Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Response of highbush blueberry seed germination to gibberellin A3 and 6N-benzyladenine

Open-pollinated highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) seeds were treated with 0, 2.6, 5.2, 10.4, or 20.8 mM gibberellic acid, 0, 0.4, 2.2, or 4.4 mM 6N-benzyladenine, or the two growth regulators in combination. Seeds were treated for 24 h, then germinated under intermittent mist during summer with temperatures fluctuating between 21 and 40 °C. Germinated seeds were counted weekly from day 15 to day 30, using hypocotyl exposure to indicate germination. Treatment with gibberellic acid at 10.4 mM in combination with 6N-benzyladenine at 0.4 to 2.2 mM gave the highest germination percentage. The relationship between gibberellic acid concentration and seed germination was cubic. Seedlings from the germinated seed flowered and fruited the following spring, making it possible for highbush blueberry to complete a generation in 1 year.
Sperm release behaviour and fertilization in the grass goby

Nesting males of the grass goby Zosterisessor ophiocephalus showed bouts, with intervals of c.30 min duration, of upside-down movements while rubbing its genital papilla onto the ceiling of its burrow. Such behaviour was shown during female courting and spawning, and even after female removal. Observations showed that this behaviour was associated with the release of a sperm trail on the substratum and clumped spermatozoa in water, agglutinated with a mercury‐bromophenol blue and PAS positive glycoprotein secretion of the sperm duct glands. Agglutination in the secretion delayed the activation of spermatozoa and contributed a steady supply, for up to 40 min, of motile spermatozoa during prolonged egg laying by the female. Sperm released before egg laying achieved c.50% fertilization success compared with nearly 100% obtained if the sperm was released during egg laying. The sperm release behaviour may improve the nest owner’s reproductive success against intruders or sneakers. It also allows defence of the nest while the female is spawning and may allow the male to court other females in the proximity. 1996 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles
Fungal Infection of Fishes

Fungi are responsible for producing number of diseases, including some devastating epizootics in fishes, which inflict heavy losses to fish industry. This book provides support in gaining the knowledge in this field. It will be helpful in finding out the relation of various water parameters with the growth of aquatic fungi and also helpful in controlling the incidences of mycotic diseases and thus will save the fisheries industry from economic losses.
Microbial mediation of plant competition and community structure

Summary The drivers behind plant competition and diversity have long been debated, and there is acceptance that soil micro-organisms may act as key drivers in plant interactions and community structure. The evidence for a microbial role in shaping plant interactions and communities will be considered here with emphasis on symbionts and pathogens. Microbial populations are themselves strongly influenced by the plant community via the ‘rhizosphere’ effect. The rhizosphere community includes microbes both beneficial and detrimental to the plant. Both the ability of plants to cultivate different rhizosphere microbial populations and the resulting impact upon other plant species have largely been studied via ‘plant–soil’ feedback studies, a proxy necessitated by the fact the majority of soil micro-organisms are unculturable, but which nevertheless has rarely been used in conjunction with modern techniques to identify and quantify the micro-organisms involved. Both microbial symbionts and pathogens can affect plant diversity and productivity, but the direct evidence for impacts on competitive interactions is surprisingly scarce. Evidence comes from biological invasions, the unintentional introduction of microbial pathogens to native plant communities and manipulative experiments under both field and controlled conditions. Pathogens generally have direct effects on plants, reducing their growth and so rendering them less competitive, whereas other symbionts may act by altering the availability of resources, with more subtle effects on competitive interactions. Some of the best evidence for indirect effects comes from studies on arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. New developments in our understanding of nutrient exchange in the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis emphasize the need to view the fungal partners not as mere extensions of the plant. The suggestion that AM fungi may act to share resources among connected plants however remains to be proved. Although plant competitive interactions can be driven by key microbial groups including symbionts and pathogens, knowledge gaps in the basic biology of these micro-organisms has hindered a full mechanistic understanding of these processes. If ecologists now embrace new technologies, significant advances in this area should be forthcoming.
Post-pollination processes and non-random mating among compatible mates

