Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microbial and Nutritional Characteristics of Coal Mine Overburden Spoils in Relation to Vegetation Development

Attempt was made to study the distribution of microorganisms in coal mine overburdens of different age series in Gevra Colliery of South-Eastern Coal Fields Ltd., Bilaspur, Madhya Pradesh with a view to assess the time dependent changes in species composition, nutrient status and biological activity. It was noted that with an increase in age of overburden spoils, not only the number of trees, shrubs and herbs increased but their density also. A number of leguminous species in different sites were observed. The populations of all the microorganisms increased sharply with the increase of the age of overburdens. A highly significant positive correlation was obtained between the number of plant species and organic carbon of the spoils. Significant positive correlations were also obtained between the number of organisms and organic carbon and total nitrogen.
Análise de agrupamento em remanescente de Floresta Ombrófila Mista.

This study aimed at evaluating the fitossociology of Mixed Rainy Forest, departing from the grouping analysis. For that, six conglomerates were used, each one with 16 plots, where the arboreal and shrub individuals with breast height circumference (CAP) equal or larger than 30 cm was identified and measured. The species were classified in ecological groups and, beginning with the density data, a grouping analysis was accomplished using the method TWINSPAN (Two-way Indicator Species Analysis). The groupings were characterized in relation to their horizontal structure. In the area, 86 species were identified, being 18 pioneers, 25 secondary initials, 16 secondary late, 14 climax and 13 were classified in more than one group. Three groupings were identified (Groups 1, 2 and 3), where the species Siphoneugena reitzii , Araucaria angustifolia and Sebastiania commersoniana were stood out, respectively, in hillside environment, open and humid forest. It was observed that the individuals' presence with smaller diameter will guarantee the permanence of these species for a medium period. It is ended that interventions silviculturais in this ecosystem consider the presence of different groupings, characterized by environment and specific species.
Larvae of Spongicolidae (Crustacea, Decapoda, Stenopodidea) from the plankton off Brazilian coast

Stenopodidea is comprised of the family Spongicolidae, which includes five genera (Spongicoloides, Spongiocaris, Spongicola, Paraspongicola, and Microprosthema), and the family Stenopodidae, with four genera (Engystenopus, Odontozona, Richardina, and Stenopus). In Brazil, Stenopodidea is represented by two species of the genus Stenopus and one of Microprosthema. For the present report, five larvae of two Spongicolidae collected during the cruise of the RV Thalassa between Rio Real (BA) and Cabo de São Tomé (RJ) were identified and described. Two species of Microprosthema were identified, one ascribed to M. semilaeve, the only member of Spongicolidae recorded until now in Brazil; and the other to an undescribed species of Microprosthema. The two species can be distinguished by the rostrum, which is as long as the carapace in M. semilaeve and shorter in Microprosthema sp.2; and by the presence of pleural spines on abdominal somites 1 to 3 in M. semilaeve and only on somites 2 and 3 in the second morphotype.
Nitrogen‐fixing nodules from rose wood legume trees (Dalbergia spp.) endemic to Madagascar host seven different genera belonging to α‐ and β‐Proteobacteria

Although legume biodiversity is concentrated in tropical regions, the majority of studies on legume nodulating bacteria (LNB) are focused on cultivated leguminous plants from temperate regions. However, recent works on tropical regions tend to indicate that the actual diversity of LNB is largely underestimated. In this study, we report the isolation and characterization of 68 nitrogen‐fixing root nodule bacteria collected from eight endemic tree species of Dalbergia in Madagascar. The isolates were characterized by (i) restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of 16S‐IGS rDNA, (ii) 16S rDNA gene sequencing and (iii) nodulation tests. Results revealed a wide diversity of bacteria present in the nodules of Dalbergia. Among the 68 isolated bacteria, 65 belonged to Bradyrhizobium, Mesorhizobium, Rhizobium, Azorhizobium and Phyllobacterium from the α‐class of Proteobacteria, and three isolates belonged to Burkholderia and Ralstonia from the β‐class of Proteobacteria. Our results also show for the first time that a strain belonging to the Burkholderia cepacia complex is able to induce efficient nodules on a legume plant.
Transmembrane Model Peptides – A Powerful Tool to Investigate Protein - Lipid Interactions

