Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Captive breeding conditions decrease metabolic rates and alter morphological traits in the endangered Spanish toothcarp, Aphanius iberus

Funding information Departament d'Innovació, Universitats i Empresa, Generalitat de Catalunya, Grant/Award Number: ref. 2017 SGR 548; Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Grant/Award Number: CGL2013‐ 43822‐R and CGL2016‐80820‐R; Universitat de Girona, Grant/Award Number: IFUdG17 Abstract Physiological features of species can determine the resilience and adaptation of organisms to the environment. Swimming capacity and metabolic traits are key factors for fish survival, mating and predator–prey interactions. Individuals of the same species can display high phenotypic variation often in response to varying environmental conditions. We investigated the effects of captive breeding conditions on swimming capacity, metabolic traits and morphology by comparing a captive population with a wild population of the endangered Spanish toothcarp (Aphanius iberus). We measured swimming capabilities and oxygen‐uptake rates simultaneously, the latter as a proxy for metabolic rate, using a swim tunnel respirometer. Results showed significant differences in standard metabolic rate (SMR), maximum metabolic rate (MMR) and absolute aerobic scope (AAS) between populations, as well as differences in morphological features between populations and sexes. In contrast, we did not find significant differences in critical swimming speed between populations or sexes. Differences in SMR between sexes were found in the captive population, and males showed nearly a twofold increase in SMR when compared with females. SMR, MMR and AAS were, on average, twofold lower for the captive population in comparison with the wild population. These differences in metabolic traits likely reflected captivity conditions, which were low food availability and the absence of predators, which in turn, may have influenced morphological traits, such as body and caudal peduncle shape and head size. At the same time, morphological traits also influenced metabolic traits of the populations. The lower SMR and MMR of captive individuals may be related to their deeper body shapes. Taken together, our results suggested that captive breeding conditions caused significant physiological and morphological changes in the endangered Spanish toothcarp. Reduced metabolic traits and changes in morphology may affect fitness‐related traits of the captive populations once reintroduced into the wild, thereby compromising conservation efforts. We therefore recommend to experimentally testing for the effects and consequences of captive breeding conditions
PEG grafting of polyethylenimine (PEI) exerts different effects on DNA transfection and siRNA-induced gene targeting efficacy

Background: Gene targeting by RNA interference (RNAi) is mediated through small interfering RNA (siRNA), which, as plasmid DNA molecules, can be delivered into cells by polyethylenimines (PEI). Grafting with poly(ethylene glycol) has been introduced previously to improve PEI biocompatibility; however, data on the effects of PEGylation have been somewhat contradictory and various PEI(-PEG) need to be evaluated independently for DNA transfection and siRNA gene targeting efficacies. Aim: We directly compare plasmid DNA transfection and siRNA-mediated gene targeting efficacies, employing a larger set of polyethylenimine-graft-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEI-g-PEG; PEI(-PEG)) with different molecular weights and degrees of PEG substitution. Method: We performed tissue culture-based bioassays on DNA transfection and siRNA-mediated targeting efficacies as well as on toxicity and cellular nucleic acid uptake, and, using sensitive assays based on radioactive labelling, physicochemically characterize the complexes regarding the degree of nucleic acid complexation and complex stabilities under various conditions. Results: In contrast to the DNA transfection efficacy, siRNA-mediated gene targeting is much less dependent on the PEGylation of PEI or on the N/P (= PEI nitrogen/nucleic acid phosphate) ratio. A more detailed analysis reveals that, in order to define optimal N/P ratios for DNA transfection, complex toxicities and nucleic acid uptake are the most critical parameters. In contrast, at optimal N/P ratios, complex stabilities and complexation efficacies determine PEI(-PEG)/DNA transfection efficacies and the major differences between various PEI(-PEG) are observed. All these parameters are less critical for PEI(-PEG)/siRNA gene targeting efficacy. Thus, our data lead to the distinction between three PEI(-PEG) groups, which relies on the differences in transfection rather than gene targeting efficacies, and which is correlated with the molecular weights and degrees of PEG substitution. Conclusion: In contrast to PEI(-PEG)/DNA complexes, a broader panel of PEI-PEG are capable of siRNA-mediated gene targeting. Thus, PEG grafting of PEI requires a separate evaluation of siRNA and DNA complexes, which expands the portfolio of available PEI(-PEG) for the preparation of non-toxic, biocompatible siRNA delivery reagents for the induction of RNAi.
Acute static stretching with different volumes improves hamstring flexibility but not reactive strength index and leg stiffness in well-trained judo athletes

