Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cultivation and Utilization of Bambara Groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.), a Neglected Plant in Cameroon

In order to improve the production and commercialization of Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L) Verdc. ) in Cameroon, an inventory on the use of available resources and peasant agronomic practices is a necessary prerequisite. Their understanding can help to establish efficient strategies to enhance this neglected crop. The objective of this work was therefore to identify the uses and the peasant knowledge on the Bambara groundnut in Cameroon. To this effect, a survey on the use of Original Research Article Temegne et al.; APRJ, 4(2): 9-21, 2020; Article no.APRJ. 57056 10 Bambara groundnut was carried out through interviews and direct discussions with farmers in the main production areas (Far North, Adamawa, Littoral (Coastal), Centre, North-West and West) of Cameroon. The survey revealed that in Cameroon, Bambara groundnut is mainly grown by women (74%). Monoculture (60%) is the most widely used cropping system; 40% of farmers associate it with other crops such as groundnuts, maize, sesame, okra, millet, sorghum, beans, egusi or pumpkin, and tubers. It is produced mainly on small land areas by the elderly. It is mainly cultivated by the poor peasants and without soil amendments. Several landraces are cultivated, the preferred varieties varying according to the production basins. Seed storage is mainly done with chemicals in closed containers. Weeds, lack of improved varieties, low yields, diseases and pests (insects, rodents) are the main production constraints identified. Results of this study could be exploited for the improvement and vulgarization of Bambara groundnut in Cameroon.
Concordance patterns in zooplankton assemblages in the UHE - Luís Eduardo Magalhães reservoir in the Mid-Tocantins river, Tocantins State, Brazil

The goal of this study was to evaluate the concordance amongst three zooplankton groups (Rotifera, Cladocera, and Copepoda) and between the zooplankton groups and the environmental variables in the Luis Eduardo Magalhaes reservoir, in the Mid-Tocantins River, Tocantins State, Brazil. Concordance patterns were found in relation to environmental variables, cladocerans, and rotifers, although values were relatively low. These results indicate that one should be cautious about the use of indicative taxonomic groups to detect environmental changes, where divergent results annul extrapolation possibilities and indicate the existence of distinct environmental factors controlling different groups.
Minimal Rule-Based Classifiers using PCA on Pima-Indians-Diabetes-Dataset

Diabetes mellitus has been a very complex and chronic lifelong disease. Hence, it has been identified as a clinically highly significant disease which further attracted the healthcare industry to define most relevant clinical directories and also to apply efficient automated prediagnoses and further care. Rule-based classifier technique has proven its strength in diabetes diagnosis when used the computational methods. There has been a considerable development in the classifier’s performance, to classify the disease, in the past decades by which they were highly recommended. In this paper, a classifier is proposed based on minimum rules which further uses Principal Component Analysis (PCA). To apply these techniques Pima Indians diabetes dataset is used from the UCI Machine Learning Repository. Set of experiments were conducted on the data set with PCA to evaluate the performance among the decision tree, Naïve Bayes, and Support Vector Machine
“Environmental Performance Reporting in Commercial Banks of India: Exploring Association with Financial Performance”

Environmental issues such as global warming and subsequent climate changes have stimulated the need for environmental performance reporting by organizations. Extant literature highlights that adoption of environmental practices is expected to influence financial performance of organizations. Despite extensive literature available on relationship between environmental performance and financial performance, results still remain indecisive. This research attempts to investigate environmental performance reporting in the context of commercial banks operating in India and compare the relationship between environmental performance and financial performance on a sample of 21 public and 20 private sector banks for a period of five years (2013-14 to 2017-18) using content analysis and linear regression. Secondary data was collected from annual reports, corporate social responsibility reports, business responsibility reports and sustainability reports of respective banks. Results obtained evince no considerable association amid environmental performance and financial performance of public sector banks functioning in India. Correspondingly, no considerable association was found amid environmental performance and return on equity of private sector banks. Conversely, positive significant relationship was observed between environmental performance and return on assets of private sector banks. Research provides an insight to banking sector to incorporate environmental practices in core business operations to improve profitability.
SPECIES INTERACTIONS IN INTERTIDAL FOOD WEBS: PREY OR PREDATION REGULATION OF INTERMEDIATE PREDATORS?

