scholarly journals Diversity of Leptogium (Collemataceae, Ascomycota) in East African Montane Ecosystems

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 314
Author(s):  
Ulla Kaasalainen ◽  
Veera Tuovinen ◽  
Paul M. Kirika ◽  
Neduvoto P. Mollel ◽  
Andreas Hemp ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Markers ◽  
Hot Spots ◽  
Population Pressure ◽  
Natural Forests ◽  
East African ◽  
Tropical Mountains ◽  
Operational Taxonomic Units ◽  
Taita Hills ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Established Species

Tropical mountains and especially their forests are hot spots of biodiversity threatened by human population pressure and climate change. The diversity of lichens in tropical Africa is especially poorly known. Here we use the mtSSU and nuITS molecular markers together with morphology and ecology to assess Leptogium (Peltigerales, Ascomycota) diversity in the tropical mountains of Taita Hills and Mt. Kasigau in Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The sampled habitats cover a wide range of ecosystems from savanna to alpine heath vegetation and from relatively natural forests to agricultural environments and plantation forests. We demonstrate that Leptogium diversity in Africa is much higher than previously known and provide preliminary data on over 70 putative species, including nine established species previously known from the area and over 60 phylogenetically, morphologically, and/or ecologically defined Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs). Many traditional species concepts are shown to represent morphotypes comprised of several taxa. Many of the species were only found from specific ecosystems and/or restricted habitats and are thus threatened by ongoing habitat fragmentation and degradation of the natural environment. Our results emphasize the importance of molecular markers in species inventories of highly diverse organism groups and geographical areas.

Molecular markers and antioxidant activity in berry crops: Genetic diversity analysis

2012 ◽  
Vol 92 (6) ◽  
pp. 1121-1133 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. C. Debnath ◽  
Y. L. Siow ◽  
J. Petkau ◽  
D. An ◽  
N. V. Bykova
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Antioxidant Activity ◽  
Molecular Markers ◽  
Molecular Techniques ◽  
Diversity Analysis ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Genetic Diversity Analysis ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Berry Crops ◽  
Improvement Programs

Debnath, S. C., Siow, Y. L., Petkau, J., An, D. and Bykova, N. V. 2012. Molecular markers and antioxidant activity in berry crops: Genetic diversity analysis. Can. J. Plant Sci. 92: 1121–1133. An improved understanding of important roles of dietary fruits in maintaining human health has led to a dramatic increase of global berry crop production. Berry fruits contain relatively high levels of vitamin C, cellulose and pectin, and produce anthocyanins, which have important therapeutic values, including antitumor, antiulcer, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. There is a need to develop reliable methods to identify berry germplasm and assess genetic diversity/relatedness for dietary properties in berry genotypes for practical breeding purposes through genotype selection in a breeding program for cultivar development, and proprietary-rights protection. The introduction of molecular biology techniques, such as DNA-based markers, allows direct comparison of different genetic materials independent of environmental influences. Significant progress has been made in diversity analysis of wild cranberry, lowbush blueberry, lingonberry and cloudberry germplasm, and in strawberry and raspberry cultivars and advanced breeding lines developed in Canada. Inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers detected an adequate degree of polymorphism to differentiate among berry genotypes, making this technology valuable for cultivar identification and for the more efficient choice of parents in the current berry improvement programs. Although multiple factors affect antioxidant activity, a wide range of genetic diversity has been reported in wild and cultivated berry crops. Diversity analysis based on molecular markers did not agree with those from antioxidant activity. The paper also discusses the issues that still need to be addressed to utilize the full potential of molecular techniques including expressed sequence tag-polymerase chain reaction (EST-PCR) analysis to develop improved environment-friendly berry cultivars suited to the changing needs of growers and consumers.

scholarly journals Molecular markers of anti-malarial drug resistance in Central, West and East African children with severe malaria

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian N. Nguetse ◽  
Ayola Akim Adegnika ◽  
Tsiri Agbenyega ◽  
Bernhards R. Ogutu ◽  
Sanjeev Krishna ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drug Resistance ◽  
Molecular Markers ◽  
Severe Malaria ◽  
East African ◽  
African Children

Direct Liquid Cooling of High Flux LED Systems: Hot Spot Abatement

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enes Tamdogan ◽  
Mehmet Arik ◽  
M. Baris Dogruoz
Keyword(s):  
Hot Spots ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Heat Removal ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Light Extraction ◽  
Junction Temperature ◽  
System Level ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Liquid Cooling ◽  
Wide Range

