Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of detached root and leaf assays to evaluate the antagonistic properties of biocontrol agents against Fusarium wilt of banana

Abstract The failure of bio-control agents (BCAs) in suppressing Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4 (Foc-TR4) was reported in vivo although antagonism was obtained from in vitro dual culture assay. This study aims to develop rapid assays to validate the antagonism of BCAs using detached banana leaves and roots. Both Trichoderma harzianum and Pseudomonas aeruginosa reduced root lesion length (2.7–3.1 cm) compared to 4.9 cm in TR4 treatment. BCA-treated leaves reduced wilting severity from 93.75 to 33.75%. Trypan blue staining showed lower cell death area in BCA-treated roots and leaves. Reduced leaf wilting was indicated by lower red ink content and higher chlorophyll content in BCA-treated leaves. Both defense-related genes, PR-1 and PR-3 were expressed in BCA-treated roots and leaves which could be associated with reduced root necrosis and leave wilting. In conclusion, both assays could be served as rapid methods to select potential BCAs before attempting large-scale trials.
Net assimilation rate in barley, oats and wheat

Net assimilation rate (E) was measured in three experiments involving related species and cultivated varieties with increasing grain yield potential in the genera Hordeum, Avena and Triticum. No consistent differences in E between the barley varieties were found, but in the oat and wheat experiments, Abundance and Atle respectively had lower values of E. However, these differences did not suggest that E had been influenced in selecting for grain yield. The relationship of E to dry-matter production was calculated and discussed.
Spatial and Temporal Variability of the Index of Biotic Integrity in Three Midwestern Streams

Abstract The index of biotic integrity (IBI) has been used to assess the biological quality of flowing water systems in areas throughout the United States. Yet, only rarely has biotic integrity been related to independent measures of water or habitat quality. We show that the IBI ranks sites similarly in two Illinois watersheds where conditions remained relatively stable during 3 years of sampling. Further, rankings among sites conform to prior assessments of site quality based on habitat and water quality. Neither a species diversity index (H') nor any of the individual metrics that constitute IBI performed as consistently at ranking sites as did the IBI. Sampling should be conducted during early summer to reduce variation due to seasonal fish migration and fall recruitment of young-of-the-year fish. In an Indiana watershed subject to extensive conservation planning, the IBI reflects known habitat and water quality perturbations of both natural and anthropogenic origin. Little or no improvement in biotic.
Site of nitrogen accumulation in tulip (Tulipa gesneriana L.) roots during winter

Abstract It was found that tulip (Tulipa gesneriana L.) plants accumulate a large amount of nitrogen in their roots during the winter season, which is efficiently used for rapid shoot growth after sprouting in spring. In the present paper, the site and origin of nitrogen accumulation in tulip roots were investigated in a vertical split-root experiment. Thlip roots were separated into upper and lower half parts in a two-compartment tray, and the culture solution was separately supplied for a week. Culture solution with N-free medium or that containing 15N-labeled nitrate (2 mM 15NO3 − + 0.5 mM NH4 +) or 15N-labeled ammonium (2 mM NO3 − + 0.5 mM 15NH4 +) was supplied to individual trays to determine the metabolic fate of nitrate and ammonium nitrogen in either part of the roots. The results indicated that nitrate and ammonium absorption activities were similar between the lower and upper half-parts of the tulip roots. The absorbed 15N predominantly accumulated either in the upper or lower part of the roots in direct contact with 15N-labeled medium, and only a small portion of 15N was translocated to the other part. In the root part treated with 15N-labeled medium, most of the absorbed nitrogen was in ethanol soluble forms, and free glutamine and glutamic acid were intensely labeled with 15N. Also in the root parts directly in contact with nitrogen, the glutamine concentration in either the upper or the lower roots was considerably enhanced. On the other hand, nitrogen application did not affect the 4-methyleneglutamine concentration. Sucrose and glucose were the major soluble sugars in tulip roots, and the concentration was reduced at the nitrogen absorption site, possibly due to energy and carbon consumption for the absorption and assimilation of nitrogen.
Responses of a New Zealand North Island hill perennial ryegrass collection to nitrogen, moisture stress and grass grub (Costelytra zealandica) infestation.

