Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genotypic diversity of Phytophthora infestans in The Netherlands revealed by DNA polymorphisms.

We used DNA fingerprinting to estimate genotypic diversity among 153 isolates of Phytophthora infestans collected from potato and tomato plants in 14 fields distributed over six regions in The Netherlands. The DNA fingerprint probe, RG57, hybridized to 21 fragments of genomic DNA, 16 of which were polymorphic. Thirty-five RG57 genotypes were identified among the 153 isolates. Half of the isolates had the most widely distributed genotype, which was found in 10 fields in five of the six regions sampled. However, 89% of the genotypes were detected in only one field, and 60% occurred only once. Two mitochondrial DNA types, designated A and B, were found. Type A occurred in 143 isolates and was found in all fields in every region. Type B, in contrast, was found in only 10 isolates, all collected in community gardens. Partitioning of the genotypic diversity into components with the Shannon diversity index revealed that 52% of the diversity was associated with differences occurring within fields, 8% was due to differences among fields within regions, and 40% was accounted for by differences among regions. Genotypic differentiation was observed between isolates collected in community gardens and in commercial potato fields. Canonical variate analysis grouped isolates from commercial potato fields together, regardless of the geographic distance between the fields. Isolates from community gardens differed among regions and differed from the isolates collected in commercial potato fields.
Cloning and expression of two plasma membrane aquaporins expressed during the ripening of grape berry.

The ripening of grape (Vitis vinifera L.) berry is accompanied by dramatic accumulation of sugars and water. Two full-length clones and several partial clones encoding plasma membrane aquaporins (PIP) were cloned from grape berries collected at the beginning of ripening. Based on their sequences, on a phylogenetic analysis and on functional properties, both clones, called VvPIP1a and VvPIP1b were assigned to the PIP1 subfamily. RNA gel blot studies with berries at various stages of development indicated that VvPIP expression was highest at stages following veraison. Injection of Xenopus oocytes with VvPIP1a cRNA induced a moderate increase of water permeability and a large increase in glycerol permeability, whereas injection with VvPIP1b cRNA did not affect these permeabilities. Injection of VvPIP1a cRNA, but not VvPIP1b cRNA, inhibited urea uptake by the oocyte, and this inhibition was sensitive to HgCl2. The data are discussed in relation with the potential role of aquaporins in fruit physiology.
Investigating the vulnerability of an African savanna tree (Sclerocarya birrea ssp. caffra) to fire and herbivory

Sclerocarya birrea ssp. caffra (marula), a typical savanna tree, is vulnerable to the effects of fire, herbivory and their combination. This paper investigated the relative importance of these agents of disturbance, at the level of the individual stem, by specifically focusing on the following questions: (i) What is the greatest cause of mortality in adult marula stems in conservation areas with both elephants and fire? (ii) Does fire interact with bark stripping to cause adult stem mortality and if so what is the dominant mechanism? (iii) At what stem diameter are marulas resistant to fire? Field surveys quantified the extent of damage in marula individuals in the Kruger National Park, South Africa, highlighting the high levels of extreme herbivory such as toppling (7%) and pollarding (8%), relative to bark stripping (only 6% with more than 50% of the circumference stripped). In addition to extreme herbivory, the progression from bark stripping through to invasion of the soft, exposed heartwood by wood borers, often facilitated by fire, through to toppling of the weakened stem after successive fires, appears to be the dominant mechanism by which fire interacts with herbivory to cause adult stem death. Bark stripping and fire manipulation experiments indicated that bark stripping failed to increase the vulnerability of stems to fire directly through transport tissue damage. However, the combination of bark stripping and fire reduced the ability of the stem to regrow bark, increasing the vulnerability of the exposed stem to boring insects and future fires. Fire manipulation experiments were used to identify the minimum stem diameter of resistance to fire. Marula resisted stem death when greater than 3.4 cm in basal diameter. This paper emphasizes the importance of both fire and herbivory in the development of woody plant population structure and by extension, the relative proportion of trees and grasses in savanna landscapes.
Vapour pressure deficit and variability of yield of onion (Allium cepa L.) in Poland.

