Wound infection by Pantoea agglomerans after penetrating plant injury

Pantoea agglomerans is a ubiquitous gram-negative bacterium that has been linked to skin and joint infections secondary to plant injuries. Herein we report a 58-year-old woman who presented with 2 erythematous nodules with purulent discharge on the anterior aspect of the right leg that developed after a penetrating plant injury. The patient was initially treated with amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, cloxacillin and clindamycin without improvement. P. agglomerans was isolated from both exudate and skin biopsy cultures. Healing of the lesions was achieved after the spontaneous release of a retained plant fragment and treatment with cotrimoxazole. Identification of P. agglomerans in persistent exudative lesions should alert the clinician regarding a possible previous plant injury and retained vegetal fragments. Conventional antibiotic treatment and the extraction of retained foreign bodies usually lead to complete resolution.

Diversidade de abelhas (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) e visitação floral em uma área de Mata Atlântica no Sul do Brasil

Resumo. A grande riqueza de abelhas está atrelada à grande diversidade de plantas com flores, que possuem certas atratividades para garantir a visita às flores, e consequente polinização. No Rio Grande do Sul, estudos sobre a fauna de abelhas e a flora apícola associada já foram realizados, porém ainda são escassos. Desta forma, correlacionamos os táxons de abelhas e espécies de plantas coletados em uma área florestal urbana e verificamos as relações ecológicas e tróficas entre elas, especialmente ao nicho da abelha exótica Apis mellifera Linnaeus, sobre as abelhas silvestres. Coletamos nas flores um total de 2.772 abelhas determinadas em cinco famílias, 54 gêneros e 88 táxons. Apidae foi a família melhor representada com 35 espécies e 2.047 indivíduos. As abelhas foram coletadas em 43 espécies de plantas classificadas em 19 famílias botânicas sendo Asteraceae a mais visitada. A planta com o maior número de abelhas coletadas foi Citrus sinensis (L.), 30% do total, tendo A. mellifera a mais representativa. 34% dos táxons de abelhas estão correlacionados às espécies de plantas visitadas, contudo, quando verificamos esta correlação excluindo a espécie A. mellifera,ocorre um aumento significativo, atingindo 93%. A manutenção deste fragmento vegetal a suas flores é importante para conservação da biodiversidade apifauna local.Diversity of bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) and floral visitation in an Atlantic Forest area in southern BrazilAbstract. The high bees’ richness is associated to the great diversity of flowering plants, which have some attractiveness to ensure flowers visiting and the consequent pollination. In Rio Grande do Sul state, studies on the bee fauna associated with bee flora have already been made but are uncommon. In this way, the taxa of bees and plants species visited were correlated, and the ecological and trophic relations between them, particularly in relation to the niche of the exotic bee Apis mellifera Linnaeus on wild bees were analyzed, in an urban forest area. We collected 2,772 bees from the flowers, determined in five families, 54 genera and 88 taxa. Apidae was the best family represented with 35 species and 2,047 individuals. The bees were collected from 43 plants species, classified in 19 botanical families, Asteraceae are the most visited. The plant with the largest number of bees collected was Citrus sinensis (L.), 30% of the bees, and the A. mellifera the most representative. 34% of the taxa of bees are correlated to the species of plants visited, however, when we see this correlation excluding A. mellifera, there is a significant increase, reaching 93%. The maintenance of this plant fragment and the flowers is important for preserving the bees’ biodiversity in this site.

The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Fire

When I started my doctoral research in October 1973 I never imagined that I would spend so much of my career thinking about fire. I had not considered fire as an agent of change on Earth, or that charcoal deposits may preserve its long history on the planet. I had never thought of fire as a preservational mechanism for fossil plants, producing charcoal that would show their anatomy so that they could be identified, and help us to piece together the vegetation that must have clothed the land millions of years ago. In all my years of collecting fossils as a child and student I had never found, or at least noticed, any fossil charcoal. I had wanted to look at the ecology of the plants that were found during the Carboniferous, 300 million years ago. The natural approach was to look at the large fossil plants that could easily be found in rocks such as the Coal Measures that are often found scattered on old coal tips. But many smaller plant fragments are also preserved in the rocks. I started a programme of dissolving the rocks in acids and obtaining residues of the fossil plants that remained. The rocks are made up of minerals that dissolve in different acids from the plant fossils, which are made of organic material. It was hard work, and I spent many hours a day picking through the plant fragment residues, which were about the size of tea leaves, trying to identify what the fragments represented. Incredibly, at that time, few researchers had tried to look at plant fossils in this way. I soon noticed a large number of fragments that looked like charcoal, and examined these with an SEM. Under the SEM the astonishing detail in the charcoalified leaves was revealed (BW Plate 6). The small needle-like leaves had two beautifully preserved rows of stomata. But what kind of plant did they come from? I took the material to Bill Chaloner, who was one of the world’s authorities on the lycopods, one of the most common plants found in the coal measures.

THEORETICAL ASPECTS ON THE MOVEMENT OF PLANT FRAGMENTS ON THE SURFACE OF A PLANE SIFTERS CLASSIFIER

<p>This paper presents the main theoretical elements underlying the process of dimensional separation of the fragments of chopped medicinal plants. To sort chopped plant mixture from the same medicinal plant, there are used vibratory classifiers with plane sifters, which are the active working body. Case studies were conducted and there were analyzed, based on numerical applications, the movements of plant fragments on a classifier with linear vibrations along the sifter, existing in practice. Numerical simulation has provided information on trajectory parameters of the jump of a plant fragment on the vibratory plane sifter, useful elements in the theoretical grounding of the equipment workflow. </p>

THEORETICAL ASPECTS ON THE MOVEMENT OF PLANT FRAGMENTS ON THE SURFACE OF A PLANE SIFTERS CLASSIFIER

This paper presents the main theoretical elements underlying the process of dimensional separation of the fragments of chopped medicinal plants. To sort chopped plant mixture from the same medicinal plant, there are used vibratory classifiers with plane sifters, which are the active working body. Case studies were conducted and there were analyzed, based on numerical applications, the movements of plant fragments on a classifier with linear vibrations along the sifter, existing in practice. Numerical simulation has provided information on trajectory parameters of the jump of a plant fragment on the vibratory plane sifter, useful elements in the theoretical grounding of the equipment workflow.

Vegetation Changes Viewed from Pollen Analysis in Rarotonga, Southern Cook Islands, Eastern Polynesia

This study presents accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates and pollen assemblages of 400-cm core sediments collected from the Karekare Swamp in Rarotonga, Southern Cook Islands, to investigate vegetation changes on the island, in particular those induced by human impacts. Eight 14C dates of charcoal and higher plant fragment samples indicate that the sediments accumulated since ∼6.0 cal kBP, with an apparent interruption of deposition (hiatus) from 130 to 132 cm in depth, corresponding to ∼2.8 to 0.7 cal kBP. The appearance of Chenopodiaceae pollen from upland weeds, and Cucurbitaceae and Vigna pollen grains from cultivated plants suggest that human influence existed in core sediments above 130 cm in depth. The increased abundance of Pandanus pollen and monolate-type fern spores also implies the existence of human activity.