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Plants-microbiome associations are the result of millions of years of co-evolution. Due to breeding-accelerated plant evolution in non-native and highly managed soil, plant-microbe links could have been lost. We hypothesized that post-domestication breeding of wheat changed the root-associated microbiome. To test this, we analyzed root-associated fungal and bacterial communities shortly after emergence of seedlings representing a transect of wheat evolution including modern wheat, landraces and ancestors. Numbers of observed microbial taxa were highest in landraces bred in low-input agricultural systems, and lowest in ancestors that had evolved in native soils. The microbial communities of modern cultivars were different from those of landraces and ancestors. Old wheat accessions enriched Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria, while modern cultivars enriched OTUs from Candidatus Saccharibacteria, Verrucomicrobia and Firmicutes. The fungal pathogens Fusarium, Neoascochyta and Microdochium enriched in modern cultivars. Both bacterial and fungal communities followed a neutral assembly model when bulk soil was considered as the source community, but accessions of the ancient Triticum turgidum and T. monococcum created a more isolated environment in their roots. In conclusion, wheat root-associated microbiomes have dramatically changed through a transect of breeding history.

Background: Plants-microbiome associations are the results of millions of years of co-evolution. Due to the accelerated plant evolution during domestication of crops and aided by cultivation in non-native highly managed soils, plant-microbe links created through co-evolution could have been lost. Therefore, we hypothesize that dramatic effects on the root-associated microbiome occurred during domestication of wheat.Results: To uncover domestication effects we analyzed root associated fungal and bacterial communities in a transect of wheat evolution including modern wheat cultivars, landraces, Triticum aestivum ssp. spelta and ancestors of wheat including T. turgidum ssp. dicoccum , T. monococcum ssp. monococcum and T. monococcum ssp. aegilopoides at three growth phases shortly after emergence of seedlings. We found that numbers of observed microbial taxa were highest in the landraces, which had been domesticated in low-input agricultural systems, and lowest in wheat ancestors that evolved in native soils. The root-associated microbial community of modern cultivars was significantly different from that of landraces and ancestors of wheat. Old wheat accessions enriched Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria , while modern cultivars enriched OTUs from Candidatus Saccharibacteria , Verrucomicrobia and Firmicutes . The fungal pathogens Fusarium , Neoascochyta and Microdochium were enriched in modern cultivars. The composition of root-associated microbial communities of modern wheat cultivars significantly followed patterns predicted by the neutral community assembly model. Our observations allowed us to suggest that a stronger selective pressure drives the root-associated microbiome of ancient wheat accessions than that of modern wheat cultivars.Conclusions: Here we demonstrate that the wheat root-associated microbiome has dramatically changed through a transect of evolution from wheat ancestors over landraces to modern cultivars. Colonization of roots of ancient accessions was slower than in modern cultivars, and the root-associated microbiome of ancient wheat accessions was driven by stronger selective pressure than that of the modern wheat cultivars. We identified several taxa including Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria enriched in old cultivars and fungal wheat pathogens that were enriched in modern cultivars.

Rapid quantification of absolute microbial cell abundances is important for a comprehensive interpretation of microbiome surveys and crucial to support theoretical modelling and the design of engineered systems. In this paper, we propose a protocol specifically optimised for the quantification of microbial abundances in water biofilters using flow cytometry (FCM). We optimised cell detachment from sand biofilter particles for FCM quantification through the evaluation of five chemical dispersants (NaCl, Triton-X100, CaCl

“Maria” lives in Taranto, in the Tamburi district, a few meters from Ilva, Europe’s largest steelwork. “Maria” also lives in Acailândia in Brazil in the quarter Piquia de Baixo, surrounded by blast furnaces working for the Viena Siderurgica. From Brazil to Puglia it always comes down to the same name: Vale SA, a Brazilian colossus unrivaled in the world for iron production. In 2012 Greenpeace awarded it the Public Eye Award, better known as the Oscar of Shame, for its “70 years long history stained by repeated violations of human rights, inhuman conditions of work, ransacking of public property and ruthless exploitation of nature”.

