Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Moringa oleifera leaf extract and sodium hypochlorite seed pretreatment on seed germination, seedling growth rate and fungal abundance in two accessions of Abelmoschus esculentus (L) Moench

Effects of Moringa oleifera leaf extract and Sodium hypochlorite seed pre-treatment on the seed germination, seedling growth rate and fungal activities in two accessions of Abelmoschus esculentus was examined in the Crop laboratory of Babcock University. Seed viability and seedling vigour were assessed according to ISTA, 1985; while the blotter paper method was used to determine the seed microflora. Mycological analysis was carried out by isolating and identifying fungal flora on potato dextrose agar plates. Okra seeds of CCN2005/2 and Clemson spineless varieties were pre-treated with 2.5%, 5% and 10% of Moringa leaf extract; while Sodium hypochlorite, NaOCl, was administered at 4%, 5% and 6%. A control with no seed pre-treatment was also included. Ten viable seeds, randomly selected from the seed lots of each accession, were dipped into treatment solutions for five minutes, after which it was withdrawn and prepared for further tests. Germination tests were carried out on 85mm diameter petri dishes, lined with moistened Whattman filter paper; with three replications for each treatment in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The two okra accessions reacted differently to different concentrations of NaOCl and Moringa leaf extract. The accessions were not significantly different for the seed viability and seedling vigour variables evaluated. Results further reveal that 4% and 6% of NaOCl inhibited the population of fungal growth; while Moringa extract reduced fungal growth and population on both accessions. Fusarium had the highest (67.5%) occurrence on seed fungal population. Penicillium however had the lowest (3.5%). This study explained the fact that pre-treatment of seeds before storage with Moringa reduces the possibility of fungal infection and also maintains the viability and vigour of the seed for a particular time period, depending on the seed type.
Business students’ perspectives: What makes successful group performance?

Purpose of this study was to identify factors contributing to the successful group performance from the perspective of business students. The in-depth interview was done followed by a survey derived forty-five items variables, after some tests 21 items variables removed due to low item remainder coefficient resulted in 24 items questionnaires. A total of 355 respondents participated during the survey. Exploratory factor analysis with principal factor extraction was performed and five contributing factors were extracted. Those factors are cohesiveness, inter-relationship, norms, diversity and appointed of team leader.
Gene action, combining ability and heterotic performance of Ethiopian Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) lines under moisture stress areas in Ethiopia

For sorghum hybrid development, assessment of parental lines is a pre-requisite. However, information on heterotic performance and combing ability of Ethiopian elite sorghum lines is inadequate. ANOVA revealed mean squares had signifying substantial amount of variability amongst genotypes for most traits. Males 72, 81 and 99 were the best performing parents for yield and related traits. Hybrids, 106 x 94, 106 x 90, 106 x 102, 107 x 99 and 107 x 105 were found maximum heterotic hybrids for yield as compare to check. The estimates of variance of combining ability revealed that σ2gca was found inferior to σ2sca for all traits except plant height and number of heads. The σ2gca/σ2sca ratio revealed preponderance of supremacy gene action for most traits. The degree of dominance was found greater than unity for entire traits except plant height. The estimations of parental GCA effects showed that female 106 and males 79, 96, 94 and 81 were good general combiners for yield and related traits. Based on perse performance, heterotic response, combining ability and nature of gene action for yield and related traits, female parent 106 and male parents 94, 102 and 90 were found most performed. Those parental lines were grouped into dualistic heterotic groups based on their SCA and GCA results. Key words: Combining ability, elite line, general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA), heterosis, heterotic group, hybrid, sorghum.
Does Global Value Chain Participation Decouple Chinese Development from CO2 Emissions? A Structural Decomposition Analysis

Decoupling economic activities and CO2 emissions is central to achieving the climate goals of China. The country’s participation in global value chains has profound impacts on its economy as well as CO2 emissions. Assessing the impacts is fundamental to identifying strategies to decouple China’s development from emissions. To this end, we adopt the multi-region structural decomposition analysis technique to quantify the global value chain determinants of China’s CO2 emission intensity from both the production and consumption perspectives. It is found that China’s decoupling from emissions in 2007-2012 was driven mainly by global value chains. Nonetheless the decoupling slowed down after the global financial crisis. In particular, the value chains within China played a more important role in greening Chinese economy. Despite the considerable improvement in 2007-2012, global value chains remained the primary obstacle to environmental sustainability of China. More detailed results with policy implications are presented.
Harvest moisture content affecting yield and quality of wheat grains in Brazil

