Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Catalase Activity in Brown Mussels (Perna perna) under Acute Cadmium, Lead, and Copper Exposure and Depuration Tests

Brown mussels (Perna perna) were exposed to cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and copper (Cu) concentrations under acute exposure and exposure-depuration tests for the estimation of biochemical biomarker catalase (CAT). The acute tests showed accumulated Cd, Pb, and Cu in Perna perna correlated linearly with the exposure concentrations ( , , and for Cd, Pb, and Cu, resp.). The results of CAT increased significantly in tissues of treatment mussels after 72 h exposure when compared to control. The values of total protein were disturbed in exposed groups when compared with control. These results suggest that metabolites and catalase activity were affected by heavy metal exposures. Analysis using the Spearman rank correlation coefficient showed that the CAT activity appeared to have a significant positive correlativity ( , , and for Cd, Pb, and Cu, resp.) with the accumulated Cd, Pb, and Cu concentrations, respectively. The result of exposure-depuration tests showed that there is a general tendency for CAT to decrease in depuration phase, suggesting that the induction of catalase is metal and/or mixture of metals dependent.
Betaine reduction of hyperhomocysteinemia and enhancement of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid in ethanol-induced hyperhomocysteinemia in rabbits.

Hyperhomocysteinemia is a hypothesis for the association of homocysteine with cerebrovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and depression of mood. Thus, we examined whether oral betaine can act as a preventive agent in ethanol-induced hyperhomocysteinemia on the monoaminergic system. A total of 32 New Zealand White rabbits were divided into four groups (n=8) among which is the control group (C). The ethanol group (E) was administered ethanol at a dosage of 4 g/kg daily. The betaine group (B) received betaine at a dosage 1.5% (w/w) of the diet daily, and the betaine and ethanol group (B and E) was administered with the betaine group diet; after one hour the rabbits received ethanol at a dosage of 4 g/kg daily. Blood samples were taken in the morning of the day before beginning treatment (0.0 day) and on the 30th, 60th and 90th day of the treatment. Serum folate and vitamin B12 levels were determined using a radioimmunoassay, total plasma homocysteine (tHcy) level was determined by homocysteine EIA kit, and 5- hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) of plasma was measured with HPLC-ECD. There was a significant negative correlation between 5-HIAA and tHcy in the E group (r=-0.473, P=0.02), and compared to the E group the concentrations of 5-HIAA in the B and E group increased considerably (p<0.05). In contrast to the E group, significantly high concentrations of 5-HIAA were observed in the B and C groups. While the serum concentrations of vitamin B12 showed no significant difference in the B and E group on the 90th day compared to the control group, the serum concentrations of folate on the 90th day differed significantly (p<0.05). However, no significant difference was observed between tHcy and gender. Overall, oral pretreatment with betaine significantly prevented ethanol-induced hyperhomocysteinemia, subsequently increasing 5-HIAA in the plasma as well as vitamin B12 and folate in the serum. Thus, betaine may be recommended as a pretreatment method for depressive patients with alcoholism.
Sustainability of interlocked fishing district -management concept for commercial fishing in Finnish lake fishery

