Big Cat Adaptation in the Mesoamerican Biodiversity Hotspot

The Mesoamerican Biodiversity Hotspot, part of the Neotropical ecological region, comprising Central America (Costa Rica, Belize, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and the northern half of Panama) and southern Mexico, is defined as a hotspot, because it is an area “featuring exceptional concentrations of endemic species and experiencing exceptional loss of habitat”. Species and habitat loss has occurred as rainforest is converted to urban and farmed areas and mixed vegetation mosaics, due to urbanization, population increase, agricultural intensification, civil wars, deforestation, land use conflicts and inept conservation policy.

The new landscapes and increased human proximity favor small animals to the detriment of large carnivores such as the jaguar and cougar. Few studies have modeled the survival probability of large carnivores in this area, rooted in the behavioral characteristics of these animals across their wider ranges.The jaguar (Panthera onca, Linnaeus 1758) and cougar (Puma concolor, Linnaeus 1771) are decisively the largest carnivorous mammals in the Mesoamerican region, distant competitors being the much smaller ocelot (Leopardus pardalis, Linnaeus 1758) and coyote (Canis latrans, Say 1823).

Crucially, the comparatively large and possibly dangerous jaguars and cougars conflict with people in valued spaces, to the extent that both species are now extinct in El Salvador, one of the more environmentally degraded countries in Central America. Jaguars are much less studied than lions, tigers and leopards, and those in South America are more popular than the Central American populations. 

Diversity of Plants and their Role in Nature

Plants are a large group of living components in nature. Plants are also marked as a key segment with wide range of significance in formation of global biodiversity. As Biodiversity is an association of all living parts of the nature from different possible natural habitats. Each one organism is of a great value in their structure and function in certain ecosystem/ecological zones. Nature is a complex association of different components and can be differentiated in two major groups such as living and non-living beings.

Presence and valuation of each one component is unique for better regulation and for maintaining existence of species diversity needed for successful growth of the ecosystem. There is always a struggle between environment and biota. It is due to similar requirements of the individuals of a species at the same time if there is a limited source needed for the various purposes of the living beings. Life pattern, seasonal variation, presence, association, competition etc. are different among the population. It is showing similar trends for their uniqueness for a specific species.

Non-living ecological factors are also marked as an environmental factor that includes Water, Soil, and Light etc., whereas living factor associated with the presence of plants, animals and microbes. Each one factors performing certain role in nature which support interdependency of the varied living species. Plants are known as producers are important for reduction of pollution level and also a source of energy by trapping solar radiations to convert in to chemical energy (Sources of energy) in their photosynthesis activities.

The City, Redux but Deeply Flawed

In the mid-19th century, Baudelaire complained that Paris was changing more rapidly than the human heart. Cities are again going through upheavals, in their built environments, their economic activities, and their forms of life. When Baudelaire was writing about Paris, few large cities existed anywhere in the world and only a handful with one million people or more. Today there are over five hundred cities with populations over one million. These are no longer confined to Europe and North America, but also occur in the Global South, especially in Asia.

Half a century ago and more, the economies of major cities were based largely on manufacturing. Even the commercial capitals of this lost world, like London and New York, were important manufacturing centers. Traditional manufacturing is now a minor driver of large-scale urban development. Instead, new dynamic sectors such as finance, business services, technology-intensive production, and creative industries, represent the main engines of urban growth.

The manufacturing cities of the mid-20th century were marked by a division of labor focused on white- and blue-collar workers. This was then expressed, imperfectly but tangibly, in a spatial division of neighborhoods. As the new sectors have steadily supplanted manufacturing in major cities, a new division of labor has appeared, and with it a changing pattern of neighborhoods. The new arrangements revolve around highly qualified cognitive and cultural workers on the one side and low-wage service workers on the other. The social marginality of the latter group is accentuated by the fact that so many of them are immigrants from diverse backwaters and peripheries.

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Potential Phagostimulants for the Subterranean Termite, Microtermes obesi

Subterranean termites (Blattodea: Termitidae) cause significant structural damage throughout the world, especially in the tropical and sub-tropical regions. There are both soil-inhabiting and woodinhabiting termites. In Pakistan, termites cause considerable damage to buildings and wooden structures, to forests, and to a wide range of agricultural crops.

