Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Goma de mezquite: una alternativa de uso industrial

El mezquite es una leguminosa ampliamente distribuida en las zonas aridas y semiaridas del mundo. En condiciones de estres, el arbol secreta en su corteza un exudado gomoso vitreo conocido como goma de mezquite. Este polisacarido es una arabinogalactana proteica cuyas propiedades quimicas, macromoleculares y funcionales son similares a las de la goma arabiga, producto de multiples usos industriales particularmente en alimentos, bebidas y farmacia. La goma arabiga, obtenida a escala industrial de la corteza de Acacia senegal y A. seyal en varios paises de Africa, ha satisfecho por decadas la demanda a nivel mundial; sin embargo, su escasez periodica e inseguridad en el suministro y precios, conllevan a la busqueda de otras fuentes botanicas de goma capaces de remplazar a la goma arabiga. Dentro de estas, la goma de mezquite reviste un interes especial, toda vez que ambas comparten caracteristicas fisicoquimicas y funcionales. La relacion entre las caracteristicas quimicas, la arquitectura macromolecular y las propiedades emulsificantes de los componentes de la goma de mezquite sugieren que puede competir exitosamente, desde el punto de vista tecnico, con la goma arabiga.
Need some help, honey? Dependency-oriented helping relations between women and men in the domestic sphere.

Five studies (N = 2,339) found that men and women, especially if high on benevolent sexism, engage in dependency-oriented cross-gender helping relations in domestic tasks. Study 1 revealed that, in response to hypothetical scenarios of cross-gender helping interactions in traditionally feminine domains (e.g., cooking a dish), men's benevolent sexism correlated with their intentions to seek dependency-oriented help (direct assistance, rather than tools for autonomous coping) from women, and women's benevolent sexism correlated with their intentions to provide dependency-oriented help to men. Study 2 revealed that the association between benevolent sexism and (a) men's intentions to seek, and (b) women's intentions to provide dependency-oriented help occurs in cross-gender, but not in same-gender, interactions. Studies 3 and 4 replicated these patterns while examining help-seeking (among men) and help-providing (among women) behavior in a test about common domestic tasks (e.g., how to clean a burned pot). Study 5 focused on heterosexual couples, revealing that when encountering difficulties in traditionally feminine domestic tasks (e.g., getting the kids ready for kindergarten): (a) men, especially if high on benevolent sexism, reported seeking more dependency-oriented help from their partners than women; (b) women, especially if high on benevolent sexism, reported providing more dependency-oriented help to their partners than men; and (c) engagement in dependency-oriented helping predicted an unequal division of household labor. We discuss these findings in light of previous theorizing and research on the social psychological barriers that reinforce men's relatively low involvement in the domestic sphere. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Global patterns in background losses of woody plant foliage to insects

Aim Latitudinal patterns in biotic interactions, particularly in herbivory, have been widely debated. We conducted a quantitative research synthesis to test whether background losses of woody plant foliage to insects generally decrease from the equator to the poles, and whether geographical gradients in insect herbivory are stronger at higher latitudes than at lower latitudes. Location Global terrestrial ecosystems. Methods We used published and original data (3482 point estimates of the percentage of leaf area consumed by insects, collected from 941 species of woody plants in 836 localities world-wide) to analyse the geographical patterns in total losses of plant foliage and in losses to defoliating, leaf mining and leaf galling insects separately, and we searched for climatic factors that can explain the variation in the levels of background insect herbivory across the globe and within climate zones. Result On average, according to published data woody plants lose 7.55% of their leaf area to insects, but 4.73% according to our original data collected in a blinded way. These losses demonstrate a dome-shaped latitudinal pattern: they peak in temperate zones, slightly decrease towards the equator and strongly decrease towards the poles. This pattern is consistent between published and original data, indicating the robustness of the detected relationship between herbivory and latitude. The climatic factors explaining these latitudinal patterns in insect herbivory differ between climate zones. Main conclusions Our study provides solid support for the hypothesis of a decrease in background herbivory with latitude, but only outside the tropics. For the first time we demonstrate that the latitudinal gradient in insect herbivory across the globe is nonlinear, i.e. its slope differs between the climate zones. In temperate and polar zones, but not in the tropics, background herbivory correlates with mean air temperatures and is therefore likely to increase with climate warming.
Influence of catchment land cover on stoichiometry and stable isotope compositions of basal resources and macroinvertebrate consumers in headwater streams