The function of membrane proteins depends in many cases on the properties of the surrounding lipid environment, including the membrane thickness, fluidity and composition. Still, it is not completely understood how membrane proteins are influenced by the membrane, which is for a large part due to the difficulties to study these hydrophobic systems. This has initiated the use of synthetic transmembrane model peptides mimicking transmembrane segments of membrane proteins, which offers several advantages. The structure of these model peptides can be varied systematically and any labels needed for investigation using biophysical techniques can be easily incorporated during peptide synthesis. Such designed transmembrane peptides are increasingly being used for the systematic investigations on how membrane properties and peptide composition influence the orientation and dynamics of transmembrane segments. Frequently used model peptides are the WALP and KALP peptides, consisting of a hydrophobic stretch of alternating leucines and alanines flanked at both ends by a pair of tryptophans and lysines, respectively. Chapter 1 contains a general introduction to biomembranes, the use and design of transmembrane model peptides and an overview of results obtained using model peptides. In chapter 2, a study aiming at elucidation of the nature of the previously suggested preferential interaction between tryptophans and cholesterol is presented. 2H NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) and FRET (F
To the synthesis of classical and quantum physic

The possibility has been validated to adjust fundamental differences between classical mechanics and quantum mechanics from the position of the wave theory of matter structure. A derivation of the Planck radiation law has been offered proceeding from the assumption the wave is a true quantum of radiation. The principles of photoeffect have been explained from the positions of classical phisycs and supplemented with consideration of the photoelectric yield. The law of forming spectral series has been obtained with no involvement of quantum numbers and no assumption of electron orbit-to-orbit transition. A deterministic derivation of the Schrödinger stationary wave equation has been given as excluding the necessity of its probability interpretation. The possibility has been shown to construct in unified manner mechanics of macroand microprocesses considering discretness of wave processes.
Quantification of medicinally valuable weeds in oil palm plantations of Kerala.

The medicinally valuable weeds naturally growing in young, medium and mature plantations of oil palm were identified and quantified by stratified random sampling technique. Quantification of plants was done in comparison with that in the open condition. Chrysopogon aciculatus Trin. dominates in all the four strata. Naregamia alata Wight & Arn. is another dominant species in mature plantation. Hemidesmus indicus R. Br. occurs frequently in all the four strata. Another frequently occurring species in young oil palm plantation is Elephantopus scaber Linn, and in medium plantations is Chromolaena odorata King & Robinson. Phyllanthus amarus Schum. & Thonn. is very frequent in medium plantation and open condition. Holostemma adakodien Schult occurs frequently in mature plantation. Young oil palm plantation and open condition were found to be the most similar strata whereas mature plantation and open condition were the most dissimilar strata in vegetation pair-wise analysis. Medium oil palm plantation was found to have high concentration of dominance. Species diversity was the highest in mature oil palm plantation. Species evenness was maximum in open condition.
Incidence and causes of deformities in recently hatched larvae of Chironomus riparius MEIGEN, 1804 (Diptera, Chironomidae)