Most natural food webs have more than one predator species, and many have trophic interactions among these predators. When a top predator feeds on an intermediate predator and they both feed on a shared basal resource, a phenomenon labeled intraguild predation (IGP), the potential exists for complex food web dynamics due to predation and competitive effects. Here we investigate the relative importance of direct predation vs. competition by a top predator on an intermediate predator. The study system is the rocky intertidal interaction web formed by the predatory seastar Pisaster ochraceus, the predatory whelks Nucella emarginata and N. canaliculata, and a shared resource species, the mussel Mytilus trossulus. Previous experiments documented strong negative effects of Pisaster on mussels and whelks, but the mechanisms responsible for the effects on whelks, whether competition or predation, were not identified. Here we report results of a field experiment that manipulated both Mytilus and Pisaster to determine the short- and longer-term changes in whelk populations. Using a simplified dynamic model for changes in abundance over the initial stages of the experiment, we separated and quantified the top-down effect of direct predation by seastars vs. the bottom-up effects of competition and food limitation. Short-term results were in agreement with longer-term responses. Results suggest that direct and indirect bottom-up influences of mussels were far stronger than predation, and thus, whelk increases in the absence of seastars were due to reduced competition with Pisaster. Large differences between the body sizes of seastars and whelks make it difficult to determine the ultimate nature of the resource under com- petition between predators. Small mussels may constitute only a food resource for seastars, but to some extent, they also represent a microhabitat for whelks. Differences in the mag- nitude of the response to mussel manipulations between Nucella species might be due to slight differences in the way the species utilize mussel beds. Some of the predictions of theoretical IGP models regarding coexistence and stability of species may not apply to this interaction web because it includes species with both "open" and "closed" populations, rather than just closed populations as assumed by the models.
Response of florunner and southern runner peanut cultivars to chemical management of late leaf spot, southern stem rot, and nematodes

A field experiment was conducted in 1989 and 1990 to study the effects of chlorothalonil, flutolanil, and aldicarb, singularly and in combination, on late leaf spot, caused by Cercosporidium personatum, southern stem rot, caused by Sclerotium rolfsii, and root-knot nematodes, Meloidogyne arenaria, on Florunner and Southern Runner peanut (Arachis hypogaea) cultivars. In a split-plot experiment, Florunner and Southern Runner were treated with chlorothalonil at 0, 0.6, or 1.2 kg a.i./ha; flutolanil at 0 or 2.2 kg a.i./ha; and aldicarb at 0 or 3.4 kg a.i./ha. Southern stem rot and nematode pressure were severe in both years, and late leaf spot was severe in 1989. Leaf spot was more severe in Florunner than in Southern Runner in control plots both years and in plots receiving the low rate of chlorothalonil in 1990. In both years, the high rate of chlorothalonil reduced late leaf spot severity more than the low rate. Aldicarb and flutolanil did not affect late leaf spot severity. Flutolanil and aldicarb reduced the incidence of southern stem rot in both cultivars in both years, but flutolanil was more effective than aldicarb. Chlorothalonil had little or no effect on incidence of southern stem rot, and both cultivars were equally susceptible. Aldicarb reduced root-gall indices in both years, but no effects were attributable to cultivar or fungicide. Yields for the two cultivars were not different. In both cultivars, effects of chlorothalonil, flutolanil, and aldicarb were additive on yield increases for both years
Summer Feeding Habits of River Otters Inhabiting a Contaminated Coastal Marine Environment

Abstract In two recent studies, North American river otters (Lontra canadensis) inhabiting the urbanized/industrialized harbors of southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada were found to be exposed to elevated levels of environmental contaminants, primarily industry-produced polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Contaminant exposure in those studies was assessed non-invasively, by measuring chemical residue concentrations in river otter feces collected from established marking sites (latrines). As river otter exposure to contaminants is primarily through their diet, our aim was to characterize river otter prey selection from feces collected at latrine sites inside the contaminated harbors and along the relatively uncontaminated coastline outside the harbor systems. Fish occurred in 95.5% of all feces analyzed, with species of gunnels (Pholidae), sculpins (Cottidae), pricklebacks (Stichaeidae), toadfish (Batrachoididae), clingfish (Gobiesocidae), flatfish (Pleuronectiformes), and snailfish (Liparidae) being the most common prey consumed. Crustaceans were the only non-fish prey identified. Feces collected outside the harbors had a higher prevalence of pricklebacks, clingfish, and greenlings, whereas feces collected inside the harbor systems had a higher prevalence of toadfish and crustaceans. Because of the diversity of the river otter's diet, prey species from each of the main families described here should be analyzed for environmental contaminants to fully characterize concentrations of persistent compounds in the food-web. Prey sampling should be location-specific (i.e., inside and outside the urban/industrial harbors) to elucidate possible location effects on contaminant exposure.
The efficiency of some experimental designs used in dairy husbandry experiments

