One- and two-dimensional carbon nanomaterials were tested as adsorbents for the elimination of two anionic dyes, reactive red 2 and methyl orange, and the cationic dye methylene blue from aqueous solutions under the same conditions. Carbon nanomaterials performed well in the removal of dyes. Surface oxygenated groups in the nanomaterials improved the cationic dyes’ adsorption, but not the adsorption of the anionic dye. The interactions between nanomaterials and dyes were verified by infrared and Raman spectroscopy. The pseudo-second order kinetic model was better fitted to the kinetic experimental data than the Elovich and pseudo-first order models. The equilibrium adsorption data were best fitted by the Langmuir model. The dimensions and morphology of the carbon nanomaterials play an important role in the adsorption of the three dyes. The main mechanism of adsorption of anionic dyes is by the interactions of the aromatic rings of the dye structures and π delocalized electrons on carbon nanostructures; the adsorption of cationic dye is mainly due to electrostatic interactions.

Many insects are able to feed on crucifers despite the presence of a potent activated defense system known as the mustard oil bomb. In damaged tissue, mustard oil glucosides (glucosinolates) are hydrolyzed by the enzyme myrosinase to form toxic mustard oils (isothiocyanates). Here, we analyzed how the the cabbage stem flea beetle Psylliodes chrysocephala, a key pest of oilseed rape, copes with this chemical defense. First, we found that P. chrysocephala prevents the activation of ingested glucosinolates by two different strategies, a) by sequestering glucosinolates and b) by converting glucosinolates to desulfo-glucosinolates. Our next aim was to identify the sulfatase enzyme(s) responsible for the detoxification of glucosinolates in P. chrysocephala. Nine arylsulfatase-like genes were identified in the transcriptome of P. chrysocephala, and five of them showed glucosinolate sulfatase activity upon heterologous expression in Sf9 cells. By using RNAi, we confirmed that PcGSS1 and PcGSS2 are active towards benzenic and indolic glucosinolates in P. chrysocephala adults in vivo. However, in feeding experiments, the proportion of sequestered and desulfated glucosinolates ranged from 26 to 35% which suggests that these strategies alone are likely not sufficient to overcome the chemical plant defense. Indeed, P. chrysocephala additionally conjugates isothiocyanates to glutathione and metabolizes them via the conserved mercapturic acid pathway. In summary, the cabbage stem flea beetle avoids isothiocyanate formation by specialized strategies (sequestration and desulfation), but also relies on a conserved detoxification pathway to prevent toxicity of isothiocyanates.

We investigated the detoxification strategies of Helicoverpa armigera and Heliothis virescens, which allow them to feed successfully on cotton plants that produce toxic gossypol as a chemical defense compound. First, we tested CYP6AE14, a proposed candidate enzyme for gossypol detoxification, for its ability to detoxify gossypol. In incubation assays with gossypol and heterologously expressed CYP6AE14 no metabolites were detected. Our data show that CYP6AE14 is not directly involved in gossypol metabolism, at least under the assay conditions tested, but rather takes part in the general stress response of the herbivores to plant toxins. Second, we discovered that H. armigera and H. virescens excrete a large proportion (50%) of unmetabolized gossypol in the feces, but additionally metabolize gossypol by glycosylation. Analysis of larval feces revealed three monoglycosylated and up to five diglycosylated gossypol isomers when larvae fed on gossypol-supplemented diet. Based on their expression patterns we selected H. armigera candidate UGT genes and functionally expressed the respective proteins in insect cells. In enzymatic assays, we showed that UGT41B3 and UGT40D1 are capable of glycosylating gossypol mainly to a diglycosylated gossypol isomer that is characteristic for H. armigera and is absent in H. virescens feces. We offer novel insights into the detoxification mechanism of the plant defensive toxin, gossypol, by two generalist herbivores.

Research on the useful mushroom was done at Aurora Memorial National Park (AMNP). The Park is situated in Central Luzon Region with a total land area of 5,676 hectares. AMNP has no distinct wet and dry season thus provides a favorable climate, which promotes the growth of useful mushrooms. The photo-documentation and collections were performed to assess diversity. Five Transect Lines (TL) were laid out in five areas, with 20m x 30m quadrat and interval of 100 meters between quadrats. The study resulted in the identification of 36 families, 53 genera, and 104 species of which 97 are basidiomycetes and 6 are ascomycetes. Simpson’s and Shannon diversity indexes resulted in 0.7254 and 1.4295, respectively. In both indexes, useful mushrooms at AMNP showed moderately diverse. While the evenness revealed 0.1565 indicating low species evenness in each TL. Among the significant findings revealed two new possible new species of Microporus and Cymatoderma.

How does the presence of an AGN in uence the total SFR estimates of galaxies and change their distribution with respect to the Galaxy Main Sequence? To contribute to solving this question, we study a sample of 1133 sources detected in the North Ecliptic Pole field (NEP) by AKARI and Herschel. We create a multi-wavelength dataset for these galaxies and we fit their multi-wavelength Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) using the whole spectral regime (from 0.1 to 500 μm). We perform the fit using three procedures: LePhare and two optimised codes for identifying AGN tracers from the SED analysis. In this work we present an overview of the comparison between the estimates of the Infrared bolometric luminosi- ties (between 8 and 1000 μm) and the AGN fractions obtained exploiting these dierent procedures. In particular, by estimating the AGN contribution in four different wavelength ranges (5-40 μm, 10-20 μm, 20-40 μm and 8-1000 μm) we show how the presence of an AGN affects the PAH emission by suppressing the ratio L8 μm L4:5 μm as a function of the considered wavelength range.

Polarbear is a ground-based experiment located in the Atacama desert of northern Chile. The experiment is designed to measure the Cosmic Microwave Background B-mode polarization at several arcminute resolution. The CMB B-mode polarization on degree angular scales is a unique signature of primordial gravitational waves from cosmic in ation and B-mode signal on sub-degree scales is induced by the gravitational lensing from large-scale structure. Science observations began in early 2012 with an array of 1,274 polarization sensitive antenna-couple Transition Edge Sensor (TES) bolometers at 150 GHz. We published the first CMB-only measurement of the B-mode polarization on sub-degree scales induced by gravitational lensing in December 2013 followed by the first measurement of the B-mode power spectrum on those scales in March 2014. In this proceedings, we review the physics of CMB B-modes and then describe the Polarbear experiment, observations, and recent results.

We identify a strong lensing galaxy in the cluster IRC 0218 that is spectroscopically confirmed to be at z = 1:62, making it the highest-redshift strong lens galaxy known. The lens is one of the two brightest cluster galaxies and lenses a background source galaxy into an arc and a counterimage. With Hubble Space Telescope (HST) grism and Keck/LRIS spectroscopy, we measure the source redshift to be zS = 2:26. Using HST imaging, we model the lens mass distribution with an elliptical power-law prole and account for the effects of the cluster halo and nearby galaxies. The Einstein radius is θE = 0.38+0.02-0.01" (3.2+0.2 -0.1 kpc) and the total enclosed mass is Mtot(< θE) = 1.8+0.2 -0.1 X 1011 M⊙. We estimate that the cluster environment contributes ~ 10% of this total mass. Assuming a Chabrier IMF, the dark matter fraction within θE is fChab DM = 0.3+0.1 -0.3, while a Salpeter IMF is marginally inconsistent with the enclosed mass (fSalp DM = -0.3+0.2 -0.5).