Questions: What factors determine the degree of non-random mating that occurs among compatible donors following pollination? Do species with longer styles exhibit greater inequalities in seed siring success among pollen donors? Does increased gametophytic competition (i.e. higher ratio of pollen load size to ovule number) lead to greater inequality in seed siring success among pollen donors? Are particular life-history traits (i.e. animalvs. wind-pollinated species or wild vs. cultivated species) associated with greater inequality in seed siring among pollen donors? Data incorporated: I summarize the results of 51 studies that assessed the paternity of seeds produced following experimental pollinations in which pollen grains from two or more compatible donors competed for ovule fertilization. Method of analysis: Data from multiple studies were combined to determine the effects of style length, ratio of pollen load size to ovule number, and life-history traits on the degree of non-random mating among compatible mates. Conclusions: Style length had the strongest association with non-random mating. Surprisingly, species with shorter styles exhibited a significantly greater inequality in seed siring success among pollen donors. The degree of non-random mating due to post-pollination processes was not affected by the intensity of gametophytic competition or by life-history traits.
Microarray analysis of genes affected by salt stress in tomato

Large-scale gene expression affected by salt stress was analyzed with tomato seedlings ( Lycoperson esculentum Mill cv. Money Maker) by a cDNA microarray (Tom1). The significantly differentially expressed genes (5% Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate) consisted of 1757 sequences in the analyzed tissues (cotyledons + shoot tip). Genes with over 2 fold difference were selected from the list and further categorized into different function and cellular processes. Tomato homologous genes for the chaperone proteins, antioxidant enzymes (catalase and peroxidase), and ion transporters (Na + - driven multidrug efflux pump, vacuolar ATPase, and others) were induced. The ACC oxidase and ethylene-responsive gene tomato homologs had higher transcript level after salt treatment. Multiple members with different expression patterns were identified for the bZIP, WRKY, and MADS-box transcription regulator. Different genes in the signal transduction pathway, such as the protein kinases (Shaggy kinase, mitogen-activated protein kinase, ethylene receptor neverripe, and others), protein phosphatases, calmodulin, G-protein, and the N- myristoyltransferase were regulated by salt stress. Most of the protease and the inhibitor homologs were suppressed by salt stress. In addition, different isoforms of cytochrome P450, genes for polyamine biosynthesis (putrescine and proline) and detoxification compounds (glutathione and thioredoxin), several key enzyme genes in the metabolic pathways of carbohydrates, amino acids, and fatty acids, were also affected by salt treatment. This study has provided a set of candidate genes, especially those in the regulatory machinery that can be further investigated to define salt stress in tomato and other plant species. Keywords: Antioxidants, cellular metabolism, cell wall, chaperonine, ethylene, protein kinase, tomato, transcription regulator, translation regulator, salt stress
BlenderProc: Reducing the Reality Gap with Photorealistic Rendering

—BlenderProc is an open-source and modular pipeline for rendering photorealistic images of procedurally generated 3D scenes which can be used for training data-hungry deep learning models. The presented results on the tasks of instance segmentation and surface normal estimation suggest that our photorealistic training images reduce the gap between the synthetic training and real test domains, compared to less realistic training images combined with domain randomization. BlenderProc can be used to train models for various computer vision tasks such as semantic segmentation or estimation of depth, optical ﬂow, and object pose. By offering standard modules for parameterizing and sampling materials, objects, cameras and lights, BlenderProc can simulate various real-world scenarios and provide means to systematically investigate the essential factors for sim2real transfer.
Novel RNA Targets of the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Protein

