Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reduced VIP Expression Affects Circadian Clock Function in VIP-IRES-CRE Mice (JAX 010908)

Circadian rhythms are programmed by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which relies on neuropeptide signaling to maintain daily timekeeping. Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) is critical for SCN function, but the precise role of VIP neurons in SCN circuits is not fully established. To interrogate their contribution to SCN circuits, VIP neurons can be manipulated specifically using the DNA-editing enzyme Cre recombinase. Although the Cre transgene is assumed to be inert by itself, we find that VIP expression is reduced in both heterozygous and homozygous adult VIP-IRES-Cre mice (JAX 010908). Compared with wild-type mice, homozygous VIP-Cre mice display faster reentrainment and shorter free-running period but do not become arrhythmic in constant darkness. Consistent with this phenotype, homozygous VIP-Cre mice display intact SCN PER2::LUC rhythms, albeit with altered period and network organization. We present evidence that the ability to sustain molecular rhythms in the VIP-Cre SCN is not due to residual VIP signaling; rather, arginine vasopressin signaling helps to sustain SCN function at both intracellular and intercellular levels in this model. This work establishes that the VIP-IRES-Cre transgene interferes with VIP expression but that loss of VIP can be mitigated by other neuropeptide signals to help sustain SCN function. Our findings have implications for studies employing this transgenic model and provide novel insight into neuropeptide signals that sustain daily timekeeping in the master clock.
Food abundance and clutch size of Tree Swallows Tachycineta bicolor

We studied Tree Swallows Tachycineta bicolor during eight breeding seasons (1977-84) at three sites that differed in food availability, which we measured as an index of the biomass of flying insects derived from daily catches in suspended nets. Mean clutch size differed significantly between sites (6.2, 5.8, and 5.6 eggs) and was related to average food abundance at the site. Within two sites, clutch sizes were significantly larger in years when food was more abundant during egg-laying (r= 0.83 and 0.97 at the high and low food abundance sites, respectively; r= 0.63, not significant, at the medium abundance site). Both clutch size and laying season food abundance were positively correlated with food abundance during the nestling stage at the ‘high’ site, but not at the other two sites. Our results support the hypothesis that female Tree Swallows respond proximately to abundant food during egg-laying by laying more eggs, but they do not elucidate the ultimate evolutionary factors involved in determining clutch size.
Force and phosphate release from Arp2/3 complex promote dissociation of actin filament branches

Significance Arp2/3 complex is an ATPase that binds to the side of a preexisting actin filament and nucleates an actin filament branch. Growing branched networks experience variable resistance and respond by adapting growth speed, power, and architecture. How force influences the dissociation of actin filament branches was not known. We used microfluidics to show that mechanical force promotes the dissociation of actin filament branches and that Arp2/3 complex adopts two distinct mechanical states with different responses to force. Phosphate release from Arp2/3 complex increases the sensitivity to both force and the debranching protein GMF. Thus, phosphate release from Arp2/3 complex may regulate debranching by force and debranching proteins. Networks of branched actin filaments formed by Arp2/3 complex generate and experience mechanical forces during essential cellular functions, including cell motility and endocytosis. External forces regulate the assembly and architecture of branched actin networks both in vitro and in cells. Considerably less is known about how mechanical forces influence the disassembly of actin filament networks, specifically, the dissociation of branches. We used microfluidics to apply force to branches formed from purified muscle actin and fission yeast Arp2/3 complex and observed debranching events in real time with total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy. Low forces in the range of 0 pN to 2 pN on branches accelerated their dissociation from mother filaments more than two orders of magnitude, from hours to <1 min. Neither force on the mother filament nor thermal fluctuations in mother filament shape influenced debranching. Arp2/3 complex at branch junctions adopts two distinct mechanical states with different sensitivities to force, which we name “young/strong” and “old/weak. ” The “young/strong” state 1 has adenosine 5′-diphosphate (ADP)−Pi bound to Arp2/3 complex. Phosphate release converts Arp2/3 complex into the “old/weak” state 2 with bound ADP, which is 20 times more sensitive to force than state 1. Branches with ADP−Arp2/3 complex are more sensitive to debranching by fission yeast GMF (glia maturation factor) than branches with ADP−Pi−Arp2/3 complex. These findings suggest that aging of branch junctions by phosphate release from Arp2/3 complex and mechanical forces contribute to disassembling “old” actin filament branches in cells.
Appetite-stimulating effect of gabapentin vs mirtazapine in healthy cats post-ovariectomy

