Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of livestock grazing on soil, plant functional diversity, and ecological traits vary between regions with different climates in northeastern Iran

Abstract Understanding the responses of vegetation characteristics and soil properties to grazing in different precipitation regimes is useful for the management of rangelands, especially in the arid regions. In northeastern Iran, we studied the responses of vegetation to livestock grazing in three regions with different climates: arid, semiarid, and subhumid. In each region, we selected 6–7 pairwise sampling areas of high versus low grazing intensity and six traits of the present species were recorded on 1 m2 plots—five grazed and five ungrazed in each area. The overall fertility was compared using the dissimilarity analysis, and linear mixed‐effect models were used to compare the individual fertility parameters, functional diversity indices, and species traits between the plots with high and low grazing intensity and between the climatic regions. Both climate and grazing, as well as their interaction, affected fertility parameters, functional diversity indices, and the representation of species traits. Grazing reduced functional evenness, height of the community, the representation of annuals, but increased the community leaf area. In the subhumid region, grazing also reduced functional richness. Further, grazing decreased the share of annual species in the semiarid region and seed mass in the arid region. Larger leaf area and seed mass, smaller height and lower share of annuals were associated with intensive grazing. Species with large LA and seed mass, lower height and perennials can be therefore presumed to tolerate trampling and benefit from high nutrient levels, associated with intensive grazing. By providing a detailed view on the impacts of overgrazing, this study highlights the importance of protection from grazing as an effective management tool for maintaining the pastoral ecosystems. In general, the composition of plant traits across the pastures of northeastern Iran was more affected by intensive grazing than by the differences in climate.
A test of the carbon starvation hypothesis in shrubs during drought-induced mortality

The carbon starvation hypothesis is one of the current leading hypotheses in the mechanism of plant mortality, although it has not been verified due to lack of evidence. To provide a basis for the verification of carbon starvation hypothesis in plant mortality, we tested the role of the non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) reserves of three shrub species (Sarcozygium xanthoxylon, Berberis diaphana and Sophora moorcroftiana) during drought-induced mortality. NSC concentration ([NSC]) and content in the seedlings of three shrub species were determined during the cessation of photosynthesis and death and in well-watered controls. Our results show that drought induces NSC loss in three shrub species at death, and carbon starvation appears to occur after the cessation of photosynthesis. Differences among species exist during water stress regarding [NSC] dynamics in roots, stems and leaves, which appear to be caused by differences in drought resistance and NSC allocation strategy (root, stem, or leaf). Our data also show that survival time correlates with the size (biomass yield) and priority of NSC supply (growth or metabolism and defence), specifically, the shrub which had the biggest size and prioritized growth during drought was observed to have shortest survival time. Overall, our findings demonstrate that drought may cause a loss of NSC reserves leading to carbon starvation, and eventually death.
Exploring the phylogeny of rosids with a five-locus supermatrix from GenBank

Current advances in sequencing technology have greatly increased the availability of sequence data from public genetic databases. With data from GenBank, we assemble and phylogenetically investigate a 19,740-taxon, five-locus supermatrix (i.e., atpB, rbcL, matK, matR, and ITS) for rosids, a large clade containing over 90,000 species, or approximately a quarter of all angiosperms (assuming an estimate of 400,000 angiosperm species). The topology and divergence times of the five-locus tree generally agree with previous estimates of rosid phylogeny, and we recover greater resolution and support in several areas along the rosid backbone, but with a few significant differences (e.g., the placement of the COM clade, as well as Myrtales, Vitales, and Zygophyllales). Our five-locus phylogeny is the most comprehensive DNA data set yet compiled for the rosid clade. Yet, even with 19,740 species, current sampling represents only 16-22% of all rosids, and we also find evidence of strong phylogenetic bias in the accumulation of GenBank data, highlighting continued challenges for species coverage. These limitations also exist in other major angiosperm clades (e.g., asterids, monocots) as well as other large, understudied branches of the Tree of Life, highlighting the need for broader molecular sampling. Nevertheless, the phylogeny presented here improves upon sampling by more than two-fold and will be an important resource for macroevolutionary studies of this pivotal clade.
ANALGESIC EFFICACY OF COMBINATION OF BILATERAL SUPERFICIAL CERVICAL PLEXUS BLOCK AND STANDARD ANALGESIA WITH STANDARD ANALGESIA ALONE IN PATIENTS UNDERGOING THYROID CANCER SURGERY. A RANDOMISED-CONTROLLED TRIAL

