Encontro de Trypanosoma forattinii Coutinho & Pattoli em roedores de Trinidad

Recovery of Trypanosoma forattinii from natural infected Oryzomys capito velutinus from Trinidad, is reported. Negative results were obtained with attempts to infect experimentally, several laboratories animals, silvatyc rodents of the same ecological area and several species of triatomids bugs. Positive results were obtained only by using O. capito velutinus born in laboratory.Relata-se o encontro de Trypanosoma forattinii, em exemplares de Oryzomys capito velutinus de Trinidad. Tentativas de isolamento em meio de NNN e de inoculação experimental em animais de laboratório, foram completamente negativas. Resultados positivos foram obtidos com inoculação de O. capito velutinus criados em laboratórios. As tentativas de infectar triatomíneos e roedores silvestres da mesma área foram igualmente negativas

Are well‐intended Buddhist practices an under‐appreciated threat to global aquatic biodiversity?

Abstract 1. The inherently pro‐conservation and humane Buddhist practice of ‘live release’, entailing the release into the wild of creatures destined for slaughter, poses potentially significant conservation consequences if inappropriate, invasive species are procured for release. 2. This article collates evidence, citing one legal case and other examples, about the risks of the live release of potentially invasive aquatic species that may result in serious, possibly irreversible, conservation threats to aquatic biodiversity and natural ecosystems, with ensuing adverse ecological and human consequences. 3. It is essential that practitioners are aware of these risks if their actions are not to work diametrically against the pro‐conservation and humane intents of the practice. 4. Ensuring that live release occurs safely necessitates raising awareness, with guidance informed by science, to ensure that good intentions do not result in perverse, environmentally destructive outcomes. 5. We propose four simple principles to achieve this, for dissemination to the global adherents of these otherwise entirely laudable practices

Assessing livelihood-ecosystem interdependencies and natural resource governance in Indian villages in the Middle Himalayas

© 2018, The Author(s). Mountains host high biological and cultural diversity, generating ecosystem services providing benefits over multiple scales but also suffering significant poverty and vulnerabilities. Case studies in two contrasting village communities in the Indian Middle Himalayas explore linkages between people and adjacent forest and river ecosystems. Interviews with local people and direct observations revealed low food availability and decreasing self-sufficiency, under the combined pressures of increasing foraging by wildlife (primarily pigs and monkeys) coupled with seasonal to permanent outmigration by younger men seeking more secure income and alternative livelihoods. Much of the income remitted by migrants to their villages was not retained locally but flowed back out of the Himalayan region through purchases of food produced and marketed in the plains. This threatens the economic viability of villages, also placing asymmetric pressures on resident female, elderly and young people who concentrate labour on local livestock production to the neglect of crop agriculture, further compounding land abandonment and wildlife foraging. Significant traditional knowledge remains, along with utilitarian, cultural and spiritual connections with the landscape. Many beneficiaries of locally produced ecosystem services are remote from village communities (particularly water flows downstream to the plains), but no recompense is paid to stewards of the forested Himalayan landscape. Although local people currently perceive high biodiversity as a constraint to agriculture and other economic activities, the Himalayan landscapes could potentially constitute an asset with appropriate institutional development through promotion of managed bioprospecting, guided ecotourism and payment for ecosystem services (PES) schemes for water supply and under REDD+

Mannitol transport and mannitol dehydrogenase activities are coordinated in olea europaea under salt and osmotic stresses