Muje, Kari Sustainability of interlocked fishing district -management concept for commercial fishing in Finnish lake fishery Jyvaskyla: University of Jyvaskyla, 2012, 63 p. (Jyvaskyla Studies in Biological and Environmental Science ISSN 1456-9701; 247) ISBN 978-951-39-4867-2 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-4868-9 (PDF) Yhteenveto: Yhtenaisresurssin hyodyntamiseen perustuvan alueellisen kalatalousjarjestelman kestavyys sisavesiammattikalastuksessa Diss. The Finnish lake fisheries is one of the most extensive commercial inland fishery systems in Europe. It produces a considerable share of fish for domestic human consumption and also for export. Its distinctive feature is that vendace (Coregonus albula (L.)) is the overwhelmingly most important target species. The fluctuation of vendace stocks has been a major issue for the persistence and further development of commercial Finnish lake fishery. A number of issues concerning commercial use of the inland fish resources, such as access and fair distribution of environmental goods among interest groups stem from the long history of private ownership of land and from the multi-species and -purpose fishing nearly everywhere on the lakes. In this thesis a novel management approach, interlocked fishing district (IFD), is studied as a solution to the question of improving overall sustainability of developing commercial lake fishery in the context of private ownership of fishing rights. The results indicate that the present institutional and management structure in lake fisheries includes elements that do not comply with sustainability. Within the key interest groups, the landowners and commercial fishers, there is considerable need and readiness to apply IFD-type of resource management for commercial fishing. IFD includes qualities that could advance ecological, socio-economic, community and institutional sustainability in commercial fishing and fisheries management. Applying IFD is possible within the present legislation, yet any application requires case-specific approach. Successful application of IFD would advance resource-based and adaptive management of aquatic resources.
Carbon cycling dynamics in the seasonal sea-ice zone of East Antarctica

The carbon cycle of the seasonally ice covered region of the southwest Indian Ocean sector of East Antarctica (30°–80°E, 60°–69°S) was investigated during austral summer (January–March 2006). Large variability in the drivers and timing of carbon cycling dynamics were observed and indicated that the study site was a weak net source of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere of 0.8 ± 1.6 g C m−2 during the ice-free period, with narrow bands of CO2 uptake observed near the continental margin and north of the Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front. Continuous surface measurements of dissolved oxygen and the fugacity of CO2 were combined with net community production estimates from oxygen/argon ratios to show that surface heat gain and photosynthesis were responsible for the majority of observed surface water variability. On seasonal timescales, winter sea-ice cover reduced the flux of CO2 to the atmosphere in the study area, followed by biologically driven drawdown of CO2 as the ice retreated in spring-summer highlighting the important role that sea-ice formation and retreat has on the biogeochemical cycling of the region.
Pseudomonas infection in Chickens

Pseudomonas aeuroginosa is a motile, gram negative, oxidase positive bacteria, grows well on MacConkey agar media. It is a rod shaped bacteria occurring singly or in short chains, microscopically, margins of the colonies are having hook like projections. The organism is a strict aerobe, also grows readily on other common bacteriological media. The bacteria usually produces a water soluble green pigment composed of fluorescent and pyocyanin with a characteristics fruity odor. The organism is ubiquitous, often associated with soil, water and humid environment. In this case study, the organism was isolated from young chickens and dead embryos. The disease causes high mortality in newly hatched chickens and mass death of embryo at later stage. Our bacteriological results were consistence with the published literature. The experimental trial on different age groups has showed that the isolated causative agent (P. aeuroginosa) was found to be highly virulent to the young chickens (1 - 10 day old) and less pathogenic to chickens of 11 - 20 day old. The older chickens (>20 days) were found to be resistant to the infection. The agent more likely invades the host organism through wound and/or respiratory route. The organism was found to be resistant for the most common antibiotics, but it was found highly sensitive to Polymixin B and Amicacin which gave wide growth inhibition zone of 1.5 and 2 cm, respectively. Prevention of the Pseudomonas infection in the farm can be achieved by taking all the necessary bio-security measures. Key words: Pseudomonas aeuroginosa, embryos, hook like projection colonies.
User-Based Collaborative Filtering Recommender Systems Approach in Industrial Engineering Curriculum Design and Review Process