Purpose: This study aimed to determine analgesic efficacy of a combination of bilateral superficial cervical plexus block (BLSCPB) and standard analgesia with standard analgesia alone in patients undergoing thyroid cancer surgery under general anaesthesia.Materials and Methods: It was a randomised-controlled trial conducted at the Anaesthesia Department of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, Lahore. A sample size of 60 patients (30 patients in each group) was calculated with 95% confidence interval and power of 80%. Results: The mean pain-free duration for the Group A (BLSCPB group) was 72 min (SD 30.1) compared to 53 min (standard deviation 30.3) for the Group B. This shows a significant reduction in pain-free duration in Group A. Average NRS pain score in the Group A at q 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 min was (0.83, 1.83, 0.23, 1.76 and 1.49), whereas the average pain score on NRS in the Group B at the same time interval mentioned above for Group A was (2.1, 2.73, 4.53, 2.44 and 1.85)Conclusion: Administration of BLSCPB resulted in superior analgesia after thyroid cancer surgery.Key words: Analgesia, cervical plexus block, post-operative pain, regional anaesthesia, thyroidectomy
Comparison of different weight growth models in a sample of children from 6 to 15 years.

Human growth is a complex, natural developmental phenomenon comprised of prenatal (fetal) and postnatal (infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood) growth. Weight is an eco-sensitive growth measurement that responds more rapidly to illness and loss of appetite than height. Modelling postnatal growth in children’s weight is of particular interest in order to identify those at greatest risk for serious health outcomes later in adult life such as obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Traditionally, the most commonly used parametric growth models (Jenss-Bayley, Reed 1st order and Reed 2nd order) have been recommended for children from birth to 6 years of age but the literature on their performance in an older age range of children is limited. The Adapted Jenss-Bayley was developed to extend the models from birth to puberty. In contrast, the recently developed SITAR (SuperImposition by Translation And Rotation) model has no age range constraints, and has been shown to be superior to the previous models (Jenss-Bayley and Reed 1st order) for modeling weight from birth to four years of age. No study has yet assessed the comparison and performance of these models in an older age range of children. This present study aims to extend the previous work by comparing these models (Jenss-Bayley, Reed 1st order, Reed 2nd order, Adapted Jenss-Bayley, and SITAR) within the mixed effect framework to model longitudinal weight in an age range of children that starts from middle childhood and includes puberty (6 to 15 years) in the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD) cohort (n = 2, 120). Results demonstrate that the SITAR model outperformed the other four models but should be reassessed in additional studies with longer follow-up.
Current status of global dairy goat production: an overview

The global goat population continues to grow and is now over one billion. The number of goats raised primarily for milk production is also growing, due to expanding demand. Most of the world dairy goat production and consumption is in Asia, but a global view of the dairy goat sector reveals important lessons about building successful modern dairy goat industries. The most organized market for goat milk is found in Europe, especially in France. The European goat sector is specialized for milk production, mostly for industrial cheesemaking, while also supporting traditional on-farm manufacturing. Government involvement is significant in sanitary regulation, research, extension, support for local producer organizations, and markets, and ensures safety and quality. Nonetheless, producers are still vulnerable to market fluctuations. New dairy goat industries are developing in countries without a long goat milk tradition, such as China, the United States, and New Zealand, due to rising consumer demand, strong prices, and climate change. The mix of policies, management and markets varies widely, but regardless of the country, the dairy goat sector thrives when producers have access to markets, and the tools and skills to sustainably manage their livestock and natural resources. These are most readily achieved through strong and inclusive producer organizations, access to technical services, and policies that enable the poor and marginalized groups to benefit from increasing demand.
Effect of photoperiod on the cultural morphology of Rhizoctonia solani isolates of maize from Yogyakarta and Central Java, Indonesia

Abstract. Budiarti SW, Lukman R, Sumardiyono C, Wibowo A, Priyatmojo A. 2019. Effect of photoperiod on the cultural morphology of Rhizoctonia solani isolates of maize from Yogyakarta and Central Java, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 20: 2028-2038. Banded leaf and sheath blight (BLSB) caused by Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn is a significant constraint of maize production in Indonesia, especially within the last several years. R. solani is an important soil-borne necrotrophic fungal pathogen which is known to be sensitive to different environmental conditions. The differential response of fungi to light and dark is important to study, especially of those causing disease to crop plant as it helps to reveal the factors regulating the pathogenicity of the fungus. This study aims to determine the effect of light duration on the mycelial development and sclerotia formation of R. solani isolates obtained from different locations in Yogyakarta Special Region and Central Java, Indonesia. Ten isolates of R. solani collected from different geographic regions in Yogyakarta Special Region, and Central Java from maize (nine isolates) and rice (one isolate) were exposed to three different light conditions: 12 h alternating light/dark, continuous darkness, and continuous light. Cultural morphology and sclerotial characteristics were recorded for each isolate. All isolates revealed great diversity in terms of cultural and morphological characteristics after exposure to three different light conditions. Under complete darkness, the mycelial growth phase was extended, and a fluffy mass of mycelia was produced. All isolates showed abundant growth under the 12 h alternating light/dark condition than under the continuous dark and continuous light conditions. Sclerotia were initiated earlier under the 12 h alternating light/dark condition than under other conditions. The 12 h alternating light/dark condition also induced number and heavier weight of sclerotia compared with those produced under the continuous light and continuous dark conditions. The modifications in light condition exert a significant impact on some R. solani isolates.
Effect of Graded Levels of NPK Fertilizers on Pests Incidence in Bt Cotton in Alfisol