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the effects of different volumes of static stretching exercises (SS) on the reactive strength index (RSI), leg stiffness (K leg ), and hamstring flexibility in well-trained judo athletes. Method: In total, 17 international level judo athletes (11 women and 6 men; age, 20.47 ± 1.59 years; experience in judo, 11.35 ± 1.84 years) were recruited for this study. The athletes completed three different SS sessions named low (LV–SS: 3.5 min), moderate (MV–SS: 7 min), and high volumes (HV–SS: 10.5 min), 72 h apart, in a randomized crossover study. Before and after each SS exercise session, hamstring flexibility, RSI and K leg were evaluated by a sit-and-reach test and a Myotest accelerometric system, respectively. Results: Different volumes of SS exercises improved hamstring flexibility (p .05). Different volumes of SS exercises neither improved nor reduced RSI and K leg (p > .05). Conclusion: Judo athletes can use LV–SS, MV–SS, or HV-SS for hamstring flexibility enhancement, and SS exercises can be used as a part of a warm-up session prior to judo training or competition.
‘An awful state of affairs for you’: managing the needs of older prisoners – a case study from the Australian Capital Territory

ABSTRACT The 2013–2017 Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that children were abused in over 4000 Australian institutions between 1980 and 2015. The Commission referred at least 309 matters relating to abuse in Catholic institutions to the police. It is predicted that, in the coming years, older males will comprise an increasingly large part of the prison population in Australia. High increases are already being noted in one Australian jurisdiction, the Australian Capital Territory (the ACT). This paper provides a discussion on the current experiences of older prisoners in Australia and how agencies, such as corrective services, can best address the needs of this population in the coming years.
Mutual ‘App’reciation: Co-production as a model for delivering digital capability within social work education

ABSTRACT A major national project, commissioned by Health Education England and delivered by the Social Care Institute for Excellence, in partnership with the British Association of Social Workers is currently studying digital capabilities across the social work profession. The project aims to chart the existing landscape and produce ethical guidance, together with a set of digital capabilities, which will map to existing frameworks. The initial Stakeholders’ Report, has important implications for social work education at all levels, as well as emphasizing relationship and co-production as crucial values for digital design and delivery. This article responds to the initial outputs of this project, by describing the design and delivery of a mobile app created within a UK University Social Work Department, using a co-production model. The completed mobile app is cited as a key example within the Digital Capabilities for Social Work initial Stakeholder Report, which also emphasizes the values which underpinned the app creation. The article is linked to a previous paper, describing original app development within social work education and forms part of a rapidly growing body of work, which attempts to address issues highlighted within the national Digital Capabilities project.
Ultrasensitive Ti3C2TX MXene/Chitosan Nanocomposite-Based Amperometric Biosensor for Detection of Potential Prostate Cancer Marker in Urine Samples

Two-dimensional layered nanomaterial Ti3C2TX (a member of the MXene family) was used to immobilise enzyme sarcosine oxidase to fabricate a nanostructured biosensor. The device was applied for detection of sarcosine, a potential prostate cancer biomarker, in urine for the first time. The morphology and structures of MXene have been characterised by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Electrochemical measurements, SEM and AFM analysis revealed that MXene interfaced with chitosan is an excellent support for enzyme immobilisation to fabricate a sensitive biosensor exhibiting a low detection limit of 18 nM and a linear range up to 7.8 µM. The proposed biosensing method also provides a short response time of 2 s and high recovery index of 102.6% for detection of sarcosine spiked into urine sample in a clinically relevant range.
Larch needle breakdown in contrasting streams of an alpine glacial floodplain