With the recent advances in wide band gap device technology, solid-state lighting (SSL) has become favorable for many lighting applications due to energy savings, long life, green nature for environment, and exceptional color performance. Light emitting diodes (LED) as SSL devices have recently offered unique advantages for a wide range of commercial and residential applications. However, LED operation is strictly limited by temperature as its preferred chip junction temperature is below 100 °C. This is very similar to advanced electronics components with continuously increasing heat fluxes due to the expanding microprocessor power dissipation coupled with reduction in feature sizes. While in some of the applications standard cooling techniques cannot achieve an effective cooling performance due to physical limitations or poor heat transfer capabilities, development of novel cooling techniques is necessary. The emergence of LED hot spots has also turned attention to the cooling with dielectric liquids intimately in contact with the heat and photon dissipating surfaces, where elevated LED temperatures will adversely affect light extraction and reliability. In the interest of highly effective heat removal from LEDs with direct liquid cooling, the current paper starts with explaining the increasing thermal problems in electronics and also in lighting technologies followed by a brief overview of the state of the art for liquid cooling technologies. Then, attention will be turned into thermal consideration of approximately a 60W replacement LED light engine. A conjugate CFD model is deployed to determine local hot spots and to optimize the thermal resistance by varying multiple design parameters, boundary conditions, and the type of fluid. Detailed system level simulations also point out possible abatement techniques for local hot spots while keeping light extraction at maximum.

scholarly journals Governance, economic policy, and the environmental Kuznets curve for natural tropical forests

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
MADHUSUDAN BHATTARAI ◽  
MICHAEL HAMMIG
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Kuznets Curve ◽  
Population Pressure ◽  
Kuznets Curve ◽  
Natural Forests ◽  
Deforestation Rates ◽  
Technology Improvement ◽  
Quality Of Governance ◽  
The Relationship

This paper reports the results of an empirical analysis of the relationship between income and the rate of deforestation of tropical natural forests. The inverted U-shaped relationship known as the environmental Kuznets curve is confirmed. The study focuses on the role of institutions and macroeconomic policy in the deforestation process. Results indicate that the quality of governance is an important determinant of forest resource preservation, and that rural population pressure is not as important as suggested by other studies. Agricultural technology improvement and enhanced educational attainment also lead to reductions of deforestation rates.

scholarly journals Strategy of Human Cytomegalovirus To Escape Interferon Beta-Induced APOBEC3G Editing Activity

2018 ◽  
Vol 92 (19) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Pautasso ◽  
Ganna Galitska ◽  
Valentina Dell'Oste ◽  
Matteo Biolatti ◽  
Rachele Cagliani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Cytomegalovirus ◽  
Hot Spots ◽  
Interferon Beta ◽  
Hcmv Infection ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
Innate Immune ◽  
Mutational Robustness ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Hcmv Replication ◽  
Apobec3 Family

ABSTRACTThe apolipoprotein B editing enzyme catalytic subunit 3 (APOBEC3) is a family of DNA cytosine deaminases that mutate and inactivate viral genomes by single-strand DNA editing, thus providing an innate immune response against a wide range of DNA and RNA viruses. In particular, APOBEC3A (A3A), a member of the APOBEC3 family, is induced by human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in decidual tissues where it efficiently restricts HCMV replication, thereby acting as an intrinsic innate immune effector at the maternal-fetal interface. However, the widespread incidence of congenital HCMV infection implies that HCMV has evolved to counteract APOBEC3-induced mutagenesis through mechanisms that still remain to be fully established. Here, we have assessed gene expression and deaminase activity of various APOBEC3 gene family members in HCMV-infected primary human foreskin fibroblasts (HFFs). Specifically, we show that APOBEC3G (A3G) gene products and, to a lesser degree, those of A3F but not of A3A, are upregulated in HCMV-infected HFFs. We also show that HCMV-mediated induction of A3G expression is mediated by interferon beta (IFN-β), which is produced early during HCMV infection. However, knockout or overexpression of A3G does not affect HCMV replication, indicating that A3G is not a restriction factor for HCMV. Finally, through a bioinformatics approach, we show that HCMV has evolved mutational robustness against IFN-β by limiting the presence of A3G hot spots in essential open reading frames (ORFs) of its genome. Overall, our findings uncover a novel immune evasion strategy by HCMV with profound implications for HCMV infections.IMPORTANCEAPOBEC3 family of proteins plays a pivotal role in intrinsic immunity defense mechanisms against multiple viral infections, including retroviruses, through the deamination activity. However, the currently available data on APOBEC3 editing mechanisms upon HCMV infection remain unclear. In the present study, we show that particularly the APOBEC3G (A3G) member of the deaminase family is strongly induced upon infection with HCMV in fibroblasts and that its upregulation is mediated by IFN-β. Furthermore, we were able to demonstrate that neither A3G knockout nor A3G overexpression appears to modulate HCMV replication, indicating that A3G does not inhibit HCMV replication. This may be explained by HCMV escape strategy from A3G activity through depletion of the preferred nucleotide motifs (hot spots) from its genome. The results may shed light on antiviral potential of APOBEC3 activity during HCMV infection, as well as the viral counteracting mechanisms under A3G-mediated selective pressure.

