Armed Conflict in Bicol: The Price Does Not Come Cheap

The Bicol region is one of the poorest regions in the Philippines. In fact, it has the worst poverty situation in Luzon. It is also one of the most affected areas in the country in terms of armed conflict, which further exacerbates the poverty and underdevelopment within various communities in Bicol. This Notes shows that the price of the armed conflict in Bicol does not come cheap, with social, financial, and economic costs involved as well as some spillovers. Details are given in the Notes.armed conflict, relative deprivation, human rights violations, insurgency, marginalization, landlessness, resource exploitation, Bicol region

Populations genomics analysis of legume host preference for specific rhizobial genotypes in the Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae symbioses

Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae establishes root nodule symbioses with several legume genera. Although most isolates are equally effective in establishing symbioses with all host genera, previous evidence suggests that hosts select specific rhizobial genotypes among those present in the soil. We have used population genomics to further investigate this observation. P. sativum, L. culinaris, V. sativa, and V. faba plants were used to trap rhizobia from a well-characterized soil, and pooled genomic DNAs from one-hundred isolates from each plant were sequenced. Sequence reads were aligned to the R. leguminosarum bv. viciae 3841 reference genome. High overall conservation of sequences was observed in all subpopulations, although several multigenic regions were absent from the soil population. A large fraction (16-22%) of sequence reads could not be recruited to the reference genome, suggesting that they represent sequences specific to that particular soil population. Although highly conserved, the 16S-23S rRNA gene region presented single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) regarding the reference genome, but no striking differences could be found among plant-selected subpopulations. Plant-specific SNP patterns were, however, clearly observed within the nod gene cluster, supporting the existence of a plant preference for specific rhizobial genotypes. This was also shown after genome-wide analysis of SNP patterns

PoolSeq analysis of the selection of the Rhizobium genotypes by the legume host plant

Rhizobium leguminosarum establishes highly specific nitrogen-fixing symbioses. We have applied a Pool-Seq approach to study plant host selection of genotypes. Our results confirm, at the genomic level, previous observations regarding plant selection of specific genotype

Heavy Schistosomiasis Associated With Poor Short-Term Memory and Slower Reaction Times in Tanzania Schoolchildren

Cross-sectional studies of the relationship between helminth infection and cognitive function can be informative in ways that treatment studies cannot. However, interpretation of results of many previous studies has been complicated by the failure to control for many potentially confounding variables.We gave Tanzanian schoolchildren aged 9±14 a battery of 11 cognitive and three educational tests and\ud assessed their level of helminth infection. We also took measurements of an extensive range of potentially confounding or mediating factors such as socioeconomic and educational factors, anthropometric and other biomedical measures. A total of 272 children were moderately or heavily\ud infected with Schistosoma haematobium, hookworm or both helminth species and 117 were uninfected with either species. Multiple regression analyses, controlling for all confounding and mediating variables, revealed that children with a heavy S. haematobium infection had signi®cantly lower scores than uninfected children on two tests of verbal short-term memory and two reaction time tasks. In one of\ud these tests the effect was greatest for children with poor nutritional status. There was no association between infection and educational achievement, nor between moderate infection with either species of helminth and performance on the cognitive tests. We conclude that children with heavy worm burdens and poor nutritional status are most likely to suffer cognitive impairment, and the domains of verbal\ud short-term memory and speed of information processing are those most likely to be affected

Vitamin K catabolite inhibition of ovariectomy-induced bone loss: Structure–activity relationship considerations

The potential benefit of vitamin K as a therapeutic in osteoporosis is controversial and the vitamin K regimen being used clinically (45 mg/day) employs doses that are many times higher than required to ensure maximal gamma‐carboxylation of the vitamin K‐dependent bone proteins. We therefore tested the hypothesis that vitamin K catabolites, 5‐carbon (CAN5C) and 7‐carbon carboxylic acid (CAN7C) aliphatic side‐chain derivatives of the naphthoquinone moiety exert an osteotrophic role consistent with the treatment of osteoporosis

OPAL Community Environment Report

The Open Air Laboratories network, or OPAL, as it quickly became known, was launched in 2007 following a successful application to the Big Lottery Fund It was the first time that Big Lottery funding on this scale had been awarded to academic institutions. The University of Central Lancashire led by Dr Mark Toogood was responsible for understanding public engagement with OPAL. The Open Air Laboratories (OPAL)network is a nationwide partnership comprising of ten universities and five organisations with grants awarded totalling £14.4 million. • Over half a million people have participated in the OPAL programme. OPAL activities are carried out by people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities, including 10,000 people in ‘hard to reach’ communities. • OPAL opens people’s eyes to the natural world. Nearly half (44%) of OPAL survey participants said that this was the first time that they had carried out a nature survey. 90% of participants have learnt something new. • OPAL has the ability to change people’s behaviour. Almost half (43%) of respondents said OPAL had changed the way they thought about the environment and more than a third (37%) said they will change their behaviour towards it. • In addition to raising environmental awareness, OPAL also improves personal well-being by motivating people to spend time outdoors doing something positive, while connecting with people and nature

Identificació de l'hemoglobina mitjançant quimioluminescència

L'objectiu principal d'aquest treball pràctic de laboratori, dirigit als estudiants de batxillerat, és poder identificar l'hemoglobina, entre altres compostos que es podrien trobar a l'escena d'un crim: albúmina, glucosa o lleixiu. Per això s'utilitzen dues reaccions: la reacció de Bradford, que identifica les proteïnes (hemoglobina i albúmina), i la reacció del luminol, que dóna positiu per l'hemoglobina i també pel lleixiu. Aquest resultat ens permet, a més, discutir l'existència d'interferències a les reaccions químiques.The aim of this laboratory practical work, which is directed towards high school students, is to distinguish among four different samples which could that can be found in a crime scene: albumin, glucose, hemoglobin and bleach. Two reactions are used: the luminol reaction (positive for bleach and hemoglobin) and the Bradford reaction (which allows identification of both proteins: hemoglobin and albumin). The luminol reaction can also be used also to discuss about interferences found in chemical reactions