Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Taxonomic Problem of the Type Strain of Lactobacillus homohiochii

The type strain of Lactobacillus homohiochii, ATCC 15434, is known to be hetero-fermenter and inadequate for the type strain of L. honiohiochii. We confirmed that ATCC 15434 showed typical characteristics of hetero-fermentative true hiochi bacilli. DNA-DNA hybridization revealed that ATCC 15434 was Lactobacillus fructivorans. S-26 and S-51, which were identified as L. homohiochii by MOMOSE et al., showed high DNA homology with each other and lower than 10% homology with the other species of related Lactobacillus. Thus, selection of neotype strain of L. homohiochii seems necessary.
SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION OF TWO WHEAT CULTIVARS UNDER WATER STRESS CONDITIONS

This study was undertaken to evaluate the response of two Egyptian wheat cultivars (Sakha-94 and Misr-1) to some soil amendment (hydrogel 30 kgm/feddan and compost 10 ton/feddan individually or mixed) under normal irrigation 100% IR (irrigation water requirements) and water stress 75% IR, which corresponded to 2500 and 1875 water/feddan/season, respectively. A field experiment was conducted in two winter seasons of 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 in the Research and Production Station of the National Research Centre in ElNubaria El-Behera Governorate, Egypt. The results showed that, the highest values of plant high, number of spikes/m spike length, number of grains spike, 1000 grains weight (g), grain yield (Ton/fed.), straw yield (Ton/fed.) and biological yield (Ton/fed.) were recorded under 100% IR and treatment with both (compost + hydrogel), while the lowest values were recorded at 75% available IR treated with hydrogel. However, Misr-1 cultivars surpass Sakha-94 in all the previous characters. On the other hand, crude protein content in grains was increased by decreasing the amount of irrigation water. The highest value of water use Efficiency (WUE) was obtained under 75% IR and treated with (compost + hydrogel) in both cultivars. Data of drought index proved that, Misr-1 was more tolerant to water stress. The data clearly showed that addition of compost and hydrogel can enhance wheat production in new reclaimed sandy soil.
Isolation, characterization and chemical management of bacterial leaf blight pathogen of rice

Bacterial leaf blight pathogen, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) being the one of the most destructive organism that constraints the rice cultivation in tropical parts of Asia. The pathogen causing leaf blight in rice was isolated from Coimbatore, Aduthurai, Gudalur, Theni, Krishnagiri, Vellur, Wayanad, Hyderabad and New Delhi were subjected to molecular characterization and the highly virulent isolate assessed through screening each isolates in bacterial leaf blight susceptible, ADT 38 variety. Coimbatore isolate (MH464904.1) has supervened over the other isolates by showing maximum lesion length. Also, the Coimbatore isolate showed genetic lineage to the other strains of Xoo characterized from China and parts of Indian subcontinent showing less divergence from the strains prevalent in those regions. Efficacy of chemicals viz., bionol, bactrinashak, niclosamide, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, copper oxychloride, streptomycin sulphate were assessed against bacterial leaf blight pathogen where ciprofloxacin and niclosamide at all the concentration has showed better efficacy than the other chemicals.
Dynamic Relationship between Oil Price and Inflation in Oil Exporting Economy: Empirical Evidence from Wavelet Coherence Technique

This paper examined the co-movement and causality between oil price and inflation using monthly data spanning between January 2007 and March 2020. The study employed the wavelet coherence techniques which are a new technique in economics and finance to verify the co-movement and causality simultaneously. Additionally, Granger and Toda Yamamoto? s causality tests were deployed as a robustness check for the wavelet coherence techniques. Findings from the wavelet coherence technique reveal; (a) positive co-movement between the inflation and oil price between 2014M2 and 2017M1 at scale 4-8; (b) there is evidence of causality from oil price to inflation. Wavelet coherence technique revealed unidirectional causality running from oil price to inflation which is also confirmed by the Granger and Toda Yamamoto causality tests. To the author? s understanding, no studies concerning oil price and inflation nexus in the case of Nigeria have deployed this technique. Based on these findings, recommendations were put forward.
Evaluation of serum adenosine deaminase activity and autoantibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus

Introduction: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disease with no single specific and sensitive test available for its diagnosis. Adenosine deaminase (ADA) is an enzyme that can act as an indicator of cellular immunity reflecting the extent of inflammation. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of serum adenosine deaminase activity and its association with antinuclear antibodies (ANA) and anti-dsDNA (anti-double stranded deoxyribonucleic acid) in SLE patients. Material and methods: In this study, we included 36 diagnosed case of SLE as per the American Rheumatology Association (ARA) criteria and 30 healthy control. Serum ADA activity was measured by a spectrophotometric technique based on Giusti and Gallanti. ANA and Anti ds-DNA were measured by indirect Enzyme-Linked Immune Sorbent Assay (ELISA). Normal values of serum ADA activity, ANA and anti ds-DNA was < 25 IU/L, < 10 U/mL and < 25 IU/mL respectively. Results: The mean ADA activity (37.03 ± 13.03 IU/L) in SLE patients was higher as compared to control (18.23 ± 10.12 IU/L), and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.001). Median values of ANA and anti-dsDNA in SLE patients was 16.9 (8.5, 42.8) and 24.7 (20.5, 45.0) respectively. Serum ANA was positive in 25 out of 36 cases, anti-dsDNA was positive in 17 out of 36 cases and ADA was positive in 29 out of 36 cases. We observed a weak positive correlation between ANA and anti-dsDNA (r = 0.46, p = 0.005), whereas a moderate correlation between ANA and ADA (r = 0.525, p = 0.001) in SLE patients. Conclusion: Serum ADA was significantly higher in SLE patients as compared to control and more specific than autoantibodies. Determination of ADA activity is a reliable, cost-effective, and easy test that can be used as an alternative parameter for diagnosing and evaluating disease activity in SLE patients.
Nitrogen Uptake and Yielding Ability of Non-nodulating Soybean Genotype (En1282) under Organic Nitrogen Application (Dried Cattle Feces)(Agronomy)

The nitrogen uptake and yielding ability of non-nodulating soybean genotype (En1282) were investigated under field conditions. Dried cattle feces were applied at levels ranged from 192 to 960 kg N/ha for seven years. No-fertilizer and inorganic fertilizer treatments were used as controls in this experiment. The grain yield of non-nodulating En1282 increased as the application of cattle feces was increased up to 384 kg N/ha. The maximum grain yield of non-nodulating soybean was 3.6t/ha, and the maximum nitrogen uptake was 250kg N/ha. Nitrogen uptake of upland rice, maize (sweet corn), maize (dent corn), radish, wheat, rye, guinea grass and non-nodulating soybean, cultured in the same field over a seven-year period, were compared. The nitrogen uptake ranged from 100 to 300kg N/ha among the crops; it was lowest in upland rice, and highest in guinea grass, followed by soybean. The nitrate content of guinea grass was very high and exceeded the toxic limits for animal feed. In soybean, the shoot nitrate level was high and close to toxic limits during flowering, but nitrate levels of grain, pod and stem were low at maturity. This fitted for animal feed. Our results indicate that non-nodulating soybean can be effectively used to retrieve inorganic nitrogen that is derived from organic nitrogen (such as animal feces), and can play some role in reducing nutrient load on the farming systems.
Effect of the 2018 European drought on methane and carbon dioxide exchange of northern mire ecosystems

We analysed the effect of the 2018 European drought on greenhouse gas (GHG) exchange of five North European mire ecosystems. The low precipitation and high summer temperatures in Fennoscandia led to a lowered water table in the majority of these mires. This lowered both carbon dioxide (CO2) uptake and methane (CH4) emission during 2018, turning three out of the five mires from CO2 sinks to sources. The calculated radiative forcing showed that the drought-induced changes in GHG fluxes first resulted in a cooling effect lasting 15–50 years, due to the lowered CH4 emission, which was followed by warming due to the lower CO2 uptake. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Impacts of the 2018 severe drought and heatwave in Europe: from site to continental scale’.
Changes in net ecosystem exchange over Europe during the 2018 drought based on atmospheric observations

