Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic Variability and Path Analysis Studies in Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

The present study was carried out to investigate the correlation coefficient, path analysis and genetic variability among some barley varieties for nine characters in a Randomize Block Design (RBD) with three replications in three environments of Bangladesh. High genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) was obtained from grain/ spike (29.89 %), yield/ plant (28.72%) and effective tiller/plant (21.86 %) and spike length (13.56 %). The characters with high GCV indicated high potential for selection. The highest heritability (Hb) was observed for 1000 seed weight (95.09) followed by yield/ plant (93.98), grain/ spike (92.09) and spike length (69.93), days to heading (72.65) but the lowest Hb was identified for effective tiller/plant (22.41) followed by the plant height (34.21). Those traits with higher heritability may be considered for selection. Grain/ spike had the highest positive direct effect (5.65) on yield followed by 1000 seed weight (4.65), spike length (1.26), yield/ plant (0.66), days to heading (0.55) and days to maturity (0.34). These parameters were identified as direct selection. Direct negative effect on yield was shown by plant height (-0.32) and effective tiller/plant (-0.74). This was an indication of indirect selection. Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 7(2): 243-247
Feature learning for RGB-D scene understanding

Scene understanding is an important and fundamental problem in computer vision and is critical in applications of robotics and augmented reality. Scene understanding includes many tasks such as scene labeling, object recognition and scene classification. Most previous scene understanding methods focus on outdoor scenes. In contrast, indoor scene understanding is more challenging, due to poor illumination and cluttered objects. With the wide availability of affordable RGB-D cameras such as Kinect, huge changes have been made to indoor scene analysis due to the rich 3D geometry information provided by depth measurements. Feature extraction is the key part for scene understanding tasks. Most of the early methods extract hand-crafted features. However, the performance of such feature extractors highly depends on variations in hand-crafting and combinations. The designing process requires empirical understanding of data, thus hard to systematically extend to different modalities. In addition, the hand-crafted features usually capture a subset of recognition cues from raw data, which might ignore some useful information. Thus, in this research, we focus on feature learning with raw data as input. Particularly, we explore feature learning on three different tasks of indoor scene understanding using RGB-D input: • Scene labeling: The aim is to densely assign a category label (e.g. table, TV) to each pixel in an image. Inspired by the success of unsupervised feature learning, we start by adapting the existing unsupervised feature learning technique to directly learn features from RGB-D images. Typically, better performance could be achieved by further applying feature encoding over the learned features to build
Unlocking the potential of historical abundance datasets to study biomass change in flying insects

Insect abundance changes are well-established in some datasets, but far less is known about how this translates into biomass changes. Moths (Lepidoptera) provide particularly good opportunities to study trends and drivers of biomass change at large spatial and temporal scales, given the existence of long-term abundance datasets for moths. This requires estimation of the body mass of moths sampled over time, but such data do not currently exist. We collected empirical data in 2018 on the forewing length and dry mass of sampled moths, and used these to train and test a statistical model that predicts the body mass of moth species from their forewing lengths (with refined parameters for Crambidae, Erebidae, Geometridae and Noctuidae). We tested the relationships between biomass, abundance and species richness of samples of moths for our 2018 samples, and over a 16-year period using long-term historical moth data (with model-estimated biomass) from a single site. Modelled biomass was positively correlated with measured biomass of moth species (R2 = 0.910) and mixed-species samples of moths (R2 = 0.915), showing that it is possible to predict biomass accurately. Biomass correlated with moth abundance and species richness in our 2018 data and in the historical dataset, revealing biomass declined by 65.9 % over a 16-year period. By allowing biomass to be estimated for historical moth abundance datasets, our approach creates opportunities to investigate trends and drivers of insect biomass change over long timescales and broad geographic regions.
Influence of solid residue from alcoholic extraction of brown propolis on intake, digestibility, performance, carcass and meat characteristics of lambs in feedlot