Abstract A hill country perennial ryegrass collection from 60 sites throughout the North Island hill country in New Zealand was screened for tolerance of three important stresses in hill country: low nitrogen (N), moisture stress, and grass grub infestation. The screening was carried out in a simulated hill soil profile using 1800 hill plants (30 plants from 60 sites), four standard cultivars, and two local ecotypes each represented by 30 individuals. Plants were subjected to: (1) 0 versus 7 kg N/ha per week; (2) no water for 12 weeks versus regular watering; and (3) the addition of 600 grass grub larvae/m2. When grown with added N, plants removed from steep slopes i.e., conditions of severe N deficiency, produced less dry matter than plants removed from less stressed environments. Plants removed from northern steep slopes i.e., subjected to seasonal severe moisture stress, had a low yield compared with plants removed from wetter areas when grown with a regular water supply. Plant N concentration was simi.
The people's critical linguistics: Using archival data to investigate responses to linguistic informalisation

Abstract Arguments about the sociopolitical significance of the informalisation of English have been central to the critical study of language in society since the 1980s. This article demonstrates that informalisation was also a key concern of ordinary users of British English in the 1980s. Correspondents in the British Mass Observation Project articulated judgements of informalisation that were in many ways continuous with those of academic linguists. The article argues that such critical arguments about language were part of a ‘structure of feeling’ (Raymond Williams) of late twentieth-century Britain. This suggests a rethinking of ordinary language users’ relations to their linguistic experience, not as unthinkingly ‘prescriptivist’, nor as merely ‘commonsensical’, but as exhibiting a nuance which academic linguists would do well to engage with more fully. The article makes the case for the use of social-historical archives in investigations of metalanguage, as a means by which the social significance of language can be better understood. (Critical linguistics, folk linguistics, terms of address, informalisation, synthetic personalisation, prescriptivism)
Postmodernism Trumps All: The World Without Facts

Monadism and postmodernism have displaced utilitarian ethics and modernist cultural norms. Social media users’ individual virtual spaces present personal desires as “truth. ” Interactions are experienced as discrete/disconnected moments. Thinking is done through highly individualized narratives, as if all content is for one’s own entertainment, with no “real world” consequences attached to it. Clever postmodern playfulness through prosumerist appropriation and transformation of content from one meaning to another seems more important than intelligence for uniting people in a “post-truth” society. While freeing audiences from traditional media gatekeepers, challenging ideas are consumed with sarcasm, perpetuating/amplifying social problems.
Características da tuberculose observada em búfalos abatidos para consumo: aspectos patológicos e identificação de micobactérias

According to anatomopathologic and isolation diagnosis and identification assays, a study on tuberculosis in 133 (7.7%) slaughtered water buffaloes has demonstrated that localized alterations occurred in 72.1% of infected animals, generalized alterations occurred in 27.9% of them, 60.3% of lesions were presented in the respiratory system, 20.3% in the head and mouth conjugate, 9.6% in the carcasse, 6.3% in the abdominal cavity and 3.8% in the breast; from 49 identified strains 33 (67.3%) were of M. bovis, two (4.1%) of M. gordonae, eight (16.3%) of M. fortuitum, two (4.1%) of M. avium complex and four (8.2%) of rapid and schotocromogenic growth strains. The predominant M. bovis strain has corresponded to 70.4% of species identified in the lungs and 87.5% of them identified in the respiratory system. Respiratory system was the primary route of infection, which had a certain progressive disease characteristics.
Circadian rhythms in components of attention

Attention processes involve different components, such as phasic alertness, selective attention and vigilance (sustained attention, concentration). The aim of this study was to identify possible circadian rhythms in these attention components. Eight female undergraduate students (mean age 17.5 yr, SD = 0.93, range 16 – 19 yr) participated voluntarily in this study; they attended classes from 7:00 to 13:30 hours, from Monday to Friday. Each subject was recorded in a constant routine protocol for 30 h, during which rectal temperature was recorded at one-minute intervals. Sleepiness, tiredness and a continuous performance task were assessed each hour. All performance measures showed a decline through the 30-h session. Indicators of tonic alertness, phasic alertness and selective attention showed circadian variations, whereas indicators of vigilance (sustained attention, concentration) did not show circadian variations. Circadian variations in these attention components may be critical for the performance of many tasks, such as memory, reading, arithmetic calculation, etc. Dissociation of vigilance from the other attention components suggests a strong link between this variable and fatigue (homeostatic process). Circadian variations in attention components are also relevant to the decrease of productivity and higher risk of accidents during night shift work.
Regional metacommunities in two coastal systems: spatial structure and drivers of plant assemblages

Biogeographical patterns in metacommunities are still poorly understood, and different processes are expected to occur in different habitats. We analysed the regional plant metacommunities of coastal habitats to test whether (1) the influence of space and climate differs between two habitats differentiated along the seashore–inland gradient, and (2) regional variation in species composition of these habitats can be ascribed to different metacommunity paradigms.
Dosage Optimization of Polypropylene Fiber for Strength Enhancement of Cementitious Composites