Cotton is an important commercial crop unanimously designated as ‘king of fibre crops’ and is prone to insect pests attack at various stages of crop growth. Compared to world average cotton lint yield (600 kg ha -1 ), India produces around 375 kg lint ha -1 . The low cotton lint yield is associated because of number of reasons, of them, its cultivation under rainfed situation and pest infestation. Introduction of synthetic pyrethroids, though brought desirable control of bollworms, resulted in resurgence of sucking pests viz., aphid ( Aphis gossypii Glover), leafhopper [Amrasca biguttula biguttula (Ishida)], thrips (Thrips tabaci Lindeman) and whitefly [Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius)] (Ajri et al., 1986 and Patil et al., 1986). In the last few decades, these pests became very serious pests of cotton and many other crop plants in tropical and subtropical areas of the world (El-Zahi et al., 2012). Nutrient management improves the plant health, which enables the plant to tolerate against the incidence and attack of herbivores.
Latent Dirichlet Allocation: Hyperparameter selection and applications to electronic discovery

of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy LATENT DIRICHLET ALLOCATION: HYPERPARAMETER SELECTION AND APPLICATIONS TO ELECTRONIC DISCOVERY By Clint Pazhayidam George December 2015 Chair: Joseph N. Wilson Cochair: Hani Doss Major: Computer Engineering Keyword-based search is a popular information retrieval scheme to discover relevant documents from a document collection, but it has many shortcomings. Concept or topic search is an alternative to keyword-based search that can address some of these deficiencies, and better categorize documents based on their underlying topics. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) is a popular topic model that is often used to make inference regarding the properties of a corpus. LDA is a hierarchical Bayesian model that involves a prior distribution on a set of latent topic variables. The prior is indexed by certain hyperparameters which have a considerable impact on inference but are usually chosen either in an ad-hoc manner or by applying an algorithm whose theoretical basis has not been firmly established. We present a method, based on a combination of Markov chain Monte Carlo and importance sampling, for obtaining the maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) of the hyperparameters. We report the results of experiments on both synthetic and real data. These show that when making inference regarding the topics of the documents in a corpus, the LDA model indexed by the MLE of the hyperparameters performs considerably better than LDA models indexed by default choices of the hyperparameters. Topic models such as LDA have many real-world applications such as document clustering, classification, and ranking and summarizing a corpus. In this thesis, we employ various topic models to the electronic discovery (e-discovery) problem, which
Molecular Survey of Hepatozoon canis in Dogs from Samsun Province of Northern Part of Turkey

We attempt to address new information of haematozoan infections in dogs from Samsun province of Turkey. The diagnostic techniques using genus specific polymerase chain reaction designed to amplify a fragment of ∼666 bp located in 18S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene of Hepatozoon spp. include microscopic investigations. H. canis identities were confirmed by sequencing the 18S rRNA gene. Two hundred (170 stray and 30 owned dogs) blood samples from asymptomatic dogs treated for endo and ecto parasites were examined. There were no detected ticks on dogs in the clinical examinations. None of 200 thin blood smears were positive for the presence of Hepatozoon spp. gametocytes. Only one dog sample from 200 with a prevalence of 0.5% was found to be positive for the presence of Hepatozoon DNA demonstrates a chronic infection. Partial sequences of the 18S rRNA gene shared 99-100% similarity with the corresponding H. canis isolates. Contrary the other molecular surveys on H. canis among Turkey, this research revealed a very low prevalence of H. canis in dogs from Samsun province of Turkey, and it indicates that ectoparasite control programs have a great impact on decreasing the vector borne parasitic diseases especially in the stray and owned dogs.
Calcium Renal Stone in Relation to Salivary and Urinary Constituents

