Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reproductive biology and space–time modelling of spawning for sailfish Istiophorus platypterus in the western Atlantic Ocean

ABSTRACT This study presents data and estimates reproductive parameters of the sailfish Istiophorus platypterus (Shaw, 1792) in the western Atlantic, useful for future stock assessments of the species in the Atlantic Ocean. During the period 2006–2011, a total of 1132 fish were sampled by scientific observers on board Venezuelan and Brazilian longline vessels and from artisanal fisheries based out of Cumaná, Puerto La Cruz and Playa Verde, Venezuela and Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The ovaries of 543 females were classified into five ovarian development phases based on microscopic analysis of the most advanced group of oocytes. Generalized additive models were applied to the gonadal index and sex ratio data in order to assess spatio-temporal trends of the reproductive activity and identify the spawning areas. Space–time effect was a significant factor contributing to changes in sex ratio and reproductive activity. Spawning activity was observed in two distinct areas. On the south-east Brazilian coast spawning peaked during December–February, while in the south-eastern Caribbean Sea spawning occurred between March and September, with its peak in March and April. Using a Bayesian approach, size at 50% maturity was estimated to be 146.12 cm (credibility interval of 95%, 138.45–152.09 cm). Batch fecundity ranged from 436,800 to 2,492,500 hydrated oocytes per female. This study confirms multiple aggregation spawning for this species in the western Atlantic Ocean.
Assessment of RAPD Markers to Analyse the Genetic Diversity among Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) Genotypes

Genetic diversity estimation among different species is an important tool for genetic improvement to maximize the yield, desirable quality, wider adaptation, pest and insect resistance that ultimately boosting traditional plant breeding methods. The most efficient way of diversity estimation is application of molecular markers. In this study, twenty random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers were utilized to estimate the genetic diversity between ten sunflower genotypes. Overall 227 bands were amplified by 20 primers with an average of 11.35 bands per primer. RAPD data showed 86.34% polymorophic bands and 13.65% of monomorophic bands. Genetic similarity was ranged from 50.22% to 87.22%. The lowest similarity (50.22%) was observed between FH-352 and FH-359 and the maximum similarity 87.22% was observed between A-23 and G-46. Polymorphic information content (PIC) values were varying from 0.05 to 0.12 with a mean of 0.09. Cluster analysis based on RAPD results displayed two major distinct groups 1 and 2. Group-2 contains FH-352 which was the most diverse genotype, while group-1 consists of few sub groups with all other genotypes. Ample diversity was found in all the genotypes. Present study reveals novel information about sunflower genome which can be used in future studies for sunflower improvement.
Effects of dietary levels of protein on growth, feed utilization and physiological parameters for juvenile Dabry's sturgeon, Acipenser dabryanus

Five semi‐purified diets were formulated to contain graded levels of dietary protein (340, 390, 440, 490 and 540 g/kg diet), and each diet was assigned to triplicate groups of eight juvenile Dabry's sturgeon for 50 days. Results showed that specific growth rate increased linearly with increasing dietary protein levels from 340 to 440 g/kg diet, then levelled off at higher protein levels. Higher dietary protein (440 and 540 g/kg) significantly increased the feed intake and feed efficiency ratio of fish compared to lower protein diets (340 to 490 g/kg diet) (p .05) among groups was observed in glycogen content. As dietary protein level increased, protein and ash content of fish dorsal muscle were greatly enhanced, whereas lipid content was significantly reduced (p < .05). Based on broken‐line regression analysis of SGR against dietary protein levels, the optimum dietary protein level for maximal growth of juvenile Dabry's sturgeon is 446.68 g/kg diet.
Reproductive Performance of Crossbred Cattle under Intensive Management Condition

