Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Insecticidal activity of Tagetes sp . on Sitophilus zeamais Mots

The indiscriminate use of agricultural inputs, such as fertilizers e and synthetic pesticides, can cause high levels of toxic residues in food, biological imbalance, environmental contamination, intoxication of humans and animals, and other direct and indirect effects. The use of plant extracts as alternative insecticides is a way to minimize the problems caused by synthetic insecticides. Insecticides are in the second position in the trading market of agrotoxics in Brazil. The species Tagetes erecta L. and Tagetes patula L. have antioxidant properties, larvicidal, fungicidal, antimicrobial, nematicide and insecticide. In order to verify the possibility of Tagetes sp. extracts be suitable alternative to the use of synthetic insecticides, the bioassays laboratorial were designed through of insect mortality test of Sitophilus zeamais. We evaluated the antioxidant activity by the test of DPPH, in addition to screen the chromatographic profile of the extracts. It is concluded that the extracts evaluated are efficient in insect mortality, checking still considerable amount of antioxidant compounds, as identified also flavonoids, terpenes and alkaloids in extracts. According to these results we conclude that T. erecta and T. patula has phytotoxic compounds that can promote and expand its use as a natural insecticide. Keywords— Alternative insecticides, natural defensive, organic agriculture, plant extracts.
Dyslipidemia and lipid management in HIV-infected patients

Purpose of reviewDyslipidemia is highly prevalent among patients living with chronic HIV infection and may confer increased risk of cardiovascular disease in this patient population. This review summarizes recent data investigating lipid abnormalities and its management in HIV-infected patients. Recent findingsStudies in the last year have evaluated the effects of various lipid-lowering therapies not previously investigated in the HIV patient population. Rosuvastatin is a potent statin that appears to be well tolerated and effective in HIV-infected patients with hypercholesterolemia. SummaryDyslipidemia is common in HIV-infected individuals. Medical therapy of lipid disorders needs to take potential drug–drug interactions of lipid-lowering medications and antiretroviral agents into consideration.
The tropopause cold trap in the Australian monsoon during STEP/AMEX 1987

The relationship between deep convection and tropopause cold trap conditions is examined for the tropical northern Australia region during the 1986–1987 summer monsoon season. Particular attention is paid to the Australian Monsoon Experiment (AMEX) period from January 10 through February 14 when the NASA Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange Project (STEP) was conducting aircraft investigations at Darwin. Time mean values of the saturation mixing ratio at the local temperature minimum or cold point at stations in the AMEX radiosonde network were everywhere below the global lower stratospheric average of ∼3.5 ppmv and in places substantially so, thus fulfilling the first of two conditions necessary for stratospheric dehydration. The cold point potential temperature Θcp in the region was anticorrelated both spatially and temporally with mesoscale convection. However, there was no direct connection between surface layer moist entropy and Θcp. Time mean Θcp ranged from 366 to 374 K at stations in the monsoon trough zone along the northern coast and in the northern Gulf of Carpentaria, while the time mean of the average equivalent potential temperature in the surface layer Θe was no greater than 356 K. This difference of at least 10 K between trough mean Θcp values and the maximum potential temperature achieved in undilute moist ascent from the surface layer indicates that rapid incorporation of tropospheric air into the stratosphere was occurring in monsoonal convective systems through a combination of cumulonimbus overshooting and anvil radiative heating. Over the continent, where mean Θe was 6–10 K lower, stratosphere-troposphere exchange was less widespread but more vigorous. Here the average Θcp approached 380 K and was likely due to deeper tropopause penetrations produced by continental convective systems. This elevation of Θcp in continental systems relative to monsoon trough systems is evident in the Θcp of tropopause layers which had never passed over the continental interior: these were 8–13 K lower than their counterparts of continental origin. This elevating tendency accounts for the upward trends in cold point temperature, saturation mixing ratio and Θcp in the trough zone following monsoon onset in mid-January. Before onset, tropopause air in the north coastal zone beyond the immediate vicinity of convective systems appeared to have originated in the tropics upstream of the continent. With the establishment of the monsoon continental-scale upper-level anticyclone, tropopause air entering the monsoon trough zone had more often been processed by systems of the continental interior. Nonetheless, the necessary conditions for stratospheric dehydration, i.e., cold point saturation mixing ratios below the global average and significant stratosphere-troposphere exchange, remained in force throughout the monsoon period.
Detection of Long-Term Instabilities on Altimeter Backscatter Coefficient Thanks to Wind Speed Data Comparisons from Altimeters and Models

