Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of variability and edaphological characteristics on growth of Sclerotium rolfsii (Sacc) causing collar rot disease of sunflower in coastal region of West Bengal, India

Sunflower is an important oilseed crop in India. One of the major diseases is collar rot caused by Sclerotium rolfsii (Sacc). This study was conducted during 2014–15 and 2015–16 under in-vitro condition. To see the effect of soil temperature and soil moisture, the S. rolfsii (Sacc). was grow at different temperature and at different moisture level. Results showed that among the different soil pH tested, pH5.7 was the best for colonization on wheat seeds 61.67% followed by 6.1(58.33%). In case of soil temperature most preferable temperature for mycelial grow of the pathogen was 30°C. The pathogen grown best in 30% soil moisture content followed by 25%. Variations were observed in colony morphology, mycelial growth, sclerotial size, colour and number of sclerotia. The number of sclerotia in different isolates varied from 352 (WBSR4) to 411 (WBSR9). Twenty five combinations showed compatible reaction out of 36 pairings in mycelial compatibility studies.
A minimal synaptic model for direction selective neurons in Drosophila

Visual motion estimation is a canonical neural computation. In Drosophila, recent advances have identified anatomical and functional circuitry underlying direction-selective computations. Models with varying levels of abstraction have been proposed to explain specific experimental results, but have rarely been compared across experiments. Here we construct a minimal, biophysically inspired synaptic model for Drosophila’s first-order direction-selective T4 cells using the wealth of available anatomical and physiological data. We show how this model relates mathematically to classical models of motion detection, including the Hassenstein-Reichardt correlator model. We used numerical simulation to test how well this synaptic model could reproduce measurements of T4 cells across many datasets and stimulus modalities. These comparisons include responses to sinusoid gratings, to apparent motion stimuli, to stochastic stimuli, and to natural scenes. Without fine-tuning this model, it sufficed to reproduce many, but not all, response properties of T4 cells. Since this model is flexible and based on straightforward biophysical properties, it provides an extensible framework for developing a mechanistic understanding of T4 neural response properties. Moreover, it can be used to assess the sufficiency of simple biophysical mechanisms to describe features of the direction-selective computation and identify where our understanding must be improved.
Novel Carbapenem-Hydrolyzing β-Lactamase, KPC-1, from a Carbapenem-Resistant Strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae

Hospital Infections Program, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30333; The R. W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Raritan, New Jersey 08869; and Unidad de Investigacion, Hospital Son Dureta, Andrea Doria, Palma de Mallorca, 07014, and Área de Microbiologia, Universidad de las Islas Baleares, Crtra. Valldemosa, Palma de Mallorca, 07071, Spain
Offset-related brain activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex promotes long-term memory formation of verbal events

Recent evidence suggests that brain activity following the offset of a stimulus during encoding contributes to long-term memory formation, however the exact mechanisms underlying offset-related encoding are still unclear. Here we used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to investigate offset-related activity in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). rTMS was administered at different points in time around stimulus offset while male and female participants encoded visually-presented words (first rTMS experiment) or pairs of words (second rTMS experiment) and the analyses focused on the effects of the stimulation on subsequent memory performance. The results show that rTMS administered at the offset of the stimuli, but not during online encoding, disrupted subsequent memory performance. In the first experiment we show that rTMS specifically disrupted encoding mechanisms initiated by the offset of the stimuli rather than general, post-stimulus processes. In the second experiment, we show a robust decline in associative memory performance when rTMS was delivered at the offset of the word pairs, suggesting that offset-related encoding may contribute to the binding of information into an episodic memory trace. A meta-analysis conducted on the two studies and on a previously published dataset confirmed that the involvement of the left VLPFC in memory formation is initiated by the offset of the stimulus. The offset of the stimulus may represent an event boundary that promotes the reinstatement of the previously experienced event and episodic binding. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT How well an event is encoded predicts how well it is remembered, and verbal encoding is an important part of everyday memory that, if disrupted, can lead to difficulties and disorders. The timing of encoding processes relative to the presentation of an event is important for successful retrieval, and little is known about the interval immediately after an event’s presentation (post-stimulus offset) which is thought to involve critical encoding processes in the VLPFC and hippocampus. The current studies demonstrate that indeed, verbal encoding processes in the VLPFC that are necessary for memory formation are triggered by the offset of the word, and these processes may involve VLPFC-hippocampal interactions that promote binding of event features into a single, coherent memory trace.
Strong information-limiting correlations in early visual areas

