Bioactive Metabolites and Biomarkers from Rhizophoraceae mangroves- A Chemotaxonomic Approach

Mangroves are specialised ecosystems developed along estuarine sea coasts and river mouths in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, mainly in the intertidal zone. Hence, the ecosystem and its biological components is under the influence of both marine and freshwater conditions and has developed a set of physiological adaptations to overcome problems of anoxia, salinity and frequent tidal inundations. This has led to the assemblage of a wide variety of plant and animal species of special adaptations suited to the ecosystem. The path of photosynthesis in mangroves is different from other glycophytes. There are modifications or alterations in other physiological processes such as carbohydrate metabolism or polyphenol synthesis. As they survive under extreme conditions of salinity, temperature, tides and anoxic soil conditions they may have chemical compounds, which protect them from these destructive elements. Mangroves are necessarily tolerant of high salt levels and have mechanisms to take up water despite strong osmotic potentials. Some also take up salts, but excrete them through specialised glands in the leaves. Others transfer salts into senescent leaves or store them in the bark or the wood. Still others simply become increasingly conservative in their water use as water salinity increases. A usual transportation or biosynthetic path as other plants cannot be expected in mangrove plants. In India, the states like West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra, and Gujarat occupy vast area of mangroves. Kerala has only 6 km2 total mangrove area with Rhizophora apiculata, Rhizophora mucronata, Bruguiera gymnorrhiza, Bruguiera cylindrica, Avicennia officinalis, Sonneratia caseolaris, Sonneratia apetala and Kandelia candal, as the important species present, most of which belong to the family Rhizophoraceae.Rhizophoraceae mangroves are ranked as “major elements of mangroves” as they give the real shape of this unique and interesting ecosystem and these mangrove species most productive and typical characteristic ecosystem of World renowned. It was found that the Rhizophoraceae mangrove extracts exhibit several bioactive properties. Various parts of these mangroves are used in ethnomedicinal practices. Even though extracts from these mangroves possess therapeutic activity against humans, animal and plant pathogens, the specific metabolites responsible for these bioactivities remains to be elucidated. Various parts of these mangroves are used in ethnomedicinal practices. There is a gap of information towards the chemistry of Rhizophoraceae mangroves from Kerala. Thorough phytochemical investigation can achieve the validity of ethnomedicines as well as apply the use of mangrove plants in the development of new drugs. Such studies can pave a firm base for their use in biomarker and chemotaxonomic studies as well as for the better management of the existing mangrove ecosystem. In this study, the various chemical parameters including minerals, biochemical components, bioactive and biomarker molecules were used to classify and assess the possible potentials of the mangrove plants of the true mangrove family Rhizophoraceae from Kochi.

Migration and Spatial Development

This is an empirical study with theoretical interpretation and elaboration simultaneously on the migration process and the related spatial development in contemporary China. In so doing, there is always a combination of series of studies of the modernization of the migrants themselves with accumulation of forms of capital and changes of lebenswelt (life world) as well as the regions of their origins by the effective use of the gained resources from outgoing migration and remigration. With great efforts made to put the issues together for analysis, the author has taken three approaches to the study based on the political and economic institutional arrangements, the field work data and the elaboration of respective findings. First, as the analytical parts of the institutional changes, which have gone through the whole research, many of the policies from state level to townships involved in the migration, remigration and spatial development have been interpreted with Chinese political and cultural insight. The making of these, as the means of understanding the contexts of macro level and micro level cases is served as key linkages between scholarly imagination and social reality. Indeed most of the discussions made to explain the phenomena such as the sudden upsurge of migration flows, the emergence of three generations, the strong and weak trends of remigration as well as the related spatial development planning, etc are mainly due to the domination, at least the impact of governments decision-making in spite of growing market functioning in often operative manners. Secondly, case studies of the effects of migration and remigration are carried out between the years of 1995 and 2005 in the costal urban regions as designations and the interior rural regions as origins. Conducted mainly by the author, the cases drawn in the research focus on the process of migration with an accumulation of forms of capital away from home and the effective use of the resources flowing back to home areas. As a result, ways of accumulation and utilization of the economic, social and cultural capital are described and interpreted in terms of the development and modernization of both the migrants themselves and the regions where they come out from or move to in the future. Thirdly, in accordance with the findings generated from the cases, the author proposes in the final chapter an important argumentation as conclusion that the duel social-economic structure will inevitably be broken up and reformulated with flows of migrants and forms of capital they possess as types of future spatial development that will be put into practice. With scenarios and all the other conclusions worked out in the end, the research concludes that the pluralistic spatial development in the condition of constant space flows between regions can be a decisive line of thinking in the process of urbanization, industrialization and modernization in the long run in the future. Since this is an exploratory study of the past and present, the author has left some space open for academic debates and put forward suggestions on the inclusion of future research before implementing policies necessary for migration associated spatial practice and development.

