Linear interference and systematic soliton shape modulation by engineering plane wave background and soliton parameters

We investigate linear interference of a plane wave with different localised waves using coupled Fokas-Lenells equation(FLE) with four wave mixing (FWM) term. We obtain localised wave solution of the coupled FLE by linear superposition of two distinctly independent wave solutions namely plane wave and one soliton solution & plane wave and two soliton solution. We obtain several nonlinear profiles depending on the relative phase induced by soliton parameters. We analyse the linear interference profile under four different conditions on the spatial and temporal phase coefficients of interfering waves. We further investigate the interaction of two soliton solution and a plane wave. In this case we notice that asymptotically, two solitons profile may be similar or different from each other depending on the choices of soliton parameters in the two cases. The results obtained by us might be useful for applications in soliton control, a fiber amplifier, all optical switching, and optical computing. Further we believe that the present investigation would be useful to study the linear interference pattern of other localised waves of FLE.Comment: 14 pages, 18 figure

Species distribution mapping and sustainability measures for a fungus economy in the Indian Himalaya

This presentation was given as part of the GIS Day@KU symposium on November 16, 2016. For more information about GIS Day@KU activities, please see http://gis.ku.edu/gisday/2016/.A entomopathogenic fungus, a fungus that kills its host caterpillar to proliferate. This fungus cures a plethora of ailments. It is one of the most expensive natural resources of the world and a resource that emancipated many from poverty in the remote mountains in the Tibetan plateau and the adjoining high altitude areas of Central and Eastern Himalaya. Geographically, a fine resolution information is lacking for majority of its distribution area. We explored a small region Askot landscape in the state Uttarakhand in Western Himalaya in India. The quest culminated in an extensive questionnaire survey with the villagers and harvesters. A current distribution map based on survey and a predicted suitable zone map using MaXent was produced. The concept is based on distributional ecology of a species which cross sections into concepts of species distribution model and ecological niche modelling. The inputs included both abiotic and biotic factos, albiet complexity. After repeated calibration and manual evaluation analysis, we chose elevation, aspect, slope and 12 PCA inputs of 68 MODIS 13Q1 NDVI layers (2012-2013) as the input data. Presence only data distributed as 10 random replicate pairs is used for training data and evalutation. Occurrence data is error free as it is a primary source data. Model evaluation returned a AUC ratio > 1 values for each, indicating that Maxent curve was significantly elevated above the bull expectations. The process of generating a suitability map convinced us of a sustainable harvest approach for safeguarding direct benefit to people's livelihood and indirectly the local environment.Platinum Sponsors: KU Department of Geography and Atmospheric Science. Gold Sponsors: Enertech, KU Environmental Studies Program, KU Libraries. Silver Sponsors: Douglas County, Kansas, KansasView, State of Kansas Data Access & Support Center (DASC) and the KU Center for Global and International Studies

Ecosystem service assessment of selected wetlands of Kolkata and the Indian Gangetic Delta: multi-beneficial systems under differentiated management stress

© 2019, The Author(s). A structured literature review using the search term ‘ecosystem services’ found few relevant studies relating to three contrasting wetlands in West Bengal: the unpopulated Sudhanyakhali Island in the Sundarbans National Park, the populated Gosaba Island separated from Sudhanyakhali Island by a narrow channel, and the East Kolkata Wetland (EKW). Subsequent structured review focused on the EKW using specific service-related terms located only 2 provisioning, 6 regulating, 1 cultural and 3 supporting services. Few services are currently recognized in the literature, with significant gaps in whole service categories. Significantly, there was no published evidence of a systemic overview of service production at these sites. Field observations and stakeholder dialogue informed assessment of ecosystem services using the Rapid Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Services (RAWES) approach, adopted by the Ramsar Commission, on both islands and three discretely different areas of the EKW. The RAWES surveys found that 32 of 36 ecosystem services were produced from at least one assessed wetland site. Despite low sample size, statistically significant differences were observed in the range of services produced between the five wetland sites and the geographical range at which benefits accrued, explained by differing wetland characteristics and management regimes. Were decisions based solely on evidence provided by existing published knowledge, few ecosystem services would be considered and, potentially, whole ecosystem service categories might be overlooked. Importantly, there would also be no systemic account of service production and interdependencies. RAWES assessment serves as a practical, rapid and systemic approach, taking account of interdependent ecosystem services, supporting protection of the ecological character and achievement of wise use of wetlands. RAWES can also help redress perceptions that the values of peri-urban wetlands are currently under-represented

