An overview of anti-diabetic plants used in Gabon: Pharmacology and Toxicology

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Ethnopharmacological relevance: The management of diabetes mellitus management in African communities, especially in Gabon, is not well established as more than 60% of population rely on traditional treatments as primary healthcare. The aim of this review was to collect and present the scientific evidence for the use of medicinal plants that are in currect by Gabonese traditional healers to manage diabetes or hyperglycaemia based here on the pharmacological and toxicological profiles of plants with anti-diabetic activity. There are presented in order to promote their therapeutic value, ensure a safer use by population and provide some bases for further study on high potential plants reviewed. Materials and methods: Ethnobotanical studies were sourced using databases such as Online Wiley library, Pubmed, Google Scholar, PROTA, books and unpublished data including Ph.D. and Master thesis, African and Asian journals. Keywords including ‘Diabetes’ ‘Gabon’ ‘Toxicity’ ‘Constituents’ ‘hyperglycaemia’ were used. Results: A total of 69 plants currently used in Gabon with potential anti-diabetic activity have been identified in the literature, all of which have been used in in vivo or in vitro studies. Most of the plants have been studied in human or animal models for their ability to reduce blood glucose, stimulate insulin secretion or inhibit carbohydrates enzymes. Active substances have been identified in 12 out of 69 plants outlined in this review, these include Allium cepa and Tabernanthe iboga. Only eight plants have their active substances tested for anti-diabetic activity and are suitables for further investigation. Toxicological data is scarce and is dose-related to the functional parameters of major organs such as kidney and liver. Conclusion: An in-depth understanding on the pharmacology and toxicology of Gabonese anti-diabetic plants is lacking yet there is a great scope for new treatments. With further research, the use of Gabonese anti-diabetic plants is important to ensure the safety of the diabetic patients in Gabon.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Probing the charged Higgs boson at the LHC in the CP-violating type-II 2HDM

We present a phenomenological study of a CP-violating two-Higgs-doublet Model with type-II Yukawa couplings at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In the light of recent LHC data, we focus on the parameter space that survives the current and past experimental constraints as well as theoretical bounds on the model. Once the phenomenological scenario is set, we analyse the scope of the LHC in exploring this model through the discovery of a charged Higgs boson produced in association with a W boson, with the former decaying into the lightest neutral Higgs and a second W state, altogether yielding a b\bar b W^+W^- signature, of which we exploit the W^+W^- semileptonic decays.Comment: 37 pages, 16 figures; v2 updated treatment of LHC constraint

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Primary Postnatal Dorsal Root Ganglion Culture from Conventionally Slaughtered Calves

Neurological disorders in ruminants have an important impact on veterinary health, but very few host-specific in vitro models have been established to study diseases affecting the nervous system. Here we describe a primary neuronal dorsal root ganglia (DRG) culture derived from calves after being conventionally slaughtered for food consumption. The study focuses on the in vitro characterization of bovine DRG cell populations by immunofluorescence analysis. The effects of various growth factors on neuron viability, neurite outgrowth and arborisation were evaluated by morphological analysis. Bovine DRG neurons are able to survive for more than 4 weeks in culture. GF supplementation is not required for neuronal survival and neurite outgrowth. However, exogenously added growth factors promote neurite outgrowth. DRG cultures from regularly slaughtered calves represent a promising and sustainable host specific model for the investigation of pain and neurological diseases in bovines

Fortnightly changes in water transport direction across the mouth of a narrow estuary

This research investigates the dynamics of the axial tidal flow and residual circulation at the lower Guadiana Estuary, south Portugal, a narrow mesotidal estuary with low freshwater inputs. Current data were collected near the deepest part of the channel for 21 months and across the channel during two (spring and neap) tidal cycles. Results indicate that at the deep channel, depth-averaged currents are stronger and longer during the ebb at spring and during the flood at neap, resulting in opposite water transport directions at a fortnightly time scale. The net water transport across the entire channel is up-estuary at spring and down-estuary at neap, i.e., opposite to the one at the deep channel. At spring tide, when the estuary is considered to be well mixed, the observed pattern of circulation (outflow in the deep channel, inflow over the shoals) results from the combination of the Stokes transport and compensating return flow, which varies laterally with the bathymetry. At neap tide (in particular for those of lowest amplitude each month), inflows at the deep channel are consistently associated with the development of gravitational circulation. Comparisons with previous studies suggest that the baroclinic pressure gradient (rather than internal tidal asymmetries) is the main driver of the residual water transport. Our observations also indicate that the flushing out of the water accumulated up-estuary (at spring) may also produce strong unidirectional barotropic outflow across the entire channel around neap tide.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Quantitative-spatial assessment of soil contamination in S. Francisco de Assis due to mining activity of the Panasqueira mine (Portugal)