The occurrence of head capsule deformities in first instar larvae of Chirononomus riparius MEIGEN, 1804 was studied under field and experimental conditions. These larvae were obtained by collecting egg masses from two polluted sites, as well as from cultures of fourth instar individuals from these two sites. Fourth instar larvae from the two populations were screened for deformities, and frequencies ranged from about 10-14 %. Although the two sites were affected by different types of pollutants (raw sewage in one case and pesticides in the other) we did not detect significant between-site differences in either frequencies or types of deformities. Newly hatched larvae from egg masses collected from the two sites displayed deformities very similar to those present in fourth instar larvae from the same sites, although frequencies were lower (often 0-5 %). These deformities included severe deformities such as mentum gaps, and in some cases a particular deformity type was repeated in several larvae from the same egg mass. Clean-water Fl first instar larvae (from egg masses laid in clean water by adults emerged from field-collected fourth instar larvae in the laboratory) likewise showed deformities. Four hypotheses for the occurrence of larval deformities are considered and discussed: a) teratogenic effects of contaminants in the water, b) teratogenic effects of contaminants accumulated in the mother's body, c) genetic inheritance of contamination-induced mutations and d) spontaneus dysgenesis (i.e. developmental failures occurring independently of genetic or teratogenic contamination effects). All the hypotheses considered are not mutually exclusive, but a combination of two or more causes could increase the deformity frequencies in first instar larvae.
Reproductive Performance of Dairy Friesian Holstein Heifers (a Case Study in Enrekang, Indonesia)

The aim of this study was to know the reproductive performance of Holstein Friesian dairy heifers. This study was conducted on Holstein Friesian dairy heifers of dairy farmers in Enrekang Regency. A total of 27 dairy heifers were selected in the present study. All selected heifers were noted for the age, body condition score (BCS), and were examined clinically both vaginoscopically and palpation per rectum or ultrasonography (USG). Each heifer was determined for their reproductive physiology statuses as well as their reproductive disorders. Parameters measured in the present study were age, BCS, reproductive physiology statuses (ovarian activity), types for reproductive disorders, pregnancy rate, services per conception (S/C). The results of this study showed that there were high variation of heifers’ age; ranging from 10 to 60 months with average (±SD; Standard Deviation) of 24.0 ± 13.6 months. A total of 17.6% heifers have less than 14 months of age, 35.3% heifers between 14 to 20 months, and 23.5% each for heifers with 21 to 28 months and higher than 28 months, respectively. BCS varied from 2.50 to 4.00 with median of 3.25. A total of 33% and 67% heifers had BCS <3.00 and ≥3.00, respectively. The present study also showed that there was 44.4% heifers becom e pregnant with S/C 1.83; ranged from one to four times inseminations. Those heifers that did not become pregnant, inseminations were performed from one to eight times with average of 3.27 times and 33% of these heifers were suffered from reproductive disorders; 80% had anestrus and 20% had uterine disorders. It can be concluded that reproductive performance of dairy heifers in this area was still very low. More attention is needed for the heifers with higher age that did not become pregnant as well as reproductive disorders.
Control of lysogeny in marine bacteria: Studies with phiHSIC and natural populations

vi Chapter One – Introduction 1 1.1 Viruses in the Marine Environment 1 1.1.1 Viral Distribution in the Marine Environment 2 1.1.2 Viral Effects on Nutrient Cycling 3 1.1.3 Gene Transfer and Other Viral-Mediated Processes 8 1.2 Virus Lifecycles 11 1.2. 1 Lysis 11 1.2. 2 Lysogeny 12 1.2. 3 Pseudolysogeny 15 1.2. 4 φHSIC 19 1.2. 5 Lysogeny in the Marine Environment 20 1.3 Genomics 24 1.3. 1 Marine Viral Genomics 24 1.3. 2 The Genome of φHSIC 27 1.3. 3 Gene Expression Analysis 32 Chapter Two – Macroarray Analysis of Gene Expression in a Marine Pseudotemperate Bacteriophage 35 2.
Proporção da dióicia e distribuição diamétrica de árvores masculinas e femininas de Araucaria angustifolia (Bert.) Kuntze., em povoamentos implantados

