Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A molecular phylogenetic study of Mannia (Marchantiophyta, Aytoniaceae) using chloroplast and nuclear markers

Abstract Phylogenetic relationships of 36 samples of Mannia and other Aytoniaceae were inferred based on sequences of the chloroplast trnL-trnF region and partial nuclear ribosomal LSU (or 26S) gene and using Targionia hypophylla and Athalamia hyalina as outgroups. Maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses were conducted on individual and combined molecular datasets. All phylogenetic tree topologies showed polytomies but suggest that Mannia has evolved from within Asterella and that there are two supported Mannia clades. Because Mannia is paraphyletic, with A. gracilis most closely related to M. triandra and M. pilosa, A. gracilis is transferred to Mannia. The major morphological differences between those genera are reevaluated. Based on molecular and morphological evidence Mannia is divided into the subgenera Mannia and Neesiella; Asterella subg. Graciles becomes a synonym of Mannia subg. Neesiella.
Efeito do Nível de Lisina da Dieta e do Sexo Sobre o Desempenho e Rendimento de Carcaça de Frangos de Corte

An experiment was carried out at Faculdade de Medicina Veterinaria e Zootecnia-UNESP-Botucatu to evaluate the effect of high dietary lysine levels and sex on broiler performance, carcass and breast meat yield. Two thousand Ross day-old chicks were reared in a 2x2 randomized factorial design (two sex and two dietary lysine levels). Starter diets (0 - 21 days) and grower diets (22 - 42 days) were formulated to comply with 100% of NRC (1994) lysine requirements, while lysine level of finisher diet (43 - 49 days) was 120% of NRC (1994) recommendation. Broilers were processed at 28, 35, 42 and 49 days for carcass and breast meat yield evaluation. Dietary lysine level didnt effect (p>.05) weight gain, feed conversion and carcass yield but high lysine levels resulted in less abdominal fat than low lysine level, in females. It was concluded that NRC (1994) lysine requirements are adequate to maximize carcass and breast meat yield.
Screening of bone mineral density (BMD) among elderly population in Jordan

Introduction: : The health of the skeletal system is a vital issue in elderlies, hence, screening studies that investigate elders’ bone health and identify associated factors affecting bone density are of prime importance. This study purposed to evaluate bone mineral density levels and examine its relationship with socio-demographic and clinical data, and body measurements among Jordanian elderlies aged 60 years and over. Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive correlational study was used using a systematic random sampling technique to recruit 155 participants in Amman governorate. A questionnaire consists of socio-demographic and clinical data, and a form measures bone mineral density and body mass index were used. Bone mineral density was measured using a CM200 light device, where the T-score used to assess the bone mineral density. The T -scores equal -1 < -2.5 indicate osteopenia, while < -2.5 reflect osteoporosis. Results: Of the 151 subjects with completed data, 34.5% osteopenia, and 9.2% osteoporosis. The lowest bone mineral density was observed among older participants, divorced, illiterate, experiencing arthritis disease, and had a family history of osteoporosis and fractures. Sex, marital status, number of cola glasses, and number of cigarettes had a negative correlation with T-score, conversely, arthritis and family history of fracture had a positive correlation. The number of cola glasses was the main predictor. Conclusion: Jordanian elderlies experienced low bone mineral density. Developing appropriate health promotion programs for changing unhealthy behaviors and screening purposes are needed to enhance the knowledge of bones health and reduce the risks of developing osteopenia or osteoporosis.
Pheromone communication and mating behaviour of coffee white stem borer, Xylotrechus quadripes Chevrolat (Coleoptera:Cerambycidae)

