Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of complex nitrogen sources on pullulan production relative to carbon source

The effect of complex nitrogen sources, including tryptone, peptone, soytone, casamino acids and corn steep liquor, on pullulan production by Aureobasidium pullulans ATCC 42023 was studied in a medium where sucrose or corn syrup served as the carbon source. Growth on soytone resulted in the highest level of pullulan production by ATCC 42023 independent of the carbon source utilized. In general, all the complex nitrogen sources examined increased pullulan production relative to ammonium sulphate for either sucrose-or corn syrup-grown cells. Cell weights of ATCC 42023 grown on either carbon source were lower when the culture medium contained a complex nitrogen source instead of ammonium sulphate. The pullulan content of the polysaccharide elaborated by sucrose-grown cells on day 5 was found to be highest on soytone, peptone or corn steep liquor. The pullulan content of the polysaccharide produced by corn syrup-grown cells on day 5 was shown to be highest on peptone. The lowest pullulan content of the polysaccharide synthesized by the fungus, using either carbon source, was found to occur after growth on casamino acids
Antifungal activity against Alternaria solani and control of early blight in tomato by essential oil of bergamot orange

The early blight (caused by the fungus Alternaria solani) results in significant damage to the tomato crop, directly affecting productivity. An alternative to the frequent use of pesticides is the use of essential oils, which can act in defense against phytopathogens. The objective of this work was to evaluate the toxic activity in vitro of the bergamot orange (Citrus aurantium ssp. bergamia) essential oil against A. solani, the control of the early blight, and the activity of defense enzymes in tomatoes treated with this oil and inoculated with A. solani. Mycelial discs of A. solani were added to dishes with V8 culture media to which essential oil at concentrations of 0, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, and 2500 µL L-1, in addition to a standard fungicide treatment (azoxystrobin + difenoconazole, 200 + 125 g L-1, respectively) was added. The Petri dishes were incubated at 25 °C in the dark. Mycelial growth was evaluated daily for 19 days, when all treatments reached maximum growth. Sporulation analysis was performed thereafter. Tomato plants were treated with bergamot essential oil, 30 days after transplanting, in the concentrations and fungicide mentioned, in the second pair of leaves. After 72 hours, the pathogen was inoculated using a spray bottle, on treated leaves (second pair of leaves) and untreated leaves (third pair of leaves). The area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC) was calculated based on five severity assessments. The activity of peroxidase (POX), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) was evaluated in leaves treated with the concentration of 2500 µL L-1 of essential oil. The concentration of 2500 ? L L-1 reduced mycelial growth and sporulation of the pathogen by 68.15% and 29.48%, respectively. In treatments with application of essential oil, lower AUDPC was observed for a concentration of 2500 ? L L-1, which was statistically similar to that observed for fungicide application, both in treated and untreated leaves. A greater activity of PPO, POX, and PAL was found locally and systemically, both in the second and third leaves, at concentration of 2500 ? L L-1. The essential oil of bergamot can be an alternative for the control of early blight in tomato.
Effect of sowing time on the grain yield and fodder potential of sorghum undersown with stylo in the subhumid zone of Nigeria

Undersowing sorghum with stylo as a means of improving fodder quality for dry-season grazing of livestock in the subhumid zone of Nigeria was investigated. Planting either Stylosanthes guianensis cv 'Cook' or S. hamata cv 'Verano' simultaneously with local or improved varieties of sorghum reduced grain yield by over 70%, but the loss was overcome or minimized by delayed planting of the stylo by 3-6 weeks. Improvement in quality of the resulting fodder from stylo planted between weeks three and six after the sorghum crop made up or even increased the total value of production per area of land. Stylo yield was very much reduced if planted six weeks later than the cereal crop. Undersowing at the appropriate time is considered to be a way of improving the quality of crop residues in an agro-pastoral community without extra demands on labour.
Overview of research on establishment of rice varieties of varying duration in irrigated rice based cropping systems

