Madagascar's extraordinary biodiversity: Threats and opportunities.

Madagascar's unique biota is heavily affected by human activity and is under intense threat. Here, we review the current state of knowledge on the conservation status of Madagascar's terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity by presenting data and analyses on documented and predicted species-level conservation statuses, the most prevalent and relevant threats, ex situ collections and programs, and the coverage and comprehensiveness of protected areas. The existing terrestrial protected area network in Madagascar covers 10.

The distribution of biodiversity richness in the tropics.

We compare the numbers of vascular plant species in the three major tropical areas. The Afrotropical Region (Africa south of the Sahara Desert plus Madagascar), roughly equal in size to the Latin American Region (Mexico southward), has only 56,451 recorded species (about 170 being added annually), as compared with 118,308 recorded species (about 750 being added annually) in Latin America. Southeast Asia, only a quarter the size of the other two tropical areas, has approximately 50,000 recorded species, with an average of 364 being added annually.

Nomenclatural changes in and (Lamiaceae): a tale of more than two genera.

A synopsis of the genera Lour, A.J.Paton, Mwany.

New microsatellite markers for (Velloziaceae), an endemic species on Malagasy inselbergs.

Premise: Microsatellite markers were developed for (Velloziaceae), a species endemic to the Malagasy inselbergs, to explore the impact of its island-like distribution on genetic diversity and gene flow.

Methods And Results: A total of 7110 perfect microsatellite loci were recovered by shotgun sequencing on an Illumina MiSeq platform. Primer pairs were designed for 40 arbitrarily selected loci.

Open communication strategies between a triad of 'experts' facilitates death in usual place of residence: A realist evaluation.

Background: In order to meet policy drivers on death in usual place of residence, it is key to understand how shared decision-making can be facilitated in practice. An integrated care pathway was implemented in primary care in the North East of England to facilitate death in usual place of residence.

Aim: To understand how, for whom and in which circumstances death in usual place of residence is facilitated.

Records of Wenchengia (Lamiaceae) from Vietnam.

Background: The monotypic genus Wenchengia (Lamiaceae) has been thought to be endemic to Hainan, China. This paper reports on historic records of Wenchengia alternifolia collected from Vietnam. The recent recuration and modernisation of the Paris herbarium greatly facilitated this discovery.

Generic delimitations, biogeography and evolution in the tribe Coleeae (Bignoniaceae), endemic to Madagascar and the smaller islands of the western Indian Ocean.

This study presents the most complete generic phylogenetic framework to date for the tribe Coleeae (Bignoniaceae), which is endemic to Madagascar and the other smaller islands in the western part of the Indian Ocean. The study is based on plastid and nuclear DNA regions and includes 47 species representing the five currently recognized genera (including all the species occurring in the western Indian Ocean region). Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses supported (i) the monophyly of the tribe, (ii) the monophyly of Phylloctenium, Phyllarthron and Rhodocolea and (iii) the paraphyly of Colea due to the inclusion of species of Ophiocolea.

Studies of Malagasy Eugenia - IV: Seventeen new endemic species, a new combination, and three lectotypifications; with comments on distribution, ecological and evolutionary patterns.

Seventeen new endemic species of the genus Eugenia L. (Myrtaceae) are proposed from Madagascar, including: Eugeniaandapae N. Snow, Eugeniabarriei N.

A TAXONOMIC REVISION OF GOUANIA (RHAMNACEAE) IN MADAGASCAR AND THE OTHER ISLANDS OF THE WESTERN INDIAN OCEAN (THE COMORO AND MASCARENE ISLANDS, AND THE SEYCHELLES).

A taxonomic revision of the genus Gouania Jacq. (Rhamnaceae) is presented for Madagascar and the other western Indian Ocean islands. Seventeen species are recognized, of which nine are described and published as new (all endemic to Madagascar): G.

The genus Ophiocolea H. Perrier in northern Madagascar with description of four new species and two lectotypifications.

A recent review of Bignoniaceae for the "Catalogue of the vascular plants of Madagascar" has revealed new species in most of the genera present on the island. We provide descriptions of four new species in the genus Ophiocolea H. Perrier, a genus that is endemic to the Malagasy region: Ophiocolea ambrensis Callm.

Molecular Phylogenetic and Morphological Evidence Supports Recognition of Gereaua, a New Endemic Genus of Sapindaceae from Madagascar.

