Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Row Spacing Fails to Modify Soil Evaporation and Grain Yield in Spring Wheat in a Dry Mediterranean Environment

The loss of moisture by evaporation from soil under crop canopies (Esc) has been recognized as a major cause of poor water use efficiency (WUE), and hence poor grain yield, in crops grown in environments with limited rainfall. Agronomic approaches to restrain Esc aim to reduce the transmission of solar radiation to the soil beneath the crop by improving ground cover by the crop canopy. However, the sparse canopies produced in these environments have a limited effect on evaporation during the energy dependent first stage (Es1); much of the evaporation is independent of energy at the soilsurface (Es2), and therefore less sensitive to the influence of the crop canopy. Manipulating plant arrangement, primarily by changing row spacing, may provide a simple approach for improving ground cover and restraining E,, without changing GAI, and thus improving WUE and grain yield. To explore the potential benefit of variable row spacing on Esc and grain yield in the dry (300 mm) Mediterranean environment of the eastern wheatbelt of Western Australia, spring wheat was grown in 0.09, 0.18, 0.27 and 0.36 m row spacings on coarse textured and fine textured soil types at Merredin in 1989. Esc was determined with an empirical model and measured with microlysimeters. Row spacing had no significant effect on the development of green area index (GAI), dry matter (DM) accumulation and evapotranspiration (ET) throughout the season. However, in mid-season, the proportion of ground covered by the canopy was higher and transmission of solar radiation was reduced in the 0.09 m row spacing compared with the 0.36 m row spacing. These effects did not restrain E,,, which was similar in all treatments. Esc was not restrained even when the plant density was doubled in the 0.09 m row spacing treatment. Esc during the season averaged 88 mm across all row spacings on both soils; this accounted for 56% and 48% of the mean seasonal ET on the coarse textured and fine textured soils respectively. Consequently, neither water use efficiency nor grain yield were affected by variation in row spacing; water use efficiency averaged 25 kg DM ha-1 mm-1 on both soil types. For dry Mediterranean environments of Western Australia, it was concluded on the basis of these results, and yield data from other row spacing trials in the same districts, that there are no significant yield benefits to be obtained by reducing the row spacing from the current spacing of 0.18 m.
The continuous culture of excised potato roots

Summary The establishment of potato root cultures from 1 mm root tips was achieved on a modified White§ medium containing tuber extract, casein hydrolysate and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. This medium has allowed the continuous culture of roots for at least 10 successive passages over a period of about 10 months. Roots grown on an agar-solidified medIUm were thick and clothed with root hairs, although they elongated more slowly than those grown in a liquid medium. The latter were thm and delicate. In Murashige and Skoog§ medium, supplemented with kinetin (0.2 p.p.m.) + dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (0.2 p.p.m.) or Naphthalaneacetic acid (0.2 p.p.m.) + Yeast extract (1000 p.p.m.), nodule-like structures developed on the roots. If maintained under high light intensities, the roots and nodules had a tendency to turn green but the formation of laterals was inhibited.
Assessment of Western Canadian Barleys of Historical Interest: I. Yield and Agronomic Traits

Changes in yield components and agronomic traits may contribute to historical yield advances. The purpose of this study was to determine the yield advances that have been made in spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivars released in western Canada from 1910 to 1987 and to evaluate the contribution of yield components and agronomic traits to yield advancement. An important goal was to determine the value of individual traits to an ideotype of barley for the western Canadian prairies [. ]
Ganho de peso na recria e desempenho reprodutivo de novilhas acasaladas com sobreano

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of growth rate during rearing period, from 13 to 18 months, on pregnancy rate of beef heifers mated at yearling during autumn. Treatments consisted of 30 heifers weighing on average 208 kg submitted to average growth rate of 0.595 kg day-1 (G600), 41 heifers averaging 197 kg with average growth rate of 0.656 kg day-1 (G700) and 58 heifers with 181 kg with average growth rate of 0.723 kg day-1 (G800). Treatment effects were determined on body weight, reproductive tract score and pregnancy rate. Pregnancy rate was 30.0% 47.8% and 50.0%, respectively, for G600, G700 and G800, without significant differences among groups. Treatments G700 and G800, with large growth rates, showed higher values of reproductive tract score than G600 at the start of the mating period. Heifers with higher scores had a tendency to present higher pregnancy rates. Pregnancy rates were related to growth rate during postweaning independently of weight variations at mating.
Antifeedant tests with larvae of Pseudaletia unipuncta: variability of behavioral response