The 2018 drought was one of the worst European droughts of the twenty-first century in terms of its severity, extent and duration. The effects of the drought could be seen in a reduction in harvest yields in parts of Europe, as well as an unprecedented browning of vegetation in summer. Here, we quantify the effect of the drought on net ecosystem exchange (NEE) using five independent regional atmospheric inversion frameworks. Using a network of atmospheric CO2 mole fraction observations, we estimate NEE with at least monthly and 0.5° × 0.5° resolution for 2009–2018. We find that the annual NEE in 2018 was likely more positive (less CO2 uptake) in the temperate region of Europe by 0.09 ± 0.06 Pg C yr−1 (mean ± s.d.) compared to the mean of the last 10 years of −0.08 ± 0.17 Pg C yr−1, making the region close to carbon neutral in 2018. Similarly, we find a positive annual NEE anomaly for the northern region of Europe of 0.02 ± 0.02 Pg C yr−1 compared the 10-year mean of −0.04 ± 0.05 Pg C yr−1. In both regions, this was largely owing to a reduction in the summer CO2 uptake. The positive NEE anomalies coincided spatially and temporally with negative anomalies in soil water. These anomalies were exceptional for the 10-year period of our study. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Impacts of the 2018 severe drought and heatwave in Europe: from site to continental scale’.
Parents' and guardians' views and experiences of accessing routine childhood vaccinations during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic: A mixed methods study in England

Objective: To explore parents' and guardians' views and experiences of accessing National Health Service (NHS) general practices for routine childhood vaccinations during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in England. Design: Mixed methods approach involving an online cross-sectional survey (conducted between 19th April and 11th May 2020) and semi-structured telephone interviews (conducted between 27th April and 27th May 2020). Participants: 1252 parents and guardians (aged 16+ years) who reported living in England with a child aged 18 months or under completed the survey. Nineteen survey respondents took part in follow-up interviews. Results: The majority of survey respondents (85.7%) considered it important for their children to receive routine vaccinations on schedule during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, several barriers to vaccination were identified. These included a lack of clarity around whether vaccination services were operating as usual, particularly amongst respondents from lower income households and those self-reporting as Black, Asian, Chinese, Mixed or Other ethnicity; difficulties in organising vaccination appointments; and fears around contracting COVID-19 while attending general practice. Concerns about catching COVID-19 while accessing general practice were weighed against concerns about children acquiring a vaccine-preventable disease if they did not receive scheduled routine childhood vaccinations. Many parents and guardians felt their child's risk of acquiring a vaccine-preventable disease was low as the implementation of stringent physical distancing measures (from March 23rd 2020) meant they were not mixing with others. Conclusion: To promote routine childhood vaccination uptake during the current COVID-19 outbreak, further waves of COVID-19 infection, and future pandemics, prompt and sustained national and general practice level communication is needed to raise awareness of vaccination service continuation and the importance of timely vaccination, and invitation-reminder systems for vaccination need to be maintained. To allay concerns about the safety of accessing general practice, practices should communicate the measures being implemented to prevent COVID-19 transmission.
Efficacy assessment of newly-designed and locally-produced filtering facemasks during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic resulted in shortages of production and test capacity of FFP2-respirators. Such facemasks are required to be worn by healthcare professionals when performing aerosol-generating procedures on COVID-19 patients. In response to the high demand and short supply, we designed three models of facemasks that are suitable for local production. As these facemasks should meet the requirements of an FFP2-certified facemask, the newly-designed facemasks were tested on the filtration efficiency of the filter material, inward leakage, and breathing resistance with custom-made experimental setups. In these tests, the locally-produced facemasks were benchmarked against a commercial FFP2 facemask. Furthermore, the protective capacity of the facemasks was tested for the first time with coronavirus-loaded aerosols under physiologically relevant conditions. This multidisciplinary effort resulted in the design and production of facemasks that meet the FFP2 requirements, and which can be mass-produced at local production facilities.
A Modeling Attack Resilient Physical Unclonable Function Based on STT-MRAM