Novel RNA Targets of the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Protein Darrick K. Li Ribonucleoprotein complexes (RNPs) are involved in many essential cellular processes, of which the most prominent examples include the ribosome that functions in protein translation and the spliceosome which catalyzes pre-mRNA splicing. The biogenesis of RNPs often involves complex and elaborate pathways involving posttranslational modifications, transit into specific cellular domains, and several auxiliary factors including assembly chaperones. One of the best-studied examples of such a chaperone is the survival motor neuron (SMN) protein, the disease gene in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). SMN is part of a macromolecular protein complex and catalyzes the assembly of a heptameric core of Sm proteins onto small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) to form spliceosomal snRNPs required for RNA splicing. The Sm and Sm-like (LSm) proteins are an evolutionarily conserved family of proteins that exhibit the propensity to form diverse heteromeric complexes with unique RNA-binding characteristics. The Sm/LSm proteins are thought to function as RNA chaperones whose association with their target RNAs plays a critical role in the maturation, transport, and stability of the resulting RNPs as well as modulation of RNARNA and RNA-protein interactions that are critical for RNP function. Sm/LSm containing RNPs have been shown to function in a variety of cellular pathways in addition to pre-mRNA splicing, including histone mRNA 3’ end formation and mRNA decay. Interestingly, in addition to its direct binding to Sm proteins, SMN has been
MODERATING EFFECT OF AUDIT COMMITTEE ON BOARD DIVERSITY AND EARNINGS MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIAN BANKS

This study examines the impact of board diversity and audit committee on earnings management of listed deposit money banks and the effects of moderating factors that overcome the tendency of managers to engage in earnings manipulation. Using a population of fifteen listed deposit money banks in Nigeria, secondary data were obtained from the annual reports and accounts of the banks for the period 2008-2015. Multiple regression technique was adopted and Stata 13 used as the tool of data analysis. The findings revealed that before moderation all the variables, except board size, have significant effect on earnings management of banks. After moderation, the findings revealed that explanatory variables explained the extent of earnings management better than before moderation. The study recommends that the percentage of women director, shares held by directors and number of foreign directors should be increased, while the number of non-executive directors on audit committee should also be improved upon in order to mitigate the tendencies for manipulation of earnings management in banks. This study claims originality in the use of audit committee as moderating variable and the test of applicability and the usefulness of Chang, Shen and Fang (2008) model in Nigerian Banking Sector.
Size Matters: Estimation Sample Length and Electricity Price Forecasting Accuracy

Electricity price forecasting models are typically estimated via rolling windows, i.e. by using only the most recent observations. Nonetheless, the current literature does not provide much guidance on how to select the size of such windows. This paper shows that determining the appropriate window prior to estimation dramatically improves forecasting performances. In addition, it proposes a simple two-step approach to choose the best performing models and window sizes. The value of this methodology is illustrated by analyzing hourly datasets from two large power markets with a selection of ten different forecasting models. Incidentally, our empirical application reveals that simple models, such as the linear regression, can perform surprisingly well if estimated on extremely short samples.
Primary Breast Carcinoma with Neuroendocrine Features: Imaging Features on Mammography and Ultrasonography

Primary breast carcinoma with neuroendocrine features is an extremely rare and underrecognized subtype of the breast carcinoma. And up to present, its biologic behavior, the most effective treatment, and prognosis are not well recognized. To diagnose this rare entity, special tumor stains of neuroendocrine markers are required, which are not routinely used. The imaging features of primary breast carcinoma with neuroendocrine features (BCNF) have not been accurately described due to the extreme rarity of this tumor type. We report the imaging features in a case of BCNF, with imaging findings different from the typical imaging findings of invasive breast carcinoma.
Fire Regime Changes in La Michilía Biosphere Reserve, Durango, Mexico