Study of Poplar and Bamboo based Agroforestry System

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-70
Author(s):  
Kapil Joshi ◽  
◽  
Vrushali Gade ◽  
Ashwini Apet ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Integrated Management ◽  
Agroforestry System ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Wood Products ◽  
Population Pressure ◽  
Natural Forests ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
The People ◽  
Agro Forestry

Food insecurity and poverty have been affecting the livelihood of the rural poor since ages. It is posing a major challenge to the sustainable development of a developing country like India. In such countries, land and soil degradation has emerged as an offshoot of excessive population pressure over the limited resources. Agricultural production in the developing countries has seldom matched the needs of the people. Agro forestry has the potential to arrest land degradation and improve site productivity through interaction with trees, soil, crops and livestock. Agro forestry is also a potential option for improving rural livelihood and enhancing integrated management of the natural resource base. Agro forestry systems can play an important role in carbon mitigation programmes through carbon sequestration and can reduce the pressure on existing natural forests by providing fuel, fodder, timber and wood products to the farmers. The current interest in agro forestry in India has transformed the land-use system in terms of economic sustainability. This article briefly reviews about the concept of Poplar and Bamboo based agro forestry systems as adopted extensively by the farmers on a commercial and environmental conservation scale. These systems play a significant role to meet the economic, social and environmental concerns of the villagers.

scholarly journals Molecular Markers for Detecting a Wide Range of Trichoderma spp. that Might Potentially Cause Green Mold in Pleurotus eryngii

Mycobiology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 313-320
Author(s):  
Song Hee Lee ◽  
Hwa Jin Jung ◽  
Seung-Beom Hong ◽  
Jong In Choi ◽  
Jae-San Ryu
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Markers ◽  
Pleurotus Eryngii ◽  
Trichoderma Spp ◽  
Green Mold ◽  
Wide Range

Modern Piracy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Lehr
Keyword(s):  
Hot Spots ◽  
Arabian Gulf ◽  
Gulf Of Aden ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Past ◽  
Scholarly Publications ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Straits Of Malacca ◽  
Treasure Island

Until rather recently, piracy as a form of seaborne organized crime seemed to be a phenomenon of the past—something that was relegated to a great number of books, some comics, and, of course, the silver screen: many Hollywood blockbusters revolve around pirates as larger-than-life swashbuckling characters, played for example by Douglas Fairbanks (The Black Pirate, 1926), Errol Flynn (Captain Blood, 1935), Yul Brynner (The Buccaneer, 1958), or Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, 2003 onward). Even the Muppets had a (comedy) go at pirates with Muppets Treasure Island (1996). That “real” pirates still exist and pose a formidable danger to seafarers at least in some parts of the world was known only to a small group of people outside the mariner community such as legal experts and some scholars, mainly from history departments. This blissful ignorance was swept away by the advent of Somali piracy between 2005 and 2008: suddenly, “real” pirates made headlines again, sparking a renewed interest in all things pirate, modern or not. It also resulted in a wave of publications focusing on modern pirates, trying to make sense out of why this age-old menace had returned with a vengeance. Even for specialists, this burgeoning literature, ranging from books aimed at the wider public and offering general overviews to very specialized research articles appealing to equally specialized audiences, it is difficult to keep track. This bibliography aims at referencing the leading works, in order to offer the reader a quick access to the vast repository of knowledge which is nowadays available. It will commence with general overviews, to then move to the most dangerous regional hot-spots of current piracy, which are West Africa (Gulf of Guinea), East Africa (Gulf of Aden and Somali Basin), and Southeast Asia (Straits of Malacca and Singapore plus South China Sea). Also, some secondary hot spots such as the Persian/Arabian Gulf and the Sundarbans at the bottom of the Bay of Bengal are referenced as well, although not much has been written about these manifestations of piracy. This is followed by works on root causes (why do people become pirates in modern times?), and works on modern pirates’ modus operandi, in particular their weapons and tactics (what do modern pirates do?). Finally, the focus will shift from piracy to counter-piracy at sea, on land, and at court—the latter part also including publications dealing with legal definitions of piracy such as included in the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (LoSC). As regards the nature of the sources referenced, it should be noted that in order to reach out to a wide range of audiences, not only academic and scholarly publications are included, but also publications with a more journalistic approach that aim at the general public. Furthermore, great care was taken to include publications which are easily accessible—also for the benefit of a wider audience.

