Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chlorophyll Stability is an Indicator of Drought Tolerance in Peanut

Chlorophyll stability during drought might be a promising criterion for selection for drought resistance in peanut. The study describes two field trials conducted at Khon Kaen University, Thailand which investigate genotype x drought interactions in a wide range of peanut germplasm in general and assess the relationship between chlorophyll stability and genotypic performance in particular, under drought. Two field experiments (during 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 dry seasons) were conducted in a split plot design with three water regimes [field capacity, 2/3 available water (AW) and 1/3 AW] as main, and 12 peanut genotypes as subtreatments, replicated four times. Observations on total dry matter (TDM), chlorophyll density (ChlD) (chlorophyll content per unit leaf area), chlorophyll content (chlorophyll content per plant) and SPAD chlorophyll meter readings (SCMR) were recorded at 30, 60 and 90 days after emergence. Transpiration (T) and transpiration efficiency (TE) were computed using the data on amount of water input and TDM. Drought stress significantly reduced TDM, T and chlorophyll content across genotypes but significantly increased TE and ChlD in peanut. However, there were significant differences among genotypes for TE and chlorophyll parameters. The genotype x drought interaction effects for chlorophyll characters (content and density) were not significant suggesting a strong genetic effect. The correlation coefficients between TDM and chlorophyll content (r = 0.51, P = 0.01 to r = 0.91, P = 0.01) and between TE and ChlD (r = 0.46, P = 0.05 to r = 0.77, P = 0.01) were positive and significant. These findings suggest that chlorophyll parameters are strongly linked with drought tolerance in peanut. There were highly significant and positive relationships between ChlD and SCMR (r = 0.67, P = 0.01 to r = 0.93, P = 0.01), between SCMR and TE (r = 0.41, P = 0.05 to r = 0.80, P = 0.01) suggesting that SCMR could be used as a tool for rapid assessment of relative chlorophyll status in peanut genotypes as well as for the indirect selection of drought tolerance in peanut.
Effects of Lactobacillus cultures on performance of laying hens, and total cholesterol, lipid and fatty acid composition of egg yolk

BACKGROUND: The use of antibiotic growth promoters in animal feeds is not approved for laying hens in many countries, and economically feasible biological measures which include probiotics are developed to improve hen performance. The present study investigated the effects of probiotics on hen performance for a 48-week period and the cholesterol, total lipid and fatty acid composition of egg yolk at 24, 28 and 32 weeks of age. RESULTS: Egg weight of Lactobacillus culture (LC)-fed hens was significantly (P < 0.05) greater than that of control hens throughout the laying period. From 20 to 44 weeks of age, LC-fed hens produced a significantly (P < 0.05) lower percentage of small eggs and a higher percentage of large eggs, and from 45 to 68 weeks of age a significantly (P < 0.05) lower percentage of medium eggs and a higher percentage of large and extra-large eggs than control hens. Significantly (P < 0.05) less cholesterol was found in egg yolks of hens fed LC at 24 and 28 weeks of age, but not at 32 weeks of age. The total lipid content and the fatty acid composition of egg yolks were similar between the treatments at 24, 28 and 32 weeks of age, except for stearic acid(C18 : 0), which was significantly reduced in the egg yolk of LC-fed hens at 28–32 weeks of age.CONCLUSION: The greatest benefit of LC was in increasing egg weight and improving egg size by influencing a shift from small and medium to large and extra-large eggs.
A new Enantiornithine bird from the Late Cretaceous of the Gobi desert

Synopsis We report on a new species of enantiornithine bird from the Late Cretaceous of the Mongolian Gobi Desert, which adds to the meager record of birds from the latest part of the Mesozoic in this region. The exceptional, three‐dimensional bones of the new fossil increase the known anatomical diversity of enantiornithine birds, providing information about previously unreported morphologies such as a pneumatised furcula. Several synapomorphies nest the new bird within an enantiornithine clade of proficient fliers, but the anatomy and proportions of its flight apparatus imply significant aerodynamic restrictions. The combination of phylogeny and our functional interpretation suggests that this new fossil bird is a representative of a flightless lineage. This discovery thus provides the first evidence of a trend towards more limited flying capabilities among Enantiornithes, a group of Cretaceous birds otherwise believed to be represented by competent fliers.
Nacellidae limpets of the southern end of South America: taxonomy and distribution

