Recommendations for Urban Biodiversity Conservation in the Context of Landscape Preference in Singapore

Effective urban biodiversity conservation requires that planners facilitate public acceptance towards biodiversity and its associated habitats within urban areas. This research quantifies the biodiversity conservation potential of landscapes of varying human interference in Singapore and functions under a backdrop that the general public has an aesthetically-driven preference for manicured landscapes. Biodiversity counts for conservation-targeted species from six biodiversity categories species [seed plants, ferns and fern allies, mammals, reptiles, birds and insects (excluding Lepidoptera)] across four landscape types show that naturalistic landscapes (primary and secondary vegetation) harbored at least eight times the number of conservation-target species than manicured landscapes and urban areas. To conserve a maximum number of threatened species while keeping in line with aesthetic landscape preferences, this research offers specific suggestions at modifying existing manicured landscapes to provide better habitats for conservation-target species which have shown recent adaptations to manicured landscapes and urban areas. The percentage of these species makes up as much as 50.39% of seed plants to a lowest of 17.86% of mammals. Taking these small initial steps in urban biodiversity conservation would not only serve to enhance public experience with native nature in urban areas but improve conservation potential of these areas in tangible and feasible means

New approach for finding basic performance measures of single server queue

Consider the single server queue in which the system capacity is infinite and the customers are served on a first come, first served basis. Suppose the probability density functio

Translocation of protein tyrosine phosphatase Pez/PTPD2/PTP36 to the nucleus is associated with induction of cell proliferation

Pez is a non-transmembrane tyrosine phosphatase with homology to the FERM (4.1, ezrin, radixin, moesin) family of proteins. The subcellular localisation of Pez in endothelial cells was found to be regulated by cell density and serum concentration. In confluent monolayers Pez was cytoplasmic, but in cells cultured at low density Pez was nuclear, suggesting that it is a nuclear protein in proliferating cells. This notion is supported by the loss of nuclear Pez when cells are serum-starved to induce quiescence, and the rapid return of Pez to the nucleus upon refeeding with serum to induce proliferation. Vascular endothelial cells normally exist as a quiescent confluent monolayer but become proliferative during angiogenesis or upon vascular injury. Using a 'wound' assay to mimic these events in vitro, Pez was found to be nuclear in the cells that had migrated and were proliferative at the 'wound' edge. TGFbeta, which inhibits cell proliferation but not migration, inhibited the translocation of Pez to the nucleus in the cells at the 'wound' edge, further strengthening the argument that Pez plays a role in the nucleus during cell proliferation. Together, the data presented indicate that Pez is a nuclear tyrosine phosphatase that may play a role in cell proliferation.Carol Wadham, Jennifer R. Gamble, Mathew A. Vadas and Yeesim Khew-Goodal

Repairable queue with non-exponential service time and variable breakdown rates

Consider a single server queue in which the service station may breakdown according to a Poisson process with rates γ in busy time and γ’ in idle time respectively. After a breakdown, the service station will be repaired immediately and the repair time is assumed to have an exponential distribution with rate δ. Suppose the arrival time has an exponential distribution with rate λ, and the probability density function g(t) and the cumulative distribution function G(t) of the service time are such that the rate g(t)/[1 – G(t)] tends to a constant as t tends to infinity. When the queue is in a stationary state, we derive a set of equations for the probabilities of the queue length and the states of the arrival and service processes. Solving the equations, we obtain approximate results for the stationary probabilities which can be used to obtain the stationary queue length distribution of the syste

Development of a crosslinkable biomimetic collagen for mimicry of molecular architecture, biological activity and applications