Physical unclonable function (PUF) is considered as a promising hardware security primitive for a variety of applications. Recently, with the rapid development of integrated circuit (IC), the requirement for low complexity, high power efficiency and high performance PUFs become urgent. Moreover, a variety of powerful attack approaches have been carried out to counterfeit PUFs. This paper proposes a novel PUF design by utilizing the spin transfer torque magnetic random-access memory (STT-MRAM). The intrinsic process variation of STT-MRAM is exploited as an entropy source for generating PUF response. The primary performance metrics in terms of reliability, uniformity, uniqueness, and diffuseness of our proposed PUF have been verified, which validate its functionality. In addition, machine learning based modeling attacks are employed to evaluate the security level of proposed STT-MRAM based PUF (MPUF). The statistical results show that MPUF is much more immune to modeling attacks compared with the traditional Arbiter PUF.
Habitat features and human presence as predictors of the abundance of shorebirds and wading birds wintering in the Gulf of Gabès, Tunisia

Understanding ecological factors and processes affecting waterbird abundance is a major question in ecology and important for conservation purposes. In the Mediterranean, studies dealing with the determinants of waterbird abundance and distribution have mainly been concerned with European coastal habitats, whereas less attention has been paid to coastal areas in North Africa. In this work, we used count data to investigate the relevance of habitat features and human presence as predictors of the abundance of shorebirds and wading birds wintering in the Gulf of Gabès, a particularly important wintering quarter for many Palearctic waterbirds in Tunisia. We found that the strength and direction of the relationships between bird abundance and both habitat and human parameters varied among species, depending on their ecological requirements. Most species occurred more abundantly in large mudflats compared to narrow sandy beaches, while one species showed an opposite trend. We also found that the studied sites were frequently visited by local people, mainly for clam harvesting, thus sharing the intertidal habitats with birds. However, the abundance of most species did not decrease with increasing human presence, suggesting that traditional clam-harvesting activity did not seem to disturb birds. Nonetheless, we believe that further investigations of the interactions between birds and clam-harvesters are needed to better understand the role of traditional clam-harvesting activity in shaping the abundance and diversity of waterbirds wintering in the Gulf of Gabès.
Water and Violence Against Dalits in Maharashtra: A Multi-case Approach

Water is one of the most vital resources required for human existence. Yet access to this natural resource has not been easy, especially for dalits living in rural India. There have been numerous violent incidents that have been perpetrated against dalits, ranging from verbal to physical abuse and sometimes even ending in murder when this under-privileged community has asserted its right to water. A multi-case study method has been used in selected villages located in Beed district of Maharashtra to examine the various forms of violence that have been employed to prevent dalits from accessing water. Most have occurred because upper caste Hindus believe that since the so-called ‘impure’ dalits in villages pollute water therefore it should be denied to them. The study concludes with B. R. Ambedkar’s views on accessing water on the principle of social justice, equality and human rights.
Small-scale spatial associations between Artemisia frigida and Potentilla acaulis at different intensities of sheep grazing

ABSTRACT Questions: The formerly overgrazed Inner Mongolia steppe was subject to retrogressive succession. Today, Artemisia frigida and Potentilla acaulis are two dominant species in different phases of successive degradation. To investigate the impact of grazing intensity on spatial community structure, we investigated the small-scale spatial association between A. frigida and P. acaulis at zero, light, medium and heavy sheep grazing, and proposed factors involved in the spatial associations between these two species along a grazing intensity gradient. Location: The Inner Mongolia Grassland Ecosystem Research Station of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Methods: Four grazing intensities were selected: zero, light (1.33 sheep/ha), medium (4.0 sheep/ha) and heavy (6.7 sheep/ha). After 13 years of grazing three 2 m × 2 m quadrats with 100 × 100 cells of size 2 cm × 2 cm were randomly selected in each treatment in July and August 2002. The presence of A. frigida and P. acaulis in each cell was recorded and the positions of the individuals were mapped using Cartesian coordinates in each quadrat. The small-scale spatial associations between A. frigida or P. acaulis were quantified with the L12(d), J12(d) functions (both derived from K12(d), the former indicating the type of the spatial association, the latter indicating the strength of the spatial association), using Monte Carlo simulations. Results: A. frigida was negatively associated with P. acaulis at short distances (0 - 100 cm) under zero and light grazing, and negatively or independently under medium and heavy grazing. Increasing grazing intensities suppressed the peak negative associations. More intense grazing enhanced the tendency towards independent distribution of these two species. Conclusions: The small-scale spatial associations between A. frigida and P. acaulis were significantly different at four different intensities of sheep grazing. Grazing disturbance, clonal growth habit of species, and interspecific competition are the main factors leading to a difference of spatial associations between these two species at different grazing intensities.
Comparison Among Sweet Corn Heterotic Patterns

