31 research outputs found

    Collective action for forest conservation: Does heterogeneity matter?

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    Community management of forests by Van Panchayats (forest councils) to meet local needs has a long history in the Indian Central Himalayas. This essay examines the effects of village-level heterogeneity in caste and land ownership, and of female membership in the Panchayats on collective action for forest conservation. There is no evidence that caste heterogeneity or female membership of the Panchayat have any effect. There is some evidence that greater equality in land ownership may enhance collective action and forest conservation in pine forests but not broadleaved forests. This is puzzling since villagers' interest in conservation is greater in broadleaved than in pine forests.

    Perspectives on Ecosystem Services: Approaches, Development and Valuation

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    Ecosystem services originate from a functioning ecosystem and are of direct value to humans. They enter the utility function either directly, or along with labour, capital, and other produced goods as inputs in a production process resulting in consumable goods. Most ecosystem goods and services have produced although usually imperfect substitutes. It is the nature of economic and population growth that some ecosystem goods and services become depleted and that humans use inputs including plentiful ecosystem goods and services to produce new capital and goods that compensate for such depletion. An economic question is whether the substitutes for ecosystem services cost society more to produce than the opportunity cost of protecting the original ecosystem services. Many ecosystem services and some ecosystem goods are commonly received for free. The marketing of ecosystem goods and services is basically an effort to turn such recipients those who benefit without ownership into buyers, thereby providing market signals that serve to help protect valuable services. Some formal arrangement is needed to make this happe

    Antihistaminic effect of Bauhinia racemosa leaves

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    Bauhinia racemosa Lam. (Caesalpiniaceae) leaves have been used in the treatment of asthma traditionally and we therefore undertook this study to scientifically validate its benefit in asthma using suitable animal models. Antihistaminic principles are known to be useful in the treatment of asthma; hence, in the present work, the antihistaminic activity of an ethanol extract of B. racemosa (at a dose of 50 mg/kg, i.p.) was assessed using clonidine-induced catalepsy and haloperidol-induced catalepsy in Swiss albino mice. The results showed that the ethanol extract inhibits clonidine-induced catalepsy but there is no effect on haloperidol-induced catalepsy. This suggests that the inhibition is through an antihistaminic action and that there is no role of dopamine. Hence, we concluded that the ethanol extract has significant antihistaminic activity. The polar constituents in the ethanol extract of leaves of B. racemosa may be responsible for the antihistaminic activity and B. racemosa may therefore have a role in the treatment of asthma

    Down-regulation of catalase and oxidative modification of protein kinase CK2 lead to the failure of apoptosis repressor with caspase recruitment domain to inhibit cardiomyocyte hypertrophy

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    Cardiac hypertrophy is regulated by a complex interplay of pro- and anti-hypertrophic factors. Here, we report a novel anti-hypertrophic pathway composed of catalase, protein kinase CK2 (CK2) and apoptosis repressor with caspase recruitment domain (ARC). Our results showed that ARC phosphorylation levels, CK2 activity and catalase expression levels were decreased in the hearts of the angiotensinogen transgenic mice and in cardiomyocytes treated with the hypertrophic stimuli including phenylephrine, tumor necrosis factor-alpha and angiotensin II. To understand the role of ARC in hypertrophy, we observed that enforced expression of ARC could inhibit hypertrophy. Knockdown of endogenous ARC or inhibition of its phosphorylation could sensitize cardiomyocytes to undergoing hypertrophy. The phosphorylatable but not the nonphosphorylatable ARC could inhibit hypertrophy. Thus, ARC is able to inhibit hypertrophy in a phosphorylation-dependent manner. In exploring the molecular mechanism by which CK2 activity is reduced, we found that CK2 was carbonylated in angiotensinogen transgenic mice and in cardiomyocytes treated with the hypertrophic stimuli. The decrease in catalase expression led to an elevated level of reactive oxygen species. The latter oxidatively modified CK2 resulting in its carbonylation. CK2 lost its catalytic activity upon carbonylation. ARC is phosphorylated by CK2. ARC phosphorylation levels were reduced as a consequence of the decrease of CK2 activity. To understand the molecular mechanism by which ARC inhibits hypertrophy, we observed that ARC could inhibit the activation of mitochondrial permeability transition. These results suggest that catalase, CK2 and ARC constitute an anti-hypertrophic pathway in the heart
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