Rice-Rice Cropping System is found in irrigated lands and coastal regions of Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. Due to Monocropping, this system has suffered from deterioration in soil health and micronutrient deficiency. Rice-rice system occupies the 2nd position with an of area 5.89 m ha after rice-wheat cropping system which occupies an area of 11 m ha in India. Rice-rice system is no longer productive in Southeast Asia.Transplanting after puddling has been a major traditional method of rice establishment. Repeated puddling adversely affects soil physical properties by dismantling soil aggregates, reducing permeability in subsurface layers, and forming hard-pans at shallow depths which make land preparation becomes difficult and requires more energy to achieve proper soil tilth for succeeding crops. Excessive pumping of water for puddling in peak summers also resulted in declining water table. Rice production with transplanting method has been limited by a number of factors such aswater scarcity, high input costs, shortage of skilled labour, sub-optimal plant population. Rice seedlings are transplanted by hired skilled labour that resulted in skilled labour shortage throughout the transplanting period which results into low plant population and eventually low rice yield. To overcome this problem, direct seeding of rice and no-puddled transplanting seems to be viable alternatives in rescuing farmers. This technique reduces labour needs, input requirements, investment and save time by timely sowing of rice and shorten crop duration by 7–10 days thantransplanted rice. Direct seeded rice, if managed properly, and provide grain yield comparable with that of transplanting and the system may be intensified by adjusting more crops in a year. Crop and varietal diversification of the rice based cropping systems may improve the productivity, profitability and resource use efficiency of the systems. Diversification is also a viable option to mitigate the risk of climate change. In this review article the effect of rice crop establishment methods with varying duration rice varieties on rice based cropping system are discussed.
Use of Bulk Segregant Analysis for Varietal Identification and GeneticDiversity Estimation in Pakistani Basmati and Non-Basmati Rice Cultivarsthrough Molecular Markers

Identification of alleles for a particular variety through Bulk Segregant Analysis (BSA) is a valuable technique that probes differences specifically in distinguishing traits. Our study was an attempt to develop variety specific marker which differentiate aromatic rice cultivars from non-aromatic. Bulk Segregant Analysis (BSA) approach with RAPD and ISSR assay was undertaken to trace the variety specific alleles among 2 group of popular Pakistani Basmati and non-Basmati rice genotypes to check adulteration by rice exporters. Out of 160 RAPDs and 30 ISSR used in BSA, 29 RAPD and 18 ISSR revealed consistent polymorphisms and were used to assort the advanced disparities amongst 10 varieties. Overall 262 of 359 random amplified alleles and 116 of 151 inter simple sequence alleles were found polymorphic. The number of alleles generated from RAPD and ISSR marker ranged from 5 to 19 and 3-18 respectively. Pair-wise genetic similarity among the varieties with jaccard coefficients was 0.85 for RAPDs and 0.79 for ISSRs. UPGMA dendrogram based on cluster analysis of individual and combine genetic similarity co-efficient resolved 10 rice cultivars into 2 major groups, Basmati and Non-basmati. Moreover, a total of 3 variety specific alleles of 650, 800, 1075 bp were amplified by random primers OPN-05 and OPE-09. While ISSR generated five (UBC-814, UBC-811, UBC-808, UBC-808a and UBC-82) rare alleles for specific genotypes with band sizes of 1500, 1400, 250, 950 and 720 bp respectively. Direct sequencing of rare allelic amplii¬ed bands in Sequence Characterized Amplii¬ed Regions (SCARs) and sequence tagged sites (STS) might behave useful for recreating phylogenic trees with aim of preserving the integrity of Basmati rice.
Properties of lactate dehydrogenase in a psychrophilic marine bacterium

Lactate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.27) from Vibrio marinus MP-1 was purified 15-fold and ammonium activated. The optimum pH for pyruvate reduction was 7.4. Maximum lactate dehydrogenase activity occurred at 10 to 15 degrees C, and none occurred at 40 degrees C. The crude-extract enzyme was stable between 15 and 20 degrees C and lost 50% of its activity after 60 min at 45 degrees C. The partially purified enzyme was stable between 8 and 15 degrees C and lost 50% of its activity after 60 min at 30 degrees C. The thermal stability of lactate dehydrogenase was increased by mercaptoethanol, with 50% remaining activity at 42 degrees C.
Investor behavior under the Covid-19 pandemic: the case of Indonesia

