Survey of the regional fish trade

Fish export trade,both regional and international, has significantly contributed to uganda's economic growth and to the livehoods of many Ugandans in terms of revenue and employment. while there is substantive information on local and international fish trade on which decsions could be based to appropriately develop the trade,informatrion on regional fish export trade is lacking and where avaliable,it has not been adequately documented. This report contains the findings of the survey on regional fish trade at the border district of West Nile,South/Western and Eastern regions key markets and selected fish supply beaches on Lake Victoria.

Variety of antimicrobial peptides in the Bombina maxima toad and evidence of their rapid diversification

Antimicrobial peptides secreted by the skin of many amphibians play an important role in innate immunity. From two skin cDNA libraries of two individuals of the Chinese red belly toad (Bombina maxima), we identified 56 different antimicrobial peptide cDNA sequences, each of which encodes a precursor peptide that can give rise to two kinds of antimicrobial peptides, maximin and maximin H. Among these cDNA, we found that the mean number of nucleotide substitution per non-synonymous site in both the maximin and maximin H domains significantly exceed the mean number of nucleotide substitution per synonymous site, whereas the same pattern was not observed in other structural regions, such as the signal and propiece peptide regions, suggesting that these antimicrobial peptide genes have been experiencing rapid diversification driven by Darwinian selection. We cloned and sequenced seven genes amplified from skin or liver genomic DNA. These genes have three exons and share the same gene structure, in which both maximin and maximin H are encoded by the third exon. This suggests that alternative splicing and somatic recombination are less likely to play a role in creating the diversity of maximins and maximin Hs. The gene trees based on different domain regions revealed that domain shuffling or gene conversion among these genes might have happened frequently.

Evolution of phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase by domain losing

The gene duplication, fusion and horizontal transfer are the frequent events during evolution of many proteins, including the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (AARSs). However, in this work, it was shown that the main event during evolution of phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase (PheRS) is a domain loss, and the function/activity of PheRS is not affected by domain losing. Generally, the size of genome and number of genes are increased during evolution from bacteria to eukaryote, but the interesting thing is that the type and number of PheRS domains in eukaryotae are obviously less than those in bacteria. The evolution of PheRS by domain losing seems to be related to the functional evolution of some AARSs from the multiple specificities to the single specificity.

Duplication and independent selection of cell-wall invertase genes GIF1 and OsCIN1 during rice evolution and domestication

Background: Various evolutionary models have been proposed to interpret the fate of paralogous duplicates, which provides substrates on which evolution selection could act. In particular, domestication, as a special selection, has played important role in crop cultivation with divergence of many genes controlling important agronomic traits. Recent studies have indicated that a pair of duplicate genes was often sub-functionalized from their ancestral functions held by the parental genes. We previously demonstrated that the rice cell-wall invertase (CWI) gene GIF1 that plays an important role in the grain-filling process was most likely subjected to domestication selection in the promoter region. Here, we report that GIF1 and another CWI gene OsCIN1 constitute a pair of duplicate genes with differentiated expression and function through independent selection. Results: Through synteny analysis, we show that GIF1 and another cell-wall invertase gene OsCIN1 were paralogues derived from a segmental duplication originated during genome duplication of grasses. Results based on analyses of population genetics and gene phylogenetic tree of 25 cultivars and 25 wild rice sequences demonstrated that OsCIN1 was also artificially selected during rice domestication with a fixed mutation in the coding region, in contrast to GIF1 that was selected in the promoter region. GIF1 and OsCIN1 have evolved into different expression patterns and probable different kinetics parameters of enzymatic activity with the latter displaying less enzymatic activity. Overexpression of GIF1 and OsCIN1 also resulted in different phenotypes, suggesting that OsCIN1 might regulate other unrecognized biological process. Conclusion: How gene duplication and divergence contribute to genetic novelty and morphological adaptation has been an interesting issue to geneticists and biologists. Our discovery that the duplicated pair of GIF1 and OsCIN1 has experiencedsub-functionalization implies that selection could act independently on each duplicate towards different functional specificity, which provides a vivid example for evolution of genetic novelties in a model crop. Our results also further support the established hypothesis that gene duplication with sub-functionalization could be one solution for genetic adaptive conflict.

