Aquarium fisheries as a non-timber forest product: experiences from conservation through community development in North Rupununi District, Guyana

Deforestation is one of the major global conservation issues. Solutions are being sought to tackle this ongoing forest loss, including establishment of initiatives to provide new sources of income for local communities that promote the sustainable use of forests in the interest of biodiversity conservation. One such project ‘Iwokrama’, demonstrates how tropical forests and associated habitats can be sustainably used. In the central Guyana wetlands of the Rupununi, illegal fishing of arapaima Arapaima gigas, had led to a huge reduction in its numbers. Iwokrama responded by initiating the Arapaima Management Plan in 2002. This highlighted the need for another source of local income from fisheries, and a business that undertakes sustainable harvest of fish for the aquarium trade was developed. Harvesting of a few selected fish species is carried-out by members of the local community who are paid a daily wage. Fishing methods target individual species to avoid incidental by-catch. Four species are primarily caught as they are numerous in the Rupununi and are of high trade value. To ensure ecological and economical sustainability, catch per unit effort is monitored; where this begins to drop for any given species, harvesting is suspended and the population is allowed to recover before harvesting resumes. The project has developed into a self-sustaining business, managed by the community themselves. During 2005, the project reached financial sustainability with current profits of over US$3,000 feeding back into local community initiatives

Deletion of AIF1 but not of YCA1/MCA1 protects Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans cells from caspofungin-induced programmed cell death

Caspofungin was the first member of a new class of antifungals called echinocandins to be approved by a drug regulatory authority. Like the other echinocandins, caspofungin blocks the synthesis of β(1,3)-D-glucan of the fungal cell wall by inhibiting the enzyme, β(1,3)-D-glucan synthase. Loss of β(1,3)-D-glucan leads to osmotic instability and cell death. However, the precise mechanism of cell death associated with the cytotoxicity of caspofungin was unclear. We now provide evidence that Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells cultured in media containing caspofungin manifest the classical hallmarks of programmed cell death (PCD) in yeast, including the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the fragmentation of mitochondria, and the production of DNA strand breaks. Our data also suggests that deleting AIF1 but not YCA1/MCA1 protects S. cerevisiae and Candida albicans from caspofungin-induced cell death. This is not only the first time that AIF1 has been specifically tied to cell death in Candida but also the first time that caspofungin resistance has been linked to the cell death machinery in yeast

The sequence of the CA-SP1 junction accounts for the differential sensitivity of HIV-1 and SIV to the small molecule maturation inhibitor 3-O-{3',3'-dimethylsuccinyl}-betulinic acid

BACKGROUND: Despite the effectiveness of currently available antiretroviral therapies in the treatment of HIV-1 infection, a continuing need exists for novel compounds that can be used in combination with existing drugs to slow the emergence of drug-resistant viruses. We previously reported that the small molecule 3-O-{3',3'-dimethylsuccinyl}-betulinic acid (DSB) specifically inhibits HIV-1 replication by delaying the processing of the CA-SP1 junction in Pr55(Gag). By contrast, SIVmac239 replicates efficiently in the presence of high concentrations of DSB. To determine whether sequence differences in the CA-SP1 junction can fully account for the differential sensitivity of HIV-1 and SIV to DSB, we engineered mutations in this region of two viruses and tested their sensitivity to DSB in replication assays using activated human primary CD4(+ )T cells. RESULTS: Substitution of the P2 and P1 residues of HIV-1 by the corresponding amino acids of SIV resulted in strong resistance to DSB, but the mutant virus replicated with reduced efficiency. Conversely, replication of an SIV mutant containing three amino acid substitutions in the CA-SP1 cleavage site was highly sensitive to DSB, and the mutations resulted in delayed cleavage of the CA-SP1 junction in the presence of the drug. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that the CA-SP1 junction in Pr55(Gag )represents the primary viral target of DSB. They further suggest that the therapeutic application of DSB will be accompanied by emergence of mutant viruses that are highly resistant to the drug but which exhibit reduced fitness relative to wild type HIV-1

NICE: Robust Scheduling through Reinforcement Learning-Guided Integer Programming

Integer programs provide a powerful abstraction for representing a wide range of real-world scheduling problems. Despite their ability to model general scheduling problems, solving large-scale integer programs (IP) remains a computational challenge in practice. The incorporation of more complex objectives such as robustness to disruptions further exacerbates the computational challenge. We present NICE (Neural network IP Coefficient Extraction), a novel technique that combines reinforcement learning and integer programming to tackle the problem of robust scheduling. More specifically, NICE uses reinforcement learning to approximately represent complex objectives in an integer programming formulation. We use NICE to determine assignments of pilots to a flight crew schedule so as to reduce the impact of disruptions. We compare NICE with (1) a baseline integer programming formulation that produces a feasible crew schedule, and (2) a robust integer programming formulation that explicitly tries to minimize the impact of disruptions. Our experiments show that, across a variety of scenarios, NICE produces schedules resulting in 33\% to 48\% fewer disruptions than the baseline formulation. Moreover, in more severely constrained scheduling scenarios in which the robust integer program fails to produce a schedule within 90 minutes, NICE is able to build robust schedules in less than 2 seconds on average.Comment: Accepted in 36th AAAI Conference. 7 pages + 2 pages appendix, 1 figure. Code available at https://github.com/nsidn98/NIC

Development of nutraceutical product

The aim of this study was to discuss the development of nutraceutical product which includes the current market trends, challenges, and exploitation of natural resources through various processing. Wet granulation and dry granulation techniques were adopted for such processes. Wet granulation covers high shear mixing granulation, fluidized bed granulation, and twin screw granulation. Dry granulation covers roll compaction and uniaxial die compaction. These techniques were compared and reviewed in terms of physical, chemical and toxicity studies. The physical study considered the particle size, density, morphology, flowability and dissolution. The chemical study discussed on the active ingredients in the nutraceutical products and the toxicity study was presented by investigation carried out on rats. There is a high potential for development of nutraceutical product. By understanding the various techniques of processing and characterisations, more nutraceutical products can be marketed

Effects of formulation on flowability of selected herbal powders using compendial methods and powder flow analyser

This study was aimed at investigating the effects of formulation on flowability of selected herbal powders which include Labisia pumila, Ortosiphon stamineus, Eurycoma longifolia and Andrographis paniculata using compendial methods and a recently available powder flow analyser. The material properties such as moisture content, particles sizes, tap and bulk densities of the pure herbal powders and the formulated powders were measured to determine Carr index and Hausner ratio which were indices of the compendial methods. Cohesion index and caking strength were used as basis of flowability indicator using the powder flow analyser. The flowability of the herbal powders were improved when they were formulated into beverages mix by mixing each herbal powders with other ingredients like sugar and nondairy creamer before analyzed using both the compendial methods and powder flow analyser. Both methods of flowability measurements adopted in this work complemented each other in the understanding and characterization of powder flowability