Los moluscos del extremo sur de Sudamerica son desde un punto de vista taxonomico moderadamente bien conocidos. Sin embargo, la literatura esta dispersa, hay poca informacion sobre sus habitat y son muy pocos los registros distribucionales, particularmente en el area de los fiordos comprendidos entre la Isla de Chiloe (42° S) y Tierra del Fuego (55° S). Aunque se sabe bastante acerca de la biologia y ecologia de algunas especies de Nacellidae, la taxonomia del grupo ha sido relativamente poco estudiada, particularmente en areas remotas del planeta, como es el caso de los fiordos chilenos. El interes del presente estudio ha sido clarificar el estatus nomenclatural y describir las caracteristicas morfologicas y distribuciones de los Nacellidae chilenos. En particular, se plantearon los siguientes objetivos: (i) clarificar la identidad de las especies descritas, (ii) descripcion de detalles morfologicos, destacando los caracteres diagnosticos de cada especie, y (iii) delimitacion y discusion de sus rangos geograficos. El analisis de los Nacellidae de los fiordos chilenos ha permitido el reconocimiento de una especie de Nacella (Nacella) y siete de N. (Patinigera), cuyas principales diferencias a nivel de especie radican en la concha (forma, espesor y color) y en la morfologia de la denticion radular. El genero Nacella y su subgenero Patinigera son habitantes exclusivos de aguas antarticas y subantarticas. Estos organismos son lapas de aguas frias fundamentalmente subantarticas, pero que tambien se extienden hacia la Antartica por el area del Arco de Escocia, y hacia el norte a lo largo de la costa chilena, hasta el area de Valparaiso a 33° S (N. (P.) clypeater). Aparentemente este genero tiene su centro de distribucion en la Provincia magallanica en el sur de Sudamerica, correspondiendo a un area de elevada diversidad de especies (N. (N.) mytilina, N. (P.) chiloensis, N. (P.) deaurata, N. (P.) delicatissima, N. (P.) flammea, N. (P.) magellanica, N. (P.) venosa), donde las especies tienden a dispersarse hacia el este, con un transporte larval probablemente facilitado por la corriente de deriva del oeste que opera fuertemente en la zona subantartica
Negative Effects of Conspecific Floral Density on Fruit Set of Two Neotropical Understory Plants

Plant reproductive success is usually positively related to conspecific floral density, but neutral or negative effects of floral density on reproduction have also been reported. Differences in the relationship between reproduction and floral density largely originate from a trade‐off between increasing attractiveness versus increasing competition for pollinators at high floral densities. Although floral densities strongly vary in the understory of tropical forests, for instance, due to variation in light availability, little is known about the density dependence of reproduction in tropical understory plants. We used path analyses to disentangle direct and indirect effects of canopy openness and floral density on fruit set and analyzed the relationship between pollen load and floral density for two Neotropical understory plants, Heliconia metallica and Besleria melancholica. In both species, fruit set was not directly related to canopy openness, but decreased with increasing floral density. In H. metallica, canopy openness had an indirect negative effect on reproduction mediated by its effects on floral density. Effects of floral density on pollen loads were species‐specific. In B. melancholica, pollen loads linearly decreased with increasing floral density, indicating competition for pollinators at high densities. In H. metallica, pollen loads were reduced at both low and high densities, indicating an interplay of facilitative and competitive effects of floral density on pollen deposition. In contrast to other studies, we found negative density dependence of reproduction in both understory species. Negative effects of floral density on reproduction appear to be related to pollinator‐mediated effects on reproduction rather than to variation in abiotic conditions.
Resonance of Poincaré waves on a continental shelf

The response of a continental shelf to incident Poincare waves in a homogeneous ocean rotating about a vertical axis is considered, linear friction being incorporated in the model. The shelf is shown to resonate at the usual 'quarter-wavelength' frequencies, but surprisingly, the maximum energy absorption at resonance occurs for a particular value of the relation between the friction parameter and the shelf geometry.
Study correlating the bubble phenomenon and electrical signals in underwater wet welding with covered electrodes

The bubble phenomenon in underwater wet welding is very important to the final quality of the weld. A good understanding of the formation and collapse of the bubbles and knowledge of the behaviour of welding parameters during the process can improve the practices used in underwater welding and, consequently, improve the final quality of the weld. This study was developed to understand and try to correlate the phenomenon of growth, detachment and frequency of bubbles with electrical signals during the welding process. Beads were made on plate metal at a depth of 0.50 m, with three types of commercial coated electrodes: E6013, E7024 and E7018. High-speed filming to visualize the process of formation, detachment and counting of the bubbles was performed, along with acquisition of their electrical signals. Thus, it was possible to try to correlate the bubble frequency with the electrical signals observed during the process. It was observed in the current data that the mean number of variations under 5% of the mean current is similar to the mean detachment rate of the bubbles. Therefore, it was concluded that there is a possible relationship between bubble detachment and a determined variation in the current.
A fossilized aroid infructescence, Albertarum pueri gen.nov. et sp.nov., of Late Cretaceous (Late Campanian) age from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation of southern Alberta, Canada

A fossilized aroid infructescence has been recovered from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in southern Al- berta, Canada. Its stratigraphic position places it near the end of the Campanian Stage of the Late Cretaceous Epoch, at an absolute age of approximately 72 million years before present. It is one of the few Cretaceous aroid fossils known at present, and it represents a new genus of Araceae, here named Albertarum. The infructescence is fertile to the apex, and the flowers must have been bisexual. Flowers bear remains of a long, attenuated style, surrounded by a perigone of six tepals. A fracture reveals ellipsoid seeds with a thick, ribbed testa and traces of a raphe, arranged in groups of three. The gynoecium was probably trilocular with one ovule per locule, and ovules were anatropous, probably with apical-parietal or axile placentation. Bisexual, perigoniate flowers occur in subfamilies Gymnostachydoideae, Orontioideae, Pothoideae, Monsteroideae, and Lasioideae, no genera of which have ribbed seeds, but the infructescence and stylar region of Albertarum resemble those of extant Symplocarpus (Orontioideae). The Horseshoe Canyon Forma- tion was deposited in a delta plain setting, and like Symplocarpus, Albertarum probably grew in a wetland environ- ment.
Relationship between the drift of macroinvertebrates and the activity of brown trout in a small stream

Brown trout Salmo trutta were most active in a small stream at night, dusk and dawn when drift rate was highest, but correlations between hourly drift rates and the trout's activity varied substantially between individuals, between different dates for a single individual, and between different periods of the daily cycle. On some occasions, the trout were responsive to the total drift rate, either at night or during the day, and on others to the largest drifting organisms only (terrestrial organisms, adults of Ephemeroptera, Diptera and Trichoptera). The study supports the idea that trout adapt their activity pattern to the abundance of drifting prey, either as generalists towards any organism, or as specialists towards the largest ones.
MYXOTHIAZOL, AN ANTIBIOTIC FROM MYXOCOCCUS FULVUS (MYXOBACTERALES)

Myxothiazol (AB-Mx f16-1*), a new antifungal antibiotic, is produced by the myxobacterium Myxococcus fulvus strain Mx f16. It is active against many filamentous fungi, and completely inhibits growth of Mucor hiemalis at a concentration of 2μg/ml. The molecular formula of myxothiazol was determined to be C25H33N3O3S2.
Vaccination Against VEGFR2 Attenuates Initiation and Progression of Atherosclerosis

