Interlocal Adaptations to Climate Change in East and Southeast Asia

This Open Access book’s main focus is agriculture and natural resource management, disaster risk reduction, and human resource development in the countries of East and Southeast Asia and Japan. Asia is one of the regions which is the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. More than sixty percent of the world’s people live in the region, making it the growth center of the world. Asia is vast and includes various countries and regions, this book is focused on East and Southeast Asia including Japan. It is essential to share the knowledge and experiences for adapting climate change among these areas. In order to tackle these issues, the book aims to: Promote inter-local lessons learnt sharing climate change adaptations; "agriculture and natural resource management" and "disaster risk reduction and human resource development" Provides insights into new adaptation measures and research approaches that can consider the regional nature of Southeast Asia Share practical adaptation options permeated by society in each country/region This book will be of interest to researchers and students examining climate change impacts in East and Southeast Asia

Interlocal Adaptations to Climate Change in East and Southeast Asia

This Open Access book’s main focus is agriculture and natural resource management, disaster risk reduction, and human resource development in the countries of East and Southeast Asia and Japan. Asia is one of the regions which is the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. More than sixty percent of the world’s people live in the region, making it the growth center of the world. Asia is vast and includes various countries and regions, this book is focused on East and Southeast Asia including Japan. It is essential to share the knowledge and experiences for adapting climate change among these areas. In order to tackle these issues, the book aims to: Promote inter-local lessons learnt sharing climate change adaptations; "agriculture and natural resource management" and "disaster risk reduction and human resource development" Provides insights into new adaptation measures and research approaches that can consider the regional nature of Southeast Asia Share practical adaptation options permeated by society in each country/region This book will be of interest to researchers and students examining climate change impacts in East and Southeast Asia

Annual Report of Research and Creative Productions by Faculty and Staff, January to December, 2017

Annual Report Of Research and Creative Productions by Faculty and Staff from January to December, 2017

Task Oriented Programming and Service Algorithms for Smart Robotic Cells

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Future Transportation

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with transportation activities account for approximately 20 percent of all carbon dioxide (co2) emissions globally, making the transportation sector a major contributor to the current global warming. This book focuses on the latest advances in technologies aiming at the sustainable future transportation of people and goods. A reduction in burning fossil fuel and technological transitions are the main approaches toward sustainable future transportation. Particular attention is given to automobile technological transitions, bike sharing systems, supply chain digitalization, and transport performance monitoring and optimization, among others

Structural and biochemical analysis of the Y-shaped Nup84 subcomplex of the NPC

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Biology, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 116-127).The eukaryotic cell is easily distinguishable from its prokaryotic counterpart through the presence of a complex endomembrane system. Most notable is the nucleus, which harbors and protects the genetic information of the cell. Such physical separation allows for extra layers of regulation for a variety of cellular processes, but at the same time, necessitates a mechanism for communication between the nucleus and cytoplasm. The nuclear envelope consists of an inner and outer nuclear membrane that fuse at distinct loci to form a gateway into the nucleus. Embedded into these circular openings are nuclear pore complexes (NPCs), which serve as the gatekeepers, mediating all exchange between the nucleus and the cytoplasm. At its core, the NPC consists of an 8-fold symmetric structural scaffold that serves as a docking site for some of the more dynamic components. Overall, the NPC is composed of -30 proteins, or nucleoporins (nups), that form biochemically stable subcomplexes which are repeated in multiple copies to assemble the intact NPC. This macromolecular machine is not only essential to nucleo-cytoplasmic transport, but also plays a pivotal role in a myriad of other cellular processes. Thus, understanding its function and assembly in molecular detail is of great interest and importance. Here, I investigate the structure and assembly of one of the major components of the NPC scaffold, the Nup84 complex. Also known as the Y complex, this 7- membered assembly adopts the shape of an extended Y in solution. We solved the structure of the heterodimeric Nup85 Sehl complex, which forms one of the short arms of the Y. Nup85 was found to have an unexpected, yet conserved fold, termed ancestral coatomer element 1 (ACEI), which is also present in 3 additional scaffold nucleoporins, as well as Sec3l, a major component of COPIl vesicle coats. This discovery led to the first experimental evidence for a common ancestry of nucleoporins and vesicle coat proteins. Additionally, we solved the partial structure of Nup120, which also exhibited a unique and unexpected domain architecture. While initial secondary structure prediction methods classified all nups into the canonical a-solenoid and p-propeller fold types, an arsenal of recent nucleoporin structures now tells a different story. To date, at least a partial structure of each of the components of the Nup84 complex has been solved. Using biochemical interaction data as a guide, we can now place each of these structures into an electron density map generated by electron microscopy (EM) to build an initial composite structure of a nearly complete Y-shaped Nup84 complex. Furthermore, we developed the lattice model for assembly of the NPC structural scaffold based on the similarities discovered between nucleoporins and COPII vesicle coats-two membrane-coating complexes whose proteins are evolved from a common ancestor. To develop the lattice model further, deciphering the complex interaction network linking each of the biochemically-defined subcomplexes will be paramount in arriving at a more detailed and accurate model that can provide mechanistic insight into NPC function.by Nina Carolina Leksa.Ph.D

