A REVISION OF ISEILEMA (GRAMINEAE) IN MALESIA

VELDKAMP, J. F. 2016. A revision of Iseilema (Gramineae) in Malesia. Reinwardtia 15(2): 123 – 127. — There are three very rare and localized species in Malesia; one from Java is new. Notes on some other Southeast Asian species are given

AEGOPOGON (GRAMINEAE) IN MALESIA

AeyopoyoiL ceucliroides Willd. var. cenchroides is recorded for the first time from Malesian area based on a collection from Mt. Michael (Papuu New Guinea). A description is provided

The Projective Line Over the Finite Quotient Ring GF(2)[xx]/<x3−x>< x^{3} - x> and Quantum Entanglement I. Theoretical Background

The paper deals with the projective line over the finite factor ring $R\_{\clubsuit} \equiv$ GF(2)[$x$]/$$. The line is endowed with 18 points, spanning the neighbourhoods of three pairwise distant points. As $R\_{\clubsuit}$ is not a local ring, the neighbour (or parallel) relation is not an equivalence relation so that the sets of neighbour points to two distant points overlap. There are nine neighbour points to any point of the line, forming three disjoint families under the reduction modulo either of two maximal ideals of the ring. Two of the families contain four points each and they swap their roles when switching from one ideal to the other; the points of the one family merge with (the image of) the point in question, while the points of the other family go in pairs into the remaining two points of the associated ordinary projective line of order two. The single point of the remaining family is sent to the reference point under both the mappings and its existence stems from a non-trivial character of the Jacobson radical, ${\cal J}\_{\clubsuit}$, of the ring. The factor ring $\widetilde{R}\_{\clubsuit} \equiv R\_{\clubsuit}/ {\cal J}\_{\clubsuit}$ is isomorphic to GF(2) $\otimes$ GF(2). The projective line over $\widetilde{R}\_{\clubsuit}$ features nine points, each of them being surrounded by four neighbour and the same number of distant points, and any two distant points share two neighbours. These remarkable ring geometries are surmised to be of relevance for modelling entangled qubit states, to be discussed in detail in Part II of the paper.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

MISCELLANEOUS BOTANICAL NOTES XXVI

Description of the pod of the type tree of Ormosia incerta Koord. (reduced to 0. psnangensis Ridl.) from Java. Reduction of the genus Trifidacanthus Merr. (Legum.) to Desmodium; one new combination necessary. The genus Platyspermation Guillaumin described from New Caledonia in Myrtaeeae, suggested to belong to Saxifragaceae-Escallonioidsae. Juncus bufonius L. recorded as introduced on Mt Kinabalu. Two Fimbristylis species recorded new for the Northern Territory, Australia; Oreobolus kukenthalii Steen. recorded from Mt Muln, Sarawak

Sulfotyrosine Recognition as Marker for Druggable Sites in the Extracellular Space

Chemokine signaling is a well-known agent of autoimmune disease, HIV infection, and cancer. Drug discovery efforts for these signaling molecules have focused on developing inhibitors targeting their associated G protein-coupled receptors. Recently, we used a structure-based approach directed at the sulfotyrosine-binding pocket of the chemokine CXCL12, and thereby demonstrated that small molecule inhibitors acting upon the chemokine ligand form an alternative therapeutic avenue. Although the 50 members of the chemokine family share varying degrees of sequence homology (some as little as 20%), all members retain the canonical chemokine fold. Here we show that an equivalent sulfotyrosine-binding pocket appears to be conserved across the chemokine superfamily. We monitored sulfotyrosine binding to four representative chemokines by NMR. The results suggest that most chemokines harbor a sulfotyrosine recognition site analogous to the cleft on CXCL12 that binds sulfotyrosine 21 of the receptor CXCR4. Rational drug discovery efforts targeting these sites may be useful in the development of specific as well as broad-spectrum chemokine inhibitors

NOTES ON RAFFLESIA (RAFFLESIACEAE) IN SUMATRA WITH A NEW RECORD RAFFLESIA GADUTENSIS MEIJER

MAHYUNI, R.,  KUSUMA,Y. W. C., WIHERMANTO &amp; VELDKAMP, J. F. 2015. Notes on Rafflesia (Rafflesiaceae) in Sumatra with a new record Rafflesia gadutensis Meijer. Reinwardtia 14(2):  317 - 322. -- Pulau Mursala is a small island west of the Sibolga, Tapanuli Tengah District, North Sumatra, Indonesia. The occurrence of the genus Rafflesia (Rafflesiaceae) there has never been reported before. However, during a visit in April 2013 three populations are      located close together with more than twenty buds and some rotting blooming flowers, Tetrastigma sp. was detected. Field observations could be made and material was collected for comparison with that in the Herbarium Bogoriense (BO). It was concluded that they are R. gadutensis Meijer, which is known from Padang, Ulu Gadut. Notes on its          morphology are given. The distribution of species is discussed

A peptide mimic of the chemotaxis inhibitory protein of Staphylococcus aureus: towards the development of novel anti-inflammatory compounds

Complement factor C5a is one of the most powerful pro-inflammatory agents involved in recruitment of leukocytes, activation of phagocytes and other inflammatory responses. C5a triggers inflammatory responses by binding to its G-protein-coupled C5a-receptor (C5aR). Excessive or erroneous activation of the C5aR has been implicated in numerous inflammatory diseases. The C5aR is therefore a key target in the development of specific anti-inflammatory compounds. A very potent natural inhibitor of the C5aR is the 121-residue chemotaxis inhibitory protein of Staphylococcus aureus (CHIPS). Although CHIPS effectively blocks C5aR activation by binding tightly to its extra-cellular N terminus, it is not suitable as a potential anti-inflammatory drug due to its immunogenic properties. As a first step in the development of an improved CHIPS mimic, we designed and synthesized a substantially shorter 50-residue adapted peptide, designated CHOPS. This peptide included all residues important for receptor binding as based on the recent structure of CHIPS in complex with the C5aR N terminus. Using isothermal titration calorimetry we demonstrate that CHOPS has micromolar affinity for a model peptide comprising residues 7–28 of the C5aR N terminus including two O-sulfated tyrosine residues at positions 11 and 14. CD and NMR spectroscopy showed that CHOPS is unstructured free in solution. Upon addition of the doubly sulfated model peptide, however, the NMR and CD spectra reveal the formation of structural elements in CHOPS reminiscent of native CHIPS

Computational Model for Urban Growth Using Socioeconomic Latent Parameters

Land use land cover changes (LULCC) are generally modeled using multi-scale spatio-temporal variables. Recently, Markov Chain (MC) has been used to model LULCC. However, the model is derived from the proportion of LULCC observed over a given period and it does not account for temporal factors such as macro-economic, socio-economic, etc. In this paper, we present a richer model based on Hidden Markov Model (HMM), grounded in the common knowledge that economic, social and LULCC processes are tightly coupled. We propose a HMM where LULCC classes represent hidden states and temporal fac-tors represent emissions that are conditioned on the hidden states. To our knowledge, HMM has not been used in LULCC models in the past. We further demonstrate its integration with other spatio-temporal models such as Logistic Regression. The integrated model is applied on the LULCC data of Pune district in the state of Maharashtra (India) to predict and visualize urban LULCC over the past 14 years. We observe that the HMM integrated model has improved prediction accuracy as compared to the corresponding MC integrated modelComment: 12 page