Objective—Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2)–overexpressing cells may form an interesting target for the treatment of atherosclerosis because of their involvement in processes that contribute to this disease, such as angiogenesis. Methods and Results—We vaccinated mice against VEGFR2 by an orally administered DNA vaccine, comprising a plasmid, encoding murine VEGFR2, carried by live attenuated Salmonella typhimurium. This vaccine induces cellular immunity against cells that overexpress VEGFR2. Vaccination of hypercholesterolemic mice against VEGFR2 resulted in a marked induction of CD8+ cytotoxic T cells specific for VEGFR2 and led to an inhibition of angiogenesis in a hindlimb ischemia model. Interestingly, VEGFR2 vaccination attenuated the progression of preexisting advanced atherosclerotic lesions in the brachiocephalic artery of apoE−/− mice. Furthermore, VEGFR2 vaccination strongly reduced the initiation of collar-induced atherosclerosis in the carotid arteries of LDLr−/− mice. In addition, denudation of the carotid artery, as a model for postinterventional lesion formation, resulted in delayed endothelial replacement and significantly increased neointima formation on VEGFR2 vaccination. Conclusions—These data indicate the prominent role of VEGFR2+ cells in cardiovascular diseases and show that induction of cellular immunity against atherosclerosis-associated cells by means of DNA vaccination may contribute to the development of novel therapies against atherosclerosis.
Effects of Myristica fragrans oil on the reproductive organs of male albino rats

This research aimed to study the effects of Myristica fragrans Houtt. (Myristicacae) oil on male reproductive functions in Wistar strain rats, the oil of Myristica fragrans at the dose levels of 0.2, 0.4, and 0.5 mL/kg body weight/day for 60 days. The oil reduced fertility to 0% by 60 days of treatment at the highest dose level. The results also revealed the oil caused significant reduction in the weight of testis, epididymis, seminal vesicle, ventral prostate and vas deferens. Sperm motility as well as sperm density were significantly reduced which resulted in the reduction of male fertility by 100% at the highest dose level tested. Leydig cell nuclear area and mature Leydig cell numbers were significantly reduced when compared with controls. The round spermatids were decreased by 72.71%. The hematological parameters show a non-significant change when compared with the control group. A recovery of 80% fertility was recorded after withdrawal of 120 days, proving that the drug is safe to use. These results suggest the antifertility and recovery effect from the oil of Myristica fragrans in male albino rats.
Soil seed bank dynamics in the rare obligate seeding shrub, Grevillea barklyana (Proteaceae)

Grevillea barklyana is a rare, obligate seeding shrub that occurs in fire-prone heath and woodland in southeastern Australia. The size and dynamics of the soil seed bank were investigated in populations 2-29 years after fire in order to identify fire frequencies that would threaten population survival. Plants began flowering 2 years after fire (16%), but maximum inflorescence and seed production did not occur until 15-16 years after fire when plants were full size. Seed production declined in older populations. Fruit:flower ratios were very low (0.1-5.3%). Most flowers (> 95%) failed to initiate fruits. Of the initiated fruits, about 60% aborted, 27% were attacked by parrots and 13% matured. An exclusion experiment showed that fruits attacked by parrots would have otherwise matured. Seeds were consumed on the soil surface by mammals, particularly rodents. Post-dispersal seed losses were consistently high in all months and in all populations (78-100%). Mortality of adult plants increased with time since fire. In the 29-year-old population, 30% of plants were dead and 33% were senescent. Recruitment was negligible in the absence of fire, but following fire the seedling to parent ratio was 20:1. Seedling survival was high (90%) following two years of above-average rainfall. The observed seed bank was small (3-16 seeds m 2 ) and increased during the first 16 years after fire before declining in the 21- and 26-year-old populations. The size and dynamics of the seed bank may limit population numbers, especially if the intervals between fires are less than 10 years or greater than 25 years.
Europeanisation through Cooperation? EU Democracy Promotion in Morocco and Tunisia

The Arab spring has highlighted once more the European Union's failure to bring about democratic change in the Middle East and North Africa through its Mediterranean democracy promotion policy. However, Arab authoritarian countries engage to different degrees in cooperation on democracy promotion, giving the EU more or less influence on domestic institutional change related to political participation, respect for human rights, and the rule of law. A comparison of domestic change and cooperation in Morocco and Tunisia in 2000–2010 shows that the EU has been instrumental in supporting and potentially reinforcing domestic reform initiatives. Yet the EU cannot trigger domestic institutional change in the first place. The degree of political liberalisation determines the fit between the domestic political agenda and external demands for reforms. It reflects different ‘survival strategies’ between political inclusion and exclusion and is therefore a scope condition for rather than the result of cooperation and change.
Allocating Sampling Effort to Equalize Precision of Electrofishing Catch per Unit Effort

