Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Catálogo comentado de las especies de Blechnum L. (Blechnaceae, Pteridophyta) de Mesoamérica y Sudamérica

A critical checklist of the Mesoamerican and South American species and hybrids of Blechnum is presented. For each entry the place of original publication, types, authors, and pertinent synonyms are included. Most of the synonyms are cited with their nomenclatural types. Information on geographical distribution and altitudinal range, ecology, as well as morphological and nomenclatural comments pertinent to the treated taxa are also included. Hybrids that have been cytologically and nomeclaturally studied are treated independently, while not formally described hybrids are cited under their putative parents.
Latitudinal and interannual distribution of the European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) and sardine (Sardina pilchardus) in the western Mediterranean, and sampling uncertainty in abundance estimates

On the Spanish Mediterranean continental shelf, late-autumn echo-integration acoustic surveys have been performed annually since the 1990s. The surveys coincide with the recruitment season of anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) and the start of the spawning season of sardine (Sardina pilchardus), and they provide estimates of stock size for the main fisheries in the area. Latitudinal distribution of the abundance of the two species from 2003 till 2006 is evaluated, and transitive geostatistical techniques applied to estimate the sampling uncertainty of the overall abundance estimate. The anchovy stock was found mainly in areas influenced by river run-off, in well-known anchovy spawning areas, suggesting that anchovy remained on their spawning grounds until late autumn or that survival was higher in these regions of enhanced productivity. By the time of the surveys, sardine were already occupying their spawning grounds over the continental shelf. The precision of the abundance estimates was generally high. The few cases of low precision were re-examined and found to stem most probably from processing errors, so the re-examination has contributed to an improvement in the accuracy of the estimates. The greater precision obtained in the southern subarea suggested a greater homogeneity in the spatial distribution of both species.
Analyzing Shapes of Foraging Areas: Some Ecological and Economic Theories

A recent increase in research on the evolutionary consequences of foraging behavior has produced a diversity of approaches for evaluating feeding rates and energetic efficiency. Many of these investigations have been reviewed, and broad ecological principles formulated (10, 14, 17, 34, 53, 84, 102, 105). In this review I consider some economic concepts of consumer behavior in order to investigate several of the mechanisms that determine shapes of foraging areas. Out of the very large number of foraging studies, I focus on only a few that specifically deal with spatial configurations in relatively homogeneous habitats. Of primary concern is the development of equilibrial locational boundaries among individual consumers as they compete for resources. This initial discussion raises some basic questions: How does the intensity of predation on consumers affect the distances they can travel from centralized refugia? How is foraging mobility influenced by the use of a number of nutritionally different food resources? A series of graphical analyses is introduced to answer these questions and to emphasize the importance of different types of resource combinations required by consumers. These graphical methods yield testable predictions and are useful for relating the interactions of several major variables. Distances traveled by foragers are thus measurable in terms of both feeding activities and predator avoidance by considering proportionate costs and gains. Values such as the time a consumer is exposed to predators (or the energy required to escape predators) can be placed in a spatial context so that relative distances between food resources and refugia are measures of readily comparable interacting variables.
Euglossine bee communities in small forest fragments of the Atlantic Forest, Rio de Janeiro state, southeastern Brazil (Hymenoptera, Apidae)

Euglossine bee communities in small forest fragments of the Atlantic Forest, Rio de Janeiro state, southeastern Brazil (Hymenoptera, Apidae). Euglossine bees are important pollinators in forests and agricultural areas. Although the structure of their communities is critically affected by anthropogenic disturbances, little is known about these bees in small forest fragments. The objectives of this study were to analyze the composition, abundance, and diversity of euglossine bee species in nine small fragments of different phytophysiognomies of the Atlantic Forest in southeastern Brazil, and to identify the environmental variables that may be related to the species composition of these communities. Males were sampled quarterly from May 2007 to May 2009 with aromatic traps containing methyl cinnamate, vanillin, eucalyptol, benzyl acetate, and methyl salicylate. A total of 1558 males, belonging to 10 species and three genera of Euglossina were collected. The richness ranged from five to seven species per fragment. Euglossa cordata, E. securigera, Eulaema nigrita e E. cingulata were common to all fragments studied. The diversity differed significantly among areas, ranging from H' = 1.04 to H' = 1.65. The precipitation, phytophysiognomy, and altitude had the highest relative importance over the species composition variation. The results presented in this study demonstrate that small forest fragments are able to support populations of euglossine bee species, most of which are widely distributed and reportedly tolerant to open and/or disturbed areas and suggest that the conservation of such areas is important, particularly in areas that are regenerating and in regions with agricultural matrices where these bees can act as important pollinators
Reduced susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to bedaquiline during antituberculosis treatment and its correlation with clinical outcomes in China.

