Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spawning failure in Brycon amazonicus may be associated with ovulation and not with final oocyte maturation

Avaliaram-se os possiveis mecanismos envolvidos com a falha na desova de matrinxas (Brycon amazonicus), submetidas a inducao hormonal por extrato bruto de hipofise de carpa. Para tal, apos a extrusao, os ovarios foram coletados e analisados histomorfometricamente. Nas femeas que nao desovaram (FNDs), a maioria dos ovocitos vitelogenicos remanescentes nos ovarios atingiu a maturacao final, apresentando quebra de vesicula germinativa, mas nao foram ovulados (NOs). Consequentemente, estas femeas apresentaram frequencias mais baixas de foliculos pos ovulatorios (5%) quando comparadas com a que desovou (FD) (23%). Com relacao aos NOs, os valores se inverteram e a frequencia destes nas FNDs (21%) foi maior do que na FD (3%). Estes dados indicam que as falhas na desova desta especie estao provavelmente relacionadas com a ovulacao, uma vez que a maturacao final dos ovocitos ocorre de forma similar tanto nas FNDs como na FD. Os dados sugerem que as substâncias que promovem a ovulacao, como as prostaglandinas, podem aumentar o sucesso de desova em peixes reofilicos.
Risperidone-Induced Acute Laryngeal Dystonia: A Case Report

Patient: Female, 28-year-old Final Diagnosis: Acute laryngeal dystonia Symptoms: Shortness of breath Medication:— Clinical Procedure: Benzotropine administration Specialty: General and Internal Medicine • Psychiatry Objective: Unusual clinical course Background: Antipsychotic medications are associated with multiple adverse effects, including metabolic syndrome, prolonged QT interval, and extrapyramidal symptoms. Acute laryngeal dystonia (ALD) is a rare and lethal form of extrapyramidal reaction. Case Report: A 27-year-old woman with schizophrenia on risperidone presented to our Emergency Department with a sensation of choking and respiratory distress, mimicking a panic attack. She developed a generalized dystonic reaction in the hospital, leading to diagnosis risperidone-associated ALD as a cause of her initial problems. She was discharged with an emphasis on being compliant with anticholinergic medication. However, her persistent respiratory symptoms prompted us to revisit the management plan. Her risperidone dose was tapered down to discontinue and an alternate drug was chosen. Conclusions: ALD must be considered as a differential diagnosis when patients on antipsychotic medications present with respiratory distress. Our case highlights the association of ALD with an atypical antipsychotic agent, risperidone. Prompt recognition of this entity is necessary to prevent complications and guide definitive management.
Mutational collapse of fitness in marginal habitats and the evolution of ecological specialisation

In spatially heterogeneous environments, natural selection for maintenance of adaptation to habitats that contribute little to the population's reproduction is weak. In this paper we model a mechanism that can result in loss of fitness in such marginal habitats, and thus lead to specialisation on the main habitat. It involves accumulation of mutations that are deleterious in the marginal habitat but neutral or nearly so in the main habitat (mutations deleterious in the main habitat and neutral in the marginal habitat have a negligible influence). If the contribution of the marginal habitat to total reproduction in the absence of the mutations is less than a threshold value, selection is too weak to counter accumulation of such mutations. A positive feedback then results in loss of fitness in the marginal habitat. This mechanism does not require antagonistic pleiotropy in adaptation to different habitats, although antagonistic pleiotropy facilitates the mutational collapse of fitness in the marginal habitat. We suggest that deleterious mutations with habitat‐specific expression may play a role in the evolution of ecological specialisation and promote evolutionary conservatism of ecological niches.
Selection and osmotic treatment exacerbate cytological aberrations in transformed barley (Hordeum vulgare)

Summary A much higher percentage (78 percnt;) of karyotypically abnormal cells were observed in transgenic barley callus cultures, compared with the 15 percnt; cytological abnormality in cells from nontransgenic callus cultures. Out of 22 independently transformed callus lines generated by microprojectile bombardment of immature embryos, only 7 lines had a relatively high percentage (35-76 percnt;) of diploid chromosomes (2n=2x=14); 5 (71 percnt;) of these lines were regenerable. Of the remaining 15 lines a high percentage (92-100 percnt;) of cells in these lines had cytological abnormalities, primarily ploidy changes [tetraploidy (2n=4x=28), octaploidy (2n=8x=56) and aneuploidy] and structural variations; 8 (53 percnt;) of these lines were regenerable. There was a high correlation between the cytological status of callus tissues and their regenerated plants. We studied which factor(s) in the transformation process were responsible for the increased cytological aberrations. Only 18-21 percnt; of 6- and 12-week-old callus cells had observable cytological changes in the absence of transformation. In contrast, imposing osmotic or selection treatment triggered extensive cytological aberrations, 41 percnt; and 40-46 percnt; in 6-week-old callus cultures and 60 percnt; and 48-51 percnt; in 12-week-old callus cultures, respectively. Bombardment itself did not appear to affect the frequency of cytological aberration in cells of callus cultures.
An Empirical Examination of Citation in Life Science