If the brain processes incoming data efficiently, information should degrade little between early and later neural processing stages, and so information in early stages should match behavioral performance. For instance, if there is enough information in a visual cortical area to determine the orientation of a grating to within 1 degree, and the code is simple enough to be read out by downstream circuits, then animals should be able to achieve that performance behaviourally. Despite over 30 years of research, it is still not known how efficient the brain is. For tasks involving a large number of neurons, the amount of information encoded by neural circuits is limited by differential correlations. Therefore, determining how much information is encoded requires quantifying the strength of differential correlations. Detecting them, however, is difficult. We report here a new method, which requires on the order of 100s of neurons and trials. This method relies on computing the alignment of the neural stimulus encoding direction, f′, with the eigenvectors of the noise covariance matrix, Σ. In the presence of strong differential correlations, f′ must be spanned by a small number of the eigenvectors with largest eigenvalues. Using simulations with a leaky-integrate-and-fire neuron model of the LGN-V1 circuit, we confirmed that this method can indeed detect differential correlations consistent with those that would limit orientation discrimination thresholds to 0.5-3 degrees. We applied this technique to V1 recordings in awake monkeys and found signatures of differential correlations, consistent with a discrimination threshold of 0.47-1.20 degrees, which is not far from typical discrimination thresholds (1-2 deg). These results suggest that, at least in macaque monkeys, V1 contains about as much information as is seen in behaviour, implying that downstream circuits are efficient at extracting the information available in V1.
A Correlation Study : Levels of Butyrylcholinesterase and Paraoxonase 1 Activity amongst Shallot Farmworkers in Brebes Regency, Central Java, Indonesia

Organophosphate insecticides (OPs) are one of the pesticides commonly used in agricultural activities either to eradicate or to protect crops from insect attacks. Aside from the advantages proposed, this OPs substance also brings some worrisome threats for individual and population. Shallot farmworkers in Brebes Regency are population at risk to OPs exposure. The activity levels of Butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) and paraoxonase 1 (PON1) in blood play important roles as a biomarker of exposure as well to measure the occurrence of OPs exposure in a human body and as a biomarker of susceptibility as well to measure the level of detoxifying OPs. The aim of this study was to analyse the correlation between levels of BuChE and PON1 activities amongst shallot farmworkers. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 88 male subjects selected randomly from Dukuhlo Village in Brebes Regency, Indonesia, occupationally exposed to OPs from April to May 2017. Using a structured questionnaire, a survey was carried out based on sociodemographic characteristics. Blood samples were collected to determine the levels of BuChE and PON1 activity. These samples were then analysed at laboratories of Cito in Tegal and Gaky, Undip in Semarang. Furthermore, data were analysed systematically using univariate and bivariate (a Spearman’s Rank test). A significant correlation was found between these both variables (p=0.025 and rho=0.238) with slightly moderate positive relationship. To sum up, farmworkers with higher PON1 activity may have a better chance of detoxifying the acute effect of OPs exposure. A further research is needed to identify correlation between PON1 activity, levels of thyroid hormones, and OPs metabolites in urine.
The Human Brain Encodes a Chronicle of Visual Events at Each Instant of Time Through the Multiplexing of Traveling Waves

The human brain continuously processes streams of visual input. Yet, a single image typically triggers neural responses that extend beyond 1s. To understand how the brain encodes and maintains successive images, we analyzed with electroencephalography the brain activity of human subjects while they watched ∼5000 visual stimuli presented in fast sequences. First, we confirm that each stimulus can be decoded from brain activity for ∼1s, and we demonstrate that the brain simultaneously represents multiple images at each time instant. Second, we source localize the corresponding brain responses in the expected visual hierarchy and show that distinct brain regions represent, at each time instant, different snapshots of past stimulations. Third, we propose a simple framework to further characterize the dynamical system of these traveling waves. Our results show that a chain of neural circuits, which each consist of (1) a hidden maintenance mechanism and (2) an observable update mechanism, accounts for the dynamics of macroscopic brain representations elicited by visual sequences. Together, these results detail a simple architecture explaining how successive visual events and their respective timings can be simultaneously represented in the brain. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Our retinas are continuously bombarded with a rich flux of visual input. Yet, how our brain continuously processes such visual streams is a major challenge to neuroscience. Here, we developed techniques to decode and track, from human brain activity, multiple images flashed in rapid succession. Our results show that the brain simultaneously represents multiple successive images at each time instant by multiplexing them along a neural cascade. Dynamical modeling shows that these results can be explained by a hierarchy of neural assemblies that continuously propagate multiple visual contents. Overall, this study sheds new light on the biological basis of our visual experience.
Molecular insights into the phylogeny of Blapstinina (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Opatrini)

The monophyly of the North and South American endemic subtribe Blapstinina (Tenebrionidae: Opatrini) is tested through phylogenetic analyses using five molecular markers [nuclear ribosomal 28S (28S), cytochrome oxidase subunit II (COII), arginine kinase (ArgK), carbamoyl‐phosphate synthetase domain of rudimentary (CAD), wingless (wg)]. Representatives of several opatrinoid subtribes were taken into consideration, including other geographically overlapping endemic genera, namely Ammodonus, Ephalus and Pseudephalus (all previously considered representatives of Ammobiina). A comparative study of morphology was performed to assess resulting phylogenetic hypotheses. Analyses support the monophyly of Blapstinina; however, they also strongly indicate that Ammodonus should be included within the subtribe. Mecysmus is nested within Blapstinus and therefore, a new synonymy, Blapstinus (= Mecysmus syn.n.), and the following combinations are introduced: Blapstinus advena comb.n. , B. angustus comb.r. , B. laticollis comb.n. , B. parvulus comb.n. , B. tenuis comb.n. Morphological analysis showed a close affiliation between Ephalus and Pseudephalus. Based on these results, Pseudephalus is synonymized with Ephalus [Ephalus (= Pseudephalus syn.n.)], and the following combination is introduced: Ephalus brevicornis comb.n. Recovered topologies also strongly support transferring Ephalus stat.n. into Opatrina, making the distribution of Opatrina amphi‐Atlantic.
Southern limit of Africanized honey bees in Argentina inferred by mtDNA and wing geometric morphometric analysis

African honey bee subspecies Apis mellifera scutellata began to spread in the American continent from southern Brazil in 1956. The process of Africanization involved both maternal and paternal bidirectional gene flow between European and Africanized honey bees. In Argentina, Africanized honey bees dominate in the northern semitropical regions and a hybrid area is defined between (ca. 32°–34°latitude). Although previous analysis has been carried out in Buenos Aires province, no analysis has been made south of this latitude. We used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) assays and wing geometric morphometrics to determine the prevalence of Africanized honey bees in managed populations. African mitotype origin and subspecies identity, were determined at three regions from Argentina. In our study, we analyzed 480 samples by wing morphometry and 157 by cytochrome-b assays, collected during 2013–2016. Our results show that North of 35°N latitude, honey bees with African mitotype were quite common (88.64%) finding high similarity with A. m. scutellata. South of that latitude, in temperate regions, we found African mitotype in only 18 of 133 colonies analyzed and a mixture of both European (A. m. ligustica, A. m. cárnica, A. m. mellifera) and African subspecies, most likely derived from North African honey bee (A. m. intermissa). Our results confirmed the existence of Africanized honey bee populations with a gradual cline from north to south, as a result from recent A. m. scutellata-derived bee expansion. Beyond the transition area between the 30°–35°S parallels bees carrying the European mitotype were fairly common.
DCP2 plays multiple roles during Drosophila development – possible case of moonlighting?

mRNA decapping proteins (DCPs) are components of the P-bodies in the cell which are hubs of mRNAs targeted for decay and they provide the cell with a reversible pool of mRNAs in response to cellular demands. The Drosophila genome codes for two decapping proteins, DCP1 and DCP2 out of which DCP2 is the cognate decapping enzyme. The present endeavour explores the endogenous promoter firing, transcript and protein expression of DCP2 in Drosophila wherein, besides a ubiquitous expression across development, we identify active expression paradigm during dorsal closure and a plausible moonlighting expression in the Corazonin neurons of the larval brain. We also demonstrate that the ablation of DCP2 leads to embryonic lethality and defects in vital morphogenetic processes whereas a knockdown of DCP2 in the Corazonin neurons reduces the sensitivity to ethanol in adults, thereby ascribing novel regulatory roles to DCP2. Our findings unravel novel putative roles for DCP2 and identify it as a candidate for studies on the regulated interplay of essential molecules during early development in Drosophila, nay the living world.
Clinical Survey of Symptom Spectrum,Quality of Life and Psychological Status in Patients with Reflux Esophagitis and Non-erosive Reflux Disease

Background: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) consists of non-erosive reflux disease (NERD), reflux esophagitis (RE) and Barrett's esophagus (BE), and the pathogenesis of these three entities may not be the same. Aims: To analyze and compare the demographic characteristics and clinical features of patients with NERD and RE, so as to appraise their pathogenesis and effective treatment. Methods: Two hundred and seventy-eight consecutive patients with GERD were enrolled and asked to complete the questionnaires, which included demographic data, gastroesophageal reflux and reflux-related symptoms score, extra-esophageal symptoms, overlapping symptoms and the evaluation of quality of life and psychological status. Results: Among the 278 patients, 60.8% were NERD and 37.1% were RE. Compared with patients with RE, NERD patients were significantly younger, predominant in female (P0.05). There was no significant difference between NERD and RE groups in reflux symptoms score, however, retrosternal pain was more severe in NERD patients than in RE patients (P0.05), whereas heartburn and regurgitation were milder. The extra-esophageal symptoms and overlapping symptoms were similar in both groups. The decline of quality of life was more obvious in NERD patients than in RE patients, and the proportion of patients with abnormal psychological status in NERD group was significantly higher than in RE group (P0.05) and the depression score was higher. Conclusions: In this clinical survey, majority of GERD patients were NERD and there was no significant difference in reflux-related symptom spectrum between NERD and RE. NERD patients were more likely co-morbid with psychological disorders and having poorer quality of life. These results suggest that psychological factors may play an important role in the pathogenesis of NERD.
Doing nothing and what it looks like… Inactivity in fattening cattle