Highly effective chemical treatments have been used to prevent subterranean termite attacks. The frequent use of fast-acting termiticides for control of termites has generated a number of biological and environmental hazards. Interest in the use of slowacting toxicants to suppress the populations of subterranean termites has been renewed. As suggested by Beard the success of slow acting toxicant bait depends upon its attraction, palatability, delayed mortality, and should be introduced into the colony’s gallery system and transferred to unexposed nest-mate by social grooming or trophallaxis. Studies have shown that subterranean termites prefer foods that contain nutrients, it is reasonable to suggest that a particular nutrient, or group of nutrients, could be added to a termite bait matrix to enhance its palatability for termites.

Several studies have shown that ions, high wood density, sugar, and high levels of cellulose [18] can increase termite’s food consumption. Abushama and Kambal reported that Microtermes traegardhi Sjöstedt preferred fructose. Heterotermes tenuis Hagen responds to trehalose;,while Reticulitermes spp. showed preference for xylose, ribose, maltose, and fructose. Concentrations of agar and sawdust also have been varied to increase the palatability of termite baits. Body extracts of termites in ether, acetone, and hexane have been tested for attractancy against termites

Heavy Metal Concentrations on Umurbey River Sediment, West Anatolia

It is impossible to be thrown away by means of faces from bodily construction of living organisms in the geographical agriculture area. Biological accumulation occurs in their living muscle tissues and grease. Heavy metal accumulation happens at the strapping living creatures that use it up as nourishment. Heavy metals reach to a person by going into his/her food chain. This study is carried out with an aim to being determined of heavy metals’ concentration, which is dangerous for environmental health.

The main important heavy metals are Sb, Ag, As, Be, Cd, Cr, Pb, Mn, Hg, Ni, Se, Cu, Fe, Zn, Al. Being in a toxically character is the most important feature of some of these heavy metals. Toxic metals: Ti, Hf, Zr, W, Nb, Ta, Re, Ca, La, Os, Rh, Ir, Ru, Ba ; heavy toxic metals : Be, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Te, Pb, Ap, Cd, Pt, Au, Hp, Te, Pb, Sb, Bi.

Iron is mostly found in the nature. Iron can be change by means of O2 and CO2 balance. Iron goes into liquid solution as being HCO3 when two valuable irons come together with water and CO2. But it must be O2 for its’ being stable. In oxygenated environments, iron hydroxide (III), which cannot dissolve in water, comes into being and falls down. In these happenings pH and O2 are important. Nickel is being with Cu and Fe. Benefiting areas of nickel are so wide (electronically things, money, car battery, steel alloy, food, etc.). If it is evaluated for human body: if it is taken by means of digestion, most of it is thrown away with feces. If it is taken by means of respiration, throwing increases with urine. Most nickel salts are costic and irritant. It causes death in 20 minutes when its concentration (Ni Co)4 in the atmosphere exceeds 30 pp.

Spatial Patterns of Hepatitis C Disease in Ghadezai Tehsil District Buner,Khyber Paktunkhwa, Pakistan

The relationship between the disease and location is not a new concept if we look in the history of epidemiology since in the ancient Greek era, Hippocrates (5th-4th centuries BC) was aware and recognized the effect of location on one’s health. Early physicians found that the people living at high and low elevation experienced differences in diseaseshttp://www.omicsgroup.org/journals/spatial-patterns-of-hepatitis-c-disease-in-ghadezai-tehsil-district-bunerkhyber-paktunkhwa-pakistan-2167-0587-1000146.pdf. The earlier spatial and temporal studies of this virus suggested that the spread of this virus started in the early twentieth century and potentially increased a lot up to 1980. According to the WHO’s epidemiological data, the prevalence of HCV is less than 1% in northern Europe, Canada, Australia and USA.

While in different regions of Latin America, Central Asia, South East Asia and Africa the HCV prevalence rate is more than 2% and the prevalence of this disease is reported between 5 to 10% [1] The world epidemiological data suggested that about 130 to 180 million people that make 2 to 3% of the entire world population are victim of HCV and more than 4 million people are chronically infected by HCV in Oceania, 16 million in the Arabian countries and Middle East region. The infections are high as 83 million in the continent Asia. The infection caused by HCV in Africa is 28 million and America and Europe have 16 and 17.5 million respectively.

Disease maps provide a rapid visual summary of complex geographic information’s and may identify delicate patterns in the data that are missed in tabular presentations. They are used for different descriptive purposes, to make hypotheses as to etiology, for surveillance to show areas at high risk, and to aid policy formation and resource allocation. They are also useful to help place specific disease clusters and results of point-source studies in proper context.