Escalating demands for water have led to substantial modifications of river systems in arid regions, which coupled with the widespread invasion of nonnative organisms, have increased the vulnerability of native aquatic species to extirpation. Whereas a number of studies have evaluated the role of modified flow regimes and nonnative species on native aquatic assemblages, few have been conducted ...

The age structures of populations of African annual Nothobranchius spp. were examined for the first time. Daily increments in sagittal otoliths of Nothobranchius furzeri, Nothobranchius kadleci, Nothobranchius orthonotus and Nothobranchius rachovii from southern and central Mozambique were used for age determination. Four hypotheses were tested: (1) timing of hatching is consistent with the cal...

Applied to certain problems, neuroevolution frequently gets stuck in local optima with very low fitness; in particular, this is true for some reinforcement learning problems where the input to the controller is a high-dimensional and/or ill-chosen state description. Evidently, some controller inputs are “poisonous”, and their inclusion induce such local optima. Previously, we proposed the memet...

Editorial Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), once a rapidly fatal disease, has become most curable of all leukemias, thanks to the two Chinese wonder drugs, all-trans retinoid acid and arsenic trioxide (AT). PML-RXARa fusion protein is the hallmark and driving force of APL. In the April 9 issue of the journal, Science, Zhang et al. provided new and convincing evidence on how AT, an ancient poi...

Ferula communis L., subsp. communis, namely giant fennel, has extensively been used in traditional medicine for a wide range of ailments. Fresh plant materials, crude extracts and isolated components of F. communis showed a wide spectrum of in vitro and in vivo pharmacological properties including antidiabetic, antimicrobial, antiproliferative, and cytotoxic activities. The present paper, revie...

A new piperidine amino acid, 2,4,5-piperidinetricarboxylic acid (11) was isolated from the poisonous mushroom, Clitocybe acromelalga. The structure determination and its biogenetic potential are discussed.

The histological features of both the bark and leaf of a poisonous plant H.ferruginea March responsible for contact dermatitis has been reported.

Ludab region, known for its unique landscape comprising a vast fertile plain surrounded by high mountains and covered by loose oak forests, is a part of Boyer-Ahmad County in southern Zagros mountain range (West Iran) with an area of 87,715 km2 located 110 km north-west of the capital city, Yasuj. The aim of this research is to assess floristic elements, life forms, chorology, and en...