Assessment of land use and land cover changes during the last 50 years in oases and surrounding rangelands of Xinjiang, NW China

An analysis of historical Corona images, Landsat images, recent radar and Google Earth® images was conducted to determine land use and land cover changes of oases settlements and surrounding rangelands at the fringe of the Altay Mountains from 1964 to 2008. For the Landsat datasets supervised classification methods were used to test the suitability of the Maximum Likelihood Classifier with subsequent smoothing and the Sequential Maximum A Posteriori Classifier (SMAPC). The results show a trend typical for the steppe and desert regions of northern China. From 1964 to 2008 farmland strongly increased (+ 61%), while the area of grassland and forest in the floodplains decreased (- 43%). The urban areas increased threefold and 400 ha of former agricultural land were abandoned. Farmland apparently affected by soil salinity decreased in size from 1990 (1180 ha) to 2008 (630 ha). The vegetated areas of the surrounding rangelands decreased, mainly as a result of overgrazing and drought events.The SMAPC with subsequent post processing revealed the highest classification accuracy. However, the specific landscape characteristics of mountain oasis systems required labour intensive post processing. Further research is needed to test the use of ancillary information for an automated classification of the examined landscape features.

Effects of activated charcoal and quebracho tannins on the turnover of goat manure in irrigated organic agriculture of the subtropics

Agriculture in semi-arid and arid regions is constantly gaining importance for the security of the nutrition of humankind because of the rapid population growth. At the same time, especially these regions are more and more endangered by soil degradation, limited resources and extreme climatic conditions. One way to retain soil fertility under these conditions in the long run is to increase the soil organic matter. Thus, a two-year field experiment was conducted to test the efficiency of activated charcoal and quebracho tannin extract as stabilizers of soil organic matter on a sandy soil low in nutrients in Northern Oman. Both activated charcoal and quebracho tannin extract were either fed to goats and after defecation applied to the soil or directly applied to the soil in combination with dried goat manure. Regardless of the application method, both additives reduced decomposition of soil-applied organic matter and thus stabilized and increased soil organic carbon. The nutrient release from goat manure was altered by the application of activated charcoal and quebracho tannin extract as well, however, nutrient release was not always slowed down. While activated charcoal fed to goats, was more effective in stabilising soil organic matter and in reducing nutrient release than mixing it, for quebracho tannin extract the opposite was the case. Moreover, the efficiency of the additives was influenced by the cultivated crop (sweet corn and radish), leading to unexplained interactions. The reduced nutrient release caused by the stabilization of the organic matter might be the reason for the reduced yields for sweet corn caused by the application of manure amended with activated charcoal and quebracho tannin extract. Radish, on the other hand, was only inhibited by the presence of quebracho tannin extract but not by activated charcoal. This might be caused by a possible allelopathic effect of tannins on crops. To understand the mechanisms behind the changes in manure, in the soil, in the mineralisation and the plant development and to resolve detrimental effects, further research as recommended in this dissertation is necessary. Particularly in developing countries poor in resources and capital, feeding charcoal or tannins to animals and using their faeces as manure may be promising to increase soil fertility, sequester carbon and reduce nutrient losses, when yield reductions can be resolved.

Bilateral trade between New Zealand & the pacific alliance: perspectives and possibilities for further trade engagement

Due to the rapid and effective success of countries in the Pacific Rim for the last two decades, current world trade attention has been focussed on what appears to be the common vision of the ‘Pacific Century’. Reducing attention from the Atlantic and focusing it on the Pacific represents a new challenge for countries touching this ocean. The main Latin American economies bordering the pacific have taken upon this challenge with the creation of the Pacific Alliance in 2011. In this way, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru intend to penetrate and increase trade with the region by forming a coalition. The Pacific Alliance has attracted international attention, interest and support from nations around the world, counting 32 countries as observers; 7 are actually located in the region and six of them rank amongst the Top 15 world economies. As is expected, the possibility of closer trade engagement with big players such as China, India, Japan, South Korea or Australia absorb the main attention of media, governments and academics alike, leaving behind other feasible and possible opportunities unattended. That is precisely the case of New Zealand and its favourable commerce opportunities with the Pacific Alliance. The following document will study the major trends and variations in trade between New Zealand, the Pacific Alliance and its members between 2010 and 2014. Proving that mutual trade is most likely to keep on growing.