This study begins with the assumption that the existence of abnormal circumstances will force investors to take measures to protect their investments in the capital market. Recently, the stock index in the Indonesian market has been declining and continued to fall until the end of April 2020 due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. In terms of efficient market theory, prospect theory and signaling theory, this study aims to analyze the relationship between risk and return in the Indonesian capital market during the Covid-19 pandemic as a manifestation of investor behavior. To test hypotheses, the correlation test, the independent sample t-test and the Cohen test for 629 public firms with 52,836 observable data are used. The findings show that for financial sectors and non-financial sectors, the fourth period differs from previous periods when the relationship between systematic risk and stock returns is positive, although only non-financial sectors have a significant effect. The results show that efficient market theory, prospect theory and signaling theory are consistent with the phenomena around the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia. In addition, Cohen’s test results suggest that government policies in the face of the pandemic are successful in stimulating the market.
Analysis of Intensity and Phase Noise of Solitary Semiconductor Lasers Operating in Single-Mode

Semiconductor lasers are being used on large scale now-a-days in many areas of optical data storage and optical communication system. Although laser diodes offer cost effective and reliable means of generating coherent light, semiconductor lasers often involve various noise and instability problems due to fluctuation of photon, its phase and carrier numbers. In this paper, we discuss the intensity and phase noise of solitary semiconductor lasers operating in single-mode. To overcome limitations of the small-signal analysis we use direct numerical integration of the selfconsistent rate equations for photon number, its phase and carrier density. Langevin noise sources for photon number and its phase have been introduced to the rate equations to include fluctuations due to spontaneous emission and the process of carrier recombination. For the purpose of investigation, the laser rate equations are applied to 850 nm GaAs lasers. Fast Fourier transform (FFT) has been used to calculate the frequency spectra of both intensity and phase noise. Transient behavior of semiconductor laser is also described that is significant in determining the noise characteristics of the laser output. Noise characteristics have been demonstrated for different injection currents and described in terms of the photon and carrier population fluctuations. Results show that intensity and phase noise decrease with the increase of the injection current density and linewidths were decreasing substantially with the increasing injection current as well.
Factors Affecting Occupancy and Abundance of American Alligators at the Northern Extent of Their Range

Abstract Populations of American Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) generally are considered more abundant at present than historically; however, little information exists to assess the population of alligators in North Carolina at the northern extent of the species' range. Investigation of the factors influencing the distribution and abundance of alligators in North Carolina could shed light on the species' response to rapid environmental change in the region. We conducted a two-phase study: 1) to assess the distribution of alligators in North Carolina using a site-occupancy design; and 2) to assess the patterns in abundance using a repeated sampling design for population estimation. Results showed that both occupancy and abundance decreased in more northern sites, in sites with higher salinity, and in sites that were generally more westward. Sites sampled later in June were more likely to be occupied than those sampled earlier in the month. Abundance also increased with greater shoreline vegetation complexity and varied between lakes, rivers, and estuaries. Compared with studies from 30 years prior, the population seems fairly stable in terms of abundance and distribution. Given the northern limits of the species and the negative association with salinity, continued monitoring is warranted to understand changes in distribution and abundance with respect to predicted rates of sea-level rise, salinization, and urbanization locally around coastal cities like Wilmington.
Senate: A Maliciously-Secure MPC Platform for Collaborative Analytics

