One of the burning problems of our industrial society is the high consumption of water and the high demand for clean drinking water. Numerous approaches have been taken to reduce water consumption, but in the long run it seems only possible to recycle wastewater into high quality water. In this study, an attempt was made to compare the efficiency of aquatic macrophytes like Typha sp., Eichhorni...

WHIGHAM, D. F., T. E. JORDAN AND J. MIKLAS (Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Box 28, Edgewater, MD 21037). Biomass and resource allocation of Typha angustifolia L. (Typhaceae): The effect of within and between year variations in salinity. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 116: 364-370. 1989.-In a brackish wetland dominated by Typha angustifolia, we found similar aboveground and belowground produ...

Several human diseases including, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, neurodegenerative and hepatic diseases are related to destructive effect of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Antioxidants may provide a possible solution to this problem.This study was carried out to investigate the effect of hydroalcoholic extract of Celtis australis on CCl4 induced hepatotoxicity in mice.  The antioxidant activity...

Rickettsiae actively escape from vacuoles and replicate free in the cytoplasm of host cells, where inflammasomes survey the invading pathogens. In the present study, we investigated the interactions of Rickettsia australis with the inflammasome in both mouse and human macrophages. R. australis induced a significant level of IL-1β secretion by human macrophages, which was significantly reduced u...

Compared with non-invasive species, invasive plant species may benefit from certain advantageous traits, for example, higher photosynthesis capacity and resource/energy-use efficiency. These traits can be preadapted prior to introduction, but can also be acquired through evolution following introduction to the new range. Disentangling the origins of these advantageous traits is a fundamental an...

The common reed, Phragmites australis, is a highly aggressive species that outcompetes native species on shorelines, wetlands and roadways across the Great Lakes Basin. Prior to my analysis glyphosate and imazapyr (Habitat 7) herbicides were applied to more than 600 acres at selected sites along the west shore of lower Green Bay. I explored alternative secondary control treatments for increasin...

Eighteen patients involved in a localized outbreak of leptospirosis were subjected to a serological follow-up study over a 5-year period. Four distinct sets of sera from all patients and a fifth sample obtained from 10 of them were examined by the microscopic agglutination test (MAT) for demonstration of leptospiral antibodies. The test was carried out by using live leptospires from reference s...

In the recent article, “Managing Invasive Aquatic Plants in a Changing System: Strategic Consideration of Ecosystem Services,” Hershner and Havens (2008) reject the need to manage certain aquatic plant invaders. The authors claim that Phragmites australis invasion is acceptable because it provides three ecosystem services: habitat, soil stabilization, and nutrient uptake and retention. We stron...

BACKGROUND Heavy metals like Cu, Cd, Pb, Ni, Co and Cr can naturally be found almost all over this planet in various amounts. Urban activities such as heavy metal industry, traffic and waste can rapidly increase the metal concentrations in a fresh water ecosystem. METHODS This study was done in natural conditions to capture as many aspects in heavy metals pollution and bioremediation of Nicol...