This study investigated pheromone communication and mating behaviour of the coffee white stem borer (CWSB), Xylotrechus quadripes (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), in South Yunan, China. Coupled gas chromatographic-electroantennographic detection (GC-EAD) and GC-mass spectrometric (MS) analyses of volatiles released by male and female CWSB identified 2-hydroxy-3-decanone and 2,3-decanedione as male-specific candidate pheromones. Further GC-EAD and GC-MS analyses confirmed that only (S)-2-hydroxy-3-decanone is produced by male CWSB and elicits antennal responses by male and female CWSB. In field experiments, 2-hydroxy-3-decanone as a trap bait afforded capture of one female CWSB, and in laboratory experiments it weakly attracted female but not male CWSB. Complex mating behaviour in CWSB includes: 1) attraction of potential mates by both sexes; 2) repeated landings (with ever decreasing distance) of a female next to a male; 3) males dashing to a nearby female; 4) rejection of mating attempts by females; 5) post-mating female guarding by males; and 6) size-dependent mating success of males. Considering this complex mating behaviour, lack of direct flight towards pheromone sources, mating near pheromone-baited traps, and only moderate attractiveness of (synthetic) pheromone, pheromone-based trapping of females does not seem to be a viable strategy for managing CWSB populations in China.
APPARENT FEED PARTICLE SIZE PREFERENCE BY BROILERS

Broiler chicks of different ages were used to study particle size disappearance and the effect of particle size on feed intake. The disappearance of particles larger than 1.18 mm was obvious at all ages. However, it was noticed that at 8 and 16 d disappearance of particles between > 1.18 mm and 2.36 mm. Throughout a 24-h period, particle breakdown was noted. Birds did eat these smaller particles at the end of a 24-h period, especially when the concentration of large particles was reduced. Chemical analysis revealed that birds selected material on the basis of particle size, since nutrient composition of the diet and of different diet fractions did not change throughout the day. Changing particle size abruptly from crumbles to pellets did not adversely affect overall feed consumption (P > 0.05) or bird performance. Key words: Broiler, particle size preference, crumbles, pellets
PURIFICATION AND PROPERTIES OF WILD-TYPE AND MUTANT GLUCOSE 6-PHOSPHATE DEHYDROGENASES AND OF 6-PHOSPHOGLUCONATE DEHYDROGENASE FROM DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

Glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase was purified to a homogeneous state from Drosophila melanogaster imagoes made homozygous for the X chromosome of a mutant male which showed two bands of enzyme activity on polyacrylamide gels as well as from Oregon R flies similarly made homozygous which showed only one major band, and their properties were compared with respect to molecular weight, pH optimum, specific activity, Km values and sensitivity to p-chloromercuribenzoate, MgCl2, dehydroepiandrosterone, heat and anti-Oregon R glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase antibody.The fast and slow bands of mutant enzyme had molecular weights of 115, 000 and 283, 000, respectively, while the wild-type enzyme had a molecular weight of 120, 000. Treatment with sodium dodecyl sulfate cleaved the three enzymes into a subunit having a molecular weight of 69, 000. This suggests that the slow and fast bands of the mutant enzyme represent tetramers and dimers of single polypeptides, respectively. Since the mobility of the fast mutant enzyme was the same as that of wild-type enzyme, it is inferred that the mutation resulted in a change of the quaternary structure of enzyme, without affecting its net charge in this particular instance. The mutant enzyme was more heat-stable than the wild-type enzyme, but they did not differ in other respects.6-Phosphogluconate dehydrogenase was also purified to a homogeneous state from the wild and mutant flies. No difference was found between the two strains of flies with respect to several parameters used.
Newly settled sea urchins in a kelp bed and urchin barren ground, a comparison of growth and mortality

