Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reproductive success of the threatened Reed Parrotbill Paradoxornis heudei in non-harvested and harvested reedbeds in the Yangtze River estuary, China

Understanding the factors that affect the nesting success of threatened birds is essential in designing effective conservation strategies. Here we compare nesting success of the Reed Parrotbill Paradoxornis heudei in annually harvested and non-harvested reedbed habitats in the Chongming Dongtan Nature Reserve in China, by recording the number of nestlings produced per nest and the causes of nest failure. We modelled daily nest survival rate (DSR) by considering the effects of harvesting, vegetation characteristics, year, date, advancement within the breeding season, nest age and nearest-nest distance, using the program MARK. Nest densities, but not the number of fledglings per nest, were significantly lower in harvested than non-harvested reedbed habitats. The best-fit DSR model estimated constant survival; none of the tested co-variables had significant effects. Moreover, harvesting did not affect the date of breeding initiation, likelihood of nest failure, or causes of nest failure, as vegetation cover was not significantly different between harvested and non-harvested reedbeds during the whole breeding season. Nest failure following adverse weather conditions was unusually common in harvested and non-harvested reedbeds, accounting for as many nest failures as depredation. However, comparisons with other studies suggest that deriving a conclusion on the impact of harvesting on nesting success is not straightforward and is probably linked to environmental characteristics affecting reed growth.
Physiological Responses of Newly Hatched Broiler Chicks to Increasing Journey Distance During Road Transportation

This study was conducted to examine the effects on weight loss (WL), residual yolk (RY) utilization and serum biochemical parameters of transport distance (TD) in newly hatched broiler chicks. Just after hatching, 200 Ross 308 broiler chicks were traveled over 1000 km. At hatchery and after 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 km journey, a random sample of 20 birds were killed for blood collection, WL and yolk weight assessment. Live weight decreased linearly by 0.42 and 0.48 g per 100 km of journey in males and female chicks, respectively. Yolk sac residual utilized by 0.071 and 0.069 g per 100 km of travel in males and females chicks, respectively, over journey distances up to 800 km. Extended journey from 800 to 1000 km caused a great decline of 0.51 and 0.58 g per 100 km in yolk weight in male and female chicks, respectively. Serum Ca concentration reduced in TDs up to 400 km, then increased for longer journeys (P<0.05). Over 1000 km journey, serum GLU level of 196.24 mg/dL at hatchery was decreased to 117.31 mg/dL at the end of journey. Serum urea, uric acid and cholesterol concentrations were increased with the extended TDs (P<0.05). In conclusion increasing transportation distance causes intensified physiological stress in broiler chicks with varying effect on different stress indicators. Stress indicators in newly hatched chicks in transit may differ from those proposed for replaced chicks and the broiler chicken at later ages.
Interdisciplinarity and Team Innovation: The Role of Team Experiential and Relational Resources

Interdisciplinary teams composed of members with different expertise possess a variety of perspectives, which increases their potential for innovation. In reality, team members often fail to integrate their expertise, resulting in the team not reaching its innovative potential. It is argued the unsharedness of expertise within interdisciplinary teams has an inverted-U relationship with innovation. To explore the conditions under which the unsharedness of expertise enhances or impairs innovation, the resource-based view of organizational productivity is applied to teams. It is argued the amount and configuration of team relational and experiential resources facilitate teams’ ability to integrate members’ expertise for innovation.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Foreign Accent Syndrome: A Single-Case Experimental Design

Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) has historically been attributed to a neurological etiology. However, recent research has identified psychogenic causes of FAS, where patients present to health care services with medically unexplained FAS symptomology. Due to the rare nature of psychogenic FAS, there is currently no evidence-based psychological treatment for this syndrome. Although patients with psychogenic FAS do not meet the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV) or the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 diagnostic criteria for a diagnosis of somatization disorder, there are some similarities in presentation between psychogenic FAS and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5) criteria for somatic symptom disorder (SSD). These include the presence of distressing and disruptive symptoms that result in increased health care utilization. Given the emerging evidence for cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for SSDs, it is arguable that CBT could help patients with psychogenic FAS to manage the psychological distress they experience. This paper aims to explore the use of CBT in reducing the psychological distress of a patient with no organic explanation for FAS using a single-case (A-B) experimental design. The results suggest that CBT was effective in reducing distress, as measured using the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation–Outcome Measure (CORE-OM). This paper highlights the value in using an individualized formulation-driven CBT approach for presentations that do not yet have evidence-based guidelines. In this case, cognitive restructuring, activity scheduling, and stress management appear to be key mechanisms of change in reducing psychological distress associated with FAS.
Participatory Action Research: International Perspectives and Practices

