Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of Early-Maturing Maize Hybrids and Testing Sites Using GGE Biplot Analysis

Identification of outstanding maize (Zea mays L.) hybrids for target environments is complicated by genotype ́ environment interactions. Thirty-two early-maturity maize hybrids were evaluated at eight locations in Nigeria and six locations in Ghana for 2 yr to (i) identify highyielding, stable hybrids across locations and/or hybrids specifically adapted to different locations, and (ii) identify ideal test sites for selection of superior hybrids in the two countries. Genotype, country, year, location (country), and their interactive effects were significant (P < 0·01) for grain yield, days to anthesis and silking, anthesis-silking interval, plant and ear aspects, and ears per plant. Mean grain yield of the hybrids ranged from 3177 kg ha−1 for EWH-5 to 4596 kg ha−1 for EWH-29. The genotype main effects plus genotype ́ environment interaction (GGE) biplot analysis revealed that EWH-29, EWH-8, and EWH-30 did not differ significantly in grain yield and were the most stable hybrids in both countries, whereas EWH-26 and EWH-32 were the most stable hybrids only in Ghana. The GGE biplot analysis identified Samaru, Kafin Soli, and Minjibir in Nigeria and Nyankpala, Damongo, and Fumesua in Ghana as the most discriminating locations. Minjibir (Nigeria) and Nyankpala (Ghana), being most discriminating and representative locations, were considered the ideal testing sites for the respective countries. The type of cultivars evaluated determined the most suitable locations for multilocation testing within Ghana and Nigeria. Whereas hybrids EWH-29, EWH-8, and EWH-30 should be suitable for production in Nigeria, EWH-26 and EWH-32 should be promoted for production in Ghana. M. Oyekunle, I.S. Usman, H. Mani, S.G. Ado, R.O. Abdulmalik, and H.O. Ahmed, Institute for Agricultural Research Samaru, Ahmadu Bello Univ., PMB 1044, Zaria, Nigeria; A. Haruna, Savanna Agricultural Research Institute, Box 52, Tamale, Ghana; B. BaduApraku, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (UK), Carolyn House, 26 Dingwall 26 Rd., Croydon, CR9 3EE, UK; G. Olaoye, Dep. of Agronomy, Univ. of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria; K. Obeng-Antwi, Crops Research Institute, Box 3785, Kumasi, Ghana. Received 21 Dec. 2016. Accepted 7 Aug. 2017. *Corresponding author (moyekunle@abu. edu.ng). Assigned to Associate Editor Manjit Kang. Abbreviations: AEA, average-environment axis; AEC, average environment coordinate; AMMI, additive main effects and multiplicative interaction; ASI, anthesis-silking interval; E, environment; EPP, ears per plant; G, genotype; GGE, genotype main effects plus genotype ́ environment interaction; L, location; PC, principal component; WA, West Africa; Y, year. Published in Crop Sci. 57:2942–2950 (2017). doi: 10.2135/cropsci2016.12. 1014 © Crop Science Society of America | 5585 Guilford Rd., Madison, WI 53711 USA This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Published online October 13, 2017
ECOLOGIC FEATURES OF WOOD ANATOMY OF Casearia sylvestris SW (SALICACEAE) IN THREE BRAZILIAN ECOSYSTEMS