The use of insect cells to identify potent and selective inhibitors of the replication of the Dengue and Chikungunya viruses and unravel their molecular mechanism of action

Dengue and Chikungunya viruses cause the most important arthropod-borne viral infections for humans. These viruses are predominant in tropical and subtropical regions. In addition, these viruses are predominant in tropical and subtropical regions. Dengue mortality rate is around 1.2 to 3.5% and deaths due to chikungunya fever are around 1 in 1000; however, half of chikungunya-infected patients evolve into a chronic state that can persist for months up to years. There are no antiviral drugs available for DENV and CHIKV treatment and prevention. Moreover, vector control strategies have failed so far. Thus, the development of potent inhibitors for a broad spectrum of RNA viruses is urgently needed. We established and characterized a new embryonic insect cell line from Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito. Also we established the flaviviruses and alphavirus replication, both in C6/36 and Lulo insect cell lines, as well as in Vero cell line. In addition we carried out a reference compound library and reference panel of assays and data for DENV, which provides a benchmark for further studies. During this study, a panel of 9 antiviral molecules, with proven in vitro anti-dengue virus activity and that act at different stages of the DENV life cycle, was selected. Finally, Favipiravir or T-705, was identified as inhibitor in vitro and in vivo of alphaviruses and the mutation K291R in nsP4, which is responsible of the polymerase activity, was found as the mode of action in CHIKV. Interestingly, lysine in motif F1 is also highly conserved in positive-stranded RNA viruses and this might explain the broad spectrum of T-705 antiviral activity.

Visibility and proximity on triangulated surfaces

En aquesta tesi es solucionen problemes de visibilitat i proximitat sobre superfícies triangulades considerant elements generalitzats. Com a elements generalitzats considerem: punts, segments, poligonals i polígons. Les estrategies que proposem utilitzen algoritmes de geometria computacional i hardware gràfic. Comencem tractant els problemes de visibilitat sobre models de terrenys triangulats considerant un conjunt d'elements de visió generalitzats. Es presenten dos mètodes per obtenir, de forma aproximada, mapes de multi-visibilitat. Un mapa de multi-visibilitat és la subdivisió del domini del terreny que codifica la visibilitat d'acord amb diferents criteris. El primer mètode, de difícil implementació, utilitza informació de visibilitat exacte per reconstruir de forma aproximada el mapa de multi-visibilitat. El segon, que va acompanyat de resultats d'implementació, obté informació de visibilitat aproximada per calcular i visualitzar mapes de multi-visibilitat discrets mitjançant hardware gràfic. Com a aplicacions es resolen problemes de multi-visibilitat entre regions i es responen preguntes sobre la multi-visibilitat d'un punt o d'una regió. A continuació tractem els problemes de proximitat sobre superfícies polièdriques triangulades considerant seus generalitzades. Es presenten dos mètodes, amb resultats d'implementació, per calcular distàncies des de seus generalitzades sobre superfícies polièdriques on hi poden haver obstacles generalitzats. El primer mètode calcula, de forma exacte, les distàncies definides pels camins més curts des de les seus als punts del poliedre. El segon mètode calcula, de forma aproximada, distàncies considerant els camins més curts sobre superfícies polièdriques amb pesos. Com a aplicacions, es calculen diagrames de Voronoi d'ordre k, i es resolen, de forma aproximada, alguns problemes de localització de serveis. També es proporciona un estudi teòric sobre la complexitat dels diagrames de Voronoi d'ordre k d'un conjunt de seus generalitzades en un poliedre sense pesos.

Mortality of Migratory Birds from Marine Commercial Fisheries and Offshore Oil and Gas Production in Canada

There is an imminent need for conservation and best-practice management efforts in marine ecosystems where global-scale declines in the biodiversity and biomass of large vertebrate predators are increasing and marine communities are being altered. We examine two marine-based industries that incidentally take migratory birds in Canada: (1) commercial fisheries, through bycatch, and (2) offshore oil and gas exploration, development, and production. We summarize information from the scientific literature and technical reports and also present new information from recently analyzed data to assess the magnitude and scope of mortality. Fisheries bycatch was responsible for the highest levels of incidental take of migratory bird species; estimated combined take in the longline, gillnet, and bottom otter trawl fisheries within the Atlantic, including the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Pacific regions was 2679 to 45,586 birds per year. For the offshore oil and gas sector, mortality estimates ranged from 188 to 4494 deaths per year due to the discharge of produced waters resulting in oil sheens and collisions with platforms and vessels; however these estimates for the oil and gas sector are based on many untested assumptions. In spite of the uncertainties, we feel levels of mortality from these two industries are unlikely to affect the marine bird community in Canada, but some effects on local populations from bycatch are likely. Further research and monitoring will be required to: (1) better estimate fisheries-related mortality for vulnerable species and populations that may be impacted by local fisheries, (2) determine the effects of oil sheens from produced waters, and attraction to platforms and associated mortality from collisions, sheens, and flaring, so that better estimates of mortality from the offshore oil and gas sector can be obtained, and (3) determine impacts associated with accidental spills, which are not included in our current assessment. With a better understanding of the direct mortality of marine birds from industry, appropriate mitigation and management actions can be implemented. Cooperation from industry for data collection, research to fill knowledge gaps, and implementation of mitigation approaches will all be needed to conserve marine birds in Canada.