The paper is an exploratory research that examines on the general perception that certain research papers or genre of papers, such as open-access papers, co-authored papers, etc., tend to be cited more than others. It examined the citation of 3866 papers in the field of life science published by 67 faculty members from four departments of three universities available in SCOPUS database. Analyses have been categorized into four areas viz. access type and its citation; paper type and its citation; authorship type and its citation; collaboration type and its citation. The first finding is that paidaccess articles (23.06 citation per paper (CPP)) do far better than open-access articles (13.62 CPP) in terms of citation received. Second, among the types of paper review papers (54.07 CPP) receive highest number of citations. Third, multi-authored papers receive more citation than single authored papers. Among the multi-authored papers three and four authorship are most common. It is observed that with the increase in the number of authors the number of citations also increases. Lastly, internationally collaborated papers receive more citation than domestic or national collaborated papers. Tandemly, it is also observed that 542 (14.02 per cent) papers have not received any citation. Some of these uncited papers are published more than three decades; some of them as recent as published in the year 2018.The findings here have implications on understanding the citation culture of different genres of research papers. It is not important research papers that receive more citation but there are other factors such as number of authors, type of paper, type of collaboration, etc., that determine citation.
Estimation of water pool size, turnover rate and body composition of free-ranging Atlantic walruses (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) studied by isotope dilution

Deuterium oxide was used to measure isotope dilution space 11 times in seven free living, adult, male Atlantic walruses (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) (930–1597 kg) in north-east Greenland in the month of August 2000 and August 2001. Telemetry instruments, which were attached to the animals as part of a long term study, provided data on activity levels. Equilibration of the intravenously injected isotope was complete after 2–3 h. The application of a general correction factor developed for all pinniped species allowed the estimation of total body water content as 56.8% (range: 36.6–73.3%) of total body mass (TBM). Water turnover averaged 44.5 g kg-1 d-1. For one animal it was possible to estimate water influx to 4.8 g kg-1 d-1 and water efflux to 21.8 g kg-1 d-1. The estimates of body fat and body protein averaged respectively 24.7% and 18.4% of TBM. Similarly, for an ‘average’ walrus with a TBM of 1300 kg body ash was calculated to average 26 kg and body gross energy to 18,300 MJ. The assessment of body fat by isotope dilution did not differ significantly from the estimates of blubber content obtained from the dissection of walruses in the wild.
THE VARIATION IN CELL LENGTH WITHIN ONE GROWTH RING OF CERTAIN ANGIOSPERMS AND GYMNOSPERMS

SUMMARY The variation in cell length within one growth ring at the one level has been studied in 28 angiosperme and 8 gymnosperms. In those angiosperms with distinct growth rings a definite increase in fibre length has been found from the first-formed early wood to the last-formed late wood within the one growth ring; in species without definite growth rings little or no variation in fibre length has been observed over radial distances covering the growth of several years. The relationship between these changes in cell length and growing conditions has been discussed. In gymnosperms a slight but definite increase in tracheid length from early wood to late wood was noted in most cases. Where compression wood was present a definite drop in tracheid length occurred.
Linking patterns in macroecology

Summary 1 Associated with the development of the field of macroecology has been the recognition and analysis of a number of different patterns in the large-scale abundance and distribution of species. The mechanistic bases of these patterns have usually been considered in isolation, yet the patterns are necessarily linked, as the same individual animals contribute to all of them. 2 Here, a model linking macroecological patterns in abundance, distributional extent and body mass is developed, based on how the finite amount of energy available to the species in a region is divided between them. The energy available to a species is assumed to support some quantity of biomass, which must then be allocated to either many small-bodied or fewer larger-bodied individuals. This identifies a necessary link between population size and body mass, which predicts when the variety of relationships between these variables in the published literature are expected to occur. 3 Although framed in terms of energy use by species, the model does not assume that energy per se is necessarily limiting populations. How individuals use space determines the form of relationships between population size and distributional extent, distributional extent and body mass, and population density and body mass. The model additionally allows a number of falsifiable predictions about the anatomy of macroecological patterns. 4 Support for the assumptions of the model is discussed.
Automated Estimation and Tools to Extract Positions, Velocities, Breaks, and Seasonal Terms From Daily GNSS Measurements: Illuminating Nonlinear Salton Trough Deformation

