Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stylet penetration behavior resulting in inoculation of beet severe curly top virus by beet leafhopper, Circulifer tenellus

Beet leafhopper, Circulifer tenellus (Baker) (Homoptera: Cicadellidae), is the only known North American vector of beet curly top virus (Geminiviridae), which causes major economic losses in a number of crops including sugar beet, tomato, beans, and peppers. Beet curly top virus is a phloem‐limited, persistently transmitted, circulative geminivirus. The strain/species of curly top virus used in this study is the CFH strain, also referred to as beet severe curly top virus (BSCTV). The direct current (DC) electrical penetration graph technique was used to determine the specific stylet penetration behavior associated with inoculation of BSCTV. Viruliferous leafhoppers were allowed to feed on healthy 3–4‐week‐old sugar beet plants until specific electrical penetration graph waveforms were produced, at which point feeding was artificially terminated. A series of comparisons between leafhoppers that produced different combinations of waveforms clearly implicated waveform D1 as the only waveform correlated with inoculation of BSCTV. All successful inoculations contained waveform D1, and 56 out of 64 leafhoppers that produced waveform D1 successfully inoculated test plants. Eighty‐five leafhoppers did not produce waveform D1 and none of these inoculated BSCTV. While the occurrence of waveform D1 appears to be necessary for BSCTV inoculation, there was no correlation between duration of waveform D1 and inoculation success rate. The correlation of waveform D1 and BSCTV inoculation found in this study implies that waveform D1 is associated with phloem salivation.
The multi-functional eyes absent proteins

Abstract The Eyes Absent (EYA) proteins are the only known instance of a single polypeptide housing the following three separable biochemical activities: tyrosine phosphatase, threonine phosphatase, and transactivation. This uniquely positions the EYAs to participate in both transcriptional regulation and signal transduction pathways. But it also complicates the assignment of biological roles to individual biochemical activities through standard loss-of-function experiments. Nevertheless, there is an emerging literature linking developmental and pathological functions with the various EYA activities, and a growing list of disease states that might benefit from EYA-targeted therapeutics. There also remain multiple unresolved issues with significant implications for our understanding of how the EYAs might impact such ubiquitous signaling cascades as the MYC and Notch pathways. This review will describe the unique juxtaposition of biochemical activities in the EYAs, their interaction with signaling pathways and cellular processes, emerging evidence of roles in disease states, and the feasibility of therapeutic targeting of individual EYA activities. We will focus on the phosphatase activities of the vertebrate EYA proteins and will examine the current state of knowledge regarding: • substrates and signaling pathways affected by the EYA tyrosine phosphatase activity; • modes of regulation of the EYA tyrosine phosphatase activity; • signaling pathways that implicate the threonine phosphatase activity of the EYAs including a potential interaction with PP2A-B55α; • the interplay between the two phosphatase activities and the transactivation function of the EYAs; • disease states associated with the EYAs and the current state of development of EYA-targeted therapeutics.
The men and women, guys and girls of the ‘manosphere’: A corpus-assisted discourse approach

This study investigates how the lemmas woman, girl, man and guy are used to discursively represent and construct gender identities in an anti-feminist forum on the discussion website Reddit. The lemmas were analysed using corpus-assisted social actor analysis and appraisal theory. Similarities and differences within three sub-communities of the TRP subreddit were considered: Men’s Rights (activists who believe that men are systemically disadvantaged in society), Men Going Their Own Way (who abstain from relationships with women), and Red Pill Theory (primarily pick-up artists). The corpus was characterised by bare assertions about gendered behaviour, although the masculine gender role was less well-defined than the feminine one. Women and girls were dehumanised and sexually objectified, negatively judged for morality and veracity, and constructed as desiring hostile behaviour from male social actors. Conversely, men were constructed as victims of female social actors and external institutions and, as a result, as unhappy and insecure.
INFLUENCE OF DIETARY HABITS ON OXIDATIVE STRESS MARKERS IN HASHIMOTO'S THYROIDITIS.

