Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Histochemical distribution of guanase in human tissues with guanine in bicine buffer as substrate

Histochemical studies of human guanase have seldom been undertaken, in part because of technical difficulties which result in heavy background staining. We previously reported a modified procedure in which the methodological inadequacies had been overcome. In this report, the modified technique has been applied to determine the distribution of guanase in normal human tissues and in cases of chronic hepatitis, hepatocellular carcinoma and metastatic tumors in liver (adenocarcinoma of colon). Guanase was present within the cytoplasm of hepatocytes throughout the entire lobule. Portal components (bile ducts and veins), fibrous tissue and inflammatory cells were non-reactive, and the enzyme was absent from hepatocyte nuclei in the normal liver. However, in the case of non A non B hepatitis nuclei presenting guanase activity or otherwise were identified. Guanase activity was observed for primary liver tumor but not for metastatic tumor. Moreover, guanase activity was observed in proximal tubuli of kidney and mucosal epithelium of small intestine. No activity was found in other tissues.The present method can be regarded as a useful method, not only to examine the specificity of guanase for hepatic diseases, but also to elucidate the physiological significance of guanase in the kidney and small intestine.
The importance of samples and isolates for species–area relationships

Species―area relationships (SARs) are a key tool for understanding patterns of species diversity. A framework for the interpretation of SARs and their prediction under different landscape configurations remains elusive, however. This article addresses one of these configurations: how species' minimum-area requirements affect the shape of island or other isolate species―area curves. We distinguish between two classes of SARs: sample-area curves, compiled entirely within larger contiguous areas, and isolate curves, compiled between isolated areas. We develop this conceptual and graphic model in order to illuminate landscape-scale diversity patterns, to discuss how various landscape and species characteristics affect outcomes, and to investigate the dynamics of local extinction under conditions of habitat fragmentation. Minimum-area effects on actual islands and other isolates predictably cause species-area curves either to be sigmoid in arithmetic space or to be lowered for smaller areas. In order to illustrate the inherent shape of isolate curves, this study fits convex and sigmoid regression models to empirical isolate (island) data sets that cover the small scales expected to include inflection points.
THE SUBGENUS AUSTRALOPHLEBOTOMUS THEODOR OF PHLEBOTOMUS RONDANI AND BERTÉ (DIPTERA: PSYCHODIDAE)

A key is given to the 8 recorded species of Australophlebotomus (6 from Australia, 2 from Papua New Guinea). Both sexes of 3 species are known. The taxonomy of 6 species is brought up to date, 2 new ones (Phlebotomus acuminatus and P. mackerrasi) are described, a taxonomic problem involving the 2 common Australian species is resolved and the known distribution of species is shown. The affinities, status, diagnosis, origin, food preferences and trophic morphology of Austratophlebotomus are discussed.
Diplodia shoot blight and asymptomatic persistence of Diplodia pinea on or in stems of jack pine nursery seedlings

Summary Diplodia pinea (syn. Sphaeropsis sapinea) is known as a major cause of damage to red pine (Pinus resinosa) seedlings in nurseries. The fungus can also be a latent pathogen of red pine seedlings, persisting in the absence of gross symptoms and later proliferating under conditions that induce host stress. In the fall of 2004, three nurseries in Wisconsin were surveyed to determine the potential for the occurrence of Diplodia shoot blight on jack pine (Pinus banksiana) seedlings and the persistence of D. pinea on or in asymptomatic seedlings of this species. Incidence of shoot blight was quantified in five 1 m long segments of an interior row in each of two survey areas in each nursery. The pathogen was identified on symptomatic seedlings collected in these areas on the basis of presence of characteristic pycnidia and conidia. Five groups of 20 asymptomatic seedlings were also collected in each of the two survey areas in each nursery. A segment of the lower stem/root collar from each of these asymptomatic seedlings was surface-disinfested and culturally assayed using tannic acid agar. The mean incidence of shoot blight (as high as 9%) and mean frequency of cultural detection from asymptomatic seedlings (as high as 20%) were greatest in proximity to red pine windbreaks which are a source of inoculum. Only D. pinea was confirmed from subsets of symptomatic and asymptomatic seedlings which were tested using mt SSU rDNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers that allow differentiation of D. pinea from D. scrobiculata and other fungi in the genus Botryosphaeria and related anamorphic fungi. Jack pine seedlings inoculated with D. pinea isolates obtained from asymptomatic nursery seedlings developed shoot blight symptoms in greenhouse trials. Thus, the ability of D. pinea to damage jack pine seedlings in nurseries has been documented and the potential for virulent strains of this latent pathogen to be distributed on asymptomatic jack pine seedlings from nurseries has been confirmed.
Oil and Armed Conflicts in Africa