Deep Convective System Evolution over Africa and the Tropical Atlantic

In the tropical African and neighboring Atlantic region there is a strong contrast in the properties of deep convection between land and ocean. Here, satellite radar observations are used to produce a composite picture of the life cycle of convection in these two regions. Estimates of the broadband thermal flux from the geostationary Meteosat-8 satellite are used to identify and track organized convective systems over their life cycle. The evolution of the system size and vertical extent are used to define five life cycle stages (warm and cold developing, mature, cold and warm dissipating), providing the basis for the composite analysis of the system evolution. The tracked systems are matched to overpasses of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite, and a composite picture of the evolution of various radar and lightning characteristics is built up. The results suggest a fundamental difference in the convective life cycle between land and ocean. African storms evolve from convectively active systems with frequent lightning in their developing stages to more stratiform conditions as they dissipate. Over the Atlantic, the convective fraction remains essentially constant into the dissipating stages, and lightning occurrence peaks late in the life cycle. This behavior is consistent with differences in convective sustainability in land and ocean regions as proposed in previous studies. The area expansion rate during the developing stages of convection is used to provide an estimate of the intensity of convection. Reasonable correlations are found between this index and the convective system lifetime, size, and depth.

Modeling the mechanisms that control in-stream dissolved organic carbon dynamics in upland and forested catchments

[1] We present a new, process-based model of soil and stream water dissolved organic carbon (DOC): the Integrated Catchments Model for Carbon (INCA-C). INCA-C is the first model of DOC cycling to explicitly include effects of different land cover types, hydrological flow paths, in-soil carbon biogeochemistry, and surface water processes on in-stream DOC concentrations. It can be calibrated using only routinely available monitoring data. INCA-C simulates daily DOC concentrations over a period of years to decades. Sources, sinks, and transformation of solid and dissolved organic carbon in peat and forest soils, wetlands, and streams as well as organic carbon mineralization in stream waters are modeled. INCA-C is designed to be applied to natural and seminatural forested and peat-dominated catchments in boreal and temperate regions. Simulations at two forested catchments showed that seasonal and interannual patterns of DOC concentration could be modeled using climate-related parameters alone. A sensitivity analysis showed that model predictions were dependent on the mass of organic carbon in the soil and that in-soil process rates were dependent on soil moisture status. Sensitive rate coefficients in the model included those for organic carbon sorption and desorption and DOC mineralization in the soil. The model was also sensitive to the amount of litter fall. Our results show the importance of climate variability in controlling surface water DOC concentrations and suggest the need for further research on the mechanisms controlling production and consumption of DOC in soils.

Amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex are inversely coupled during regulation of negative affect and predict the diurnal pattern of cortisol secretion among older adults

Among younger adults, the ability to willfully regulate negative affect, enabling effective responses to stressful experiences, engages regions of prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the amygdala. Because regions of PFC and the amygdala are known to influence the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, here we test whether PFC and amygdala responses during emotion regulation predict the diurnal pattern of salivary cortisol secretion. We also test whether PFC and amygdala regions are engaged during emotion regulation in older (62- to 64-year-old) rather than younger individuals. We measured brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging as participants regulated (increased or decreased) their affective responses or attended to negative picture stimuli. We also collected saliva samples for 1 week at home for cortisol assay. Consistent with previous work in younger samples, increasing negative affect resulted in ventral lateral, dorsolateral, and dorsomedial regions of PFC and amygdala activation. In contrast to previous work, decreasing negative affect did not produce the predicted robust pattern of higher PFC and lower amygdala activation. Individuals demonstrating the predicted effect (decrease s attend in the amygdala), however, exhibited higher signal in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) for the same contrast. Furthermore, participants displaying higher VMPFC and lower amygdala signal when decreasing compared with the attention control condition evidenced steeper, more normative declines in cortisol over the course of the day. Individual differences yielded the predicted link between brain function while reducing negative affect in the laboratory and diurnal regulation of endocrine activity in the home environment.

