La paradoja del tiempo en la educación estoica

This paper aims to analyse the relation between education and time in the writings of Seneca. The Roman philosopher distinguishes real life (vita otiosa) and unreal life (vita desidiosa). In this way, he associates time with virtue or with vice. But the time of virtue isn’t in fact eternity? And is time of vice nothing, non-existence? Education represents a transition from vice to virtue, and in this process the really important is the scope. Education, since it represents transition, should evolve in time. Given the fact that the end of the educational process at Seneca is virtue, as likeness to God, the situation could be diferent.En este artículo me propongo analizar la relación entre educación y tiempo en la obra de Seneca. El filósofo romano distingue entre la vida real (vita otiosa) y la vida imaginaria (vita desidiosa). A este respecto, Seneca relaciona el concepto del tiempo con la virtud o con el vicio. Mientras que el tiempo de la virtud no es realmente eternidad? Y lo del vicio no es nada, inexistencia? La educación es el paso del vicio hacia la virtud y, en este proceso, lo que es realmente importante es el objetivo. La educación, por ser transición, tendrá que realizarse con el paso del tiempo. Dado que, según Séneca, el fin del proceso educativo es la virtud, proveyendo analogía con la Deidad, la situación podría resultar diferente

Vulnerability of Women and Climate Change in Coastal Bangladesh

This paper focuses on providing a comprehensive scenario of women’s vulnerabilities based on the effects of climate change in Bangladesh. To address the problem, this study focuses on the nature of suffering and how they have tried to mitigate it. This study followed the purposive sampling method of a total of sixty respondents from the Satkhira district. Primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire, survey, and observation method. Besides these, secondary sources of national and international levels have been used in this study. This study found that sanitation problems of women and young girls as well as the lack of pure drinking water are common during the disaster time in the study area. In the context of a patriarchal society like Bangladesh, women are compelled to be submissive and obey the decision of male members due to prevalent social and cultural norms and conditions. As a result, most of the time, even when problem arise, women do not take any decision about whether they would stay at their home or seek shelter. The study uses an exploratory approach, and it will provide an insight into different sorts of sufferings as well as the detrimental effects of such natural disasters. It will also provide a better understanding and intensity of the problem. Although innumerable studies of climate change and its effects have been published, underlying scenarios are not properly focused on. Therefore, it would obviously help for further study as well as policymaking

The influence of alkali cations on the photodimerization of cinnamate salts and cinnamic acid derivatives intercalated hydrotalcite studied by solid-state NMR

