background changes in vital signs may affect the myocardial oxygen demand. massage therapy has been used in intensive care units to relive patients’ physical and psychological problems. in all of the studies massaging has been done by a nurse and the patients’ family did not have any role. objectives the present study aimed to examine the effects of massage therapy by patient’s relative on vita...

Living roots and their rhizodeposits affect microbial activity and soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) mineralization. This so-called rhizosphere priming effect (RPE) has been increasingly recognized recently. However, the magnitude of the RPE and its driving mechanisms remain elusive. Here we investigated the RPE of two plant species (soybean and sunflower) grown in two soil types (a farm or a pr...

OBJECTIVE Heat stress (HS) triggers oxidative stress and respiratory alkalosis in pigs. The objective of this experiment was to study whether a short-term supranutritional amount of dietary vitamin E (VE) can mitigate oxidative stress and respiratory alkalosis in heat-stressed pigs. METHODS A total of 24 pigs were given either a control diet (17 IU/kg VE) or a high VE (200 IU/kg VE; HiVE) die...

Studies of biodiversity-ecosystem function in treed ecosystems have generally focused on aboveground functions. This study investigates intertrophic links between tree diversity and soil microbial community function and composition. We examined how microbial communities in surface mineral soil responded to experimental gradients of tree species richness (SR), functional diversity (FD), communit...

Land use is known to be one of the major factors driving soil microbial and physico-chemical properties. Understanding its long-term effect remains a challenge in assessing current functioning. Here, properties recent very forests (forests developed 1958 vs. after 1958) were compared with those ancient (present 1860 assess Use Legacy (LUL). LUL effects further analysed depending on contrasting ...

We determined phosphorus (P) limitation effect on the quantity and quality of dissolved organic matter (DOM) released by heterotrophic prokaryotes (HP). grew two single-bacterial strains from different lifestyles, copiotrophic Photobacterium angustum oligotrophic Sphingopyxis alaskensis, natural HP communities collected in fall spring Mediterranean Sea, glucose under treatments: P-replete versu...

Marine intertidal mollusks, such as oysters, are exposed to multiple stressors in estuaries, including varying environmental temperature and levels of trace metals, which may interactively affect their physiology. In order to understand the combined effects of cadmium and elevated temperature on mitochondrial bioenergetics of marine mollusks, respiration rates and mitochondrial volume changes w...

Microbial transformations of organic carbon (OC) generate a large flux of CO2 into the atmosphere and influence the C balance of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Yet, inherent heterogeneity in natural environments precludes direct quantification of multiple microbial C fluxes that underlie CO2 production. Here we used a continuous flow bioreactor coupled with a stable C isotope analyzer to d...

The quality of two kiwifruit varieties [ Actinidia chinensis var. deliciosa , ‘Hayward’ (green-fleshed), and ‘Zesy002’ (gold-fleshed)] was determined after X-ray irradiation at doses suitable for disinfestation quarantine pests. Fruit were treated with 0, 200, 400, 600, or 800 Gy stored 14 days 2 °C. Irradiation did not affect soluble solids content, respiration rate, taste. Minimal softening o...

The contamination of agricultural soils by heavy metals is a global problem. Soil texture as a biotic factor represents one of the most important factors that influences the distribution of organic matter and ultimately play decisive role in retention of heavy metals in soil ecosystem. The effects of heavy metals on soil microbial processes were investigated. Analytical grade sulphate and chlor...