Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of water vapor conductance in a titanosaur egg from the Upper Cretaceous of Argentina and a Megaloolithus siruguei egg from Spain

Abstract We calculated water vapor conductance (a product of eggshell porosity) from the first definitively identified sauropod egg (Megaloolithus patagonicus) from the Auca Mahuevo locality in Argentina. We then compared the results with those from M. siruguei (an egg type long associated with sauropod dinosaurs) from the Pinyes locality in Spain. The 14-cm Auca Mahuevo egg has a thinner eggshell and 47 times fewer pores than the 22-cm M. siruguei specimen. The resulting water vapor conductance (GH2O) of the titanosaur and M. siruguei eggs is 341 and 3979 mg H2O day−1 Torr−1, respectively; these values are two and ten times greater than in avian eggs of comparable size, but lower than in eggs of most modern reptiles. Clutches from Auca Mahuevo typically contain 20–40 eggs; in contrast, M. siruguei clutches from the Pinyes site average nine eggs. The GH2O of M. siruguei exceeds that of the Argentine egg by an order of magnitude, supporting previous inferences of egg burial. The GH2O of the Argentine titanosaur egg closely approximates that of Troodon and some oviraptorid eggs, previously calculated as equal to or two times greater than, respectively, the GH2O of avian eggs of similar size. Higher embryonic growth rates (relative to modern reptiles), especially in some dinosaurs with large clutch mass, may have required incubation in a more open environment, where water conservation represented a more critical factor than in a buried clutch. The lower GH2O calculated for the two megaloolithid eggs is consistent with previous interpretations of nesting mode that are based on site taphonomy and nesting traces. This study indicates that at least some dinosaurs did not fully bury their eggs.
The influence of a spring habit gene, Vrn‐D1, on heading time in wheat

The adaptability of wheat cultivars to environmental conditions is known to be associated with a vernalization requirement, that is, spring/winter habit. To clarify the genetic effect of the spring habit gene, Vrn-D1, on heading time in the field, recombinant inbred lines (RILs) with or without the Vrn-D1 gene were produced from F2 plants of the cross between ‘Nanbukomugi’ and ‘Nishikazekomugi’, non-carrier and carrier cultivars of this gene, respectively. Using growth chambers with a controlled temperature and photoperiod, three components of heading time, i.e. vernalization requirement, photoperiodic sensitivity and narrow-sense earliness (earliness per se), were evaluated in each RIL. RILs with the Vrn-D1 gene (E lines) showed greatly reduced vernalization requirements and slightly shorter narrow-sense earliness than RILs without Vrn-D1 (L lines), although no difference in photoperiodic sensitivity was observed between the two groups. RILs were planted at four different sites in Japan and examined for their heading time in the field. E lines headed significantly earlier than L lines at all locations, indicating that the earliness of E lines is stable in various environmental conditions. These results indicated that spring habit caused by Vrn-D1 gene, as well as narrow-sense earliness, was responsible for heading time in the field.
EFFECT OF CARBOHYDRATE SOURCE OVER THE ANDROGENESIS OF BRASSICA OLERACEA L. ANTHERS CULTIVATED IN VITRO