Casearia sylvestris SW (Salicaceae) is a highly adaptive perennial species that is found throughout Latin America and widely spread in Brazil. This work analyzed the ecological features of wood anatomy of C. sylvestris occurring in three ecosystem types: Cerrado, Gallery Forest (Northern of Minas Gerais) and Mata Atlântica (Southern of Minas Gerais). Qualitative features were similar among plants in the three ecosystems, differing only in the distribution of pith flecks and neighboring tyloses that were more frequent in Cerrado and Gallery Forest. The quantitative results showed significant differences for several parameters, as well as variation between individuals of vegetation types of Northern and Southern of Minas Gerais. The correlation matrix of variables including quantitative anatomical characteristics, soil characteristics, height and diameter of the plants showed that plants were grouped by ecosystem type. Casearia sylvestris might adopt different survival strategies regarding safety and efficiency of water transport by wood anatomy ecological adaptation. The adaptive anatomical features to drought were mostly an decrease of vessel frequency and an increase of ray width and frequency. CARACTERÍSTICAS ECOLÓGICAS DA ANATOMIA DA MADEIRA DE Casearia Sylvestris SW (SALICACEAE) EM TRÊS ECOSSISTEMAS BRASILEIROS RESUMO: Casearia sylvestris SW é uma espécie perene altamente adaptável que é encontrada em toda a América Latina e amplamente disseminada no Brasil. Este trabalho analisou as características ecológicas da anatomia da madeira de C. sylvestris ocorrendo em três tipos de ecossistemas: Cerrado, Floresta da Galeria (Norte de Minas Gerais) e Mata Atlântica (Sul de Minas Gerais). As características qualitativas foram semelhantes entre as plantas nos três ecossistemas, diferindo apenas na distribuição de máculas e tiloses próximas a máculas que eram mais frequentes no Cerrado e na Floresta da Galeria. Os resultados quantitativos mostraram diferenças significativas para vários parâmetros, bem como variação entre indivíduos dos tipos de vegetação do Norte e do Sul de Minas Gerais. A matriz de correlação entre as variáveis, características anatômicas quantitativas, características do solo, altura e diâmetro das plantas, mostrou que as plantas foram agrupadas por tipo de ecossistema. Casearia sylvestris pode adotar diferentes estratégias de sobrevivência em relação à segurança e eficiência do transporte de água pela adaptação ecológica da anatomia da madeira. As características anatômicas adaptativas à seca foram principalmente uma diminuição da frequência do vaso e um aumento da largura e frequência dos raios.
International Journal of Current Research in

The management of breeding sites is one of the preventive measures against malaria. However, in view of the environmental damage caused by the various chemical insecticides used for this purpose and especially the resistances developed by Anopheles gambiae (the main vector) with respect to these synthetic chemical compounds, we have proposed implementing of extracts plants. Thus, organic solvents with a gradient of polarities such as nhexane, dichloromethane and methanol-water were used to extract the phytochemical compounds present in the leaves of Elaeis oleifera and Launaea taraxacifolia. The three different extracts obtained for each plant were tested on 3rd stage larvae from two genotypes of Anopheles gambiae: the Kisumu strain of Kenyan origin and the wild strain from the breeding sites of Cotonou. Phytochemical analysis revealed that in addition to tannins, flavonoids, anthocyanins, leuco-anthocyanins and triterpenes which are present in both plants, Elaeis oleifera also contains mucilages and alkaloids. The hydro-methanolic extracts were found to be the most active on the two origins of larvae with lethal concentrations LC50 of 448.01 ppm in 24 hrs and 51.38 ppm in 48 hrs of exposure for the Kisumu strain; 4199.63 ppm and 1456.44 ppm in 24 hrs and 48 hrs respectively for the wild population for Elaeis oleifera. In addition, Launaea taraxacifolia appeared much more interesting and displayed almost identical activities on the two larval origins with LC50 of 182.68 ppm and 135.13 ppm respectively in 24 hrs and 48 hrs for Kisumu larvae and 157.36 ppm in 24 hrs then 116.88 ppm in 48 hrs for wild larvae. It is therefore concluded that Launaea taraxacifolia can be used for bio-larvicide production in integrated malaria vector control. Accepted: 27 June 2017 Available Online: 06 July 2017
La filogenia del grupo de especies norteamericanas relacionadas con Carduelis pinus obtenida con ADN mitocondrial