Abstract We used a spatially explicit simulation model to examine the effects of lake shoreline length and lakewide fish density on electrofishing catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) estimates of fish density. We also tested model predictions regarding the influence of shoreline length and fish density on precision of CPUE estimates by analyzing electrofishing data from Ohio reservoirs for juvenile gizzard shad Dorosoma cepedianum, which is a schooling fish, and largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides, a more solitary fish. Our goals were to estimate the impact of these factors on variability associated with population estimates derived from CPUE and to determine how these factors influence the minimum number of transects required to sample populations with a reliable degree of precision. Neither “minimum transect number” (number of transects sampled per lake in which all of 10 replicate simulations provided density estimates within ±10% of the mean) nor “minimum variance” (variance among estimates given 20 transe.
Getting to the hart of the matter: did antlers truly cause the extinction of the Irish elk?

The extinction of the Irish elk Megaloceros giganteus has traditionally thought to have been caused in one way or another by the enormous antlers of the males. Recently, a popular hypothesis for the Irish elk extinction has been their inability to cope with the nutritional demands of growing such large antlers during worsening habitat conditions. However, this hypothesis is weakened by several previously unaddressed and biologically unreasonable assumptions. We discuss these assumptions and conclude that, because antler mass is expected to have been evolutionarily labile, nutritionally sensitive, and ontogenetically variable and male mortality is expected to have had limited impact on population growth, the large antlers of Irish elk probably had little to do with the extinction. We focus on the reproductive energetics of females as a possible contributor to extinction, and model the nutritional demands of producing precocial cursorial young. Our model shows the reproductive output of females being reduced by 50% due to changes in the length of the growing season at the end of the Pleistocene when most populations of Irish elk went extinct. The model was validated with parameters from the extant wapiti, which was predicted to maintain high levels of reproduction during the Pleistocene climatic deterioration. Thus, nutritional stress on reproductive females is likely to have contributed more to the Irish elk extinction than nutritional stress on large-antlered males.
1. INTRODUCTION

This paper provides further international evidence that the well-known size effect, whereby firms with smaller equity capitalizations consistently generate higher stock returns on average, is not due to a general relation between expected stock return and actual firm size. Our empirical evidence, which uses data from the London Stock Exchange, leads to conclusions that are generally consistent with the findings by Berk (1997) for US data and Garza-Gómez et al (1998) for Japanese data, although in comparison with the latter case we do not find that the non-market value size variables are significant in explaining returns on a univariate basis. Our analysis uses a large sample of UK stocks and employs a number of methodologies including one and twodimensional classification, cross sectional regression and the ‘Seemingly Unrelated Regression’ (SUR) technique. We then present evidence that the inverse relationship between market equity and stock returns is primarily driven by small, highly leveraged companies.
Indução da brotação da macieira 'Eva' em região de baixa incidência de frio

During winter season, the apple trees show no growth due the bud dormancy. In the north of Parana State, where the cold is not sufficient to provide the natural bud break of apples, it is necessary to use chemical products to induce the growth of these plants. The objective of this research was to compare different concentrations of hydrogen cyanamide, associate to mineral oil, regarding the bud break of 'Eva' apple cultivated in Londrina region. Five concentrations of hydrogen cyanamide (0.00%; 0.25%; 0.50%; 0.75% and 1.00%), associated to mineral oil (3%) were studied. The porcentage of lateral and terminal burst bud was evaluated as well as the relation between the number of fruits and the number of burst buds per branch of each treatment. It was possible to conclude that hydrogen cianamide at 0.50%+mineral oil 3% was the best concentration to improve the efficiency of bud growing and fruit set of 'Eva' apple cultivated in Londrina region.