Abstract Popular geopolitical representations of oil in Africa conjure up images of corrupt politicians, disgruntled populations, and predatory foreign oil companies: a volatile mix that would supposedly keep African “petrostates” locked in armed conflicts. This article queries these geopolitical narra, and offers a different perspective: while several countries—such as Algeria, Angola, Nigeria and Sudan—have indeed experienced long and deadly conflicts, African oil-producing countries have not, on average, been more frequently at war than non-oil producers. The article explores this perspective by reviewing the main arguments linking oil and armed conflicts, providing a brief overview of conflict trends, and identifying some of the major conflict risk factors. These factors should inform future risk assessments for African oil- producing countries, while motivating further research considering broader forms of violence and their geographies.
Adaptation and validation of stochastic limiting strain distribution and fatigue ratio concepts for perpetual pavement design

Traditional perpetual pavement thickness design is based, in part, on controlling strain levels at the bottom of the asphalt concrete layer below an endurance limit to prevent bottom-up fatigue cracking (FC). A field-based limiting strain threshold was developed from cumulative distributions of field-measured tensile strains in the 2003 and 2006 research cycles at the National Center for Asphalt Technology Pavement Test Track to understand the limiting strain necessary to control FC. Additionally, the fatigue ratio, the ratio of the nth percentile strain to the fatigue endurance limit, was developed. Both the tensile strain distributions and fatigue ratios showed a clear difference between sections that experienced bottom-up FC and those that did not. However, it is necessary to adapt these thresholds to strains predicted by perpetual pavement design tools. PerRoad, a stochastic perpetual pavement design programme, was used to predict strains for the same 2006 sections. Previously developed strain distributions and fatigue ratios were adjusted to reflect observed differences in predicted and measured strains. Cumulative distributions and fatigue ratios based on predicted strains for the 2009 research cycle validated the updated limiting strain distribution and maximum fatigue ratios for designing perpetual pavements to resist bottom-up FC.
Spatial and temporal variability of seed bank resulting from overgrowing of xerothermic grassland

The aim of my study was to determine changes in the seed bank and vegetation during the process of overgro-wing of the xerothermic grassland situated on the slopes of the White Mountain (349 m a. s. l., the Central Roztocze Region, South-Eastern Poland). I also examined whether the changes of vegetation can be predicted if we know the structure of the burned seed flora. To achieve this goal I used two sets of data: one collected from three different environments (grassland, brushwood and woodland) at the same time (toposequence), and the other collected twice from the same place at the interval of seven years (chronosequence). I stated that the appearance of even a small number of ornitochorous seeds and their seedlings can be treated as a signal that the bush encroachment will accelerate. Seed number seems to decrease during succession in the analysed sequence of plant communities. The total number of species in the seed bank did not change in the most dynamic plant communities: grassland and brushwood, and it was significantly higher there than in the seed bank of woodland. During the time of observation, the most important quantitative and qualitative changes took place in grassland vegetation, which is more similar to brushwood vegetation now than it was at the beginning of the study.
The history of sturgeon in the Baltic Sea

Migrants of the Atlantic sturgeon, Acipenser oxyrinchus, from North America are thought to have founded the Baltic sturgeon population during the Little Ice Age around 1200 years ago, replacing the European sturgeon, Acipenser sturio. To test this hypothesis and to further elucidate the colonization of the Baltic Sea by A. oxyrinchus, we carried out DNA analyses of ancient and contemporary populations of both species.
Parallel Variation in Haemoglobin Concentration in Nestling-Rearing Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus and Great Tits Parus major

Abstract. High metabolic rates of birds demand an efficient oxygen transport system; this is ultimately based on the oxygen carrying capacity of haemoglobin. Therefore patterns of variation in blood haemoglobin content of wild birds are an important aspect of functional ecology. In this paper we report results concerning variation in haemoglobin concentration in the blood of adult Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus and Great Tits Parus major during the nestling rearing period (days 7–15 of nestlings life) of first broods in central Poland in 2003–2009. The most important findings of this study are: (i) average haemoglobin concentration in blood differs between Blue Tits and Great Tits, with higher values in Blue Tits; (ii) males differ from females in both these species, with higher values in females, and (iii) there is also significant variation among years, with parallel tendencies for both species. We explain the patterns of haemoglobin content variation in adult tits by differences in metabolic demands for oxygen transported by blood. The demands are higher for the smaller-bodied species (Blue Tits), heavier working sex (females) and in years with worse physical and trophic conditions, though only non-significant relationships with weather conditions (temperature and rainfall) or food availability (measured by frassfall) were found during our long-term study.
High frequency of character transformations is phylogenetically structured within the lichenized fungal family Graphidaceae (Ascomycota: Ostropales)

