Landslide susceptibility assessment using Frequency Ratio, a case study of northern Pakistan

The northern Pakistan is attributed with rough terrain, active seismicity, monsoon rains, and therefore hosts to variety of geohazards. Among the geohazards, landslides are the most frequent hazard with devastating impacts on economy and society. However, for most of the northern Pakistan, landslide susceptibility maps are not available which can be used for landslide hazard mitigation. This study aims to develop a remote sensing based landslide inventory, analysing their spatial distribution and develop the landslide susceptibility map. The area, selected for this study is comprised of Haramosh valley, Bagrote valley and some parts of Nagar valley, in the Central Karakoram National Park (CKNP) in Gilgit-Baltistan, northern Pakistan. The SPOT-5 satellite image was used to develop a landslide inventory which was subsequently verified in the field. The landslide causative factors of topographic attributes (slope and aspect), geology, landcover, distances from fault, road and streams were used to evaluate their influence on the spatial distribution of landslides. The study revealed that the distance to road, slope gradient has the significant influence on the spatial distribution of the landslides, followed by the geology. The derived results were used in the Frequency ratio technique to develop a landslide susceptibility map. The developed landslide susceptibility map can be utilized for landslide mitigation in the study area

A new antifungal labdane diterpene from the leaves of <i>Saraca indica</i>

<div><p>A new labdane diterpene, along with 10 known sterols and flavonoids, was isolated from the hydroalcoholic extract of the leaves of <i>Saraca indica</i>. The chemical structure of the new compound was identified as 6,9-epoxy marrubiinic acid on the basis of spectroscopic analyses including two-dimensional NMR. The antimicrobial potential of the new compound was evaluated against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria as well as fungi. It showed a significant antifungal activity against <i>Geotric</i><i>h</i><i>um candidum</i> with MIC 0.48 μg/mL. It also showed potential cytotoxicity against human cancer cell lines with IC₅₀ ranging from 1.07 to 1.29 μg/well.</p></div

Actinobacteria and Myxobacteria-Two of the Most Important Bacterial Resources for Novel Antibiotics.

Bacteria have been by far the most promising resource for antibiotics in the past decades and will in all undoubtedly remain an important resource of innovative bioactive natural products in the future. Actinobacteria have been screened for many years, whereas the Myxobacteria have been underestimated in the past. Even though Actinobacteria belong to the Gram-positive and Myxobacteria to the Gram-negative bacteria both groups have a number of similar characters, as they both have huge genomes with in some cases more than 10kB and a high GC content and they both can differentiate and have often cell cycles including the formation of spores. Actinobacteria have been used for the antibiotic research for many years, hence it is often discussed whether this resource has now been exhaustively exploited but most of the screening programs from pharmaceutical companies were basing on the cultivation mainly of members of the genus Streptomyces or Streptomyces like strains (e.g., some Saccharopolyspora, Amycolatopsis or Actinomadura species) by use of standard methods so that many of the so called "neglected" Actinobacteria were overlooked the whole time. The present review gives an overview on the state of the art regarding new bioactive compounds with a focus on the marine habitats. Furthermore, the evaluation of Myxobacteria in our ongoing search for novel anti-infectives is highlighted