Concrete is the most commonly used materials for construction in Qatar as well as in the world. Exposure to sever environmental conditions causes physical deterioration of concrete structures and significantly affect the concrete’s strengths and modulus of elasticity. In the last decades, many improvements had been made in concrete technology. Most of these improvements focused on the weak point of concrete, which is tensile strength enhancement. One possible method to improve the tensile strength of cementitious composites is incorporation of fibers in the mix. Polypropylene fiber is widely used for this purpose due to their corrosion resistance and relatively low cost. Polypropylene fibers are usually incorporated in cement mortar to control cracks propagation thus enhance its tensile and flexural properties. This research focuses on Polypropylene fiber dosage optimization for strength enhancement of cementitious composites. Four dosages of Polypropylene microfibers; 0%, 0.05%, 0.1%, and 0.2% by weight of cement; were added into cement mortar to explore the optimum dosage that can lead to big enhancement in mechanical strengths of cementitious composites. The mechanical strengths were investigated in terms of compressive and flexural strengths. The results revealed that adding small amount of Polypropylene microfibers could enhance the compressive and flexural strengths of cement mortar. The maximum enhancement in the compressive and flexural strengths was equal to 26% and 19% and was achieved in the case of adding 0.1% and 0.05% by weight of cement, respectively.
Genetic gain in soybean populations with different percentages of plant introduction parentage

Plant introductions (PIs) can be used to increase the genetic diversity of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ] populations. A recurrent selection program was initiated to determine if populations with PI parentage would exhibit greater genetic gain for seed yield than a population with no PI parentage. The objective of our study was to evaluate the genetic gain for seed yield and correlated responses in maturity and lodging from three cycles of recurrent selection in five soybean populations, AP10 to AP14, formed with different percentages of PI parentage. The percentages of PI parentage were 100% in AP10, 75% in AP11, 50% in AP12, 25% in AP13, and 0% in AP14. In each cycle, 200 F 4 -derived lines for each population were evaluated and the 20 highest yielding lines were chosen as parents for the next cycle. For our study, the 20 parents of Cycles 1, 2, and 3 were grown in a randomized complete-block design at three Iowa locations. There was a significant (P < 0.01) linear increase in seed yield for all populations across the three cycles. The gain from selection for seed yield was 153 kg ha -1 (5.4%) cycle -1 for AP14, 80 (2.8%) for AP13, 85 (3.1%) for AP12, 54 (2.0%) for AP11, and 66 (2.5%) for AP10. AP14 had the highest mean yield of the parents of each cycle and the highest yielding parent of each cycle. A significant linear increase in mean days to maturity was observed in all populations, except AP13. Lodging scores exhibited a significant linear decrease in AP10 and AP13, but no significant response was observed in the other three populations. The results indicated that after three cycles of selection, PIs used to form AP10 to AP13 did not increase genetic gain for seed yield compared with AP14 that was developed from only adapted cultivars and experimental lines.
Birds of the Galapagos Archipelago

Editor American Naturalist. Sir.The September number of the Americanz Naturalist contains a criticism of my " Birds of the Galapagos Archipelago " which I have not answered sooner from want of time. I would gladly pass it by were it not that certain erroneous quotations and important misconstructions contained in Dr. Baur's "criticism" should not be allowed to stand uncorrected. Regarding a certain missing box of specimens from the southern part of Albemnarle Island, Charles Island, etc., Dr. Baur says: "I shall now make a few remarks about the birds from Charles, Hood, Barrington, and South Albemarle, which were contained in a box which disappeared in Guayaquil. The loss is not quite so unfortunate as stated by Mr. Ridgway. He remarks that it contained more than forty land birds from the southern part of Albemarle Island, but this statement, as will be seen from the list which I now give, is not correct. " In a letter (now in my possession) dated Oct. 12, i89i, Dr. Baur wrote me: "That Creagrus is a very common bird you probably have heard already from Mr. Adams; also, that we got over forty species of birds fi-oro S. Albem arle. " In another dated March i, I892, he wrote : "One box containing other small birds has unfortunately been lost on the way, probably at Panama, and so far no trace of it has been found " ; while in still another, dated April 29, i894, he says " It is a great loss that one box with small birds was stolen at Guayaquil. I see now that it contained the specimens from Charles, Hood, Barrington, and South Albemarle. " Since Dr. Baur distinctly wrote me, as quoted above, that he and Mr. Adams collected more than forty species of birds on South Albemarle, and later twice informed me they were sinai? birds, it will be seen that I was justified, from the knowledge in my posses-
Efficient and Self-Recursive Delay Vandermonde Algorithm for Multi-Beam Antenna Arrays