The requirements of information storage exclusively continue to increase in our daily lives and future, will need even more memory space which should be very small in size but hold the capacity to store a huge volume of information. For that reason, modern research is focusing on molecular memory or optical switches devices where nanoparticles undergoing light-induced transformations (e.g. photodimerization) between structural phases with different optical properties are key components. Hence, the UV reversible photodimerization of the cinnamate groups have the potential to be used as switching segments in optical memory devices. The dissertation deals with the solid state NMR investigation on the influence of alkali cations on the photodimerization of cinnamate salts and cinnamic acid derivatives intercalated in hydrotalcite LDH (layered double hydroxides). The packing of molecules determines reactivity and stereo product, so the motivation is to modify molecular packing through noncovalent interactions by using different cations to influence packing and photodimerization products as well as photodimerization kinetics. The alkali metal salts of m-bromo/chloro cinnamic acid and their photodimerization products are analyzed by solid-state NMR. Cesium, rubidium, and potassium salts show well resolved signals in the 13C CPMAS spectra, whereas for ammonium and sodium salts broader lines are obtained. The size of the cation and with that the packing arrangement in the crystal has a significant influence on the resulting spectra. Cesium, rubidium, and potassium salts photoreact to the corresponding truxinates with a non-planar cyclobutane ring but disorder and lower crystallinity are found in the ammonium and sodium photoproducts. In case of divalent cations, both show good crystal packing in the reactant but Ca di-trans cinnamate shows better photoreaction than Mg di-trans cinnamate. Analysis of the kinetics by the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov (JMAK) equation shows that the reaction rate is faster with smaller catcationsd in general chlorine salts react faster than the corresponding bromine salts. Furthermore, dethe termination of the chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) tensor for reactant and product provides information for required atomic reorientations in consequence of photoreaction. Results are explained based on these necessary movements of atoms betweethe n reactant and product. Finally, m-bromo cinnamate and K m-bromo cinnamate are successfully incorporated into the LDH to investigate photoreactivity in a confine system. These samples also undergo [2+2] photodimerization upon irradiation with UV light to yield truxinates the , but high degree of disorder in the ipso, cyclobutane and carboxylate spectral region of the photoproduct is found which indicates low crystallinity in both samples.:Bibliographische Beschreibung III Table of contents V List of Figures VII List of Tables XIX Abbreviations XXI 1 Motivation 1 2 Introduction 4 2.1 [2+2] photodimerization of cinnamic acid 5 2.2 Cinnamic acid as optical memory or molecular switches 7 2.3 Layered Double Hydroxide (LDH) 9 2.4 Previous studies of cinnamic acid derivatives by SSNMR 10 3 Experimental 12 3.1 NMR techniques 12 3.1.1 NMR interactions in Solid State NMR 12 3.1.2 Chemical Shift: 13 3.1.3 Dipole-Dipole Interaction: 13 3.1.4 Magic-angle spinning (MAS) 14 3.1.5 Relaxation times 15 3.2 Pulse sequences 16 3.2.1 13C CP (Cross polarization) 16 3.2.2 Dipolar decoupling 17 3.2.3 13C cross polarization dephasing experiment 17 3.2.4 Dipolar coupling 18 3.2.5 2D PASS 19 3.2.6 FSLG 13C-1H CP HETCOR 20 3.3 Typical measurement parameters 20 3.4 Sample preparation 22 3.4.1 Preparation of different cinnamate salt 22 3.4.2 Incorporation of cinnamic compounds into LDH 24 3.5 Sample irradiation by an UV lamp 24 3.6 Computational methods 28 3.7 Single crystal structure data 28 4 Results and discussion 30 4.1 m-Br cinnamate salts of different cations 30 13C CPMAS Spectra of Truxinates 42 Summary 57 4.2 m-Cl cinnamate salts of different cations 57 13C CPMAS Spectra of Truxinates 69 Summary 83 4.3 Influence of divalent cation on cinnamic acid 84 Ca di-trans-cinnamate 84 Mg di-trans-cinnamate 91 Summary 95 4.4 Photoreaction kinetics of cinnamate salts 96 Analysis of reaction kinetics 96 Summary 119 4.5 Intercalation of cinnamic acid derivatives in LDH 120 5 Conclusion 131 6 Outlook 135 7 Appendix 136 8 References 14

Epidemiological studies on wheat blast (Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum, MoT) with special reference to potential biocontrol