Industrial engineering curriculum is relatively very sensitive to changes in industry needs compared to other engineering disciplines because of its structure. The effectiveness of the curriculum design and review process depends on the variety and the volume of input data. Industrial engineering educators usually collect data from students, alumni, and industry stakeholders. With the availability of massive online data, mining relevant information and combining the information with the data collected from the traditional data sources would improve the efficacy of the industrial engineering curriculum design and review process. In this paper, we propose online job posting data as additional relevant information that can be integrated to the curriculum design and review process. We describe the adaptation of a userbased collaborative filtering recommender systems algorithm to analyze the online data and to convert the data into relevant information that can be used as input to the process. An undergraduate industrial engineering Operations Planning and Control course case study was used to illustrate the adaptation of the algorithm. Some of the topics taught in the course were searched on websites that advertise jobs and tallied. A professor who is familiar with the topics also provided expert judgments with regard to the relevance of the topics to industry needs. Both data sets were used as inputs to the algorithm. The experimental results show that some of the topics are highly correlated with the expert judgment than others; these topics would be given more emphasis than the less correlated topics during the curriculum design and review process. Analysis of new topics that did not receive expert judgments is also presented. The method proposed in this paper plays a great role in continuous curriculum review process as massive data sets can be extracted from online sources and processed within short time window. The industrial engineering educators can make use of more of the online data as input to curriculum design and review process to improve the efficiency of the process. This paper can also lead engineering educators to possibly explore the contribution of massive online data as an input to curriculum design and review process instead of simply relying on the traditional data sources.
Individual Factors that Encourage the Use of Virtual Platforms of Administrative Sciences Students: A Case Study

Higher education Institutions have incorporated into their educational processes the virtual learning platforms use, in their search to answers to the dynamic and changing needs of young students, thus students have practical training in the use of information technologies and communication (ICT) in their curses. However, few studies have been developed in developing countries to understand the motivating factors of the virtual learning platforms use of undergraduate students. Based on this need, this research aims to examine the individual factors that encourage the virtual platforms use in university students from the city of Medellin, taking as a case study the population of undergraduate students of management sciences from the Universidad Autonoma Latinoamericana, the Institucion Universitaria Escolme and the Instituto Tecnologico Metropolitano. The proposed methodology is descriptive type through a quantitative methodological design, where a selfadministered questionnaire was used as instrument and applied to 270 university students from the city of Medellin. Between the main results it is observed although most of undergraduate students have used virtual learning platforms and have low frequency platforms use per week. In addition, it is noted that the factors who have influence in the positive attitude of respondents to the virtual learning platforms use are the innovative personnel, ability for self-learning, and self-efficacy and personal perception.
Relevance of Autonomic Arousal in the Stress Response in Psychopathology

The principal goal of this study is to describe the relevance of typical autonomic patterns of response in accordance to a number of psychopathological syndromes for an accurate multi-dimensional assessment. A sample of 89 subjects was subdivided in five pathological groups in accordance with the clinical diagnosis following the diagnostic criteria of DSM V [1]: Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Panic Attack Disorders (PAD), Major Depressive Episodes (MDE), Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD), Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and a Healthy control group. Obtained data were compared in regard to each physiological parameters by using the mean value of the last minute of the registration at rest, and two activation indexes: â€œstress responseâ€ and â€œrecovery after stressâ€. Furthermore, for each of the physiological parameters (EMG, SCL/SCR, PT and HR), and diagnostic group, mean values in the three different phases (last minute of rest, first minute of stress, last minute of recovery) were compared to evaluate the four physiological parameters trends. In GAD and PAD patients, the obtained Conductance Response mean values are much higher than MDE and OCD. Furthermore, the HR response is also higher in GAD than in the other three groups. So, OCD and MDE patients seem to be characterized by a flat profile in all the parameters. We confirmed that a condition of autonomic hyper activation is typically connected to a high level of tension and anxiety; vice versa, a low level of autonomic activation and the impossibility to react to the stimuli is typically connected to MDE, OCD and AN.Obtained data suggest that there might be a new tool for differential diagnosis in psychopathology, represented by specific and typical pattern in autonomic response.
Anti-obesity Effects of Tae-Um-Jo-Wee-Tang and Do-Dam-Tang in Female Rats with Diet-induced Obesity

