Understory vegetation as an indicator of soil characteristics in the Hyrcanian area,N. Iran

The mesic Caspian (Hyrcanian) forest and ecotone communities provide a marked contrast to the arid and semiarid landscapes associated with most of the territory of Iran. To date, the ecological characteristics of these habitats, threatened and of conservation importance, have been little studied. Accordingly, ecological profiles of some important plant species of these communities have been assessed along two altitudinal gradients (300–2300 m a.s.l.). Vegetation and soils were sampled every 100 m in elevation, with the data subsequently analyzed using TWINSPAN and corrected frequency (CF) analyses. Relationships between soil variables (subdivided into three classes, the lowest, the middle and the upper third of all values) and herbaceous and shrub species (presence/absence data) were analyzed by the polythetic divisive classification method. 379 plant species and eleven soil variables – N, P, K, CaCO₃, EC, pH, organic matter, C/N ratio and percentage of sand, clay and silt – were considered. The ecological profile method was used to evaluate the affinity and significance of associations between the probability of species’ occurrence and topsoil characteristics found by the polythetic method. Five vegetation groups were identified: two groups, with Acer campestre and Quercus macranthera in the tree layer and Veronica mazanderanae and Phuopsis stylosa as herbs, were restricted to forest-steppe ecotones and the upper mountain areas. Three groups, with Acer velutinum, Ruscus hyrcanus, Carpinus betulus, Danae racemosa, Fagus orientalis and Aruncus vulgaris as indicator species, occurred in the forest itself. Of the 42 plant species assessed as being of particular importance, 13 had significant relationships with eight soil factors. Thus, certain species, including endemic plant species of restricted distribution and conservation importance, can be used as indicators of particular soil conditions in the Hyrcanian forest area.     

Structure and Stability Analysis of Cytotoxic Complex of Camel α-Lactalbumin and Unsaturated Fatty Acids Produced at High Temperature

Abstract

α-Lactalbumin (α-La), together with oleic acid can be converted to a complex, which kills tumor cells selectively. Cytotoxic α-La -oleic acid and a-La -linoleic acid complexes were generated by adding fatty acid to camel holo a-La at 60°C (referred to as La-OA-60 and La-LA-60 state, respectively). Structural properties of these complexes were studied and compared to the camel α-La. The experimental results show that linoleic acid induces a-La partial unfolding but oleic acid does not change the protein structure significantly. Also the stability of La-OA-60 and La- LA-60 toward thermal denaturation was measured. The order of temperature at the transition midpoint is as follows: La-LA-60 < La-0A-60 < α-La. La-0A-60 complex inhibited tubulin polymerization in vitro. Although the structures of La-0A-60 and La-LA-60 were different, these two complexes had similar cytotoxic effect to DU145 human prostate cancer cells. Samples of La-0A-60 that have been renatured after denaturation lost the specific biological activity toward tumor cells.     

Bacillus cereus adhesion: Real time investigation of the effect on the chemistry of industrial stainless steel

The initial microorganism adhesion on substrate is an important step for the biofilm formation. The surface properties of the stainless steel and B. cereus were characterized by the sessile drop technique. Moreover, the physicochemical properties of surface adhesion and the impact of bio adhesion to the stainless steel were determined at different time of contact (2, 4, 7, 9 and 24 h). The results showed that the strain was hydrophilic (Giwi = 3.37 mJ/m²), whereas the substratum has hydrophobic character (Giwi = ?57.6 mJ/m²). Stainless steel surface presents a weak electron-donor character (γ^? = 4.1 mJ/m²) conversely to B. cereus that presents an important parameter (γ^? = 31.6 mJ/m²). The bio adhesion was investigated at different time of contact. The data analysis after 2 h, confirmed the adhesion of B. cereus with an amount of 10 cfu/cm² which increased to 1.210⁴ cfu/cm² after 24 h. Interestingly, despite the difference of hydropohbicity, the interaction between B. cereus and substratum was favored by the thermodynamic aspect of adhesion (ΔG_adhesion < 0). Interestingly, the study of the effect of B. cereus adhesion on the stainless steel has revealed that, the substratum becomes hydrophilic (θ° = 41.3, ΔGiwi = 39.6 mJ/m²) and highly electron donor (Γ^? = 52.9 mJ/m²) after 2 h of bio adhesion.     

Dating the “red beds” of the Eastern Moroccan High Plateaus: Evidence from late Late Cretaceous charophytes and dinosaur eggshells

A new locality in the poorly known “red beds” of Tendrara (High Plateaus, Morocco) has yielded four charophytes species (Feistiella anluensis, Lamprothamnium stipitatum, Peckisphaera portezueloensis, Platychara caudata) and dinosaur eggshells (Pseudomegaloolithus atlasi). These red beds, which overly the Cenomanian-Turonian marine deposits, generally assigned to “Senonian” based on geometric position, are directly dated by these fossils: the charophytes species and dinosaur oospecies association indicates a Campano-Maastrichtian or Maastrichtian age for these calm floodplain deposits.     