As long-term stability of altimeter backscatter coefficient (σ 0 ) can impact the accuracy of the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) trend through the Sea State Bias (SSB) correction, it is important to accurately monitor its evolution in order to detect potential instabilities. This study aims to characterize long-term uncertainties from several altimeter missions. The originality of our approach is to perform comparisons between wind speed estimations deduced from σ 0 measurements and from ERA-interim reanalysis. Thanks to the good temporal correlation between the Global Wind Speed (GWS) evolution issued from altimeters and the atmospheric reanalysis, the detection of small drifts is possible in the altimeter time series. In particular, drifts have been detected on Jason-1 GWS between mid-2004 and 2005 and on Envisat prior to 2004. They are associated to σ 0 jumps of approximately 0.03 dB. Larger anomalies have been detected on TOPEX σ 0 data with variations reaching 0.2 dB. These low altimeter wind speed variations originate from small σ 0 changes are within the instrumental stability requirements. However, via the SSB calculation, their impact on the GMSL evolution is estimated close to 0.1 mm/yr over the altimetry 20-year period. In addition, they strongly affect inter-annual GMSL variations with associated errors reaching 2 mm.
Influences of sampling effort on detected patterns and structuring processes of a Neotropical plant-hummingbird network.

Virtually all empirical ecological interaction networks to some extent suffer from undersampling. However, how limitations imposed by sampling incompleteness affect our understanding of ecological networks is still poorly explored, which may hinder further advances in the field. Here, we use a plant-hummingbird network with unprecedented sampling effort (2716 h of focal observations) from the Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil, to investigate how sampling effort affects the description of network structure (i.e. widely used network metrics) and the relative importance of distinct processes (i.e. species abundances vs. traits) in determining the frequency of pairwise interactions. By dividing the network into time slices representing a gradient of sampling effort, we show that quantitative metrics, such as interaction evenness, specialization (H2 '), weighted nestedness (wNODF) and modularity (Q; QuanBiMo algorithm) were less biased by sampling incompleteness than binary metrics. Furthermore, the significance of some network metrics changed along the sampling effort gradient. Nevertheless, the higher importance of traits in structuring the network was apparent even with small sampling effort. Our results (i) warn against using very poorly sampled networks as this may bias our understanding of networks, both their patterns and structuring processes, (ii) encourage the use of quantitative metrics little influenced by sampling when performing spatio-temporal comparisons and (iii) indicate that in networks strongly constrained by species traits, such as plant-hummingbird networks, even small sampling is sufficient to detect their relative importance for the frequencies of interactions. Finally, we argue that similar effects of sampling are expected for other highly specialized subnetworks.
The Anti-Allodynic Gabapentinoids