Sex-dependent age modulation of frontostriatal and temporo-parietal activation during cognitive control

Developmental functional imaging studies of cognitive control show progressive age-related increase in task-relevant fronto-striatal activation in male development from childhood to adulthood. Little is known, however, about how gender affects this functional development. In this study, we used event related functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine effects of sex, age, and their interaction on brain activation during attentional switching and interference inhibition, in 63 male and female adolescents and adults, aged 13 to 38. Linear age correlations were observed across all subjects in task-specific frontal, striatal and temporo-parietal activation. Gender analysis revealed increased activation in females relative to males in fronto-striatal areas during the Switch task, and laterality effects in the Simon task, with females showing increased left inferior prefrontal and temporal activation, and males showing increased right inferior prefrontal and parietal activation. Increased prefrontal activation clusters in females and increased parietal activation clusters in males furthermore overlapped with clusters that were age-correlated across the whole group, potentially reflecting more mature prefrontal brain activation patterns for females, and more mature parietal activation patterns for males. Gender by age interactions further supported this dissociation, revealing exclusive female-specific age correlations in inferior and medial prefrontal brain regions during both tasks, and exclusive male-specific age correlations in superior parietal (Switch task) and temporal regions (Simon task). These findings show increased recruitment of age-correlated prefrontal activation in females, and of age-correlated parietal activation in males, during tasks of cognitive control. Gender differences in frontal and parietal recruitment may thus be related to gender differences in the neurofunctional maturation of these brain regions.

Interfacial structure of wild-type and mutant forms of puroindoline-b bound to DPPG monolayers

The interaction of wild-type puroindoline-b (Pin-b+) and two mutant forms having single residue substitutions (G46S or W44R) with L-alpha-dipalmitoylphosphatidyl-dl-glycerol (DPPG) as a Langmuir monolayer at the air/water interface was investigated by neutron reflectivity (NR) and Brewster angle microscopy (BAM). NR profiles were fitted using a three-layer model to enable differences in penetration of protein between the lipid headgroup and acyl regions to be determined. The data showed similar surface excesses for each of the three proteins at the interface; however, it was revealed that the depth of penetration of protein into the lipid region differed for each protein with Pin-b+ penetrating further into the acyl region of the lipid compared to the mutant forms of the protein that interacted with the headgroup region only. BAM images revealed that the domain structure of the DPPG monolayers was disrupted when Pin-b+ adsorption had reached equilibrium, suggesting protein penetration had led to compression of the lipid region. In contrast, the domain structure was unaffected by the W44R mutant, suggesting no change in compression of the lipid region and hence little or no penetration of protein into the lipid layer.

The infrared spectrum of the ν2 and ν3 bands of H16OF, H18OF, and D16OF

Fourier transform IR spectra in the ν2 and ν3 regions between 800 and 1500 cm−1 have been measured of H16OF with a resolution of 0.007 cm−1 and of H18OF and DOF with a resolution of 0.040 cm−1. Ground state constants have been improved for H16OF and have been obtained for the first time for H18OF. Parameters of the v2 = 1 and v3 = 1 excited states have been determined from rovibrational analyses of ca. 1000 ν2/ν3 lines which were fitted with σ 0.36, 4.5, and 7.6 × 10−3 cm−1 for H16OF, H18OF, and D16OF, respectively. Band centers of ν2/ν3 are 1353.40466(5)/889.07974(6), 1350.3976(5)/862.2967(7), and 1002.0083(9)/891.0014(15) cm−1, respectively, for the three isotopic species. While ν2 and ν3 are sufficiently separated in HOF to be treated independently, a Coriolis resonance is evident in DOF, the interaction constant ξ23c = 0.19073(16) cm−1 being in agreement with the prediction from the harmonic force field.

Maize yield and rainfall on different spatial and temporal scales in Southern Brazil

This study aimed to establish relationships between maize yield and rainfall on different temporal and spatial scales, in order to provide a basis for crop monitoring and modelling. A 16-year series of maize yield and daily rainfall from 11 municipalities and micro-regions of Rio Grande do Sul State was used. Correlation and regression analyses were used to determine associations between crop yield and rainfall for the entire crop cycle, from tasseling to 30 days after, and from 5 days before tasseling to 40 days after. Close relationships between maize yield and rainfall were found, particularly during the reproductive period (45-day period comprising the flowering and grain filling). Relationships were closer on a regional scale than at smaller scales. Implications of the crop-rainfall relationships for crop modelling are discussed.