Metals phytotoxicity assessment in soils is predominantly based on laboratory testing. In this paper, we evaluated the effect of the duration of laboratory testing on copper toxicity levels, in ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) grown in soils polluted by copper mining. Laboratory testing was carried out according to the protocols of ISO 11269-2, 2012 (for 21 days) and ISO 22 030, 2005 (for 60 days). When tested for 21 days, the soil copper content had no statistically significant effect on plant growth or on the ryegrass shoot copper content. Conversely, when tested for 60 days, plant growth was inversely proportional to the total soil copper content and to the soil exchangeable copper concentration. Therefore, short-term testing underestimated copper phytotoxicity. The results of this study demonstrate that long-term laboratory testing is required to realistically predict metal toxicity in plants grown under the real conditions of natural and agricultural ecosystems.
DNA sequence data of full chloroplast genomes provide various genetic information and contribute to clarifying the evolutionary relationships among species and expands the understanding of plant diversity. This study presents the first complete chloroplast genome sequences of Lagochilus vvedenskyi and Lagochilus seravschanicus, two endemic species from Uzbekistan, and provides a comparative genomic analysis with Lagochilus ilicifolius. The circular chloroplast genomes exhibited the typical quadripartite structure, with sizes ranging from 151,159 to 151,500 bp, and contained 133 annotated genes, including 88 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. Comparative analysis revealed highly conserved genome structures among the species, although minor differences were observed at the inverted repeat boundary regions. The GC content across the genomes was 38.6%, with higher GC proportions within the inverted repeat regions. A total of 212-216 simple sequence repeats were detected with mononucleotide A/T repeats being dominant, the predominantly location was found in the large single-copy region. A total of 50 long repeat sequences containing forward, palindromic, reverse repeats were identified, predominantly 20-29 bp in size. Codon usage analysis showed similar patterns among the species, with a preference for codons ending in A or U. Sliding window analysis of nucleotide diversity (Pi) detected six highly variable regions (matK-rps16, rps16-psbK, trnT-psbD, trnLtrnF, rpl32-trnL, and ycf1), proposed as potential molecular markers for future phylogenetic and conservation studies. Phylogenetic analyses based on 24 Lamiaceae chloroplast genomes confirmed the close relationship of Lagochilus species with Leonurus and Phlomoides, supporting their classification within the tribe Leonureae. This study provides new genetic information for Lagochilus and contributes valuable insights into the evolution and taxonomy of the Lamiaceae family. (c) 2025 National Science Museum of Korea (NSMK) and Korea National Arboretum (KNA). Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4.0/).
According to the World Health Organization, road traffic accidents cause approximately 1.35 million deaths worldwide each year, making them the eighth leading cause of death across all age groups and the primary cause of death among individuals aged 5 to 29 years. Mortality rates are disproportionately higher in countries with lower standards of living, particularly in Africa. Of the 30 countries with the highest road traffic fatality rates, 25 are African nations. Liberia recorded the highest mortality rate in 2018, with 35.9 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, largely attributed to poor road infrastructure and inadequate or delayed medical services following accidents. In contrast, Western European countries exhibit the lowest fatality rates globally. Excluding very small states, Switzerland and Norway report the lowest mortality levels at 2.7 deaths per 100,000 population. Within Europe, Russia represents the most disadvantaged case, with a mortality rate of 18, followed closely by several post-Soviet states such as Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia, and Ukraine. These disparities highlight the strong influence of infrastructure quality, healthcare systems, and socioeconomic conditions on road safety outcomes.
Ultrafast laser nanostructuring of semiconductor substrates can markedly improve the sensitivity of Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS). In this work, we investigated the SERS response of rhodamine 6G (R6G) on regular laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) fabricated on silicon using femtosecond laser pulses and subsequently decorated with silver nanoparticles produced by femtosecond laser ablation in ethanol. The resulting hybrid substrates enabled uniform analyte adsorption and efficient formation of plasmonic hotspots, allowing reliable detection of R6G down to 10(-)(7) M. Compared to planar silicon, the nanostructured surfaces exhibited an approximately 25-fold higher enhancement factor, arising from stronger light backscattering by the periodic architecture and the tighter packing of Ag nanoparticles within the LIPSS valleys, which reduces interparticle spacing and increases electromagnetic coupling. FDTD simulations further revealed that the electric field intensifies dramatically when nanoparticle separations approach 2 nm significantly stronger than at 10 nm corroborating the experimentally observed enhancement.
The CdS nanocrystallite films prepared by thermal deposition are characterized by different morphological and optical methods. The nonlinear optical absorption of 1030 nm and 515 nm, 200 fs radiation in the films is determined. The competition of saturable absorption and two-photon absorption is shown in the case of the variation of the pulse energies of the visible and infrared radiation. We show the overlap of the positive and negative nonlinear absorption in different energy ranges of the probe pulses. The saturated intensities of the CdS film are determined to be 1.7 × 1012 W cm−2 in the case of 1030 nm probe pulses and 1.3 × 1011 W cm−2 in the case of 515 nm probe pulses. The two-photon absorption coefficient in the case of 1030 nm pulses is calculated to be 4.7 × 10−8 cm W−1. The two-photon absorption coefficient in the case of 515 nm probe pulses is determined to be 8 × 10−8 cm W−1.
