Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cytogenetic analysis of Australian tiger beetles (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae): chromosome number, sex‐determining system and localization of rDNA genes

The chromosomes of four species of Australian tiger beetle are documented. The male meioformulae of three species of Cicindela (tribe Cicindelini) were determined as follow: Cicindela cardinalba Sumlin 1987, n = 10 + X1 X2 X3Y; C. sp. (saetigera group) and Cicindela gillesensis Hudson 1994, n = 11 + X1 X2 X3Y. The male meioformula of Megacephala whelani Sumlin 1992 (tribe Megacephalini) is n = 12 + XY. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was used to localize the 18S-28S ribosomal gene clusters on male mitotic and meiotic chromosomes and nuclei using a polymerase chain reaction-amplified ribosomal probe. Fluorescence in mitosis and meiotic first prophase stages in the three Cicindela species showed that rDNA genes are in two of the four chromosomes that form the sex vesicle. In M. whelani hybridization in mitosis and first metaphase stages indicate that rDNA genes are in three, medium- to small-sized, autosomal pairs. Silver staining of male meiotic nuclei reveals the presence of active nucleolar organizing regions (NORs) in the sex vesicle of the three species of Cicindela. The cytogenetic and evolutionary implications of these findings are discussed.
Growth of white anglerfish (Lophius piscatorius) tagged in the Northeast Atlantic, and a review of age studies on anglerfish

Landa, J., Duarte, R. , and Quincoces, I. 2008. Growth of white anglerfish (Lophius piscatorius) tagged in the Northeast Atlantic, and a review of age studies on anglerfish. - ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65: 72-80.Growth of white anglerfish was estimated from the results of a tagging study in south European waters. In all, 1326 fish, caught by bottom trawl and gillnet commercial vessels and on trawl surveys, were tagged from 1995 to 2004; 50 were recovered, and a growth rate of 13.6 cm year −1 was estimated from the four fish at liberty long enough to allow extrapolation of the growth rate to an annual period. Growth patterns were reviewed based on available studies of growth verification of white anglerfish in Atlantic waters, including another tag-recapture study, length-frequency of catches, and microstructure analysis of hard parts. The growth rate estimated from these studies showed many similarities, and an overall growth pattern was estimated: growth rate = 18.24e -0.015length . A von Bertalanffy growth curve fitted to all data yielded the parameter values L ∞ = 140 cm and k = 0.11. This growth rate is faster than estimated recently using illicia for age estimation, but similar to that found in the first studies that used illicia and sectioned otoliths. Current estimates of growth based on illicia, which are used in assessing the northern European stock of white anglerfish, seem to be underestimated.
Early Palaeogene Louisinidae (Macroscelidea, Mammalia), their relationships and north European diversity

Seventeen species from the Palaeocene and Early Eocene of northern Europe, of which 12 are new, are described belonging to the extinct macroscelidean family Louisinidae, raised here from subfamily rank. These species belong to nine genera, of which five are new. The new genera are Walbeckodon, Berrulestes, Gigarton, Thryptodon, and Prolouisina. The new species are Walbeckodon krumbiegeli, Walbeckodon girardi, Paschatherium levei, Berrulestes phelizoni, Berrulestes pellouini, Berrulestes poirieri, Gigarton meyeri, Gigarton sigogneauae, Gigarton louisi, Thryptodon brailloni, Louisina marci, and Teilhardimys brisswalteri. Prolouisina is erected for ‘Louisina’atavella Russell, 1964. Cladistic analysis was undertaken to understand the relationships within the Louisinidae and between them and the North American family Apheliscidae, in which they had earlier been included as a subfamily. Louisinidae are shown to be sister group to a clade consisting of Apheliscidae plus Amphilemuridae and part of a paraphyletic and polyphyletic Adapisoricidae, all of which are tentatively considered to be stem members of the order Macroscelidea. The most primitive macroscelidid, Chambius, from the Early Eocene of northern Africa is nested within Apheliscidae when postcranial characters were included, but in a majority of cases within the Louisinidae when postcranial characters were excluded. Most species from northern Europe became extinct at the end of the Palaeocene, although the genus Paschatherium survived for much of the Early Eocene and Teilhardimys survived into the earliest Eocene. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, 164, 856–936.
A test of the pollinator limitation hypothesis for a neotropical herb