Anthropogenic land use affects aquatic landscapes. For example, landscape-level conversion to urban or agricultural land can heavily influence nutrient cycles in headwater streams via increased nutrient loading and altered hydrologic patterns. Recent studies in headwater streams have found that the stoichiometry and stable isotope compositions of basal resources and consumers can vary as a result of landscape-level change. To this end, we examined the stoichiometry and stable isotope compositions (δ13C and δ15N) of headwater stream flora and fauna in 16 streams located within forested, agricultural, urban, and mixed (urban, forested, and agricultural) catchments. Our results suggest basal resource stoichiometry varied across streams, with leaf litter being the most variable basal resource. Macroinvertebrate consumers maintained stoichiometric homeostasis across stream groups, but consumer stoichiometry differed across families. Values of δ13C did not vary across stream groups for basal resources; however, consumer δ13C did. Although δ15N did not differ among basal resources across stream groups, macroinvertebrate consumer δ15N differed because of the interaction between stream group and family. Our results show catchment land cover did not predictably alter the stoichiometry or stable isotope compositions of basal resources or consumers in headwater streams. The quality of basal resources in headwater streams could differ across catchments with varying land cover, but it is evident that differences in stoichiometry of basal resources did not lead to differences in stoichiometry of consumers in our study. Given the variability of stable isotope compositions, additional effort should be made to improve our understanding of the landscape factors that might influence isotopic data.
Cutaneous manifestations in hospitalized patients diagnosed as COVID‐19

Cutaneous manifestations of COVID‐19 disease have not yet been fully described. To describe cutaneous manifestations of COVID‐19 disease in hospitalized patients. We examined the cutaneous manifestations of 210 hospitalized patients. Cutaneous findings were observed during COVID‐19 infection in 52 of the patients. Lesions may be classified as erythematous scaly rash (32.7%), maculopapular rash (23%), urticarial lesions (13.5%), petechial purpuric rash (7.7%), necrosis (7.7%), enanthema and apthous stomatitis (5.8%), vesicular rash (5.8%), pernio (1.9%), and pruritus (1.9%). Cutaneous manifestations were observed statistically significantly more in certain age groups: patients of 55 to 64 and 65 to 74 years of age complained of more cutaneous manifestations than the other age groups. As for gender, there was no significant difference between male and female patients in terms of cutaneus findings. The relationship between comorbidity and dermatological finding status was statistically significant. The relationship increases linearly according to the comorbidities. According to the statistical results, the patients who were hospitalized in the intensive care unit had a higher risk of having cutaneous findings due to COVID‐19 infection. With this study, we may highlight the importance of overlooked dermatological findings in patients that are hospitalized.
The Fate of the Amazonian Areas of Endemism

Abstract: Amazonia is the largest and most diverse of the tropical forest wilderness areas. Recent compilations indicate at least 40,000 plant species, 427 mammals, 1294 birds, 378 reptiles, 427 amphibians, and around 3,000 fishes. Not homogeneous in its plant and animal communities, it is an archipelago of distinct areas of endemism separated by the major rivers. Biogeographic studies of terrestrial vertebrates have identified eight such areas in the Brazilian Amazon: Tapajós, Xingú, and Belém (all in Brazil); Rondônia (mostly in Brazil); and portions of Napo, Imeri, Guiana, and Inambari. They range in size from more than 1.7 million km2 (Guiana) to 199,211 km2 (Belém). Forest loss in each ranges from 2% to 13% of their area, except for Xingu (nearly 27% lost) and Belém, (now only about one‐third of its forest remains). Napo, Imeri, and Guiana have >40% of their lands in protected areas, Inambari, Rondônia, Tapajós, and Xingu between 20% and 40%, and Belém <20%. Strictly protected areas in each, however, are limited—from 0.28% to 11.7%. Areas of endemism should be the basic geographic unit for the creation of conservation corridors of contiguous protected areas, providing broad connectivity on both margins and within the interior of areas of endemism. The aim is to build a conservation system that is large and resilient enough to circumvent global changes, accommodate improved living standards for local populations, conserve biodiversity, and safeguard the ecological services forests and rivers provide. Elected leaders are now realizing that the traditional economy based on cattle ranching and logging is unsustainable. Deforestation proceeds apace, but the federal government is implementing the Protected Areas Programme for Amazonia, which seeks to protect 50 million ha, and a number of state governments are now active in creating protected areas and incorporating appropriate conservation measures in their development plans.
Interplay among the “flipping” glutamine, a conserved phenylalanine, water and hydrogen bonds within a blue-light sensing LOV domain