Feeding preference assays that lasted 6 hours were used to test a range of plant secondary compounds for deterrence to Pseudaletia unipuncta (Haworth) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), a grass‐feeding armyworm. Preference was determined by relative amounts of treated and control material consumed. In these assays, about half of the compounds were deterrent and half were not when applied to corn leaf discs at 1% of the dry weight of the leaf. Direct observation of the behavior of individual caterpillars revealed that nicotine, which appeared to be non‐deterrent in the 6‐h preference assay, was deterrent the first time it was encountered. Caffeine was deterrent in both types of assay, but the caterpillars habituated to it after prolonged exposure and its deterrency decreased with time. Long‐term preference assays are adequate to screen chemicals for antifeedant properties for agricultural use, but short‐term behavioral responses may be important in plant‐insect interactions in more diverse natural ecosystems.
Population Structure of the Alligator Snapping Turtle, Macrochelys temminckii, on the Western Edge of its Distribution

ABSTRACT A mark-recapture project on Macrochelys temminckii was conducted between 1997 and 2000 at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Muskogee and Sequoyah counties, in eastern Oklahoma. Turtles were captured in all streams and exhibited equal sex ratios, marked sexual-size dimorphism, and population densities between 28 and 34 animals per km stretch of stream. There was evidence of past population perturbations, with very few large adults captured, and a cohort of subadults highly underrepresented.
Environmental context influences the outcome of a plant-seed predator interaction

Mutualistic and antagonistic interactions with animals are known to influence the performance of plants in many ways. Much less is known about how such effects are influenced by the environment and how they translate into effects on plant population dynamics. In this study, we first quantified how pre-dispersal seed predation in the perennial herb Primula veris changes along a continuous gradient of canopy cover. We then used a deterministic demographic modeling approach to investigate how seed predation may influence population growth rate (X) and how effects depend on environmentally-induced variation in plant demography. Intensity of seed predation increased with the degree of canopy cover, while sensitivity of X to changes in seed production decreased. This translated into non-linear effects of seed predation on X along the canopy cover gradient. Despite seed predation rates being highest in closed habitats, the negative effect of seed predation on X was lower here than in slightly more open habitats. Our results demonstrate that knowledge of the intensity of plant-herbivore interactions does not suffice to infer how animals influence the population dynamics of plants and their distribution. Plant demographic sensitivity and its dependence on the environment need also to be taken into account when assessing the importance of plant-animal interactions.
Antioxidant and antibacterial activities of turkish endemic Sideritis extracts

Sideritis species are traditionally used as teas, flavoring agents and for medicinal purposes in Turkey . In this study, the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of Sideritis condensata Boiss. & Heldr. (SC) and Sideritis eryhrantha v ar. erythrantha Boiss. & Heldr. (SE) endemic species' extracts of Lamiaceae were determined. These extracts were investigated for antibacterial activity by using the agar diffusion method against 15 species of bacteria: Aeromonas hydrophila, Bacillus cereus, Enterobacter aerogenes, Enterococcus feacalis, Escherichia coli, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Salmonella enteritidis, Salmonella typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus and Yersinia enterocolitica . Statistical differences within bacteria were significant at p<0.05. SC extract was more effective than the other . At all concentrations, although the most sensitive bacteria was P. aeruginosa , the most resistant bacteria were E. feacalis for SC extract and E. feacalis, S. aureus for SE extract. Total phenolics, radical scavenging activity by 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method and the antioxidant capacities by the formation of phosphomolybdenum complex method of the extracts were determined. The total phenolics were found as 247.62 ± 1.91 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g in SC extract and 217.61 ± 0.95 mg GAE/g in SE extract of dried weight. At 100 ppm concentration, the free radical scavenging activities of SC and SE extracts were found as 72.01 ± 1.93 and 71.48 ± 1.95 %, respectively. The antioxidant activities by phosphomolybdenum method of SC and SE extracts were 279.37 ± 3.61 and 146.11 ± 3.11 mg/g dried extract.
Seed Predation of Some Australian Acacias by Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae).