Larch (Larex decidua Mill.) is an early successional tree species of glacial sediments and valley side-slopes at treeline in the Swiss Alps. In such areas, the needles from this deciduous conifer are a dominant source of particulate organic matter to springs and streams of glacial floodplains. We examined the breakdown of larch needles in 5 stream types of a glacial floodplain in the Swiss Alps in relation to macroinvertebrates, aquatic fungi, and litter nutrient concentrations. The 5 streams ranged from a physically harsh pro-glacial (kryal) stream that lacked significant input of terrestrially derived particulate organic matter to a stable side-slope springbrook that flowed through a mixed larch/pine forest with alder also present in the riparian zone. We hypothesized that needle breakdown (as a surrogate of ecosystem function) would be significantly faster in the springbrook than in the other streams, reflecting differences in macroinvertebrate and fungal assemblages present among streams. Although needle breakdown was generally slow, especially relative to alder leaves, parameters of litter breakdown were indeed higher in the springbrook than in the other streams. Concentrations of nutrients (N and P) found in decomposing needles were 2 to 4× higher in the springbrook than in the other streams. Ergosterol levels (a measure of fungal biomass) in needles were 4× greater in the springbrook than for needles in the kryal and main channel sites. Last, abundances of macroinvertebrates colonizing needle packs, shredders in particular, were higher in the springbrook and a side-channel site than in the other stream types. The results emphasize the importance of trophic linkages in the successional development and function of lotic ecosystems.
Fast neutron mutagenesis of soybean (Glycine soja L.) produces a supernodulating mutant containing a large deletion in linkage group H

We describe for the first time the application of fast neutron mutagenesis to the genetic dissection of root nodulation in legumes. We demonstrate the utility of chromosomal deletion mutations through production of a soybean supernodulation mutant FN37 that lacks the internal autoregulation of nodulation mechanism. After inoculation with microsymbiont Bradyrhizobium japonicum, FN37 forms at least 10 times more nodules than the wild type G. soja parent and has a phenotype identical to that of chemically induced allelic mutants nts382 and nts1007 (NTS-1 locus). Reciprocal grafting of shoots and roots confirmed systemic shoot control of the FN37 nodulation phenotype. RFLP/PCR marker pUTG132a and AFLP marker UQC-IS1 which are tightly linked to NTS-1 allowed the isolation of BAC contigs delineating both ends of the deletion. The genetic/physical distance ratio in the NTS-1 region is 279 kb/cM. The deletion is estimated to be about 460 kb based on the absence of markers and bacterial artificial chromosomes (BAC) ends as well as genetic and physical mapping. Deletion break points were determined physically and placed within flanking BAC contigs.
On the evolution of group-living in the New World cursorial hystricognath rodents

We used the comparative method to examine the evolutionary causes of group-living in the New World cursorial hystricognath rodents. To do so, we used the available literature to collect information on behavioral (group size, burrow digging), ecological (amount of plant cover in the habitat), and life history (body mass, time to sexual maturity) variables, along with phylogenetic relationships of these rodents. We analyzed these variables in the context of three major hypotheses. A first explanation poses that rodents live in groups to reduce the energy needed in the construction of their burrows. A second hypothesis suggests that grouped rodents increase their ability to detect and escape from predators. A third possibility states that group-living is adopted by rodents to provide extra parental care to their offspring. Our comparative analysis revealed that across species variation of group size is, to some extent, influenced by body size, and by the habit of burrow digging. Thus, large sized rodent species that actively dig their own burrows form larger group sizes than small sized species that do not dig burrows. In contrast, across species variation of group size was not influenced by differences in the amount of plant cover in the habitat (an indirect measure of predatory risk), or by differences in the time to first reproduction (a measure of parental care given). Therefore, group-living among the New World histricognath rodents seems more linked to a strategy aimed to reduce their burrowing cost than to a strategy aimed to reduce their predatory risk, or to extend their parental investment.
A structured inventory of spiders (Arachnida, Araneae) in natural and artificial forest gaps at Porto Urucu, Western Brazilian Amazonia

