BACKGROUND Agricultural workers are exposed to airborne pollutants, including organic and inorganic (mineral) dusts. OBJECTIVES Lung autopsy specimens from consecutive coroner's cases of Hispanic males in Fresno County, California, (n = 112) were obtained to determine whether mineral dust exposure in agricultural work leads to pneumoconiosis. METHODS The left lung was fixed by inflation. We...

Increases in atmospheric C have resulted in concerns about global warming and interest in finding means to sequester atmospheric C through land management strategies. The purpose of this study was to (i) compare changes in mineral soil C after a 30-year interval and (ii) examine the role of inorganic-N, soil texture, and topography in these changes. Soil samples were collected at permanently id...

PURPOSE To evaluate the effects of physical activity on bone mineral density, bone mineral content, and lean mass in postmenopausal, overweight/obese women. METHODS We conducted a 12-month randomized controlled aerobic exercise intervention versus control in 173 sedentary, overweight/obese, postmenopausal women, aged 50-75 yr. The exercise prescription consisted of >or=45 min of moderate-inte...

Forest fires are important contributors of C, N, and Hg to the atmosphere. In the fall of 2011, a large wildfire occurred in northern Minnesota and we were able to quickly access the area to sample the forest floor and mineral soil for C, N, and Hg pools. When compared with unburned reference soils, the mean loss of C resulting from fire in the forest floor and the upper 20 cm of mineral soil w...

†Background Plants require at least 14 mineral elements for their nutrition. These include the macronutrients nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and sulphur (S) and the micronutrients chlorine (Cl), boron (B), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni) and molybdenum (Mo). These are generally obtained from the soil. Crop production is o...

Dairy farmers have been longing for simple and economical methods of early pregnancy diagnosis. Urine based biochemical and mineral assays could be one of those methods, owing to the ease of sample collection and relatively simple and economical assays involved. However, basic information on changes in urinary composition during early pregnancy in cattle is lacking. This study was designed to e...

Although nitrogen (N) availability is a major determinant of ecosystem properties, little is known about the ecological importance of plants' preference for ammonium versus nitrate (β) for ecosystem functioning and the structure of communities. We modeled this preference for two contrasting ecosystems and showed that β significantly affects ecosystem properties such as biomass, productivity, an...

H. Hasegawa, R. Tada, X. Jiang, Y. Suganuma, S. Imsamut, P. Charusiri, N. Ichinnorov, and Y. Khand Department of Earth and Planetary Science, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Chengdu Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, Chengdu, China National Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo, Japan Department of Mineral Resources, Bureau of Geological Survey, Bangkok, Thailand Department of Geolo...

Nitrogen (N) limits productivity in many coniferous forests of the western US, but the influence of postfire structure on N cycling rates in early successional stands is not well understood. We asked if the heterogeneity created by downed wood and regenerating pine saplings affected N mineralization and microbial community composition in 15-yr old lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) ...

Although mineral oils are generally considered nontoxic and have a long history of use in humans, the mineral oil Bayol F (incomplete Freund's adjuvant, IFA) and certain mineral oil components (squalene and n-hexadecane) induce lupus-related anti-nRNP/Sm or -Su autoantibodies in nonautoimmune mice. In the present study, we investigated whether medicinal mineral oils can induce other types of au...