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Burial could be used by criminals to conceal the bodies of victims, interfering with the succession of sarcosaprophagous fauna and with the evaluation of post-mortem interval. In Italy, no experimental investigation on arthropods associated with buried remains has been conducted to date. A first experimental study on arthropods associated with buried carcasses was carried out in a rural area of Arcavacata di Rende (Cosenza), Southern Italy, from November 2017 to May 2018. Six pig carcasses (Susscrofa Linnaeus) were used, five of which were buried in 60-cm deep pits, leaving about 25-cm of soil above each carcass, and one was left above ground. One of the buried carcasses was periodically exhumed to evaluate the effects of disturbance on decay processes and on arthropod fauna. The other four carcasses were exhumed only once, respectively after 43, 82, 133, and 171 days. As expected, the decay rate was different among carcasses. Differences in taxa and colonization of arthropod fauna were also detected in the above ground and periodically exhumed carcasses. In carcasses exhumed only once, no arthropod colonization was detected. The results showed that a burial at about 25 cm depth could be sufficient to prevent colonization by sarcosaprophagous taxa and these data could be relevant in forensic cases involving buried corpses.Cereals, particularly wheat, are staple food of the people from the Balkans, dating back to the Neolithic age. In Serbia, cereals are predominantly grown in its northern part between 44° and 45.5° N of the Pannonian Plain. One of the most economically important nematodes on wheat is the cereal cyst nematode, Heterodera filipjevi. Cysts of H. filipjevi survive in soil for years and shelter a large number of microorganisms. The aims of this study were to investigate the diversity of mycobiota associated with the cereal cyst nematode H. filipjevi, to infer phylogenetic relationships of the found mycobiota, and to explore the ecological connection between fungi and the field history, including the potential of fungi in bioremediation and the production of novel bioactive compounds. Cysts were isolated from soil samples with a Spears apparatus and collected on a 150-µm sieve. The cysts were placed on potato dextrose agar, and maintained for two weeks at 27°C. Following fungal isolation and colony growing, the fungal DNA was extracted, the ITS region was amplified, and PCR products were sequenced. The study showed that the isolated fungal species belong to diverse phyla, including Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Mucoromycota. Ascomycota is represented by the families Clavicipitaceae, Sarocladiaceae, Nectriaceae, and Phaeosphaeriaceae. Basidiomycota is represented by the families Cerrenaceae, Polyporaceae, Phanerochaetaceae, and Meruliaceae, and the order Cantharellales. The family Mortierellaceae represents Mucoromycota. The members of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota both depict the field history. Ascomycota indicate the fungal infection is of recent origin, while Basidiomycota point toward the preceding host plants, enabling the plant field colonization history to be traced chronologically.Common treatments for Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS) and associated conditions include removal from pasture and adoption of an all-hay diet. Pharmacological treatments for EMS include metformin, a biguanide antihyperglycemic agent also administered to people to help improve glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. Both treatments may work, at least partially, through the gut microbiota, yet little is known regarding these effects in the equine host. To determine the influence on the fecal microbiota of this diet change and administration of metformin, six healthy horses were removed from pasture and switched to an all-hay diet, with four of those horses also receiving oral metformin for seven days. Control horses (n = 24) remaining on pasture and receiving no metformin were sampled at the beginning and end of one week. All samples were subjected to 16S rRNA sequencing, and horses undergoing the diet change were subjected to an oral sugar test twice, one week apart. Characteristic changes in the microbiota following diet change included the significant expansion of the phylum Kiritimatiellaeota. As Kiritimatiellaeota are related to Verrucomicrobia, found to expand in the microbiota of mice and humans in response to metformin, this taxon may represent the cognate microbes in equine hosts.Engineered mutualistic consortia of microalgae and bacteria may be a means of assembling a novel combination of metabolic capabilities with potential biotechnological advantages. Microalgae are promising organisms for the sustainable production of metabolites of commercial interest, such as lipids, carbohydrates, pigments, and proteins. Several studies reveal that microalgae growth and cellular storage of these metabolites can be enhanced significantly by co-cultivation with growth-promoting bacteria. This review summarizes the state of the art of microalgae-bacteria consortia for the production of microalgal metabolites. We discuss the current knowledge on microalgae-bacteria mutualism and the mechanisms of bacteria to enhance microalgae metabolism. Furthermore, the potential routes for a microalgae-bacteria biorefinery are outlined in an attempt to overcome the economic failures and negative energy balances of the existing production processes.Our objective was to estimate the individual willingness to pay (WTP) for a COVID-19 vaccine and evaluate its predictors in the United States. A double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation with open-ended question technique was implemented based on the responses to a national survey administered during the first week of November 2020. The final sample size was 1285. The results showed that individual WTP values increased with income, whether a household member had any pre-existing condition, and perceived threat of the virus. The vaccine efficacy rate and duration of protection were found to be important factors for the respondents. The mean WTP for a vaccine with a 95 percent efficacy rate and 3-year protection (US$318.76) was approximately 35 percent greater than the vaccine with a 50 percent efficacy rate and 1-year protection (US$236.85). learn more The initial aggregate direct benefit of the current vaccination program was estimated to be between 20 and 35.6 billion US dollars depending on the vaccine protection duration.