Objectives The aim of the study was to evaluate the appetite-stimulating effect of gabapentin by comparing it with mirtazapine in healthy cats in the first 8 h after ovariectomy surgery. Methods This double-masked, placebo-controlled, prospective clinical trial included 60 healthy cats presented to the hospital for ovariectomy: 20 received gabapentin, 21 received mirtazapine and 19 received a placebo immediately before and 6 h after surgery. Food was offered at 2, 4, 6 and 8 h post-ovariectomy. After each meal, food intake was measured. Data were analysed using repeated-measure ANOVA and a linear mixed-model analysis. Post-hoc Tukey’s honest significant difference test was performed for multiple comparisons. Results Food intake increased in both treatment groups vs placebo. No statistically significant difference was found between cats treated with gabapentin or mirtazapine. Conclusions and relevance Cats receiving gabapentin ate more than cats in the placebo group. Thirty percent of cats in the gabapentin group covered their resting energy requirements, while none of the cats in the placebo group did. Gabapentin and mirtazapine produced similar effects on food intake.
Chromatin remodelers in oligodendroglia

Oligodendrocytes, the myelinating cells in the vertebrate central nervous system, produce myelin sheaths to enable saltatory propagation of action potentials. The process of oligodendrocyte myelination entails a stepwise progression from precursor specification to differentiation, which is coordinated by a series of transcriptional and chromatin remodeling events. ATP‐dependent chromatin remodeling enzymes, which utilize ATP as an energy source to control chromatin dynamics and regulate the accessibility of chromatin to transcriptional regulators, are critical for oligodendrocyte lineage development and regeneration. In this review, we focus on the latest insights into the spatial and temporal specificity of chromatin remodelers during oligodendrocyte development, myelinogenesis, and regeneration. We will also bring together various plausible mechanisms by which lineage specific transcriptional regulators coordinate with chromatin remodeling factors for programming genomic landscapes to specifically modulate these different processes during developmental myelination and remyelination upon injury.
Inhibitory control is associated with the activation of output-driven competitors in a spoken word recognition task

Abstract Although lexical competition has been ubiquitously observed in spoken word recognition, less has been known about whether the lexical competitors interfere with the recognition of the target and how lexical interference is resolved. The present study examined whether lexical competitors overlapping in output with the target would interfere with its recognition, and tested an underestimated hypothesis that the domain-general inhibitory control contributes to the resolution of lexical interference. Specifically, in this study, a Visual World Paradigm was used to access the temporal dynamics of lexical activations when participants were moving the mouse cursor to the written word form of the spoken word they heard. By using Chinese characters, the orthographic similarity between the lexical competitor and target was manipulated independently of their phonological overlap. The results demonstrated that behavioral performance in the similar condition was poorer compared to that in the control condition, and that individuals with better inhibitory control (having smaller Stroop interference effect) exhibited weaker activation of orthographic competitors (mouse trajectories less attracted by the orthographic competitors). The implications of these findings for our understanding of lexical interference and its resolution in spoken word recognition were discussed.
The Development of the Star Compass in Garden Warblers, Sylvia borin

