Охота на диких животных в северо-восточной Индии. Проблемы охраны биоразнообразия

Northeast India is a land of rich biodiversity with 145 tribal communities. Hunting is commo

Hyperforin: A lead for antidepressants

Depression is a complex but treatable disorder if diagnosed appropriately. However, despite the advances in the understanding of the molecular basis of this disorder and the vast range of medication, psychotherapy and electroconvulsive therapy, very safe and effective drug to treat this disease is still being sought. Several studies suggest that St.John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum L.) has phloroglucinol derivative, hyperforin, exhibiting antidepressant activity. This bioactive component can be exploited to create a major shift in the safer treatment of depression. Keywords: Hypericum perforatum L., St. John's wort, Antidepressant, Hyperfori

Mixture Models for Photometric Redshifts

Determining photometric redshifts to high accuracy is paramount to measure distances in wide-field cosmological experiments. With only photometric information at hand, photo-zs are prone to systematic uncertainties in the intervening extinction and the unknown underlying spectral-energy distribution of different astrophysical sources. Here, we aim to resolve these model degeneracies and obtain a clear separation between intrinsic physical properties of astrophysical sources and extrinsic systematics. We aim at estimates of the full photo-z probability distributions, and their uncertainties. We perform a probabilistic photo-z determination using Mixture Density Networks (MDN). The training data-set is composed of optical ($griz$) point-spread-function and model magnitudes and extinction measurements from the SDSS-DR15, and WISE midinfrared ($3.4 \mu$m and $4.6 \mu$m) model magnitudes. We use Infinite Gaussian Mixture models to classify the objects in our data-set as stars, galaxies or quasars, and to determine the number of MDN components to achieve optimal performance. The fraction of objects that are correctly split into the main classes is 94%. Our method improves the bias of photometric redshift estimation (i.e. the mean $\Delta z$ = (zp - zs)/(1 + zs)) by one order of magnitude compared to the SDSS photo-z, and decreases the fraction of $3 \sigma$ outliers (i.e. 3rms$(\Delta z) < \Delta z$). The relative, root-mean-square systematic uncertainty in our resulting photo-zs is down to 1.7% for low-redshift galaxies (zs $<$ 0.5). We have demonstrated the feasibility of machine-learning based methods that produce full probability distributions for photo-z estimates with a performance that is competitive with state-of-the art techniques. Our method can be applied to wide-field surveys where extinction can vary significantly across the sky and with sparse spectroscopic calibration samples.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, 7 tables, submitted to A&A 14/10/202

A Partner Evokes Latent Differences between Hox Proteins

Hox transcription factors bind highly related DNA sequences in vitro, yet they regulate different genes and play distinct roles in anterior-posterior patterning in animals. Slattery et al. report that a common cofactor, Exd, accentuates latent sequence specificities of all eight Hox proteins and directs binding to relevant sites across the genome

A looking-out portal (LOP) approach to enhance qualitative aspects of bandwidth utilisation in academic networks

Campuses of educational institutions periodically need to increase network bandwidth to keep up with increased demand and this decision is based on the quantitative aspects of the network bandwidth utilisation. The qualitative utilisation of the bandwidth is seldom looked into. Improving the qualitative utilisation of the bandwidth may not even necessitate a network upgrade. Although blacklist-based access control techniques help to a certain degree, the findings of this research indicate otherwise. A multi-tier, whitelist-based, looking-out portal (LOP) approach is presented that promises to improve the qualitative utilisation of the network while positively impacting pertinent resource identification and location of sources on the internet. The authors draw on their years of experience serving as students and staff in various campuses of universities and colleges in various countries while making recommendations

Temperature-sensitive protein–DNA dimerizers

Programmable DNA-binding polyamides coupled to short peptides have led to the creation of synthetic artificial transcription factors. A hairpin polyamide-YPWM tetrapeptide conjugate facilitates the binding of a natural transcription factor Exd to an adjacent DNA site. Such small molecules function as protein-DNA dimerizers that stabilize complexes at composite DNA binding sites. Here we investigate the role of the linker that connects the polyamide to the peptide. We find that a substantial degree of variability in the linker length is tolerated at lower temperatures. At physiological temperatures, the longest linker tested confers a "switch"-like property on the protein-DNA dimerizer, in that it abolishes the ability of the YPWM moiety to recruit the natural transcription factor to DNA. These observations provide design principles for future artificial transcription factors that can be externally regulated and can function in concert with the cellular regulatory circuitry

Climate change model as a decision support tool for water resources management in northern Iraq: a case study of Greater Zab River

The northern region of Iraq heavily depends on rivers, such as the Greater Zab, for water supply and irrigation. Thus, river water management in light of future climate change is of paramount importance in the region. In this study, daily rainfall and temperature obtained from the Greater Zab catchment, for 1961–2008, were used in building rainfall and evapotranspiration models using LARS-WG and multiple linear regressions, respectively. A rainfall–runoff model, in the form of autoregressive model with exogenous factors, has been developed using observed flow, rainfall and evapotranspiration data. The calibrated rainfall–runoff model was subsequently used to investigate the impacts of climate change on the Greater Zab flows for the near (2011–2030), medium (2046–2065), and far (2080–2099) futures. Results from the impacts model showed that the catchment is projected to suffer a significant reduction in total annual flow in the far future; with more severe drop during the winter and spring seasons in the range of 25 to 65%. This would have serious ramifications for the current agricultural activities in the catchment. The results could be of significant benefits for water management planners in the catchment as they can be used in allocating water for different users in the catchment

Identification of polymorphism in promoter region of growth hormone receptor (GHR) gene and its association with milk related traits in Holstein cows

It is widely accepted that hormones, growth factors and other agents exert their biological effects on target tissues by binding to specific receptors on the plasma membrane. The variability in constituent sequences of growth hormone receptor (GHR) gene is very important because of its major role in mammary gland development. The aim of the present study is to detect polymorphism in promoter region of GHR gene and its association with milk related traits in Holstein cows. Blood samples were randomly collected from 93 Holstein cows, transported to the laboratory and stored at -20°C for further analysis. DNA was extracted using modified salting-out method and a fragment of 836 base pair from promoter region of GHR gene was amplified by a specific primer pairs using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The PCR products were digested by AluI restriction enzyme and electrophoresed on 2% agarose gel. Result of enzyme digestion for GHR gene, showed allele AluI(-) with the fragment sizes of 14, 75 and 747, and allele AluI(+) with the fragment sizes of 14, 75, 145 and 602 base pairs. Frequency estimation of AluI(-) and AluI(+) alleles were 56 and 44%, respectively, and mean of heterozygosity was 0.49. Statistical analysis showed that cows with AluI(+) allele had significantly higher milk protein and fat percentage at first lactation compared with cows with AluI(-/-), while there was no significant relation between different genotypes and other traits.Keywords: Growth hormone receptor, polymorphism, milk, HolsteinAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 9(33), pp. 5460-5464, 16 August, 201