Mesta river is a cross-border river with Greece, whose catchment area includes parts of Rila, Pirin and the Rhodope Mountains. The karst is developed in pre-Paleozoic marble that forms isolated ...outcrops with different basins. The largest of them forms two alpine karst basins located in Northern Pirin and Slavyanka Mountains. In the Rhodopes region, the marble outcrops are fragmented and embedded in non-karstic rocks. They are drained from springs with relatively low flow rates. The largest karst springs drain different hydrodynamic zones of the karst massif of Northern Pirin. From the karst basin of Slavyanka Mountain, only the large subthermal spring near the village of Musomishta falls into the catchment area of the Mesta river. The data on the chemical composition of some of the karst springs are summarized, paying attention to the largest of them. An analysis of the changes in the chemical composition and comparison is made. The changes of the hydrochemical parameters of the springs draining different vertical zones in Northern Pirin are compared. The obtained results prove that the main role in the formation of the chemical composition of karst waters has natural factors - interaction between water and marbles. It was found that the waters are unsaturated to carbonate minerals, which proves that even now there are active processes of karst formation.
Coordination on the management of transboundary waters is crucial for the development of riparian regions; nevertheless, lack of common legislation frameworks and communication channels jeopardize ...any cooperation among transboundary parties. The paper investigates the progress that has been conducted before and after the implementation of European Union’s common water policies in the management of transboundary surface waters and groundwaters shared between Bulgaria and Greece. To do so, the latest derivatives of the Water Framework and Flood Directives’ implementation process in both countries are analysed and processed to identify the quality and quantity (floods) of the surface waters’ status on the three transboundary river basins’ which are shared between the two countries, as well as the quality status of the groundwater bodies located in the boundary area. The outputs are compared with identified problems and pressures that were reported in the transboundary area before the operational implementation of the Directives. In terms of surface waters, the research demonstrates a remarkable amelioration of the inflows’ quality status to the downstream river basins. The most significant problem is induced floods due to transboundary waters, however the recent activation of a cooperation mechanism is a very promising engagement. Finally, it has been established that the transboundary groundwater bodies are of good status, but additional groundwater formations are proposed to be designated as transboundary ones. Concluding, legislative and technical aspects of the EU water Directives have significantly fostered shared waters management in the case study area, with the proposed methodological framework to be applicable in all EU’s shared waters.
Preseljevanje s podeželja v mesta povzroča propadanje podeželja in prenapolnjenost mest. Glavno vprašanje, ki se pojavlja v zvezi s tem, je, kako se lahko mesta izognejo tej usodi in prestrežejo ...migrante na poti v mesta v iskanju boljših priložnosti. Razvoj turizma lahko ima osrednjo vlogo v razvoju podeželskih območij v Republiki Južna Afrika, in mesto Clarens je primer zgodbe o uspehu na tem področju. Avtorica v članku raziskuje, zakaj je turističnemu mestu, kot je Clarens, uspelo, drugim podobnim mestom pa ne. Podatki so bili zbrani s tremi vprašalniki za tri različne ciljne skupine, kar je omogočilo, da je bil v raziskavo vključen širok spekter déležnikov v turističnem miljeju Clarensa. Izsledki raziskave kažejo, da je pri spuščanju multinacionalk v majhna turistična mesta potrebna pazljivost, saj lahko te pokvarijo tamkajšnje vzdušje.
Weeds and ornamental plants serve as a reservoir for geminiviruses and contribute to their dissemination, genome recombination and/or satellite capture. Ornamental sunflower (Helianthus spp.) plants ...exhibiting mild leaf curl symptoms were subjected to begomovirus and DNA-satellites isolation. The full-length genome of the isolated begomovirus clone (Od1-A) showed 96.8% nucleotide (nt) sequence identity with mesta yellow vein mosaic virus (MeYVMV; accession no. FR772081) whereas, alphasatellite (Od1-a) and betasatellite (Od1-b) clones showed their highest nt sequence identities at 97.4% and 98.2% with ageratum enation alphasatellite (AEA; accession no. FR772085) and papaya leaf curl betasatellite (PaLCuB; accession. no. LN878112), respectively. The evolutionary relationships, average evolutionary divergence and the recombination events were also inferred. The MeYVMV exhibited 9.5% average evolutionary divergence and its CP and Rep had 9.3% and 12.2%, concomitantly; the alphasatellite and the betasatellite had 8.3% and 5.2%, respectively. The nt substitution rates (site-1 year−1) were found to be 6.983 × 10-04 and 5.702 × 10-05 in the CP and Rep of MeYVMV, respectively. The dN/dS ratio and the Tajima D value of MeYVMV CP demonstrated its possible role in host switching. The absolute quantification of the begomovirus demonstrated that mild symptoms might have a correlation with low virus titer. This is the first identification of MeYVMV and associated DNA-satellites from ornamental sunflower in Pakistan. The role of sequence divergence, recombination and importance of MeYVMV along with DNA-satellites in extending its host range is discussed.