We hand—pollinated all flowers in inflorescences of the neotropical herb Calathea ovandensis (Marantaceae) and compared fruit and seed set of treatment plants to that of open—pollinated controls. Hand—pollination increased the number of initiated fruits by 24%, the number of mature fruits by 6.8%, and the number of seeds by 12.6%, but only the first of these differences was statistically significant. The proportion of flowers that matured fruits was very low compared with data reported for other species: 8.1% for the hand—pollinated treatment and 7.4% for open—pollinated controls. The proportion of flowers that initiated fruits was also quite low: 24.5% for hand—pollinated plants and 20.2% for open—pollinated plants. Mature fruit and seed production were significantly affected by nonpollinating animals that act at different developmental stages. Antguards attracted to extrafloral nectaries on the inflorescence appeared to stimulate flower production, while an ant—tended herbivore of reproductive tissues h.
Milk fat depression syndrome and the particular case of grazing cows: A review

Abstract The milk fat depression (MFD) syndrome is a phenomenon consisting in a reduction of milk fat content below the expected values according to stage of lactation and production level, even at levels below milk protein content, which is the opposite of the normal situation. Typical diets inducing MFD include the provision of significant quantities of concentrate or lipids inclusion. In grazing animals it is possible to observe MFD at certain critical times of the year, without the intervention of concentrated diets or external supply of lipids. There are particular circumstances, especially at the beginning of spring and autumn, or in grazing systems that favor a high selection in pasture by cows, that promote the appearance of MFD without the use of concentrated diets or lipid supplementation. In such circumstances a low level of fiber in pasture (or in the portion consumed by livestock) and a significant consumption of unsaturated fatty acids is expected, characteristic of young pastures, which have a higher proportion of leaves and lower levels of structural carbohydrates. This paper gives an account of the conditions that promote the syndrome and examines the mechanisms involved, under the situation of grazing cows.
Variations in the time required to milk cows.

Abstract Time required to milk and rate of milk flow are largely characteristics of individual cows, as differences among cows of the same breed account for 55.7 and 52.2% of the total variances of the two traits, respectively. An average of 5.19 minutes elapsed from attaching the last teat cup until all teat cups were removed; 2.18kg of milk was removed in the first minute and 4.36kg in the first two minutes, while the average for the maximum amount of milk removed in one minute was 2.59kg. Maximum rate increased . 202±. 024kg and time increased . 270±. 035 minutes for each increase of 1kg in milk yield per milking. Time required to milk can be predicted from the first powers of yield of milk per milking and measures of rate of flow with a high degree of accuracy; the multiple correlations ranged from 0.86 to 0.90. Maximum rate of flow, yield in the first two minutes are all adequate measures of rate of flow. Milking time increased 0.51 minute for each increase of one kilogram in yield of milk per milking independent of maximum rate and decreased 1.22 minutes for each increase of one kilogram in maximum rate of flow independent of yield per milking.
Circadian Gene Expression in Cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic prokaryotes that live in aquatic environments. The cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942, (hereafter S. elongatus) coordinates its day and night behaviors via a circadian clock. The clock is entrained by light/dark cycles but continues to run in constant light conditions. The core circadian clock in S. elongatus is encoded by post-translational modifications of three Kai proteins, but the extent and mechanism of circadian gene expression are unknown. We provide the first unbiased characterization of circadian gene expression in S. elongatus, demonstrating that ~65% of genes display oscillation in continuous light conditions, with some genes peaking in expression at subjective dawn and others at subjective dusk. We next sought to identify the mechanism by which such a large fraction of the genome could be rhythmically controlled. Through bioinformatic, correlative, and perturbation experiments, we find that circadian changes in chromosome topology/supercoiling are sufficient to drive rhythmic expression (Chapter
Prompt community based veterinary services delivery system and it's impact on disease burden and production in the dairy animals.