Towards a Post-Graduate Level Curriculum for Biodiversity Informatics. Perspectives from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Community

Biodiversity informatics is a new and evolving field, requiring efforts to develop capacity and a curriculum for this field of science. The main objective was to summarise the level of activity and the efforts towards developing biodiversity informatics curricula, for work-based training and/or academic teaching at universities, taking place within the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) countries and its associated network. A survey approach was used to identify existing capacities and resources within the network. Most of GBIF Nodes survey respondents (80%) are engaged in onsite training activities, with a focus on work-based professionals, mostly researchers, policy-makers and students. Training topics include data mobilisation, digitisation, management, publishing, analysis and use, to enable the accessibility of analogue and digital biological data that currently reside as scattered datasets. An initial assessment of academic teaching activities highlighted that countries in most regions, to varying degrees, were already engaged in the conceptualisation, development and/or implementation of formal academic programmes in biodiversity informatics, including programmes in Benin, Colombia, Costa Rica, Finland, France, India, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan and Togo. Digital e-learning platforms were an important tool to help build capacity in many countries. In terms of the potential in the Nodes network, 60% expressed willingness to be recruited or commissioned for capacity enhancement purposes. Contributions and activities of various country nodes across the network have been highlighted and a working curriculum framework has been defined. © 2021. Parker-Allie F et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedPeer reviewe

NCoR Repression of LXRs Restricts Macrophage Biosynthesis of Insulin-Sensitizing Omega 3 Fatty Acids

SummaryMacrophage-mediated inflammation is a major contributor to obesity-associated insulin resistance. The corepressor NCoR interacts with inflammatory pathway genes in macrophages, suggesting that its removal would result in increased activity of inflammatory responses. Surprisingly, we find that macrophage-specific deletion of NCoR instead results in an anti-inflammatory phenotype along with robust systemic insulin sensitization in obese mice. We present evidence that derepression of LXRs contributes to this paradoxical anti-inflammatory phenotype by causing increased expression of genes that direct biosynthesis of palmitoleic acid and ω3 fatty acids. Remarkably, the increased ω3 fatty acid levels primarily inhibit NF-κB-dependent inflammatory responses by uncoupling NF-κB binding and enhancer/promoter histone acetylation from subsequent steps required for proinflammatory gene activation. This provides a mechanism for the in vivo anti-inflammatory insulin-sensitive phenotype observed in mice with macrophage-specific deletion of NCoR. Therapeutic methods to harness this mechanism could lead to a new approach to insulin-sensitizing therapies

Towards a Curriculum for Biodiversity Informatics

Biodiversity informatics has been characterized as a rapidly growing interdisciplinary field, which aims to bring together the areas of biodiversity and informatics. A study was conducted looking at the current level of activity within the GBIF Participant countries and its associated network in relation to work-based training and/or academic teaching at universities, in the field of biodiversity informatics. It was intended to get an overview of GBIF Node Managers, (hence, member countries), already engaged in developing course curricula, or in providing training, and whether they would be willing to share resources or enter into collaborations, to further elaborate this field of science.This investigation followed a survey approach, conducted globally across the GBIF community to identify the existing capacities and resources within the network. The results indicated that the vast majority of GBIF Nodes survey respondents, are engaged in onsite training activities in biodiversity informatics areas, with a focus on professionals, mostly researchers, policy makers and students. Training includes data digitization, management, publishing, analysis and use, to enable the accessibility of analogue and digital biological data which currently resides as scattered databases/datasets.A list containing the associated URL's for training and dissemination activities in GBIF Nodes has been developed, based on survey results, and will be presented. An initial assessment of the academic teaching activities indicated that many countries across most regions were already engaged in the conceptualisation, development and/or implementation of formal academic programs in biodiversity informatics including Benin, Colombia, Costa Rica, Finland, France, India, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan and Togo. This study also identified that digital e-learning platforms were a very important tool to help build capacity in a number of countries.To assess the level of potential in the network to support academic teaching and work-based training, sixty percent indicated that they would be willing to be recruited or commissioned to support teaching activities, demonstrating the value of the Nodes network to support the development of biodiversity informatics globally. The contributions and activities of various nodes across the network will be highlighted and a working high-level curriculum framework will be discussed