In this work we exploited time-resolved photoacoustics (PA) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the function of a conserved phenylalanine residue in blue sensing (BL) LOV domains. The LOV photocycle involves reversible formation of a photoproduct (LOV_390) where the flavin mononucleotide (FMN) chromophore is covalently bound to a cysteine. LOV_390 thermally returns to the dark adapted state (LOV_447) with a lifetime τ_rec (s-to-h). In the LOV domain of Bacillus subtilis BsYtvA, the conserved F46 is one of the few residues undergoing a pronounced light-driven conformational change. PA and spectro-scopic data show that in the YtvA variants F46A and F46Y light-induced structural changes are much smaller than those in the wild type (wt) protein, τ_rec is strongly accelerated and the energy content of LOV_390 is lower for F46Y. MD simulations for each variant in the LOV_447 and LOV_390 states revealed an overall very stable structure of the BsYtvA-LOV domain. The largest variations emerged for the conserved HB network that includes FMN, Q123 (the “flipping” glutamine of LOV domains), and the conserved N104 and N94, with strong dependence on the presence of water. The lateral chain of Q123 in wt-LOV_447 can adopt three alternative conformations, and movements act in concert with F46 flexibility. In LOV_390, Q123 remains instead fixed in the orientation adopted in the crystal structure. Interestingly, in F46A, Q123 is locked in a LOV_447-like conformation (pseudo-dark-adapted state), in both LOV_447 and LOV_390. In LOV_447 of F46Y the tyrosine hydroxyl group fixes a water molecule, which induces a Q123 conformation similar to wt-LOV_390, i.e. a pseudo-photoproduct state. These pseudo-dark-adapted and photoproduct-like conformations of the Q123 sidechain may account for the strong acceleration of the photocycle in the two variants. Given the importance of the “flipping” glutamine in light-to-signal propagation in LOV proteins, the results presented here underscore a crucial structural and functional role of the conserved F46. MD results also indicate that F46 is not directly engaged in permeability of the FMN pocket, but is involved in solvent ordering and the formation of water bridges.
Mutation Load: The Fitness of Individuals in Populations Where Deleterious Alleles Are Abundant

Many multicellular eukaryotes have reasonably high per-generation mutation rates. Consequently, most populations harbor an abundance of segregating deleterious alleles. These alleles, most of which are of small effect individually, collectively can reduce substantially the fitness of individuals relative to what it would be otherwise; this is mutation load. Mutation load can be lessened by any factor that causes more mutations to be removed per selective death, such as inbreeding, synergistic epistasis, population structure, or harsh environments. The ecological effects of load are not clear-cut because some conditions (such as selection early in life, sexual selection, reproductive compensation, and intraspecific competition) reduce the effects of load on population size and persistence, but other conditions (such as interspecific competition and load on resource use efficiency) can cause small amounts of load to have strong effects on the population, even extinction. We suggest a series of studies to im.
Nitric Oxide Production and Fc Receptor-Mediated Phagocytosis as Functional Readouts of Macrophage Activity upon Stimulation with Inactivated Poultry Vaccines in Vitro