Now-a-days plant tissue culture in vitro provides key opportunities for plant quality enhancement and subsequent economic sustainability. Haploid production of Brassica spp. through anther culture proved to be an important approach of tissue culture, during the last decades. Traditionally, plant breeders usually achieve homozygosity of the cross products by using the self-fertilization, a time consuming process. By anther culture, homozygous plant can be produced within a year as compared to the long inbreeding method, which might take 8-10 years. There are many factors that have been found to affect the ability of an anther to undergo successive changes in its developmental path in order to leave the gametophytic pathway and resort to a sporophytic mode of development. Among the factors that play a critical role in the orientation of morphogenetic reaction of anthers cultivated in vitro and ultimately in the regeneration of vitroplants at Brassica species the carbohydrate source and its concentration are considered to be of peculiar importance. The carbohydrates act as an energy source and as an osmotic regulator in the culture medium. Although sucrose or glucose represents the main sugars of choice in anther culture media, there are studies in which maltose turned out to be also a carbohydrate source suitable for androgenesis at different species. In the present study the four main types of carbohydrates (sucrose, glucose, fructose and maltose) and its concentrations were tested. The organogenic, embryogenic and calusogenic competences of Brassica anthers were highly influenced by the type of carbohydrate source added to NLN basic medium (Lichter, 1982) supplemented with BAP - 8.8 μM and 2.7 NAA μM. The results obtained in our study shows that sucrose proved to be the best for androgenic plant regeneration at Brassica oleracea with an optimal concentration of 0.09 M, followed by maltose and glucose, while fructose was less suitable for androgenesis sustainability.
Postdiapause Development and Prediction of Emergence of Female Blueberry Maggot (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Abstract Predictive models were developed to forecast the emergence of female blueberry maggot flies in highbush blueberries. Time to emergence at 20°C for pupal samples transferred from outdoors late February through mid-March, in 1997 and 1998, was very similar, suggesting both diapause completion and minimal postdiapause development at this time. Linear and nonlinear models were fitted to postdiapause development rates at several constant temperatures (7, 11, 15, 20, 25, and 30°C). The low temperature development threshold for the linear model was estimated at 4.7°C, and the heat accumulation required for median emergence was 934.3 degree-days. Rate summation was initiated on 1 March, over 3 yr, and model predictions were validated with field emergence data. The linear model predicted emergence with an average error of <4 d of observed field emergence, for percentiles at and below the median, over a 3-yr period, compared with 4.0–5.4 d for the nonlinear biophysical model. The results of this study indicate that a simple linear model, driven by soil temperatures, can assist the monitoring of blueberry maggot fly in integrated pest management programs.
Latitudinal and altitudinal body size variation among north-west European land snail species

Aim To investigate latitudinal and altitudinal patterns in body size variation among north-west European land snail species, as well as factors influencing such patterns. Location Latitudinal patterns were investigated in northwest Europe from the British Isles and France in the west to Finland, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary in the east and from Norway in the north to France (with the exception of the Mediterranean part of the country), Switzerland, Austria and Hungary in the south. Altitudinal patterns were examined in the Alps in Austria and Switzerland. Methods Data on latitudinal ranges of 366 north-west European land snail species, on altitudinal ranges of 175 species from Austria and 150 species from Switzerland, and on their body sizes were used to test for the presence of interspecific latitudinal or altitudinal body size patterns. Four methods, Stevens' method, the midpoint method, the across-species method, and a phylogenetically controlled analysis (CAIC) were applied. Results As a result of the predominance of some small bodied clades at higher latitudes and some large bodied clades at lower latitudes, body size of north-west European land snails decreases significantly with increasing latitude. However, little of the body size variation across species is explained by latitude and the phylogenetically controlled analysis showed that the decrease of body size with increasing latitude is not a result of repeated and independent evolution of an association between body size and latitude in many clades. There is no significant correlation between body size of land snail species and altitude in the Alps although a negative correlation of body size and altitude is frequent within species. Main conclusion If phylogenetic effects are controlled for, neither latitudinal nor altitudinal patterns in body size could be found. Bergmann's rule, which predicts a positive correlation between body size of species and latitude, could not be confirmed for north-west European land snails.
Production of bacteriocin and biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles by lactic acid bacteria isolated from yoghurt and its antibacterial activity

The aim of the study was isolate the Bacteriocin producing Lactic acid Bacteria (probiotic) from yoghurt and Bacteriocin production was confirmed by agar well diffusion method, against indicator organisms. Biosyynthesis of silver nanoparticle by probiotic organism. The nanoparticles synthesized by LAB were confirmed by UV-visible spectroscopy and SEM-EDAX analysis. The antibacterial potential of synthesized silver nanoparticle was tested against pathogenic bacteria. The present investigation provides eco-friendly approach in medicine and useful for future drug development.
Structured Conditional Continuous Normalizing Flows for Efficient Amortized Inference in Graphical Models