| The study was carried out at Nagori Dairy Farm, Karachi, Pakistan to investigate the reproductive and productive traits of twenty Crossbred (Holstein-Friesian x Red Sindhi cattle 50% blood level) and twenty Red Sindhi cattle under intensive management conditions. A significant (<0.05) difference was found between the groups for age at puberty, age at first calving, calving interval, 1st post-partum estrus. Mean values for these traits were 616.850 ± 23.50, 928.350 ± 31.803, 413.050 ± 10.362, 105.05 ± 9.004 days in Red Sindhi cattle and 451.650 ± 21.660, 796.5 ± 39.771, 372.200 ± 7.486, 45.300 ± 5.671 days in Crossbred cows, respectively. Slightly higher values for gestation length were observed in Red Sindhi (280.200 ± 0.596 days) than Crossbred cattle (277.35 ± 1.155 days). Significantly higher milk yield per lactation was recorded in Crossbred cows (6052.250 ± 275.444 kg) than Red Sindhi cows (3952.2 ± 137.209 kg). No significant (>0.05) difference was found for service period and dry period between groups. Mean values for service period and dry period were 124.15 ± 10.162 and 89.700 ± 0.596 days in Red Sindhi cows and 181.700 ± 59.199 and 86.950 ± 5.504 days in Crossbred cows. Both groups (Red Sindhi cattle and Crossbred cattle) calved normally at 75% and 65%, respectively. Normal expulsion (within 6-8 hrs.) of placenta was 85% in Red Sindhi and 80% in Crossbred cattle. In conclusion, reproductive and productive performance of Crossbred cattle was significantly superior to the local cattle breed in the study area.
Indirect effects of bear hunting: a review from Scandinavia

Abstract: Harvest by means of hunting is a commonly used tool in large carnivore management. To evaluate the effects of harvest on populations, managers usually focus on numerical or immediate direct demographic effects of harvest mortality on a population's size and growth. However, we suggest that managers should also give consideration to indirect and potential evolutionary effects of hunting (e.g., the consequences of a change in the age, sex, and social structure), and their effects on population growth rate. We define “indirect effects” as hunting-induced changes in a population, including human-induced selection, that result in an additive change to the population growth rate “lambda” beyond that due to the initial offtake from direct mortality. We considered 4 major sources of possible indirect effects from hunting of bears: (1) changes to a population's age and sex structure, (2) changes to a population's social structure, (3) changes in individual behavior, and (4) human-induced selection. We identified empirically supported, as well as expected, indirect effects of hunting based primarily on >30 years of research on the Scandinavian brown bear (Ursus arctos) population. We stress that some indirect effects have been documented (e.g., habitat use and daily activity patterns of bears change when hunting seasons start, and changes in male social structure induce sexually selected infanticide and reduce population growth). Other effects may be more difficult to document and quantify in wild bear populations (e.g., how a younger age structure in males may lead to decreased offspring survival). We suggest that managers of bear and other large carnivore populations adopt a precautionary approach and assume that indirect effects do exist, have a potential impact on population structure, and, ultimately, may have an effect on population growth that differs from that predicted by harvest models based on direct effects alone.
Heterochromatin and the Synaptonemal Complex Maintain Homologous Centromere Interactions in Mouse Spermatocytes

How achiasmate chromosomes become aligned and segregate during meiotic prophase is an important issue in eukaryotic genetics. We show that chromosomes are frequently transmitted properly in the absence of a chiasma in mouse spermatocytes, suggesting the existence of back-up systems aiding achiasmate chromosome segregation. Here, we report mechanisms that maintain the alignment of homologous pairs prior to disjunction, which may enable achiasmate chromosomes to segregate from each other in meiosis I. We present direct physical evidence showing centromere interactions provide a stable physical link between chromosome pairs in the absence of recombination and that pericentromeric heterochromatin tethers the centromeres of chromosome pairs after dissolution of synaptonemal complex-mediated centromere paring. Our results establish for the first time in a mammal a role for heterochromatin in maintaining the alignment of chromosomes in the absence of euchromatic synapsis and suggest that homologous recognition may lead to segregation, even in the absence of recombination. Highlights Non-recombination based systems promote achiasmate chromosome disjunction in mice. Two novel mechanisms maintain homologous pairs alignment just before segregation. One is directed by SYCP1 at centromeres; the other by centromeric heterochromatin. A comprehensive analysis of pre- and post-synaptic centromere interactions.
Efficacy of bio-pesticides against the jassid, Amrasca biguttula biguttula in okra at Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.