Records for milk, fat, solids-not-fat and fat percentage over forty-eight complete lactations were used as uniformity data to determine the relative efficiencies of a variety of experimental designs used in dairy husbandry experiments. In general, it was found that: 1. Experiments conducted during the earlier part of the lactation are more efficient than those conducted during the later part. 2. Three-weekly periods are generally more efficient than 5-weekly periods. 3. If 3-weekly periods are used, then extending the time of the experiment over four such periods instead of three reduces the error. The converse is the case with 5-weekly periods since the experiment is carried over into the highly variable later part of the lactation. 4. Grouping the animals according to the yields recorded during the first 40 days of lactation does not appear to reduce the error. An analysis of covariance using the pro-experimental records of the performance of the animals has been carried out on ordinary group trials and it is hoped to publish the results at a later date, but investigations on the data have shown that both reversal and Latin square designs are more efficient than ordinary group trials even when such an analysis is performed.
Simulated geographic variations of plant species richness, evenness and abundance using climatic constraints on plant functional diversity

Among the most pronounced large-scale geographic patterns of plant biodiversity are the increase in plant species richness towards the tropics, a more even distribution of the relative abundances of plant species in the tropics, and a nearly log-normal relative abundance distribution. Here we use an individual-based plant diversity model that relates climatic constraints to feasible plant growth strategies to show that all three basic diversity patterns can be predicted merely from the climatic constraints acting upon plant ecophysiological trade-offs. Our model predicts that towards objectively ‘harsher’ environments, the range of feasible growth strategies resulting in reproductive plants is reduced, thus resulting in lower functional plant species richness. The reduction of evenness is attributed to a more rapid decline in productivity from the most productive to less productive plant growth strategies since the particular setup of the strategy becomes more important in maintaining high productivity in harsher environments. This approach is also able to reproduce the increase in the deviation from a log-normal distribution towards more evenly distributed communities of the tropics. Our results imply that these general biodiversity relationships can be understood primarily by considering the climatic constraints on plant ecophysiological trade-offs.
Herdabilidade para os caracteres ciclo vegetativo e estatura de planta em aveia

Eight crosses among oat lines were evaluated aiming to estimate heritability and to verify the effect of selection for plant height and heading date. Four F2 panicles from each cross were harvested in 1993. Each one generated one line of spaced plants in the field in the following year. The F3 plants were individually evaluated and separated in classes based on mean population and standard deviation. The same traits were evaluated in 1995 in plots representing the different classes. Heritability was estimated by parent x offspring regression method. Difference among classes was an indicator of selection efficiency. Heritability estimates varied from -0,73 to 0,84 for plant height and from 0,25 to 1,05 for heading date. Difference among classes was generally associated with high values of heritability. The heritability of the traits was high, indicating feasibility of selection in segregant generations. The conversion of data in standard deviation units allowed a reduction of genotype x environment interaction, leading to more precise estimates.
Recurrent Feature Reasoning for Image Inpainting

Existing inpainting methods have achieved promising performance for recovering regular or small image defects. However, filling in large continuous holes remains difficult due to the lack of constraints for the hole center. In this paper, we devise a Recurrent Feature Reasoning (RFR) network which is mainly constructed by a plug-and-play Recurrent Feature Reasoning module and a Knowledge Consistent Attention (KCA) module. Analogous to how humans solve puzzles (i.e., first solve the easier parts and then use the results as additional information to solve difficult parts), the RFR module recurrently infers the hole boundaries of the convolutional feature maps and then uses them as clues for further inference. The module progressively strengthens the constraints for the hole center and the results become explicit. To capture information from distant places in the feature map for RFR, we further develop KCA and incorporate it in RFR. Empirically, we first compare the proposed RFR-Net with existing backbones, demonstrating that RFR-Net is more efficient (e.g., a 4% SSIM improvement for the same model size). We then place the network in the context of the current state-of-the-art, where it exhibits improved performance. The corresponding source code is available at: https://github.com/jingyuanli001/RFR-Inpainting
Video assisted thoracoscopic surgery in the management of acute fibrinopurulent empyema in paediatric patients

Background: Empyema is the presence of pus in the pleural space that usually follows an episode of pneumonia in pediatric age group. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of management of acute fibrinopurulent stage of empyema by early video assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) in paediatric patients.Methods: The study was carried out at a tertiary care hospital in India. It was a prospective interventional observational study. The study included 40 children between age group 0-12 years attending the surgery in-patient department referred for further management of parapneumonic effusions who had clinical and radiological evidence of empyema and thoracocentesis confirmed purulent exudate in pleural cavity, were subjected to early VATS after thorough pre-operative workup.Results: The mean age was 7.22 years. Average operative time was 135.5 minutes. The mean duration of hospital stay was 7.5 days. Few complications were bleeding, superficial wound infection, bronchopleural fistula, pneumothorax, recurrence of empyema and incomplete expansion of lung.Conclusions: VATS facilitates the management of fibrinopurulent and organised pyogenic pleural empyema with less post-operative discomfort and complications and reduced hospital stay. However larger sample size study is required to come to a definitive conclusion.
Resistência de populações de cenoura à queima-das-folhas com diferentes níveis de germoplasma tropical

