4α‐Acetoxyamijidictyol – A New Antifeeding Dolastane Diterpene from the Brazilian Brown Alga Canistrocarpus cervicornis

Chemical investigation of the CH₂Cl₂ crude extract from the brown alga Canistrocarpus cervicornis (Dictyotaceae) led to isolation of one new ( 1 ) and four previously reported dolastane diterpenes ( 2 – 5 ). Their structures were characterized by 1D‐ and 2D‐NMR spectroscopic techniques, including a full single crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis for 1, 2 , and 4 . In addition, the new structure 1 was assayed as chemical defense inhibiting the feeding by the sea urchin Lytechinus variegatus. This study constitutes an additional report broadening the known spectrum of action and defensive roles of secondary metabolites of the C. cervicornis and Dictyotales species.     

Anthropometric Characteristics,Physical Fitness and Motor Coordination of 9 to 11 Year Old Children Participating in a Wide Range of Sports

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to investigate to what extent 9 to 11 year old children participating in a specific sport already exhibit a specific anthropometric, physical fitness and motor coordination profile, in line with the requirements of that particular sport. In addition, the profiles in children with a different training volume were compared and possible differences in training hours per week between children from a low, moderate, and high level of physical fitness and motor coordination were investigated.DiscussionThe study showed that in general, children at a young age do not exhibit sport-specific characteristics, except in children with a high training volume. It is possible that on the one hand, children have not spent enough time yet in their sport to develop sport-specific qualities. On the other hand, it could be possible that they do not take individual qualities into account when choosing a sport.     

Conflict in Protected Areas: Who Says Co-Management Does Not Work?

Natural resource-related conflicts can be extremely destructive and undermine environmental protection. Since the 1990s co-management schemes, whereby the management of resources is shared by public and/or private sector stakeholders, have been a main strategy for reducing these conflicts worldwide. Despite initial high hopes, in recent years co-management has been perceived as falling short of expectations. However, systematic assessments of its role in conflict prevention or mitigation are non-existent. Interviews with 584 residents from ten protected areas in Colombia revealed that co-management can be successful in reducing conflict at grassroots level, as long as some critical enabling conditions, such as effective participation in the co-management process, are fulfilled not only on paper but also by praxis. We hope these findings will re-incentivize global efforts to make co-management work in protected areas and other common pool resource contexts, such as fisheries, agriculture, forestry and water management.     

Orientation Transfer in Vernier and Stereoacuity Training

Human performance on various visual tasks can be improved substantially via training. However, the enhancements are frequently specific to relatively low-level stimulus dimensions. While such specificity has often been thought to be indicative of a low-level neural locus of learning, recent research suggests that these same effects can be accounted for by changes in higher-level areas–in particular in the way higher-level areas read out information from lower-level areas in the service of highly practiced decisions. Here we contrast the degree of orientation transfer seen after training on two different tasks—vernier acuity and stereoacuity. Importantly, while the decision rule that could improve vernier acuity (i.e. a discriminant in the image plane) would not be transferable across orientations, the simplest rule that could be learned to solve the stereoacuity task (i.e. a discriminant in the depth plane) would be insensitive to changes in orientation. Thus, given a read-out hypothesis, more substantial transfer would be expected as a result of stereoacuity than vernier acuity training. To test this prediction, participants were trained (7500 total trials) on either a stereoacuity (N = 9) or vernier acuity (N = 7) task with the stimuli in either a vertical or horizontal configuration (balanced across participants). Following training, transfer to the untrained orientation was assessed. As predicted, evidence for relatively orientation specific learning was observed in vernier trained participants, while no evidence of specificity was observed in stereo trained participants. These results build upon the emerging view that perceptual learning (even very specific learning effects) may reflect changes in inferences made by high-level areas, rather than necessarily fully reflecting changes in the receptive field properties of low-level areas.     

Mapping Soil Properties of Africa at 250 m Resolution: Random Forests Significantly Improve Current Predictions

80% of arable land in Africa has low soil fertility and suffers from physical soil problems. Additionally, significant amounts of nutrients are lost every year due to unsustainable soil management practices. This is partially the result of insufficient use of soil management knowledge. To help bridge the soil information gap in Africa, the Africa Soil Information Service (AfSIS) project was established in 2008. Over the period 2008–2014, the AfSIS project compiled two point data sets: the Africa Soil Profiles (legacy) database and the AfSIS Sentinel Site database. These data sets contain over 28 thousand sampling locations and represent the most comprehensive soil sample data sets of the African continent to date. Utilizing these point data sets in combination with a large number of covariates, we have generated a series of spatial predictions of soil properties relevant to the agricultural management—organic carbon, pH, sand, silt and clay fractions, bulk density, cation-exchange capacity, total nitrogen, exchangeable acidity, Al content and exchangeable bases (Ca, K, Mg, Na). We specifically investigate differences between two predictive approaches: random forests and linear regression. Results of 5-fold cross-validation demonstrate that the random forests algorithm consistently outperforms the linear regression algorithm, with average decreases of 15–75% in Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) across soil properties and depths. Fitting and running random forests models takes an order of magnitude more time and the modelling success is sensitive to artifacts in the input data, but as long as quality-controlled point data are provided, an increase in soil mapping accuracy can be expected. Results also indicate that globally predicted soil classes (USDA Soil Taxonomy, especially Alfisols and Mollisols) help improve continental scale soil property mapping, and are among the most important predictors. This indicates a promising potential for transferring pedological knowledge from data rich countries to countries with limited soil data.     