Vaccine batches must pass routine quality control to confirm that their ability to induce protection against disease is consistent with batches of proven efficacy from development studies. For poultry vaccines, these tests are often performed in laboratory chickens by vaccination-challenge trials or serological assays. The aim of this study was to investigate innate immune responses against inactivated poultry vaccines and identify candidate immune parameters for in vitro quality tests as alternatives for animal-based quality tests. For this purpose, we set up assays to measure nitric oxide production and phagocytosis by the macrophage-like cell line HD11, upon stimulation with inactivated poultry vaccines for infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), Newcastle disease virus (NDV), and egg drop syndrome virus (EDSV). In both assays, macrophages became activated after stimulation with various toll-like receptor agonists. Inactivated poultry vaccines stimulated HD11 cells to produce nitric oxide due to the presence of mineral oil adjuvant. Moreover, inactivated poultry vaccines were found to enhance Fc receptor-mediated phagocytosis due to the presence of allantoic fluid in the vaccine antigen preparations. We showed that inactivated poultry vaccines stimulated nitric oxide production and Fc receptor-mediated phagocytosis by chicken macrophages. Similar to antigen quantification methods, the cell-based assays described here can be used for future assessment of vaccine batch-to-batch consistency. The ability of the assays to determine the immunopotentiating properties of inactivated poultry vaccines provides an additional step in the replacement of current in vivo batch-release quality tests.
Effect of different dietary fat content and fat type on the growth and body composition of intensively reared pikeperch Sander lucioperca (L.)

Two, 42-day feeding experiments were carried out in aquaria working in a recirculation system, to determine the influence of the different dietary fat levels and fat sources on the growth and body composition of pikeperch fingerlings. In the first experiment three levels of dietary fat (F0: 60; F1: 120; F2: 180 g kg[superscript [-]1]) were tested, compared with a commercial diet (Trouvit, 240 g kg[superscript [-]1] fat content). F1 and F2 were formulated by adding fish oil. Best growing and feed conversion ratio was obtained with the commercial control diet, which produced also the highest total body fat (117 g kg[superscript [-]1]) while respective values of fish fed on the other three diets varied between 74.1 and 85.1 g kg[superscript [-]1]. Different feeds had no significant differences in crude protein content of the fish body. In the second test, besides feeds F0, F1 and F2, two additional feeds were formulated containing 127 g kg[superscript [-]1] (L1) and 178 g kg[superscript [-]1] (L2) crude fat (from linseed oil). Dietary fat levels and fat sources had significant effect neither on growth nor on feed conversion ratio. Chemical composition of the whole body did not change significantly due to the different feeds. Linseed oil had a decreasing effect on the sum of saturated fatty acids and increased the oleic and the [alpha]-linoleic acid proportions in fillet. However, total polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) proportion remained constant.
Novel aspects of adipocyte-induced skeletal muscle insulin resistance

Abstract Insulin resistance in skeletal muscle is an early event in the development of diabetes with obesity being one of the major contributing factors. Conditioned medium (CM) from differentiated human adipocytes impairs insulin signalling in human skeletal muscle cells. Recent data on adipocyte-induced insulin resistance in skeletal muscle cells describes underlying mechanisms of this process. Skeletal muscle insulin resistance involves multiple pathways and irreversible changes in the expression level of critical proteins. Furthermore, the reversibility of insulin resistance could be demonstrated. Several strategies to combat insulin resistance have been developed. One recent approach to treat obesity and the metabolic syndrome is the use of endocannabinoid receptor antagonists such as rimonabant. These compounds might also reduce insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes with effects on adipose tissue and liver and possibly skeletal muscle.
A common source for a trichinellosis outbreak reported in France and Serbia in 2017