Cloning and expression of zebra fish ferroportin and investigating its influence on anemia

Iron is required for many microbes and pathogens for their survival and proliferation including Leishmania which cause leishmaniasis. Leishmaniasis is an increasingly serious infectious disease with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations. These range from localized cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) lesions to a lethal visceral form. Certain strains such as BALB/c mice fail to control L. major infection and develop progressive lesions and systemic disease. These mice are thought to be a model of non-healing forms of the human disease such as kala-azar or diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis. Progression of disease in BALB/c mice has been associated with the anemia, in last days of their survival, the progressive anemia is considered to be one of the reasons of their death. Ferroportin (Fpn), a key regulator of iron homeostasis is a conserved membrane protein that exports iron across the duodenal enterocytes as well as macrophages and hepatocytes into the blood circulation. Fpn has also critical influence on survival and proliferation of many microorganisms whose growth is dependent upon iron, thus preparation of Fpn is needed to study the role of iron in immune responses and pathogenesis of micoorganisms. To prepare and characterize a recombinant ferroportin, total RNA was extracted from Indian zebrafish duodenum, and used to synthesize cDNA by RT-PCR. PCR product was first cloned in Topo TA vector and then subcloned into the GFP expression vector pEGFP–N1. The final resulted plasmid (pEGFP-ZFpn) was used for expression of FPN-EGFP protein in Hek 293T cells. The expression was confirmed by fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometery. Recombinant Fpn was further characterized by submission of its predicted amino acid sequences to the TMHMM V2.0 prediction server (hidden Markov model), NetOGlyc 3.1 server and NetNGlyc 3.1 server. Data emphasised that obtained Fpn from indian zebrafish contained eight transmembrane domains with N- and C-termini inside the cytoplasm and harboured 78 mucin-type glycosylated amino acid. The results indicate that the prepared and characterized recombinant Fpn protein has no membrane topology difference compared to other Fpn described by other researcher. Our next aim was to deliver recombinant plasmid (pEGFP-ZFpn) to entrocyte cells. However, naked therapeutic genes are rapidly degraded by nucleases, showing poor cellular uptake, nonspecificity to the target cells, and low transfection efficiency. The development of safe and efficient gene carriers is one of the prerequisites for the success of gene therapy. Chitosan and alginate 139 polymers were used for oral gene carrier because of their biodegradability, biocompatibility and their mucoadhesive and permeability-enhancing properties in the gut. Nanoparticles comprising Alginate/Chitosan polymers were prepared by pregel preparation method. The resulting nanoparticles had a loading efficiency of 95% and average size of 188 nm as confirmed by PCS method and SEM images had showed spherical particles. BALB/c mice were divided to three groups. The first and second group were fed with chitosan/alginate nanoparticles containing the pEGFP-ZFpn and pEGFP plasmid, respectively (30 μgr/mice) and the third group (control) didn’t get any nanoparticles. The result showed BALB/c mice infected by L.major, resulted in higher hematocryte and iron level in pEGFP-ZFpn fed mice than that in other groups. Consentration of cytokines determined by ELISA showed lower levels of IL-4 and IL-10 and higher levels of IFN-γ/IL-4 and IFN-γ/IL-10 ratios in pEGFP-ZFpn fed mice than that in other groups. Morover more limited increase of footpad thickness and significant reduction of viable parasites in lymph node was seen in pEGFP-ZFpn fed mice. The results showed the first group exhibited a highr hematocryte and iron compared to the other groups. These data strongly suggests the in vivo administration of chitosan/alginate nanoparticles containing pEGFP-ZFpn suppress Th2 response and may be used to control the leishmaniasis .