Involvement of the glutamate receptor AtGLR3.3 in plant defense signaling and resistance to Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis

Like their animal counterparts, plant glutamate receptor‐like (GLR) homologs are intimately associated with Ca²⁺ influx through plasma membrane and participate in various physiological processes. In pathogen‐associated molecular patterns (PAMP)‐/elicitor‐mediated resistance, Ca²⁺ fluxes are necessary for activating downstream signaling events related to plant defense. In this study, oligogalacturonides (OGs), which are endogenous elicitors derived from cell wall degradation, were used to investigate the role of Arabidopsis GLRs in defense signaling. Pharmacological investigations indicated that GLRs are partly involved in free cytosolic [Ca²⁺] ([Ca²⁺]_cyt) variations, nitric oxide (NO) production, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and expression of defense‐related genes by OGs. In addition, wild‐type Col‐0 plants treated with the glutamate‐receptor antagonist 6,7‐dinitriquinoxaline‐2,3‐dione (DNQX) had a compromised resistance to Botrytis cinerea and Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis. Moreover, we provide genetic evidence that AtGLR3.3 is a key component of resistance against H. arabidopsidis. In addition, some OGs‐triggered immune events such as defense gene expression, NO and ROS production are also to different extents dependent on AtGLR3.3. Taken together, these data provide evidence for the involvement of GLRs in elicitor/pathogen‐mediated plant defense signaling pathways in Arabidopsis thaliana.     

Effects of the adsorption of alkali metal oxides on the electronic,optical, and thermodynamic properties of the Mg<Subscript>12</Subscript>O<Subscript>12</Subscript>nanocage: a density functional theory study

The effect of alkali metal oxides M _n O (M?=?Li, Na, K; n?=?2, 3, 4) on the geometric, electronic, and linear and nonlinear optical properties of the Mg₁₂O₁₂ nanocage was investigated by density-functional-based methods. According to the computational results, these alkali metal oxides are adsorbed on the Mg₁₂O₁₂ nanocage because this adsorption reduces its energy gap. The static first hyperpolarizability (β ₀) of the nanocage is dramatically increased in the presence of the alkali metal oxides, with the greatest increase seen in the presence of the superalkalis (i.e., M₃O; M?=?Li, Na, and K). The highest first hyperpolarizability (β ₀?≈?600,000 a.u.) was calculated for K₃O@Mg₁₂O₁₂, which was considerably more than that for Mg₁₂O₁₂. The thermodynamic properties and relative stabilities of these inorganic compounds are discussed.

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Graphical Abstract Optimized structure and DOS spectrum of K₃O(e@Mg₁₂O₁₂)

     

Exploring Managers’ Perspectives on MNCH Program in Pakistan: A Qualitative Study

Background

Pakistan’s Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) Program is faced with multiple challenges in service delivery, financial and logistic management, training and deployment of human resources, and integration within the existing health system. There is a lack of evidence on managerial aspects of the MNCH program management and implementation.

Methods and Findings

This study used qualitative methods to explore the challenges national, provincial and district program managers have faced in implementing a community midwifery program in province of Punjab while also exploring future directions for the program under a devolved health system. While the program had been designed in earnest, the planning lacked critical elements of involving relevant stakeholders in design and implementation, socio-demographic context and capacity of the existing health system. Financial limitations, weak leadership and lack of a political commitment to the problem of maternal health have also had an impact on program implementation.

Conclusions

Our study results suggest that there is a need to re-structure the program while ensuring sustainability and collaboration within the health sector to increase uptake of skilled birth attendance and improve maternal health care in Pakistan.     

An evaluation of sequencing coverage and genotyping strategies to assess neutral and adaptive diversity

Whole genome sequences (WGS) greatly increase our ability to precisely infer population genetic parameters, demographic processes, and selection signatures. However, WGS may still be not affordable for a representative number of individuals/populations. In this context, our goal was to assess the efficiency of several SNP genotyping strategies by testing their ability to accurately estimate parameters describing neutral diversity and to detect signatures of selection. We analysed 110 WGS at 12× coverage for four different species, i.e., sheep, goats and their wild counterparts. From these data we generated 946 data sets corresponding to random panels of 1K to 5M variants, commercial SNP chips and exome capture, for sample sizes of five to 48 individuals. We also extracted low‐coverage genome resequencing of 1×, 2× and 5× by randomly subsampling reads from the 12× resequencing data. Globally, 5K to 10K random variants were enough for an accurate estimation of genome diversity. Conversely, commercial panels and exome capture displayed strong ascertainment biases. Besides the characterization of neutral diversity, the detection of the signature of selection and the accurate estimation of linkage disequilibrium (LD) required high‐density panels of at least 1M variants. Finally, genotype likelihoods increased the quality of variant calling from low coverage resequencing but proportions of incorrect genotypes remained substantial, especially for heterozygote sites. Whole genome resequencing coverage of at least 5× appeared to be necessary for accurate assessment of genomic variations. These results have implications for studies seeking to deploy low‐density SNP collections or genome scans across genetically diverse populations/species showing similar genetic characteristics and patterns of LD decay for a wide variety of purposes.