The study, conducted at Sao Francisco National Forest, in Rio Grande do Sul, had as objectives to quantify the number of female and male Araucaria angustifolia individuals, as well as to study the diametric distribution in a 25.11 ha of a 60 years old forest. The sex classification was done in the periods of floral components maturation, and the dendrometric survey was done in order to obtain the diameter and the frequency upon the total sampling area. There was no significative difference in average diameter, being 42 cm for female individuals and 38.5 cm for male individuals. The relative proportion of female individuals was of 43.65 % and 56.35 % for male individuals; 65.3 % of the trees were concentrated between the diametric classes of 35-45 cm. The diametric distribution followed the normal distribution, having a higher presence of female individuals in higher diametric classes and higher amounts of male individuals in lower classes.
Risk premium, volatility and trading volume in overnight elec-tricity forward markets

This paper studies the overnight risk premium and volatility of futures electricity contracts traded in the French, German/Austrian, Italian and Spanish electricity markets in 2008- 2017. In the Spanish and Italian markets, the average risk premium is zero. The yearly risk premium ranges from -11% in monthly contracts to -7% in quarterly contracts, in the German/Austrian market, averaging -9%. In the French market, the risk premium in yearly contracts is -5%, but is zero in monthly and quarterly contracts. Negative risk premia suggest that forward-contract sellers are more risk-averse than buyers. Those negative risk premia vanish after 2015, suggesting that markets learn and increase their efficiency. In contrast with Fleten et al. (2015), the risk premium does not change before and after the forward contract becoming the front product. In the four markets, the volatility of the risk premium of monthly contracts increases by 28% on average when the contract becomes the front product. Trading volume explains this increase in volatility in the German/Austrian and Spanish markets, but in the French and Italian markets, trading volume has little explanatory power on the volatility.
On the generation of discrete distributions from a biased coin

An algorithm is presented for generating discrete probability distributions from a biased coin. I. Introduction In this paper we address the question posed by Knuth and Yao (2, page 427) concerning the generation of dis- crete probability distributions (d.p.d.'s) from a biased coin: \What if the source of independent random bits is biased towards 1 with probability p ? ". We consider the representation of d.p.d. 's by substitutes labeled by subsequences of biased binary random variables, which are independent and identically distributed, obeying an arbitrary probability distribution. The technique con- sists of a replacement (one-to-many) of each probability of the original d.p.d. by a substitute in a larger alpha- bet. Each substitute is represented (one-to-one) by a sub- sequence, traditionally in such a manner as to produce uniformly distributed (unbiased) and statistically inde- pendent code symbols. We consider in the sequel d.p.d. 's (q1;q2; :::;qK), and assume with no loss of essential gen- erality that all K values qi; 1 • iK, have non-zero probability and that K ‚ 2. The subsequences for qi; 1 • iK; take value in the set V = fvi;1;vi;2;:::;vi;j;:::g, either flnite or countably inflnite, which is characterized by the fact that for each j there is exactly one i such that P(V = vi;jjQ = qi) 6 0. For binary preflx-free variable-length coding of V X1;X2;:::;XW denotes a subsequence, where each Xi; 1 • iW; is a binary ran- dom variable (r.v.), taking value in the alphabet f0;1g, and W is in general also an r.v. Entropies in bits and logarithms in base 2 are assumed throughout. II. Biased binary trees
Understanding the Role of Epstein - Barr virus Encoded RNAs (EBERs) in EBV Biology