To test whether celestial rotation or the geomagnetic field served as reference system for the calibration of the star compass, young garden warblers were handraised under the following conditions: In series I, two groups of birds were raised under an artificial sky the center of which lay in 360° N. For one group, the sky rotated around its center (1 rotation per day), while for the other the sky was stationary. In series II, three groups were raised under a rotating sky with the center of rotation in different position with respect to magnetic north. Tested under a stationary sky in the absence of meaningful magnetic information, only the birds that had experienced the rotating sky were oriented in series I; their tendency away from the former center of rotation corresponded to their natural southerly migratory direction. —In series II all birds, irrespective of the former relationship between rotation and magnetic north, showed directional preferences away from the former center of rotation. Our findings demonstrate the crucial role of celestial rotation in the establishment of the star compass. During the first summer there seems to be no transfer of information from the magnetic field to the stars. Thus celestial rotation and the magnetic field serve as independent reference systems for the genetically encoded migratory direction.
Interspecific competition and juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar): on testing effects and evaluating the evidence across scales

A review of 17 controlled experiments of interspecific competition between juveniles of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and other fishes revealed relatively little evidence to judge competitive effects at any scale. More than half were unreplicated and so inadequate to test either the existence or relative strength of interspecific competition. Most replicated experiments used one of two designs appropriate to address questions of interest, such as whether nonnative species affect Atlantic salmon via competition or whether interspecific competition from coevolved salmonids is greater than intraspecific competition. Replicated experiments spanned a broad range of spatial and temporal scales, and one well-designed field experiment yielded the strongest inference at useful scales. Nonnative salmonids being introduced worldwide into Atlantic salmon waters have the potential to invade, so experiments testing their effects are most urgently needed. Overall, juvenile coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) are suspecte.
Decomposing and Comparing Meaning Relations: Paraphrasing, Textual Entailment, Contradiction, and Specificity

In this paper, we present a methodology for decomposing and comparing multiple meaning relations (paraphrasing, textual entailment, contradiction, and specificity). The methodology includes SHARel - a new typology that consists of 26 linguistic and 8 reason-based categories. We use the typology to annotate a corpus of 520 sentence pairs in English and we demonstrate that unlike previous typologies, SHARel can be applied to all relations of interest with a high inter-annotator agreement. We analyze and compare the frequency and distribution of the linguistic and reason-based phenomena involved in paraphrasing, textual entailment, contradiction, and specificity. This comparison allows for a much more in-depth analysis of the workings of the individual relations and the way they interact and compare with each other. We release all resources (typology, annotation guidelines, and annotated corpus) to the community.
DaNE: A Named Entity Resource for Danish

We present a named entity annotation for the Danish Universal Dependencies treebank using the CoNLL-2003 annotation scheme: DaNE. It is the largest publicly available, Danish named entity gold annotation. We evaluate the quality of our annotations intrinsically by double annotating the entire treebank and extrinsically by comparing our annotations to a recently released named entity annotation of the validation and test sections of the Danish Universal Dependencies treebank. We benchmark the new resource by training and evaluating competitive architectures for supervised named entity recognition (NER), including FLAIR, monolingual (Danish) BERT and multilingual BERT. We explore cross-lingual transfer in multilingual BERT from five related languages in zero-shot and direct transfer setups, and we show that even with our modestly-sized training set, we improve Danish NER over a recent cross-lingual approach, as well as over zero-shot transfer from five related languages. Using multilingual BERT, we achieve higher performance by fine-tuning on both DaNE and a larger Bokmål (Norwegian) training set compared to only using DaNE. However, the highest performance isachieved by using a Danish BERT fine-tuned on DaNE. Our dataset enables improvements and applicability for Danish NER beyond cross-lingual methods. We employ a thorough error analysis of the predictions of the best models for seen and unseen entities, as well as their robustness on un-capitalized text. The annotated dataset and all the trained models are made publicly available.
Ergovaline Variability in Acremonium-Infected Tall Fescue Due to Environment and Plant Genotype

