Role of Bryophytes And Tree Canopy In Mist Trapping In Mt. Marsabit Forest

Mt. Marsabit forest, is an isolated Tropical Rain Forest, oasis, located 560 Km north of Nairobi, Kenya; and surrounded by deserts of Chalbi, Kaisut and Bubisa. The forest is under threat mainly by anthropogenic effects before the forest biota is studied. This research was to investigate the role of bryophytes and forest canopy in trapping mist water, for supporting Mt. Marsabit forest community development. The experiments were located 1450 m. asl windward of Mt. Marsabit. Stem simulates of varying circumferences were dressed with bryophytes and bryophytes mounted mist traps were located on same site. The water retention capacity was 6 times own dry weight with a hygroscopic capacity of 13%. The mist water trapped by bryophytes was 8 liters of water / m ²/ mist day translating to 196 mm of rainfall per year. The stem simulates of 20 cm circumference, 50 cm long trapped 30 ml of water per mist day using surface area of 0.05 m² translating to 914 ml of water per m² per mist day equivalent to 65 mm of rainfall per year. The study revealed that vegetation is an important catchments area surface (attract rain) whose loss leads to reduced water resource for plant and animal use; climate moderation. Further, mist water is the compensation factor that supports the forest ecosystem. The cooling effect of water is lost with the loss of vegetation. The loss of water leads to drier environment with climate change as the ripple effect. The change in river regimes and the general hydrologic cycle is due to loss in vegetation, where mist water was not accounted for by science. The mist water resource is renewable water resource that can be used to recharge ground water, conserve and rehabilitate forest and provide water for domestic, agricultural and industrial use

Computational design of disulfide cyclic peptide as potential inhibitor of complex NS2B-NS3 dengue virus protease

Development of genomic and proteomic studies coupled with computational sciences could facilitate the discovery of various target proteins and potential inhibitor to be developed as drugs. Several researches by molecular docking method have been conducted to design disulfide cyclic peptide ligand as potential inhibitors for NS2B-NS3 protease (NS2B-NS3 pro) of dengue virus serotype DENV-2 in order to inhibit replication of dengue virus. This research studied and evaluated the interaction of ligands and the enzyme in the hydrate state using molecular dynamics simulations at two different temperatures. Simulations were performed using two disulfide cyclic peptide inhibitors KRK and RKR, along with one linear peptide Bz-Nle-K-R-R-H as standard ligand. The result shows that dynamic movement of three proposed ligand in hydrated state affects ligand interactions. RKR ligand has the best affinity with the enzyme than KRK and standard ligand. This is shown by the ligand interaction with enzyme active site which remains stable during the simulation. At the end of simulation 300 K, RKR formed a hydrogen bond with Asp75 and at the end of simulation 312 K, RKR also maintained hydrogen bond with Asp75Key words: Dengue virus (DENV), serine protease NS2B and NS3, molecular docking, molecular dynamics

Charmless Two-body Baryonic B Decays

We study charmless two-body baryonic B decays in a diagramatic approach. Relations on decay amplitudes are obtained. In general there are more than one tree and more than one penguin amplitudes. The number of independent amplitudes can be reduced in the large m_B limit. It leads to more predictive results. Some prominent modes for experimental searches are pointed out.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Accounting for Slow J/psi from B Decay

A slow J/psi excess exists in the inclusive B -> J/psi+X spectrum, and is indicative of some hadronic effect. From color octet nature of c cbar pair in b-> c cbar s decay, one such possibility would be B -> J/psi+ K_g decay, where K_g is a hybrid resonance with sbar g q constituents. We show that a K_g resonance of ~ 2 GeV mass and suitably broad width could be behind the excess.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.

A new neurosurgical tool incorporating differential geometry and cellular automata techniques

Using optical coherence imaging, it is possible to visualize seizure progression intraoperatively. However, it is difficult to pinpoint an exact epileptic focus. This is crucial in attempts to minimize the amount of resection necessary during surgical therapeutic interventions for epilepsy and is typically done approximately from visual inspection of optical coherence imaging stills. In this paper, we create an algorithm with the potential to pinpoint the source of a seizure from an optical coherence imaging still. To accomplish this, a grid is overlaid on optical coherence imaging stills. This then serves as a grid for a two-dimensional cellular automation. Each cell is associated with a Riemannian curvature tensor representing the curvature of the brain's surface in all directions for a cell. Cells which overlay portions of the image which show neurons that are firing are considered "depolarized"

Low-Mass Baryon-Antibaryon Enhancements in B Decays

The nature of low-mass baryon-antibaryon enhancements seen in B decays is explored. Three possibilities include (i) states near threshold as found in a model by Nambu and Jona-Lasinio, (ii) isoscalar states with $J^{PC} = 0^{\pm +}$ coupled to a pair of gluons, and (iii) low-mass enhancements favored by the fragmentation process. Ways of distinguishing these mechanisms using angular distributions and flavor symmetry are proposed.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX, no figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev. D. One reference adde

MRI brain scan study of minor physical anomalies to aid the early diagnosis of autism

Poster Sessionspublished_or_final_versionThe 27th International College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress (CINP 2010), Hong Kong, China, 6-10 June 2010. In International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2010, v. 13, suppl. S1, p. 182, abstract no. P-14.03

Hadronic B Decays to Charmed Baryons

We study exclusive B decays to final states containing a charmed baryon within the pole model framework. Since the strong coupling for $\Lambda_b\bar B N$ is larger than that for $\Sigma_b \bar BN$, the two-body charmful decay $B^-\to\Sigma_c^0\bar p$ has a rate larger than $\bar B^0\to\Lambda_c^+\bar p$ as the former proceeds via the $\Lambda_b$ pole while the latter via the $\Sigma_b$ pole. By the same token, the three-body decay $\bar B^0\to\Sigma_c^{++}\bar p\pi^-$ receives less baryon-pole contribution than $B^-\to\Lambda_c^+\bar p\pi^-$. However, because the important charmed-meson pole diagrams contribute constructively to the former and destructively to the latter, $\Sigma_c^{++}\bar p\pi^-$ has a rate slightly larger than $\Lambda_c^+\bar p\pi^-$. It is found that one quarter of the $B^-\to \Lambda_c^+\bar p\pi^-$ rate comes from the resonant contributions. We discuss the decays $\bar B^0\to\Sigma_c^0\bar p\pi^+$ and $B^-\to\Sigma_c^0\bar p\pi^0$ and stress that they are not color suppressed even though they can only proceed via an internal W emission.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure