Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamics of Ultrastructural Characters of Drosophyllum lusitanicum Link (Droseraceae) Digestive Glands during Maturation and after Stimulation

A quantitative investigation was conducted on the endomembrane system of the secretory cells of Drosophyllum lusitanicum Link digestive glands exporting acid hydrolases. The surface density of rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) membranes as well as the number of Golgi stacks, clathrin-coated vesicles (CCVs) and their smooth derivatives increased progressively with the gland maturation. On average secretory cells of the fully mature unstimulated gland, each contained RER with a surface area of 17500 μm^2 and 16000 small vesicles (including CCVs of 81 nm average diameter and smooth vesicles as the derivatives of CCVs which average 46 nm). One hour after stimulation imitating prey capture, the surface density of RER, the number of Golgi stacks and ”protein” vesicles all increased greatly. The data obtained indicate that smooth vesicular derivatives of CCVs are involved in the secretion of digestive enzymes. Hydrolase secretion started in the immature glands and continued in the mature stage irrespective of whether or not an insect was actually captured. Stimulation resulting in the release of digestive fluid on the surface of the leaf by the digestive glands appeared to be accompanied by a significant increase in the rate of hydrolase synthesis and secretion. In addition to protein vesicles, two other types of larger secretory Golgi vesicles were produced: granular-fibrillar ones (~105 nm in diameter that were confined to cells at the meristem stage), and loosely-fibrillar vesicles (~250 nm in diameter that occurred only at the stage of wall ingrowth deposition). Models are proposed that depict digestive gland cell functioning both before and after stimulation.
Variability in Sclerotium oryzae isolates causing stem rot of rice based on cultural, morphological and pathogenic behaviour from Haryana regions

Fifteen isolates of rice stem rot fungus Sclerotium oryzae Catt. (SO1 - SO15) were examined for their variability. These isolates were collected from major cultivars and locations of Haryana state. The isolates exhibited variation in their growth, sclerotial position and pattern on potato dextrose agar. Out of ten, six rice genotypes viz. BR 51-282-8-HR 45, BRC 16- 127-4-1, CR 689-116, CR 837, HKR 126 and PR 106 showed differential response against the pathogen. On the basis of pathogenic behaviour, the isolates were categorised into four pathogenic groups. Accordingly, these six rice genotypes could be used as differential hosts for study of host-pathogen interaction for an efficient rice resistant breeding programme against stem rot.
The Relation between the Size of Southern Elephant Seal Mothers, the Growth of Their Pups, and the Use of Maternal Energy, Fat, and Protein during Lactation

Pregnant female southern elephant seals vary in size by more than a factor of three when they come ashore to give birth and nurse their pups. Pups are fed exclusively from the mother's body reserves, which vary in proportion to her mass at parturition. We measured the use of body materials and energy over the course of lactation using a combination of isotope dilution and mass change during four breeding seasons on South Georgia. On average, mothers lost 35% of their mass at parturition during lactation. This included approximately 52% of the energy, 61% of the fat, and 24% of the protein in the mother's body. The relative amount that mothers expend on their pups is highly variable and shows little consistent trend with the mother's mass. Some large mothers used approximately 30% of their stored energy, (comprising around 40% of stored fat and 20% of body protein) to produce medium-or large-sized pups. Whereas some smaller mothers produced only small pups, others used all of or more than the reserves estimated to be available without incurring deleterious effects (68% of energy, 80% of fat, and 27% of protein). These small animals may be at risk of compromising their future reproduction. The production of small pups by these smaller females may reflect a compromise between the survival of the pup and the future success of the mother. While we expected that the largest females might show a reduced efficiency of mass transfer during lactation (because of high metabolic overheads), their ability to reduce the duration of lactation seems to compensate for this, and no such reduction could be shown.
Evaluation of the shear bond strength of ceramic orthodontic brackets to glazed monolithic zirconia using different bonding protocols

AbstractAIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the shear bond strength (SBS) of ceramic brackets to glazed monolithic zirconia using three different bonding protocols.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-five monolithic glazed zirconia embedded into acrylic resin were randomly assigned to 3 groups (n = 15) following air abrasion by 50 μm aluminum oxide particles, the groups were treated with: (A) Assure Plus, (B) Silane + Assure Plus (C) Hydrofluoric acid + Silane + Transbond XT primer. Ceramic brackets were bonded to the zirconia discs using Transbond XT. Following thermocycling (500 cycles, 5° - 55° C), SBS, failure mode and Adhesive Remnant Index were assessed.RESULTS:Group C showed the highest SBS followed by Group B with no statistically significant difference. Most of the specimens in Group C showed an adhesive failure between the bracket base and the adhesive, whereas Group B presented mainly a mixed cohesive adhesive failure. SBS in Group A was significantly lower than either groups showing an adhesive failure at the zirconia- adhesive interface.CONCLUSIONS: Both Assure Plus + Silane and the classical ceramic bonding protocol achieved clinically acceptable SBS of ceramic brackets bonded to glazed zirconia. However, Assure Plus + Silane achieved better debonding characteristics.
Effect of Alendronate on Healing of Bone Defect and Gingival Tissue in Osteopenic Rats

The aim was to evaluate bone repair and gingival tissue repair in osteopenic rats. Fifteen female wistar rats were included; in all of them ovariectomy was realized to induce osteopenia; after 45 days, the animals were submitted to 2 surgical techinques 1) dental extraction of the upper central incisor with no socket preservation and 2) 5 mm cranial defect in the calvarium; 5 ra ts were included in the control group (G1) withput alendronate application; in the group 2 (G2) was used subcutenous alendronate (0.5 m g/kg) once for three weeks and then was realizd the both surgical techniques. In group 3 (G3), after ovariectomy was realized the bot h dental extraction and the calvarium defect and after that was realized the alendronate protocol. In each group, after six week was rea lized euthanasia and descriptive histological analysis of the surgical areas involved. In bone formation of the 5 mm cranial defect w as observed with good progression in the 3 experimental models and no modification in quality of bone repair was observed. For the gingival tissue in the extraction socket, no differences were observed between G1 and G3. On other hand, in G2 a thinner and reduced gingival e pithelium was found. Our results showed that alendronate was not an obstacle for bone repair; deficiencies in re-epithelialization of ora l muc sa show the impact of alendronate before dental extraction.
Hematological and hepatoprotective effects of aqueous extract of Phyllanthus amarus in streptozotocin induced- diabetic male Wistar rats

The main objective of the present study was to investigate the hematological and hepatoprotective activities of aqueous extract of Phyllanthus amarus in streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats. The male Wistar albino rats were randomly divided in to four groups of 10 animals each: Control group (C), PA-treated control group (C+PA), Diabetic control group (D), PA treated diabetic group (D+PA). Diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal injection of STZ (55 mg/kg/bwt) and after ascertaining, the diabetic rats were treated with aqueous extract of Phyllanthus amarus for 60 days. The biochemical estimations like hematological parameters, transaminases and antioxidant potential of the hepatic tissue were performed. The altered hematological parameters like hemoglobin concentration, red blood cells, mean cell volume, packed cell volume, mean cell hemoglobin and mean cell hemoglobin concentration (11.1, 7.6, 12.9, 20, 3.6 and 11.2%) in D-group were restored to normal level by the co-administration of Phyllanthus amarus aqueous extract (PAAEt) at 200 mg/kg bw to diabetic rats. The activities of hepatic transaminases viz., glutamate pyruvate transaminase, glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase increased significantly while the activities of hepatic antioxidant enzymes such as glutathione peroxidase, glutathione-S-transferase, glutathione reductase, superoxide dismutase and catalase decreased significantly (p<0.05) and depletion of reduced glutathione illustrates increased lipid peroxidation (107.13%) which were restored to control level in D+PA group. In conclusion, our results clearly indicate the therapeutic efficacy of P. amarus aqueous extract against altered hematological parameters, transaminases and oxidative stress of hepatic tissue in STZ-induced diabetes. Hence this plant could be used as an adjuvant therapy for the prevention and/or management of diabetes.
BREEDING FOR FUSARIUM HEAD BLIGHT RESISTANCE IN SOFT RED WINTER WHEAT

OF THESIS BREEDING FOR FUSARIUM HEAD BLIGHT RESISTANCE IN SOFT RED WINTER WHEAT Fusarium graminearum, the causative agent of Fusarium head blight, is an economically important pathogen of wheat (Triticum aestivum). Breeding Fusarium head blight (FHB) resistant wheat requires knowledge of the underlying genetic control of FHB resistance. Genetic parameters for FHB resistance and five related traits were estimated in three populations at two locations and in two years. Moderate broad sense heritabilities for FHB severity and Fusarium damaged kernels (FDK) were observed. Incidence of FHB and the toxin deoxynivalenol (DON) accumulation had low to moderate broad sense heritabilities. Correlations between FDK and severity and FDK and DON were moderate to high in the three populations and do support indirect selection for FHB severity or DON based on FDK data alone, but it is important to be cautious in years with a high disease pressure when FHB resistance could be masked. A cycle of among-family and within-family selection cycle was conducted in 2003. Actual selection gain was higher than predicted gain based on variance components in 2003 in the within-family selection study. One population had also a strong response for low DON in the among-family selection study. The observed results suggest that selection for FHB resistant genotypes could be achieved with a recurrent selection scheme. Along with conventional breeding, molecular techniques are being used in breeding for FHB resistance. A first genotypic screening of the three populations showed Population 2 had the presence of a resistance allele form the resistant Chinese cultivar Sumai 3. Although Populations 1 and 3 did not have the resistance allele, the results suggest other sources of resistance might be present in these two populations.
Comparisons of Diverse Machine Learning Approaches for Wildfire Susceptibility Mapping

Climate change has increased the probability of the occurrence of catastrophes like wildfires, floods, and storms across the globe in recent years. Weather conditions continue to grow more extreme, and wildfires are occurring quite frequently and are spreading with greater intensity. Wildfires ravage forest areas, as recently seen in the Amazon, the United States, and more recently in Australia. The availability of remotely sensed data has vastly improved, and enables us to precisely locate wildfires for monitoring purposes. Wildfire inventory data was created by integrating the polygons collected through field surveys using global positioning systems (GPS) and the data collected from the moderate resolution imaging spectrometer (MODIS) thermal anomalies product between 2012 and 2017 for the study area. The inventory data, along with sixteen conditioning factors selected for the study area, was used to appraise the potential of various machine learning (ML) methods for wildfire susceptibility mapping in Amol County. The ML methods chosen for this study are artificial neural network (ANN), dmine regression (DR), DM neural, least angle regression (LARS), multi-layer perceptron (MLP), random forest (RF), radial basis function (RBF), self-organizing maps (SOM), support vector machine (SVM), and decision tree (DT), along with the statistical approach of logistic regression (LR), which is very apt for wildfire susceptibility studies. The wildfire inventory data was categorized as three-fold, with 66% being used for training the models and 33% being used for accuracy assessment within three-fold cross-validation (CV). Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) was used to assess the accuracy of the ML approaches. RF had the highest accuracy of 88%, followed by SVM with an accuracy of almost 79%, and LR had the lowest accuracy of 65%. This shows that RF is better suited for wildfire susceptibility assessments in our case study area.
Safety Awareness Attitudes among Malaysian Climbers

Outdoor recreation gives different project benefits likes gear rental and outdoor exercises. Safety awareness is related to outdoor recreation activities such as climbing and hiking. The objective was divided into three aspects, the relationship between personality and responsible behavior, the relationship between personality and attitudes, and the relationship between safety awareness attitudes and responsible behavior among climbers. This study used a quantitative method that involved 378 climbers of four mountains in Malaysia. The finding indicated that responsible behavior influences personality and a personality influences attitude. It is showed that there was a significant relationship among the climbers.Keywords: safety awareness; personality; attitudes; responsible behavioreISSN: 2398-4287 © 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v5i13. 2097
Evolutionary Conservation Biology

As anthropogenic environmental changes spread and intensify across the planet, conservation biologists have to analyze dynamics at large spatial and temporal scales. Ecological and evolutionary processes are then closely intertwined. In particular, evolutionary responses to anthropogenic environmental change can be so fast and pronounced that conservation biology can no longer afford to ignore them. To tackle this challenge, currently dispare areas of conservation biology ought to be integrated into a unified framework. Bringing together conservation genetics, demography, and ecology, this book introduces evolutionary conservation biology as an integrative approach to managing species in conjunction with ecological interactions and evolutionary processes. Which characteristics of species and which features of environmental change foster or hinder evolutionary responses in ecological systems? How do susch responses affect population viability, community dynamics, and ecosystem functioning? Under which conditions will evolutionary responses ameliorate, rather than worsen, the impact of environmental change? this book shows that the grand challenge for evolutionary conservation biology is to identify strategies for managing genetic and ecological conditions such as to ensure the continued operation of favorable evolutionary processes in natural systems embedded in a rapidly changing world.
Genomic Response in Human Urothelial Cells Exposed Chronically to Monomethylarsonous Acid

Bladder cancer has been associated with chronic arsenic exposure. Monomethylarsonous acid [MMA(III)] is a metabolite of inorganic arsenic biotransformation and has been shown to transform an immortalized urothelial cell line (UROtsa) at a concentration 20fold less than arsenite. MMA(III) was used as a model arsenical to examine the mechanisms of arsenical-induced transformation of the urothelium. A microarray analysis was performed to assess the transcriptional changes in UROtsa during the critical window of chronic MMA(III) exposure that leads to transformation at three months time. The analysis revealed only minor changes in gene expression at one and two months of exposure, contrasting with substantial changes observed at three months of exposure. The gene expression changes at three months were analyzed showing distinct alterations in biological processes and pathways such as a response to oxidative stress, enhanced cell proliferation, anti-apoptosis, MAPK signaling, as well as inflammation. To address the lack of information between two and three months of exposure -the critical period of transformation -the expression of selected pathway marker genes were measured by PCR array analysis on a weekly and monthly basis. A very similar pattern of altered expression of these genes was observed when compared to microarray results, and suggested early perturbations in cell signaling cascades, immunological pathways, cytokine expression, and MAPK pathway, are particularly important in driving malignant transformation. These results showed a strong association between the acquired phenotypic changes that occurred as early as one to two months of chronic MMA(III) exposure, and gene expression patterns that are indicative of the earliest stages in carcinogenesis. Additionally, studies on the effects of withdrawal of arsenical were also conducted and showed that phenotypic changes persisted even in the absence of arsenical; that gene expression patterns of pathway marker genes, those that showed significant alterations between 3 and 6 months of exposure, appeared to normalize after withdrawal of the arsenical.
Does National Distance Affect Different Industries in Different Ways? A Test of the Ghemawat CAGE Model

Purpose – This study empirically investigated whether national distances (Cultural, Administrative, Geographic and Economic distance) have different effects on industries in different ways. <br><br>Design/methodology – The empirical model utilized industry level export trade data to examine the differentiated effects of each national distance. By using direct measurement and covering 75 countries, this paper analyzes the effect of distances in different industries. More specifically, this study classified the industries into a more-sensitive/less-sensitive scale. <br><br>Findings – The empirical results showed the complicated impacts of national distances on trade. Trade in industries that are more sensitive to cultural and administrative distances was not decreased as greatly as trade in industries that are less sensitive to cultural and administrative distances. Also, industries that are more sensitive to geographic distance showed a stronger negative impact on trade than less sensitive industries. Lastly, economic distance decreased trade for industries that are more sensitive to economic distance, while economic distance did not significantly increase trade for industries that are less sensitive to economic distance. <br><br>Originality/value – As the first study to empirically find out whether national distance has different effects on industries, this study updated the measurements of national distance.
Evidence of continued European morphometrics and mtDNA in feral colonies of honey bees (Apis mellifera) from the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico

SUMMARYSixty-five samples of honey bee (Apis mellifera) workers from feral colonies across the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico, were analysed for morphometrics and mtDNA using polymerase chain reaction. Diverse associations between morphotypes and mitotypes were found across the sampled area. Although the feral population now comprises mainly (54%) pure African colonies showing no evidence of European introgression, there is a frequency of European mitotypes in feral colonies (20%). The high frequencies of continued European markers in the feral population of honey bees from the Yucatan could be explained by the population size of resident European honey bees. Further monitoring is necessary to document the persistence of such markers in the feral population and to determine whether there will be a complete replacement of European honey bees by Africanized ones.
Fungicides resistance on Mycosphaerella fijiensis populations of southeastern México

El control de Sigatoka negra (Mycosphaerella fijiensis Morelet) del banano (Musa acuminata Colla AAA) y plátano (Musa balbisiana Colla AAB) requiere de numerosas aplicaciones de fungicidas, principalmente de los grupos triazoles que inducen alta presión de selección en poblaciones del patógeno. El objetivo del presente estudio fue determinar la respuesta de cepas de M. fijiensis aisladas de plantaciones de banano de Tabasco y Chiapas, México, al propiconazol y tridemorf. Los bioensayos se realizaron en medio de cultivo Papa Dextrosa Agar (PDA®) adicionados con diferentes concentraciones del fungicida. Los medios se inocularon con 100 mL de una suspensión conidial y fragmentos miceliares del hongo, y se incubaron en oscuridad a 26 °C por 7 d. La concentración efectiva 50 (CE50) y 95 % (CE95) para cada aislamiento se estimó mediante análisis Probit del porcentaje de inhibición del crecimiento relativo del patógeno. Los valores CE50 en propiconazol variaron de 0.0001 a 0.95 mg L-1; y los de CE95 de 0.006 a 12.51 mg L-1. La proporción de resistencia en el nivel CE95 fue superior a 2085×, para el aislamiento MF-RmC2 de la finca Remedios en Teapa, Tabasco. Los valores para CE50 en tridemorf variaron de 0.00001 a 0.002 mg L-1 y los de CE95 de 0.03 a 0.85 mg L -1. La proporción de resistencia a nivel CE95 entre el aislamiento sensible de referencia y el menos susceptible (MF-RcC5 de la finca el Recreo, Tabasco) fue superior a 28.3×. La correlación positiva entre el número de aplicaciones y los valores de CE50 y de CE95 son indicativos de que la presión de selección ejercida en esta plantación generó resistencia al propiconazol.