This study sought to evaluate how dissolved organic carbon (DOC) affects attenuation of trace organic contaminants (TOrCs) in biochar-amended stormwater biofilters. It was hypothesized that (1) DOC-augmented runoff would demonstrate enhanced TOrC biodegradation and (2) biochar-amended sand bearing DOC-cultivated biofilms would achieve enhanced TOrC attenuation due to sorptive retention and biodegradation. Microcosm and column experiments were conducted utilizing actual runoff, DOC from straw and compost, and a suite of TOrCs. Biodegradation of TOrCs in runoff was more enhanced by compost DOC than straw DOC (particularly for atrazine, prometon, benzotriazole, and fipronil). 16S rRNA gene quantification and sequencing revealed that growth-induced microbial community changes were, among replicates, most consistent for compost-augmented microcosms and least consistent for raw runoff microcosms. Compost DOC most robustly enhanced utilization of TOrCs as carbon substrates, possibly due to higher residual nutrient levels upon TOrC exposure. Sand columns containing just 0.5 wt % biochar maintained sorptive TOrC retention in the presence of compost-DOC-cultivated biofilms, and TOrC removal was further enhanced by biological activity. Overall, these results suggest that coamendment with biochar and compost may robustly enhance TOrC attenuation in stormwater biofilters, a finding of significance for efforts to mitigate the impacts of runoff on water quality.

Little is known about the forces that determine the assembly of diverse bacterial communities inhabiting drinking water treatment filters and how this affects drinking water quality. Two contrasting ecological theories can help to understand how natural microbial communities assemble; niche theory and neutral theory, where environmental deterministic factors or stochastic factors predominate respectively. This study investigates the development of the microbial community on two common contrasting filter materials (quartz sand and granular activated carbon-GAC), to elucidate the main factors governing their assembly, through the evaluation of environmental (i.e. filter medium type) and stochastic forces (random deaths, births and immigration). Laboratory-scale filter columns were used to mimic a rapid gravity filter; the microbiome of the filter materials, and of the filter influent and effluent, was characterised using next generation 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and flow-cytometry. Chemical parameters (i.e. dissolved organic carbon, trihalomethanes formation) were also monitored to assess the final effluent quality. The filter communities seemed to be strongly assembled by selection rather than neutral processes, with only 28% of those OTUs shared with the source water detected on the filter medium following predictions using a neutral community model. GAC hosted a phylogenetically more diverse community than sand. The two filter media communities seeded the effluent water, triggering differences in both water quality and community composition of the effluents. Overall, GAC proved to be better than sand in controlling microbial growth, by promoting higher bacterial decay rates and hosting less bacterial cells, and showed better performance for putative pathogen control by leaking less Legionella cells into the effluent water.

One of the current debates revolves around the question of determining whether there are one or several globalisations. For the great majority of authors there is only one globalisation, neo-liberal capitalist globalisation, and it does not, therefore, make sense to distinguish between hegemonic and antihegemonic globalisation. In the field of transnational social and cultural practices the anti-hegemonic transformation consists, according to Boaventura de Sousa Santos and his critical theory of the epistemology of the South, in the construction of an emancipatory multiculturalism. Multiculturalism overlaps with the democratic definition of reciprocal rules of recognition between distinct identities and cultures. Our hypothesis is that the process of political construction of alternatives is particularly evident in Latin America movements and recent political experiences. These new political practices are analyzed against the theoretical background of Sousa Santos’ approach, therefore not only as practical antagonist experiences, but as emancipation methods which, as they have not been foreseen by the great theoretical tradition of the Eurocentric left, may actually contradict it and put it into a theoretical as well as political crisis.

BACKGROUND: Microbial reductive dechlorination of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in contaminated sediments is characterized by long lag periods and low rates. Zerovalent iron is a source of cathodic hydrogen that has been proposed as an easily amendable agent to stimulate PCB microbial dechlorination. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of nanoscale zerovalent iron (NZVI) particles on the reductive dechlorination of Aroclor 1254 PCBs and on the indigenous microbial community in a marine sediment under in situ-like biogeochemical conditions. RESULTS: A 30-weeks lag phase followed by a modest dechlorination (5.0 ± 0.4 mol%) of hepta- through penta-chlorinated PCBs occurred in NZVI-free cultures during 36 weeks of incubation. NZVI (6.7 g kg−1) reduced the lag phase of PCB dechlorination by 10 weeks, leading to a four-fold increase of the dechlorination extent at the end of the incubation. NVZI exerted some toxic effect on sulphate reducing bacteria, which were transiently inhibited until its complete oxidation occurred, and favoured the enrichment of a phylotype closely related to the PCB dehalorespiring bacterium Dehalobium chlorocoercia DF-1, probably via the simultaneous partial inhibition of sulphate reducing bacteria and the release of molecular hydrogen. Finally, DGGE analysis showed that NZVI did not affect markedly the biodiversity of the indigenous microbial community. CONCLUSION: NZVI displayed a very high biostimulation effect on PCB microbial dechlorination and a very low impact on the sediment indigenous microbial community. Supplementation with NZVI particles might thus be a sustainable effective strategy to intensify PCB reductive dechlorination processes in marine sediments. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry

Alessandro Dal Lago wrote in 1999 that equality of all human beings and their right to freely move around the world are obvious principles although lack a clear legal drafting. Nevertheless «human kind is divided into majorities of national citizens holding rights and with formal guarantees, and minorities of illegitimate foreigners (neither citizens nor fellow country men and women) who are legally and factually denied these guarantees» (Dal Lago, 1999:9). Today policies and representations of migrants in Italy and Europe confirm the increasing disintegration of values such as humanity and rationality faced with a renewed (not only cultural) racism. The current economic crisis and the return of nationalism in the wake of the ongoing globalization are the framework within which a zero tolerance policy is reiterated towards these masses. In the age of global mobility the discussion is being reopened, as if we were suddenly back in the darkest Middle Ages, on people’s freedom to move in a shared space searching for their own life and future plans. The acknowledgement of a ius migrandi and the related debate, together with a new possible epistemology of frontiers (Rodriguez Ortiz 2011, Trigo 1997), continue to be themes for reflection no longer and not only for social science.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are toxic and recalcitrant compounds that can be reductively dechlorinated in the presence of expensive catalyzers, such as bimetallic Fe/Pd nanosized particles. Other Pd-free zerovalent metallic and bimetallic systems, such as Nanoscale Zero Valent Iron (NZVI) and Nanoscale Zero Valent Nickel-Iron (NZVNI) particles, are cheaper and able to promote the dechlorination of aliphatics and aromatics. In this paper, we investigated the dechlorination capability of NZVI (1.67g Fe0/L) and NZVNI (1.67g Fe0/L and 0.88g Ni0/L) particles towards 2,3,4,5-CB (2 mg/L) in water and methanol/water 30% (v/v) solution at room temperature. NZVI proved ineffective in 2,3,4,5-CB dechlorination under both the above-mentioned conditions. On the contrary, NZVNI dechlorinated 7.1±1.8 % and 27.7±0.4 % of the 2,3,4,5-CB occurring in water and in methanol/water solution, respectively, in 8 weeks of incubation. Dechlorination occurred via preferential removal of the less sterically hindered chlorine in meta position 5 and proceeded by removing chlorines in para position and in meta position 3.

Il contributo analizza la criminalizzazione degli immigrati italiani in Argentina a cavallo tra Otto e Novecento, in particolare attraverso l'analisi della letteratura rioplatense d'ispirazione lombrosiana. L'antropologia criminale italiana si diffuse in Argentina infatti negli ambiti scientifici del diritto e della medicina e produsse una stigmatizzazione della figura dell'italiano, considerato come "ospite indesiderato". Molti scrittori argentini presentarono al pubblico una serie di personaggi italiani caratterizzati da vizi ereditari e, attraverso racconti, novelle e romanzi, ne sottolinearono la pericolosità per favorirne l'espulsione.

Il contributo affronta alcuni temi del capitalismo cognitivo e delle forme di precarizzazione lavorativa che esso assume nel Mezzogiorno d'Italia, in particolare nel Salento

Il saggio prende in esame il contributo offerto da Osvaldo Pieroni agli studi sulla mascolinità e, più in generale, sul genere in Italia. In particolare, rifletterò sull’importanza del volume, scritto nel 2002 da Osvaldo: Pene d’amore. Alla ricerca del pene perduto. Maschi, ambiente e società. Il testo — letto alcuni anni fa, riletto più volte in seguito ed ancora in occasione del convegno “Fuoco, Acqua, Terra e Aria. Un ricordo di Osvaldo Pieroni”, Università della Calabria, 27–28 novembre 2014—ha profondamente influenzato la mia visione del “genere”, suscitando in me un interesse, cresciuto negli anni, per questioni, problemi, cambiamenti “al maschile”.