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Plant and Cell Physiology following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online at http://pcp.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/pcr121? ijkey=6orgUM5fkIjedYn&keytype=refThe intracellular accumulation of organic compatible solutes functioning as osmoprotectants, such as polyols, is an important response mechanism of several plants to drought and salinity. In Olea europaea a mannitol transport system (OeMaT1) was previously characterised as a key player in plant response to salinity. In the present study, heterotrophic sink models, such as olive cell suspensions and fruit tissues, and source leaves were used for analytical, biochemical and molecular studies. The kinetic parameters of mannitol dehydrogenase (MTD) determined in mannitol-growing cells, at 25 °C and pH 9.0, were as follows: Km, 54.5 mM mannitol and Vmax, 0.47 μmol h-1 mg-1 protein. The corresponding cDNA was cloned and named OeMTD1. OeMTD1 expression was correlated with MTD activity, OeMaT1 expression and carrier-mediated mannitol transport, in mannitol- and sucrose-growing cells. Furthermore, sucrosegrowing cells displayed only residual OeMTD activity, even though high levels of OeMTD1 transcription were observed. There is evidence OeMTD is regulated at both transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. MTD activity and OeMTD1 expression were repressed after Na+, K+ and PEG treatments, both in mannitol- and sucrose-growing cells. In contrast, salt and drought significantly increased mannitol transport activity and OeMaT1 expression. Altogether, these studies support that olive tree copes with salinity and drought by coordinating mannitol transport with intracellular metabolism.This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) (research project ref. PTDC/AGR-ALI/100636/2008; to A. Conde, grant ref. SFRH/BD/47699/2008; to C. Conde, grant ref. SFRH/BPD/34998/2007; to P. Silvagrant ref. SFRH/BD/13460/2003)

Twenty Years of the Polyvinyl Chloride Sustainability Challenges

Intense campaigning pressure on the UK PVC sector up to the late 1990s forced strategic engagement with sustainable development. Simplified outcomes from a detailed, consensus-based analysis by science-based NGO The Natural Step (TNS) took the form of five TNS Sustainability Challenges for PVC published in 2000. UK manufacturing companies initially used these Challenges to direct strategic progress. The Challenges have since been progressively taken up across European PVC value chains. The VinylPlus® programme uses an updated version of the five Challenges as a basis for voluntary commitments and transparent auditing of progress against published targets. Initial framing of the five TNS Sustainability Challenges for PVC were drafted consciously for generic relevance to other materials. Assessing the sustainability performance of some alternative materials to PVC against the five Sustainability Challenges reveals different sustainability performance in a range of potential applications. This highlights the danger inherent in automatic selection or deselection of materials in the absence of assessment of options on a ‘level playing field’ of sustainability principles. The five TNS Sustainability Challenges for PVC remain valid today and into the longer-term future as a basis for making stepwise, profitable progress towards the goal of sustainability for PVC and other materials

Method of Improving Cheese Quality

A method is provided for improving the quality of cheese produced from a curd and whey mixture. The method comprises the steps of monitoring the curd and whey mixture during syneresis processing to collect color data, comparing the color data to a predetermined standard and terminating syneresis when the color meets the predetermined standard or, alternatively, analyzing the color data obtained to generate kinetic parameters that can be used to predict the end point of syneresis to improve control of curd moisture content

Environmental constraints influencing survival of an African parasite in a north temperate habitat: effects of temperature on development within the host

The monogenean Protopolystoma xenopodis has been established in Wales for >40 years following introduction with Xenopus laevis from South Africa. This provides an experimental system for determining constraints affecting introduced species in novel environments. Parasite development post-infection was followed at 15, 20 and 25 °C for 15 weeks and at 10 °C for51 year and correlated with temperatures recorded inWales. Development was slowed/arrested at410 °C which reflects habitat conditions for >6 months/year. There was wide variation in growth at constant temperature (body size differing by >10 times) potentially attributable in part to genotype-specific host-parasite interactions. Parasite density had no effect on size but host sex did: worms in males were 1·8 times larger than in females. Minimum time to patency was 51 days at 25 °C and 73 days at 20 °C although some infections were still not patent at both temperatures by 105 days p.i. In Wales, fastest developing infections may mature within one summer (about 12 weeks), possibly accelerated by movements of hosts into warmer surface waters. Otherwise, development slows/stops in October–April, delaying patency to about 1 year p.i., while wide variation in developmental rates may impose delays of 2 years in some primary infections and even longer in secondary infections