Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Medullary bone attributes in aged Lohmann LSL-lite layers fed different levels of calcium and top-dressed 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 1

Abstract: Structural bone depletion over the course of lay cycle predisposes hens to skeletal problems. We investigated the effects of dietary calcium (Ca) and top-dressed 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 (25OHD3) on attributes [relative weight, ash content (AC), and ash concentration (ACN)] in whole ulna, femur, tibia, and subparts of femur and tibia (epiphysis, medullary, and cortical) in 74-wk-old Lohmann LSL-lite layers. Four levels of Ca (3.0%, 3.5%, 4.0%, and 4.5%) and three levels of 25OHD3 (0, 69, and 138 μg kg−1) were tested. All diets had basal level of 3300 IU of vitamin D3 kg−1. Eighty-four, 74-wk-old hens were placed in individual cages, and 13 spare hens were sacrificed for baseline samples. Diets (n = 7) were fed to 81 wks of age, and hens were sacrificed for bone samples. There were no (P > 0.05) diet effects on whole bone attributes. Interaction (P < 0.05) between Ca and 25OHD3 on femur subparts was such that 25OHD3 linearly increased medullary ACN and concomitantly decreased cortical ACN at all Ca levels. In tibia, 25OHD3 (P < 0.05) increased AC and ACN in medullary and reduced these parameters in cortical. The results suggested that subparts and not whole medullary bone attributes are more amenable to dietary interventions in aged hens.
A Control Theoretic Approach to Simultaneously Estimate Average Value of Time and Determine Dynamic Price for High-Occupancy Toll Lanes

The dynamic pricing problem of a freeway corridor with high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes was formulated and solved based on a point queue abstraction of the traffic system [1]. However, existing pricing strategies cannot guarantee that the closed-loop system converges to the optimal state, in which the HOT lanes’ capacity is fully utilized but there is no queue on the HOT lanes, and a well-behaved estimation and control method is quite challenging and still elusive. This paper attempts to fill the gap by making three fundamental contributions: (i) to present a simpler formulation of the point queue model based on the new concept of residual capacity, (ii) to propose a simple feedback control theoretic approach to estimate the average value of time and calculate the dynamic price, and (iii) to analytically and numerically prove that the closed-loop system is stable and guaranteed to converge to the optimal state, in either Gaussian or exponential manners.
A Longitudinal Mental Health and Wellbeing Survey of Students Transitioning to a Boys' Only Boarding School

This longitudinal study aimed to survey over a 12-month period, the mental health and wellbeing of new incoming students transitioning to a boys' only boarding school. An online self-report questionnaire was used to investigate the perceptions and pre-transition experience of new incoming Year 7 students (e.g., while still in Year 6) prior to their impending transition to Secondary School (Time 1), at the end of Term 1 first year of secondary school (Time 2), and at the end of Term 3 (Time 3) first year of secondary school. All day students enrolled to begin secondary school were also invited to participate. Findings suggest that transition support efforts by the school (e.g. The Connect Programme) were successful in minimising the differences in factors associated with academic, emotional and mental wellbeing between boarding and non-boarding students at three months and six months post-transition. Mental health and wellbeing in terms of the internal, home, school and community protective resilience factors, stayed at similar levels for both boarding and non-boarding students over the first year in secondary school. Academic motivation and self-regulation were found to be higher than normative values but significantly decreased for all students after starting secondary school. Conversely, internalising (e.g. emotional problems) and externalising problems (e.g. conduct problems) increased over time for boarding students. These findings are discussed in terms of transition and the boarding school context. Strengths and limitations of this study are presented.
Evaluation of Toxocara canis Glycosylated TES Produced in Pichia pastoris for Immunodiagnosis of Human Toxocariasis

