Extending the temporal context of ethnobotanical databases: the case study of the Campania region (southern Italy)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ethnobotanical studies generally describe the traditional knowledge of a territory according to a "hic et nunc" principle. The need of approaching this field also embedding historical data has been frequently acknowledged. With their long history of civilization some regions of the Mediterranean basin seem to be particularly suited for an historical approach to be adopted. Campania, a region of southern Italy, has been selected for a database implementation containing present and past information on plant uses.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A relational database has been built on the basis of information gathered from different historical sources, including diaries, travel accounts, and treatises on medicinal plants, written by explorers, botanists, physicians, who travelled in Campania during the last three centuries. Moreover, ethnobotanical uses described in historical herbal collections and in Ancient and Medieval texts from the Mediterranean Region have been included in the database.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>1672 different uses, ranging from medicinal, to alimentary, ceremonial, veterinary, have been recorded for 474 species listed in the data base. Information is not uniformly spread over the Campanian territory; Sannio being the most studied geographical area and Cilento the least one. About 50 plants have been continuously used in the last three centuries in the cure of the same affections. A comparison with the uses reported for the same species in Ancient treatises shows that the origin of present ethnomedicine from old learned medical doctrines needs a case-by-case confirmation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The database is flexible enough to represent a useful tool for researchers who need to store and compare present and previous ethnobotanical uses from Mediterranean Countries.</p

Measurement of matric suction using tensiometric and axis translation techniques

Experimental equipment for the measurement of matric suction in unsaturated soils using hydraulic tensiometers and the axis translation technique share a common working principle; that is, the measurement of a pressure differential across a high air entry porous ceramic. In this paper, the current state of the art in these two suction measurement techniques is presented and discussed together with the underlying physics thereby giving the reader the necessary basis to use and interpret the results obtained from those two techniques

Herpes Virus Fusion and Entry: A Story with Many Characters

Herpesviridae comprise a large family of enveloped DNA viruses all of whom employ orthologs of the same three glycoproteins, gB, gH and gL. Additionally, herpesviruses often employ accessory proteins to bind receptors and/or bind the heterodimer gH/gL or even to determine cell tropism. Sorting out how these proteins function has been resolved to a large extent by structural biology coupled with supporting biochemical and biologic evidence. Together with the G protein of vesicular stomatitis virus, gB is a charter member of the Class III fusion proteins. Unlike VSV G, gB only functions when partnered with gH/gL. However, gH/gL does not resemble any known viral fusion protein and there is evidence that its function is to upregulate the fusogenic activity of gB. In the case of herpes simplex virus, gH/gL itself is upregulated into an active state by the conformational change that occurs when gD, the receptor binding protein, binds one of its receptors. In this review we focus primarily on prototypes of the three subfamilies of herpesviruses. We will present our model for how herpes simplex virus (HSV) regulates fusion in series of highly regulated steps. Our model highlights what is known and also provides a framework to address mechanistic questions about fusion by HSV and herpesviruses in general

Risks and benefits of lethal male fighting in the colonial, polygynous thrips Hoplothrips karnyi (Insecta: Thysanoptera)

Males of Hoplothrips karnyi (Hood) (Insecta: Thysanoptera), a colonial fungus-feeding thrips, fight each other in defense of communal egg mass sites, where they mate with females that come to oviposit. Fighting males stab each other with their enlarged, armed forelegs and hit each other with their abdomens. Escalated fights occur between large males of similar size. Fights are often lethal; males that died during observations fought more frequently than other males, were stabbed more often and more severely than other males, and were relatively large, but somewhat smaller than their opponents. Large males tend to win fights and guard egg masses, and they secure about 80% of last matings before ovipositions. Guarding males apparently assess female reproductive condition by putting their forelegs partially around females' abdomens; guarding males, but not nonguarding males, mate preferentially with females that have yet to oviposit. Non-guarding males mate with females away from egg masses, sneak matings at egg masses, and occasionally challenge guarding males. Challenges tend to follow matings by non-guarding males at egg masses. Each of four observed or inferred takeovers was followed by the death of the guarding male that lost. Male fighting strategies are discussed in terms of the consistency of lethal fighting with game theory models. Guardin males appear to pursue a classical “hawk” strategy of “escalate until injured or victorious”. This strategy may be advantageous because only large males become guarders, the mating success of guarders greatly exceeds that of non-guarders, and high population viscosity ensures that benefits from killing an opponent accrue directly to gaurders. The occurrence of challenges by large non-guarders implies that fighting ability and resource value asymmetries between males change over time; such changes may result from the energetic costs of guarding, injury to guarding males, or depletion of guarding males' supply of sperm.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46885/1/265_2004_Article_BF00299845.pd