OBJECTIVE There is growing awareness that nutritional habits may influence risk of several inflammatory and immune-mediated disorders, including autoimmune diseases, through various mechanisms. The aim of the present study was to investigate dietary habits and their relationship with redox homeostasis in the setting of thyroid autoimmunity. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two hundred subjects (173 females and 27 males; median age, 37 years) were enrolled. None were under any pharmacological treatment. Exclusion criteria were any infectious/inflammatory/autoimmune comorbidity, kidney failure, diabetes, and cancer. In each subject, serum TSH, free thyroxine, anti-thyroid antibodies, and circulating oxidative stress markers were measured. A questionnaire on dietary habits, evaluating the intake frequencies of food groups and adherence to the Mediterranean diet, was submitted to each participant. RESULTS Among the 200 recruited subjects, 81 (71 females and 10 males) were diagnosed with euthyroid Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT); the remaining 119 (102 females and 17 males) served as controls. In questionnaires, HT subjects reported higher intake frequencies of animal foods (meat, P = 0.0001; fish, P = 0.0001; dairy products, P = 0.004) compared to controls, who reported higher intake frequencies of plant foods (legumes, P = 0.001; fruits and vegetables, P = 0.030; nuts, P = 0.0005). The number of subjects who preferentially consumed poultry instead of red/processed meat was lower in HT subjects than in controls (P = 0.0141). In logistic regression analysis, meat consumption was associated with increased odds ratio of developing thyroid autoimmunity, whilst Mediterranean diet traits were protective. In HT subjects, serum advanced glycation end products (markers of oxidative stress) were significantly higher (P = 0.0001) than controls, while the activity of glutathione peroxidase and thioredoxin reductase, as well as total plasma antioxidant activity, were lower (P = 0.020, P = 0.023, and P = 0.002, respectively), indicating a condition of oxidative stress. Stepwise regression models demonstrated a significant dependence of oxidative stress parameters on consumption of animal foods, mainly meat. CONCLUSIONS The present study suggests a protective effect of low intake of animal foods towards thyroid autoimmunity and a positive influence of such nutritional patterns on redox balance and potentially on oxidative stress-related disorders.
Can Combining Performance-Based Financing With Equity Measures Result in Greater Equity in Utilization of Maternal Care Services? Evidence From Burkina Faso

Background: As countries reform health financing systems towards universal health coverage, increasing concerns emerge on the need to ensure inclusion of the most vulnerable segments of society, working to counteract existing inequities in service coverage. To this end, selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa have decided to couple performance-based financing (PBF) with demand-side equity measures. Still, evidence on the equity impacts of these more complex PBF models is largely lacking. We aimed at filling this gap in knowledge by assessing the equity impact of PBF combined with equity measures on utilization of maternal health services in Burkina Faso. Methods: Our study took place in 24 districts in rural Burkina Faso. We implemented an experimental design (clusterrandomized trial) nested within a quasi-experimental one (pre- and post-test design with independent controls). Our analysis relied on self-reported data on pregnancy history from 9999 (baseline) and 11 010 (endline) women of reproductive age (15-49 years) on use of maternal healthcare and reproductive health services, and estimated effects using a difference-in-differences (DID) approach, purposely focused on identifying program effects among the poorest wealth quintile. Results: PBF improved the utilization of few selected maternal health services compared to status quo service provision. These benefits, however, were not accrued by the poorest 20%, but rather by the other quintiles. PBF combined with equity measures did not produce better or more equitable results than standard PBF, with specific differences only on selected outcomes. Conclusion: Our findings challenge the notion that implementing equity measures alongside PBF is sufficient to produce an equitable distribution in program benefits and point at the need to identify more innovative and contextsensitive measures to ensure adequate access to care for the poorest. Our findings also highlight the importance of considering changing policy environments and the need to assess interferences across policies.
Oviduct Fluid Extracellular Vesicles Change the Phospholipid Composition of Bovine Embryos Developed In Vitro