Many organizations stand to benefit from pooling their data together in order to draw mutually beneficial insights -- e.g., for fraud detection across banks, better medical studies across hospitals, etc. However, such organizations are often prevented from sharing their data with each other by privacy concerns, regulatory hurdles, or business competition. We present Senate, a system that allows multiple parties to collaboratively run analytical SQL queries without revealing their individual data to each other. Unlike prior works on secure multi-party computation (MPC) that assume that all parties are semi-honest, Senate protects the data even in the presence of malicious adversaries. At the heart of Senate lies a new MPC decomposition protocol that decomposes the cryptographic MPC computation into smaller units, some of which can be executed by subsets of parties and in parallel, while preserving its security guarantees. Senate then provides a new query planning algorithm that decomposes and plans the cryptographic computation effectively, achieving a performance of up to 145$\times$ faster than the state-of-the-art.
Sphaerodoridae (Annelida: Polychaeta) from the DIVA-Artabria I project (2002 cruise) with description of a new species from the Ártabro Gulf (NW Iberian Peninsula)

Sphaerodoridae (Annelida: Polychaeta) du projet DIVA-Artabria I (campagne 2002) et description d'une nouvelle espece du Golfe d'Artabro (NW de la peninsule iberique). Dans cet article, nous decrivons les sphaerodorides (Polychaeta: Sphaerodoridae) recoltes sur des fonds meubles du NW de la Peninsule Iberique lors du projet DIVA-Artabria I (campagne 2002). En tout, 47 specimens appartenant a deux especes ont ete trouves. Sphaerodoridium fauchaldi Hartmann-Schroder, 1993 est signalee pour la troisieme fois depuis sa description originale. Des complements a la diagnose de cette espece sont apportes. Une nouvelle espece, Sphaerodoropsis artabrensis sp. nov. est decrite. La nouvelle espece est caracterisee par la presence de trois paires d'appendices lateraux sur le prostomium, de quatre macrotubercules dorsaux de forme spherique a piriforme disposes en une rangee laterale par setigere, de parapodes pourvus d'un lobe presetal et de 3 a 4 papilles, ainsi que par la presence de denticulations sur le bord des articles des soies composees unidentees.
REPRODUCTION IN GADOW'S SPINY LIZARD, SCELOPORUS GADOVAE (PHRYNOSOMATIDAE), FROM ARID TROPICAL MEXICO

We studied reproduction in Gadow's spiny lizard Sceloporus gadovae from arid tropical scrub forest in Guerrero, Mexico. Male and female reproductive cycles are synchronous and their peak coincides with the wet season (May-September), but females remain reproductive longer through the year than males. Males and females mature at 7 to 8 months of age. Mean clutch size based on oviductal eggs was 3.6, and 3.8 when based on ovarian follicles. Many females had numerous atretic follicles, suggesting females may have some control over clutch size, or that some females did not have enough energy to complete vitellogenesis. Females may produce more than one clutch per season. Clutch size and egg size were not related to body size. Sceloporus gadovae appears to be influenced by the seasonality of the arid tropics; however, we suggest that seasonality be viewed as a gradient, not as a dichotomy, when considering reproductive patterns.
Assessing the completeness of inventories of vascular epiphytes and climbing plants in Chilean swamp forest remnants

ABSTRACT Plant species inventories provide the foundation for more complex analytical studies and are the basis of monitoring programmes; however, if they are to provide reliable information in the long term, their level of completeness needs to be estimated. This work assessed the completeness of inventories of climbing plants and vascular epiphytes in swamp forest remnants of the Araucanía region of south-central Chile, which has been severely disturbed by agroforestry expansion. We sampled 30 sites using transects, with observations from ground level to a height of 2.3 m up the trees. To assess the potential existence of unrecorded species we drew rarefaction curves based on sample trees and extrapolated them towards one of the most intensely sampled sites. We then calculated the asymptotic species richness with the Chao 1 estimator. The results showed: (1) a total richness of 16 species of epiphytes and 17 species of climbing plants; (2) the rarefaction curve differentiated only two categories of sampling effort (‘rich’ and ‘poor’ sites) as a result of the substantial overlap of the confidence limits at 95%; and (3) the maximum richness estimated by Chao 1 was similar to the richness observed in all the sites. We conclude that greater sampling effort is required to obtain tighter statistical confidence levels in the rarefaction curve; however, from a biological point of view, the sampling effort achieved adequate representation of the species richness at all the sites. Total richness of vascular epiphytes and climbing plants was only slightly below values reported for much larger areas of better-conserved forest in south-central Chile and adjacent areas of Argentina. Finally, we found evidence that forest fragmentation has more severe effects on species richness of vascular epiphytes than on that of climbing plants.
Chromosome number of Fritillaria subgenera Petilium and Theresia (Liliaceae)