espanolLa filogenia del grupo de especies norteamericanas relacionadas con Carduelis pinus obtenida con ADN mitocondrial. Objetivos: Descifrar las relaciones geneticas entre Carduelis dominicensis(lugano de las Antillas), Carduelis atriceps(lugano de copete negro), Carduelis pinus perplexus(lugano de los pinos perplexus) yCarduelis spinus(lugano Euroasiatico). Localidad: Se utilizaron para el estudio machos en epoca de cria. El lugano de las Antillas fue obtenido en el bosque de pinos de Pico Duarte (Constanza, Republica Dominicana), la montana mas alta de Las Antillas; el lugano de copete negro se recogio en Quetzaltenango (tierras altas de Guatemala); el lugano de los pinos perplexusse obtuvo en Quetzaltenango (Guatemala); el lugano de los pinos era de Dolores (Colorado, EEUU); y el lugano Euroasiatico se recogio en Madrid (Espana). Metodos:Se secuencio el ADN del cyt-b mitocondrial. Se utilizaron para construir dendrogramas tecnicas de parsimonia, y basadas en las distancias geneticas y en la maxima verosimilitud. Resultados y Conclusiones:Los luganos Norteamericano, Antillano, de copete negro, de los pinos y de los pinos perplexus parecen formar un grupo monofiletico junto al ancestro comun: el lugano Euroasiatico, y estan separados de las otras especies de Carduelis Norteamericanas y Sudamericanas. Este grupo parece haber divergido en el Plioceno. El lugano Antillano es el mas antiguo de este grupo Norteamericano EnglishmtDNA phylogeny of North American Carduelis pinus group. Aims:To uncover the genetic relationships within the Carduelisgenera of Carduelis dominicensis(Antillean siskin), Carduelis atriceps(black-capped siskin) and Carduelis pinus perplexus(pine siskin perplexus)subspecies, and with North American Carduelisspecies, particularly Carduelis pinus(pine siskin) and also with Euroasiatic Carduelis spinus(Eurasian siskin). Location:Males on breeding season were obtained. Antillean siskin was from Pico Duarte (Constanza, Dominican Republic) pine forest, the higher Antillean mountain; Black-capped siskin was obtained from Quetzaltenango (Guatemala highlands); Pine siskin perplexuswas from Quetzaltenango (Guatemala highlands); Carduelis pinuswas obtained from Dolores (Colorado, USA); and Carduelis spinuswas taken from Madrid (Spain). Methods:Mitochondrial cytochrome b (mt cyt-b) DNA was sequenced. Parsimony and Maximun Likelihood genetic distances based methodologies were used for dendrograms construction. Results and Conclusions:North American Antillean siskin, black-capped siskin, pine siskin and pine siskin perplexusseem to formamonophyletic group together with their ancestor Eurasian siskin and separated from other North American and South American genus Carduelisspecies. This group seems to have diverged in the Pliocene Epoch. Antillean siskin is the oldest of this North American group
Parasitic Fauna of Two Dominant Clariid (SILURIFORMES) Catfishes In A Tropical Freshwater Ecosystem, Nigeria

Three hundred and sixty clariid catfishes comprising of 231 (64.17%) Clarias gariepinus and 129(35.83%) Clarias anguillaris caught with various fishing gears were studied for parasites for a period of 12 months (May 2013 to April 2014) in Anambra River, Nigeria. Out of the 360 fish specimens, 148 (41.1%) fish hosts were infected while 212 (58.89%) were uninfected. There was no significant (p > 0.05) difference in the prevalence of infection between C. gariepinus (44.2%) and C. anguillaris (35.7%). The total number of parasites recovered were 608, comprising two protozoans (Trichodina acuta and Epistylis sp.), two cestodes (Polyonchobothrium clarias and Monobothriode woodlandi) and two nematodes (Rhabdochona congolensis and Procamallanus laevionchus). Protozoan ciliates recovered from the gills and skin of fish hosts had the highest prevalence (25.55%) among the parasites recovered. The rest parasites were recovered from the intestine and the glandular stomach. The relationship of host size (weight and length) and parasite infection showed infection was significant (p < 0.05) in fish of larger weight (126 g+) and length (30 cm+). There was significant (p < 0.05) difference in the infection of sexes, with the males having more infections. Monthly/seasonal patterns of infection varied from one parasite to another. This study provides an overview of the parasites of some clariid species inhabiting the Anambra River.
Sementes de arroz infectadas por Drechslera oryzae: germinação, transmissão e controle.

Foram realizados estudos objetivando determinar a influencia de diferentes intensidades de infeccao das sementes por Drechslera oryzae, bem como diferencas varietais sobre germinacao e transmissao em relacao ao tratamento de sementes com fungicidas. Os testes demonstraram que D. oryzae e transmitida pelas sementes e afeta a germinacao.
Post-Metamorphic Carry-Over Effects in a Complex Life History: Behavior and Growth at Two Life Stages in an Amphibian, Anaxyrus fowleri