Ionophores can inhibit Gram-positive bacteria and their inclusion into ruminant diet decreases acetate:propionate ratio by the decrease in hydrogen use for methane production, and ammonia-N levels and lactate production; moreover ionophores can increase protein availability, maintain rumen pH and decrease feed intake (Russell and Strobel, 1989). On the other hand, the use of ionophores such as sodium monensin has been associated with antimicrobial resistance in animals (Mathew et al., 2001). According to Ríspoli et al. (2009), the use of such substances is prohibited in some countries, therefore other compounds, as propolis or its residues of alcoholic extraction, are studied to replace them. ABSTRACT. Propolis can be an alternative to the use of ionophores in ruminants due to presence of compounds like flavonoids, fenolic acids, esters, fenolic aldehydes and ketones. In this study the impact of solid residue from alcoholic extraction of brown propolis (RBP) added to the diet for feedlot lambs on nutrients intake and digestibility, productive performance, body morphometric measures, carcass characteristics and meat fatty acid profile was determined. Twenty-four Texel × Suffolk crossbred castrated male lambs (19.83 ± 2.07 kg) were fed diet with 0 (negative control), 5, 10 g RBP per kg dry matter (DM) or monensin (positive control, 26 mg/kg DM), in total ration with roughage:concentrate ratio of 400:600 (w/w). RBP addition regardless used dose positively influenced (P < 0.05) productive performance parameters (final weight and daily weight gain). However, diet with 5 g RBP/kg DM lowered feed conversion ratio in comparison to negative control. Nutrient intake, digestibility of DM (684 g/kg), organic matter (701 g/kg) and fibre (695 g/kg) were similar among treatments. Live body length (78.89 cm), external carcass length (75.4 cm) and carcass compactness (0.253 kg/cm) also did not differ between groups. Moreover, diet supplementation with RBP did not affect hot and chilled carcass yields (451 and 447 g/kg, respectively). The addition of 5 g RBP/kg DM caused lower concentration of stearic acid (C18:0) and higher of oleic (C18:1n-9) and linoleic acids (C18:2n-6) in longissimus muscle of lambs in comparison to muscle from animals fed diet with monensin or control one. So, RBP can be used as nutritional additive to lamb feed to increase animal performance and modify meat fatty acid profile. Received: 27 July 2018 Revised: 26 September 2018 Accepted: 25 May 2019
The effect of semantic brightness on pupil size: A replication with Dutch words

Theories of embodied language hold that word processing is automatically accompanied by sensory and motor simulations. For example, when you read the word ‘sun’, a sensory simulation of brightness as well as a motor simulation of pupil constriction would be automatically triggered. Consistent with this notion, Mathôt, Grainger, and Strijkers (2017) found that the eye’s pupil was slightly smaller after reading single words that were associated with brightness (e.g. ‘sun’) as compared to darkness (e.g. ‘night’); that is, the pupil light response was modulated by the semantic brightness of words. However, (other) key findings within the field of embodied language have proven difficult to replicate, and we therefore felt that it was crucial to replicate the effect of semantic brightness on pupil size. To this end, we conducted a close-but-non-identical replication of two key experiments from Mathôt, Grainger, and Strijkers (2017): one experiment with visually presented words, and one experiment with spoken words. Both experiments were successfully replicated. We propose that cognitive modulations of the pupil light response reflect activity in visual brain areas; therefore, the effect of semantic brightness on pupil size can be used as a marker for the involvement of visual brain areas in language processing, and thus to address a wide variety of key questions within psycholinguistics.
Identification and Discrimination of Salmonella Enteritidis, S. Pullorum, S. Gallinarum and S. Dublin Using Salmonella Specific Genomic Regions Amplification Assay

