Mixed‐method study on medicinal herb collection in relation to wildlife conservation: the case of giant pandas in China

Medicinal herb collection has historical and cultural roots in many rural communities in developing countries. Areas where herb collection occurs may overlap with biodiversity hotspots and crucial habitat of endangered and threatened species. However, impacts of such practices on wildlife are unknown and possibly underestimated, perhaps due to the elusive nature of such activities. We examined this phenomenon in Wolong Nature Reserve, China, a protected area in the South‐Central China biodiversity hotspot that also supports a community of Tibetan, Qiang and Han people who use herb collection as a supplementary source of livelihood. We adopted a participatory approach in which we engaged local people in outlining spatial and temporal dynamics of medicinal herb collection practices. We found that the overall spatial extent of herb collection increased in the past two decades. We then overlaid herb collection maps with localities of giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) feces collected over two time points in the reserve. Using a Bayesian parameter estimation, we found evidence for declined giant panda occurrence in the areas most recently impacted by emerging medicinal herb collection. Our methodology demonstrates the potential power of integrating participatory approaches with quantitative methods for processes like herb collection that may be difficult to examine empirically. We discuss future directions for improving explanatory power and addressing uncertainty in this type of mixed‐method, interdisciplinary research. This work has implications for future attempts to understand whether and how prevalent but subtle human activities may affect wildlife conservation.     

Phytomedicines for the prostate

Phytomedicines are becoming more popular all over the world. Prostate cancer patients and those with benign prostatic hyperplasia are increasingly exploring the use of complementary alternative medicine especially due to the risk of mortality and long-term morbidity associated with surgical procedures. The incidences of prostate diseases are continually rising and the effect of phytomedicines already tested do provide relief, are well comparable with that of traditional forms of treatment. This paper reviews the phytomedicines used in Africa, Western countries and China as a treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia, prostatitis and prostate cancer. Herbals which hold potential promise are mentioned, although much research is still required.     

微弹介导的火炬松遗传转化

本文建立了一个微弹介导的火炬松遗传转化系统。这个系统解决了火炬松遗传转化过程中存在的许多困难。运载抗虫基因的质粒载体经微弹转化法进入火炬松成熟合子胚,然后在添加了卡那霉素的培养基上从转化的成熟胚上诱导出有器官发生潜力的愈伤组织,再从转化的愈伤组织上产生转基因植株。利用这一系统生产的转基因植株已经被随机扩增技术、Southern杂交技术和虫试验所证实,并且转化的植株已在土壤中成活。图3表2参28。     

Diameter growth: can live trees decrease?

Growth refers to an increase in dimensions with time and isimplicit in the expected continual increase in tree dimensions.Tree diameters, however, could decrease during the growing seasondue to water depletion. Annual negative growth measurementsare usually attributed to human error and not to other physiologicalor physical processes. Although seasonal and diurnal fluctuationsof diameter have been well documented, perennial decrement ofdiameter has not been the focus of physiological research. Theaim of this work was to analyse the potential causes of decreasein annual diameter growth related to tree mortality due to self-thinningin Nothofagus pumilio forests and to quantify the variationsin water depletion of the tree trunks. Some trees did presentnegative annual diameter increments associated with a watercontent decrease in the trunks (77 per cent in live trees comparedwith 56 per cent in recently dead individuals), which produceda contraction (more than 8 per cent of the initial diameter)in the wood and the bark. Trees could survive during 2–5growth seasons with continual decreases in their diameters (14per cent, standard error 5 per cent of the trees in the studiedstand) until the water content reached a limit where mortalityresulted. Therefore, the occurrence of data showing a diameterdecrease in successive forest inventories may be due to physiologicaland physical processes in the natural dynamics of the stand,and not exclusively be explained away as the results of humanmeasurement errors.     

The Impact of Underground Longwall Mining on Prime Agricultural Land: A Review and Research Agenda

Coal mining and agriculture have repeatedly come into conflict when they co‐occur. Although seemingly benign when compared with surface mining, underground coal extraction techniques (including longwall mining) cause subsidence of agricultural land and loss of productivity. Despite growing concerns for global food security and increasing demand for coal resources, there is little peer‐reviewed literature on the impacts of longwall mining in prime agricultural areas. In this paper, we examined the present knowledge of subsidence impacts of longwall mining on agriculture and how this may be interpreted for specific locations such as Australia. The review found that subsidence affects soil properties, hydrology and topography. The main impacts on agriculture are altered soil and groundwater hydrology, modified topography associated with increased erosion or waterlogging risk, and zones of compaction or cracking that cause soil physical and chemical changes. Agricultural productivity is also reduced through altering the types of farming practices that are suited to subsided non‐uniform landscapes, decreasing farming efficiency through increasing paddock heterogeneity and decreasing ease of workability. There is a need to consider these multiple impacts under local conditions, with particular regard to the interaction of mine subsidence‐associated disturbances with farming practices. We conclude by describing future research directions required for Australia and other countries outside of the USA—where most of the research has been conducted. Australia has unique soil and climatic conditions making extrapolation of studies from the USA on subsidence impacts and mitigation problematic. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry fingerprinting of Brazilian artisan cachaça aged in different wood casks