Liver cytochrome oxidase P4501A1 purification of Acipenser persicus and designing ELISA for measuring

Moon oxygenases related to cytochrome P450s are the molecular Biomarkers which have important role in Biotransformation of endogenous and exogenous compounds and catalazyin of many biological reactions. One of the important isoenzyme is cytochrome P4501A. This isoenzyme involved in metabolism of environment pollutnts such as PAHs. Because of its inducibility, it has a key tool for impact assesment of contaminants in aquatic environment. In this study, at first, that fractions containing Acipenser persicus and Huso huso isoenzyme were purified, and after that Antibodies against them were prepared. For isolation of isoenzyme fraction, Microsomes were prepared from fish liver using differential centrifugation at high speeds. microsomes were solubiized by cholat sodium and Emulgen. Extraction of this isoenzyme was done with the combinatuion of ionexchange chromatography and gelfiltration or chromatofocusing chromatography. Ion exchange chromatography and gel filtration were applied in DEAE sepharose fast flow and sephacryl S200 respectively and chromatofocusing was done at poly buffer 74 and 94 exchanger. The results of SDS-PAGE Showed that the molecular weight of isoenzyme was about 58±1 KDa. Furthermore the inmunoblotting results confirmed this subject. Isoenzyme activigy based on EROD (Ethoxyresorofin o-deethylase) reaction showed about 20-26 fold increase in enzyme activity of treated fish than control fish. The results of Elisa, Using monoclonal anti cod P4501A demonstrated the inducibility and highly elevated of its activity in treated sample more than the control fish. Mean while, the fish sample were showed the strong reaction to polyclonal antibody against beluga P4501A1 prepared in our Lab compared to monoclonal anti body.

Gene duplication in the genome of parasitic Giardia lamblia

Background: Giardia are a group of widespread intestinal protozoan parasites in a number of vertebrates. Much evidence from G. lamblia indicated they might be the most primitive extant eukaryotes. When and how such a group of the earliest branching unicellular eukaryotes developed the ability to successfully parasitize the latest branching higher eukaryotes (vertebrates) is an intriguing question. Gene duplication has long been thought to be the most common mechanism in the production of primary resources for the origin of evolutionary novelties. In order to parse the evolutionary trajectory of Giardia parasitic lifestyle, here we carried out a genome-wide analysis about gene duplication patterns in G. lamblia. Results: Although genomic comparison showed that in G. lamblia the contents of many fundamental biologic pathways are simplified and the whole genome is very compact, in our study 40% of its genes were identified as duplicated genes. Evolutionary distance analyses of these duplicated genes indicated two rounds of large scale duplication events had occurred in G. lamblia genome. Functional annotation of them further showed that the majority of recent duplicated genes are VSPs (Variant-specific Surface Proteins), which are essential for the successful parasitic life of Giardia in hosts. Based on evolutionary comparison with their hosts, it was found that the rapid expansion of VSPs in G. lamblia is consistent with the evolutionary radiation of placental mammals. Conclusions: Based on the genome-wide analysis of duplicated genes in G. lamblia, we found that gene duplication was essential for the origin and evolution of Giardia parasitic lifestyle. The recent expansion of VSPs uniquely occurring in G. lamblia is consistent with the increment of its hosts. Therefore we proposed a hypothesis that the increment of Giradia hosts might be the driving force for the rapid expansion of VSPs.

The role of Yssichromis species (Pisces: Cichlidae) in the trophic ecology and foodwebs of Lake Victoria

Many haplochromine cichlids coexisted in Lake Victoria before the upsurge of Nile perch. The introduction of the Nile perch led to depletion of many haplochromines and other fish species in Lake Victoria. The impact of Nile perch predation on haplochromines differed for different haplochromine trophic groups. Yssichromis fusiformis (G) and Yssichromis laparogramma (G) are among the species that have survived in the lake. Yssichromis spp. was studied with the aim of determining their trophic role, food and feeding habits. Samples were collected from Bugaia, Buvuma channel and Napoleon Gulf in the northern part of Lake Victoria. The food of Yssichromis spp. varied with size of fish. Both Y fusiformis and Y laparogramma fed on Copepods, Cladocerans, Chaoborus and Chironomids. Juvenile Yssichromis spp. fed exclusively on zooplankton comprising Cyclopoid copepods, Calanoid copepods and Cladocera. The relative importance of Chironomid larvae and Calanoid copepods was higher in Bugaia than in Buvuma channel while Cyclopoid copepods and Chironomid pupae were relatively less important in Bugaia. The main food items that Yssichromis spp. fed on in Buvuma channel were Chironomid larvae Cyclopoid copepods, Cladocerans and Calanoid copepods. In Napoleon Gulf, fish caught from commercial fishery of Rastrineobola argentea (P) had fed on Chaoborus and Chironomids. Overall, Yssichromis spp. fed on more zooplankton in Buvuma than in Bugaia. Yssichromis spp. and R. argentea are presently the most abundant zooplanktivores in the northern part of Lake Victoria and are playing an important trophic role as major consumers of zooplankton and insect larvae in the foodweb of the lake ecosystem. Yssichromis spp. are bridging the transfer of energy from the lower to the higher trophic levels as secondary consumers. The fishery is still not contributing to the direct conversion of the primary products, the phytoplankton and detritus that were efficiently utilised by the diverse haplochromine trophic groups that existed before the Nile perch boom.