Tae-Um-Jo-wee-Tang (TUJWT) and Do-Dam-Tang (DDT) have been used as an anti-obesity herbal medicine but their effect and mechanism of action have not been studied. We investigated the effects of TUJWT and DDT on energy and glucose homeostasis using Sprague Dawley female rats with diet-induced obesity. The mechanisms of action of TUJWT and DDT were studied whether they had anti-obesity effects. Rats fed a high-fat diet were divided into 3 groups: rats in each group received 2 g water extracts of modified TUJWT and DDT, or 2 g cellulose per kg body weight (a negative control) on a daily basis. A further group was fed a low-fat diet as a positive control. We found that DDT significantly decreased body weight and body fat (mesenteric fat and retroperitoneal fat) more than the control. This decrease was due to the reduction in energy intake but no changes of energy expenditure. However, DDT increased fat oxidation as a major energy source than the control. In addition, modified TUJWT and DDT improved glucose tolerance without changing serum insulin levels during an oral glucose tolerance test. In conclusion, DDT have a better anti-obesity effect than TUJWT by decreasing energy intake in female rats with diet-induced obesity. It also improves glucose tolerance.
Size Distribution and Nutrient Excretion of Melanoides tuberculata in a Southern Nevada Spring Ecosystem

Abstract. To better understand the impact of Melanoides tuberculata on ecosystem processes via nutrient recycling, we quantified the body size distribution, density, and ammonia-nitrogen (NH4-N) and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) excretion of M. tuberculata in Rogers Spring, which is located in southern Nevada. We examined how nutrient recycling rates were related to body size and body nutrient content. We found that small individuals dominated the size structure, density, and NH4-N and SRP excretion rates and that nutrient recycling was determined by biomass rather than by high per capita excretion rates. The NH4-N excretion rates of M. tuberculata are between 2 and 27 times higher than the SRP excretion rates in Rogers Spring. These results indicate that M. tuberculata in Rogers Spring may be P limited and rather conservative in P recycling. In contrast to stoichiometric predictions, body nutrient content was a poor predictor of excretion rates. However, there was a close correlation between the measured and modeled NH4-N:SRP recycling ratio (NH4-N:SRPr), which suggests that diet N:P is more important in predicting NH4:SRPr than body elemental composition. Assuming that all excreted nutrients enter the water column, we determined that M. tuberculata contributes 17.3 mg N m-2d-1 and 3.3 mg P m-2d-1 to Rogers Spring. Although densities of M. tuberculata in the spring brook were lower than those reported in other studies, we assume that these exotic snails can have a significant impact on ecosystem processes, especially by N recycling in systems with very low ambient nutrient concentrations.
Hydrogeological sections of the Pergamino basin (Buenos Aires province, Argentina): audio magnetotelluric and geochemical results

Aquifers in the northeastern zone of the Buenos Aires Province, mainly used for agricultural purposes, were studied regionally by several authors, but local studies are necessary because great variations may occur in different basins, and well data are limited. In this work, geophysical exploration by means of Audio-magnetotelluric soundings and geochemical analyses of some well data were carried out at the Pergamino rivulet basin. Depth and thicknesses of the upper hydrogeological section, the Epiparaniana, including the Pampeano and Puelches aquifers, were determined. Also, the hydro chemical evolution along the direction of regional groundwater flow was studied. The depth of the very conductive layer corresponding to the salty Puelches and the "Green Miocene", limiting the agricultural water usage, came out to be very variable depending on the zone. Geochemical analyses showed that the Pampeano aquifer has bicarbonate sodium water, with an increase of electrical conductivity, sodium and bicarbonates contents at a local recharge zone with impermeable and bad drainage soils and a topographical small slope.
On the mechanisms of morphological rivalry: A new look at competing verb-deriving affixes in English

In English there are a number of morphological processes by which verbs can be derived from items of a different syntactic category (mostly adjectives and nouns). Disregarding the affixes that add a negative, privative, or reversative element of meaning (such as de-, un-), the following category-changing verb-forming affixes are attested: the prefixes en, emand be(sometimes accompanied by the suffixation of -en), the suffixes -en, -ize, -ate, and -ify, and a process of conversion.
Modelling population dynamics of seabirds: importance of the effects of climate fluctuations on breeding proportions