Background: DNA amplification method has been developed for identifying and discriminating Salmonella serovars, using specific primers at the genus and serovar levels and to identify the S. Enteritidis, S. Dublin, S. Gallinarum and S. Pullorum. Objectives: This study was conducted for molecular identification and discrimination among some important Salmonella serovars. Methods: Fifty isolates of Salmonella were assayed. The PCR assay was designed to amplify DNA fragments from six Salmonella genes, invA (284 bp), tcpS (882 bp), lygD (339 bp), flhB (155 bp), SlgC (252 bp), and speC (174 bp). Results: The results showed invA and tcpS genes presence in all four Salmonella serovars, whereas the lygD gene only exists in S. Enteritidis and is not found in S. Dublin, S. Gallinarum and S. Pullorum. The flhB gene is only present in S. Enteritidis and S. Dublin whereas it does not exist in S. Gallinarum and S. Pullorum. The SlgC gene exists in both S. Gallinarum and S. Pullorum, the SpeC gene is specifically present in S. Gallinarum, whereas SlgC and SpeC genes are not found in S. Enteritidis and S. Dublin. Salmonella Dublin serovar amplification assay successfully identified three selected serovar specific genomics regions (SSGRs) and hut gene. The results identify hut gene (495 bp), DSR1 (Dublin-specific genomics region1) (105 bp), DSR2 (Dublin-specific genomics region2) (203 bp), and DSR3 (Dublin-specific genomics region3) (296 bp). Conclusions: Amplification techniques on Salmonella serovars specific genomics regions are able to identify and discriminate clinically significant Salmonella serovars, and therefore, have the possibility to be used as a useful and rapid screening assay and support conventional biochemical and serological examinations
Rapid growth and defence evolution following multiple introductions

Abstract Rapid adaptation can aid invasive populations in their competitive success. Resource allocation trade‐off hypotheses predict higher resource availability or the lack of natural enemies in introduced ranges allow for increased growth and reproduction, thus contributing to invasive success. Evidence for such hypotheses is however equivocal and tests among multiple ranges over productivity gradients are required to provide a better understanding of the general applicability of these theories. Using common gardens, we investigated the adaptive divergence of various constitutive and inducible defence‐related traits between the native North American and introduced European and Australian ranges, while controlling for divergence due to latitudinal trait clines, individual resource budgets, and population differentiation, using >11,000 SNPs. Rapid, repeated clinal adaptation in defence‐related traits was apparent despite distinct demographic histories. We also identified divergence among ranges in some defence‐related traits, although differences in energy budgets among ranges may explain some, but not all, defence‐related trait divergence. We do not identify a general reduction in defence in concert with an increase in growth among the multiple introduced ranges as predicted trade‐off hypotheses. Synthesis: The rapid spread of invasive species is affected by a multitude of factors, likely including adaptation to climate and escape from natural enemies. Unravelling the mechanisms underlying invasives' success enhances understanding of eco‐evolutionary theory and is essential to inform management strategies in the face of ongoing climate change. OPEN RESEARCH BADGES This article has been awarded Open Materials, Open Data, Preregistered Research Designs Badges. All materials and data are publicly accessible via the Open Science Framework at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare. 8028875.v1, https://github.com/lotteanna/defence_adaptation,https://doi.org/10.1101/435271.
Effects of particle size and lipid form of corn on energy and nutrient digestibility in diets for growing pigs

Objective Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of corn particle size and lipid form on the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of energy and nutrients in diets for growing pigs. Methods In Exp. 1, thirty barrows (initial body weight [BW], 53.1±3.9 kg) were allotted to 1 of 5 diets formulated with 96.9% corn ground to 441, 543, 618, 659, and 768 μm, respectively. In Exp. 2, thirty-six barrows (initial BW, 54.7±3.6 kg) were allotted to 1 of 6 diets formulated by including 2% or 15% corn germ (CG 2 or CG 15), 1% or 6% corn oil (CO 1 or CO 6), 1% CO+2% corn germ meal (CO 1+CGM 2), or 6% CO+15% corn germ meal (CO 6+CGM 15), respectively. Results The ATTD of gross energy (GE) and the digestible energy (DE) in diet and corn grain linearly decreased as the corn particle size increased (p<0.05) from 441 to 768 μm. Particle size had a quadratic effect (p<0.05) on the ATTD of neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber in diets, and which firstly increased and then decreased as the corn particle size increased from 441 to 618 μm and 618 to 768 μm, respectively. The ATTD of GE, ether extract (EE), and the DE in CO 1 diet and CO 6 diet was greater (p<0.05) than that in CG 2 diet and CG 15 diet, respectively. The ATTD of EE in CO 6 diet and CO 6+CGM 15 diet was greater (p<0.05) than that in CO 1 diet and CO 1+CGM 2 diet. Conclusion Less than 618 μm was recommended for corn particle size in growing pig’s diet and extracted lipid had greater digestibility than the intact lipid in corn. Higher concentration of extracted CO had greater digestibility of EE compared with lower concentrations of CO diet.
Weak neural signatures of spatial selective auditory attention in hearing-impaired listeners

