Security in the Age of Systemic Risk: Strategies, Tactics and Options for Dealing with Femtorisks and Beyond

The world today is increasingly confronted with systemic threats and challenges, in which femtorisks - small-scale dangers that are inherent to system structures and function and which pose asymmetrically catastrophic risks - can build in consequence, spreading uncontrollably like epidemics in both natural and social systems in such diverse areas as ecology, epidemiology, finance, the Internet, terrorism, and international relations. They have been successfully modeled in ecology in the context of complex adaptive systems: systems made up of individual agents, whose interactions have macroscopic consequences that feed back to influence individual behavior. While acknowledging challenges, this paper argues for the value of applying to societal systems the approaches that natural scientists have developed in quantifying and modeling biological interactions and ecosystems

Honey, a Gift from Nature to Health and Beauty: A Review

Benefits of honey are contributed by the composition of its elements such as glucose, fructose, glucose oxidase, vitamins and phenolic compounds. For health, honey can be used to treat wounds due to the antibacterial activity conferred by the hydrogen peroxide produced by glucose oxidase in honey. Anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, deodorizing and tissue regeneration activities in honey also help in the wound healing process. It can also be an alternative sweetener for diabetic patients to ensure compliance to a healthy diet. Moreover, honey exerts several effects such as lowering low density lipids and increasing high density lipids, thus reducing risk of atherosclerosis. In terms of beauty, honey can be used on skin and hair. It moisturizes skin through its natural humectant properties contributed by high contents of fructose and glucose. Honey treats acne on the skin due to its antibacterial activity, anti-inflammatory action and tissue repair. The hair can benefit from honey in such a way that the hair has abundance, and becomes easier to comb. However, there have not been as many studies regarding the use of honey in skin in comparison to its use for health. Therefore, future studies on honey could research its use, action and benefits in both cosmetics and dermatology

Phosphorylation Provides a Negative Mode of Regulation for the Yeast Rab GTPase Sec4p

The Rab family of Ras-related GTPases are part of a complex signaling circuitry in eukaryotic cells, yet we understand little about the mechanisms that underlie Rab protein participation in such signal transduction networks, or how these networks are integrated at the physiological level. Reversible protein phosphorylation is widely used by cells as a signaling mechanism. Several phospho-Rabs have been identified, however the functional consequences of the modification appear to be diverse and need to be evaluated on an individual basis. In this study we demonstrate a role for phosphorylation as a negative regulatory event for the action of the yeast Rab GTPase Sec4p in regulating polarized growth. Our data suggest that the phosphorylation of the Rab Sec4p prevents interactions with its effector, the exocyst component Sec15p, and that the inhibition may be relieved by a PP2A phosphatase complex containing the regulatory subunit Cdc55p

International organizations and biodiversity

Biodiversity is an inherently international concern, and a complex network of international organizations has evolved to study, regulate, develop, and conserve the organisms and ecosystem services that biodiversity comprises. Both intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations have developed to foster international cooperation to address issues such as wildlife conservation, agricultural and forestry development, and biodiversity and ecosystem data. As global economic development has led to more complex connections among far-flung social-ecological systems, the interests and roles of these international organizations have become more intertwined

Host specificity, but not high-temperature tolerance, is associated with recent outbreaks of Verticillium dahliae in chrysanthemum in the Netherlands

Two hypotheses which might explain a recent increase in the incidence of verticillium wilt of chrysanthemums in glasshouses in the Netherlands were investigated, viz whether selection for increased resistance to elevated temperatures has occurred due to frequent steaming of soils in the glasshouses, or whether the strains of Verticillium dahliae occurring in chrysanthemum glasshouses are particularly virulent towards this host. Following artificial inoculation, five isolates of V. dahliae from chrysanthemum were pathogenic on chrysanthemum but five isolates from potato were non-pathogenic for this host. When inoculated onto potato plants, all isolates caused early senescence with no significant difference between the two groups of isolates. In amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis, the potato isolates formed a cluster distinct from all other isolates. As a group the chrysanthemum isolates were no more diverse than the potato isolates but did not form a cluster distinct from 12 other isolates tested. This suggests that high pathogenicity to chrysanthemum has developed on several occasions but that the group of potato isolates were possibly monophyletic. Microsclerotia produced in vitro from the chrysanthemum isolates had significantly lower average lethal temperature tolerance than those from the five potato isolates suggesting that being able to resist the effects of soil sterilisation by steam is not a factor in wilt of chrysanthemums in the Netherlands