Vapour pressure deficit, in addition to light and temperature, is the main mete- orological element that influences the degree of transpiration rate, which in turn deter- mines the impact of drought stress on the yield of onions. In this study we attempt to as- sess the effect of vapour pressure deficit on onion cultivation in Poland and present a temporal and spatial distribution of vapour pressure deficit for the years 1966-2005. During the period "end of emergence-harvest" (Ee-H), vapour pressure deficit had the greatest impact on onion yield in central western Poland and in the Sandomierz Basin (south east). In these regions the average total yield of onion was 15% lower than the long-term average for the entire country, and yields lower than the long-term average oc- curred every 1-2 years. A statistically significant year-to-year increase in vapour pressure deficit during the Ee-H period indicates the possibility of a further increases in the risk to onion cultivation.
A Study of Dog Carcass Communities in Tennessee, With Special Reference to the Insects'

Many small communities in nature persist for varying periods and ultimately disappear by merger with the larger communities within which they occur. To such units I apply the term microcommunity. The term microsere has been applied by Mohr (1943) to the seral sequence which occurs in small communities of this nature. Microcommunities and microseres are of interest to ecologists in that they are frequently of importance in influencing the structure of the major communities in which they are found. Many studies of the microcommuniiues associated with carrion have been published. Early recognition of this particular microcomnunity is indicated in Brehm's Thierleben (Taschenberg 1877), which contains several plates depicting insect assemblages at various types of carrion and which gives accounts of the habits of some carrion-frequenting insects. Among later and more detailed studies, mention may be made of those of Megnin (1894), Johnston & Villeneuve (1897), Motter (1898), Illingworth (1926), Holdaway (1930), Walsh (1931, 1933), Fuller (1934), Kaufmann (1937), Cole (1942) and Howden (1950). Although many of these studies are excellent and thorough, numerous aspects of carrion microcommunities remain uninvestigated. The present paper attempts an analysis of dog-carcass microcommunities with particular reference to seral development, seasonal variation, and environmental factors. To avoid redundancy, ancd in the interest of brevity, the terms community and sere will generally be used in this paper to refer to carcass microcommunities and microseres. The prefix micro- will be added when it seems desirable to distinguish these entities from larger communities and their seres.
Literacy skills predict probability of refusal in follow-up wave: evidence from two longitudinal assessment surveys

ABSTRACT Selective nonresponse can introduce bias in longitudinal surveys. The present study examines the role of cognitive skills (more specifically, literacy skills), as measured in large-scale assessment surveys, in selective nonresponse in longitudinal surveys. We assume that low-skilled respondents perceive the cognitive assessment as a higher burden than higher-skilled respondents because they are more likely to experience negative feelings. We hypothesize that low-skilled respondents are more likely than high-skilled respondents to refuse to participate in a follow-up wave. We analysed data from two assessment surveys in Germany with similar study designs, target populations, and assessment instruments. Results provide support for our hypothesis. Consistently across both surveys, respondents with the lowest literacy skills had a higher probability of refusal than those with the highest literacy skills. This difference persisted even after controlling for several established predictors of nonresponse, including education.
Efficient segmentation of lumbar intervertebral disc from MR images