Carry-over effects, which occur when an animal's early life experience has lasting effects on its later life, may be manifested in an animal's behavior, growth, and fitness, and are often overlooked as contributing factors to such aspects of animal ecology. Metamorphosis is a process that can produce such effects in animals with complex life histories, due to the significant energetic cost and physical changes undergone during this process. We explored the potential impact of tadpole density after metamorphosis in a pond-breeding amphibian, Anaxyrus fowleri. If larval density induces carry-over effects, then there should be a positive correlation in behavior and/or relative growth rate between pre-metamorphic tadpoles and the same animals as post-metamorphic toadlets. We raised tadpoles at six density levels, ranging from 0.08 tadpoles/L to 1.67 tadpoles/L, designed to produce variation in growth rate and toadlet size, and quantified relative activity by monitoring movement per five-second intervals in tadpoles and one-minute intervals in toadlets. Among tadpoles, activity varied with density as a quadratic curve and best predicted growth rate as a negative loge-linear function. For toadlets, their density as tadpoles did not predict relative growth rate. Alternatively, we found a positive relationship between activity level and toadlet body size and, when considered in terms of density treatments as larvae, found evidence for body size predicting opposite trends in activity between the two life stages. Our results show evidence of density-dependent carry-over effects when comparing relative growth rate, and indirectly when comparing size-dependent activity level between life stages, in this pond-breeding amphibian. Further information is needed to determine if carry-over effects impact individual fitness, which can have implications at the population level.
Delineating Key Genetic Components On Linear Plasmid 36 That Contribute To Its Essential Role In Borrelia Burgdorferi Mammalian Infectivity.

The spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi is the etiologic agent of Lyme disease. This pathogen has a complex enzootic life cycle that involves passage between the tick vector (Ixodes scapularis) and various vertebrate hosts with humans being inadvertent hosts. There is a pressing need to study the genetic aspects of the B. burgdorferi infectious cycle and particularly spirochete genes involved in mammalian infectivity so as to develop novel therapeutic and diagnostic strategies to combat Lyme disease. The B. burgdorferi genome is fragmented and comprised of a single 900 kb linear chromosome and multiple linear and circular plasmids. It has been observed that plasmids are lost during serial passage and manipulation in vitro and the loss of some of the plasmids has been shown to be related to the loss of infectivity and persistence in the host. One such plasmid is linear plasmid 36 (lp36). lp36 is approximately 36kb in size and carries 56 putative open reading frames a majority of which have no predicted function. B. burgdorferi lacking lp36 show no deficiency in survival in ticks; however, these mutant spirochetes are highly attenuated for mammalian infectivity. The genetic components of this plasmid that contribute to its function in mammalian infectivity have yet to be clearly defined. Using an in vivo expression technology (IVET) based genetic screen the lp36encoded gene bbk46 was identified as a candidate B. burgdorferi gene that is expressed during mammalian infection. Herein we present evidence that bbk46 is required for B. burgdorferi persistent infection of immunocompetent mice. Our data iii support a molecular model of immune evasion by which bbk46 functions as an RNA to regulate expression of the antigenic variation protein VlsE. These data represent the first demonstration of a regulatory mechanism critical for controlling vlsE gene expression. Moreover these findings further define the critical role of linear plasmid 36 in Borrelia burgdorferi pathogenesis.
Reducing BERT Pre-Training Time from 3 Days to 76 Minutes

Large-batch training is key to speeding up deep neural network training in large distributed systems. However, large-batch training is difficult because it produces a generalization gap. Straightforward optimization often leads to accuracy loss on the test set. BERT \cite{devlin2018bert} is a state-of-the-art deep learning model that builds on top of deep bidirectional transformers for language understanding. Previous large-batch training techniques do not perform well for BERT when we scale the batch size (e.g. beyond 8192). BERT pre-training also takes a long time to finish (around three days on 16 TPUv3 chips). To solve this problem, we propose the LAMB optimizer, which helps us to scale the batch size to 65536 without losing accuracy. LAMB is a general optimizer that works for both small and large batch sizes and does not need hyper-parameter tuning besides the learning rate. The baseline BERT-Large model needs 1 million iterations to finish pre-training, while LAMB with batch size 65536/32768 only needs 8599 iterations. We push the batch size to the memory limit of a TPUv3 pod and can finish BERT training in 76 minutes.
Isolation and characterization of the mitochondrial genome of Gymnodraco acuticeps (Perciformes: Bathydraconidae) with phylogenetic consideration