The purpose, costs and benefits of fish introductions: with specific reference to the great lakes of Africa

A reduction in native fish stocks and the need to increase fish production for food, recreation, ornamental purposes and to control disease vectors and weeds have often justified and led to introduction of non-native fishes. Some of these introductions have been followed by benefitial and others by undesirable consequences. For instance introduction of the Nile perch Lates niloticus L. and several tilapiine species into lakes Victoria and Kyoga, and the clupeid Limnothrissa miodon into lakes Kariba and Kivu have resulted in increases in the quantity of fish available to the people around them. Predation by Nile perch and competition with introduced tilapiine species in lakes victoria and Kyoga have caused a severe decline and in some cases total disappearance of many of the native fish species.therefore the concern about fish introductions arises

The socio-economic effects of trawling on the present day fishermen

1. The introduction of trawlers to Lake Victoria to harvest fish will have far reaching effects on the men (and women) presently engaged in the fishery, on the diet of the nation as a whole. 2. However, the whole concept of trawling is so different to present techniques and the scale of operation so great, that disruption to the socio-economy of many people is possible. 3. The sociological studies outlined below will assist the governments in the formulatlon of policies aimed at minimising disruptive effects on the lives of many individuals.

A report of the gillnet survey in the Ugandan waters of Lake Victoria under IFMP (January to March 2006)

Under the Implementation of the Fisheries Management Plan (IFMP) for Lake Victoria Result area 4, quarterly gillnet surveys are undertaken to monitor changes in fish stocks and environmental parameters in the shallow nontrawlable areas of the lake For purposes of monitoring surveys, the Ugandan sector of Lake Victoria is divided into 3 zones as shown in Figure 1. During the second quarter of APE2, two gillnet surveys were undertaken in zones 1 and 3 in February and March 2006 respectively. The purpose of the surveys was to monitor changes in the fish stocks and their biological characteristics, water quality, algal dynamics and invertebrate communities; as detailed in the various sections of the report. The surveys followed those conducted in November and December 2006 in the same zones. Results of the surveys showed that the number of fish taxa was higher in the near-shore fleets (0-100m) decreasing towards offshore. The near-shore areas were also associated with high primary productivity and hence secondary production to which Caridina and other invertebrates are part. These organisms are an important source of food for the fish and this may partly account for the high number of fish species recorded in this area of the lake. It was also observed that although Nile perch was the most dominant fish species recorded in all the stations during the surveys, haplochromines, Brycinus sadleri, Brycinus jacksonii Oreochromis niloticus and various mormyrid species contributed significantly to the fish biomass. The presence of many fish species and their coexistence with the predator, Nile perch is attributed to the presence of macrophyte cover and rocky habitats which serve as refugia in the shallow inshore habitats of Lake Victoria. In addition, the vegetated habitats are an important source of food for the fishes. As reported in macro-invertebrate studies, big populations of Caridina and other invertebrates were recorded among macrophyte beds. Caridina is an important source of food for juvenile Nile perch and other fish species so are the other invertebrates especially chironomid larvae, odonata nymphs and molluscs. Resurgence in haplochromine cichlids was observed during the surveys. The presence of haplochromines cichlids in all the sites especially Thruston Bay where it ranked the second by percentage contribution in number, is evidence of the recovery of this group of fishes which had declined largely due to predation by L. niloticus. Caridina nilotica has also increased in biomass and is a major component of the Nile perch diet. This could have reduced predation pressure on the haplochromines by Nile perch and has possibly contributed to recent resurgence in haplochromines cichlids in the lake in the shallow nontrawlable areas of the lake Rastrineobola argentea was found to be an important prey item for Nile perch and other fish species such as Clarias gariepinus. Measures should therefore be taken to ensure sustainable harvesting of Dagaa so that there is enough left to sustain the fishery of Nile perch and other species.