We exploit minimally faithful inversion of graphical model structures to specify sparse continuous normalizing ﬂows (CNFs) for amortized inference. We ﬁnd that the sparsity of this factorization can be exploited to reduce the numbers of parameters in the neural network, adaptive integration steps of the ﬂow, and consequently FLOPs at both training and inference time without decreasing performance in comparison to unconstrained ﬂows. By expressing the structure inversion as a compilation pass in a probabilistic programming language, we are able to apply it in a novel way to models as complex as convolutional neural networks. Furthermore, we extend the training objective for CNFs in the context of inference amortization to the symmetric Kullback-Leibler divergence, and demonstrate its theoretical and practical advantages.
The fate of intertidal microphytobenthos carbon: An in situ 13C‐labeling study

At two intertidal sites (one sandy and one silty, in the Scheldt estuary, The Netherlands), the fate of microphytobenthos was studied through an in situ 13C puls‐chase experiment. Label was added at the beginning of low tide, and uptake of 13C by algae was linear during the whole period of tidal exposure (about 27 mg m−2 h−1 in the top millimeter at both sites). The 13C fixed by microphytobenthos was rapidly displaced toward deeper sediment layers (down to 6 cm), in particular at the dynamic, sandy site. The residence times of microphytobenthos with respect to external losses (resuspension and respiration) were about 2.4 and 5.6 d at the sandy and silty stations, respectively. The transfer of carbon from microphytobenthos to benthic consumers was estimated from the appearance of 13C in bacterial biomarkers, handpicked nematodes, and macrofauna. The incorporation of 13C into bacterial biomass was quantified by carbon isotope analysis of polar lipid derived fatty acids specific for bacteria. The bacterial polar lipid‐derived fatty acids (i14:0, i15:0, a15:0, i16:0, and 18:1ω7c) showed rapid, significant transfer from benthic algae to bacteria with maximum labeling after 1 d. Nematodes became enriched after 1 h, and 13C assimilation increased until day 3. Microphytobenthos carbon entered all heterotrophic components in proportion to heterotrophic biomass distribution (bacteria > macrofauna > meiofauna). Our results indicate a central role for microphytobenthos in moderating carbon flow in coastal sediments.
Total Digestible Nutrients and Protein Levels for Dairy Bulls Used in Artificial Breeding

Summary Using 18 bulls, 9 Holstein-Friesians and 9 Guernseys, studies were conducted relating measurable semen characteristics, ‘relative fertility, and body weight changes to T.D. N. intake levels of approximately 100, 120, and 140 per cent of recommended maintenance requirements for dry dairy cows of equivalent weights fed simultaneously with concentrate mixtures containing 12,16, and 20 per cent total protein. These relatively wide ranges of T.D. N. intake, accompanied by considerable shifts in body weight, can be fed mature bulls for at least 90 days without influencing semen production or fertility. Under the conditions of this experiment, 12 per cent of protein in the concentrate mixture fed with mixed hay, containing approximately 10 per cent of legumes, supplied enough protein for semen production and the maintenance of fertility. Based on the results of this experiment, a tentative feeding standard for mature dairy bulls used routinely in artificial insemination is proposed. In terms of a practical feeding schedule, such a standard reduces itself to approximately 1 lb. of hay and 0.4 to 0.5 lb. concentrate mixture daily per 100 lb. of body weight. The authors are indebted to R. F. Elliott, Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, Department of Animal Husbandry, Cornell University, for the chemical analysis of the feeds used.
EFFECTS OF PHYTOHORMONES ON CARBOHYDRATE AND NITROGEN METABOLISM OF SOME DROUGHT STRESSED CROP PLANTS

This work was conducted to study the effects of exogenously applied phytohormones (gibberellic acid, indole acetic acid and kinetin) on water-stressed maize, cowpea and broad bean plants. It was found that drought adversely-affected the synthesis and translocation of carbohydrates as well as the nitrogenous compounds which resulted particularly in an accumulation of the amino acid proline. Application of phytohormones resulted in a considerable increase in carbohydrates and total nitrogen contents. On the other hand proline accumulation was considerably retarded whatever the plant organ analyzed, the plant species tested and the level of stress or phytohormone used.
Extirpation Risk of an Isolated Black Bear Population Under Different Management Scenarios

