Antioxidant composition in cherry and high-pigment tomato cultivars

Fourteen cultivars of cherry tomatoes and four cultivars of high-pigment tomato hybrids were cultivated in southern Italy, and the red-ripe fruits were analyzed for their content in different classes of antioxidants and for their antioxidant activity. Among the different cultivars, significant differences were found between lycopene, beta-carotene, alpha-tocopherol, vitamin C (ascorbic acid and dehydroascorbic acid), and total phenolic and flavonoid contents. LS203 and Corbus appear to be the cultivars with the highest content of lipophilic and hydrophilic antioxidants among cherry tomatoes, respectively. All cultivars of high-pigment tomato hybrids showed an expected exceptionally high lycopene content. Among them, the highest content of lipophilic and hydrophilic antioxidants was found in cv. HLY 13. Hydrophilic and lipophilic antioxidant activities were both significantly influenced by genotype. Such results highlight an existing unexploited variability in tomato germplasm and stress the need to evaluate the biodiversity and to support conventional breeding programs to improve tomato nutritional value.     

HgEx — A heuristic system on mercury pollution in the Amazon

HgEx is an Expert System that addresses the complex problems surrounding the pollution of the Amazon with Hg by informal mining operations. The system integrates information on biology, chemistry, geochemistry, medical, social and political issues in order to evaluate contamination for a single site or region. The program attempts to diagnose the possibility of hazardous Hg transformations such as oxidation and methylation. An extensive tutorial section containing over 1500 electronic pages provides guidelines for Hg monitoring fieldwork, sampling and analytical steps, amalgamation practices improvements and remelioration procedures for a polluted site. The system is structured for use by either highly-skilled personnel or those without technical-training.     

Breakdown of cortical effective connectivity during sleep

When we fall asleep, consciousness fades yet the brain remains active. Why is this so? To investigate whether changes in cortical information transmission play a role, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation together with high-density electroencephalography and asked how the activation of one cortical area (the premotor area) is transmitted to the rest of the brain. During quiet wakefulness, an initial response (approximately 15 milliseconds) at the stimulation site was followed by a sequence of waves that moved to connected cortical areas several centimeters away. During non-rapid eye movement sleep, the initial response was stronger but was rapidly extinguished and did not propagate beyond the stimulation site. Thus, the fading of consciousness during certain stages of sleep may be related to a breakdown in cortical effective connectivity.     

An extensible model library for generating wind speed data

Wind is a library providing a collection of stochastic approaches to generate wind speed data on daily and hourly time steps. Daily generation refers to as mean, maximum and minimum daily wind speed. The library is made available as software component, inclusive of hypertext help file, allowing the development of language-independent clients under Windows operating systems. The component includes advanced features for re-use in custom developed applications, and it allows independent extensions by third parties without requiring its re-compilation. Illustrative examples on how to extend and re-use the library are provided as C# code projects.     

Dual Targeting of PTP1B and Aldose Reductase with Marine Drug Phosphoeleganin: A Promising Strategy for Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes

An in-depth study on the inhibitory mechanism on protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) and aldose reductase (AR) enzymes, including analysis of the insulin signalling pathway, of phosphoeleganin, a marine-derived phosphorylated polyketide, was achieved. Phosphoeleganin was demonstrated to inhibit both enzymes, acting respectively as a pure non-competitive inhibitor of PTP1B and a mixed-type inhibitor of AR. In addition, in silico docking analyses to evaluate the interaction mode of phosphoeleganin with both enzymes were performed. Interestingly, this study showed that phosphoeleganin is the first example of a dual inhibitor polyketide extracted from a marine invertebrate, and it could be used as a versatile scaffold structure for the synthesis of new designed multiple ligands.     

Superiority, competition, and opportunism in the evolutionary radiation of dinosaurs

The rise and diversification of the dinosaurs in the Late Triassic, from 230 to 200 million years ago, is a classic example of an evolutionary radiation with supposed competitive replacement. A comparison of evolutionary rates and morphological disparity of basal dinosaurs and their chief "competitors," the crurotarsan archosaurs, shows that dinosaurs exhibited lower disparity and an indistinguishable rate of character evolution. The radiation of Triassic archosaurs as a whole is characterized by declining evolutionary rates and increasing disparity, suggesting a decoupling of character evolution from body plan variety. The results strongly suggest that historical contingency, rather than prolonged competition or general "superiority," was the primary factor in the rise of dinosaurs.     

Quantification of Humic and Fulvic Acids,Macro- and MicroNutrients and C/N Ratio in Organic Fertilizers

Humic substances are the main responsible for soil conditioning and are one of the major components of the composting product. However, there is still little information about their composition and mechanisms of activity. This study aimed to evaluate quantitatively the humic and fulvic fraction by size-exclusion liquid chromatography and the metal content by atomic absorption spectrometry. The chromatographic method used was efficient for humic and fulvic acids quantitation. Levels of 1.73 ± 0.03 and 1.6 ± 0.5 g kg^?1 were found for chicken manure regarding humic and fulvic acids, respectively, and 5.1 ± 0.9 and 1.2 ± 0.1 g kg^?1 for peat. The metal contents indicated the need of a mineral enrichment, because only the levels of iron reached the minimum recommended by legislation. It was also observed that evaluated organic fertilizers were in accordance with the specifications established by legislation in relation to carbon and total nitrogen and the pathogen levels.     

RadEst3.00: software to estimate daily radiation data from commonly available meteorological variables

RadEst3.00 estimates and evaluates daily global solar radiation values at given latitudes. Radiation is calculated as the product of the atmospheric transmissivity of radiation times the radiation outside the earth atmosphere. Four models estimate the atmospheric transmissivity, based on the daily temperature range. Model parameters can be fitted over one or more years of data by iterative procedures. Graphical and statistical evaluations of the estimates are presented. Reports of the analysis can be exported in a variety of formats. Penman–Monteith or Priestley–Taylor reference evapotranspiration is estimated, using both measured and estimated radiation. Utilities are provided to process numerous files, or correct possible constant biases in the data. Samples of data for tropical and temperate sites are supplied with the software.