German academic exchange service (DAAD)Division of Plant Pathology and Crop Protection, Georg-August-University of Goettingen, GermanyUniversity Library (SUB) of the Georg-August-University of Goettingen, GermanyBangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur, BangladeshBrosone Krankheit des Weizens (BK) ist eine wirtschaftlich bedeutende Krankheit, die durch den Pathotyp Triticum (MoT)-Erreger des Pilzes Magnaporthe oryzae verursacht wird. Sie kann zu einem Ernteausfall von bis zu 100 % führen und betrifft die weltweite Ernährungssicherheit. Die Epidemiologie von BK, die Mechanismen der Samenübertragung von MoT und seine biologische Bekämpfung sind noch nicht ausreichend erforscht. Um die Epidemiologie von BK zu untersuchen,wurden in Gewächshausexperimenten zwei unterschiedliche Weizensorten (anfällige Sorte Sumai 3 und resistente Sorte Milan) verwendet. Die Lokalisierung von MoT in den Samen wurde mit Hilfe der konfokalen Laserscanning-Mikroskopie (CLSM) durchgeführt, und die Quantifizierung der MoT-Biomasse erfolgte mittels quantitativer PCR (qPCR). Die Infektionsrate der Samen war bei der anfälligen Sorte Sumai 3 signifikant höher als bei der resistenten Sorte Milan. Eine höhere Sameninfektion führte zu einer Verringerung der Keimung bei Sumai 3, jedoch nicht bei Milan. Infizierte Samen von Sumai 3 produzierten vermehrt MoT-Konidien, die später auf die Blätter und den Stängel der Keimblätter in frühen Wachstums- oder Zelldifferenzierungsstadien übertragen wurden. Die infizierten Keimblätter und der Stängel können somit als potenzielle Quelle für MoT-Konidien dienen, die sich spatter horizontal auf gesunde Ähren oder Pflanzen ausbreiten können. Nach Wachstumsstadium 21 wurden keine Blast-Symptome mehr bei Sumai 3 beobachtet. Interessanterweise traten bei Milan, der aus MoT-infizierten Samen herangezogen wurde, von der Keimpflanze bis zur Reife der Ähren keine Blast-Symptome auf. Daher wurde gefolgert, dass sich MoT nicht systemisch von Samen zu Samen in der anfälligen Sorte Sumai 3 oder der resistenten Sorte Milan überträgt. Zusätzlich wurden zur Untersuchung des basalen Resistenzmechanismus von Weizensorten phenolische und ligninhaltige Verbindungen mittels einer kolorimetrischen Methode quantifiziert, und das Muster der Lignifizierung der Rachis wurde mittels Lichtmikroskopie analysiert. Eine Infektion mit MoT zu einem beliebigen Reifungsstadium der Ähre bei der anfälligen Sorte Sumai 3 kann zu einer schweren Erkrankung des Weizens führen. Eine höhere Anhäufung von MoT wurde in der Hülle festgestellt, gefolgt von der Rachis und dem Korn sowohl bei Sumai 3 als auch bei Milan. In Milan wurden höhere Gehalte an phenolischen und ligninhaltigen Verbindungen in den Ährengeweben (Spelzen und Rachis) sowie eine frühzeitige Anhäufung von S-Lignin und eine Verdickung der Zellwand in der Rachis beobachtet, was auf den Resistenzmechanismus von Milan gegenüber MoT hinweist. Die Anhäufung von phenolischen und ligninhaltigen Verbindungen in MoT-infizierten Ähren ist ein quantitativer basaler Resistenzmechanismus des Weizens, der bei der Bekämpfung von MoT hilft. Die Nutzung dieses Wissens kann dazu beitragen, MoT- resistente Weizensorten unter Verwendung natürlicher widerstandsfähiger Quellen zu entwickeln. Anschließend wurden Bacillus subtilis und B. velezensis als Biocontrol Agentien zur Bekämpfung von BK eingesetzt, wobei eine mäßig resistente Weizensorte (BR-18) als Pflanzenmaterial verwendet wurde. In vitro- und in vivo-Tests zeigten, dass flüchtige Substanzen von Bacillus das Wachstum von MoT signifikant unterdrücken und die MoT-Sporulation stoppen/reduzieren können. Durch GC-MS wurden flüchtige Verbindungen von Bacillus identifiziert. Phenylethylalkohol, Hexansäure und 2- Methylbutansäure wurden als potenzielle Bacillus-Volatile identifiziert, die das Wachstum und die Sporulation von MoT signifikant unterdrücken können. Die Reduzierung der MoT-Sporulation durch flüchtige Substanzen von Bacillus könnte somit eine wesentliche Rolle bei der Verringerung der weiteren Verbreitung von BK durch MoT-Sporen spielen. Schließlich wurde ein Gewächshausexperiment durchgeführt, um die optimale Inokulationshäufigkeit und den optimalen Zeitpunkt der Bacillus spp.-Anwendung zur Kontrolle von MoT zu ermitteln. Es stellte sich heraus, dass eine einzelne Anwendung von Bacillus spp. in Weizenähren nicht wirksam war, um die Schwere des Ährenbefalls zu verringern. Mehrfache Anwendungen von Bacillus spp. und die Anwendung von Bacillus spp. eine Stunde nach der Inokulation mit MoT erwiesen sich als wirksam bei der Verringerung der Ährenbefallsschwere. Daher wird empfohlen, Bacillus spp. umgehend und wiederholt anzuwenden, sobald MoT in den Ähren identifiziert wird, um die Blast-Schwere zu reduzieren und eine erfolgreiche Bekämpfung von BK zu ermöglichen.Wheat blast (WB) is an economically important disease caused by Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (MoT) pathogen. It may cause up to 100% yield loss, concerning global food security. The epidemiology of WB, seed transmission mechanisms of MoT, and its biocontrol are poorly understood. In order to study the epidemiology of WB, two contrasting wheat cultivars (susceptible Sumai 3 and resistant Milan) were used for greenhouse experiments. The localization of MoT in seeds was performed using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), and the quantification of MoT biomass was done by quantitative PCR (qPCR). The seed infection rate in susceptible Sumai 3 was significantly higher than resistant Milan. Higher seed infection led to a decrease in seed germination of Sumai 3, however, not in Milan. Infected seeds from Sumai 3 produced more MoT conidia that were further transferred to the seedling leaves and stem at early growth or cell differentiation stages. So, the infected seedling leaves and stem may further act as a potential source of MoT conidia which may later spread horizontally to healthy ears or plants. After growth stage 21, no blast symptoms were observed in Sumai 3. Interestingly, no blast symptoms were recorded for Milan grown from MoT-infected seeds from seedlings to ear maturity stages. Therefore, it was concluded that MoT does not transmit systemically from seed to seed in either susceptible Sumai 3 or resistant Milan cultivars. In addition, to understand the basal resistant mechanism of wheat cultivars- phenolic and lignin compounds were quantified through a colorimetric method, and the pattern of rachis lignification was analyzed via light microscopy. Infection of MoT at any ear maturity stage in susceptible Sumai 3 may cause disease severity in wheat. Higher MoT was accumulated in the husk, followed by rachis and grain in both Sumai 3 and Milan. Higher phenolic and lignin compounds were recorded in Milan ear tissues (husks and rachis) along with the early accumulation of S-lignin and cell wall thickening in the rachis, which indicates the resistance mechanism in Milan to combat MoT. Accumulation of phenolic and lignin compounds in MoT-infected ear is a quantitative basal resistance mechanism of wheat that helps combat MoT. Utilization of this knowledge may help to develop MoT resistant wheat cultivars by using natural resistant sources. After that, Bacillus subtilis and B. velezensis were used as biocontrol agents to manage WB, and a moderately resistant wheat cultivar (BR-18) was used as plant material. In vitro and in vivo assays revealed that Bacillus volatiles significantly suppressed the growth of MoT and stopped or reduced the sporulation of MoT. Through GC-MS the potential Bacillus volatile compounds were identified. Phenylethyl alcohol, hexanoic acid, and 2-methyl butanoic acid were identified as potential Bacillus volatiles that could significantly suppress MoT growth and sporulation. So, the reduction of MoT sporulation by Bacillus volatiles may significantly play a role in reducing the further spread of WB by MoT spores. Lastly, a greenhouse experiment was conducted to know the optimum inoculation frequencies and timing of Bacillus spp. to control MoT. Single application of Bacillus spp. in wheat ears was found ineffective in reducing ear blast severity. Multiple applications of Bacillus spp. and application of Bacillus spp. at one hour after MoT inoculation was found effective in reducing ear blast severity. Therefore, it is recommended to promptly and repeatedly apply Bacillus spp. following the identification of MoT in ears to reduce the blast severity as well as for the successful management of WB.2024-07-2