The study was carried out during Kharif 2013 and summer 2013-14 in Bhubaneswar for evaluating some biopesticides like Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae, Verticillium lecanii, Neemazol against the jassid in okra. The treatments were applied twice at 15 and 30 days after germination (DAG). The schedule with acetamiprid was the most effective one reducing the incidence of jassids from 4.53/plant to 1.28/plant in 10 days. The biopesticides were also effective against the jassid recording incidence of 3.41, 3.47, 3.84, 4.20, 4.84 and 5.60/ plant in the schedules with M. anisopliae, C. zastrowi sillemi @ (1 lakh/ha), C. zastrowi sillemi @ (75,000/ha), B. bassiana, V. lecanii and Neemazol respectively. While the percentage reduction of the pest was highest in acetamiprid schedule (90.59%), in the other BIPM schedules it was 74.85, 74.49, 71.77, 69.02, 64.42 and 58.84%, respectively.
Great theories of species diversity in space and why they were forgotten: The beginnings of a spatial ecology and the Nordic early 20th‐century botanists

Sometimes, we stumble over literature revealing that well‐known and groundbreaking theories have previously been proposed by earlier researchers. Going back to the 1920s and a group of Nordic botanists, we discovered that they had already accomplished much of what theoretical ecologists and biographers, especially Americans, did half a century later. In order to restore their legacy and understand why the work of the early spatial ecologists in Scandinavia and Finland was forgotten, we examined their publications, recalculated some of their results from their original data and compared these to the more recent independent discoveries of these theories. These Nordic early 20th‐century botanists worked with sample areas (mainlands) as well as island systems, examining spatial patterns and foreseeing or even building probabilistic approaches to species–area relationships (SARs), occupancy‐frequency distributions (OFDs) and species‐to‐genus (S/G) ratios. Many theories in spatial ecology and biogeography are linked to the SAR, such as MacArthur and Wilson's equilibrium theory of island biogeography (based on colonization and extinction), Darlington's rule of thumb, Preston's canonical hypothesis, Diamond's rules of reserve design, and Coleman's random‐placement theory. However, many of the most important SAR‐based theories—as the mathematical shape of both mainland and island SARs as well as rules of thumb, colonization rates on islands, and the random‐placement theory—had already been discovered or discussed in the 1920s by members of the Stockholm group which included the Swedes Gunnar Romell, Olof Arrhenius, Harald Kylin, and The Svedberg, and a Finn, Widar Brenner. The notion of stochastic S/G ratios and the idea that distance affects colonization rates can be traced back to another Finn, Alvar Palmgren. Great theories like these may disappear, if they are, as these, buried in obscure journals or written in languages other than English. There was also almost no audience in the 1920s and 30s, as mathematical theories were less acceptable at that time. Perhaps even more importantly, a devastating dispute (“The Great Polemic”) arose between the Stockholm group of theoretically and mathematically inclined botanists and the Uppsala group of descriptive phytosociologists. The fight, in which the Uppsala group won, was more a political and sociological than an intellectual one. As a result, not only the budding discipline of spatial ecology faded into oblivion but also the researchers were lost to science, at least to spatial ecology and biogeography, and descriptive and taxonomic approaches came to dominate Nordic ecology right up to the 1960s.
Population Fluctuation and Vertical Distribution of the Soybean Looper (Chrysodeixis includes) in Soybean Culture