The lack of animal health services is a major hindrance in the control of livestock diseases in Pakistan. Consequently decreased production is a major factor in poverty alleviation in a developing country like Pakistan, where small livestock owners are the backbone of agriculture. The present study is therefore designed to evaluate the effectiveness/efficiency of an alternative model of animal health services delivery system through community participation which will ultimately help in reducing disease burden and consequently increase livestock production. For this purpose two concurrently working veterinary services delivery systems i.e. conventional public based system and community based system were compared in terms of services delivery, epidemiological parameters and cost-benefit ratio of an average farmer for a period of one year from July, 2005 through June, 2006 in peri-urban areas of central Punjab. It was recorded that community based system has significant impact (P < 0.05) on epidemiological parameters (incidence rate, mortality rate and fertility rate), services delivery (vaccination, deworming, treatment and nutritional support) and costbenefit ratio of an average farmer as compared to public based system. There was 50% decrease in incidence rate of economically important diseases in community based system as compared to public based system which was 16.75% and 36.43% respectively. Similarly the mortality rate in community based system was 0.65% less than the conventional public based system which was 3.53% and 4.18% respectively. An improvement of 12% in fertility rate was observed in community based system as compared to public based system which was 63% and 51% respectively. The average annual costbenefit ratio per farmer was almost double than public based system. The delivery of services was much better in community based system as compared to public based system. From the present study it is concluded that community based veterinary services delivery system is helpful in reducing disease burden and will consequently boost the agricultural economy by increasing livestock production if replicated through out the country.
Microhabitat partitioning promotes plant diversity in a tropical montane forest

Aim To assess the degree of fine-scale environmental determinism in fern community composition in a diverse, mid-montane tropical forest, and to test whether species local microhabitat distributions are linked to their elevational ranges regionally. Location Tunquini biological station, eastern Bolivian Andes. Methods We recorded fern species composition and environmental descriptors in two montane forest transects on opposite valley slopes at c. 1650 m elevation. Redundancy analysis and variation partitioning were run to examine how much floristic variation was explained by spatial and environmental (soil, forest structural, topoclimatic) variables. We then linked species local environmental distributions, as evidenced in these analyses, to their elevational ranges in Bolivia using herbarium data. Results There was a striking floristic difference between the transects, attributable to differences in exposure, temperature and humidity. Environmental and floristic variation were also strongly linked within transects, with soil variation being most important. The overlap between spatially and environmentally explained variation was high, but there was congruence in the main environmental predictors selected in both transects, suggesting considerable spatial structure arose from species responses to a patchy environment. Species local microclimatic distributions were significantly linked to their regional elevational ranges. Species associated with the drier north-easterly transect had average range mid-points and maxima significantly higher (by 211 m and 402 m, respectively) than those associated with the more humid south-westerly transect. Within transects, species associated with more acidic soils and warmer microsites had higher average range minima, mid-points or maxima (by > 200 m in all cases) than those associated with less acidic and cooler microsites. Main conclusions Strong environmental determinism of community composition was apparent in relation to both local topoclimatic and soil gradients. Moreover, our results suggest that fine-scale variation in environmental conditions enhances the mixing of lowland and highland floras in mid-montane forests, thereby contributing to mid-elevation diversity.
Evolution of syncarpy in angiosperms: theoretical and phylogenetic analyses of the effects of carpel fusion on offspring quantity and quality

