Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis is the most important biological insecticide for the control of mosquito vectors of disease. This bacterium produces toxins during sporulation that cause larval death by lysis of cells in their midgut. The pBtoxis plasmid of B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis encodes all the mosquitocidal toxins and a number of other coding sequences. The plasmid also carries potential germination genes organised in a single ger operon. Comparison of the germination responses of spores from strains with and without pBtoxis revealed that this plasmid could promote activation of the spores under alkaline conditions but not following heat treatment. Introduction of the ger operon on a recombinant plasmid to the plasmidless strain established this operon as the first with an identified role in alkaline activation.

Seed size is a key functional trait that affects plant fitness at the seedling stage and may

vary greatly with species fruit size, growth form and fecundity. Using structural equation

modelling (SEM) and correlated trait evolution analysis, we investigated the interaction network

between seed size and fecundity, postfire regeneration strategy, fruit size, plant height

and serotiny (on-plant seed storage) among 82 species of the woody shrub genus, Hakea,

with a wide spectrum of seed sizes (2–500 mg). Seed size is negatively correlated with fecundity,

while fire-killed species (nonsprouters) produce more seeds than resprouters

though they are of similar size. Seed size is unrelated to plant height and level of serotiny

while it scales allometrically with fruit size. A strong phylogenetic signal in seed size revealed

phylogenetic constraints on seed size variation in Hakea. Our analyses suggest a

causal relationship between seed size, fecundity and postfire regeneration strategy in

Hakea. These results demonstrate that fruit size, fecundity and evolutionary history have

had most control over seed size variation among Hakea species.

Shhoob Mohamed imhmed Elahmir, (06-2015), UNITED STATES: journal.pone, 1 (1371), 1-12

The paper presents studies on experimental investigation of beam-to-column joint behaviour in standard and exceptional events situations. This assessment is done to form a picture of the general the behavior of full scale frameworks at both the level of the global behavior of the framework, in terms of its load-displacement characteristic, and of the local behavior of joints in terms of their moment-rotation characteristics, and evaluates details about the interaction of the joint elements and how they work together in a balanced manner, during exceptional events, this study concerns the joints which are subject to the collapse and also includes the behavior of joints in the neighborhood of the collapse. The intricacy of such investigations appear from nonlinear effects associated with the outlook of joint behavior or functioning, such as structural shortcomings, large displacements and rotations, inelastic properties of steel and concrete materials, the effects between steel and concrete, and slip between concrete and structural steel, through others. The paper addresses these problems using two types of joints flush and extended end-plate with four and eight bolts and provides recommendations and reasoning for the behavioral techniques for the evaluation of joint moment-rotation response when exposed to negative and positive moments together.

The paper presents studies on experimental investigation of beam-to-column joint behavior in standard and exceptional events situations. This assessment is done to form a picture of the general the behavior of full scale frameworks at both the level of the global behavior of the framework, in terms of its load-displacement characteristic, and of the local behavior of joints in terms of their moment-rotation characteristics, and evaluates details about the interaction of the joint elements and how they work together in a balanced manner, during exceptional events, this study concerns the joints which are subject to the collapse and also includes the behavior of joints in the neighborhood of the collapse. The intricacy of such investigations appear from nonlinear effects associated with the outlook of joint behavior or functioning, such as structural shortcomings, large displacements and rotations, inelastic properties of steel and concrete materials, the effects between steel and concrete, and slip between concrete and structural steel, through others. The paper addresses these problems using two types of joints flush and extended end-plate with four and eight bolts and provides recommendations and reasoning for the behavioral techniques for the evaluation of joint moment-rotation response when exposed to negative and positive moments together.

АННОТАЦИЯ:

Through the last three decades, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) has been widely used for vegetation mapping and monitoring land-cover change in semi-arid regions. In Libya semi-arid lands occupy many parts in the north part of country that is near the Mediterranean Sea. The aim of paper is to use remote sensing technique (NDVI) for monitoring vegetation degradation in Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar region in Libya. The Pathfinder AVHRR Land (PAL), SPOT Apparent green cover percentage data and MODIS Vegetation index are used to monitor the vegetation cover change in the study area. The paper explain the possibility of use only long term NOAA-AVHRR NDVI time-series data, without need to any precipitation data, for assessing desertification conditions in Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar region. According to annual rainfall the northern parts of the area receives the greatest amount of rainfall towards the Mediterranean Sea, which occurs between October and May, it agreed well with the spatial pattern of NDVI within monthly averaged of vegetation that start increasing rapidly and reached a greater amount during spring (March-May), and decreased during June to September...