The wheat quality and yield may be limited or compromised by several factors in the field, being the climatic main factor at the end of the crop cycle. The aim of the study was to determine whether different harvest times affect crop yield and wheat grain quality; four experiments were conducted, differing by cultivars type and sowing time, at Ponta Grossa city, PR, Brazil. The experimental design used for both cultivars (BRS-Pardela and Quartzo) were randomized complete block with five grain moisture content at harvest time (30, 25, 20, 15 and 13%) being 4 replications. For the first sowing time, the different harvesting times had no effect in yield, falling number (FN) or hectoliter weight (HW) for both cultivars. In the second sowing time, the yield components and yield for both cultivars were not affected by the different harvest times. A linear and quadratic decrease on the pH with the delaying of harvest time was noticed for BRS-Pardela and Quartzo, respectively, for the FN only the BRS-Pardela showed quadratic reduction delaying the harvest time. Key words: Triticum aestivum, no-tillage, harvest time, industrial quality.
The root structures of 21 aquatic plants in a macrophyte-dominated lake in China

Aims Aquatic plants play an important role in freshwater ecosystems. Previous works have largely focused on the functional significance of plant above ground parts, with much less attention on the root structures of aquatic plants. In this study, we divided 21 aquatic plants (including five introduced plants) into multiple plant groups (different life forms, monocot/eudicot and introduced/native) with the goal of addressing two questions: (i) what root structures do aquatic plants exhibit, and (ii) are there differences among these plant groups? Methods Twenty-one aquatic plants belonging to four life forms (free-floating, emergent, floating-leaved and submerged) were collected at the near flowering stage from a typical macrophyte-dominated lake in the yangtze River Basin, China. The following root topological parameters were quantified: altitude (a), path length (pe), magnitude (M), mean topological length (b), topological index (TI) and normed indices qa and qb. Important Findings The root topological indices TI, qa and qb for the 21 aquatic plants were 0.724 ± 0.013, 0.290 ± 0.031 and 0.152 ± 0.024 (means ± S.E.), respectively, revealing a general pattern of dichotomous branching, except for the aquatic root of Myriophyllum aquaticum (Vell.) Verdc. , which displays herringbone branching. All three topological indices were significantly lower for monocots (TI = 0.700 ± 0.130, qa = 0.191 ± 0.149 and qb = 0.086 ± 0.236) than eudicots (TI = 0.752 ± 0.206, qa = 0.405 ± 0.569 and qb = 0.229 ± 0.393), indicating that the roots of monocots are typically more dichotomous-like than those of eudicots. Among the four life forms, the three topological indices for emergent plants (TI = 0.832 ± 0.006, qa = 0.616 ± 0.018 and qb = 0.381 ± 0.014) were significantly higher than those of the other three life forms. Overall, there was no difference between the topological indices of introduced and native aquatic plants, but the introduced species M. aquaticum and Alternanthera philoxeroides (Mart.) Griseb. had both aquatic and edaphic roots as well as unusual functions, which may help explain their strong viability.
Linking floral biodiversity with nitrogen and carbon translocations in semi-natural grasslands in Lithuani

Abstract The aim of the present study is to evaluate the long-term effects of long-term piggery effluent application on semi-natural grassland ecotop-phytotop changes (above- and below-ground phytomass production, and carbon and nitrogen allocation in grassland communities) in relation to changes (or variability) in topsoil properties. Analysis of phytomass distribution in piggery effluent irrigated grassland communities showed that dry biomass yield varied from 1.7−5.3 t ha-1. Variability in soil and plant cover created a unique and highly unpredictable site specific system, where long-term anthropogenic influences established successor communities with specific characteristics of above- and below-ground biomass distribution. These characteristics depend more on grassland communities than on soil chemical properties. Families of grasses (Poaceae) dominated the surveyed communities and accumulated most carbon and least nitrogen, while legumes accumulated most nitrogen and lignin and least carbon. Carbon concentrations in above-ground biomass had minor variations, while accumulation of nitrogen was strongly influenced by species diversity (r = 0.94, n = 10, p <0.001) and production of above-ground biomass
Linkage Between a Dominant Mode in the Lower Stratosphere and the Western Hemisphere Circulation Pattern

Based on the statistical analyses using ERA data sets, this study reveals a significant linkage between the tropospheric Western Hemisphere (WH) circulation pattern and the stratospheric EOF1 mode (North America [NA] pattern) of the wintertime daily height field at 50 hPa, which exhibits the displacement of the polar vortex to NA. The results of composite analysis indicate that the WH pattern leads the NA pattern at about 5 days. This time‐lagged linkage between the two patterns is further confirmed by the results of time‐lagged singular value decomposition (SVD) analyses. Through the linear interference with climatological waves, the WH pattern contributes to the enhanced (suppressed) wave‐2 (wave‐1) activity propagating into the stratosphere. The characteristics of planetary waves, with opposite sign of anomalous wave‐1 and wave‐2 activity, lead to the formation of the stratospheric NA pattern. We suggest the need for caution in interpreting the stratospheric influences on cold air outbreaks over NA.
Mosaic deletion patterns of the human antibody heavy chain gene locus as revealed by Bayesian haplotyping