: Segmentation of spine Magnetic Resonance Images (MRIs) has become an indispensable process in the diagnosis of lumbar disc degeneration, causing low back pain. Over the last decade of years, computer-directed diagnosis of disease, as well as computer-guided spine surgery, is based on the two-dimensional (2D) analysis of mid-sagittal slice of MRI. This work proposes an automatic strategy to extract the 3D segmentation of the normal disc as well as degenerated lumbar intervertebral discs (IVDs) from T2-weighted Turbo Spin Echo MRI of the spine using Connected Component (CC) analysis algorithm and statistical shape analysis. The challenges faced by the IVD segmentation includes (i) partial volume effects (ii) intensity inhomogeneity (iii) grey level overlap of different soft tissues. The proposed method first pre-processes the dataset and enables it for the application of the CC algorithm. The CC (subsets of pixels of the disc) of the spine MRI is extracted and apply statistical shape analysis for the refinement of the segmentation results to detect IVDs. Experimental results of the proposed method show a robust segmentation, accomplishing the dice similarity index of 92.4% and thus achieving a low error rate. Other performance measures such as Precision, Accuracy, JaccardIdx, JaccardDist, Global Consistency Error, Variation of Information, etc were also evaluated. The algorithm is evaluated quantitatively using adequate experiments on a dataset of 15 MRI scans, of different scenarios such as healthy and degenerate disc and this proposed method is verified as a promising accurate method for the automatic segmentation of IVD
Survival rates of hirundines in relation to British and African rainfall

The BTO's Retrapping Adults for Survival scheme is designed to monitor survival rates of species of conservation concern that are monitored relatively poorly by other forms of ringing. Here we present temporal trends in survival rates for three hirundine species, Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica, House Martin Delichon urbicum and Sand Martin Riparia riparia. Estimates of apparent survival rate were similar to those found in previous studies and were correlated with rainfall on the African wintering grounds, but not with rainfall in Britain, suggesting that overwinter food resources may be more limiting.
Epidemiology and Eradication of Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus Infections

This thesis describes the principles for eradication of bovine viral diarrhoea (BVDV) from cattle populations without the use of vaccines, as they have been applied in the Scandinavian countries since 1993-94. It also presents five studies concerning transmission of BVDV and prenatal diagnosis of persistent BVDV infection. The studies relate to large-scale eradication by addressing issues of importance for elimination of virus in infected herds, for management of recently infected herds and for prevention of BVDV transmission through livestock trade. Transmission of primary type I BVDV infections in the absence of persistently infected (PI) animals was studied. Calves undergoing acute infection with BVDV were brought in contact with healthy, non-immune calves. Also, calves inoculated with BVDV were housed with non-immune calves, while they all underwent a concurrent infection with bovine coronavirus. In both studies, none of the in-contact calves seroconverted. This suggests that primary infections are of low infectivity and that virus circulation will cease after PI animals have been removed. The ability to identify dams pregnant with PI foetuses (PI carriers) before parturition was investigated. Using an indirect antibody ELISA on samples taken in late gestation, it was possible to discriminate PI carriers from other antibody positive pregnant cows in herds with ongoing infection. It was also possible to detect viral antigen in foetal fluids from PI carriers by an RT-PCR assay and by virus isolation (VI). RT-PCR was superior to VI in this respect. Serology can be used to prevent PI carriers from being traded, and both methods can be used to delimit outbreaks of BVDV in infected herds. The infectivity associated with foetal fluids and uterine lochia was tested by exposing non-immune calves to such samples. It was shown that foetal fluids can be infectious, but to a low extent. Uterine lochias are not likely to be infectious. Also, the infectivity associated with dams delivering PI calves, and their calving environment, was studied by putting susceptible calves in repeated contact with such dams after removal of the PI offspring. It was shown that rapid removal of newborn PI calves does not prevent further spread of BVDV infection to susceptible animals.
The effects of feeding watermelon seed meal and full fat seed on broiler chicks growth.