Oviduct fluid extracellular vesicles (oEVs) have been proposed as bringing key molecules to the early developing embryo. In order to evaluate the changes induced by oEVs on embryo phospholipids, fresh bovine blastocysts developed in vitro in the presence or absence of oEVs were analyzed by intact cell MALDI-TOF (Matrix assisted laser desorption ionization—Time of flight) mass spectrometry (ICM-MS). The development rates, cryotolerance, and total cell number of blastocysts were also evaluated. The exposure to oEVs did not affect blastocyst yield or cryotolerance but modified the phospholipid content of blastocysts with specific changes before and after blastocoel expansion. The annotation of differential peaks due to oEV exposure evidenced a shift of embryo phospholipids toward more abundant phosphatidylcholines (PC), phosphatidylethanolamines (PE), and sphingomyelins (SM) with long-chain fatty acids. The lipidomic profiling of oEVs showed that 100% and 33% of the overabundant masses in blastocysts and expanded blastocysts, respectively, were also present in oEVs. In conclusion, this study provides the first analysis of the embryo lipidome regulated by oEVs. Exposure to oEVs induced significant changes in the phospholipid composition of resulting embryos, probably mediated by the incorporation of oEV-phospholipids into embryo membranes and by the modulation of the embryonic lipid metabolism by oEV molecular cargos.
The 6th International Leh Symposium

Epidemiological data on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mortality indicate that men are more prone to die of SARS-CoV-2 infection than women, but biological causes for this sexual dimorphism are unknown. We discuss the prospective behavioral and biological differences between the sexes that could be attributed to this sex-based differentiation. The female sex hormones and the immune stimulatory genes, including Toll-like receptors, interleukins, and micro- RNAs present on X-chromosome, may impart lesser infectivity and mortality of the SARS-CoV-2 in females over males. The sex hormone estrogen interacts with the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, one of the most critical pathways in COVID-19 infectivity, and modulates the vasomotor homeostasis. Testosterone on the contrary enhances the levels of the two most critical molecules, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 and the transmembrane protease serine-type 2, transcriptionally and posttranslationally, thereby increasing viral load and delaying viral clearance in men as compared with women. We propose that modulating sex hormones, either by increasing estrogen or antiandrogen, may be a therapeutic option to reduce mortality from SARS-CoV-2.
Institutional shareholding as a corporate governance mechanism that drives Chief Executive Officer pay

We explore the effect of institutional directors on Chief Executive Officer (CEO) pay (total, fixed, and variable compensation). We delve particularly into the impact of pressure-sensitive and pressure-resistant institutional directors, who, respectively, represent institutional investors who maintain and investors who do not maintain a business relationship with the firm whose board they serve on. Focusing on CEO total pay, the findings show that institutional and pressure-resistant directors on boards behave similarly, affecting CEO total pay in a nonlinear way: as the presence of institutional and pressure-resistant directors on boards increases, the monitoring hypothesis prevails, and subsequently, better corporate governance decreases CEO total pay. However, when their presence on boards exceeds a critical point, the entrenchment hypothesis holds, thereby leading to an increase in CEO total pay. Contrary to our predictions, pressure-sensitive directors do not affect CEO total pay. Regarding the CEO’s compensation structure (fixed and variable), the results suggest that institutional and pressure-resistant directors increase fixed compensation and reduce variable pay, while pressure-sensitive directors affect neither fixed nor variable compensation. This evidence supports the view that institutional directors should be considered as a heterogeneous collective. JEL CLASSIFICATION: G3, G34, M12
FVM 1.0: a nonhydrostatic finite-volume dynamical core for the IFS