This paper describes the methods used to estimate positions, velocities, breaks, and seasonal terms from daily Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements. Break detection and outlier removal have been automated so that decades of daily measurements from thousands of stations can be processed in a few hours. New measurements are added, and parameters are updated every week. Model parameters allow separation of interseismic, annual, coseismic, and postseismic signals. Tools available through GeoGateway (http://geo-gateway.org) allow rapid visualization and analysis of these terms for results that can be subsetted in time or space. Results show highly variable and nonlinear motion for GPS stations in southern California. The variable motion is related to seasonal motions, distributed tectonic motion, earthquakes, and postseismic motions that can continue for years. In some areas results suggest that additional processes are responsible for the observed motions. In general, following earthquakes, stations return to their long‐term motions after 2–3 years, though some exceptions occur. The use of the tools shows nonlinear motion in the Salton Trough of southern California related to the 2010 M7.2 El Mayor‐Cucapah earthquake, 2012 Brawley earthquake swarm, and a creep event on the Superstition Hills fault in 2017.
Effects of a Delay in Feed Delivery on Behaviour, Milk Yield and Heamatological Parameters of Dairy Cows

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a delay (at 09:30 instead of 07:30 h) in Total Mixed Ration (TMR) delivery on the behaviour, milk yield, and haematological parameters in dairy cows. Twelve healthy Italian Holstein cows, divided into two homogeneous groups of six each, were involved. The TMR delay was applied either for one (on Tuesday; single delay, SD) or for three consecutive days (Tuesday to Thursday; repeated delay, RD) to one group at a time while the other acted as control. A week of pause was interposed between treatments and the order of the treatment was randomised. Behaviour was observed by instantaneous scan sampling every 2 min during seven half-hour periods on Tuesday and Thursday and blood samples were taken at 14:30 h on these days. Milk yield was recorded daily. Data were analysed by a mixed models for repeated measurements. The delay caused a marked increase in activities towards the feeding rack prior to feeding on day 1 when delay was applied both as SD (P<0.01) and RD (P<0.05). On the third day of delay, pre- and post-meal agonistic behaviour increased in delayed cows (P<0.01). Milk yield and blood parameters were not affected by the delay. Results suggest that a two hours delay in feeding can affect behaviour in cows, increasing behavioural patterns, which may be a sign of mild frustration.
Assessment of quantitative traits of aggressiveness in Mycosphaerella graminicola on adult wheat plants

Septoria tritici blotch, caused by Mycosphaerella graminicola, is a major foliar disease of wheat. The quantitative traits of pathogenicity are not comprehensively described in this pathosystem. The objective of this study was to identify and quantify the most relevant variables to describe traits of aggressiveness. Four wheat cultivars were inoculated in a greenhouse with four isolates. Inoculation was performed on a limited surface of the two uppermost leaves of adult plants. The dynamics of chlorotic, necrotic and sporulating areas were assessed twice a week. Pycnidia were counted at the same time. A Gompertz model was fitted to the resulting curves. Parameter combinations with easily interpreted biological relevance were examined further as descriptors of aggressiveness. Within each category of descriptor, those which were the most pairwise correlated and which explained the largest part of the variance were retained: incubation and latent period, development rate of sporulating area, maximal sporulating area, pycnidial density, and sporulation capacity. Correlations between these variables were discussed, assuming they reflect biological relationships between the corresponding aggressiveness quantitative traits. It is suggested that the selected variables, providing a good measure of M. graminicola fitness, can be used to estimate quantitative resistance of wheat to septoria tritici blotch, to characterize differences among isolates within a pathogen population, and to study quantitative adaptation of the pathogen to its host and to its environment.
Characterization of urethanase from Micrococcus species associated with the marine sponge (Spirasfrella species)

B.R. Mohapatra and M. Bapuji. 1997. Eighty per cent of the urethanase activity of Micrococcus sp. isolated from the marine sponge Spirastrella sp. was cell associated. The urethanase had optimal activity at pH 5.0 and 45 °C. The activation and deactivation energies of the partially purified enzyme, calculated from an Arrhenius plot, were 9.31 and 34.01 kcal mol−1, respectively. The enzyme was not affected by EDTA and the major cations of sea water, such as Ca2+, Mg2+ and Na+. The enzyme was resistant to 20% (v/v) ethanol and may be practically applicable in the removal of urethane from alcoholic beverages.
A unified classification of mimetic resemblances