BACKGROUND We aimed to assess the proportion of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) cases with initial bedaquiline (BDQ) resistance, monitored dynamics of BDQ susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) isolates during therapy, and correlated susceptibility with MDR-TB patient clinical outcomes in China. METHODS A retrospective cohort study of MDR-TB patients was conducted, with positive cultures collected from cases at 13 sites. Patients with nontuberculous mycobacterial infection during anti-TB therapy were excluded. BDQ minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were determined using a 7H9 Middlebrook broth-based microdilution method. Mutations conferring BDQ resistance were detected via Sanger sequencing. RESULTS 277 patients receiving BDQ treatment were studied, with BDQ resistance noted in isolates from 2.2% (6/277) of MDR-TB cases, sputum conversion observed in 5 cases, and culture conversion observed in 138 cases within 2 weeks. Another 15 and 30 isolates were excluded from final analysis due to failures in obtaining subcultures and serial isolates, respectively. Of 94 cases yielding serial isolates, 11 exhibited reduced BDQ susceptibility, while 3 of 5 cases with acquired resistance failed to culture convert. Sequence analysis revealed that 6 of 11 BDQ-resistant isolates harbored Rv0678 mutations; no mutations were detected in three other BDQ resistance-associated genes. No significant intergroup difference in culture conversion time was observed. CONCLUSIONS MDR-TB patients in China exhibited a low initial BDQ resistance rate. MDR-TB cases with acquired BDQ resistance were at greater risk of treatment failure relative to initially BDQ-resistant cases. Rv0678 mutations accounted for BDQ resistance in this cohort.
COVID-19: exposing and amplifying inequalities

Exponential growth is difficult for people to grasp. But that is what has happened to sales of Albert Camus’s The Plague, first published in 1947. According to Jacqueline Rose, it is ‘an upsurge strangely in line with the graphs that daily chart the toll of the sick and the dead’. She reports that, from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, sales had grown 1000%. 1 It may not be worth dwelling on those statistics. More interesting for Rose, and for us, is that a key theme of Camus is that ‘the pestilence is at once blight and revelation. It brings the hidden truth of a corrupt world to the surface’. In the same way, the pandemic of COVID-19 exposes and amplifies inequalities in society. The myth of the pandemic as the great leveller was given air when early cases included elites: a prince, a prime minister, a Premier League football manager and the actor Tom Hanks. It was, and is, most likely that as the pandemic took hold and society responded we would see familiar inequalities, of two sorts: inequalities in COVID-19 and inequalities in the social conditions that lead to inequalities in health more generally. It was not always thus with epidemics. The plague came to Northern Italy in 1630, killing 35% of the population, including 38% in Bergamo, and an astonishing 59% in Padua. One effect of killing so many people was a temporary slowdown in what had been a steep rise in economic inequality in Italy. In the aftermath of the plague, work was plentiful—so many workers had died—and real wages increased. …
Mouse hepatitis virus type 4 (JHM strains). induced fatal central nervous system disease. I. genetic control and murine neuron as the susceptible site of disease

Mouse hepatitis virus (JHM strain) type 4 induces acute encephalitis followed by death in many strains of laboratory mice. Immunohistochemical study in vivo and analysis of mouse neuronal cells in vitro both indicate that the target cells in this infection is the neuron. Further, examination of several inbred mouse strains and neuronal cells from them shows that disease expression is controlled by a single autosomal gene action at the level of the neuronal cell. Susceptibility is dominant but not H-2 linked. However, cultured neuronal cells and macrophages from SJL/J mice, which are resistant to this infection, fail to make significant amounts of infectious virus after an appropriate viral inoculation. Apparently the defect is not at the level of the virus-cell receptor, because these cells, in part, express viral antigens.
A Third-Generation Bisphosphonate, Minodronic Acid (YM529), Augments the Interferon α/β-Mediated Inhibition of Renal Cell Cancer Cell Growth Both In vitro and In vivo

Purpose: Minodronic acid (YM529) is a third-generation nitrogen-containing bisphosphonate. Here, we have investigated the therapeutic efficacy of YM529 against renal cell cancer (RCC) alone or in combination with IFN both in vitro and in vivo . Experimental Design: One murine and eight human RCC cell lines were used for the in vitro studies and were subjected to a modified 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay and Western blotting. Luciferase-labeled murine RCC cells (RENCA Luc ) were transplanted into the s.c. tissue or the renal subcapsule of syngeneic BALB/c mice. These mice were treated with YM529 and/or murine IFN and the growth of the cancer cells was monitored by an in vivo imaging system. Results: YM529 inhibited the growth of RCC cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner and enhanced the growth inhibitory potential of IFN in vitro . In the in vivo mouse models, YM529 did not markedly inhibit the RCC cell growth on its own but it augmented the anticancer effect of IFN ( P Conclusions: Our study suggests that YM529 may be a potent anticancer agent for RCC. The efficacy and safety of IFN plus YM529 as a therapy for RCC should be verified by early-phase clinical trials.
Grief, depression, and anxiety in bereaved caregivers of people with motor neurone disease: a population-based national study