The objective of this work was to study the population fluctuation and the vertical distribution of the Chrysodeixis includes (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in the leaf canopy of soybeans. The experiments were conducted under field conditions in the experimental area of the Embrapa Agropecuaria Oeste during the 2014/2015 harvest. Adult monitoring was performed using Delta-type traps, baited with the pest sexual pheromone. The eggs were collected in the soybean plants and the caterpillars monitored through the beat cloth. The population peaks of C. includes occurred in the reproductive period of the soybean plants, although the adults were also found in the season soybean. Although there was no significant relationship between the trapped adults and the immature forms of C. includes sampled with the beat cloth, a significant linear and positive relationship was found between the egg and caterpillar densities of the pest in the culture. Adults preferentially oviposited on the lower part of the soybean plants, while the caterpillars preferred to position themselves predominantly in the lower and mid region of the plants. However, at warmer temperatures during the day, the caterpillars migrate to the upper areas of the soybean plants.
A GIS-based risk reduction approach for the hazardous materials routing problem in Gaziantep

ABSTRACT The transportation of hazardous materials assumes a fundamental importance, especially in urban areas, in order to identify possible alternative routes and to choose the route with minimum risk. Therefore, considering minimization risk rather than minimization distance to prevent a potential danger being transformed into a real event is necessary. In this article , a geographic information system (GIS)–based solution approach is developed to quantify the factors on each link in the network that contribute to a possible route. Based on the origin and destination of each shipment, the risks associated with the routes that minimize (1) the transport distance, (2) the population exposure, (3) the probability of an incident, and (4) the emergency response are evaluated. Proposed risk models are applied to fuel-oil transportation problem between resource point and 78 gasoline stations through the road network of Gaziantep city center. Results show that the proposed framework can contribute to the thought processes of policy-makers and carriers when they evaluate possible routes in order to minimize damage for transporting fuel oil.
Nutrient composition and in vitro digestion parameters of Jerusalem artichoke ( Helianthus tuberosus L.) herbage at different maturity stages in horse and ruminant

Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) is a tuberous plant belonging to Asteraceae family and originating from North America that can be cultivated in various areas of the world (Gunnarsson et al., 2014). It is a 3–4 m long perennial plant. Its length, colour of tubers, numbers of branches and stems, and leaf ratio are dependent on variety, soil type and climatic conditions (Kays and Nottingham, 2007; Szpunar-Krok et al., 2016). It can be cultivated on various soil types (pH 4.5–8.2 and salinity) and different climatic conditions (in average 6.3–26.6 °C). In the leaves there are natural substances like β-bisabolene, ABSTRACT. The aim of the study was to determine the nutrient composition and in vitro digestion parameters of Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) herbage at different maturity stages (vegetative, early flowering, full flowering and early seeding) in horses and ruminants. The crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), ash, non-fibrous carbohydrate (NFC), neutral detergent fibre assayed with a heat stable amylase and expressed exclusive of residual ash (aNDFom), acid detergent fibre expressed exclusive of residual ash (ADFom), acid detergent lignin (ADL), total condensed tannins (TCT), total saponin (TSP) and carotenoids (lutein, zeaxanthin, lycopene and α-,β-,γ-carotenes) content in plant samples were analysed. The in vitro total gas and methane production, metabolizable energy (ME), true dry matter disappearance (T-DMd), true organic matter disappearance (T-OMd), gas yield (GY24), partial factor (PF24) and microbial crude protein production (MCP) values and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) concentration in fermentation fluid for herbage samples were determined with the in vitro digestion techniques carried out using horse faeces and ruminant fluids. The aNDFom, ADFom, ADL, EE and TCT content increased with plant maturation (P < 0.05). Zeaxanthin, lycopene and β-carotene content was the highest in full flowering and the lowest in early seeding plant (P < 0.05). With the plant maturation the following parameters decreased (P < 0.05): CP, NFC, ash and TSP content in plant samples, and in vitro total gas and methane production, T-DMd, T-OMd, ME values and molarities of individual VFAs for both horses and ruminants. Consequently, Jerusalem artichoke herbage, especially at vegetative stage, has the potential to be used as quality forage in terms of high/moderate nutrient composition and satisfactory digestion values for both horses and ruminants. Received: 25 November 2016 Revised: 19 June 2017 Accepted: 8 September 2017
Genomic Analysis of the Population Structure and Virulence of the Human Pathogen, Cryptococcus Neoformans Var. Grubii