Spatial attention may be used to select target speech in one location while suppressing irrelevant speech in another. However, if perceptual resolution of spatial cues is weak, spatially focused attention may work poorly, leading to difficulty communicating in noisy settings. In electroencephalography (EEG), the distribution of alpha (8–14 Hz) power over parietal sensors reflects the spatial focus of attention (Banerjee et al., 2011; Foxe and Snyder, 2011). If spatial attention is degraded, however, alpha may not be modulated across parietal sensors. A previously published behavioral and EEG study found that, compared to normal-hearing (NH) listeners, hearing-impaired (HI) listeners often had higher interaural time difference (ITD) thresholds, worse performance when asked to report the content of an acoustic stream from a particular location, and weaker attentional modulation of neural responses evoked by sounds in a mixture (Dai et al., 2018). This study explored whether these same HI listeners also showed weaker alpha lateralization during the previously reported task. In NH listeners, hemispheric parietal alpha power was greater when the ipsilateral location was attended; this lateralization was stronger when competing melodies were separated by a larger spatial difference. In HI listeners, however, alpha was not lateralized across parietal sensors, consistent with a degraded ability to use spatial features to selectively attend.
Studies on variability, heritability (Narrow sense) and genetic advance analysis for growth, yield and quality traits in pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch. ex. Poir)

The experiments were laid out in RBD with three replications having each experimental unit of single row with spacing of 3.0 m (R×R) × 0.5 m (P×P) involving 7 parents namely, Narendra Agrim (P1), Narendra Amrit (P2), Narendra Upkar (P3), NDPK-76-1 (P4), NDPK-724 (P5) and NDPK-39-2 (P6) and NDPK-12-10 (P7) of pumpkin and their 21 F1 hybrids produced in diallel mating design excluding reciprocals at MES, Vegetable Science, NDUA. &T, Kumarganj, Faizabad (U.P.) India in Zaid, 2016. The observations were recorded on parents and F1’s for twenty quantitative traits including six quality traits viz., node number to first male flower appearance, node number to first female flower appearence, days to first male flower anthesis, days to first female flower anthesis, days to first fruit harvest, vine length (m), internodal length (cm), number of primary branches per plant, fruit weight (kg), number of fruits per plant, equatorial circumference of fruit (cm), polar circumference of fruit (cm), flesh thickness (cm), fruit yield per plant (kg), and six quality/biochemical traits namely ascorbic acid, reducing sugars (%) non-reducing sugars (%), total sugars (%), dry matter content and total soluble solids. Analysis of variance revealed that the mean square differences due to genotypes, parents and hybrids were found highly significant for all the traits. The mean squares due to parents vs. hybrids was also found significant for all traits studied in experiment except for node number to first male and female flower appearance, days to first male and female flower anthesis, days to first marketable fruit harvest, average fruit weight and total sugars. The highest phenotypic as well as genotypic coefficients of variation were observed in case of node number to first male flower appearance, vine length, fruit yield per plant recorded high estimates of PCV and GCV suggesting substantial variability for the observed traits, thereby ensuring ample scope for improvement of these traits through selection. The estimates of high heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent of mean were observed for node number to first male flower appearance, node number to first female flower appearance and non-reducing sugar. The most important trait fruit yield per plant had exhibited significant and positive phenotypic correlation with number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight, total soluble solids, vine length, flesh thickness, ascorbic acid content, total sugars, number of primary branches per plant, equatorial circumference of fruit and negative significant association with days to first male flower anthesis, days to first female flower anthesis, days to first fruit harvest, inter nodal length and node number to first male flower appearance at phenotypic level.
Detection of Cholera Toxin-Producing Vibrio cholerae in Phytoplankton from Santubong and Samariang Estuaries