Advancing silver nanostructures towards antibacterial applications

There is a growing concern on the emergence and re-emergence of drug-resistant pathogens such as multi-resistant bacterial strains. Hence, the development of new antimicrobial compounds or the modification of those that already exist in order to improve antimicrobial activity is a high priority area of research. Silver has a strong antimicrobial potential, which has been exploited since ancient times. Therefore, the exploration of various Ag-based nanomaterials for antimicrobial applications was pursued. A range of Ag nanomaterials were synthesised, characterised and tested for their antibacterial activity. Different shapes of Ag nanoparticles (spheres, cubes and prisms) were synthesised and tested for their antibacterial activity against model strains of Gram negative bacteria Escherichia coli and Gram positive bacteria Staphylococcus albus . All shapes of Ag nanoparticles exhibited antibacterial activity against both bacterial strains. However, Ag nanocubes exhibited the highest antibacterial activity. Tyrosine reduced spherical Ag nanoparticles were selected as the model Ag nanoparticles for further studies. These nanoparticles were employed as antibiotic carriers for antibacterial activity. Traditional antibiotics (ampicillin, penicillin G and polymyxin B) were utilised as functional conjugates to influence antibacterial capabilities on the surface of Ag nanoparticles. The combination of Ag nanoparticles and antibiotics demonstrated synergistic effects at lower concentrations of silver and revealed physical mode of action against bacteria causing cell wall cleavage and lysis. The control of surface functionalisation and composition of nanoparticles via a green approach was also achieved. In particular, three particular phenolic compounds including tyrosine, curcumin and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) were utilised as reducing as well as capping agent to synthesise functional Ag nanoparticles. These phenolic compounds incorporate one or multiple phenolic groups which were instigated as organic surface coronas. Ag nanoparticles containing equimolar and various mole ratios of these phenolic compounds were synthesised. These functionalised Ag nanoparticles were tested for their antibacterial activity and a correlation between surface coronas and composition of nanoparticles was studied. The functionalised Ag nanoparticles of various mole ratios all exhibited significant antibacterial activity with physical damage to bacterial cells. Efforts were made to understand the role of surface functionalisation of Ag nanoparticles in dictating the ability of these nanoparticles to differentially interact with bacterial membranes. This led to the mechanistic insight into the antibacterial performance of Ag nanomaterials. Electrochemical and biological techniques were elucidated to understand the proposed mechanism of Ag nanomaterials’ interaction with Gram negative and Gram positive bacterial cells. The interaction of nanoparticles with bacterial membrane proteins was also studied. Membrane protein studies demonstrated that EGCG-Ag nanoparticles exhibited more affinity for E. coli membrane proteins compared to curcumin-Ag nanoparticles. However, for S. albus membrane proteins, curcumin-Ag nanoparticles demonstrated a 30 fold increase in affinity compared to EGCG-Ag nanoparticles. These studies have demonstrated that the antibacterial activity of silver can be controllably enhanced as outlined within this thesis. Several factors can influence the microbial effectiveness of silver nanomaterials, including their shape, surface functionality, as well as their conjugation with well-proven traditional antibacterial compounds

Globalizing Kenyan Culture: Jua Kali & the Transformation of Contemporary Kenyan Art: 1960-2010

In an age of globalization, when as a result of enhanced telecommunication and global media, the world\u27s population is more interconnected than ever, the public at large still tends to associate Africa with poverty, disease and political instability. Yet keen observers of the social landscape have observed that despite Africa\u27s legacy of woes, cultural productivity in the region is on the rise, leading scholars to refer to the phenomenon as an African Renaissance. This is particularly the case in Kenya where a contemporary art movement is flourishing through both local and global art networks. But the question remains: how in the midst of poverty and political instability can there be so much cultural productivity? Based on field research involving participant observation and interviews with more than 200 artists and cultural workers in Kenya\u27s capital city, I argue that it is due largely to an `emergent cultural practice\u27 given the Kiswahili term `jua kali\u27. By virtue of jua kali artists `making do\u27 with minimal resources and maximum ingenuity, imagination, originality and entrepreneurial acumen, they are creating new art forms or bricolage, the clearest evidence of which is what Kenyan artists call `junk art\u27; which is made from global garbage garnered from dump sites, then recycled into original artworks, and finally shown/sold in local and transnational art markets, thus reflecting global flows. This genre of contemporary Kenyan art defies stereotypical myths of `tribal art\u27 and `the primitive other\u27. These hegemonic myths still pervade most Western art markets, but jua kali artists--working through both local and transnational networks -- are striving to debunk them by their works with increasing success

Peacebuilding and the depoliticisation of civil society: Sierra Leone [2002 – 2013]

Over the past two decades, there has been a rapid increase in funds made available by the international donor community to support local civil society actors in fragile states. Current peacebuilding and development efforts support and strive to recreate an active, vibrant and ―liberal‖ civil society. In the case of Sierra Leone, paradoxically, the growing support has not strengthened civil society actors based on that liberal idea(l). Instead of empowering individuals, enhancing democratic ownership and pro-active participation stemming from the civil sphere, Sierra Leone‘s civil society landscape appears to be neutralised, depoliticised if not instrumentalised to provide social services the state is either too weak or unwilling to deliver. In critically assessing how Sierra Leone‘s civil sphere became depoliticised during the country‘s peacebuilding and development phase, the thesis advances three main arguments. First, it supports the commonly agreed consensus in scholarship that postwar civil societies have become instrumentalised to serve a broader liberal peacebuilding and development agenda in several ways. Second, a deeper inquiry into the history of state formation and political culture of Sierra Leone reveals that Ekeh‘s (1975) bifurcated state is very much alive. In short, Western idea(l)s of participatory approaches and democracy are repeatedly challenged by a persisting urban-rural divide as well as socially entrenched forms of neopatrimonialism, elite-loyalism and tribalism. Sierra Leonean civil society finds itself currently in the midst of renegotiating those various intersections of a primordial and civic sphere. Third, the effects colonialism has had on African societies are still reflected in the current monopolisation of wealth and power among a few (elites) next to a vast majority living in abject poverty. More concretely, how abject poverty, human development and above all the lack of education affect activism and agency from below remains a scarcely addressed aspect in the peacebuilding and development literature