The gabapentinoids (pregabalin and gabapentin) are first line treatments for neuropathic pain. They exert their actions by binding to the α2δ accessory subunits of voltage-gated Ca2+ channels. Because these subunits interact with critical aspects of the neurotransmitter release process, gabapentinoid binding prevents transmission in nociceptive pathways. Gabapentinoids also reduce plasma membrane expression of voltage-gated Ca2+ channels but this may have little direct bearing on their therapeutic actions. In animal models of neuropathic pain, gabapentinoids exert an anti-allodynic action within 30 minutes but most of their in vitro effects are 30-fold slower, taking at least 17 hours to develop. This difference may relate to increased levels of α2δ expression in the injured nervous system. Thus, in situations where α2δ is experimentally upregulated in vitro, gabapentinoids act within minutes to interrupt trafficking of α2δ subunits to the plasma membrane within nerve terminals. When α2δ is not up-regulated, gabapentinoids act slowly to interrupt trafficking of α2δ protein from cell bodies to nerve terminals. This improved understanding of the mechanism of gabapentinoid action is related to their slowly developing actions in neuropathic pain patients, to the concept that different processes underlie the onset and maintenance of neuropathic pain and to the use of gabapentinoids in management of postsurgical pain.
Variability of Observed Energy Fluxes during Rain-on-Snow and Clear Sky Snowmelt in a Midlatitude Mountain Environment

AbstractHourly observations of 65 snow monitoring stations were used to investigate the spatiotemporal variability of the surface energy balance during snowmelt in the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany. The study focuses on two rain-on-snow (ROS) events in December 2012 and a clear sky period at the beginning of March 2013 using the same study locations. ROS and clear sky were chosen since they are completely different snowmelt conditions in terms of energy exchanges and dynamics. The results show that snowmelt was dominated by turbulent exchanges at the open field sites and by both turbulent exchanges and net longwave radiation in the forest during ROS. The energy available for snowmelt can be almost identical at open and forest locations during ROS, and a constant energy flux even during night was directed toward the snowpack. During the clear sky conditions, net shortwave radiation was the dominating term in the open, whereas net shortwave and net longwave radiation were most important in the.
aa-tRNA competition is crucial for the e ff ective translation e ffi ciency

Translation is a central biological process by which proteins are synthesized from genetic information contained within mRNAs. Here we study the kinetics of translation at molecular level through a stochastic simulation model. The model explicitly include RNA sequences, ribosome dynamics, tRNA pool and biochemical reactions in the translation elongation. The results show that the translation efficiency is mainly limited by the available ribosome number, translation initiation and the translation elongation time. The elongation time is log-normal distribution with mean and variance determined by both the codon saturation and the process of aa-tRNA selection at each codon binding. Moreover, our simulations show that the translation accuracy exponentially decreases with the sequence length. These results suggest that aa-tRNA competition is crucial for both translation elongation, translation efficiency and the accuracy, which in turn determined the effective protein production rate of correct proteins. Our results improve the dynamical equation of protein production with a delay differential equation which is dependent on sequence informations through both the effective production rate and the distribution of elongation time.
The Expression of Dentin Sialophosphoprotein Gene in Bone

Dentin sialoprotein (DSP) and dentin phosphoprotein (DPP) are expressed as a single mRNA transcript coding for a large precursor protein termed dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP). DSP, DPP, and DSPP have been considered to be tooth-specific. To test for the expression of the dspp gene in bone, we performed Western immunoblots and reverse-transcription polymerase chain-reaction (RT-PCR). With Western immunoblots, we detected DSP in the Gdm/EDTA extracts of rat long bone, at a level of about 1/400 of that in dentin. Using RT-PCR, we detected DSPP mRNA in mouse calvaria. Similar to Western immunoblots, the results of RT-PCR indicated that the dspp gene is expressed at a lower level in bone than in dentin and odontoblasts. Analysis of the data shows that DSPP is not a tooth-specific protein, and that dramatically different regulatory mechanisms governing DSPP expression are involved in the bone and dentin.
Sedimentary basins formed and carried piggyback on active thrust sheets

Small sedimentary basins that formed on the Apennine (southern) margin of the Po basin complex, northern Italy, have been studied using borehole and seismic-reflection information, and their evolution can be dated using the largely marine biostratigraphy of the Miocene to Quaternary sediments. These studies show that the basins formed and were filled while being carried on moving thrust sheets, and they are therefore named piggyback basins. Each of these basins corresponds to the active phase of a different thrust-front ramp. On the Pyrenean (northern) margin of the Ebro basin complex, northern Spain, similar piggyback basins formed between Eocene and mid-Miocene time. They have since been uplifted and eroded and may therefore be studied in outcrop. In northern Spain, much of the basin-fill sediment was deposited in nonmarine environments.
De‐coupling of net community production and new production in the euphotic zone of the equatorial Pacific: A model study