In vitro free radical scavenging and thrombolytic activities of Bangladeshi aquatic plant Aponogeton undulatus Roxb

This article was published in Global Journal of Pharmacology [© IDOSI Publications, 2011] and the definite version is available at: https://idosi.org/gjp/5(1)11/6.pdfInvestigation with the crude methanolic extract of Aponogeton undulatus was carried out to evaluate its possible antioxidant and thrombolysis activity. In DPPH free radical scavenging assay, the extract exhibited potent antioxidant activity with a IC50 values of 2.43±1.06 μg/ml while in ascorbic acid, the value become 50 2.14±0.11 μg/ml. In thrombolytic activity using in vitro clot lysis assay method, the crude methanolic extract was found to have significant (p<0.001) thrombolytic activity at a dose of 10 mg/ml with a miximum effect of 20.23±1.56% while the standard streptokinase showed 46.13±3.87%. The extract was also investigated for its antibacterial and toxic potentiality using agar diffusion and Brine Shrimp lethality bioassay, respectively. The highest antibacterial effect was shown against Bacillus cereus (zone of inhibition 12±0.65 mm) followed by Escherichia coli (zone of inhibition 10±0.71 mm). In this bioassay the extract showed significant toxicity to Brine Shrimp nauplii with the LC50 value of 2.24±0.98 μg/ml. The study clearly indicated that the extract 50 possesses good antioxidant and thromolytic activity along with broad spectrum antibacterial and toxic potentiality.Publishe

Spirometric reference equations for First Nations children and adolescents living in rural Saskatchewan