The repeated evolution of fused carpels (syncarpy) is one of the dominant features of angiosperm macroevolution. We present results of new phylogenetic and theoretical analyses to assess the frequency and nature of transitions to syncarpy, and the possible advantages of syncarpy over apocarpy under a variety of ecological conditions. Using a recent molecular estimate of angiosperm phylogeny, we ascertained that a minimum of 17 independent evolutionary transitions from apocarpy to syncarpy have occurred; about three‐quarters of these transitions allowed pollen tubes to cross between carpels and fertilize ovules that would otherwise be left unfertilized. Most of these transitions also intensified competition between pollen, potentially enhancing offspring fitness. The high proportion of evolutionary transitions promoting pollen competition and pollen‐tube access to all carpels supports the hypothesis that the main advantage of syncarpy is in increasing offspring quality and quantity. The potential advantages of syncarpy were more thoroughly evaluated by analytical and simulation studies. These showed that the advantage of syncarpy over apocarpy involving increased offspring‐quantity held under conditions of marginal pollination and declined with increasing pollination. The offspring‐quality advantage persisted over a wider range of conditions, including under quite high pollination rates.
Ontogeny of swimming behaviour in sardine Sardina pilchardus larvae and effect of larval nutritional condition on critical speed

The ontogeny of swimming behaviour in sardine Sardina pilchardus larvae was stud- ied, from hatching to 75 days post-hatch (dph), by measuring the critical swimming speed (Ucrit) and observing locomotory behaviour. In addition, the effect of larval nutritional condition on Ucrit at the onset of their swimming abilities (20 to 25 dph) was evaluated by rearing larvae under 4 dif- ferent feeding treatments. Diets consisted of different concentrations of dinoflagellates, rotifers and the copepod Acartia grani, and a wild plankton assemblage. Recently hatched larvae were mostly inactive, but from 2 dph onwards larvae started to swim freely in the rearing tank, and time spent swimming increased throughout ontogeny. Larvae younger than 20 dph (i.e. <7.90 mm TL) could not swim for the entire adjustment period at the minimum current speed, but thereafter Ucrit increased significantly with larval age and length, reaching a maximum of 9.47 cm s �1 at 19.10 mm TL and 55 dph. Growth, survival and the nutritional condition of sardine larvae, assessed by the RNA residual index, were significantly higher for larvae reared with the high-concentration diet, contrary to the other derived nucleic acids indices (RNA/DNA and DNA/DW), which showed no differences between diets. Despite differences in the survival and growth rates of sardine larvae, Ucrit at the onset of swimming did not differ significantly among diets, but was significantly related to larval nutritional condition as assessed by the RNA residual index. Overall, our results show that early larval stages of sardines have poor swimming ability and probably rely on food patches in the wild to survive; however, close to metamorphosis (especially from 45 dph onwards), larvae spend most of the time swimming and are capable of resisting the mean current speeds of their natural environment, which may strongly enhance chances for survival.
Oxidation of Wine Phenolics: A Critical Evaluation and Hypotheses

Oxidation reactions involving phenolics might change the chemical and sensory profile of wines. While oxidation is a long-standing problem in winemaking, a definitive understanding of its chemical mechanisms is lacking, and such an understanding could allow us to better predict and control wine aging. We briefly summarize and discuss the current knowledge on the chemistry of wine phenolic oxidation and propose, along with other researchers, a new, comprehensive scheme in which the Fenton reaction and hydroxyl radicals have an essential role. This hypothesis suggests that catalytic iron converts wine’s hydrogen peroxide into hydroxyl radical. This leads to a much stronger and less selective oxidant that could react with almost all wine components, in proportion to their concentration and with little selectivity for antioxidant properties. This reaction could produce many electrophilic oxidation products, mainly aldehydes and ketones, that could further modify the chemical composition and sensory perception of wine. While the brevity of this report precludes a full review of oxidation, our aim is to stimulate more study and debate on the mechanisms in wine oxidation chemistry.
Estabilidade aeróbia da ração total e de silagens de capim-marandu tratadas com aditivos químicos e bacterianos

