Vegetation and edaphic factors influence rapid establishment of distinct fungal communities on former coal-spoil sites

We investigated re-establishment of fungal communities on eight former colliery sites in South Wales following revegetation 22–27 y earlier. Regraded bare coal-spoil was seeded to sheep-grazed grasslands, with saplings planted into coal-spoil for woodlands. Metabarcoding (28S rRNA, D1 region) of soil fungal populations showed that woodland and grassland habitats were clearly divergent but edaphic variables only weakly affected fungal community structure. Root-associated basidiomycetes dominated all habitats, with ectomycorrhizal fungi more abundant in woodlands and Clavariaceae/Hygrophoraceae (‘CHEG’ fungi) in grasslands. The composition of coal-spoil grassland communities resembled that of a typical upland grassland site, suggesting that propagule immigration was not a limiting factor. However, fungal biomass (ergosterol) was 3-fold lower, reflecting high bulk density and poor structure. Re-establishment of fungal communities in coal-spoil soils represents an important barometer of restoration success. From a fungal conservation perspective, such sites represent important refugia for waxcap fungi subject to habitat loss from agricultural intensificatio

Five-year follow-up of Japanese patients with Paget's disease of the bone after treatment with low-dose oral alendronate: a case series

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Paget's disease of the bone is characterized by focal abnormalities of increased bone turnover affecting one or more sites throughout the skeleton. Although this disease is rare in Japan, it is common in western and southern Europe, and among British migrants in Australia and New Zealand. Bisphosphonates have been widely used for the treatment of Paget's disease of the bone and are considered to be the treatment of choice. However, there have been few reports on the long-term follow-up examination of patients after their treatment with bisphosphonates.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the treatment with a low dose of oral alendronate (5 mg per day) which was effective in reducing bone turnover and pain over the five-year follow-up period in two Japanese patients, a 66-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman, with Paget's disease of the bone. Furthermore, in one patient, no clinical symptoms, such as bone pain or increases in serum total alkaline phosphatase and urinary N-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen as markers of bone turnover, were observed over the patient's five-year follow-up period.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a long-term follow-up of patients with Paget's disease of the bone after a six-month treatment with low-dose oral alendronate (5 mg per day).</p

Teaching word recognition to children with severe learning difficulties: an exploratory comparison of teaching methods

Background: Some children with severe learning difficulties fail to begin word recognition. For these children there is a need for an effective and appropriate pedagogy. However, conflicting advice can be found regarding this derived from teaching approaches that are not based on a shared understanding of how reading develops or the skills that the non-reader needs to master. Purpose: In this research, three techniques for teaching word recognition in this context are described and compared: (1) the handle technique, (2) morphing method and (3) word alone. It also discusses whether it is appropriate for such small-scale research to influence pedagogy. Programme description: The handle technique uses an abstract mnemonic cue used to teach word recognition, and previous research indicates it is more successful than the presentation of words alone. The morphing method transforms a word into a photographic picture and a previous study suggested that it might also be more effective that presenting words alone. Sample: Six children between 11 and 13 years of age were selected. The criterion for selection was being unable to recognise any words from the British Ability Scales Reading Test. All the children attended a school for children with severe learning difficulties. Design and methods: A three-condition related design was used. The order in which the conditions were presented was counterbalanced and each child was taught 12 words, four words in each experimental condition. The children encountered each of the three methods and overall each word was taught via each method. Within conditions (teaching methods), the presentation of words was randomised. The number of words that the children could read (without cues) before each session was recorded, following the presentation of the uncued words in a random order. The difference in the number of words recognised between the three conditions was considered using a non-parametric statistical analysis. Results: The results suggest that the handle approach might be a more effective method of teaching word recognition. Conclusion: Research in this area is necessarily small in scale. However, it is ongoing and cumulative, and can give insights into potentially beneficial changes in classroom practice

FungalTraits:A user-friendly traits database of fungi and fungus-like stramenopiles

The cryptic lifestyle of most fungi necessitates molecular identification of the guild in environmental studies. Over the past decades, rapid development and affordability of molecular tools have tremendously improved insights of the fungal diversity in all ecosystems and habitats. Yet, in spite of the progress of molecular methods, knowledge about functional properties of the fungal taxa is vague and interpretation of environmental studies in an ecologically meaningful manner remains challenging. In order to facilitate functional assignments and ecological interpretation of environmental studies we introduce a user friendly traits and character database FungalTraits operating at genus and species hypothesis levels. Combining the information from previous efforts such as FUNGuild and Fun(Fun) together with involvement of expert knowledge, we reannotated 10,210 and 151 fungal and Stramenopila genera, respectively. This resulted in a stand-alone spreadsheet dataset covering 17 lifestyle related traits of fungal and Stramenopila genera, designed for rapid functional assignments of environmental studies. In order to assign the trait states to fungal species hypotheses, the scientific community of experts manually categorised and assigned available trait information to 697,413 fungal ITS sequences. On the basis of those sequences we were able to summarise trait and host information into 92,623 fungal species hypotheses at 1% dissimilarity threshold

Low lead levels in pagetoid bone

The hypothesis that accumulation of trace elements in bone is an etiologic influence in Paget's disease was investigated by comparing the trace element content of pagetoid and normal bone. An initial analysis of iliac bone samples obtained at autopsy from 11 cases and 11 age- and sex-matched controls was carried out using emission spectrometry. Of the 12 elements present in detectable amounts, only lead showed large differences in concentration between diseased and normal bone. Mean lead levels were lower in diseased bone, both in comparison with bone from the controls and in comparison with normal bone from the cases. A second analysis, using atomic absorption spectrometry, was carried out on an additional 10 case/control pairs together with the original 11 pairs. This analysis was restricted to lead, barium, and strontium. Again, mean lead levels were lower in diseased bone. This difference was shown in both case/control groups. When results for the two groups were combined, mean levels of barium were also lower in diseased bone. Mean lead levels in normal bone from cases were lower than those in normal bone from their matched controls, suggesting an abnormality of lead distribution within the skeleton which is not confined to diseased bone. © 1983