studies was characteristic marker peaks for each investigated particle type. These marker peaks were applied to the field data. In the sampled IPRs we identified a larger number fraction of primary aerosol particles, like soil dust (13 ± 5 %) and minerals (11 ± 5 %), in comparison to out-of-cloud aerosol particles (2.4 ± 0.4 and 0.4 ± 0.1 %, respectively). Additionally, anthropogenic aerosol particles, such as particles from industrial emissions and lead-containing particles, were found to be more abundant in the IPRs than in the out-of-cloud aerosol. In the out-of-cloud aerosol we identified a large fraction of aged particles (31 ± 5 %), including organic material and secondary inorganics, whereas this particle type was much less abundant (2.7 ± 1.3 %) in the IPRs. In a selected subset of the data where a direct comparison between out-of-cloud aerosol particles and IPRs in air masses with similar origin was possible, a pronounced enhancement of biological particles was found in the IPRs

BackgroundSelenium (Se) is an essential trace element, but is toxic at high concentrations. Depending upon the geological background, the land use or on anthropogenic pollution, different amounts of Se may be present in soil. Its toxicity is related to the oxyanions selenate and selenite as they are water soluble and bioavailable. Microorganisms play an important role in Se transformations in soil and its cycling in the environment by transforming water-soluble oxyanions into water insoluble, non-toxic elemental Se (0). For this study, soil samples were collected from selenium-contaminated agricultural soils of Punjab/India to enrich and isolate microbes that interacted with the Se cycle.ResultsA mixed microbial culture enriched from the arable soil of Punjab could reduce 230 mg/l of water soluble selenite to spherical Se (0) nanoparticles during aerobic growth as confirmed by SEM-EDX. Four pure cultures (C 1, C 4, C 6, C 7) of Gram negative, oxidase and catalase positive, aerobic bacteria were isolated from this mixed microbial consortium and identified by 16 S rDNA gene sequence alignment as two strains of Duganella sp. (C 1, C 4) and two strains of Agrobacterium sp.(C 6, C 7). SEM/TEM-EDX analyses of the culture broth of the four strains revealed excretion of uniformly round sharply contoured Se (0) nanoparticles by all cultures. Their size ranged from 140–200 nm in cultures of strains C 1 and C 4, and from 185–190 nm in cultures of strains C 6 and C 7. Both Duganella sp. revealed better selenite reduction efficiencies than the two Agrobacterium sp.ConclusionsThis is the first study reporting the capability of newly isolated, aerobically growing Duganella sp. and Agrobacterium sp. from soils of Punjab/India to form spherical, regularly formed Se (0) nanoparticles from water soluble selenite. Among others, the four strains may significantly contribute to the biogeochemical cycling of Se in soil. Bioconversion of toxic selenite to non-toxic Se (0) nanoparticles under aerobic conditions in general may be useful for detoxification of agricultural soil, since elemental Se may not be taken up by the roots of plants and thus allow non-dangerous fodder and food production on Se-containing soil.

Among the scholars working on problems of today's children is Jacqueline Bhabha, an expert in international law, migration, and children's rights, who, with Susan Schmidt, has just completed a study comparing the (often harrowing) experiences in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, of children who, increasingly, find themselves applying for asylum alone. This study has growing significance in the post 9/11 world as developed countries erect higher and higher barriers in the way of asylum seekers and as asylum seekers increasingly include children traveling on their own.-M.S.

Antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals are contaminants of the environment because of their widespread use and incomplete removal by microorganisms during wastewater treatment. The influence of a mixture of ciprofloxacin (CIP), gentamicin (GM), sulfamethoxazole (SMZ)/trimethoprim (TMP), and vancomycin (VA), up to a final concentration of 40 mg/L, on the elimination of chemical oxygen demand (COD), nitrification, and survival of bacteria, as well as the elimination of the antibiotics, was assessed in a long-term study in laboratory treatment plants (LTPs). In the presence of 30 mg/L antibiotics, nitrification of artificial sewage by activated sludge ended at nitrite. Nitrate formation was almost completely inhibited. No nitrification at all was possible in the presence of 40 mg/L antibiotics. The nitrifiers were more sensitive to antibiotics than heterotrophic bacteria. COD elimination in antibiotic-stressed LTPs was not influenced by ≤20 mg/L antibiotics. Addition of 30 mg/L antibiotic mixture decreased COD removal efficiency for a period, but the LTPs recovered. Similar results were obtained with 40 mg/L antibiotic mixture. The total viable count of bacteria was not affected negatively by the antibiotics. It ranged from 2.2 × 10(6) to 8.2 × 10(6) colony-forming units per milliliter (CFU/mL) compared with the control at 1.4 × 10(6)-6.3 × 10(6) CFU/mL. Elimination of the four antibiotics during phases of 2.4-30 mg/L from the liquid was high for GM (70-90 %), much lower for VA, TMP, and CIP (0-50 %), and highly fluctuating for SMZ (0-95 %). The antibiotics were mainly adsorbed to the sludge and not biodegraded.

Children make up half of the world’s refugees, yet limited research documents the views of youth about migratory causes and recommendations. While there is wide recognition of migrant children’s right to free expression, few opportunities exist to productively exercise that right and provide input about their views. This article analyzes the responses of Central American and Mexican migrant children to one interview question regarding how to help youth like themselves, and identifies several implied “no-win” situations as potential reasons for the migration decisions of unaccompanied children. Furthermore, the children’s responses highlight the interconnected nature of economics, security, and education as migratory factors. Examination of children’s political speech revealed primarily negative references regarding their home country’s government, the president, and the police. The police were singled out more than any other public figures, with particular emphasis on police corruption and ineffectiveness. Additional analysis focused on children’s comments regarding migration needs and family.Recommendations for future action include:recognizing entwined motivations and no-win situations that may lead children to leave their countries of origin;promoting integrated approaches to home country economic, security, and education concerns for Central American and Mexican youth;acknowledging migrant children’s political interests and concerns;providing youth with meaningful opportunities to contribute their views and suggestions.incorporating migrant children’s input and concerns into spending plans for US aid appropriated for Central America; andemphasizing youth leadership development in efforts to address child migration.

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Automatically identifying chemical and drug names in scientific publications advances information access for this important class of entities in a variety of biomedical disciplines by enabling improved retrieval and linkage to related concepts. While current methods for tagging chemical entities were developed for the article title and abstract, their performance in the full article text is substantially lower. However, the full text frequently contains more detailed chemical information, such as the properties of chemical compounds, their biological effects and interactions with diseases, genes and other chemicals. We therefore present the NLM-Chem corpus, a full-text resource to support the development and evaluation of automated chemical entity taggers. The NLM-Chem corpus consists of 150 full-text articles, doubly annotated by ten expert NLM indexers, with ~5000 unique chemical name annotations, mapped to ~2000 MeSH identifiers. We also describe a substantially improved chemical entity tagger, with automated annotations for all of PubMed and PMC freely accessible through the PubTator web-based interface and API. The NLM-Chem corpus is freely available.

Suspensions of cytomegalovirus (CMV)-infected human foreskin fibroblasts were used to measure cytolytic antibody (CyA) to CMV in serum by a 51Cr release assay. CyA was associated with IgM but not with IgG antibody to CMV, required rabbit or human complement, and was directed at a surface antigen. CyA was detectable for one to three months in the sera of 16 patients with community-acquired CMV infection and in the sera of 20 of 22 renal transplant recipients with primary CMV infection. CyA was found less frequently in the sera of renal transplant recipients with reactivated CMV infection and occurred almost exclusively when the donor was seropositive for CMV. One individual, unlike many patients with CyA, was free of symptoms. Sera from patients with either rheumatoid factor-positive arthritis or heterophil-positive infectious mononucleosis and from 70 of 71 control patients with other types of antibody to CMV yielded no 51Cr release.