Silicon (Si) is recognized as a beneficial element for plant growth and plays an increasingly important role in agricultural sustainability and environmental preservation. The Pampean Plain region, characterized by its high fertility and intensive agricultural use, is increasingly affected by pressures that alter soil–plant–environment interactions. This study provides the first field-based data on the dynamics of silicophytoliths and silicon in undisturbed Mollisols of the southeastern Pampean Plain, assessing their influence on soil chemical and mineralochemical properties. Silicophytoliths were characterized by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDS). Contents of silicon, macronutrients, micronutrients, and potentially toxic elements were analyzed in soil solution using spectrophotometry and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Microscopic analyses revealed various elements associated with silicophytoliths, confirming their role as dynamic sources and sinks of elements in the soil solution. Furthermore, nanospherical internal structures inside silicophytoliths were characterized for the first time in surface soil horizons, revealing preferential element retention at internanosphere microsites. Overall, element contents decreased with depth within the studied horizons (A and BA, 0–23 cm). Positive correlations were observed between silicon and most nutrients and potentially toxic elements in both analyzed horizons, whereas phosphorus exhibited an opposite trend. These results establish the first geochemical baseline for silicon dynamics in undisturbed Mollisols and provide a reference framework for evaluating how agricultural intensification, grassland conversion and other land-use changes may alter silicon and silicophytolith biogeochemical dynamics under field conditions in temperate grassland soils.
This work aims to develop bio-based oxygenated fuel additives through the acetalization of furfural with two polyols - ethylene glycol and glycerol - using an ionic liquid (IL), 1-(4-sulfonic acid) butyl-3-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate [C(4)SO(3)Hmim][HSO4], as a homogeneous acid catalyst, as well as two series of heterogeneous catalysts prepared by supporting this IL on silica gel 60 and SBA-15 mesoporous silica at variable loadings (10-50 wt%). All catalysts showed good activity in the formation of the target cyclic ether products: 2-(furan-2-yl)-1,3-dioxolane (I), cis/trans-(2-(furan-2-yl)-1,3-dioxolan-4-yl)methanol (II), and cis/trans-2-(furan-2-yl)-1,3-dioxan-5-ol (III). The supported catalysts outperformed the unsupported IL: the best-performing catalyst, SBAIL30, achieved a cyclic acetal yield of 51%, compared to 40% obtained with the free IL under the same conditions. This sample is characterized by its elevated number of strong acid sites, derived from sulfonic groups within the IL structure, as confirmed by XPS analysis. Furthermore, heterogeneous catalysts significantly altered the stereochemical outcome of the reaction: while the 6-membered ring product (III) predominates in the uncatalyzed reaction, the SILx and SBAILx catalysts favored formation of the 5-membered ring isomer (II), with isomer ratios of up to 64:36 (II:III) for SBAIL30 and > 70% selectivity toward II for SBAIL40.
The present guideline summarizes all aspects of patch testing for the diagnosis of contact allergy in patients suspected of suffering, or having been suffering, from allergic contact dermatitis or other delayed-type hypersensitivity skin and mucosal conditions. Sections with brief descriptions and discussions of different pertinent topics are followed by a highlighted short practical recommendation. Topics comprise, after an introduction with important definitions, materials, technique, modifications of epicutaneous testing, individual factors influencing the patch test outcome or necessitating special considerations, children, patients with occupational contact dermatitis and drug eruptions as special groups, patch testing of materials brought in by the patient, adverse effects of patch testing, and the final evaluation and patient counselling based on this judgement. Finally, short reference is made to aspects of (continuing) medical education and to electronic collection of data for epidemiological surveillance.
Audio comprehension—including speech, non-speech sounds, and music—is essential for achieving human-level intelligence. Consequently, AI agents must demonstrate holistic audio understanding to qualify as generally intelligent. However, evaluating auditory intelligence comprehensively remains challenging. To address this gap, we introduce MMAU-Pro, the most comprehensive and rigorously curated benchmark for assessing audio intelligence in AI systems. MMAU-Pro contains 5,305 instances, where each instance has one or more audios paired with human expert-generated question-answer pairs, spanning speech, sound, music, and their combinations. Unlike existing benchmarks, MMAU-Pro evaluates auditory intelligence across 49 unique skills and multiple complex dimensions, including long-form audio comprehension, spatial audio reasoning, multi-audio understanding, among others. All questions are meticulously designed to require deliberate multi-hop reasoning, including both multiple-choice and open-ended response formats. Importantly, audio data is sourced directly ``from the wild" rather than from existing datasets with known distributions. We evaluate 22 leading open-source and proprietary multimodal AI models, revealing significant limitations: even state-of-the-art models such as Gemini 2.5 Flash and Audio Flamingo 3 achieve only 57.33% and 45.9% accuracy, respectively, approaching random performance in multiple categories. Our extensive analysis highlights specific shortcomings and provides novel insights, offering actionable perspectives for the community to enhance future AI systems' progression toward audio general intelligence.
Postpartum estrous (PPE) rats are able to care for their litter and copulate with a male, however when given the choice, they prefer their pups over males. This preference is stronger in multiparous rats than in primiparous rats, indicating that previous reproductive experience increases their maternal motivation. Dopaminergic neurotransmission, particularly that acting on D1-like receptors in the Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) and the medial Preoptic Area (mPOA), has been implicated in controlling maternal motivation and maternal behavior execution. Determining whether the dopaminergic system differs between primiparous and multiparous PPE rats. Two approaches were employed: 1) determining the effect of systemic administration of the selective D1-like receptors antagonist SCH-23390 (at 0.0, 0.025, and 0.05 mg/kg doses) on maternal behavior execution and locomotion, and 2) determining D1- and D2-like receptors binding in the NAcc, dorsal striatum, medial prefrontal cortex, and mPOA of primiparous and multiparous PPE rats. SCH-23390 reduced the active components of maternal behavior and locomotor activity in PPE rats, with the lower dose of this D1-like receptors antagonist having greater effects in multiparous females. Compared to primiparous females, multiparous rats also exhibited increased binding to the D1-like receptors antagonist [3H]-SCH-23390 in NAcc and dorsal striatum and reduced binding to the D2-like receptors antagonist [3H]-nemonapride in the NAcc shell. These findings demonstrate that prior reproductive experience alters the behavioral sensitivity to SCH-23390 and its binding in the striatum of PPE rats.