ABSTRACT Graphidaceae is a large family of over 2000 predominantly tropical, lichenized fungal species encompassing a remarkable range of morphological and chemical diversity. The majority of species belongs in subfamily Graphidoideae, which also exhibits the greatest amount of variation. Various phenotype characters have traditionally been used for classification at the genus and species levels, but their correlations with phylogenetic clades are poorly known. Using a multilocus approach, we reconstructed a phylogeny for 224 taxa, representing all main genera within subfamily Graphidoideae, and employed ancestral character reconstruction and character transformation analyses to understand the evolution of morphological, anatomical and chemical characters within this group. In addition, we examined the changes of habitat and photobiont types over the phylogeny. For this purpose, we focused on 10 characters, including thallus and ascoma features and chemistry. Since previous studies have shown that results may differ depending on the reconstruction method used, both Maximum-parsimony and Maximum-likelihood approaches were employed and multistate coding of characters was used. We reconstructed the ancestral states for 64 well-supported major clades in the family and found support for the ancestor of Graphidoideae being a tropical species with a trentepohlioid photobiont, apothecioid, solitary ascomata lacking both a columella and lateral paraphyses, and having non-amyloid ascospores. The frequency of transformations of morphological and chemical characters over the phylogeny of Graphidaceae was computed, resulting in a high frequency of reversible transformations for some characters, such as secondary chemistry, whereas other characters, such as photobiont, hymenial persistence or ascoma aggregation, exhibited low frequency of transformations. However, we found that even in the character with the highest number of transformations, secondary chemistry, the shifts were highly structured phylogenetically, suggesting that the evolution of the character, rather than the character state itself, can be used to predict phylogenetic relationships with certain accuracy.
Thermal specialization across large geographical scales predicts the resilience of mangrove crab populations to global warming

The broad prediction that ectotherms will be more vulnerable to climate change in the tropics than in temperate regions includes assumptions about centre/edge population effects that can only be tested by within-species comparisons across wide latitudinal gradients. Here, we investigated the thermal vulnerability of two mangrove crab species, comparing populations at the centre (Kenya) and edge (South Africa) of their distributions. At the same time, we investigated the role of respiratory mode (water- versus air-breathing) in determining the thermal tolerance in amphibious organisms. To do this, we compared the vulnerability to acute temperature fluctuations of two sympatric species with two different lifestyle adaptations: the free living Perisesarma guttatum and the burrowing Uca urvillei, both pivotal to the ecosystem functioning of mangroves. The results revealed the air-breathing U. urvillei to be a thermal generalist with much higher thermal tolerances than P. guttatum. Importantly, however, we found that, while U. urvillei showed little difference between edge and centre populations, P. guttatum showed adaptation to local conditions. Equatorial populations had elevated tolerances to acute heat stress and mechanisms of partial thermoregulation, which make them less vulnerable to global warming than temperate conspecifics. The results reveal both the importance of respiratory mode to thermal tolerance and the unexpected potential for low latitude populations/species to endure a warming climate. The results also contribute to a conceptual model on the latitudinal thermal tolerance of these key species. This highlights the need for an integrated population-level approach to predict the consequences of climate change.
Alleviation of salt-induced adverse impact via mycorrhizal fungi in Ephedra aphylla Forssk

The current investigation was carried out to examine the role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in alleviating adverse effects of salt stress in Ephedra aphylla. The plants were exposed to 75 and 150 mM sodium chloride (NaCl) stress with and without application of AMF. Salt stress caused significant decrease in chlorophyll and carotenoid contents; however, the application of AMF restored the pigments content in salt-affected plants. Proline, phenols, and lipid peroxidation were increased with increasing concentration of NaCl, but lower accumulation has been reported in plants treated with AMF. NaCl stress also showed increase in different antioxidant enzymes activities (catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, peroxidase, glutathione reductase, and superoxide dismutase), and further increase was observed in plants treated with AMF. The nutrient uptake, Na+ and Na/K ratio increased and potassium and phosphorus were decreased with increasing concentration of NaCl in the present study. However, the colonization with AMF significantly increased K+ and P and reduced Na+ uptake. It is concluded that presown soil treatment with AMF reduced severity of salt stress in E. aphylla through alterations in physiological parameters, antioxidants and uptake of nutrients.
USE OF REFERENCE-SITE FISH ASSEMBLAGES TO ASSESS AQUATIC DEGRADATION IN PINELANDS STREAMS