In 2017, Norman Denzin, EditorinChief of this journal, raised a call for inquiry "that addresses inequities in the economy, education, employment, the environment, health, housing, food and water, inquiry that embraces the global cry for peace and justice” (p. 8). It is at Denzin’s invitation that we have organized this Special Issue on Participatory Action Research, which we see as an opportunity to bring the knowledge and experience of participatory action researchers from around the world into closer dialogue and collaboration with qualitative researchers interested in finding ways to take up his challenge.
Rapid neoglaciation on Ellesmere Island promoted by enhanced summer snowfall in a transient climate model simulation of the middle-late-Holocene

Arctic neoglaciation following the Holocene Thermal Maximum is an important feature of late-Holocene climate. We investigated this phenomenon using a transient 6000-year simulation with the CESM-CAM5 climate model driven by orbital forcing, greenhouse gas concentrations, and a land use reconstruction. During the first three millennia analyzed here (6–3 ka), mean Arctic snow depth increases, despite enhanced greenhouse forcing. Superimposed on this secular trend is a very abrupt increase in snow depth between 5 and 4.9 ka on Ellesmere Island and the Greenland coasts, in rough agreement with the timing of observed neoglaciation in the region. This transition is especially extreme on Ellesmere Island, where end-of-summer snow coverage jumps from nearly 0 to virtually 100% in 1 year, and snow depth increases to the model’s imposed maximum within 15 years. This climatic shift involves more than the Milankovitch-based expectation of cooler summers causing less snow melt. Coincident with the onset of the cold regime are two consecutive summers with heavy snowfall on Ellesmere Island that help to short-circuit the normal seasonal melt cycle. These heavy snow seasons are caused by synoptic-scale, cyclonic circulation anomalies over the Arctic Ocean and Canadian Archipelago, including an extremely positive phase of the Arctic Oscillation. Our study reveals that a climate model can produce sudden climatic transitions in this region prone to glacial inception and exceptional variability, due to a dynamic mechanism (more summer snowfall induced by an extreme circulation anomaly) that augments the traditional Milankovitch thermodynamic explanation of orbitally induced glacier development.
Quantifying the spatial and temporal changes in forested landcover using landscape metrics derived from remotely sensed data in rural parts of Zimbabwe

This study examines the application of remotely sensed derived landscape metrics to understand the changes and dynamics in the form and morphology of forested areas in rural parts of Zimbabwe from 2002 to 2011. Specifically, the study determines the spatial and temporal changes in forest areas due to human activities, such as crop production, using landscape metrics derived from classified Landsat remote sensing images. The results from this study have shown that landscape metrics derived from the 30-m Landsat dataset have a great potential for understanding the patterns of change in forested areas in the developing world. For instance, in the year 2002, the majority of the land was occupied by forests, whereas in 2011, it was shown that non-forested areas became more dominant and scattered, and forested areas showed a decrease in spatial extent. Moreover, statistical results have shown that in 2002, the number of forest patches was higher and significantly different when compared to non-forested patches. However, in 2011, both land cover types showed an increase in the number of patches, although the number of non-forested patches was higher and indicated significant differences (p < 0.05) in terms of areal extent. Overall, the findings of this study provide a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of human activities on the natural ecosystem which leads to better and improved future land use planning and management strategies.
Seed production and dispersal in the non-native, invasive succulent Carpobrotus edulis (Aizoaceae) in coastal strand communities of central California

(.) The plant produces a fleshy indehiscent fruit in early spring which remains on the plant until autumn when it is eaten by a variety of native mammals. Uneaten fruits remain on the plants for several years. Deer, brush rabbits and jackrabbits all eat the fruit and pass the seeds intact. The germination potential of ingested seeds was enhanced. Not all seeds in an animal dropping germinate in a given year. Ungerminated seeds remained viable for at least 2 years, allowing for the build-up of a seedbank (.)
Action of Beryllium Ions on Primary Cultures of Swine Cells

SUMMARYIn cells cultured in vitro Beryllium exerts a damaging action on all the mitotic phases. In high concentrations (1×10–3M) such action is stronger on lymphocytes than on kidney cells.The mitotic index as well as mitotic morphology is impaired. The abnormalities are mainly stickiness, anaphasic bridges and migration of undivided chromosomes. No action on the achromatic spindle was observed.With the employed technique many chromatids breakages are also obtained; these do not appear to be limited to a particular chromosome or certain chromosome segments.The relationship between the poisonous action of Be++ and alkaline phosphatase are discussed.
Production of tetracyclic triterpenoid acids by submerged fermentation of Ganoderma lucidum