Competitiveness and persistence of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) is superior when infected with the endophyte, Acremonium coenophialum Morgan-Jones & Gams. Acremonium-derived ergopeptine alkaloids impair animal productivity, and if reduced or eliminated would improve animal performance. This study was conducted to determine: (i) environmental influence on ergovaline concentration in A. coenophialum-infected tall fescue genotypes, and (ii) the extent that plant genotype influences ergovaline production by the endophyte. A field experiment evaluated five endophyte-infected tall fescue genotypes grown at three locations (environments) during 1 yr. Plant genotypes, harvested every 28 d, differed in ergovaline concentration (P<0.05) during spring months
Planting date and seeding rate effects on white lupin yield in Alabama and Virginia

White lupin (Lupinus albus L.) has high potential as a winter grain (33 bu/acre), silage (15 tons/acre), wildlife, and cover crop in the southeastern USA. Management recommendations have to be developed for producers. We examined planting date and seeding rate effects on grain and biomass yield in winter-type white lupin. From 1991 to 1993, seeds were sown in north Alabama on a Wynnville fine sandy loam (fine-loamy, siliceous, thermic, Glossic Fragiudult), in central Alabama on a Norfolk sandy loam (fine-loamy, kaolinitic, thermic, Typic Kandiudult), and in south Alabama on a Lucedale fine sandy loam (fine-loamy, siliceous, thermic, Rhodic Paleudult). In 1994 and 1995, a study was sown in north Virginia on a Davidson silty clay (clayey, kaolintic, thermic, Rhodic Kandiudult). Treatments were three planting dates, three seeding rates (35 000, 70 000, and 105 000 seeds/acre) and two to five cultivars in Alabama. In Virginia, one or two cultivars were sown on three planting dates at 70 000 seeds/acre. Grain yield in 1995 in north Virginia averaged 60 bu/acre while the Alabama locations were less than 30 bu/acre. These differences are due to the more moderate, maritime climate in north Virginia. The second planting date and middle seeding rate produced acceptable grain yield across environments; we advise higher seeding rates for delayed planting. The highest biomass yields were achieved at earlier planting dates and the highest seeding rate. Based on these recommendations, producers should obtain acceptable grain, silage, wildlife, and cover crop yields.
Cytological studies on the Monochlamydeae from North India

Chromosome numbers of 24 species (34 populations) of eight families under subclass Monochlamydeae of the dicots, collected from North India are presented. Seven new chromosome counts are recorded for six species: Aerva scandens (n=27), Croton bonplandianum (n=25), Euphorbia helioscopia (n=14), Euphorbia hirta (n=20), Boerhavia diffusa (n=26, 52) and Mirabilis jalapa (n=27). Indian populations of Polygonum multiflorum (n=11, 22) are counted for the first time. Number of total species and their chromosome numbers of presently investigated genera and their families have been reviewed to find out polyploidy percentage and probable base numbers in India.
Effects of high tissue concentrations of selenium on reproduction by bluegills

Abstract Recent studies have associated high body concentrations of selenium with declines in fish populations inhabiting cooling reservoirs of coal-fired electric power plants. Because some evidence indicated that these declines resulted from reduced reproduction, we made a series of 18 artificial crosses of bluegills Lepomis macrochirus possessing high and low body concentrations of Se to determine whether elevated Se in parents reduced viability of gametes or increased mortality of embryos and larvae. Bluegills with high body concentrations of Se were obtained from Hyco Reservoir (cooling water source of a coal-fired power plant) and those with low body concentrations were obtained from nearby Roxboro City Lake, North Carolina. Neither percent fertilization nor percent hatch of eggs differed significantly among the parent combinations. However, all crosses (8) that included females with high Se body concentrations resulted in larvae with edema; such larvae did not survive to the swim-up stage. Only one.
Rat Inhibin: Molecular Cloning of α- and β-Subunit Complementary Deoxyribonucleic Acids and Expression in the Ovary