Many cholera outbreaks worldwide were associated with cholera toxin-producing Vibrio cholerae. The bacteria are ubiquitous in aquatic environment, whilst phytoplankton is associated with adaptation of the Vibrio species. This study was conducted to detect cholera toxin-producing Vibrio cholerae, and to determine association of the selected water physicochemical parameters with the number of the bacteria. In this study, a total of ten phytoplankton samples were collected at Santubong and Samariang Estuaries in Kuching, Sarawak. Water physicochemical parameters (temperature, pH and salinity) were recorded. Vibrio bacteria were cultivated on thiosulfate citrate bile-salts sucrose selective agar and analysed for cholera toxin-producing Vibrio cholerae using polymerase chain reaction by targeting ctxA gene that encodes for virulence cholera enterotoxin subunit A. The result revealed that a range of 1.0 × 107 – 8.0 × 107 CFU/ml of yellow colonies growing on the thiosulfate citrate bile-salts sucrose agars. Inversely, no samples were positive with cholera toxin-producing Vibrio cholerae. The physicochemical parameters at Samariang Estuary were more associated with the number of bacteria in the samples compared to Santubong Estuary.
Antibacterial Resistance in African Catfish Aquaculture: a Review

Antibacterial resistance (AR) is currently one of the greatest threats to mankind as it constitutes health crisis. Extensive use of antibacterial agents in human and veterinary medicine, and farm crops have resulted in emergence of antibacterial-resistant organisms in different environmental settings including aquaculture. Antibacterial resistance in aquaculture is a serious global concern because antibacterial resistance genes (ARGs) can be transferred easily from aquaculture setting to other ecosystems and the food chain. African catfish (ACF) aquaculture has increased at a phenomenal rate through a continuous process of intensification, expansion and diversification. Risk of bacterial diseases has also increased and consequently there is increased use of antibacterial agents for treatment. Antibacterial resistance in ACF aquaculture has huge impact on the food chain and thus represents risk to public and animal health. In “one health” approach of curbing AR, knowledge of the sources, mechanisms and magnitude of AR in ACF aquaculture and its potential impact on the food chain is important in designing and prioritizing monitoring programs that may generate data that would be relevant for performing quantitative risk assessments, implementation of antibacterial stewardship plans, and developing effective treatment strategies for the control of ACF disease and reducing risk to public health. This review provides insight on the sources, mechanisms, prevalence and impact of antibacterial resistance in ACF aquaculture environment, a setting where the impact of AR is neglected or underestimated.
The effects of losing sex on the molecular evolution of plant defense

It is hypothesized that the loss of sexual reproduction and reduced recombination rates decrease the ability for hosts to evolve in response to selection by parasites. Using transcriptomes from 32 species, we test whether repeated losses of sex in the plant genus Oenothera has resulted in changes to the evolution of defense genes against herbivores and pathogens. To achieve this, the function of 2,431 Oenothera orthologous genes was determined based on GO annotations from Arabidopsis thaliana. Phylogenetic Analysis by Maximum Likelihood (PAML) was then used to examine how the patterns of molecular evolution in 721 defense and 1,710 non-defense genes differ between sexual (16 spp.) and asexual (16 spp.) taxa. We test whether the relative rates of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitutions (ω = dN/dS) in proteins with defensive function were higher in lineages with sexual reproduction (ωsexual> ωa-sexual), and we asked if such patterns were exclusive for defense genes or not. We detected variability in the rate of amino acid replacements of proteins in >50% of genes and positive selection on 3% of the genes examined. Nevertheless, our results clearly show that on average, signatures of positive and purifying selection on defense and non-defense genes are similar and only a small number of specific genes related to plant immune function may be affected by a loss of sex.