Abstract Gymnodraco acuticepsis is an Antarctic fish living in the Southern Ocean. Until now, studies on G. acuticeps are still limited. As an Antarctic fish, obtaining and characterization of the mitochondrial genome of G. acuticeps will be important for elucidation of the mechanism of cold-adapting evolution in mitochondrion. In this study, we first isolated and characterized the mitochondrial genome sequence of G. acuticeps with 15,987 bp in length. It contained of 34 genes (12 protein-coding genes, 20 transfer RNA genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes) and a partial putative control region. Gene organization and nucleotide composition of obtained mito-genome were similar to those of other Antarctic fish. Twenty-eight genes were encoded by heavy strand, while six genes were encoded by light strand. Further, the phylogenetic tree, which based on 12 protein-coding genes, revealed that the G. acuticeps was genetically closest to species Parachaenichthys charcoti among 18 species. We hope this work would be helpful for the population genetics and molecular evolution studies.
Assessment of Genetic Diversity for Brinjal in Terai Zone of West Bengal, India

Brinjal (Solanum melongenum L.) is the most important vegetables crop of the world and a huge prospect in India. Brinjal, also known as eggplant or aubergine is one of the popular vegetable crops grown all over the country and throughout the year for its tender fruits. The name eggplant is derived from the shape of the fruit of some varieties, which are white in colour and similar in shape to chicken eggs. Several advanced cultivars and numerous landraces are cultivated in India for their young, unripe fruits, which are consumed fresh, dried or pickled (Karihaloo and Gottileb, 1995). Eggplant fruit are a rich source of calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc and copper. It is also a fair source of fatty acids and may have medicinal properties (Shafeeq, 2005). White brinjal is said to be good for diabetic patients. It has also been recommended as an excellent remedy for those suffering from liver complaints (Shukla and Naik, 1993). A large indigenous biodiversity exists in eggplant with variation in plant type, stem color, leaf size, leaf tip, midrib color, fruit size, fruit shape, fruit color, fruit yield, fruit quality, International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 8 (2017) pp. 2401-2406 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com
Protein dynamics studied by coarse-grained and atomistic theoretical approaches

BACKGROUND: Protein structure, dynamics and function, are inseparable in order to understand the mechanisms of Life at the molecular level. From the structure comes dynamics, and from dynamics many, if not all, protein functions. Usually functional motions operate at timescales and conditions that are far beyond the limits of current experimental techniques. GOALS AND METHODOLOGY: In order to address rationally the complex interplay between these three aspects of proteins, we will deepen into and compare both coarse-grained and atomistic simulation methods. RESULTS: In the first part of this thesis, coarse-grained Elastic Network Models are compared with Molecular Dynamics and experimental results in order to obtain a more accurate representation of protein dynamics. We propose a novel ENM algorithm rendering results close to atomistic simulation methods. In the second part of the thesis, the novel method is applied to detect dynamical hot spots in a relevant biological system, the tyrosine kinase receptor HER1, revealing why mutations are accumulated at discrete structural regions. Near-microsecond long simulations of the mutant hot spots are presented which unravel a long-sought intermediate in a large-scale functional transition. Finally, we explore more widely the validity of the ENMs potentials, and its relations with complex networks approaches, using a fast internal coordinates algorithm. The analysis of the parameter space for ENMs demonstrate that the performance of these methods is closely related to network properties of the protein structures, which also highlights how evolution might have selected certain folds to display particular collective motions, and why deleterious mutations hit the residues transferring most information. CONCLUSIONS: The main conclusions of this thesis are the following: 1) The local topology of proteins, not only determines shapes but dynamics,; 2) Long-range contact dictate the equilibrium between different motions; 3) Perturbations such as mutations can shift this equilibrium and affect protein functions, causing disease
Beyond Monetary Barriers to Electric Vehicle Adoption: Evidence From Observed Usage of Private and Shared Cars

We use car-level micro data to provide empirical evidence on the usage of conventional and electric vehicles (EVs) in private and car sharing fleets in Germany. We shed light on both monetary and non-monetary barriers to EV adoption and usage by exploiting the feature that variable costs are identical for shared vehicles but different for private car owners across engine types. While drivers respond to monetary incentives when using conventional cars, this does not hold for EVs. We find that EVs are, on average, driven shorter distances than conventional vehicles, both in terms of annual and single-day mileage, even if costs are identical. We also document that car sharing intensifies the usage of conventional cars but not that of EVs.