Search results for " Landscape."

The Bioactive Compounds and Antioxidant Activity of Food Products of Rhizophora stylosa Fruit (Coffee and Tea Mangrove)

2018

The objective of this study is to investigate the bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of coffee and tea mangrove (locally known in Indonesia) produced from the fruit of Rhizophora stylosa. Furthermore, three raw materials of coffee mangrove were also investigated to clarify their potencies. The crude extracts of five samples were subjected to antioxidant assay using DPPH. The results show that the extract of tea mangrove has the strongest activity; then, it was successfully fractionated using different polarity of solvents and yielded acetone and methanol fractions that had high antioxidant activity. The acetone fraction was purified and gave fractions A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, and A6, b…

Taxonomic clarification of three taxa of Iberian geomitrids, Helix montserratensis Hidalgo, 1870 and subspecies (Gastropoda, Pulmonata), based on mor…

2017

Revisión taxonómica de tres taxones de geomítridos ibéricos, Helix montserratensis Hidalgo, 1870, y subespecies (Gastropoda, Pulmonata), basada en datos morfo–anatómicos Helix montserratensis (actualmente Xerocrassa montserratensis) es un geomítrido ibérico descrito por Hidalgo en 1870 en Montserrat (Barcelona, España). Sobre la base de varios caracteres conquiológicos, se describieron dos taxones muy similares, como variedades de este taxón: Helix montserratensis betulonensis y otro menos nombrado, Helix montserratensis delicatula. Estas variedades, sobre todo betulonensis, se han considerado subespecies de X. montserratensis, aunque algunos autores las consideran especies diferentes, basá…

2018

Secondary sexual trait expression can be influenced by fixed individual factors (such as genetic quality) as well as by dynamic factors (such as age and environmentally induced gene expression) that may be associated with variation in condition or quality. In particular, melanin-based traits are known to relate to condition and there is a well-characterized genetic pathway underpinning their expression. However, the mechanisms linking variable trait expression to genetic quality remain unclear. One plausible mechanism is that genetic quality could influence trait expression via differential methylation and differential gene expression. We therefore conducted a pilot study examining DNA meth…

The effects of pressure on the energy landscape of proteins

2018

AbstractProtein dynamics is characterized by fluctuations among different conformational substates, i.e. the different minima of their energy landscape. At temperatures above ~200 K, these fluctuations lead to a steep increase in the thermal dependence of all dynamical properties, phenomenon known as Protein Dynamical Transition. In spite of the intense studies, little is known about the effects of pressure on these processes, investigated mostly near room temperature. We studied by neutron scattering the dynamics of myoglobin in a wide temperature and pressure range. Our results show that high pressure reduces protein motions, but does not affect the onset temperature for the Protein Dynam…

High-Pressure-Driven Reversible Dissociation of α-Synuclein Fibrils Reveals Structural Hierarchy

2017

The analysis of the α-synuclein (aS) aggregation process, which is involved in Parkinson's disease etiopathogenesis, and of the structural feature of the resulting amyloid fibrils may shed light on the relationship between the structure of aS aggregates and their toxicity. This may be considered a paradigm of the ground work needed to tackle the molecular basis of all the protein-aggregation-related diseases. With this aim, we used chemical and physical dissociation methods to explore the structural organization of wild-type aS fibrils. High pressure (in the kbar range) and alkaline pH were used to disassemble fibrils to collect information on the hierarchic pathway by which distinct β-sh…

Renewable energies, business models and local growth

2018

Abstract Energy is one of the driving factors of the world economy: energy consumption is closely linked to quality of life and environmental impact. Reducing the use of fossil fuels, curtailing greenhouse gas emissions, and cutting energy dependence from traditional energy producing countries are the cornerstones of European policies for safe, competitive, sustainable, and renewable energy. In addition, the pressing need to provide new and diversified opportunities for supplementary income for the agricultural sector has fueled the desire to engage rural areas in this process. Biogas, derived from the anaerobic digestion of biomass, is one of the renewable energy sources that has been very…

Viral replication modes in single-peak fitness landscapes: A dynamical systems analysis

2017

Positive-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses are important pathogens infecting almost all types of organisms. Experimental evidence from distributions of mutations and from viral RNA amplification suggest that these pathogens may follow different RNA replication modes, ranging from the stamping machine replication (SMR) to the geometric replication (GR) mode. Although previous theoretical work has focused on the evolutionary dynamics of RNA viruses amplifying their genomes with different strategies, little is known in terms of the bifurcations and transitions involving the so-called error threshold (mutation-induced dominance of mutants) and lethal mutagenesis (extinction of all sequences du…

Mass, phylogeny, and temperature are sufficient to explain differences in metabolic scaling across mammalian orders?

2016

Abstract Whether basal metabolic rate‐body mass scaling relationships have a single exponent is highly discussed, and also the correct statistical model to establish relationships. Here, we aimed (1) to identify statistically best scaling models for 17 mammalian orders, Marsupialia, Eutheria and all mammals, and (2) thereby to prove whether correcting for differences in species’ body temperature and their shared evolutionary history improves models and their biological interpretability. We used the large dataset from Sieg et al. (The American Naturalist 174, 2009, 720) providing species’ body mass (BM), basal metabolic rate (BMR) and body temperature (T). We applied different statistical ap…

Contribution of Excited Ozone and Oxygen Molecules to the Formation of the Stratospheric Ozone Layer

2019

The absorption of UV, visible and near IR radiation by O3 produces transient, electronically excited O3. The absorption of thermal IR radiation ( = 9.065, 9.596 and 14.267 µm) produces vibrationally excited O3 molecules. Thermal absorption is likely the main factor in the self-decay of O3. Photoexcitation of ground state by IR and red light radiation produces singlet oxygens and . Chemical reactions in the stratosphere produce them as well. When reacting with ozone, singlet oxygen produces O (3P) and . By doing so, they tend to maintain the prevailing ozone concentration and are thereby important for the stability of the ozone layer. During the daytime, O(1D), and reach their maximum concen…

Density-dependent vole damage in silviculture and associated economic losses at a nationwide scale

2009

Voles inflict damage to silviculture by debarking or severing tree seedlings. The large-scale impacts of vole damage to silviculture, both in terms of severity and financial losses are, however, poorly known. In autumn 2005, cyclically fluctuating vole populations were at their highest in Finland for over 15 years, which led to extensive damage to silviculture during the winter 2005/06. We carried out a nationwide assessment of the incidence, spatial extent and economic value of damage and its relation to vole abundance in privately owned forests during this winter. Damage data were obtained with a questionnaire addressed to the directors of all Forest Management Associations (FMAs) operati…