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

“車椅子利用者は、国立公園を楽しめないのでしょうか？”マレーシアと日本の国立公園の比較から、未来のためにGISデータベースの作成

Background and Objectives: The accessibility of national parks towards the people who use wheelchairs has become more significant with the expanding population of people with disabilities (PwDs), including the elderly due to better awareness of human right, advancement of healthcare, and the increasing aged population and traffic accidents in the world. Accessible national parks are not only important because of the right of the PwDs and elderly but also able to maintain the health and well-beings of them as well as a business opportunity for many. Thus, the objectives are to identify the accessibility of people who use wheelchairs to selected national parks in Malaysia and Japan; compare the accessibility of Kinabalu Park and Daisetsuzan National Park and to create a spatial database for future’s park planning and researches. Methods: Penang National Park (PNP), Taman Negara National Park (TNNP), Kinabalu Park (KP) and Daisetsuzan National Park (DNP) are chosen in this study because of their short distance to a city or they are popular or both. This study utilize descriptive research method to examine the current accessibility of people who use wheelchairs to the selected national park based on collected data. Firstly, free/open GIS data to identify and show the location of the parks, the accessible area, the location of facilities, services and/or experiences accessible by the people who use wheelchairs are collected through websites. Verification of the accessibility was done by collecting the primary data via on-site observation and telephone interview as well as secondary data from the online survey. Slope percent calculated from DEM (digital elevation model) data is used to identify the accessibility and difficulty of the road and trails to people who use wheelchairs by comparing to the accessible scales. Results: This study collected and used only free/open GIS data. The least accessible distance and least accessible elevation range in the park is PNP, followed by TNNP, KP and DNP. In Malaysia, people who use wheelchairs are mostly cannot access to the parks or access with difficulties and much inconveniences as the accessible facilities such as toilets are either not provided or provided but not usable. The paved path may have obstacles such as barricade, uneven surface and small width that stop people who use wheelchairs to use them or may threaten their safety. As a result of comparing KP to DNP, people who use wheelchairs can travel to DNP with more transportation choices but they can only travel to KP by private car or taxi which is not specifically designed for them. Besides, in DNP, they can access to more area, more facilities and services and can enjoy more types of nature or vegetation zones than KP. However, the movement people who use wheelchairs are still limited by some inaccessible areas and facilities in the park. Therefore, GIS database was created in a hope that it may be useful in future’s park planning and researches to build accessible national parks for all.酪農学園大

Target capture sequencing for phylogenomic and population studies in the Southeast Asian genus Palaquium (Sapotaceae)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank the management of the National Parks Board and Singapore Botanic Gardens for providing continuous support, facilities and fieldwork approval in Singapore’s nature reserves. We appreciate the digital research team at the University of Aberdeen and the research/scientific computing teams at The James Hutton Institute and NIAB for providing technical support while using the computational resources on the respective HPC clusters, “Maxwell” and the “UK Crop Diversity Bioformatics HPC” (BBSRC grant BB/S019669/1), which have contributed to the results within this paper. We thank numerous staff at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, particularly Khoo-Woon Mui Hwang and Neo Wei Ling for strong technical support in the molecular lab, Matti Niissalo for generous sharing of lab protocols and bioinformatics tips, Choo Le Min for patient help with lab troubleshooting, Chong Kwek Yan and Chan Pin Jia for forest survey expertise, and Louise Neo for thoughtful field and R advice. Our sincere thanks are due to Herbarium staff at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, including Lesley Scott, for efficient assistance in sending silica-dried samples to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. We also thank Camille Christe at the Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève for kind advice related to the taxon-specific baits’ setup and purchase FUNDING We are grateful to the Lady Yuen Peng McNeice Charitable Foundation for financial support of this study.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The protein tyrosine phosphatase Pez regulates TGFβ, epithelial–mesenchymal transition, and organ development

Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), crucial during embryogenesis for new tissue and organ formation, is also considered to be a prerequisite to cancer metastasis. We report here that the protein tyrosine phosphatase Pez is expressed transiently in discrete locations in developing brain, heart, pharyngeal arches, and somites in zebrafish embryos. We also find that Pez knock-down results in defects in these organs, indicating a crucial role in organogenesis. Overexpression of Pez in epithelial MDCK cells causes EMT, with a drastic change in cell morphology and function that is accompanied by changes in gene expression typical of EMT. Transfection of Pez induced TGFβ signaling, critical in developmental EMT with a likely role also in oncogenic EMT. In zebrafish, TGFβ3 is co- expressed with Pez in a number of tissues and its expression was lost from these tissues when Pez expression was knocked down. Together, our data suggest Pez plays a crucial role in organogenesis by inducing TGFβ and EMT

Introducing natural farming in black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) cultivation

This paper reviews the role of Natural Farming as an ecological farming method to produce organically grown food of safe and high quality and at the same time improve soil quality and soil health. Currently, there is a dearth of information on the effects of Natural Farming approach on black pepper farms particularly in Sarawak, Malaysia. Previous studies on other crops had indicated positive outcome using the Natural Farming method. Thus, this paper discusses the essential role of effective microorganisms in Natural Farming and their potential in pepper cultivation. Through the action of effective microorganisms, this approach should be able to transform a degraded soil ecosystem into one that is fertile and has high nutrients availability. The mixed culture of effective microorganisms applied must be mutually compatible and coexist with one another to ensure its favorable establishment and interaction in the soil. Therefore, it is anticipated that introducing Natural Farming in black pepper cultivation can enhance the predominance of effective microorganisms in the soil, which in turn could lead to promising growth and yield of the crop