A BSTRACT . Four sweet corn ( Zea mays L.) heterotic patterns have been reported among sugary1 ( su1 ) open-pollinated cultivars: two among sweet corn cultivars (‘Golden Bantam’ x ‘Country Gentleman’ and ‘Golden Bantam’ x ‘Stowell’s Evergreen’), one related to the ‘Reid’ x ‘Lancaster’ ﬁ eld corn heterotic pattern (‘NE-HY-13A’ x ‘NE-HY-13B’), and one related to the northern x southern Spain ﬁ eld corn heterotic pattern (‘EPS31’ x ‘EPS32’). The objective of this research was to compare the performance of sweet corn heterotic patterns. The four crosses and their seven parents were evaluated in 2 years, at two environments in northwestern Spain, as well as in a cold chamber. ‘Golden Bantam’ x ‘Stowell’s Evergreen’ and ‘Golden Bantam’ x ‘Country Gentleman’ had poorer agronomic performance and better ear quality than ‘NE-HY-13A’ x ‘NE-HY-13B’ and ‘EPS31’ x ‘EPS32’. ‘Golden Bantam’ x ‘Stowell’s Evergreen’ had the best cold tolerance in the cold chamber. Earliness, emergence, and early vigor were higher for ‘EPS31’ x ‘EPS32’, related to the northern x southern Spain ﬁ eld corn heterotic pattern. Heterosis was positive and signi ﬁ cant for several traits for ‘Golden Bantam’ x ‘Stowell’s Evergreen’ and ‘Golden Bantam’ x ‘Country Gentleman,’ while heterosis was not signi ﬁ cant for ‘NE-HY-13A’ x ‘NE-HY-13B’ and ‘EPS31’ x ‘EPS32’. The objective of capitalizing on the ‘Reid’ x ‘Lancaster’ and the northern x southern Spain ﬁ eld corn heterotic patterns for improving sweet corn has failed. We believe that heterosis is lost when ﬁ eld corn heterotic patterns are combined with sweet corn, due to incompatibility in gene combination among sweet and ﬁ eld corn genetic backgrounds.
Effect of tillage systems on energy use efficiency in wheat based cropping sequence.

This study was conducted in order to determine how the energy balance affects under different tillage systems and crop rotations in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey during four year period. The study was carried out using a split-plot randomized complete block design with three replicates. Tillage treatments were put in main plots and crop rotations in sub-plots. Total energy inputs in conventional tillage (CT) (20.69 GJ ha) was found to be higher than reduced tillage (RT) (20.01 GJ ha) and no-till (NT) (18.95 GJ ha). The lowest total energy input was obtained in wheat-fallow (W-F) crop rotation (14.54 GJ ha) and highest energy outputs in NT (55.89 GJ ha) and W-F crop rotation (47.97 GJ ha). It was determined that NT had nearly two times more energy use efficiency than CT. The energy use efficiency values for wheat-fallow (W-F), wheat-chickpea (W-C) and wheat-wheat (W-W) were found 3.35, 2.58 and 1.58, respectively. The highest energy productivity was obtained in NT (86.73 kg GJ) and W-F crop rotation (94.46 kg GJ). In NT practice, the highest wheat grain yield (1456 kg ha) was obtained. NT practice had the most appropriate energy use efficiency for dry lands of the Central Anatolia Region. NT practice with W-F and W-C crop rotations can be recommended for dry lands in the study region. © 2016 Friends Science Publishers