Novejše raziskave na območju svetolucijske halštatske kulturne skupine, poimenovane tudi kot posoška skupina, ki je poseljevala razen zgornjega Posočja tudi Bohinjski kot, Cerkljansko in zgornjo ...dolino Nadiže, so pokazale, da je bila poseljenost mnogo gostejša, kot je bilo znano pred tem, kar zadeva predvsem sredogorje Julijskih Alp. Glede na doslej odkrite drobne najdbe sklepamo na poselitev teh predelov v kasnem obdobju svetolucijske skupine. V obdobju, ozna- čenem kot stopnja Sv. Lucija IIa–b, je opazen tudi gospodarski vzpon naselbine na Mostu na Soči kot protourbanega središča celotne kulturne skupine, ki je bila po vsej verjetnosti teritorialno organizirana. Na osnovi doslej opravljenih analiz nekropole na Mostu na Soči pa so predstavljeni na eni strani kazalci vplivov in stikov svetolucijske skupine s sosednjimi in tudi zelo oddaljenimi kraji oz. kulturnimi skupnostmi, na drugi strani pa indikatorji družbene strukturiranosti in diferenciranosti. Pomemben nov element v okviru ritualno-religiozne sfere pa predstavljajo arheološka najdišča v nenavadnih naravnih okoljih, za katere se ponuja razlaga o svetih krajih, kjer so se odvijali posebne vrste zaobljubni obredi. Na koncu je postavljeno tudi vprašanje o pismenosti in etnični pripadnosti svetolucijske halštatske skupnosti.
Data availability and the existence of exchange mechanisms are considered crucial issues for the management of water bodies shared among riparian countries. Moreover, common legislative and technical ...frameworks are assets that foster the management of transboundary waters in an integrated and sustainable manner. The River Basin Management Plans of the European Union’s Water Framework Directive implementation process not only incorporate a cooperative framework, but also include open access internet-based databases that can enhance cooperation and shed light on water-related conflicts among countries that share transboundary waters. The proposed methodological approach in this research is applied in four transboundary river basins, where Greece is the downstream country, and the upstream countries are not all member states of the European Union. The areas of dispute were found in the 2nd Water Convention Report. For each particular case study, data and information from the respective River Basin Management Plans were used to investigate the actual situation. The results demonstrated that significant conflict situations in the past, which involved both water quality and water quantity issues, could be resolved using continuous and reliable datasets included in the management plans. The use of freely available data sources renders the findings of this work useful for the sustainable management of shared waters.
Kljub procesu »vračanja v mestno središče«, značilnem za določene otoke v središču Johannesburga, nekateri opazovalci preučevano območje še vedno dojemajo kot propadajoče in ga povezujejo s ...kriminalom. Čeprav so parki in odprti prostori v Johannesburgu zadnja desetletja propadali, se zdaj obnavljajo. V članku avtorja preučujeta velikost odprtih prostorov in parkov, dostopnih prebivalcem mestnega središča, in kako prijazni so ti uporabnikom. Poleg tega ocenjujeta njihovo trenutno stanje ter raven in učinkovitost razpoložljivih vzdrževalnih storitev. Avtorja preučujeta tudi strategije prenove, ki jih je uvedla mestna občina Johannesburg, na njihovi podlagi pa tudi posebna določila, ki jih je za parke in odprte prostore sprejel lokalni metropolitanski svet. Ugotovitve kažejo, da je sanacija parkov in odprtih prostorov ustrezno vključena v načrte mestne prenove, vendar določene omejitve ovirajo izvedbo tovrstnih izboljšav. Edinstvena dinamika mestnega središča pomeni velik izziv pri vzdrževanju parkov in odprtih prostorov, zato jo je treba ustrezno razumeti in načrtovati ustrezne ukrepe. Pojavlja se tudi potreba po pravičnejši in učinkovitejši dodelitvi virov in po oblikovanju učinkovitejših partnerstev. Končna ugotovitev raziskave je, da bodo potrebe skupnosti zadovoljene šele, ko bodo tovrstna upravljavska vprašanja postavljena v ospredje in se bodo začela ustrezno reševati.
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•Mesta or ambadi oil having diversified use, is generally extracted from fibre crop kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) and roselle (H. sabdariffa) seeds.•Mesta seed yielding 22-24% oil is ...source of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs and PUFAs) and have high nutritional value.•The seed oil has various phytotechnological applications, ethnomedicinal uses and pharmacological properties.•ICAR-CRIJAF, India has developed high yielding and stress resistant varieties of both kenaf and roselle.•Future breeding objective is to develop high oil containing mesta lines with low anti-nutritional factors along with increased omega PUFAs content.
Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) and roselle (H. sabdariffa) commonly known as mesta or ambadi in India, primarily considered as fibre crop in addition to their diversified use as vegetables, food supplements, paper pulp, construction material, animal feed, pharmacological agent, biofuel etc. Both kenaf and roselle seeds contain a variety of bioactive phytochemicals like polyphenols and phenolic acids, phytosterols, amino acids, fatty acids, phospholipids etc. that possess great nutritional, phyto-pharmaceutical and therapeutic values. Mesta seed contain 22–24% oil and is considered to have high nutritional value and health promoting properties due to the presence of relatively high amount of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs and PUFAs). Kenaf and roselle seeds are also good source of dietary fibers and proteins that have great promise as a feed resource for livestock and value added nutritional foods like defatted seed meal, protein concentrates from defatted seed, seed cake etc. Our institute has developed high yielding and stress resistant varieties of both crops with breeding efforts centered on developing high yielding types with better fibre quality. Recently, identification of high yielding mesta lines with more oil content changed focus toward development of low cyclopropenoid fatty acids (CPFA), epoxy fatty acids, palmitic (saturated) acid content along with increased omega PUFAs content varieties. The present review focuses on the detailed profile of valuable phytochemicals, nutrients, and health promoting attributes as well as phyto-technological progress, nutraceutical functions, medicinal and biological properties of kenaf and roselle seed oil, so as to explore their potential uses as ingredients of functional food and natural pharmaceuticals.
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