Eleven species of Acacia examined near Melbourne all suffered seed predation by larvae of weevils (Melanterius spp.). The life history of M. acaciae on A. baileyana is outlined. The weevils are univoltine and oviposit in developing seeds. Parasitization of immature stages is low. Infestation levels between individual trees, between host species and between years are very variable, but generally lower than levels recorded for seed predation on acacias elsewhere. Features of Melanterius biology are briefly described in relation to seed predators studied elsewhere.
Vegetation changes through time on islands of Lake Duparquet, Abitibi, Canada.

Succession after fire has mainly been studied by chronosequence, which does not allow study of pre- and post-fire communities at the same site. By using palynology and anthracology, we recovered vegetation communities and fire histories through time on islands of Duparquet Lake, Canada. We show that succession after fire is dependent on interval between two fires (evaluated with depth of humus between subsequent fires). Sites with high fire occur- rence show a cyclic succession (same species reappearing after fire), while sites with low fire occurrence show a direc - tional succession. Different fire intervals lead to different pre- and post-fire pollen assemblages. During longer fire intervals, pollen assemblages change from Pinus banksiana Lamb. domination to Pinus strobus L. and Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP domination. When fire intervals are short, Pinus banksiana dominates both pre- and post-fire assemblages. Resume: L'utilisation d'une chronosequence pour etudier la succession apres feu ne permet pas d'evaluer, sur un meme site, la vegetation avant et apres feu. La palynologie et l'anthracologie ont permis la reconstruction des communautes avant et apres feu sur 10 iles du lac Duparquet, Canada. Les resultats demontrent que la succession apres feu est de - pendante de l'intervalle entre deux feux (evalue d'apres l'epaisseur d'humus entre deux feux). Les sites avec une haute frequence de feux montrent une succession cyclique (meme especes reapparaissant apres feu), alors que les sites avec une faible frequence de feux montrent une succession directionnelle. Differents intervalles de feux menent a differents assemblages polliniques avant et apres feu. Pendant de longs intervalles entre deux feux, les assemblages polliniques changent d'une dominance de Pinus banksiana Lamb. vers une dominance de Pinus strobus L. et Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP. Avec de courts intervalles entre deux feux, le Pinus banksiana domine les assemblages avant et apres feu. Larocque et al. 190
Effects of Cultar (paclobutrazol) on vegetative growth and fruit production by nashi (Pyrus seratina Rehd.)

Abstract Paclobutrazol was applied to 2-year-old nashi trees either as a soil drench or as a series of four post-flowering foliar sprays, at a low and a high rate of 0.5 and 1.0 g a.i. per tree or 125 and 250 ppm, respectively. The cultivars treated were ‘Hosui’, ‘Kosui’, ‘Nijisseiki’, and ‘Shinsui’. All cultivars showed a significant reduction in vegetative growth within the first season and for up to 4 years after initial application. Most reduction in growth was obtained from soil applications. Least reduction in growth was from a foliar application at the lower rate of 125 ppm. Greatest reduction in growth was obtained with ‘Kosui’ , and least with ‘Hosui’. Over the period of the trial, total fruit numbers and yield, per tree, were reduced by paclobutrazol application, though average fruit size was generally increased from Year 2 onwards. With ‘Hosui’, soil applications of paclobutrazol caused a significant increase in levels of the “bud jump” floral bud disorderand consequently a serious reduction in.
International Journal of Food Engineering Evaluation of Anthocyanin Content in Red and Blue Flowers

Anthocyanins are natural colorants which have gained a growing interest due to their extensive range of colors and beneficial health effects. The red and blue shades of 15 flowers were extracted with 1 % acidic methanol and these extracts were then screened for Total Anthocyanin content (TAC) using the pH method. In this paper the overall anthocyanin content of red and blue flowers was determined at room temperature (25°C). TAC accounts for the antioxidant activity of red and blue flowers. A quantitative relationship between acid-base and redox chemistry was also drawn.
On Secrecy Performance of Mixed Generalized Gamma and Málaga RF-FSO Variable Gain Relaying Channel