Recombinant proteins are a suggested alternative for the diagnosis of toxocariasis. The current Escherichia coli recombinant protein overexpression system usually produces insoluble products. As an alternative, yeast such as Pichia pastoris have secretory mechanisms, which could diminish the cost and time for production. This study aimed to produce recombinant proteins in Pichia pastoris and verify their sensibility and specificity in an indirect ELISA assay. Two sequences (rTES-30 and rTES-120) of Toxocara canis excretory-secretory antigens were cloned in a pPICZαB vector and expressed in P. pastoris KM71H. Sera samples collected from human adults infected by Toxocara spp. were tested by indirect ELISA using rTES-30 and rTES-120 as antigens. Recombinant proteins were detected at 72 hours after induction, in the HIGHLIGHTS  Pichia pastoris rTES evaluated as an alternative tool for toxocariasis diagnosis.  No difference between sensitivities of glycosylated and partial glycosylated rTES.  High-throughput expression and in vivo purification of rTES in Pichia pastoris. 2 Santos, L.M. ; et al. Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology. Vol.63: e20190148, 2020 www.scielo. br/babt supernatant, as pure bands between 60~70 kDa with hyperglycosylation. Regarding diagnosis potential, recombinant antigens had high specificity (95.6%); however, sensitivity was 55.6% for rTES-30 and 68.9% for rTES-120. Further deglycosylation of the P. pastoris antigens did not seem to affect ELISA performance (p>0.05). The low sensitivity in the serodiagnosis diminished any advantage that P. pastoris expression could have. Therefore, we do not recommend P. pastoris recombinant TES production as an alternative for the diagnosis of toxocariasis.
Cell composition of the head kidney of European chub (Squalius cephalus L. )

Abstract The aim of the present study was to perform quantitative and qualitative evaluations of developing blood cells in the head kidney of European chub, Squalius cephalus (L.). Twenty-one types of hematopoietic precursors and mature cells were identified in head kidneys isolated from ten juvenile fish. The lymphoid lineage was the most abundant, followed by granuloid, erythroid, thrombocytoid, blast, and monocytoid cells. The lymphocyte was the most frequently occurring cell in the kidney and the most numerous of the lymphoid cells. The neutrophilic lineage was the most numerous among the granuloid cells. The erythropoietic series comprised five stages (erythroblasts: basophilic, polychromatic, orthochromatic; young and mature erythrocytes), more than the numbers of developmental stages of any other lineages. Juvenile cells were more abundant than mature stages in the head kidney. Only mature eosinophils and thrombocytes were found in chub hematopoietic tissue. The cellular composition in chub hematopoietic tissue was similar to that in other fish species.
Effect of formation, ball in play and ball possession on peak demands in elite soccer

This study examined the most demanding passages of match play (MDP) and the effects of playing formation, ball-in-play (BiP) time and ball possession on the 1-min peak (1-minpeak) demand in elite soccer. During 18 official matches, 305 individual samples from 223 Italian Serie A soccer players were collected. MDP and 1-minpeak were calculated across playing position (central defenders, wide defenders, central midfielders, wide midfielders, wide forwards and forwards). Maximum relative (m·min-1) total distance (TD), high-speed running (HSR), very high-speed running (VHSR), sprint (SPR), acceleration/deceleration (Acc/Dec), estimated metabolic power (Pmet) and high-metabolic load (HML) distance were calculated across different durations (1–5, 10, 90 min) using a rolling method. Additionally, 1-minpeak demand was compared across playing formation (3-4-1-2, 3-4-2-1, 3-5-2, 4-3-3, 4-4-2), BiP and ball/no-ball possession cycles. MDP showed large to verylarge [effect-size (ES): 1.20/4.06] differences between 1-minpeak vs all durations for each parameter. In 1-minpeak, central midfielders and wide midfielders achieved greater TD and HSR (ES:0.43/1.13) while wide midfielders and wide forwards showed greater SPR and Acc/Dec (ES:0.30/1.15) than other positions. For VHSR, SPR and Acc/Dec 1-minpeak showed fourfold higher locomotor requirements than 90-min. 1-minpeak for Acc/Dec was highest in 4-3-3 for forwards, central and wide midfielders. 1-minPeak was lower during peak BiP (BiPpeak) for HSR, VHSR and Acc/Dec (ES: -2.57/-1.42). Comparing with vs without ball possession, BiPpeak was greater (ES: 0.06/1.48) in forwards and wide forwards and lower (ES: -2.12/-0.07) in central defenders and wide defenders. Positional differences in MDP, 1-minpeak and BiPpeak were observed. Soccer-specific drills should account for positional differences when conditioning players for the peak demands. This may help practitioners to bridge the training/match gap.
Establishing a web-based measurement of aggression (WTCRTT): Examining the validity of a modified Taylor’s competitive reaction time test