We compared species composition, relative abundances, and species richness of reference-site fish assemblages to fish samples collected from Pinelands streams that displayed a range of water quality and watershed land-use characteristics. We used detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) to relate com- munity gradients to a complex watershed disturbance gradient characterized by increasing pH, specific conductance, and the percentage of developed and agricultural land in a drainage basin. Native species occurred across a range of conditions and dominated all sites. The major difference between reference-site assemblages and those found in degraded streams was the occurrence of nonnative species at the degraded sites. Species whose occurrence within New Jersey is generally limited to the Pinelands were more frequently found at reference sites compared with disturbed sites, but these differences were not statistically significant. Based on relative abundance, only two native species displayed a clear affinity to either the disturbed or undisturbed end of the watershed gradient. Species richness did not clearly distinguish reference sites from degraded sites. Neither species composition nor species richness was related to stream size. Species composition based on presence/absence provided as good an estimate of Pinelands watershed disturbance as did relative abundance. The study demonstrates that ordination of presence/absence or relative abundance data using DCA provides a good measure of Pinelands watershed conditions. When evaluating assemblages found at both reference sites and degraded sites, our approach can provide at least part of the basis for developing regional metrics to assess the status of species-poor fish communities or ranking biological samples based on inherent community attributes.
Schoolgirls’ perspectives on self-disclosure in a group-based mental health intervention at school: acquiring friends or risking harassment?

The article draws on interviews with participants in a psychotherapeutic education programme, called Depression in Swedish Adolescents, which has seen wide distribution within Swedish schools. We demonstrate how, in their accounts, self-disclosure in front of classmates is made into a central and both positive and problematic aspect of the programme. Sharing private matters in a group setting consisting of classmates might strengthen their interpersonal relations; but at the same time, it carries the risk of triggering already ongoing destructive interactions such as bullying and harassment. Voluntary participation, group composition and paying attention to how members respond to one another and make use of the private information shared stand out as important criteria to consider. However, in order to meet these criteria, an intervention involving self-disclosure in front of classmates needs to challenge the tradition in school of practising mandatory participation, as well as the class structures with their predefined group composition.
Partial replacement of fishmeal by soybean meal in diets for juvenile cobia (Rachycentron canadum)

An 8-week feeding experiment was conducted in floating cages (1.5 x 1.0 x 2.0 m) to determine the potential use of defatted soybean meal (roasted and solvent-extracted) as a partial replacement of fishmeal in the isonitrogenous (approximately 450 g kg(-1) CP crude protein) diet for juvenile cobia with an initial average weight of about 8.3 g. Diets were formulated to include 0, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600 g kg(-1) (diets D0, D10, D20, D30, D40, D50 and D60, respectively) of fishmeal protein being substituted by defatted soybean meal without methionine supplementation. The results showed that weight gain rate decreased significantly when the replacement level of fishmeal protein was increased from 400 g kg(-1) to 500 g kg(-1), and the D60 diet was the lowest in all groups. These results indicate that up to 400 g kg(-1) of fishmeal protein can be replaced by defatted soybean meal without causing significant reduction in growth. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) were significantly affected by the replacement level of fishmeal protein being substituted by defatted soybean meal, when the replacement level of fishmeal protein was 200 g kg(-1) (diet, D20), FCR was the lowest and PER was the highest. There were no significant differences in the moisture, lipid, crude protein and ash content in whole body and muscle, while lipid content in liver increased as the dietary soybean meal replacement levels increased. There were significant differences in haemoglobin, haematocrit, red blood cell, plasma glucose and triglyceride concentration in fish fed diets with different soybean meal replacement levels. Results of this trial indicated that the optimum level of fishmeal protein replacement with defatted soybean meal, determined by quadratic regression analysis was 189.2 g kg(-1), on the basis of maximum weight gain.
TISSUE INHIBITOR OF METALLOPROTEINASE-3 IS UP-REGULATED BY TRANSFORMING GROWTH FACTOR-β1 IN VITRO AND EXPRESSED IN FIBROBLASTIC FOCI IN VIVO IN IDIOPATHIC PULMONARY FIBROSIS

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is characterized by fibroblast expansion and extracellular matrix accumulation. However, the mechanisms involved in matrix remodeling have not been elucidated. In this study, the authors aimed to evaluate the expression of the tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases (TIMPs) in human fibroblasts and whole tissues from IPF and normal lungs. They also determined the role of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) in TIMP3 expression. TIMP1, TIMP2, and TIMP3 were highly expressed in lung fibroblasts. Transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1, a profibrotic mediator, induced strong up-regulation of TIMP3 at the mRNA and protein levels. The authors examined whether the MAPK pathway was involved in TGF-β1–induced TIMP3 expression. TGF-β1 induced the phosphorylation of p38 and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)1/2. Biochemical blockade of p38 by SB203580, but not of the ERK MAPK pathway, inhibited the effect of this factor. The effect was also blocked by the tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein and by antagonizing TGF-β1 receptor type I (activin-linked kinase [ALK5]). In IPF tissues TIMP3 gene expression was significantly increased and the protein was localized to fibroblastic foci and extracellular matrix. Our findings suggest that TGF-β1–induced TIMP3 may be an important mediator in lung fibrogenesis.