Abstract Habitat loss and anthropogenic mortality are recognized as threats to populations of large carnivores worldwide, yet their relative importance to extinction risk has rarely been quantified. We used population viability analysis (PVA) to estimate extinction probability of an isolated population of black bears (Ursus americanus) on the Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada under different management scenarios. We used random-effects analysis of variance to estimate components of variance in extinction risk explained by 4 management actions: 1) preventing habitat destruction, 2) reducing or eliminating incidental non-natural mortality, 3) reducing or eliminating harvest, and 4) reducing the fraction of reproducing females in the harvest. Habitat area reductions had the greatest effect on risk despite uncertainty in bear density. Incidental non-natural mortality had a greater effect than the rate or age and sex distribution of harvest. Quantifying the variation in outputs of PVA models associated with different management options is an improvement over qualitative comparisons of relative risk and enhances the applicability of PVA to management. This study highlights the importance of protecting habitats on adjacent private lands when reserves are too small to support populations of bears, and of protecting reproducing females from non-natural mortality—results that could aid managers of other large carnivores in focusing management efforts to ensure persistence of populations.
Isolation and characterization of a new Methanosarcina mazei strain GFJ07 from a mountain forest pond

Aims: A new methanogenic strain, named GFJ07, was isolated from a pond of mountain forests in Guangxi, China. Cells grown in liquid culture tended to form aggregates with pseudosarcina-like or irregular shape. Methodology and Results: The optimum temperature, pH and NaCl concentration were 35 ℃ , 7.0 and 0.5%, respectively. The isolate used methanol, trimethylamine, acetate and H2-CO2 as substrates. Analysis of the 16S rDNA sequences revealed strain GFJ07 showed the highest sequence similarity of 99.9% to Methanosarcina mazei. Conclusion, significance and impact of study: The cells were Gram positive and nonmotile. Most of single cell grew as a sausage-like clinder about 0.5 μm in diameter and 1.0 μm in length.
Seedling vigour in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) as a source of genetic variation and study of its correlation with yield and yield components

This experiment was aimed to study whether genetic variability exists in the seedling vigour of 50 elite spring wheat lines and also to study its correlation with yield and yield components. Analysis of variance reveals significant difference for seedling vigour index as well as other yield and yield components. The phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) and genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) was observed highest in seed yield plot -1 , vigour index, 1000-seed weight and tillers m -2 . The highest heritability accompanied with genetic advance was observed in seed yield plot -1 , seed vigour index, 1000-seed weight and spike length which is due to additive gene action and direct selection for these traits would be rewarding. Seed vigour index had significant and positive correlation with seed yield and other yield components except for spike length at both phenotypic and genotypic level. This study revealed that seed vigour index is strongly under genetic control and has great scope to be included in wheat breeding program as a selection parameter to assess stress tolerant as well as vigorous genotypes.
Fruit phenolics as natural antimicrobial agents: Selective antimicrobial activity of catechin, chlorogenic acid and phloridzin

Fruit phenolics have attracted a great interest recently as potential natural antimicrobial agents that could be used to extend the shelf life of valueadded fruit and vegetable products. The antimicrobial activity of catechin, chlorogenic acid and phloridzin at 1, 5, 10 and 25 mM concentrations was assessed against three marker pathogenic bacteria, one probiotic bacterium, two yeasts and one food spoilage fungus using the turbidity assay. The growth of pathogenic bacteria, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria innocua and the food spoilage fungus, Penicillium chrysogenum, were suppressed by all the phenolics at 25 mM but the growth of food spoilage yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was inhibited only by chlorogenic acid and phloridzin. Chlorogenic acid exhibited a greater inhibitory effect on opportunistic pathogen, Candida albicans, than that of catechin and phloridzin. The growth of probiotic bacterium, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, was not affected by the three phenolics at any tested concentrations except by 25 mM phloridzin.
Can Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) recover? Exploring trophic explanations for the non-recovery of the cod stock on the eastern Scotian Shelf, Canada

The Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) stock on the eastern Scotian Shelf collapsed in 1993. Over a decade later, in spite of a fisheries moratorium on cod fishing, this stock is at an all-time low. In parallel with the collapse of the cod stock, the abundance of large cod prey, including forage fish, shrimp, and snow crab, has greatly increased. The key question, which we explore using trophic mass-balance models, is what processes are preventing cod from recover- ing on the eastern Scotian Shelf? Cod were split into large and small cod. Modelling results indicate high predation pressure on small cod. In addition, small cod compete with the abundant forage fish for decreasing prey, and are in below-average condition. Large cod incur high, but unidentified, mortality that we suggest is derived from the poor condition of small cod carried through to adulthood. As a consequence of the removal of cod by fishing and an ensusing trophic cascade, eastern Scotian Shelf cod are trapped in a vicious circle: their abundance is being kept low by predation, causing an abundance so low that cod cannot compete for prey with their exceptionally abundant compet- itors. Furthermore, these competitors may also prey on younger stages of cod.
PHOTOSYNTHESIS AND HIGH LIGHT STRESS

Summary. Exposure of plants to irradiances far above the light saturation point of photosynthesis, known as high-light stress, induces various responses including light adaptation of the photosynthetic apparatus and chloroplast ultrastructure by formation of sun-type chloroplasts. The latter possess a lower cross section for light absorption (less light-harvesting chlorophyll proteins) and higher rates of photosynthetic quantum conversion than shade-type chloroplasts. De-epoxidation of violaxanthin to zeaxanthin, increase in heat emission, rise of non-photochemical de-excitation of absorbed light quanta (qN) and photoinhibition of the photosynthetic pigment apparatus are further high-light stress responses. The degree of photoinhibition can clearly be determined via measurements of the chlorophyll fluorescence relaxation kinetics and depends on the photon flux density of the high-light stress as is shown here with soybean leaves. A decrease in photochemical quenching qP and variable chlorophyll fluorescence ratios F′ v /F′ m or ΔF/F′ m , and an increase of non-photochemical quenching qN are not yet an indication of a photoinhibition. One always has to determine the photoinhibitory quenching coefficient qI which is one of three qN components. However, in soybean leaves a photoinhibition (increase in qI) of the chloroplasts, as measured at the adaxial light exposed upper leaf side, did not affect the photosynthetic CO 2 assimilation rates (P N ) of the whole leaf. Thus, chlorophyll fluorescence measurements, usually carried out with low irradiance light, taken at the upper leaf-side alone are not representative for the physiological situation of the whole leaf. Chlorophyll fluorescence signatures have to be determined as well from the abaxial lower leaf side in order to correctly judge the physiological state of the leaf.
Influence de la date de plantation et du poids des rejets sur la croissance des ananas au Cameroun

La culture de l'ananas au Cameroun en vue de l'exportation en frais necessite une bonne connaissance de la vegetation au cours de l'annee et la preuve qu'une production commerciale peut etre obtenue en 12 mois. Nous avons mis en evidence au cours de deux essais "Date-Poids" les differences de croissance importantes en fonction de la climatologie. Trois poids de rejets (200, 350, 500 g) ont ete etudies simultanement sur 6 puis 4 dates de plantation egalement reparties dans l'annee. L'etude de ces essais a permis: 1) de connaitre l'evolution de la qualite des ananas au cours de l'annee, 2) de rappeler les correlations Poids de feuilles D (a l'initiation artificielle de la floraison) Poids du fruit, 3) et surtout, nous avons voulu brosser un planning de plantation pour l'exportation en frais dans le cadre d'une exploitation rationnelle. A savoir: choix du materiel vegetal en fonction de la date de plantation afin d'obtenir, quelle que soit la periode de l'annee, un ananas de type "export" a caracteristiques constantes