Abstract: The ability of reserves to maintain natural ecosystem processes such as fire disturbance regimes is central to long‐term conservation. Fire‐scarred tree samples were used to reconstruct fire regimes at five study sites totaling approximately 230 ha in pine ( Pinus spp.) and oak (Quercus spp.) forests of La Michilía Biosphere Reserve on the dry east slope of the Sierra Madre Occidental, Durango, Mexico. Study sites covered a 20‐km environmental gradient of elevation, topography, and human land uses. Plant communities ranged from oak‐pine to mixed conifer forests. Fires were frequent at all sites prior to 1930, when large‐scale grazing of domestic livestock was initiated. Widespread fires have been excluded from four of the five sites since 1945, with an essentially uninterrupted regime of frequent fires continuing only in the reserve core. Xeric sites had many, smaller fires, whereas mesic sites had fewer but larger fires. On a reserve‐wide scale, a fire burned on at least one site nearly every year, usually in the dry spring or early summer season, but fire years were rarely synchronous among the sites. Fire occurrence was weakly related to the Southern Oscillation climate pattern; major reserve‐wide fire years almost never coincided with wet Southern Oscillation extremes but only occasionally matched dry extremes. Maintenance of the long‐term frequent‐fire regime in the reserve core is one indicator that the biosphere reserve model has been successful in conserving natural processes, but the protected area is small ( 7000 ha). Because of the key role of frequent‐fire regimes in regulating ecosystem structure and function, restoration of the ecological role of fire disturbance is a desirable conservation strategy.
Micropropagation and production of eurycomanone, 9- methoxycanthin-6-one and canthin-6-one in roots of Eurycoma longifolia plantlets

Eurycoma longifolia or Tongkat Ali is a well known medicinal plant in Malaysia. The plants are used as main portion in herbal preparation, and have been extensively harvested. Generally, most of the raw materials required by the industries are heavily collected from the natural forests, thereby resulting in the uncontrolled exploitation of the plant in the wild. Hence, there is a need to ensure adequate supply of quality E. longifolia for the use of the related industries and for conservation purposes. Micropropagation has proved to be an alternative for the multiplication of medicinal and aromatic plants and it can allow the future commercial use of E. longifolia in the herbal industries. In this study, E. longifolia plantlets were successfully mass-produced using axillary shoot multiplication techniques, and the production of eurycomanone, 9-methoxycanthin-6-one and canthin-6-one compounds of E. longifolia were detected in roots of tissue culture plantlets. Key words: E. longifolia , Tongkat Ali, micropropagation, eurycomanone, 9-methoxycanthin-6-one, canthin-6- one.
Influence of carbonate dissolution on survival of shell‐bearing meiobenthos in nearshore sediments

Sediment plugs containing natural populations of benthic foraminifera and juvenile bivalves were introduced into seawater chambers realistically undersaturated (experimental) and saturated (control) with respect to biogenic carbonates in order to evaluate the impact of carbonate dissolution on the survival of carbonate‐bearing meiobenthos. Experimental manipulation of saturation state clearly demonstrated that substantial calcite undersaturation, in a range typical of organic‐rich surface sediment (ωcalcite = IMP/K′sp = ~0.4), not only resulted in dissolution of abandoned tests but also increased mortality of the live benthic foraminfera Elphidium clavatum (excfavatum) threefold relative to controls. Dissolution of discarded foraminifera tests occurred on time scales of 14 d. In addition, although no statistically significant correlation of dissolution with survival was found for the aragonitic bivalves Nucula annufata and Tellina agilis, experiments did show a tendency for increased mortality in undersaturated sediments. Mortality induced by calcite and aragonite undersaturation has implications for existing theories on production recruitment of shell‐bearing benthos in near‐shore environments and the coupling of biogeochemical processes with the benthic community. These results help explain the seasonal dynamics of foraminifera reported previously in the literature and show that both live and dead assemblages of some organisms are components of the annual cycle of CaCO3 dissolution and precipitation in near‐shore, organic‐rich sediments.
Investigating Emotional Intelligence and Self Esteem Level Among Nursing and Midwifery Students of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences in 2010