Animals kept in barren environments often show increased levels of inactivity and first studies indicate that inactive behaviour may reflect boredom or depression-like states. However, inactivity does not necessarily reflect negative welfare and can even be a sign of positive welfare, for example in terms of relaxation. To date, knowledge of how to reliably differentiate between positive and negative states associated with inactivity is scarce and methods to identify different forms of inactivity are thus warranted. To this end, we developed an Inactivity Ethogram including detailed information on the postures of different body parts (Standing/Lying, Head, Ears, Eyes, Tail) for fattening cattle, a farm animal category often kept in barren environments. The Inactivity Ethogram was applied to Austrian Fleckvieh heifers from intensive, semi-intensive and pasture-based husbandry systems. Three farms per husbandry system were visited twice; once in the morning and once in the afternoon to cover most of the daylight hours with our observations. During each visit, 16 focal animals were continuously observed for 15 minutes each (96 heifers per husbandry system, 288 in total). Moreover, the focal animals’ groups were video recorded to later determine the inactivity level on the group level. Group level and focal animal data were analysed with (generalised) linear mixed-effect models with husbandry system as fixed effect and (group nested in) farm visit nested in farm as random effects. Husbandry system did not affect group level inactivity or the time the different postures were adopted (with the exception of asymmetrical ears, which were more prevalent in intensive than in semi-intensive than in pasture systems). In addition to the analysis of the time the single postures were observed for, simultaneous occurrences of postures of different body parts (Standing/Lying, Head, Ears and Eyes) were analysed using the machine learning algorithm cspade to provide insight into co-occurring postures of inactivity. Frequently co-occurring postures were generally similar between husbandry systems, but with subtle differences. The most frequently observed combination in intensive and semi-intensive systems was Lying with Head up, Ears backwards and Eyes open whereas in pasture systems it was Lying with Head up, ears low and eyes closed. To conclude, both the Inactivity Ethogram (including the description of detailed postures) and the machine learning algorithm cspade (for identifying frequently co-occurring posture combinations) are promising tools to understand how combinations of postures may be used to distinguish between different affective states associated with inactivity.
Role of CD56 and CD57 uterine natural killer cells and E-cadherin in either successful implantation or recurrent abortion

Introduction Women with recurrent early pregnancy loss may have impaired receptor expression in natural killer cells, which regulate implantation through receptor–ligand interactions. Unexplained miscarriages have immunological background whenever decidual tissue is formed; natural killer cells are invariably present, which may have a role in implantation. This process might lead to downregulation of adhesion molecule involved in cell–cell interactions. Aim of the study The aim of this study was to investigate the role of uterine natural killer cells and E-cadherin in human endometrium of nonpregnant women and of those with recurrent abortion to find out their role in implantation or recurrent abortion. Materials and methods Sixty-five samples were collected from Egyptian women (in the first trimester with unexplained repeated spontaneous abortion and endometrial biopsies from nonpregnant fertile state). Sections were immunostained by CD56, CD57, and E-cadherin. Results We found that CD57+ natural killer cells may have a role in the normal fertile cycle. However, CD56+ natural killer cells are highly expressed in women with recurrent abortion. Conclusion There is switching of receptors on natural killer cells, which may downregulate E-cadherin expression at chorionic trophoblasts and which may affect the adhesion to the placental bed, thereby interfering with embryo implantation and pregnancy.
Rapid Assessment and Ground Truthing of Habitat Composition and Analysis of Semi-Natural Habitat Diversity of Proposed Greenway Developments

Across Europe, Greenways upcycle disused railway infrastructure into non-motorised public infrastructure, often with limited consideration to potential ecological synergies. Pre-development, disused transport corridors become relatively undisturbed and potentially host diverse semi-natural habitats. The study objectives were 1) to produce a highly detailed and accurate dataset using remote sensing with rapid assessment techniques for ground truthing and 2) subsequently examine habitat diversity existing along a proposed Greenway. A 7000 ha study corridor was based on a disused railway proposed as a transfrontier Greenway connecting the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. The study applied a rapid-assessment virtual validation techniquealongside remote sensing and accuracy assessment. Inter-relationship between seminatural habitat diversity and land-use intensification was examined. Remote sensing accuracies of 89% and 99% for a real and linear habitat classification were obtained. Degrees of land-use intensification were observed throughout the corridor, highlighting the importance of maintaining and enhancing remaining semi-natural habitat that exists along the proposed Greenway route. Through understanding the landscape matrix composition and semi-natural habitat diversity, European Greenwayscan achieve multi-functionality for ecosystem conservation, forming integral components of Green Infrastructure.