A physical‐biogeochemical model is employed to estimate rates of nitrogen based primary production (PP*), net community production (NCP*), and new production (NP) in the equatorial Pacific. The model reproduces observed vertical differences between ammonium regeneration and uptake: uptake > regeneration above 40 m and uptake < regeneration below 40 m. As a result, NCP* exceeds NP in the upper 40 m, but decreases more rapidly with depth than NP. High surface NCP* appears across the entire upwelling region whereas high surface NP is found in the eastern equatorial Pacific with a much stronger spatial and temporal variability in NCP* relative to NP. The NCP*/PP* ratio shows a larger range (0.1–0.4) than the f‐ratio (i.e., the NP/PP* ratio) (0.1–0.3). The zonal and vertical de‐coupling between NCP* and NP is caused by the time lag between biological uptake and regeneration, and the advection of organic and inorganic nitrogen. The excess of NCP* over NP in the upper euphotic zone suggests the possibility of carbon over‐consumption in the upper ocean of the equatorial Pacific with implications for predicting sinks/sources of CO2.
Effects on childhood body habitus of feeding large volumes of cow or formula milk compared with breastfeeding in the latter part of infancy12

Background: There is controversy over whether a lack of breastfeeding is related to obesity development. Objective: We examined the effects of feeding different types of milk in late infancy on childhood growth. Design: A cohort of 1112 term, singleton children (born in 1992) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, United Kingdom, were studied prospectively. Food records collected at 8 mo of age were used to define the following 5 mutually exclusive feeding groups on the basis of the type and amount of milk consumed: breast milk (BM), <600 mL formula milk/d (FMlow), ≥600 mL formula milk/d (FMhigh), <600 mL cow milk/d (CMlow), and ≥600 mL cow milk/d (CMhigh). Weight, height, and BMI were measured at 14 time points from birth to 10 y of age, and SD scores (SDSs) were calculated. Dietary energy and macronutrient intakes were available at 7 time points. Results: CMhigh children were heavier than were BM children from 8 mo to 10 y of age with weight differences (after adjustment for maternal education, smoking, and parity) ≥0.27 SDSs and an average of 0.48 SDSs. The maximum weight difference was at 18 mo of age (0.70 SDS; 95% CI: 0.41, 1.00 SDS; P = <0.0001). CMhigh children were taller at some ages (25-43 mo; P < 0.01) and had greater BMI SDSs from ≥8 mo of age (at 9 y of age; P = 0.001). FMhigh children were heavier and taller than were BM children from 8 to 37 mo of age. There were marked dietary differences between milk groups at 8 mo of age, some of which persisted to 18 mo of age. Adjustments for current energy and protein intakes did not attenuate the growth differences observed. Conclusions: The feeding of high volumes of cow milk in late infancy is associated with faster weight and height gain than is BM feeding. The feeding of bottle-fed infants with high volumes of cow milk in late infancy may have a persisting effect on body habitus through childhood.
Modal Logics for Communicating Rule-Based Agents

In this paper, we show how to establish correctness and time bounds (e.g., quality of service guarantees) for multi-agent systems composed of communicating rule-based agents. The formal models of multi-agent systems we study are transition systems where each transition corresponds to either a rule firing or an act of communication by an agent. We present a complete and sound modal logic which formalises how the beliefs of communicating rule-based agents change over time. Using a simple example, we show how this logic can be used to specify temporal properties of belief change in multi-agent systems in a precise and realistic way, and how existing modal logic techniques such as model-checking can be used to state and verify properties of agents.
Towards a really unified theory for metacommunities

