Laurus nobilis, commonly known as bay, is used in folk medicine a remedy for many ailments. The present study investigates the protective effect of L. nobilis leaves extract against high fat diet-induced type 2 diabetes rats. Animals were divided into group 1 (control), groups 2, 3, and 4 (bay aqueous (AQ) extracts; 50, 100, 250 mg/kg body weight, respectively), 5, 6, 7 methanol/acetone (MeAc) ...

The sequential separation of male and female function in flowers of dichogamous species allows for the evolution of differing morphologies that maximize fitness through seed siring and seed set. We examined staminate- and pistillate-phase flowers of protandrous Saponaria officinalis for dimorphism in floral traits and their effects on pollinator attraction and seed set. Pistillate-phase flowers...

In hermaphroditic plants, female reproductive success often varies among different positions within an inflorescence. However, few studies have evaluated the relative importance of underlying causes such as pollen limitation, resource limitation or architectural effect, and few have compared male allocation. During a 2-year investigation, we found that female reproductive success of an acropeta...

Pacific Water (PW) enters the Arctic Ocean through Bering Strait and brings in heat, fresh water, and nutrients from the northern Bering Sea. The circulation of PW in the central Arctic Ocean is only partially understood due to the lack of observations. In this paper, pathways of PW are investigated using simulations with six state-of-the art regional and global Ocean General Circulation Models...

The cytological features including chromosome numbers and detailed measurements of 46 populations ten Achillea species ( A. aleppica, bibersteinii, eriophora, filipendula, millefolium, nobilis, pachycephala, tenuifolia, vermicularis, wilhelmsii ) were reported from Iran. Sample plants seeds collected diff erent geographical regions Total length, long/ short arm ratio, centromere index, total fo...

Land-based activities, including deforestation, agriculture, and urbanisation, cause increased erosion, reduced inland and coastal water quality, and subsequent loss or degradation of downstream coastal marine ecosystems. Quantitative approaches to link sediment loads from catchments to metrics of downstream marine ecosystem state are required to calculate the cost effectiveness of taking conse...

The sediment of a core collected about 2 km north of Paquetá Island, Guanabara Bay, was submitted to pollen analysis, in order to recognize the dynamics of the regional vegetation, and the anthropic influence. Radiocarbon dating of a sample next to the bottom of the core indicates an age of 4.210+/-40 14C yrs B.P (calibrated age). It was possible to establish four palynological zones. Starting ...

Two new species of Macrodactylus Dejean (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) from Bolivia are described and illustrated: M. megaphyllus new species (from Comarapa, Santa Cruz and Sehuenca, Cochabamba) and M. yunganus new species (from Mairana and Comarapa, Santa Cruz). In addition, the species Macrodactylus bolivianus Moser, M. gracilis Moser, and M. nobilis Frey are redescribed and illust...

In southern England, Linaria vulgaris (common yellow toadflax) suffers from high rates of nectar robbery by bumblebees. In a wild population of L. vulgaris we found that 96 % of open flowers were robbed. Five species of bumblebee were observed foraging on these flowers, although short-tongued species (Bombus lapidarius, B. lucorum and B. terrestris) robbed nectar whilst longer-tongued ones beha...