ChemMatrix® for complex peptides and combinatorial chemistry

CM resin is a totally PEG‐based resin, made exclusively from primary ether bonds and therefore highly chemically stable. Compared to other PEG resins, it exhibits good loading and is user friendly because of its free‐flowing form upon drying. It shows improved performance over PS resins for the preparation of hydrophobic, highly structured poly‐Arg peptides. In combination with ψPros, it allows the synthesis of small proteins such as the chemokine RANTES. Like other PEG‐based resins, CM resin swells well in biocompatible solvents such as water, thereby allowing on‐bead screening. Furthermore, the high loading of this resin permits the use of a tiny quarter of a bead as a microreactor for HPLC and MALDI‐TOF analysis, thus further extending its applications in the field of combinatorial chemistry. Copyright © 2010 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Waves of dispersal in island-hopping Chondrina species (Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Chondrinidae)

The aim of this study was to unravel the historical biogeography of the speciose land snail genus Chondrina. To this end phylogenetic hypotheses were tested using mitochondrial DNA sequence data.Mitochondrial DNA sequences of the Cytochrome Oxidase subunit I region were obtained for 89 individuals, representing just over 70% of the extant Chondrina species. The extent of molecular genetic diversity and phylogeographical patterns were investigated by using neighbour joining, parsimony and bayesian methods for phylogeny reconstructions. The resulting data were used to infer historical biogeographical patterns for the genus Chondrina.The three phylogenetic methods yielded congruent topologies for the phylogeny reconstruction. Six clades were identified, each of which with at least one taxon that is known from the Iberian peninsula. The most parsimonious scenario indicates at least three waves of dispersal out of the Iberian peninsula into the North and East of Europe and Northern Africa.The phylogenetic relationships combined with the distributional patterns of the various species, indicate that only vicariance events cannot explain the actual situation. Apparently, separate waves of dispersal and subsequent speciation occurred, each time starting from the southwestern part of the present generic range. Until recently, this was obscured by repetitive cases of parallel or convergent evolution in shell characters, as became evident with the use of molecular methods.     

GFAP-Driven GFP Expression in Activated Mouse Müller Glial Cells Aligning Retinal Blood Vessels Following Intravitreal Injection of AAV2/6 Vectors

Background

Müller cell gliosis occurs in various retinal pathologies regardless of the underlying cellular defect. Because activated Müller glial cells span the entire retina and align areas of injury, they are ideal targets for therapeutic strategies, including gene therapy.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We used adeno-associated viral AAV2/6 vectors to transduce mouse retinas. The transduction pattern of AAV2/6 was investigated by studying expression of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgene using scanning-laser ophthalmoscopy and immuno-histochemistry. AAV2/6 vectors transduced mouse Müller glial cells aligning the retinal blood vessels. However, the transduction capacity was hindered by the inner limiting membrane (ILM) and besides Müller glial cells, several other inner retinal cell types were transduced. To obtain Müller glial cell-specific transgene expression, the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter was replaced by the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) promoter. Specificity and activation of the GFAP promoter was tested in a mouse model for retinal gliosis. Mice deficient for Crumbs homologue 1 (CRB1) develop gliosis after light exposure. Light exposure of Crb1^−/− retinas transduced with AAV2/6-GFAP-GFP induced GFP expression restricted to activated Müller glial cells aligning retinal blood vessels.

Conclusions/Significance

Our experiments indicate that AAV2 vectors carrying the GFAP promoter are a promising tool for specific expression of transgenes in activated glial cells.     

Predators induce egg retention in prey

To prevent predation on their eggs, prey often avoid patches occupied by predators. As a result, they need to delay oviposition until they reach predator-free patches. Because many species allocate energy to egg production in a continuous fashion, it is not clear what kind of mechanism prey use to delay oviposition. We used females of the phytoseiid mite Neoseiulus cucumeris to study these mechanisms. Females were placed in patches with pollen, a food source they use for egg production, and they were exposed to another phytoseiid mite, Iphiseius degenerans, which is an intraguild predator of N. cucumeris juveniles. We found that the oviposition of N. cucumeris females on patches with the predator was lower than on patches without the predator. Cues left by the intraguild predator were not sufficient to elicit such behaviour. Females of N. cucumeris reduced oviposition when exposed to the predator by retaining the egg inside their body, resulting in a lower developmental rate once these eggs were laid. Hence, females are capable of retaining eggs, but the development of these eggs continues inside the mother’s body. In this way, females gain some time to search for less risky oviposition sites.