The current study attempted to develop a web-based state aggression measurement program (WTCRTT) and examine its applicability in terms of validity and reliability by conducting laboratory experiments. A repeated experimental design was employed, where subjects were exposed to both violent and non-violent media content. A physiological measure was also included to test the internal validity of media stimulation. The results showed the WTCRTT is a valid measure of behavioral aggression as the hypotheses on construct validity and internal validity were supported. For instance, the WTRCTT after exposure to violent media was positively correlated to anger, physical aggression, and total trait aggression scores. The WCRTT that was developed and tested in this study can be used not only by the scholars interested in aggression research with no cost and but also by the parents who want to monitor their children’s state (i.e., behavioral) aggression.
Attitude of Farmers towards Bt Cotton Production Technology

Since the introduction and commercialization of Bt cotton (Bacillus thuringiensis) in India, most of the area for cotton production has been occupied by the Bt cotton. However, despite its popularity, some farmers are still very much skeptical about the advantages of planting Bt and are wary of its possible effects on conventional cotton, the environment and the human health being genetically modified, as such, would not cultivate it. The present study was conducted to investigate the attitude of farmers towards Bt cotton production technology regarding environment aspect, economic, social and technological aspect of Bt cotton production technology in cotton growing districts of Haryana. According to the weighted mean scores attitude of the respondents towards all four aspects of sustainability (environment, economic, social and technological) of Bt cotton production technology was positive and favourable.
Ismael-Mahmood: Integrated management of root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne spp.) in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) and its effect on nematode population density, plant growth and yield in Sulaimani Governorate, Kurdistan, Iraq

Samples of cucumber plants (Cucumis sativus L.) were collected from different locations of Bakrajo/Sulaimani governorate, Kurdistan region, Iraq. The collected plants were by stunting and yellowing while the roots with obvious root-knots. For nematode identification two methods were used for nematode identification, Perennial Patterns and PCR, with species-specific primers, showing that there were two species; Meloidogyne incognita (Kofoid & White) Chitwood, and M. javanica (Treub) Chitwood. An experiment was designed, different methods have been used for controlling RKN, The results showed that after application of the above treatments whether alone or in combination, the minimum numbers of juvenile 2 (J2) were as well as in Nemakey, Humic acid and Chitosan combination treatment to be (66.33) recorded the maximum number after 30 days of application. Plant receiving combined treatments (Nemakey, Humic acid and Chitosan) significantly reduced the number of total nematode population at (p ≤ 0.05) in comparison to controls. The minimum number of gall formation on the cucumber root system and galling index with the highest percentage of gall decreasing (23.76, 3.1 and 77.00%) were revealed in case of combined treatments (Nemakey, Humic acid and Chitosan). A significant decrease (p ≤ 0.05) of disease severity percentage was recorded under Humic acid and Chitosan treatment (66%). The combination (Nemakey, Humic acid and Chitosan) also recorded vigorous growth and high yield. This paper is first scientific report about diagnosing and controlling the cucumber root-knot nematode in the region.
The genomic ecosystem of transposable elements in maize