Three tetracyclic triterpenoid acids,named ganoderic acids M1,M2,M3,were isolated from the fermentaion products by submerged fermentation of G.lucidum. The fermentation conditions and the metabolic properties of ganoderic acids in 25 L fermentor were studied. The results showed that the maximum yield of ganoderic acids was 0.36 g/L which was obtained under the optimum conditions:temperature,30℃;agitation rate,180 r/min;air velocity,1∶0.75(v/v/m);fermentation period,80 hours.The antimicrobial test showed that ganoderic acids could inhibit the growth of Eschrichia coli,Aerobacter aerogenus,Salmonella enteritidis,Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis.
Paternity and male mating strategies of a ground squirrel (Ictidomys parvidens) with an extended mating season

Animal mating systems are driven by the temporal and spatial distribution of sexually receptive females. In mammals, ground-dwelling squirrels represent an ideal clade for testing predictions regarding the effects of these parameters on male reproductive strategies. While the majority of ground squirrel species have a short, highly synchronous annual breeding season that occurs immediately after females emerge from hibernation, the Mexican or Rio Grande ground squirrel (Ictidomys parvidens) differs markedly in having an extended mating season (2 months) and a long delay between emergence from hibernation and female receptivity (1–2 months). Both traits are expected to favor polygyny by increasing the chances that a male can secure matings with multiple females (e.g., females that come into estrus on different days). To test this prediction, we used microsatellite markers to characterize the mating system of a population of Rio Grande ground squirrels from Carlsbad, New Mexico. Our analyses indicated a high frequency of multiple paternity of litters in this population. Paternity was not related to spatial overlap between known mothers and assigned fathers, suggesting that territory defense is unlikely to be an effective male reproductive strategy in the study population. Dominance interactions among males were frequent, with heavier males typically winning dyadic interactions. Surprisingly, however, males with lower dominance scores appeared to have higher reproductive success, as did males that were active over a greater extent of the study site. Collectively, these results suggest that the mating system of the Rio Grande ground squirrel is best described as scramble competition polygyny, with the primary male reproductive strategy consisting of searching for estrous females. Similar patterns of male-male competition have been reported for a few other ground squirrel species, providing potentially important opportunities for comparative studies of the factors favoring this form of male reproductive strategy.
Sensitivity of the Amazon biome to high resolution climate change projections

Despite the reduction in deforestation rate in recent years, the impact of global warming by itself can cause changes in vegetation cover. The objective of this work was to investigate the possible changes on the major Brazilian biome, the Amazon Rainforest, under different climate change scenarios. The dynamic vegetation models may simulate changes in vegetation distribution and the biogeochemical processes due to climate change. Initially, the Inland dynamic vegetation model was forced with initial and boundary conditions provided by CFSR and the Eta regional climate model driven by the historical simulation of HadGEM2-ES. These simulations were validated using the Santarem tower data. In the second part, we assess the impact of a future climate change on the Amazon biome by applying the Inland model forced with regional climate change projections. The projections show that some areas of rainforest in the Amazon region are replaced by deciduous forest type and grassland in RCP4.5 scenario and only by grassland in RCP8.5 scenario at the end of this century. The model indicates a reduction of approximately 9% in the area of tropical forest in RCP4.5 scenario and a further reduction in the RCP8.5 scenario of about 50% in the eastern region of Amazon. Although the increase of CO2 atmospheric concentration may favour the growth of trees, the projections of Eta-HadGEM2-ES show increase of temperature and reduction of rainfall in the Amazon region, which caused the forest degradation in these simulations.
Improving livestock productivity: Assessment of feed resources and livestock management practices in Sudan-Savanna zones of West Africa

Evaluation of existing and potential feed resources was conducted in Orodora district in the Southern region of Burkina Faso using Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST). The assessment was carried out through focus group discussions and individual interviews in Mahon and Sayaga communities in Orodara district. The study sites were characterized by mixed crop-livestock production systems. Seventy-percent of cropping activities were focused on fruit tree cultivation while food crop production accounted for the rest. Livestock species (predominantly local breeds) in the area included cattle sheep, goat, pig, poultry and donkey which are kept for different purposes. The main source of household income is crop production while livestock production contributed 35 and 45% to the household income in Mahon and Sayaga, respectively. In both study sites, natural grazing contributes highest (49 and 64% respectively) to the dry matter (DM) content of the total diet. Cultivated fodder contributed 1% of dry matter (DM), metabolizable energy and crude protein to the total diet of the existing feed resource in Mahon, while farmers in Sayaga depended more on purchased feed than in Mahon. Constraints to livestock production in the study sites included shortage of water in the dry season, insufficient quantity and quality of feed in the late dry season of the year and high cost of veterinary drugs and services. To mitigate these constraints farmers suggested an integrated approach to improve livestock production through: construction of small reservoir to provide water for human and animal consumption; training on the integration of forage legume into both tree and arable cropping, and efficient utilization of available feed resources; establishment of a veterinary service and drug centre in the village; better management of the existing water resources. Key words: Animal nutrition, livestock productivity, feed resources, feed scarcity.
Influence of different nutrients on growth and yield of garden pea (Pisum sativum)