This paper presents a self-contained factorization for the delay Vandermonde matrix (DVM), which is the super class of the discrete Fourier transform, using sparse and companion matrices. An efficient DVM algorithm is proposed to reduce the complexity of radio-frequency (RF) $N$-beam analog beamforming systems. There exist applications for wideband multi-beam beamformers in wireless communication networks such as 5G/6G systems, system capacity can be improved by exploiting the improvement of the signal to noise ratio (SNR) using coherent summation of propagating waves based on their directions of propagation. The presence of a multitude of RF beams allows multiple independent wireless links to be established at high SNR, or used in conjunction with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless systems, with the overall goal of improving system SNR and therefore capacity. To realize such multi-beam beamformers at acceptable analog circuit complexities, we use sparse factorization of the DVM in order to derive a low arithmetic complexity DVM algorithm. The paper also establishes an error bound and stability analysis of the proposed DVM algorithm. The proposed efficient DVM algorithm is aimed at implementation using analog realizations. For purposes of evaluation, the algorithm can be realized using both digital hardware as well as software defined radio platforms.
Effect of sn-2 Saturated Fatty Acids in Dietary Triglycerides on Fatty Acid and Calcium Digestibility and Leg Abnormalities in Broiler Chickens

Two experiments were conducted to investigate whether increasing the dietary level of sn-2 saturated fatty acids (SFA) could improve total fatty acids (TFA) and Ca digestibility, growth performance and tibia characteristics, and reduce the occurrence of leg abnormalities in broiler chickens. In experiment 1, 30 male broiler chicks were individually fed diets with either low or high levels of sn-2 SFA and one of three levels of Ca in a factorial design manner. The apparent digestibility (AD) of TFA and Ca were measured. Increasing the dietary level of sn-2 SFA increased the AD of TFA (P<0.01) and Ca (P<0.05) in the broilers. Increasing the dietary Ca decreased the AD of TFA and Ca (P<0.01). In experiment 2, four hundred male broiler chicks were fed either a low or high sn-2 SFA diet. Growth performance, tibia characteristics and the occurrences of leg abnormalities during weeks 0 to 6 were measured. Increasing dietary level of sn-2 SFA did not affect growth performance, but increased stress and Ca level in the tibias (P<0.05) and decreased the occurrence of leg abnormalities (P<0.05). These results indicated that increasing the dietary level of sn-2 SFA could improve fatty acid and Ca digestibility and tibia characteristics and reduce the occurrence of leg abnormalities in broilers.
The Wog Wog Habitat Fragmentation Experiment

An experiment to study the effects of habitat fragmentation on biological diversity was commenced in an Eucalyptus forest, in February 1985, at Wog Wog in southeastern New South Wales, Australia. The two hypotheses which are being tested are (1) that habitat fragmentation reduces biological diversity, and (2) that the reduction in diversity is fragment-size dependent. The experimental design consists of three fragment-sizes replicated six times. The sizes are 0.25 ha, 0.875 ha, and 3.062 ha, the two larger ones being progressively c. 3.5 times the size of the smaller ones. Four replicates (12 fragments) were retained as Eucalyptus forest when the surrounding land was cleared for a softwood (Pinus radiata) plantation. Two replicates (six fragments) are controls in an adjacent State Forest. The sampling is stratified into slopes, drainage lines, and inner and outer zones, with samples replicated twice in each stratum. Thus, there are two outer slope and two outer drainage-line sample sites, and two inner slope and two inner drainage-line sample sites. This gives 144 permanent sample sites within the Eucalyptus forest. Following the experimental treatment, a further 44 permanent sample sites were established between the fragments. Aranae, Phalangida, Formicidae, Scorpionidae, Diplopoda, Coleoptera, and vascular plants, are the main groups of organisms involved in the experiment. Mosses and liverworts, breeding birds, small ground-mammals, skinks, and bats, are also being monitored. Monitoring commenced in February 1985. The experimental treatment, i.e. forest fragmentation, took place during 1987. Two years after the treatment there were still no experimental results, because of the inherent delays in sorting and identifying the arthropods, and in establishing and managing the very large database involved. However, the analysis of some pre-treatment data is used to assess the experimental design. This analysis demonstrates the importance of adequate replication in ecological field experiments.
Immunohistochemical analysis of copper chaperone for superoxide dismutase in mouse central nervous system; a comparative study with paraffin and frozen section

To examine the immunohistochemical localization of copper chaperone for superoxide dismutase (CCS) in the mouse central nervous system (CNS), we produced an affinity purified polyclonal antibody against mouse CCS and compared paraffin sections with non-fixed or fixed frozen sections. Pyramidal neurons, Purkinje cells and anterior horn cells were intensely stained. The immunoreactivity was also present in other neurons throughout the CNS. The staining pattern with paraffin sections was similar to that with non-fixed and fixed frozen sections, indicating that the antibody could be used for the immunohistochemical investigations including localization of CCS in the motor neurons of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis model mice using permanent paraffin blocks.