Background and purpose: Nowadays, more attention is paid to emotional intelligence as an important factor influencing different aspects of human's life such as education, occupation and social environment. Self-esteem as one of the characteristics of normal person can change the level of emotional intelligence. Due to the important role of self-esteem and emotional intelligence, this research has been conducted with the goal of determining the self-esteem and emotional intelligence level among nursing and midwifery students of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences in 2010. Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, we have implemented MSEIS test and Cooper smith Self-Esteem Inventory for 145 nursing and midwifery students of Mazandaran university of Medical sciences. These samples were selected through Census methods. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and chi-square test using SPSS16. Results: In this study, emotional intelligence of 13.8%, 71.7% and 14.5% of students were high, medium and low, respectively. In addition, 91% of students had high self-esteem. The results showed that emotional intelligence has a significant correlation with self-esteem (P<0.001). Conclusion: As the emotional intelligence of most students was medium it seems that more attention to emotional intelligence is needed to enhance students' mental health and success. Therefore, developing educational programs in the dimension of emotional intelligence of nursing and midwifery students is essential.
Neuromorphic systems based on memristive devices - From the material science perspective to bio-inspired learning hardware

Hardware computation is facing in the present age a deep transformation of its own paradigms. Silicon based computation is reaching its limit due to the physical constraints of transistor technology. As predicted by the Moore’s law, downscaling of transistor dimensions doubled each year since the 60s, leading nowadays to the extreme of 16-nm channel width of the present state-of-the-art technology. No further improvement is possible, since laws of physics impose a different electrical behavior when lower dimensions are attempted. Multiple solutions are then envisaged, spanning the range from quantum computing to neuromorphic computing. The present dissertation wants to be a preliminary study for understanding the opportunities enabled by neuromorphic computing based on resistive switching memories. In particular, brain inspires technology and architecture of new generation processors because of its unique properties: parallel and distributed computation, superposition of processing and memory unit, low power consumption, to cite only some of them. Such features make brain particularly efficient and robust against degraded data, further than particularly suitable to process and store in memory new information. Despite many research projects and some commercial products are already proposing brain-like computing processors, like spiNNaker or IBM’s Bluenorth, they only mimic the brain functioning with standard Silicon technology, that is inherently serial and distinguish between processing and memory unit. Resistive switching technology on the other hand, would allow to overcome many of these issues, enabling a far better match between biological and artificial neuromorphic computation. Resistive switching are, generally speaking, Metal-Insulator-Metal structures able to change their electrical conductance as a consequence of the history of applied electric signal. In such sense, they behave exactly as synapses do in a biological neural networks. For this reason, resistive switching when modeled as memristor, i.e. memory-resistor, can act as artificial synapses and, moreover, are particularly suitable to be interfaced with artificial Silicon neurons that are designed to replicate
TAXONOMIC NOTES ON RHACOPHORID FROGS (RHACOPHORINAE: RHACOPHORIDAE: ANURA) OF SOUTHERN PART OF ANNAMITE MOUNTAINS (TRUONG SON, VIETNAM), WITH DESCRIPTION OF THREE NEW SPECIES

We present a review of taxonomic status and distribution of rhacophorid frog species (Anura, Rhacophoridae, subfamily Rhacophorinae) found in isolated mountain systems of southern Vietnam (Annamite Mountains) and neighboring regions. On the basis of morphological and molecular evidences we reconsider taxonomy of Vietnamese rhacophorids with special focus on genera Theloderma sensu lato, Philautus sensu lato, Raorchestes , Feihyla , Kurixalus , Chiromantis , and Rhacophorus . Two new species of rhacophorid frogs of the genus Theloderma are described from high-elevation montane forest in Chu Yang Sin Mt. (Dak Lak Province) and lowland monsoon tropical forest in Annamite foothills in Binh Phuok, Lam Dong and Dong Nai provinces of Vietnam; we discuss taxonomy of other small Theloderma species and provide two new combinations. These new species are different from the other members of Theloderma in their appearance, morphological details and coloration. We provide a redescription of Raorchestes gryllus (Smith, 1924), reconsider taxonomy of Rhacophorus calcaneus group and give a description of one new Rhacophorus species. The new species is different from other Rhacophorus species on the basis of strongly expressed pointed projection at tibiotarsal articulation and coloration. Ecology and natural history of newly described taxa are discussed. We also give a present-day list of rhacophorid frogs found in Vietnam.