Through the years, mining and beneficiation processes produces large amounts of As-rich mine wastes laid up in huge tailings and open-air impoundments (Barroca Grande and Rio tailings) that are the main source of pollution in the surrounding area once they are exposed to the weathering conditions leading to the formation of AMD and consequently to the contamination of the surrounding environments, in particularly soils. In order to investigate the environmental contamination impact on S. Francisco de Assis (village located between the two major impoundments and tailings) agricultural soils, a geochemical survey was undertaken to assess toxic metals associations, related levels and their spatial distribution, and to identify the possible contamination sources. According to the calculated contamination factor, As and Zn have a very high contamination factor giving rise to 65.4 % of samples with a moderate to high pollution degree; 34.6 % have been classified as nil to very low pollution degree. The contamination factor spatial distribution put in evidence the fact that As, Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn soils contents, downstream Barroca Grande tailing, are increased when compared with the local Bk soils. The mechanical dispersion, due to erosion, is the main contamination source. The chemical extraction demonstrates that the trace metals distribution and accumulation in S. Francisco de Assis soils is related to sulfides, but also to amorphous or poorly crystalline iron oxide phases. The partitioning study allowed understanding the local chemical elements mobility and precipitation processes, giving rise to the contamination dispersion model of the study area. The wind and hydrological factors are responsible for the chemical elements transport mechanisms, the water being the main transporter medium and soils as one of the possible retention media

f(R) theories

Over the past decade, f(R) theories have been extensively studied as one of the simplest modifications to General Relativity. In this article we review various applications of f(R) theories to cosmology and gravity - such as inflation, dark energy, local gravity constraints, cosmological perturbations, and spherically symmetric solutions in weak and strong gravitational backgrounds. We present a number of ways to distinguish those theories from General Relativity observationally and experimentally. We also discuss the extension to other modified gravity theories such as Brans-Dicke theory and Gauss-Bonnet gravity, and address models that can satisfy both cosmological and local gravity constraints.Comment: 156 pages, 14 figures, Invited review article in Living Reviews in Relativity, Published version, Comments are welcom

Goal-directed and habitual control in the basal ganglia: implications for Parkinson's disease

Progressive loss of the ascending dopaminergic projection in the basal ganglia is a fundamental pathological feature of Parkinson's disease. Studies in animals and humans have identified spatially segregated functional territories in the basal ganglia for the control of goal-directed and habitual actions. In patients with Parkinson's disease the loss of dopamine is predominantly in the posterior putamen, a region of the basal ganglia associated with the control of habitual behaviour. These patients may therefore be forced into a progressive reliance on the goal-directed mode of action control that is mediated by comparatively preserved processing in the rostromedial striatum. Thus, many of their behavioural difficulties may reflect a loss of normal automatic control owing to distorting output signals from habitual control circuits, which impede the expression of goal-directed action. © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved

A principal component meta-analysis on multiple anthropometric traits identifies novel loci for body shape

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Large consortia have revealed hundreds of genetic loci associated with anthropometric traits, one trait at a time. We examined whether genetic variants affect body shape as a composite phenotype that is represented by a combination of anthropometric traits. We developed an approach that calculates averaged PCs (AvPCs) representing body shape derived from six anthropometric traits (body mass index, height, weight, waist and hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio). The first four AvPCs explain >99% of the variability, are heritable, and associate with cardiometabolic outcomes. We performed genome-wide association analyses for each body shape composite phenotype across 65 studies and meta-analysed summary statistics. We identify six novel loci: LEMD2 and CD47 for AvPC1, RPS6KA5/C14orf159 and GANAB for AvPC3, and ARL15 and ANP32 for AvPC4. Our findings highlight the value of using multiple traits to define complex phenotypes for discovery, which are not captured by single-trait analyses, and may shed light onto new pathways

Study of hadronic event-shape variables in multijet final states in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

Peer reviewe