The emergence of an array of new wireless networks has led researchers to evaluate the prospect of utilizing the physical properties of the wireless medium in order to design secure systems. In this paper, the physical layer secrecy performance of a mixed radio frequency-free space optical (RF-FSO) system with variable gain relaying scheme is investigated in the presence of an eavesdropper. We assume that the eavesdropper can wiretap the transmitted confidential data from the RF link only. It is further assumed that the main and eavesdropper RF links are modeled as generalized Gamma (GG) fading channel, and the free space optical (FSO) link experiences Málaga turbulence with pointing error impairment. Our primary concern is to protect this confidential information from being wiretapped. Besides pointing error, the atmospheric turbulence and two types of detection techniques (i.e. heterodyne detection and intensity modulation with direct detection) are also taken into consideration. Utilizing amplify-and-forward (AF) scheme, the novel mathematical closed-form expressions for average secrecy capacity, lower bound of secrecy outage probability, and strictly positive secrecy capacity are derived. As both the links (RF and FSO) undergo generalized fading channels, the derived expressions are also general. We present a unification of some existing works utilizing the proposed model to better clarify the novelty of this work. Finally, all the derived expressions are justified via Monte-Carlo simulations.
Hydrological manipulation to assist spawning of a threatened galaxiid fish in a highland lake system

Hydrological alterations threaten freshwater fishes globally, with infrastructure-related modification of inland waterways (e.g. dams, water diversions) having profound impacts on many species. Adapting existing water-management systems can provide opportunities for undertaking hydrological manipulations to assist management of threatened fishes. The present study conducted two hydrological manipulations in an impounded highland lake system in Tasmania, Australia, under differing hydrological conditions in 2007 and 2009, to assist recovery of an endemic species, Galaxias auratus, following a prolonged drought. Monitoring at egg, larvae, juvenile and adult life stages revealed a positive response by G. auratus in Lake Crescent (recipient of water release), with no adverse impact on the species in Lake Sorell (source of water release). In both years, reproductive constraints imposed by water level-related availability of sediment-free rocky substrata delayed spawning (~1 month) of G. auratus in Lake Crescent. Despite this, spawning and recruitment occurred in 2007 (drought year) and 2009 (drought-breaking year), and the 2007 manipulation resulted in a two-fold increase in the seasonal density of larvae in Lake Crescent and an abundant cohort of YOY fish. Given knowledge of life histories and eco-hydrological relationships, manipulating (or re-instating) hydrologic conditions is a powerful tool for assisting recovery of threatened lacustrine fishes.
Modelling the seasonal and geographical pattern of pasture production in New Zealand

The pasture growth module AgPasture was integrated into the APSIM (Agricultural Production System Simulator) simulation model, allowing pasture-based systems to be modelled in combination with other land uses at farm scale or within land use change studies. The model's predictions of pasture growth were evaluated against 32 pasture growth datasets from a diverse range of soil types and climatic zones across New Zealand. The pasture herbage accumulation simulated by the model closely matched actual measurements over varying intervals. Both predicted and measured pasture growth rate demonstrated the same seasonal pattern, including mean growth rate and inter-annual variation across measurement years. Predicted and measured annual average net herbage accumulation (NHA) on a dryland pasture was similar over 37 observation years (mean, 6.83 and 7.27 t DM/ha respectively; coefficient of variation, 29% and 27% respectively) and highly correlated (R 2 = 0.838, P < 0.0001; relative root mean squared deviation (RMSD) = 16%). The model's prediction of annual average NHA of all simulated pastures, spanning a wide range of pasture environments, also matched the measurement data well (R 2 = 0.777, P < 0.0001; relative RMSD = 21%). However, discrepancies between simulated and observed values occurred in some seasons and at some sites. Analysis of these discrepancies identified areas where the model could be improved by incorporating more accurate descriptions of the effects of plant development and grazing, soil temperature and the interactive effects of high temperature and soil moisture dynamics.
Bringing It Indoors: A Review of Narrowband Radio Propagation Modeling for Enclosed Spaces