A preliminary survey of the spider fauna in natural and artificial forest gap formations at “Porto Urucu”, a petroleum/natural gas production facility in the Urucu river basin, Coari, Amazonas, Brazil is presented. Sampling was conducted both occasionally and using a protocol composed of a suite of techniques: beating trays (32 samples), nocturnal manual samplings (48), sweeping nets (16), Winkler extractors (24), and pitfall traps (120). A total of 4201 spiders, belonging to 43 families and 393 morphospecies, were collected during the dry season, in July, 2003. Excluding the occasional samples, the observed richness was 357 species. In a performance test of seven species richness estimators, the Incidence Based Coverage Estimator (ICE) was the best fit estimator, with 639 estimated species. To evaluate differences in species richness associated with natural and artificial gaps, samples from between the center of the gaps up to 300 meters inside the adjacent forest matrix were compared through the inspection of the confidence intervals of individual-based rarefaction curves for each treatment. The observed species richness was significantly higher in natural gaps combined with adjacent forest than in the artificial gaps combined with adjacent forest. Moreover, a community similarity analysis between the fauna collected under both treatments demonstrated that there were considerable differences in species composition. The significantly higher abundance of Lycosidae in artificial gap forest is explained by the presence of herbaceous vegetation in the gaps themselves. Ctenidae was significantly more abundant in the natural gap forest, probable due to the increase of shelter availability provided by the fallen trees in the gaps themselves. Both families are identified as potential indicators of environmental change related to the establishment or recovery of artificial gaps in the study area.
Listeria in ready-to-eat and unprocessed foods produced in Portugal

Abstract Between October 1998 and April 2000, 429 food samples were investigated for the presence of Listeria spp. The foodstuffs included 138 ready-to-eat foods (68 traditional hard and semi-hard Portuguese cheeses, 23 salad vegetables and 47 cooked and/or cured meats) and 291 uncooked foods (14 raw vegetables, 65 raw chicken and 212 raw ewe's, cow's or goat's milk). Listeria spp. were recovered from 63 samples (15%). Listeria monocytogenes was present in 39 (9%) samples, Listeria innocua in 12 (3%), Listeria seeligeri in 23 (5%), Listeria ivanovii in seven (2%) and Listeria grayi in two (0·5%). More than one Listeria species was recovered from 18 samples. A combination of serotyping, phage-typing, cadmium and arsenic sensitivities were used to subtype 36 of the L. monocytogenes isolates: at least nine different strains were recognized. Four food samples yielded two different L. monocytogenes strains.
The Rockall and the Orphan Basins of the Southern North Atlantic Ocean: Determining Continuous Basins across Conjugate Margins

Reconstructions of the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean generally result in the Orphan Basin, offshore Newfoundland, Canada, lying approximately conjugate to the rift basins on the Irish Atlantic margin at the onset of seafloor spreading toward the end of the Early Cretaceous. Most of these plate reconstructions have involved rigid plates with plate motions based solely on the interpretation of oceanic magnetic anomalies. In particular, these reconstructions often show the Rockall Basin, west of Ireland, forming a continuous Mesozoic basin with the West Orphan Basin, offshore Newfoundland. However, more recent plate reconstructions involving deformable plates have called this conjugate relationship into question. The goal of this study is to investigate the validity of this potentially continuous basin system by reconstructing and restoring present-day seismically-constrained geological models both spatially and temporally back to their original configurations pre-rift. By comparing the reconstructions in terms of sedimentary package thicknesses and crustal thicknesses in 3D, using both rigid and deformable plate reconstructions to orient the reconstructed models, we are able to test different basin connectivity scenarios using a multidisciplinary approach. Our analysis provides subsurface geophysical support for the hypothesis that the Rockall Basin was originally conjugate to and continuous with the East Orphan Basin during Jurassic rifting, later linking to the West Orphan Basin as rifting evolved during the Early Cretaceous. This complex basin evolution example highlights the need for using 3D rifting mechanism models to properly understand the fundamental driving forces during rifting and has significant implications for assessing basin prospectivity across conjugate margin pairs.
The effect of job crafting to job performance