We have investigated the capability of direct infusion electrospray ionization mass spectrometry in the negative ion mode, ESI(-)-MS, to differentiate representative samples of artisan cacha?a, a Brazilian sugar cane distillate of large production, aged in four different types of wood casks: amburana (Amburana cearensis), jequitibA (Cariniana estrellensis), balm (Myroxylon peruiferum), and oak (Quercus rubra). The ESI(-)-MS were found to be very characteristic, showing sets of diagnostic ions for each of the four types of samples: amburana (m/z 271, 313, 377), jequitibA (m/z 143, 171, 255), balm (m/z 137, 269, 283, 297), and oak (m/z 197, 301, 307). Furthermore, principal component (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), applied to the ESI(-)-MS data, divided these samples into four definite categories. The influence of the aging time on the ESI(-)-MS fingerprints of the cacha?a samples stored in oak casks was also established. An inversion in the relative intensity of the diagnostic ions of m/z 307 and 301 is detected in the ESI(-)-MS as the aging time increased from 1 to 2 years. The chemical structures of the major cacha?a components were proposed on the basis of the following: (a) the comparison of the ESI(-)-MS/MS of the diagnostic anions with those of the authentic anions or (b) the interpretation of the fragmentation patterns of the previously unknown diagnostic anions. Hence, direct infusion ESI(-)-MS allows not only a rapid, simple, and accurate way to distinguish among cacha?a samples stored in different wood casks but also monitoring changes in their chemical composition according to the aging time.     

Comparative study of virgin olive oil behavior under Rancimat accelerated oxidation conditions and long-term room temperature storage

Oxidative stability should be one of the most important quality markers of edible oils; nevertheless, it is not recognized as a legal parameter. The results reported in this study highlight the differences in the olive oil oxidation process under Rancimat accelerated conditions with respect to long-term storage at room temperature and clearly show the lack of correlation between shelf life and the Rancimat induction period. A better correlation, although not yet satisfactory, was found when the same oxidation end-point was used in both assays. The parameter K 270, a marker of secondary oxidation products, was the first index to reach the established upper legal limit under Rancimat conditions, whereas at 25 degrees C it was an index of primary oxidation products ( K 232). Furthermore, the ratio of oxidation rate at Rancimat conditions to oxidation rate at 25 degrees C was more than double for secondary oxidation products compared with primary ones. Notable differences were also observed in degradation rates of the different unsaturated fatty acids and in rates of formation of polar oxidation compounds. Moreover, under the Rancimat conditions antioxidants such as o-diphenols and alpha-tocopherol rapidly depleted, and when they had practically disappeared, there was a sharp increase in oxidation indices, such as peroxide value, and in oxidation products. At 25 degrees C, on the other hand, the depletion was much lower.     

Doubled haploids in tropical maize: <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">II</Emphasis>. Quantitative genetic parameters for testcross performance

Single crosses (SC) of elite inbreds and open-pollinated populations (OP) are suitable source germplasm for doubled haploid (DH) line development in hybrid maize breeding, given that they combine a high population mean ([`(x)] \overline{x} ) for testcross performance with adequate response to selection ( \Updelta G \Updelta G ). This is the first study reporting testcross grain yield (TCGY) and dry matter content (TCDMC) evaluations of 131 DH lines developed from ten tropical source germplasm comprising five OP (OP1–OP5) and five SC (SC1–SC5). Gene diversity (d) and the average number of alleles (a <sub>r</sub> ) per locus was estimated for DH lines based on 24 simple sequence repeat markers. Analysis across three environments revealed no significant differences between [`(x)] \overline{x} of OP- and SC-derived DH lines for TCGY and TCDMC. Significant genetic variance for both traits was only detected among OP-derived DH lines which may be explained by a larger number of segregating quantitative trait loci (QTL) as suggested by higher d and a _r values than in SC-derived DH lines. The usefulness criterion ( U = [`(x)] + \Updelta G U = \overline{x} + \Updelta G ) was higher for OP-derived DH lines for TCDMC, but higher for SC-derived DH lines for TCGY. DH lines from OP1, OP2, and OP3 showed high TCGY, suggesting that they may be useful in tropical hybrid breeding. We conclude that tropical OP represent a valuable source of untapped genetic variation that can efficiently be exploited with DH technology for hybrid maize breeding.