Termitivore or detritivore? A quantitative investigation into the diet of the East African caecilian Boulengerula taitanus (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae)

2004 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. John Measey ◽  
Olivier Gaborieau
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Stomach Contents ◽  
Gut Contents ◽  
Generalist Predators ◽  
East African ◽  
Quantitative Investigation ◽  
Soil Macrofauna ◽  
Taita Hills ◽  
Specialist Predators ◽  
African Genus

AbstractMost caecilians are thought to be generalist predators of soil ecosystem engineers (earthworms, termites and ants), but it has been suggested that members of the East African genus Boulengerula are specialist predators. Surprisingly, in the only detailed study of diet of any Boulengerula, the authors speculated that B. taitanus is partly detritivorous, based on the large amount of organic matter found in the alimentary canal. Here we test the conflicting hypotheses that B.taitanus is a termitivore or detritivore, using the stomach and gut contents of 47 specimens collected in the Taita Hills, Kenya. Termites and earthworms contribute most significantly to diet by number and mass, respectively. These constitute the major dietary items, together with dipteran larvae and other soil macrofauna. Contents of the intestine are mostly soil and organic matter originating from prey items. The mass content of the intestines averages 69% of total gut contents, and is significantly greater than identifiable stomach contents. The null hypotheses that B. taitanus is a generalist and a predator are not rejected.

scholarly journals Organic matter cycling along geochemical, geomorphic, and disturbance gradients in forest and cropland of the African Tropics – project TropSOC database version 1.0

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4133-4153
Author(s):  
Sebastian Doetterl ◽  
Rodrigue K. Asifiwe ◽  
Geert Baert ◽  
Fernando Bamba ◽  
Marijn Bauters ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Tropical Soils ◽  
Soil Microbial Activity ◽  
Biogeochemical Cycles ◽  
Congo Basin ◽  
Land Conversion ◽  
Soil Geochemistry ◽  
East African ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract. The African Tropics are hotspots of modern-day land use change and are, at the same time, of great relevance for the cycling of carbon (C) and nutrients between plants, soils, and the atmosphere. However, the consequences of land conversion on biogeochemical cycles are still largely unknown as they are not studied in a landscape context that defines the geomorphic, geochemical, and pedological framework in which biological processes take place. Thus, the response of tropical soils to disturbance by erosion and land conversion is one of the great uncertainties in assessing the carrying capacity of tropical landscapes to grow food for future generations and in predicting greenhouse gas fluxes from soils to the atmosphere and, hence, future earth system dynamics. Here we describe version 1.0 of an open-access database created as part of the project “Tropical soil organic carbon dynamics along erosional disturbance gradients in relation to variability in soil geochemistry and land use” (TropSOC). TropSOC v1.0 (Doetterl et al., 2021, https://doi.org/10.5880/fidgeo.2021.009) contains spatially and temporally explicit data on soil, vegetation, environmental properties, and land management collected from 136 pristine tropical forest and cropland plots between 2017 and 2020 as part of monitoring and sampling campaigns in the eastern Congo Basin and the East African Rift Valley system. The results of several laboratory experiments focusing on soil microbial activity, C cycling, and C stabilization in soils complement the dataset to deliver one of the first landscape-scale datasets to study the linkages and feedbacks between geology, geomorphology, and pedogenesis as controls on biogeochemical cycles in a variety of natural and managed systems in the African Tropics. The hierarchical and interdisciplinary structure of the TropSOC database allows linking of a wide range of parameters and observations on soil and vegetation dynamics along with other supporting information that may also be measured at one or more levels of the hierarchy. TropSOC's data mark a significant contribution to improve our understanding of the fate of biogeochemical cycles in dynamic and diverse tropical African (agro-)ecosystems. TropSOC v1.0 can be accessed through the Supplement provided as part of this paper or as a separate download via the websites of the Congo Biogeochemistry Observatory and GFZ Data Services where version updates to the database will be provided as the project develops.

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