Background: Renal stone which is actually renal calculi commonly termed as kidney stone may contribute to the development of chronic kidney disease and its incidence is rising rapidly; this study conducted to investigate the ability of using saliva as an indica - tor of susceptibility to calcium renal stone formation by investigating some salivary and urinary constituents among patients with idiopathic calcium renal stone then comparing the results with healthy looking subjects. Materials and Methods: The study group selected of thirty patients with idiopathic calcium renal stone with an age range (25-30) year’s old and 30 gender and age matched healthy looking subjects selected as control. Stimulated salivary samples in addition to fasting second morning urinary samples collected then chemically analyzed to determine the concentrations of salivary and urinary calcium, phosphate, magnesium in addition to urinary creatinine. RESULTS High significant elevation in the concentration of salivary phosphate with high significant reduction in salivary magnesium concentration recorded within study group compared control one while for salivary calcium concentration, found higher in study group but with no significant difference between them. The calcium stone formers found to have no hypercalciuria but they had higher level of urinary phosphate/creatinine ratio with high significant difference compared with the non stone formers while they had a high significant reduction for urinary magnesium/creatinine ratio compared with the control group. Conclusion: Saliva may provide an investigative tool for calcium renal stone disease by using the salivary magnesium concentration as an indicator of susceptibility to calcium renal stone formation for both males and females.
Notational analysis in shooting for Super League Netball players

1 This form should be used for both quantitative and qualitative dissertations. The descriptors associated with both quantitative and qualitative dissertations should be referred to by both students and markers. 2 There is scope within qualitative dissertations for the RESULTS and DISCUSSION sections to be presented as a combined section followed by an appropriate CONCLUSION. The mark distribution and criteria across these two sections should be aggregated in those circumstances. Tessa Louise Langford St20006460
PATTERN OF THYROID DISORDERS AMONG PATIENTS IN HAZARA DIVISION, PAKISTAN

Background: Thyroid disorders are a commonly encountered problem in hilly areas of Pakistan. The objectives of the study were to determine the frequency and distribution of thyroid disorders among patients presenting with suggestive signs & symptoms of thyroid disorders in Hazara Division, Pakistan. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics & Neonatology, Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad, KP, Pakistan from January, 2017 to January, 2018. Exclusion criteria was patients taking medicines such as Lithium and Cordarone. Sample size was 55 selected using consecutive sampling technique. Reference values were taken as follows; serum TSH=0.4-4.0 µIU/L, serum T3=100-200 ng/dL), serum T4=5-13.5 µgm/dL. Demographic variables were sex and age. Research variables were thyroid status (euthyroid/ hyperthyroid/ hypothyroid) and levels of thyroid function tests (TFT). Categorical variables such as sex and thyroid status were calculated by frequency and percentages whereas numeric variables such as age and TFT by Mean and SD. Descriptive statistics were calculated using SPSS Version 20. Results: Out of the total 55 patients, 11 patients were males and 44 patients were females. The minimum age was 20 years, maximum age was 90 years. Mean age was 43.24 years±15.118. Out of the total 55 patients, 14 (25.5%) were euthyroid, 30 patients (54.5%) were hyperthyroid and 11 (20%) patients were hypothyroid. Out of the 14 patients that were euthyroid, seven were males and seven were females. Out of the 30 hyperthyroid patients 26 were females and only 4 were males. All 11 hypothyroid were females. Conclusions: Hyperthyroidism is more common thyroid disorder in Hazara Division specially in adult females.
A Comparison Between BPA and PSASP Software Programs for Calculating Short-circuit Currents

Bonneville power administration(BPA) and power system analysis software package(PSASP) are two commonly used software programs for calculating short-circuit currents in China(the usage rate is higher than 80%). However,their calculation results are greatly different from the same source data,a fact that is affecting the decision-making of grid dispatching.By referring to current domestic short-circuit current calculation standards,it has been found that the main cause of the difference in calculation results of short-circuit currents between the two software packages under the power flow and network conditions is the lack of unified standards.Another important cause is inappropriate handling of the load model.Conclusions drawn from the analysis are valuable for standardizing short-circuit current calculation for inter-connected grids.
Spatial and temporal succession of bacterial communities in three artificial fishponds

Fishponds are artificial yet dynamic environments. Microbes play a vital role in the conversion and metabolism of organic matter in aquaculture environments such as fishponds. Changes in bacterial community composition in three fishponds over a 5‐month period were investigated by sequencing the 16S rRNA gene through Illumina Miseq. A total of 2,195,879 sequences and 9,975 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were obtained. Further analysis showed that the dominant phyla in three ponds were similar, including Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes. A comprehensive analysis of the diversity, redundancy analysis (RDA) and partial redundancy analysis (pRDA) showed a spatial‐temporal structural pattern in the bacterial communities. The bacterial community composition in the three fishponds was shaped more by spatial variation than by temporal variation. The effect of pond isolation was emphasized by the significant differences observed in the three fishponds. However, the temporal succession of bacterial communities in each pond exhibited a similar trend. Correlation analysis and RDA also indicated that temporal variation was significantly associated with TOC, TN and NO₂⁻. This study would improve our understanding of the assembly mechanisms of a microbial structure in artificial pond ecosystems, and provide useful information for fishpond management.