Effects of prescribed fire on surface soil in a Pinus pinaster plantation, northern Portugal

In order to decrease the risk of severe wildfire, prescribed fire has recently been adopted in Portugal and elsewhere in the Mediterranean as a major tool for reducing the fuel load instead of manual or mechanical removal of vegetation. There has been some research into its impact on soils in shrublands and grasslands, but to date little research has been conducted in forested areas in the region. As a result, the impact of prescribed fire on the physico-chemical soil characteristics of forest soils has been assumed to be minimal, but this has not been demonstrated. In this study, we present the results of a monitoring campaign of a detailed pre- and post-prescribed fire assessment of soil properties in a long-unburnt P. pinaster plantation, NW Portugal. The soil characteristics examined were pH, total porosity, bulk density, moisture content, organic matter content and litter/ash quantity. The results show that there was no significant impact on the measured soil properties, the only effect being confined to minor changes in the upper 1 cm of soil. We conclude that provided the fire is carried out according to strict guidelines in P. pinaster forest, a minimal impact on soil properties can be expected.

Backside-surface imprinting as a new strategy to generate specific plastic antibody materials

A backside protein-surface imprinting process is presented herein as a novel way to generate specific synthetic antibody materials. The template is covalently bonded to a carboxylated-PVC supporting film previously cast on gold, let to interact with charged monomers and surrounded next by another thick polymer. This polymer is then covalently attached to a transducing element and the backside of this structure (supporting film plus template) is removed as a regular “tape”. The new sensing layer is exposed after the full template removal, showing a high density of re-binding positions, as evidenced by SEM. To ensure that the templates have been efficiently removed, this re-binding layer was cleaned further with a proteolytic enzyme and solution washout. The final material was named MAPS, as in the back-side reading of SPAM, because it acts as a back-side imprinting of this recent approach. It was able to generate, for the first time, a specific response to a complex biomolecule from a synthetic material. Non-imprinted materials (NIMs) were also produced as blank and were used as a control of the imprinting process. All chemical modifications were followed by electrochemical techniques. This was done on a supporting film and transducing element of both MAPS and NIM. Only the MAPS-based device responded to oxLDL and the sensing layer was insensitive to other serum proteins, such as myoglobin and haemoglobin. Linear behaviour between log(C, μg mL−1) versus charged tranfer resistance (RCT, Ω) was observed by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Calibrations made in Fetal Calf Serum (FCS) were linear from 2.5 to 12.5 μg mL−1 (RCT = 946.12 × log C + 1590.7) with an R-squared of 0.9966. Overall, these were promising results towards the design of materials acting close to the natural antibodies and applied to practical use of clinical interest.

Specific label-free and real-time detection of oxidized low density lipoprotein (oxLDL) using an immunosensor with three monoclonal antibodies

Increased levels of plasma oxLDL, which is the oxidized fraction of Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL), are associated with atherosclerosis, an inflammatory disease, and the subsequent development of severe cardiovascular diseases that are today a major cause of death in modern countries. It is therefore important to find a reliable and fast assay to determine oxLDL in serum. A new immunosensor employing three monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against oxLDL is proposed in this work as a quick and effective way to monitor oxLDL. The oxLDL was first employed to produce anti-oxLDL monoclonal antibodies by hybridoma cells that were previously obtained. The immunosensor was set-up by selfassembling cysteamine (Cyst) on a gold (Au) layer (4 mm diameter) of a disposable screen-printed electrode. Three mAbs were allowed to react with N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) and ethyl(dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide (EDAC), and subsequently incubated in the Au/Cys. Albumin from bovine serum (BSA) was immobilized further to ensure that other molecules apart from oxLDL could not bind to the electrode surface. All steps were followed by various characterization techniques such as electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and square wave voltammetry (SWV). The analytical operation of the immunosensor was obtained by incubating the sensing layer of the device in oxLDL for 15 minutes, prior to EIS and SWV. This was done by using standard oxLDL solutions prepared in foetal calf serum, in order to simulate patient's plasma with circulating oxLDL. A sensitive response was observed from 0.5 to 18.0 mg mL 1 . The device was successfully applied to determine the oxLDL fraction in real serum, without prior dilution or necessary chemical treatment. The use of multiple monoclonal antibodies on a biosensing platform seemed to be a successful approach to produce a specific response towards a complex multi-analyte target, correlating well with the level of oxLDL within atherosclerosis disease, in a simple, fast and cheap way.

Effects of prescribed fire on surface soil in a Pinus pinaster plantation, northern Portugal

In order to decrease the risk of severe wildfire, prescribed fire has recently been adopted in Portugal and elsewhere in the Mediterranean as a major tool for reducing the fuel load instead of manual or mechanical removal of vegetation. There has been some research into its impact on soils in shrublands and grasslands, but to date little research has been conducted in forested areas in the region. As a result, the impact of prescribed fire on the physico-chemical soil characteristics of forest soils has been assumed to be minimal, but this has not been demonstrated. In this study, we present the results of a monitoring campaign of a detailed pre- and post-prescribed fire assessment of soil properties in a long-unburnt P. pinaster plantation, NW Portugal. The soil characteristics examined were pH, total porosity, bulk density, moisture content, organic matter content and litter/ash quantity. The results show that there was no significant impact on the measured soil properties, the only effect being confined to minor changes in the upper 1 cm of soil. We conclude that provided the fire is carried out according to strict guidelines in P. pinaster forest, a minimal impact on soil properties can be expected.