13 research outputs found
Synthetic Strategies to Terpene Quinones/Hydroquinones
The cytotoxic and antiproliferative properties of many natural sesquiterpene-quinones and -hydroquinones from sponges offer promising opportunities for the development of new drugs. A review dealing with different strategies for obtaining bioactive terpenyl quinones/hydroquinones is presented. The different synthetic approches for the preparation of the most relevant quinones/hydroquinones are described
Large-scale river flow archives: importance, current status and future needs
Time-series for river gauging stations are core blue-skies and applied
research resources for understanding impacts of climate and anthropogenic
change on basin hydrology. River flow archives hold vital information
for evidence-based assessment of past hydrological variability,
and support hydrological modelling of future changes. River discharge
is an integration of basin input, storage and transfer processes to the
gauging point. It is important to set basin outlet data in regional to
global and long-term contexts: to better understand nested scales of
variability; to pinpoint locations and time periods most sensitive to climate
and human impacts; to make predictions for ungauged basins;
and to inform decision makers on water security issues, and where and
when to take measures to mitigate water hazards and stress, including
floods and droughts (Dai et al., 2009; Bonnell et al., 2006; Feyen &
Dankers, 2009; Haddeland et al., 2006; Hannah et al., 2005). Thus, there
is clear rationale for supporting large-scale (i.e. regional to continental to
global) river flow archives. Notable examples of such databases include
that held by the WMO Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) and the
UNESCO Flow Regimes from International Experimental and Network
Data (FRIEND) European Water Archive (EWA). For large-scale river
flow archives to be valuable research resources, they must be fit for
purpose. However, these databases are at risk due to a possible decline
in network coverage, associated time-series truncation, growing human
impact on (near-) natural flows, and increasingly restricted access to
national-scale data. This commentary aims: (1) to demonstrate largescale
river flow datasets are crucial to advance hydrological science and
solve operational issues; (2) to assess the current status of large-scale
river flow datasets; and (3) to propose ways forward to consolidate historical
data and secure future river flow data
Occurrence and community composition of fast-growing Mycobacterium in soils contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
Fast-growing mycobacteria are considered essential members of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) degrading bacterial community in PAH-contaminated soils. To study the natural role and diversity of the Mycobacterium community in contaminated soils, a culture-independent fingerprinting method based on PCR combined with denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) was developed. New PCR primers were selected which specifically targeted the 16S rRNA genes of fast-growing mycobacteria, and single-band DGGE profiles of amplicons were obtained for most Mycobacterium strains tested. Strains belonging to the same species revealed identical DGGE fingerprints, and in most cases, but not all, these fingerprints were typical for one species, allowing partial differentiation between species in a Mycobacterium community. Mycobacterium strains inoculated in soil were detected with a detection limit of 106 CFU g−1 of soil using the new primer set as such, or approximately 102 CFU g−1 in a nested PCR approach combining eubacterial and the Mycobacterium specific primers. Using the PCR-DGGE method, different species could be individually recognized in a mixed Mycobacterium community. This approach was used to rapidly assess the Mycobacterium community structure of several PAH-contaminated soils of diverse origin with different overall contamination profiles, pollution concentrations and chemical-physical soil characteristics. In the non-contaminated soil, most of the recovered 16SrRNA gene sequence did not match with previous described PAH-degrading Mycobacterium strains. In most PAH-contaminated soils, mycobacteria were detected whic