Karyology is described for three Old World Fritillaria species belonging to the subgenera Petilium and Theresia. All species have a similar basic karyotype (n=12), consisting of large symmetric (m, sm) and smaller asymmetric (t, st) chromosomes. The chromosome numbers reported as 2n=24 for F. imperialis, F raddeana and F persica are new reports for the geographic zones in which these plants were collected. In F imperialis, the karyotype consists of two large metacentric, six subtelocentric and four telocentric chromosome pairs and the karyotype formula is 2n=2x=24=4m + 12st + 8t. Accessory B-chromosomes which have been reported to be common in F imperialis were not observed here. In F. raddeana, the haploid idiogram includes two metacentric, one submetacentric, five subtelocentric and four telocentric chromosome pairs and the karyotype formula is 2n=2x=24=4m + 2sm + 10st + 8t. In F.persica, the karyotype consists of two metacentric, six subtelocentric and four telocentric chromosome pairs and the karyotype formula is 2n=2x=24=4m + 12st + 8t.
Validity and reliability of a wearable insole pressure system for measuring gait parameters to identify safety hazards in construction

PurposeConstruction workers are frequently exposed to safety hazards on sites. Wearable sensing systems (e.g. wearable inertial measurement units (WIMUs), wearable insole pressure system (WIPS)) have been used to collect workers' gait patterns for distinguishing safety hazards. However, the performance of measuring WIPS-based gait parameters for identifying safety hazards as compared to a reference system (i.e. WIMUs) has not been studied. Therefore, this study examined the validity and reliability of measuring WIPS-based gait parameters as compared to WIMU-based gait parameters for distinguishing safety hazards in construction.Design/methodology/approachFive fall-risk events were conducted in a laboratory setting, and the performance of the proposed approach was assessed by calculating the mean difference (MD), mean absolute error (MAE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), root mean square error (RMSE) and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of five gait parameters.FindingsComparable results of MD, MAE, MAPE and RMSE were found between WIPS-based gait parameters and the reference system. Furthermore, all measured gait parameters had validity (ICC = 0.751) and test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.910) closer to 1, indicating a good performance of measuring WIPS-based gait parameters for distinguishing safety hazards.Research limitations/implicationsOverall, this study supports the relevance of developing a WIPS as a noninvasive wearable sensing system for identifying safety hazards on construction sites, thus highlighting the usefulness of its applications for construction safety research.Originality/valueThis is the first study to examine the performance of a wearable insole pressure system for identifying safety hazards in construction.
Predictive Model Describing the Effect of Prolonged Heating at 70 to 80°C and Incubation at Refrigeration Temperatures on Growth and Toxigenesis by Nonproteolylic Clostridium botulinum.

There is growing interest in the food industry in the use of long heat treatments in the range of 70 to 90°C to produce minimally processed foods that have an extended shelf life at refrigeration temperatures. The risk of growth and toxin production by nonproteolytic Clostridium botulinum in these foods is of concern. The effect of heat treatments at 70, 75, 80, 85, and 90°C combined with refrigerated storage for 90 days on growth from 106 spores of nonproteolytic C. botulinum (types B, E, and F) in an anaerobic meat medium was studied. The following heat treatments prevented growth and toxin production during 90 days provided that the storage temperature was no higher than l2°C: 75°C for ≥1,072 min, 80°C for ≥230 min, 85°C for ≥36 min, and 90°C for ≥10 min. Following heating at 70°C for 2,545 min and storage at 12°C, growth was first observed after 22 days. A factorial experimental design allowed a predictive model to be developed that described the incubation time required before the first sample showed growth as a function of heating temperature (70 to 80°C), period of heat treatment (up to 2,545 min), and incubation temperature (5 to 25°C). Predictions from the model provided a valid description of the data used to generate the model, and agreed with observations made previously.