Abstract. We present a nonhydrostatic finite-volume global atmospheric model formulation for numerical weather prediction with the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) at ECMWF and compare it to the established operational spectral-transform formulation. The novel Finite-Volume Module of the IFS (henceforth IFS-FVM) integrates the fully compressible equations using semi-implicit time stepping and non-oscillatory forward-in-time (NFT) Eulerian advection, whereas the spectral-transform IFS solves the hydrostatic primitive equations (optionally the fully compressible equations) using a semi-implicit semi-Lagrangian scheme. The IFS-FVM complements the spectral-transform counterpart by means of the finite-volume discretization with a local low-volume communication footprint, fully conservative and monotone advective transport, all-scale deep-atmosphere fully compressible equations in a generalized height-based vertical coordinate, and flexible horizontal meshes. Nevertheless, both the finite-volume and spectral-transform formulations can share the same quasi-uniform horizontal grid with co-located arrangement of variables, geospherical longitude–latitude coordinates, and physics parameterizations, thereby facilitating their comparison, coexistence, and combination in the IFS. We highlight the advanced semi-implicit NFT finite-volume integration of the fully compressible equations of IFS-FVM considering comprehensive moist-precipitating dynamics with coupling to the IFS cloud parameterization by means of a generic interface. These developments – including a new horizontal–vertical split NFT MPDATA advective transport scheme, variable time stepping, effective preconditioning of the elliptic Helmholtz solver in the semi-implicit scheme, and a computationally efficient implementation of the median-dual finite-volume approach – provide a basis for the efficacy of IFS-FVM and its application in global numerical weather prediction. Here, numerical experiments focus on relevant dry and moist-precipitating baroclinic instability at various resolutions. We show that the presented semi-implicit NFT finite-volume integration scheme on co-located meshes of IFS-FVM can provide highly competitive solution quality and computational performance to the proven semi-implicit semi-Lagrangian integration scheme of the spectral-transform IFS.
Effects of nitrogen rate and genotype on seed protein and amino acid content in canola

SUMMARY Canola (Brassica napus L.) meal is widely used in animal feed as a protein source, and its quality relies on protein and amino acid content. However, little information is available regarding amino acid regulation in canola seed with nitrogen (N) application. The present study is aimed to evaluate the effect of N rate and genotype on canola seed amino acid concentrations under field conditions. A split-plot design comprising four N rates (0, 120, 240 and 360 kg N/ha) and three genotypes differing in seed protein content were used in 2010/11 and 2011/12. The results showed that increasing N rate decreased seed oil content linearly but increased seed protein content in all of the genotypes. The total amino acid concentration and absolute concentrations of individual amino acids in canola seed also improved significantly with the N rates in all of the genotypes. Regarding the proportions of amino acids, a group that included glutamic acid (Glu), proline (Pro) and arginine (Arg) dominated and occupied > 0·30 compared with other amino acids. The ratio of amino acids in this group increased by 8·3% with 360 kg N/ha compared with the control. However, the proportions of the other amino acids showed negative responses to the N rates. The results of regression analysis of the responses of individual amino acids to N rate indicated that Glu, Pro and Arg had a greater improvement potential with application of N fertilizer, as revealed by higher slopes in the linear equations compared with the other amino acids. Additionally, the concentrations of sulphur-containing amino acids, methionine and cysteine, were also a potential target for improving with N application because these are always deficient in major crops. In conclusion, N application cannot only improve seed protein content but also enhance deposition of amino acids such as Glu, Pro and Arg.
Analysis of Nitrogen-Fixing Members of the ε Subclass of Proteobacteria in Salt Marsh Sediments

ABSTRACT Based on phylogenetic analysis of clones retrieved from two nifH gene clone libraries that were created using cDNA from suboxic sediment samples obtained from areas densely vegetated with the high-salt marsh plant Spartina patens, a primer set was designed to target nitrogen-fixing bacteria with sequence similarities to members of the ε subclass of Proteobacteria. Nested PCR, denaturing gel electrophoresis, and subsequent sequence analysis of reamplified fragments confirmed the specificity of the primer set by retrieving nifH sequences of only putative members of the ε subclass of Proteobacteria, all of which were characterized by a highly divergent 27- or 36-bp insertion in both DNA and cDNA.
Fruit production in kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) using preserved pollen