The value of cooperatives in rural electrification

The electricity sectors of many developing countries underwent substantial reforms during the 1980s and 1990s, driven by global agendas of privatization and liberalization. However, rural electrification offered little by way of market incentives for profit-seeking private companies and was often neglected. As a consequence, delivery models for rural electrification need to change. This paper will review the experiences of various rural electrification delivery models that have been established in developing countries, including concessionary models, dealership approaches and the strengthening of small and medium-sized energy businesses. It will use examples from the USA, Bangladesh and Nepal, together with a detailed case study of a Nepali rural electric cooperative, to explore the role that local cooperatives can play in extending electricity access. It is shown that although there is no magic bullet solution to deliver rural electrification, if offered appropriate financial and institutional support, socially orientated cooperative businesses can be a willing, efficient and effective means of extending and managing rural electricity services. It is expected that this paper will be of particular value to policy-makers, donors, project planners and implementers currently working in the field of rural electrification. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

Advanced applications of a computational design synthesis method

From modelling to manufacturing, computers have increasingly become partners in the design process, helping automate many phases once carried out by hand. In the creative phase, computational synthesis methods aim at facilitating designers' task through the automated generation of optimally directed design alternatives. Nevertheless, applications of these techniques are mainly academic and industrial design practice is still far from applying them routinely. This is due to the complex nature of many design tasks and to the difficulty of developing synthesis methods that can be easily adapted to multiple case studies and automated simulation. This work stems from the analysis of implementation issues and obstacles to the widespread use of these tools. The research investigates the possibility to remove these obstacles through the application of a novel technique to complex design tasks. The ability of this technique to scale-up without sacrificing accuracy is demonstrated. The successful results confirm the possibility to use synthesis methods in complex design tasks and spread their commercial and industrial application.

Everywhere and nowhere: nearshore software development in the context of globalisation

Offshore software development has been identified as one of the most striking manifestations of contemporary globalisation and as evidence of placelessness, the idea that information and communication technologies have rendered location irrelevant. Research in the International Business and Information Systems fields, in contrast, has suggested that all locations are not equal and has identified a number of characteristics that may influence the attractiveness of a location for multinational investment and offshoring, respectively. These literatures, however, focus almost exclusively on quantitative, economic characteristics that are seen as fixed and applying uniformly throughout a whole country. They therefore offer little guidance on the suitability of particular locations as offshoring destinations, especially in countries without a track record in offshore software development. Drawing on two cases of nearshore software development centres set up by offshore service providers in the Caribbean, this paper illustrates that, while the initial decision to establish the ventures reflected a logic of placelessness, characteristics of these particular locations affected their subsequent success. Through the findings, we therefore develop a typology of espoused, unanticipated and remediable locational characteristics, which illustrates that locational attractiveness may vary significantly within countries and that offshore service providers and government agencies can modify locational characteristics to their advantage.

Development of teaching resources for physical modelling community

Physical modelling of interesting geotechnical problems has helped clarify behaviours and failure mechanisms of many civil engineering systems. Interesting visual information from physical modelling can also be used in teaching to foster interest in geotechnical engineering and recruit young researchers to our field. With this intention, the Teaching Committee of TC2 developed a web-based teaching resources centre. In this paper, the development and organisation of the resource centre using Wordpress. Wordpress is an open-source content management system which allows user content to be edited and site administration to be controlled remotely via a built-in interface. Example data from a centrifuge test on shallow foundations which could be used for undergraduate or graduate level courses is presented and its use illustrated. A discussion on the development of wiki-style addition to the resource centre for commonly used physical model terms is also presented. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London.