Transposable elements (TEs) constitute the majority of flowering plant DNA, reflecting their tremendous success in subverting, avoiding, and surviving the defenses of their host genomes to ensure their selfish replication. More than 85% of the sequence of the maize genome can be ascribed to past transposition, providing a major contribution to the structure of the genome. Evidence from individual loci has informed our understanding of how transposition has shaped the genome, and a number of individual TE insertions have been causally linked to dramatic phenotypic changes. But genome-wide analyses in maize and other taxa have frequently represented TEs as a relatively homogeneous class of fragmentary relics of past transposition, obscuring their evolutionary history and interaction with their host genome. Using an updated annotation of structurally intact TEs in the maize reference genome, we investigate the family-level ecological and evolutionary dynamics of TEs in maize. Integrating a variety of data, from descriptors of individual TEs like coding capacity, expression, and methylation, as well as similar features of the sequence they inserted into, we model the relationship between these attributes of the genomic environment and the survival of TE copies and families. Our analyses reveal a diversity of ecological strategies of TE families, each representing the evolution of a distinct ecological niche allowing survival of the TE family. In contrast to the wholesale relegation of all TEs to a single category of junk DNA, these differences generate a rich ecology of the genome, suggesting families of TEs that coexist in time and space compete and cooperate with each other. We conclude that while the impact of transposition is highly family- and context-dependent, a family-level understanding of the ecology of TEs in the genome can refine our ability to predict the role of TEs in generating genetic and phenotypic diversity. ‘Lumping our beautiful collection of transposons into a single category is a crime’ -Michael R. Freeling, Mar. 10, 2017
EncodeORE: Reducing Leakage and Preserving Practicality in Order-Revealing Encryption

Order-preserving encryption (OPE) is a cryptographic primitive that preserves the order of plaintexts. In the past few years, many OPE schemes were proposed to solve the problem of executing range queries in encrypted databases. However, OPE leaks some certain information (for example, the order of ciphertext), so it is vulnerable to many attacks. Subsequently, order-revealing encryption (ORE) was proposed by Boneh et al. (Eurocrypt 2015) as a generalization of order-preserving encryption. It breaks through the limitation of the numeric order of OPE plaintext. It implements ciphertext comparison for any specific form of plaintext through a publicly computable comparison function. In this article, we aim to design a new ORE scheme which reduces the leakages and preserves the practicality in terms of ciphertext length and encryption time. We first propose the hybrid model named HybridORE. Then, we propose an improved scheme named EncodeORE which achieves acceptable security and appropriate ciphertext length. They both explore the encode strategy of encoding plaintext into different parts and apply suitable ORE algorithms to each part according to its security characteristics to reduce leakages. Compared with the typical CLWW scheme (FSE 2016) and Lewi-Wu (CCS 2016) in large domain, they have fewer leakages. The experiment shows that the proposed EncodeORE is very practical.
Level of Awareness of the Population about Dental Veneers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Introduction: The recent development of advanced techniques and technologies increased the interest in dental venues to improve esthetics, such as ceramics and veneers. Aim: This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the level of awareness of dental veneers among the population in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: There was a total of 627 participants in the study. Data were collected using self-administrated questionnaires that were modified from previous studies. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software for t-test, linear regression, Chi square, and ANOVA analyses. Results: The mean total knowledge score of the participants was m=13.58 (SD=3.35) for a total of twenty-two dental veneers knowledge questions. The participants’ knowledge of dental veneers significantly differed in relation to gender, level of education, family income, and marital status. A small portion of the participants (16.6%) knew about preparation-less veneers (commercially known as Lumineers), and an even smaller portion (14.7%) knew about clip-on veneers (commercially known as a Snap-On smile). Some participants (64.1%) stated that the main reason to seek dental veneers was to have a beautiful smile, while others (49.9%) stated that the main barrier to not have dental veneers was the satisfaction with their own smile. Conclusion: The overall knowledge regarding dental veneers was moderate and needs to be improved. Social media was the main source of information which suggests that using social media networks in education by dental professionals will help increase population awareness of dental veneers.
Alien introgressions and chromosomal rearrangements do not affect the activity of gliadin-coding genes in hybrid lines of Triticum aestivum L. × Aegilops columnaris Zhuk