Growth of newly settled purple sea urchins Strongylocentrotus purpuratus was studied using laboratory rearing of individuals at natural densities, size-frequency analysis of a recently settled cohort collected in field samples, and mark-recapture techniques with individuals injected with tetracycline. In the laboratory, sea urchins were reared on crustose coralline algae as characteristic of a sea-urchin barren ground (barrens), and on foliose red algal turf as characteristic of a kelp bed. Growth in a barrens was compared with growth in a kelp-bed habitat using all 3 methods. Field work was done at 2 subtidal sites near Santa Barbara, California, USA, from 1985 through 1987. S. purpuratus in the laboratory grew at similar rates for the first 50 d after settlement regardless of substrata (0.29 to 0.45 mm mo-l), and in the field grew slightly, but significantly, faster in the barrens (0.42 mm mo-') than in the kelp-bed (0.31 mm mo-l). At roughly 50 d of age and 0 8 to 1.2 mm test diameter, sea urchins switched from feeding by surface scraping to grazing on fleshy algae. Thereafter, growth was signlflcantly faster in the presence of macroalgae (0.56 to 1.67 mm mo-l), than in habitats or treatments without fleshy algae (0.12 to 0.27 mm mo-'). Based on these results, S purpuratus diameter at 1 yr old was estimated to be 3.6 mm in barrens and 17 mm in kelp-bed habitats. Newly settled sea urchins suffered higher mortality in the kelp bed than in the barrens, but individuals at slightly greater ages showed no detectable difference in mortality between the 2 habitats. The attainment of a threshold size for switching diets and increasing growth rate (if algae is available) may be a critical event in a sea urchin's life-history.
Constraining the Assimilation of SWOT Observations With Hydraulic Geometry Relations

The Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission expected to launch in 2021 will offer a unique opportunity to map river discharge at an unprecedented spatial resolution globally from observations of water surface elevation, width, and slope. Because river discharge will not be directly observed from SWOT, a number of algorithms of varying complexity have been developed to estimate discharge from SWOT observables. Outstanding issues include the lack of accurate prior information and parameter equifinality. We developed a new data assimilation discharge algorithm that aimed to overcome these limitations by integrating a data‐driven approach to estimate priors with a model informed by hydraulic geometry relations. A comprehensive simulated dataset of 18 rivers was used to evaluate the algorithm and four different configurations (rectangular channel, generic channel, and geomorphologically classified channel with and without regularization) to assess the impact of progressively adding hydraulic geometry constraints to the estimation problem. The algorithm with the full set of constraints outperformed the other configurations with median Nash‐Sutcliffe coefficients of 0.77, compared with −0.46, 0.31 and 0.66, while other error metrics showed similar improvement. Results from this study show the promise of this hybrid data‐driven approach to estimating river discharge from SWOT observations, although a number of enhancements need to be tested to improve the operational applicability of the algorithm.
Association of a new bocavirus with human respiratory tract infections

A novel human bocavirus (HBoV), discovered in 2005 in Sweden, has now been detected in many countries worldwide. Mostly found in hospitalized children with respiratory tract infections the virus is most likely the causative agent. With only generalized symptoms related to a viral infection, the only way to specifically detect HBoV is to apply molecular detection methods. HBoV is not only detected in respiratory tract secretions, but also in urine, faeces and blood. With a recently established cell culture replication system research on HBoV can advance to a new level.
The regulation of nitrate reduction in spinach leaves

Nitrate reduction did not occur in leaves in the dark in aerobic conditions but did occur in anaerobic conditions. Nitrate reduction in leaves in the dark in aerobic conditions was observed, however, when the respiratory electron transport chain was inhibited with antimycin A but not when it was inhibited with amytal or rotenone. It would appear that NADH generated outside the mitochondria was used for nitrate reduction in the dark under anaerobic conditions. The relevance of this observation to nitrate reduction in the light is discussed.
Influence of El Niño‐Southern Oscillation on baroclinic instability and storm tracks in the Southern Hemisphere

