Wildlife Tuberculosis in South African Conservation Areas: Implications and Challenges

Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium bovis, was first diagnosed in African buffalo in South Africa’s Kruger National Park in 1990. Over the past 15 years the disease has spread northwards leaving only the most northern buffalo herds unaffected. Evidence suggests that 10 other small and large mammalian species, including large predators, are spillover hosts. Wildlife tuberculosis has also been diagnosed in several adjacent private game reserves and in the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, the third largest game reserve in South Africa. The tuberculosis epidemic has a number of implications, for which the full effect of some might only be seen in the long-term. Potential negative long-term effects on the population dynamics of certain social animal species and the direct threat for the survival of endangered species pose particular problems for wildlife conservationists. On the other hand, the risk of spillover infection to neighboring communal cattle raises concerns about human health at the wildlife–livestock–human interface, not only along the western boundary of Kruger National Park, but also with regards to the joint development of the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area with Zimbabwe and Mozambique. From an economic point of view, wildlife tuberculosis has resulted in national and international trade restrictions for affected species. The lack of diagnostic tools for most species and the absence of an effective vaccine make it currently impossible to contain and control this disease within an infected free-ranging ecosystem. Veterinary researchers and policy-makers have recognized the need to intensify research on this disease and the need to develop tools for control, initially targeting buffalo and lion.

Sofya: Supporting Rapid Development of Dynamic Program Analyses for Java

Dynamic analysis is an increasingly important means of supporting software validation and maintenance. To date, developers of dynamic analyses have used low-level instrumentation and debug interfaces to realize their analyses. Many dynamic analyses, however, share multiple common high-level requirements, e.g., capture of program data state as well as events, and efficient and accurate event capture in the presence of threading. We present SOFYA – an infra-structure designed to provide high-level, efficient, concurrency-aware support for building analyses that reason about rich observations of program data and events. It provides a layered, modular architecture, which has been successfully used to rapidly develop and evaluate a variety of demanding dynamic program analyses. In this paper, we describe the SOFYA framework, the challenges it addresses, and survey several such analyses.

Challenges of Students’ Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) in Library and Information Science in the ICT Environment

The ICT revolution has permeated every profession and all areas of human endeavour. Professions such as law, medicine , engineering, and library and information science are adjusting to the ICT environment through re-tooling, retraining, and curriculum revision. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of ICT on the student industrial work experience scheme (SIWES) of library and information science students. It traces the historical development of the scheme, the ICT development trends in LIS, and the challenges this development brings to SIWES. Strategies to absorb this shock created by ICT are offered.

I. Development of the In Situ Reductive Ozonolysis of Alkenes with Tertiary Amine N-Oxides. II. Progress toward the Asymmetric Synthesis of Peroxyplakoric Acid A3.

Ozone, first discovered in the mid 1800’s, is a triatomic allotrope of oxygen that is a powerful oxidant. For over a century, research has been conducted into the synthetic application and mechanism of reactions of ozone with organic compounds. One of the major areas of interest has been the ozonolysis of alkenes. The production of carbonyl compounds is the most common synthetic application of ozonolysis. The generally accepted mechanism developed by Rudolf Criegee for this reaction involves the 1,3-electrocyclic addition of ozone to the π bond of the alkene to form a 1,2,3-trioxolane or primary ozonide. The primary ozonide is unstable at temperatures above -100 °C and undergoes cycloreversion to produce the carbonyl oxide and carbonyl intermediates. These intermediates then recombine in another 1,3-electrocyclic addition step to form the 1,2,4-trioxolane or final ozonide. While the final ozonide is often isolable, most synthetic applications of ozonolysis require a subsequent reductive or oxidative step to form the desired carbonyl compound. During investigations into the nucleophilic trapping of the reactive carbonyl oxide, it was discovered that when amines were used as additives, an increased amount of reaction time was required in order to consume all of the starting material. Surprisingly, significant amounts of aldehydes and a suppression of ozonide formation also occurred which led to the discovery that amine N-oxides formed by the ozonation of the amine additives in the reaction were intercepting the carbonyl oxide. From the observed production of aldehydes, our proposed mechanism for the in situ reductive ozonolysis reaction with amine N-oxides involves the nucleophilic trapping of the carbonyl oxide intermediate to produce a zwitterionic adduct that fragments into 1O2, amine and the carbonyl thereby avoiding the formation of peroxidic intermediates. With the successful total syntheses of peroxyacarnoates A and D by Dr. Chunping Xu, the asymmetric total synthesis of peroxyplakorate A3 was investigated. The peroxyplakoric acids are cyclic peroxide natural products isolated from the Plakortis species of marine sponge that have been found to exhibit activity against malaria, cancer and fungi. Even though the peroxyplakorates differ from the peroxyacarnoates in the polyunsaturated tail and the head group, the lessons learned from the syntheses of the peroxyacarnoates have proven to be valuable in the asymmetric synthesis of peroxyplakorate A3. The challenges for the asymmetric synthesis of peroxyplakorate A3 include the stereospecific formation of the 3-methoxy-1,2-dioxane core with a propionate head group and the introduction of oxidation sensitive dienyl tail in the presence of a reduction sensitive 1,2-dioxane core. It was found that the stereochemistry of two of the chiral centers could be controlled by an anti-aldol reaction of a chiral propionate followed by the stereospecific intramolecular cyclization of a hydroperoxyacetal. The regioselective ozonolysis of a 1,2-disubstituted alkene in the presence of a terminal alkyne forms the required hydroperoxyacetal as a mixture of diastereomers. Finally, the dienyl tail is introduced by a hydrometallation/iodination of the alkyne to produce a vinyl iodide followed by a palladium catalyzed coupling reaction. While the coupling reaction was unsuccessful in these attempts, it is still believed that the intramolecular cyclization to introduce the 1,2-dioxane core could prove to be a general solution to many other cyclic peroxides natural products.

Applications and Potentials for Biogenic Methane Recovery Operations in Nebraska Agriculture, Industry, and Economic Development

ABSTRACT: This thesis report illustrates the applications and potentials of biogenic methane recovery in Nebraska’s agricultural and industrial sectors and as a means for increasing sustainable economic development in the state’s rural communities. As the nation moves toward a new green economy, biogenic methane recovery as a waste management strategy and renewable energy resource presents significant opportunities for Nebraska to be a national and world leader in agricultural and industrial innovation, advanced research and development of renewable energy technology, and generation of new product markets. Nebraska’s agricultural economy provides a distinct advantage to the state for supporting methane recovery operations that provide long-term economic and environmental partnerships among producers, industry, and communities. These opportunities will serve to protect Nebraska’s agricultural producers from volatile energy input markets and as well as creating new markets for Nebraska agricultural products. They will also serve to provide quality education and employment opportunities for Nebraska students and businesses. There are challenges and issues that remain for the state in order to take advantage of its resource potential. There is a need to produce a comprehensive Nebraska biogenic methane potential study and digital mapping system to identify high-potential producers, co-products, and markets. There is also a need to develop a web-based format of consolidated information specific to Nebraska to aid in connecting producers, service providers, educators, and policy-makers.