Background: The spirometric reference values are of great importance for diagnosis and treatment of lung diseases. At present, there are no spirometric reference values for First Nations children and adolescents living in Canada. Objectives: The objectives of the present study were (1) to identify the flexible and efficient statistical method to derive lung function reference equations that can be used to obtain the predicted values and Lower Limit of Normal (LLN) for lung function in children and adolescents, and (2) to obtain prediction equations for FVC, FEV1 and FEV1=FVC for First Nations children and adolescents living in rural Saskatchewan, Canada. Methods: Spirometric results from a prospective cohort study, "First Nations Lung Health Project" were used to identify 130 healthy non-smoking children and adolescents. The predicted values and LLN of spirometric indices [Forced Vital Capacity (FVC), Forced Expiratory Volume at one second (FEV1) and FEV1 and FVC ratio (FEV1=FVC)] were calculated for school-going children and adolescents ages 6-17 years. The subjects participating in the study were from two Cree First Nations on-reserve communities located in rural Saskatchewan, Canada. All lung function values were reviewed by a respirologist for acceptability of the test. Following an extensive literature review, the Generalized Additive Models for Location, Scale and Shape (GAMLSS) was identified as a flexible statistical tool to model the lung function variables. The lung function indices were assumed to follow a Box-Cox-Cole-Green (BCCG) distribution with median, , coe ffcient of variation and skewness . Akaike Information Criteria (AIC) approach was used to obtain the reference models. The LLN was calculated by taking the fifth percentile of the prediction equations of the lung function variables. The above approach is recommended for the prediction of lung function of multi-ethnic people aged 3-95 years from different ethnic groups by the Global Lung Function Initiative (GLI). Results: Significant differences were observed in lung function (FVC, FEV1 and FEV1=FVC) and anthropometric measurements between both boys and girls. Therefore, fitting separate equations for both sexes are justified. In GLI, polynomial bases of order 6-7 were used for modeling the meadian, coefficient of variation and skewness . In this study, lower order polynomial bases (up to order 4) were enough to obtain the reference models. In GLI, the polynomial bases were divided by 100 to let it lie within 0 to 1. In this study, the polynomials were divided by 20 to lie these between 0 and 1. The predicted values of FVC was higher than the values for FEV1 in both boys and girls. Therefore the values of FEV1=FVC ratios is less than 100% in this population. In girls, the difference between the curves of FVC and FEV1 was smaller compared to boys. Thus, the total volume of air for girls during exhalation are close to the volume of air exhaled at the first second. The estimated curves showed that the models fitted the lung function data reasonably well. Conclusions: The results in this study showed that the optimum model for the prediction of lung function were almost similar to the ones used by GLI for the prediction of lung function of all-age multi-ethnic populations.The predicted values and LLN values of the lung function variables reported in this study can be recommended to health-care providers for the use in diagnosis respiratory diseases in First Nations children and adolescents in rural Saskatchewan. Small sample (n < 150) was a limitation of this study. This study limitation can be overcome by including more individuals from the follow-up study, which will be conducted in 2016

Ultrasound-assisted swelling of bacterial cellulose

Bacterial cellulose (BC) was obtained by static cultivation using commercial BC gel from scoby. BC membranes (oven dried and freeze-dried) were swelled with 8% NaOH, in absence and in presence of ultrasound (US), for 30, 60 and 90 min. The influence of swelling conditions on both physico-chemical properties and molecules entrapment was evaluated. Considering the highest levels of entrapment, an optimum swelling procedure was established: 8% NaOH for 30 min. at room temperature in the presence of US. Native and PEGylated laccase from Myceliophthora Thermophila was immobilized on BC membranes and a different catalytic behaviour was observed after immobilization. Native laccase presented activity values similar to published reports (5-7 U/gBC) after immobilization whereas PEGylated enzymes showed much lower activity (1-2 U/gBC). BC swelled membranes are presented herein as a potential support for the preparation of immobilized enzymes for industrial applications, like phenolics polymerization.The authors would like to acknowledge Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. The authors would like also to acknowledge the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), which was funded by the Ministry of Education (2015R1D1A1A01060747). This work also received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement NMP-06-2015-683356 FOLSMART.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Design and Interpretability of Contour Lines for Visualizing Multivariate Data

Multivariate geospatial data are commonly visualized using contour plots, where the plots for various attributes are often examined side by side, or using color blending. As the number of attributes grows, however, these approaches become less efficient. This limitation motivated the use of glyphs, where different attributes are mapped to different pre-attentive features of the glyphs. Since both contour plot overlays and glyphs clutter the underlying map, in this paper we examine whether contour lines, which are already present in map space, can be leveraged to visualize multivariate geospatial data. We present five different designs for stylizing contour lines, and investigate their interpretability using three crowdsourced studies. We evaluated the designs through a set of common geospatial data analysis tasks on a four-dimensional dataset. Our first two studies examined how the contour line width and the number of contour intervals affect interpretability, using synthetic datasets where we controlled the underlying data distribution. Study 1 revealed that the increase of width improves the task performance in most of the designs, specially in completion time, except some scenarios where reducing width does not affect performance where the visibility of the background is critical. In Study 2, we found out that fewer contour intervals lead to less visual clutter, hence improved performance. We then compared the designs in a third study that used both synthetic and real-life meteorological data. The study revealed that the results found using synthetic data were generalizable to the real-life data, as hypothesized. Moreover, we formulated a design recommendation table tuned to give users task- and category-specific design suggestions under various environment constraints. At last, we discuss the comparison between the lab and online versions of study 1 with respect to display size (lab study was done on big screen and vice versa). Our studies show the effectiveness of stylizing contour lines to represent multivariate data, reveal trade-offs among design parameters, and provide designers with important insights into the factors that influence multivariate interpretability. We also show some real-life scenarios where our visualization approach may improve decision making