A field experiment was carried out in Grey Terrace soil (Albaquept) at the Gazipur, Bangladesh, during the win ter (rabr) seasons of 2000 2001 and 2001 2002, to find out the proper combination of fertilizer nutrients that pro motes better yield of BARI Motorsuti 1 garden pea (Pisum sativum L.). Yield and yield components of garden pea varied significantly due to variation of nutrients. Significantly highest yield and yield attributes were recorded under treatment N, P, K, S, Mo, 6, (kg/ha), followed by N,, P,, K, S,, Mo, B, Zn,, N, P, K4, S,, Mo, and N, P,, K4, S,, treatments. Germination (%), seedling length, dry weight of seedling and vigour index were also more when the crop was raised from these 4 treatments over the control. Treatments N, P,, K4, S,, Mo,, N, P, K,, S,, Mo,B, and N, P, K4, S,, Mo, B, Zn, (kg/ha) were not economical because of their higher cost investment. However, applica tion of N, P, K, S,, kglha would be economically profitable for enhancing growth parameters and yield of garden pea.
Effect of Monensin on Ruminal VFA and Gas Production of Sheep Fed High Concentrate Diet

濃厚飼料を主体とした飼料を給与しためん羊の第一胃内VFAおよびガス生成に及ぼすモネンシン添加の効果について検討を行なった. モネンシン添加開始後1週間にかなりの飼料摂取量の低下が認められた. 酪酸生成の高い特殊なVFAパターンがコントロールめん羊でみられた(酢酸:プロピオン酸:酪酸=65:15:18)が,これは高濃厚飼料の制限給餌によってもたらされた高濃度のプロトゾアの存荘に由来するものと推案された. モネンシン添加は酪酸生成を大きく減少させ,プロピオン酸生成を増加させた. 一方酢酸生成はそれほど大きい影響を受けなかった. モネンシン添加はメタンガス生成も減少させたが,二酸化炭素生成には明白な影響を及ぼさなかった.
Ultrastructural Studies of Leaf Hydathodes : II. Rice (Oryza sativa) leaf tips

The structure of hydathode in the leaf tip of indoor-grown and outdoor-grown rice plants was examined by light and transmission electron microscopy. Terminal ends of large-sized vessel elements are in direct contact with some cells of the epidermis covering the extreme tips of. the leaves. Expanded intercellular spaces directly adjoin thin cell wall of the large vessel elements. The cell wall of vessel elements exhibited a secondary thickness in places. Intercellular spaces are occasionally occupied with numerous bacteria. Mesophyll parenchyma cells surrounding the vessel elements characteristically have cell wall ingrowths developed slightly. The mesophyll cells sometimes contain electron dense deposits which are tightly packed between cell wall and plasmamembrane. Microbodies are often present in the mesophyll cells. From these results, it was elucidated that rice leaf hydathode principally consists of large-sized vessel elements, the adjoining expanded intercellular spaces and water pores.
The ecology and genetics of fitness in forest plants. II : microspatial heterogeneity of the edaphic environment

Variation in the physical environment was investigated at scales of 0.1-50 m in the understorey of a southern Quebec forest, dominated by Acer saccharum and Fagus grandifolia, to determine if the spatial heterogeneity necessary to account for the evolution and maintenance of genetically diverse populations of forest plants exists in this old-growth forest. To characterize spatial heterogeneity in the understorey during the late summer, soil pH and the availability of K + and NO 3 − ions in the soil solution were measured (.)
Differences in the Endophytic Microbiome of Olive Cultivars Infected by Xylella fastidiosa across Seasons

The dynamics of Xylella fastidiosa infections in the context of the endophytic microbiome was studied in field-grown plants of the susceptible and resistant olive cultivars Kalamata and FS17. Whole metagenome shotgun sequencing (WMSS) coupled with 16S/ITS rRNA gene sequencing was carried out on the same trees at two different stages of the infections: In Spring 2017 when plants were almost symptomless and in Autumn 2018 when the trees of the susceptible cultivar clearly showed desiccations. The progression of the infections detected in both cultivars clearly unraveled that Xylella tends to occupy the whole ecological niche and suppresses the diversity of the endophytic microbiome. However, this trend was mitigated in the resistant cultivar FS17, harboring lower population sizes and therefore lower Xylella average abundance ratio over total bacteria, and a higher α-diversity. Host cultivar had a negligible effect on the community composition and no clear associations of a single taxon or microbial consortia with the resistance cultivar were found with both sequencing approaches, suggesting that the mechanisms of resistance likely reside on factors that are independent of the microbiome structure. Overall, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteriodetes dominated the bacterial microbiome while Ascomycota and Basidiomycota those of Fungi.