Abstract Background Despite the traumatic and fatal nature of motor neurone disease (MND) and the caring experiences being described as unrelenting, little is known about risk of psychiatric morbidity and Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) for family caregivers. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of caregivers bereaved in 2016-2018 was distributed by the five MND Associations in Australia (2019). Validated tools for PGD (PG-13), anxiety, depression, and family functioning were included. Multinomial logistic regression was used to compare the factors associated with grief. Findings: Overall, 393 valid responses were received, a 31% response rate. The prevalence of ICD-11 PGD was 9.7%; moderate/severe anxiety 12.3%, moderate/severe depression 18.5% and 18.7% indicated poor family functioning. MND caregivers have higher bereavement risk prevalence than the general bereaved population, with 9.6% in the high-risk group (vs 6.4%) and 54% at moderate risk (vs 35%). Being in the PGD group was 8 or 18 times more likely when the respondent had anxiety or depression, respectively. Poor family functioning significantly increased the likelihood of PGD by four times. Other significant predictors of PGD were a recent bereavement (<12 months), being a spouse/partner of the deceased, insufficient support during the disease journey, the deceased being under 60 years of age, and a shorter period of caring (<1.5 years). Conclusion: In a large national population-based sample of bereaved MND caregivers, 63% required bereavement support over and above that provided by family and social networks. This is a neglected yet seriously ill population that calls for better care provision and clinical practice.
Eicosapentaenoic Acid, a n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Differentially Modulates TNF-α, IL-1α, IL-6 and PGE2 Expression in UVB-Irradiated Human Keratinocytes

In response to UVB-irradiation keratinocytes release a variety of cytokines and prostaglandins, including tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), interleukin 1α (IL-1α), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2 ). n-3 Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), mainly present in fish oil, can modulate cytokine synthesis, as predominantly studied in macrophages. In order to investigate the immune modulating actions of n-3 PUFA on the UVB response in human skin, we investigated the effect of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), a n-3 PUFA and a precursor of eicosanoid biosynthesis, on UVB-modulated TNF-α, IL-1α, IL-6, and PGE 2 expression in normal human keratinocytes (NHK). We show that cultured NHK can efficiently take up EPA. Basal TNF-α expression is very low in NHK. IL-1α on the contrary is significantly present in untreated cultured NHK. Upon UVB-irradiation (32 mJ per cm 2 ) TNF-α mRNA expression and secretion is induced and IL-1α mRNA expression is reduced, although IL-1α secretion is induced. EPA treatment results in higher TNF-α and IL-1α expression, both in nonirradiated and UVB-irradiated keratinocytes. Moreover EPA and UVB appear to act synergistically to superinduce TNF-α expression. EPA treatment results also in lipid peroxidation and in decreased PGE 2 and IL-6 secretion after UVB-irradiation. In contrast to EPA, oleic acid (monounsaturated fatty acid) and linoleic acid (n-6 PUFA) treatment did not result in higher TNF-α or IL-1α levels in nonirradiated or UVB-irradiated NHK, indicating that the observed effects are specific for EPA. In conclusion, these results show that EPA can differentially modulate UVB-induced cytokine and prostaglandin synthesis in NHK.
Development and Validation of a Questionnaire Evaluating the Impact of Prosthetic Dental Treatments on Patients’ Oral Health Quality of Life: A Prospective Pilot Study

Objectives: the aims of this study were the development of a novel questionnaire to assess the impact of prosthetic treatments on oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) and the performance of a prospective pilot study. Background: the currently preferred OHRQoL measurement tool is the oral health impact profile-49 (OHIP-49), a self-report questionnaire which mainly focuses on general effects related to oral health. Materials and methods: A total of 24 adult participants (9 females and 15 males) were recruited and asked to complete the novel questionnaire twice: once before the prosthetic treatment began and 4–6 weeks post-treatment. The assessment of the change in OHRQoL was based on the differences in participants’ answers before and after treatment. Data were analyzed using ANOVA with a repeated-measures method and t-tests. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested using Cronbach’s alpha and intraclass coefficient (ICC). Results: The questionnaire was found to be reliable (α ≥ 0.6), with “social disability” having the highest score (α = 0.868). All domains showed an improvement (α < 0.005) in OHRQoL scores after treatment. Conclusions: the novel questionnaire tested in this study was found to be reliable and convenient to use, and demonstrated that prosthetic treatments have a significant positive effect on OHRQoL post-treatment scores.
Effects of Boiling and Storage on Dietary Fibre and Digestible Carbohydrates in Various Cultivars of Carrots

