Soil Characteristics Under Intensified Shifting Cultivation for Upland Rice Cultivation in Upland Sabal, Sarawak, Malaysia

Shifting cultivation practices are regarded as the most important agricultural land-use in the marginal uplands of Sarawak for the livelihood of the rural communities. In response to various socio-economic consequences, previous practices on traditional form of shifting cultivation were altered into much sedentary farming practices. Soil productivity to sustain rice yield under current intensified forms of shifting cultivation should be of prime importance for food security among the local community at the marginal uplands of Sarawak. Therefore, this study was conducted to characterize soil properties influenced by the current intensified shifting cultivation practices at Sabal upland area, Sarawak. Along with the use of agrochemicals, shifting cultivation at Sabal area was conducted through single cultivation practices (10 to 15 years of fallow period and a cycle of rice cultivation) and multiple cultivation practices (5 to 7 years of fallow period and two cycles of rice cultivation). Before burning practices, soil pH was highly acidic (ranged from 4.28 to 4.72) in single cultivation sites; while multiple cultivation sites showed less acidic nature (soil pH ranged from 4.98 to 5.23) with relatively high secondary macronutrient contents, especially soil exchangeable Mg and Ca. No significant observation was found after burning practice in Total C and Total N of the soils at both sites. The level of soil exchangeable bases (K, Mg and Ca) and available P increased after the burning practices in single cultivation farmlands; while multiple cultivation sites showed lower to no increase in exchangeable bases and available P, partly attributed to the limited supply of nutrients from the aboveground biomass. After the harvesting of rice, soils at both sites tended to be more acidic and lower in macronutrient contents (K, Mg and Ca), primarily ascribable to crop uptake during the cultivation period. The average yield of rice in single cultivation sites and multiple cultivation sites were 721 kg/ha and 391 kg/ha, respectively. Our findings suggested that the USAge of agrochemicals, particularly fertilizers in multiple cultivation sites are necessary for sustaining rice yield to restore the depleted macronutrients (especially K, Mg and Ca) after successive cultivation

Elliptical Galaxies with Emission Lines from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

We present the results of 11 elliptical galaxies with strong nebular emission lines during our study of star formation history along the Hubble sequence. After removing the dilution from the underlying old stellar populations by use of stellar population synthesis model, we derive the accurate fluxes of all emission lines for these objects, which are later classified with emission line ratios into one Seyfert 2, six LINERs and four HII galaxies. We also identify one HII galaxy (A1216+04) as a hitherto unknown Wolf-Rayet galaxy from the presence of the Wolf-Rayet broad bump at 4650 \AA. We propose that the star-forming activities in elliptical galaxies are triggered by either galaxy-galaxy interaction or the merging of a small satellite/a massive star cluster, as already suggested by recent numerical simulations

Tai-Chi for Residential Patients with Schizophrenia on Movement Coordination, Negative Symptoms, and Functioning: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective. Patients with schizophrenia residing at institutions often suffer from negative symptoms, motor, and functional impairments more severe than their noninstitutionalized counterparts. Tai-chi emphasizes body relaxation, alertness, and movement coordination with benefits to balance, focus, and stress relief. This pilot study explored the efficacy of Tai-chi on movement coordination, negative symptoms, and functioning disabilities towards schizophrenia. Methods. A randomized waitlist control design was adopted, where participants were randomized to receive either the 6-week Tai-chi program and standard residential care or only the latter. 30 Chinese patients with schizophrenia were recruited from a rehabilitation residency. All were assessed on movement coordination, negative symptoms, and functional disabilities at baseline, following intervention and 6 weeks after intervention. Results. Tai-chi buffered from deteriorations in movement coordination and interpersonal functioning, the latter with sustained effectiveness 6 weeks after the class was ended. Controls showed marked deteriorations in those areas. The Tai-chi group also experienced fewer disruptions to life activities at the 6-week maintenance. There was no significant improvement in negative symptoms after Tai-chi. Conclusions. This study demonstrated encouraging benefits of Tai-chi in preventing deteriorations in movement coordination and interpersonal functioning for residential patients with schizophrenia. The ease of implementation facilitates promotion at institutional psychiatric services

Psychoimmunological effects of dioscorea in ovariectomized rats: role of anxiety level