A recent worldwide phylogeny of Sapindaceae inferred from nuclear and plastid DNA regions segregated the Malagasy Haplocoelum perrieri Capuron from the African Haplocoelum foliosum (Hiern) Bullock. Additional phylogenetic analyses conducted here (including material of Haplocoelum inopleum Radlk., the generic type) supported the result from the previous analysis and showed that maintaining a broad circumscription of Haplocoelum to include the Malagasy species would render the genus polyphyletic.

New species from the Galoka and Kalabenono massifs: two unknown and severely threatened mountainous areas in NW Madagascar.

The Galoka mountain chain, comprising principally the Galoka and Kalabenono massifs, situated at the northern edge of the Sambirano Region in NW Madagascar is an area that was virtually unknown botanically. It was visited three times between 2005 and 2007 as part of a floristic inventory. Both massifs contain the last remaining primary forests in the Galoka chain, which extends parallel to the coastline from South of Ambilobe to North of Ambanja.

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Le genre endèmique malgache Bathiorhamnus Capuron (Rhamnaceae) est l'objet d'une rèvision taxonomique. L'étude des caractères morphologiques permet de reconnaître sept espèces. En plus des deux espèces antérieurement reconnues: B.

Map analysis of ligand binding to a linear lattice.

A one-dimensional mapping of the binding properties of a linear lattice offers an exact analytical solution for the site-specific properties of the lattice once the length N and the parameter for nearest neighbor interactions are specified. The solution is derived independent of the definition of the partition function or the transfer matrix, nor does it involve combinatorial arguments. This result provides a simple and effective way of analyzing experimental data for protein-ligand interactions and broadens our understanding of site-specific properties in biological macromolecules.

An analytic model for kinetics of hemoglobin reacting with ligand.

The saturation function Y(t) descriptive of the kinetics of ligand binding by a biological macromolecule such as hemoglobin can be represented by Y(t) = Yeq ([1 + epsilon][1-exp-(sigma 1t])/([1 + epsilon]-epsilon exp-(sigma 1t]), where Yeq is the fraction of sites bound at equilibrium, and sigma 1 and epsilon are parameters which can be determined by kinetics measurements. If the sites bind independently, fixed functional relations hold between the quantities (Yeq, sigma 1, epsilon). These relations do not hold for cooperative ligand binding.

Limit-cycle oscillations and chaos in reaction networks subject to conservation of mass.

A cyclic network of autocatalytic reactions involving an unbuffered cofactor and a number of components subject to conservation of mass displays a surprising richness of dynamical behaviors. Limit-cycle oscillations are possible over a wide range of parameter values. Additionally, a cascade of period-doubling bifurcations leading to chaos can coexist with a multiplicity of stable steady states.

Chemical oscillations in closed macromolecular systems.

A cycle of irreversible, first-order, autocatalytic reactions among different states of a polyfunctional macromolecule, subject to the conservation of mass, can display stable chemical oscillations. This introduces a class of nonlinear dynamic models for energy transduction in closed macromolecular systems.

Analytical solution of coupled nonlinear rate equations. I. Michaelis-Menten kinetics.

An approximate analytic solution to the Michaelis-Menten kinetic equations is developed which is free of the traditional steady-state hypothesis and is of a simpler form than previous perturbation approaches, so that the relaxation process can be traced in detail. The method involves coordinate transformation of the rate equations and subsequent solution of an integral equation which displays evolution of the system in time as the unfolding of a memory function whose value at any instant is contingent upon the past history of the system. A memory function of the type described here is not present in linear kinetics, so that it can serve to define the distinctly nonlinear features of a kinetic process.

A probabilistic approach to cooperativity of ligand binding by a polyvalent molecule.

Cooperativity of ligand binding is defined operationally in terms of the Hill parameter n, whose values uniquely define the shape of the binding curve. When n is everywhere equal to 1 the system behaves as if the sites were all the same and independent. If at any point n is unequal to 1 the system is either cooperative (n > 1) or anticooperative (n < 1) at that point.

Heme proteins: effect of an intermediate on photochemical behavior.

This paper analyzes, in terms of a triangular kinetic scheme, the possible effects of an intermediate in the photochemical behavior of simple heme proteins. Both steady-state and transient phenomena are analyzed. The magnitude of the quantum yield for a given system is determined by a competition between quenching and ligand detachment, measured by the two rate constants, kappa(-1) and kappa(2), respectively; as a first approximation, it can be described by a single parameter, namely the ratio kappa(-1)/kappa(2).