Using chromosome C-banding and electrophoresis of grain storage proteins, gliadins, 17 Triticum aestivumAegilops columnaris lines with substitutions of chromosomes of homoeologous groups 1 and 6 were examined. Based on their high polymorphism, gliadins were used to identify alien genetic material. For all of the lines examined, electrophoretic analysis of gliadin spectra confirmed substitution of wheat chromosomes 6A, 6D or 1D for the homoeologous Aegilops chromosomes of genomes Uс or Xс. The substitution manifested in the disappearance of the products of gliadin-coding genes on chromosomes 6A, 6D or 1D with the simultaneous appearance of the products of genes localized on alien chromosomes of genomes Uс or Xс. Thus, Aegilops chromosomes were shown to be functionally active in the alien wheat genome. The absence of alien genes expression in the lines carrying a long arm deletion in chromosome 6X c suggested that the gliadin-coding locus moved from the short chromosome arm (its characteristic position in all known wheat species) to the long one. This is probably associated with a large species-specific pericentric inversion. In spite of losing a part of its long arm and combination with a non-homologous chromosome of a different genome (4BL), chromosome 1D was fully functioning. For Aegilops , the block type of gliadin components inheritance was shown, indicating similarity in the structural organization of gliadin-coding loci in these genera. Based on determining genetic control of various polypeptides in the electrophoretic aegilops spectrum, markers to identify Ae. columnaris chromosomes 1Xс, 6Xс and 6Uс were constructed.
Does agricultural diversification build economic resilience to drought and flood? Evidence from poor households in Zambia

The adverse effects of weather extremes produce widespread damage and cause severe alterations in the normal functioning of household agricultural production in Zambia. Extreme weather events such as floods and drought are expected to increase in intensity and frequency due to climate change. Coupled with high poverty levels and limited institutional capacity, the country is highly vulnerable to the impact of extreme events. We quantify the effects of economic diversification on agricultural productivity of poor farm households with a skew-normal regression approach while accounting for drought and flood shocks. Our analysis finds that economic diversification is a strategy to increase agricultural productivity and mitigate the adverse impact of droughts and floods on agricultural households. The results also support the country's policies to encourage hybrid maize production and to provide crop seeds and fertiliser to poor farmers. This paper provides a framework to plan and inform interventions to enhance household economic resilience to weather shocks through agricultural diversification in Zambia and other countries.
Rodent seed predators and a dominant grass competitor affect coexistence of co‐occurring forb species that vary in seed size

Propagule size and number often vary by several orders of magnitude among co‐occurring plant species. Explaining the maintenance of this variation and understanding how propagule size contributes to coexistence remain a central challenge for community ecologists. The dominant paradigm is that a competition–colonization trade‐off maintains interspecific variation in seed size, but empirical support is limited and other coexistence mechanisms, such as size‐dependent seed predation, have not been examined. We examined how seed size, fecundity, and other functional traits of 18 co‐occurring perennial forbs trade‐off with both vulnerability to rodent seed predation and competitive response to a community‐dominant perennial bunchgrass. We added seeds of these species to 1 m2 plots at 10 sites where we factorially manipulated rodent seed predation and competition from the community dominant, Festuca campestris. For a given plot, seeds of each species were added at densities that reflected the fecundity (i.e., per capita seed production) for each species. Moreover, we varied total seed density among plots by adding seeds at one of five relative densities (0, 0.25. 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 times each species’ fecundity) to examine how fecundity affected overall recruitment for each species. There was a trade‐off between seed size and fecundity, as expected, but larger seed size was also associated with greater plant height, lower C/N ratios, and lower water use efficiency, suggesting that seed size represented a “resource acquisitive” trait syndrome (as quantified by trait principal component scores). In the field experiment, the suppressive effects of seed predation on seed recruitment rate increased with increasing seed size. In contrast, smaller seeded species with less resource‐acquisitive traits were more negatively affected by competition from F. campestris than were species with more resource acquisitive traits. Synthesis. While the competition–colonization trade‐off has been the predominant mechanism thought to maintain coexistence among species that vary in fecundity and seed size, our work suggests that susceptibility to rodent seed predation and competitive response to community dominants represent alternative mechanisms that can differentially influence plant recruitment of species based on their seed size and associated traits.