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Anxiety levels in rats are correlated with interleukin-2 (IL-2) levels in the brain. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of dioscorea (wild yam), a Chinese medicine, on emotional behavior and IL-2 levels in the brain of ovariectomized (OVX) rats.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>One month after ovariectomy, female Wistar rats were screened in the elevated plus-maze (EPM) test to measure anxiety levels and divided into low anxiety (LA) and high anxiety (HA) groups, which were then given dioscorea (250, 750, or 1500 mg/kg/day) by oral gavage for 27 days and were tested in the EPM on day 23 of administration and in the forced swim test (FST) on days 24 and 25, then 3 days later, the brain was removed and IL-2 levels measured.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared to sham-operated rats, anxiety behavior in the EPM was increased in half of the OVX rats. After chronic dioscorea treatment, a decrease in anxiety and IL-2 levels was observed in the HA OVX rats. Despair behavior in the FST was inhibited by the highest dosage of dioscorea.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results show that OVX-induced anxiety and changes in neuroimmunological function in the cortex are reversed by dioscorea treatment. Furthermore, individual differences need to be taken into account when psychoneuroimmunological issues are measured and the EPM is a useful tool for determining anxiety levels when examining anxiety-related issues.</p

Suppression of back-to-back hadron pairs at forward rapidity in d+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV

Back-to-back hadron pair yields in d+Au and p+p collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV were measured with the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Rapidity separated hadron pairs were detected with the trigger hadron at pseudorapidity |eta|<0.35 and the associated hadron at forward rapidity (deuteron direction, 3.0<eta<3.8). Pairs were also detected with both hadrons measured at forward rapidity; in this case the yield of back-to-back hadron pairs in d+Au collisions with small impact parameters is observed to be suppressed by a factor of 10 relative to p+p collisions. The kinematics of these pairs is expected to probe partons in the Au nucleus with low fraction x of the nucleon momenta, where the gluon densities rise sharply. The observed suppression as a function of nuclear thickness, p_T, and eta points to cold nuclear matter effects arising at high parton densities.Comment: 381 authors, 6 pages, 4 figures. Published in Phys. Rev. Lett. (http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.172301). v3 has minor changes to match published version (http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/phenix/WWW/info/pp1/128/PhysRevLett.107.172301) Plain text data tables for points plotted in figures are publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/phenix/WWW/info/data/ppg128_data.htm

A direct physical interaction between Nanog and Sox2 regulates embryonic stem cell self-renewal

Embryonic stem (ES) cell self-renewal efficiency is determined by the Nanog protein level. However, the protein partners of Nanog that function to direct self-renewal are unclear. Here, we identify a Nanog interactome of over 130 proteins including transcription factors, chromatin modifying complexes, phosphorylation and ubiquitination enzymes, basal transcriptional machinery members, and RNA processing factors. Sox2 was identified as a robust interacting partner of Nanog. The purified Nanog–Sox2 complex identified a DNA recognition sequence present in multiple overlapping Nanog/Sox2 ChIP-Seq data sets. The Nanog tryptophan repeat region is necessary and sufficient for interaction with Sox2, with tryptophan residues required. In Sox2, tyrosine to alanine mutations within a triple-repeat motif (S X T/S Y) abrogates the Nanog–Sox2 interaction, alters expression of genes associated with the Nanog-Sox2 cognate sequence, and reduces the ability of Sox2 to rescue ES cell differentiation induced by endogenous Sox2 deletion. Substitution of the tyrosines with phenylalanine rescues both the Sox2–Nanog interaction and efficient self-renewal. These results suggest that aromatic stacking of Nanog tryptophans and Sox2 tyrosines mediates an interaction central to ES cell self-renewal

Electrophysiological Properties of Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Neurons

In vitro generation of functional neurons from embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem cells offers exciting opportunities for dissecting gene function, disease modelling, and therapeutic drug screening. To realize the potential of stem cells in these biomedical applications, a complete understanding of the cell models of interest is required. While rapid advances have been made in developing the technologies for directed induction of defined neuronal subtypes, most published works focus on the molecular characterization of the derived neural cultures. To characterize the functional properties of these neural cultures, we utilized an ES cell model that gave rise to neurons expressing the green fluorescent protein (GFP) and conducted targeted whole-cell electrophysiological recordings from ES cell-derived neurons. Current-clamp recordings revealed that most neurons could fire single overshooting action potentials; in some cases multiple action potentials could be evoked by depolarization, or occurred spontaneously. Voltage-clamp recordings revealed that neurons exhibited neuronal-like currents, including an outward current typical of a delayed rectifier potassium conductance and a fast-activating, fast-inactivating inward current, typical of a sodium conductance. Taken together, these results indicate that ES cell-derived GFP+ neurons in culture display functional neuronal properties even at early stages of differentiation