Environmental factors and their interactions are likely to have shaped specific breeding and survival strategies in top predators. Understanding how climatic factors affect populations requires detailed investigation of the demographic parameters and population modelling. Here, we focus on the modelling of a southern fulmar population over a 39 year period in Terre Adelie, Antarctica, using Leslie matrix models to understand from a prospective and retrospective point of view, how vital rates and their variations, affect the cyclic population dynamics. The elasticity of population growth rate to adult survival was very high (0.95), as predicted by a slow–fast continuum in avian life histories. However, adult survival varied little between years (mean±SD: 0.92±0.07), and could not explain the strong fluctuations observed in the number of breeders and chicks. The high temporal fluctuations of the proportion of breeders (0.57±0.22) and breeding success (0.70±0.14) had the strongest impact on population dynamics, despite their weak elasticities (0.05). Before the 1980s, population fluctuations were mainly explained by a direct impact of sea-ice extent (SIE) anomalies during summer (by a threshold effect) on the proportion of breeders. After 1980s, 3 years periodic population fluctuations were best predicted by 3 years cyclic variations in the proportion of breeders. SIE showed a marked change of periodicity during the 1980s, and SIE during winter fluctuated with a 3 years periodicity during 1980–1995. The marked change in population dynamics, through a change of the variations of the proportion of breeders, may be explained in the light of a regime shift that probably occurred around the 1980s, and which affected the sea ice environment, the availability of prey, and thus the demographic parameters and population dynamics of southern fulmars.
Partial Nucleotide Sequence of the Family Bunyaviridae Associated with a Mosaic-Diseased Fig. in North Egypt

Four different patterns of chlorotic blotches, mosaic, yellowish mottling and deformation were observed and collected in four fig-growing areas of North Egypt from cv. Sultany farms. Fig mosaic virus like symptoms were successful purified through transmission an eriophyid mite, Aceria ficus Cotte to healthy potted rooted cuttings grown under glasshouse conditions. Young leaves appearing typical symptoms caused by FMV. Electron microscope observations of thin-sectioned tissues from symptomatic leaves showed Double Membrane Bodies (DMBs) characteristic for FMV particles compared with symptomless leaves. Viral particles belong to family of Bunyaviridae. The RT-PCR performed on total RNA extracted from leaf tissue infected with the studied virus confirmed the specificity of the primers of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene for RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. The size of the PCR amplified fragment was 302 bp. The sequence and phylogenetic analysis indicated that the Egyptian FMV isolate was closely related to other FMV isolates, especially the Italian and Arkansas ones with 80%similarity. The genetic relationship between the RdRp gene for the Egyptian isolate of FMV with other FMV sequences on the Genbank was studied.
Fall risk factors in community-dwelling elderly people

Falls are a common and serious problem for older adults. Approximately one-third of older communitydwelling people fall at least once a year. The main purpose of this paper is to present risk factors for fall in older people living at home. The databases used for identifying documentation of risk factors are Cinahl, Eric, ISI Web of Science, Cochrane Medline, Psycinfo and dissertation. Many psychosocial and medical conditions and impairment of sensorimotor function, balance and gait have been shown in large epidemiological studies to be strongly associated with falls. Several of the risk factors are interrelated. The intrinsic-extrinsic distinction seem to be an oversimplification. A better understanding of falls is usually obtained when examining the person in association with the environmental factors. Advanced age, history of falls, ADL limitations, impaired gait and mobility, visual impairment, reduced sensation, muscular weakness, poor reaction time, impaired cognition, diseases as stroke, use of psychoactive medication and use of many medications are risk factors shown to be strongly associated with falls. This means recommendation of multifactorial fall risk assessment must incorporate a range of physiological and mental tests in addition to assessing balance and gait as well as taking multiple chronic diseases and medications into account. These finding underscore the importance of multidimensional fall intervention with special focus on modifiable risk factors