Earth's weather and climate are strongly influenced by synoptic scale systems such as extratropical cyclones. From this point of view, investigating the mechanisms associated with cyclogenesis, such as baroclinic instability (BI), which are defined by the thermal gradient and wind shear, are extremely important. However, atmospheric teleconnection patterns such as the El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon may affect BI in the preferred region of extratropical cyclones, known as the storm track (ST) region. Therefore, the present study shows the impact of ENSO on BI and STs in the Southern Hemisphere. BI is determined by means of the Eady growth rate method, while the STs are calculated from the kinetic energy and by means of the meridional heat transport. In general, the results show that STs calculated from the BI and the kinetic energy show seasonal variability during ENSO events. This results in Southern Hemisphere extratropical cyclones being more intense with trajectories towards lower (higher) latitudes during El Niño (La Niña) summers. In contrast, little difference is seen in El Niño and La Niña winters. For the calculation of the meridional heat transport at 500 hPa, the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis produced weaker transport relative to ERA‐Interim and previous studies.
(In)homogeneous invariant compact convex sets of probability measures

It is proved that for any iterated function system of contractions on a complete metric space there exists an invariant compact convex sets of probability measures of compact support on this space. A similar result is proved for the inhomogeneous compact convex sets of probability measures of compact support. Анотація. Математичні підвалини теорії фракталів запропонував Дж. Гатчінсон у 80-х роках минулого століття. Зокрема, він означив поняття атрактора (або інваріантного об’єкта) для ітерованої системи стискуючих відображень (скорочено IFS) на повному метричному просторі і довів існування таких атракторів у гіперпросторі (просторові непорожніх компактних підмножин) та просторі ймовірнісних мір з компактними носіями на повному метричному просторі. Доведення Гатчінсона використовують принцип стискуючих відображень і, зокрема, потребують відповідної метризації простору ймовірнісних мір. Незабаром аналогічні результати було отримано і для неоднорідних атракторів (тобто атракторів з приєднаними ущільнюючими множинами), які є природними узагальненнями інваріантних множин та інваріантних мір. У цій статті ми запроваджуємо поняття інваріантного об’єкта для IFS у просторі компактних опуклих множин ймовірнісних мір з компактними носіями у повному метричному просторі. Такі компактні опуклі множини мір мають численні застосування у теорії очікуваної корисності. На відміну від гіперпростору компактних опуклих підмножин повного метричного простору, інваріантні об’єкти в якому виглядають регулярними, атрактори IFS у просторі компактних опуклих множин мір зберігають іррегулярність, притаманну фрактальним множинам. Одним з основних результатів є теорема існування та єдиності інваріантної компактної опуклої множини ймовірнісних мір з компактними The authors are indebted to the referee for his/her valuable comments. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: 37E25, 54E35 UDC 515.12
Optimization for sensory and nutritional quality of a mixed berry fruit juice elaborated with coconut water

A new juice market, consisting of mixtures of fruits, is expanding in the beverage segment, in order to increase even more the nutritional and sensory characteristics. On addition, in the preparation of juices, the option exists to replace water with coconut water. The aim of this study was to develop and optimize mixed juices based on coconut water and berries (strawberry, blackberry, and red raspberry), through the mixture design, desirability function, and response surface methodology. Mixed juices were evaluated by rheological, physical, physicochemical, sensory, and nutritional characteristics. The treatments produced with strawberry (50% or 100%) were preferred among the tasters, and the juices elaborated using blackberry contributed to higher viscosity, antioxidant activity, phenolic compounds, and total anthocyanins. According to optimization, the mixed juices should contain 50-60% strawberry, 40% blackberry, and 0-10% raspberry. Thus, the mixed juices produced from these fruits have better characteristics than the juice of only one fruit type.
The value and practical utility of intraoperative touch imprint cytology of sentinel lymph node(s) in patients with breast cancer: A retrospective cytology-histology correlation study