Traditionally, community ecologists assumed that spe-cies differ in some aspects of their traits or responsesto the environment (i.e. their niches), which allow themto coexist in the same habitat (Hutchinson 1957, 1959). Recently, Hubbell (2001) and others (e.g. Bell 2001,2003) have suggested that this view is inadequate toexplain the diversity often observed in speciose systems.For example, hundreds to thousands of tree species livein tropical forests, which only have a handful of limitingresources such as water, light, and a variety of macro- andmicronutrients. Such high diversity, with so few resources,they argue, cannot be explained by niche theory.As an alternative to the traditional niche theory,Hubbell (2001) developed a neutral theory of commu-nity structure (see also Caswell 1976; Hubbell 1979;Hubbell & Foster 1986; Bell 2000, 2001, 2003; Chave L Chave 2004). In the neutral theory, pat-terns of species diversity, relative abundance, andcomposition are primarily a function of the size of themetacommunity, the dispersal rate of organisms withinthe metacommunity, and the rates of generation (spe-ciation) of new species (Bell 2001; Hubbell 2001; Chave2004). Because species are assumed to be identicalecologically, Hubbell termed his a ‘neutral theory’, bydirect analogy to neutral genes in population genetics.Hubbell further termed his theory ‘uniﬁed’ in that it issimultaneously able to predict diversity and relativeabundance of organisms in a locality, as well as bioge-ographic patterns of species composition.In this essay, I overview the key assumptions (inputs)required and the insights (outputs) that can be gainedfrom each framework. While a complete discussion ofall of the assumptions and predictions of these modelsis beyond the scope of this essay (but see Chase
Renal effects of low dose aspirin in elderly patients.

BACKGROUND Aspirin is commonly used by elderly patients. In previous studies we found transient changes in renal function induced by low doses of aspirin. OBJECTIVES To investigate the mechanisms of these effects. METHODS The study group included 106 long-term care stable geriatric inpatients. Diet and drugs were kept stable. The study lasted 5 weeks; during the first 2 weeks 100 mg aspirin was administered once a day. Clinical and laboratory follow-up was performed at baseline and weekly for the next 3 weeks. The glomerular filtration rate was estimated by creatinine clearance measured in 24 hour urine and serum creatinine, and by the Cockcroft-Gault formula (C-G) equation. Uric acid clearance was determined from serum concentrations and 24 hour excretion of uric acid. Patients with serum creatinine > 1.5 mg/dl were not included. RESULTS After 2 weeks on low dose aspirin, measured creatinine and uric acid clearances decreased significantly compared with the initial values in 70% and 62% of the patients, respectively, with mean decreases of 19% and 17%, respectively (P< 0.001). Blood urea nitrogen increased by 17% while serum creatinine and uric acid concentrations increased by 4% (P < 0.05 for all). The C-G values decreased by 3% (P< 0.05). After withdrawal of aspirin all parameters improved. However, 67% of the patients remained with some impairment in their measured Ccr, compared to baseline. Patients who reacted adversely to low dose aspirin had significantly better pre-study renal function (Ccr), lower hemoglobin and lower levels of serum albumin. CONCLUSIONS Short-term low dose aspirin affected renal tubular creatinine and uric acid transport in the elderly, which may result in a prolonged or permanent deterioration of the renal function. It is suggested that renal functions be monitored even with the use of low dose aspirin in elderly patients.
Geography and Development

After commencing with a brief exposition of some salient characteristics of modern geography attention is given to the state of development thinking within the discipline. Various approaches to geographical studies of development are alluded to, whilst some major contributions are cited. This is followed by a brief discussion of the main research fields relevant to South African development issues. Some major research contributions are cited and a list of perceived deficiencies given. In conclusion it is stated that economic development always takes place within a spatial framework and always affects spatial structures as well as the man‐environment system. Geography, as a spatial science, is primarily concerned with these issues and therefore has a crucial role to play in development studies.