Preliminary risk maps for transmission of kyasanur forest disease in Southern India

Kyasanur forest disease is known to be transmitted across forested regions of Southern India. The disease appears to be hosted in wild mammals and transmitted by tick vectors although the diversity and identity of host and vector species remain unclear. The area across which risk exists of contracting the disease through transfer from the hosts or vectors, however, has never been mapped in detail, such that the area that surveillance, education, and investment in diagnostic facilities should cover remains unknown. This contribution uses known occurrences of the disease from the year 2000 till date to create and test a correlational ecological niche model that translates into preliminary transmission risk maps, which are summarized in terms of risk presented in each district in the region, as well as across peninsular India

Biodiversity Data Sharing by Public Funded Institutions: Perspectives from India

In India, biodiversity data and information are gaining significance for sustainable development and preparing National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs). Civil societies and individuals are seeking open access to data and information generated with public funds, whereas sensitivity requirements often demand restrictions on the availability of sensitive data. In India, the traditional classification of data for sharing was based on the "Open Series Data" model; i.e. data not specifically included remains inaccessible. The National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP Anonymous 2012Suppl. material 1) published in 2012 produced a new data sharing framework more focused on the declaration of data as closed. NDSAP is a clear statement that data that are produced by the Government of India should be shared openly. Although much of the verbiage is focused on sharing within the Government to meet national goals, the document does include clear statements about sharing with the public. The policy is intended to apply "to all data and information created, generated, collected and archived using public funds provided by the Government of India". The policy is quite clear that it should apply to all such data, and that such data should be categorized into open-access, registered-access, or restricted-access. NDSAP indicates that all Government of India-produced/funded data is to be opened to the broader community, but provides three access categories (open, registered, restricted). Although NDSAP does not offer much guidance about what sorts of data should fall in each of the categories, it clearly focuses on data sensitive in terms of national security (i.e., data that must be restricted), such as high-resolution satellite imagery of disputed border regions. Institutions collecting biodiversity data usually include primary, research-grade data in the restricted-access category and secondary / derived data (e.g., vegetation maps, species distribution maps) in the open or registered-access category. The conservative approach of not making bioidiversity data easily accessible, is not in accordance with the NDSAP policy, which emphasizes the openness of data. It also counters the main currents in science, which are shifting massively in the direction of opening access to data. Though NDSAP was intended for full implementation by 2014, its uptake by the institutions engaged in primary biodiversity data collection has been slow mainly because: providing primary data in some cases can endanger elements of the natural world; and many researchers wish to keep the data that result from their research activities shielded from full, open access out of a desire to retain control of those data for future analysis or publication. Biodiversity data collected as part of institutional activities belong, in some sense, to the institution, and the institution should value such data over the long term. If institutions curate their biodiversity data for posterity, they can reap the benefits. Imagine the returns if biodiversity data from current ongoing projects were to be compared to data collected 50-100 years later. Thus, organizations should emphasize the long-term view of institutionalizing data resources through fair data restrictions and emphasise on public access, rather than on individual rights and control. This approach may be debatable, but we reckon that it will translate into massive science pay-offs

Bilinearization of the Fokas-Lenells equation Conservation laws and soliton interactions

In this paper, we propose the bilinearization of the Fokas-Lenells equation (FLE) with a vanishing boundary condition. In the proposed bilinearization we make use of an auxiliary function to convert the trilinear equations into a set of bilinear equations. We obtain bright 1-soliton, 2- soliton solutions and present the scheme for obtaining N soliton solution. In the soliton solution the presence of an additional parameter allows tuning the position of soliton. We find that the proposed scheme of bilinearization using auxiliary function, considerably simplifies the procedure yet generates a more general solution than the one reported earlier. We show that the obtained soliton solution reduces to an algebraic soliton in the limit of infinite width. Further we show explicitly that the soliton interactions are elastic through asymptotic analysis, that is the amplitude of each soliton remains same before and after interaction. The mark of interaction is left behind only in the phase of each soliton. Secondly, we propose a generalised Lax pair for the FLE and obtain the conserved quantities by solving Riccati equation. We believe that the present investigation would be useful to study the applications of FLE in nonlinear optics and other branches of physics.Comment: Submitted to Journal in March 202