A queima-das-folhas e responsavel por perdas significativas na producao de cenoura e a resistencia genetica e uma das formas mais eficientes de controle da doenca. Objetivou-se com este trabalho avaliar a resistencia de progenies de populacoes de cenoura a queima-das-folhas com diferentes niveis de germoplasma tropical. Foram avaliadas as populacoes 561, 586 e 587 e como testemunhas as cultivares comerciais, Juliana e BRS Planalto. Foi utilizado o delineamento de blocos casualizados, com duas repeticoes e parcela de 1,2 m2. A doenca ocorreu de forma natural no campo e foi avaliada a cada cinco dias, a partir dos 72 dias apos a semeadura. As populacoes 561, 586 e 587 e a cultivar BRS Planalto apresentaram severidades semelhantes e inferiores as cultivares Brasilia e Juliana, as quais nao diferiram entre si. Nao foram observadas diferencas significativas na producao comercial e total de raizes. Nas analises realizadas entre as progenies dentro de cada populacao e as testemunhas nao foram observadas diferencas na producao comercial e total de raizes. Com relacao a severidade, as progenies da populacao 561 e 586 e BRS Planalto nao diferiram entre si e apresentaram maiores niveis de resistencia que Brasilia e Juliana. Contudo, uma progenie da populacao 586 apresentou resistencia intermediaria. Dez de 15 progenies da populacao 587 apresentaram niveis de resistencia semelhantes a BRS Planalto, enquanto cinco apresentaram resistencia semelhante a Brasilia e Juliana. Esta maior variabilidade fenotipica indica seu potencial para a obtencao de ganho genetico para resistencia a queima-das-folhas. A producao de raizes comerciais e totais das populacoes 561 e 586 apresentaram correlacao negativa com a severidade da doenca. Tais resultados indicam que a resistencia a queima-das-folhas atribui-se, majoritariamente, ao germoplasma tropical, observado em maior quantidade na populacao 561, cerca de 87,5%.
Comparative levels of free and conjugated plant estrogens in blood plasma of sheep and cattle fed estrogenic silage.

Plasma concentrations of the plant estrogens formononetin, daidzein, and their metabolite equol were determined in blood samples from dairy cattle and sheep, fed on red clover/grass silage. The results suggest tha the differences in sensitivity, described in the literature, between cattle and sheep to plant estrogens are certainly not caused by differences in their capacity to detoxify the estrogenic compounds
Mechanism of Estrogen Action: Lessons from the Estrogen Receptor-α Knockout Mouse

Estradiol-17b (E2) stimulates uterine and vaginal epithelial proliferation in vivo [1]. E2 also plays a critical role in other aspects of uterine and vaginal growth and adult function, and it is obligatory for normal epithelial morphogenesis, cytodifferentiation, and secretory activity in these organs. E2 elicits its effects via the estrogen receptor (ER), which functions as a ligand-activated transcription factor to turn on target genes in E2-responsive tissues. For many years it was believed that E2 acted through a single type of ER. However, the recent discovery [2, 3] of a second receptor, named ERb to distinguish it from the original receptor now termed ERa, has indicated that mediation of E2 action is more complicated than originally thought. ERb, like ERa, is a member of the steroid receptor superfamily, and low but detectable levels of ERb mRNA and protein have been detected in the rodent uterus and vagina [3–5]. However, E2 treatment of ERa knockout (ERKO) mice does not produce characteristic estrogenic responses such as vaginal epithelial stratification and cornification, uterine epithelial DNA synthesis, or increases in uterine wet weight and mRNA levels for uterine progesterone receptor, glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase, or lactoferrin [6], despite the expression of ERb mRNA in the uterus and vagina of these animals [4]. Therefore, although the role of ERb in the female reproductive tract has not been established, ERa seems to be the critical receptor for mediating vaginal and uterine responses commonly associated with E2 treatment. This review will therefore address only the role of ERa in various E2-induced processes such as epithelial proliferation and differentiation and will not deal with ERb further. ER is expressed in both epithelial and stromal cells of adult uterus and vagina [7, 8], and it was initially assumed that E2 effects on epithelium and stroma were mediated directly through ER in these tissue compartments. Several findings not consistent with this seemingly obvious mechanism of E2 action have appeared in recent years and sug-