Inhibin is a gonadal protein hormone that suppresses the secretion of FSH from pituitary gonadotrophs. It has previously been characterized as a heterodimer of two dissimilar subunits (α, 18 kilodaltons and β, 14 kilodaltons) the smaller of which exists in two forms (βA and βB) and can form dimers that stimulate the secretion of FSH. In the present work, cDNA clones encoding the inhibin α- and βAsubunits have been isolated from rat ovary and characterized. The α-inhibin cDNA predicts a precursor protein of 366 amino acids containing the 133 amino acid mature α-subunit at its COOH-terminus. The βA-inhibin cDNA predicts a precursor protein of 424 amino acids containing the 116 amino acid βA subunit atits COOH-terminus. Analysis of rat ovarian RNA indicates that α-inhibin mRNA levels are stimulated by PMSG treatment in vivo. In cultured granulosa cells, FSH also stimulates α-inhibin mRNA, and the FSH effect is suppressed by cotreatment with GnRH. Hybridization in situ to rat ovarian tissue demonstrates that .
Rooting with Multiple Outgroups: Consensus Versus Parsimony

Using outgroup(s) is the most frequent method to root trees. Rooting through unconstrained simultaneous analysis of several outgroups is a favoured option because it serves as a test of the supposed monophyly of the ingroup. When contradiction occurs among the characters of the outgroups, the branching pattern of basal nodes of the rooted tree is dependent on the order of the outgroups listed in the data matrix, that is, on the prime outgroup (even in the case of exhaustive search). Different equally parsimonious rooted trees (=cladograms) can be obtained by permutation of prime outgroups. An alternative to a common implicit practice (select one outgroup to orientate the tree) is that the accepted cladogram is the strict consensus of the different equally parsimonious rooted trees. The consensus tree is less parsimonious but is not hampered with extra assumption such as the choice of one outgroup (or more) among the initial number of outgroup terminals. It also does not show sister‐group relations that are ambiguously resolved or not resolved at all.
Organic hydrogen-carbon isotope signatures of terrestrial higher plants during biosynthesis for distinctive photosynthetic pathways

Stable isotopic compositions of organic hydrogen (δD) have positive correlations (r2 > 0.95) with those of carbon (δ13C) among several compound fractions of terrestrial plant leaves possessing distinctive photosynthetic pathways (C3, C4 and CAM). The δD/δ13C slopes of C3 plants vary from ∼25 to 42, which are larger than those of C4 plants (11 to 12). CAM plants have intermediate δD/δ13C slopes (∼17 to 20) between C3 and C4 plants. Using a δD-δ13C diagram, photosynthetic metabolisms are clearly discriminated, even though they sometimes cannot be distinguished from each other only by carbon isotopes. Relative to bulk organic matter, hydrogen and carbon of lipid fraction are more depleted in 13C than those of pigment fraction, respectively. Furthermore, δD values of lipid and pigment fractions relative to bulk organic hydrogen have negative correlations with δ13C values of corresponding fractions among the three photosynthetic pathways. This isotopic covariance among each fraction may be attributable to kinetically-controlled molecular biosyntheses using similar enzymes but with different isotope fractionations. Or the intermediate molecules for the biosyntheses have isotopically different pools in hydrogen and carbon.
ANNUAL PRODUCTION OF MACROINVERTEBRATES IN THREE STREAMS OF DIFFERENT WATER QUALITY

Macroinvertebrate annual production was estimated in three Minnesota streams that differed in watershed geologic origin and in total alkalinity. Annual mean alkalinities (as CaCOt) in the Caribou River, Blackhoof River, and North Branch Creek were 34, 83, and 245 mg/L, respectively. Annual production by herbivore-detritivore invertebrates was lowest in the Caribou River (wet mass: 27.0 g/m2), intermediate in the Blackhoof River (36.9 g/m2), and highest in North Branch Creek (I 19.6 g/m2). Estimates of annual production by invertebrate carnivores followed the same pattern: lowest in the Caribou River (5.5 g/m2, intermediate in the Blackhoof River (6.5 g/m2), and highest in North Branch Creek (12.8 g/m2). These estimates of annual production were positively associated with alkalinity, nitrates, and fish standing stocks.