The influence of boiling and storage on dietary fibre and digestible carbohydrates was investigated in eight different carrot cultivars. The content of total dietary fibre was in the range 252–291 g kg-1 DW and was generally at the higher end for the early cultivars and at the lower end for the late ones. During storage, there was a decrease in the soluble fibre content in all cultivars and generally an increase in insoluble fibre. Following boiling, the loss of dietary fibre varied considerably between cultivars. After storage, the loss could be correlated to the average root weight of the carrot cultivars. The total content of glucose, fructose and sucrose was rather similar in the various cultivars, whereas their individual distribution differed. Storage had generally minor influence on the sugar content, except in the cultivars Amarant and Bull. On boiling, the loss was solely dependent on the initial sugar concentration. After storage the loss increased, which could be related to the lower dry matter content. The choice of cultivar and storage time is important in interpreting analytical data from carrots and is probably of similar significance in other vegetables when studying effects of heat treatment. © 1997 SCI.
RNAi‐based functional genomics in Tribolium castaneum and possible application for controlling insect pests

RNA interference or RNAi has been observed in eukaryotes and plays a critical role not only in messenger RNA degradation but also in fine‐tuning of gene activation, transcription and translation. In insects, double‐stranded RNA (dsRNA)‐mediated gene silencing is a simple and powerful reverse genetics tool for analyzing gene functions in both model and non‐model organisms. The red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, is an excellent genetic model for pest insect species. Since the completion of the genome sequence of T. castaneum, numerous studies of gene function have been reported. Here we review recent RNAi‐based functional genomics research and systemic RNAi in T. castaneum, and we discuss potential applications of RNAi technology to pest insect control.
A research agenda for digital proximity tracing apps.

It is likely that there is only a limited time window for the optimisation of the proximity tracing app and promotion of substantial population uptake. It will be all the more important that research programmes allow data-driven, evidence-based optimisations, and information for the public about the benefits, harms and costs of proximity tracing apps.
A mathematical model for persistent post-CSD vasoconstriction

Cortical spreading depression (CSD) is the propagation of a relatively slow wave in cortical brain tissue that is linked to a number of pathological conditions such as stroke and migraine. Most of the existing literature investigates the dynamics of short term phenomena such as the depolarization and repolarization of membrane potentials or large ion shifts. Here, we focus on the clinically-relevant hour-long state of neurovascular malfunction in the wake of CSDs. This dysfunctional state involves widespread vasoconstriction and a general disruption of neurovascular coupling. We demonstrate, using a mathematical model, that dissolution of calcium that has aggregated within the mitochondria of vascular smooth muscle cells can drive an hour-long disruption. We model the rate of calcium clearance as well as the dynamical implications on overall blood flow. Based on reaction stoichiometry, we quantify a possible impact of calcium phosphate dissolution on the maintenance of F0F1-ATP synthase activity.
Comparable Age Determination in Different Bony Structures of Pleuronectes flesus luscus Pallas, 1811 Inhabiting the Black Sea

The aim of this study is to determine the most reliable bony structure for ageing of Pleuronectes flesus luscus inhabiting the Black Sea. The age determination method and its accuracy are the most important subjects for the evaluation of age-weight- length relationships in fisheries biology, since the estimates of survival, growth and mortality rates, and the analysis of year classes and recruitment all depend on age structure. In this study, scales, vertebrae and otoliths removed from each fish were examined by two readers three times each without reference to any data except the date of capture. The precision of readers and structures were estimated and the ageing error was determined by analysis of variance. The results are shown in tables. Karadeniz'de Yaflayan Pleuronectes flesus luscus Pallas, 1811'un Farkl› Kemiksi Yap›lar›nda Karfl›laflt›rmal› Yafl Tayini Ozet: Bu cal›flmada Karadeniz'de yaflayan Pleuronectes flesus luscus'un yafl›n›n tespitinde kullan›lacak en uygun kemiksi yap›n›n belir- lenmesi amaclanm›flt›r. Yafl tayini metodu ve doruluu bal›kc›l›k biyolojisinde yafl-uzunluk-a¤›rl›k iliflkilerinin belirlenmesinde en onemli konulardan biridir. Dolay›s›yla yaflama, buyume ve olum oranlar›, y›l-s›n›f› analizleri ve kat›l›m ile ilgili hesaplamalar yafl kom- pozisyonuna dayand›r›l›r. ‹ncelenen orneklerin herbirinden al›nan pul, omur ve otolit bal›¤›n yakaland›¤› tarih d›fl›nda hicbir bilgi kul- lan›lmadan iki farkl› okuyucu taraf›ndan, ucer kez incelenmifltir. Okuyucu ve yap› uyumu belirlenmifl ve yafl tayini hata pay› deerleri varyans analiziyle hesaplanm›flt›r. Sonuclar tablolar halinde gosterilmifltir.