This research evaluated the inclusion of chemical additive and the inoculation with homo and heterofermentative bacteria on the aerobic stability of the Marandu grass silages and on the total mixed ration (TMR). It was conducted three experiments to evaluate sodium benzoate and two inoculants: 1. Lactobacillus plantarum + Propionibacterium and; 2. Lactobacillus buchneri. The silos were opened after 60 days of fermentation; the silages and the TMR containing the silages were placed in a polystyrene box, and transferred to a climatic chamber kept at 25 ± 1oC to determine the temperature changes, dry matter recovery, and pH values. The data were analyzed according to a complete randomized design, in a split plot arrangement. The silages showed DM losses and increasing pH during the air exposure phase. The silages and TMR temperatures showed a slight increase during the six days of air exposure. Bacteria inoculants or sodium benzoate didn't affect the silage aerobic stability.
USE OF FATTY ACID PROFILES TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN ISOLATES OF Fusarium oxysporum F.SP. Vasinfectum, THE COTTON WILT PATHOGEN AND OTHER ISOLATES OF Fusarium oxysporum

Twenty three fatty acid profiles were qualitatively and quantitatively determined by using fatty acid methyl esterification (FAME) to differentiate between three isolates of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. vasinfectum, the cotton wilt pathogen, and seven isolates of Fusarium oxysporum from other hosts. Cluster analysis by the unweighted group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) demonstrated that although qualitative profiles were simpler than the quantitative ones, they were more useful in differentiation between Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfecolates and the other isolates of Fusarium oxysporum.
Haemolytic activity and characterization of nematocyst venom from Pelagia noctiluca (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa)

Abstract We investigated the haemolytic capacity of the crude venom extracted from isolated nematocysts of Pelagia noctiluca (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa), and evidenced the proteic fractions responsible for this activity. The nematocyst venom was used at various concentrations to evaluate the haemolytic activity and the lysosomal membrane stability of red blood cells of two teleostean species treated with the extract. The nematocyst extract was assayed against erythrocytes of the two teleostean species living in different environments, Carassius auratus as a common freshwater species, and Liza aurata as a representative of seawater species. Experiments on the haemolytic activity of P. noctiluca in the presence of lipid components of erythrocyte membranes showed that sphyngomyelin strongly inhibited this activity. The crude venom was analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis SDS-PAGE and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to detect the proteic composition, and it was found that the active haemolytic components of this venom are distributed in at least four protein fractions. The results of our experiments indicated that Pelagia noctiluca venom induces haemolysis and lysosomal membrane destabilisation in both species and that Carassius auratus was more susceptible to jellyfish venom than was Liza aurata. No significant differences in glutathione (GSH) levels were observed between control and treatments; consequently the toxins do not cause the oxidative stress but likely recognize specific targets (i.e. sphyngomyelin) in the plasmatic membrane of red blood cells.
Qualitative examination of diatom diversity in black fly (Diptera: Simuliidae) gut contents across a mortality gradient after exposure to Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis de Barjac, 1978

While Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis de Barjac, 1978 (Bti) is generally effective in reducing Simulium Latreille, 1802 pest levels, impaired toxicity has been identified. Diatoms are typically abundant in Simulium larval gut contents and thought to affect feeding behaviour and/or Bti ingestion. We sought to determine diatom composition in larval Simulium gut contents and periphyton in relation to mortality subsequent in situ Bti application across three stream reaches. Generally, lower larval mortality after Bti exposure was associated with comparatively greater diatom diversity inside gut contents, corresponding with an inverse relationship between periphyton diatom diversity and larval mortality across our study reaches. High profile diatoms inside gut contents were positively correlated with mortality, suggesting microbial morphology may affect Bti efficacy. Diatoms inside live larval guts were most similar to periphyton which indicates that these larvae may have been feeding less on lower quality detrital material and/or exhibiting comparatively greater benthic feeding.