Extension of the soil monitoring network via tea bag initiatives: A 3000 km latitudinal gradient in European Russia.

The increasing popularity and recognition of citizen science approaches to monitor soil health have promoted the idea to assess soil microbial decomposition based on a standard litter sample - tea bags. Although tea bag initiatives are expanding across the world, the global datasets remain biased in regard to investigating regions and biomes. This study aimed to expand the tea bag initiative to European Russia, which remains a "white spot" on the tea bag index map. We also added urban soils into the analysis, which were underestimated previously. We compared the standard and local tea brands to explore possible adaptations of the standard approach to regions with limited access to standard tea brands. The established monitoring network included natural and urban sites in six vegetation zones along a 3000 km latitudinal gradient. There was a very close linear relationship (R2 = 0.94-0.98) in the mass loss of alternative and standard tea litter. The mass loss of green tea in soil along the latitudinal gradient showed an increasing trend from north to south. Variations in the microbial decomposition of green tea were mainly explained by the latitudinal gradient, with low soil temperature identified as key factors hampering decomposition. Mass loss of the more recalcitrant rooibos tea was mainly determined via land use, with decomposition rates on average 1.3 times higher in urban soils. This pattern was in line with higher soil temperatures and pH in urban sites compared to natural counterparts. The findings of our study could prove valuable in extending the tea bag network of soil decomposition assessment into broader territories, including urban areas. Additionally, they could facilitate the involvement of citizen science and complete the database for C cycle modeling depending on climatic conditions.

Magneto-optical diffraction of visible light as a probe of nanoscale displacement of domain walls at femtosecond timescales.

Using diffraction of femtosecond laser pulses of visible light by a magnetic domain pattern in an iron garnet, we demonstrate a proof of concept of time-resolved measurements of domain pattern movements with nanometer spatial and femtosecond temporal resolution. In this method, a femtosecond laser (pump) pulse initiates magnetization dynamics in a sample that is initially in a labyrinth domain state, while an equally short linearly polarized laser pulse (probe) is diffracted by the domain pattern. The components of the diffracted light that are polarized orthogonally to the incident light generate several concentric diffraction rings. Nanometer small changes in the relative sizes of domains with opposite magnetization result in observable changes in the intensities of the rings. We demonstrate that the signal-to-noise ratio is high enough to detect a 6 nm domain wall displacement with 100 fs temporal resolution using visible light. We also discuss possible artifacts, such as pump-induced changes of optical properties, that can affect the measurements.

[The influence of local anthropogenic factors on soil emission of biogenic greenhouse gases in cryogenic ecosystems].

For the first time were the results of studies on influence of main kinds of local anthropogenic factors on soil emission of biogenic greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, and N2O) in permafrost ecosystems of Arctic and North-Boreal zones of the Russian Federation, and also of the Spitsbergen Archipelag summarized. Different types of land use can, depending on their manner, lead to significant enhancing or suppression of soil CO2 emission. On average, anthropogenic factors (AFs), acting in concert, favor the enhancement of local CO2 soil emission, promoting, at the same time, an increase in its dispersion. AFs directly influence the microbial-root respiration in soil, modify the soil itself, and indirectly affect important natural respiration regulators, phytomass reserves in particular, which makes them primary factors with relation to respiration pattern. AFs influence also the emission of other biogenic greenhouse gases (CH4 and N2O), though this influence can be exercised in different ways. Methane emission is mediated by degree of the territory drainage. However, in all studied cases, AFs have led to source reduction or sink intensification of this gas from the atmosphere. Unlike methane emission, N2O emission increased under the influence of AFs considered. As for the whole complex of AFs that impacts the carbon balance and fluxes of CO2 in cryogenic ecosystems, its role is expressed through the enhancement of soil respiration at the beginning of the cold season, when AFs are capable of soil emission increasing, at the level of meso-landscape, almost by 50%.

[Natural foci of tick-borne encephalitis on the southwestern coast of Sakhalin]. / Prirodnye ochagi kleshchevogo éntsefalita na iugo-zapadnom poberezh'e Sakahlina.

Nucleic acids of Ixodes persulcatus were studied by molecular hybridization in the natural focus of tick-borne encephalitis in Kholmsk District of Sakhalin Province. The studies have shown wide dissemination of viral RNA in the focus. The infectivity of ticks in various sites of habitation varied from 3.5 to 18.5%, their number fluctuating from 0.4 to 300 and more imago per flag-hour. The most active part of the natural focus has been determined using zoological-viral indexes. The viral strain of tick-borne encephalitis has been isolated.

[Local irradiation planning in prostatic cancer with the use of optimized dosage field variants]. / Planirovanie lokal'nogo oblucheniia raka predstatel'noi zhelezy s ispol'zovaniem optimizirovannykh variantov doznykh polei.

A method of dosimetric planning of multifield local irradiation of prostatic cancer using a file of optimized dose fields was proposed (the fields were computed for concrete patients). Basic charts were used to choose a necessary dose field, then the time of irradiation is computed in present directions for each concrete patient. The method was tested during the treatment of 19 patients who were given a course of radiotherapy in an outpatient setting. A continuous course of radiotherapy at a dose of 70-74 Gy was delivered. Radiation reactions of the rectum were insignificant, and they were eliminated without discontinuation of a course of irradiation.

[Formation of dose fields in local irradiation of cancer of the prostate]. / Formirovanie doznykh polei pri lokal'nom obluchenii raka predstatel'noi zhelezy.

The authors compare dose distributions in local irradiation of prostatic cancer using moving methods on distant gamma-units while taking and not taking into account individual structure of body section and bone structures. They propose problems of choice of optimum conditions of gamma-beam therapy in localized prostatic cancer and their solution. Optimum irradiation designs have been found preferable. When individual dose field calculations are impossible to implement, rotational 360 degree irradiation with correction for 8% and absorption in the table of a gamma-therapeutic unit is recommended.

[Ectoparasites of small mammals in the eastern portion of the Baikal-Amure mainline]. / Ektoparazity melkikh mlekopitaiushchikh vostochnoi chasti BAMa.

11.501 ectoparasites of 45 species were collected from small mammals (rodents, shrews and double-toothed rodents) in the north-eastern part of Priamurje. The parasitecoenoses are formed in general by gamasid mites (60.4%) and lice(24.7%) but faunistically fleas (19 species or 42.2%) are dominant. Among all ectoparasites the gamasid mites, Laelaps clethrionomydis and Hirstionyssus isabellinus, and the louse Hoplopleura acanthopus account for 64.9%. The impoverishment of the arthropod fauna in the northern part of Priamurje as compared to southern ones proceeds at the expence of chigger mites and more thermophilous species of gamasids and ixodids. With cultivation of forests the content of members of parasitecoenoses becomes more homogenous and their abundance falls.