The influence of temperature and storage period on pollen quality of Actinidia deliciosa (A. Chev.) C. F. Liang & A. R. Ferguson was studied. Pollen collected from male flowers was stored under different conditions (20°C, 65% RH; –20°C, 51% RH; –80°C, 55% RH and –196°C by direct immersion in liquid nitrogen). During the preservation period, viability and in vitro germination percentages were evaluated at regular periods. The results show that –20°C was the best temperature at which to preserve pollen of A. deliciosa because it retains high viability and germination. At 20°C, germination was totally lost within 8 weeks, and at –80°C or –196°C germination drastically dropped over the same period of preservation. In the 2002 blossoming season, the pollen preserved at –20°C was used for hand pollination in order to estimate its seed set capacity. Thirty days after fruit-set, all fruits were long and well shaped, indicating a successful pollination. Our results indicate a simple and reliable method to preserve pollen of A. deliciosa that can be easily used by farmers.
Mesenchymal Stem Cells in COVID-19: A Journey from Bench to Bedside

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a major setback in both the health and economic sectors across the globe. The scale of the problem is enormous because we still do not have any specific anti-SARS-CoV-2 antiviral agent or vaccine. The human immune system has never been exposed to this novel virus, so the viral interactions with the human immune system are completely naive. New approaches are being studied at various levels, including animal in vitro models and human-based studies, to contain the COVID-19 pandemic as soon as possible. Many drugs are being tested for repurposing, but so far only remdesivir has shown some positive benefits based on preliminary reports, but these results also need further confirmation via ongoing trials. Otherwise, no other agents have shown an impactful response against COVID-19. Recently, research exploring the therapeutic application of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in critically ill patients suffering from COVID-19 has gained momentum. The patients belonging to this subset are most likely beyond the point where they could benefit from an antiviral therapy because most of their illness at this stage of disease is driven by inflammatory (over)response of the immune system. In this review, we discuss the potential of MSCs as a therapeutic option for patients with COVID-19, based on the encouraging results from the preliminary data showing improved outcomes in the progression of COVID-19 disease.
Controlled Spawning of the Neon Tetra

Abstract The neon tetra Paracheirodon innesi is one of the most valuable species in the ornamental fish trade. Most neon tetras available in the United States are imported from Southeast Asia, where they are farm raised, or from South America, where they are collected from the wild. In this study, we describe a method for artificially breeding the neon tetra that can be adapted to domestic commercial production. Broodfish pairs were routinely spawned in acidified, soft water at 25°C (pH, 5.5–6.5, adjusted with phosphoric acid; total alkalinity, 3.2 mg/L, and total hardness, 6.0 mg/L, as CaCO3). The water was also conditioned with humic acids (0.04%). A spawning substrate (nylon brush) was available for egg deposition. Fish reared in the laboratory had a significantly higher number of larvae (82 larvae/female) than broodstock collected from the wild or cultured abroad (28 larvae/female). The domestic population reached sexual maturity at 5–6 months of age, and broodfish pairs produced an average of 82 larv.
Physiological mechanism of low purine derivative excretion in urine of buffaloes compared with Bos taurus cattle

Three cattle calves (Bos taurus) and three buffalo calves (Bos bubalus) were weaned after receiving colostrum and then reared on bottle-fed milk. During the first month the animals did not have access to solid food. Urinary purine derivative concentration (PD), basal PD excretion and glomerular filtrate rate (GFR) were determined during fasting and feeding. After 1 month the animals were given access to solid feed (urea-treated rice straw 80% and molasses 20%) to stimulate rumen development. At 3 months of age, while the solid food was given, urinary PD, basal PD excretion and GFR were again determined. Urinary PD excretion both during fasting and milk feeding did not differ significantly between buffaloes and cattle during the milk-feeding period (P > 0.05), but there were highly significant (P < 0.01) differences between cattle and buffaloes after 3 months of age and 2 months of access to solid feed (P < 0.01). The GFR was lower in buffaloes than cattle in both the milk-fed and solid-feed periods (P < 0.05). It is suggested that the differences between buffaloes and cattle are due to differences in GFR as PD will stay longer in the blood and thus provide a greater possibility for recycling to the rumen. This, however, needs further confirmation. Whether permeability of PD from blood to rumen is an additional factor is not known.