Analysis of antibody repertoires by high-throughput sequencing is of major importance in understanding adaptive immune responses. Our knowledge of variations in the genomic loci encoding antibody genes is incomplete, mostly due to technical difficulties in aligning short reads to these highly repetitive loci. The partial knowledge results in conflicting V-D-J gene assignments between different algorithms, and biased genotype and haplotype inference. Previous studies have shown that haplotypes can be inferred by taking advantage of IGHJ6 heterozygosity, observed in approximately one third of the population. Here, we propose a robust novel method for determining V-D-J haplotypes by adapting a Bayesian framework. Our method extends haplotype inference to IGHD- and IGHV-based analysis, thereby enabling inference of complex genetic events like deletions and copy number variations in the entire population. We generated the largest multi individual data set, to date, of naïve B-cell repertoires, and tested our method on it. We present evidence for allele usage bias, as well as a mosaic, tiled pattern of deleted and present IGHD and IGHV nearby genes, across the population. The inferred haplotypes and deletion patterns may have clinical implications for genetic predispositions to diseases. Our findings greatly expand the knowledge that can be extracted from antibody repertoire sequencing data.
MEMS-based Micro-scale Wind Turbines as Energy Harvesters of the Convective Airflows in Microelectronic Circuits

As an alternative to conventional batteries and other energy scavenging techniques, this paper introduces the idea of using micro-turbines to extract energy from wind forces at the microscale level and to supply power to battery-less microsystems. Fundamental research efforts on the design, fabrication, and test of micro-turbines with blade lengths of just 160 µm are presented in this paper along with analytical models and preliminary experimental results. The proof-of-concept prototypes presented herein were fabricated using a standard polysilicon surface micro-machining silicon technology (PolyMUMPs) and could effectively transform the kinetic energy of the available wind into a torque that might drive an electric generator or directly power supply a micro-mechanical system. Since conventional batteries do not scale-down well to the microscale, wind micro-turbines have the potential for becoming a practical alternative power source for microsystems, as well as for extending the operating range of devices running on batteries.
Pyrosequencing of rpoB uncovers a significant biogeographical pattern of rhizobial species in soybean rhizosphere

Most culture‐independent studies of bacterial biogeography have been at genus or higher taxonomic levels, although many important processes mediated by bacteria are at the strain or species level, such as the competitive nodulation of rhizobia on legumes. Here, at the intra‐species level, we characterized the structural variation in rhizobial populations in soybean rhizosphere under field conditions across 32 sampling sites in three eco‐regions.
Modelling suspended sediment discharge in a glaciated Arctic catchment–Lake Peters, Northeast Brooks Range, Alaska

Seasonal suspended sediment transfer in glaciated catchments is responsive to meteorological, geomorphological, and glacio‐fluvial conditions, and thus is a useful indicator of environmental system dynamics. Knowledge of multifaceted fluvial sediment‐transfer processes is limited in the Alaskan Arctic – a region sensitive to contemporary environmental change. For two glaciated sub‐catchments at Lake Peters, northeast Brooks Range, Alaska, we conducted a two‐year endeavour to monitor the hydrology and meteorology, and used the data to derive multiple‐regression models of suspended sediment load. Statistical selection of the best models shows that incorporating meteorological or temporal explanatory variables improves performances of turbidity‐ and discharge‐based sediment models. The resulting modelled specific suspended sediment yields to Lake Peters are: 33 (20–60) t km−2 yr−1 in 2015, and 79 (50–140) t km−2 yr−1 in 2016 (95% confidence band estimates). In contrast to previous studies in Arctic Alaska, fluvial suspended sediment transfer to Lake Peters was primarily influenced by rainfall, and secondarily influenced by temperature‐driven melt processes associated with clockwise diurnal hysteresis. Despite different sub‐catchment glacier coverage, specific yields were the same order of magnitude from the two primary inflows to Lake Peters, which are Carnivore Creek (128 km2; 10% glacier coverage) and Chamberlin Creek (8 km2; 23% glacier coverage). Seasonal to longer‐term sediment exhaustion and/or contrasting glacier dynamics may explain the lower than expected relative specific sediment yield from the more heavily glacierized Chamberlin Creek catchment. Absolute suspended sediment yield (t yr−1) from Carnivore Creek to Lake Peters was 27 times greater than from Chamberlin Creek, which we attribute to catchment size and sediment supply differences. Our results provide a foundational understanding of the current sediment transfer regime and are useful for predicting changes in fluvial sediment transport in glaciated Alaskan Arctic catchments.
Freeliving Protozoan Diversity of West Bengal