ABSTRACT This research studies the mediating effect of employee’s social capital on job crafting and job performance, and the moderating effect of core self-evaluation on social capital and job performance. This research will help Guangxi enterprises, against the background of “One Belt One Road”, to improve their competitiveness through rational human resource management. A questionnaire survey was conducted, using the convenience sampling method, on 438 employees in Guangxi enterprises, and data analysis was performed using Amos, Smart-PLS and SPSS. The results of the hierarchical linear regression analysis show that social capital partly mediates the effect of job crafting on job performance, and core self-evaluation moderates the effect of social capital on job performance. However, the impact of social capital on job performance cannot be tested by SEM.
Feeding response of the Aldabra giant tortoise (Geochelone gigantea) to island plants showing heterophylly

Aim Heterophylly is present in many plant species on oceanic islands. Almost all of these plants are island endemics, and heterophylly may have evolved as a response to feeding from large insular browsers such as giant tortoises and flightless birds. We tested this anti‐browser hypothesis by feeding Aldabra giant tortoises (Geochelone gigantea) with leaves of native Mauritian plants to see if they distinguished between juvenile and adult leaves and between heteophyllous and homophyllous species.
Models for forecasting sandfish catch in the coastal waters off Akita Prefecture and the evaluation of the effect of a 3‐year fishery closure

SUMMARY: The sandfish Arctoscopus japonicus in the coastal waters off Akita Prefecture had been landed in amounts of more than 10 000 t continuously from 1963 to 1975. From 1976, however, it began to decrease sharply and fell to only 74 t in 1984. The fishery society of Akita Prefecture closed the fishing from 1 September 1992 to 30 September 1995. Since 1995, the total allowable catch (TAC) allocated in each year has increased. However, the mechanism behind the increment of catch has not been clearly demonstrated. The aim of this study is to elucidate the mechanism behind the increase of catch using catch forecasting models constructed with past water temperature and catch data. The results were as follows: (i) the effect of water temperature in the depth strata 200–300 m, September of year t–1, t–2 and t–3 of station 1 would be important for forecasting the catch in year t; (ii) coastal catch in year t–1 and t–2 would be important for forecasting the catch in year t; (iii) the effect of a fishery closure would be significantly related to the period of the closure and the environmental condition such as water temperature; and (iv) the TAC system would be important for the recovery of stock and to avoid the depletion of abundance.
Critical digital literacy of future teachers in the Twitter Age (La alfabetización crítica digital del futuro profesorado en tiempos de Twitter) (La alfabetización crítica digital del futuro profesorado en tiempos de Twitter)

ABSTRACT The transformations caused by the proliferation of social media in the Digital Age are having a huge impact on the field of education. Teacher training programmes are faced with the challenge of preparing future teachers to interpret digital media critically. Creating an informed, reflective citizenry depends on this training. This leads to the question: Are future teachers critical thinkers? This study inquires into the capacities of students in their third and fourth years of the Bachelor’s degree in Primary Education at five Spanish universities (n = 322) to construct critical discourses. This study examines their capacities to analyse and discuss information from social media on controversial issues around gender violence, machismo, LGBTIQ persons, homophobia, intolerance and undemocratic attitudes. The results reveal the future teachers’ difficulties developing critical discourses based on online news items on controversial issues. Only a minority doubt, check, analyse and argue critically.