This study examined a large cohort of clinical and environmental strains of Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii to better understand its population structure and identify potential markers significantly associated with clinical isolates or increased virulence capacity. C. neoformans var. grubii is an opportunistic fungal pathogen infecting nearly 1 million patients a year, mostly immunocompromised individuals. Previous work using multi-locus sequence typing analysis identified three sublineages: VNI, VNII, and VNB. Unlike the other two sublineages, the VNB sublineage is constrained to sub-Saharan Africa, exhibits high genetic variability, and encompasses a mix of environmental and clinical isolates. Nearly 400 diverse isolates were selected for sequencing and SNP genotype data were generated and provided as input to the STRUCTURE and smartPCA software to further clarify the population structure. This population analysis revealed a split in the VNB sublineage along with the presence of hybrid and introgressed strains. These genotype data and population information were used with the GEMMA software to identify potential markers significantly associated with clinical strains. GWAS identified twelve markers significantly associated with clinical strains, several within known virulence genes. Additional GWAS analysis utilized phenotypic characterization data for oxidative stress, fluconazole drug resistance, and melanization along with the genotype data. This revealed that three clinical strains harbored significantly associated mutations in BZP4 and exhibited decreased melanin production similar to the melanin-deficient Lac1 deletion strain. These data highlight the utility of GWAS in the analysis of complex traits of pathogenic fungi and provide new markers for further virulence studies.
Response of Glyphosate Resistant Palmer Amaranth ( Amaranthus palmeri ) to Protoporphyrinogen Oxidase Inhibiting Herbicides in Tennessee

Protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO or Protox)-inhibiting herbicides are commonly used to control glyphosate resistance (GR) Palmer amaranth in soybeans grown in the United States. Continuous use of PPO herbicides has increased the selection for PPO resistance in Palmer amaranth. The aim of this study was on Palmer amaranth to confirm resistance to fomesafen, determine the resistance factor, evaluate the effect Palmer amaranth size on control with fomesafen, and observe plant response to other foliar-applied herbicides. Several populations showed reduced control at 14 DAT, while susceptible Palmer amaranth control was 98%. A Palmer amaranth population from Shelby County, Tennessee was 4X resistant to fomesafen, also resistant to ALS and glyphosate, but was controlled by atrazine and glufosinate. Palmer amaranth size influenced fomesafen response with less control observed on larger plants. Introduction Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri S. Watson) has been the center of attention for many weed scientists as this pernicious weed continues to evolve resistance to multiple modes of actions (MOAs). In a survey conducted by the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) Palmer amaranth was ranked the most troublesome weed in the United States (Anonymous 2016). There are several attributes of Palmer amaranth that are responsible for its competitive nature. Prolific seed production (Keeley et al. 1987; Sellers et al. 2003), rapid growth rate (Ehleringer 1983; Horak and Loughin 2000; Sellers et al. 2003), wide dispersion of pollen over
Capillary electrophoresis of serum proteins across the lifespan and different metabolic stages in sheep

In recent years, sheep have been used extensively in animal and veterinary sciences research and also as a large animal model for pre-clinical and translational research due to similarities with humans. The objectives of this study were the characterization and evaluation of the serum concentration of total protein and their fractions, as determined by free-solution capillary electrophoresis in ewes of different ages and physiological states. For that purpose, 80 ewes were divided according to age or physiological state in eight groups. Blood samples were drawn during the same season and in the same flock, and serum protein electrophoresis was performed by an automated system. There were significant differences between the reference range of different ages, for total protein, albumin, alpha 1 and alpha 2, and gamma globulins. Physiological states showed significant differences between dry and lactation groups for total protein and beta globulin values. Total protein and protein fractions gradually increased across the lifespan, and decreased after 8 years of age. The knowledge obtained via this study help validate the influence of age and physiological states on serum protein variability, which could be used for diagnostic and research purposes.