Small cells are now widely deployed indoors to address hot-spot areas where capacity uplift is needed. This deployment leads to the increase of wireless networks as a challenge to service demands of personal communication systems, which has inspired the scientific community to work towards understanding and predicting in-building radio wave propagation performance. Despite this, only a few reviews have attempted to overview channel modeling for specific indoor environments and even fewer outline remarks that include a methodology for designing and planning indoor radio systems. Consequently, a comprehensive survey of indoor narrowband channel models is presented, spanning more than 30 years of continuous research to overview and contrast significant developments including their disadvantages, and proposing a new taxonomy to analyze them. Finally, remarks on indoor radio propagation modeling with a vision for future research opportunities are presented.
Chemical Composition, Antifungal and In Vitro Antioxidant Properties of Monarda didyma L. Essential Oil

Abstract The chemical composition of the essential oil obtained from Monarda didyma stem with leaves and flowers was analyzed by GC and GC/MS and the components identified were 22, mainly thymol (57.3% and 51.7%, respectively), γ-terpinene (9.3% and 14.3%), p-cymene (10.5% and 9.7%), δ-3-carene (4.5% and 6.2%) and myrcene (3.7% and 3.7%). The two oils were qualitatively similar. The antifungal activity of the oil was evaluated against four phytopathogenic fungi by direct contact with the Agar diffusion method and with the fungistatc action of the vapors using the Micro-atmosphere method. The most sensitive fungus resulted Rhizoctonia solani in the first test and Botrytis cinerea in the second. The antioxidant activity of the oil was evaluated by DPPH test, were the oil showed an effect comparable to Trolox, and by lipid peroxidation test, where the activity of the oil was similar to that of BHT.
Multiple Kernel SVM Based on Two-Stage Learning

In this paper we introduce the idea of two-stage learning for multiple kernel SVM (MKSVM) and present a new MKSVM algorithm based on two-stage learning (MKSVM-TSL). The first stage is the pre-learning and its aim is to obtain the information of data such that the “important” samples for classification can be generated in the formal learning stage and these samples are uniformly ergodic Markov chain (u.e.M.c.). To study comprehensively the proposed MKSVM-TSL algorithm, we estimate the generalization bound of MKSVM based on u.e. M.c. samples and obtain its fast learning rate. And in order to show the performance of the proposed MKSVM-TSL algorithm for better, we also perform the numerical experiments on various publicly available datasets. From the experimental results, we can find that compared to three classical multiple kernel learning (MKL) algorithms, the proposed MKSVM-TSL algorithm has better performance in three aspects of the total time of sampling and training, the accuracy and the sparsity of classifiers, respectively.
Genetic aspects of milk coagulation properties in Italian Holstein cows

Riassunto Aspetti genetici delle proprietà di coagulazione del latte di vacche di razza Frisona Italiana. In Italia, il 72,8% del latte vaccino prodotto viene destinato alla trasformazione casearia, pertanto il miglioramento delle proprietà di coagulazione del latte risulta molto importante per il settore lattiero-caseario. L’obiettivo del presente studio è quello di stimare l’ereditabilità dell’attitudine del latte alla coagulazione presamica e le correlazioni genetiche con il contenuto proteico. Sono stati analizzati 964 campioni individuali di latte per acidità, percentuali di grasso, proteina, caseina, cellule somatiche e parametri lattodinamografici: tempo di coagulazione (R), tempo di rassodamento (K20) e consistenza del coagulo (A30). L’ereditabilità è risultata moderata per il tempo di coagulazione (26%) e bassa per la consistenza del coagulo (11%). La correlazione genetica tra R ed A30 è risultata negativa e molto elevata (-97%), mentre è apparsa positiva ma poco consistente quella con il tenore proteico del latte. Indici di selezione basati sui parametri lattodinamografici dovrebbero essere definiti al fine di migliorare geneticamente l’attitudine casearia del latte.