Objective: Intraoperative evaluation of sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) for patients with breast cancer is widely performed with frozen section (FS), cytology, or a combination of both. Touch imprint cytology (TIC) reportedly has an equivalent sensitivity to FS. We studied its diagnostic utility to detect SLN metastases. Materials and Methods: Cases of 367 patients with breast cancer who underwent intraoperative valuation of SLNs (507 LNs) were evaluated. All FS and corresponding TIC slides of SLNs of each case were reviewed microscopically for the presence of metastases of any size. If present, the metastatic focus was measured on the FS. Results: Of these 507 SLNs, 82 LNs (16.2%) from 69 women were found to have metastases in the FS and consisted of 5 LNs of isolated tumor cells, 15 of micrometastasis, and 62 of macrometastasis. TIC identified metastases in 69 of these 82 SLNs (sensitivity: 84.1%, specificity: 100%, and accuracy: 97.4%). All macrometastases could be detected by TIC, whereas TIC identified approximately 50% of micrometastases and none of isolated tumor cells. The size detection limit of metastatic foci, defined as the smallest dimension of metastasis detected without false negatives, was 2 mm. The smallest metastatic focus identified was 0.8 mm. Conclusions: TIC of SLNs is of great use given its negative predictive value of 100% for identification of macrometastasis in our study. For intraoperative evaluation of SLNs, based on our data, a practical two-step approach is proposed: SLN evaluation should be initially performed by TIC and then proceed to FS histological analysis only when cytologically positive to determine the size of metastatic focus.
Morphology and life cycle of a new loriciferan from the Atlantic coast of Florida with an emended diagnosis and life cycle of Nanaloricidae (Loricifera)

A new interstitial loriciferan, Nanaloricus gwenae sp. nov., is described from coarse-sand and shell-hash habitats (Amphioxus sand), at 15–17 m depth, 6–7 miles off the coast of Fort Pierce, FL, USA. The new species is very closely related to the type species Nanaloricus mysticus found off the coast of Roscoff, France in nearly the same kind of sediment (Dentalium sand). All life stages (Higgins larva, postlarva, and adult) in the life cycle of the new species were found through the 10-year investigation, leading to the conclusion that all species of Nanaloricidae have only a sexual reproductive cycle. The adult of the new species can be distinguished by the different body shape, the lorical spikes and sculpture, and the shape of the scalids. The postlarva has stronger longitudinal ridges on the lorical plates and the Higgins larva has toes with smaller mucrones than those of N. mysticus. An emended definition of the Nanaloricidae is provided based on the new formula of the number of rows and shape of the scalids on the introvert. The associated meiofauna found in the subtidal sand or shell hash is both abundant and diverse. Tardigrades, gastrotrichs, and kinorhynchs are among the most common associates. N. gwenae sp. nov. is represented by only eight specimens collected during a 10-year period of sampling this habitat.
Mean platelet volume in acute pancreatitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Several studies have suggested there may be statistically significant differences in mean platelet volume (MPV) between the onset and remission of acute pancreatitis (AP). This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to better characterize the correlation between MPV and AP by identifying all relevant studies and summarizing their results. Methods: A comprehensive literature review was conducted using EMBASE, PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Google Scholar from January 2000 to December 2019 to identify all studies that reported MPV at the onset or remission of AP, or both. Effect estimates from each study were extracted and combined using the random-effect, generic inverse variance method of DerSimonian and Laird. The Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment scale was used to appraise the quality of the included studies. Results: Ten observational studies, including 1019 patients and 363 controls, were included in the meta-analysis. MPV was smaller at the onset of AP than on remission (standardized mean difference= -0.33 fL, 95% confidence interval -0.54 to -0.12 fL; P=0.002); however, a moderate degree of heterogeneity (I2=72%, P≤0.001) was observed. Subgroup analysis indicated comparable MPV in relation to the severity of AP. Similarly, no statistically significant difference was detected between AP patients and controls at either onset (P=0.760) or remission (P=0.700) of the disease. No statistically significant publication bias was detected (Eggers’ regression P=0.938). Subgroup analysis suggested age (P<0.001) and sex (P=0.01) adjustment as potential sources of heterogeneity. Conclusion: MPV is smaller at the onset of AP. Further clinical evaluation is needed to assess its potential prognostic value.