Watermelon seed full-fat (WMSF) and watermelon seed meal (WMSM) samples were analyzed for proximate composition and then incorporated in broiler chicks diets at increasing levels up to 20%. Feeding increasing levels of WMSF to broiler chicks for up to 20% increased weight gain (P<0.05), feed intake, protein consumed, protein efficiency ratio and improved feed conversion ratio. A positive linear effect was observed for weight gain, protein consumed and protein efficiency ratio in birds fed WMSF. Feed intake was linearly increased with increasing the level of WMSM. However, no similar response was noted for weight gain, protein consumed, protein efficiency ratio and feed gain ratio in chicks given increasing levels of WMSM. The study indicated that WMSF and WMSM may be used as feed ingredients in broiler chick diets at up to 20%.
Genetic dissection of the relationship of apparent biological yield and apparent harvest index with seed yield and yield related traitsin soybean

Improving seed yield is an important goal of soybean breeding programs. In this investigation, two sets of recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations with 184 and 151 RI lines derived from Kefeng No. 1 × Nannong 1138-2 (F7:11, NJRIKY) and Bogao × Nannong 94-156 (F7:10, NJ(SP)BN) were used to map QTLs for five agronomic and physiological traits including plant height (PH), days to maturity (MD), seed yield (SY), apparent biological yield (ABY) and apparent harvest index (AHI), and correlation analysis among the five traits were also conducted. 221 SSR markers and 248 markers were used to construct genetic maps in NJRIKY and NJ(SP)BN population, respectively. The QTL mapping was done with the program WinQTLCart. The results indicated there were 14 putative QTL significantly associated with five agronomic and physiological traits in two sets of RIL populations and several coincident QTLs associated to SY and it related traits were observed. For SY, two QTLs, qsyC2.1 mapped on LG-C2 in NJRIKY and qsyL.1 on LG-L in NJ(SP)BN coincided or neared with QTLs detected in previous reports, and one major SY QTLs were detected on LG-O in which none of QTLs for yield were identified before. QTLs for SY co-located with QTLs for ABY and/or AHI and these co-located QTLs in each of genomic regions all showed their additive effects in the same direction except for SY/AHI QTLs on LG-C2 in NJ(SP)BN. These revealed that SY increase could be genetically explained by either biological yield enhancement and/or harvest index improvement. It was also found that some QTLs for PH in both sets of RIL population co-located with some QTLs for yield and/or ABY, and all of the coincident showed the additive effects in the same direction, but none of the QTLs was found to co-locate to any of the AHI QTLs.
Molecular evaluation of antibiotic resistance prevalence in Pseudomonas aeroginosa isolated from cockroaches in Southwest Iran

Pseudomonas aeruginosa can cause infection in the hospitals. This microorganism is ubiquitous within the environment and is particularly isolated from moist areas such as water and soil. The aim of this study was to determine the hospital cockroaches as the main factor for antibiotic-Resistant P. aeruginosa infections transmission and also to determine antibiogram pattern of P. aeruginosa. Also, the pattern of antibiotic resistance showed that a total 14 (11.2%) of 125 samples were contaminated with P. aeruginosa isolated from cockroaches in hospitals using molecular sieve of polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The overall susceptible of isolated P. aeruginosa strains to antimicrobial agents showed that Amikacin 14 (100%), Ciprofloxacim 14(100%), Gentamycin 14 (100%), have more susceptibility, respectively. The prevalence of P. aeruginosa in cockroaches' hospitals is high and as a potential factor in transmission of P. aeruginosa. Key words: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, antibiotic resistance, cockroaches.
Evaluation of Gymnema sylvestre Antimicrobial Activity in Methanol

G. sylvestre is a medicinal plant known for its sugar destroying property, as an anti-diabetic agent. The major phytoconstituents are the triterpenoid saponins, responsible for the various activities. The antimicrobial activity of this plant has been assessed in methanol as the solvent system for the extraction of active principles. The gram positive and gram negative organisms used in the study, have shown susceptibility towards the extracts, with the root extracts at acidic pH, showing higher activity. E. coli and E. cloacae were found to be the most sensitive and Pseudomonas aeruginosa , the resistant type of microorganisms, based on the results obtained from the zones of inhibition. The broad spectrum activity of the plant can be utilised in the development of new antimicrobial drugs.
Values, environmental vulnerabilities, and implications on adaptation: Evidence from an indigenous Raika community in Rajasthan, India