Trichinellosis is a rare parasitic zoonosis in the European Union. Meat from backyard pigs was the common source for a trichinellosis outbreak caused by Trichinella spiralis, which occurred in France and Serbia in the beginning of 2017. An epidemiological study was conducted in France and Serbia to determine the extent of the outbreak, to identify its source and to implement control measures. Three cases were exposed in Serbia and brought back to France pork delicatessen which they shared with relatives and friends. Around 47 individuals were exposed to the parasitised meat in France and Serbia and 20 cases of trichinellosis were reported (nine in France and 11 in Serbia). Nine of them were female. The diagnosis was delayed, in part because the parasitosis was not known by most physicians, which led to complications in the French cases such as facial paralysis and pulmonary embolism. Health alerts and survey networks are indispensable at a European level to control the disease.
Prolonged Infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 in Fomites

We spotted severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 on polystyrene plastic, aluminum, and glass for 96 hours with and without bovine serum albumin (3 g/L). We observed a steady infectivity (<1 log10 drop) on plastic, a 3.5 log10 decrease on glass, and a 6 log10 drop on aluminum. The presence of proteins noticeably prolonged infectivity.
Seasonal variation in the egg morphology of the copepod Eurytemora americana and its relationship with reproductive strategy in a temperate estuary in Argentina

Seasonal variation in the morphology of Eurytemora americana eggs and its relationship with reproductive strategy were studied in the Bahia Blanca Estuary. Eggs from field females were analysed morphologically by optical (OM) and electron microscopy (scanning electron microscopy (SEM)-transmission electron microscopy (TEM)) during the population pulse. Additionally, egg-carrying females were incu- bated simulating in situ environmental conditions to evaluate the resting egg character. Subitaneous and resting eggs were indistinguish- able by OM, but showed different chorion appearance under SEM and TEM. Sinuous patterned chorion eggs, mainly produced during the period of population growth, were classed as subitaneous eggs based on their high level of hatching success. Eggs with a sponge-like appearance, produced after the population peaked, were classed as diapause eggs based on their inability to hatch even under favourable conditions. There were significant differences in egg size through the population pulse and diapause eggs were significantly bigger than subitaneous eggs. The observation of both morphotypes in egg-carrying females after peak population abundance confirms the existence of a transitional reproductive stage before the exclusive production of diapause eggs at the end of the pulse. Diapause egg production enables E. americana to resist adverse conditions, ensuring its survival in temperate estuaries.
The Efficacy of Visual Encounter Surveys for Population Monitoring of Plethodon punctatus (Caudata: Plethodontidae)

Abstract Effective monitoring of population size is critically important for endemic species with specialized habitat requirements so that timely remedial steps can be taken when declines are detected. We initiated a monitoring study of the endemic plethodontid salamander, Plethodon punctatus, which is generally found in talus habitats over 1000 m in elevation in a narrow range on Shenandoah Mountain on the border of Virginia and West Virginia. We tested congruence of nighttime visual encounter surveys (VES) and mark-recapture estimates of population size. VES was a valid index of the abundances of P. punctatus in the two habitats we surveyed. Sites on the eastern and western sides of Shenandoah Mountain were surveyed, and both methods estimated that population size on the west was approximately twice as high as that on the east. Individuals of this species exhibited a high degree of site fidelity. Cover object searches for species in talus habitats are expected to be of limited value, and we conclude that nighttime visual encounter surveys are most effective for population size monitoring of P. punctatus and other species that live in talus.
An Overlapping Case of IgG4-related Disease and Klinefelter Syndrome with Lupus-like Serological and Neurological Features: A Case Report and Literature Review

A 46-year-old man with Klinefelter syndrome (KS) presented with obliterative phlebitis of the lower legs with a deteriorated renal function, and elevated serum alkaline phosphatase and ataxia levels. Examinations demonstrated tubulointerstitial nephritis, obliterative phlebitis and lymphadenopathy with IgG4+ plasma cell infiltrate and sclerosing cholangitis. Although the serological profile and central nerve system involvement were compatible for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a definite diagnosis of SLE was difficult to make. IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) with KS was finally diagnosed, and high dose prednisolone with intravenous cyclophosphamide was initiated and thereafter the patient demonstrated a prompt improvement. This is the first known case demonstrating overlapping IgG4-RD with lupus-like serological and neurological features in a patient with KS, thus highlighting the pathogenic role with the genomic background for IgG4-RD and SLE.