Epstein Barr virus (EBV) is an oncogenic herpesvirus aetiologically linked to several human malignancies of epithelial and lymphoid origins. An accumulating body of data indicates that EBV-infected cells release specific viral components in nano-vesicles called exosomes. Epstein-Barr virus encoded RNAs (EBER1 and EBER2) are two highly abundant, non-protein coding RNAs that are consistently expressed in all EBV latency programs. Conventional in situ hybridization (ISH) studies have indicated that these RNAs are typically found in the nucleus of EBV-infected cells. Recently, it was reported that EBERs are released out of the infected cells. However, the mechanism by which these highly abundant EBV products are transported from the nucleus to the cytoplasm and from there to outside of the cell remains unknown. In this thesis, we studied if EBER1 and EBER2 are excreted out from the infected cells via the exosomal pathway. Using differential ultracentrifugation, we isolated exosomes from EBVinfected, non-infected and EBER1-transfected cell lines. The identity of purified exosomes was confirmed by electron microscopy and western blotting for exosomal markers. The presence of EBERs in cells, culture supernatant and purified exosomal fractions was determined using RT PCR. Both EBER1 and EBER2 were observed to be present not only in the culture supernatants but also in purified exosomes from all EBV-infected cell lines. The EBER binding protein La was also observed to be present in the purified exosomal fractions. To directly track the journey of these small RNAs, we developed a novel electron microscopy-based technique. Our results showed (for the first time) that at least a portion of EBERs are transported from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, where they appear to be loaded into multi-vesicular bodies for eventual excretion via exosomes. Furthermore, the EBER binding protein La was also localized to the same exosomal fractions, suggesting that EBERs might be released from the EBV-infected cell lines in the form of EBER-La complexes. Moreover, when the purified exosomes from both type I and type III EBV latently-infected cell lines were exposed to non-infected cells, they induced apoptosis in the recipient cells in a time and dose-dependent manner. The fluorescently-labeled exosomes isolated from EBVinfected cell lines were taken up by non-infected cell lines, where they induced apoptosis via the extrinsic pathway of cell death. The blocking of caspase 3/7/8 pathways resulted in inhibition of exosome-mediated apoptosis. Molecular analysis of
The Preparation of Nurse Unit Managers for Their Role

Background and purpose of the study. The professionalisation of nursing saw the emergence of nurses in management roles including that of the Nurse Unit Manager (NUM). These NUMs are usually experienced in their designated clinical area. However, they are now expected to have business and management skills. Some nurse leaders with whom the researcher discussed her proposed research before its commencement and a review of the literature, indicated a gap in the research on how NUMs could better prepare for their role, what needs to be included in management and leadership courses, and more importantly, how NUMs acquire the necessary skills. This study investigated how case writing can be used as a professional development tool to help existing NUMs improve their skills and how it will help aspiring NUMs prepare for their role. The aims of this study were: (1) to identify how well prepared NUMs are for assuming their role; (2) to identify the skills required for the role of the NUM; (3) to identify the management challenges of the NUM’s role; (4) to identify the barriers in acquiring the skills required for the role; and (5) to explore how reflection through case writing can improve skills. Methods. Three primary samples: NUMs, ANUMs (Associate Nurse Unit Managers) and RNs (Registered Nurses) participated in this study. The study utilised both qualitative and quantitative methodologies by employing in-depth interviews and a survey. Case and commentary writing was also employed with NUMs. Results. The findings of the study show that NUMs were promoted to their positions by chance and not by conscious choice, or pre-chosen by management having been perceived to have the leadership and management skills for the role. Although NUMs found leadership workshops and courses very helpful, they found it difficult to put the knowledge gained into practice. They commented that they valued the knowledge they gained from reading and commenting on other NUMs’ case scenarios. Methods and results of the study will be discussed in more detail in the thesis.
Relationship of epidemiological factors with urdbean leaf crinkle virus disease and its management using plant extracts

Urdbean (Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper) is an important pulse crop grown worldwide. ULCV is an important disease of urdbean in Pakistan, because it causes huge losses in production of urdbean. The susceptible germplasm and favorable environmental conditions also contribute towards the wide spread outbreak of viral diseases. Forty urdbean lines were screened against ULCV under field conditions. Correlation studies between environmental factors (temperatures & relative humidity) and ULCV infection in selected lines revealed positive interaction for maximum and minimum temperatures but a negative one for relative humidity. The comparative efficacy of 2% concentration of different plant extracts (neem, akk, garlic) against ULCV was determined. Plants sprayed with neem extract have least whitefly population followed by garlic and results showed that minimum disease severity was observed on plants that were sprayed with neem followed by akk. The results are helpful in the understanding of epidemiological factors that play vital role in disease spread. Furthermore, the plant extracts can be used to manage the vector populations, which ultimately reduce the disease incidence. © 2011 Friends Science Publishers