Global environmental change has exacerbated the vulnerabilities of pastoral communities in India, who have already been sidelined in the current development and modernization discourse. The Raikas are one of the largest groups of indigenous nomadic pastoralists residing in the semi-arid regions of Northwest India. They are facing the brunt of shrinking grazing areas, social marginalization, and economic pressures. The past two decades have witnessed additional challenges, such as water scarcity and rainfall variability, which have pushed them beyond their adaptive threshold. These churnings have led to a radical shift in their values and climate adaptation strategies. However, the role and importance of social values in shaping their response to environmental change are not well understood. This study conducted life history interviews and focus group discussions with community members to examine social values and their linkages with climate adaptation decision-making in Raikas. The findings demonstrate that the community’s livelihood, health, and social cohesion are severely affected by environmental change, entwined with social, economic, and political stressors. There is a parallel change taking place in their social values. Their values related to esteem, self-actualization, safety, and belongingness have witnessed shifts, leading them away from pastoralism. This has ramifications on their adaptation decision-making. Their time-tested and preferred choice of adaptation in the face of drought and water scarcity – seasonal livestock migration – is no longer desirable. New adaptation options, such as urban migration, have emerged, while traditional measures have declined in popularity. There is an urgent need to understand and engage with a broader set of methodologies and literature to facilitate the integration of social values in vulnerability and adaptation assessments. The inclusion of social values presents an opportunity to understand the subjective limits of adaptation better as well as to expand adaptation pathways.
Voltammetric Determination of Rhodamine B Using a ZIF-67/Reduced Graphene Oxide Modified Electrode

In the present article, the synthesis of zeolite imidazolate framework-67/reduced graphene oxide (ZIF-67/rGO) and voltammetric determination of Rhodamine B (RhB) are demonstrated. The obtained materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms. It was found that the ZIF-67/rGO composite consists of ZIF-67 nano-particles highly dispersed on the rGO matrix and possesses a high specific surface area. Because of the synergistic effect of good conductivity of rGO and high surface area of ZIF-67, the ZIF-67/rGO—modified glassy carbon electrode exhibits good electrochemical behavior toward Rhodamine B (RhB) oxidation. The use of this electrode to quantitate RhB with differential pulse voltammetric method was successful with a broad linear range, from 0.96 to 44.07 μg. L-1 of RhB and a low limit of detection of 1.79 μg. L-1. The procedure was able to be applied to quantitatively determine RhB content in several food samples with an exceptional recovery rate (98-103%). The quantitative results highly agreed with that provided by high-performance liquid chromatography, revealing that this material is promising in in situ monitoring of other illegal additives in food.
Influence of Dietary Compounds on Intestinal Immunity

This review focuses on the specific effects of nutrients on the intestinal immune system. The intestinal immune system possesses a number of special characteristics different from those of the systemic immune system, which are summarised in this report. Although some of these characteristics are well known, there is a big gap regarding the specific mechanisms that regulate immunity at intestinal level with respect to the systemic immunity. Because of that, during the last years, there is an increasing interest in elucidating the inner mechanisms that regulate the intestinal immune function, as well as how specific nutrients influence that function. We have reviewed this topic with special emphasis on how human milk and its components influence the development of the intestinal immunity in early infancy compared with formula-fed infants. Interactions between nutrients and the intestinal microflora have also been reviewed. Some micronutrients, which are present in human milk and in most of foods, are capable of influencing immune functioning at very low concentrations. The specific action of these micronutrients on some parameters of the intestinal immunity as well as the potential mechanisms of action promoted by them have been considered more in detail. However, few data exist on how other specific nutrients, namely protein and non-protein compounds, lipids, carbohydrates, and others, such as mineral and vitamins, influence the intestinal immunity. Further research in these areas is highly recommended.