The eight possible interactions of a tripartite mimicry system (model, mimic and operator) are defined in terms of positive and negative functions. Five possible states of the system are also recognized in terms of specific composition. From this an eight by five classification matrix is developed, which embraces all normally recognized mimetic situations. Each class is examined for general properties and examples. Special consideration is given to situations (Mullerian mimicry) included here, and to other systems (crypsis, deflective marks) not included, which have been treated differently elsewhere. Mimicry is defined in terms of a tripartite system of living organisms, in which a sensitive signal-receiver ( the operator) misidentifies the mimic as the model. It is emphasized that the system developed here is a classification of mimetic interactions, not a classification of species. Discussion is given on some implications of the system in relation to natural selection, and the classification of ecological interactions, convergence and genetic diversity.
Plant Community Assembly in Invaded Recipient Californian Grasslands and Putative Donor Grasslands in Spain

The introduction of exotic species to new regions offers opportunities to test fundamental questions in ecology, such as the context-dependency of community structure and assembly. Annual grasslands provide a model system of a major unidirectional introduction of plant species from Europe to North America. We compared the community structure of grasslands in two Mediterranean regions by surveying plots in Spain and in California with similar environmental and management conditions. All species found in Spanish grasslands were native to Spain, and over half of them (74 of 139 species) are known to have colonized California. In contrast, in California, over half of the species (52 of 95 species) were exotic species, all of them native to Spain. Nineteen species were found in multiple plots in both regions (i.e., shared species). The abundance of shared species in California was either similar to (13 species) or greater than (6 species) in Spain. In California, plants considered pests were more likely than non-pest species to have higher abundance. Co-occurring shared species tended to maintain their relative abundance in native and introduced communities, which indicates that pools of exotic species might assemble similarly at home and away. These findings provide interesting insights into community assembly in novel ecosystems. They also highlight an example of startling global and local floristic homogenization.
Treatment of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder: a systematic review

IJEDO 2020;4:13-23 Copyright © 2020 Anna Dalle Grave. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Anna Dalle Grave ( ) annadallegrave@gmail.com
Simultaneous Road Surface and Centerline Extraction From Large-Scale Remote Sensing Images Using CNN-Based Segmentation and Tracing

Accurate and up-to-date road maps are of great importance in a wide range of applications. Unfortunately, automatic road extraction from high-resolution remote sensing images remains challenging due to the occlusion of trees and buildings, discriminability of roads, and complex backgrounds. To address these problems, especially road connectivity and completeness, in this article, we introduce a novel deep learning-based multistage framework to accurately extract the road surface and road centerline simultaneously. Our framework consists of three steps: boosting segmentation, multiple starting points tracing, and fusion. The initial road surface segmentation is achieved with a fully convolutional network (FCN), after which another lighter FCN is applied several times to boost the accuracy and connectivity of the initial segmentation. In the multiple starting points tracing step, the starting points are automatically generated by extracting the road intersections of the segmentation results, which then are utilized to track consecutive and complete road networks through an iterative search strategy embedded in a convolutional neural network (CNN). The fusion step aggregates the semantic and topological information of road networks by combining the segmentation and tracing results to produce the final and refined road segmentation and centerline maps. We evaluated our method utilizing three data sets covering various road situations in more than 40 cities around the world. The results demonstrate the superior performance of our proposed framework. Specifically, our method’s performance exceeded the other methods by 7% and 40% for the connectivity indicator for road surface segmentation and for the completeness indicator for centerline extraction, respectively.
Increased F2-Isoprostane Levels in the Rat Brain and Plasma Caused by Oxidative Stress and Aging, and Inhibitory Effect of Vitamin E

Summary To determine whether lipid peroxidation induced by reactive oxygen species (ROS) is a causal factor of neurodegeneration during brain aging, we investigated whether F2isoprostanes, non-cyclooxygenase-derived prostanoids, are formed in the rat brain and plasma by hyperoxia as oxidative stress, and whether their formation is associated with vitamin E status in vivo in association with changes that occur during brain aging. Young rats subjected to hyperoxia for 48 h revealed a marked increase in the levels of F2-isoprostanes in the brain, but not in plasma. A similar increase in F2-isoprostane level was observed in aged rats kept in normal atmosphere. Vitamin E supplementation to young rats markedly inhibited F2-isoprostane formation even after hyperoxia. In contrast, vitamin E-deficient young rats kept in normal atmosphere showed a significant increase in F2-isoprostane level in the brain. These findings indicate that F2-isoprostane formation in the brain has important implications in the etiology of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease during aging, and that the analysis of F2-isoprostane level in plasma does not always reflect neuronal damage cause by oxidative stress. Vitamin E may protect neuronal damage in the brain caused by oxidative stress experienced for a long period during aging.