Despite the important role as bioindicators for pollution and environmental biomonitoring and especially in the food chain of wetland ecosystems, studies on the freeliving protozoan fauna from India are meager. In the present communication an analysis of freeliving protozoans species from wetlands of West Bengal mostly based on Das et al. (1993) and from Kolkata wetlands based on Bindu (2010). Nandi et al. (1993) reported 41 freeliving protozoan species from Sundarban mangrove ecosystem. In the State Fauna of West Bengal, Das et al. (1993) documented a total of 248 species of freeliving protozoans under 124 genera belonging to 2 phyla, 2 subphyla, 7 classes, 29 orders and 76 families (Table 1), while the present author recorded 23 species of ciliates from Kolkata wetlands.
Beneficiaries perception of selected rural women empowerment projects in Ogun State, Nigeria

Problems militating against women development in rural areas revolve round their inability to develop themselves in their chosen economic activities. This study examined the beneficiaries’ perception of selected agricultural empowerment projects components targeted at women in rural communities of Ogun State, Nigeria. The projects were Cassava: Adding Values Africa (C:AVA), Justice, Development and Peace Movement (JDPM) Micro finance (MICRO) and National Programme for Food Security (NPFS), implemented by Justice Development and Peace Movement (JDPM) and Ogun State Agricultural Development Programme (OGADEP). Interview guides were used to elicit information from 139 randomly selected members of 16 purposively selected groups beneficiaries of selected women empowerment in the study area. The study revealed that the rural women predominantly had have high perception about the effects of the projects on their livelihood as 58.27, 72.66, 82.01, 90.65, 61.15 and 56.83% of the women perceived that the projects had improved their product packaging, access to credit facilities, knowledge and skills, business expansion, balanced emotion and increased income respectively. The data was subjected to Chi -Square analysis and the result showed that there is a significant relationship between the nature of occupation the women engaged in and the effect of the projects ( =15.38, p<0.05), while other socio-economic characteristics were not significantly related
Amylolytic activity and its parametric optimization of an endophytic bacterium Bacillus subtilis with an ethno-medicinal origin

Abstract Amylolytic enzymes are a starch hydrolyzing important group of industrial enzymes with a multi-dimensional utility. In the present study, endophytic bacteria were isolated from Potentilla fulgens Wall. and screened for their amylolytic activity. Out of total 13 endophytic bacteria isolated, 3 of them showed positive results for amylolytic activity, i.e. production of halo zone against blue background in starch-containing media. The most promising isolate was identified as Bacillus subtilis subsp. inaquosorum PR-1. After 72 h of incubation, PR-1 exhibited maximum biomass (0.017 mg) and the overall specific growth rate was recorded as 0.0126 h−1. Amylolytic enzyme activity of PR-1 was found to be optimal at 10 mg/mL starch concentration in pH 7 at 50°C temperature after 30 min of incubation. This indicates that the production of amylolytic enzyme by the representative isolate was growth-dependent as well as preferable for industrial application. The enzyme remained stable in the presence of surfactants, whereas it was inhibited by ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. Metal ions Ca2+, Na+ and Fe2+ were found to increase the activity, while Ba2+, Mg2+ and Mn2+ inhibited the activity. Activity staining for amylolytic enzyme showing one major band in the starch native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis confirmed its active amylolytic activity with absence of isozymes with a molecular weight of 97.4 kDa. The amylolytic activity of PR-1 was also enumerated against the raw starch of Dioscorea alata L. where the highest amylolytic activity (50.46 U/mL) was achieved in 10 mg/mL of raw starch after 2 h of incubation.
How Selection Acts on Chromosomal Inversions

Chromosomal inversions are structural mutations that invert the orientation and thus the sequence of a chromosomal segment; in diploid heterozygous individuals, when one chromosome carries the inverted segment and the other homologous chromosome is noninverted, recombination is strongly or even completely suppressed. Most inversions are deleterious or neutral, but occasionally they are beneficial. Positive selection can establish a new, initially rare inversion via indirect (linked) selection (e.g. when the inversion captures a locally adaptive haplotype and then ‘hitchhikes’ with it) or via direct positive selection (e.g. when a beneficial mutation arises fortuitously at the breakpoints). After their establishment, adaptive inversions often seem to be maintained by balancing selection in a polymorphic state, that is, they are neither lost nor do they become fixed at 100% frequency. Such balancing selection acting on inversion polymorphisms might involve overdominance, associative overdominance, negative frequency-dependent selection, spatially and/or temporally varying selection.